meet justin

This is Justin.

Justin and I go wAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAy back.  Yep, that's how far back we go.  Way.  Before the days of digital cameras or I'd bust out some oooooooold pictures.  

This is Senior year of high school, which is only ooold.  

Everyone needs to be humbled by ree-dic-u-lous high school pictures, right?  Maybe someday I'll even add some of myself.

Back to how far back we go.  Was that confusing?  You know what I mean.

We met when we were 7 years old.  At the county fair.  There was a brown haired boy (Justin) and a blonde haired boy (Adam) who were pretty much inseparable, except for when I would join.  And only then did they separate because I was between them every summer for that one week.  

See, my family lived in Kansas, but my dad grew up on a farm in Colorado, where Justin lived.  And since my parents were teachers, we went to Colorado every summer.  They also had a Shaved Ice stand at the county fair, which is why I was there.  Justin was in 4-H, which is why he was there.

We would all spend that one week together and not see each other again until the next summer.  But those boys always remembered me...just not my name.

And it went on from there.........

Now, back to Justin.

Justin used to be a cowboy, but now he is a horseman.  He told me so.  He doesn't have anything to do with cows any more.  Except to work them on a horse. 

And he's not a farmer, because farmers have farmer's tans.  You know, cut off in the middle of their bicep.  But he does have a rancher's tan.  Only his hands are tan because they always wear long-sleeve shirts.  

Justin, being a horseman, has taught me almost EVERYTHING I know about horses.  Literally. 

 Most importantly, he's taught me to trust them.  Something I've never been very good at doing, but I've gotten better over the years.  He even made me crawl under my horse's belly once.  Please don't tell my mother.  

He was also the one who taught me to run on the horse, even when I was scared to tears.  He yelled at me, "You either RUN around this arena, or you get off that horse and you're NOT getting back on!"  Sometimes you have to be mean to me to get me over my fear, because, well, it worked.  

Justin has spent some time on the cutting and reined cow horse circuit and learned to train from some pretty big names in that world.  

While I don't know a whole lot about horses, I like what I see when he works with them.  He's very gentle and very patient.  And it gets results.  So I ask him LOTS of questions.

He's also a farrier.  

That means he trims horses hooves and puts shoes on them.  I've got some pictures of that, so you can see the process, but I'll have to run it by him first to make sure I'm telling you the right thing.

So now you've met Justin.  He is probably my closest, long-term friend.  Whenever, I have a horse question, he's my go-to guy.  If I need advice on which boots to get or a pair of spurs, he's that guy, too.  Sometimes he even gives me boyfriend advice when I ask.  Oh yeah, and if ever thinks I'm getting too "cityfied," he's NOT afraid to tell me so.