I don't even have driving carriages to fall back on.
I guess that it will give me time to pack up the house to move.
Nerves have already proven dangerous.
This is Shooter.
This is Shooter after owner stress.
Actually, he loves it. He just looks like a giant puppy.
Normally I just take stress out on my own hair. After my divorce, I chopped almost a foot off. Shaving Shooter is mild. He seriously needed it with the insane weather anyway. Low forties and constant rain to high eighties and humidity. Maybe I will chop the hair. . .
Lady's baby fur is starting to shed out. The skin underneath is fairly dark. I am hoping that she goes dark brown like Foxy or even black like her sire. Unfortunately, her left eye is turning blue. Ick! Fortunately she is not my horse. She is my daughter's. She would prefer Lady to stay a bay, and get a blue eye. We will have to see.
Right after I took these pics, I started dealing with Belle's scratches. Belle currently has a bad case of scratches that I made a whole lot worse with some iodine/aloe that I left on overnight. She butchered her legs. So now we are back to desitin, which works, sort of. It will work, but only if I clean her legs regularly. It is fairly impossible to do this in the winter. With all of the rain lately, it just makes it worse. Anyway, back to Belle. The three of them were all out in the arena, I was crouched down with Belle, when Foxy decided to lay into her, double barreled mule kick to the right side. One hoof clipped her hock. Belle tried to get out of the way, but she wasn't fast enough and she blocked until I scrambled out of the way. Belle limped off. Foxy nailed her pretty good. Foxy has been in a bad mood. It was bad before, but then Sunday, I took Belle on a trail ride with out Foxy and Lady. She spent the whole time screaming and running around. Foxy does not like vacations. The kids have been gone for a week and a half. I don't ride her because of her ringbone. She will go lame. Tomorrow, I will either lunge her for 30 minutes or pony her off of Belle, depending on how Belle's leg looks in the morning. Belle walked it off the lameness tonight, but it may be fairly sore tomorrow.
Although Wyoming is not a tropical rain forest, we have been having some pretty crazy rain storms lately. Not like Stacey's storms in Hawaii (those are insane!!!)but they have been enough to bring the rabbits inside once or twice. The nice thing is though, that the water can soak into the ground, we have not yet reached saturation point, so the water can still disappear fairly quickly. This pic was taken 15 minutes after it started to rain, then let up for about 5 minutes before it started again. That's a lot of rain for 15 minutes. Then it started to rain again on the trip home. Yes, my children are crazy, and yes they are the ones with the camera, I was trying to drive.
This is my planter (fortunately my plants are still in the greenhouse) full of hail.(Trust me -- it hurt) This picture isn't the best, but if you look carefully, you can see a stick in the road that has water rushing over it. It's about 6 inches deep on that side of the road. It pushed a lot of debris in the street. I did not stay out long enough to get good pics. It started hailing again and my poor camera was getting wet.
The inside arena was always being taken so the girls were not able to get out and run for a few days. Lady was not particularly happy about this. She tried to escape once, but I grabbed her quickly and manhandled her back into the stall with Foxy. Yesterday when she was able to get out she was a terror. She ran non stop for five minutes, bucking, kicking, and rearing all over Belle and Fox. The kids had to go to Utah for a couple of weeks, so they had one last play session with the girls before they left. This video was shot after the boys had thrown the ball back and forth for about 10 minutes. Belle and Foxy have only their halters on. This video makes me wonder who is getting better trained, the kids or the horses? Kid #3 doesn't even flinch as Lady runs around. Kid 1 and Kid 2 are now hopping on without any aids.(They are so excited about moving so that their horses are in the backyard! I was wondering how fast they would figure out how to put bridles on and get on without help, but apparently, I don't need to worry about that!) Kid #2 mentioned to me that training with the ball will help train Lady to not be afraid of things. Duh to the rest of us, but pretty smart for a kid. He said that he remembered it from the clinic that we when to in February. I am impressed. Most of my high school students can't remember what the class was about yesterday, let alone three and a half months ago. Yes, my kids are brilliant. Sorry Slave Driver, I am talking about CHILDREN!!! Ick, I know, but deal with it. Foxy is not keeping weight on, Lady is sucking it all out of her, so hopefully without any riding for the next few weeks, she can put some weight back on, plus she is on as much hay as she can eat without wasting it and the same grain regimen as Belle. She used to let Lady nibble at the grain, but now she is VERY protective of her grain bucket. I can't blame her, Lady already gets plenty from the hay and the milk.
***amendment-- I did not realize that I had posted these pics. I thought that I had saved it to add to later. I was goinf to talk about Lady's pretty markings on her legs. I was going to say something about the psychotic cat, but I can't remember what. At least I have not gotten food poisoning in a while. Oops, I did eat the nasty cake at a retirement open house. I am doomed.
I have three kids, four cats, four horses, one fish, a ton of rabbits, millions of chickens and roosters, Turkeys, 1 llama(+1 we llamasit), 8 peafowl, and 5 dogs. I have a wonderful husband that puts up with it all.
