Adventures in Painting

Belle at School

2011-09-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

Belle went to school yesterday. I have referenced horses and used horse pictures, skulls, hoof cuttings, but never actually hauled a horse to school before. I did have my homeroom students go to the barn shortly after Lady was born, but that was just to show off and we picked up trash along the road as a service project, not exactly part of an offical lesson plan. I work with At-Risk kids at an alternative school. I have about as many kids total as I used to have in just one class. I cannot just supply all of the information needed to pass the government tests and hope that they will succeed. I have to try and teach them how to learn and to enjoy learning new things. School started last week. I built up this visit from my pride and joy. I saw big tough kids get all stupid about how tough they are and that they were going to jump on and ride off with her. I saw kids pretend indifference to the concept of a horse at school.

Reality? It was the best day of the year. (ok, it was only day 6, but it was awesome!!!) Some students were shocked at just how big she is. Some were surprised that she wasn't bigger (she is a small Clydesdale). Only two students with previous bad experiences with horses would not approach her. My Integrated Science classes worked on accuracy and precision in measuring and calculations. This is a skill that as I pointed out to them can have costly repurcussions. If I order the wrong blanket, harness, bridle, bit, etc. Often, they can not be sent back after trying them out on the horse due to the horse hair. We also used measurements to estimate Belle's weight. I pointed out that if she is under or over wormed, due to inaccurate estimations, it is not a good thing. We read her grain label, figured out how much feed she should be receiving, and weighed out how much a quart of feed weighs. I had them pack a loose quart and a tightly packed quart and demonstrated how that will change the weight and density. (we did not go into mass on that day) They also got to pet her, and feed her treats. My animal science class had to actually point out the external anatomy for a quiz. They also all got to feel her chestnuts, hooves and lift up a hoof to demonstrate cleaning. I was surprized how many of them had never been that close to a horse. They got to feel how hard her face is and feel where the cartiladge meets the bone on her nose. It was pretty cool to see the looks of wonder on the kids' faces. None of my students acted inappropriate (other than cussing in surprise on occassion when she moved or shifted her weigh, or swung her head around to look at them better) In Zoology, we discussion the evolution of the horse and the evidence of vestigial toes. We also discussed the pecking order of a herd.
It was an awesome day (I know that I keep saying that, but it was cool)
Belle was nervous at first, but settled right down and carefully and graciously took treats from them. It was cool (yep, I said it again)
No pics due to student confidentiality, but Belle was a big success. I can't wait to use the other animals and ponies for class.

one week old

2011-07-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

July 4th and the fireworks didn't phase Antares. How could a few fireworks scare you when you are named after a Red Super Giant star, anyway?
Antares is smart. I know, I own her, so I am biased, but she will stand and get her zinc oxide smeared on her nose without a fuss. Does her mother? No, Zinc oxide is of the devil and will make your nose fall off in her opinion. Antares nose was getting a little pink, so we are being careful. She will also stand and put her nose in her halter. I know many adult horses that are not that good.

The three spinsters got baths this week. Lady likes to roll in the moat and then in the dirt. She looked like she was a minimal white paint. It takes dish soap and then whitening to get her remotely clean. Misty is almost as bad, but Belle avoids the moat whenever possible.

Before

After

Misty doesn't look that much different, but Lady looks better. She has a lot more little spots this year, just like her sire. Her face mask got its weekly (sometimes daily) scrubbing, too. I didn't get a better pic of Belle, but she was really enjoying the leg rub. Mr. BPA even commented about just how good she was being.

Foxy did not get a complete bath. I just scrubbed her back legs up really well. I would have done more, but Antares was running around and the llamas were approaching too closely, so I turned Foxy loose just in case they considered Antares a threat. We are still working on the llamas. At least Foxy is the only one still nervous around the llamas. Belle was terrified at first. Misty and Lady would chase them and then the llamas would chase the horses. Now they can graze together.

Kid #2 is keeping watch to that they stay away from the construction materials. Foxy doesn't keep Antares out for very long. She will head to the stall many times before Antares will actually go in. Antares likes to swerve right before she goes through the gate. The look on Foxy's face when she goes back out to round up Antares for the 4th or 5th time is hilarious. Then Antares collapses in a heap in the stall.

We took a bunch of junk to the dump yesterday. Now that I know where the dump is and I don't have to go clear out to the other dump, I am doing to completely dejunk (probably a pipe dream, but at least I can dream!) We are building much nicer outdoor poultry coops, so the birds will be out of the barn so that we can lock up Lady better. She is a bully and likes to pound on Misty. They have acres to run, but just this morning, I could hear Lady slamming Misty around in the stall that they share (which is open to the pasture, its just for shelter. Lady, Belle, and Foxy can easily fit in these oversized stalls

Adjusting to 5 horses

2011-07-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

Foxy is in full protective Mommy mode. She pins her ears and goes after Lady and Misty through the fence.
Belle is in full baby stealing mode. Belle managed to get the chains off between the panel and the side of the barn and allowed Antares to escape Foxy's run. It didn't last long, but scared me to death because the dogs were out. I have been highly paranoid about the dogs and Antares. Lady antagonizes the dogs until they chase her, and Shooter has brain damage from chasing Foxy's tail from puppyhood until now. These pics have the sun behind them, but they d show Lady and Shooter playing.

Antares has a sock on her hindright leg. She doesn't really have black markings, but black on the back of her pasterns.

Isn't she a cutey!

We have baby!

2011-06-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

Antares was born between 12-1 am, June 28th. I know this because I checked them before Midnight and then Kid #2 checked at 2:30, ran screaming back into the house that "Teddy is born!" Theodore Roosevelt would have been "his" name. But we have a filly. Kid #2 is perfectly happy with his Antares, both with being a filly AND a solid.
This is her first pic. I had to use a flash to figure out what she looked like. Foxy had a perfectly good stall to foal in,but she had to be surrounded by the other mares. Belle, Misty, and Lady were all around the run when we showed up. Lady was lying within 4 feet of Antares, but a fence did separate them.

She appears (at the moment, but Lady changed color a bit in the first month, too) Red Dun. According to J'Wayne McArthur's book, Training for the Western horse and rider, a red dun is, "Lighter than a sorrel, with darker red points than the body color. Generally a red dorsal stripe will be present. These horses may have zebra stripes around legs." My first thought was bay, and I am still leaning that way just because the mane and tail do look black at the moment, but when she is in the sun, that red dorsal stripe really shifts my thinking back to red dun.

less than four weeks

2011-06-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

Foxy is due in less than four weeks!
Yippee!
We are still a little worried about the flood, but other than a lot of standing water in the moat, we are ok. I found this at the Five Pine Ranch. The comments that are bolded are my personal comments.

According to Five Pine Ranch,

"Current recommendations for the last 4 - 6 weeks or pregnancy are to administer annual vaccine boosters to broodmares to heighten immunoglobulins in the mare's colostrum. Yep, we already did this. Various opinions exist as to the proper time to deworm broodmares prior to parturition, ranging from 1 month to 1 day prior, or the day of, foaling. I am of the 30 days prior and day of foaling on the worming thought process.It is this writer's opinion that deworming every 60 days during gestation and the day the foal is born is most beneficial taking care to use products approved for use during pregnancy. (Growth & Development, 2007; Kellon, 2005)

During this final 4-6 week period, the mare should be introduced to the environment (stall, paddock or pasture) that the mare is to foal. This is all great, but if we flood, then I have to move her. I don't want to move her. I want her to stay right here and foal in her nice big stall. I do need to move Belle out of the stall/run, though. They are both resisting this. This helps reduce stress by sudden changes and allows her immune system to build antibodies for environmental pathogens. Continued exercise is important to help maintain fitness and may reduce the chances of edema in the legs and abdomen. That is why they all get out to pasture every day. Clean fresh water must be provided at all times as broodmares require larger quantities of water at this stage. I have two separate watering troughs available, one in the pasture and one in her run. I leave the run gate open so that she can have access to the shade in her stall when she wants it, too.(Davies Morel, 2003)"

Almost time

2011-06-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

Foxy is due in less than 5 weeks. Yikes! I have bunnies due this week. I have barn kittens due sometime this month. I have two more litters of bunnies due on June 11th. I have 20 Turkey chicks arriving this week. A llama is also joining the herd this month. (kid #3 doesn't want a horse. He wants a llama. It might be useful to pack out an elk this year) And we are only 5 days away from the 1 year anniversary of the flood of 2010. We are anticipating it this year, too, but we keep being told that it is a different watershed area that will be the problem.(yeah, right. That's why I already have a moat and Lady has only 2 inches of clearance when she runs through the water)

Fortunately (or unfortunately for my bank account) I am not doing summer school this year. I get to focus on the animals, the garden, and the yard. (I will have to get housework in there too)

My property is an icky mess, so riding has not been a huge activity. I am also moving things to higher ground, like saddles, bunnies are elevated, the 4-H chicks are raised up.
Kid #1 chose the Black breasted Phoenix as her chickens this year.
Kid #2 chose the Partridge cochin
and kid #3 chose the Silver Laced Polish.
They are really cool.

The meat chickens are also elevated and in a bin that floats if necessary (that is what we did with them last year, too. We just floated them up to the house)

The ponies already have a place to go if we need to evacuate. The awesome lady that let them be in her pasture has already volunteered her pasture again. I just don't want Foxy that far away if she foals early.

I will post pics of the giant bellied mare later this week. I need to finish cleaning up my classroom. ICK!!!!!!!!!!!1

Back in the Saddle again

2011-04-08T07:22:00.001-07:00

Ok, finally back online. So much has happened. I can't even get my pictures to stay where I put them, so try to navigate this blog and connect the right pics to the right captions. I have already had a cat erase this once today (I then started saving everytime she came near)
Here's Kid #1 and Lady.
She has been riding her a little bit over the winter, but it can be tough when the sun does down so early.

Friday, April 1, We picked up a new horse. She came from Louisiana three years ago. She is thirteen. I am guessing that she might be spotted saddlebred. Maybe not. Her head looks just like Misty from This is the Place State Park when I was doing trail rides. That Misty has long since retired to be a 4-H horse and then to the happy green pasture above. This Misty direct and neck reins. She handles nicely in western or english. She is a little fat and lazy, but then so am I. She will be Kid #2's horse for 4-H this year(probably). Remember that Foxy is due July 4th and she is not a happy show horse anyway. Junior will be Kid #2's 4-H horse from next year on.

So I am on Spring break right now. It's awesome. I have been working the horses, avoiding the lists of housework that I have been putting off 'til spring break. Belle was in such a great mood the other day that while trotting over railroad ties, she took a flying leap over them. I could tell that she was getting ready to do something, but I was expecting her to move to one side. She is not much of a jumper, but she loved it. She kept speeding up and trying to swerve back over to that section of the arena. She wanted more. It reminded me of her and barrels. She loves trotting the barrel pattern. She is terrible with the pattern, but she loves to do it. She can't get her Clydesdale self to maneuver around the barrels like a good Quarter horse. I wonder why? NOT!

Here is a picture of the how Lady sizes up to the big girls. I need to break out a measuring tape, but she is 15.1-15.2 hh. Misty is 15.3-16 hh.

Gestational Progress

2011-01-05T09:41:00.001-08:00

I don't remember where I found this, but this is the same picture from when Lady was gestating. Jr. is currently at around 22-23 weeks. Which means that he is about the size of a rabbit. His dad is a solid sorrel, but registered as a paint. (A paint that ain't)
There is a chance then of a paint offspring, but as mentioned in an earlier blog, Foxy has only had the one Paint filly, Lady. The other two fillies were solids.

Cowgirl Up

2011-01-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

Christmas Break is a great time for teachers. We get to take the time off, our schools are rarely open to get work done that we really need to get done and we are still getting paid. It's pretty cool. I got to sleep in and play with all of the animals.
The kids were feeling like playing and there was no snow, so Kid #2 laid around on Foxy, just chilling. She is carrying Jr. a lot lower than she did Lady, so he is really hoping for a colt. He has had it with trying to show moody mares. He would really like an Overo colt, but he would be just as happy with a healthy solid filly. Kid #3 hung out with the big mare, Belle. He is not a fan of trying to control her, because she knows that he is a push over. As long as he doesn't try to control her, they do well. I didn't even put a halter on her, they just followed Foxy around (this would not be safe with any other horse, but Belle loves doing this and Kid #3 just laid back or across her neck and chilled out. It was awesome.) Lady and Kid #1 did some real work. Kid #1 leaned on Lady, then laid across Lady. Then She swung her leg over and sat on Lady. As long as I was scratching Lady's eyes and ears, she was fine. The next day, we did it all again, but this time, I led Lady around with Foxy, Belle and Kid #2 and #3 following like a train. It was pretty funny when the barn cats had to follow, too. I was ready to call it quits and said, "Ho," but then Lady had to pop up twice. Kid #1 hung on and calmed her down and we went for another walk. Lady did great after than and when Kid #1 swung down, she then led her around, following the two big mares, until she climbes back on and we did the whole thing again. But without any popping up. Now before anybody gets too bent out of shape over breaking Lady to saddle before she is full grown, please understand that Kid #1 may be 14, but she is built like a stick. She MIGHT weigh 90 lbs. Lady is 21 months old and 15.1 hh. These were not long rides, just teens playing. If I thought that it was going to be a rodeo and Lady might be strained in any way, I really wouldn't have done this. If my daughter was a heavy weight, I really wouldn't have done this. She was nervous, wore her helmet, but afterwards, felt great. Both girls, just had a great time.
It has finally snowed and the temperatures at night are sub zero. The low so far is -26 F. That's cold, so we have put a stop to the riding. We just can't risk sweat at this point. Pics will follow, probably tomorrow.

New Dog, What in the world was I thinking?

2010-12-20T18:56:00.000-08:00

So, obviously, I have a new dog. My parents brought up their dog from Southern Utah. They are out of town too much to have a dog. It is a Lab cross. Lab-pit bull, lab-rott? I don't know, but the head reminds me of a Rott that I used to have. She is black and slightly smaller than Shooter. As soon as she got off leash, she jumped the fence into the turkey pen and grabbed Jack. Feathers were flying. We turned Peck out and got Jack out of her mouth, but then he disappeared. The mutt was put into the kennel while we searched for Jack. We put Peck in one of the chicken coops INSIDE the barn to keep the dog from being able to get to her. The 4 separate chicken areas are horse stalls in the barn not currently in use. Belle and Foxy share one stall and run, with a second stall for Foxy to be fed grain while Belle eats her special grain/alfalfa cube mash. Lady has her own stall and run. The Ameracauna chickens have a stall, the Silvers have a stall (Silver Cochins, Silver Wyandottes, a Buff Orpington, and two mutts), the rabbits and the Snow Owl (its a chicken)share one, the two mutt roosters and the 3 4-H bunnies share a stall and the non layers have a stall. We also have a stall as our tack room and one with the train modules that were destroyed by the flood that we just haven't had a spare minute or the desire to mess with. All in all we have 10 stalls. The mutt is now in Foxy's old stall. We just have to baby sit Foxy while Belle eats until we can get the dog trained. Its not the fault of the dog, I really did not anticipate her going over the fence into the turkey pen. Jack came back, just missing most of his tail feathers and many of his wing feathers on one side. He is now resting comfortably in the barn. He is pretty mellow and has no desire to leave the chicken coop. (He used to be excited to go out for the day)
She is very nervous around the horses. She was on a leash the first time that she met Lady. Shooter was chasing Lady and then Lady started chasing the dogs. With teeth bared, Lady went after the mutt. The mutt about drug my Dad trying to get away from Lady. This morning, the mutt followed me into Belle's stall to fill up the water trough. She took one look at Belle and backpedalled out of the stall as fast as she could. She listens well and backed off the chicken doors when told, NO! she just kept going back to a door whenever a rooster would crow (fairly often in our barn) I think that she has potential, she just needs some work. Dad would exercise her by riding in his ATV for 2 miles every morning and the mutt would run along side (Dad used to run marathons. He is now retired and can no longer run, Thanks Chemicals from Afghanistan!) Tomorrow, I will be taking her on a nice long leash run. I worry about her getting loose right now. Shooter has jealousy issues, so when the kids get out of school for Christmas break, I am letting them exercise her! Shooter has let her know that I am his person and he is not willing to share.
Well, enough drivel today.
Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving Ride

2010-11-25T16:19:00.000-08:00

No photos today. I had the camera in my pocket and then it disappeared. Its in the house, but I don't know where I put it.

This morning hit -8F. I was very glad that kid #2 was not in a fun run/Turkey trot like we had been planning on. I never found out where and when it was. Belle and Foxy are back in the same stall/run because Belle has a 100 gallon stock tank with a plug heater. Foxy's stock tank doesn't have a plug and she plays with everything, so I don't want a floating deicer. It was either fork out another $120 for a stock tank and plug heater or just put them in the same stall and leave Lady on the other side of the barn with a heated bucket. (Foxy drinks too much for a bucket heater and she plays with the buckets.) The forecast said that Wed and Thursday were supposed to be super cold, so Monday, I dug out the one blue heated bucket that wasn't cracked to see if it worked, and Tuesday, I ran into town and picked up 2 new heated bowls for poultry and two heated water bottles for bunnies. They worked even in negative temperatures, which is so much better than last year. With less manpower, it is just worth it to spend the money on heaters.

We are down to 3 horses, 7 rabbits, 5 cats, 1 dog, 2 turkeys, no pigs (yeahhhhh!!!!), 3 active roosters, two roosters slated for the freezer, three unknown chicks(too young for me to figure out male and female) and a bunch of chickens(two silver laced wyandotte, two silver cochins, two buff orpingtons, four ameraucanas, 3 really nice barred rocks, 1 ok barred rock, 1 ugly, pathetic barred rock, 1 really ugly golden laced wyandotte, 1 rhode island, two black sex linked, two black sex linked crosses (ameraucana or rhode island, I don't know, and the roosters from the same nest have different dads, so these two might as well. When the eggs start coming, I might know, green or brown, but it doesn't really matter)

So after feeding this morning, we turned the ponies out for some much needed stretching. It gets dark so early that they haven't been turned out much lately. Lady is a fuzzball. She is in a really awkward stage and her conformation looks like an gawky teenager. Her run has a gate that she can see over when we come down to the barn and she waits there until we hit the wood deck and then she run into her stall to stick her head out of her stall. I need to measure her again because when they were out today, she looked almost as tall as Foxy. I think that it was just the angle because when I was ponying her today, she didn't seem too tall.

After all of the cooking and gorging, the temp was finally up to 30F, so Kids #1 and #2 and I went out to saddle. I was going to ride bareback until I decided to take Lady, too. I don't like to hang onto her and Belle at the same time because, with my luck, Belle would be obstinate at the same time Lady threw a fit and I would fly off. I rode Belle with Kid #3 and ponying Lady. Kid #2 rode Foxy. Mr. BPA and Kid #1 rode Mr. BPA's christmas present, the little green machine (an ATV). I love the fact that the horses don't care about the ATV. They went past and zoomed around on other trails and met up with us with no horsey freakouts. We trotted a little, walked alot, just enjoying ourselves. I dismounted just as the sun was hitting the mountains. Belle was the only one that was sweaty and not really bad. Lady had been dragging back and not wanting to go home since we turned off the trail, so Belle had been pulling on her. Belle was dry before I put her back in her stall, but I blanketed her anyway, since it is supposed to be super wind chill cold again tonight. Dusk was full on by the time we finished feeding, and I am sitting, eating my pumpkin and mince slices of pie as I type.

Not a bad way to spend the day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

November greys

2010-11-14T21:36:00.000-08:00

The new bunnies are here. They are pretty cool, too. (But not really grey. They are Silver Foxes, Black with white)
Here is Snow White.

.and Sinister.

Sinister really is bigger than he appears. I need to take him over to get him weighed when I have a spare minute, but one of our vehicles had the thermostat go out and we have not had time to try and get it into town to get it fixed. I have been riding the atv to work or walking. That is pretty cold when it is between 9-20 degrees outside. I would take Belle, but she needs to eat breakfast and I would worry about where to put her at school. Once I can set up a place, then I might take her. They tore down the barn at the K-8, but even that wouldn't help because I wouldn't want to leave her over there when I am at the high school. The high school has a field, but it is not enclosed. I need to take in some panels and I haven't had time for that, either. The ATV mostly works. Hopefully better now that it has been tweeked for Wyoming weather instead of St. George weather. We have a trailer for hauling hay and cleaning stalls.
Today, a neighbor came over with his tools and we fixed fence. The cows had kept coming through it and eating the haystack. It was waking up Mr. BPA (the haystack is right by our window), and he was getting sick of getting up in the cold and now he IS sick. The fence is now fixed, but these are pretty big cows, we might have to fix more fence later.

The water is all gone. We have an ugly mess. Since it took so long for the water to go down, it did not have any time to grow grass again. Hopefully next year will be better.

Compare to 5 months ago.

Halloween Nightmare

2010-10-31T09:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday I planned to drive to Jackson to pick up kid #3's new rabbits for 4-H. I found a breed of rabbit that is supposed to be very docile and mellow. They are Silver Foxes. Their fur is similar to the Arctic Fox, thus the name. Large body, good carcass to meat ratio, and thick skin and fur for tanning. They are also gorgeous. Perfect. Then I started looking for some. I finally found a breeding pair that are not related. The little doe was born July 24th, (my favorite holiday)so I had to wait until she got bigger. The buck is older so that we can breed him to the other two does that we have, just as soon as we get the Silvers. The Lady lives in Idaho Falls, and she graciously offered to meet in Jackson for the pick up. Kid #3 and I loaded up in Mr. BPAs vehicle because it gets better gas mileage than my truck and headed off. Rural Wyoming does not get great cell service, so when I got cell service part way, I had a message that she left a little late, no problem, the roads are supposed to be dry, we can head home a little late. Apparently, Wydots version of dry roads is different than mine. Two inches of packed snow is not a dry road. It was only in spots, but still. We made it to Jackson and could not find the meeting place, we found the address, but it was not a Burger King, so we just pulled in and called. She found us. The rabbits are gorgeous. The first one we saw was only 5 months old and much bigger than our current adults, and docile. It was cool. The 3 month old was not as docile, but so soft. We picked up the pedigrees and headed off. 15 minutes later, she called. "I just had an awful thought. Will you check the sex of the little rabbit?" I pulled over. Crap, it was a male. I checked the bigger one. Crap, its a female. I called her back. She grabbed the wrong ones.
So she is driving from Idaho to Wyoming again today to bring the right ones and pick up the wrong ones. Kid #3 puked his guts out on the way home. Fortunately, I was able to pull over in time. It started to snow on the way home. Lovely. I started to have a nasty hacking cough. I pulled something in my back. My dog ran off during the thunderstorm while I was gone. Bah humbug. Halloween, Go away.

About Time!!!

2010-09-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have been way to busy living life to sit down and post anything. I have gotten a job, dealt with the 4-H county fair with the ponies, rabbits, chickens, and sewing. Foxy has been bred. The pigs that we bought before the flood are finally here. School is back in session.
Sergeant, Mystique, and Princess, my sister's horses, are back in Utah. My sister moves back to Utah in one week. So I will be down to three horses. My hay consumption will be much less this winter.

Kid #1 and Lady took Grand Champion in the Paint mare class. They were the only entry in the yearling class, which was good since Foxy was near, getting ready to go into the aged paint mare class. THAT was ugly. Foxy was a nasty beast that day. As soon as Foxy was done being a giant turd in the aged mares I ran her back to the trailer so I didn't get to see the championship class.
Once Lady was in the Champion class, she was up against the 1st place winners from paint 2 year olds, paint 3 year olds and the 1st and 2nd place winners from 4-5 year olds and aged mares. It was pretty cool to hear their names called out over the intercom, though.
Sergeant and the niece took Grand Champion in Morgan geldings. Sassy and nephew took reserve champion in Appaloosa mares. Kid #2 took Grand Champion meat birds and Champion Asiatic Cockerals for his Silver Laced Cochin. It was a pretty good time. We didn't even try the State fair because I had to report to my new job. I am now so ready for Bart to come live here now. (I can afford two high maintenance horses)

Foxy is due July 4th. Pretty dang late in the season, but with the flood, it was when we could get her bred. The neighbors had a baby born Labor day, that is a bit late in my book. Especially since we hit low thirties at night.

This is what we did today.

This was the first time that I have cinched up a saddle on her. Its the second time that she has worn a saddle.
This was the first. Note-- not cinched up and WAY too big.

This is one of the tiny kid saddles. I needed to lunge her and figured that we would try it with extra. Little did I know that Mr. BPA decided that since I was out playing, he would go on a killing spree with the shotgun. 50 rounds of a 12 gauge target practice. Lady jumped a bit, but it was great practice.

We are going to be putting harness on Lady next.

Moat Ponies

2010-07-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

Warning!!! Tons of pics today. Only a few were also posted on Facebook.

Foxy and Lady are once again in weaning mode. Foxy just got bred today, so hopefully we will have an awesome foal next summer. A little late, but the flood messed us up.

While we were mucking stalls, we turned out all of mine and two of my sister's horses. I was trying to get her kids to move faster at cleaning stalls so I only put out the horses that we would be cleaning their stalls. Belle and Lady, Foxy, Sergeant, and Princess's stalls were all to be cleaned. Belle and Lady's was easy. Foxy's is a pain because it doesn't have a hard floor so we built it up with the sand bags and then put her floor mats back on it. Under the floor mats was pretty bad, we finally got all of the stuff hauled in from the flood. Sergeant's stall was just as easy as Belle and Lady's but with two arguing kids. . . Well, they never made it to Princess's stall. Maybe today.

So, we put the ponies out. Here are a few heading out to the pasture.

The mares are pretty good about hanging out together.

But Belle hates Sergeant.

But he generally wanders off.

One thing that I really appreciate about Belle is that she knows that when I call, its time to head in.

She tries to avoid going straight through the moat.

And just her hooves are wet.

The other horses just come straight through.

Well, not so straight. Foxy had to stop for a roll.(these pics also seen on Facebook, the rest are never before published)

I just can't wait to wash them all for the show on Friday!!

The Show!!!

2010-07-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

Kid #1 and Lady took 1st in Halter!!!! Lady was not a perfect Lady, but Kid #1 was able to handle her and get her through the day.

In the Championship mare class, they were both too confused to do well, but the second place paint mare under 3 flipped out and reared over backwards slamming her head into a fence. She got up OK and tried to run, but I caught her on her way out of the barn. People thought that it was Lady because I caught her, but Lady was much better behaved than that. Showmanship was tougher because Kid #1 forgot part of the pattern. TROT away from the judge, not walk!!! But they still pulled a 2nd. Lady is very good about trailering now. (Lady IS under Foxy's neck. This is a habit that we really need to break. She does it with Belle, too. She can't do it with the other horses)
She just needs to be given a little bit of time to think about it. We are still working on backing out of the trailer. Tuesday, Foxy and Lady went to the fairgrounds for practice and to get the kids certified for the county fair next week. Although Kid #2 had been practicing with Foxy, Foxy was not impressed with the surroundings and all of the strange horses around her baby(Lady). Foxy was running everybody over and refusing to listen to Kid #2 at all. This was very frustrating for him. He reverted to being scared of her, like right after he was thrown and received his concussion. Lovely!!! I started to lunge her and then passed the line to him again. Foxy just kept screaming and hollering for Lady, but at least she was moving in a circle and not running him over anymore (its already tough being 12, brilliant, and short, without your 16 hh horse stomping on your feet in front of the other 4-H kids) Lady was just fine in the other arena. She listened and practiced well.
Once he lunged Foxy for 30-45 minutes, she settled down enough to let him get certified.
He will just have to lunge her before their Halter and Showmanship classes. Lady will be in the Showmanship class since they are both in the 11-13 year old class. They won't be in the Halter class together because Lady will be in the yearling class and Foxy in the aged Mares. It will be an interesting day. I will be the only adult (unless Mr. BPA can take the morning off) with the two paints, Sergeant for my niece, and Sassy for my nephew. AAAAAAAaaaaaagggghhhhh!!! At least I am not SUPPOSED to handle the horses. Only the kids are (yeah, right). Foxy and Lady have stalls reserved, so that might make things easier. It might make it tougher.

Getting ready for the show

2010-07-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

Lady's first horse show is this Saturday. We had meant to go to more, but the flood really messed things up. We took Lady to the fairgrounds without Belle or Foxy. She was good, but very loud. It was only her fourth trailer ride and the first without her Mamas.

She rushes in the show ring. We are working on that. A few trail obstacles were set up, yoo. The mailbox did not phase her, but she saw no reason to walk on the bridge when she could easily go around.

All three girls got baths yesterday. With all of the swimming and the mud, they were really gross.

Before:

During: (This is Belle's prefered method for cleaning her mustache. She really hates it being scrubbed. A hose is much better)

After:

101 updated with Pics!!!

2010-07-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is my 101st post. Wow, I should have noticed that the last one was my 100th, but I have been busy and stressed with the crazy flood. We saw this carriage in Thermopolis on the way home from the family reunion. Its even big enough for my family:)

Lady got a sunburn on her nose when she was evacuated to the pasture during my family reunion, so I had her babysitter putting sunscreen on her nose. So, of course, Foxy got a really bad sunburn on her nose. She hates the smell of the lotion, so until it actually hits the sores on her nose, Foxy fights the concept of having lotion applied to her nose. Belle is really stressed over moving around. She has never been an easy keeper. He weight has been really fluctuating. She was looking like she was putting weight back on until yesterday, but while I was there and filling her water, she came over and drank for about 5 minutes, so I wonder if she is just being picky about her water, which, of course, will affect her weight. They are coming home tomorrow. Her scratches are so much better. They are always better when she is out to pasture. In her stall, she will stand and scratch them. Foxy looks really great, except for her nose, but that is healing, too. Lady is a happy baby and the scratch that she got during the flood is finally healing. All three of them walk through the irrigation water without problems (but will that transfer over to walking through streams and puddles on trails?) This pic was taken the last week of June.
Its a little better now. The round pen is now dry. The runs are not underwater, but are muddy and mucky. Its still too wet for machinery to scrape it all out.
Monday, my brother helped Mr. BPA pull the carpet and particle board flooring out of the tackroom. Under all of that, the boards looked good, just soaked. I sprayed the whole thing down with disinfectant and we are waiting for it to dry out. It was cool and rainy yesterday, so we are still waiting to put everything back in. The Chicken coop was really disgusting, but the kids and Critter worked pretty hard on it so that we could move one of her horses into it. All of her horses will be on one side of the barn and mine will be on the other. It puts all of her horses with concrete floors. My side only has one concrete floor, with two dirt (currently mud) and two with wood that is too broken up for horses. One was used for the rabbits and the other for the model trains. A ton of train modules, mostly destroyed by the flood. Grass is growing up through the wood. That stall is low on the list for clean up.

The first horse show that Foxy and Lady will attend will be July 17th. The County fair is July 30th. They will only be doing Showmanship for the 4-H. Hopefully, the kids will have fun. Next year we will try for the parade, but Foxy is not ready to pull in a parade. Belle definitely is not.

Out to Pasture

2010-06-27T16:33:00.000-07:00

It has been three weeks since the great flood. We have lost 1 chick, the peacocks are officially living at the neighbors (they are great friends and have conversations) three rabbits died and I have evacuated my horses to a neighbor that is 15+ miles away. Belle was not doing well(she has lost weight even with an increase in grain, hay, and oil) in the corral and a friend from church offered her pasture. We led Belle, Foxy and Lady over the condemned bridge, Lady was nervous until Foxy went over it. We loaded Foxy first. Lady was nervous, but after a few treats and a butt rope, she climbed in. Belle jumped right in, too. I stopped to check everybody when I got off the bumpy dirt road. Lady was no longer slant loaded. She was straight loaded under Belle's neck. Belle was nuzzling her. It was kind of cute. I missed the house (I had never been to the house before, but I THOUGHT that I new where it was) I had to turn around on a narrow road. Thank goodness for gooseneck trailers!! Belle, Lady, and Foxy immediately fell upon the tall green grass (they had been having exposure to grass so that they wouldn't founder) The grass is almost waist high! They were ecstatic!! I can only visit once a day. This really bothers me since i am now so used to them on my property. The next day, I noticed that they were getting eaten alive so I tried out a spot fly repellent. 5 ml from poll to tail, 1 ml under the forelock, 1 ml each on the legs. It works!! Foxy was in such a hurry to get her's that she nailed me on the head right on the button of my ball cap. OUCH!!! After she was sufficiently debugged, she was all snuggly again. The flies were really bad, so I forgave her. Lady sunburnt her nose, so now she wears sunscreen. Belle always comes immediately, Foxy and Lady do now, too, but the first day, I had to track them down. Foxy did not move from her ten foot diameter circle the first day. Lady cut her leg during the flood, but now it is starting to heal. She kept pulling the scab off. I am hoping to bring them home in another week or so. There is still too much water for all 8 horses. This way, they get time to unwind at the pasture while I am out of town (family reunion) and they get time off from the flood and my sister's horses. Belle and Sergeant were getting ugly in the evac corral. The vacation should be good.

The Flood of 2010

2010-06-07T04:30:00.000-07:00

The Flood of 2010. Sounds ominous. Well, it is. We have an old river bed running through the property. This spring, with the late snow and heavy moisture, it has had a fair bit of water in it. With the warm (not hot, merely warm) temperatures that we have had lately (high 60s and 70s) the snow pack has been melting. The ground was already saturated, this means that the water has nowhere to go. Well, actually, it went to my pasture, barn, and animal pens.

Friday. The ravine in the pasture has stagnant water. We are starting to get mosquitoes. Ok, lets get some anti mosquito larvae pellets for the water. Got grain, forgot about the pellets. We worked Lady on walking, trotting, and standing. Foxy at ground driving.

Saturday. Let’s get the garden planted. Let’s go on a trail ride. Ok, Belle still won’t go through the mud hole of a road that gets out to the trails. One of these days, she will go over it. Foxy was great. Well behaved. Got mosquito pellets. Got a bunch of garden planted. The water has increased and is a flowing stream from one side of the property to another. Time to put the scientific method into place.
Identify Problem. Belle won’t cross water, we have excess water.
Form Hypothesis. If I turn Belle, Foxy, and Lady out in pasture with water running through it, then Belle will be forced to cross water to get to Foxy and Lady.
Test Hypothesis. Out the ponies go.
Results. Foxy, Lady, AND Belle run across the water to get to the pasture.
Conclusion. Belle doesn’t really have a problem crossing water. She has a problem crossing mud holes. The water is creeping up the stock water tank that we keep in the ravine. Critter had just put 10 feeder fish in it to eat the algae. We hope that the water won’t reach the top by morning.

Sunday. I wake up at 2 AM. I can’t sleep. I toss and turn until I think it is 5 AM. Fortunately, I did not have my glasses on. It was closer to 4:30 AM.
I get up, throw on some handy walk outside my bedroom door clothes (one of Mr. BPA’s Flannel shirts, pair of shorts. I poke my head out of the front door. In the dark, there is a glistening around the barn. WATER!!! I run through the house pounding on bedroom doors, “GET UP, THE BARN IS UNDER WATER!!!!!” I throw on my work boots and run out to the barn. The ravine is full and water is surrounding the barn. The stock tank is floating. Fred, the peacock is on his perch in the adult chicken coop, but I don’t see any other birds, just stuff in the water. There are sounds in the Easter chicken coop(the chicks that we got at Easter), I keep going to the barn. I throw open the barn door. The barn floor is not under water, but getting wet. The new chicks, turkeys, and duck are not in the water, yet. The horses are nervous, but ok. Their stalls are flooding. I run back out to the Easter chicks, of the ten chicks, half are hiding in the dog house with the water only 2 inches from the top of the door. The other half are trying to keep their heads above water. I put all ten on the roof of the dog house. By then, Critter is out and in the chicken coop. I run out there to get Fred, but I see the nephew’s Silver Wyandotte hen with just her beak and part of her head above water. I scoop her up and take her to dry land. Fred is next. The mangy Peacock knocks my glasses off. I turn him loose on dry land, too. All 10 adult chickens are alive and out of the coop. The guys and kids have gathered up the little chicks from the barn and put them in empty water troughs that are now floating in the barn. The kittens are hauled to the house. Tigris, the cat is yoweling, so I take him across, (although he will play in the water with Shooter, its generally just his legs that get wet. This was already too deep for him to walk from the barn to the house on higher ground) Gizmo has already been carried across. Mr. BPA grabs Rascal, the mama cat. She has a mouse in her mouth. She must save the mouse! (Half way across the water, she ended up dropping it) The cats all get put in the house to keep them away from the birds. I grab another water trough and float the Easter chicks to dry land. We then float the 4-H chicks, as well. The rabbits are two feet above the floor, they can wait. Water is still rushing up. The decision is made. Close the gate. Put halters on and turn the horses loose from their stalls, they’ll run to the house and dry ground. Barnaby, Princess, and Sassy are the first to go. Do they run to higher ground and the house? NO!!! They run across the ravine of water and out to pasture. Ok, tie up Shooter, he is busy trying to herd horses across the ravine. Sergeant and Mystique are lead out, the floorboards are popping up and floating. Mr. BPA, Kid #2, and I head in to get the girls. Is Belle going to walk out of her flooding stall, into the barn that is flooding and out of the barn through 2-2 ½ feet of water to the higher ground? No real hesitation. We avoid the trailer of hay, the floating boards, the holes where the boards used to be and lead them to the fence. Out come the rabbits. We finally shut all power to the barn. Feed bins, bags come next. The kids are now just at the dry end of the cycle. The adults run stuff up to dry ground. The kids move it up to the yard or the kids are trying to dry off bunnies, chicks and chickens. Fred is yelling on the fence post and then runs off at some point. Critter’s inlaws that were visiting for the weekend are helping with the kids. The nephew is trying to warm up his Silver Wyandotte that I saved. She was just laying there, not moving when he found her. The neighbors are now alerted. They start making the phone calls and alerting the Elder’s Quorum for help. I drive up to the neighbors to get their shallow boat and drive up to the bridge. The construction equipment is getting water now, too. Back to the house. The water is still rising. They’ve had to move the horses, again. Critter takes two of her horses over to the neighbors. We start waking up other neighbors to let them know that the water is still rising. I ride Belle, lead Foxy, and tie Lady to Foxy’s tail. Drop off at neighbor’s. Now the water is over the driveway. The guys from town arrive and manage to save the hay and trailer from the barn. I drive the hay to the neighbors and feed the horses. They empty the tack room of saddles, grain, and the upright freezer! The train modules are wet. A total loss. The storage silo is only a little bit wet. Most of the storage is in plastic totes and can stay there. Anything else, we just don’t have time to move to try and save. The water is still rising. Barnaby runs across the ravine. Critter takes him to the neighbors. Sassy and Princess are trying to find a shallow way across, but the water is daunting. Should we try to lead them across with the boat. I don’t think so! They will be trying to climb in the boat. Mr. Critter and I paddle across the ravine with lead ropes. The Plan: I will swim Sassy across with Princess following. Good theory. Sassy and I swim across. I tried to guide her, but then she would drop her head into the water. We make it. At one point, only are heads are above the water and she is swimming with me hanging on to her mane, yelling encouragement (I have never swam with a horse before, with practice, it might be fun, but I just wanted to get them out) When we hit land, even before we were out, poor Sassy needed a break. She stood for a minute, calling Princess, who DID NOT follow. We got out of the water. Princess was running up and down the remaining coastline. Get out of there Mr. Critter and drag the stock tank with you (we were just kidding about the stock tank. It had floated to the opposite side of the ravine from where it had started) Princess and Sassy call back and forth for a while and then Princess finally takes the plunge and swims across to the back of the barn where she is caught and led through the barn to safety. Off they go to the neighbors. Fresh food and water is brought to give to the, now, dry chicks and rabbits. All six bunnies and three adults are ok. All 17 4-H chicks, 6 turkeys and 1 duck are ok (we were down due to deadloss from the snow storms) All 10 Easter Chicks are ok. All 9 hens and 1 rooster are ok. Fortunately, the pigs that we were supposed to get this weekend were not here yet. So now loss there (their pen was under enough water at the beginning that we would have already lost them) I finally go and get dressed (I was soaked from the head down, but my hair was still dry) and off to the neighbor’s for breakfast. The absolute BEST biscuits and gravy I have EVER eaten. (1- She is a great cook, and 2- I was tired and hungry.) Unload the saddles from the truck. Empty feed bags to check for moisture. Very little loss. Most was already in plastic bins. Back to the house to give the animals shelter from the sun. Find out that our well is still safe. Pack up Kid #2 for week long summer college camp. Upload pics to Facebook and sit. Incoming phone call.

BPA?(Not really, she does call me by my actual name)

Yeah, (neighbor) what can I help you with?

Are you busy?

Not really? (whatever she wants, she can have after giving shelter to the horses and making biscuits and gravy)

Can you come help another neighbor? The other river is kagihioertklrkkljk(I heard nothing really after that, I just started yelling for the kids and passed out adults to head back out to there)

So off we go to get everything off the floor and up at least 18 inches or more in the garage of another neighbor. The river behind the garage and house is almost over the dyke. Their horses are moved to the same neighbor that ours are (just different corral). All trailers, campers, animals are moved. They try to build up the dyke. We have to leave for Casper. We take the Dodge Durango (Better gas mileage and more comfortable for the passengers than my truck. The driveway is 1-2 feet under water in spots. The road to the bridge is 2-3 feet under water in spots (we avoid the 3 foot areas)
Some houses are surrounded by water. We trade off for naps. Kid #2 arrives at College and is excited to be able to sleep in for a week (breakfast is not served until 8 AM!!!) Head back home.

Phone call

“You can’t come back over the bridge. I will tell you the back way to get home. (giggle, giggle)”

me- “ok”

giggle, giggle, “hey, somebody tell me how to tell her to get here.”
much discussion in background. Hey, your Durango is light enough and has the 4 wheel drive, you can make it over the bridge, but . . .” lost call.

We decide to go to the bridge and see. We make it over the bridge. We joke that if it does start to go, then we will gun the engine and make the jump like in the movies. The road past the bridge is washed out. The river is flowing over it. We see that there are a bunch of vehicles on the other side. We go for it, we can’t really turn around anyway and at that point, are surrounded by water. The water goes up to the middle/top of the grill on the vehicle, Mr. BPA rolls down his window and puts on a show for the now recognizable neighbors. They only give him a 82 for his 8 second ride. They are exhausted/slap happy. They tried to build up the dyke, but the water ended up finding another way to the property (just not through the house). Fortunately, the water has not risen on our property, just spread to other’s. The fire/emergency personnel shut down the bridge. The local police officer warned that only for emergencies can we cross that bridge. We are all scheduled to work on Monday. It’s the first day of my new summer school job. To relieve stress, the neighbor kids want to try out Belle, then the other horses. We just use the halters and lead ropes. It’s crazy. We finally get home and it starts to rain. Now we need to find rain shelter for all of the displaced chicks, rabbits and dog(Shooter is afraid of storms and we found him across the river and in the next town last time he wasn’t locked in the barn during a storm) Rabbits and Shooter to the Yurt (which is still dry) and the 4-H chicks to the well house. The older, Easter Chicks get water troughs on their sides and the top of a dog crate. The adult chickens have already taken over the intact dog crates. Tigris is left outside (where he really wants to be after being locked up until a secure coop for the little chicks was built while we were in Casper) Gizmo and Puma are locked in the girls’ room. Guido is locked in the boys’ room. Bandit in Critter’s room and the kittens and Rascal in the laundry room. We will take shifts to watch the water level and condition of the animals. I am a morning person, so Mr. BPA and I take the morning shift. At 2:30 AM, Monday morning, I get out of bed to check on Shooter and let him out since the storm has passed. The water has gone down a foot or two. The chicks and rabbits are ok. I let cats out. Rascal takes the opportunity to capture a mouse and give the kittens a hunting lesson. I finally took the mouse away after coming inside after my 4:30 walk around the coastline. All is well (or at least unchanged) I heard Fred, but did not see him. I have been typing this during my off time during my watch. I am on less than 3 hours of sleep, so although I know that there are probably many grammar errors in this accounting, I really don’t care right now. All of the animals are alive. The house is still safe. The water is safe. The people are safe. We have plenty of food and friends (and my sister’s inlaws make it home safely, too.) All is well.

The Paint in Painting

2010-05-17T06:13:00.001-07:00

I have paints. Really, I do. I just have not discussed them in a while. I have been out playing with them, being busy, and just not blogging about them. Lady is still growing like a weed. Kid #1 has been working with her on 4-H Showmanship, where she leads Lady around, demonstrating Lady's training at leading at a walk, trot, and standing. Yep, that is Lady's tongue sticking out.Lady was not really impressed with the lining up and standing. Foxy was really great at following kid #3 around, but not so good at the standing in a line, waiting for their turn to demonstrate a straight line at a trot, stopping, turning and trotting back.

Critter was giving the showmanship lesson with 4 kids and horses.

I had Belle in the arena, too.
Shooter was helping. His eye is so much better now. I still think that his vision is compromised, but he doesn't seem to be too affected. He just runs into things a little more than he used to.

The next day we had a riding lesson. With 4 kids. And 4 horses. Belle and Lady were not in attendance, which worried Foxy, so Kid #2 discussed the pythagorean theorem with her as they worked on control, gaits, and being calm. (I couldn't get him to just talk to her, so I made him tell her stuff)

It snowed 10 inches last week, so Lady has not had a bath recently. It is supposed to get to 72-76 degrees Farenheit today, so maybe the lake will disappear and it will be warm enough for baths. Belle and Lady really need them. We also need to get a Bobcat in an scrape the outdoor stalls. Yesterday, there was still some snow in the outdoor runs. Which means that the mud and muck is not so great right now. So in my brilliance yesterday, Critter and I decided to go on a trail ride. Without kids. Belle did not like this and threw a temper tantrum. During her tantrum, she slipped in the mud. I expected her to catch herself and lunge forward. (Anyone that has driven her knows that she can drop her butt pretty far and then lunge forward like she is in the horse pulls) In anticipation of the lunge, I kept my feet in the stirrups. 1800 lbs falling on the human body hurts. As soon as my right foot hit the ground, I had my left foot out of the saddle. It happened pretty fast, but I think that the soft footing actually saved both my leg and Belle. She caught my forearm with the horn (I think, its the only thing that I can think would have caught it)but she didn't roll all the way over. She scrambled to her feet and I rolled out of the way. Mr. BPA was fixing the barn door and came running. He made me demonstrate walking before he let me get back on. He also said that if I couldn't pull myself into the saddle, I couldn't get back on. We went for a very short ride then worked for a little while in the arena. By then, the adrenaline had worn off. My foot is broken. The 1st and third metatarsals. I might also have a hairline fracture in my radius (forearm). My knee is sore. Heck, the whole right side of my body hurts. Belle is good, she never limped or even felt too bad about the whole thing. Sometimes horses can tell if they messed up and stay with you when you come off, not Belle, she took off to find the herd.

Enough Pity party, I am still going to work and I have to practice not limping before my job interview later this week.

We are getting a new paint. She is a light sorrel tobiano. She was given to a coworker of Mr. BPA and all of his kids are gone now and they took their horses this week and he did not want to keep one horse all by herself. So she is coming to our house for Kid #1 to practice on until Lady is old enough. She is really friendly and let us pick up her feet and move around her without problems. We will have to see how she is under saddle. We are thinking of calling her Rose (as in Briar Rose, Sleeping Beauty's alter ego. With Belle and Lady, I like to keep with the Disney names. Ok, Lady was a dog, but it really fits her better than TinkerBelle)The new mare has another name, but it is the same as a girl at church and that would just be weird. So now, we will have 3 paints and the one Clydesdale, at least until Bart comes home.

Dumb Dog!

2010-05-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Shooter got kicked in the head. This is nothing new for him. He gets kicked daily. His job, as he sees it, is to help move horses. He loves to chase the horses from the barn out to pasture. I was out of town(of course, I was, everything has to happen when I am out of town). I was in the middle of a presentation of trains, when I got a call. It was on vibrate. I hit the ignore button and texted, wxplaining that I was in a presentation and couldn't get out of my seat until the presentation was over. The reply was, "Shooter kicked. eye bloody. Don't know how bad."
I showed this to Mr. BPA (sitting next to me). Somehow neither one of us was too worried. When the presentation was over, I slipped outside to call. It was PANDALERIUM!(word stolen from Jeff Foxworthy) The kids were freaking out, Shooter's whole head was swelling. Blood was everywhere. The only view of the actual eyeball made my brother-in-law think that the eyeball was ruptured. Lovely. Somehow, I did not feel panic, I made a few comments on facebook, but since he was running around and actually tried to herd the horses back to the barn, I wasn't too concerned.

I stayed in Casper(hey, we went to the BIG city!) and finished my stuff. When I got home, Shooter looked like something out of a horror film. His eye was so swollen that I couldn't pry it open. There was a cut right above the eye. He was pretty out of it from the painkillers, but he was thumping his stump of a tail and was happy to see me. I gave him a shot of antibiotics, and put some antibiotics on his open wound. I still did not get too worked up about it. ---side note---- I get worked up over everything. Rascal having her kittens made me crazy. Foxy having lady put me over the edge. One of the reasons why we haven't looked too hard at breeding Belle is that I would be living in the barn for the entire gestation period. By the end, I would be institutionalized. I babied Tigris when Sergeant stepped on him. When Shooter got kicked in the fall, I let him recuperate in the house. I get really worked up, hysterical about EVERYTHING, so I really am not sure why I was so relaxed about this.

Sunday, he still looked bad. I got him all doctored up and went to church. He started looking better that afternoon. He even tried jumping into the water troughs to cool off.

Monday, the swelling went way down. He had muscle control over his eye brows and around the eye. I could see that the eyeball was not punctured. The lens was not intact. The cut above the eye is looking better.

Tuesday, he is out and about helping with chores, stealing Belle's grain, annoying the cats. He even came out to the gate to guide me in when I came home that night -- he really likes to have the vehicle follow him to its parking spot. It makes me worried that he is going to get run over. He also could not settle down that night, he was jumping up, hitting the windows, trying to get his nemesis, the evil black and white cat from down the road. The cat was taunting him and eating the cat food on the porch. There was a cat fight in the girls' room, he had to get involved with that.

Wednesday, today, he opened up his eye wound again, but other than that, he is acting fairly normal. He is no longer hitting into my leg as we walk so that I can protect his bad side. He can see light and dark, but I am fairly certain that it is blurry. Its hard to tell with him because he is not real bright, anyway.

So, he is going to be fine. Heavy sigh. Good, I don't want to lose my dog. Then we would only have Harley. Not the best trail dog.

Rain, Rain, go AWAY!!!

2010-04-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

This morning it has been raining. It rained all night. I was feeling lazy and did not want to get my work boots muddy. (as in the boots that I wear to go teach in, as opposed to the muck boots for cleaning stalls, and my riding boots.)So, I drove my truck to the barn to feed Belle her Lunch. 1/2 can alfalfa cubes soaked in water, 2 cups oil, 1 quart Senior feed, 1 cup Nutrena Empower (I am not a paid spokesperson. I am trying it out to see if it helps Belle keep her weight while I am increasing her workouts) Not my brightest move. We slid.

It is really nicely stuck. 4-Lo did not even get me out. I had to call Mr. BPA (who told all of his co-workers -- they all laughed) to come and take me to work. We will need to pull it out later since we really can't have both of us miss work today. It is really not much fun slodging around in mud past the ankles with a lap top in one hand, a backpack of text books in the other.

And before anyone says to just hook Belle up to the truck, the harness is still not fixed from the last time I hitched her to something.

Lady, the hairy mud ball -- and cats

2010-04-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

With Wyoming weather, the horses don't know if they should be shedding or not, but they are really starting to shed. We are still getting snow (this was last week) but the grass is turning green (Lady's little hoofprint)Foxy never grows much of a winter coat, hates blankets and does just fine. Lady and Belle grew thick, long coats this winter, and only wore blankets when they had sweated (in Belle's case) or I made the mistake of bathing them (Lady's case). Lady is a shedding little monster.
It doesn't help that when the snow melts, the ground turns into a soupy, muddy mess. We are installing a hot water system into the new garage. It's main purpose will be for attempting to keep Lady white. She likes to nap, alot. She likes to find mud puddles to sleep in. Yesterday, when I pulled her out to be trimmed, she had a big lump of mud on her back.
She doesn't like the hoofstand, so I had to play peek-a-boo with her and pull on her tongue, scratch her ears, etc. to attempt to keep her occupied. Brushing her out helped, too. and the lunging before. and tying Belle and Foxy near her. She still tries to lie down on the trimmer. She's still learning. She thinks that trimming should take no longer than the time it takes to pick her hooves.

Isn't she cute in her new Halter? It's a little big, but I think that by summer it will fit perfectly. She was getting fed up with pics by this picture, but with the clouds, the pics kept coming out blurry and the flash washed her out.

Normally, I can lead Belle around by her beard when she is out of her stall to eat her grain, but with the shedding going on, on ended up with a handful of beard. Belle and Shooter share her grain. But if the door is open to the barn, Belle will run outside to Foxy's outdoor run (regardless of the fact that her inner door is RIGHT THERE. You could nigh at her through the door.)Saturday, while adding on to the outdoor arena, Belle was eating her Lunch, but Foxy neighed and Belle left her grain to run back out to pasture.
She is so whipped.

More in furball news (if you don't like cats, Stop here. Move on to the next blog, email, or other internet item, its all about cats) I have updated pics of the cats. We need cats. They keep me from dealing with mice. Mice attract Snakes. I HATE snakes. I was raised on Indiana Jones. It is perfectly fine for him to hate them, so I do to.

This is my cat. The rest are NOT mine. They below to kids, Mr. BPA or my sister. I only claim this cat. This is Tigris as a kitten,
This is Tigris, now. He is a barn cat. He is an excellent mouser. He can find mice in the dead of winter (awesome).

These are Puma, toothless wonder, basking in the sun, and Gizmo, idiotic, loudmouthed barn cat. She is not allowed in the house... except she ripped apart her leg and I had to drain a gallon of pus out of it. Nasty stuff. Right before breakfast. She and Puma rarely see each other, but while Giz was yowelling, Puma came and checked her out, so I put them both on the bed and they have coexisted peacefully.

Guido is a giant furball that is declawed on the front. He loves to claw the furniture, but has no claws. He is a feline version of shooter, but has a brain. Don't pick me up, I'm too big, but I will be petted from the floor, chair, couch, etc. He will soon be getting a Lion cut (he loves it, he is just a big drag queen)

I accidently put this picture in sideways, but it fits this psycho cat with multiple extra toes on each paw. He was spayed and neutered the same day. He is not my cat. I had his brother, Paws (he also had many extra toes, he was fixed, but it never stopped him. I think that he had a spare pair.) He was killed when he was hit by a car. It was the 7th or 8th time that he had attacked a car.

And last but not least because she woke me up this morning, making bizarre sounds, is Rascal, the amazing riding cat.First as a kitten, then as an adult extra for an Alien movie. She is psycho. She is going to explode. She is due anyday and stays in my bedroom. Shooter may have been the one to mangle Giz and he has been a cat chasing fool (This is why I have no recent pics of Socks. He runs when Shooter chases him.)So we don't want Shooter, Tig, or any other cat to kill the kittens. But since we have no idea when she will pop, she has been living in the house for weeks. The pictures that I have taken of her, just don't demonstrate her hugeness. She is normally tiny. Her belly is four to five times its normal size. She attacks Puma, Bandit, Tig (when she can get to him) the dumb indoor dog. She is cranky.

Happy Easter!!!

2010-04-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today is Easter. DUH! If you had to read this to find that out, you are a little slow. Or out in the middle of nowhere. Nope, I am in the middle of nowhere and I know that it is Easter. We sold all of our baby bunnies and picked up some chicks.
SIDENOTE -- Never ask a room full of agriculture students where to pick up chicks. They will tell you the local bar. These same students had no problem telling me where to get my piglets, but. . .

When we got our chicks, there were other families getting the dyed chicks and wanted to know what to do with them when they got big. Would the lady buy them back? EAT IT! Or get a pullet and eat the eggs!!! So now we are up to 21 chickens. Mr. BPA read an article that said that the grasshoppers were going to be worse than last year, so now we have 21 hungry predators to devour them. The eggs are good, too.

Today, I decided to throw the harness on Foxy. I checked with her former owner, the one that trained her, to see if she had ever been roped off of. (I did not want her to spin and try to keep the tugs tight when she felt pressure) She was injured before she was roped off of, so we were good. But first, I had to outfit the harness to properly fit Belle, by adding leather to the checkrein, the noseband, and the crupper. We set out to pull a tire around. Unfortunately, Belle was so thrilled to be pulling, she dug in, dropped her butt, and pulled, and pulled, until we broke the tug and the towhooks that were hooked into the tire. Well that sucked. Belle was having so much fun. I need to get her an actual collar harness that is tough.

So then I put the broken harness on Foxy. The tug was the only part that broke, and since I did not have anything that I wanted to hitch her to, I figured that we could at least see how she tolerated the harness. She did not twitch for the crupper, the checkrein, or even the blinders that are plastered to the side of the head. She did object to the 6" liverpool bit. I switched that out for a solid rubber loose ring snaffle that my sister had on the extra bit hook (with 8 horses and since she used to have a boarding business, she has a lot of extra tack) Foxy was standing there, so mellow, that I took the time to take a picture (I rarely remember. I forgot when I was driving Belle earlier, and I even had Kid #1 ground driving her. I need to send the kids out with the Slave driver. I forgot how to train without throwing them off the carriage.)

I left the halter on as a safety feature since I was adjusting the harness from Belle to Foxy. Pulling off copious amounts of leather. The tugs and break straps are just hanging there and the leadrope is in my hand, since Kid #2 is driving. I had to laugh. He was trying to neckrein her butt. That was one of my huge pet peeves when I trained carriage drivers. Or he would shift his weigh and walk in the direction he wanted her to go. Foxy was an angel under harness. Once I get the tug fixed and a cart rigged up (I have some ideas for a light two wheeled cart, just perfect for Foxy, Belle. . . I need a real harness and a heavier duty cart or wagon)

Lady got a new show halter for Easter. While we were in town selling bunnies, we saw a fun raiser with saddles and had to stop. It is really nice. I spent so much time with the big girls, I did not work with Lady today. With the massive snow storm this week, they were all ready to run, so they all got out to run before we did any work. Even the 28 year old and the gimpy appy were galloping around like they were twitterpated. Lady tried to nurse, but Foxy is finally dry. Lady did not like that and kicked out at Foxy. What a stinker.

We are now all older

2010-03-31T07:19:00.000-07:00

The birthdays came and went. Foxy and Belle had their cakes. Belle had two carrot candles since she turned 19, Foxy only got one since she turned 12.

Lady just got a carrot since her grain is just pelleted and the carrot wouldn't stick. We did made a human carrot cake in the shape of a horse, but I was not in the house when they cut into it, so I did not get a picture. For Kid #2's 12th birthday, I made a cake. It's a chocolate Foxy. Complete with the Blue eye.
I just got cherry chip cupcakes. I did not even bother to frost them.
Then we went on a trail ride. Yes, the halter is on Foxy, yes, that normally drives me crazy, but I wanted to be prepared. She had a half a moment of naughtiness, but Kid #2 handled it just fine. It has taken a while, but he is definitely gaining confidence.

My neighbor let me borrow her harness. We are planning a neighborhood cleanup. I thought that it would be cool to have Belle pull a wagon to through the garbage into. Unfortunately, the wagon only has a pole, no shafts. But I wanted to try out the harness on Belle anyway. It is short, Belle has a very long back, and its a fine harness, not what we use to drive carriages. Belle was a little confused when I put the saddle and britching on first. The the breast collar rather than the heavy collar. The crupper wouldn't fit, the straps are too short. The checkrein was unbelievably short. (no reenactments of Black Beauty and Ginger) But I ground drove her around the neighborhood and over to show off. Belle was awesome and excited. I definitely got my workout stretching out my walk to keep up with hers. If I jogged, so did she. She kept at a walk most of the time. She really doesn't like the neighbor's yard, so that was tough trying to get her to stand while they scrounged around looking for longer pieces of harness. We just might be able to get it to work. Kid #2 wants to train up Foxy for a light buggy. She won't be able to carry him much longer with that leg, so he wants to use her for light harness work.
When we left the barn, Belle was cruising and did not care that the other horses were neighing, that we were having 45-65 mph gusts of wind, she was just happy to be harnessed. Next time, I will put her Liverpool bit on the headstall. The blinders were way to close to her face, so I was just going to walk her around the barn to see what she would do. Then just up to the house, then down the driveway, soon it was all over the neighborhood and two hours later, we were done. It was great.
(I was still adjusting to fit. The noseband was too small and never got buckled. The old snaffle is too tight in the picture, I fixed it)

Bathtime

2010-03-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

I did end up with the day off, kind of. I went to talk to a local principal. No luck there, bummer.

So, to cheer myself up, I took a few minutes to give Lady a good scrubbing. As you can see she really needs it.

I used a ton of whitening shampoo on her.

I was worried, at first that Sergeant would charge Lady because she was tied (a favorite thing for him to do) But Foxy and Belle stayed close, so he didn't dare.

She didn't get perfectly spotless because I had to give her time to dry during the hottest part of the day and her white is going to take time to bleach out the stains from winter. So I let her loose to get even more dirty. She ran over to pick on Foxy.

What a little stinker.

Spring is on it's way!!!

2010-03-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

With Spring on it's way, I have been swamped (quite literally with all of the snow melting. The mud is everywhere. We will be fixing up things for next winter and spring!)
After attempting to put Lady in a stall with Princess to try and wean her before show season-
-----Princess would not let her come into the stall to eat. Then when we put hay in the run, Princess chased after a heavy sweat, which is really bad with her four inch coat and freezing temperatures----

So I put her back in with Belle and Foxy for another few weeks.

Last weekend, we did some major spring cleaning. We still need a front end loader to strip the runs, but we got alot of barn cleaning done. I also put Foxy in a stall and run by herself and left Lady with Belle. The first thing that Belle did was try to push over the panel between their stalls. Belle needed weaning from Foxy as bad as Lady. They are still all turned out to pasture together, so it is not a true weaning, yet, but it helps with training and feeding.

I started my spring training with Kid #2 today. He is on the middle school track team, so I figured that we would workout together in the morning so that I could improve my physical shape (thanks for all of the reminders about rider fitness, Fitness Guru Stacey) One thing that I did not think about was just how dark it is at 5:00 am now that Daylight savings stuff was Sunday. We had to briskly walk because we were tripping over frozen mud holes, tire tracks, Shooter and Tigris. (I will bring a flashlight tomorrow) We figured that Shooter would love to run with us, but Tigris really surprised me. Tigris (During the Day)
He kept up the entire time. My goal is a 10K this summer. Kid #2 wants to run a marathon, but I think that we will wait on that.

This week is full of Birthdays. Kid #2 and Foxy will be 12 this weekend. I gave Belle March 21 as a Birthday because mine is on Monday. Lady is 1 on the 28th. I am baking horse shaped cakes and special treats for the ponies. Barnaby turned 28 this month, too.

WinterWonderland

2010-02-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

Snow, Snow and even more snow! But we had a ton of fun. The temperature wasn't even too bad, until last night. We saw blue sky right before sundown, so we knew that it was going to be cold. -19 when we got up. Yuck! It was 14 when I turned them out to play in the cold sunshine and ran off to apply for another teaching job.

Curses! Foiled again.

2010-02-20T11:19:00.000-08:00

My last blog cursed me. I was getting too excited for spring. Yesterday morning, I had it all planned out to take Lady on a three mile walk. She has been leading well, but hasn’t really been led too far away from Belle and Foxy yet and never out of the property alone. The dirt road was finally getting clear enough and the bridge was dry. A perfect opportunity. WRONG. So it snowed about 6 inches yesterday. As I look out the window, it is currently snowing. Spring may be officially a month away, but Winter is not ready to relinquish its hold on Wyoming just yet. So, when I got home yesterday, I saddled up Belle, threw the cat up on the saddle bags, hooked the tow rope onto the saddle horn, told the kids to climb into the sled and rode over to the neighbor’s house to drop off some dishes that I have been meaning to return. I just could not waste the opportunity to play in the snow. Rascal did not last very long around the first left hand turn that moved the rope across Belle’s butt. Right hand turns are fine, but left hand are bad. Belle was great. She was prancing and never tried a crazy Ivan (quick full circle for no apparent reason) or trying to go back to the barn. She reminded me of Mike the Belgian when we would be the first horse and carriage into Memory grove with 6 inches of snow. Mikey would prance and snort and throw snow in all directions. Belle was loving it. (yes, I do attach human emotions onto my horse and other animals. Normally Belle gets cranky about leaving Foxy, yesterday, she had an extra spring in her step and bounced along the road and was definitely feeling good.) Shooter came along, too. Belle was not so great once we got to the neighbor’s. Once the kids got out, the sled was too light and flopped around, so I had to unhook the tow rope until one kid got back in and then the other had to hand me the rope and then jump back into the sled. The kids definitely agreed that Belle is much faster than Sergeant especially at the extended trot. (Belle always was a trotting harness horse. Why walk when you can trot, right?) It was really fun.

After the herd has stomped in the snow everywhere.

Sunny, Warm and a day off!

2010-02-17T14:37:00.001-08:00

Today, I had the day off. I have been subbing alot lately, so it was nice to try and get over my cold. Belle and I had a nice ride. Rascal kept following me around, so I put her up on my shoulder and she had a real ride. She was ok for most of it, but did not appreciate Belle's extended trot. We stopped and let her down, but she kept following and yelling at us.

Here is a shot of our shadow. From left to right, Belle's head, my head, my phone, Rascal.

Trying to take a picture of a cat sitting on your shoulder is not really as easy as it sounds. I can't actually see the screen until I head into the house, so out of ten pics, these two were the best.

The ground is pretty sloppy right now. Everything is melting. The ponies are starting to shed out, which is really good because Belle was warm when we started. My seat is improving with all of the bareback riding we do. She just sweats too much undersaddle. (Bareback is also really good on aching calves. There is a reason that I was kicked out of Utah. I DON'T downhill ski. I can crosscountry just fine. Saturday, I was reminded of this. It was really ugly. I could barely walk, but I could ride! Climbing off again, that hurt.) Today it is ice skating with the same church group. Religion should not be this painful.

Back in the saddle again

2010-01-26T12:27:00.000-08:00

Because it is still so cold and I am not working, I am still hauling water to the horses several times a day. I make it easy on myself and use a 5 gallon bucket from the spigot when it is anywhere close to 0 degrees. (This does NOT work when it is -30, though) As I was filling up the outside water for Lady, Belle, and Foxy; Rascal requested a ride on Lady. (As Lady was drinking the water, Rascal batted at Lady's nose -- I might have severe cabin fever, but I am not actually convinced that Rascal speaks english, yet.)

So up she went.

I figured that this would be good practice for her to have weight on her back that is not in anyway too heavy (The cat is only 6 months, Lady is only 10 months, but just got up graded to a Small horse halter, completely skipping yearling halter, so I think that the 3-6 pound cat is not going to affect her back)

Lady was not impressed and kept trying to rub the cat off of her back by scooting under Foxy's neck. Rascal just flattened against Lady's back each time Lady tried that until Lady gave up.

Foxy and Rascal's First Ride

2010-01-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

Technically there was no ride, but I finally had the camera with me today!

Foxy was getting her front hooves trimmed.

Rascal climbed up on my Shoulder. Lately Rascal has been sitting up on Belle as she eats her grain in the aisle because Mr. BPA has been going to work early and staying late (she misses him) so instead of riding around on his shoulder, She sits up on Belle. Rascal also appreciates the warmth coming off of Belle for Belle's noon feeding because Belle will have baked in the sun for a few hours first. (Side note #1 -- Belle is now getting three feedings of her Senior, oil, Alfalfa cubes because she started resisting the amount of oil needed for her EPSM, but she is back up to 4.5 cups a day:)
This is Rascal nosing Foxy. (Side note #2 -- I can't see the screen of my camera when I take pics, so its a little close and blurry)Foxy was on the walker with another lead rope to imitate cross ties while she was being trimmed. Rascal wanted to jump on Foxy's face, but since she had never been on Foxy's back, I did not know how Foxy would react and I did not want to have her jump all over the trimmer, so I waited for a break in the trimming.

Foxy doesn't seem to mind (Side note #3 -- Rascal is the first living creature on Foxy's back since she threw Kid #2 and gave him a concussion)

Rascal decided that the shifting of weight for the trimming did not affect her and with 32 degrees (heat wave) she would appreciate the sun warmed brown of Foxy and the heat from her own Black fur.

Lady was getting frustrated with Foxy being busy, so she came over to get her nose into everything (Side note #4 -- Sunday Lady was dragging the sled around by the handle. She was having a great time, but as soon as I got the camera, she dropped the rope, what a stinker! Yes, my baby is dirty. -32 is too cold for even spot scrubbing and with her insisting on laying flat out daily for her naps, she is a pig!)
The trimmer was really suprized that Lady was not weaned and that Foxy allowed her to nurse. He thought that it would make her too big. (Side note #6-- Censored)

Have a nice day.

Sunday ride

2010-01-06T15:19:00.000-08:00

Sunday was warm! It made it all the way up to 41. I went out to water the herd in the pasture and make sure that all of the buckets had thawed out and couldn't resist grabbing Belle's halter and some barrel reins and hoping on. It is the first ride in a bit because of the ice and snow. Belle was excited but she actually listens better when there is not a bit in her mouth. I keep meaning to try a bitless bridle, standard hackmores DO NOT WORK. I rode up to the house and posed in front of the window to wave at Mr. BPA watching football. (I can't watch. The colts haven't even tried the last few weeks. And the Patriots, AAAAAGGGGGHHHH)
Critter came out and rode, too, but she doesn't like bareback as much, but we had fun. Foxy and Lady kept trying to play with Belle. Foxy was really not happy that her buddy was otherwise entertained. Lady kept trying to stop in front. They finally ran off to the barn to pout. I kept Belle at a walk and a jog, but she was so excited and doing her crazy Ivans (for no apparent reason, she will do a 360. I just rewatched Hunt for Red October. Sean Connery is a way hot Soviet with a Scottish accent)that she sweated a bit. I had to cool her off and then break out her blanket. She seemed amused by it, but she stayed warm. When I took it off the next day, Lady was "helping" so I threw the blanket on her. No fits, or even a jump when the giant blanket draped all over her little body. I flapped it around, tightened it around the belly, etc. She did try and nibble it, but that was it. When I took it off, I flapped it around. . . Nothing, she just stood there. She is such a good baby. Then I told her to go and play, she took off bucking and kicking and chasing Shooter.

I really appreciate all of the time that we put into playing with her when she was born. I can't even touch the foals next door, even though they come right up to the fence. For as big as she is at 9 months, she is generally fairly sweet. Just don't turn your back on her when she is feeling frisky. She WILL run right into you! As long as I turn around in time, she will swerve, but if I am distracted, watch out. I pulled a whip out last time, so I am hoping that it is getting better. She just likes to play! She is almost bigger than Barnaby, the 29 year old. I will try and get a good pic of them together.

Shooter finally got kicked badly enough that he couldn't shrug it off. He is walking on three feet. But in true Aussie mentality, when we go to the barn and Barnaby is let out, Shooter forgets his injury and they will still chase each other at full speed. The nerve endings are a little screwy in that skull of Shooter's!

Sunny wintery day

2009-12-30T13:43:00.000-08:00

Sunny days must be appreciated. With the Winter solistice, our shorted day of the year was only 9 hours of daylight. Yuck! but now we are again increasing our daylight, so spring is on its way. (I must be optimistic, or I will just roll over and die as I wait for the cold to seep into my bones)

Lady, Mystique, and Princess (and Shooter)

Lady, Sassy, Barnaby, Shooter, and Sergeant

Belle, Shooter, Sassy, and Princess

She is still running.

Mom, you need to pay attention to me, not the neighbors!

I am trying to eat, here!

Sled Ride--

2009-12-17T15:18:00.000-08:00

Just getting caught up on the blogs that I have written at home.
As mentioned before, it is cold here in Wyoming. We must be very careful to not let the horses sweat when we exercise them because we really can’t cool them off properly. If I were to give Belle a nice cool shower, she would become a Clydecicle. I would also wash off all of the protective oils in her skin. But the temperature got up to 34 ° F on Sunday. This is the first time in over a week that it has been above freezing, so we had to take the kids out for some fun.

That is Sergeant pulling the sled. I really love the audience from the horses next door. They all ran over to see what crazy thing we were doing today. Rascal, the cat is also taking a ride.
But then they hit a bump.

and she took off.

Tigris is not doing as well as his lively sister. Last week as he was basking in the sun, blocking the entrance to the barn, Sergeant was coming in. Normally, the cats will move, but not this time. Sergeant nailed him with a front hoof, rolling him over and then again with a back hoof. He doesn’t have any broken bones, but he is pretty banged up and doesn’t like to be carried around anymore, so he did not go for a sled ride. He did get to sleep inside for a few days, though.
This is Socks, he kind of came with the house. I am fairly certain that other people feed him, too, but he is such a nice cat and with the cold weather he lives in the yurt right now, so we feed him and let him stay. Shooter doesn’t like him anymore, but he is solid muscle, so Shooter can’t catch him very easily, and Socks is a smart cat, so Shooter has no chance of outthinking him.

I am now going to rant for a minute. I will even stand on a kitty litter bucket (versus a soap box, since it is much more durable)

You should NEVER give a child an animal for their birthday. As the custodial parent, it would be ok, ONLY if you are prepared to care for said animal in the event that the child is unwilling or unable to care for it. We have 6 cats, why in the world do we need another indoor cat. NO, NO, NO. Poor Gizmo is now a very unhappy barn cat. Rascal would hiss and growl at her whenever she tried to get food. Gizmo is scared of Shooter, so she was sleeping all by herself, trying to acclimate to Wyoming winters in a barn instead of Utah apartment winters. Fortunately, for Gizmo only, when Tigris was hurt in the house, Rascal felt lonely and started cuddling up to Giz for warmth. They are now fairly nice to each other, but Gizmo doesn’t come out of the barn for sun and play time like the other barn cats do.

Now that the Rabbits are back outside, I rigged up her carrier on top of the heated rabbit cage.

Oh, No!!! Its a CupCake Cake!

2009-12-16T15:02:00.000-08:00

Kid #1 had a birthday over the weekend. (Hey, she is the first kid and I had only been drving carriages for a year, I did not realize that fun in March would lead to a messed up Christmas season. I drove up until four days before she was born and finished the Christmas season December 27-31st. I don’t recommend it.)

She said that she wanted a Puma cake.

I understood this to mean a cake vaguely resembling her cat, Puma. Nope, she wanted a mountain lion cake, oops. This is what she got. (I have been reading CakeWrecks too often to buy a cake from a “professional” bakery at Smith’s or Walmart) It’s a dreaded cupcake cake.

Mr. BPA thought that we ought to send it in to Cakewrecks, but it is obviously not a professional cake, so I am posting it here, instead.

It's a little cold here-- Revised

2009-12-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

ok, here is the revised entry with the pics. I thought that I added them yesterday, but it did not post, so I will try again.

I have lived in Wyoming for a little over a year now. Last winter, Belle and Foxy shared a barn with 20+ other horses with automatic waterers and someone to feed them in the morning. Shooter’s dog house was in the garage with a doggy door and we had Puma. Her food and litter box were upstairs and I only went up once a day to tuck the kids in bed. This year, since we bought the property and a ton more animals, so the morning starts off a little differently than last year.
First we fill the gallon water jugs.
Then the grain buckets are checked for oil. 1 cup for Barnaby and two for Belle.
(We leave the oil in the house because it is just too cold).
The outside temperature is checked. This morning it was only -5° F. That is 37 ° below freezing. That is a lot better than last week when we had a night of -32 ° F. So we load the gallons of water out to the wagon.
(Actually, we only haul out the gallons of water if it is 10 ° F or below. It is just too cold to haul out the hoses if it is below that. The effort of the gallons definitely outweighs the pain of a frozen hose later in the day)
Then the grain buckets.
The chicken and dog bowls
(meat scraps for the puppy, everything else for the chickens)
generally get hauled to the barn by one of the kids as do the rabbit waters
(except this morning the kids forgot the dog bowl AFTER I reminded them on my way out the door and Mr. BPA reminded them, too).
One of the rabbit waters must be thawed out and given to Cinnamon, the doe with 6 babies that are currently living in the house. We brought them in the day before the -32 and have been letting them grow and the temperature to improve before we send them out to the cold, cruel world.
(We had duplicates for each of the three cages, but these rabbits are a little aggressive and the fryers turned on the runt and tried to kill her. I once lost one of my favorite does to her own litter when they turned on her, so they have been away from Mom for over a month. I left them all together for warmth, but they are now separated and I haven’t bought new bottles yet)
While a few of the people are doing this, everybody is getting geared up for the Antarctic exploration. Gloves, hats, scarves, coats, bibs, the whole nine yards. Mr. BPA actually puts on two coats, his warm one and then a light one on top so that his parrot
(Rascal the cat, but when he is doing chores, she must be perched on his shoulder, this pic is not of Mr. BPA, it is too dark for pics at feeding time, this was the day of -20 and an attempt at a group pic and Mr. BPA has a lovely beard for Rascal to chew on. I merely have ears for her to cling to when she doesn’t want to get off of my shoulder. Yes, both ears have cat scratches)

can sink her claws into the fabric rather than the slick heavy coat that she slides around on (isn’t he so sweet) One of these days, the kids will be able to put all of this on without at least one of them getting to the barn and freezing their hands because they forgot their gloves.
(How do you forget your gloves in -32 ° F weather? It’s not like showing up at the carriage barn after driving from the house and then realizing that your third pair of gloves got left on the dryer from last night. The second that you walk out of the house, the cold attacks, attempting to invade and penetrate any exposed flesh. The walk down to the barn is 100-120 feet. I would think that you could figure it out by then, rather than whine once you got down to the barn)
Then we start by dumping the grain into the buckets. Barnaby’s goes into a bucket hanging on his door. Belle’s goes into a flat bucket in the breezeway and the oil is allowed to drain as the windows to the hay racks are opened. Shooter is also let out of his stall. He sleeps in the barn for warmth. During the summer, his dog run was outside. His stall is left open just enough to let the cats in and out, but he stays in (most of the time) Sassy, Princess, Mystique, Sergeant, and Foxy get 1 quart of complete feed to supplement the hay. Lady gets 2 cups of Foal grain. I let Belle out of her stall and she will stand in the breezeway, dripping grain on Shooter’s head as they share her grain. Foxy will eat all of the grain if she is fed in their stall. (Belle, Foxy, and Lady share stalls connected by their outside run that runs down four stalls to Barnaby’s run. Shooter’s stall and the rabbit stall do not have outside doors) Lady is fed her grain out of a bucket to prevent Foxy eating that, too. She must eat in her stall, though, because if she gets out, then she wants to play, not eat. We used to just stand guard over Belle’s grain, but there is just too much to do in the winter to have an adult keep Foxy from Belle’s grain. Lady’s doesn’t taste good enough for Foxy to put up much of a fight and with a small grain bucket; she doesn’t normally get her head in very easily, anyway. Foxy then gets 3 flakes to keep her busy while Lady is still finishing her grain. The other horses get their hay while Critter and Mr. BPA break ice. The kids feed the chickens, give them more water (they have one of the few heated water buckets) feed the cats, dump the ice out of the cat dish and refill with some water from the gallon jugs, rotate rabbit waters, feed the rabbits, feed the dog, fill up his water bucket, (he got a heated bucket over the weekend, too)
Once the ice has been broken on all the horse waters, then the kids come around with the gallon jugs and fill up the buckets. They don’t get filled up all of the way, but enough to get them through breakfast and out to pasture so that the temperature can warm up enough to break out the hose. When the temperature does not reach 0 ° F as the high, this is not fun. One of the things on my wish list this year is a water heater that can heat up the water in the tank in 10 minutes. Next year, I want de-icers in each tank. (They even have heated rabbit bottles!)

Football, Thanksgiving, and Utah

2009-12-01T14:56:00.000-08:00

This is Rascal. This is Rascal watching football. Actually, she is not even facing the TV screen. She is supposed to be one of the barn cats, but she is completely attached to Mr. BPA, so occasionally, when he is vegging out in front of the TV, he lets her in the house. She rides on his shoulders during chores, too. She is a very good mouser. We had tot run down to Utah over the weekend to rescue the kids. We saw Bart.

I test drove Liberty (wouldn't two moody Clydesdale mares make a Great Team?!)

I really miss Driving!!!

Gravel up the nose makes it hard to breathe!

2009-11-27T07:01:00.000-08:00

Warning, this is a blog about one of my kids. If you don't like to hear about other people's kids, feel free to pass on this blog.

Seat Belts are now a law in most if not all states. (I don't feel like verifying that a state does not have it as a law, and since Wyoming is generally the last to jump on any safety bandwagon, and they have it as a state law, I think that it is probably a law everywhere in the U.S.)

I prefer not to wear a lap belt if there is not a shoulder belt also because that is what screwed up my back at 15.

I understand that bike helmets are important, but when kid #1 crashed her bike and landed face first on the asphalt, a helmet did not keep her front tooth in her mouth.

This is why I have not been strict on the riding helmets on the kids while riding. When they jump, absolutley. When they are on a new horse, absolutley, but when Kid #2 is up on Foxy, or if any one is on Belle, I haven't worried about it.

That is no longer the policy. (By the way, this happened a couple of weeks ago, but since I am still at the mercy of library internet, I am only just now posting this)

Kid #2 was up on Foxy. It was clear, but chilly, and we wanted to make sure that we would be able to get in line to see "New Moon" so we stayed in the yard (Hey, Kid #1 is a teenage girl, and I am just selfish enough that I wanted to be the one to take her rather than her new stepmom)
I was up on Belle and Critter was on Sassy (appalousa for those that are not prepared for the popquiz, SD that's you!)

Foxy has been bucking at the lope, the first couple of times that she is asked, so Kid #2 worked her in the morning in the round pen. Then in the afternoon after he had warmed her up with walking and then jogging, he was supposed to lope for a couple strides, bring her back to a walk, then ask for the lope, to keep her from bucking. It has worked in the past. (Did you notice the past part of that?)
The second series of loping strides started with her leaping forward, throwing him off balance and then a hard buck which had him sailing over her head, faceplanting it into the dirt, gravel, weeds, grass, etc. I jumped off of Belle (Foxy had been right behind me before the leaping and bucking) and lost one of my spurs. Critter jumped off of Sassy, but fortunately she did not let go of the reins. (Belle and Foxy went back to the Barn) Kid #2 had landed face first. I was concerned about his neck because he planted his face into the ground, but the rest of his body kept flying up before landing again. He was moving, so I flipped him over, but with the gravel, dirt, etc. in his nose and mouth, he couldn't breathe. Once he could his breath, I went to catch the horses and he got up on Sassy to get a ride back to the house.

Sidenote -- cell phones are only helpful in these type of situations when whomever you call actually answers the phone, and if you actually take your phone with you!
(critter had her phone, I didn't because we were at the house. The two phones in the house where set on silent)

By the time that Kid #2 reached the barn and I had caught the mares and hitched them to the fence,he asked how he got up on Sassy, freaking Critter out.

Once in the house, I saw that the nosepiece to the glasses had smashed into the side of his nose, his glasses were a mangled heap of plastic and wire, one side of his face was hamburger, his nose was almost flat, his eyes were blackening and his pupils were dialated. His memory loss was really scary, so we loaded him up to the emergency room.

Many prayers and miles later,(have I mentioned that we don't live in town? We are quite a ways out of town, so he had plenty of time to panic me with worst case scenarios by the time we made it to the hospital. But at least, we got right in with no real waiting) he just had a slight concussion, and now, his face is completely healed. His glasses took a while to get back into wearable condition, but the optical tech was able to fix them.

Sunday morning ride

2009-11-16T12:14:00.000-08:00

The weather has not been really terrible lately. Cold in the morning (2 Degrees Celsius) and then 50-60 in the afternoon. Since Utah was getting pounded with snow (we got many calls from family asking about the weather) we decided that we should take advantage of the weekend and leave the confines of the property and explore the country side. Critter (my sister) called it a trail ride, but since it was on a dirt road, it doesn't really qualify as was pointed out by a neighbor.
At the last minute we left Lady at home in Mystique's stall so that she would be adjacent to Princess and Sassy that we also left home. Critter was up on Sergeant, Kid #1 was on Barnaby, Kid #2 on Foxy (first ride off of the property without Lady!), niece on Mystique (First time off the property with 9 year old) and me up on Belle.

All went well, at first. Lady was with her friends, so she wasn't screaming. Foxy was trimmed the day before so she wasn't screaming for Lady, she was too busy trying to decide if she liked her most recent manicure. (It was really weird, she was putting each foot down like she was testing for pain. She quit after the first 50 yards) Belle and Foxy started in the back, just in case they panicked without the baby. All was going well. To get to the open area, away from the houses, we have to go past a mud hole. We haven't ever gone this way before because the last time we tried, Sergeant walked in up to his knees and hocks, while Belle and I stood, watching and agreed that we were not going to try it. They had only gone in a little way. This is how it looked.
Now, this pic does not demonstrate that there is only one way through without going through ice patches and deep mud.
Critter and Sergeant led with me bringing up the rear. The Morgans all traveled right up the drier mud path, Foxy followed along just fine. Belle SLAMMED on the brakes. I tried again. Belle thought that going up be the fence would be better. The second that the ice started breaking under her feet, she panicked. My neighbors, out for their Sunday morning stroll, were able to laugh at me. Finally, so that 1) the other horses would not get it into their heads to be a pain, 2) we only had so much time before we had to head back for church, and 3) Belle let me know that she was Way to big to fit on that little strip of drier mud and I was crazy if I thought that she was going to go on it, I hopped off and led her across. sludging through mud with spurs is not the easiest thing, especially when the neighbors, the sibling, and the kids (and probably the horses) are all laughing at me. Belle had no problem following. (I guess that she figured that although four horses couldn't convince her that it was OK, it took me to walk across to prove that it was safe, thanks for the ego boost. And to think that it was only Thursday that I confirmed that I have been losing weight, I was able to go down a size in wranglers! Thanks, Belle!)
We finally got going again, when Foxy and Belle were pushing trail etiquette.
The three Morgans can walk out fairly nicely, but when Belle and Foxy get their "Trail walk" going, they really eat up the ground. Plus, Belle kept asking if she could really move. So, we took the lead. One of the reasons that Belle retired from Carriage driving is the fact that she likes to stretch and out and trot. She is always in a hurry and needs to be first, so we did some moving. I did not want to push Foxy too much, so we did not do too much jogging, but enough to really loosen everybody up and feel good.
Kid #1 and Barnaby did some loping.

The hubby found some more Belgians, but he didn't get close enough to see if they were geldings. the Beast was moved. His herd was moved to the field across from him, so I think that they moved him to keep from tempting him to break out and cross the road. he hasn't been in with his mares for a while. I need to take some pics of the Belgian and Percheron herds. Maybe next week.

It looks like we will be heading to the big city (SLC)after Thanksgiving so that I can give Bart his Christmas carrot. Too bad we won't be able to hijack a horse and carriage for a night, but I don't even want to think about how much stuff we would have to search through to find all of our carriage driving gear! And we forgot to sign up for opening weekend, anyway, so we will just have to miss out!

Hay was NOT the best idea.

2009-11-03T15:25:00.000-08:00

When I bought my last load of hay, the weather turned quickly. I did not even get it unloaded before it snowed. I left five bales in the bed of my truck to allow the extra weight to give me more traction. I was meaning to unload it so that I could get another load, but I was just not getting around to it. I finally did.
Can you see why?

Poor Lady is too short to get her mouth on the hay. Belle and Foxy shredded the bales, but the bad part was the other horses that do not adequately respect the white Elephant. It got a few dents from the squabbling, so the hay is no longer in the back.

First Manicure

2009-10-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

Lady got her first manicure. These aren't the best pics, they are from my phone.Critter was taking the pics since I was holding onto Lady.
We are in the barn since it was a miserable day outside and the footing was terrible.

She was pretty good, but since she is not used to holding her feet up for that long, she was bored fairly quickly. At one point she buried her head in my coat, like she was trying to hide. She got tons of loves, eye rubs, ear scratches, etc. to make it through. At another point I had give back scratches to keep her from leaning. She about fell over a few times. But she was better than Belle. Belle tried leaning a few times, too. NOT GOOD!

The BEAST

2009-09-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had found the perfect stud for Belle. We even named him The Beast (Beauty and the Beast reference). When I finally went over to the pasture with the camera, the herd of belgians and percherons was gone. They are used for hunting and packing trips, so they went elsewhere. Yesterday, they moved The Beast to a new pasture near my house. So, out I went with the camera BEFORE they moved him again.

Since the offspring are used for packing and hunting, they are bred for endurance and strength, so my foal would not be whimpy!

Isn't he pretty?!?!!
I love his grey mane. When I got too close to the fence he wandered off.

This picture is for Cowboy. Shooter doesn't sink to the nose and eyeballs, but he does love to lay in the water trough. It was 35 degrees this morning, and his water bucket was frozen, but he had to climb in the trough anyway!

I tried out my niece's mare yesterday. She is really timid. She doesn't like to lope under saddle. I figured with lots of room, I would give it a try. Instead she slammed it into reverse. I will leave the training to the professionals.

Lady is starting to wander on her own. Here she is with Sassy, the roan appy, Sarge, the bay, and the two blacks, Princess and Mystique.
Shooter loves his ponies
Foxy and Belle were doing their best Giraffe imitations.

Today, Belle and I were working on her back feet. She has never been great with her back hooves. Since her beloved farrier is too far away, I am trying to convince her that she must pick up her feet better. Its a struggle. I have not been the best about those back feet and as long as there was nothing in them, I did not try and make her hold the hoof up. For our first serious session, it went really well. The right rear she held up for total and complete picking. I rubbed and scratched her for her excellent behavior. The left rear, it took about 5 tries to get it completely clean and for her to hold it for 20 seconds. 20 seconds may not seem like a lot, but for that leg, it is. Expecially since I did not get kicked. It was that leg that got me one memorable driving day so badly that I could barely get on the box to drive because my knee was so swollen. (Not a fun day, I did not send happy thoughts down the lines that day!!!)

Mud bath

2009-09-18T14:34:00.000-07:00

Tigris
Rascals
This is my first serious attempt at uploading pictures at the library. It takes a while.

Here are the barn cats.

Lady was in desperate need of a bath. The weather is supposed to be great his weekend, so I took at chance. Here she is before.
(isn't she getting so big?)

After her bath, I was going to put her on the walker to keep her from rolling until she was dry. She decided that she was hungry, so I let her nurse. I took that opportunity to take pictures. . .

She took that opportunity to roll...

then she did not want to be caught.

She got another bath.

Update

2009-09-16T14:59:00.000-07:00

I finally got called in to sub at the high school. It felt so good to be back in the classroom, but I missed the control of my own classroom. This high school is fantastic. I really would love to get a teaching job here.

Since I am not working full time, I am having tons of fun with the animals. We currently have 3 cats. Tigris and Rascal are the barn cats. They are kittens. Probably about 3-4 months old and sisters. When they caught their first mouse, they were so proud. They had to show it off to me. Puma is supposed to be the house cat since she had ten teeth pulled at her last vet check up. However, she can still catch and kill birds, just not with the decapitating finesse that she used to demonstrate. (but she refuses to kill mice, thus two barn kittens)

Shooter is apparently more brain dead and defunct then we thought. His shepherd heritage is coming through. When the horses are all out to pasture, I occasionally have had to yell at Sergeant to leave Barnaby alone, or for Foxy to leave Sergeant, Princess, and Barnaby alone. Shooter got it in his head to herd them into the corner of the fence, barn, etc. They did not apreciate it and he is now limping... sometimes. I checked out his leg, nothing appeared wrong. I checked out the other front leg, he has two broken toes. His brain cells are so messed up that he limps on the wrong leg. He doesn't limp after he soaks in his swimming pool. He spends most of the day in his swimming pool.

Lady has been very frustrated with the new horses. She wants to play with Princess (2 year old Morgan filly), but Foxy and Sergeant are against it. Foxy will now allow Lady to follow Barnaby around,(26, 27, 28, I don't remember, just freaking old!!! Morgan Gelding) but Belle doesn't like it and occasionally chases him off, which sends Shooter into protect mode and then he chases Barnaby away.(and gets kicked in the head)

Princess is a loveable pain in the butt. I am way too used to my horses. Princess kicked kid #2 in the knee. She is terrified of water, and she is a bit skittish. But she loves to play tag with Shooter.

Sergeant is arrogant, thinks he owns the place (until Foxy has words and then he backs down quick). He might be 18, but he is fiesty. He is a screamer. He can't handle Princess out of his sight. Foxy was impressed until he refused to breed her last week (it was really funny because she is 16 hh and he might be 14-14.1 hh and she was backing into him, the whole nine yards and being way too agressive. he backed away so fast, I thought that he would fall over. Then she chased him off. Too bad I did not have the camera!!!)

Belle is pretty funny. Even though we don't have all of the fence fixed, I let all of the horses out for grazing time and play time, but it is supervised. If she would rather be ridden, she will follow me around until I hop on her back. If I ignore her, she whacks me with her head. I feel loved.

Barnaby is recovering from the move, still. He is on the same diet as Belle, just not as much hay. At older than dirt and missing front teeth, he is in really great shape. He no longer paces in his stall and seems to like Wyoming.

Foxy is a hussy. She was so bad last week, teasing every horse, calling out to the stud. It was bad.

We have found the perfect stud for Belle (or maybe Foxy, we are still thinking about that option, too) We have nicknamed him the beast. For those of you that know and loved Red, the true love of Belle's life, the Beast is better looking. He is a gorgeous red belgian stud that lives with a herd of belgian and percheron mares. There also appears to be a jack in the herd, too, since some of the foals are mules. He has a long grey mane and tail like Vea had. We were driving by to show Critter and her husband the herd when we realized that he was a working stud. Belle will be impressed!!! She has always had a thing for Sorrels. Next spring, after shots and vet checks, Belle will be introduced. Vea was a great looking, awesome Belgian/Clyde cross.

There's the update. Still no pics. Still using the library. My first paycheck will probably be used to get internet at the house YEAHHHHHHH!!!!!

Cabin Fever

2009-08-27T16:05:00.001-07:00

This post is completely in response to a post on Confessions of a Slave Driver.

First off, any reference to Princess Bride -- Awesome (should that be awesomesauce? I don't know, I had never heard of it before)

I am not hip, cool, etc. My students were convinced that I was really bizarre and old. I don't get the whole "TapOut" crap. I just ask if they are tapping out of life. Generally the answer was Yes!

I am also "Way too old" to like Metallica (hello, they are older than me) Guns n' Roses (Ditto) Avenged Sevenfold (hey, my hubbie turned me on to them and he is way older than me) or Nickleback (no defense, they are just awesome(once again, should that be awesomesauce, ). My kids, now that they are stuck with a stay at home mom, know that I am not cool or hip either. I mess around with the animals, unpack boxes, write lesson plans for the classes that I don't teach, and make healthy cookies(applesauce, banana, craisin, raisin, pineapple) and the ultimate today -- Beet bread. (yes, beets were injured in the making of this bread. Yes, the kids will have pink sandwiches at school tomorrow.)

They better call me to start substitute teach. . .

soon. . .

Please. . .

Library access ramblings -- No pics

2009-08-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

Using the library to access the Internet is not the easiest thing in the world. Uploading pics is a joke. Lady, Belle, and Foxy made the 130 mile trip just fine. Since I wanted Lady to have Foxy RIGHT THERE in case of panic, we did not use the stall dividers. That meant no stall dividers between Foxy and Belle, too. Lady was first so that she could lean on Foxy or the wall. Then Foxy, then Belle. They were pretty happy to unload by the time we were all done. Since we have knapweed in our pastures and the fences need to be replaced/worked on/etc. the girls are in stalls with a run. The run connects the two stalls. Last weekend we built a round pen to keep up with Lady's training. Critter and family came out to bring a load. Three of those horses come out next weekend! Lady will have another filly to play with! Princess is two, but they are similar in height. (My sister is really into short horses) Barnaby, the ancient is coming out, too. I think that Belle will be happy. She has a thing for Sorrels. Sergeant is coming out, too. I might need to rename this whole blog, with only two paints on the premises, they will be out numbered. We will have two paints, Foxy and Lady; one Clydesdale, Belle (at least until Bart comes up); one sorrel Morgan, Barnaby; one bay Morgan, Sergeant; two brown/black Morgans, Princess and Mystique; and one roaned out appy mare, Sassy.

Lady is amazing. She loves to be groomed. Her bottom lip sucks in and her top lip goes crazy and she stretches out her neck when I curry her, and I am still trying to convince her that mutual grooming is not necessary (no biting!). At feeding time, while the big girls are eating their grain, I have to block Belle's stall opening to keep Foxy out, so Lady knows that she will get undivided attention. Her favorite spot is her withers. I scratch the withers and she leans her chin on my shoulder and apparently drools down my back. When Belle is almost done with her grain, she will let Lady have some and moves on to the hay.

Hay!!! Its half the price I was paying at the old place. And I am really getting more than a ton, instead of whatever was thrown on my stack. Awesome!!!

As long as Lady is being worked in the round pen, I let the two girls out to the pasture to graze. They avoid the knapweed and have avoided, for the most part the fences. They aren't about to leave Lady, and we keep a close eye on them anyway. Belle comes when called, so it all works out. Belle gets alot more time loose than Foxy, because I don't work Lady very hard at only 4 1/2 months. Its mostly time to have the stalls cleaned and to stretch out her legs.

Lady's coloring is still changing. The spots on the back are almost completely black. The sides are sorrel. The tail is black. The spots that only appear when she is wet are black. I think that I have a tri color. One eye is half blue. She is a sweety.

Belle knows that there is a sorrel stud next door. She is so in love. If only I wanted to breed her to a sorrel quarter horse. But then I have a friend with an awesome sorrel quarter horse stud that would breed for free if I wanted one of those.

Enough rambling for the day. I must go back home and unpack some more boxes!!!

Farewell, for the time being!

2009-07-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else had a blog mysteriously disappear? My farrier blog is gone. Weird. The computer is being packed in about 5 minutes. I don't know when I will unpack and get internet, so farewell for a while.

Lady does not like shots. After many failed attempts with my little "helpers", bent needles, and a broken lead rope, I put her in the stocks (she walked right in) she received her first set of vaccinations. She still fought like a cat on a leash being hosed down, but she got the injections. The kids were pretty freaked out. Next time I will use smaller needles. Blood was everywhere. Not a great experience. But afterwords, Lady continued to walk right into the stocks. She had to step up like into a horse trailer. I am hoping that the 130 mile trailer ride Sunday or Monday will be a less tramatic experience.

Farewell. (actually, I will try to access Monday at the Library)

Ok, you can pass it to me

2009-07-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

Stacey at The Jumping Percheron passed this on to me. I must now tell ten things about myself.

1-- I am the proud owner of Belle, an 18 year old Clydesdale Mare -- yes, an actual clydesdale (as opposed to Klein, that must wear a halter that clearly states that she is a Percheron, not a clydesdale)Foxy, an 11 year old paint mare, and a four month old paint filly Lady (name pending is Q Ton Foxy Cyanoptera)

2-- I am a science teacher with a seriously warped sense of humor. I have horse skulls with Christmas lights in their eye sockets and I think that pics like this are funny.

3-- I drive a Ram 2500 V-10. No this is not my husband's vehicle. It is mine.

4-- I have three kids. I like mine own, but rarely other people's kids. If I liked kids I would teach elementary school. I prefer high school because then they have personality.

5-- I am married to Santa.

6-- I just bought a barn on nine acres in a tiny town in Wyoming. It is so small that it no longer has its own post office.

7-- I have a brain damaged dog. As a pup, he thought that it would be really funny to grab horses' tails. he was kicked way too many times. He is the dumbest Australian Shepard on the planet.

8-- I have two cats and two fish. Let's see how well they will make the move, together.

9-- I am a Coke addict. I drink Cherry Coke by the case.

10-- I am a HUGE Dale Jr. fan. If Belle ever has a colt, he will be named Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Show time

2009-07-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

There is a small show on saturday. It is practice for the county fair that is coming up. The kids are still gone, so I had only half entertained the option of showing Lady at halter. She is good --- most of the time. Today, I talked myself into it. The Mr. will take pics, a friend of mine will babysit Foxy. It is the first class of the day -- 8:00 and then I will take them back home. It should be entertaining.

riotious ramblings

2009-07-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

I am stuck packing and cleaning a three story house with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (I don't count the third because it was so creepy that no one used it, just a toilet and shower, no sink -- in the basement) BY MYSELF. I don't like housework and this is like the ultimate punishment for me.

So, I got a new kitten. It is a little black puffball. Shooter is terrified of it, but fascinated, too. Panthera (Panthera panthera is the scientific name of the panther) hisses at Shooter and Shooter runs away. Then Panthera cries and Shooter comes running back to lick Panthera. Puma is not impressed by the new addition. He hissed at her, she hissed back and now she ignores him.

The smell of new tires is intoxicating. The new tires for my truck arrived today. (Thank you, UPS) They had to be special ordered (the joy of living in a miniscule town in Wyoming) They are sitting in my front room amid the mess of packing.
If I don't get the teaching job, maybe I can work at a tire place. I love that smell. My truck finally is fixed, but now the hubbie will need to take it for another week to get the tires replaced. AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggghhhhhh! I really prefer driving my truck. Shooter gets to go on rides, I can drive like I own the road. I can wear my hat. I can tie Belle to the bed and bathe her rather than using the fence. Oh, well, I will definitely feel better with new tires with all of the trailer trips that we will make during this move. We think that we will finally close on the house at the begininng of next week. It better happen soon. The foreclosure on the house that we are renting was announced in the newspaper. I guess that the rent we were paying was not used to pay the mortgage, LOVELY! My neighbor had to tell me about it. Apparently, it was supposed to be auctioned off June 24th.
Babe, the new pony that has been on 60 acres decided that 60 was not enough and got out of the safe horse fence and tangled in someone else's barb wire fence. The horse that she was with is much worse off, but she is still under vet care right now. LOVELY X2!

Will the fun never end? Probably not! The kids are still stuck in Utah. They are ready to come home. My ex is a month and a half behind on child support, but on the good side, my hubbie's ex wife remarried and he does not have to pay alimony any more.

Ok, enough complaining. Worse things are happening all around the world. I have great kids, my horses are alive and fairly well (with the exception of Babe, but she is improving) I am happily married, my hubbie does NOT have to leave for a month to New Mexico (his work took pity on me, with all of the house fiasco, they figured that I might need to spend some time with the man before I had a nervous breakdown and ran screaming into the river naked) I am going to George Strait this weekend in Cheyenne, and I have a full case of Cherry coke.

Life is good.

Bath time for Lady

2009-07-14T20:39:00.001-07:00

Lady got a much needed bath today. It was her first real bath. When she was a few weeks old she had some sponge baths, but this was her first REAL bath. The hair on her back is longer than the rest of her body and collects shavings and hay and fecal matter, so she was looking pretty bad. Belle also needed a bath so that I could scrub her legs. (by the way, the new scratches spray is working fairly well. It also got rid of some of the proud flesh from when she fell out of the horse trailer when I first tried to bring her home. It's not a miracle spray, but the skin looks pink and is actually trying to heal rather than just treating the symptoms, but its only been a week. A lot of "cures" seem to work well for the first week. At least it doesn't make the hair fall out like desitin does.)

I meant to take a picture of Lady before she got wet, but she kept trying to help me with Belle, so she got squirted a few times on the butt before I remembered to grab the camera. (before the bath actually started, but some of the gick is already off)

This is also the first time that I actually tied her to a stationary post. She has been lead around and tied off to the saddle horn, but it is the first time tied to a post. I tied her to the same post as Belle so that Foxy would not feel pressured to choose between Belle and Lady. (I should not have worried. Foxy just wandered off during the scrubbing and then came back when the spraying was all done.( here she is, all soaking wet, ready for the soap)

(all suds up)

All done.
I did not want to put too much pressure on her, so she is not spotless(actually she has lots of spots:) and I ran out of whitener, anyway, but she is really soft and she enjoyed her bath and especially the towel rubdown afterwards. I threw the towel on her back, flapped it around, the only annoyance that she demonstrated was trying to grab it when it was not on her back. She is really too smart for my own good.

Look at all of the little black spots that are appearing under the white coat. She won't be so white when all of the baby fur sheds out. I am half tempted to enter her in a foal halter class at the end of the month. But only half. We will hopefully be moving that weekend (please, please, please)

Sunday Stroll

2009-07-12T19:30:00.001-07:00

No pics today. I forgot the camera and the cell phone. My hands were full anyway. We went for a trail ride today. The hubbie went for his first trail ride in 5 years. He rode Belle with my saddle. I rode Foxy with Kid #2's saddle. Lady was on a lead with Foxy and me. Shooter, the hairless wonder, was underfoot. I ponied Lady in the arena for a few days prior to today and that went well. Foxy's leg did not swell because I kept her to a walk, so I figured that today would be great for a trail ride. The original plan was for Belle and I to go on the trail, but with it so nice out I offered Belle to the hubbie. Lady was not impressed with the asphalt of the road that we had to cross. She was not impressed with the uneven ground. She was not impressed with Shooter that is of the opinion that his spot is walking side by side with whatever horse that I happen to be riding. Lady tripped over him once. She reared up, she hauled back, but she stayed up with mom (Foxy) for the most part. Hubbie was great, but the saddle was not comfortable. It's too small. He realized why Kid #2 refused to ride western for years (it hurts boys, mom).
We need to get him his own saddle for when the Bartman comes to live with us.
All in all, it was fun.

Lady, please stay out of the fence

2009-07-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Lady is a baby. She loves to run and buck and kick. She is pretty smart most of the time, too. Now, she would have been smarter to not get into this situation, but she did. I already had the camera in hand to take pictures when she did this, otherwise I would not have these pics. I would not have stopped, found the camera, and then helped her get out of the fence. I love how Belle and Foxy are watching her, but not getting too close

After her left leg got caught under the fence, I quit taking pics and pushed it back under and then shoved her chest over. Then she scrambled up and tore off around the arena for about five minutes

Weekend Wanderings

2009-07-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

For all of those that think that horses have no personality and can remember people. . . You are full of horse crap!

We made the trek down from Wyoming to the crowded freeways of Utah this weekend.

It was for a family reunion. Now I will not bore you with the millions of pics I took of that. Yeaaaah!!!! But I will post one pic memorializing the experience.

What is this? you ask. A couple of hummingbird moths. . . Joined. . .

All of the little kids made me trek out through the poison oak to look at them.

Hey, I have to get my kicks from somewhere. The Mr. and I were in the cabin with all of the little kids (ours? we sent with the grandparents, thinking that we were really smart -- yeah, right)
We had not taking into consideration that little kids wake up in the middle of the night screaming. My mares can handle all of the babies from now on, let me tell you!

We went to the barn to visit Bart. Now for those of you that need a refresher course, Bart is Belle's Brother and teammate. He is one of the best carriage horses on the street. His long Clydesdale legs eat up the distance and he is ready, willing, and able to work and work hard. He is also gorgeous.

He has an incredibly long forelock and beard. Belle does have a nicer mustache, though.
BELLE

I walked out to the corrals. I called Bart over. He immediately started walking towards me. He is not dumb. People calling his name generally have a treat.

Then he slammed on the brakes, gave me a very disgusted look, and walked away. He is still holding a grudge. He is furious with me for taking away Belle. BELLE

It doesn't help to tell him that it is my goal to have him up there in Wyoming, too. He likes his job and is not willing to retire yet. As much as I want him, I would hate to have anything happen to him to force him to retire. So I can be patient. I really need a new job before I pick up any more horses anyway. Maybe the hubbie will have to become Bart's personal Assistant. Yeah, right.

We are hoping to finally close on the horse property at the end of the week or early next week. We need to repair a lot of fence, but it should be worth it. I am busy packing (I still need to empty out my classroom) and playing with the 3 horses (Babe is still out to pasture), 1 dog (his coat is growing)1 cat (very angry that her owner is gone AGAIN to Utah, 2 rabbits (still only 2 Yeah!) 2 fish (way cool, too).

No word yet on the interview with Jackson Academy.

Corrupt them while they are young

2009-07-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

My sister came for a visit. Actually, she had to bring Kid #1 home from Girl Scout camp and she had intended to paint the kids' bedrooms in the new house. Unfortunately, we have not yet closed on the house(we are currently only 9 days late)
With any luck we will have closed by next week. So, instead, she brought one of her students out and we played with the horses. Student has a Morgan mare. She has now been brainwashed. She fell in love with Belle. She called her mom and now wants a Clydesdale.

(See, horses DO come in bigger sizes! It IS possible for a horse to be taller than 15 hh.(just a dig at my sister's tiny herd:))

She does NOT want a mule. There was one at the arena that would not stop braying. It was really annoying and funny. She loves Belle's smooth gaits. Belle was not really sure of her ability for a while and did not want to canter, but eventually she did. I told her that she needs to move to Wyoming and that she will need to come visit or Lady will be rideable before she can convince her mother to move here. (She also fell in love with Lady -- What's not to love? She is such a love bug)

I had forgotten how good my niece is at riding. She loped around on Foxy like a fly on Flypaper. Her butt never left that saddle. Unfortunately, our new pony was still in Cheyenne until we move(I will get to that later), so we had 6 kids and two adults sharing 2 horses. Lady and I worked on halter training. Some days she leads better than others.

I also made the 6 kids walk the 6 dogs.

I have Shooter, my sister has a small beast that yaps, and my friend has four. It was pretty funny watching three aussies, a corgi, a heeler, and a beast go for a walk. The beast was carried alot. The heeler and Shoot love to run. But it was hot, so the kids walked from shade to shade. Shooter had to go on the trail later to get his exercise.

The bugs are really bad. I finally remembered to buy some fly spray when we drove up to the city to go shopping. Lady was her normal self. I sprayed her down, she stood there, not caring. Belle spun around her stall wigging out until she finally stood there and took it. They all got wormed, as well. Belle thought about being a brat, but I think that it had more to do with the horde of people, than the wormer. Fox was a brat, but my sister hung on until I could get the tube into her mouth, then Fox let me squirt it in. Lady stood, let me put the tube in her mouth, spit out the wormer. I adjusted the dial, put more in, she ate it, all while not having a halter on. The imprint training with spray bottles, tubes, clippers, and tons of time; it has all paid off. As feisty as that little girl is, I would have an out of control three month old with out the constant work.

So back to the pony. I bought the kids a welch pony. She is 13'1. (at least she is supposed to be small, not like two of my sister's Morgans that are 13'3)
A Friend of mine bought her for her daughter a few years ago, put a ton of training into her, but the girl would not ride her and then my friend's mom bought her daughter a horse that she loves and adores and she now the daughter has a reason not to ride Babe (Yes, it has been pointed out that I seem to have a fetish with feminine horse names i.e. Belle, Foxy, Lady, and now Babe, I can't explain it)
So now I have a small sorrel mare that Kid #1 and #2 can ride. Technically, I can ride her too( my friend did and although I might outweigh her, I have longer legs and can probably distribute it better), she never tires and is a speed demon on barrels. Lady loves to tease her. I was trying to get my sister to buy her for my "fly on flypaper" niece, but My sister was not biting. So she went out to pasture in Cheyenne. I broke down and agreed to buy her (I agreed when my friend was in Vegas and she called in a panic that her daughter was given the new horse -- the girl had quit riding the pony months ago) but she is still in Cheyenne until we move to the new house. I don't want to pay board on a fourth horse while the kids are back in Utah. (two left today, then we all leave for the weekend. Then they won't be back until we move) This is not the greatest pic, but it was before we decided that we NEEDED her so, I don't have any great pics.

(yep, the stirrups are way too short, Kid #1 is not wearing boots, helmet, etc. It was a warm up in the round pen, which reminds me; when my sister was here, she mentioned helmets for her kids. For a split second, I was confused,my kids rarely wear helmets while riding. not the best option, but it is what it is)

1 day left!!

2009-06-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have one day left of Summer school.

And then I am officially UNEMPLOYEED!!!

It's a little scary and unknown.

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. . .

Black?:) Blue? :(

2009-06-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

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.

Catching up with the Rainstorm and PonyPlaytime

2009-06-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

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.

Tired people should not be allowed around blogs

2009-06-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

***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.

Summer vacation is almost here!!!

2009-05-27T19:50:00.001-07:00

Today was the seniors' last day of instruction. Who am I kidding? They did not receive any instruction. They were pumped up and crazy. But all of my seniors passed!!!! Since I teach a Sophomore class, it is nice when the seniors can finally pass the class to graduate.
The stress of the day, which would make your straight hair curl, your dark hair grey, and my nerves shot made it necessary to take Belle out for a nice relaxing walk. She has been limping at a trot since Saturday when she had her toes trimmed (yeah, it's hooves trimmed, bite me). Relaxing to Belle is all relative. She did not want to be too far away from Foxy and the baby, but since others were riding, Lady could not run loose (she likes to buck and kick other horses, which is fine when it is Belle, Foxy, or Babe(I'll have to talk about Babe later) because they will put her in her place without too much damage, I don't trust the other horses to not hurt her)
Since I am working Belle in a snaffle to try and work on flexibility, it can be difficult to get her to turn. Fortunately, she is beginning to respond to leg pressure(who am I kidding? It's not pressure, its a very non subtle kick. She was a freaking carriage horse for 16 years. Pressure in the flanks means that Bart is doing something stupid and needs to be chewed on. Neck reining -- that is something that stupid trainees try. Subtlety is lost on her. I have NEVER been known for subtlety anyway. Except when driving Sailor. Driving him was mostly telepathic. I said his name to cue him and he knew what to do. Unless he was mad or scared and then it was -- Holy crap, this horse can move. I digress)
My back went out on Sunday so I can't clean stalls (that's my story and I'm sticking to it-- Hey, the kids' have two horses, I only have one. They owe me for summer camp. I'll take it out in trade)so I have been able to ride lately and the kids' get to clean stalls and then ride or ride and then clean stalls. It's been great.
Belle's illustrious Mustache

Just for you, SLC Slave Driver -- a pic of the yurt

Actually it is the guest house for the in-laws, mine or the hubbie's

How to look really stupid around horses

2009-05-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

In reference to Confessions of a Slave Driver, I felt the need to demonstrate just how stupid an individual looks to others when they put a halter on backwards. This is one way to put a halter on wrong. I had to dig up Bart's halter, Belle's is too small to put on wrong. Yes Bart, you have a spot when you retire, especially now with the horse property!:)

I have seen it without the halter behind the ears, too, but then it falls off immediately and I can't get a picture. (Belle was really irritated after this photo shoot)

Here are some more recent pics of my girls.

New House

2009-05-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

The hubbie has done well. I finally went to see that house that we are buying. It is cool. We will have to repair some fencing and add more before the girls get to run around, but it has the nine stall barn with power and water. There are foal babies next door and calf babies over the other fence. Babies, babies, babies!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-05-21T20:18:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I have not posted in a while. It's the end of the school year, I chose not to renew my contract, and I have been looking for a new job, new house, etc. etc. etc. I have been busy. At least I am over being sick.
I will take a minute to post new pics. She is getting so big! She got a new halter today. We will try it on her tomorrow. It looks huge, but it is a weanling size and she has grown so much that her suckling halter doesn't fit right any more.
Compare the new pics with her first day picture.
She can't walk under momma anymore!

No, I do not have swine flu!

2009-05-05T22:32:00.001-07:00

I am sick. I now have a cold. The stress of trying to find a new job, a house, finishing this school year, getting ready for summer school (yes, I am a glutton for punishment, but the pay is actually decent for three weeks work) My students are now convinced that I have swine flu. I brought my son's rabbits to school for show and tell (no, I am not too old for show and tell. It's my classroom and I can do what I want to, so there! {big raspberry}) and so now I tell everyone that I have bunny flu. Longhorns have been put out in the pasture by our outdoor arena. Foxy has been chasing them. She whinnies at them when they run to the other side of the pasture.
You know its cold when the kids don't want a saddle.
This little guy was born in the middle of a hideous rain/snow storm. As cute as he is, I would not let the kids get any closer to mom than necessary. Lady was poking her head through the bars. It was good to see that she is a cow pony like her mama -- not like her Aunt.

She's My Mommy!!!

2009-04-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

Lady is not happy with us. Foxy is Very Happy! Saturday Foxy came off of maternity leave. Kid #2 Saddled her up and had a great time. He has been riding her bareback or lunging her for over a week to get her prepared, but it was just not enough for Foxy. The weather Saturday was miserable.
It was too muddy to ride outside, so we had to wait until the indoor arena was available. Foxy was really mad, we had promised her that Saturday was the day.

When we first arrived, the 20 billion year old shetland was in the arena, but the owner said that it would be fine to turn the girls out to get their rolling done before we saddled. I stood by the pony so that the girls wouldn't pick on him. Belle pinned her ears back alot, but nothing else happened. I then tied up the girls to saddle them and let Lady run around. Unfortunately, Lady discovered the pony. He sprang to life. He started chasing her. She bucked and kicked, but with the alzheimer's he could not get the hint that she was not interested in whatever he wanted. Lady ran to Foxy for protection. The old Fart still wouldn't get away. Foxy squealed, threatened to kick -- nothing. We had to drag him away so that Foxy and Belle did not kill him. I was concerned that Foxy might be really protective after that, but once Kid #1 was on Belle and Kid #2 was on Foxy, they did Great!! I led Lady around for a little while, but she is a baby and tired of that quickly. She is really funny when Foxy is loping and Lady decides that she is hungry. She will try to lope and nurse. Then she stops in front of Foxy. Foxy moves around her. Then as a last resort, Lady starts bucking and kicking and biting. Foxy bites back. Foxy wanted to work. Foxy is a great mom, but she loves to work. She had January - April off, now it's time to work!!! It's about the same amount of time that she would have had off if we did not have access to an indoor arena. At one point, I said, "Now that is a happy girl." Kid #2 said, " and this is a happy boy."

First Ride of the Year

2009-04-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today was warm, sunny and too tempting. I was all set to just let the boys ride Belle, work Foxy and Lady on Showmanship and let everybody just enjoy the sun. It was too warm and sunny. I threw Kid #3 up on Belle bareback and handed him the leadrope. He was really nervous. Then I threw Kid #2 up on Foxy
Side Note--------- (Foxy had not been ridden since before Christmas)
bareback
Side Note #2 ----- (Foxy has never been ridden bareback in a large arena)
with just a halter
Side note #3 ----- {Foxy has only been ridden by my kids in a halter once before and she had a huge bucking fit, fortunately for Kid #1 she had a saddle and was able to hang on (see sidenote #2)}

Fortunately for all involved the only bucking fit was the one that Lady had as she tore around the arena in front of, behind, around, between, etc as Belle and Foxy stretched out their legs at a nice controlled extended walk. The only problem that Foxy had was when Lady tried to touch noses with a horse passing by. Foxy got a little uppity and turned quickly, but straightened back out and completed her circuit of the arena, whinnying to Lady. Lady, being Lady, ignored her mother.

Three Weeks old ALREADY!

2009-04-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

Lady is now three weeks old. She is Kid #1's 4-H project, so today Kid#1 and Kid #2 (Foxy's 4-H project)worked their horses on showmanship. Foxy was not happy about being lead away from Lady and Belle was left in her stall. Fortunately, Kid #2 can handle Foxy's tantrums. He made her run circles when she was panicking and was able to get her attention on working, once she realized that --

A -- Lady was still in the arena
B -- Lady was not being hurt
C -- Kid #2 was actually WORKING her

... then she settled right down to work.

Lady lead beautifully. Kid #1 is no longer worried about getting kicked. She finally figured out that as long as she was really close Lady's kicks don't connect and she can stop tantrums much quicker if she is right on top of things. Lady was really excited to be doing her own thing away from Mom and Aunt.

Belle was furious. She was left in the stall so that I could focus on the kids and kick the separation anxiety problem. Fortunately, Belle will not be at the 4-H shows, but we still need to work on the problems NOW. After the kids were finished, I lunged Belle for a while (she was still completely aggravated with the situation -- now Foxy and Lady were in the stalls -- the joys of not enough arena space, and sharing with others!!!) Then I rode Belle. Now if I had been smart, I would have tacked her up. NOOOOOOOOO! I tied the loose end of the lead rope to her halter and hopped on. She tried a couple of times to disengage my butt from her back, but I held on. After working on flexing and a slow jog, she finally settled down a lot(after working with her as a carriage horse, I discovered that when she is wired, letting her go fast is not a good idea. She just amps up higher. If I can focus the energy elsewhere, like a slow jog, turns, flexing that iron rod of a neck, then she is more likely to relax, slightly.

I should have called it quits when she was happy, but NOOOOOOOOO. I had to tie her up and finish cleaning her stall. She tried digging a hole to China.

Lady is suffering from Foal Heat Diarrhea (happily being treated with Desitin after unhappily having her rump, legs, and tail scrubbed down). Foxy is suffering from being a cranky mare in heat. Belle is just a cow that needs more work. Hopefully I will feel better soon. I can feel a relapse coming on. . .

Spring? There's no such thing in Wyoming!

2009-04-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

It is snowing. I grew up in Utah. I understand that it can snow up until May, but last year it was snowing here in June, too. Fortunately the girls are tougher than I am. They love the snow. I just don't want to put Lady out while it is snowing. Foxy and Belle would love it, though. Maybe later this afternoon.

This Spring Break has been miserable. I got sick on Easter and I am still struggling with stomach flu. I have had an hour here and there where I felt human enough to drive out and feed the girls and water the greenhouse, but that's about it.

Kid #1 did get a couple of pics, though.

Lady is actually following Foxy on a Spring-Like Day!!

Lady's "Duck-Face"

Spring Break!!!

2009-04-11T08:00:00.001-07:00

Many of my students think that Spring Break is a reward for them. No, it is actually a reward to all of the teachers that have not killed any students due to SpringFever.

It is actually spring-like weather today, too. Lady is two weeks old. Today it is warm enough that she is going to have her green spots scrubbed. Belle is going to have her feather scrubbed with her new iodine/aloe shampoo. Foxy -- I am really tempted to saddle her up, but it is too soon. She is still very focused on what Lady does. I don't think that the kids would have enough control. Foxy runs after Lady alot, still. I told the kids four weeks, so I think that I will stick with that.

All of them need a thorough grooming to get their shedding hair off. I have alot of footage of the big girls rolling to get rid of the itches.

The stalls are going to have a thorough spring cleaning today, too. Next week will be full of job hunting so that I won't have to commute next year. We found 20 acres for the girls to run. They should enjoy it.

Video -- Finally!

2009-04-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

I finally found enough time to figure out posting video.
So here goes.

Ok, I now feel like an idiot. That was too easy.

Here is the video of her first day of life on the outside.

Belle meet Lady, Lady meet Belle

2009-04-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

March 30
Ok, I have been swamped. We were stranded in Riverton during the snowstorm while looking for horse property. I had to call a friend to feed the girls. Lady whacked me in the cheek with her tough little head. Ouch. It hurt. Belle is now allowed out with Lady. Sunday was so sunny and warm and with the girls locked up all day Saturday, I just had to let them run. My little sister was visiting, so I knew that I had enough girl power should anything happen. Lady was curious, Belle was nervous, Foxy was thrilled that her BFF was officially meeting baby. Belle pinned her ears a few times. Foxy pinned hers. It was all good. These are from today. I finally got new batteries in the camera:)

Only 24 hours in the day? Say it ain't so!

2009-04-01T18:30:00.000-07:00

I thought that having my own babies was exhausting and that there were never enough hours in the day. Holy cow! Having a foal is much more time consuming and exhausting! I have some video on youtube, but I can't seem to figure out how to load it on my blog -- and no time to research it at the moment.

It was cold for a few nights, so Lady got to wear her new blankie -- it matches Belle's. Foxy left it alone the first night when the temperature went single digits, but the second night when it did not get as cold as expected, Foxy ripped it off of her.

Check out her hooves. She has black hooves. I keep trying to take pics of her hooves, but they haven't turned out well. She has triangles of black/brown hair above her hooves.
At least she still tires out easily. These two spend hours like this.

One of my students thinks that she should be called Rorschach. (I had to check the spelling) Rorschach tests are the inkblot tests.

She's Here!!!

2009-03-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

Yep, we have a filly. She is really cute. She was born early this morning. We got the call about 5 am.

I am too slow taking pics. The foal was being really cute with kid #3, but I clicked too late.

Springtime in Wyoming

2009-03-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

No Foal Yet, Fortunately. It was -8 degrees Farenheit last night. Not celcius -- Farenheit. That is freaking cold. I thought for sure that since the roads were packed with snow and it was miserable out, that she would finally foal, but nope. No baby.

But this is a view from my steering wheel(after all of that snow. I had to dig out just to get to the truck.

Foxy was not posing well today. She wanted to play with the camera.

Once again, the camera was not in my hand right when I needed it.
I let Foxy play indoors while Kid #1 rode Belle. Then I turned the girls loose outside to get some sun. The first thing they did was to find a snow drift and make snow angels. They love the snow. Belle prancing all through the snow and laid down with her legs tucked up under her. It was really weird looking, but, of course, no camera at that point.

This might be the closest prediction that I would like Outlaw to look like.

But what I would really like is for him to look like his uncle --

New Theory

2009-03-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

We came up with a new theory today. Foxy has only had fillies. She has always been right around her due date. She is late. She must be having a colt, so she is keeping him tucked in longer to give him a better start because males have a tougher time in the first weeks of life (bizarre but researched phenomenon).

It's an idea, at least, but not really a theory.

She's waiting until Friday, though. Jackson is a lot farther away than Green River. I'm screwed. Oh, well, such is life.

You guessed it, I'm still waiting.

2009-03-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

Nothing yet, but I do have more pictures.

1

2

3

4

5

Okay, which of the five do you prefer?

Still No Foal!

2009-03-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

I really should not be impatient. Foxy really is due today. I conveniently forgot that because I figured that she would foal while I was out of town. I just hope that she doesn't wait for this weekend while I am driving to a science conference in Jackson. That would seriously suck.

I finally just scanned the pics in at home, instead of the fast scanner at school. As the Esteemed Slave Driver would say, Better One, or two, or etc?

1

2

3

4

5

Now, don't judge on their coloring abilities or lack thereof. Think only of the whether or not the markings are realistic or just appealing to you. Once Outlaw is born, I will try and match up one of the pics, or at least the one that is closest.

No Foal yet

2009-03-22T19:23:00.001-07:00

NO Foal yet, but I did survive the State Chess Championships. . . barely. We took home three individual trophies and three team trophies, so we represented well. Kid #2 and #3 were two of the individual trophies and the team, so they are happy. I checked up on Foxy a million times. My sainted husband was fairly nice about it but when I called while he was stacking hay, he seemed a but fed up with the calls. I know that he would call, but I am paranoid.

Today, Foxy did not finish her hay. Her udder is distended like a milk goat that someone forgot to milk. She is so miserable that she did not even buck around with Belle today when Belle was having a bucking fit. It is supposed to snow -- depending on whom you care to believe -- 3-7 inches or 6-10 inches in the next 24 hours, so I expect theat baby at any time.

I am still trying to get the scanned pics to load of my students' predictions. They are the wrong type of file, so I might just take pics of them and upload them that way. If I even make it to school tomorrow.

Foxy's Birthday

2009-03-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

Today is Foxy's Birthday. She is eleven years old. For her birthday, she received a vigorous grooming from her favorite people; namely kid #1, Kid #2, and Kid #3. She also received a juicy apple. Unfortunately, for her, she is still in foal. After much discussion, there is a consensus that Foxy will have the foal Sunday or Monday. We are supposed to have a huge change in the weather on Sunday with Snow on Monday. She looks about ready, but probably not today or tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the State Chess Tournament, so I am really hoping that it won't be tomorrow because I really want to work on the imprinting.

I am trying to upload some of the pictures that my students made of their predictions for the foal, but they don't seem to want to upload. I will try again tomorrow. Some are really nice markings.

Still waiting

2009-03-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

No Foal yet, but I was looking online and found a horse with similar bloodlines. Isn't she pretty :)

I took some pics that have turned out really bizarre, so I thought that I would share.

FIVE DAYS!!! WILL I SURVIVE?

2009-03-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

We are down to five days. My children are counting down. The other people at the barn are counting down. My students are counting down-- actually, I think that the students just want to prove me wrong about the genetic prediction assignment that I forced on them. I don't know how guys do it. I am not the pregnant one, but I am a worse mess than when I was expecting my own children. Or I forgot how bad it was. I am just glad that this is Foxy, not Belle, like I had originally planned for.
Stress makes me sick, so I am surviving on Tylenol Cold and Flu, right now.
Even Belle is a bit stressed. Today, I was slower bringing Belle into the barn from the outside arena -- today was nice and sunny. I think that the wind was not more than 50 mph. The second that Belle was in the stall, she had to look through the opening between the slats separating the stalls and nickered at Foxy. If she could, Belle would hold her hoof during the whole process. Either that or Belle just wants another foal to swipe. She loved Foxy's last one.
I told her that if she hadn't tried to kill the stud, she could have been ready to foal, too. She just whacked me in the head.
I don't think that she was listening.

Officially One Week left

2009-03-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

My brilliant husband figured out how to get the pics off the high tech memory card. We have to plug the high tech memory card into the brand new printer (our old one did not survive the packing up and moving to Wyoming)and wow, we have pics.
This first one is of the scabs from Foxy's injury (kick to the belly) The injury occured 2/22/09. The pic is March 2nd, a week later.

This pic shows her bite marks on her rump, also a week old.

This pic shows the scab at two weeks old.

This one shows the scabs in relation to where Outlaw is still hiding out.

This next pic is of the girls today, getting some sunshine. Right before Belle's legs got scrubbed.

Belle after getting all of the soap off of her legs.

I need to get some more purple shampoo. I had only about a tablespoon left in the bottle, so they did not end up nearly as white as I would have liked. This pic is really blurry, but at least her legs are relatively white.

I worked Belle pretty hard on listening to my cues. She was all attitude today. When I asked for a turn, she would stretch out her neck and refuse to listen. We did a lot of tight circles to convince her that it is much easier to listen to me the first time. Foxy was in the arena at the same time, loose. She has been quiet enough lately that I thought she was going to behave---WRONG. She laid into Belle and about got my son thrown from Belle. She really needs some attitude adjusting. I worked her as much as I could to convince her that kicking Belle is a dumb idea. I took a whip into the arena -- without my son on the back-- and waited until Foxy decided to attack Belle again. Sure enough, she went after her again, and I nailed her on the butt. Unfortunately, I did not think about what Belle was going to think about a whip smacking horse flesh next to her. She jumped more than Foxy did. But Foxy got the idea and got to trot next to Belle for a while and did not attack again, so I think that the idea sunk in. She has done this in the past with kids on both horses. I finally wanted to stop the behavior BEFORE somebody got hurt.

1 week left!

2009-03-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, I jumped the gun by a day, but I just discovered that it was not my computer acting up so that I could not download my pictures. The new storage disk for my camera is too high tech for my computer. Annoying. But I did find my old one, so I have a few relatively new pics. Here is Foxy's big belly.

After writing a huge "comment" on Confessions of a Slave Driver, I found a pic of me on my own retired carriage horse. The dust specks are bad, but I think that it was my 8 year old that took the pic, so it's not really that bad. I don't like pics of me as a general rule, because they make me look even heavier than I am. This was one of those days that I did not feel like pulling out the saddle or bridle. It was a fun day, except for when she decided to run a barrel without be paying attention.

Tomorrow should be warm enough to bathe her legs and all cleaned up. Foxy is happily bedded down on her straw, her feed has been increased to maintain her condition, and she is very impatient to be in the sun. I plan on letting her play in the sun tomorrow while I work with Belle.

Two Weeks!!!

2009-03-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

We are down to two weeks. Foxy is huge! I just wish that my computer would download the pictures!!! I bought an 8GB memory card to replace my missing 1 GB to be all prepared and now my computer is FUBAR and won't work right.

Foxy moves like she is miserable. She no longer runs and bucks when put out to play. Belle gallops off and Foxy follows at a more sedate pace. She is eating well and I have increased her feed so that she doesn't lose weight. Her pelvis is so relaxed that it is squishy. She has tons of milk and she is irritable, but super affectionate. She constantly wants to be scratched. She will stand perfectly for the kids to brush her.

As a teacher, I had to find a way to incorporate Foxy's foal into the curriculum. We are currently studying genetics and I oversimplified coat color genetics to assign a prediction assignment. It was fun and the students had to color in a picture representing Outlaw. Some students did a great job, others made their pics look like a one year old vomited on paper. I will evaluate the pics compared to Outlaw when he is born. If there is one that is dead on or really cool anyway, the student will get some sort of gift certificate. A good grade should be incentive enough, but what the heck, it was fun. The APHA has a whole section on their website geared towards education so I used that for much of the information. My sister also let me borrow a book about predicting coat colors.
My personal prediction is Black tobiano male with similar pattern as Tink (the dad-- SD, I will post the pic again, just for you)but with only a star and snip (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HorseFaceMarkings2.png)on the face, and lots of the little "inkspots" and a bi colored mane and tail.

Kind of like this guy's face, but with a little less white.

Tink's baby

2009-03-02T22:29:00.001-08:00

I came across some pics of one of Tink's (Foxy's baby daddy) foals last year. I finally found the missing camera, took a bunch of pics and now they won't download (again, this seems to happen, alot!!!)

So enjoy the new pics. They are super cute. Foxy was bagged up pretty good today. Her scabs are peeling, too. The scrapes are not infected. This is the second day in a row that she has stepped on one of the kids, though. They are not going to want to play with her tomorrow.

Three Weeks and Counting:)

2009-03-01T19:09:00.001-08:00

Foxy moved into her new stall yesterday. She snorted for the first 10 minutes that she was in it. Belle did not seem overly impressed with the move, but she did not trash her stall last night, so she must have settled down overnight. From the looks of the bedding, Foxy did not go into the half of the stall that borders Cherokey, just the side that borders Belle's stall. I completely disinfected the stall and checked the walls for any problems. I pulled a rusty nail out of the wall. Even if I was not expecting a foal, I would not have wanted Foxy in there with a rusty nail hanging out of the wall. Foxy is bagging up and is really looking heavy. The foal halter is here, but I am still waiting on the blanket. It was really warm today, but last year it snowed in June, so I am not holding my breath that the weather will hold. There is mud everywhere. Belle and Foxy are still feeling frisky, though. they were loping around today while I was cleaning stalls.

Are you Crazy?

2009-02-25T21:08:00.000-08:00

Foxy is on the up and up. She was very happy today. She rolled, she kicked, she bucked. She and Belle ran around. She is eating like a pregnant mare. Her ouies are healing up, too. I have not been working them because I don't want to add anymore stress on either one, but we played in the arena today. Belle is so jealous of Foxy. I was rubbing Foxy's belly and feeling for Outlaw (alive and kicking). Belle had to butt her head into the process. She had to be loved on. Then Foxy decided that she needed more TLC. It was a circular circus. They could not be rubbed at the same time, but took very impatient turns. Kid #1 was home babysitting Kid #3 so that he would not be late for scouts (lately I am taking way too long at the barn and the kids are sick of being late for everything) Kid #2 was beating the jolly ball in Foxy's stall to death, so it was just me and the girls. He would love to be able to sit on Foxy while playing tether ball with the jolly ball that is suspended from the ceiling, but even he realizes that she would kill him. He waits until the stall is clean and then attempts to kill it.

The weather has been so warm that both girls are shedding heavily. Belle is really bad since her coat is so thick.

Anyway, back to the title. My family and I went to the Clinton Anderson Clinic. It was really interesting. He has some very good points. The kids really understand now that they need to be able to convince the horse that they are working with that they are the boss and that there are extremes to being too nice and too harsh. However, I am not about to turn them loose on Foxy or Belle to ride bridleless (did I spell it right? I have no freaking clue!!!) I might ride Belle with a halter on occasion, but it would not be "natural" for either one of us to do without. Belle would say "WooHoo!!! She wants to die today!! Let's do something really stupid!!!" I understand that it is supposed to be the "ultimate test of horsemanship" OK, so what? I am not ready for the ultimate challenge. I like to ride my cranky mare. We like to be cranky together. There are many things that we can both improve upon, but it would be like me running around topless. Yep, I could try it, but it would get ugly and everything would all hang out. If I really want to do that, then I need to work hard to lose a ton of weight, firm and tone the muscles, get a tummy tuck and a chest lift, but then I would not see the point. Why not just wear a shirt? It's the same with a bridle. Just use the darn thing and nobody gets sued.

Apparently I did not get the same presentation that others got at the same event. I never thought that the whole idea was to go bridleless. I thought that the whole presentation was about figuring out what made your horse tick so that the horse could do the job that he was meant to do, with out us sabotaging the horse by reinforcing bad behavior and punishing good behavior. That is what I understood. I liked the presentation. I will use some of his ideas, but that is as "natural" as I can get. The tickets were free. I got more than my money's worth. What more can I ask for?

Four weeks??? Only If we are Lucky

2009-02-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

This has been an eventful weekend. We went to the Clinton Anderson Tour in Fort Collins. It felt good to get out for a day or two. The kids were angels (which is quite different from usual. I have terrors. I love them , but I am aware of their annoyance factor on myself and others. They paid attention, answered questions, asked questions and had some great insights to horse behavior and what their responsibilities are as horse people. If we got nothing else out of the weekend, that in itself was worth the trip.

Now to the ugly stuff. Sunday, we got home too late to check on the horses. First thing this morning, I popped in the check on them and makeup a batch of Belle's EPSM diet. I will admit that I should have spent more time with them, but I had my excuses. This afternoon, I came back. I gave Belle some lovin' and then went to Foxy's stall. Now, normally, I let the kids handle Foxy, but it had been since Friday, so I went in to see how she was feeling, cantankerous, pissy, snorty, etc. Right on her side, just up and to the side of her flank was a huge gash of a hoof print. She had a big chunk and a half out of her rump, too. My first thought was, Crap, is Outlaw OK? I felt her belly, and sure enough, I got kicked. Yeah!!! he is still alive and kicking. My next thought was, Belle, I am going to kick your butt. To make a long story, slightly shorter, the girls were put out to run by someone trying to be nice and Foxy got hurt by a horse that she should not have been out with.

She is still eating, there is no discharge, no sign of labor, so although the vet is primed and set, we are playing the waiting game. If she gets worse or doesn't get any better soon, the vet is going to check her out thoroughly, but for now, we just wait. The kids are pretty upset, (Heck, so am I) but I can drive my self crazy (super short trip, this month) or I can just hope and pray for the best. She moves into the foaling stall this week, but we still need more time for his lungs to be fully developed before foaling actually occurs.

I would have taken pics, but I left the camera in a vehicle that is now 120 miles away. I am really bad about that type of stuff. Just imagine a couple of huge chunks out of her white on this side.

Five weeks and counting!!!

2009-02-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

Five weeks left. Foxy is finally slowing down. . . a little. She is so sad looking when she is out in the arena and she sees the kids and mutt out on the trail, leaving her behind. She really wants out on the trail. Belle is doing great on the EPSM diet. She has so much energy and is in a feisty mood most of the time. She doesn't trash her stall nearly as much as she used to.

Foxy's second baby

2009-02-08T14:05:00.001-08:00

Here is a pic of Holly, Foxy's second baby, right after she was born.

Here are some pics of her first day out to pasture.

Here she is with the herd.

Danni, Foxy's first foal, is the buckskin in the background, for SD, it is not a popquiz, you can refer back to the previous entry if you need to:)

Holly's interesting markings that are no longer visible, since she went so dark.

Here she is all Chocolatey, with Belle and Danni.
I am hoping for some newer pics of Holly now that she is turning two. She is going into training to be an awesome reining horse like her sire.

Holly's Dad

Six Weeks left!!!

2009-02-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

Only six weeks left. I am really excited. The weather has been really bizarre. Warm for the past few days, snowing yesterday. The sun is out today, but with a chance of more snow. Perfect for all the new babies coming this spring.

As mentioned before, Foxy has only had solid babies. This is her first foal, Danni. We had just watched Man from Snowy River for the millionth time and the kids decided that Danni(an ok mare version of Denny), also the name of my high school buddy's daughter, would be a great name for the "Buckskin."

She is an awesome horse, that I was really tempted to buy, but I figured that we could not afford a second horse. If we hadn't have moved, I still would only have the one horse.

Isn't she adorable?

Here is her dad, No wonder she is a solid.

This is Foxy as a yearling.

Here is Tink, the new baby daddy, as requested.

Tasty Pasty and other tails

2009-02-04T19:42:00.000-08:00

So we got to the barn, yesterday and it was warm and there was daylight, so the kids took the mutt on a run. As I have mentioned, he is used to being a farm dog and prefers off leash, but we only let him off leash when no one else is around. Don't worry, he is very respectful of horses (Foxy kicked him enough in the head when he was a pup)and mostly leaves them alone. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, he used to be terrible about grabbing certain horses' tails and then running. He did this alot with Foxy's first foal(when she was three) He also liked to torment two big geldings, but he never messed with horses on the trail or under saddle -- only out at pasture with horses that he grew up with.

I took the girls out to the outdoor arena to let them play. Foxy immediately noticed the kids and the dog on the trail. She started nickering softly. It was really sad. Her ears were all on them and she kept stretching out her neck and whimpering. They were too far away to hear her. She is definitely their horse. She adores them and is sick of being on maternity leave. Enough already!!!

Pictured here is Shooter attempting to teach Kid 2 to play dead, complete with tongue handing out.

The girls did not want to pose for pictures today, they wanted attention. Belle, with her big nose and moustache is interfering with Foxy's picture, but Foxy would not stand still, either. I made the kids brush her out really good when they came back. Foxy was really happy when they came back. I tried out their new horse treats. It was one of the acceptable horse treats for Belle's diet. Crackling oat cereal. It's actually really good and I need to find a better container. I put it in an old supplement bucket, but now I don't want to snack on it when I am giving some to the girls because it has gick on it. (It is seriously good.) The girls like it, too.

Belle was wormed today. As often as I have to do this, I always forget how funny she is when it's worming time. I walked up with syringe in hand. She grabbed it and tried to eat it. I rescued it and then gave her the dose. She loves the stuff. She is the only horse I know that enjoys "Tasty Pasty"

I worked Belle in the round corral today. I had to lead her through the arena with the barrels set up. She was so excited. She tried to run a barrel on our way. If we were not so similar, I think that she would drive me nuts. She just wanted to move. She worked on W/T/C, but kept getting distracted by Foxy's calls. I am going to have to work on their separation anxiety. After we were done, I turned them out together to roll.

Kid 1 had the dog and camera again today. 164 pics later, they returned. Even Shooter was sick of posing, after a while and had to cool off.

New pics

2009-02-02T22:52:00.000-08:00

I finally got the pics of my camera!!! Yippee!!
Actually, I just turned off my computer and then restarted it four hours later and then it worked fine. This is George. He is ready for St. Patrick's day. I just took the red lights out(they had died anyway)I meant to replace them with white, but accidently grabbed the box of green. It looks pretty good. Expecially in the dark.

This picture is for all of those people with green constantly in their pics. Don't you just miss this (Stacey, this means YOU!!!) This was just dug out today. We have been using the other doors for a while.

This picture was supposed to be Belle kicking up in the air as she rolled. I am slow. But she was able to roll, and roll, and roll. She needed a good grooming afterwards.

The kids are bringing the girls in for the night. Foxy was really mellow today. No bucking, running, pulling. She got out all of her crankiness yesterday when she was left at home while Belle and I took our trail ride. We both really needed it. No pics, though:(

Typical

2009-02-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

I finally found my camera and now the pics won't download. That is pretty darn typical. I am trying to get ready for a chess tournament, exams, labs graded and the real estate agent called and she is showing the house tomorrow. That is pretty darn typical. I took the camera out to take pics of Foxy as she bucks, kicks, and jumps after being put out to pasture, but she just stood there, begging for attention. That is pretty darn typical.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Seven weeks left!!!

2009-01-31T08:46:00.000-08:00

We are now down to seven weeks left. I have been cracking open my anatomy and husbandry textbooks, searching online and generally driving myself crazy getting ready for the big day. I am so convinced that she will pop while I am at the Chess State Championships. Oh, well. This is her third. She has never needed assistance. She should be fine.

According to one of my Textbooks (I left it at school, so I can't remember all the exact name, edition etc.) Outlaw should have a full coat of hair by day 300. That is in a few days. Pretty cool, I think.