Check out this other mustang blog. http://mustangdiaries.blogspot.com/ This is Tracy, who adopted her Quiet Storm at the same adoption I got Tonka at.

She has, on one of her blogs, tagged all who read to tell TEN things about themselves that others may not know. Here goes...

1. I seriously need to lose weight... Like, lets see, at least 45 pounds... Working on it though! Gotta get slim and strong because I'm gonna be a farrier!

2. I may live on a wee farm, but I am NOT a morning person. When we get the milk cow, she will have to adhere to my schedule, which will never include getting up at 5 in the morning.

3. When I was about 11 or 12 I wanted to fly a Cobra helicopter in the Army. I seriously can't remember why I chose that specific aircraft. Would've made more sense to choose Air Force since there was a base just over the mountain.

4. At that age I lived in Tijeras, New Mexico, which is in the mountains outside Albuquerque, and the air force base was Kirtland. WEIRD goings on in the skies over our place sometimes. Lazers, sonic booms... Aliens???

5. I moved around a lot, but I wasn't a military brat, as some assume. Henry, my stepdad, was in school to become a psychologist. UNM is a cool school. NM is a cool place. WOW, the desert is beautiful. They call it the Land of Enchantment for good reason.

6. I find it weird, after living in areas of such cultural diversity, to live in such a non-diverse place. It takes a lot of the spice out of life. It's hard to relate to some of the innocent racism here... People don't even realize their statements are racist.

7. I used to LOVE the Native American area of the NM state fair. The dances, all the hot guys with the long black hair. Oooh, there was this one time the hottest guy there asked Carrie and I to dance with him. Luckily it was a really basic dance. I got to hold his hand...

8. I'm finding that I like bluegrass music. Only the good stuff though! And most assuredly not country. Except a couple songs. I'm slipping! Becoming a Yokel!

9. I have very few friends. I mean, like just a couple. But I love them dearly, and they make up for all the "acquaintance" type friends I could have if I were a more sociable person. I just don't do well with meeting new people.

10. People think I'm stuck up. I don't like that... Actually I'm just shy, as I said before. Weird to think that someone could think *I* am stuck up, but I can see their point. I've met shy people before and my first impression was that they thought they were too good to talk to me. So I better work on that.

Oh, and about that other list of things about me... No, I never rode the goat... I've always been a pretty obedient child (at least, when I might get caught).

Look at my boy! This is a before and after comparison with exactly 8 months in between. The first picture is his second day here, learning to put a web halter on over his other halter. The second was yesterday. (Do you see the white stuff flying in both? Neat. Cottonwood cotton in one, snow in the other). He's sure grown. Probably about a hand in height, and you can see the difference in bulk. Some of that is winter fuzz, of course.

I have another blog here, www.horsetales.blogspot.com. I wrote a post there tonight that I like if you want to check it out.

Question for you: Do you think it's silly that I keep my mustang blog separate from my general horse blog? So much overlaps, but I wanted a blow-by-blow of just the mustang training. Not a lot of training going on lately... And, I must admit, I have even a third blog, which generally does not discuss horses, and is mainly for family type stuff that my family type people might be more interested in. My only family member that likes horses doesn't read any of these. I was thinking I'd spare them the horse chatter. Actually now that I think about it, my family doesn't read that one either... I'm not talking about my husband, I think he reads them all.

Okay, now I realize I'm just babbling. Good night!

I've been tagged by Patricia at www.dinetahtrails.com/blog to tell y'all 5 things you probably don't know about me...

1. I lived in New Orleans for a year when I was 15. A friend lived on Bourbon street so I practically lived in the French Quarter when I wasn't in Catholic school. (We're not religious, but you can't go to public school there if you want an education). It was a heckuva lot of fun. Not the Catholic school though! To make it horse related, that friend also had a filly named Georgia boarded at the stables by the zoo, and we got to help get all the horses ready for Mardi Gras.

2. I am HORRIBLY shy. Just not in text. And not when talking horses!

3. I totally made fun of people who looked like cowboys when I was younger. (My friend Carrie had a really good one - she called the big rodeo belt buckles tombstones for dead meat. Heehee...) In fact, I once had a mohawk and later had partially royal blue hair. But I still loved horses.

4. Okay, so I asked my husband for help on this and he said. "You have a foot fetish... A HORSE foot fetish!" I am really into hooves, and I'll be going to farrier school next year.

5. When I was 2 years old my sister and I used to CONSTANTLY bug my mom to let us ride our goat, Mitzi, since we didn't have a horse. She never let us.

Gosh, this has been fun. Don't be surprised if I subject you to a longer list one of these days...

And just for fun, here's a not too great picture of Tonka on January 14th. His butt looks all teeny-weeny, but it isn't as bad as it looks. Hey! John and I were visiting with them today, and he noticed that Tonka and Danni's rumps are about the same height. So maybe I'm looking at having a 16 hand mustang boy... Withers aren't that high yet, and Danni has an uphill build, so hopefully he'll fall short of that just enough to be balanced front to back. He's getting so big and bulky, and his feet are so beautiful, he just about makes me drool. I have got to get a better picture!

Not much going on with the horses here. The weather has been TERRIBLE. Can't wait for spring! Or wind-less, rain-less weather cold enough to keep the ground frozen...

I read this elsewhere, and I like it enough that if you read all my blogs you'll find it on all of them:

A Simple Statement "I Ride."
I ride. That seems like such a simple statement. However as many women who ride know it is really a complicated matter. It has to do with power and empowerment. Being able to do things you might have once considered out of reach or ability. I have considered this as I shovel manure, fill water barrels in the cold rain, wait for the vet/farrier/electrician/hay delivery, change a tire on a horse trailer by the side of the freeway, or cool a gelding out before getting down to the business of drinking a cold beer after a long ride.
The time, the money, the effort it takes to ride calls for dedication. At least I call it dedication. Both my ex-husbands call it 'the sickness'. It's a sickness I've had since I was a small girl bouncing my model horses and dreaming of the day I would ride a real horse. Most of the women I ride with understand the meaning of 'the sickness'. It's not a sport. It's not a hobby. It's what we do and, in some ways, who we are as women and human beings. I ride. I hook up my trailer and load my gelding. I haul to some trailhead somewhere, unload, saddle, whistle up my dog and I ride. I breathe in the air, watch the sunlight filter through the trees and savor the movement of my horse. My shoulders relax. A smile rides my sunscreen smeared face. I pull my ball cap down and let the real world fade into the tracks my horse leaves in the dust. Time slows. Flying insects buzz loudly, looking like fairies. My gelding flicks his ears and moves down the trail. I can smell his sweat and it is perfume to my senses. Time slows. The rhythm of the walk and the movement of the leaves become my focus. My saddle creaks and the leather rein in my hand softens with the warmth.
I consider the simple statement; I ride. I think of all I do because I ride. Climb granite slabs, wade into a freezing lake, race a friend through the manzanita all the while laughing and feeling my heart in my chest. Other days just the act of mounting and dismounting can be a real accomplishment. Still I ride, no matter how tired or how much my seat bones or any of the numerous horse related injuries hurt. I ride. And I feel better for doing so. The beauty I've seen because I ride amazes me. I've ridden out to find lakes that remain for the most part, unseen. Caves, dark and cold beside rivers full and rolling are the scenes I see in my dreams. The Granite Stairway at Echo Summit, bald eagles on the wing and bobcats on the prowl add to the empowerment and joy in my heart. I think of the people, mostly women, I've met. I consider how competent they all are. Not a weenie amongst the bunch. We haul 40ft rigs, we back into tight spaces without clipping a tree. We set up camp. Tend the horses. We cook and keep safe. We understand and love our companions, the horse. We respect each other and those we encounter on the trail. We know that if you are out there riding, you also shovel, fill, wait and doctor. Your hands are a little rough and you travel with out makeup or hair gel. You do without to afford the 'sickness' and probably, when you were a small girl, you bounced a model horse while you dreamed of riding a real one. author unknown

I tried bitting Tonka right before his good feed, and he was agitated the entire time. Did this for 3-4 days. So this morning I decided not to, and good thing too because he has NEVER acted like he did this morning. He was rearing in the stall, tossing his head around, kind of throwing his back feet up, but not far up. So I chased him out of the stall a couple times and I didn't give him his good grub. He just got hay. I think I may cut out the good grub completely, or at least cut it back to just a bite or two. If he's feeling that frisky he obviously isn't putting whatever energy the feed is giving him into growth, which is what I intended it for. Not that he was getting much, and it wasn't precisely "grain." I don't like feeding grain unless necessary. It was 1.5 cups of beet pulp, less than a cup of alfalfa pellets, and 1 cup of pea pellets, which aren't 100% peas, there is a lot of chaff and other filler in there. Now that I look at it that sure seems like a lot of extra feed for a mustang. I guess when I think of it in comparison to what the old horses get it didn't seem like much. He's not fat though, so that's good. I'll just cut it back to a sprinkle of each... Or none at all if he keeps acting like that.

Anyway, back to the bit. I have decided that it will work better to put the bit in his mouth and then do something else to distract him from it, so he'll know that life does go on just fine even with a bit in his mouth. BUT it's raining like crazy and the pastures are flooded and the mud is not conducive to training, so it'll have to wait...

Above are some pictures of our creek, which is now a little river, just got that way overnight. Normally it'd be about 8-10 feet lower than what you see there, with tall dirt banks.