Mustang Saga

Here's what I was doing last night prior to my ride:I'm not in the pictures, but I'm out there, trying to catch my horse.

Fun. Not.

The weather is finally acting like summer. I'm loving it. I got a lot of outdoor chores done today.

Wait a minute, let me interrupt for a minute. I just saw the neighbor-cows, and had to ask y'all a question. My neighbor's cattle are on my property. Have been for several days. It irritates me. But it's a part of our property we don't use. I had thought about haying it if there's enough grass though. What should I do? Call and tell him to move his cows or just don't worry about it? It may be too late to save the hay, unless they're staying at one end of the field. I feel like I'm being petty, especially if we it wasn't going to be usable as hay anyway, but he's getting free grazing and that bugs me! He's the one who gave us greenhorns a sickly steer in trade for hay too, so it's not like I feel like doing him any favors. Oh, and don't worry, he doesn't mind if his cows are out. We discovered soon after we moved here that there's no need to tell him every time they get out. He's pretty comfortable with their waywardness.

Back to other stuff before I get too irritated...

My sister came over with her horse today and I had a really good ride, but she was in tears, and made me cry too. Her horse was recently diagnosed with kidney failure. They said she could keep riding as long as he always has water, and they couldn't tell her how long it would be before he'd die. He could be okay for many years, or not. Last weekend she took him to a clinic and he didn't drink at all and barely peed. He's supposed to drink and pee a lot because his kidneys don't concentrate urine. She called the vet and they said that's bad. So she brought him over here to see if he'd do the same or if last weekend was a fluke (she hadn't been able to observe him at home, so taking him for a ride was the best way to tell how much he's peeing). He peed once, just a normal amount, and it wasn't watery like it usually is. He never did drink. And he was being a pill about trotting or moving out at all. Which is frustrating for her because she doesn't know if he's being bad or if it's because he doesn't feel good. He will do all kinds of maneuvers with no resistance though, but doesn't like to move out. I think he's not feeling well. His muscles aren't working right... Anyway, she ended up in tears because he's sick and she can't enjoy being with him because she's worried and frustrated. He's been with her for something like six years now, and they started from scratch and spend a LOT of time together. I can't imagine that. I've had Tonka for just two years now and he's totally stolen my heart and if he was sick like that I'd fall apart. So it's hard to watch them struggle, especially knowing it's not going to get better.

Now for a comic interlude. My son thinks that the Mythbusters are God. Something to do with the experiment where they tried to walk on water... Apparently maybe I need to have a talk with him about the nature of this "God" concept. I did tell him that God isn't a person, because I felt I could make that statement without lying and looking like I had any conviction either way on the existence of God, but he didn't seem to get it. Obviously we don't talk much about religion here... Come to think of it, he's about the age Katia was when she asked me what a church was.

Anyway...

Both of the kids got to ride their horses today and spent a lot of quality time just dinking around with them. It's nice to have the "geriatric pasture" where my son can go in and love on the horses and I don't have to worry about him. I just make sure he asks first so I know he's in there.

I trimmed Soxy's hind feet, which is a bit more of a chore than it is with the others because I try not to crank her old legs up too far. I also built her a small corral off the big stall so she has a totally grassless place to stay during the day. She is GROSSLY obese. I didn't put her grazing muzzle on her this spring like I normally do, and I think I'm very lucky she hasn't foundered. Katia is going to start riding her every day, at least once a day, so that ought to help too.

Other than that I moved and filled troughs and built Tonka a temporary enclosure in an area where we need the grass eaten down.

So, now you're up to date with all the boring details of my life... Sorry, I guess I like to babble.