Mustang Saga

We had a beautiful sunrise this morning. Looks like we might have some sun today.

Yesterday my sister and I went to ride over at the arena. It's that time of year again. We turned the horses loose to play before we rode. They had a blast! I took 186 pictures. All sort of impressionist thanks to me not knowing how to use my camera's settings.

Here's Levi. He's a Quarter Horse. He has a cute face.
My sister gets offended when people ask if he's a mustang.
I guess they think that because of his color?
He's more of a buttermilk color in the summer.

A nice trot.

Putting on the speed!


As my sister said - Look at those gaskins!

Warp speed! This one looked a lot cooler full size. You can click on it to see it bigger.

Tonka and Levi have been on quite a few rides together, but never turned loose to hang out. They got along surprisingly well.

Levi doesn't usually put up with this kind of behavior.

Thinking about having another roll:

Enter Tonka, the pest:

"Excuse me, I'm trying to roll here."

"Jeez, nevermind. You sure are a pest."
And off they go again. Levi looks like a carousel horse here:

Levi really wore himself out.
I feel bad for my sister. She's had this horse for 7-8 years now, since he was a weanling. He's been a real pain in the butt to train, which has made their bond even stronger because of all the work they've done together. Things don't look good for him spending many more years in this world, unfortunately. He's been tying up on long rides, drinking a huge amount of water, and just generally uncomfortable with hard work. She took him in to WSU last summer and he was diagnosed with kidney failure. He should do okay as long as he stays hydrated (which for him means drinking huge amounts of water) and isn't worked too hard, but a time will come when his kidneys shut down completely. He can never be medicated in any way again, so pray he never hurts himself or gets sick. He can't have anything but grass hay and water. It's breaking her heart. After he was diagnosed she could barely stand to spend time with him, it was too painful. she started distancing herself from him. Got a new horse. He went from being ridden every day, which is something he needs if he's going to behave himself, to being ridden a handful of times through the summer and fall. And soon after his diagnosis her yearling was diagnosed with severe arthritis and she was told to put her down. She waited though, not being able to handle the thought. That filly was very, very special. Everyone who met her recognised something deeply touching about that horse. A few weeks later the filly slipped a tendon and her vet told her she no longer had a choice. She had to put her down. I don't know if it was her breeding that caused her to fall apart at such a young age, but she was line bred.

Loving horses sure can break your heart.

Sooo... On to happier things. My back is better! It's still tender but no longer out of place. And my cold is mostly gone. That was a hard one to kick. So today I'm going to get back to my exercise regimen. And if the weather holds I'm going to take Scout for a long walk. I might even saddle up Tonka and see how we do with ponying. Then my tack shed needs cleaning so I can get all the junk out of my trailer tack room, which seems to have sprung a leak. I'm also planning on turning all the horses out into the pasture together for the day. I'm a little worried about someone getting into the middle of a sparring match between Bella and Cisco. Scout may have to stay with me at first just in case.