Today was a good day. Why? Because I hooked up the hoses and turned the water on and it came out the other end! Oh lovely day.

We also made a quick dash up to Spokane to get the kids from my mom's. Glad we made it back during daylight. The roads were fine most of the way, but would have been icy if we got back too late. The only bad roads were within about 20 miles of Spokane, and they were really bad in Browne's Addition and downtown. I felt bad for all the pedestrians trying to make their way on frozen ground, most of them obviously unable to afford warm snow boots with good traction, and the sidewalks were blocked so a lot of people were walking right next to traffic. I couldn't help imagining someone falling under my tires. I was very careful though. I think it would be great if someone would donate a bunch of those traction cleat/chain things for shoes to a the elderly and homeless. And warm socks. Downtown Spokane makes me sad sometimes.

On the way back we saw a wheat field full of snowballs that the wind had rolled up. (You can see some pictures on Lea's blog that she took of these kind of snowballs at her house.) I pointed them out to the kids and Liam said, "That's where they grow snowballs!" I'm not sure if he was making a joke, making up a story, or being serious. But it was funny! So from then on we kept pointing out the snowball farms when we saw them.

Hmm. I know I should write something interesting about the horses... I did a very brief trim on Bella's front feet tonight. She didn't want to cooperate. Hoof work still makes her very nervous, but even more so than usual tonight. But I got a bit done, then realized it was really hard to check my work in the dark on uneven ice, so I picked up and checked her back feet and called it good. As I waited for the second trough to fill I checked Cisco's back feet. They are beautifully concave. Heels a bit long. He's a little kicky back there, which is why I haven't trimmed his hind feet yet. I'd like John to hold him but we never have time when the weather is decent. In the mean time I need to make more of an effort to get him used to having his feet picked up. It would only take a couple minutes at each feeding. With all Tonka's needs I've been lazy about doing anything else at feeding time.

I'm getting antsy to start working with my horses again! And I'm not sure I even want to take them out, the driveway is so scary icy. Last year I fell down right in front of Tonka while I was leading him. He looked very surprised. If I did that to Bella it would probably scare her. I could probably take them out in the pasture and have decent footing. Just not real handy for tacking up. A little naked groundwork never hurt anyone though. (Naked horse, that is.) But no... They're calling for more insane winds and a few inches of snow tomorrow. I doubt I'll be out playing in that. Wish I'd been able to stay home and play today, the weather was actually pretty nice. Oh well. My day will come.

I found a saddle! Woo hoo! I can't tell you how excited I am! It isn't a McCall, or a gorgeous hand made wade, but it's one of the others on my list of wants. A Circle Y Flagstaff. Flex tree, which I'm hoping will be the answer for Tonka. It's used, but only ridden about 10 times. I can't wait to ride in it! It'll be a while before it gets here though.


I gave Tonka his shot all by my lonesome today. I was proud of me. He wiggled a little more than usual, looking for the treats I had to give between steps in shot-giving, but it went just fine. The abscess is doing even better. I'm not getting much blood at all on the compress, and I can barely feel the thickened spot that is the abscess. Awesome.

We got to go to town today. I really expected to get stuck in the deep slush on the driveway. It was at least a foot of snow on up to two feet in the drifted areas, but then the temperature rose and it rained a lot, so it was a slippery mess. But we punched on through and I got my feed and groceries. Neither was so low as to consider an emergency, but it was nice to get out.

As the sun was setting we did a little fence work. We had lots of help from nosy horses, except for Cisco and Bella. He was busy eating and Bella is a bit shy lately. Cisco is hard on the fence between him and the other horses. We're lucky he hasn't hurt himself yet. It's made of t-posts (capped) with cattle panels. He bent the crap out of the top of one panel, looks like he went partially over the top somehow, and then he popped the panels right off the posts in another spot. New item on my list of things to do when the ground thaws - replace that stretch of fence. For now we stretched electric tape along it with step-in posts. The one thing that makes me happy for the thaw was the ability to get those posts put in. The fence is so wiggly wobbly that we couldn't put the electric tape on it or it would touch metal in some places. I think this will keep his nasty posturing and kicking at a distance until we can do something different.

I'm off to go drool over pictures of my saddle some more. :)

It's been a long day already. Well, just part of it. It took me 2 hours to move 6 bales of hay... Got the truck stuck in snow that was deeper than the undercarriage. Went back, got the shovel, dug it out. This is the kind of snow that sticks to your shovel, so you end up lifting the same snow over and over again. But I did manage to get unstuck, then went back and got the toboggan and moved individual bales to the truck that way. It wasn't so hard once I'd moved the first 3 bales and the trail was compacted.

I gave Tonka his shot today! John usually does shots. I had a bad experience with the one shot I ever tried to give (bent needle, freaked out horse, not fun) so I just let John do it after that. He's pretty darn good at it. But he left last night to go snowboarding today, so I was on my own. My mom fed Tonka treats while I did the shots, so really I wasn't totally on my own. It went just fine. Easy as pie.

Since I don't have much else to write about, I'll do a some video reviews. I've now rented 6 videos from Horseflix. Besides a LONG shipping time in between videos, I'm happy with it.

Pete Ramey's Under the Horse series - it's fabulous, watch it! I've only watched disk one so far, but it's just as good as his clinic was, if not better because you can watch on your own time and go back and look again. Only thing you can't do is ask questions, but he's very thorough.

Frank Bell, Discover the Horse You Never Knew - He's a little odd. His idea of bonding is really weird to me. Sticking fingers in ears and mouth, rubbing eyes, basically all things I'd consider the most annoying things you can do to a horse. But after that it's a good pre-ride checklist, so that you know your horse's mood and have some tools to control them should they get over excited. Pressure and release, sacking out, one rein stop, disengaging the hindquarters, etc.

Parelli Patterns Disk One, On Line - I watched this while very distracted, but it seemed like a pretty basic groundwork/lunging how-to. Had some interesting tasks like serpentining through barrels. Would be fun to try if the weather was nice and I had a rope that long. His catch phrases irritate me. But I can get past that. I think these are good bonding and foundation laying exercises, but not something one should get stuck doing over and over forever as I see a lot of Parelli followers doing.

Movement Awareness for Riders with Eckart Meyners - Weird stuff. Has some good stretches and exercises. A good concept, but it's odd, almost pornographic, the way the guy sits there and watches these people do weird movements and stretches. I think if you were willing to put the time in to do this though, it could very well help your riding by making you more limber and more aware of tension and misuse of your body.

Western Saddles, How to fit: Pain-Free - This was a good beginner course in saddle fit. Quite basic, but good information.

That's it so far... I'm going to go get cleaned up and sit and watch the second Pete Ramey disk now.

Well, this is all gone now.

Actually, it EXPLODED all over my house. I still haven't cleaned up. The mess is very intimidating. I'd share a picture but I'd be embarassed.

The kids were THRILLED with their Christmas. I got some pictures, but you know, Christmas morning bedhead pictures are never very flattering. I'll keep them for myself to enjoy.

India stole my flingshot chicken. She loves toys that make noise, and she hasn't had one in years. We had another dog that would rip them up, so we quit buying them, and I forgot how much she loved them until yesterday. She packed that thing around and made it squawk for hours.

Angus took over the middle of the living room. I've dubbed him "Wedgie" because he likes to put his big ol' body right in the middle of things.

Speaking of Christmas Morning Bedhead
The freezing fog is not doing good things for Bella's mane. Poor girl.

Tonka's abscess has made HUGE progress the last few days. It's just a flat little lump now. No more pus, just some blood when I do the compress. Can't flush it anymore, there's no space to poke the syringe in. Very exciting.

Everyone got their dewormer today since it's warm and balmy in the 20's and not currently snowing. They didn't love me for it. It was time for Quest Plus and that stuff is NASTY. Bella wouldn't even take a treat from me afterward. Cisco just got apple flavored ivermectin since I don't know if they wormed him much before. He was offended and tried to decline, but he wasn't too bad about it. Then I trimmed 4 hooves and now I'm sitting on my butt trying to think of an excuse not to clean the house. I'm serious, this mess is so bad it's scary!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you're all having a warm and happy holiday!

You know what I think is a beautiful thing? Pumping water into one end of a hose and having it come out the other end. I had a little trouble with that today. And coiling up frozen, stiff, slippery hoses is hard. Taking them in to the bathtub is a sloppy business. What really wears me out is all the trudging back and forth through deep snow wearing 20 pounds of extra clothing to get another hose, drag it out, trudge, try it, trudge, cuss it, trudge, try another, trudge, notice a kink, trudge, go back and hook that one up again, cuss that one too, trudge, unhook them all, trudge, drag them to where I can drain them so any that aren't frozen won't become frozen. Trudge, trudge, trudge. Coil them up, cuss them some more, take them in to the bathtub. Strip out of 30 pounds of thermal wear. Feel the liberation. Wait a while and go out and do it all again, but this time not so bad because the hoses are thawed. I'm sure most of you have been through this before. Joy. Next year I AM putting in water lines out to the horses.

This is what i was doing while the hoses thawed:

Those are my great-grandma Lena's gingersnaps.
I ate enough to make up for the extra energy expended today.

I saw this picture and thought, "Who was playing with my camera?"
Then I remembered it was me.

Here you can see ripples in the snow from the high winds the night before. (Waving vertically in the picture, not the messy snow in the foreground from the snowblower). Very pretty. But I hate wind in the winter time.
Here's Cisco moving Scout around:

Last night I thought I was going to die, it was so cold when I was out feeding and flushing Tonka's abscess. My gloves weren't cutting it, especially considering I had to take them off to do the flushing. It was about 7 below and the horses were white with frost. Tonight it seemed balmy and warm, I was out for about an hour messing around with the horses while the trough filled and I was totally comfortable, at about 15 degrees.

Oh, today I started Soxy and Cisco on a product called Remission. It's for foundered horses, to increase circulation in the hooves and speed up healing, but it also helps regulate insulin and blood glucose levels, and it may help break down fatty deposits in horses with metabolic problems. Maybe we can get rid of Cisco's crest and the fatty pads on Soxy's sides. And avoid a possible future founder episode. I'll take pictures of them tomorrow so I can keep a photo log of whether or not it seems to make a difference.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve to you!

My trip to town today.

(I got my snow driving wheels now...akin to sea legs...
seems like every year I have to get used to it all over again.)

First we had to walk up the driveway to the car.
We parked it up there before the last big storm in case we couldnt' get it out.
The truck is in the shop. Brake problem.

We caught some lazy horses soaking up the sun:

Saw lots of kitty prints in the snow.
Here's a deer trail coming through from the neighbor's place.
Right near where I found the dead buck.

A glorious hawthorn. I love this picture.
The palouse hills give way to forested mountains round about here.
Bare spots are farmground.

The surface on the highway was mostly bare. Very nice.
More Palouse hills in the background.

This is a very pretty spot. I pulled over to take this picture.

We went to several stores and I got my Christmas shopping finished.
There's more I'd like to buy, but you know, that money thing...
Oh, actually I do need to buy some Idaho Spuds.
I can get John to do that though.

We're supposed to get 4-11 inches of new snow tonight & tomorrow.
I'm okay with that, as long as I can get in to get more Naxcel for Tonka.

This was prettier in person - driving home in the evening.

I forgot to ask earlier today -
What are your preferences in a saddle and why?

Tonka really didn't like his shot this morning. He grunted and jumped abruptly to the side. I wasn't quite ready so it startled me too. Then I started shoving treats into his mouth and he relaxed. He also doesn't like the flushing. I think it's more that he doesn't want to stand still than because of pain.

I have to tell you a tale of woe from yesterday. I bid on a saddle on eBay. It was a McCall, and it was in my price range, which is shocking. I'm talking under $500. I lost it at the very last second, as I was trying to bid more. (Funny how I always decide I'm willing to bid more right at the last minute.) Lost it by just $5. I was broken hearted. I even dreamed about it most of the night last night. It just wouldn't leave me. I'm feeling better about it now but I want a saddle! Badly!

I thought I'd type out the characteristics of my dream saddle, to get my mind straight about what I want.

• Decent quality saddle, not one of those cheap Mexican things
• It has to fit Tonka (narrow, skirts not too long)
• 16" seat (no bigger, but maybe smaller would be fine)
• Flat seat (or at least somewhat flat, which is suprisingly hard to find)
• Center-hung stirrups that swing freely.
• In tree rigging
• Low horn
• Narrow twist
• Not a super high cantle
• Not over 35 lbs
• Not too much tooling (none would be great)
• Not too much silver (but conchos would be nice)
• Must have saddle strings or be set up to easily attach them

See, I'm not all that hard to please. A lot of these things I'd even give up for the right saddle. Now, if we were talking ANY saddle in the world I could have, I'd have one custom made that was real pretty and everything I wanted. But I'm being realistic. I'll find one eventually. It's not like there's an urgent need, I haven't been riding anyway. Too cold. I'm just feeling a little sad since I didn't get that saddle yesterday.

The view out my front door this afternoon:

So my vet must have been out of date on what this antibiotic costs. It's $85 every two days unless they billed me wrong. I'm definitely going to ask why the difference in price! The bill just for today was almost $300. The things we do for horses...

On a good note, when John picked up the meds he made a comment to the vet tech that he thought Tonka was worth the expense, and she just gushed over how good he was today when they were here. Awesome. I'm going to get a swelled head about my great horses. :) Unfortunately it's usually vets who get to see how good they are...

Tonka was NOT happy with his new treatments tonight. He kept wiggling while we did the compress. It didn't help that I forgot to get some treats to give him. Going to have to do better tomorrow.

A little springtime cheer here:

Little Scout used to put his whole heart and soul into running around the pasture, trying out those long legs. He was two weeks old there and it was the day before his eye injury. I sure hope that little guy turns out to be worth the expense too... He was so cute. I miss his cuteness. But he's still a darn good looking little horse.

The vet has come and gone. Tonka was such a good boy. I had a good talk with his assistant about mustangs in general and she said she thought all of ours were well-behaved and pretty too. Love that! Then Steve dug around in there with his forceps, at least an inch in, poking and prodding, grabbing stuff, and Tonka just let him. He pulled his head up in pain once, but I'd say that's still within the bounds of good behavior. What a boy. I was glad they didn't have to sedate him. Then he flushed it with iodine, which I must shamefacedly and guiltily admit I haven't been doing, because I didn't think there was an opening big enough. There is. Some gross stuff came out.

The new treatment calls for warm compresses, flushing, and Naxcel shots 2x daily. Maybe for a month. I was thinking, "Okay, that's fine, a lot of work but it's not much more than I have been doing." Then Steve said it's going to be expensive. Okay, well, I'd heard Naxcel was expensive. Then he dropped the bomb. $70 every two days! For a month? But then he said we would be able to back down to once a day when the wound starts to respond. That's a little better... My first thought was that John was going to have a stroke. But you know what? When I called him John just said, "He's worth it." I love my husband!

I got a better idea of why this isn't something we want to have to do surgery on. There are salivary glands, nerves, veins, all kinds of stuff in that area. Besides the fact that surgery is even more expensive than the treatment we've done so far.

He's seen a cheat grass infection like this that migrated all the way down the side of a hunting dog from shoulder to hip and the whole thing had to be surgically removed. He's also dealt with this in his own horse, and he said it took a long time to clear up.

Well, at least this one hasn't spread yet. I feel so damn guilty for not flushing it all this time!

Oh, and it most likely was caused by cheat grass. It seems to have migrated down from underneath the tongue. I can guarantee you I'm going to be more careful about my hay and I'll be checking my fields very carefully next year and spraying any cheat.

Oh, and he did make me feel better about the safety of the antibiotics. I mentioned my sister's horse with kidney failure and he said, "Was it Genticin?" Well, yes, actually now that he mentions it, it was. I had forgotten. He said that can happen with Genticin if they don't stay hydrated. This antibiotic is supposed to be much safer.

John just called, the truck's brakes are acting funny. What a day...

SNOW DAY! Yay! I haven't been outside yet, so I'll just share some stuff from last weekend.

Here's Katia coming down the second half of the hill. She can't seem to come down the whole way without crashing, so she's always doing it in two stages.

And then Liam, who looks like a baby sea turtle racing to the ocean. He lost his gloves so he's wearing my mom's, which gave him great big flippers.



John's ambition is to make it all the way to the porta-potty.
(It's the tiny green thing at the end of the sled run there.)

I think it's impossible, you'd have to turn at the end in the right place to go over the driveway and not into the ditch. But he is good at steering, so if we get some fast snow, you never know... I just hope he doesn't knock it over.

Doesn't this look like the happiest kid in the world?

I'm not sure how much snow we have today, but it must be a lot. I think we had a lot yesterday afternoon. The little school bus got stuck in a ditch yesterday. That happens a lot here... Luckily there are a lot of people with tractors to pull them out.

My mom said they have aboout 18 inches where she lives in Spokane. It broke all records for snowfall in Spokane yesterday. Some people up that way have as much as 3 feet.

You know what I'm thankful for?
John's out snowblowing right now.

Oh yeah, horses, this blog is about horses...

The horses are fine. I little icicly but it doesn't seem to bother them too much. They spend most of their time outside in the gross weather. Scout, Bella, and Tonka even laid down in the snow for a nap in the middle of the storm yesterday.

The worst part of this weather for them is having to walk on the stuff that was churned up mud but is now hard bumpy frozen mud. I have a heck of a time walking on it, and I have boots. Luckily they can go out in the pasture to get away from it.

The vet is coming to check out Tonka's abscess tomorrow. He wasn't supposed to be back from vacation until today, so when he called me yesterday I was surprised. I wish I could haul Tonka in and save the farm call charge, but there's no way I'm trying to get the trailer up the driveway in this snow.

I have a winner for giveaway number three! The winner is Duckie!
What does she win, you ask?

A set of rein connectors I made. That's the best name I can think up to call them without stealing a term from a famous trainer. (Rein rope not included, it's useless anyway, only a couple feet long.)

I like them because they're easier to switch back and forth than slobber straps are and they don't clank against the bit like a metal snap. Also, when you use them as a lead rope snap, if your horse pulls back, there's no dangerous broken metal projectile to fly and hurt someone. They're also lighter weight than a metal snap, which comes in handy sometimes. In vertical flexion I sometimes found myself accidentally hitting my horse with the snap when I released tension on the lead rope. Kind of an annoying release...

Here's a picture of them in use on Tonka:

(Click if you want to enlarge)

Duckie, send me your mailing address and I'll get them to you.
andreav at turbonet dot com

Thank you all for your thoughts on warm winter wear!

These guys don't need no stinkin' long underwear:



Scout's sticking out his tongue!

Giveaway number three commences!

After some random ramblings and pictures.

The old barn didn't fall down after the first snow:

We had a lot of birdie visitors today. I love the sky here:

Finnegan acting rather strange. I think he's been eating too many little birdies.

This was the bravest of the birds eating seeds in the barn.
Brave, or catfood? It's a fine line, I suspect...

Here's Tonka's frozen stiff halter. This reminded me of when I was a kid. My grandma had this dog leash that had a wire in the middle, with a dog collar dangling from the end. We used to love walking our invisible dog. Now I have an invisible horse.

Tonka's soaking spot. He thinks gremlins lurk behind him.
(And when my son is around, they do...)

I've been having a bit of a problem with my gloves. My fleece lined goatskin gloves were far too cold, and my ski gloves were so bulky I was constantly taking them off so I could work, then my fingers would get wet and stick to anything metal. I was going to ask you all how you dress your hands for work in the cold. Then today I found some that are working GREAT so far. Tonight I wore them for over a half hour in 5 degree weather and my fingers didn't get frigid. And I didn't have to take them off to open gates, dose my horse, put his halter on, tie him up, etc.

This is where our hobbit friends live.

Well, really it's only inhabited by wasps in the summertime... Creepy story about this building - One day when I was out in the field below the the front door of "the igloo" I was convinced there was something in the doorway staring down at me. A coyote? Something... I couldn't tell what, but it was definitely watching me. My hair was standing on end, I was heading toward the cusp of decision, "fight or flight?" It's a long ways back to the house, nowhere to hide. Then I kept slowly walking, trying not to alarm the thing, and I realized it was just light coming through the door from the back window. I was laughing with relief, feeling kinda stupid, all full of adrenaline for nothing.

Okay, for giveaway number three the prize will be something horse related that is made by me, but it's not a halter. To enter leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what kind of gloves you wear to work around the farm when it's frigidly (is that a word?) cold out. I was thinking of buying some of those silk glove liners before I found these gloves today. Have any of you tried them? Do they add warmth? I'm confused about silk and whether it's supposed to be warm or just wick away moisture. Oh, and if you wear a "base layer" (I've been told that's the new term for long johns or long underwear) do you prefer polypropylene or silk or something else, and why?

And the winner of giveaway number two is Jessie! Her prize will be an old Dutton bit. Specifically a "High-Wide Correction with Copper Rollers Bit" as it is currently listed for sale on NRS. But this one is used and more suitable for display than use. I think it would look cool mounted on an old barnwood picture frame. My mom thought it might be neat to string a wire between the bottom rings and some letters spelling "Howdy" or something like that. Or it could be heated and bent back into shape and used. Jessie, send me your address. My email is andreav at turbonet dot com.

The new ones look a little prettier and currently sell for $70:

And now, to share our first snow of the year with you. Rather late for a first snow, but it's a good one!

Wee Scout should be in a Budweiser commercial.

Sharing mama's hay.

More of those two. They were more willing to pose for the camera than the other horses. Tonka was all about eating and Soxy was afraid of the snowblower.

I thought this was a neat picture our drummer and the old woodshed:

The drummer is the only "sculpture" we kept on the place. Some of the others were creepy, with threatening pitchfork hands and such. Or just a weird waste of space in some cases. The woodshed needs to come down and be rebuilt, but bigger. That may be our big project next summer. When this place was Meadowbrook Farm, 60+ years ago, they used to keep pigs in a corral at the end there.

So far the "big storm" has been rather anti-climactic. But I'm not complaining. Not one bit. It's supposed to get worse later. I'm ready though, and the horses got a lot of extra hay tonight to keep them warm.

I had to make an afternoon dash into town to do a bunch of things, most important of which was picking up my bottle of SMZ's (antibiotics) for Tonka. I walked into the vet when the snow was really starting to come down and the roads were getting slick. I was itching to get home before it got really bad. The receptionist said, "Oh, I'm not sure that came in yet." But it had, thank goodness. I wasn't wanting to spend any extra time in town waiting on it.

Tonight I found myself praising my horse in a very strange way. "Oooh, great pus buddy!" I have been seeing blood but not pus when I do his compresses. It is still draining, but hasn't seemed to have gotten any smaller for a while now. I hope my vet is back from vacation on Monday so we can talk about options. I wonder if they can cut it open so I can get in there and flush it out to help it heal faster.

"Going out at night." It no longer means going dancing, out to dinner, on a date, to a concert. No glittery dresses or even makeup. This is what it means:

I was very warm.
Except for my toes
And the end of my nose.
Also my left thumb.
Amen.

I double-dog-dare you to post a pic on your blog of yourself on the way out to feed. Even if you're wearing your PJ's. I bet you look better than I do.

Da Boyz:

I realized I better hold my breath so ghostly images wouldn't appear.

Isn't Cisco cute? He was a very good boy.

Unfortunately Levi was tying up and my sister left in tears. I think she's going to have to retire him.

The Northwest Extreme Mustang Makeover has started! I was going to wait to post this when I had more blog addresses to share, but apparently not many of the trainers are blogging. If you find any of their blogs let me know.

Tracey, Tonka's almost-adopter, is blogging at Mustang Diaries.

Kevin, from the Portland area, is blogging at Mustang Gentling.

Keith Danielson is doing it again, and his website is http://hoopercrossingranch.com/, but he's not blogging this time as far as I can tell.

Now, not to confuse you, but there is another new adopter that is blogging about her boy, but she is not doing the makeover. Her fella is from Tonkas HMA and he has Tonka's almost-name, Coyote. Actually, his full name is Coyote Bay. Good name, huh? He's going to be a dressage horse. Her blog is here: Mustang Dressage.

Today, in about an hour, we're headed out to ride at the arena, John and I and Cisco and Tonka. Although it's not a bad morning, it might be fun to ride here, and it doesn't cost anything either... I might have to ponder that some more. Then a quick dash to Spokane and back to get some furniture that my mom is giving to Katia. Sometime during the day either John or I needs to go to the grocery store, we have a huge storm coming and I want to make sure we don't run out of anything. Luckily we have a huge Costco thing of TP, so we won't have to worry about that. That's one modern convenience I'd hate to have to do without.

Giveaway number two! Just leave a comment here telling me about your favorite bit. Horse bit, that is. Unless you don't have horses, then tell me something else. Like your favorite healthy lunch. I could use some healthy lunch ideas. Or just tell me how gross the rest of the post is if you like. The prize this time is horse related, but that's all I'm going to tell you.

Well, my morning has been rather interesting. I think I'm sick again. I've been weak and shaky and breathless all morning. Which I wouldn't whine about, but this bug also comes with indecisiveness apparently. What was I indecisive about? (Grossness ahead - warning for the queasy. Be glad I didn't take a picture!) What the heck to do with a dead deer I found right next to the horse fence! He's not small, this deer. Looked rather heavy, bloated as he was. I don't know why the poor thing died. He wasn't stuck in the neighbor's barbed wire fence, which was what I assumed when I first saw him there with his legs in the air. His side was leaking a little blood, but I don't think it was a gunshot, I think he was just getting leaky from being bloated. Maybe he caught his foot as he was jumping the fence and broke his neck. Whatever it was, I hope it was quick. Poor thing.

After sitting around in the house being indecisive for about an hour (and waiting for the vet to call back about a refill for Tonka's antibiotics) I decided the vet would have to just leave a message and went out to take care of business. I wrapped a rope around his leg and dragged him to the driveway. He was surprisingly not all that hard to move. Then I wrapped the rope around my hitch and dragged him away to another part of the property for the coyotes to enjoy. I hope they eat him up quickly. He's kind of smelly.

The horses seemed rather alarmed when I dragged him past them. I hope they know I wouldn't do that to them.

Now I have a big trail of hair all down my driveway. Gross. At least it's not flesh. I don't think I could have handled that.

Gotta love country life!

(Don't forget to leave your comment. Deadline will be Friday at 8pm.)

Sorry, I didn't mean to worry anyone. It was exciting when I turned everyone out together, but no major injuries. I'm sure they're sore though. Bella and Cisco went at it at least four times. I was pretty sure that would happen. They're just going to have to work it out. It was hard to watch though. I kept picturing broken legs, gashes, and hematomas. Nothing of that sort, praise be.

I turned off the camera in the middle of this one, had to check to make sure Cisco was okay. Apparently I can't take video and look at the same time. Check out Tonka's nifty evasive maneuver in the second one. And it's interesting to watch how the herd moves, who goes where and does what. (You probably want to turn off your volume. My dog loves to bark when the horses are acting up.)

Seems to me, watching how these battles played out, Bella went in and started it, then was first to leave. Cisco didn't seem to be the direct instigator but was quite happy to put the smackdown on her. He got along fine with the others. Tonka was told to back off a bit but they did share some hay. Scout and Cisco seem to be good buddies. Soxy and Cisco have been living together so they're fine. You can see she's trying to stay out of the way, poor old girl.

I was going to load another short video and some pictures, but I think I'll save them for tomorrow. I'd imagine these picture and video-heavy posts load slowly for people with slower connections.

But I will leave you with a picture that shows Tonka didn't manage to stay completely out of the way.

Plenty of excitement today! I'll write more later. So far no broken bones or anything...

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.

Boy, picking a winner here is so much easier than on one of those high traffic blogs where they give away the big gifts. I asked my daughter to pick a number between one and seven. She looked at me a little weird and said three. So the winner is Lea!

What does she win? Cowboy Tom's Flapjacks mix! You know it's whole grain because you can see the whole grains right there! (You need a blender to mix it.) It promises to be the most light, fluffy, and wholesome flapjacks you've ever eaten. I sure hope they're that good. And better yet, this is a genuine product of Idaho.

Lea, I'll bring your prize to the party on Saturday. Hope you like it!

I'm going to dig around and find some more prizes and do another giveaway this week.
I'm sure I can find something horse related for next time.

I think I'm going to need two big cups of coffee this morning.

Today we're thinking about calling my friend who offered to let us cut down a Christmas tree on her property and see if she's busy. We might just load up 3 horses and all ride out to find the perfect tree. Only problem is there are 4 of us... I thought I could probably put Liam on behind me because Tonka has been so good lately, but you never know, he might really be weirded out by a squirmy kid back there. Katia was rather opposed to him riding with her, but that may just have to be the way it goes. I was thinking we could go get Coda since my niece isn't riding him anyway, but I'm not sure we could fit 4 full size horses in our 3 horse trailer unless we took the tack room out which I don't really want to do.

Yesterday we did some Christmas shopping down in Lewiston/Clarkston. John got a great deal on a work and riding coat at Corral West since they're going out of business. Only $40 for a $100 coat. Still, it makes me sad they're going out of business. The farm store didn't have the bit I wanted. I just need a plain old Reinsman sweet iron loose ring snaffle. I'm pretty happy with those, have two, but need a new one so all 3 trained horses can have one. I did buy some horse detangler for my stocking, some tiny work gloves for Liam because he's dying to have some, and some very specific Wranglers for my brother in law. Then we went to Costco. On a Saturday. And we didn't buy more than 5 things. Mostly kid gifts, but I also got a new calendar.

I forgot to get Probios for Tonka! Urgh... It's horribly expensive around here in little tiny tubes, but they usually have the big ones that are much cheaper in Lewiston. Dang it. I'll have to order some from Jeffers.

Okay, time to get on with the day. Hope you're all having a great Sunday!

Givaway alert! Read on for more info! But first I must babble at ya.

So much for not getting hurt last night when Tonka knocked me over. You remember I mentioned having a rib out? Well, it finally had gotten better (I think, at least it wasn't bothering me anymore) and now thanks to Tonka I have the same sort of pain on the other side. The chiropractor insisted that he fixed it, but it still feels the same. Money down the drain... How does one fix their upper back when it insists on doing things like this? I'm feeling that the chiropractor isn't the answer. Stretches? Yoga? If I could just get it in place I promise I'd be more dedicated with my exercises to strengthen it. I'm not sure I should work out when everything's out of whack though.

On to another non-horse-related subject. I have been more in the sprit of giving this year of my life than ever before. I LOVE it. Even though most times what I give is small, it may make a big difference in the larger scheme of things. Ripples in the pond. Today at the grocery store the Salvation Army bell-ringer was there with his red collection thingie, and instead of slinking by because I have no cash, I happily folded up a dollar to give and told the man "Merry Christmas!" I am going to make a major effort to at least have some change on me whenever I go out.

So, in the spirit of giving, I'm going to have a few little giveaways this month. Small things, but hopefully fun things. And hopefully in return the winners will "pay it forward" with a small giving gesture of their own. Just leave me a comment on this post and I'll pick someone randomly. Consider yourself ordered to leave a comment if you're here reading. Say "cheese" or "rumplestiltskin" if that's all you can come up with. If you are tempted not to comment because you don't want the gift, I promise you I'd be happy to donate to a great cause in your name. There are many options available for giving at this site.

I'll announce the winner Sunday night.

Happy Holidays!

My darn horse ran me over! Well, almost anyway... I was soaking his jaw, squatted down next to him while he munched away on his hay, thinking sweet thoughts about what a nice picture he made out there in the dim moonlight. My mind wandered to John's riding lesson and I don't remember exactly what I was thinking about when suddenly - wham! Tonka's leg slammed into mine, and I would have stayed on my feet except his lead rope (which I didn't even need on him, but had left on after giving him his antibiotics) was kind of part way around my leg on the ground, so down I went, Epsom salt water flying. Boy did I cuss. I'm probably lucky I wasn't hurt, and with nobody here to save me... Good thing Tonka was bolting away from me, not over the top of me.


We had a good but short ride up at Melissa's today. I found one of my tires almost flat when I was going to leave, then she had a few things to work on with one mare and a tack issue with the other, so we didn't actually ride for very long. Which was fine. Tonka took a long time to relax, so it's probably good we didn't just get on and go. He was tense and twitchy and not listening. Too much inactive time while he was in quarantine.

The sheep wandering through the trees seemed to be something he wasn't too sure about, even though he's seen them before. They sure look sinister, drifting from shadow to shadow...

Definitely need to keep an eye on those creepy sheepies.

And when we got back Fiona and Wilbur were there to greet us.
John and Cisco's lesson went really well yesterday. The trainer likes Cisco and thinks he's a good match for John. Said he probably wouldn't be winning any races, but that's just fine by us!

Attack of the Giant Dinosaur Turkeys!
(I should have posted this on Thanksgiving)

Here, if I was creative, I would have added some creepy music, like maybe from Jaws. But I don't know how so you'll have to imagine it.

This post was inspired by Kara's turkey post today. Turkeys are so neat.

I had the weirdest day today. I don't know many people, but I swear I ran into most of them when I went to town today. First I saw my former hay guy walking down the highway away from his broken-down car, about 10 miles from home. So I gave him a ride back. Boy was that kinda awkward... I'm shy, I've probably mentioned that before. Very shy. But I managed to make small talk! I was proud of me. Then I had lunch with my sister and her husband, looked around a store in the mall, found a very cool little gift for John, and went grocery shopping. Where I saw 3 more people that I know! Very weird...

This afternoon I ran out to the local saddlemaker's shop with my sister. He had a "cheap old saddle" that wasn't pretty but was real sturdy. I brought it home to try on Tonka. No way no how! It rocked right on his spine in the middle. I'm bummed. It was right in my price range too, with no need to stretch. Oh well... Now I have to hang on to it until he gets back from some big ropers or rodeo thing in Vegas or something... Y'all who follow that sort of thing are probably laughing at my not knowing about such a big event.

Tonka's abscess is about half the size it was yesterday. I'm hoping my boy and his iron constitution will prove my vet wrong and we won't have to do the antibiotics for long.

Before I got that happy call from my vet I went out and spent time with Bella and Scout. They've been kind of neglected lately. Bella was doing that "if I don't look at you, you don't exist" thing again. Scout was getting kinda big for his britches, trying to come in with his ears pinned at feeding time. They were both angels today. Bella did a little groundwork and then got groomed and had her hooves trimmed. Scout just got taken out for a good grooming session. They both worried about each other while the other was gone. They were also both very muddy. I renamed them Clumpy Mud Mama and Clumpy Jr. Oh, and I measured Bella. She's 14.2 hands. Which is a bit short, especially since she's not real stout. Hopefully she'll grow some more, she still has time. Maybe.
Below is Tonka's abscess. Not that gross, really. The raw part is the size of a quarter, and the swollen part is about the size of a ping pong ball. I asked the vet if I had to do the antibiotics, because they make me nervous, and he kind of got irritated with me. Not that he showed it, really, but there was a long pause there... He basically said I had to if I didn't want my horse to have to have surgery eventually. Good news is we're keeping him on the mild antibiotics for the first two weeks, and hopefully we won't have to use the "big guns."
See Tonka's bad haircut on his forelock there? He got a cockle-burr in his forelock that got stuck in his ear and he must have rubbed it and felted it in there. Nothing I could do but cut it out.
This here picture is just plain weird. Looks like a two headed horse with one head attached backward, with the ears at the shoulder. Actually it's Tonka making a face and Scout looking at him. Tonka was so glad to be free. He ran and bucked for about 10 minutes, but of course he waited until after I had gone inside.

So I guess Tonka's problem isn't a fungus, but it acts like one or something like that. It's a bacteria called actinomyces. The vet wasn't at all worried about it being contagious. I don't know if it's from the same thing as it was a couple years ago, or if this was a new piece of cheat grass or splinter.

John asked me to hitch up the trailer for him today so he could practice loading Cisco before they go to their lesson on Wednesday. He's showing a serious interest in working with his horse! I love this! Cisco was a good boy. He is worried about the trailer, but he loaded well many times. The only time there was a problem was when I hooked his lead through the Blocker tie ring. He just backed right on out of the trailer when I turned to leave him there. So then I hard tied a rope and John loaded him and snapped it on his halter and shut him in the divider. He did some serious leaning trying to back up, but it helped when we stood and petted him, me at his head outside and John rubbing his back inside. I think he's afraid of being alone in there.

I have a head cold and I'm alternating between feeling pretty good and staying busy, then feeling awful and wanting to crawl in bed. I think I better get Tonka's compresses and medication done early so I'm not exhausted and feeling sorry for myself later. Have a good night!

Tonka can be a horse again! I am soooo glad. He's been crying from his quarantine, weird noises that don't even sound like a horse.

The good news is that it's not strangles, the bad news is there is a type of fungi in there that is hard to get rid of. They're having me put him on antibiotics for a month. A MONTH! With my sister's recent kidney failure diagnosis in her horse, due to antibiotics, this scares me. Granted, these are not the heavy duty antibiotics, but he hasn't told me yet what kind we're going to use for the majority of the time, just to use what I have until we get results back on what will work best for this contaminant.

I'm elated and bummed at the same time. But it will be so great to see him back in with his buddies! I'm going to head out there right now to move him.