Mustang Saga

Soxy and Grace are living together now, and they're settling in really well. Grace is so much more comfortable with life now that she has a friend who can't disappear over the hill. She's started to look good again since she's not running the fence for a while every day.

Miss Curiosity

"You may scratch me here."

She is so funny how she presents herself to be scratched. She loves it. To the point where she almost falls down. Silly horse. If she'd be nicer to Soxy maybe her horse buddy would groom her, but she's too busy bossing the poor old lady around.

Yesterday I finally had time to ride Cisco after getting him back from the people who briefly bought him. He's ruined. I couldn't even ride him in the round pen without a big fuss. Same old tricks that he used to do occasionally - scooting to the side, balking, not stopping, not turning, walking into things to get his way - but it's constant and he's more persistent now that he's gotten away with it. Someone with time and patience and skill could ride it out of him, but I'm afraid he'll fall over one of these days when he insists on going the wrong way. What I've decided to do is to try to sell him as a pack horse. He was apparently a very steady pack horse before we got him. Or he'd make an exceptionally sweet pet. He loves to snuggle and he's pretty easy to take care of.

Oh! Speaking of his good points. I've never cleaned his sheath even though it definitely needed it because I thought he'd kick me. Yesterday I cleaned it (halfway up to my elbow in smegma) and removed two enormous beans without a fuss. He just stood there with his eyes closed. He lifted his leg at me a couple times with the beans because it hurt, but it was just a gentle, "Please stop," not a kick. I imagine his nether regions feel much better now.

After I put him up, when I went out to hitch up my trailer I saw a herd of deer taking off at full speed on the far side of the horses' pasture. I wasn't paying much attention, just hitching up, so when I walked by the horses and noticed the fence was broken I was pretty surprised. I think it may have been the deer. It was just one strand of electric rope. So I walked in and caught Cisco, leaving Tonka loose because I knew I could trust him not to do anything stupid. Cisco is now in the diet pen. He needed a diet anyway.

Mr. Herdbound:

Here's what my crazy wild horse looks like when he gets loose.

He sure is a fiery one.

I put him in with his good buddies Bella and Scout. He was happy. Poor Cisco, if only he wouldn't beat up the mares he could be out in the big pasture too.

Today is the Mustang Club ride at Heyburn State Park. I'm worried about riding in the heat, for both me and Tonka. It's supposed to get up to 88 today, and I don't think we'll be in the shade. (Yes, I'm a pansy when it comes to heat.) If we don't feel well I guess we'll turn back early.