Wanna bet?

Thanks for th kind comments about my poor head. I will get better. :)

On another note, wanna bet on what color my horse is? I still don't have the DNA results back, and I'm stumped.

Here's his lineage, with color in parentheses:

Note his mom is listed as a red dun but there's no dun in her background. I think those buckskins are actually dun. Here she is:

http://www.dreamsweptfarm.com/horses/q-z/wyndi/wyndipic.html

Oh my gosh I just found a baby pic of Duncan!

HE'S SO CUTE I'M GONNA DIE!

Here he is sometime later, with a different name and missing part of his ear:

They're not glamour shots, but here are pics from today:

 Notice how the tips of the hairs are dark, then they're goldish, and the summer coat is dark. And he's filthy. :)

He has been on a good daily vitamin mineral supplement for 6 months, so he shouldn't be deficient in copper, but he could be, and he definitely could have been when he grew his winter coat.

Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but I don't like not knowing, and since we'll know soon, it's fun to guess. What do you think? Faded black? Smokey black? Sooty dun or grulla? Really dark chestnut? Brown? I can't even commit to a guess.

Updated to add eye pics:

The lighter stripes in his eyes under his pupil are interesting.

Head Injury Sucks

So I'm all confused, sometimes have trouble speaking (no so you'd necessarily notice, but I notice), and I get nauseous and dizzy if there's too much going on around me. I have to have someone double check me at work, to make sure i don't give any patients the wrong dose. I write down the wrong numbers, skip or transpose letters. All small stuff, but so very frustrating. And the ER doc didn't put down on my paperwork that I had a concussion or a TBI. Although he did use those words in person. Actually, I haven't gotten the record for my second visit yet, maybe he will say it in that one. I had an MRI done on Tuesday just in case, and it was good. I just need to take the time to heal.

It could be a lot worse. And most of the time I'm positive and thankful. I'm just a little whiny right now. Wish I could take the day off and rest. But I have all weekend for that.

I've still been spending time with the horses, grooming and just hanging out. It keeps me grounded. :)

Farrier Visit

Duncan did great! He was worried and tried to be evasive at first, but the farrier just stuck with him and it was no big deal.

Scout and Bella were angels. But he pointed out the obvious - they are too cresty and shouldn't be on grass 24/7.

Pedro was bad! He trimmed him tied to the trailer so I wouldn't get hurt with him pulling on me. He has the opinion that mules and donkeys will pull right out of their owner's hands. (My sweet, innocent Pedro? Never.) I ended up happy he did it that way. He was good until the last foot, when he decided to try to fall on the farrier and ended up sitting on his own butt, twice. He was good after that. Reminded me of when I first trimmed him and Bob. They were bad! We worked it out. I'm sure Pedro will be better next time.

I like this farrier. Scheduled him again. Nice guy, on time, and does a good job. Amazing.

Random pics from tonight:

Happy but Hurting

Having an experience like being rear-ended and pushed into oncoming traffic, knowing how easily everything could have changed, sure makes life even more gorgeous.

Yesterday I took some pain pills and went to a battle of the bands to vote for my niece's bluegrass band. That was lots of fun. All the bands were really great. I like the noisy punk/rock but I also love the bluegrass. Not really into country, but luckily there was only one country performer.  My niece's band won! They get to perform at a music festival here this summer.

I haven't done anything with the horses since the wreck, but here are a couple pictures from Wednesday. Driving in the saddle:

Duncan has an issue with certain things happening while he's moving, like things crossing his back or sometimes me switching from side to side behind him as he turns in the driving lines. He'd prefer to stand still and pretend nothing worrisome is happening. Walking forward while I throw a rope over his back or play my training stick across him like a bow on a fiddle - that makes him have to think about and decide whether to react to his fears. We made some very good progress on that. He was thinking it through, not jumping away, and doing a lot of processing in the pauses. This is something I want him to he totally OK with before I throw a leg over.

He got to eat some good, long grass afterward. The dogs had to join us too. :) Scout was jealous.

I had planned to trim everyone's hooves this weekend. I haven't been able to since before the surgery, and I finally felt like I could tackle the job, albeit reluctantly. Well, that's not going to happen after the crash. Luckily I do know of a farrier who actually does a good job. I've seen his good work around, and a couple vet friends and other knowledgeable friends highly recommend him. So I called him.

I don't like being that person who looks like a total flake, having let their horses get to the point where they need done NOW, and expecting a busy guy to come ASAP, especially when I'm not even his client. I also didn't want to whine and give him my whole sob story. But it looks like he did fit me in tomorrow. Unless something happens and he has to cancel. Cross your fingers for me. I'm so excited to have someone else do all the hard work!

Scary, but Could Have Been Worse

On Wednesday I got the go-ahead from my doctor to do whatever I want, including ride (I'd already ridden a couple times).

Then yesterday this happened:

Liam and I are OK. Today I'm happy to be alive. Hurting, but I'll take it over the alternative. Nothing broken, not even any blood. We were at a complete stop waiting to turn left, the other guy was going 50-60 mph in a big Dodge pickup. He didn't see us until the last instant.

My little car did us good. I'm so going to miss it. I've had it for 16 years and 360,000+ miles.

Not gonna go for a trail ride tomorrow like I'd planned. Walked an easy mile this evening and regretted it. :/ Head isn't quite right.

Liam is fine but had a panic attack today. Not sure how to help him other than to talk about it and try to reassure him. If he can't get through it I'll get some professional advice.

No Time to Write

I was going to write words to go with all the pics, but I haven't found time.

One thing I did want to say is that I got his ancestral DNA results back from Texas A&M. Good thing I did it just for fun, I don't find it super believable. #1 fjord or Icelandic horse, #2 Paso breeds, #3 Belgian heavy draft. I looked up the results other curlies have gotten, and nobody else got Paso breeds, but there were a couple fjord/Icelandic results and quite a few with Belgian or other draft influence.

Still waiting for results on the PSSM and other tests. I'm actually kind of looking forward to finding out what color he is. At this point I'm pretty sure he's not black.

Lots to say on a real keyboard

Oh, it feels so good to type on a real computer keyboard instead of trying to blog from my phone! My phone is dead at the moment...

We had another great hike today, 6 miles worth, out in the mountains.  No real water crossings this time, although there were a lot of puddles.  The trail was a little rutted from motorcycles, and we ran into two pairs of motorcycles while we were out there.  They were polite, but I still don't like running into them on that kind of trail.  Nowhere to go, and you're not sure if they're going to see you before they run you over.  It was fine, but Duncan was rattled after the second set.  The rest of the hike he was more worried.  Luckily we only had a little over a mile left.

He's a pretty sensible guy, paying attention to where he puts his feet, ducking under branches, looking to me for input.  I am really enjoying getting to know him better.  These hikes really put him outside his comfort zone, but he handles it really well.

He trailered great too!  I tied him in for the first time ever, to keep him from stepping on Scout who was in the first stall.  Scout, by the way, was a dancing turd all the way home.  Duncan didn't seem too bothered by it though.

John got to ride his horse as much as he wanted, for a first.  I'm still not allowed to ride (although I did ride briefly yesterday, which was probably a mistake).  He hiked and rode, to give Scout a break since he's super out of shape.  Scout was a rock star!  John is so tickled with him.  I love it.  I hiked the whole thing and I was a little achy internally toward the end. I'm taking it easy for the rest of the day.  Well, trying to.

I just got done moving Bella and Pedro to new digs.  John was awesome and dragged the water trough to the new location and ran billions of hoses out to get it filled.  Now they're out closer to the boys, and I don't have to go to two different locations to feed.

Yesterday I got my new saddle out and put it on Scout.  It's so light!  I didn't have any trouble throwing it up there, even in my unfit state.  I think it fit him too.  Honestly, I didn't check it super carefully.  He didn't mind it though.  I climbed on and toodled around in the field, then decided to cross the boggy ditch, which is about 2-3 feet wide.  He doesn't like boggy stuff, so he jumped it, and that barrel saddle horn kinda bumped me in the belly.  STUPID.  Right where my guts were rearranged.  It didn't hurt at the time but I ached all night, which of course made me worry.  Might have been from all the pulling on the lead rope, though, when I got down and insisted that he WALK across.  I won't ride again, at least not anywhere I might get into trouble, until I get the go-ahead.

Oh, but what I meant to say is that I really like my new saddle.  Comfy seat, closer contact, free-swinging fenders, light weight.  The only thing I don't like is that saddle horn.  If I end up keeping it I might cut the horn off.  That would pretty much make it impossible to re-sell, but I would feel safer. Or I wonder if I could just unscrew it from the tree and replace it with something better.  I didn't get any pics of Scout in my saddle because my phone is dumb and it totally crashed and deleted all my stuff.  John fixed it though.  He's so handy.  He also fixed my truck when it broke on the way home from our ride/hike today.  Just a blown fuse...

I better get going, my growing teenage son is starving to death, there are many dishes to do, and a bloody mary calling my name.

What a great day!  I wish they were all like this.

(Wrote this yesterday, forgot to publish until this morning.)

 We had a really nice hike today.

 He liked my sister's baby horse a lot.

 Then I pretended to tether him to a tree and let him graze. I just wrapped the rope around. It worked well even when he got his rope caught on his leg.

 He's such a good boy!

Here's a better pic of my sister's baby that shows her pretty blanket.

She's a Nez Perce horse, which is a cross between an appaloosa and an akhal teke. They're supposed to have excellent strength and stamina in the mountains, and good minds. Her name is Wesa (way suh). She's a super level-headed girl.