Just Playing. :)

Today I took Soxy for a ride out at Melissa's. Tonka got the day off thanks to an abscess that is brewing under his jaw. I really think it's just caused by cheat grass or something since he doesn't seem the least bit sick, but just in case, I left him home.

It was fun to ride Soxy, she's just a steady old horse. She was kind of eager to move out, which is funny because she's so out of shape and gets winded so easily. But I'm glad she had fun.

Here are some of the sheep. They all cleared out when they saw us coming, so this was the best picture I could get.

Melissa's sweet Angus. Isn't he just the cutest dog?He sings with her donkey, Peaches. And he's an excellent livestock guardian.

My sweet Angus. Isn't he just the cutest dog?

He was giving me puppy dog eyes because he wanted food and he knows he's not allowed to whine at me or I won't feed him. He is an excellent eater of food.

They don't know that I think they're both the cutest. But they are.

Oh, and in other news... Tonka got his jaw clipped. He is very afraid of the clippers. His legs were shaking and he was kind of jumpy, but he stood still for me like a good boy and let me get the job done. That'll make it a lot easier to see what's going on when the abscess ruptures or I lance it. Will keep it cleaner too. Then I moved him in the dark, took him up to the front door to recruit help and put him out in the mustang pen all alone. I hate making him live by himself. Hauled him some water and gave him lots of hay and called it a night with him. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get a sample of the goo so the vet can culture it. I'd hate to have strangles on the place and not know it, go about my business and end up infecting other horses. So I'm going to cover my bases.

Today Cisco redeemed himself after his bad day last week. He had decided that instead of getting into the trailer he was going to spin and bolt. I couldn't stop him and he got away 3 times. Tried more often than that, but I'd found a way to anchor him with a long rope and stop him. He still kept trying though. So today when I got home I decided to try loading him with Soxy already in the trailer. He loaded very well. A little skeptical at first, he had to back out a couple times, but then he stood in there with me very nicely while I fawned over him and told him he was a good boy. Then I put him away.

That's my horsey day!

Melissa got a couple of good pictures of us today. In this one I think I was grinning because Tonka was a dork and jumped the creek, so we were going back in.

Here he's in the water and we're going to stop and stand for a minute.Still in the water.Break time.

Checking fences. That black dot up ahead is Melissa on her horse. Tonka is poky and sometimes we fall back because he has to be "schooled." Usually for trying to eat.

Had a great ride today but didn't take Cisco. He was a bad boy. I may write about that later but I'm too tired right now.

I also took our big dog Angus in to the vet today. No big deal, just suspected joint pain. I also asked about some scabby things on Tonka and he thought maybe it was rain scald. I didn't know we had that here. I'm not sure whether to believe it... But he's the vet. So I'm supposed to spot treat it with iodine. Tonka also has a huge abscess under his jaw that's about to pop. I thought it was a swollen gland. It's been there for months but just in the last week doubled in size. He did this two years ago also and I got all worked up worried about strangles. I'm not going to worry about it this time. It's probably cheat grass.