I had just gotten done mentioning that the footing outside is no good for walking, much less horse training, when I went out and haltered Tonka and proceeded to fall spectacularly on my butt. Tonka didn't know what to think of it. He scuttled backwards away, and I felt his hoof lightly against my thigh. I'm glad he didn't step on me. Then he stood there and looked at me with his big goofy face, asking why the heck I was on the ground, while I took stock of my situation. I thought I might have hurt my left wrist, but not badly, and as I pushed snow out of the way I realized I was on a thick layer of smooth ice under the snow. I crawled forward a bit trying to judge the extent of the ice, and considered crawling all the way back to solid ground. I figured the neighbors might drive by and think I was strange, so I went ahead and got up and walked back very carefully. I HATE walking on ice. I would never want to ski. I just don't get into the sliding thing. I guess I'm probably just a klutz. And it turns out my wrist is totally fine. My back is sore, but it was hurting pretty bad before the fall, so that probably wasn't the cause.

A hoofprint in the snow, before the thaw and re-freeze that brought the ice.

Once we got back to halfway decent ground, I asked him to do some basic stuff, just involving a few slow steps at a time, while Bella finished her alfalfa. (She's eating it now, yay!) Then I scratched him all over, looked at his teeth, let him go and scratched him some more.

Then I went and rubbed on Bella, haltered her, scratched her all over, unhaltered her, looked at her teeth, scratched her some more. She is such a sweetie, and so mellow.

According to her teeth, she is exactly the age she was supposed to be, coming up on turning 3.

Tonka is losing his incisors in the corners of his mouth, which is right on schedule too. He should have them all grown in by 4.5 yrs old. His canines are pretty prominent now compared to last June when they were teeny little points just poking through.

So, now you know what I was up to when I wasn't actually working today. It was a wonderful break, standing in the sun with my sweet mustangs.

Bella Baby Belly pictures for you!

Take a look at this horse, he looks just like Tonka! You should adopt him! Free shipping within 4oo miles of Burns, Oregon this month!

Baby kicked me! Bella is definitely pregnant. He/she rolled all over under my hand, kicked and thumped, disappeared for a while and then came back. It was so cool! I love baby movements. It brought tears to my eyes. I pressed on him/her to get more movement, and that kind of ticked Bella off, the two of us socializing through her belly. Oh how I wish I had x-ray vision glasses and could look in and see! Her herd is known to have lots of pintos, but all the horses at the adoption were pretty much solid, so I don't know... Hope it's built well too.

So, since I'm feeling movement, she's at least six months along. Which I pretty much could have guessed, since she was gathered in late July. That does narrow it down a bit though. I suspect she's further along than that, but I'm no expert.

I STILL can't entice her to eat any alfalfa. Remember, she's only 2, so she's growing herself and her baby. I want to make sure she has every chance possible to reach her full potential.

Now I need to start thinking about adding another strand or Horse Guard Fence so baby can't escape under the fence.

So exciting!

This evening I went out and played with Bella a bit. Well, she wouldn't have called it play, she had a little bit of a hard time... We got a little stuck with her trying to walk to far ahead of me, but when we finished that was all worked out and she stayed put right where she was supposed to, except sometimes when turning with her on the inside of the turn. Before that we disengaged hindquarters then practiced Chris Cox's "direct and drive" which is like lunging except you only move them in a half circle. Backed up with a meaningful look and finger shake at the point of her shoulder. Practiced walking over poles. THAT was not an easy one. But we got to where she'd do it pretty well. In one direction she tended to bowl into me with her shoulder. On the last couple trips across she slowed down and walked nicely. By then it was dark. I let her go (oh, by the way, she was totally easy to catch, walked right up to me) and then she waited at the gate to be let back into her small pen so I could feed her. Gave her a little alfalfa, I'd really like to get that worked back into her diet, but the darn horse doesn't like it! She wouldn't eat pellets this morning either. Too weird. She loves her Calf Manna and Black Oil Sunflower Seeds though! Thank goodness I finally found something she's eager to eat. I'd really like to get the added calcium and protein of alfalfa into her though in case she's carrying a baby. I'll figure something out eventually...

I leave you with a photo of our culinarily disabled horse refusing an apple slice. (Tonka really enjoyed eating her share too though!)

The title of this post shall be I Ponied My Giraffe While Riding Bella,or Picture Overload. (Don't forget you can click on the picture for a larger version. Some just don't look like much all small like that...)

Bella: Ears:

EARS! LOL!:

Really trying to schmooze the lady:

Hi Mom!:

See what I mean about the giraffe?:

Pretty Bella, restful picutre:

"Can I come over?":

Bella Belle Belly from Behind:

He wants a piece of that dog:

Landing pheasant tracks, too cool!:
Bye bye now:

Here's my big handsome goof watching the four wheelers (turned out not to be a snowmobile).

Here's Bella's pretty self. My camera really doesn't pick up color well in the snow. There's probably a setting I don't know about that will compensate for that. I'm a lazy picture taker.

Here's what I found sleeping in my bed yesterday, a little while after my son left the room. Angus LOVES to sleep in my spot. Not sure why he's always dirtying up MY side of the bed...

Here's a cute (if fuzzy) picture of Maya, telling me all about how she loves to help with chores.

I spoke too soon about Tonka being well. I assumed, based on poo piles and a lack of nastiness in his tail and on his back legs, that things had firmed up. He had a little squirt while I was out there though. Very little. I think he is improved a lot, if not totally well.

It is a BEAUTIFUL day! The sun is shining, the wind is gone, and Tonka is well! I buried my face in his warm furry shoulder and inhaled his good horse smell and sent a huge wave of gratitude and joy out into the world.

Bella is having another taste of freedom today. She wouldn't go out the gate by herself so I grabbed some baling twine and wrapped it around her poll and helped her through. She and Tonka are happily munching away together, curiously watching the guy who's trying to unstick his snowmobile up on the road.

I think I'll go take some pictures before I start cleaning up the house for our little New Year's get-together tonight. Be back later!

I'm just dropping in to give a quick Tonka update. He seems about the same, diarrhea may be slightly improved. He's happy and was enjoying many kisses from my daughter earlier. Have a wonderful evening!

He had a couple roundworms and a couple tape worm eggs. Not too bad really, but she did want me to worm him now with a product that contains praziquantel. Luckily I was going to do that in a couple weeks anyway so I had Quest Plus on hand. It goes against all my instincts to give wormer when he's already feeling bad, but she said it won't hurt and should help. I wormed him just now so I'll have plenty of time to watch him before bedtime. That stuff smells BAD and I'm sure tastes even worse. He's getting tired of the tubes of icky stuff I'm thrusting into his mouth. He doesn't seem to mind the Probios too much, but all the rest - Ick.

Just now I went out again to check Tonka's water levels. Still the same as they were after his big drink this morning. He was looking depressed so I let him out. He took a small drink out of the trough and then followed me all over the place. Ate some snow. He checked out the sound his lip made on my coat, all the while not looking at me as if I'd not notice his sneaky wiggling lip if his attention was directed elsewhere. I decided to let him out into the big pasture until feeding time. I marked the trough where the water is now, and it's not currently heated so I know the water's not going to evaporate away. Still no word on the poo I sent to the vet this morning. Starting to wonder if they forgot me. I'd like to know if I need to get him some pepto or something. I think I'll go call them.

Ugh, what a morning! I can't believe it's not a lot later than it is. I've been trudging around in the snow forever.

Tonka is fine, well, as fine as could be with awful diarrhea. He's in his little pen, drank 4-5 gallons in the last 12 hours. When you add the water that's in his soaked hay, I think that's enough.

I looked all over the place in my tack/feed area for the electrolyte paste I had forgotten I had. I couldn't find it anywhere. My tack room is a lot more organized now though... Then I remembered the first aid kit in my trailer. Duh! Trudged way out there through the ever deepening snow (6-10 inches) and found not only the electrolytes, but also a whole tube of Banamine! I can't believe I forgot about that and sent my husband out into a snow storm to get some. Then drove to town on bad roads with my kids the next day to get more. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I guess I don't keep my head on straight in times of emergency as well as I thought I did. So now I have 2 tubes (6 doses) of Banamine that I hope I never have to use, that will expire at some point. The stuff isn't cheap...

THEN I decided to fill troughs. Got the one that was 2 hose lengths from the house filled no problem. Dragged hoses around to the other end of the house, added a third hose, hooked it up, turned it on, had a blockage. Darn frozen hose! I did drain them well! I wonder if when it was raining cats and dogs, some water got in through the holes in the hose (that one has several duct taped leaks). Whatever... I ended up putting that hose in the trough with the tank heater, and bucketing the water out of Tonka's trough (which he isn't using) into the other to raise the water level over the coiled hose. It'll thaw pretty quickly that way. But I think I'll wait until tomorrow to tackle that job again.

So there you go. My life story for today. Now I'm off to do dishes and laundry and all kinds of other glamorous stuff. :)

Still not sure what's up with Tonka. I don't know if he's drinking. Now he has bad diarrhea. Taking a fecal sample to the vet tomorrow, and penning him up tonight so I can monitor him better. Hope he doesn't do anything stupid when he's stuck in a small area. I knew a young horse, three year old like Tonka now that I think about it, who was kept in a stall and run and died from it. He liked to rear and play and he got his foot caught between the panels of his pen and broke his leg almost clean off and bled until he was found in the morning. Then the vet got lost and he had to be there like that for another 45 minutes, although they did get his leg out. Lovely story eh... Sorry. But you see why I worry... Tonka covers a LOT of ground in a day, and rears and jumps around a bit. Penning him up freaks me out.

I'm still soaking his hay, giving him salt, and dosing him with Probios (good gut bugs, like yogurt for us humans).

I remembered another sure-fire way to make them drink. Put dish soap in their mouth. Going to try that when I go out to build the pen and feed.

Here's Tonka enjoying his nice warm, wet hay. I soak it for a couple hours in hot water in a sealed container so it'll steam the hay that isn't submerged (I can only lift so much water...), then I drag it out in the toboggan and dump it in there for him. I leave the water with the hay rather than draining it like you would with a horse who needs limited sugars. He doesn't drink the water though.

And here's Bella eating her breakfast. She's a good, pretty girl.

I think Tonka is fine! Hooray! He's still on limited rations, with his hay soaked to get more water into him. But I found 5 fresh poop piles out there tonight. Poop is a beautiful thing. Especially well-hydrated poop.

Bella was being a real sweetheart tonight. Standing droopy eyed and relaxed while I untangled her mane. (I got some Cowboy Magic detangler for Christmas, but keep forgetting to take it out with me). Then I checked her bag (or lack thereof), and rubbed some of the crusty dirt off of it. She loves that.

I really enjoy spending quiet time with the horses when it isn't feeding time. Just standing, exchanging breath. It's wonderful.

He's doing much better now. Standing wondering why he can't eat with his friends. Much better than trying to lie down constantly, groaning, glazed eyes, not a care for his surroundings.

I'm checking him pretty constantly, and will give him another dose of banamine at midnight per vet's instructions.

Merry Christmas!

Tonka is colicking tonight. I'm taking a break from the walking while I wait for a call back from the vet. My husband braved nasty roads and a white-outs to get us some banamine from my sister. He's taking over the walking for a bit too.

Send us thoughts of wellness! I think he's improving, he looks a little brighter and isn't trying to lie down as much.

Tonka is fine today. His normal, perky, hungry self at feeding time. He took off at a nice trot halfway across the property to join Soxy and Mack since I don't need him with Bella right now. I checked his front feet anyway, since that's where his hesitation seemed to come from last night. Thanks to the snow his hooves were pristinely clean. Looks like he may have had a small abscess that surfaced in his heel bulb. Very small, very clean, not tender to touch, so I'm not worried about it at all.

Soxy on the other hand... I found a bunch of drops of blood in the snow and couldn't track down the source. Mack was very offended at my groping. Then I watched Soxy eating and saw her dribbling blood. Great. But it wasn't a tooth or anything horrible. A nice-sized cut under her lip. The bleeding has all but stopped now, and she's eating fine, so I'm just going to keep an eye on it. I took Katia out to see what had happened, since it's her horse, and she was very disturbed by the blood. I told her that she better toughen up if she's going to own horses when she's old enough to be the one responsible for their care. They do tend to be accident prone!

Tonka was sure acting strange tonight. He'd take a step forward, stop with his head up in the air, then take another step forward, stop, step, stop. Then when I went around the shed to feed him he stood in front of it, pawing, before coming to where I was. Then he walked normally but stopped and snorted a fair amount, and walked sideways a bit. I don't get it. I looked him over as well as I could in the dark and muddy rainy nastiness, and I didn't see anything wrong. I can't wait to get a good look at him in the morning. Bella also was pawing through her hay, which I've never seen her do before. Hopefully they're just feeling silly tonight.

My innocent, sweet little girl escaped last night. Not really escaped, just went into the bigger pasture with Mack and Soxy. She must have scooted under the temporary fence. Poor Tonka was standing there all forlorn and sad because he'd been left behind. I'm sure he probably thinks of Bella as "his" mare, and there she was hanging out with another gelding.

She was easy to catch, and I put her back in with Clara. I'm just too busy to worry about her over the next several days.

Miss free bird.

Sorry for the dismal pic of the frozen mud. She's standing in the highest traffic area, and the weather today isn't exactly inviting. She stayed in overnight and seems pretty darn happy where she is. I've been loving on her a lot today. What a good girl. Now I'm off to go drain hoses. Yay, such fun on a bitingly cold, windy day.

Bella has graduated to pasture living! Yay! I'm a little apprehensive about leaving her out overnight, but it has to be done sometime... She's very afraid of the fence, so I think she'll be fine. She and Tonka are in the same small section of pasture, so she has a buddy I know won't push her around.

I am way exhausted tonight, so I'm going to leave you with that short bit of info.