Just before the world decided to bring winter back, the dogs and I had a lovely little hike that really had me itching to get the horses out in the mountains.

We found a magic stump! There were no faeries in it, they probably heard us coming and scampered off.

How wonderfully beautiful the world is.

Seriously.

Huckleberry can't see a bit of water without getting into it up to his belly.

Even if it means he has to lay down.

And even if there are icicles. It was below freezing.

As much as it pains me to report, the next day Duncan went to a new home. He now lives in Montana with a family that needs hypo-allergenic horses. He has two curly mares for company and they're all settling in together quite well. He will be a mountain horse, hunting in the Bob Marshall and probably doing a lot of the same sort of stuff he would have done here, but with someone who has the time and gumption to train him right. He has a good training plan and won't rush him. He's given me a couple of updates so far. I'm glad he's happy to stay in contact. And I am glad Duncan has a chance to be the horse I know he can be with a different rider.

Sawyer and Juniper were having trouble acclimating to his leaving, so I moved them to an entirely new pasture with no mud and lots of (teeny tiny) grass so they'd be distracted from the change.

I still feel like a kid with Sawyer. We saddle up and just goof around. Go look at the leavings of a Coyote kill, pick up some cool feathers. I see something I need to do so I get off and fill a trough or something, let him graze, grab something I need to move, mount back up and we take it to where it needs to go, etc. Just doin' stuff.

Juniper just loves to be loved. And grass and sunshine. She loves those too.

I sold my Synergist saddle so I could get one that actually fits Sayer and won't kill me like the heavy roper does.  I saw a Sharon Saare "B tree" that sounded like the perfect fit for his back and I jumped on it. Big leap of faith. PayPal of a lotta money, it shipped from a lady in Texas and got home at dusk on a snowy day. Of course I had to put it on him immediately.

It fits!

I need to ride it more to know for sure. I've ridden less than 10 minutes in it thanks to the bad footing. No sense taking a chance hurting my old man in the slippery snow.

It's beautiful! The wild rose tooling on the back of the pommel and cantle is gorgeous. I'm it's second owner. The lady I got it from ordered every little detail exactly how she wanted it.  She sent me a copy of the original receipt/order slip. It must have been very hard to let go of.

The weather is terrible now. Snow, snow, snow. Yuck. Those trails will have to wait. One thing I do know for sure though, the snow will eventually melt and the ground will firm up and it will be summer again!

Loving My Horse

Sawyer is so cool. We ride around, do obstacles, look in the kitchen window while John is doing dishes, pick things up and move them around the property. He just takes it all in stride.

He isn't totally an old plug, I learned on our first trail ride of the year. He knows exactly where the trailer is at all times. He'd like to suggest, as often as possible, that we head back that way. And he does go faster once he's headed toward it.  Not in a jiggy way though, and he does slow down when I ask. It's something to work on. We all need something to work on, right?

What makes the difference between a horse who loves to explore and a horse who can't wait to get back? My main long term trail horses, Scout and Tonka, have loved to explore, but they were always my horses, never belonged to anyone else, and they like my company pretty well. With time will Sawyer feel the same way? He likes me but I'm clearly not as cool as a horse in his book.  He has gotten to where he'll leave the others to come to me even when it's not feeding time, so that must mean I'm not chopped liver. He must know I'm going to saddle him up & still he comes in. :)

I'm on a saddle quest right now. Wish me luck. I didn't know it would be this hard. I need a lightweight saddle that fits him better. Every time I ride right now I end up with a headache for at least 24 hours. I weighed the saddle I ride him in and it's 42 pounds. I tried out a nice light 24 pound saddle and it was perfect but it didn't fit him. It was a lovely ride though, much more close contact than the roper.  I'm really looking forward to riding a different saddle.

Dancing

Today my dance partners were so much fun, and all so different. Sawyer is the old guy learning new tricks.

He's super trustworthy and great at the basics, but I wanted to work on body control - moving his haunches and forequarters independently, eventually sidepassing and opening the gate correctly. I also wanted to work on lateral and vertical flexion and softness in a bit that is new to him. It's Tonka's old bit, which is a shanked curb bit like Sawyer is used to, but has swiveling shanks and mouthpiece so you can use it for lateral movements.

We made good basic progress, and will work on it more on other days. One thing I love about Sawyer is how much he loves to get the release and hear, "good boy." It's pretty sweet. He was distracted today - it's super windy! Any other horse I probably wouldn't have even ridden. But even distracted, he hunted for the release and we had a lovely quiet time playing give and take.

Besides the honor of carrying Tonka's bit, he also wore my sister's special handmade bridle that is now my special bridle. He doesn't know how priceless his head is. :)

Miss Juniper really wanted to come out and play, so we did. She loaded in the trailer like a pro. You'd never know how hard we hand to fight to have to learn that dance move.

She's still a little nervous in there but we just stand around and cuddle and it's not so bad.

Then we did some body control on the ground, and it's as if she's always known how to yield her fore-and hindquarters and back up nicely. Lateral flexion was just a bit hard at first today, though, thanks to Scout and Bella racing around in the wind. And she remembered how to circle around me, even though she was nervous about the sound of metal banging in the wind. It was rough, but it wasn't bad. We can dance without offending each other.

I picked her hooves when I put her away. She hates that, but she tolerates it. This time I think she hated it less. Maybe I imagined it. Maybe she's growing up?

Then Duncan wanted to be part of things. One thing led to another and I found him happily volunteering to be haltered. He was so happy to be the chosen one this time! Oh my gosh how we dance! The lightest touch, like he's reading my mind. I just put him through a quick imaginary "demo" because I actually placed an as for him today. :( He would be happy to have someone more devoted to him, who can train him further. We've done so much but I can't ride him. I just hope I can find the right someone. If I can't, he stays.

It's fun to think back on how things that are now second nature used to be so hard. Some things that are hard now are easy when I let my muscle memory take over. I don't know if that's normal or part of the brain injury. And of course some things that I can't do now, I'll be able to do someday in the future.  I just have to keep learning! Which is often hard for an old stick in the mud like me. But no matter what, when you have good dance partners, it's worth it.

Feeling Well!

I'm back in the saddle after being sick for at least 2 months. It's nice to be able to walk to the barn without tiring or coughing, and even saddle up and ride.

John and Scout even went with me one day!

We've just been riding at home but there's enough to look at here for now.

Sawyer likes to keep an eye on his buddies.

We toured all the ponds and rode along the creek.

Then he got to eat a little grass and some extra feed. He also got to enjoy a day in the sun without his blanket!

Next it was Juniper's turn. She's actually been wanting to be haltered lately. We went for a long wander. Not really a walk. That implies purpose. We just kinda wandered, looked around, snacked on some weeds. Well, she snacked. I'm not really into woody browse.

Llama-donkey. Llamburro.  Burrama.

The Peanut Pond. Maybe. I tried naming all the ponds today. I'm not very good at it. Other options for this one are Peace Pond or Owl Pond. I found myself naming them after their shapes which I don't really love. This one is peanut shaped.

Down by the creek we spooked up a bunch of pheasants.

She carried my coat and it blew up over her ears and head at one point. If she was a horse I'd have had a runaway at this stage of training.  But she's a donkey so she just thew her head up and the coat fell back and I fixed it.

 Next we pulled out the pack saddle for the first time. She did so well! I thought she'd hate it but she just thought it was weird.

We did everything in increments.

Baby blue is definitely her color.

I bought this cheap pack saddle used, and it was adjusted almost perfectly for her, even though it had been used on horses. Must have been small horses. We started by cinching it up and walking around a lot, then added the breastcollar.

Eventually we got all the straps in place, even the britchen, and walked around a bit. I am so proud of her! She did great and she didn't act like a spoiled princess at all. :)

I've decided she must have lost the baby sometime earlier in her pregnancy when it wasn't viable and coyotes took it. Now that I think that, she'll probably drop a baby.  But at this point it's doubtful. I'm totally OK with that. We can move on with plans for the future.

Fun with Photos

I really like using the Photo Lab app to make my furry friends look like art. :)

Bella Peace

I sure do love my Bella, but you wouldn't know it from the miniscule amount of time I spend with her. Farrier visits every 6-8 weeks, deworming every now and then, the occasional belly rub. I had definitely let her mane get into a terrible tangled mess again. I didn't take a picture until I'd already untwirled and untwisted and mostly untangled it.

It was nice to get her away from the always invasive Scout and spend a little one-on-one time.

We decided to hide from the wind in a tight spot in one of the grain bins.

We must've been in there for at least an hour. It was nice and quiet and warm.

She didn't mind, it was an all-you-can-eat buffet.

If Scout doesn't eat her braids her mane ought to stay nice for a little while.

False Alarm

Maybe she had a belly ache.

I stalled her with a nice bed and checked on her every few hours even though by bedtime I was pretty sure nothing was happening. Can't be too careful when it's cold. It was in the low 20s with a cutting damp breeze. Yuck.

I'm starting to think maybe it would he worth my while to run that pregnancy test again. If she did slip the foal I could just move on with my life. And if she didn't, I could be more careful. Or maybe she'll give us a baby today and I can stop wondering. ;)

Happy New Year!

Signs of Foaling? I'm Crazy?

Today I spent quality time in daylight with Juniper for the first time in what seems like forever. So it's hard to say if there has been a sudden change or not, but she looks skinny and kind of poorly in the hind end. Which could be a sign that foaling is coming. When the baby moves into the birth canal the belly gets smaller, looking like mom isn't pregnant all the sudden. Also, to prepare for birth the muscles of the hind end relax, which gives a sunken look around the croup. Before Scout was born I could actually feel him moving up under the muscles on either side of Bella's tail. I felt for that today with Juniper, but it's hard to say... What I felt may well have been her own muscle movement. Her vulva is slightly darker with a bit of discharge. Still able to clamp her tail but it may he slightly weaker. No bag at all. No change in behavior or eating habits.

It could all be in my head but I'm a little excited. On my Only Donkeys group on Facebook a donkey who was rescued 14 months ago just had the cutest baby, and bagged up just the day before. So Juniper is definitely not beyond the possible range of giving birth.

Right now daytime temps are above freezing and it's not terrible at night, so I guess this is an okay time to foal, if she has to do it in winter.

Oh! And she's shedding! Spring will eventually come. :)

Pneu NO nia

I've been sick for so long I finally went to the doctor.  I thought they'd tell me to go home, I have a cold. Not so.  I don't know what I have but it's not pneumonia. They gave me some treatments at the doctor, then I brought home $120 worth of prescriptions (after insurance paid their part) and a list of OTC stuff to take too. My lungs and sinuses and ears are full of shit and I'm not taking in enough oxygen. The doctor didn't give me a word for it and that drives me nuts. Is it bronchitis? I don't know.  Phlegmcrud sleepy-yuck, maybe.

BUT on the good side I will definitely not be contagious for Christmas so I can spend it with my sister, who has already started cancer treatment and can not be exposed to germs.  Happy dance for sister time!

No sign of baby donkey coming. She tells me no secrets, no matter how nicely I ask.

Poor Winston

He got a boo-boo. And of course it happened when our clinic wasn't open and my boss lady had a million appointments of her own to take care of. Luckily I know every vet in a 100 mile radius. Or so it sometimes seems anyway. :)

He was quietly cuddling with me on the couch and suddenly started frantically wiping eye boogers off his face and rubbing his eye. Weird place to have a crisis. He would not leave it alone so we had to cone him, poor guy. I couldn't see a puncture. So the way he wouldn't open his eye made me pretty sure there was something still in there even after I flushed it and put ointment in there, hoping it would float out.

The vet didn't find anything other than a slight abrasion on the cornea, probably from all the frantic rubbing he'd been doing. But I've had them not find anything before and had a grass seed float out days later, so I knew it could still be hiding. 

Yesterday at work Deb wiped an eye booger off his face with something small and hard in it and he was suddenly miraculously holding his eye open again and not trying to rub at his eye. Thank goodness! It can't stand when they're in pain and I can't help them. 

A Fun Time was Had by All

 It's not too terribly cold and the fog is making for some gorgeous frost in the mornings.

Feeding time is everyone's favorite. Bella and Scout have one pasture all to themselves:

Sawyer gets separated twice a day for his good grub. They all know the drill so it goes pretty smoothly. Juniper and Duncan stay out while I shut the doors, and Sawyer paces like a hungry dragon while I mix up his supplements.

Juniper will happily leave her food for some good lovin'.

Huckleberry stands perfectly still for ages when hunting mice. It's crazy how much noise they make when you sit still and listen.

In the afternoon it warmed up enough for Sawyer to take a break from his blanket. This is what happens when I try to take his picture to show you how nice he looks:

Because why would I want anything other than an ass in my face?

This is the best I could get. He has gained a lot of weight. His back is nicely covered.

Here I wanted to take a picture of my pasture parade - Duncan first, then Sayer, then Juniper, but as soon as I stopped of course Juniper got out of line, Duncan didn't ground tie, and Sawyer was just kind of not sure what was going on. Still, not a bad picture of Duncan's glossy curls!

Duncan came out with me and played. A fair amount of work with the flag moving on and above his back while he was moving, and then circling around me as I stood above him on my mounting table in the field. We kept it mostly relaxed but for him it was uncomfortable. I made sure he didn't shut down, he was tense at times but still blinking and he appeared to be thinking.

Juniper wanted to come out and graze, but instead we did a tiny bit of lunging practice and then loaded in the trailer. You wouldn't have known it had been 10 months since she last loaded. She looked around and loaded right up. Then she got to graze.

Scout came out too. He was so happy to be chosen for once, he practically shoved his head in the halter. Then he was kind of a turd, rooting and pushing and generally needing a reminder about manners. He really thought he needed to eat grass. But he remembered his manners pretty quick.

Bella didn't come out to play but she doesn't mind. She's entirely happy being left to her own devices, and she remembers her manners without tuneups. She's been lame this past week but she's feeling better now. I'm pretty sure she kicked/stepped on her heel bulb. Either that or it was an abscess but there was no heat in the hoof. Either way, she's walking well now.

I sure do love these guys. Not sure what I'd do without them!