I took some pretty terrible pictures of our ride today. We had a lot of fun even though the weather was bad. We had wind and cold and some little hail (grauple?) but didn't get wet and eventually my toes thawed out. :) Seriously, it was a wonderful ride. I'd never ridden in this area before and it was really, really nice.

Here's my riding buddy. She's doing the John Wayne trail with me. Without her I wouldn't be going. I'm glad we met and started riding together, it's been great. Lovely picture, eh?

This one wasn't quite so bad. Nice view from way up there.

We rode about 14 miles today and Tonka didn't even break a sweat. Of course it was cold out, but I'm thinking he's getting pretty darn fit. I think I am too, although I'm still squishy around the middle. (I lost 6 pounds last week though!) I wasn't tired at all after our ride. A good ride tends to lift my spirits quite a bit!

Me boyo

We were ready for rain or cool weather and of course the sun shined rather hot. But it probably would have stormed if I'd left my slicker at home. The forecast and the sky looked pretty iffy.

We didn't ride very long today, I think about 3 1/2 hours, and I hope my riding partner wasn't too dissappointed in the length of our ride. I was tired and Tonka was tired too.

We did a little off-trail riding through the brush and I think Tonka really enjoyed it. At one point I'd decided to turn around and go back because the brush was getting so thick but he insisted he knew where he was going and he plowed down a rather large bush to prove the way was easier on the other side. He doesn't often defy me but if he thinks I'm making the wrong choice about where to go he makes it plain. He did that once before but I insisted we were turning around. Turns out we were within about 10 feet of the trail we were trying to get back to. He's really maturing and I like that he is so darn smart about picking a trail.

We've been riding in a halter our last 3 rides and I think he really likes that. But after his attitude today though I think I'll go back to a bit for a while. I was worried that I'd bothered his mouth the other day with my sister needing to stop a lot with no notice while we had the distraction of a pony horse, and he was really fussing with the snaffle so I gave him a break. Break's over now though I think. He was great in the halter other than snatching for grass and that one time ignoring me and plowing over the big bush. I just don't want him thinking he can ignore me.

As you can see in the photo we did a test run in the front size 3 Easyboots today and as I thought I remembered we had no trouble with traction or anything else. They fit perfect. I do think I need to cut the heel straps out. I don't need them anyway with the gaiter there to hold the boot on. I can't put his rear boots on until I get a replacement cable for the one that broke the other day.

Huck went with us today and it proved he still has some stuff to learn. This area was more open and he didn't have to stay on the trail, so he didn't. He spooked the horses a couple times but they need to learn I suppose. He'll get it figured out, he's darn smart.

Couple more pics my sister just sent me

Now I'm off to ride again.

Horse Camping

The geldings, happy

Boy with his first pocket knife. :)

The girls, also happy but with no grass.
Soxy can't do this again... She just can't breathe.

Cowboy on the "high"line. My sister is short. She had to climb up on something later to raise the highline.

My camera died, the rest are from John's phone.
Thank goodness for cell phones!

Getting ready. Some of us were on bikes & 4wheeler.

I can't explain this stupid look on my face. I wonder if I always have a stupid look on my face. I always seem to in pictures.

Up, Up and UP

Getting off the trail to let ATVs pass

She's smiling! And it got caught on camera! Miracle of miracles!

That's my boy on the back of the 4wheeler & my nephew on the bike.

View from the top.

Llama Tonka and pretty Gypsy.

Huck likes apples.
(It was his first trail ride and camping trip and he was so good.)

Amy and Cowboy heading down the trail. Bear Dog leading the way.

I decided what to do regarding Easyboots or shoes. I just can't trust a farrier with my boy's feet. Which is probably stupid, but I just can't. So I'll do Easyboots. I thought I needed 3's and 4's but it turns out I only need 2's and 3's. I have a pair of 2's and my sister has a pair of 3's she'll sell me. So now I need to sell my 4's. So if anyone knows anyone with a horse that has big feet in need of boots, my pair of Easyboot Epics (slightly used) is for sale for $100. The pair would cost $150+ new. I can't believe how much the price of Easyboots has gone up in the last few years. But it does make sense, since they last way longer than steel shoes. It would have cost me $125 for shoes and pads on all four and that would have only lasted 6-8 weeks (unless you'll settle for grown out hooves, which I won't). Plus I was so worried about the concussion on the steel shoes with his legs that already have splints.

So... Back to my trip. We get to do a parade! The Rosalia Battle Days parade is on the last day of our ride, June 5th (come see us!). I am so excited. So I get to conquer two things on my horsey to-do list. I am a little disappointed that we can't say we're doing the whole John Wayne ride but half is good for now. I can't be gone from the family for 2 weeks.

Rambling now... June 8th is my birthday and I've decided that this is going to be the best year ever because 3 is my favorite number and I'm going to be 33. Silly, I know. So I'm starting it off with a bang! I wouldn't be able to do this ride without some early birthday money, so it's all fitting. I am so excited! Did I say that already?

Life is going about a million miles an hour lately. In a good way. But it doesn't leave much time to blog or edit pictures to post, so I'm just going to hurry up and get it done. Been riding a lot.





Why are we riding so much (besides that it's super fun)? We're getting conditioned to ride the John Wayne Trail! Yee-haw! I am so excited. We're just going to do the second week of the ride, for a total of 117.5 miles. I might die. I might quit. But I might just do it and have a blast!

Small conundrum. I can shoe and pad my horse, or I can use easyboots. Either way I'll have to spend a lot of money. Shoeing would be easier, but will the steel shoes that he's never worn before cause him trouble? The concussion... The pads might alleviate some of that... Or I can do the Easyboots but if they don't work out (rubbing, interfering, twisting, etc) I'll have to quit the ride. Ugh... What would you do? I think I've decided to shoe, if the farrier will even agree to do it since he's not taking on new clients. I used to be his client but that was years ago. I don't know which other farriers are trustworthy.

This is the other thing keeping me busy:

Any Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fans out there? She got to pick her number. Am I raising a nerd? Nope - she's the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Mother's day was good. My family put aside their own preferences and went for a ride with me. All of us together riding out for the very first time! It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be, but it's never fun riding out from home. I'd prefer a trail ride any day, but I don't think we can cram all 4 horses into our 3 horse trailer.

This is the short treed section that connects the roads of the 4 mile loop. Liam was getting saddle sore and John got off to walk with him.
Dove got to go live next to the mares all day yesterday, and is out in the pasture with them today. Her and Bella are inseparable.

Now I've got to run. Softball games start today. Now I remember why springtime is so busy!

Disgusting!

I found a bot larva in Dove's poop. Gross. I've never seen one before. Wanna see? Well, I'm going to show you anyway.

I stole the picture from online, didn't feel like taking a picture of the one I found.

Now I have the heebie-jeebies. Funny the things that do and don't bother me. I also found lots and lots of small strongyles. Love to see those things dead! I'll worm her again in 3 weeks.

We had a busy day with no time for horses, other than to give them all their strangles vaccine. Next year the vet is doing that. NOT fun. Dove was fine and so was Tonka, but Bella and Cisco were stinkers and Scout was just plain bad. You'd think I was trying to kill him slowly and painfully, rather than just squirt something up his nose.

We had a nice hike today, me and the kids.

Before that I turned Dove out in a bigger area for a little while. I don't think she'd ever experienced and electric fence before.

She got to graze a bit before I put her back to poop out her worms in the mustang pen. I can't wait to see what she produces. Sick and wrong, I know. Oh, she took her wormer no problem. She thought it was kinda weird, but she was awesome. She was also really good about me looking at her teeth and kissing her nose.

So if she's a 3 year old, she's been starved, and she's 13.3-14 hands now, will she grow? I really hope so. I know the answer is we'll just have to wait and see, but what do you think? I think there's potential for some serious muscling on this girl, but I'd really like to see her grow UP. Judging by her temperament so far though, she might be a good kids' horse eventually.

By the way, according to the weight tape she's 688 pounds. Not too bad for her height. Judging by the Henneke condition scoring scale, she's probably a 3. So definitely not as bad as it could be. I think she was probably a 1 when she got to my neighbor's. They kept a blanket on her "so nobody could see how fat she was." When she gained enough that they took the blanket off I remember thinking she must be a severely emaciated 30 year old horse. She was just hair and bones. So much better now.

The vet gave me the go-ahead to start vaccinating her, slowly and with time between each one. So she'll get her strangles vaccine tomorrow (and so will everyone else here - I've been waiting for decent weather) and I'll pick up the other vaccines over the weekend and give them to her next week.

She has a really nice floaty trot. She was excited when I first turned her in next to the mares this morning and she was showing off a bit. She didn't do it enough for me to judge her soundness, but what I saw sure looked good.

I think she's older than we thought.

Baby teeth - two year old horse (Scout):

I'm thinking Dove, in the top picture (isn't her little nose cute?), might be a 3 year old... What do you think?

Lest you misunderstand, I guess I'll ramble a bit here.

I don't like to talk about religion and beliefs and all that. It's just not a public thing for me. It's too strong and maybe too unformed.

I used to think faith was for the weak minded. Now though, I think that faith and belief may be the most powerful things a person has. It's even upheld by science. I mean, if just being aware of something can change it, imagine what believing in it can do. We think we know so much about the universe, but from the little bit I've read about physics - we don't even know the fundamentals.

I believe in living life in a state of joyous expectancy. In a word, faith. Although I'm not always filled with joy, my faith rarely flags. This year has been hard, I'll admit. I'm not going to say what I have faith in, except maybe that all is well... Although it is more than that. But anyway...

To me, horses are deeply intertwined with all this fuzzy mysticism. And my accepting this poor broken filly that is lucky to be alive was part of the faith that all will be well. The fact that she lived through this strange and sad life of starvation and travel to end up here, with me, seems a bit like fate. So of course I wanted a special name for her, but nothing was right.

Today I trimmed her hind hooves. (Sorry, no pictures.) In between hooves we had a long session of grooming (horse type scratchy grooming, not grooming to get clean) and quiet affection. She's letting her guard down a little bit. Once she also tested the waters with pinned ears. :) While I stood there quietly rubbing her shoulder and chest, watching her face to make sure I had the best spot, her name came to me. Dove.

When I came in, I wasn't sure that was the right name. It just isn't something I would choose. I mentioned it to my sister when she had me look up the symbolism of a couple other birds. And so I looked it up too, and found this. "By a dove are signified the truths and goods of faith with him who is to be regenerated." The same page went on to say the turtledove signifies the "life of faith."

Yes, it's biblical, but it fits. I can't really say how it fits, because she is not my faith and I am not hers, but somehow by faith we will go through life and discover something transcendent together.

(Which isn't to say I'm going to keep her.)
(See, now I'm wanting to delete all this. Aaarrgh. But it's kinda neat? Or is it just out there? I guess I'll admit to being "out there" sometimes, and post it.)

I wish I could describe to you the strange feeling of this filly's flesh under her skin, especially under her belly where there's no soft muscle. The closest I can think of is how a newborn person feels. Too loose skin over a body with no excess fat. It feels so vulnerable. Brings out the concerned mother in me.

She's a neat girl. Interesting. At times she has an attitude but she's also easily scared.

"Feed me"

I trimmed her front feet today. Her feet are so bad. They look foundered, but she's just a baby.

Before

After

I'm most worried about this hind foot

Thin

Beautiful Girls!

There's been a lot of pasture shuffling here to figure out what would work best for Gypsy. Long story short, I finally opened the gate between the mares and Gypsy, and it was totally anti-climactic. She and Bella just settled in and started eating off the same pile of hay. When Soxy came in to eat I noticed Gypsy was off by herself, but I didn't see any mean chasing. And Gypsy isn't off looking for the boys, which is great, although I'm not sure she's even figured out yet that she can get out into the pasture to get near them.

Well, my impatience got the best of me and as soon as the weather got halfway decent I went and got the filly. She's tiny! I hope she's not yet a two year old. But maybe she's a little stunted and will catch up. She's already gained a lot of weight in a short amount of time (I think she showed up at my neighbor's a couple months ago. Maybe it was January).



Yesterday I thought she looked like a quarter horse, today she looks like a mustang again. Either way, she looks like she's got some thoroughbred in there. Doesn't matter, a horse is a horse. Now I have to come up with a name.

Here she is!

Sorry, they're terrible pictures but I felt weird taking pictures in someone else's barn. She looks much better than she did a couple months ago. She's really gained weight fast. And as you can see, she's not black like I thought. She's a bay roan, but not a lot of roan. I can't wait to groom her!

I don't think she's a mustang. I think she looks like an appendix quarter horse. Whatever she is, she's cute and I'm happy to say we'll be bringing her home! This afternoon we're supposed to have wind gusts up to 60 mph, so I won't be picking her up today. I can't wait to get to know her though! Then I'll have the sad thought that I can't keep her but that's okay. It'll be fun while it lasts.

Another rainy, WINDY, cold day. Yesterday was the only nice day we've had in a while, and I spent it running around in the car. The next three days I see snowflakes in the forecast. Fun.

I'm going to go see the little filly at some point today. Let me tell you a little more about her. She's a little black unbranded mustang with some roan, looks to be coming two years old. She was abandoned at my neighbor's house by a family member. He is going to put her down if nobody wants her.

I don't particularly want her, but I'd like to help her out. Hopefully with some more weight on her she'll blossom out of the ugly duckling phase. I was just telling someone the other day how ugly Tonka was when I got him, and how people shouldn't let that keep them from adopting - look how pretty Tonka is now! (no false modesty there...)

Once I get her shiny and fat and a little more trained, I'll find her a home. I was thinking I'd take her to Mustang Days and do the in-hand trail competition and hope someone is impressed with her.

If anyone is interested in coming and getting her for themselves, she is free for the taking. But she'll be a project needing lots of time, love, and groceries.

We have plenty of hay left over and grass to graze on. I will trim her feet. But she'll need more good groceries, vaccines, and wormer, not to mention anything unexpected that might come up. Which is why I added the donate button on the left there and asked for your help. Together we can make a difference!

I'll get pictures, hopefully today. This weather is terrible but I'll probably go see her anyway.

Can anyone sponsor a starved mustang yearling? I was just offered one. I don't want to see her go to auction and slaughter but I'd like to be prepared monetarily in case anything goes wrong. Send me a message or comment here if you can send a dollar or two. I promise lots of updates if we can save this girl!

(I'm going to try to add PayPal to the sidebar, so if you see it there, feel free to donate!)

It's been a busy week but the weather has been very wet, so not much horsing around. I picked up a couple saddles to try, hopefully in a trade for our Fred Hook saddle. But the nicer of the two saddles didn't fit the boys when I finally found a rainless time to try it on them. Darn it. It's a really neat old saddle. I'll try the kid's saddle on the kids' horses tomorrow and hope we can do a part trade. The lady trying out the Fred Hook loves it and I'd like for her to be able to keep it, but I also need the money to get John a new saddle.

Speaking of which, I just got a very rude email from someone about a very nice saddle on Craigslist that I was interested in checking out. Well, I hope they're able to find a buyer. Rude. And her email signature was "Keep America Beautiful." Ha - and she's spreading rudeness. That's not beautiful. She meant superficial beauty though - Avon distributor.

Anywho... I'm babbling. I just thought I'd check in.