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.

I don't find myself motivated to write lately. Gypsy is frustrating me. She's a mare. Ugh. She paces the fence all day, pining for the geldings, but Tonka beat her up and I know Cisco would too. I tried putting her in with the mares and she didn't care, paced the fence. Tried putting Scout in with her and she teased him quite a bit but he didn't understand so she paced the fence. Now she's by herself again. No sense letting her stir up the other horses. She'll just have to get over it on her own. I think Bella thinks she's crazy.

Once she gets graduated onto grass I'll probably put her back in with the mares.

It's been a weird day, and it's dark and rainy. I hope the afternoon goes better.
Even if she is a little hussy, I still like this mare a lot. She's very very sweet. Pretty too.

Here's my baby. I like him.

My pictures weren't coming out very well today. Bad lighting, too much movement and distance. And I wouldn't mind a new camera. :) But it's not high on my list of priorities.

Yesterday I didn't get any pictures. My hands were very full. I took both Tonka and Cisco out on the trail and Cisco was a pill. Tonka kind of was too. Next ponying practice I'll take Soxy. It'll give me a chance to see how it'll go before putting the wee man on her back, and to see how her wind is now that her sinus infection is cleared up and we have her on an antihistamine.

Yesterday we found the most beautiful little green meadow with a creek running through it. I am going back there next time and taking a picnic. And I'll definitely be taking pictures!

I have a very happy girl who got a new horse today. :)
She didn't know she wanted a horse. I told her she's just going to have to join us for some rides, so we need to get her a horse. I found Gypsy on Craigslist, but she was a ways away. Her owner met us halfway near Coeur d'Alene and we went for a trail ride. Katia didn't want to quit riding! When we got back from one loop the lady asked us if we wanted to keep going across the street to another trail and Katia turned back and grinned at me and nodded her head vigorously. I love it!

Don't mind the scowl. She's happy, just had the sun in her eyes. Look at pretty Gypsy. :)

Tonka rode with her and rode in the trailer with her, so he gets to live with her first while they all get acquainted. The other two boys would like to get to know her better.

I'm very excited! This is a very good mare, no spook to her at all today, but she is buddy sour. We'll work on that. She's been a trail and pack horse so she is used to following other horses, which will be great for family trail rides. But I would like to see her calmer when the other horses leave her sight.

I forgot to say - she's a mustang. Unbranded so who knows what else might be in there. They thought Paso Fino maybe, but I think she looks like a mustang. And she's about 23, they think.

Groovy :)

I will write more about the Rashid clinic later, but I just have to say that if you have a chance, go to one. If you can afford it, ride in one. There's a lot there that you just have to feel, and you don't get that sitting in the audience. But auditing is great too.

My weekend plans have been very hard to solidify. Everything keeps changing! My sister forgot that this is the weekend of the Mark Rashid clinic, and at the very last minute decided she wants to ride in it tomorrow. She needs help so I have to go and audit tomorrow instead of Sunday like I had planned. Then Saturday there's a tack swap I really hope I can make it to, but I also have to go look at a horse (real great deal on a real good horse - if the horse is what they say it is) so I might not get to go to the tack swap. Sunday will be left open for family time. Can't do horse stuff every day I guess... Although if we have a new kids' horse we might just be doing horse stuff anyway!

My sister's most recent scare turned out to be nothing to worry about, after very much stress. They checked it yesterday and they have no question that it is not cancer. Whew.

We went on another nice ride today. It was very relaxing having my calm horse back. I guess the difference was that he's been to this trail before. He got to play steady-eddie for a couple less experienced horses today.

Aren't these wildflowers pretty?

Here we spotted an obstacle that looked like fun.
We were game to try it but there was a gap between the two logs that I thought he might catch a hoof in, so we didn't. (I had to cover up fully even though it was so warm because I got a bad sunburn on my arms yesterday.)

He was really tired at the end of the ride but perked up when the dogs went after something.
We rode for four hours yesterday and two hours today, so I think he'll really appreciate having a day off tomorrow. My sister has another scare and will be getting a biopsy tomorrow so I'm going up with them to Spokane. Not sure what we'll do on Thursday but the weather looks like it should be good Friday so John said he'd go on a morning trail ride with me. Amy might go depending on what happens with the tests tomorrow. I really hope it's another false alarm and there aren't any more after this.

I took a leap of faith today and went riding with someone I'd never met in a place I'd never been to. It turned out to be wonderful fun! The lady I rode with was super nice, her horse was too, and the scenery was gorgeous! Above is the Palouse river and Steptoe Butte in the distance.

I wish this house hadn't ruined my picture of this neat covered railroad bridge:
If you look closely in the center of the picture there's an old train tunnel. We couldn't get to it today but we can cross the river later in the summer and check it out.
I'm very excited to have a new friend to trail ride with! Our schedules match up pretty well and I think we're both equally driven to get out on the trail and have fun.

I had to throw in this funny picture of Huck. He's very fast.

Cisco is already hobble trained. I had my doubts after roping his legs since he wasn't very cooperative, but once I put the hobbles on it was obvious he knew all about them.
Here's a video of Tonka yesterday and Cisco today. Big difference. Not that Tonka was bad, but you can tell he's trying to figure it out, whereas Cisco already knew.

I hobbled Tonka again today but it would have made a terribly boring video. He just stood there and dozed off.

Then we rode and I ponied Cisco on the other side this time. My cell phone camera in the hands of a 7 year old does not take very good pictures.
Cisco was a little hard-headed at first. I kind of wonder if he's been taught not to come up where I'm asking him to be. But eventually he was so good I dallied him and he kept slack in the rope.

Hobble training took place today, finally. I didn't spend a lot of time on it but he got the feel of it. Yes, I know it's risky to do it with a saddle on but I knew it would be uneventful. He thought it was pretty weird and he wasn't happy about it, but he didn't freak out.
After that I penned up the young punk and took Cisco for a test-ponying. He used to be a pack horse and I wanted to see how well he'd do. We have a backcountry trip in the planning phases. :) Cisco and Tonka both did great.


Leap Dog
(Click to enlarge. The eyes!)

It amazes me how much this dog thinks about stuff.

Today I realized how totally lucky I am to have this in my own back yard.

Boys playing with junk

They were all having so much fun

Another one worth clicking to enlarge. Again - the eyes! Such joy and zest for life!

Crimpy butt hair

It was so warm out he finally went ahead and just got in. It was very cold water but he had a blast!

I had so much fun with my son today. I really needed that!