Here's the new saddle! It felt weird at first, but after riding for a few minutes it was fine. For me, that is. I'm not sure about Tonka. It rides forward. I wonder if that's how these saddles are supposed to sit? Kind of like an Orthoflex sits on the shoulders? I know some saddle sites even say a hard tree is supposed to sit over the shoulders, but I don't think they meant on a bony horse like Tonka. Suggestions?

Also, does anyone know a good way to punch more holes in a nylon latigo strap? A hot nail has been suggested, but how the heck do I get it that hot?

I'm going to ride again today, Kara is coming out and she's going to ride Cisco. It ought to be fun! And hopefully I'll get some more insight on how this saddle works. Kara has the same saddle so maybe she can help me out.

A day of good, good, wonderful things!

First, my saddle is going to be mine today! See:

PULLMAN, WA, US

01/09/2009

8:14 A.M.

OUT FOR DELIVERY

Second, Tonka has had his last shot of Naxcel! (I hope) Out with the old:

In with the new:

He will now be on tetracycline for a month. Or back on the Naxcel if the abscess starts to get worse.

AND, it's a glorious, bright, sunshiny day. I hope it lasts long enough for me to get my work done and go for a little ride. Tonka says hi. He's perfectly okay with his unkempt state and uneven forelock. He dares society to judge him. (I may have to do something about it though.)

And guess what?

...
...
...
...
...
...

...

...

Chicken butt!

(My daughter was horribly offended the first time I said that to her. When I was a kid, I thought it was hilarious. Kids these days...)

Have a great day!

First of all, thanks to everyone for the feedback on the photos! I think #4 is the winner. I might add another too, though, maybe the one where we're riding in front of the white fence.

I feel so bad for all the people who are getting flooded right now. I can't imagine how heartbreaking it would be to have your house go underwater. Or worse yet, your horse.

My kids had a "flood day" today. So weird... Haven't had one of those before. Driving to town, it was really shocking to see how flooded the flat was where our creek meets the Palouse river. I've never seen it that bad, although I know it has been worse, but that was before my time.

Here are some pictures I took of our creek yesterday and today. The flooding had already started yesterday, but was nothing compared to today. Big difference!

Yesterday:

Today:

Yesterday:

Today:

Yesterday:

Today:

These next two are the crossing. Not crossing there right now!
Yesterday:
Today it would be over Tonka's head:
I took this picture yesterday because I thought it was interesting that something was chewing on the bark.
Look at it today:
So far the creek is staying in its banks here on our place, but the pastures are flooded anyway from their own melt and water coming down through them from the hills above. Nothing terrible, and this happens every year so it's nothing new to us.

India got to go to the vet today. (Like I needed another vet bill.) She has anal gland issues. What fun! Luckily it's an easy (if gross) thing to fix. Steve said he'd show me how to do it so I wouldn't have to keep bringing her back if it continues.

Look how happy she was later:

She gave me a bit of a scare though. She's part whippet, which is a sighthound, and she's easily distracted, as you can see from the pictures. She likes to chase things that move. She went right up to the bank of the creek and started watching chunks of ice go by, and I think she might have jumped in if I hadn't gotten her attention.

Well, I better quit procrastinating and get some housework done.

If you can, visit Linda's Blog to see a story of horses rescued in Spokane, and find information on how you can help. Even a stray $10 would help.

Thanks for all the thoughts and advice on Bella's problem. She has been on MSM and yesterday I ordered some B-L pellets (it's an herbal anti-inflammatory). I had a chiropractor out but nothing changed. The kelp is tempting. I wonder if it's safe to give with her other supplement? The last few weeks I've been giving her Equerry's Combined Rx, which has lots of good stuff in it. The makers, who are VERY nice people, gave me a nice free sample of it last year. But I'm almost out and I can't afford more. Tonka's vet bill pretty much broke us this month. But back to Bella. The MSM doesn't seem to be helping, but it's cheap and I don't think it can hurt so I'm going to keep her on it. Not sure if the Equerry's could help in this short amount of time, but I hope it's done something. The lameness is so hard to see unless you watch her play or work her, that I don't know how bad it is at any given time. I hadn't thought she was in much pain from it, but after noticing her coat the other day I wonder. A bad coat like that is common in horses with chronic pain. My vet has cautioned me twice not to breed her again in case it ruptures, which is usually a death sentence. In September I assured him that there's no way I would breed her even if she was healthy and sound, but he told me again anyway. Maybe he forgot, or maybe he just wants to be extra sure.

Today my goal was to work with Bella and saddle her up. Haha. Not happening... It's been sleeting and raining cats and dogs. So instead I'll ask you a question.

Which of the following photos do you like best? I want to make a thank you card for my vet. Maybe a booklet with all the critters in it, so don't be surprised to find this question again in the coming days, with pictures of the other horses.

Choose your top 3, and tell me in what order you like them. Gosh, I sound bossy, don't I?

#1 - I like this one because it shows the BLM poster in the background. This was our first (and only, so far) ambassadorial mission to a BLM adoption. I can't wait to go back up there and ride. They probably won't be having any more adoptions there, but I will make a special trip one of these days. I loved riding out there.

#2 - Kinda pretty with the white fence and green grass. Green grass looks really nice to me right now! And I like his tail in this one.

#3 - Full-body shot with the nice summer coat, but I don't like how long his body looks here. I also don't like that I look like a dork, but I guess I have to face up to it...

#4 - Just a cute sweetie, would be a good one for a bubble with the words "Thank You!"

#5 - I think he looks handsome here, but a horse butt really doesn't say "thank you."

So... What do you think? Thanks for your help!

Just got off the phone with my vet. He was willing to switch Tonka to tetracycline, but I haven't seen so much improvement that I feel safe doing that yet. So another bottle of Naxcel. $$$ I also asked about Bella, since she still has that hitch in her gitty-up that he thought was from a prepubic tendon strain. He said it could take a year to heal, or it could never heal. That's depressing. He couldn't recommend a supplement that would help. He mentioned Bute and arnica, but didn't want to chance the bute, and arnica is topical and I don't know where exactly to put it. I think I'll look into an herbal anti-inflammatory though. One weird thing I noticed about Bella is that her coat looks burnt on the ends. Not horribly so, but noticeable. The other horses have healthy coats. I wonder why the difference, unless it's pain related, or maybe for some reason she has different needs than the other horses. It's confusing...

We got about 10 inches of new snow, up to 3 feet where it drifted, and it's still snowing. Blech. I'm having a yucky day.

This isn't horse related, but I joined in a little competition yesterday. John and some guys from work were planning a "Biggest Loser" competition over the next 3 months and I decided to do it too. I'm not real competitive but I figured this will keep me from quitting, and there is a cash pot for the winner. I'm thinking maybe some chinks are in my future, if I can kick some butt. The guys have a lot more to lose, except for one of them, and they're guys, so they drop weight easier (statistically). I don't know... I think I still have a chance.

So... How's this for a workout. Here's a hay shelter, and I'm standing at the truck, which is as close as I can get it. I dragged on my toboggan, one-by-one, 19 bales of grass hay and 4 bales of alfalfa.
Then, once dragged, I had to hoist them up into the truck, which was made harder than usual by the fact that the bed was at the level of my waist, thanks to the snow packed under the tires. The alfalfa bales weigh 85 pounds or so. I almost didn't get them up there, had to try a few times on a couple of them, but I persevered. (And I made sure to do those first, before I was tired. Lesson learned from last time.)

Followed those with 19 bales of grass hay, climbing up into the truck to stack them, then back down to get more. I did this all by mine own dos. (Which means "all by myself" in my toddler neice's language.) John offered help twice but I turned him down.

Check out my stack:

Yep, it's messy as heck. The baler wasn't very friendly this last year, made some awful lopsided bales, and I'm lucky I only broke one bale in the process today.

Then I took it to the barn and stacked it there. Which was a whole different process, as I had to carry them rather than drag them, but at least I wasn't hoisting many of them upward.

The horses got very excited when they saw me with all that hay (mostly Cisco, he's a P-I-G). And I'm a pushover, because I gave them some of that broken bale.

My friend Melissa just called and she unloaded a ton and a half of 135 pound bales today, and she's about 20 years older than me. She just rolled them out into stacks 3 high, but still, it kinda belittles my accomplishment!

Happy New Year!

This is what I've been up to the last few days, on and off:

Making a mess in the living room. I took the Christmas tree down and decided to take advantage of the empty space by putting saddles there while I clean and condition them. Then I'm going to put them in the attic. The atmosphere is just too damp out in the tack shed.

I got this saddle cleaned today. This is the one that fits Tonka best. It's my dad's. A great old saddle, and still in really good condition. As you can see I didn't clean the arena sand off the stirrups. I figure they'll just get dirty again anyway.

Here's the Fred Hook next to my dad's saddle.

You can see that the seats are very different in width, or "twist." I prefer a narrower twist. My dad's saddle really hurt my hips, but I started to get used to it. The other thing I like about a narrow twist is that it feels more secure. But I think my dad's saddle is better looking. It just looks like a well made using saddle.

In the background of the above picture you can barely see a guitar case with the Epiphone emblem on it. My dad gave me that guitar a year or two ago. It's a Chet Atkins guitar signed by Dave Matthews. (Is that cool or what?) It has the nylon strings and neck of a classical guitar, which is what I prefer (I really don't like to play anything else), but this one is a plug-in type. Pretty nice. He gave us a nice guitar stand for Christmas so we can keep a guitar handy to plunk around on when the mood strikes. I think I'll make time to play a bit tonight.

So... Well... I guess that's all I really have to go on about today. Weather is awful, stuck inside, cleaning leather, washing cinches, trying to get out of doing dishes. Can't complain, it could certainly be worse!

Today was a good day. Why? Because I hooked up the hoses and turned the water on and it came out the other end! Oh lovely day.

We also made a quick dash up to Spokane to get the kids from my mom's. Glad we made it back during daylight. The roads were fine most of the way, but would have been icy if we got back too late. The only bad roads were within about 20 miles of Spokane, and they were really bad in Browne's Addition and downtown. I felt bad for all the pedestrians trying to make their way on frozen ground, most of them obviously unable to afford warm snow boots with good traction, and the sidewalks were blocked so a lot of people were walking right next to traffic. I couldn't help imagining someone falling under my tires. I was very careful though. I think it would be great if someone would donate a bunch of those traction cleat/chain things for shoes to a the elderly and homeless. And warm socks. Downtown Spokane makes me sad sometimes.

On the way back we saw a wheat field full of snowballs that the wind had rolled up. (You can see some pictures on Lea's blog that she took of these kind of snowballs at her house.) I pointed them out to the kids and Liam said, "That's where they grow snowballs!" I'm not sure if he was making a joke, making up a story, or being serious. But it was funny! So from then on we kept pointing out the snowball farms when we saw them.

Hmm. I know I should write something interesting about the horses... I did a very brief trim on Bella's front feet tonight. She didn't want to cooperate. Hoof work still makes her very nervous, but even more so than usual tonight. But I got a bit done, then realized it was really hard to check my work in the dark on uneven ice, so I picked up and checked her back feet and called it good. As I waited for the second trough to fill I checked Cisco's back feet. They are beautifully concave. Heels a bit long. He's a little kicky back there, which is why I haven't trimmed his hind feet yet. I'd like John to hold him but we never have time when the weather is decent. In the mean time I need to make more of an effort to get him used to having his feet picked up. It would only take a couple minutes at each feeding. With all Tonka's needs I've been lazy about doing anything else at feeding time.

I'm getting antsy to start working with my horses again! And I'm not sure I even want to take them out, the driveway is so scary icy. Last year I fell down right in front of Tonka while I was leading him. He looked very surprised. If I did that to Bella it would probably scare her. I could probably take them out in the pasture and have decent footing. Just not real handy for tacking up. A little naked groundwork never hurt anyone though. (Naked horse, that is.) But no... They're calling for more insane winds and a few inches of snow tomorrow. I doubt I'll be out playing in that. Wish I'd been able to stay home and play today, the weather was actually pretty nice. Oh well. My day will come.

I found a saddle! Woo hoo! I can't tell you how excited I am! It isn't a McCall, or a gorgeous hand made wade, but it's one of the others on my list of wants. A Circle Y Flagstaff. Flex tree, which I'm hoping will be the answer for Tonka. It's used, but only ridden about 10 times. I can't wait to ride in it! It'll be a while before it gets here though.


I gave Tonka his shot all by my lonesome today. I was proud of me. He wiggled a little more than usual, looking for the treats I had to give between steps in shot-giving, but it went just fine. The abscess is doing even better. I'm not getting much blood at all on the compress, and I can barely feel the thickened spot that is the abscess. Awesome.

We got to go to town today. I really expected to get stuck in the deep slush on the driveway. It was at least a foot of snow on up to two feet in the drifted areas, but then the temperature rose and it rained a lot, so it was a slippery mess. But we punched on through and I got my feed and groceries. Neither was so low as to consider an emergency, but it was nice to get out.

As the sun was setting we did a little fence work. We had lots of help from nosy horses, except for Cisco and Bella. He was busy eating and Bella is a bit shy lately. Cisco is hard on the fence between him and the other horses. We're lucky he hasn't hurt himself yet. It's made of t-posts (capped) with cattle panels. He bent the crap out of the top of one panel, looks like he went partially over the top somehow, and then he popped the panels right off the posts in another spot. New item on my list of things to do when the ground thaws - replace that stretch of fence. For now we stretched electric tape along it with step-in posts. The one thing that makes me happy for the thaw was the ability to get those posts put in. The fence is so wiggly wobbly that we couldn't put the electric tape on it or it would touch metal in some places. I think this will keep his nasty posturing and kicking at a distance until we can do something different.

I'm off to go drool over pictures of my saddle some more. :)

It's been a long day already. Well, just part of it. It took me 2 hours to move 6 bales of hay... Got the truck stuck in snow that was deeper than the undercarriage. Went back, got the shovel, dug it out. This is the kind of snow that sticks to your shovel, so you end up lifting the same snow over and over again. But I did manage to get unstuck, then went back and got the toboggan and moved individual bales to the truck that way. It wasn't so hard once I'd moved the first 3 bales and the trail was compacted.

I gave Tonka his shot today! John usually does shots. I had a bad experience with the one shot I ever tried to give (bent needle, freaked out horse, not fun) so I just let John do it after that. He's pretty darn good at it. But he left last night to go snowboarding today, so I was on my own. My mom fed Tonka treats while I did the shots, so really I wasn't totally on my own. It went just fine. Easy as pie.

Since I don't have much else to write about, I'll do a some video reviews. I've now rented 6 videos from Horseflix. Besides a LONG shipping time in between videos, I'm happy with it.

Pete Ramey's Under the Horse series - it's fabulous, watch it! I've only watched disk one so far, but it's just as good as his clinic was, if not better because you can watch on your own time and go back and look again. Only thing you can't do is ask questions, but he's very thorough.

Frank Bell, Discover the Horse You Never Knew - He's a little odd. His idea of bonding is really weird to me. Sticking fingers in ears and mouth, rubbing eyes, basically all things I'd consider the most annoying things you can do to a horse. But after that it's a good pre-ride checklist, so that you know your horse's mood and have some tools to control them should they get over excited. Pressure and release, sacking out, one rein stop, disengaging the hindquarters, etc.

Parelli Patterns Disk One, On Line - I watched this while very distracted, but it seemed like a pretty basic groundwork/lunging how-to. Had some interesting tasks like serpentining through barrels. Would be fun to try if the weather was nice and I had a rope that long. His catch phrases irritate me. But I can get past that. I think these are good bonding and foundation laying exercises, but not something one should get stuck doing over and over forever as I see a lot of Parelli followers doing.

Movement Awareness for Riders with Eckart Meyners - Weird stuff. Has some good stretches and exercises. A good concept, but it's odd, almost pornographic, the way the guy sits there and watches these people do weird movements and stretches. I think if you were willing to put the time in to do this though, it could very well help your riding by making you more limber and more aware of tension and misuse of your body.

Western Saddles, How to fit: Pain-Free - This was a good beginner course in saddle fit. Quite basic, but good information.

That's it so far... I'm going to go get cleaned up and sit and watch the second Pete Ramey disk now.

Well, this is all gone now.

Actually, it EXPLODED all over my house. I still haven't cleaned up. The mess is very intimidating. I'd share a picture but I'd be embarassed.

The kids were THRILLED with their Christmas. I got some pictures, but you know, Christmas morning bedhead pictures are never very flattering. I'll keep them for myself to enjoy.

India stole my flingshot chicken. She loves toys that make noise, and she hasn't had one in years. We had another dog that would rip them up, so we quit buying them, and I forgot how much she loved them until yesterday. She packed that thing around and made it squawk for hours.

Angus took over the middle of the living room. I've dubbed him "Wedgie" because he likes to put his big ol' body right in the middle of things.

Speaking of Christmas Morning Bedhead
The freezing fog is not doing good things for Bella's mane. Poor girl.

Tonka's abscess has made HUGE progress the last few days. It's just a flat little lump now. No more pus, just some blood when I do the compress. Can't flush it anymore, there's no space to poke the syringe in. Very exciting.

Everyone got their dewormer today since it's warm and balmy in the 20's and not currently snowing. They didn't love me for it. It was time for Quest Plus and that stuff is NASTY. Bella wouldn't even take a treat from me afterward. Cisco just got apple flavored ivermectin since I don't know if they wormed him much before. He was offended and tried to decline, but he wasn't too bad about it. Then I trimmed 4 hooves and now I'm sitting on my butt trying to think of an excuse not to clean the house. I'm serious, this mess is so bad it's scary!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you're all having a warm and happy holiday!

You know what I think is a beautiful thing? Pumping water into one end of a hose and having it come out the other end. I had a little trouble with that today. And coiling up frozen, stiff, slippery hoses is hard. Taking them in to the bathtub is a sloppy business. What really wears me out is all the trudging back and forth through deep snow wearing 20 pounds of extra clothing to get another hose, drag it out, trudge, try it, trudge, cuss it, trudge, try another, trudge, notice a kink, trudge, go back and hook that one up again, cuss that one too, trudge, unhook them all, trudge, drag them to where I can drain them so any that aren't frozen won't become frozen. Trudge, trudge, trudge. Coil them up, cuss them some more, take them in to the bathtub. Strip out of 30 pounds of thermal wear. Feel the liberation. Wait a while and go out and do it all again, but this time not so bad because the hoses are thawed. I'm sure most of you have been through this before. Joy. Next year I AM putting in water lines out to the horses.

This is what i was doing while the hoses thawed:

Those are my great-grandma Lena's gingersnaps.
I ate enough to make up for the extra energy expended today.

I saw this picture and thought, "Who was playing with my camera?"
Then I remembered it was me.

Here you can see ripples in the snow from the high winds the night before. (Waving vertically in the picture, not the messy snow in the foreground from the snowblower). Very pretty. But I hate wind in the winter time.
Here's Cisco moving Scout around:

Last night I thought I was going to die, it was so cold when I was out feeding and flushing Tonka's abscess. My gloves weren't cutting it, especially considering I had to take them off to do the flushing. It was about 7 below and the horses were white with frost. Tonight it seemed balmy and warm, I was out for about an hour messing around with the horses while the trough filled and I was totally comfortable, at about 15 degrees.

Oh, today I started Soxy and Cisco on a product called Remission. It's for foundered horses, to increase circulation in the hooves and speed up healing, but it also helps regulate insulin and blood glucose levels, and it may help break down fatty deposits in horses with metabolic problems. Maybe we can get rid of Cisco's crest and the fatty pads on Soxy's sides. And avoid a possible future founder episode. I'll take pictures of them tomorrow so I can keep a photo log of whether or not it seems to make a difference.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve to you!

My trip to town today.

(I got my snow driving wheels now...akin to sea legs...
seems like every year I have to get used to it all over again.)

First we had to walk up the driveway to the car.
We parked it up there before the last big storm in case we couldnt' get it out.
The truck is in the shop. Brake problem.

We caught some lazy horses soaking up the sun:

Saw lots of kitty prints in the snow.
Here's a deer trail coming through from the neighbor's place.
Right near where I found the dead buck.

A glorious hawthorn. I love this picture.
The palouse hills give way to forested mountains round about here.
Bare spots are farmground.

The surface on the highway was mostly bare. Very nice.
More Palouse hills in the background.

This is a very pretty spot. I pulled over to take this picture.

We went to several stores and I got my Christmas shopping finished.
There's more I'd like to buy, but you know, that money thing...
Oh, actually I do need to buy some Idaho Spuds.
I can get John to do that though.

We're supposed to get 4-11 inches of new snow tonight & tomorrow.
I'm okay with that, as long as I can get in to get more Naxcel for Tonka.

This was prettier in person - driving home in the evening.

I forgot to ask earlier today -
What are your preferences in a saddle and why?

Tonka really didn't like his shot this morning. He grunted and jumped abruptly to the side. I wasn't quite ready so it startled me too. Then I started shoving treats into his mouth and he relaxed. He also doesn't like the flushing. I think it's more that he doesn't want to stand still than because of pain.

I have to tell you a tale of woe from yesterday. I bid on a saddle on eBay. It was a McCall, and it was in my price range, which is shocking. I'm talking under $500. I lost it at the very last second, as I was trying to bid more. (Funny how I always decide I'm willing to bid more right at the last minute.) Lost it by just $5. I was broken hearted. I even dreamed about it most of the night last night. It just wouldn't leave me. I'm feeling better about it now but I want a saddle! Badly!

I thought I'd type out the characteristics of my dream saddle, to get my mind straight about what I want.

• Decent quality saddle, not one of those cheap Mexican things
• It has to fit Tonka (narrow, skirts not too long)
• 16" seat (no bigger, but maybe smaller would be fine)
• Flat seat (or at least somewhat flat, which is suprisingly hard to find)
• Center-hung stirrups that swing freely.
• In tree rigging
• Low horn
• Narrow twist
• Not a super high cantle
• Not over 35 lbs
• Not too much tooling (none would be great)
• Not too much silver (but conchos would be nice)
• Must have saddle strings or be set up to easily attach them

See, I'm not all that hard to please. A lot of these things I'd even give up for the right saddle. Now, if we were talking ANY saddle in the world I could have, I'd have one custom made that was real pretty and everything I wanted. But I'm being realistic. I'll find one eventually. It's not like there's an urgent need, I haven't been riding anyway. Too cold. I'm just feeling a little sad since I didn't get that saddle yesterday.

The view out my front door this afternoon:

So my vet must have been out of date on what this antibiotic costs. It's $85 every two days unless they billed me wrong. I'm definitely going to ask why the difference in price! The bill just for today was almost $300. The things we do for horses...

On a good note, when John picked up the meds he made a comment to the vet tech that he thought Tonka was worth the expense, and she just gushed over how good he was today when they were here. Awesome. I'm going to get a swelled head about my great horses. :) Unfortunately it's usually vets who get to see how good they are...

Tonka was NOT happy with his new treatments tonight. He kept wiggling while we did the compress. It didn't help that I forgot to get some treats to give him. Going to have to do better tomorrow.

A little springtime cheer here:

Little Scout used to put his whole heart and soul into running around the pasture, trying out those long legs. He was two weeks old there and it was the day before his eye injury. I sure hope that little guy turns out to be worth the expense too... He was so cute. I miss his cuteness. But he's still a darn good looking little horse.

The vet has come and gone. Tonka was such a good boy. I had a good talk with his assistant about mustangs in general and she said she thought all of ours were well-behaved and pretty too. Love that! Then Steve dug around in there with his forceps, at least an inch in, poking and prodding, grabbing stuff, and Tonka just let him. He pulled his head up in pain once, but I'd say that's still within the bounds of good behavior. What a boy. I was glad they didn't have to sedate him. Then he flushed it with iodine, which I must shamefacedly and guiltily admit I haven't been doing, because I didn't think there was an opening big enough. There is. Some gross stuff came out.

The new treatment calls for warm compresses, flushing, and Naxcel shots 2x daily. Maybe for a month. I was thinking, "Okay, that's fine, a lot of work but it's not much more than I have been doing." Then Steve said it's going to be expensive. Okay, well, I'd heard Naxcel was expensive. Then he dropped the bomb. $70 every two days! For a month? But then he said we would be able to back down to once a day when the wound starts to respond. That's a little better... My first thought was that John was going to have a stroke. But you know what? When I called him John just said, "He's worth it." I love my husband!

I got a better idea of why this isn't something we want to have to do surgery on. There are salivary glands, nerves, veins, all kinds of stuff in that area. Besides the fact that surgery is even more expensive than the treatment we've done so far.

He's seen a cheat grass infection like this that migrated all the way down the side of a hunting dog from shoulder to hip and the whole thing had to be surgically removed. He's also dealt with this in his own horse, and he said it took a long time to clear up.

Well, at least this one hasn't spread yet. I feel so damn guilty for not flushing it all this time!

Oh, and it most likely was caused by cheat grass. It seems to have migrated down from underneath the tongue. I can guarantee you I'm going to be more careful about my hay and I'll be checking my fields very carefully next year and spraying any cheat.

Oh, and he did make me feel better about the safety of the antibiotics. I mentioned my sister's horse with kidney failure and he said, "Was it Genticin?" Well, yes, actually now that he mentions it, it was. I had forgotten. He said that can happen with Genticin if they don't stay hydrated. This antibiotic is supposed to be much safer.

John just called, the truck's brakes are acting funny. What a day...

SNOW DAY! Yay! I haven't been outside yet, so I'll just share some stuff from last weekend.

Here's Katia coming down the second half of the hill. She can't seem to come down the whole way without crashing, so she's always doing it in two stages.

And then Liam, who looks like a baby sea turtle racing to the ocean. He lost his gloves so he's wearing my mom's, which gave him great big flippers.



John's ambition is to make it all the way to the porta-potty.
(It's the tiny green thing at the end of the sled run there.)

I think it's impossible, you'd have to turn at the end in the right place to go over the driveway and not into the ditch. But he is good at steering, so if we get some fast snow, you never know... I just hope he doesn't knock it over.

Doesn't this look like the happiest kid in the world?

I'm not sure how much snow we have today, but it must be a lot. I think we had a lot yesterday afternoon. The little school bus got stuck in a ditch yesterday. That happens a lot here... Luckily there are a lot of people with tractors to pull them out.

My mom said they have aboout 18 inches where she lives in Spokane. It broke all records for snowfall in Spokane yesterday. Some people up that way have as much as 3 feet.

You know what I'm thankful for?
John's out snowblowing right now.

Oh yeah, horses, this blog is about horses...

The horses are fine. I little icicly but it doesn't seem to bother them too much. They spend most of their time outside in the gross weather. Scout, Bella, and Tonka even laid down in the snow for a nap in the middle of the storm yesterday.

The worst part of this weather for them is having to walk on the stuff that was churned up mud but is now hard bumpy frozen mud. I have a heck of a time walking on it, and I have boots. Luckily they can go out in the pasture to get away from it.

The vet is coming to check out Tonka's abscess tomorrow. He wasn't supposed to be back from vacation until today, so when he called me yesterday I was surprised. I wish I could haul Tonka in and save the farm call charge, but there's no way I'm trying to get the trailer up the driveway in this snow.