Today was weird. And not in a good way.

My sister found out today that she has to have a suspicious lump removed on Monday. It may be the cancer coming back. I'm choosing to believe it's not.

My son and I butted heads all day. It wasn't entirely his fault. He was feeling stubborn and I was feeling distracted and intolerant.

Tonka wasn't able to do his daily exercise. I walked him but as we got into the trotting it was clear he couldn't do that today so we stopped and I groomed him instead. Today I think it was clearly a muscle issue, not a gut issue. His hind end muscles were tighter than I've felt them before, although not rock hard.

Scout was pretty good today even though he started out by wagging his head and moving into my space. He's never done that before. I think he was pissed off about his bit. But all I did was ask him to wear it while he did groundwork. He settled into his job pretty quickly.

I love his nice crisp dorsal stripe on his butt.

I spent some quality quiet time with Bella and Soxy today. They're both shedding like crazy and loving being scratched in all the right places.

I also got to play with Grace a little bit. I need to quit doing that, but it just happens. I don't want to step on John's toes. On a whim I hooked a lead rope to her halter, meaning to take it right off again. She backed up slightly, creating drag on my sleeve and a little noise, so I dropped the rope. I didn't want her getting spooked. After that she bobbed her head a lot, picked the rope up in her teeth, got it wrapped around a front leg and pawed at it. No over reacting or freaking out of any kind. Just curiosity. Then I walked up and unclipped it and went on my merry way.

Mama Cat took advantage of my presence to flaunt herself in front of the dogs.
(Look how our mud is drying up!)

Huckleberry - ready for action.
(He has freaky muppet eyes sometimes)
(and he's not deformed, he's just sitting funny.)

A lap standoff.

And a fun, cold, windy, giggling game of badminton with the kids. Liam wants to grow his hair out. He's already part way there.

I didn't get a picture of Katia because she was moving too fast.

Our grass is getting pretty long in places but we're waiting on a part for the mower. It will look so civilized after we mow. I always love that first mowing. Then it gets pretty tedious after that.

Yesterday.

She was very distracted by the mares I'd turned out in the adjacent pasture.

My silly goober was being very photogenic today. He let me take hundreds of pictures.
He stares at me.
What does this mean? What does he want from me?
Probably food.

Sweet eye. The shape of his ear. The curve of his back.

Romantic

And yet, this is the photo that fills me up with love:

In it I see his patience, his curiosity, his silliness, his seriousness.
His expectations of me.
His willingness to be with me.
What would I do without him?

Grace had a big breakthrough and I have no pictures! John went out to play with her after work and she was still really not ready to stand still while he reached out with his hand to rub her neck. So he tried reaching out with a training stick and she stood there no problem! She's itchy, shedding her coat, so she really enjoyed being scratched all over her neck and chest with the stick. He inched his hand up and before you know it he was scratching all over her head, neck and shoulder. I got to scratch her jaw, under her chin, and around her ears from outside the pen. What a good girl! It'll be no problem at all to attach a lead rope when the time comes, and it looks like work with haltering isn't too far off. But for now she's really enjoying being scratched.

Today I managed to work with three horses.

Tonka worked on the lunge line, 5 circles each way at the walk, and then three each way at the trot, with a couple circles at the walk to finish off. He looked wonderful up until the end of the last trot circle. His tail came up and he looked uncomfortable and then he knuckled over on his inside hind and stumbled. I might be tempted to say it's because of the muscle problem, but today I cut out the flax in his supplement and I think maybe it made his gut feel better, which is why he didn't look bad the entire time. I have high hopes. I know flax can be very irritating to people with bowel problems.

Scout worked on pretty much the same program but more of it, but I also touched up the trim on his hind feet. He was a very good boy. Then he got to go greet Grace. She didn't love him quite as much as she did Tonka. He is a big dumb baby after all. :)

Then I got Bella out and worked on her mane. I didn't realize she had these dreds hiding in there until just the other day. They're gone now, after much time, elbow grease, and detangler.

She got to take a nap while I visited with a friend who came to meet Grace.

Grace was very interested in the dogs, who were milling around us, and the two humans who were hanging around talking and mostly ignoring her. She kept sticking her nose on us or through the fence to check out the dogs. She's very curious.

Bella worked briefly on the lunge line after that and then we called it a day. I let her go over to say hi to Grace, but Grace just ignored her. I guess she's not interested in visiting with girls. How rude.

If the weather would stay at least halfway decent, I could see myself working with 3-4 horses a day, which is what I really need to be doing. I'd have to give some more time than others, based on their training level. I doubt I'll do that though. The only consistent thing about me is that I'm inconsistent... Some horse(s) will have to go on to new homes. I'm just not ready for that yet though.

Kissing Grace:

I need to learn to dress nicer for the camera.

I put the rope over the rail for her to get used to. She pulled it in, thoroughly checked it over and pronounced it boring.

John went out and played with her as soon as he got home.
First body touch! And first touch instigated fully by the human.

I thought it was fun posting pictures of the views out my windows yesterday, so here's another. This is what I saw through my big living room window today.

I got to play with Grace, Tonka, and Bella today. It was a good horse day. Bella wasn't sure about having to move around on the lunge line. She was worried and indignant all at the same time. But we had a good grooming session afterward and she was happy. Tonka was a bit naughty, but that's probably partly my fault because I've been babying him. He's also been kinda mean to Scout these past few days - biting him on the butt and driving him around some. I don't know what that's about. (I had to rearrange horses when Grace came home, so now Scout is with Tonka and Cisco is all alone.)

I worked in the garden today! Hopefully I'm not being premature, but I planted some sugar snap peas. It was fun playing in the wormy dirt and lovely black compost.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nice but my wee man is still sick, so we'll be staying home again. I'll still get in some riding time. He's an extremely easy kid to take care of when he's sick.

As you can see in this picture of her brand, Grace still has some winter coat to shed out. I had thought she looked pretty well shed out from a distance, but now I can't wait to brush her. And scratch her itchy spots.John gave me permission to play with her since he had to be gone for a couple days. So I did. But I promised not to touch her.

She gave me a vigorous lip wiggle a few times though.

I lied about her being the sweetest horse ever. She does have a bit of an attitude. Not much, but it's there. Which means she's getting braver, which is good. She's wondering if she really needs to put up with us annoying two-leggeds. Maybe she'd rather toss her head and shoulder into our space and eat her hay. (That didn't work well for her.) I think it's time to start doing things on the human's terms, but that will be up to John. If it were my horse I'd be getting out a pole to lay on her and touch her with, let her have a tizzy fit and then show her it feels good to be rubbed.

We had some gross weather yesterday.

Here's the view out my bedroom window:

And the kitchen window:

Bella and Cisco were instant appaloosas! Just add snow!

The chicks are growing like crazy, and that red one is always watching...

We've been sick, Liam and I. He has a high fever, sore throat and cough. Judging by the look of his throat it's that virus I got a couple months ago that keeps coming back. I have some kind of stomach bug. It's not too bad, really, but it was pretty uncomfortable yesterday afternoon.

Tonka meets Grace. (Or John may spell it Grayce.)They were instant sweethearts.

Here's a photo to show her color as of now. Her face is grey too. And her mane is a little curly and her eye is sweet.

She's getting closer

More often

And John is just tickled.

Tonka says hello.

I rode him for all of 5 minutes today. It was wonderful to be back on my good horse. But he's still not feeling great so I didn't push it. After I unsaddled him I sat on the ground and took his picture, as you can see. We went wandering around the yard, he got a partial bath with betadine scrub on his scabby skin, and then he got to go play with Scout again. As soon as I put him back he pushed Scout around, bit him on the butt, picked up his feed pan and chased Scout with it. I don't know, maybe he was showing off for the new girl next door?

Oh, and by the way, Grace was not the least bit afraid of or worried about seeing me ride Tonka. She just wanted to follow us around and hope for another chance to visit my handsome boy.

I'm really having a hard time with this new horse. I'm jealous! She's awesome! I want to be the one in the pen working with her.

She's totally ready and willing to play the game, she just wants to know what the rules are. They're learning to communicate and she'll sign the contract once she knows the terms.

I'm really impressed with her. I think she's the best one we've had here yet. Yes, that includes Tonka. He was (and is) a little more apt to try to see if he could set the rules.

It's killing me... John won't let me play with her at all. :(

I'll have to get some more pictures to share. I thought I was going to miss the first touch photo op but then it didn't happen. I need to make sure I remember to keep the camera with me.

I can't believe how cheap they were giving away horses at the adoption today. This is John's bid sheet. (Doesn't he have pretty handwriting?)

"A new life ahead"

A tense moment

Her first halter (which she would like very much to rub off).

These BLM guys are artists, I tell you. It's fascinating to watch them quietly walk into a small pen of five horses and just barely move around, using mostly their eyes to move the horses. The horses react differently each time - one group today was really flighty - but in less than a minute they usually have the correct horse running out into the alleyway to go to a new life. These guys are good at what they do.

Just for fun here are a few more photos of some of the horses that were there.

My mulie fella:

I think this yearling filly may have been a curly. She was very friendly.

One of these red horses got adopted by someone just up the road from us. I think it was the nearer one. He was a cool horse. I'm guessing he has a future as a gaming horse.

Katia wanted this next filly. We told her she could but she overheard me saying I'd be willing to sell both Scout and Cisco to make room for her to get a horse, if she'd spend time with it every day. She got upset and I offered her either this filly, Scout, or Bella, and she chose not to take the filly. I don't know if this means she wants one of the other two.

Some of the boys:

I liked this yearling:

There were a lot of horses there that I would have brought home if I had unlimited time and resources. But none more so than my little burro buddy. I hope he found an excellent, knowledgeable, loving home.

Here's a final parting shot of miss Grace. At least I think that's her name. We're still trying it on for size.