I am thankful for

My camera-shy daughter, and the fact that I finally sneaked some pictures!

I am thankful for

(And my daughter too, but she won't let me take her picture.)

I recently read in a book about horse camping that mustangs make great mountain horses because of their sure-footed sturdiness, but don't let them loose or you won't see them again. That hasn't been my experience, although Tonka is the only one I've turned loose in camp in the mountains to graze without any restraints.

Tonight I headed out to feed and was turning right, toward the mares, when I glanced left and saw horses in my front yard. The boys were having a grand adventure, exploring, finding my empty feed buckets, and eating the long green grass under the trees. I laughed, walked over and grabbed a halter off the fence post, and caught them one by one. I started to get irritated with Scout for leaning his shoulder into me when I was haltering him, then realized that I could have a much worse mess on my hands if they were high-strung, naughty, hard to catch horses. But they aren't. I found where they got out, and of course it was my own fault. There was a short stretch of temporary fence not hooked up to the electric and I'd been hoping they wouldn't figure it out. Silly me. I'm glad it was right near the house and they didn't end up out down by the creek. So many things to be thankful for in life! Our place may not be fancy and our house may not be large, but we are fortunate to be a little distance from any roads, which keeps our animals and our kids safe from crazy drivers in the snow.

We're getting some pretty good snow out there right now. It's the kind where if you look really closely, you can study the individual complexity of each glittering snowflake. The night is so quiet and bright. Perfection. :)

Thanks everyone for the good wishes. I think Soxy is going to be okay. I don't know why she's off her feed but she did eat this morning, a little hesitantly. Linda mentioned her old horse going off feed because of a hoof abscess. Soxy has one leg that's been stocked up, I thought it was just from standing around too much, but maybe she has something similar going on. I'll be keeping an eye on her, for sure. And I've got a nice sloppy wet bunch of beet pulp soaking for her.

Soxy is off her feed tonight and was very lethargic today. I haven't written about it because there was nothing I could really put my finger on, but she's gone downhill lately. I hope I'm worrying over nothing. It could be just a minor tummy ache, after all the weather is changing. If you wouldn't mind sending some prayers or healing, comforting thoughts, I'd really appreciate it. If it is her time to go I hope she goes quickly, peacefully and painlessly. But I keep reminding myself that it could be a little bug or infection. She was much like this when she started coming down with pigeon fever a few years back. But she didn't physically look as bad as she does now...
This picture is from last week. She doesn't look terrible, but her spine is prominent, and her face just looks old (of course you can't see that in the picture).

The boys got to go out in their big pasture today
and they really liked it.

They'd been in really gross, saturated mud overnight, so excuse their lack of grooming.
(It is that time of year, and I'm not one for grooming mud off several horses who just roll in it again anyway...)

"What's that?"

That face. Nobody else looks at me like that, except Huckleberry, maybe.

(Note Huckleberry butt in the background. He'd caught something big, maybe a weasel or a big fat vole. I wasn't going to go look, I think he was toying with it for a while before he killed it.)

Here's a cute pic of fat Scout a couple days ago.

I think I'm ready for the weather that's coming. Winter is on the way!

I almost forgot to link to these two poems on Kate's blog. I either love poetry or I hate it (I usually avoid it) and I LOVE the one about the old woman. Wow.

I am back in the world of the blogging! Besides not having a lot to blog about, I had no power for 2 days. A huge storm ripped through here on Monday night and took out a lot of power poles. I was up half the night listening to the wind, thunder, and rain, and worrying about the horses. They were fine though.

In the process of being without power for 2 days I learned that my water is gravity fed and just runs a bit slower without an electric pump. I learned that I love propane and propane accessories. My water heater and stove still worked, but I couldn't figure out how to light the oven. I used a little propane space heater to warm up the bathroom and I had the luxury of a hot bath. Overnight we piled every warm body in the family into our bedroom - 4 people and 3 dogs. The kids were on cots to keep them off the cold floor. It was a bit crowded but it stayed toasty warm in here. Thank goodness this didn't happen during a cold snap. We have no back-up heat system. Someday I want a wood stove or a wall mounted propane heater that can be manually lit. With that and a cooler for the food we'd be all set. We didn't lose a lot of food but I did throw some out, and I'm giving the fridge a deep cleaning today. Yuck!

Other than that, I've been working on moving my temporary fence and giving the horses a big fresh pasture to run around on. I have one little bit left to do, I've been too much of a pansy to go out in the wind and do it. I've been riding when I can. The group of ladies who were supposed to meet at the arena today all canceled due to weather except me and my sister. We were going to call it quits but decided to go anyway. So it was just the two of us but it got me out of a cranky mood. Tonka was funny, and good, and I sure do love that horse (even if he does coat himself in mud right before I go to get him). Next time I think I'll take Scout. He could use the experience.

I am Thankful for:

I am Thankful for

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program in hopes that there is someone out there with money and compassion and a love for the older horse who can't work. This one really tugs at my heart strings because her feet (and presumably her diet) need help and she needs to be gentled. I love gentling, fixing bad hooves, and dinking with dietary needs. Those are my passions. But I can't afford another mouth to feed that also needs veterinary treatment.

Today I got this message from
"...an Animal Protection Officer for SCRAPS. We recently seized an 18 yr old Mustang mare with hooves in deplorable condition. The mare is not easy to handle and the vet stated she has laminitis. She is gorgeous and has a kind eye, but really prefers not to be messed with. We were able to get the owner to surrender the horse to us today and just wanted to see if there are any rescue options for her before we decide to euthanize. The vet sees her feet as being able to come around with continued work, but she does need to be completely knocked out to be trimmed. We realize there may not be many options for an 18 yr old mustang that is not very handleable, but we did want to try to get her a better happy life before it ends. If you can help in any way, or know of anyone who may want to take this horse on, please let me know!"

Her name is Destiny and she's bay with a star. I will have more info and photos tomorrow.

I've got my mojo back! I think I just needed something to look forward to.

My sister and I were talking about how we'd like to have a group of like-minded people to ride with. Actually it was more my sister's idea, because I'm generally pretty happy to have anybody to ride with. But she wants a group that is into... compassionate horsemanship? Feeling horsemanship? I don't really know the right term for it, but it's not forcing a horse to comply, and it's not necessarily natural horsemanship, which can just be another way of forcing the horse. It's kinda woo-woo and vague and undefined. Focused on the journey and not the results. Unrushed. Anyone who has been to a Mark Rashid clinic will know what I'm talking about. We're going to get together sometime next week with a few other people, unplanned agenda, and kinda see what happens.

Besides that, we went for a walk/ride today. I alternated walking and riding and Amy had to walk because her horse has a chunk missing out of his back and it needs to heal before she rides him again. It was good to see how he did with Tonka along for the walk, so that we'll know how they do when we ride together for the first time.

My sister is kind of shocked to find that she has enough hair now that it interferes with her peripheral vision. It came back very curly, but maybe it will straighten out as it gets longer.

Tonka got to enjoy a very rare treat after playing in the water- grazing while at work.
(One of these days I'm going to have to start taking better pictures)

Amy's horse has a new name - Lakota. It means friends, allies, or those who are united. Kinda similar to my boy's full name, Khota Tonka.

She's still just tickled pink with her new boy. He's a good horse.

Yet another boring blog with no pictures, but I'm hoping to have enough energy to haul the camera outside with me tomorrow!

I'm feeling pretty good but not great. I don't know if I'm still sick or if the seasonal depression is hitting me. I think it might be a little bit of both. And I think I gave my sickness to both of my kids, but we'll see. Hopefully not.

Saturday my sister brought over an old camper that she fixed up but she doesn't need anymore now that they have a huge new 5th wheel. It's small, fits in the back of the pickup without spilling over, and will be perfect for weekends with the horse trailer in tow. She even fixed it up with a horsey theme. I want to make some new pillows for it and do some sort of decoration behind the range, plus hang some cowgirl paraphernalia on the walls, but other than that it's good to go.

I spent part of the day Sunday doing a bit of sewing by hand and embroidery. I repaired Angus's foal blanket and stitched his name on there. (Angus is John's big dog). The weather was so rainy, windy, and cold that being outside wasn't an option unless it was really a necessity. I enjoy that kind of quiet crafty work when there's nothing else to do (besides housework, and who wants to do that?)

Along those lines, I've decided I'm going to make a hooked wool saddle blanket. I can't wait to get started. I bought some of the stuff for it today, and might barter for the roving sometime soon. I've also considered using my precious Roseanne's fleece for it, but I don't know if I can make decent roving, having never done it before, and I'm not sure there's enough there to send off. Roseanne died after her only shearing and I had only kept half of her fleece.I'll look for it in the attic tomorrow and see how much there is. When I get started I'll keep you posted on my progress. I am so grateful to Linda at "Just Another Day on the Prairie" for doing a tutorial on how to make these saddle blankets.

Yesterday (that rainy, icky day) we took 4 grocery bags and a box full of books to our local used book store to trade them in. They didn't take very many of them, I think because they're full to overflowing with books. Seriously, it was hard to navigate the aisles for fear of tripping over piles of books. But I did get two good books in trade, and the kids got some books too. Right now I'm reading "The Gentle Tamers" about women in the old west. I love it! It really keeps my attention (I can hardly put it down), which is saying a lot for a non-fiction book. The other book I got is also about women of the west, and has lots and lots of pictures, which I love looking at. Not near enough horses (I like to check out the old-time tack) but really great pictures. It also has many letters written by women over the years, and I can't wait to read the details of their daily lives. The one I'm reading now has more of an overview on the different women it talks about.

These books make me feel so inadequate though. I'm so tired, and I get so little done. Look what they endured! It's inspiring though - if they could do all that, I can get a few projects finished around here!

If I were to blog today it'd be mostly complaining and some good news delivered in a ho-hum voice. So I'll save you from that and be back when this bug leaves my system. Hopefully very soon.

I decided not to ride today since my cold has gotten worse. So what do I do? Get two horses out and end up trimming Scout's hooves, which is much harder than riding...

Before I got Scout out I put Tonka in the round pen with his hobbles on. This is the first time I've used my pretty hobbles that came on my saddle. He hasn't worn hobbles since spring. I keep meaning to get him more accustomed to them but I forget. So today he stood in them for about an hour while I worked with Scout.

There have been 2 or 3 incidents with Scout where he's gotten something around his leg and kicked or ran until the thing broke. Luckily no damage done, other than him learning that it worked to fight the thing. So I roped his feet today. He fought it more than I'd prefer, kicking quite a bit. No crazy hysterics, but definite irritation and trying to get rid of the annoying rope. We made some progress but we'll have to do some more work on it before I'd hobble or picket him. It is tempting to tie his leg to a fixed post rather than let him jerk on me, but I'm afraid he'd hurt himself, even if he is a pretty level-headed colt.

I had hoped to get in a good ride today in the beautiful weather, but instead I spent the day on the tractor (which is still good because I was out all day soaking up the sunshine). I evened the driveway out a bit. When we bought this place I thought the driveway was so cute with the strip of greenery down the center. Ha! That center strip doesn't erode like the ruts where car tires and rain go, and we end up bottoming out in the car if we're not careful how we drive. So I scraped and redistributed and scraped and raked and kicked gravel until it was somewhat better. Hopefully it will stay good for a while. I almost broke down and bought a couple loads of gravel today, but then I remembered a more important debt we need to pay.

Speaking of gravel, as soon as I put away the tractor I got a call from the gravel guy's son and I had to run to get ready to receive two loads of gravel for in front of the horse barn. My mom is a good sugar-mama for Bella. She didn't want her slipping in the mud (I think there's a spring there) so she bought gravel. I spread it out very thickly because the mud's going to eat it up. Then I ran out of diesel in a rather awkward position on the pile... I think I have a can of diesel here I can fill it up with, but I need coffee first!

Bella is still recovering well. She got to spend half the day out of the stall yesterday, and more time today. She was NAUGHTY though! You should have seen her running and jumping and bucking. She can sure kick high out behind her. I had to put her back in her stall for a while. I may just have to put up a small temporary corral for her to get well in.

Tonka and Scout are cute as heck, poor Cisco is bored out of his mind and always hungry (he's on a diet) and Soxy's face is looking very old lately, although she's happy and chipper. That's the status of the herd on this fine day! Hope you're having a wonderful day too!

What a beautiful day to take both of my boys out for a ride.

Golden boy:

Scout's shadow here totally cracks me up:

Scout's neck looks naked without the mustang brand:

Trying on the big guy's saddle:

Glorious, glorious day. Hope to have another couple good ones this week.

It's hard to want to ride when my horse looks like this

and I have a head cold.

I did groom him and tried out a Skito pad I got an AWESOME deal on. It was too short for the tree of the new saddle. But it was so cheap it doesn't matter. I'll hang on to it. If nothing else it would make a great pad under a bareback pad.

Bella is doing great. she's still on stall rest and she doesn't seem to mind at all. I take her out and walk her and I feed her 3 times a day. And I give her that horrible 20cc penicillin shot with the huge needle. Not fun. She's been a really good girl for it though. I think it's more traumatic for me than it is for her.

I'm off to go trick-or-treating with the kids. Happy Halloween!

Bella's stifle surgery went just fine. As I expected, the vet couldn't see the locking very well, but he could feel it, and he had been the one to diagnose it a couple years ago. It doesn't happen on command, and usually happens only in certain circumstances. It was very bad last week when I rode her for 10 minutes (or less) and as I told the vet, right now she's not usable at all, so we might as well do this. So we did. It felt very wrong as I watched him cut her tendon. I have to keep reminding myself that it's the only way she might be able to lead a useful life. And as every person there said, she has such a wonderful, calm temperament, it's worth it to give it a try.

She was such a wonderful, good girl. I hadn't loaded her for at least 6 months, and she loaded right up even though she hates trailer rides. She only rocked the trailer a couple times when we were passed by semis. When we got there she unloaded calmly and stood around and lunged and whatnot while there was large machinery working in the parking lot. He barely sedated her for the surgery and she was fine. The only problem we had was while she was in the stocks after the surgery. He was checking her teeth, so she had the speculum in her mouth and tied her head up high, then he went to use the power float. Problem was, the sedation had worn off and it was too much. She tried several times to say she couldn't handle it, then she shot backward, as much as she could in the stocks. So she got some more sedation. He gave her a bit seat and took down the sharp points that had started along the outside of her molars. They weren't bad, I've seen worse on a 3 year old. Oh, and he did confirm that she is 5 years old.

Miss Dopey trying to walk off that second dose of sedation, which was stronger than the first:

Here you can see both stifle incisions, if you look closely:
Here's a closer shot of just one. Tiny incisions.

And here is a picture taken over Scout's back as he ate. The new building went up yesterday.
They weren't supposed to be here until today, but they showed up right after we got Bella settled in. Lucky we were home - we had just heard a story about these guys showing up early when nobody was home and putting the building in the wrong spot.

Another exciting development - I found good beet pulp again! The stuff I've been buying is like a pelleted powder, and who knows what might be in it. I bought some at the feed store right near home and it's pelleted shreds, just like I used to buy, and it bulks up twice as much as the other stuff when I soak it. I know it sounds minor, but to me it's a wonderful thing. :)

I'd better get out and take care of Miss Bella now. She's to have Bute 2x daily and a huge shot of penicillin once a day, just in case. Plus she's stalled (for at least 5 days) so I have to haul her water and clean her stall. I really enjoy it, it's good to spend time in the barn.

I had to reschedule my vet appointment for Bella because of a builder. You know how they are, never here when they say they'll be, and then they're not here the next time they say they'll be either. So I rescheduled Bella's surgery for no reason, since they didn't show that day either. But we're all set to go tomorrow, and the builders are supposed to come the next day. (My mom is having a building put up to house her motor home, and we will keep our tractor in it too. Score!)

Today I attempted to get things ready for the surgery tomorrow. Scooped poop (thanks to my mom for being my gate person), worked on the trailer wiring (thanks John for finally figuring it all out), and was going to get the stall all set up for her but the trailer wiring took so long I couldn't get that done. I can do it in the morning before we go.

According to Dr. Rustebakke, this surgery is VERY minor, and in his experience it's like a miracle cure. So hopefully this time tomorrow there will be no more stifle problems in Bella's future, and eventually she can get on with her saddle training. I worry there might be damage to the joints from all the stifle locking in the past, but I'm trying not to be a pessimist. We should have had this done a couple years ago.

I can't remember what he said about recovery period, but I'm pretty sure she won't need stall rest for long at all. I'm excited to finally get this taken care of!

I only took time to ride Tonka today. I've been fighting a stomach bug since Wednesday. It's not severe, just a really unhappy stomach and a lot of sleepiness. Today I took it easy most of the day, but I made myself ride because it's supposed to rain for the next week. Yuck.