A Pale Horse - An Arabian Horse Story

Never a dull moment…

2012-02-03T01:22:00.000-08:00

If the past few days were beautiful yesterday was gorgeous. I went down to feed as usual only there was nothing usual about it. As I went to feed the pasture horses, someone was outside the pasture. At first I thought it was Sere, and she jumped the fence only Sere was in the pasture, there was one horse too many. I looked again, then looked at Ser-Haat’s stall, and sure enough his gate was open. Great, catching him was going to be real fun. I tried coaxing him to walk without a halter, something I can do with most of our horses only he was too excited (wonder why), and wouldn’t walk with me more than a few steps. I fed the girls, and tried quietly chasing him to his stall. You can guess how that went over. He started to go over to his dad, and I thought great I can coax him into the round pen. Yeah right. Ok I gave up, and called April to come over to help. What to do, he kept going over to Ibn so I thought ok, I’ll put Ibn in his stall, move Santa Fe into the arena, and maybe just maybe I can get him to go into Ibn’s stall. It has a long wide gate, and he can see Ibn’s breakfast, and maybe he’ll go in there by himself.

First I moved Santa Fe (don’t want Ibn next to a mare) then moved Ibn into Ser-Haat’s stall. Naturally Ser-Haat came round to Ibn in his stall. He was not co-operating (did you really think he would?). I went to swoosh him, and he went to visit Santa Fe in the arena. I walked around, and by the time I got round to the other side he was in Ibn’s stall eating Ibn’s breakfast. Finally. Now Ibn’s run is over 150’ long, trying to corner Ser-Haat was going to be next to impossible. He doesn’t like to be caught in his much smaller paddock so this was definitely going to be interesting. About this time April shows up (thank you Lord). At least I’d have some help. I wanted April positioned behind me to keep him from going the length of the run. I could then work Ser-Haat, and try to get the lead rope around his neck. He won’t let me halter him, but I can make a halter with the lead rope, and he does just fine. I asked April to take Ibn to the round pen so once I caught Ser-Haat I could lead him back to his own stall.

Getting the rope around Ser-Haat’s neck is a long process. First I have to get it on his back (several times), then lead him by his neck for a while, and finally make a loop to put on his nose to form a semi halter. I’ve done this with him numerous times. He doesn’t like the halter, but will work with a rope. It takes us a while mostly because he knows he can charge April, and get past her, which he does more than once. For some reason he won’t work with April. She says he just doesn’t like her. At any rate I finally get him working with the rope halter, and we walk him down to his stall. April opens both gates, but has to back off before he will go through them to his own stall. I really want him to work with someone other than myself, but it’s not going to be today. We get everyone back to where they belong, and I give Ibn more Alfalfa because someone ate all his. The good part of this is now Ser-Haat isn’t afraid to go through the gate. He also knows that you can have fun if you leave your stall. I will use that to my advantage making it a reward for putting on his halter.

April has to go home to help her mother get dressed. They need to take her to the doctor in Alamogordo, and from there most likely to the hospital. She’s been really sick, and has gotten very weak. She said she’d be back, but I don’t really think so, it’s going to be an all day affair. I get back to the house feed everyone else, and just as I’m getting ready to call Rudy he calls me. He was starting to get a bit worried because it was so late. I explain my morning, and his comment was as usual they’re just too smart for their own britches. Now I’m going to have to get another stud chain for Ser-Haat’s stall. I’ve run out of chains, as I have them on most of our gates. Those little noses are just too nimble.

We talk for a while, and then I begin the rest of my day. Since April won’t be over I decide to clean Santa Fe’s stall. My back feels prettygood (nice sunny weather does wonders for my back), and my arm isn’t hurting too much. Quarter horses are so different from Arabians. It’s almost a joy to be able to clean a stall without the antics of the rest of our kids. Even when she was sticking her nose in the back of the gator she’d move over for me to get through. After a while she simply went to her paddock, and took a nap in the warm sunshine. She actually took a nap, I couldn’t ask for anything more. I was just about done (only had about one, and a half loads to go), and I decided to take a break. The barn was calling me. Since Rudy used to do all this stuff he naturally had everything set up for him. Gradually I have been making changes. Some of the changes have been because I simply don’t have the strength that Rudy has (big surprise there). Some of the changes are due to the fact that even though I love my husband dearly, he doesn’t really have things organized. For him it’s fine, but you know how women are, they always have to be rearranging things. It’s in our genes.

I had talked to Rudy about moving some things, and as we talked I came up with the idea of moving stuff we never use into the back stall. It doesn’t have a paddock area, and it’s there in case we need to isolate a horse. Now it’s a storeroom. As I move things I sweep out about a ton of dust, and I can’t even get to some of it. Some of the stuff (like the door that Marina demolished, and Rudy still hasn’t fixed) is too heavy for me to move by myself, and will have to wait until April can help me. I make a good dent in it though then go back to finish cleaning Santa Fe’s stall. It’s about 3:00 so I quit for the day. April comes over to check up on me, and to let me know that they put her mom in the hospital. She has a bad case of influenza. They’ll keep her for a couple of days get fluids in her, and generally just build up her strength before they send her back home. She’s actually a year younger than I, but has more health issues. Thank God I have a strong constitution.

Yesterday was the last of our nice days for a while. We are actually going to have some winter weather for a few days. The wind wasn’t supposed to start until later today so I figured I could get some work done outside. Thankfully all the horses were where they were supposed to be when I fed, but man it was cold. You’d think it was winter or something. April comes over sporting a thermal T instead of the light short-sleeved T from yesterday, and her coat. I myself have a sweatshirt under my heavy coat. It’s breezy, but not really windy yet. The weather is good enough to get some things done outside, but not good enough to get Stormy, and Angel under saddle. The wind always makes them more excitable, and that’s the last thing we need. I want to get the barn finished so we tackle that instead of working horses. We move things around, and sweep up another ton of dust. It’s amazing how rearranging things opens up the barn making it look large again, instead of cluttered.

Since we couldn’t work the horses I asked April about doing Star’s feet. We’ll be out of the cold, and she really needed her feet done. Her left front was way too long, and the right front wasn’t much better. She couldn’t even stand properly but was toeing out something fierce. She asked if she had been trimmed before, and I had to say I didn’t know. Soon enough we found out that she hadn’t a clue what to do. You could pick up her front feet fine, but the back feet were a different story, but I’m getting ahead of myself. We took her out to the round pen to get he edge off (even though I let her out on Monday) only it wasn’t enough so I put her with Marina in the arena and chased them both. Marina is way too fat, and Star is actually a bit plump herself.

Now that the edge was off, we started with her front right. Well she wasn’t doing too well so I put her against the gate so she wouldn’t squirm, and she had the gate to help her keep her balance. That worked really well. I learned that from one of our farriers who did some of our youngsters. Now that she had some kind of idea as to what we were doing to her, Star did much better with her left front. That toe was not only long, but misshapen. We went back to her right front to do her heel, which was lopsided, and she just couldn’t figure that one out. Now April is only about 4’11”, I’m about 5’4” so I told her to let me try. My legs are much longer, and that made a big difference. I got the heel on the outside down some, but I just don’t have the shoulder strength I need so April took over. This time Star did much better, and April was able to get the heel rasped down. She rasped the front, and she picked up the back bringing the leg back then forward. Next time we will work on using the nippers on the front, and rasping the back. Star is still young, and there’s no sense in going fast, and making her think this is a bad thing. She got lots of praises, got brushed as a reward, and all in all felt good about herself. Next time she’ll understand a little better, and it will be easier.

Next we went to Sierra. When he was a baby I worked with his feet only he has totally forgotten all about that, and it’s too difficult for me to try picking up his feet by myself. I have done it, but not for very long. With the two of us we would make much better progress. Star was just about perfect compared to Sierra. He was a little pill even up against the fence. I finally came up with the idea of putting the lead rope in his mouth for him to chew on. That made a big difference. First of all he wasn’t trying to nip at me (boys), and it kept his mind off his feet, and what April was trying to do. He wasn’t too bad with his left back, but kept trying to cow kick when she worked on his right back. We did front, and back several times, and he was getting pretty good, when disaster struck. He wasn’t against the fence (big mistake), and when she picked up his front left one last time he lost his balance, leaned against April, knocked her down, then fell down himself. She fell against the fence while I pulled him up again. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt (though her knee will probably beg to differ), but it really startled Sierra. He didn’t understand how he fell down. We calmed him down, and April picked up his foot again. This time he stood stock-still. He wasn’t going to go through that again. He got lots of pets, and we called it a day.

By this time it was 3:30, and the wind was coming up stronger, and colder. Come Saturday the winds should be gone even though it will stay cold. Tomorrow is my day for going to town so I won’t be able to do much more. All in all it has been a good week, and I got a lot accomplished. Next week is supposed to be sunny, and maybe April will actually get on Angelo’s back, and we can get the saddle on Stormy all cinched up. Between the two of us we make one good person. If she can get the kids safe, I can get them green broke. God willing by summer’s end all the horses that can be will be under saddle. Ser-Haat I will send to a trainer. At least I will when I can scrape the money together, and I can get the groundwork done on him. April is going to lend me her rope halter to see if that will help him get over his halter fears. Once that is accomplished I can start working him in the round pen, and maybe get him trailer trained. That should be real fun. Right now I have to go to bed. I was a long (though very productive) day, and my body has had it. It wants to go to bed, and so I shall acquiesce to it’s demands, at least for tonight.

Beautiful days…

2012-01-31T23:43:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been absolutely beautiful. Sunday I didn’t do much of anything. I don’t know why but there are days when I’m just too tired to do anything. Sunday was one of those days. Yesterday was much better, and I decided to work the horses that April, and I hadn’t gotten to. First I took Lizzie out. As I went past Jeri I discovered that either she was just coming into season or just going out. Normally she pays no attention to the stallions, not so yesterday. It wasn’t overt, but she nickered interestedly as we went past. She started out cantering in the round pen, all excited to be doing something different, then settled into a nice trot. At least for a while she did. In her old age she has gotten very lazy. I had to prod her some but we got in a good exercise session. Then when I put her back into the pasture she took off running, and bucking letting everyone know that she got to go out and play. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try putting a saddle on her.

Next came Sadie who despite her age shows no sign of petering out. She has the most beautiful trot, and will do it endlessly if you ask her. She has filled out quite nicely, but needs some exercise to fill out her top line. She now sports a round belly (not too unlike my own), a nicely filled out back, and good haunches. Her croup is still bony, and I’m hoping that exercise will take care of that problem. She’s a total fur ball, and absolutely filthy. I’ve brushed her out, but she manages to get muddy every time there’s even a little moisture on the ground. Marina (our other gray) always looks clean, and Sadie always looks dirty, go figure. Still, and all she really enjoyed getting out, and strutting her stuff like the hussy she is.

Next I took Sierra out. He walked out of his stall like a perfect little gentleman. Unfortunately since he now knew he could run, and play in the round pen he decided that he could do what he wanted, and not what I asked him to do. We worked a lot on the “reverse” command, and he sort of got it, but not quite. Hey it was only his second time out, and he’s still a baby. I did manage to measure him, and no he hasn’t really grown. He’s still 13.1, and he is totally downhill. Typical of a two year old he’s all out of proportion. They’re adorable as a weanling, and through their first year. Their second year you begin to wonder if you made a mistake, and try to keep them hidden as they never look like they will ever amount to the horse you had in mind. It’s not until they’re about three that everything comes together, and they start looking like the horse you dreamed about. Hopefully he will grow this summer. Even though his dam is only 14.3, his sire is 15.2. Accordingly to his measurement at about 6 months, he should come out about 15 hands, which is just right for my taste. Only time will tell.

Now all this time Espree is standing at her gate watching everyone but her get to run, and play. She doesn’t have a halter on because she kept rubbing it off one ear causing the other side of her face to rub raw. I finally just left it off. The only problem with that is that she doesn’t like to get caught. We decided years ago that she must have been ear twitched before we got her. Rudy got her to the point where he could put the halter on easily, but she has not been so good to me. It took forever for me to even be able to come up to her without her running away. Luckily she loves to be brushed, and I used that to my advantage. I wasn’t sure she’d let me put her halter on, but I was very patient, and after a considerable amount of time (playing her runaway game) she finally let me halter her. The funny thing is once you catch her she’s a perfect lady. She has wonderful ground manners. I worked her, and again I was amazed at the power of her stride. Espree is a powerfully built mare. She has filled out nicely, and is back to her normal weight. She needs to build up her shoulders, and chest a bit, but not much. Like Marina she is pure muscle only in a taller package. It will kill me to let her go before we have a foal out of her. Her only flaw is that she toes in slightly. Of course a lot of that could be corrected with a good trimming, but she has black hooves, and I know I don’t have the strength to file her feet. I have to depend on mother earth for that.

She had a good workout, or at least as much of a workout as I wanted to give her. None of the girls have been worked in a while, and just like us they can get sore muscles if worked too hard after not doing anything for a while. I kept all their sessions short, which left time to clean the barn, and get to Marina’s stall. All the stalls need to be cleaned, but just like the horses I didn’t want to over tax my muscles either. It was a good day. Even Marina, and Star got some exercise as I threw them out in the arena while I cleaned Marina’s stall. Of course I chased them first. They are beautiful to watch with endless energy. Marina is a bit stout just now, and needed the workout. Star is young, and so needs to run just to keep her sane. They both had their fun, and I left them to wander, and pick at whatever little dried grass they could find while I cleaned Marina’s stall, and paddock area.

That was yesterday. I felt great then, not so much this morning. I was a bit sore, but not too bad, or so I thought. April was supposed to come over today, only her mother was out of sorts, and she didn’t want to leave her alone. That was ok, I had planned on working Stormy, and Angel with the saddle, but as usual nothing works out the way I plan it anyway so it was no big deal. It was still a beautiful day so I went to tackle Star’s stall. God she’s a pill. Like all the youngsters when you come into the stall they think you’re there to play with them. To some degree they’re all pests, but she is exceptional. First she kept trying to get her halter off its hook, which she could just reach with the stall door open. The gator is against the stall door (for the purpose of collecting the manure), and every time I had a shovel full I had to move her out of the way. She dutifully moved with the speed of a snail, and then went back to playing with her halter as soon as I went back for another shovel full.

That went on until she got bored, and started playing with the gate handle. That was considerable better since then I could go unimpeded to the gator delivering my shovels of manure. Well in playing with the gate she discovered that she could close the gate. That was way more fun because not only did I have to push her out of the way, but I now had to try to open the gate holding my shovel of manure. I finally got tired of that game, and chased her out of her stall into the paddock area where I was cleaning. This was still mildly entertaining. I’d chase her out, and she’d go right back in.

Finally (three loads later), my back was screaming in pain, and I said enough even though I had time to do at least one more stall. I guess I’m out of shape too. With the snow, the wind, and the rain I haven’t cleaned stalls for a while. My body was not pleased in the least. I proceeded to come back to the house, and my heating pad. Everything from my waist up hurt. Every movement was sheer pain. I couldn’t wait until it was time to take my pain pill, to which I added some Ibuprofen, and a Tylenol PM. That of course put me to sleep for a little while at least. When I woke up I could at least move. After feeding everyone I spent the rest of the evening on my heating pad (which I normally do anyway). It will be a difficult night of fitful sleep, but at least I got something accomplished, and that’s a good thing. Tomorrow I may try riding Lizzie before I attack another stall. She should be fine to ride. I just want to get her in shape, and make sure she’s rideable before I try to find a retirement home for her. I’ll wait for April to come over before I work with Stormy, and Angel. Stormy will take a while before anyone gets on his back, but Angel should be fine the next time we work her. Rudy did start her once years before, and she was very good about it then. Still and all I won’t attempt it with no one here but me just in case. I’m not a total fool after all, or am I? One has to be at least half crazy to do all this stuff at my age without having the faintest idea of how to do what needs to be done. At least I’m enjoying myself, and lets face it, I never get bored.

Crappy weather…

2012-01-29T01:03:00.000-08:00

Well we’ve had some good days, and more not so good days (freezing cold, rain, snow, and of course lots of gale force winds). We do have water thanks to warmer weather, and I have figured out a way to cut bigger wood though I now sport a nice blister on my thumb. What fun. Since my coffers are now full, and I’m not hauling water I’ve actually had time to work some of the horses. April now has physical therapy for her hand twice a week (they think she has severe tendonitis). Great, but not being a person to let that stop her she has been able to help me out some.

We took Little Big Man out to the round pen for the first time. He wasn’t too sure about leaving his stall, but he is very trusting, and led beautifully. Then there was that big leather thing (saddle) next to the round pen. He was sure it was going to attack him, and cautiously went around it through the gate. He didn’t know what to make of the round pen. After a little encouragement he figured out that I wanted him to trot in a circle. I’m sure he was saying to himself, this is really stupid, but quickly learned that for whatever reason, that’s what I wanted him to do. He let out a few bucks (after all he had to have some fun) then was trotting, and cantering like a pro. He is going to be a joy to ride when he grows up. He has the smoothest gate, and movement like his dam. In a lot of ways I can’t wait till he grows up, and I can ride him. Then again he will only be a baby for a short while. His temperament is still so mellow it’s hard to believe he came out of Angel. At his age she was a little wild Indian, and full of it. As an adult she’s sweet, and very sensible, but you wouldn’t have known it then. He got lots of praises, and cuddles when we were done, and I hope to take him out regularly, not too much because he’s still a baby but a little like maybe once a week or so.

Next was Stormy. He has gotten very good with April letting her go right up to him to put on his halter. He’s also getting the idea that a halter means he gets to go out, and play, which is probably why he’s so willing. He did very well so we decided to try the saddle. First came the blanket (that was a trip), but after a few tries we were able to put it on, and off, under his belly, around his haunches, and around his chest. We walked with it on, and he decided that wasn’t so bad after all. It really didn’t hurt the least bit. He did so well we decided to get the saddle. Now that was a bit more for him to get his mind around. I gently put it on, and he shied but accepted it at least for a minute or two, then he bucked that thing right off. Well that wouldn’t do so we started all over again, first the blanket, then that scary saddle. It took a while but he finally decided that it was ok too, and we walked around with it on for a bit. I didn’t cinch it not wanting to ask too much of him. He did a good job, and was well praised for it.

All that was last week. Today was a nice day so after April, and I got hay we took Stormy out again. Both April, and I worked him, and April noticed that his feet were a mess. Winter is bad because there’s snow, then rain then hard dry footing so the horses that are stalled (at least some of them), don’t get their feet worm properly as they do in the summer. They get cracks, and chips, and look terrible. April asked if he would pick up his feet, and I told her I didn’t know. He did when he was a baby, but after his incident nothing was ever the same. He’s a sweet loving boy, but is very wary. She picked up his one front foot, then the other, and then went to his back. The one side she didn’t have too much trouble with, and after a couple of tries he picked it up just fine. Then she went to the other back leg, and that was a totally different story. He wasn’t about to let her pick that foot up. She went to his front, and he was ok, then the back, and he said no way Jose. After several attempts, much cooing, and soft talking he all of a sudden decided that we weren’t going to stop till he gave April his foot, and let her pick it up just fine. Man did he get the pets, and hugs, and praises then. When something clicks in their brain you reward them by not making them work any more, and making sure that they know they did good. He was so proud, he knew he really did something special. We took him back to his stall, gave him more praises, and lots of hugs. He was a very happy camper. Next time we will work on getting the saddle on again, but it has to be fun so I don’t ask too much of them all at once. He’s still very young, and I don’t want to sour him.

Angel came next. Since we are going to have to sell or lease most of our horses (all but four) I need to get as many of them under saddle as possible. Rudy started Angel way back when we lived in Auberry, but that was like seven years ago or so. We worked her in the round pen for a while first. It took a few times for her to remember what she was supposed to do, but she did just fine. I settled her down a bit by brushing out her mane & tail, which are both very short since she’s been in pasture, and then I started with her feet. She used to be fine, got regular trims etc., but after the first time we went to breed her we haven’t been able to touch her back feet. Up until we moved out here we always used a breeding hobble on the mares. Well we put them on her, and as soon as she started to walk she freaked big time. We gave up, and bred her without the hobbles, and she was so good about it that we haven’t used them since. The bad part was that she wouldn’t let anyone get near her back legs for anything. Well when we put her in pasture she had some differences with a few other mares (she won), and scraped up her back leg. I had to put salve on it for a bit, and she decided that ok, I could touch her back legs. I still hadn’t tried picking them up, so today after I brushed her I picked up all four feet, and cleaned them without any trouble. I was very proud of her. Next came the saddle. She was being such a good girl I couldn’t just stop with the feet. April brought out the blanket, and after a few sniffs, she let her put it on. She was a little unsure of the saddle, but April does everything extra slow, and we got it on, and cinched up without too much trouble. I worked her for a bit with the saddle on, then tightened the cinch, and worked her a bit more. Next April worked her while I went to the barn to get something to drink. When I got back Angel was standing stock still with no one holding her, and I must say I was impressed she was so good. April wanted to show off so she got the lead rope back, and she got up, and down in the saddle. She didn’t put her leg over, but Angel stood like a champ with her getting up, and down. I was very proud. Angel got lots of praises, and when we put her back in pasture she got more cuddles.

All in all it was a very good day. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice again, so I want to work Sadie, Lizzie, and maybe Espree, and LBM in the round pen. Sadie we don’t ride anymore for two reasons, first she has a huge knot right below her ear, which is melanoma in her gland right where the bridle goes. Secondly when she gets over excited she will colic, and go down. Then I have to give her a shot and, walk her forever before she’s ok again. That being said that doesn’t mean she can’t get a work out since she’s now getting fat in all the wrong places if you know what I mean. Lizzie is just as bad, she has this huge hay belly, and her haunches are sunk in. I know it’s age (they’re both in their twenties), and lack of exercise so they are going to start being worked again. Lizzie when I get her in better shape is going to get a saddle on her so I can make sure she is ridable. It will be easier to find a home for her that way. I want to get Espree under saddle this summer, and LBM just needs a work out. If I still have time, and it stays nice I may ride Marina. I had both Marina, and Ibn in great shape last year at this time, and now Marina’s a bit too chunky, and Ibn looks like a skinny colt again. He’s rather narrow, and unless he’s worked regularly he gets too thin. Marina on the other hand is such a powerhouse that if she isn’t worked all that muscle turns to fat.

If we weren’t in such financial straights all this would be so much fun, but it’s hard when you are worrying all the time about whether or not you will have enough money just to feed everyone. Between April, and I we could really make things work if we had the financial wherewithal to do so. Oh well somehow we will manage, and if I can get more horses under saddle maybe I can even sell some. It’s pathetic what good horses are going for these days. Stud fees are way down, and there are more horses out there under $1000 than you can shake a stick at, and they’re not all crap horses either. Unfortunately horses are a luxury item, and in these hard times people can’t afford to feed them. I have faith though, and we will survive somehow, I’m not sure how, but that’s not my job. I take care of the little stuff, and God gets to take care of the big stuff. Granted it feels like He’s sloughing off, but maybe He has a big surprise waiting for us, the good kind that is (just in case You’re listening), I’ve had enough of the bad kind for a lifetime or two.

That’s about all I have for now. Winter is boring, because you spend most of your time inside doing wonderful things like cleaning house or whatever. Not my idea of fun. Of course I can always start working on the books so I can turn in our financials to the tax accountant, but who wants to do that? I know I have to get working on it, but since there are sunny days ahead we’ll leave that for another day, after all I still have a couple of months to get it all done. Good thing I’m not a procrastinator!

2012

2012-01-17T15:05:00.000-08:00

I have a tale of woe, but that is for a later post, for now I’ll try to catch you up on everything that has happened in the last two months, or at least what I can remember. Rudy has managed to stay away from hospitals, so my Father decided it was his turn. This time they put in two stints (about time). I recently talked to my Father, and since they changed his medication he has been getting dizzy (from lack of sleep), and finally took a spill himself. Mother is usually the one, and not to be outdone she took one too. He did a good job of it, splitting open his head, but no concussion (thank you Lord for that). He is buying us a 394 gal tank (Christmas present) that I can keep at the house so if we get into water issues again I can keep that water heated, and siphon it out as needed for the horses. Most of my time the last two months has been divvied up between hauling water, hauling ice to make water, and cutting wood. He also bought me a chain saw for Christmas only I can’t start it so it’s going back. I was going to take it back to the repair guy today, but the jeep wouldn’t start, and since it snowed last night I wasn’t too keen on taking the Fiero (gee I wonder why?). Anyway Rudy said I could use the reciprocating saw, and by gum, and by golly it worked. I now have some good wood in my pile instead of just small starter logs, and kindling.

April still hasn’t gotten full use of her hand yet so we really haven’t done much with the horses, besides I’ve been so depressed, and tired (wood cutting & water hauling) I haven’t felt like doing anything else. I did identify one water issue, the bathroom toilet was constantly running so that didn’t help our water supply. I have that turned off now, and even with the neighbors here I still have water. I even did laundry the other day without it taking all day. I put insulation around the pump house pipes as best I could, and I made a box for the pasture water faucet out of cardboard, a large plastic bag, and R19 insulation. If it works as well as the cover I made for the barn water main we should be in like Flynn. I put some insulation in the box in the barn, but that faucet is leaking so I don’t think it will be a problem anyway. I am assuming that our neighbors have turned off the pump at the dirt tank, and that is why we still have water. They left for a while because their pipes froze (city folk), and I didn’t notice a drop in water once they came back. Hopefully their water usage will be minimal for the winter.

Taggot got run over by April when she came over to feed for me while I was in Roswell (Father was in the hospital). It split his abdominal wall open so his bladder, spleen, and who knows what else was being held in by his skin alone. The vet said it would be 6 – 8 weeks recovery time, but try to tell that to Taggot. It’s been less than two, and he’s back to his old self driving me crazy. Pena has some sort of fungus (I think) on her leg, and the little ones are filthy due to my water problems. What other wonderful things have been happening? The truck died out on me for a while, but it turns out that the last time Rudy drove it he had to use the pliers to start it, and it is now out of kilter by a quarter turn. Not knowing this I had actually been leaving it turned on draining the battery. I’ll find out when I go to get hay again whether the battery is truly dead or not. We’re hoping for not, but since I don’t want to have to put out for another battery I’m not in a hurry to find out. What I don’t know can’t hurt me philosophy.

On a good note the Mercantile started carrying compressed alfalfa for $10/bale. The only problem is they ran out so I paid $12/bale for grass the last tome I got feed. I only bought 10 bales hoping they’d get more in before I had to buy more hay. Jeri is not pleased, and has a whole pile of grass in his stall. He gets no more food until he eats what is already there. After three weeks they finally got the compressed hay in, and they raised the price to $12/bale so I’ll feed half & half (half grass, and half alfalfa) to everyone except Jeri of course (spoiled). I prefer feeding half & half anyway. I just liked the $10/bale price, who wouldn’t?

Everyone else if fine, and putting on some weight. Star has grown, she’s now 14.1 hands. She looks like a smaller version of her Dam with her graceful long neck (not too long), and long legs. I may just have to keep her forever. We’ll see what the new year brings. We could sure use some good breaks for a change, but that I suppose is too much to ask for. Let’s at least pretend it’s not, and somehow 2012 will be the bearer of happier days.

November 12, 2011

2012-01-09T22:24:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to believe that it was only a week ago since my last post, but it was. I know I didn’t get it posted right away, but then again I never do. Somehow something always interrupts, in spite of my best intentions. We’ve had such fun this past week I just don’t know where to begin. Let’s start with the wonderful job I did on the hose splice. I’m not quite strong enough I guess to do it properly, because the pasture hose leaks. On top of that the hose is too short. I tried putting the foam tubing on the hose only to have it spray water everywhere. That was fun, or it would have been if it was summer, and hot instead of 50 some degrees out. The problem with cheap hoses is that they’re cheap. It makes perfect sense to me. The female portion of the hose spewed water everywhere if it wasn’t going straight down. Since I wanted the hose as short as possible, it went down, and then up over to the tank, which is higher than the spicket. That curve put too much pressure on the hose end so it leaked, big time. The other hose is all wrapped up so I have no clue if it leaks or not, we’ll pretend that it doesn’t.

Our wonderful neighbors came back, and for two days we had absolutely no water, then just as suddenly we had plenty of water. Their pump died. Once it was fixed we had no water again, but for a day it was wonderful. Now I have household water but little else so I’m hauling water for the horses again. The difference is it’s freezing cold out. I’m trying to find out if there is any way I can stop them from filling their pond. The amount of water allowed per well is way more than they are using. A friend of mine looked it up on her well permit, and you are allowed 3.0 water acres per well, and they have two. That works out to over 6K gallons per day so that’s no help. The only thing might be that nowhere on the permit does it say you can fill a pond. I’m going to the permit office for Lincoln County, and see what their permit allows. I might be able to stop them that way. Barring that I’m going to have to haul water whenever they are here. We have no problems when they are gone.

I also managed to cut more wood, but it disappears so fast. All I have available to cut is very, very, old (over ten years), very dry, and very small. Tomorrow in-between loading, and unloading hay I’m going to have to find time to cut more. I have nothing left but kindling, and the days, and nights are very cold. I did get one big project done. We moved the pellet stove (it died, how dare it) into the back room, and the wood stove that was there into the living room. The challenge was converting the stove pipes from pellet pipes to regular stove pipes. The pellet stove uses a 4” double walled pipe, and the wood stove has 6” single walled pipes. It was quite a challenge, and once again I had to become creative. Valerie from the Mercantile let me borrow a crimping tool so I was able to customize some of the pipefittings. We took the brick from the back room, and used that for a base. I was going to use the base from the pellet stove as wall backing, only it was home made, and very crooked. Every time I came out of the bedroom, all I could see was this off balanced slab of rockwork. I couldn’t stand it so I bought more red brick and made a very interesting backdrop. You see Rudy never did show me where the mortar blades were or how to use them. In order to stabilize bricks that are not cemented in I had to come up with a pattern that interlocked to certain a degree. I’m not sure if I will leave it that way or once I find out how to cut bricks go to a more traditional pattern. I kinda like it the way it is so it might just stay that way.

I had to move the stove a bit to line up the piping, and discovered I’m a lot stronger than I thought. The biggest worry was whether I would have enough draw since I went from a large pipe to a smaller pipe, with an S curve in the middle. Turns out it has better draw than our other wood stove in the computer room. The living area is quite open. There’s the living room, the TV room, the dining area, and the kitchen with no walls in-between save for a dividing wall between the living room, and the TV room. That one little stove (same size as the stove in the computer room), has the whole area up to 60 degrees. That’s impressive, or at least it is to me, and quite comfortable. Now all I have to do is clean up my mess, and do some re-arranging. I found a good use for the rock base that was under the pellet stove too. April came over, and of course I just had to show her what I was doing. She told me she wanted something for her little wood stove in her bedroom. I told her she was more than welcome to the one I have, and am not using. It’s better than trashing it, and she needs something. Besides then she can go crazy instead of me. Actually it’s not that noticeable when it’s on the floor. Because it was standing against a white wall, (it has black metal trim), it was glaringly evident that the angles were all wrong.

Speaking of April, she has three more weeks before she can go see the doctor, and find out if her hand has healed enough so she can start using it again. I’m going to have to rein her in when she can start doing things here though because I know good, and well that she is going to overdo it. Not being able to use her hand is driving her nuts. She needs, and is used to a very active life. Once she gets the go ahead, she’s going to want to do all the things she’s been wanting to do for the last six weeks.

The 28^th or the 29^th the hauler is coming for Cupid, and Aulina. Two fewer horses to feed Yeah! When they leave I’m going to put Rigalo, and Santa Fe in their stalls. I’ll get my arena back, and I can make repairs to the loafing barns. They have had a gay old time chewing the wood. A lot of the chewing was out of nervousness, and boredom, and it seems like they’ve slowed down, or it could just be wishful thinking on my part. The other good thing is that when I work one or the other they won’t get so panicky if they are with the rest of the herd. For one thing they will be away from each other on opposite sides of the barn. They will also have neighbors so they won’t feel so alone. All they know at this point is each other so new roomies will be good for them. I just wish I had the time to ride them they way they need it. I’ve been so tied up with projects, hauling water, cutting wood or the weather has been bad so I haven’t been on their backs since I first rode them. The thing is I’m really excited about riding them, and teaching them the ropes so to speak. Pretty soon I will have to start working on tax preparation, and then I’ll have even less time to ride. It will all work out eventually, I just have to be patient. That’s what I tell Rudy all the time, I guess now it’s my turn to be patient. Ain’t that the pits!

Just a week???

2011-11-13T22:10:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to believe that it was only a week ago since my last post, but it was. I know I didn’t get it posted right away, but then again I never do. Somehow something always interrupts, in spite of my best intentions. We’ve had such fun this past week I just don’t know where to begin. Let’s start with the wonderful job I did on the hose splice. I’m not quite strong enough I guess to do it properly, because the pasture hose leaks. On top of that the hose is too short. I tried putting the foam tubing on the hose only to have it spray water everywhere. That was fun, or it would have been if it was summer, and hot instead of 50 some degrees out. The problem with cheap hoses is that they’re cheap. It makes perfect sense to me. The female portion of the hose spewed water everywhere if it wasn’t going straight down. Since I wanted the hose as short as possible, it went down, and then up over to the tank, which is higher than the faucet. That curve put too much pressure on the hose end so it leaked, big time. The other hose is all wrapped up so I have no clue if it leaks or not, we’ll pretend that it doesn’t.

Our wonderful neighbors came back, and for two days we had absolutely no water, then just as suddenly we had plenty of water. Their pump died. Once it was fixed we had no water again, but for a day it was wonderful. Now I have household water but little else so I’m hauling water for the horses again. The difference is it’s freezing cold out. I’m trying to find out if there is any way I can stop them from filling their pond. The amount of water allowed per well is way more than they are using. A friend of mine looked it up on her well permit, and you are allowed 3.0 water acres per well, and they have two. That works out to over 5K gallons per day so that’s no help. The only thing might be that nowhere on the permit does it say you can fill a pond. I’m going to the permit office for Lincoln County, and see what their permit allows. I might be able to stop them that way. Barring that I’m going to have to haul water whenever they are here. We have no problems when they are gone.

I also managed to cut more wood, but it disappears so fast. All I have available to cut is very, very, old (over ten years), very dry, and very small. Tomorrow in-between loading, and unloading hay I’m going to have to find time to cut more. I have nothing left but kindling, and the days, and nights are very cold. I did get one big project done. We moved the pellet stove (it died, how dare it) into the back room, and the wood stove that was there into the living room. The challenge was converting the stove pipes from pellet pipes to regular stove pipes. The pellet stove uses a 4” double walled pipe, and the wood stove has 6” single walled pipes. It was quite a challenge, and once again I had to become creative. Valerie from the Mercantile let me borrow a crimping tool so I was able to customize some of the pipefittings. We took the brick from the back room, and used that for a base. I was going to use the base from the pellet stove as wall backing, only it was home made, and very crooked. Every time I came out of the bedroom, all I could see was this off balanced slab of rockwork. I couldn’t stand it so I bought more red brick and made a very interesting backdrop. You see Rudy never did show me where the mortar blades were or how to use them. In order to stabilize bricks that are not cemented in I had to come up with a pattern that interlocked to certain a degree. I’m not sure if I will leave that way or once I find out how to cut bricks go to a more traditional pattern. I kinda like it the way it is so it might just stay that way.

A good day…

2011-11-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day, no snow, no wind, and no freezing temps, like 17 degrees. Yes it’s only the 4^th of November, and we have already had freezing temps. We had another storm front go through only this time it was only high winds. Actually it wasn’t all that bad, only maybe 25 – 35 mph winds. It was, however too cold with the wind chill to do much of anything. Before the winds came I did manage to get one of the pasture tanks winterized. I also got the barrel we use to cover the water main winterized with R19 insulation. Hopefully that will keep the main from freezing. I still have the box in the barn to insulate, the pump piping re-insulated, and the other pasture tank to do. I had to cut the hoses I bought in order to encase them in the foam tubes. You can add slicing, dicing, and making new hoses to my growing list of ranch skills.

I also managed to cut all the wood in the garage, and clean it before the hard freeze came. Some of the pieces were too large for my miter saw, but I got all the rest done. Of course I am now out of wood again so it’s back to the woodpile (take your pick as to which one) to gather more wood to cut.

The winds came back so nothing really got done for a couple of days. Once the wind stopped the cold front was here big time, and we went from 60-degree days of sunshine to 24-degree nights. At least it was 24 by the time I got up. Other friends who got up much earlier said it was more like 17 degrees. The water froze under the house but it was clear by 10:00 am. The rest of the day was beautiful. I got a lead on someone who might be interested in taking Lizzie, only I haven’t heard back from her so maybe not. The woman is looking for a cheap horse for her daughter. Well the only cheap horses I know of are either starving, or old. Lizzie is old, and I just want to find a nice home for her. I don’t want to put her on the Internet because anyone you don’t know who is willing to only pay a few hundred dollars for a horse is probably not someone you want to have your horse. I figure your chances of the horse going to the wrong person are about 50/50. I’m not willing to take that risk, so I will either give her to a rescue or to someone I can trust.

After coming back from Capitan the day was so nice that as promised I decided to work Katie’s horses. I started with Rigalo (the paint). One thing I have to say for Katie is that she started them right. Rigalo is more nervous, and Santa Fe (the bay) is less trusting, she is also very impatient. Hum sounds like someone else I know. I figured Rigalo would be the more challenging because Katie told me she was “spirited”. She also said she was more willing to please than Santa Fe. Rigalo is fine, she’s just not sure what she is supposed to do, and that makes her nervous. Also being away from Santa Fe was very stressful for her. Other than that she was a very good girl, and I was quite proud of her. We worked in the round pen first to get to know each other better, or for me to see how much she really knew. She didn’t know reverse (or at least didn’t remember), but was reversing nicely by the time we finished. I brought her around to the barn and she saddled up just fine, or at least mostly. Katie warned me that they aren’t too fond of the bit just yet. It wouldn’t be a problem except that Rigalo is sooo tall. Give me a break I’m used to our Arabians, the tallest of which is only 15 hands, at least the ones I can ride. I got out the molasses, and that helped but not really, and in the end she simply gave in (they always do), and off we went to the round pen again.

I worked her a little with the saddle on, and she did fine. I also put weight on the stirrup, and she stood rock solid (unlike a boy I know). She was so good I just got on her, and started walking. Well she wasn’t too sure about that, and I had to coax her some. She figured it out eventually, and we walked doing schooling circles, and figure eights. They know walk, trot, and back. I didn’t want to push her (not on our first lesson) given on how unsure she was of herself. I gave her lots of praises in between, and told her what a smart good girl she was. She truly does want to please she’s just not sure how to do that.

Next came Santa Fe. I worked her in the round pen first, just like Rigalo, only she knows a lot more, and wasn’t nervous at all. I didn’t work her a lot as it was obvious she knew what she was about, then we went to the barn. My land she’s impatient. If I so much as went to the gator (just inside the barn) she sat there pawing, and raising Cain. I also discovered that she’s not quite as trusting as Rigalo. Both were rescue horses, and there is no telling what they’ve been through. Once I started combing out her tail all of that stopped. I don’t know what it is about the tail, but that seems to be the one thing they all love most. Maybe it’s just me, but that seems to be the one thing that calms them all down.

Well at least she was calm until I brought the blanket over. She wasn’t too sure about that, but she let me put it on her. The saddle was just a bit too much, and she shied away. It took a couple of lifts before I got it on her, but once there she was fine. Don’t know what the issue is there but she’ll get over it. She was a little better than Rigalo about the bit, but not by much. I really want to get a bitless bridle. It makes so much more sense to me, but they are sooo expensive. I’ll have to wait a while for that one.

We got all cinched up, and off to the round pen. I worked her a little with the saddle on, but I knew right away that she would be fine. So on her back I went. She was perfect, that is until we went into a trot. She so reminds me of Marina. Next time we go out together, she gets the Martingale, she’s a head flipper. I have to nip that in the bud. I don’t expect them to collect at such an early stage, but the head flipping has got to go. I did have one very pleasant surprise, she has a very comfortable trot. It might be because she is so short backed (for her breed), as I expected that choppy trot QH’s have, but she was quite smooth, smoother than Ibn for sure, and even Marina. She had no problems with turning, and picked up on leg cues very quickly so we did some more advanced turns. She got frustrated, but eventually got it, sort of. That’s when we quit. She did what I asked even though she really didn’t know what I was asking, so her reward was for the session to end. One thing Rudy drummed into my ear was always end on a good note, and if they do well don’t over work them.

Next time I take them out we’ll work in the round pen first, and then I have no qualms about taking them to the arena. They need a lot of simple schooling, and flexing. We’ll do everything at the walk, and trot, then once they have that down we’ll try to cantor. There’s no sense trying to cantor until they are solid at the walk, and trot. Both girls are smart, and I expect them to progress quickly, but I won’t rush them.

Rudy has taught me a lot, and working with the young’uns has taught me just how much I have learned under his tutelage. I’m no where near as good as Rudy (probably never will be), but like the horses the more I do the more confidence I have, and the better I do. Luckily I have Rudy to keep me from getting a swelled head, and becoming overconfident. What it takes me what seems like forever to accomplish, he does in a few short minutes. What he can do with horses will forever amaze me. I can only hope to be half as good as he is. If I can manage that it will be enough for me.

Burrr…

2011-10-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

Well it didn’t rain all night after all, it snowed. We generally have at least one snowfall before Thanksgiving, and last night was the night. I woke early as planned, and hit the snooze button not as planned. It was dark which confused me because there should have been pre-dawn light. When I let the dogs out I discovered why. During the night we got about 3-4 inches of snow, and it was still coming down. I took my shower, and went out to feed. The gator does really well in the snow, and very seldom do I have to lock the wheels. There wasn’t enough snow to cause a problem so I zipped on down to the barn. Marina was quite perturbed (even though I was feeding earlier than normal), sounding her displeasure all the while flipping her head the way only Arabians can do. It was only 30 degrees out, and they were all starving to death. Eating hay actually helps in the process of keeping a horse warm. Don’t ask me where I found that little pearl of wisdom, it was somewhere on the Internet. The process of chewing, and digesting hay helps to keep the horse warm, that’s another reason I prefer grass to alfalfa. Alfalfa is like candy, and just like little kids they inhale it. They will munch on grass all morning, which is a more natural way to feed. In fact if you can feed three times a day you more closely mimic their behavior in the wild.

I got everyone fed then went to check on the truck to see if the battery was charged enough to start. You can guess the answer to that, of course not. I put the charger on a higher setting, and continued with my morning chores. I was a little later than I wanted, but it really didn’t matter because it took another hour for the truck to start. The cold weather was working against me, and I couldn’t even jump the truck with the Jeep because the hood of the Jeep was frozen shut.

I got to Chuck’s a little after nine. He had a rescue truck he was putting tires on, but nothing more. Tommy got to the truck, and while he was working I called Rudy. It was done likity split. Rudy was surprised, but as I told him it was an easy job. The alternator is right there in front with only a few bolts. I could have done it myself if I had the strength to do it, which I don’t. I went over to the Mercantile after we were finished, and got the biggest round foam insulation they had. You can’t get it in sheets, and I needed to make hoodies for the field hydrants. The guy seemed to think that because they were freeze pipes, I shouldn’t have to worry. I found out last year (if you remember) that just because they are freeze pipes that doesn’t mean they won’t freeze up.

I already had ¾” foam left over from last year, of course the freeze pipes were 1”, but I made it work anyway. I got a little creative, and was able to make a cover for the float using an empty anti-freeze container (yes I washed it very well before I used it). That was Rudy’s idea, and I used the ¾” foam around the hose. Unfortunately, the hose is 10’ long so I couldn’t cover it all. I used two pieces of the larger foam for a hoodie. I had duck tape to wrap around the foam, and that just wasn’t going to work, so I used my stand-by, vet wrap, which worked just fine. I used the duck tape to close the hoodie on top. Both girls (especially Ridalgo the paint) kept trying to see what was going on, and if perchance they could help. Horses are such curious creatures.

I only had enough foam for one hydrant so tomorrow when I am out, and about I’ll pick up some more. Now that I know just what I need to do what I want I can cover the other hydrants. I also have to re-cover the water main. I want to see if I can find some sheet insulation to put on the inside of the barrel we use to cover the pipes. I know if it gets real cold no amount of foam is going to be enough, but at least I can prevent most of the freezing.

It was still early so my next project was to cut more wood. I never did get around to cutting wood. I sawed enough to fill my inside boxes, and enough small wood for kindling. We only have one stove in the computer room, but that should be enough to keep the living room from being too cold. The other stove is in the Utility room where the dogs sleep,. It’s next to the garage, and cut off from the rest of the house so we never use it. The cats are now in seventh heaven with the fire going again. They pretty much stay right in front of the stove all winter long. In fact I have to keep booting them away whenever I need to put in more wood. Grudgingly they move, sometimes that is. They don’t seem to understand that it’s not perpetual heat, and to keep the fire going I have to add more wood. I guess it’s time to bring out more blankies too. They love my quilt, and if the fire isn’t going they are under the covers of our bed. “C” especially likes the quilt. Pretty much all winter long there is a permanent lump in the bed, and it’s not because I don’t make it. She just has to be under the covers.

One more little note, I was reading another blog, and they were talking about Pigeon Fever, also known as river rot, and a variety of other names I can’t remember. It seems a little late in the season for Pigeon Fever, but here is what I know about it. The first time we encountered it I freaked. I ran into the house, and told Rudy there was something wrong with Angel her chest was all swollen. He had never encountered it before so we called Troy (our vet in Auberry). He diagnosed it, and told us to leave it alone, and when it burst to wash the wound out with warm sudsy water, and an Iodine solution. He said it should take a couple of weeks to clear up.

I then called Sandy (who told me the same thing), and emailed other breeders I knew. I also read a lot of articles on the subject. There really isn’t much you can do for it. It can appear on various parts of a horse’s body, but the most dangerous is internal Pigeon Fever. Only then are antibiotics warranted. It is a bacterial infection. The bacterium is in the dirt so there is really no way of preventing it, and there is no vaccine. Some articles say it is only in California, and Texas, which is untrue. We have had one case of it here in NM, and in other states it is called river rot, same bacteria different name. We’re from Arizona, which is why Rudy didn’t know what it was.

It took a few days for the “pimple” to burst, and yes it was gross. We cleaned it twice a day, and I picked up as much puss from the ground as I could find. Then of course we had more cases. Not all the horses got it, but the worst case was poor Sadie, she got it in her udders. In Auberry we had an outdoor sink I could hook a hose up to so we had hot, and cold running water to bathe the horses with. I loved that sink, and so did the horses. I literally hosed out the puss in her udder, and then washed it with an Iodine solution. Finally the infection cleared up only to move over to the other udder, and so it went all summer long back, and forth. I think that was the worst summer of Sadie’s entire life. From talking to other breeders I discovered that once a horse gets Pigeon Fever, they then become immune to it. If you have a large herd, it may take several outbreaks before the whole herd is immunized, but eventually you stop having more outbraks. We are lucky to have a small herd, and until Stormy was about two we never had another outbreak. The minute Stormy swelled up I knew what was happening. It took a long time for the “pimple” to burst, and when it finally did there were actually several pimples all together. The others had several drainage points as well, but they weren’t so close together. Since the wound was so large, it took longer to heal, and it left a scar. His fur is so fine that in the summer you can see it, but in the winter his coat is thick enough to hide the scar. You have to really be looking for it as well. I read all sorts of articles on the subject, some with differing opinions. This was my experience, and how we dealt with it. I don’t freak out anymore, and I consider it a nuisance disease. Luckily we have never had to deal with a serious case of it. For us it has been localized in one spot. Some horses are not so lucky, and can develop sores all over their body or the worst case scenario, they can develop internal sores. Since our horses are now immune, I don’t worry about it, and trust me I am grateful for anything I don’t have to worry about.

A change in the weather…

2011-10-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

Fall is definitely here. Most of the foliage here are evergreens, but not all. There are the Aspen, and along the Rio Ruidoso large cottonwoods that are now golden in color. The scrub oak too has started to turn sporting reds, and gold’s amidst deep greens. We have four true seasons, just not the oaks, and maples found in the eastern forests to fill this hills in glimmering shades of fall. It is raining now, not the torrential rain of the monsoon, but the long soaking rain of a winter storm. It started just before I went to feed (naturally). At first it was just a soft gentle rain with no wind to speak of. The clouds were gathering some black against a bright blue sky, and a beautiful bright double rainbow greeted me as I went down to the barn. The rain didn’t last long, but as the evening progressed you could feel a chill in the air not felt since last spring. The smell of rain was thick in the air, and there was a stillness, a forewarning of the storm to come.

I closed the garage for Bear, and Taggot. They are strictly outside dogs with a very large doghouse, the whole garage. Still the winds come from the south so I close the door to keep the worst of the wind out. It’s still cold, but they have cushions to lie on, and very thick coats. Taggot is a Shepherd/Chow mix (we think). He has a deep undercoat in the winter that keeps the rain, and the cold out. Bear is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever from Ohio. Cold weather bothers him not in the least. He was bred to endure the cold of the Chesapeake Bay so this is nothing for him. The rest of the dogs have a room inside where they sleep. We have no heat in the house (save the stoves) so it gets chilly in there, but they have plenty of blankets, and doggie beds to keep them warm. Poor little Skye has to sleep in a crate. I hate putting him in there, but he won’t hold it if he is in the house so I have no choice. He has a little doggie bed that I wash quite often.

This has been a quiet week. By that I mean there were no major disasters, well not too many anyway. The first came last Tuesday. Wednesday April came over with her hand all bandaged up. She was trying to repair a fence her puppy tore down. She was holding the T-post in one hand attempting to put the driver over it, and she missed. They took x-rays, and luckily she didn’t break any bones, but she tore every muscle, tendon, and ligament in her hand. Poor thing she wasn’t able to sleep for days because of the throbbing pain. She tried playing with the horses, but couldn’t really do much. It will take 6 – 8 weeks for her hand to heal, and she’s not a patient person. We’ll see how long it is before she is using her hand despite what the doctors told her.

The only other thing that came up was the truck. When I went to get hay last I had to put the battery charger on the truck (it was totally dead). Now I put in a new battery just this last summer so it couldn’t, or at least shouldn’t be the battery. The only other choice is the alternator. Not something I was very happy about. Rudy told me what to do to test the alternator. You loosen the battery cable, start the truck, and then disconnect the cable. If it keeps running then it’s the battery, and if it dies it’s the alternator. When I disconnected the cable it gave one sputter, and died faster than I could get the cable entirely off. Wonderful, just what I needed. I have four vehicles here, and now only one that doesn’t have an issue. The jeep needs a new head, the Z needs I don’t know what all, and now the truck (which is the only way I can get hay) is down. The Fiero runs just fine, but I can’t even fit a bag of feed in it. Well I got a new (re-built) alternator with a lifetime guarantee, and now I have to get up early to feed so I can take the truck in to Chuck’s tomorrow so he can put it in. It’s real easy so long as you have much stronger arms than I have, and the tools to take it off, and put on a new one. I may be able to do a lot, but not put in an alternator.

All in all it hasn’t been too bad of a week. The girls are all happy, and the boys are finally putting weight back on. Jeri is miffed because he’s getting grass hay instead of alfalfa, but prices have skyrocketed. Saturday I’m probably going to have to pay $12 a bale. When you get 30 bales a week that’s a lot of money. I haven’t heard from Katie either, and she’s about to run out of hay, so I may have to get hay for her horses too. I also received hospital bills. For some reason it doesn’t look like they submitted anything to the insurance company for these particular bills. The main bill was almost $30,000, which thankfully we only have to pay about $500 of. I’ll have to call these other physician offices to see what these bills are all about. They’re just going to have to wait like everyone else if they want any money from us. It’s a good thing I have faith, otherwise I’d probably have a coronary.

Looks like it’s going to rain all night. I really don’t mind. The weekend is supposed to be nice, and hopefully I can get on Star’s back. When living in the desert you learn real fast to be thankful for whatever rain comes your way because you don’t know when it will rain again. Up here you also learn to be thankful for still warm days with no wind, and take advantage of every one winter, and spring. Training is hard here in the winter because of the wind. In Tucson winter was the perfect time to train. Summers are too hot unless you ride in the wee hours of the morning so you train in the winter, and spring. Here you just train whenever the weather permits. I have been very lax lately. For some reason, I just don’t have the energy to do anything. Of course it has been a bad year what with all my pipes breaking, and the water table going so low. Lets face it I have had a mite more to do than normal. I just have to get back on a schedule. One good thing, with all the rain I won’t be able to clean stalls. Now isn’t that a shame!

A sad day…

2011-10-15T22:47:00.000-07:00

My body was not pleased with me, and didn’t let me sleep last night. About 2:30 I got up, and took some Ibuprophen, finally getting some sleep. I slept late, and was slow getting down to the barn to feed. The pasture horses are the last to get fed, and while I was throwing hay out I was short one horse. There were only three bays Zara was missing. I knew something was wrong, and started calling out to her. As I went around to the gate I could see her standing in the loafing barn in the corner. I went up to her, and found her bathed in sweat. I ran to the gator, went up to the house to get the number of her owner, and to send an email saying she was in extreme distress so I was calling the vet. I raced back to the barn, got a shot, halter, and lead. By this time (only a few minutes) she was down. I gave her the shot, and for a moment I thought I could pull her through this. She tried to get up with me pulling, but I’m not strong enough. I called my veterinary friend, and told her what was going on all the while trying to get Zara up. I had done what she would have done, Zara started making an effort to get up again, so I hung up, but I still couldn’t get her up. Zara started thrashing, and I called our vet. I barely explained what was going on when she gave a huge thrashing movement, and rolled over kicking at the stall wall. It was too late she was dying. Her tongue was turning blue, I got some reaction when I twitched her nose, and for a brief moment I thought perhaps I could still save her then she died. From the moment I found her till she died was only about 15 minutes, it was that fast. I have had horses colic before, that’s why we have the Banamine on hand at all times. Sadie has gotten to the point where her eyes have rolled back into her head, but she has always pulled out of it. Sherry said it wouldn’t have mattered when I found her, or what I did (and I did all the right things), she still would have died. She explained what was happening, and said even with surgery the chances were only 50/50 that she could have survived. She lost a horse the same way only when she went to feed in the morning he was dead. I don’t know which is worse, to find your beloved friend gone, or to have them die in your arms so to speak.

I called Zara’s owner to let her know she was gone, Rudy, and Sherry too. I was just leaving the pasture when April showed up. You always run the what if tapes in your head, and even though my mind knows there was nothing I did, or could have done that would have made a difference, my heart doesn’t understand. We came up to the house and Joe (owner’s husband) called to find out what had happened. He’s not a horse person so I tried my best to help him understand how a horse can be fine one minute, and die with no warning. Rudy said he had a friend who was showing in Tucson. The horse performed flawlessly, and even took the championship, but when his owner washed her down (as he always did before putting her away), she colicked, and died right there on the spot. You just never know with horses.

April’s mother gave me the phone number of a friend of theirs who did work for them, and he said he would be able to come out in the afternoon. I talked to Rudy a bit, then the horses started making a commotion so we went down to the barn. Ridalgo (paint) was making all the noise calling out to the other girls. We had to do something so we took Stormy out to work him. We had just gotten to the round pen when Jan (owner of the stallion Zara was bred to) pulled up. Bobbie Jo called, and wanted her to look at Zara. I’m not sure why, but it really doesn’t matter, she’s dead, and nothing will change that. We talked a bit, she left, and I went back to Stormy, and April. Stormy is still shy with April but he did pretty well. He wouldn’t come in so I took over a bit till he came in on cue. He knows what he’s supposed to do, but he’s a kid, a teenager actually, and you know how teenager’s can be. As with Star we brought out the saddle etc. beforehand so I told her to get the blanket. He had already shied away from the saddle when she took him into the round pen so I figured if we got him to accept the blanket we would be doing good. He wasn’t sure about that strange spooky thing, but we rubbed him with it, and put it on, and off his back, both sides, down his butt, legs, and under his belly. He did so well I had April get the bridle, and let him smell it before I rubbed it all over his face and ears. It was scary, but he did great. We gave him lots of praises before we put him away, and then he got to tell his dad (Ibn), and adopted dad (Jeri), all about his new adventure. I was very proud of him.

By this time it was about 1:00 so I sent April home, and I went up to the house. I was exhausted from all the stress. I sat in front of the TV with my eyes closed until Augnacio called. He would be here in about 15 minutes. I met him at the gate, and led him in where he parked the truck, while I walked over to the pasture. Our horses are used to all kinds of equipment so they were pretty good with the backhoe. Actually I had to chase them away, they’re too curious for their own good. I showed him where to dig the hole, and once that was finished we used the backhoe with a chain to drag Zara out, put her in the bucket, and bury her. She is the second horse this year that I have had to bury. That’s two too many.

It was 3:30 by the time we were finished, so I went up to the house, and rested a bit before going out to feed. When one has animals one never knows when something will go wrong. We have been very lucky. We’ve not lost a foal, and Sara was the only other horse we had to put down besides Lance. Sara was 21, and suffering from Cushing’s disease before there were any real treatments for the disease on equines. Lance broke his leg in a freak accident during a storm, and now Zara has died. It’s a pretty good track record for nearly 20 years of horse breeding. Each death tears at your heart, and even though you know that things will happen eventually, you never get used to the idea of losing one of your best friends. It doesn’t matter that Zara didn’t belong to us she was in my care. She was a good mare, and I was so looking forward to seeing the foal she would drop. I knew it would be a beautiful foal, and I mourn that loss as well. They get under your skin these beautiful creatures who ask so little of their human companions. Perhaps it’s that loving heart so willing to please that touches the soul of man, I don’t know. All I know is that Zara will be missed. I will miss her. She’s in a better place now, where the grass is always green, and she can run to her hearts content free of the bonds of an earthly existence.

Goodbye Zara…

I’m too old for this….

2011-10-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to attack Espree’s stall. Somehow the back stalls, and the stallion stalls, never seem to get done. The last time I did them was when we still had the tractor. That was fun. Now I’m back to doing it the old fashioned way, pitch fork, and apple picker. With each year my pain issues seem to increase, and I’m able to do less, and less. Now that April is helping me I figured I had no more excuses so today was the day to begin the unbeginable (I can make up words if I want). The day was cool with just a slight breeze, actually it was a perfect day for riding, but those stalls kept calling at me. The stallion stalls are at least 120’ long. The four mare stalls aren’t as long but they’re still about 100’.Espree’s is the first. I didn’t quite get it all done, but I got most of it. I still have to clean out the drainage on both sides, and take out about ¼ of the top. I think I took out five gator loads. My body says it was more like 500., but I got it started. If April can keep up with the daily poop, then we should be able to keep them all clean between the two of us.

Espree was in seventh heaven as I put her in the round pen, which still has (albeit dry) grass in it. She has come such a long way since we first bought her seven years ago. The first time we put her out in the pasture it took Rudy half an hour to catch her to put her back into her stall. She wouldn’t let me even come close to her then. The funny thing was once you caught her she was (and still is) a perfect lady on the lead line. The one saving grace was she loved to be groomed (don’t they all), so I earned her trust with a brush and comb. Now I can go up to her, and put the lead line on, but it has taken all this time for her to allow that. I can even fix her halter when she rubs it off one ear. It takes a little more time than with a normal horse, but I can do it. Like all of them the more you handle them the better they get. The problem I’ve had in the past was I only had weekends to work with the horses, and most of that time was spent in cleaning stalls, occasionally grooming them, and keeping the barn clean. It wasn’t until I got laid off from work that I had the time to really work with the horses. Now I never want to have any other job than to keep up the ranch. My body isn’t too happy about it, but I’m in my seventh heaven being a full time rancher. If I weren’t so stressed out about money we don’t have I would enjoy it more, and do more. I’m hoping that with more time on my hands for training we might actually start selling horses instead of just feeding them. That would be a novel change for us. Of course if we lived where we didn’t have to buy hay all the time it would be a whole lot easier. Problem is we both love the southwestern deserts, and grass just doesn’t seem to grow without tons of rain or on rocky ground. I guess you can’t have everything.

Now that I have one stall done, I only have six more to deal with. Tomorrow I have to go to town (somehow that takes most of the day), Saturday is hay day, and Sunday I go to Roswell to visit my parents. That means I probably won’t have time to spend with the horses. Then there is laundry, woodcutting, and that most despicable thing of all, housework! If someone could invent a dust free house they would make a fortune. Unfortunately like the barn, as soon as I get rid of the dust, and dirt it comes right back. Somewhere along the line someone put in a cement floor in the barn. Do you have any idea how ridicules it is to have a cement floor in a barn? It’s never clean, and if we ever have to repair a water line in the barn… don’t even ask, it simply can’t be done. We will have to run new water lines. God willing that will never ever happen, or at least not until we have the money to take up such an endeavor (yeah that means never in our life times). At any rate my body is quite upset with me for having it do such a stupid thing as work like a 30 year old. Maybe I’ll make a visit to the chiropractor when I go to town. Lord knows I will definitely get my muscle relaxer’s (assuming of course that I can move tomorrow). Tonight when Katie came over with her tack she said I looked strong, and I thought yeah right that’s why when I have days like today I spend the next day in bed. At least there were no disasters today, or for that matter all this past week. Might things be turning around? That would be a nice change. We’ll see.

And then there were none…

2011-10-13T22:37:00.000-07:00

When I got back from El Paso I was afraid that all the hummingbird feeders would be empty, but was surprised to find one ½ full, and the other ¾ full. It seems only one family was still here. They emptied the one feeder, and then with the last feeder only ½ full the last lone hummingbird came no more. This is the latest they have ever stayed. Now instead of the whirring of wings, and little chirps, I hear the calls of the bull elks. The elk are in full rut, and one can hear them calling out to each other morning, and night. I’ve even heard them during the day. One has to be careful this time of year when one is out, and about. The elk have one thing on their mind, and everyone is a threat to the fulfillment of that goal. Those racks are nothing to sneeze at. One night two were going at it in the arena, and Rudy swore it was gunshots until we went down to the barns, and found two big bulls going at it. Enough said.

The weather has finally given way to beautiful days, and chilly nights. April has been coming over, and the one row of stalls actually looks nice for a change. She comes three days a week mas o menos. She brought over some hay and Senior for Jeri, and has been working him in the round pen. He still needs about 75 more lbs on him before she can start riding him, but he’s getting there. I supplement his feed with beet pulp, rice bran, and oil, and some grass hay. It’s the least I can do. She can’t afford much, and any help I can get is greatly appreciated. He’s the only man in her life now since she has sworn off men. They are totally devoted to each other. Of course Jeri loves anyone who will pay him some attention.

April has been working Jeri, and Star in the round pen, and the other day (while I was around) she worked Storm in the round pen too. She wasn’t as sure about how he would react so she wanted to wait until I was around in case he pulled any funny business. He was a very good boy only she was too soft with him. I took the whip from her, and put him through his paces. He did very well, and even remembered what “in” meant. I was very proud of him, and he enjoyed the attention (just like a man). I told her she needed to be a little more aggressive with him, and she would do fine. Later I showed her how to use the video camera, and I took Ibn out for a ride in the arena. It turned out to be a lesson ride, but in the end I think he actually enjoyed being ridden again. It has been a while since I’ve ridden him, and he had gotten used to being ridden on a regular basis. Being Ibn, he had to put on a front, and refused to do what I asked of him at first. Being me, I didn’t let him get away with it. Once that little misunderstanding was over he did quite well. He has forgotten a lot, like flying lead changes, shoulder in, and out, and side passing, but all in all he did quite well. We’ll do it again maybe tomorrow, and see how he does.

When I went to download the video of Ibn, I discovered that April pushed the wrong button (like I have maybe a gazillion times), and I didn’t get any video. Oh well another time maybe. Today after cleaning stalls April worked Star. I played with Star (grooming), and Ser-Haat (also grooming) while she was finishing up the stalls, then April took Star to the round pen, and worked her a bit. We took one of the sawhorses over to the round pen, and put the saddle, and bridle on it before hand. Star spooked a little when she first saw it, but after a sniff she was fine. Once Star was warmed up she saddled just fine, and when April went to put the bit in her mouth, she lowered her head like she had been doing it forever. April worked her with saddle, and bridle with no problems. She’s a very smart, and sensible girl. I put weight on the stirrup (both sides) while April was getting the bridle, and she just stood there like a champ. Next time I think I’ll have April get on her back. Once she is cool with working in the round pen (and only then) I will take her to the arena. As I’ve said before I’ve never started a horse from scratch. April is younger so I’ll let her do the hard part, then I’ll start teaching Star the ropes of being a proper show horse. I may be a sentimental fool, but I’m not crazy. Ok maybe I am crazy, but I’m not stupid, how’s that.

While April worked Star I shot a video of her. My camera messed up so I didn’t get as much usable video as I took, but I put together a fairly good short video of Star (http://youtu.be/prH3MyujcUw) it on You Tube. I have decided that I probably need a new battery for my camera. It’s several years old, and the camera seems to work fine just after I have it charged up. When it doesn’t have a full charge I seem to have problems. Even those re-chargeable batteries wear out after a while (nothing lasts forever anymore). For now I’ll charge it before I use it, and maybe that will solve some of my video problems.

In betwixt, and between everything else, Katie brought over her two mares. One is a Paint, and the other is a Black Bay. The Black Bay is the dominant mare. She brought a big water tank to feed them thinking she could put in a bale, and it would last a couple of days. I knew that wouldn’t work, and sure enough they went through it like candy. Katie’s had doctor’s appointments (she a little under the weather) so I told her I would feed them for now. What I didn’t tell her is that I’m going to feed them separately so the Paint will get her fair share. Black Bay won’t let her eat until she has eaten all the best parts of the alfalfa. Naturally the Paint is the larger of the two horses. She also has the worst feet. April, and I checked to see how they would be, and the paint is a little shy about her one hind leg, but did well with the others. The Bay was fine she didn’t even blink an eye when April picked up her feet. Being more timid I would expect that the Paint would be the one with trust issues, and she is. She’s just not that sure about strangers handling her feet. She wasn’t bad she just needs some work handling her back feet. Her hoofs are bi-colored, and very chipped. It will take a few turns with the rasp to get them where they should be.

Hopefully all the drama in our lives is over for a while, and things will settle down to a dull roar. Our water issues seem to have gone bye-bye now that I have floats in all the tanks. Even better yet, I heard on the news that La Nina isn’t going to be as strong as it was last winter, and we just might get a little more precipitation. That’s good for the water table, not good for my transportation. I need a new head on the jeep, and I don’t think my little Fiero is going to make it up the hill through the snow. Hopefully I can get the jeep fixed before the first snow. If not I will just have to take the truck if I have to go out into the snow, or just stay home. I like that idea best. I got some wood cut, and the boxes in the house filled. That’s not enough for the whole winter, but it’s a start. I also re-arranged my little corner where the stove is, which I actually like better. It’s easier to get to the wood, and it’s more open making the room not seem so cluttered. Now I have to get enough wood for the woodpile, so I won’t freeze this winter. If we’re lucky we won’t have the really nasty hard freezes like last year, and I won’t have to repair any more broken pipes. That would be a nice Christmas present (just in case someone’s listening). I want to get some of the foam insulation in sheets so I can make some sleeves for the water hydrants. I’m going to be a lot more prepared this year. Not that it will do any good, but just in case at least I will know that I tried to do a better job of preparing for winter. With April here I can also get that flapping piece of tin roof fixed. She can hold the ladder for me. The girls will appreciate that. Now if the rest of our life will flow into place we just might survive this economic storm.

Never a dull moment…

2011-10-03T23:54:00.000-07:00

Well my last post was actually from around the 20^th, or a bit later, I just didn’t have a chance to post it. Last week was spent at the hospital in El Paso with my husband. He got a nose bleed which wouldn’t have been anything big, except between the blood thinners, and the fact that he had food poisoning about five days before, his blood wouldn’t coagulate. It took two pints of Plasma, two pints of blood, IV’s, antibiotics, four days in the hospital, and five days of no blood thinners for his bleed time to go from 16.5 minutes to 8 minutes, which is normal. If you ever have a nosebleed don’t have food poisoning the week before, it seems that there is a bacteria in the intestinal track that aids in the coagulation of your blood. Who knew?

Now where did I leave off? Oh yeah, my water issues of course. Well the two floats I replaced are too low, but the horses can get water. I just have to fix them before winter’s freezes begin. For now they work. Neither re-build kit for the field water hydrant was the right manufacturer, so I got both kits hoping one of them would work. One did. All that had to be replaced was the rubber stopper at the end of the rod inside of the hydrant, so I paid 10 bucks for a stopper. I don’t care it’s fixed. Of course I kept forgetting to buy a small hose so I still have to put the new float on the pasture water. I’ll have to remove them come winter because we still don’t have the electricity fixed to the barn. Running new power lines from the house to the box at the water main is going to be expensive so it will just have to wait a while. That means no heaters in the water. I’m actually hoping the newscasters are right, and it will be a warm dry winter. We need the snowmelt, but breaking ice is no fun.

I finally got new video of Stormy, and Star, and I finally got it uploaded today. It took a couple of days to edit the video, and then of course I had problems with the upload. That took two days to do all by itself. I won’t go into details (too embarrassing), but it’s up, and running. I know kids do it all the time with no problems at all, but I’m a little old white haired lady, that’s my excuse, and I’m not changing my story. Hey old age has to be good for something. I take advantage of my white hair whenever I can. So what if I started turning silver at the age of 24, no one has to know. Next I want to get a video of Little Big Man. My weanling video of him has over 2,000 hits. Impressive since I’m not all that good at making videos. He’s grown so much, but he’s as cute as ever. I’d like to get one of Jazzy, and Star (half siblings) together. Star reminds me so much of Jazzy, I even think she’s going to be a liver chestnut eventually just like Jazzy. Every year Jazzy gets darker. I’ve often thought of breeding her to Burgundy Sun of Phara Farms. He’s a black liver stallion, Crabbett bred, with absolutely exquisite movement, just the right stallion for Jazzy. Maybe one of these years, but not right now.

April has been working Jeri (yes she’s going to keep him), and Star. I want to get Star properly under saddle. Stormy is a little more unsure of this new person we have so she hasn’t worked him in the round pen as of yet. His day will come, and I really think he’s going to be easy once he gets worked on a regular basis. Don’t ask me what a regular basis is, I don’t know. You never know what the day will bring around here (as if you hadn’t guessed that already). Today was chilly, and rainy all day so April didn’t come over at all. Maybe tomorrow I will get to work with the horses. If April can help me with Little Big Man in the arena I may even get a video of him. That would be nice. I really want to show him off, he’s such a sweetheart. If I can get some interest in him before he’s ready to breed, I just might get some outside breedings when he’s old enough. One of these years this farm has to take off. Hopefully LBM will be the horse that will do it for us. You got to keep the faith, and I’m bound, and determined to make a go of this ranch. It’s just taking a bit longer than I hoped, ok a lot longer. At least I’m having fun getting there (most days). They say that it’s the journey that counts, but I’m ready for this journey’s end, and the beginning of a new journey called the ranch that supports itself. Um, that would be nice.

Yeah!….Oops….

2011-10-01T17:39:00.000-07:00

All I have to say is they don’t leak! I got up bright, and early today (same as usual), let the dogs out, made me a cup of coffee, ate my breakfast, took a shower, and started my daily routine. First I have to feed, then Rudy calls, and we talk a while. It’s a beautiful day, and the hummingbirds are feasting on their breakfast. They have to eat a lot to make up for the cool night. Did you know that hummingbirds slow down their heart rate during the night so they can last until morning without eating? I didn’t until I saw a piece on them on TV. They are truly amazing creatures, and I love watching them.

Back to my day. April comes over, and we chit chat before she starts working. The stalls are first. Needless to say I haven’t had much time for stall cleaning, I don’t know why, after all I haven’t had much to do lately. I just run around like a chicken with its head cut off most of the time. Anyway, I show her where I am currently dumping the manure. It works great for landfill, and I have a drop off between the road by the arena, and the flat area below. It is full of large boulders, and medium sized rocks. Eventually I will be able to use my mower on the hill all the way down. Getting grasses to grow is the hard part. It may take a while as some parts are all major rocks, but I will get it filled eventually.

I take off for town, get gas, go to the bank, and then proceed to the Mercantile where yet again I am exchanging pipefittings. By the time I get home April is ready to quit for the day. She got the inside stalls, and half of Marina’s paddock area. Marina had a wonderful time in the arena running her little (ok so not so little) butt off. April is quite done in (after four hours of stall cleaning who wouldn’t be), so I told her to quit for the day. Like the manure is going somewhere, it will be there tomorrow, and the next day, etc. We talk a little, and she tells me that her mother decided that she didn’t want Lizzie after all because she is so old. I tell her my idea about Jeri. She’s always wanted a boy, and he can’t do anything with the girls, but still will make a great riding horse. If well taken care of he has at least another seven years or more ahead of him. I also ask her if she knows what Becky charges for teeth floating, she doesn’t but it’s a lot less than Warren. I have to get the boys teeth done. Warren will cost me about $350 - $400, which will take me a while to get since he won’t let us charge anymore. I have to call Becky to see what she will charge, then save up my money. I also have to put away more for feed since winter prices are coming, and the striped hay I am buying isn’t as nutritious as it has been in the past. I need to feed half, and half, and of course the other half is much more expensive. I eat tortillas, and cheese, and they get premium feed. It’s ok because I need to loose some more weight so I don’t need to eat as much.

April likes the idea of taking Jeri, but I can tell she is thinking about it, and what she will have to do to be able to keep him. She’s on disability, and gets very little from the government. I don’t know how she lives on what she gets. I need to start on the floats, and she takes the truck back home so she can fill the water tank. I told her she can do whatever, and when it’s full bring the truck back, and take her jeep home. That way I won’t have to waste 2 ½ hours waiting for the tank to fill. She takes off, and I start putting parts together. I’m right it doesn’t take long for the first tank though the float is lower than I expected it to be. I go to the next tank, put it together, and wait a while for the glue to dry. Now comes the moment of truth, I turn on the water. The one tank was full so I couldn’t see it fill (it was the one with a drip). The second tank was down a lot, and it filled just fine. It finally stops, and there are no leaks. Problem is it stops too soon. The water level is about four inches below where it should be. I go back to look at the first tank, and it’s leaking like a sieve, great. There is no way to take the float out without breaking the seal on the pipes I have glued together. I go back to the house to get some more tools, and my camera. I’m bound, and determined to get this fixed today. I put the vice grips on, and the glue hasn’t quite hardened completely, good. I pull it apart, and tighten the first coupling (or whatever it’s called), with the vice grips. I sand the pvc, apply the glue again, and wait. It is excruciating, but still I wait. Finally I go up to the water main, and turn the water back on. Yes, no leaks! It only took me three weeks to do it, but it’s done, sort of. I put in new rubber sealing (ok it’s for doors, but it’s close to what is supposed to be there), and then put on the lid. The ball doesn’t even come up to half of where it’s supposed to be. I put the other lid on, and to me it looks like it is even worse. I think they will still be able to get some water, but I won’t know until tomorrow whether it will fill enough so they can reach it with their noses.

Back to the drawing board again. I tell Rudy I’m going to have to be creative. My float works, but it is too low. If they had done it right in the first place I wouldn’t have to try to come up with a new, and unique design for a float system. I’m quite tired, and disgusted at this point so I go up to the house to get something to eat, take my pill, and lay down for a nap. Things are always better after a nap doncha know. I fall half asleep, and dream that it’s raining. Gee I wonder why I do that, wishful thinking of course. Ok I go back down to the barn, and feed checking the wateriers which are way too low, but it will just have to do for now. By the time I get back April is coming back with the truck. She loves my (Rudy’s) truck. I told her Rudy hates it (it’s not a GMC), but I just love it. It’s an old ’89 Ford 1 ton 4x4. It’s not fancy (understatement of the year), but it’s cool. We chitchat a little, and she tells me if she can ride Jeri she’s going to take him. She has to do some fencing, but she doesn’t care. I told her to work with him first in the round pen with just tack, and then later get on his back. I rode him once in five years, and he hadn’t been ridden since his owner gave him up at the ripe age of 15, now he’s 23. His owner had diabetes, and could no longer ride so she gave him back to his breeder, Sandy, and from Sandy he came to me. He had fits when Rudy rode him because Rudy is a man, and he’s a woman’s horse. Horses are funny sometimes, but only one woman ever rode Jeri, and that’s all he knows. He will be randy since it has been so long, but I don’t think it will take much to get him back to behaving under saddle. He’s a very sweet boy.

I have to think about how I will redesign the piping for the float, and go and get some new parts. I had been afraid that the float would end up being too high, and the opposite happened. Just my luck, I will figure it out. In fact I have a few ideas already. Get ready for a new, and exciting design, or at least a unique one.

Bigger problems…

2011-09-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

I don’t even know what happened when this week, but it wasn’t any better than the last week. I ran out of water again, and after fighting with the pump trying to coax it to give me the water that I needed I gave up, and called the well people again. My biggest fear is that the well is going dry, and sure enough they confirmed that that is exactly what is going on. They were able to drop the pump another ten feet, but I know that’s not going to be enough. So much for a 750’ well, try 400’. There isn’t even enough to sustain a 3,000 gallon water tank so that idea’s out. I simply can’t afford a new well. I did run into my neighbor, and she has a 300+ gallon water tank I can borrow, and plenty of water. They are strictly on solar so they have a tank system, and turn the pump on only when needed. We cart the water up her hill (good thing we have 4-wheel drive), and fill the tanks for everyone. I move the three mares in the arena pasture to the big pasture, and so far the water is holding. I have the main water line to the barn on again, and it seems to be able to support the automatic wateriers. If I only have to fill the pasture tank, that will make life a lot easier. When Rudy comes home he can rebuild the faucet in the pasture (it leaks naturally), and I can put a float on that tank as well. I think (I hope), the well will support the tanks if they all have floats, and I am very conservative with my water usage. The weather has cooled, and that has helped as well. The horses aren’t drinking near as much as they were.

We did get one gully washer, finally. It’s nearly the end of the rainy season, and at long last we got some real rain. Albuquerque normally has about 7” of rain by now, and they don’t even have 2”. The entire state is suffering, some areas more than others. La Nina is not a very nice little girl. I like her brother (El Nino) a lot better. It is also driving hay prices up. My friend is having a hard time finding hay to sell at a reasonable price. They are a small supplier, and struggling. They did turn someone on to us who wants a place in Capitan for her two horses. She’s five years older than I am, and makes me feel like the old lady. I’m going to rent her the arena pasture for her horses. She’s quite the character, and will be good for me. She said she’d bring her horses over in two weeks. What the hey it’s company for me, a horsey girlfriend for her, someone to trail ride with, and a little money I can most certainly use. Add to that that she can train in both English, and Western, and she may be able to give me some tips with working with the youngsters.

April (my neighbor) is also going to be coming over to help with the horses, and the ranch. She is another of my offbeat friends. Why surround yourself with normal sane people? Life is much more interesting when you are surrounded by characters out of a novel. April is shall we say a bit rough around the edges. She has had a very difficult life, and can put people off, but she has a heart of gold. I hadn’t heard from her for a long time, but I knew when she was ready she would come around again. She did, and just in the nick of time. She’s the one providing me with water, and the big tank. She plans on coming over about three times a week working with the horses, and helping around the ranch. I may be poor, but I am rich with friends. If we survive this recession, it will be because of people like April, and Katie (boarder), and Mark, and Penny who have helped us along the way. I may also have found a home for Lizzie, and Jeri with April. She doesn’t know about Jeri yet, but I know it would mean the world to her if I gave him to her. Her mother now has a boyfriend who doesn’t really know about horses, but wants to learn. They have a TB, and Lizzie might be a good horse for George (two George’s right next to each other is a bit much, don’t you think?). Lizzie is older but still has some spunk. She will be good for Shudabee, as they are about the same age. I have no idea how she is under saddle, but we’ll find out. If she’s calm enough for a beginner then it might be a good fit for George. April’s mother promised to get April a horse as well only she wants something with a little more spunk. I need to find a home for Jeri, and he’s the right size for April, a sweet boy, and definitely still has spunk. He’s sterile so he can safely be pastured with the two girls. Besides he won’t be able to reach either one of them. He’s barely 14.3 if that, Shoudabee is 16+ hands, and Lizzie is at least 15.2. Even on his tippy toes, I can’t see him getting it in there no matter how hard he tries. He’s used to being pastured with girls, and Lizzie is used to being pastured with a stallion so there’s no problem there. If he does manage to conceive I’ll take the baby as payment for the two horses. The only problem might be Shoudabee. I don’t know how she will take being pastured with a stallion. It’s just a thought right now but it could turn out to be a good thing. We’ll work on that.

Last but not least is my ongoing saga with the automatic wateriers. I decide that I may as well fix the other waterier as it leaks sometimes too. I take it all apart, and come up with the idea of converting them to the same float that I put on the arena water tank. I talk to the guy at the Mercantile, and he said it would work. I get all the fixtures, and put it to the side. What with having to haul water, our one (and only) rainy day, and going to Roswell to visit my mother, I didn’t get to it until today. It’s been an up, and down week, but if I can finish this one task at the very least it will improve my mood considerably. I feed everyone, and talk to Rudy then I set about gathering all my supplies to finally put this project to an end. I start putting the floats together, and discover that there really isn’t enough height to put the float where I want it, but that’s ok. It will be high enough to keep the water level where the horses can reach the water with their noses. Having learned from past experience, I start to connect everything before I actually start to glue the pieces together. Simple enough, only the one connector doesn’t fit. It states that it is a 1” to a ¾” fitting only the ¾” pipe doesn’t fit inside the fitting. Don’t ask me the real names for these things, because I don’t know. Everything else fits except for this one piece. This is two weeks now (or has it been longer) that I have been trying to fix this one simple little float. I could just scream. This is the last straw, and I wallow in despair all day. April doesn’t come over so I can’t even get a video of Storm, and Star, which I also wanted to get done this past week, and didn’t. Can you get do overs on an entire week? Despondent I waste the entire day watching old movies instead of cleaning stalls, which would have at least got out some of my frustrations. I will go to the Mercantile tomorrow, go to town (Ruidoso), and hopefully put this project to rest. Enough is enough, and I have had enough of trying to fix this stupid waterier. If I can’t get this fixed tomorrow, I’ll just leave the faucets on. There won’t be anything automatic about it, but it will work. I hate cowboy repairs. It just looks tacky!

Another wonderful week…

2011-09-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

I don’t even remember what Sunday was like it must have been uneventful. That’s right I went to Roswell. I wish the rest of the week followed suit, but oh well here’s how it all played out.

Monday (I think) I had water issues again, only this time I couldn’t even get the water to turn on. I played with the power box, and finally pulled out the fuses I insisted were fine (Rudy thought otherwise), and replaced them. That didn’t work so I looked at the points, and sure enough one wasn’t firing even with the new fuse. Back up to the house because of course I didn’t have any sandpaper in the gator. I’m getting too much like Rudy. I go to clean the point, and it falls out in my hand. Yes they were dirty, but falling out was a bit much. There is a little tiny pin that holds the points in, and it was gone. So was another part, which is why I couldn’t get the silly thing to fire.

Rudy calls a neighbor while I try to get our 65-gallon tank in the truck. I search around for some tie downs, and find one in the box Rudy said they would be in, and another under the seat of the truck. Down the hill I go. Well George’s water is even worse than ours, and he can only give me the one tank full. I am grateful for anything I can get. While we are waiting for the tank to fill, we sit and talk a bit about this, and that. Mostly we talk about water, we are in a drought after all. I started the conversation about our new neighbor. He is fencing his property, sad but predictable. Our property is fenced because of the livestock, but a lot of our neighbors have done the same. It’s the ATV’ers that cause people to fence their land in, and I understand them wanting to keep unwanted guests out. Rick (the neighbor) also said he wanted to get some animals, namely donkeys so that’s ok too. What I didn’t like was all the cut trees, and limbs he left along the roadside. He told me it was to keep the water erosion down, but if I wanted them cleared just because I thought it was a fire hazard fine. He was quite perturbed at me (I’m being nice). George asked me if I knew he (the neighbor) was putting in a pond, and I said yes. Then he tells me how big it is, and I just about pop a gasket. It’s at least as big as his parking lot (George has a studio), and he’s putting it in because he likes to watch the deer drink at the pond, and then he’s going to put in some goldfish I guess, which will freeze come winter. We are in a drought, people are having to drill their wells deeper, and his comment to George when he asked him about the well going dry was, well I’ll just drill another one, or as many as it takes to keep the pond filled. I couldn’t believe my ears, then I got angry. George’s comment was he’s from the city, and he doesn’t understand. He has money so he doesn’t care how many wells he has to drill. I said, what about the people below him that will have their wells go dry? George told me he was already expecting to have his go dry. I was livid.

Ok that was Monday. I should have known that I would not like the rest of the week either. Tuesday I was off to Roswell to pick up my parents. They were having a mattress delivered between 1:00 and 2:00 in the afternoon, which was fine since I had to do what I could to get things squared around at the ranch. I had tried calling the well guy the night before, but no luck. I called him, and he was booked solid until next week. I tried the other well guy, and he never answered. I called the last well guy, and left a message while on my way to Roswell. He called me back, I told him what the problem was, and he said that he would go by, and fix the box. At least he knew what I was talking about. No one else understands my layman’s terminology. Hey I’m an accountant, what do you want. I only became a full time rancher a year, and a half ago. I was on the way back to Capitan when he calls me, and tells me it wasn’t just the box. I need a new pressure tank too. Moan, and groan, that’s a cool $1,000 just for the tank. Like I told him what can I do, I have to have water. I don’t know where God thinks I’m going to get the money to pay for all this, but He’s in charge so I’ll let him worry about that.

By the time I get back to Capitan the guys were at the pump house putting in the new pressure tank. Then things got dicey. At first they thought there was a leak so we looked everywhere. The kid even went under the house to see if he could find a leak there, but there were no leaks. Then Chad (the owner) came over and tested the pump. He told me that the pump was fine (so they would not have to pull the pump), but he thought there must be a leak somewhere since I was getting air in the pipes. He also told me that he didn’t think the pump was all the way down because the wiring showed him that we only had a ½ hp motor on the pump, and that could never pull from 750’. Personally I think that the water table is too low, and the reason I get air in the pipes is because when I pull 150 – 200 gallons of water to fill the big water tanks I deplete the water, and all it can do is suck air. The good news is that if I do have to go down deeper at least I won’t have to drill deeper, just get a bigger motor, and drop the pump to the bottom of the well. Of course that is assuming that they can pull the pump out. The last guy that looked at the well said he wasn’t sure that it could even be pulled the way they put it in with too small a pipe. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Oh is it only Tuesday? Wednesday, ah yes I had to get up at 2:45 am so that Father can be at the hospital at 6:30 am. I get up, take a shower, get dressed, and get Mother, and Father up. We manage to get out of the house close to 3:30. It’s a long drive to Albuquerque but we get there not too late. It takes a couple of hours, and many cups of coffee before the doctor comes in. He closes the door, and says we need to have a discussion. Mind you we were just there two weeks ago. The long, and the short of it is that again they did nothing only this time we talked about it, and he gave Father some new medication to help with the symptoms he has been having. If he gets worse we can have another discussion, and perhaps then he will put in the stints. He showed us where the blockages are, and they are in really nasty places. It would not be an easy surgery, two surgeries actually. So we will wait. Not quite a wasted trip since we understood better what was going on.

Back to Capitan, and yes I’m exhausted. I lay down for a little bit (didn’t quite sleep), and then fed the horses. I left the water at the barn on so I could see if I needed to fix Sierra’s waterier the next morning. Father needed to get some prescriptions filled, and I needed to get some money in Rudy’s account. This was the plan, go to the post office (to see if there was a check in the mail), go to Wells Fargo, go to Walgreen’s, and then go eat. Well after the post office Father informed me that he was going to get his prescriptions filled in Roswell. Well we go to the bank anyway, then to Farley’s for dinner. I love Farley’s. It’s about the only restaurant in Ruidoso that I like that doesn’t cost an arm, and a leg to eat at, and trust me I ate plenty.

Next morning I check Sierra’s water, and yes it is leaking badly now that we have good pressure. I take Mother, and Father back to Roswell, hurry back, and miss the meeting I was supposed to be at. Needless to say, I go to bed early not having recovered from the previous days of constant driving. Next day (I think we’re up to Friday now) I go to the Mercantile, and get the parts for the water tank, and a float for the arena pasture tank. The arena pasture tank was actually easy to put in, but I’ll have to take it out during the winter when it freezes unless I can figure out a way to keep the float, hose, and pipe from freezing. I’m working on that. Then I go back to the house, and die for a while. Tomorrow I will fix Sierra’s tank. It’s an easy fix (having done one already) or so I think.

It is Saturday, hay day. First stop is the Mercantile for grass hay only I discover there is no grass hay, and there won’t be until maybe Monday. Wonderful, I get beet pulp, and go to Mark, and Penny’s. Penny has had just as bad a week. Their hay supplier said he was going to charge them winter rates, and she wasn’t sure they would be able to stay open. They were frantically trying to find some stripped alfalfa at a reasonable price. I got 24 bales of stripe, and 5 bales of green alfalfa. I’ve never carried that much hay in the truck, but I had the straps in the truck from carrying the water tank so a very nice gentleman from Arabella strapped the hay in for me. I don’t know what we would have done if he hadn’t been there since I couldn’t have done it myself. He had a time of it since one of the straps was shorter, and it took all his strength to get it tied down. Yes, thank you Lord for that, you did good.

I get the hay unloaded, and get everything together to fix the waterier. I was uncertain as to whether or not I could get the top off, but that turned out to be the easiest thing I did that day. I take the float off only to discover that this tank has a ¾ inch valve. Of course they couldn’t be the same size. Back to the Mercantile for the third time, I had to go back earlier to get plumbers tape since I forgot that I used the last of it. I got a male ½”, and a female ¾” piece which was cheaper than buying the ¾” valve. I have to take the ball apart to attach it to the new float mechanism, and it breaks. I call Rudy, and he tells me where his tool, and die kit is, and I proceed to try to re-thread the end of the rod. After I don’t know how long, I finally get the broken end attached to the ball, and the good end to the fitting. I put everything together, and of course it doesn’t work. The converter I built not only leaks, but the ball can’t come up because there simply isn’t enough room. Quickly I call the Mercantile, and thankfully they are open until 5:30. Yes it’s now 5:00. A fifteen minute job has taken all day, ok not all day, I did get hay unload it, and put in new pallets. It took all afternoon. I make it to the Mercantile by 5:25, and of course they all say I thought you weren’t coming in again, I scowl at them. They don’t have a rod I can replace the old rod with so I settle for exchanging the ½” float for the ¾” float mechanism. It’s 6:00 by the time I get home, and the horses are all screaming for food. I get everyone fed (except me of course), and call Rudy. He called when I hadn’t quite finished feeding the dogs.

I tell Rudy all my woes, and he comments that he wants to see what I come up with since I seem to have shall we say creative ways of fixing things. We talk for about an hour and a half and then I sit down to eat some food of my own. It has been a very tiring, and expensive week. I’ll fix the float tomorrow provided that something else doesn’t go wrong. I have two other tanks I want to replace the floats on, but they will wait for another day when I’m not so tired, and frustrated. Well not exactly frustrated, just frazzled I guess. If the tank only takes a little while to fix, I’ll move Sere into the big pasture with Sadie, and Lizzie, and I may even play with the horses a bit. They have been sadly neglected this week. Who knows, I may even take that ride I keep saying I’m going to take. That would really be a nice treat. We’ll see what tomorrow brings, it might be nice things for a change, after all that very nice man was in the right place at the right time to help out with loading the hay. That was very thoughtful, thank you Lord for that. Now can you work on the bigger problems, please?

My how time flies…

2011-09-05T22:58:00.000-07:00

I swear I don’t know where the time goes. It’s September already, and time to order more propane. We only get it once a year, but it’s a big chunk of money of which we are in short supply. We continue to have water issues, and part of the problem is we need an on off switch which will turn the pump off if it doesn’t have water to pump, another chunk of money we don’t have. The drought has made life pretty miserable, and I have some hard choices to make.

The lady who was interested in either Stormy or Star had her well go completely dry, so as she says “there goes my horse money”. It’s money we won’t get to possibly fix our water issues, and another mouth to continually feed. I have someone else interested in Stormy but I have to get some video of him first. Since I’m not sure how this week will play out I can’t really ask Sherry to come help take videos.

I went to Roswell Sunday, as Saturday was hay day. Mother was very disappointed that I didn’t bring her rocker, but it won’t fit in the Fiero, and as we all know the Jeep is too sick for such a long journey. Tomorrow I go to Roswell to bring both parents here so we can leave at 3:30 in the morning on Wednesday (ugh!) to go to Albuquerque. Hopefully everything will go smoothly, and father will be able to come home on Thursday so I can take them back to Roswell on Friday. That shoots this week out of the water.

I did get something accomplished today though. I finally tackled that former hay stall. It’s a wonder the horses didn’t all get sick there was so much mold under the pallets. I took three count them three gator loads of old hay, and dirt out of the stall. I got my monster duck tape and taped all the cut pipe edges, and contrived a way to keep a horse from hurting themselves on the cut pole sticking up out of the ground. Once everything dries out it will make a nice stall for someone if needed. I really need to clean out Marina’s stall and re-dig the channel for the water runoff from the barn roof. That’s why there was so much moisture in the stall. It just seeped through. I still need at least one or perhaps two new pallets for the other stall. I will also have to be careful when dumping buckets, or washing down a horse not to let water from the causeway to runoff into the stall where the hay is now. I just have to be careful.

We really need to reduce our herd. The well we have obviously won’t support all our horses in a drought. Jeri I believe is sterile since he tried, and tried, but Sadie still isn’t pregnant. I can’t afford to feed him if he’s no longer producing, at least not as things are now. I’ve started looking for rescue places to see if they will help me find a good retirement home for him, and Lizzie. I hate letting him go just because he can’t re-produce, but to save the rest some have to go. I’m also thinking of selling Lightning. I really hate letting her go. She’s a good mare, but as long as I have Sierra I can go forward with our half-Arabian breeding program. She’s going to be such an awesome mare, I just know it, she’s so striking, athletic, and sweet, what a combination, and color too. I had such big hopes for her. I’ll have to sell her for next to nothing since she’s not broke, but if I can get her home I can finish her training, I hope.

Ser-Haat I won’t put up for sale until I can get him over his issues. A friend told me of a trainer in Tule she has used. Next year Ser-Haat will be three, and old enough to put under saddle. It’s not just the body that has to mature, but the mind as well. He has come a long way, but he still has a long way to go. I also want to try to find a home for Sere where she will be bred. That’s going to be a hard one. Because of her bone cist, I can’t let her go to just anyone. I have to be sure that she will be taken care of appropriately. Because of her bone cist, I probably won’t be able to find anyone to take her. I just have to trust that someone up there has everything all planned out, and everyone will find their respective new homes, either that or we win the lottery.

Ser-Haat actually did pretty well today. I’m going to take a new approach. He wouldn’t let me put his halter on right away so we did the round the merry go round routine. He finally let me put on his halter, and instead of just doing the walking etc., I got out the fly spray, sprayed him down, and the “Mane and tail”, and we had a nice grooming session. Then I took the halter off. He still doesn’t do that well. I’m hoping that if he connects grooming, which he loves with the halter, maybe it will become a fun thing instead of a lesson thing. I have at least six months to work with him before I send him to school. Maybe by then I can lead him out of his stall even.

Ser-Haat wasn’t the only one who got attentions. After I finished with the stall, I cleaned up the barn a bit. Marina was stomping up a storm, so I finally went in to spray her with fly spray. Well I couldn’t stop there so Cupid, Star, Ser-Haat, and Aulina all got groomed. The rest need it as well especially Espree, but I ran out of “Mane and Tail” spray. It’s lousy stuff anyway. I need to order some “Cowboy Magic”. They don’t carry it at the Mercantile, and I don’t want to go all the way over to Harvey’s for it. It’s the best stuff I have ever used. I also like that it’s a gel. It doesn’t spray on, and evaporate. Of course the spray is a good lesson tool, but I’d still rather have the gel. It works much better.

After I finished with everyone, I had about an hour before it was time to feed so I laid down, and watched something on SciFy. It was so memorable I can’t remember what movie it was. All I wanted was to rest up a bit before I started my nightly routine. I fed, and everyone was happy to get their dindin. As long as their happy, I’m happy, then I discovered I had little to no water left. And it was such a nice day, oh well such is life. Now it's time to close all the windows, Bear got another skunk. Why can't he get it through his little brain that I don't like it when he kills a skunk. I can barely breath, I don't understand why he doesn't choke from the fumes. That also means that he'll stink for another two to three weeks depending on how badly he got sprayed. Oh how I hate skunks!

Such fun…

2011-09-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

I know I would get bored if I didn’t have things go wrong all the time, but sometimes I really think it would be nice to be bored. Sunday morning there was all kinds of commotion down at the barn so Rudy went down to see who was causing it. I guess the kids were bored during the night so Storm, Cupid, and Star all decided to go visiting. Star, and Cupid worked the corral panels apart, and went to see what they could find in the barn. They had the lids off of the feed bins, and helped themselves to some early morning goodies. Storm wanted some of that fresh green grass so he went visiting Sadie, and Lizzie. Rudy shushed the girls back into their stalls, but Storm didn’t fancy going back into his. Of course they don’t have halters on so that made it a little more challenging. He called me down to the barn, and we basically cornered Stormy. I convinced him that the better part of valor was to go back into his stall. He now has a lock on his paddock gate like the others. Why do all our horses have such nimble little noses that can undo just about everything?

Since Star, and Cupid made a mess of the panels we went ahead, and put them back the way they were making two stalls instead of just one big one. I wanted to separate the girls anyway I just hadn’t planned on doing it before breakfast. Needless to say the girls didn’t get goodies that morning. I went ahead, and fed everyone since I was all dressed, and everything. Rudy went back to the house, and started putzing on the big truck. I had watering to do so after I fed the rest of the animals (dogs, cats, birds, and chickens) I went back to the barn to turn off the pasture water. What the hay I thought, I’ll fiddle with the waterier in Ser-Haat’s stall that he shares with Ibn. The float needed to be adjusted as it was overflowing again. With all the water issues I don’t need to be wasting any water, besides it’s a drain on the well. I fiddled it ok I fiddled it right off, just what I needed, something else to break.

Up to the house I went telling Rudy I broke the waterier. He groaned (as you can imagine), and said ok he’d go down there, and look. I piddled around, and he still didn’t move so I went down to the pump house, as we had no water. Of course we had no water, I spewed it all over the place after I took most of it to fill the pasture tank. Now you just know my favorite thing is to sit at the pump house turning the power on, and off waiting until the pump can build enough pressure to keep the water running again. Once the pressure stabilized I went back to the house only to discover that Rudy had gone down to the barn, so down I went. He had most of the waterier torn apart except the lid. There’s a little cover you can take off to fiddle with the float, but to get the guts out you really need to take the top part off. Well the iron railing was put in after the waterier, and there wasn’t quite enough room to get the lid out easily. Finally between the both of us pulling at it we got it off. He unscrewed the float mechanism, and said he would probably have to get a bathroom float since the Mercantile was closed.

Rudy went to Ruidoso while I stayed home. Of course I just had to clean the whole thing, and see how it worked. I have this knack for tearing things apart. Luckily, I can generally put everything back the way it belongs as well. There was a part missing so I went to the barn to find it. It was the part that was causing all the problems. This particular float is plastic, and they use a little rubber plug to stop the flow of water. The rubber was ok, just worn which is why water continually trickled through. I could have probably put everything back together, and it might have worked again, but Rudy insisted that it wouldn’t. Ace didn’t have a float that would work so Rudy simply got some new fuses, a faucet (so I could turn the water back on), and came home. I would have to go to the Mercantile on Monday to buy a float from them, and put it all back together myself. He had a dentist’s appointment first thing in the morning, and then he was off again.

Being a very good girl after I fed I went to the Mercantile first thing with all parts in hand. I wasn’t going to buy a new float, and get it home only to find out that it wouldn’t work, yeah right. Well all the stock tank float mechanisms they had wouldn’t work for one reason or another. I asked what else have you got, and we looked at the good old-fashioned brass ones. I connected my ball, and decided that this just might do the job. I got it home only to discover that the ¾” was too big. Then I remembered there was another part I took off which come to find out was a converter from ¾” to ½”. Try as I might I couldn’t find that one little piece. I looked everywhere even in the barn to no avail. Most likely some little furry four legged critters I know thought it would be fun to play with, and it is under something where I can’t find it. Back to the Mercantile I go. Well as it turns out they have a ½” fixture that is $10 cheaper. That I can deal with. I get back home, put everything together, and then try to adjust the float ball. Well the tank is full so I have no idea whether I have it adjusted right or not, but I figure that having the float turn off too soon is better than having it turn off too late. I won’t know till morning whether or not it’s good enough, and hope for the best.

Tuesday comes, and well the tank doesn’t quite fill as much as it should, but as far as I’m concerned it’s good enough. Now I have to go to Ruidoso to get the injectors for my jeep Rudy ordered. Some time ago my heater hoses broke on my way home from town. I replaced all the hoses but the jeep was missing so Rudy ordered two injectors. He was sure that it was the front injectors, so Chuck (Chuck’s Tire Service) replaced them for me. The Jeep was a little better, but still missing. With my parents now in Roswell I will be making lots of trips to Roswell, and I need the Jeep to be working correctly so we went ahead, and got two more injectors hoping that would solve the problem. Whenever I have to go to Ruidoso the day is mostly wasted, and this was no exception. The good news was that nothing bad happened, and my water problems seemed to have been solved again. That in my book is a good day.

Wednesday came, and first shot out of the bag there were problems. I was supposed to go to Roswell to pick up my parents, bring them here, and then take them to Albuquerque the next day so Father could have the procedure he was supposed to have done on his heart when I first brought them down here done. Well guess what, Father did manage to have the blood work done, but he forgot to stop taking one of his medications the night before. Needless to say I spent the morning, and part of the afternoon on the phone. They wanted me to take him to Albuquerque (a three hour drive) test his blood, and if his levels were too high, then bring him home, and take him back another day. Now my mother is on oxygen 24/7, and can barely walk, and I’m supposed to traipse her back, and forth worrying all the time that Father is going to have surgery, and die of a heart attack at any time, I think not. Anyway, I manage to convince them that it would be much better to simply re-schedule his surgery now rather than make multiple trips back, and forth. The only problem is we have to be in Albuquerque at 6:30 am. This means that I have to feed at 3:00 am. I’m going to try to find someone to feed the horses for me. Poor things will get all confused being fed in the middle of the night, and then not getting fed till late that night. This does give me time to get the injectors in the Jeep however, and get some work done at the ranch so I’m not too disappointed.

Yesterday stormed all day so nothing got done, but I did get the injectors in today, unfortunately that didn’t fix the problem. The choices I’m left with are 1) a blown gasket, 2) bad rings, 3) bad valves, or 4) cracked head. I don’t think the Jeep’s getting fixed anytime soon. Rudy said it would just be better to buy a whole new engine, and he’d replace it himself. The only problem with that is yes it would be cheaper since he doesn’t charge himself $60/hour to work on the car, but then again he wouldn’t be working so whatever we save we loose by his not working. Not a good option. I’d rather pay the $600 for a valve job.

All in all it has been a pretty raunchy good/bad week. I did get some mowing done today, but I have to get the weed eater out to finish up at the house. It was beginning to look like a jungle out there. I mowed some patches around the barns, and I got the big weeds in the arena so the place looks at least half way decent. The grasses are skimpy at best. It rains all around us but we only seem to get a few sprinkles. There’s thunder, and lightning a plenty, and I pray no lightning strikes start a fire. Yes we have had some rain, but not near enough. So life goes on, and my boring days never seem to outweigh my exciting days, but that’s what I get for wanting a ranch, and I love every minute of it.

More of the same…

2011-08-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

I got the rest of the property by the barn all mowed, of course it will need to be mowed again in a couple of days, but it all got done. I was going to mow around the house today, but between my eyes, and the rest of my body telling me not so fast, I decided to give it a rest. My idea about making some kind of contraption to rake the stalls with the gator is still in the design process. That one piece of iron I was thinking of using is way too long. I found some grating, but can’t quite figure out how to turn it into a rake. Oh how I wish I could weld. That’s what I get for having city folk for parents. They are the most wonderful parents in the world, just not country. My poor mother had apoplexy when Pena (white boxer) came in the house with muddy feet. Of course mine were just as muddy as Pena’s, but mother hadn’t noticed that yet. I told her we live on a ranch, and mud goes with the territory. I didn’t say just like manure, and any number of other (in her mind) unsanitary things. She shook her head, and replied that she could never live here. She may be 83, and barely able to move, but she has her standards. Lucky for me she has the beginning signs of dementia, and doesn’t remember everything. There are some advantages to not remembering everything so long as you remember all the important things. Like so many elderly people she has fallen a lot, and the many concussions, and brain surgeries has left its mark. It’s hard for her, but I can usually get her over the rough spots, like muddy floors.

Tomorrow is hay day, and we play musical horses. I’m thinking of moving Little Big Man into the big pasture with Saddie, Lizzie, and Storm. He’s too little to reach either mare so there’s no worry of him impregnating them, and I want him to learn herd etiquette. He knows all of them so he won’t be too intimidated. Of course Lizzie has already imprinted in his mind forever that he does as she says so he has a head start on the “mares rule” philosophy. Since being weaned, he has been stalled next to her, and when we had all the water problems this past winter he got a first hand a taste of her displeasure. Right now Lizzie is all glossy, and rounded so she should be fine in pasture. Saddie too has put on a good deal of weight so I think she will be fine as well. We’ll see what Rudy thinks of the idea.

Stormy had a bit of an upset stomach yesterday. When I fed the night before I noticed that he hadn’t finished his breakfast, and was a bit lethargic, just what I need, a sick horse. Don’t I get even a little break? Anyway I took his temperature, and it was perfect. Well there’s a little green in his stall thanks to the rain, and I think he probably ate something he shouldn’t have. I made him some beet pulp mash, and he even turned that down so I hand fed him a bit. I listened to his tummy on both sides, and heard little gurgles after he ate a little of the mash. What I do for these horses. Later while mowing I noticed him picking at his food. Evidently I got enough in him so things got moving again. When it came time for his evening meal the mash was all gone, and he was working on his hay. Needless to say he didn’t get more as he had more than enough from the previous skipped meals. This morning there was not a scrap of hay to be seen. Whatever it was he got over it. Thank you Lord, I can’t afford any more vet bills, as you know quite well.

Everything on he horse front was calm, and peaceful so I took the day off of manual labor. I’m still having muscle spasms, but what the hay tomorrow I should be better, and if not, oh well. Too bad so sad, my body will just have to get over it. Sunday Rudy, and I will separate the two little ones, and redo the coral panels. I also have to clean out the front stall yet still. I’m not sure when I will get that done, maybe tomorrow maybe not. In addition I have to tackle the arena. There are tall weeds that will have to be pulled so little horsies don’t eat mowed weeds, and get big tummy aches. I waited too long as now the ground is hard again. I should have pulled them when it was raining. It’s been three days with no rain. I hope this isn’t the end of our summer storms. Elsewhere in NM it’s been raining, just not here. We need more rain, if anyone is listening hint, hint, but not all at once. As I told Rudy, I want it to rain for a few days, and then dry up, then a little more rain for another couple of days, and another dry spell. Is that too much to ask for?

Mowing a bit too much…

2011-08-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

Today my body revolted against all the bouncing it endured mowing the past couple of days. I got all but the section east of the pasture up to the water main mowed. I just barely had enough gas left to put the mower away. That’s five gallons of gas, which amounts to a lot of mowing, for which my body was, shall we say not to elated. Needless to say today was spent mostly on the couch with the heating pad. My body rewarded me with constant pain in my shoulder, and periodic deep, hard, and to say the least, rather painful muscle spasms. The good news is that my leg didn’t hurt for which I am eternally grateful. It’s ok though the grounds look good. I still have the area I want to make into a dressage arena where the ground is very soft as well as the area around the house, and the one section I didn’t get to. I’ll tackle that after I go to Ruidoso tomorrow to get one of my pain prescriptions. Wise move I think.

I have to move some of the horses, and separate Cupid, and Star. I’ve been concerned about not being able to put weight on them so I decided to measure them again. Cupid weighs about the same (666 lbs), but she is now 14.1 hands. Star has lost weight (628 lbs), and is 14 hands. Of the two, Star is the bossiest, and come to find out the finicky eater. She is also the one with the highest metabolism like her dam. Cupid’s legs are noticeably longer now, and I have every reason to believe that she will top out at 15 hands. They’re only three so they still have growing to do. I suppose their bodies got all excited about getting all those supplements I been putting in front of their noses, thus the growing spurt. It’s also summer, and since they don’t have to put on fat to ward off the cold, it’s natural for them to go through a growing spurt. Little Big Man is doing the same. He was getting to be a little roly-poly, but no longer. One can see ribs on his now lean figure. Why can’t I go through a growing spurt like that? I just keep getting wider, and shorter. So what if I’m 60 that shouldn’t be a factor as far as I’m concerned.

Before I do anything else I have to clean out the stall that used to hold our hay. I also have three more hay filled pallets to move (moan, and groan). At least I have the dolly. We acquired it on one of our moves, don’t ask me which one, but it’s a heavy-duty dolly. It has been in the utility room for at least the six years we have lived here until I started doing all the ranch work. I pulled it out of retirement when I had numerous 40, and 50 lb bags of feed to move from the truck to the back of the barn where we keep the supplements. I should break my back when I have a perfectly good dolly? I don’t think so. Anyway I brought it down to the barn where it has enjoyed being useful again. No one likes to feel useless after all. I was just helping it with its self esteem.

We have two stall areas with a breezeway down the middle in the front part of the barn. Rudy cut the pipes on the left side stall to store our hay. One of the stalls on the right side I have turned into a storage area with saddle racks, and tool implements. The other stall on the right we keep for overflow if we need an extra stall for a horse. One day when the rains turned the area in front of the stalls to muck, Rudy told me to pull into the breezeway to unload the hay. I discovered that not only was unloading the supplements from the truck much easier, but I had no problem backing into the breezeway. I have just enough of a stigmatism to make backing up using mirrors only difficult. It looks like I’m going straight up until I get out of the truck, when I see the error of my ways. Let’s say I’m less crocked when I back into the breezeway than I am when I back into the left side stall. In the breezeway I can open the passenger side door of the truck, and I can roll the bales off the side of the truck into the right side stall. I moved five of the pallets just to see if it would really work better for me putting the hay on the right side stall, and it was. I moved another pallet today when I bought grass hay, meaning to go back, and move the other three pallets later. That’s when my back said enough is enough. You know my body never used to complain the way it does these days. I want my old body back it worked much better.

I also have to clean out all the old hay that has packed in through the years. I can just see one of the horses going into convulsions after eating yucky old packed in hay, and they’d eat it too. I need to cover all the old piping that Rudy cut with the monster duck tape I bought last winter. It’s too heavy for regular use, but I think it will do the trick with the cut pipes. The pipes are surplus oil pipes made of Iron. They really need to be cut smooth with a torch, but Rudy has never had the time to do it, and I don’t know how to use a torch. I wish I did, there are a lot of repairs that need to be done to the pipe corrals. If I knew how to weld I could take care of them myself. Of course I’d have to get the generator going, but that’s a whole other issue.

The other stalls are a mess, and I really need to start working on getting them cleaned out. I think I’ll look around the property for something I can drag with the gator to help clean out the stalls. There has to be an easier way than using a pitch

fork, shovel, and apple picker. I just have to figure it out. Oh how I miss our tractor. We only had it for a few months before we had to sell it, but boy did I get spoiled in those few months. As soon as we get back on our feet, and can afford to buy one, I’m going to buy another tractor. No ranch should be without a tractor, at least not one with 15+ horses. There is this iron thing out by the arena that’s too heavy to move that just might work. Getting it out might be a bit difficult, but it just might do the trick. I don’t now how I’ll make it work, but if I can…. I guess tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

Quiet again…

2011-08-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

I love my parents to death, however it’s nice to have a quiet home again. Both my parents are hard of hearing. Father loves his news, and mother likes the normal stuff, but no soap operas day or night. There was no surgery for Father, as the doctors were afraid the risks were too great. His kidneys aren’t functioning properly, and if they failed it would be kaputs for Father. Mother was very relieved when we told her. For now they will continue to try medication as a form of plaque control, but his arteries are all clogged up. Too bad there isn’t Drano for the arteries, Father’s basically a walking time bomb. Like Rudy it’s hereditary, and there’s nothing he can do about it except for using medication. We’ll see how this new doctor deals with all this. For now my parents are in their apartment, trying to unpack. I went over there Saturday, but all I really accomplished was to break down some boxes, take home some paper (winter’s coming), and take them to Wal-Mart for some shopping. It was all too much for Mother, but she did enjoy herself. Now if they would just get their phone connected things would be so much better, and I wouldn’t worry so much. I don’t really have to worry because they are in an independent care facility, but that doesn’t tell me how they are doing.

We have had an explosion of hummingbirds. The babies are now out of the nests, and drinking their fill constantly. When I came home from the hospital in Albuquerque one day, all four feeders were empty, and not a hummingbird was in sight. I filled them all, and next morning everyone was back. There was also an unexpected visitor on the bird feeder. The poor hummingbirds didn’t know what to make of her, but a very pregnant Praying Mantis decided that the feeder was a good place to stalk her prey. I had seen her on one of the chairs the day before. Today I guess she decided that it wasn’t such a good place after all, because she has vacated the premises. The hummingbirds are very happy once again, and eating me out of house, and home.

As for the ranch, there wasn’t a water leak after all, or at least not a big one. I was talking to a woman at the feed store who lives below us, and raises goats. The water table got so low from the draught she had to put in a storage tank with an automatic on/off valve. When the pump can’t pump any more water it shuts off for a half hour, and then turns back on till the tank is full again. This winter when we had a busted line they asked me if I wanted one, but it would have been another $200+ so I opted to wait. I guess I shouldn’t have, hindsight you know is great. I didn’t have the money then, and I don’t have it now, but the rains have brought the water table back up so it can wait a while longer. Today I left the water on all day, and I filled up the pasture tank, and when I got to the house I still had water. Of course it helps that it has cooled down considerably, and the horses are no longer drinking tons of water. Hey I don’t care why, I’m just happy I have clear water again.

It has rained nearly every day, so you can imagine what a mess I now have at the barn. Where everything was formerly brown, it is now green, and getting taller by the minute. Anticipating the need to mow, I had already gotten a new gas can (yes I finally broke down, and bought one) and I made sure it was full. I checked the battery, and sure enough it was quite dead so I put it on the charger. The tires were another issue. We don’t have electricity down at the barn so I found the air tank, and proceeded to ask Rudy how to use it. I’ve never used it before so I have a good reason to call about it. Tank in hand Rudy told me how to work it. I vowed to do at least some mowing. Everything was wet, but the tall weeds were getting ready to go forth, and prosper. I got one section done, that leaves about 3 or four sections to go (at the very least). There was no rain today or tonight so tomorrow should be a good day for mowing yet again. One section I will have to wait for several days, or perhaps a week of dry weather to mow. It’s re-claimed land that I filled with manure. Every year there is a little more vegetation, but when it’s wet, the mower gets stuck, and it’s a pain to break it free. I have to literally pick up one end or the other, I’m pretty strong but not strong enough to make it an easy task. Lesson learned, I now wait until the ground is good, and dry before I mow. One of these days there will be enough grass to keep the mower from sinking into the mud. Of course if I wait too long it’s a dust bowl, and I have to practically wear goggles when I mow, another lesson learned. Ok so I’m not a fast learner, after all I’m only a city girl gone native.

The girls are putting on weight (668 lbs), and starting to look good. Aulina is putting on a little too much weight w/o the benefit of being worked. You know what that means (all of you over the age of 30). Maybe tomorrow (if I’m not too tired), I’ll take Aulina for a little ride. I so need a ride. All this stress is for the birds. The hills are green now, and I should be able to get some good pics of how it’s supposed to look come Spring.

Zara should be pregnant, and Sadie isn’t. We were moving girls, and as I went by Jeri Sadie’s tail went straight up in the air. Sure enough she was in. I already had Lizzie in the pasture, so I decided to put Jeri in with them. Lo & behold, Lizzie was in too. All this time she wouldn’t squirt, and now when it’s too late to breed there she is squirting, and shoving her butt in Jeri’s face. Poor Jeri didn’t know what to do so he took off with both mares following behind. Finally we took Jeri out, and put him back in his stall where he proceeded to scream at me. Enough already, we put Sadie in with Jeri, and Ibn with Lizzie in the big pasture. After three tries I’m not worried about Sadie getting pregnant, and come to find out, Ibn wanted nothing to do with Lizzie so there’s no chance of her getting pregnant either. She shoved her butt in his face, and he took off. I can’t believe these kids. I knew they didn’t really like each other but normally hormones win out, at least with all the men I know. Anyway both stallions are happy, there is little or no chance of either mare getting pregnant, and peace rules once again on our mountaintop. Thank you Lord!

Having Sadie, and Jeri together means Jeri will eat, and since they are both on supplements right now till they are a reasonable weight, it makes it easier to feed. Sadie is finally looking fairly decent, but Jeri still looks emaciated to me. It’s his own bloody fault for gawking at the girls all the time instead of eating. He can’t drop a few pounds here, and there anymore w/o it causing problems, he’s 23 after all, and no longer a spring chicken no matter whet he tells the girls. Ibn’s not much better, but he’s younger so he should start putting on weight with pasture grasses, and his alfalfa. Still it will take a while before he’s back to where he was before the girls all started going into season. We go through this every year. Next year I’m going to throw the boys in pasture with whomever it is I want them to breed to for a month or so, and maybe they won’t get so skinny. We’ll see for right now everyone is happy, and that’s all I care about. One can’t ask for much more than that, ok so maybe there are a few other little things I could ask for, ok maybe some big things, but I’ll take what I can get.

Dang those mices…

2011-08-08T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well I solved part of my water problem. Even with closing off the barn water except when I fed I still had little water. I went down to the pump house turned off the pump for a while, and when I turned it back on it wasn’t working properly. I got water, but the pressure gauge kept going back, and forth like a yo-yo. This morning I cleaned the contacts, but only one was sparking. I should have remembered that it did this once before, but I didn’t. I opened the fuse box and lo, and behold it was chuck full of cotton batting from the insulation roll around the tank. At the bottom were a few little presents left by the maker. Dang those mices. Someone thought it was a perfect place for a nest, and it shorted out one of the fuses. Then I had to remember where the extras fuses were. We put them somewhere I’d remember, yeah right. After combing the garage I decided to look in the laundry room, and found the new ones in a box on the top shelve. Thank you St. Anthony. I put in the new fuses, and the pressure built up the way it’s supposed to. We now have good pressure, and I was able to do two loads of laundry. Whoopee!

Next I took the big step of leaving on the barn water, and for a while I thought all my troubles were over. Too bad so sad, not with my luck. Gradually during the day the water became more, and more silty, so I went back down to the barn after dinner, and turned the barn water back off. I have good pressure, but it looks like I still have a leak somewhere. I had already dug up my old fixes, and the deeper I dug the drier the ground became so I don’t believe that’s the problem. There are lots of lines going to the various water tanks, and the faucet in the barn, and naturally the leak could be anywhere. Eventually pvc joints give way, and I have no way of knowing how old the lines are. To make matters even worse, the floor in the barn is cement. If there is a leak under the flooring I’ll never know. Right now with all the rains I couldn’t find a leak anyway unless water started bubbling up from underground, and I’m not leaving the water on that long. Of course it could be the water table as well. When I fill the water buckets at the barn I still get pulsing water, not a steady stream. I guess I’ll just have to live with it for now, as I have no intention of putting in new waterlines everywhere, and I certainly can’t afford a new well, which is what we really need to do.

There is good news, the grass is finally growing, and things are beginning to look green again. I have to call the pasture girls to come in, and eat since for some strange reason they prefer fresh green grass to yucky oat hay. Eventually they mosey up, and munch on the hay. This actually worked to my advantage when I took the little ones out of pasture. Star came first (she’s always first), and I had no problem putting on her halter, and leading her out while the others brought up the rear. She was such a good girl. I put Aulina in Lizzie’s stall, and opened up Aulina’s paddock to include most of the paddock of Sadie’s stall. Sadie, and Lizzie are in the arena. Star went right in. The stall is next to the stall Star was in as a baby, so there were no issues. Next came Cupid. She just munched hay while I put on her halter, and she led out quietly. She’s never been in a barn stall, and halfway in she stopped eyes wide. She didn’t act up she just wasn’t sure about this big house with a cement floor. I coaxed her forward, and seeing Star in the stall helped. Then I had to coax her in the stall while I kept Star from coming out. Both were very good girls, and I gave them some grass hay along with their supplements.

I love these bloodlines. All our babies are such sweet horses. Now every time Star hears me she sticks her head out the stall door. It doesn’t matter if it’s feeding time, or whether I have goodies or not. She just has to greet you. Seeing her in the stall I can see how much of Sadie is in her. She has the same elegant long neck, the same head, and super refined features. She’s Sadie in miniature. She still has growing to do too. Her head is too big for her body right now, and she has no real body mass. Sadie is slight built also. I’m going to try to work all four kids in the round pen for a little each day, that is after my parents get settled in their new place. There’s so much to do with them I don’t have time to do much with the horses. It really makes you appreciate people who have devoted their lives to caring for the elderly be it their relative or not. Mind you I am treasuring my time with my parents, it’s just exhausting leaving little time for anything else. They won’t be here for that much longer, and I need to take advantage of the time given me. My brother doesn’t seem to appreciate that. Someday he will understand only then it will be too late. He has a new family now so I guess it’s ok, only he is missing so much.

So the long, and the short of it is that I may not post for a few days. I’ll keep Father here until after the surgery, that is if their furniture ever comes. If it does come I’ll take Mother to Roswell, keep Father here, and then take Father to Roswell after his surgery. I’ll try to get some stuff done here, like today I actually managed to clean two stalls, Sadie’s, and the girls. It’s hard enough cleaning a stall with one horse constantly at your back, but two is a real challenge. Star just had to be right on top of me, and then there was Cupid because if Star was so curious there had to be something interesting to see. Kids, always underfoot. I’m getting attached to Star all over again, and if this lady takes her, I’ll start missing her all over again. That’s what these horses do to you.

I almost forgot, along with green grass the rains have brought hummingbirds, lots of humming birds. I’m filling two feeders a day now, and boy do they get upset when one of the feeders goes dry. Big Red has also brought some friends. Instead of one Red, I have at least three or four. Mother, and I sit and watch them, and their antics. The trees are full of hummingbirds, and there are at least four or five at each feeder (I have four of them). My camera isn’t quite up to the task of photographing hummingbirds. Hum, I just had a thought, I could do a video, and maybe pull a still off of the video. I just ordered a new cord so hopefully I will be able to download my videos. I have quite a lot of footage I haven’t downloaded yet. Then too that means I will have to edit the videos, Oh well there’s no rest for the wicked, and the good don’t need it, so I guess I’m going to have a lot of work to do.

When human affairs displace horsey affairs…

2011-08-04T00:20:00.000-07:00

This time I have a good excuse for not writing for a while. Sometimes when human affairs displace horsey affairs one has to stop and take care of those events first. This has been one of those times. My parents are elderly, duh, I’m 60 after all. They live in Tucson, AZ, and we live in NM. In February my father had a heart attack (first in 30+ years), and it became quite evident that my mother couldn’t be left alone anymore. She has numerous health issues, not the least of which stem from several concussions, and brain surgeries. She ended up in the hospital twice, and in rehab for nearly a month from a fall she sustained while Father was in the hospital. Since we are at about 7,000’ she cannot come live with us, so the next best thing was to have them move to Roswell or Alamogordo, preferable Roswell. They found a facility in Roswell, and last week the move began.

Everything would have been fine except Father ended up in the hospital again, this time because of his gall bladder. He had surgery, and everything went well except for these two huge blisters on his legs. It seems that the compress packs used to keep him from getting clots in his legs rubbed, and left this wonderful little present of huge blisters, which of course got infected. Back to the hospital he went. Mother not wanting to be left out, fell trying to show a cabbie how to fold her walker. This time she landed on her tushi, and hit her back against a metal pole. Thank you, now she has a broken rib on top of everything else. My brother (who is doing quite well these days) can’t get time off to help deal with his parents so my husband took a week off so he could rent an RV to bring both parents to Roswell.

Even that turned into a disaster for Father in his wisdom decided to forget to take his medication, throwing his heart into conniption fits, and back to the hospital he goes. I think subconsciously they really didn’t want to leave. Ok they didn’t want to leave, but you do what you have to do, and they needed to be closer than 500 miles from me. Of course they wouldn’t release Father from the hospital in time to come down with mother, so poor Rudy had to make two trips. I felt so bad for him, and so grateful all at the same time. His parents are deceased so he would do anything for mine. I won’t deny that he was quite miffed at my brother, but that’s another story.

Finally both of my parents are here. I’m still working with Ser-Haat during all this, and suddenly we start having water problems. Perfect, I have company, and no water. Ah the story of my quiet life in the country. Evidently some of my fixes during the winter months didn’t quite last. Yes I have to dig everything up again to find where the leaks are. I’m going to scream if it turns out to be the pasture water ( the pipe I finally cemented in), but I don’t think so only because I turn the valve off when I’m not actually using that line. Well I can turn off the main at the barn, and turn it back on when I’m feeding. That way the waterier’s will fill so the horses won’t go thirsty, and my well will get the rest it needs to deliver water the rest of the time. Fixing the line is low on the priority list after running my parents around, and getting hay, prescriptions, oh and food too for us humans.

Sunday I discover that Father has to see a doctor on Monday, nothing like a lot of notice. I call the cardiologist I was referred to, and he can see him at 3:30, great, and not so great. It’s and hour and a half to Roswell. Father says he’s feeling fine, and wants to go by himself. I finally relent, give him directions, and we leave by two to take him to the gas station. That should give him plenty of time right? Wrong. I also give him a map with directions, and phone numbers. The biggest mistake is I give him my cell so he can call 911 if he has a problem on the way. He’s 87 after all. Yes I said 87. I get a call when I’m feeding only to find out he has just arrived at the facility where he will eventually live. That’s at 5:00. Wonderful. Freda (a most gracious woman) is taking him to the hospital where his new doctor is on staff so he can get him some medication, which got left at the house. How did that happen you ask. Well you see Father put everything in his bag, which I picked up, and loaded, into his car. I didn’t know that the small bag next to the trash I had to take to the dumpster, had all his meds in it. Yes things do keep getting better.

Ok he’s at the hospital, so he’s safe. I ask Freda to be sure that he calls me, and she told him to be sure to call her once he got to a hotel as well. Time goes by and no word from Father. I do get a call from Freda asking if he has called to which I reply no. Now we are both frantic. She calls the hospital, and they tell her he has gone. I keep calling my cell (he did answer it once after all) to no avail. Finally around 10:00 I find the hotel he’s in. He doesn’t answer the phone, but the desk clerk says he’s there. Ok now I can go to sleep, provided I can sleep that is.

The next day I spend sleeping, and visiting with Mother. We are both tuckered out. Freda keeps me up to date on Father who still has not called me, and I don’t worry so much. I also call the moving company to find out what has happened with their furniture. I’m generally a very nice person, however when I get riled watch out. It seems the person handling the move is no longer there to which I reply good, and even though I spoke to him at length about the move that has now become a medical nightmare, he neglected to put any of that information into their system, and she informs me that it could be the 8^th before their furniture gets there. I was livid. Poor child, all she could say was I didn’t know that, and I’m sorry. The long, and short of it turned out to be that I have no clue when their furniture will arrive, I have an elderly mother who cannot be at 7,000’ at my house, and a Father who is I don’t know where. She says she will note everything into their system and let dispatch know that the delay is causing a medical hardship. Wonderful, we’ll see how much good that does.

Wednesday I decide that I have to bite the bullet, and take Father’s meds to him in Roswell, no he still hasn’t called me, and yes even though I have called him he hasn’t answered his phone. Mother insists on going with me, which will be hard on her, but she is sick of staying at home. If you knew my mother you would understand. Off we go in the jeep, no I’m not supposed to take the jeep on long trips, but it’s the only way I can take Mother with her oxygen. We get to Peachtree only to find out we have lost Father again. It seems that he checked out of the hotel Why am I not surprised? We finally locate him at the doctor’s office getting ready to take a stress test. Mother is a little confused, but I keep her laughing while we wait in the lobby for Father. Finally the nurse tells us to go to the other lobby where Father is now waiting to see the doctor. Good Mother gets to see Father. Since she has been so ill, and he has become her caregiver, she has become very dependent on his presence. Who says marriages can’t last forever?

I go outside to get something, and when I come back they take me to his room so I can hear what the doctor has to say. Gee I wonder if it has anything to do with their ages? Well the stress test showed that a portion of his heart isn’t getting the circulation it should. The doctor doesn’t even have to explain, after seven stints with Rudy, I know exactly what he is going to say, and he does. Actually I interrupt him and tell him that he’s going to want Father to go to Albuquerque for a cath, and when they find the blockages they will put in however many stints they need to. I told him I knew the drill. So now I get to pick up Father in Roswell (an hour and a half drive), and take him to Albuquerque (a three and a half hour drive), and drive back to Capitan when I have difficulty driving half an hour to town. I wonder if I can get some super pain pills from Doc Seidel? On top of that I just got a schedule for next week when I’m supposed to be working. Isn’t life wonderful? Now you know why I want to get back to work, and take a vacation from my soap opera life.

I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but somehow I’ll figure it out. During all this I do tend to the horses. Ser-Haat is solid on getting the little white English blanket on, and off his back. Sadie is not, I repeat not going into her heat cycle, so I’m pretty sure she’s pregnant, and best of all, I have someone interested in Star, maybe Storm, but probably Star. She’s an elderly (if you can call 72 elderly) endurance rider looking for a small Arab to start. I think Star will be just the ticket for her. She wants a horse she can bond with, and Star is if nothing else a very affectionate little girl, always has been. I have to get her to the barn so I can start getting her, and Cupid back to normal weight. If she had some meat on her she wouldn’t look so tiny. The Lady is from Silver City, and wants to come out this month to see her. We’ll all keep our fingers, and toes crossed, and say a bazillion prayers. I really need to sell all three youngsters. I haven’t put Ser-Haat up for sale yet, and I won’t until I can get him over his fears. He’s getting better, but still has a long way to go. He may be good with one blanket, but whatcha wanna bet he freaks with another different blanket. After that he will get the plastic bag, and whatever else I can dream up. Then, and only then will I put a price tag on him. I don’t want someone else screwing him up because of his fears. A heavy hand will ruin him at this point in his life.

It’s very late, and this child has had a very busy day. I’ll take my pain pills, and make nicey nice with that wonderful invention called a bed. I have another full day coming tomorrow, and I want to make time to spend with Little Big Man. Every morning, and every night when I feed he looks at me with his sweet eyes wondering if I’m going to play with him. I give him skirtches, tell him how much I love him, feed him, and leave him. He’s so sweet, and soft I feel guilty not spending more time with him, but not only have I not figured out how to put more hours in the day, but I can’t find the energy to fill the hours I do have. This “O” thing is a bear’s patut, and I am not pleased about it at all. Stay tuned for the next chapter of this soap opera, and I’ll try not to wait so long until I write it.

Rain at last…

2011-07-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

Well we got one good day of rain. Since then I have watched the clouds drop rain everywhere but here. Some see the desert as a place of beauty, some as a place of desolation, I simply sit in wonder at its resilience. We have had very little moisture. First the winter snows were nearly nonexistent. Then we had no spring rains, and now the monsoon moisture seems to be everywhere but here. Yet with only one day of rain, in two days time already there is a soft green hue everywhere I look. It is almost imperceptible yet unmistakably there. Only the hardiest of weeds have dared to spread their leaves thus far, and they have sprouted the barest of blossoms. These are for the most part the most obnoxious of plants with thorns to protect them from the browsers who would otherwise eat them to the ground. There is little else for them to forage on. What little grasses there are, are dried, and brown with little nutrition. Even the scrub oak, and the gourd plants have been nibbled at when they would otherwise remain unscathed. One day’s rain breathes life once again in the desert.

It would always amaze me as a child to watch the desert come to life after a brief summer’s rain. Some years the fields would fill with poppies of lavender, pink, and white, or the bright red orange of the Mexican poppy. There would be white, and purple thistle, or orange, lavender, pink and blue flowers of varieties I have never known the names of. Then there were always the cactus flowers with their brilliant waxy flowers that seemed too bright to be real. I miss the cactus flowers. We have some cholla but very little, and seldom do I catch them in bloom. We have some stunted pancake cactus, but never have I seen a blossom on them. They barely break the surface of the ground. We have yellow sunflowers that can grow as tall as a man. The first year here we were shocked to find our arena a field of sunflowers so thick, and tall the horses could barely walk through them. We bought a new riding mower. We sold the one we had in CA, which was just as well as it would never have stood up to the weeds we have here. Our new one is much bigger.

Such a fragile yet hardy land is the desert. How life manages to survive here is a miracle of evolution. Plants can remain dormant for years in times of drought, and then when the rain does fall it is as rich, and full of life as the densest rain forest. There is a flurry of activity as suddenly little red anthills pop up everywhere. All kinds creepy crawlers can be seen, and the dragonflies suddenly appear. The hummingbirds are now flying everywhere, dive bombing each other as they stake out their territories. Bull snakes are out, and about as are lizards, and horny toads. Soon I will have to take out that mower we bought once again, and I will be hard put to keep up with the new growth, that is provided we get more than one rain. Even if we don’t, even if there is little this year, the desert will wait. It will wait for another year to blossom, another year to grow thick with life. We can learn much from the desert. We can learn patience, and resilience, and hope for the day when life giving rains are heavy once again, and the desert of our lives can blossom with new life, new growth, and a serene beauty that comes only because we have endured the harshest of times.

Ser-Haat...

2011-07-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I got an email from a lady who was trying to find a home for a Padron Granddaughter. They were endurance people, and she was not an endurance horse. Her name is Starlight Serenade, a ¾ half-Arabian/Saddlebred cross. She had been shown halter taking first place ribbons, and they bought her for training for endurance. When she turned out not to be a good match for them the owner tried to either get her papers or return her (as previously agreed) to no avail. The breeders wouldn’t even talk to them let alone transfer the papers. Despite all this we chose to go ahead, and take the mare thinking we could register her offspring as half-Arabians bred to our stallions. Wrong, since she was registered, any of her offspring could only be registered as owned by the original breeder or we had to lie about her registration, something I cannot do. She’s too good a mare not to breed so her kids will not be registered.

When Sere came to us, we saw a definite problem with her right away. We were told she would go lame sometimes, and then when she was re-shod it seemed to go away. We had our vet check her out with x-rays, and the bad news was she had a navicular bone cist. So much for riding her, but in every other respect she is a beautiful mare. She was shy, but with work I got her to trust me, well as it turned out not completely.

We bred her to Ibn. Being a maiden mare we weren’t sure how she would be when the foal came. We had the cameras set up, and our other mare dropped her foal right on schedule. We had a couple of weeks before Sere was due so I took a break from sleeping at the barn. Big mistake. She was showing absolutely no signs of getting ready to foal so of course she foaled early. We went into the stall, but could get nowhere near her let alone her foal. He was a beautiful bay with a striking blaze. Eventually we got hold of him, and Rudy put a halter on him, but whenever I tried to work with him as I do with all our foals, I had no luck. Eventually we had to change halters, and each time it was a battle so we finally elected not to put a halter on him.

A year went by, and slowly but surely I gained a little trust. I could groom him, he liked that, but little else. When I lost my job, and had more time to spend with the kids I finally got him to the point of getting a halter on him. We worked on picking up his feet, letting me pound on them, and even filing them while tied up next to Ibn for security. The funniest thing was when summer came, and the flies were terrible, he had absolutely no problem being sprayed with fly spray. He didn’t like getting his mane combed, but I could spray it with detangler with no problem. Go figure.

Late winter I started riding Ibn, and Marina, and spent less time with the kids assuming I had got them past their people issues, everyone that is except Ser-Haat as I recently discovered. I had to change his halter because he finally had outgrown his old one. He has a very refined head, and the halter I had, had lots of length on the latch part of the halter. Don’t even ask me what it’s called. I found another halter small at the muzzle, and long only it is so old that the holes are frayed. I changed to the new (old) halter by putting the new one on, and taking the old one off after the fact. Less trauma for him, and less chance of him running away from me, win win situation.

Well that lasted one day, and he had it off. Mind you I didn’t totally ignore him all this time. We would work on him being tied, grooming, working in his stall like a round pen etc. Still you could tell in his eyes he was wary of me even though he totally loves his pets, and hugs. He wouldn’t come to me right off, but waited for me to come to him in his paddock. Still I thought the worst was over until I tried to put the halter on again. No way Jose, he wasn’t about to let me put that horrible thing on him again. That meant I was going to have to start from square one, you just know I loved the prospect of that.

We’ve been working for about two weeks now practically every day. I couldn’t get the halter even anyway near him, his eyes would go wide, and off he’d go. Now I’m not about to manhandle him even if I could. He’s way too sweet to do that to him. I went back to chasing him in his paddock stopping him, and then asking him to come in to me. After a few days I had to chase him less, and less. Next step, get him to accept the whip rope (buggy whip) on his back without freaking, and let me rub the handle of the whip all over his body especially down his back left leg which is his preferred kick out leg. Ser-Haat is the only baby we’ve ever had who kicked out from the time he was little, and always the same leg.

That accomplished, we went to the lead rope. This was a whole new thing, and off he would run me running beside him so the lead wouldn’t fall off his back. Yes I have had some very good nights sleep. He wore me out I can tell you, but I got him so I could drape the lead over him without him thinking that for sure it was going to kill him. What gets into these kids minds I have no clue, but I know he was sure that it would kill him. I could go up to him, and lead him by the jaw, but heaven forbid I put a lead rope on his back. Next step, he has to let me put the lead around his neck, and lead him just as if I were holding his head. Well that took a little while but mission accomplished. He gets big hugs for that, and of course his treats afterwards. I have the halter with me all through this, and the halter is always in his stall. When I give him his treats he has to do it with the halter in the feeder. First it’s just there, and slowly I work it so I can get it over his nose, and rub his face with it.

On to the next big step, I make a loop of the lead to put over his nose. I have to trick him at first until I figure out that if I try doing it from the side it won’t work, so I have the lead around his neck, make a loop, and put it over his nose while he’s looking at me straight on from the front. I lead him around just as if it was a halter, and he does fine. Finally I get to the point where I can flip the last of the lead over his head, and basically make a complete halter of the lead. Then I put the halter on his nose and flip the top over his head. I didn’t buckle it, but it was on, and that was the important part. I’m so proud of him at this point I could bust. Still and all it is a process where I have to chase him a couple of times before he lets me put even the lead on his back. I need horse cookies.

The last cookies I bought none of the horses would eat so I fed them to the dogs who eat everything they can get in their mouths. I’ll just have to make my own I decided. I have no clue where to begin, but I do know the key ingredients, mainly beet pulp (shredded), and rice bran to bind it together. Well the rice bran didn’t break down (it’s in pellet form) so I added some flour. I didn’t want to use white flour as it’s not that good for people let alone horses, but I did get a cookie of sorts. I used too much oil, and too much water, and while it sort of held together it was too soft, and fell apart too easy. Ser-Haat didn’t care, and neither did the other horses I gave it too. I have to perfect the recipe, but it did the trick. Today was the clincher. I gave him a cookie first, and then I brought out the lead. He started to walk away so I picked up the whip, and told him I could chase him or he could let me put the lead on him. Wisely he chose not to turn away, and I made a halter of the lead. He also got his new cookies in-between along with lots of pets, and praises. Then the big step, I put on the halter, buckled it, and led him around. I did this several times, finally taking it off, giving him his treats for being such a good boy, and letting him enjoy his freedom. With him I can’t leave the halter on I decided. I will put it on to work with him, and take it off when we’re done. I’ll do this every day until it’s not an issue. Of course this is only the beginning. He will get towels, blankies, and anything else I can think of draped over him. He needs a complete sacking out.

Ser-Haat is an exceptionally sensitive horse. In order for him to go on with his life I have to get him over as many scary things as I can think of, and many more I can’t think of as of yet. When Rudy comes home I’m going to have him put the trailer in the arena so that when I can finally lead Ser-Haat out to the arena to play, I can trailer train him as well. I’ll put goodies in the trailer slowly moving from the edge of the ramp to the inside. That way he will trailer train himself. I have to trailer train Storm too, but I think he will be easier to train. He’s four now, and far more trusting than Ser-Haat. Anyone is far more trusting than Ser-Haat thanks to Sere. Next foal she has won’t be so bad. Ser-Haat was the first, and you never know with maiden mares how they will react, or when they will drop. She reacted badly to our presence, and that made him afraid. If she wouldn’t trust us then he was danged if he would trust us. We had to be some kind of dangerous creatures. I’ve been battling that fear ever since, but I’m bound, and determined to get him over it once, and for all.

As for my cookies, I went, and bought some rice flour, flaxseed, and wheat bran. I won’t use much oil or water next time so they won’t be so soft. I also got some apples to add with the carrots. If I use the cheese grader on the apples I think it will work well. I cut the carrots since all I had were baby carrots, and grading them was too much of a pain. We’ll see how the next batch turns out. Who knows maybe if I get the recipe right I can sell some at the feed store, which will pay for the cookies I give the horses. You never know it could happen.

I have been remiss...

2011-07-15T00:11:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe it’s been over a week since I last sent a post. Much has happened. The days have been cool till about three or four, most days at least. There has been rain to the east, west, north, and south, but we have only had one rainstorm. A little of the topsoil got some moisture, but no more than that fell. It will come, it’s just taking a long time. Still the clouds are appreciated as they bring cooler weather if no rain as of yet. The sunsets, and sunrises are spectacular, and I enjoy my morning coffee in the stillness of the morning calm, or sit at days end watching the last kiss of the sun before it leaves us in a world of semi-darkness.

As for the new arrivals, I left the two little girls (Star, and Cupid) in the arena feeding them extras before I put them in pasture with Angel, and Sere. They will be on the bottom of the pecking list, which will be new for them, and I wanted to get a few more groceries on them before they had to compete for food. Both are very sweet, and definitely not dominant, just sweet little girls who are totally inseparable. They do everything together, running up when I come down to feed or putz at the barn. I love watching them each with their own kind of beauty as they munch on the same flake of hay, or nibble on the sparse dry grass in the pasture. One couldn’t ask for two more beautiful little girls.

Zara (Lightning’s dam) had a cut when she came, and I didn’t really think anything of it, but of course it got infected, and I had a time of it trying to clear it up. Dummy me I didn’t remember our silver spray until a few days ago. I was washing her wound twice a day, giving her antibiotics, watching carefully as it the swelling slowly went down. When I finally remembered the spray the cut was still a little swollen, and still oozing. 24 hours after I applied the spray all the swelling was gone, the old ugly stuff had pealed off, and there was new pink skin. Not to make excuses for myself, we haven’t had to use the spray for years, and even Rudy forgot we had it, and how well it worked. The worst part is I spent over $40 on another product, and I didn’t have to. Oh well I’m sure eventually I’ll use the other product as well, but if you ever have a wound that you can’t wrap, use Aluspray. It’s fantastic, cheap, and keeps all flies, dirt, and whatever else away from the wound.

Zara, and Aulina I have in the barn. Bobbi Jo wants to breed Zara to a stallion down the road, but Zara needs to put on some weight before we breed her. First of all he’s a big (and I do mean big) APHA stallion. Zara will cross wonderfully with him. You just have to look at Lightning to see how well she out crosses with other breeds. Then there’s the cut. It’s right at her girth across her ribs, right where the stallion will grab on with his front legs. I want that to be well healed before it is subjected to those powerful legs.

Zara’s a beautiful dark bay mare. Bobbi Jo doesn’t particularly like her gait (I’ve not ridden her yet) but you can’t argue with what she produces. We thought of keeping her for a season to breed with Ibn, and now that she’s here for I don’t know how long, we may yet. She’s not fond of her new digs (a stall with no paddock), and she doesn’t particularly like the oat hay I’ve been giving her, but she definitely remembered the goodies we gave her the last time she was here. She’s so funny she won’t touch her hay until she has her goodies. Aulina remembered too. I’ve had a time of it getting Aulina to eat the oat hay, but it’s better than alfalfa. It has great roughage, doesn’t make them buzzy, and fills them up. I feed less, and they put on the pounds. They don’t gobble it down so it lasts all day which means they aren’t starving when it’s time for their next feeding. Unfortunately, unlike alfalfa there is only so much so when it’s gone it’s gone, like the wheat hay. Over the winter I’m going to try to put money aside so I can get enough next year to last through the summer. I’d like to store enough to last a whole year, but I can’t see that happening, not unless we suddenly get popular, and sell a bunch of horses we don’t have yet. The oat, and wheat hays are not that popular so I can only get it from one feed store. With the price of gas, and the price of hay going up because of the drought in the southwest, I don’t think I will be able to get any more this year. My friend upstairs will just have to plan ahead, and make it possible for us to buy a truckload next summer (You are listening I hope).

Aulina is Marina’s daughter (how’d you guess that one) by Ibn. I’ve seen her in videos, but was still surprised when I saw her in person. She is so beautiful, and taller than I expected. The more I look at her the more of Ibn I see in her. She has a beautiful dish deeper than either Ibn or Marina. Her gait is more like Ibn as well. She’s a little longer waisted than Marina, and that may account for it. She’s also taller. She’s a bit of a pistol under saddle (wonder where that came from), and not near as well behaved as Marina, but that’s the fault of the trainer she had. Rudy could have her minding her p’s, and q’s in no time I’m sure. We’ll see how well I do with her. I would like to get her to the point that she can be used in showing. She’s quick, and agile like Marina. and I think she would make a great reining horse, but I have to get her to mind first.

Our first trail ride was an eye opener for her. She has become citified to say the least. The little I rode her while Bobbi Jo was here told me a lot, but wasn’t enough for her to realize that she was not in the city. She was all excited, and rode out smartly, but we only went to the big meadow across from our property. After they left I took Aulina into the real woods, and she learned all kinds of things she never knew she could do. There was this huge, and dangerous crevice (water runoff rut) I expected her to walk over time, and time again. Finally she actually jumped over it (I was told she freaked when asked to jump), and then walked back, and forth over it. That was scary. Then there was this steep mountain (rocky gully) I asked her to walk down. She was sure she would die, but discovered that she could go down a rocky mountains without killing herself. The worst was I expected her to walk through scrub oak. She just couldn’t go through it, without being torn to shreds, she just knew she couldn’t. Lo, and behold I was right, and she survived it all. By the end of the ride she calmed down considerably, and pretty much went where I asked her to go. Lucky for me we didn’t meet any elk or deer. That’s going to be really fun. I hope to get back on her back again soon. This time I will work her in the round pen first to get some of the jitters out, and we will go farther, and do more scary things.

Before I start working Aulina in the arena I want to build her confidence in her own abilities. I want her to be responsive to my cues, and believe that whatever I ask of her it will be fun, and I won’t ask her to do anything that she can’t do. To me teaching horses (I don’t like the word training) is like teaching little kids. You open a world to them that is fun, and exciting, and they become all they are capable of being. If riding isn’t fun for the rider, how can it be fun for the horse? If they don’t enjoy what they are doing, they aren’t going to do it well. People have drawn a hard line between humans, and animals, yet I see no line. They are not people, but we all share common traits. You have only to see a bear, or cat, or horse, or any animal defend her baby to know that we are alike in so many more ways than we know. The responsibility of teaching a horse to be all it can be is the same as teaching a child to be all they can be, and the reward is just as great. That’s what I want for Aulina. I want her to discover all that she can be.

I didn’t spend the entire week just playing with the new arrivals. I started working with Ser-Haat again, moved the little ones to pasture with the older mares, put the two love birds (Jeri, and Sadie) back in the arena for a second try at breeding Sadie, and got frustrated trying to catch Lizzie when she is in season, but those stories will be told in my next post.

I have one more month of the freedom of being a full time rancher before I start working in the real world again. This is what I love most, but it isn’t paying the bills. I have to go back to work to be able to pay for all this fun. Meanwhile I will continue to spend my days working with the kids. I have to spend more time with Sierra. I want to make the big step to the round pen, and then to the arena. Hopefully the summer will be long because once winter comes there will be few days I can do things with the kids unless we have another bad winter with no snow. But I’m getting ahead of myself, right now is what’s important, and right now it’s time to close, and leave more stories for another post.

Happy 4th...

2011-07-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today is the 4^th of July, but no fireworks here. It’s evening, and as has become the norm the smell of smoke hangs thick in the air. I don’t know why one can only smell it at night, but that’s the way of it. The Donaldson fire has now gone over the 100 thousand mark making it the second largest in New Mexico history. The Concho fire in Los Alamos is number one at over 125 thousand acres. The Donaldson fire has crossed into Mescalero land now. At least there are no more homes threatened, that is no human homes. Many wildlife families will have to search out new meadows to lay in, and browse. There is no sign of rain either. We did have one good day of rain, and the firefighters were able to get the fire 51% contained. Slowly but surely both fires are coming under control.

Bobbi Jo, her family, and the girls came in Saturday morning. There was no room for Sammy but that’s ok, when she brings Lightning back in about a month she’ll bring Sammy. The girls are painfully thin, and Zara has a cut on her ribs. Their little Haitian man has not been feeding them properly they discovered, and Kaytlin has had to go back and give them more food. We also like our kids to have plenty of groceries, so what I call painfully thin may not be quite that bad. I told Bobbi Jo that she has to remember coming from a third world country what he thinks of as well fed is far different from what we in the land of plenty call well fed. She is just going to have to make sure that they feed everyone before he gets there to do his little chores. That way there won’t be any more issues. She doesn’t want him riding the horses anymore either, seems he has been using a very severe bit so she said she is going to find him a $50 horse at the auction so he has his own horse to play with.

It was wonderful to finally meet the family I have only corresponded with over the Internet. We made introductions first, I to them, and they to the horses. Sunday I let Kaytlin ride Marina while I rode Aulina to see what she did or did not know. They spent a lot of money on her training, and Kaytlin worked her tail off paying for lessons for little more than groundwork. Poor Aulina doesn’t know diddlysquat. Of course part of that is her own fault. She figured out how to get out of being worked by pretending she was lame. They finally got a good farrier who informed them that she had some of the best feet he had ever seen in an Arab, and there was no reason not to ride her. She doesn’t pretend any more, the little stinker.

Kaytlin had a wonderful time riding Marina. She’s used to having to prod her horses to do what she wants them to do, and of course Marina is always ready to go. I told her what Marina’s cues were, and off she went, first in the round pen, and then out to the meadow the other side of our property. That’s when she really had fun, Aulina not so much. I do have to say that Aulina stepped out sharply only she wouldn’t go into a canter, and her trot was way too fast. Forget trying to collect her, she reminded me of Marina was young flipping her head in every direction. I’m going to have to do basic schooling on her while I build her up, and give her extra groceries. I’m not even going to attempt to ride the little ones. They are way too small to ride at this point. They are only three as it is, and underweight to boot. I’ll simply put them in pasture with Sara, and Angel. They can build up their strength, put on some muscle, and learn some herd etiquette.

Aulina I will ride in the mountains for a while before I try teaching her a few things. She needs some more muscle, and most importantly, she needs to get experience only a good trail ride can give her. Riding in the mountains here will settle her down, keep things interesting for her, and teach her to expect the unexpected. I can’t wait until she sees her first elk or deer. She’ll probably jump out of her skin, but hopefully she won’t bolt. That would not be fun. She looks so much like Marina, but her gait is more like Ibn. She doesn’t collect so that makes her a bit choppy. She’s also a little longer waisted, and taller I think than Marina. It’s hard to tell because she’s thin, and I’ve been riding Marina regularly so she is built like a brick poop house. Marina is also older giving her more bulk. Cupid is taller, and longer waisted yet again. She got the bulging forehead from her sire giving her a deeper dish, but thankfully she got the square muzzle I like in our horses. The three together make a beautiful picture of grays. That single dominant gray gene is in all three even though in each case the sire has been chestnut. Marina’s only chestnut foal was when we bred her to a black.

As for Zara, I can’t ride her right now because of that cut. I looked at it again tonight, and it’s slightly infected so I gave her a little antibiotic, put Neosporin in it, and covered it with swat to keep the flies away. Tomorrow I will wash it with Betadine, and put more Neosporin, and swat on it. Hopefully it will heal quickly. Bobbi Jo wants to breed her to Dakota for a paint foal. Zara crosses well with other breeds, and since she won’t be buying Dakota, this is the next best thing. She is taking home a palomino gelding of his for 30 days to see if he will be what she wants for barrel racing. After riding Aulina I told her that Aulina would be a perfect reining or barrel horse. She’s just not an English horse. She is however, very tight, agile, and quick. We just have to get Kaytlin to sign on to reigning. She really wants to jump, and I can understand that. Hunter or English pleasure is too boring for me let alone a young teenage girl. She has no clue how fun the western classes can be. If I can get Aulina doing reining she just might change her mind.

Zara crossed with Dakota will produce a good western or jumper prospect. Zara is 15.1 or 15.2, cross her with a 16.1 hand stallion, and you can’t help but get a tall well built horse. Dakota is massive, and Zara will refine that into a lean mean working machine. Bobbi Jo was also talking about bring her Cob mare Gwen over to breed to Dakota. It will be getting late in the year for a foal, but maybe we can do that too. We’ll just have to see.

All in all it was a wonderful visit. We went to a rodeo, they saw our small, but sweet 4^th of July parade, Joe, and the kids got to see Jan’s farm, Lincouln and the jail that held Billy the Kid, and we talked a lot. I petered out today, but other than that we did a lot. Kaytlin wanted to take home Sierra, Ser-Haat, Lightning, and Bear, but since I wanted to keep Mocha (their Siberian Husky) I guess it came out pretty even. Joe actually liked our little town, which surprised Bobbi Jo since he came from Pittsburgh, and lived in Florida, and Phoenix, all big cities. I’ve been telling her for years she needs to move out here, and maybe, just maybe they might consider it sometime in the future. It really piqued Joe’s interest when he saw his old boss on the news. It seems that he knows the Police Chief of Los Alamos. Small world. Whatever they decide to do in the future, we have come closer together, and I’m sure we will do more together especially when it comes to the horses. We have no children to pass on our legacy of breeding, and none of our nieces or nephews are interested in horses so maybe this will be the family we pass on our passion for the horses we breed, and love. I’ve always said God has a plan, and maybe this is the beginning of the fruition of that plan. Only time will tell that story.

Men...

2011-06-27T23:58:00.000-07:00

That’s what’s Sadie is saying I’m sure. This is our first time pasture breeding. In the past we have either bred in-hand or by AI, so this has been a new experience. I’m sure breeders who have done this for years would say “Duh!”, but until you have an experience you just don’t know. For safety’s sake I had my girlfriend lend a hand. I put Jeri in the stall I made off the arena in the morning. Poor thing he was so excited when I took him out of his stall, prancing all the way to the back of the arena, and then I just left him there. How dare I leave him with no girls anywhere around? He was not pleased. My girlfriend came over about three, way to long a wait as far as Jeri was concerned. I went down to Jeri, and she brought Sadie into the arena. On the count of three, ok so I just said “ready”, she unhooked Sadie, and I let Jeri out of his prison. As I assumed, he was out like a bolt, and stopped short right in front of her. They had a little tête-à-tête, and then he made his move. Here’s where the “Duh” comes in. He mounted her on the side, which at the time I thought was a bit stupid, and I told him as much. When she didn’t move, he swung around to the back, and did his dastardly duty. Later as I thought about it, it occurred to me that it just might not be so dumb. If she were going to kick (fat chance of that) by going to her side first, he wouldn’t get hurt. Maybe he wasn’t so dumb after all.

When he was done Jeri slipped off her, but Sadie was ready to go again as soon as he finished (remember she’s our hussy). He rested for a bit, and then he was good to go again. We left them alone (they were so cute), and when I went back to feed Jeri was obviously puttered, and Sadie was still waiting for more. She likes sex, I mean she really likes sex. This morning I took Lizzie out to see if she was in, and there was Jeri, ready, and waiting. Well I took Lizzie to see Ibn first. They touched noses, and then she walked away. I brought her around again, and she struck out. Ok back to her stall she goes only since we go right by the arena, I let her touch noses with Jeri. He was soooo excited. She wasn’t much interested in breeding, but she lingered by Jeri all the way back along the arena. I really think she just doesn’t like Ibn, but back in her stall she stands, and stares at him as though she’s interested. I’ll keep teasing her, and as soon as she comes in, I’ll put her in with Jeri since she seems to truly like him better. He on the other hand is totally disinterested in Sadie now that he’s sure that he has her knocked up. He spends all his time staring at the other girls. Typical man, love them, and leave them. I have to admit though that he has been a true gentleman when breeding. Unlike in-hand where he can’t wait to jump the mare, he took time to do a little floor play first. Then afterwards (until he lost interest) he showed a real tenderness, and a bit of strutting once he had his way with her. It was funny, there he was prancing around the arena, saying I’m so hot, and Sadie was running after him. Yes I know that’s a bit backwards, but then again these are our horses after all, and one can’t expect normal behavior. If I can get Lizzie bred to him as well (I’m still not convinced he can reach her), I will be a happy camper. If Jeri doesn’t settle Lizzie I will try breeding her to Ibn. If she tries to kick him I know Ibn will get out of the way. He’s done pasture breeding before, and knows quite well what can happen if the mare doesn’t like his advances.

On the fire front, we made the national news again, and we’re even going to be on GMA tomorrow morning. Saturday a fire started near Los Alamos (home of the first atomic bomb testing). Saturday night it was at about 3,800 acres, but by morning it went to 43,000 acres. Today it’s over 50,000 acres, and now has gotten within 4 miles of the city. The entire town, and the Los Alamos Labs have all been evacuated. Evidently in 2000 they had a fire, and so were much more prepared this time making for a smooth evacuation. As soon as people saw the smoke they started packing. When the mandate came they left with little prompting. The Labs also prepared for another fire by thinning the forest around the Labs, and clearing land. Sensors, and alarms were put in so they would not be caught short if another fire broke out. At least they learned from the last fire. Of course the big worry is for everything within the labs. All radioactive materials, and items of national security risk supposedly are safe, and sound. Governor Martinez has put all resources at the disposal of the fire fighters. Los Alamos cannot succumb to fire.

We have had a bit of moisture move in which will help (it certainly helped with the temperatures here). The only problem is that it will also bring in stronger winds, which is not a good thing. We shall pray for the best of all scenarios, early monsoons. We need rain, and we need it now, God willing it will come in time or the Los Alamos fire could easily triple in size.

I also worked the youngsters. I haven’t played with Ser-Haat for a while, and his halter needed changing. Do you think I could get close enough with a new halter to change it, of course not? He was back to where he was before jumping at everything. I worked him a bit, and gradually I got him to settle down and I got a larger halter on him. It is a bit shabby as it was Moraddinn’s so many years ago. I have it on the first hole so there is plenty of room for him to grow. I really need to sack him out big time, but I’m reluctant to change my working tactics with him. He’s such a special boy, but he really needs to get over his “scary” thing. He’s so loving, and trusting once he figures out he won’t get killed, and I don’t want to destroy that, but by the same token, I can’t sell him when he’s jumping out of his skin all the time.

Sierra on the other hand is so easy to handle. He let me pick up all his feet (I’ve only done it a few times, and never all four) with very little trouble. I brushed him, and walked him on the lead. He’s even getting better about the nibbles. I only had to correct him a couple of times, and even at that he was very good. He is going to make such a wonderful stallion. There are times when I just can’t wait for him to grow up, and then again times when I wish he would stay little like this forever. Now if I could only get him to stop rubbing out his mane. He’s such a little mensch.

Just Spring and Fall…

2011-06-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

Why can’t we just have Spring, and Fall without all the nasty wind? I’m hot! Ok so I’m spoiled, I know that, but high 80’s, and 90’s without air is a bit much for me in my old age. Ah those days of youth when 100 degrees was nothing, barely noticeable even. We didn’t have air conditioning in our school when I was growing up, and I will forever remember the nunnies saying if they could deal with the heat in their wool habits then we had no room to complain. They don’t make them like that anymore. We did have fans, and they would open all the windows, and doors. Nowadays our kids would faint from 100+ degree temperatures under those conditions, and parents would be outraged saying it was inhumane, child abuse even. We had swamp coolers at home of course, but once the monsoons hit, they only made things worse. I remember going home (LA) for summer vacations. Everyone there was dying because of the heat, and I was asking for a sweater or coat because I was freezing. My how times have changed. We have all become spoiled.

I did ride in the heat day before yesterday, getting done about three, and suffering yesterday totally exhausted. Today there was a breeze, and some clouds. I elected to clean stalls. I got three done then died going inside in the late afternoon. We’ll see how I fare tomorrow. I have to start teasing Sadie & Lizzie tomorrow. I was supposed to start today, but oh well. Ibn was oogling at Sadie, and she seemed uninterested, well not totally, she’s in love with Ibn after all, and is never totally uninterested. This brings me to a conversation on one of the chat groups on equine repo. The question is do stallions have preferences. Personally I don’t see why animals should be any different from us, and Lord know we all have our own preferences. The person asking had a stallion who was more or less uninterested in their mares except for one who behaved like a total witch (she used another word, you figure it out) kicking, and screaming even though she was obviously in season. Now our boys have no such problems. In season or not, if it has a tail that swishes, they’re Johnny on the spot. They are both totally enamored of Sadie however. She’s their favorite. We call her our little harlot, because even at the ripe old age of 22 she loves the boys. She’s an easy breeder, and always takes the first time round.

One person mentioned that her stallion never took an interest in his own daughters, and wondered if there were pheromones that told a stallion which mares were closely related. Now Mother Nature is a lot smarter than we are, and it seems to me that common sense will tell you that she will take care to ensure that stallions know the difference, otherwise the species would not have a very good survival rate due to in breeding. Why do we need studies to tell us what should be a no brainer? We currently don’t have any daughters on the farm so I can’t test out this theory, but then again I don’t think I really need to. People are the only ones who force inbreeding amongst the animals that are in our care. In the wild they seem to figure it out just fine. Young studs are kicked out, and later build their own harems from unattached or stolen mares. The strongest, and the best seem to find each other just fine. It’s only we inept humans that breed the less desirable in order to try to fix conformational problems in animals that should never be bred in the first place. Considering that our stallions are hot to trot after all our mares, which we carefully picked, I would assume that we were pretty good at picking quality mares. If a stallion weren’t interested in a particular mare, then I would begin to wonder why.

Now the mares are another story. They can be picky for any number of reasons. Lizzie I think doesn’t really care for Ibn, but has no problem with Jeri. I have no clue why, but taking her lead I’m going to try to let Jeri breed her. She seems to like him just fine even when she’s not in season. Ibn she strikes out at. Of course it could be that she knows he can’t reach her, but I don’t think so. She’s old but not that old. I think we, as breeders really need to listen to our animals, and take clues from them. If I said all this on the chat group I would probably be blasted (which is why I won’t), but these are simply my thoughts on breeding, and everyone else is entitled to their thoughts as well. Since I have not once had anyone say anything negative about our stock, I think we must be doing something right. Not that I would be outraged if someone did. In fact I take all comments on our horses seriously. Anything we can do to enhance our stock we will do. If bringing in another bloodline would improve our lines I want to know about it. I am certainly not the end all of knowledge here. I simply try to use the common sense that God gave me.

On another subject, Star is finally coming home, along with a few of her friends. I’ll know Tuesday for sure if they will be coming next weekend or the weekend after. Sammy will be coming too I hope. I can’t wait to see him. Aulina has been ridden for over a year, but Star, and Cupid aren’t even green broke, meaning they have only been ridden a few times. I will have a lot of work to do teaching them their p’s, and q’s. Aulina they have had problems with, either her pulling the limping ruse, or bucking. I think she just needs a stronger hand that won’t give in the minute she pulls something. We’ll see. I also am concerned that they have had issues with her colicing. She never coliced while here so I’m not sure if it was the feed they have been giving her, or the confines of space. All our horses have large runs. Well Sadie’s isn’t so big, but it doesn’t matter because she doesn’t move if she doesn’t have to anyway. That’s why her feet get so long when she’s not in pasture. If I don’t have any issues with Aulina colicing while she’s here then I know it has something to do with the setup where she’s at. I’m not sure what they want to do with Aulina since they had planned on showing her, and she’s coming here. The little girl is riding another horse, but it seems that that’s because she has had problems with Aulina. They don’t want to sell her, so maybe at some point they will breed her.

Zara, Lightning’s dam is also coming. They don’t really know what to do with her either. In fact all the horses they are sending me they don’t know what to do with, or don’t really want, but can’t sell. Right now the market for Arabians stinks. Zara is a good producing mare (just look at Lightning), but she doesn’t jump, and they don’t really like her as a riding mare. I plan to put a saddle on her just to see what she’s like, and see what I can do with her. Some horses are not that great themselves, but produce good horses. I think Zara fits into this category. Lightning is an absolute sweetheart, and I really think she will make a better than average jumper, and a beautiful dressage horse. She’s of good size, and has a wonderful conformation. I want them to train her, and show her before I start breeding her. Her color genetics combined with her disposition, and conformation, will make her a great broodmare for us. A good show career even if short will make her babies more desirable. That’s the one thing our horses currently lack, a show career. Ibn had one but it was a long time ago, and not under saddle. He’s not that great a show horse, but he is a great producer. Jeri was never shown, but he has proven himself a good producer. Star is a favorite of their trainer, both for her brains, and her performance.

All in all I should be in second heaven with all these new horses to ride. I will be a very busy bee very shortly especially since I will start working again as well. While I love being a rancher it does not pay the bills when you can’t sell your horses for what they are worth. Hopefully that will change, and the horses will start selling. Once we are accepted as a serious breeder things could all turn around, and who knows maybe someday both of us can quit our day jobs, and do what we love most, breed, raise, and train horses. That’s the dream, and they say follow your dreams, and you can’t go wrong, only they left out just broke!

A Change in Schedule...

2011-06-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

The mornings are beautiful, the evenings fantastic, and the rest of the day sucks. It’s summer, and the monsoons won’t come till July. The days are hot, and oppressive leaving one drained, wanting to do little other than lay down, sleeping away the worst of the day. Here in the mountains one has little need for air conditioning of any kind as the expense is exorbitant, and the need is for a few weeks only. So one suffers through the short time between springs gentle warmth, and the cool refreshing days of monsoon summer. Have I gotten spoiled or what? There was a time (many moons ago) when 100-degree weather was nothing until it got into the teens, and a time before that when the heat didn’t matter at all. We haven’t broken 90 degrees yet, and I can barely make it through the afternoon. The ash gives me an excuse to stay indoors as it is unhealthy for horse, and human alike. Well I can’t spend the rest of the summer on the couch, so I have come up with a new regime. I’m going to try to get up early, feed early, maybe get in a ride or work the kids, then spend the afternoons in the house. If I feed early in the morning, then I can feed earlier in the afternoon, and return outside to do something once it has cooled down. Sounds like a plan to me.

I didn’t get my early start this morning as the acrid smell of smoke greeted me as soon as I went to let the little ones outside. The smoke was thick in the air. I had plans to do something this morning, but that changed as soon as I smelled the ash. A ride was out for sure as I wouldn’t want the horses to be working in the stuff. They take in a lot more air than I do. If it’s not good for me, as my sinuses were attesting to, then it couldn’t be good for them. I did get something done this evening though. After I fed I went back outside to fill the tank for the pasture horses. The air was clear, and clean once again with a cool gentle breeze for good measure. While the tank filled, I tackled the water pipe yet again. After being dug up a few times this year, it was actually easy digging. It had dried out just enough so that the ground was soft, but not sticky. As I suspected I didn’t get a good seal, and Lightning actually just pulled the pipe apart. I dug as far as the pipe, and hopefully tomorrow I will be able to finish.

In between filling the tank, I took time out to tease Lizzie. I have come to the conclusion that she simply doesn’t like Ibn. I took her around to the front of the stallion’s stalls, and she sniffed at the colts, struck out at Ibn, and touched noses with Jeri. Not once has she struck out at Jeri. When we tried breeding her the first year we had her, she tried kicking Ibn, and I know she was in. We never did get her bred, and of course last year we didn’t breed at all. I don’t have a problem breeding her to Jeri, in fact I think they would have a lovely foal together, I’m just not sure Jeri can reach her. He stands on his tippey toes to breed to Sadie who is 14.3 hands. Lizzie is at least 15.2 hands. I am willing to try, but I don’t think he can do it. Rudy says where there is a will there is a way, and Jeri has lots of will, lots, and lots of will. It would also mean that Ibn wouldn’t get any nookie at all this year. That’s downright mean if you ask me, and I’m sure that he’d have other words for it. At any rate she wasn’t in, and after nuzzling with Jeri for a bit, she went looking for grass to nibble on. There isn’t any of course, and since she was obviously not interested in anything else I put her away.

After finishing in the pasture I went to tackle the cattle wire panel between Lizzie, and Sierra’s waterier. Lizzie has kicked the you know what out of it, and poor Sierra cut himself again. It’s not bad this time, but right on the bone where the brass is on his halter. I have an idea how to sort of fix it. I can’t cut the panel; I tried, so I’m covering it with small mesh bird wire. Of course wouldn’t you know where I need it the most that’s the only part of the mesh that has come apart. I thought I saw a roll of wire to attach the panel back to the rails, but didn’t find any so I just put it up temporarily. What I really need is more of the “V” wire we have in-between the stalls. Rudy told me where he thought there was some left in a roll. Tomorrow I will try to hunt it down.

It took me forever to do that little bit of repair. It seems Sierra is just like all our kids in spite of the fact that his sire isn’t an Arabian. I spent most of my time pushing him away, keeping him from trying to eat the wire mesh, and wire cutters, and protecting my hair from little teeth. He was so on top of me getting into everything, wanting to see everything I was doing. Basically he was doing everything he could to be a pest. Sweet as he is, he can be a real pill at times, especially when I want to get something done. They’re just about all like that. Cleaning stalls is a real challenge sometimes. I know it’s a good sign in a little one, but when you are trying to get something done, it can be very aggravating. At least I came out with no more bruises on my arms than when I went in there.

By the time I finished that little chore, the sun had set, and it was getting dark. I had wanted to work at least one of the kids, but ran out of sunlight. It was so nice out, that’s what gave me the idea to work mornings, and evenings outside. In CA on Lewis Rd, Rudy put up floodlights so I could ride at night. I’d love to do that in our arena, only we’d have to have new electrical lines put in, and for some reason that costs money we simply don’t have. A line could easily be brought in from the main road. A few years ago Rudy looked into it, and it would be an easy thing, just a little expensive. Another great idea down the tubes because of money. Oh well maybe we’ll win the lottery or better yet start selling some horses. Everyone who looks at our horses says the same thing, we have wonderful stock, only we can’t convince anyone to buy them. We haven’t given up hope yet, we really believe in these bloodlines. If only the halter people who seem to have scads of money to spend on “pretty” horses would have an Aha Moment, and realize that pretty a good horse does not make, we would be fine. I’ll keep waiting for that moment, and pray that our someday will come. If you listen to all the people in the know, they say do what you love. Unfortunately what we love isn’t lucrative, and we don’t seem to have the knack that some people have to actually make money doing what we love. Instead we struggle along doing without so we can do what we love, raise horses. It’s an old, and noble profession, and we will continue to try for as long as we can.

And now New Mexico too…

2011-06-14T00:35:00.000-07:00

The moon is almost full now, and once again it is bright orange. I’ve tried to get photos, only my camera just isn’t sophisticated enough, or new enough. There are very few stars out that you can see, partially because the moon sheds so much light, but also because the sky is blotted out by smoke. The winds came up again today, and the skies were hazy. The smoke makes for beautiful sunsets, and sunrises, but the acrid smell in the air is a dead give away that something is terribly, terribly wrong.

The firefighters have worked very hard to make sure that the villages of Luna, and Reserve will be safe from the fires. They have done a lot of back burning, and the fire is 10% contained the last I heard. Now there are fires, in Carlsbad Caverns National Forest, another up towards north western NM (near Grants I believe), and a large fire in Raton, that has crossed the Colorado border. It has already scorched over 6,000 acres in only a couple of days. They showed a time lapse, and it was amazing to see the fire line move across the ridge in a day. High temps, low humidity’s, and wind are all fueling the fires.

The next couple of days should be clear, and unfortunately, very warm. First thing in the morning is the best time of day. The air is cool, with a gentle breeze. The crickets, mourning doves, and numerous other birds are singing their praises. It is a peaceful time, a time of reflection, a time full of promise. Lately I have been luxuriating a bit too much in the moment as it were. I need to get up earlier, so I can get everyone fed, and watered before the heat of the day begins. I want to continue riding, and get Lightning, and Storm started in the round pen. I rode both Ibn, and Marina on Friday, and Saturday. They both did fine, but the heat got to me a bit I think. I have also been teasing both Sadie, and Lizzie. I could have sworn that Lizzie was in, but other than a touching of noses, she could have cared less that Jeri, was hot to trot. Sadie went out on Thursday, so I’ll start teasing her again on the 23^rd. When she comes back in I’ll breed her to Jeri. If Lizzie ever comes in I’ll breed her to Ibn. Each boy gets onc girl. If I can’t get Lizzie to come in, maybe I’ll breed Espree to Ibn. I want two foals next year. That way the babies will have someone their size to play with. I don’t like doing singles, they need a best bud to hang with.

I did manage to get a bit of video of Ibn. I got three really good bucks out of him too, which is highly unusual. If it’s too much work he simply doesn’t bother. I have to admit he looks really good. All this riding has gotten him in great shape. Getting video by myself is a bit of a challenge though, so I didn’t get much. I think I got enough to do a short video. Love that slow mo don’t you know, you can make a minute, and a half into five minutes if you want. Most of what I got was too jiggly. You try to keep a camera steady, while you are hollering, making funky noises, rattling a plastic bottle of rocks, and yelling at the dogs all at the same time. The fact that I got anything at all to me is pretty amazing.

I got video of Sadie too. I don’t know if I will use it or not, as she was quite dirty, and is still a bit too thin. I’m seriously thinking of working her in the round pen to get some muscle on her. I get very nervous doing that since she has this problem of colicing whenever she gets over excited. She’s always been a slim build, but with age, and kids she’s really hard to keep weight on in spite of the fact that I give her more than anyone else. She doesn’t like working in the round pen, but if it will get her in better shape too bad so sad, life is tough. Even underweight she’s still the most elegant mare we have. I love watching her move. That’s what she gave to Lance that made him special. He had the same elegance. Jazzy has it too, and I’m sure Star does as well. I can’t wait to see how she has grown.

If I can get some muscle on Sadie’s chest, and haunch, she will look fantastic. Right now she looks like she has a big belly with ribs showing. I know it’s mostly age, but I still feel bad that she is so skinny. Trust me it’s not for lack of groceries. She gets more hay than anyone else, plus beet pulp, rice bran, and senior. Where it goes I have no clue, but it’s not on the hips. I just wish I had her problem. When I was young I could eat whatever, and never keep the weight on, now, well let’s say there’s a bit more of me than I like. Lizzie, a year older than Sadie, tends to be on the thin side (for a TB that is), only I’ve got her at a good weight right now. I have to work her too. She has the weight, just not the muscle. Oh the trials, and tribulations of keeping everyone fit, and looking good. One of these days maybe we will get well enough known that we can get a little help, and I won’t stress so much. Just in case your listening God that would really be nice. No pressure, it would just be helpful don’t you know.

Arizona burns...

2011-06-08T23:18:00.000-07:00

The news is all about the fires in AZ. Besides the fact that I grew up in Tucson, Rudy and I spent our honeymoon in Greer, which is a small town near Showlow in the White Mountains. It is absolutely beautiful up there, or was. Our neighbors growing up used to go to the White Mountains hunting every year. Yesterday the sunset was a little hazy, but tonight you could definitely tell that the ash was contributing to the sunset. I’m going to try to stay up to catch a photo of the moon, which is red due to the ash in the atmosphere. My cameras are not sophisticated enough for night shots, unless the moon is just rising or setting. I doubt that I can, it’s setting much too late for even me. For the first time you can smell the fire. Albuquerque, and most of central NM, has been dealing with the smoke and ash for days.

Last year the fires were bad, but I have an idea this will end up being the largest fire AZ has ever had to deal with. It’s already at over 600 sq miles and is 0% contained. There is nothing but sun, and wind in the forecast. Growing up in the southwest, fire is always a major concern, next to water, rattlers, and scorpions. I can remember one year watching the Catalina’s burning. Tucson is basically a very large box valley. To the north are the Catalina’s, south are the Santa Rita’s, east the Rincon’s, and west are the Tucson Mountains. You can never get lost during the day, as the mountains are always there telling you which direction you are going. We could sit on the roof, and see the flames everywhere along the mountain ridge. Sandy our friend in Fresno, remembers that fire well as she was on one of the crews that came in from CA to help fight the fire. A few years ago the Catalina’s burned again, and this time the village at Mt. Lemon was destroyed.

People are so careless. They don’t understand that it takes so little to destroy the forest. They flick out their cigarettes, or leave their campfires burning. They stop their cars, which are hot where there are dry grasses. On a windy day a stray spark can ignite dry grasses which burn hot, and fast. The southwest is not abundant in water like other parts of the country. We get winter rains, and summer monsoon rains. Our annual rainfall is only about 12”. In a dry winter, the forests become tinderboxes waiting for someone to be careless. The terrain is rough to say the least, and you can’t just plough a fire line. Most of the land is inaccessible except for Big Horn Sheep, Mountain Lions, Bears, and other such creatures. Yes fires are necessary to clear out underbrush, dead trees, and bring new life to the forests, which is why the forest service does control burns, but fires like these destroy habitat for the forest creatures who have no way to survive except to run, and pray they don’t burn to death.

I’m sorry for carrying on like this, but this is something close to my heart. If people could see the needless devastation of these great fires perhaps they might learn to be more aware of the consequences of their carelessness. The forests are as important to our survival as they are to the many creatures that live there, including some humans. If a fire erupted here on our mountain, I would be hard pressed to save all our animals, never mind the memories of a lifetime that are contained within the walls of our home. Tornados, floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are neither preventable, now predictable. Forest fires for the most part (at least 90% of them) are totally preventable if only people would treat the forestland as some one’s home. You wouldn’t go to someone’s house and start a fire, why is the forest any different. It is home to thousands, perhaps millions of creatures large, and small. Why are they any less important?

I could go on, and on, but I won’t. I will simply say a prayer that the brave men, and women fighting this blaze will be kept safe from harm, and that somehow they will contain this terrible fire, and keep it from destroying any more towns, homes, and precious habitat.

Fun in the sun...

2011-06-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

Well our little monsoon trail dried up, and we are back to sun & wind. It’s not too bad, and I have been able to ride, and work the horses. Lightning broke the water pipe in the pasture again so yes I’m hauling water again. Yesterday I took the opportunity while filling their tank, to take Sadie out of the pasture, and put her in a barn stall. I want to breed her, and she needs extra groceries. She has always been slender, and keeping weight on her is a bit of a challenge. Ok, more than a bit. Being older doesn’t help either, I need her nice and round. I like to keep her in the pasture to keep her feet trim. She grows way too much toe otherwise. On the way to the barn I passed the stallions to see if she might be in season. Oh yeah, she’s definitely in. Everyone got excited. Sadie’s our harlot. I can always count on her to be an easy breeder. She looks at the stallions, and she’s good to go in or not. I pull her away from the stallions, and put her next to Marina, as they are old friends.

Later, I moved Lightning because I want to start working her in the round pen. Lightning has been in pasture for about two or three years, and she was not pleased. I put her next to Ser-Haat thinking they are both young, and he’s a gelding so it should be fine, emphasis on should be. Remember this is me talking. Well guess what, she’s in too, and Ser-Haat didn’t understand that when they cut his cajones that meant he no longer had the plumbing to be a studly. That’s how I found out Lightning was in. Ok, I switched Sadie, and Lightning, but then Lightning missed her old buds, and kept calling to them. I was hoping putting her next to Ser-Haat would make it easier on her, but since that was not an option, she was in-between two old ladies. Now be3 honest, if you were a teenager how would you feel about being stuck between two old fuddy duddies, one of which wanted to kick the living you know what out of you. Yes Marina is a very dominant mare, and she makes sure everyone knows it.

Now that the stallions were all excited, there was no way I was going to ride Ibn. A fool I am not. I brought out Marina, let her run some of her energies out, and saddled up. We had a nice long ride, only either my new pedometer is off, or my first pedometer was wrong. I loosened Marina’s breastcollar because it was rubbing, and I’m hoping that that is the problem. I’ll make it a little tighter next time I ride her. According to the pedometer we only went 8.4 miles, which is not acceptable. We need to do at least 10 miles. We’ll see what happens when I tighten the breastcollar one notch.

I also went to the Lazy J Ranch down the road to look at a stallion for a friend. I had thought to breed to him some time ago. My friend wants big, and Dakota defiantly qualifies. He’s 16.1 hands, and pure muscle. He’s very correct, has a nice head, good feet, and beautiful coloring. He can jump , and was in training for dressage when Jan moved from West Virginia to here. He’s a buckskin paint, with a lovely iridescence similar to the metallic sheen our horses have. In the show ring he will defiantly catch your attention. She wants to breed for color as well as for performance, and he’s a very good candidate.

Jan, wants to retire, and get down to about eight horses. She’s seventy so I suppose it’s time, although if I were as fit as she is, I’d be raring to go. She has TB’s, Walking horses, and Paints of which her stallion is the best. She also has a 30-year-old Arabian stud. He’s an Indraff son, and if I can swing it I, want to get a breeding by AI from him. She said he’s still fertile, however he doesn’t have the strength to mount, and do his stuff too. Give him a break, 30 is quite an age for a horse. The chance to breed to an Indraff son however (I’m not sure there are any other living sons) is something you don’t pass up, funds not withstanding. I’ll figure out something.

I reported back to my friend, and I have no doubt that she will work something out with Jan, probably a lease to purchase. She’s assured me that her stall setup has been seriously upgraded, which is of the utmost importance if she is to have two stallions, and mares on a little more than an acre of land. I’m not sure how she is going to manage the breeding part especially since she’s not that good with boys. Oh well, I’m sure she will figure something out. She’s a good horsewoman so I trust that everything will work out fine.

Today Lightning was still missing her buds so to help get her mind off of them I decided to start her round pen training. First I brought her out, and groomed her. She’s been tied up before only not when she was missing her buds. She was antsy, and fidgety, but otherwise mostly did ok. At least I was able to do what I wanted to do, and that’s what’s important. Next time she will be better. Now to the round pen, she led fine even though she was high. Mind you this was her first lesson in the round pen. She was doing fairly well, but there were times when she wanted to reverse when I didn’t ask her for it, so I wouldn’t let her. It was a bit confusing, and in spite of being upset, she did pretty well until she decided that in order to get out of her lesson, she would simply jump the fence. It’s a five foot round pen. Granted it’s small, but no matter how good a jumper a horse is they can’t jump a five-foot fence from a standstill. Luckily the panels gave way some, and she only got her foot caught. She raised up, and got it out without hurting herself. Thank you for that Lord. She scared herself (and me), but I checked her over, and other than a little scrape on her foot, she got off Scott free. Rudy has had two horses that tried that little trick. One made it, and one got stuck half way over. He had to cut him out, which was not an easy shore. I lucked out.

Next I went to Ser-Haat working him in his stall. He has gotten so good about it, and even came in when I asked him to. I was very proud. I brought out my brushes, and he let me groom him standing still even when I sprayed his mane, and tail. He also let me pick up all his feet, and pound on them. I’m not a farrier, but I want to make sure that when the time comes he will be a good boy. I never tied him up he just stood there like a champ. He got lots of pets and praises for all his good work.

On to the girls on the other side. Espree’s mane is a mess again, naturally, so I get her all spruced up, and go to clean her feet. She has thrush in one foot I need to attend to. I thought I had just bought some Kopertox, but I couldn’t find any so I guess not. I’ll have to make a trip to the Mercantile. Thank you Espree. Jazzy’s feet were fine, and so were Lizzie’s. Lizzie needs a trim really bad, but since we can’t get a farrier up here, I’ll see what I can do with her in the arena I have set up. The hard ground here keeps their feet trim, but only if they move.

Sierra is last, and I plan to work him on leading as well as grooming. Opps, what’s that, another cut? Boys you can’t trust them. He has another cut on his face, and it hits right where the brass is on his halter. His muzzle is so tiny that I have a hard time getting a halter to fit him. If I have it too long on top it falls down his neck. Still I loosened it so the ring wouldn’t be right on his cut. The cuts not bad, so I just put some crème on it. When I fed tonight it was a little swollen but not too much. If it’s still swollen in the morning I’ll give him some antibiotics. I have some left from the last time he cut himself. It’s not been a good week for horsies.

Of course I couldn’t work Sierra, but I did pick up his feet. Ok I only held them for perhaps half a second, but that’s enough for some good pets, and praises. He’s still a baby as far as I concerned. It’s a tricky proposition with him anyway since he still wants to nibble. He got me once on the back, but not bad. I tried the knuckle thing to no avail. All he did was get frustrated because he couldn’t grab anything. It’s an Aulrab trait, and all the boys have it except Ser-Haat. Next comes hot sauce. We’ll see how he likes that. With my luck he’ll love it, and will be even nippier. Boys, I love them to death, and they will probably be the death of me.

Poor Storm didn’t get any attention. By the time I finished with Sierra, I had just enough time to go to town. I feel really guilty about Storm. He’s always last, so half the time I run out of time before I even get to him. He’s got all kinds of scabs everywhere not from Ibn, but from Jeri. They are constantly play fighting, and Storm gets the worst of it. Ibn is too concerned about staring at the mares to bother with Storm, besides he love his kids. Provided no one does anything to themselves, I’ll give him a good workout next time I work the kids. Tomorrow I’ll ride. If I think Ibn will behave himself, I’ll ride him otherwise Marina gets another ride. She won’t mind she loves being ridden. Lord, no more surprises please! I’ve had quite enough for a while.

Lance

2011-06-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

We finally got our first taste of the monsoon weather to come. It was late in the evening, and a cool breeze was coming through the door. I could smell, and feel the rain long before I heard the first crack of thunder. We had seen lightning far to the east a couple of days before, and we saw it disappear. There were cracks of thunder, then the downpour came. The clouds opened, and a deluge of rain fell, for about five minutes. That’s it, that’s all we got, just a small teaser. Still it cleaned the air. Gone was the heaviness that had permeated the air all day. Gone was the oppressive humid heat. I went to bed looking forward to a day I have gotten used to expect in our beautiful high desert in the late summer..

The morning was beautiful, crisp, and clean, a wonderful day for riding or almost anything. When I fed, Lance was in his stall as I rode up in the gator. Not unusual, he wanted to eat. I threw hay in, and as I fed the others I went back to check on his water. He looked funny so I went into his stall. He was dragging his back right leg. His stifle was swollen, and he couldn’t put any weight on his leg. I called the vet, and told Therese I need someone to come out to look at Lance right away, something was very wrong. Lots of horses went crazy with the storm the night before, and they weren’t sure they would be able to get out today. They told me to give him some Bute until then. I waited all-day, and late in the afternoon Lane came. I had just come up from the barn to make a pit stop when I heard the dogs announcing that someone was here. The vets don’t bother to stop at the house, but go right to the barn. Without the dogs I wouldn’t even know they were here.

Lane wasn’t expecting to come out, but they rearranged their schedules because I told them Lance couldn’t walk on his leg. He felt and stretched Lance’s leg, and then he pulled out the X-ray machine. He was afraid of what I wouldn’t entertain as even a thought in my brain. Lance was so good, giving me hugs knowing that somehow I could fix everything, and make his pain go away, but I couldn’t fix this. His leg was broken at the stifle. It’s one of the strongest bones in a horse, and how he broke it even Lane couldn’t figure out. The only logical explanation was that somehow he had slipped on the wet ground either bolting out of his stall or running, and bucking with the thunder. There were no marks on him, no scrapes, no fur on the panels or panels out of place. The stalls are safe, but the ground is caleche, and can be slick as glass when wet.

I called Rudy, and gave him the news. The hard part was getting someone out to bury him. He made some phone calls, and our neighbor who has a construction company was going to send someone over in the morning. As it turned out they was doing a small job next door so it wasn’t a big deal to bring the Cat over to dig a grave. I told Lane to go ahead, and put Lance down now so he wouldn’t suffer any longer. There was really no way to save him even if we had the money for specialists, and extended care. They would have to put plates, and screws in, and he would probably always have some pain, and would never be able to be ridden. He would be alive, but not able to enjoy life, and that’s no life at all. I couldn’t do that to him money or no money. The saddest part is that we didn’t do the video of him the day before. I don’t have any real pics except for when he was a baby. It had only been the last couple of months that he really started growing, and started coming into his own. He was so beautiful, and I have no pics to show everyone how beautiful he truly was.

We have been really lucky, Lance is the only foal we have lost, and only the second horse we have had to put down. Yes Rudy has had to put horses down before, but not since we have been together. I found a little meadow to put Lance in, and it will probably take a few days of work to get it looking nice again. We are as I have said before on top of bedrock, and of course when he dug the grave all that rock came up. It took me forever to get all the rocks out of there, and now I have even more to take out. I’ll mix manure with the soil to create new topsoil, and when the monsoons really start, I’ll get some flower seeds to plant. There are two large flat rocks nearby I will use as a headstone. Lance was such a sweet boy, I want his resting place to be as beautiful as he is. Strange I want to be cremated myself, but I want a beautiful place for our horses to rest. Most likely I want it mostly for myself, a place for me to remember my dear sweet boy. I also want to breed Sadie to Jeri again, like as soon as I can. I will pray for a colt, but not to replace Lance. I just don’t want Sadie’s last foal to be the one we lost. She’s twenty-two and I don’t know how many more foals she has in her. If we do get a colt, we won’t geld him. These horses grow so slowly you don’t really know how they will turn out until they are at least two or three. Lance would have made a wonderful stallion. He had the temperament, intelligence, and the conformation to make a good stallion. We will never have another War Lancer again though. Rudy had to put down his first War Lancer, and I won’t have a third.

If you’re going to breed horses it’s inevitable that you will loose one or two. It is part of life. I’m sorry to have lost Lance, and I pray he will be the last we loose, but I know that is probably not going to happen, not if we keep on breeding. Still I don’t regret the two years we had with Lance. He graced our lives for two years, and we will never forget the joy he brought us.

Marina...

2011-06-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

It took several days to complete Marina’s video. I want to take more videos, some of the mares as well as new videos of Ibn, Jeri, and the kids. The mares, who are the foundation of any breeding program, never get the attention they deserve. Sandy a long time breeder, believes that 60% of a foal comes from the mare. That’s not physically possible, however since the stallions are generally not around for foal rearing, she might have a point. Foals pick up a lot from their dams. In the wild the stallions have more influence, but unless stallions are pastured with the mares in a herd environment, the foals generally never see their sires, more so since AI has become more and more common.

Ibn loves his kids. Currently I have him stalled next to two of his kids (both geldings) and LBM our little stud colt. Stalling him next to a filly I don’t feel to be wise, however in CA we used to let the little girls out to roam the property, and they loved going to visit Ibn. He reciprocated, and was always gentle with them. We can’t quite do that here, but it shows how gentle a stallion he truly is.

While I was editing Marina’s video (AB Marina) Rudy was taking all kinds of tests. He told his doctor to just make an appointment at the hospital for a Cath, because he had a blockage, but he wouldn’t listen. Two weeks he had to wait, and finally he went to Albuquerque for a Cath. It’s the last spot on this one artery to be clogged. Of course things were complicated by an allergic reaction he ran to a new drug that was supposed to replace his Arthritis, and stomach medications. He was very lucky to have survived, or so said the surgeons at the hospital. He had started to swell all over his body before he realized it was probably the new medication that was making him feel so ill. Not listening to his doctor who told him to go directly to the emergency room at whatever hospital was near him, he rested for a day, and then came home. Luckily he has plenty of angels watching over him. He needs them trust me. After over 17 years, I know better than anyone, without his Angels I’d probably be a widow.

Anyway we didn’t get any videos done of the kids since, he felt so bad, and his back was out on top of everything else. He spent the night at the hospital, and I brought him home the next day. Two trips to Albuquerque just about killed me (my back was very unhappy about that, don’t you know), but he should be good for another ten years or so, at least I hope so. This going to the hospital once a year is for the birds.

Meanwhile Rudy’s fixed the Fiero (YES!), my Father is out of the hospital, and Mother, and Father should be moving to Roswell in July – August. I have my friend’s horses coming mid-June, and she wants me to scope out a stallion out here as a lease/purchase for her, JLS Dakota Gold. I had looked at him myself a number of years ago as a possible cross for Angel. It took a while for me to convince Rudy to cross for a half-Arabian, and when I did, I found Sierra’s sire. I still like Dakota, and if we do stand him for my friend, I may yet breed to him. We’ll see.

We are still bone dry here although the monsoon trail is teasing us with a flow of moisture from Mexico. Fires are cropping up everywhere. Downed power lines started a fire in northeast New Mexico, and fires in Arizona are causing a health risk for people in central NM. Ranchers are having to feed their cattle because there is simply no feed for them in the grass lands. This is the worst it has been in New Mexico since 1950. We don’t depend on the land for feed because we only have 41 acres, and since we are in the foothills of the Sacramento’s, the ground is simply too rocky to support much in the way of grasslands. There are cattle ranches around us the largest of which is the Brewer ranch, but they have thousands of acres for their cattle. Still I am sure they are suffering.

The cost of feed has gone up due to the drought, and that does affect us. The one place I go for feed has gone up to $9 for a two-strand bale. Needless to say, I’m not buying their alfalfa. Hopefully the other feed store hasn’t gone up as well. I’ll find out tomorrow when I get hay. So far they have stayed at $7.75/bale. I wish I could get the big square bales. It would cost less in the long run. I can’t use the round bales, because I can’t pull off flakes, and if left in the pasture for the horses to munch on, they munch way too much. What should last for a while goes in a matter of two weeks or less. They are very happy campers for two weeks, and quite plump. We tried that one year, and figured we’d go broke in no time. They would literally eat us out of house and home. We’re not going to do that again any time soon, not at $90/bale for four horses. What were we thinking moving the ranch to New Mexico where there is freezing cold in the winter, with busted pipes everywhere, and bone-dry heat in the summer with the ever looming threat of fire? It’s those monsoon storms with their cool breezes that bring the temps down to the mid-seventies, green meadows, and the lifestyle that only small southwestern towns can offer that got to us. They say a sucker is born everyday, and I guess we qualify. After all, we do have a horse ranch that never makes money, and causes all kinds of stress. Why you ask? It’s those knickers in the morning, the hugs, the joy of a new born foal, and the satisfaction of breeding a horse that is sound, loving, intelligent, and committed to doing whatever it takes to make their human companion happy. It’s nice being that kind of sucker.

The Kids...

2011-06-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

Today was a beautiful day full of sunshine, and no wind. The next two days won’t be nice, so I took full advantage of the lovely weather. I wanted to get video of both Marina, and Ibn. Some of the girls are in season so Ibn was on the “I don’t think so” list. This child is not stupid enough to try to take him out when the mares he has to walk past are all making goo goo eyes at him. Even in his stall he was prancing around making sure everyone knew that “he was King of the hill.”

Even when Marina is higher than a kite, or in season, or whatever, she has perfect ground manners. I already had a little bit of video on her so she was elected to go first. Marina’s always full of it so I had no doubt I would get some good footage. I brought her out, brushed her down, silkened her mane, and tail, and couldn’t help but notice she has put on a little too much weight. Everyone has put on weight with the wheat hay it seems, and she is no exception. Most of her weight is solid muscle, still I think I need to cut back a bit. I have 20 bales of wheat hay coming this week, and that will be the end of the wheat hay till next year. I had seven bales left on Saturday when I bought hay, and all they had was alfalfa so right now they are getting half, and half, or just alfalfa. I’ll keep them on a mixture until the oat hay comes in, in three or four weeks. Oat hay will also keep the weight on so I’ll still mix the alfalfa with the oat hay. I don’t want rolly poly’s in my barn after all. Besides, if I get alfalfa from the Mercantile it will be cheaper, and I’ll save a little, especially if I cut back on the wheat, or oat hay.

I took Marina to the arena, and true to form off she went like a bolt of lightning. Taggot was chasing her on the outside of the arena so I got video of some small bucks as well. They were only half hearted ones, but enough to get the energies out of her. I cut out all the funky stuff on the video, you know the ground, my feet, half of her shots, and things like that. I’ll spend the next few days editing the rest of the video. I have more than enough footage to make a nice video for our website.

Instead of riding or attempting to take Ibn past all the mares, I decided to work the kids. It’s been a while, and they needed some lessons. First came Lance. Each of the boys has their own little idiosyncrasies. Lance comes right up to you for pets, works better with a lounge line, but needs work being tied, getting sprayed with fly spray or mane tamer, and working with his feet. All the kids have large paddock areas so they can run, and buck to their hearts content, still when I work them they get over excited. The lounge line came first to get some of those energies out. Lance knows exactly what he is supposed to do, and takes off cantering around the paddock. He canters some, and trots some all the while showing off like all kids do. When I stop him, he immediately comes to me for pets, and praises. He has that part down pat, he loves his pets. I shoo him off, and he goes the direction I cue him for. Once some of the edge is off, I switch to the lead rope for some walking. He’s still a little high, and it takes a bit of convincing for him to walk like a gentleman. He finally simmers down, and I tie him up.

First comes brushing. He does fine till I come to his legs. He doesn’t sit back, but he definitely thinks about it. It hasn’t worked in the past, and this time he finally seems to understand that standing still is the best course of action. He gets plenty of praises for this, and decides maybe it’s not so bad after all. Next comes combing his tail. I get the spray, and all goes well. This is also a first since for some unknown reason combing his mane, and tail has always been something of a trial. He loves getting his body brushed, just not his mane, and tail. I know spraying his mane is going to upset him, so sneaky as I am, I give two quick squirts, and immediately I comb that portion of his mane. He starts to react with the spray, but the comb comes so fast that he stops, and stands still. Using this method I get his entire mane combed. He gets plenty of praises, and is quite proud of himself as I leave. He has done very well today.

Next comes Ser-Haat. Now Ser-Haat doesn’t come right up to you, and he doesn’t like the lounge line at all. I take the whip in with me, and off he goes just as if he was on a lounge line. He also knows what he’s supposed to do, and while I have the whip in my hand all I have to do is to circle it behind me a bit. Ser-Haats’s thing has been to kick out. From the very beginning as a baby he has kicked. It has been a hard habit to break, and I’m very pleased that only once did he try kicking today. Not only that, but when I stopped him he didn’t turn his butt to me, but faced me the way he is supposed to do. He didn’t quite come in like Lance, but he stood still while I went up to him. This is an improvement, and he got lots of pets, and praises for his good behavior.

As with Lance I traded the whip for the lead rope, and for some reason, Ser-Haat shied away from it. This has not been a problem for quite a while. He has no problem with me leading him by the halter, but wanted no part of the lead rope. Eventually he got over it, and I led him with the lead rope. He doesn’t lead as well as Lance, but we’re working on it. On the other hand, unlike Lance he has no problem being tied up or being sprayed. The first time I sprayed him with fly spray, he stood there like a champ. He also has no problem being groomed tied up, or giving me his feet. Of course I worked with him a lot when he was a yearling on his feet. I would pick them up, and play with them while he was eating his goodies. I didn’t work with his feet this time because Ibn was being such a brat, and wouldn’t leave him alone while I was working with him. I’m going to have to tie him on the other side of the paddock I guess until breeding season is over. What a pain Ibn can be.

I let Ser-Haat go, and proceeded to play with Little Big Man. Now he is not quite a year old, and still a stallion. Since we are keeping him a stallion, he has hormones the other boys don’t have. He’s also easier to handle than the others ever were even when they were babies. From the very beginning LBM would always give in easily. He is a stallion however, and no matter that he is little, he has little boy things he hasn’t learned not to do as of yet, specifically, his nibbling. He’s an absolute sweetheart, but doesn’t understand that nibbling other horses is fine, but humans have thinner skin. He’s not being mean, in fact he thinks he’s being loving. I doubt I can completely break him of the habit, but like Ibn, he can learn how to do it without his teeth.

LBM has a very heavy coat (typical of buckskins I’m told), and is still shedding out. I seem to brush forever, and still when I pet him I get full of fur. I spray his tail, and comb it, then his mane. My biggest problem is keeping his little nose away from me. Other than that he does great. I brush down his legs to his feet, but don’t really try to do anything with them. He’s fine with that, and right now that’s good enough. I put the lead rope on, and then the fun began. He’s learned not to rear on me, but leading is still too much of a game for him. He would rather eat the lead rope than be led by it. So off we go with the lead rope in his mouth, walking around his paddock. His paddock is long, and too narrow for anything but walking up, and down, but he’s too little to work anyway. He’s right across from the round pen so when the time comes I will simply take him to the round pen to work. First he has to understand that being led with the lead rope isn’t playtime, but a means of getting from one place to another. He really was cute walking around with the lead rope in his mouth though. He’s such a sweetie.

Lastly I went over to Storm to brush him, and just give him pets and lovings. At four he knows all about leading etc. He has gotten a little head shy, but I work on that, and by the time I was done, I was petting his head with no problem. I need to start working him in the round pen again so he doesn’t forget his p’s & q’s, and gets some good muscle tone. He’s ready to sell, and I want to make sure his ground manners stay good. Once I can get Rudy to put the trailer in the arena we will start trailer training. Its always such a chore so I want to simply want to leave him in the arena and feed him in the trailer until he has no fears of going into that big scary cave. After all, you never know just what might be hiding in there. I could be a beastie that wants you for dinner. It could be….

Back again…

2011-05-16T00:40:00.000-07:00

I have been remiss in posting, but after days, and days of wind we finally got a break in the weather. The first of our hummingbirds have finally shown up, and one can hear the coyotes at night. The freeze pipe in the pasture seems to be fixing itself, as it is no longer leaking. Thank you Lord, I really appreciate that. Everything is bone dry, even the Red Hot Pokers are not as thick as they normally are. I wish we could have an aqueduct from the Mississippi to the western states. We’ve had over 7 months of no precipitation. Every time the winds kick up there are fires, all man caused of course. Why people can’t figure out that “extreme fire danger” means no fires of any kind, I don’t know. But someone is always stupid. One of the fires there was no help for as it was caused by a car that had a blowout. Sparks from the wheel rim hitting the pavement was enough to start a fire. That’s how dry it is.

The last two days I rode, first Marina, and then Ibn. Marina, I actually chased twice, well let’s say I took her out to the arena twice. We changed feed to wheat hay, which received mixed reviews from the horses. Marina turned her nose up at it. I gave them half, and half for the first week. Marina ate it, but only after she had eaten every tiny bit of alfalfa. Some went right for the alfalfa first, and others the wheat hay. The rest just ate whatever was on top, they didn’t care what it was so long as it was food. Mostly they prefer the alfalfa, but like the wheat much better than Bermuda. This week I gave them straight wheat, and Marina didn’t do well at all. She puffed up, and even turned up her nose at her goodies. I threw her into the arena, and she ran until she went pooh. I put her back in her stall where she went again, and then she started eating her goodies. I gave her extra goodies, and got some oil and vinegar, which I need to start anyway for the flies. I bought some alfalfa just for her, but I think I will get half, and half next week. For one the wheat hay is very, very messy. Secondly, the alfalfa is a little cheaper, and I like keeping them on a mixed diet of grass and alfalfa. They all seem to be doing well, not too high, and maintaining their weight.

After breakfast I rode Marina first, chasing her again to get as much of her pent up energies out as possible, or at least I hoped too. Too bad it didn’t work. She was a loaded pistol, and I had to fight her almost the whole ride. She just gets too excited, she so loves to be ridden. Ibn I rode the next day throwing him in the arena first as well. I brushed him down, cleaned him up, got his mane and tail glistening, and tried to get some new video of him first. Then out we went, and considering he hadn’t been ridden for a couple of weeks, he actually did better than Marina, well almost. I have to lead him past the girls to take him to the barn. Now mind you his stall is right next to the girls, but in his mind walking past them is a totally different thing, men! He had gotten really good about going past the girls without getting all goofy, and would barely let out a nicker or two. This time the girls must be near their heat cycle because they all went up to their gates ogling him, and he puffed himself up, arched his neck called out, and even struck out. I of course yelled at him to be a gentleman. I do not have Rudy’s strength, and if he wanted to, I could be dead meat. Since I will be pasture breeding this year by myself, he had better start behaving himself now. I can’t have him rearing on me, or doing some other equally stupid thing. I just wish I could have gotten some photos of him showing off to the girls. With his new body, he had to be something to behold. He is building up nicely, putting on muscle in all the right places, a hunk if ever a girl saw one, and they saw him let me tell you. The girls were all but drooling. Hormones, they run strong this time of year, hopefully not too strong that I can’t handle them.

After that, as I said, we had a very nice ride all things considered. Ibn was high but not too high. Last night I tried to download the video I had taken, but could not get the computer to recognize the camera. I worked on it again today, finally got the computer to connect, and guess what, no video of course. In a lot of ways I really hate this camera, but I certainly can’t afford to buy another, and when it works it works well. It doesn’t take that good of action shots, but the video is fairly decent. Yesterday it didn’t work. Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.

The kids are growing like weeds. Lance is all legs and the spitting image of his half-brother Ausumm. He will probably top out at 14.3. This year he is really coming into his own, perfectly balanced, with beautiful movement. I was hesitant of gelding him, but Rudy didn’t like his conformation. The problem with these horses is that you don’t really know what they will look like until they are at least two or three years old. Storm nice as he is, needed to be gelded, but not so Lance in my mind. Ser-Haat is all gangly, and will not show his true form for at least another year. Little Big Man is finally coming out of his downhill stage, I think. They look so funny when their backend is higher than their front end. He is almost shed out, but still has a very thick coat for one of our horses who are all very fine furred. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, and she told me it’s the buckskin. Evidently Buckskins have heavier coats than other horses, who knew. I have to work with the youngsters so I can take them out of their stalls, into the arena, and get new videos. They haven’t been out since they were weaned. This is the first time this has happened, but such is life. LBM’s stall is right next to Ibn’s and very close to the round pen. I think I will be able to get him there this summer. Once I can successful work him in the round pen, we can advance to the arena. We’ll see how it goes.

I am also still looking at Warmbloods. I have looked at a lot, but still have not found one I like as well as Sagar. There’s something about him that makes him stand out for me. I have also checked into the RPSI registry. No wonder Warmbloods are so expensive. Not only will I have to put money aside for this year, but next year as well if I want him to go through the RPSI registry. They are more expensive than the AHA, and that’s a lot compared to other registries. Still I think it will be worth it. I don’t think I will have a lot of problems selling the foal, with Sagar’s credentials if I can get it approved, which I don’t think will be a problem. He has exceptional get, and Angel has proven herself a good producer with LBM. I will want to sell the foal as quickly as possible so I don’t have to go through more than one keuring. That will be expensive enough (and stressful enough don’t you know!).

I don’t know why Storm didn’t come out nicer. He’ll be a great horse he’s just not that easy on the eyes. He moves just like Ibn, and one cannot fault his conformation, he just doesn’t have that “wow” factor. I need to find him a home this year. He needs a job, and a human of his own. He’ll be four this year, and it’s time. Here he’s just one of the horses, and doesn’t get the attention he deserves. He’s smart, willing to learn, and loves to please. I really need someone to help out here, but living on a shoestring is not conducive to hiring extra help, someday maybe, but definitely not today. That would be nice though. They could live in the RV, work with the youngsters, and help with cleaning stalls etc. Horses poop way too much. Lately it’s either ride, or play with the youngsters, or clean. Three guesses what comes last, and the first two don’t count! Forget the fact that we also have seven dogs, two birds, two cats (they don’t need much care, just a full food bowl), and the chickens. Three of the dogs are fluffer’s (as Rudy calls them), that need grooming etc., oh and we also have a house with all that that entails. Yes, help would be nice. I can dream can’t I?

The next few days are supposed to be nice, we’ll see how much I can accomplish, and how much energy I can muster. I should be 20 years old, and then I would have all the energy I need to do all the things I want to do. That’s another thing I have to talk to my Lord about when the day comes. I have a list you see, which seems to get longer, the longer I live. Yes we will have a very long discussion. It’s a good thing we will have eternity to talk, because I have a lot to talk about. Meanwhile, I’ll just wait and see what tomorrow brings. If nothing else it won’t be boring.

At long last…

2011-05-04T00:14:00.000-07:00

April is finally over, and we have passed into May. The weather has been beautiful, and the forecast is for only one windy day for a whole week. Hopefully things will settle down in the mid-west and east as well.

No I haven’t ridden. Sunday, and Monday were freezing cold. In fact Ruidoso had snow. Yes, they had snow in May. Today I strapped down the panels to the shuffling barn, and I cleared out all the rocks that were lining the panels before I moved them. I have to be able to mow that area once the rains come, and everything starts growing. Some of the boulders were too big to move, but I got most of them. I still have to dig up the waterline in the pasture, because it is leaking. I know I should have checked it before I buried it, but I was just too tired, and wanted to be done with it. The good news is because it is leaking, and I just dug it all up, it should be (emphasis on should) fairly easy to dig up. I need to work the youngsters, and of course I need to ride. I will also start working this week, so lets see how well I keep things up while working.

Sadie Lady

Lizzie

We won’t start breeding until June, but I have to start planning now. I have three geldings I need to sell, otherwise I won’t have room for the foals coming next year. I will try to breed our two oldest mares, Lizzy (TB mare), and Sadie. I think I want to breed her to Ibn again, and hope for a filly. Lance is turning out to be just like Ausumm only he will be a little smaller. As a two year old he is looking wonderful. He’s finally growing, and can even get his nose over the stall wall. They are so proud of themselves once they can get their nose that high, and do it whenever there is the slightest reason to do so.

I found a Warmblood stallion (Sagar) I want to breed to Angel. Sierra came out so nice I want to see what she will do with a Warmblood. This time I have chosen a Perlino (I can get my Buckskin, Palomino or another Smokey Black). He’s an imported Czech Warmblood, and very athletic (http://www.roanoakefarm.com/GoldenEdgeSporthorses-Sagar.htm). He’s also Sweeps Nominated (a big plus). If I could I would breed Jazzy to Chief, and who knows how many others, but I have to limit the number of foals we have next year, every year for that matter. I think God likes keeping us poor, and barely making it. Every time something good happens, and we start to get ahead, ten bad things happen to put us further in the hole. With Sagar, and Chief added to our breeding program, I think we can sell more horses, and who knows we may even become profitable. Both are wonderful stallions. Also with Sagar, if he and Angel produce the horse I believe they will produce, then perhaps I can get Angel approved for the German Warmblood Studbook. That would definitely be a big plus for our breeding program. Of course I know nothing about Warmbloods except they are big, and therefore more desirable for Jumping, Dressage and Eventing. I know that size doesn’t matter when an Arabian likes to jump, or dance or whatever it is they like, however most people out there don’t know that. Granted some of the big breeders are breeding Arabians, that only look pretty (halter horses), but by, and large there isn’t anything an Arabian can’t do once they set their mind to it.

It’s a real shame people have this misconception concerning Arabians. They can be pains in the you know whatsie, but that’s mostly because they are pranksters. I like to think of them as overgrown puppy dogs. They are fiercely loyal, overly curious, extra lovey, and generally full of it. Our boxers, and our Arabians have a lot in common, and they both have those big soft eyes that are simply irresistible. Granted Arabians aren’t for everyone (no horse breed is), but if you want a horse that will love you without question, give you their all, and keep you on your toes at all times, you want an Arabian. I love all animals, but I will always have an Arabian. I’m hooked for as long as I live. Still we can’t breed horses, and not sell them so we will breed our beloved Arabians, and breed our half-Arabians. Besides half-Arabians seem to get that unique Arabian personality in a slightly different package.

Maybe tomorrow I can get some new pics of the kids. They are mostly shed out (some completely). I also want to get new videos of Ibn, Jeri and maybe some of the mares. It takes a long time for me to actually get a video ready to post, but I really enjoy doing it, and I never get tired of watching them. It will take me a while to get videos of the kids, as I have to work on leading, and getting them to come when I call. I’m not going to wander all over the arena chasing a youngster. Yes I need the exercise (understatement of the year), but not that much exercise. Of course now that I have the shuffling barn set up, I can lure them there, close the gate and then walk them back. It’s still a very long walk, but doable I think. We’ll see how the lessons go, and then decide if I take the plunge or not. It will be interesting if nothing else. Let you know tomorrow how things go.

Red Hot Pokers

It’s done, well almost…

2011-04-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning when I awoke my body was not pleased. It’s hard to know if it was because of what I did the day before, or if it was just normal aches, and pains. Still and all I had to finish what I started. It was a beautiful day, warm, and still with just the right amount of a breeze. Such a lovely day to go riding, which sadly was not going to happen. All I had left to do was put up the panels half way across the arena after all, so that shouldn’t be too bad, right?

Wrong again Sherlock. Of course if I started right away when I first got up I would get more done. First comes coffee that nothing interferes with. Then Rudy calls, and we talk for at least an hour. I go feed, another hour, hour and a half. The morning is rapidly slipping by. Depending on my pain level I may or may not get started with my day right away. Yesterday I had to wait a little until I stopped hurting a bit.

There are two gate panels. The gate is bolted onto a panel so basically I have double the weight to carry. I had already planned on using the gator to pull the panel, and the gate to it’s new location. That was the easy part. Standing it up while I attached the panel to the other panel was the hard part especially since the gate stands higher than the panel. I leaned the gate, and panel against the gator, and eventually got the two panels attached. I also had to start pulling out the T-posts, and brace them against the arena panels. Getting them out was fairly easy. Pour a little water on them, wiggle them around a bit, and pour more water, etc. until I can finally pull them out. Putting them back in the ground is a little more difficult. Again I had to use water while driving the T-post in. Now the T-post driver only weighs about 17 lbs, but trust me after raising it a few times, and dropping it on the post, you begin to feel the pain. Actually it isn’t the pain that kills me, I just get short winded, and for some reason I like breathing.

One gate down, one more to go. I got the second gate in, and pounded the bolts straight. With the years they got a little tweaked, and also loosened. I have yet to tighten the bolts. That I think is a job for Rudy. He doesn’t know his own strength, and always tightens things way beyond what I could ever do, or undo for that matter.

I had half a dozen T-posts to pull out, and use to brace the panels. I also had to contour the panels so as not to have a square corner. These panels have been there for a long time. Most of them I had to dig out before I could pull them out. The first few after the gates were no problem, then I had to continue to pull out more panels as the new dimensions made me about a third of a panel short. In actuality all the panels need to be pulled out and re-positioned. The T-posts they put in to brace the panels were not put in where one panel connects to another, and the whole shebang is leaning. Instead of the leaning tower of Pisa, we have the leaning arena of Capitan. In order to re-align, and attach the panels I had to pull out even more panels, and their T-posts. Finally I got the last panel attached., and looked down the line. I really need to redo most of the arena, but that will have to wait for another day, or week or maybe a month. It’s a very large arena even shortened as it is now.

I gathered all my tools, too tired to use the metal stripes I bought to attach the panels to the shuffling barn, so little noses wouldn’t push them all around. It looks good, and it’s safe. What I really like is the way it opens up the back to the road coming from the main road. We now have plenty of room to bring the trailer into the arena, or park it outside. It opens up parking for others as well. When the rains start I can tack down the siding that has warped, and pulled away from the studs of the shuffling barn. I ended up with one extra panel, but of course it doesn’t match any of the other panels here there, and everywhere. I wanted to put in another gate to the shuffling barn but couldn’t see how I could manage it. That leaves only one way to enter the barn area, which is through the arena. Not perfect, but under the circumstances the best I could do. I went to the house hoping to get an hour or so rest before I had to feed. Unfortunately to my extreme dismay I discovered it was ten till five. I feed at five, so much for getting in a little rest before I fed.

Today the winds came back so I didn’t finish tacking down the panels to the side of the barn, or put a latch on the other side where the gate is so I can latch the gate open. At 5:00 the news said that Ft Stanton recorded 67 mph winds, and the winds have gotten stronger since then. After watching the royal wedding this morning, taking care of some business matters, and going into town for prescriptions, I came home, and died. I guess my body thinks I put it through too much the last few days. It’s ok though because now I have a place to put the girls (whenever they get here), so they can chill before I introduce them to the other pasture mares. I have a clean barn after winter’s deluge of winter winds, and I have a way to pasture breed this summer. In addition Rudy can now pull the trailer into the arena so I can trailer train the youngsters. Not a bad weeks work.

Wind, wind, and more wind…

2011-04-28T00:17:00.000-07:00

The weather has been totally crazy. While the Midwest drowns, we get nary a drop. You’d think they could build a pipeline from the Mississippi west relieving their swollen rivers, and filling ours, but I guess that would be too easy. We are tinder dry here with nary a drop of rain after a very dry winter. The winds are fierce drying out what little moisture is left in the vegetation. Normally by now the wild grasses are sporting new green shoots beneath the dry brown grasses, but even the weeds, which seem to survive the harshest of conditions are having a time of it. Still, and all I have managed to get some work done.

I finally got the water line in the pasture fixed. I couldn’t screw out the broken piece inside the corner coupling. The only choice left was to try to dig down deeper, and cut the corner off. This would move the pipe farther away from the shuffling barn making it more difficult to build a brace that would keep the horses from being able to break the pipe again. I lucked out, and once I dug out the corner coupling it moved. Could it be? Yes the coupling was loose, and I was able to simply twist it off the waterline. I attached the metal threaded coupling to the new corner, and as best I could, applied primer, and glue to the corner coupling. I am assuming that there will be no leaks. I didn’t feel like making yet another trip to the water main to check. I used a metal threaded coupling instead of a pvc coupling hoping this would better withstand prodding from you know who. I attached the pipe back on the line, and buried everything. After letting it set for a while I attached the hose to fill the tank, and water the loose dirt around the pipe. It seems to be fine. unfortunately I don’t have any good wood to make my guard. All I have is old wood that splinters whenever I put in a nail. The pipe is fixed, and I no longer have to haul water to the pasture, so for now that’s good enough for me.

My other project is to rearrange the arena so I can utilize the shuffling barn next to it. I have 4 – 6 horses coming sometime soon, and I want to put them in the arena for a while before I throw them in the pasture with the other mares. They are coming from Az. A friend has too many horses on her property so as long as she pays for their feed I told her she could leave them here. One (Star) is ours, and hopefully Lightning will go back with her for training, and maybe showing. I want to work a deal where she will train our youngsters in exchange for board. We may keep Aulina’s baby Cupid it just depends. Her sire is a Ben Rabba grandson I think (half-sibling to Aulrab). The lines are far enough removed so that she could be bred to either Ibn or Jeri. I think one of the reasons that Angel didn’t cross well with Ibn is that the lines are too close, and Storm didn’t get the best of both. She has tried to give me Cupid before. For some reason, I don’t think she really likes her. She had issues with Buzz (her sire), and maybe some of those feelings are tied to Cupid. I don’t know, I just want to get everyone here, and go from there.

Meanwhile I have to have someplace to put them all thus the arena project has become a priority. It will shorten the arena a little, but it’s so huge that we will hardly notice. First I had to clean the area out. We had all kinds of gates, and old panels leaning against the side of the shuffling barn. Those I pulled out, and piled on top of the roof of the other shuffling barn. The previous owner used to keep calves there or an occasional horse. When we cleaned the place up all the junk went there. We eventually got all the wood, tires, and other garbage out, but the metal is still there. There are left over pipes that they used to make some of the corals, heavy iron pipes. That was a real chore to move. What I couldn’t drag I hauled with the gator. You can move almost anything with some good rope, and the gator. There were two good gates that I could use so I left them out, and easily available.

Next I had to move the panels to enclose the shuffling barn. The panels themselves are light enough, it was getting them apart that was the fun. I had several ideas in my head about how I wanted to arrange everything, finally deciding on the best solution that would cut the least amount off the arena. While rummaging through Rudy’s stuff I found this wonderful metal stripping that I used to attach the gate to the barn. I had to use wire to attach the other side of the gate to the panels. I like that tape. You nail it on, and the panels are secure. I got some more for the other side of the barn where the panels will be flush. It’s cool stuff.

It was getting late, but I had at least another hour so I began going across the arena. The span is too long so the previous owner used T posts to help stabilize the panels. After all these years the panels are leaning over, but I was able to pull out one of the T posts without too much trouble. Now it was about 4:30 and I still had to go to the store. I also had to pull out more T posts, and then there are the two big gates to maneuver (with the help of the gator once more). Wisely I chose to quit at that point. Tomorrow is still supposed to be nice if a bit chilly. I was pretty puttered out anyway. After tomorrow all bets are off, as the wind is supposed to be back Friday, and Saturday.

I’ve been wanting to utilize the two barns for some time only Rudy has always poo-pooed my idea. He’s not here right at the moment so I just did it. Besides, this way we can do pasture breeding, and who knows what else. With the gate we still have use of the arena as an arena. Not that we’ve used it of late, but as we grow (more than I want) we need to utilize all the facilities we have. I still want to do something with the other barn, and I would love to get rid of all the metal, but that will have to be for another time. The other barn needs more work including putting on a new roof, and siding. I’ll have to get help for that, it’s a bit more than I can handle. Hopefully I will finish everything tomorrow, in plenty of time before the new horses arrive. We’ll see what happens.