more pictures from the weekend

Pictures from the weekend

Tuesday morning

Okay, I was going to complain about the heat again, I was already to say how much I was sweating at 7am and how I wasn't going to be able to work outside.

and then I changed my mind...

I was cruising the internet, looking at this story and that story...I like to read news from here and there.

and then...I came across this story and I became ashamed of complaining about the heat. I sat up a little straighter and realized how good I have it.

Please read this story and see if your day doesn't turn around a little.

Miami Herald Story

My prayers and thoughts are with that little girl and her family. I cannot imagine the hell that they are going through. What a great town and turn out for this family...all I can say is wow.

enjoy your day, your good life and your many gifts. I know I will.

Monday...it's a girl

It is a hot and still humid Monday evening. Gee...I hate to complain about nice weather but good golly it is just TOO HOT for me. Too hot to work outside, too hot to work horses...just plain hot! I have decided I cannot live in Arizona or New Mexico or Southern California or any place that gets this hot routinely. I am a cold weather/rain girl....period. Hot is for exotic vacation destinations and this is not it.

Chelsea and I picked up a new resident today...a beautiful three year old filly from the track...she is something! Very easy to handle, loaded and hauled beautifully. We got her home and she settled right in with my crew of geldings...no nonsense, no fuss...we love her. She has a track name but we aren't completely satisfied with how it fits her, so she needs a call name. We are "selling" chances to put your name suggestion in the bucket and we will draw a name. See the forum for the details...Five dollars a shot and all proceeds go to support the horses, of course!

Pictures of the filly will be posted tomorrow on the blog, so you can see for yourself and put a name in the hat.

I have some time off from my regular job and so I have a lot of time to get some chores done around the barn and around my house. I did some gardening early this morning before it got hot. I found about ten frogs in and around my small pond. This is a new construction project and I have yet to get the waterfall portion of it going...the pond water is warm with this weather and I noticed I had a lot of tadpoles...which is weird because I thought we got tadpoles only in the spring?

I bathed Hamilton late this afternoon. The heat seems to be really bad for him, he sweats a lot even though I have moved him into the barn. He stands in his stall in the heat of the day, but still sweats profusely. He stood stock still for his bath, unlike some, um, other Thoroughbreds who live there...who shall remain nameless.
Although Hamilton ate well this morning, he did not eat well this evening. I gave him pain medication. His condition is perplexing and concerning. I checked on him around ten this evening and he seemed in better spirits. The pain medication has had time to kick in of course...so we will see how he is in the morning.

Sully had fly spray put on him and his very own fly mask this morning and he was a trooper. The fly spray was initially thought to be "horse vampires" in a bottle, but he settled and took it like a man horse as we continued to spray legs, belly and tail. We have these really serious BITING fly things that leave big welts on the horses...I have never seen such bug bites.

Time to buy hay again. Looking for something with some alf/grass combination or just some great timothy. We will see what our regular hay man has or if we have to go looking. I see some great deals in Eastern Washington...so maybe we will have to take a road trip.

I swear I cannot go to the store during the day. Each time I go, I see that some idiot has left his/her dog in the car! What are people thinking? I want to sit them in the car in a fur coat and roll the windows up and see how long they can take it.

Inevitably, when I see a dog in the car, I make a fuss...okay, I make a HUGE fuss...I get the plate paged over the intercom at the store, then I call 911. I don't care anymore. This is a crime. Heat kills and it kills quickly...and it is a horrible death. Leaving a note on the car does nothing for the dog...you must act fast. Please do not mind your own business in these instances...get involved and make a stink. I figure this...to me, it is worth even being arrested...so I take the risk and make a scene each time I come across a dog in a hot car.

Okay, so think of a name...put your money in the hat and name that filly!

Simon

Simon was layed to rest yesterday morning.

He had a good last few months and in the end we hope we made a good difference in his life, if only for the last part of it.

Simon is part of a sad story about a man growing old and sick.....and not having anywhere to turn with or for his beloved horses. Eventually the man died and even though family and friends promised to take care of his horses...they simply couldn't or wouldn't. A tragedy really. These horses suffered almost a whole year and if it weren't for kind and caring neighbors, they may have died.

It stops and makes me think about what would happen to my horses if I died or became very sick. I have often told my family to euthanize my horses if I died and I stick by that. It sounds anti rescue...almost anti horse, doesn't it? But the reality is that I have horses with issues...horses who may be dangerous in the wrong hands...horses with large vet bills, large appetites....and I never want to spend a waking moment wondering if they would ever get into the wrong hands or starved or slaughtered.

The story of the three Arabians made it hit home. That could have been me....it could have been you.

However you personally feel,...make plans, issue statements...let people know what you want...make arrangements. Be proactive.

********

I have an evening ritual of feeding each horse a carrot before I leave the farm. It serves a good purpose...I have a good visual of each horse before I leave. Are they feeling okay? Did they eat the carrot with their usual gusto? Did they clean up their grain and are they working on their hay? Is the water tub full and clean?

It allows me to leave with a clear conscience.

We need to raise three hundred dollars for Hammy next doctor visit. We need to know if there is something we can do for his jaw and we need a specific x-ray. Please email me with ideas for fundraising...car wash? bake sale? stand outside Starbucks and beg? LOL...just kidding.

I got a lot done today. I finally after a year, got my office put together, desk, phone, computer...it looks nice. I had used the space for storage for the last year. It was fun going through boxes, old photos...I gave some stuff to The Goodwill and threw some stuff out.

We have a tractor coming this weekend to drill fence post holes...for free! Now we have to get posts and another gate. The place is coming along...I thank everyone for their help and efforts!

Saturday we have a new volunteer coming to help us. We look forward to meeting her. Her name is Maia. (my-ya)

Welcome Maia!

please, please help us get the forum going...we have lots of members but is everyone too shy to post? It should be a meeting place...news, questions, announcements...come on...step out of the shadows!

Life is short~love hard!

Sunday

Sunday morning......up early and off to the barn. I have dog obedience later in Maple Valley and need to take off around nine thirty. It is another glorious day.....promises to be hot like the day before and so we get water tubs filled to the brim, stalls cleaned, chickens fed and barn swept.

I didn't post my pictures of our "bestest" volunteers.......so here they are....hands dirty and boots on......Page, Darlene and Sharon. Love them all. They work so hard for Pony Up!

My dog and I did not get kicked out of dog obedience this morning.....even though it seemed possible. He just could not get and I could just not teach him the "down" command.......but we did finally master it and moved on to "stay".....huge sigh of relief! It would have been so embarrassing to get kicked out of basic obedience.

I never did post a picture of my new dog ...the Labrador. Her name is Baylee and she is shown here in my overstuffed chair. No, we don't allow the dogs on the furniture.....unless it is a picture opportunity! Don't ask me about cats on the counter.....some of you may not like the answer...and then there is the thermometer....well, basically you always want to wipe it down with alcohol or perhaps just buy a new one.....because you just never know where it has been, if you know what I mean?

Hammy feels much better today and ate well......we fed him four times today. You can't fault us for trying.......the poor guy needs all the calories he can get and them some. I wish someone had done something for him years ago, it might have made such a difference to his ability to gain weight and maintain it.

We have several projects lined up at the barn........painting, fencing, graveling......horse manicures.......the list goes on and on. C'mon over and help us.........we will barbeque for you!

enjoy your week!

Very Hot Saturday

Cool and overcast ......very still and quiet.....I enjoyed the coolness when I stepped out with my dogs and coffee very early this morning. Our house is right in the middle of a large wooded area and there is always something to see or hear. The dogs look around for just the right place and rabbits freeze on the spot........dogs are oblivious and go right past them, and then the rabbits disappear into the brush soundlessly. We had a bear in the backyard several days ago. He was checking out the koi pond.

On to the barn for morning chores.

The pain medication for Hammy seemed to work as he ate better this morning. He will now get a complete mush three times a day. Beet pulp, senior grain, alfalfa pellets and all of the supplements we give him. Keep your fingers crossed.

My best girl volunteers came and they picked paddocks and helped clean up. I got some good pictures which I will post later. We also cleaned up around the barn and in the barn. Place looks awesome!

On to riding chores.......Briann tacked up Rio and we took him up to the arena, where we worked him on the lunge line, then had Briann get on him. Brianne has perfect riding posture.....it was still cool so we didn't have to work in the heat.

Then.......drum roll please..............

We got Sully out and I put an old jump saddle on him, and IT FIT!!!! So we lunged him both directions and over/around the tarp and trot poles..........

then.......drum roll..............

I had Briann get on him and we walked the perimeter of the arena!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was a little super star and maybe.......just a little on the lazy side. He was unfazed by the constant clanging of the fence (provided by a jealous pony named Beaver)

So we had a successful morning.......

done by noon and everyone went off to their regular chores.

Great job Briann!

pictures later..........my camera battery died and I was unable to take pictures........but one of my bestest volunteers took pictures of our riding events!

Friday ends a long week

Friday ends a long week of bad news.

Our dear old Simon, one of the three Arabians we helped to rescue a little while back......has been diagnosed with cancer. I think we told you that he had penis lacerations. The lacerations were not really lacerations, but rather ulcerations from squamous cell (cancer). This is a very aggressive cancer. Treatment options are to amputate his penis or to keep cutting away flesh and trying to medicate locally, but we don't consider those things to be viable options for this old man. Trying to medicate locally has been the course of the last month and a half....and he must be sedated to to do this........we simply cannot sedate the old guy every day and besides it has not worked well........he has more exposed and ulcerated flesh....very painful too......He has had a really good last couple of months.......has been doted on, loved, fed, bathed and got to hang out with other old man horses. We will give him a dignified ending in the next week or so.

I took Hammy into the vet today as well so that I could get an answer on his weight loss and loss of appetite. I expected bad teeth........but bad teeth are not the answer. It seems that Hammy probably sustained a broken jaw at one point prior to coming into Pony Up. His teeth do not line up (open your own mouth and purposefully move your jaw to the left or right as far as you can)....this is what Hammy's jaw is like. It makes it very difficult to chew, impossible to clip grass and has also given him a sort of TMJ scenario. Add chronic wind sucking to put pressure on his jaw........and you get a lot of pain. He now has a very swollen mandibular joint. He also has blood in his stool, indicating a distant bowel disturbance/bleeding. The doctor ran some blood work so that we may check blood chemistry, liver and kidney function. This will give us more answers. For right now we got some pain medication for him, to ease his jaw pain and perhaps allow him to eat more easily. I made him a dinner of soaked alfalfa pellets, senior grain, corn oil, wheat germ oil, Gleam and Gain, probiotic and some molasses. He was eating pretty good when I left the farm. There is really no cure for the jaw.........perhaps a joint injection, but his jaw will never line up properly. I shudder to think about people putting a bit in his mouth.......it must have been very, very painful. The joint injections are somewhat expensive but should probably give some relief with the pain.

Tomorrow we have riding to do and general cleaning (paddocks, water troughs, horse manicures, lawn mowing) I will try to get pictures of some of our antics.........like sweat soaked tee shirts, dirty faces and grubby hands. I have not posted pictures for a while. ..I always like to because it keeps us close to you.

Thanks to everyone who helps us out........we could not do it without you.

Monday here and gone

short weekend .......long Monday and almost time for bed.

I took some time to read my usual spots on the internet, plus my email and craigslist...

ugh.....craigslist....where you can find every horse imaginable....for sale because people "don't have the time", or "the kids lost interest" or "I don't know how to train it"......

I am not sure how folks expect to sell a plain grade horse or even a pedigreed horse if they cannot demonstrate it's ability to walk, trot, canter, load/unload in a trailer........or if it hasn't even got the basics of halter training down. This is part of that responsibility and commitment thing that I have previously spoken about....

ladies and gents......there are lots of BAD homes waiting for your cheap horse. If you want your horse to have a chance.......please make sure it is well trained with good manners...and then CHECK out the new home. If you cannot do this......you do not deserve an animal. Get references! Go visit the new home. Call the references. I worry myself sick sometimes when I see a horse being advertised for 100 dollars. Any lunatic can get your horse and YES, I have seen it happen. Folks who got a ex race track mare for 120 dollars and then took her home in a cramped rented trailer......tied her to a tree and let her eat grass and gave her nothing else because "someone" told them a horse can live on grass........the mare got thinner and thinner, got tangled in her rope, got a bad rope burn.......then they moved her to the back yard, tied her to a large cement drain pipe......the mare got nothing else to eat and dragged herself and the drain pipe down the road to a neighboring farm......the large drain pipe cut through her tendon. At this point the humane society was called (by the concerned and kind neighbors). The mare was emaciated and horribly injured. The new owners "didn't want her anymore"....and neither did anyone else. She was permanently lamed by the drain pipe cutting her tendon. A beautiful mare ruined through no fault of her own besides just being a cheap horse for uneducated morons. The classic Black Beauty story.

Sad story? yes, but there are much worse.......horses who literally starved to death over winter and lay paddling in frozen mud puddles while they were dying....horses who had been given away as "free to good home".......but no one checked where they were going....didn't anyone care? Just get the horse off my dime...off my back.

I want people to think about these things when they buy a horse....when they sell a horse. Commitment....responsibility. Common sense. You are not buying or selling a stick of furniture.....this is a living creature who is dependent on you to make the right decision for him or her.

And yes, there are still those folks who will come and pick up your "free to good home" horse.....young, old, purebred, grade.....and take it right to the auction....where they can make a quick buck......on your horse....it might be 25 dollars......it might be 100 or they could get lucky and make 400 on a good night. Your horse might go to slaughter.....and probably will if it is lame, old, very young, ugly, unbroke, not halter trained or lacks manners...... it is a crime and horses deserve better.

For those who say that slaughter is illegal in the US......you are right.......it is........BUT that does not stop the transport of thousands of horses purchased at auctions by "kill buyers" to Mexico or Canada (where slaughter is not illegal).......this is what we call the slaughter bus....I hate to talk about the slaughter house. It is pure evil. For anyone who tells you it is a humane way to go.....umm.....have them google horse slaughter and then watch the linked videos.......(caution: the videos are graphic and shocking and sickening)

Make a plan........plan ahead. Commitment, responsibility, and be proactive. Keep your horse safe.

I am behind in my blogging duties!

Saturday evening and I am behind in my blogging duties!

I am trying to write this while I fend off two cats who want to eat the salmon off of my plate.......we just barbeque'd and I am eating my very tasty salmon but there are two cats who think they deserve at least a little of the feast!

Let's see.........this week I have lunged Sully, in saddle and bridle, lunged him over scary silver tarps and walked him through brush. He is pretty non plussed about everything and pretty willing to do what you ask. The tarp is simply no big deal. My dressage saddle does not fit him but was okay for lungeing.......I also need to get him a smaller headstall, as my warmblood sized bridles will simply not do for his petite head. Anyway, he is a little superstar and will make someone a very nice mount.

This morning we unloaded hay, moved stall mats (no easy feat!).......met a new volunteer (we will see if she comes back) and then we got Rio out and saddled.....then lunged him, then Briann, my trusty assistant got on him and we practiced walk/trot........he was VERY GOOD! and Briann was great! Thanks Briann!

Hammy is not eating hay very well. Probably time to get his teeth done. His weight, although not optimum is better and I think he might eat better with his teeth floated. He is eating his beet pulp and oats with supplements three times a day. I recently added probiotics for an added boost. I may also have some blood tests run to see what we can see.

Saturday night and we watch movies. I am hoping "Taken" is on......I have been wanting to see it for a while.

The Stiffeys brought us six stall mats........the big ones! This morning we installed them in one of the newest loafing sheds.........picture perfect! Darlene, Page and I lugged them out to the new shed and then cut them. Where are those male well muscled volunteers when you need them?

Beaver escaped every day and sometimes several times a day for about five days straight. He is not scared of electric fence. His philosophy is that you should approach such a fence with a high rate of speed and then just bust through it....it only hurts for a second. He made his way in with Rio and Ollie, then busted through another paddock and through one more until he got over to Winston. Winston was upset.....and kicked out.........but Beaver got the upper hand and had the Noble shelter to himself. I locked him in a stall for two days because the trip home from work to put him in was getting old....very old. Eventually I moved some fencing down lower and attached it more permanently..........and made him touch it....(OUCH)......he has now stayed in for a record three days.

Michael Jackson is gone..........hmmm........well, I hope he can rest in peace. I met Michael Jackson in Hong Kong in 1988.......had my picture taken with him......I got some autographs and his photographer wanted to take me out on the town in Hong Kong but the group I was with thought that was a BAD idea and would not allow it.....so we had a few drinks in the Hong Kong Hotel and talked about Michael.......he was not quite so weird in 1988......anyway......that is my little window of fame in a nutshell.

Work that needs to be done........

rocks picked from the arena.
stall mats put in Sully's new shed.
hotwire fencing for Beaver's new area.
gravel in paddocks.
stall mats repositioned in Winston's paddock.
grass seed put down.
move chicken house up by barn.
wood fence posts put in big paddock to replace old rotten fence posts.
fields dragged.
Rio needs shoes.

enjoy your Saturday evening!

Monday and here we are again......a full week ahead of us

I love to read TB friends most every day and it always inspires me. Make me want to do more and have a bigger place on a grander scale......and then I try to think about how to do more and it nearly always involves more money, time and effort...then throw in some more money.

Horses are expensive.......they eat a lot, they see the vet regularly and sick horses see the vet more than regularly.......they have to see the shoer every six weeks. some need supplements and medications, some need extra grain and corn oil to keep weight on.......their homes need maintenance and oh, did I say they ate a lot?

Although it is July, I know fall and winter are hiding around the corner.......fall and winter bring cold, rain, mud.....frozen water tanks, trashier stalls for those who do not like the outdoors. We will need to buy stall pellets or shavings.....Stalls and manure will take more time, more planning for where to dump and how to dispose of it. Horse hooves require more attention and need a place to dry off. Paddocks need mud management, gravel, road fabric or they become a quagmire, a haven for mud fever, thrush, pulled tendons.......we HATE MUD. Hay needs to be stored, somewhere dry and with some air movement around it. So we try to plan ahead......

Planning, planning......and more.

So how do we move ahead? We publicize and fund raise........we ask for volunteers who love horses like we do. Volunteers who do not get paid for working in the cold, or for giving up private life time......their only payment is the feeling they get when horse lips brush the napes of their necks or when a horse perks up and calls to them when they arrive at the farm. Horses have favorites you know....yes, it is true....ask Hammy who he looks for and he will tell you he looks for my mother.....no matter that I feed him or Page feeds him in the morning ...he only has eyes for my mother. Go figure.

Fund raising is critical for what we do.....and we like to put the "fun" in fund raising. We would like to hear your thoughts on what YOU would like to see or how YOU would like to see it done.

We are a 501C3 organization and we can offer tax deductions for any donations of cash, goods or services rendered to us.

Something that can help us out is the donation of goods that we can use on the farm.

Our list reads something like this:

Working tractor...will help to move manure piles, clean paddocks, smooth arena footing
wood fence posts 7 or 8 foot...safest choice for perimeter fencing
stall mats (used is great) gives horses a dry place to stand
gravel (5/8" minus or 3/4" minus) this helps to keep mud out of paddocks and as a base for under stall mats
sand (reject sand is okay or builders sand) horses with sore feet have an easier time standing on sand
plywood 4 x 8 sheets (used is great) horses chew and kick through stall walls
portable shelter (Noble or Behlen) (used is great) extra housing is necessary for emergency care/hay storage/pellet and feed storage
horse vitamins and supplements (ill horses usually need supplements to get healthy)
hay (round bales of alfalfa or timothy or orchard grass) currently our horses eat two ton of hay a month.
post hole diggers (used is great) We always have fence repair needs
dump trailer or dump truck(small) used is great) This will enable us to haul manure off the farm/deliver to customers seeking compost
round pen panels (again, used is great) this helps to make a moveable paddock or for horses who do not respect hot wire fencing
corn oil (one to five gallon containers) helps ill or emaciated horses gain weight without carb overload

Also interested in liveable travel trailer (for farm hand) and small used SUV for farm chores (like Isuzu Rodeo, Honda Passport, Chevy S10 Blazer...something with hatchback..must be driveable/useable for farmhand/ and volunteers)
Housing for a farmhand will help us to help the horses and also help an individual with a place to live and a skill to learn. It is surprising to find out who needs help in these times.....

If you have something you would like to donate, please just email us.......we are glad to pick items up.

We can also take items which can be auctioned off at fundraisers or silent auctions.

Jewelry, paintings, tack, gift certificates, training packages, dog items, wines, you name it.. etc.........we have had many fine items donated which we have auctioned off in previous years.

We cannot help horses without YOU!

enjoy the rest of your week!

July 4th Saturday

It is very hot. Too hot. I would rather be cold. I am good at wearing sweatshirts and down vests.

Yes, I am complaining.
I am sweating and I am sunburnt!

I fed horses this morning, filled water tubs......then........

I knocked the hornet's nest down.

You ask why? Why would I knock down the hornets nest?

Well, I hate poisons around the barn, so spraying it was out of the question.
Secondly, I hate to just kill things because they are in the way. Hornets have a purpose in this world. Okay, I am not sure what that purpose is....but still I would rather remove them, move them or get them to move without poisoning or burning.

Yes, the hornets were mad. No, they didn't get me. I went in with the broom, held it like a Louisville slugger and pretended I was Mickey Mantle......I hit one out of the park and then I RAN. The whole nest (big like a soccer ball) came loose and flew down the paddock. YAY! Just what I wanted.

All was well for a moment......then Beaver saw that "something" had landed in a nearby paddock and he crashed out of his fencing to "get" it.

Big mistake.

The hornets were investigating the loose parts of their nest and also looking for the perpetrator.

Enter Beaver.

Two stings on the leg and he left for higher ground....perhaps a lesson learned that curiousity killed the cat and that hornet nests are NOT edible.

Then to work on the remodel of the loafing shed. Aren't we always building one or remodeling one ? It seems like it. This particular loafing shed was not big enough to house a whole BIG horse and it needed the roofline extended. So we sunk two six by six 12 foot posts, cemented them and then sunk two four by four 10 footers.....hard to explain but it worked nicely. Sully was able to use it for shade today. It is now big enough for two horses (if they get along!)

Sully was very curious as to what I was doing and he would come up, sniff, look and then run off if I reached for him....then he would come back again. By early afternoon, he was standing right next to me and liking the scratches he received....he let me rub his ears and scratch his withers. Then he stood in the shade and watched me work on the metal roofing.

We still need to patch some old nail holes in our metal roofing......a perfect hot weather day job.....but by 2 o'clock today I had had enough and I went home. Yeah, I have a lot of home chores waiting for me too......my pond project needs finishing, flowers needed watering.......dogs needed playing with.

I will go back to the barn tonight and have my usualy fourth of July vigil. Honestly, private fireworks need to be banned. I find it interesting that it is against the law to drive drunk.......but you are welcome to ignite fireworks If you are drunk, you may purchase fireworks, blow your hands off, blow your neighbors hands off..maybe start a forest fire or a house fire...........what a mess. I had my neighbors start a fire on my deck one year....drunk, disorderly and igniting fireworks......could have burned my house down...luckily I had sprinklers on my cedar shingle roofing. This is simply the tyranny of the majority. Aren't we beyond this?

I will be much happier come 2am tomorrow morning....and then even happier to know that it will be a whole year before we have to do this again.

please keep your pets safe, turn on the radio, exhaust fans.......keep them inside.

Last year and many years before I have found pets who have run all night to get away from fireworks......many times these pets were dead. One in particular......chewed his rope and ran down the road, where he was hit by a car.....dragging 3o feet of rope. I found him around 2 am when I returned home from the barn........too late for me to help him..... Rope will not hold a scared dog....what were his owners thinking?

Friday morning re-run

I am including an old blog from last year for your morning reading pleasure! I don't have to work today and so I slept late (small pleasure on a beautiful morning)
Time to get in the shower, go feed horses and start on the chores at the barn.

Here is the blog from last year.

Sunny and the new caretakers.

I have a new caretaker at my little farm. A young woman looking for a cheaper rent. I was looking for horse experience and she said she had it. Well, what she had was "summer horse camp" experience, but this isn't rocket science and so what the heck...I gave her a chance. She works hard. However.........she has a daughter....daughter loves horses....like all little girls do and I do not want liability. Rules are made......no children in paddocks........period. Understood and accepted.
Rescue horse Sunny gets "slop" three times a day. "Slop" consists of beet pulp, senior grain, a half scoop of Strategy and his smart paks (chondroiton, glucosamine, yucca and MSM) He also gets hay and soaked hay cubes. He picks the good parts out of the hay.....he was a 2 on a scale of 1 - 10 when he arrived. Very sad case.

I arrived after work,one early evening to check on Sunny...make sure all is going well. I walk out to the paddock, look in his bucket to see if he has eaten everything.

hmm.....

he hasn't exactly eaten everything. I wonder why...?
I pick the bucket up and peer into it .......I see something green......
something green?
HUH?
I reach in and grab a handful of.......mixed vegetables?

I find "mixed vegetables" in his grain bucket.
yes...I said mixed vegetables.........as in corn, lima beans mixed vegetables....
plus a pork chop.

Heavy sigh, small laugh.

I go, post haste to the caretaker and ask why are there mixed vegetables plus a pork chop in Sunny's grain bucket?

Caretaker says she doesn't know.

The small voice of the eight year old daughter pipes up.......

"I thought it would be good for him....vegetables help make you strong.....I saved him some of my dinner".

The angel who sits on my right shoulder tells me to remember how it feels to be an eight year old girl who loves horses. I try to find some words that won't hurt or punish.......

Then I laugh a little because the answer was so honest and pure of heart.....then I gently explain that horses don't eat mixed vegetables or pork chops. I further explain that it is important to only feed him horse food, so he doesn't get sick.

I reiterate to the caretaker that for safety of the horses and the child, NO child is to be in the paddocks. I worry that a small child unattended could get stepped on or bit or kicked and even though my horses are not mean, accidents happen.....blah, blah, blah.

I walk back to the barn and soon I hear a small voice behind me......
"can I help you?"

ummm.......
well......okay, you can turn the water on.

"Okay, she says...."you know I put their names on their buckets today"

No, I didn't know that.

"yep.......with band-aids"

Okay.

Sure enough, all buckets have band-aids on them and felt pen names written on the tops of them.

"Thank you, that will be a big help to me," I said.

I have no kids of my own, sometimes not a lot of patience for other people's kids, but that day brought back memories of myself........
6 years old at a horse play day, taking buckets of water to horses who were tied at trailers, using a stick to clean hooves......never asking permission, never thinking I needed to....there was reason to ask......I was doing what I loved. I was bold enought to ask if I could sit on particular horses. I had cowboy boots. People were nice to me...I don't remember getting chastised or yelled at.....(where was my mother?!) I guess it gave me a lesson for today.

enjoy your day........be safe and sane and watch out for those that aren't.

Wednesday evening update

Short work week! YAY!

We love long weekends, although in general we hate the 4th of July. Fireworks and horses do not mix and it makes for a long evening. I generally stay up until 2am with my horses to make sure there is no blood shed, no fence crashing and they feel better with me there. I will turn the music on in the barn, something with a rock beat and perhaps give a small tranquilizer to Ollie. Ollie really hates the noise and any visuals.

I worked with Sully, the un-stallion tonight. He had several days rest, but is ready to go back to work. I did some ground work with him and picked all his feet up. He is so little that his feet seem like they are made out of balsa wood. Nothing like the big warmbloods I am used to and I might add that all those big warmbloods WANT you to hold their full weight once you pick a foot up...just another reason I have big biceps.

Hamilton was a little fussy with food today. We backed off on his corn oil and he ate better for a while, then we added Gleam and Gain which he ate with good appetite...but today he was a little sluggish. Perhaps the heat? He has no temperature, no runny nose...we will watch him.

Beaver has made friends with Sully over the fence...no screaming this time, no striking...just some evil faces when the grain is passed out. Beaver does not get any grain and so he is desperate to take anyone else's grain. He is not shy about it. He has the large TB's trained to just give it up...but Sully is not so easy. It is good to see them hang together, even though they are separated by a fence they still stand next to each other during the day.

It is just coming dusk and the little one legged bird is at the window as I type. He still brings items to his reflection in the window...so sad. I have never seen him with a mate. He spends most of his time on our patio.

The weekend will bring more chores. Fencing...roofing, moving stall mats...the weather is supposed to be good and we are glad for that.

This weekend, I will ride Rio and Sully. I will not allow pictures of me and Sully...it will be like riding a pony. Nope...no pictures. I may ask my trusty assistant Briann to help me.

I had a dog fight in the house this evening. Jack Russell. Need I say more? How about Labrador ? How about jealous? How about blood?

More later...have a good evening!