The Young Boys

After the adults got their injections, we moved on to the youngsters. I'm not sure if I ever communicated on the blog that last year I noticed that one of Flashy's knees did not look right. In fact, it had never looked right. It looked like it had a much larger 'openness' in the knee carpels compared to the other one and he always had a little bump on it. The bump was soft to the touch. I had my CO vet visually look at it several times and he always just said 'It's fine. He's sound right?'. I'd reply, 'Yes, he's sound, but that still doesn't look right.' and he would reply...'It's fine. He'll grow out of it'. Weeeelllll...

No, he didn't. In fact, after Flashy had been turned out on pasture for awhile, I noticed a small band of puffiness across that gap, so I finally demanded my vet x-ray it. Come to find out, Flashy had a small bone spur on the end of his cannon bone, that was pushing the lower knee carpels out of alignment. Also, come to find out, this is a common problem with prematurely born foals. Technically, they are born before the ends of their large bones have a chance to harden and in many cases, the 'soft spot' doesn't harden properly, it begins to calcify creating an inoperable bone spur.

At the time, My CO vet gave me an extremely poor prognosis for Flashy. He basically told me Flashy would be totally lame by the time he was 5 and useless shortly thereafter. As you can imagine, I was not very happy to hear that. The only recommendation given was to limit his exercise and keep him on a low calcium diet.

Hmmmm....

Never one to shy away from a challenge, I started reading and researching bone spurs. I already kept my horses on grass hay, so there was no change there. I also, started feeding Flashy a bit of oats with Lampley's A-Z, Lampley's Bone Repair, 20,000mg of MSM per feeding (for inflammation) and 5,000mg of glucosamine. I fed that 2x's a day and every morning I duck taped a Back On Track knee wrap over the knee. The little sucker always managed to get it off, but he did leave it alone as long as he was eating, so it was on for at least an hour every day. Very quickly that band of puffiness over his knee began to dissipate. At first it would be gone and then be back by evening. Then it graduated to being gone until the next morning and after a month or so, it was totally gone.

I limited Flashy's exercise as much as humanely possible. He's a low energy colt, but still a colt, so every few days I'd put him out. At first it was just by himself, but he actually ran the fence more being alone than he did when I put Ruger out with him, so I started putting them out together. They would run and play, but quickly settled down. I figured as long as he wasn't showing any inflammation in that knee he was within his limits. It helped tremendously that I always put him up in his own stall every night and being the extremely sensible colt he has been since day one...he was very good about laying down and sleeping for long periods of time. Rest is always, always beneficial.

Outside of that, all I could do was hope and pray that this program would arrest the growth of the bone spur and as Flashy grew, the spur would protrude up into the carpels less, allowing them to relax back down into position. I knew that knee would never be 'perfect', but I felt like there was lots of hope that the disturbance would be minimal and he would be able to have a functional life.

Any hope of making him a barrel horse was totally dead. Even if the knee improved dramatically, there was just no way it would ever be able to handle the torque of turning barrels. Surprisingly that wasn't as heartbreaking as I thought it would be. Personally, I have never viewed Flashy as a barrel horse. I have always thought of him as a future steer wrestling horse, calf or rope horse. I know that is what Brian was really shooting for when he bred for him and I think he would have been pleased to know that is exactly what came out. All along, it has always been my goal to get Flashy into the hands of people that would appreciate his particular skill set.


This is Flashy's maternal uncle...and to be quite honest...the similarity in looks between the two is startling. Same color and the exact same head. He and his owner are racking up some pretty impressive wins. Here's the link to an article about them....Streaking King Dandy.

Another of Flashy's famous breathern from his maternal line is this mare...


I've talked about Blake Knowles incredible mare, Shesa Fabulous several times over the years. Not too long ago, they were featured in America's Horse.

Kind of ironic that both horses are ridden by guys named Blake. LOL.

Anyway...like I said, I knew Flashy's future as a barrel horse would be non-existent, but I knew if I could just get that knee to settle down while Flashy finished growing and those bones 'set' with minimal disturbance, he would still be capable of having a career coming out of the box.

All of the time and effort I put into that is paying off!!

This time Flashy's x-rays show that the spur was arrested and the bones did settle down. Not perfectly. I knew they wouldn't do that. But he's a good 50% better than he was a year ago. Even the vet agreed with me that if he continued on this path and the knee is taken care of, he could have a good, long career. Unfortunately, I cannot find the previous x-ray, but this was his recent one...


The vet recommended continuing the diet and supplements I have him on, and we also started Flashy on Polyglycol. He will get a shot of that every month and it will help lubricate the joint and keep the inflammation at bay. I was given the go ahead to start Flashy under saddle and I am allowed to work him over ground poles every few days to help keep mobility in the knee. Obviously, at this point, I will just have to keep paying attention to the knee and adjust his work accordingly. I have every intention of keeping his work light because I have a whole year before he'll even be marketable.

Now, about Ruger...

Back when Ruger was a baby...like right about the time I was getting ready to wean him...He somehow managed to bust his knee wide open. I have no idea how exactly he did it...because it was like that when I went to feed that morning, but I can only surmise that he was running in from pasture and tripped in the irrigation return line and fell forward. I thought his leg was broken and I was crying when I called my vet. I just knew he was going to have to put that gorgeous colt down.

By the time we got Ruger in, he was stepping on the leg again and the vet moved it this way and that way. Said it wasn't broken and simply stitched him up and bandaged the leg. It took a long time for the swelling to go down on that knee. It was huge for a long, long time. I asked my vet several times if he thought we should x-ray it and again it was the, 'Is he sound?'...Yes, he's sound...'It's fine'. Eventually that winter the swelling did go down, although there was always a bit of thickness above the knee. Ruger was totally sound though and never seemed to experience any pain or discomfort when I would manipulate the leg.

It was well into his yearling year when that thickness started to feel hard and occasionally, after Ruger had played hard or been out for several days, I could see the slightest bit of shortness in his step and he did not want me to manipulate the leg. When the vet castrated him in the fall, he flexed the leg and told me that Ruger had merely broke the bursa sack above his knee. It might bother him when he got old, but as long as he was used, it would be fine. I've had horses with burst bursa sacks and I knew the vet's words to be true, so I grimaced at the defect and considered myself lucky that was the worst that had happened.

Let me tell you, by this time I was actually thinking the knee incident was a pretty lucky break. If Ruger hadn't bashed his knee, I would have sold him as a weanling and I know I would have regretted that for a long, long time. Defects don't bother me too much and I sure wasn't going to take a huge hit on his price tag because of it.

I think it was in January or February that I started noticing a slight catch when I would lift Ruger's leg to clean out or trim his feet and not long after, I started hearing some grinding in there. He still wasn't lame, although I could tell there were days when it bothered him. I knew I should get him x-rayed, but by that point I was kind of over my vet and knew I would be moving horses to Arizona. I figured I would just get Ruger x--rayed down here. By the time I got everyone moved, the catch had turned into a real catch and loud popping noise and the grinding was horrific to hear. I knew I needed to get Ruger x-rayed before I ever tried to start him under saddle.

Weeellll...

It would seem that Ruger did do some damage to his growth plate above the knee and it is experiencing some bone remodeling...


You can see the kind of sharp point coming off the bone above the knee. That is where the tendon/ligament comes down and inserts into the knee. It is kind of a serious thing and the vet definitely was concerned about it, but...It is something that time will 'most likely' heal and smooth out. Bones are constantly remodeling. According to the vet today, every 7 years you have totally new bones. I had no idea it was that short of time period. Damaged bones remodel with rougher, jagged in this case, edges. As the new bone matures, it will (or should) smooth out. Given Ruger's age, the prognosis is good. It's just going to take time. We are going to start him on Osphos in October and see if that does not help speed up the process a little bit. The vet did say that there is no clinical trials using Osphos for incidents like this, but field application has shown it to have some beneficial results.

The vet recommended not attempting to start riding Ruger at this time and most definitely avoid doing anything with him that would require him to repetitively lift that leg higher than absolutely necessary. So no pole work, up and down hills or rough country. The primary reason is, he does not want the rough bone to damage the tendons/ligaments that attach at the knee. He did say that if I wanted to start saddling him and doing some ground driving that is fine. Keep the lessons short and ice the knee afterward. I will probably try to do some of that. Ruger is a huge colt and is already getting stout. I cannot imagine waiting until next year to start him from scratch. I don't think he will mind being saddled too much. I'll just have to work on the cinching up a little at a time so he doesn't have a major bucking fit.

So that takes care of all of the vet work for awhile.

Another Month...Just Gone...

I seriously do not know where time goes in Arizona...but it just absolutely flies by. In a totally good way, I might add.

Lots happened...

The Canadian horse sold. He went back to Colorado and will be a ranch/dude/pack horse. It's like the perfect setting for him. He was just a pup of a horse. No buck, no spook and he loves people and attention. It's right in line with his preferred level of work. The horse can go all day, but anything that required quickness or agility was kinda hard for him.

I hauled him back to CO for them because it worked out great for me to grab another load of stuff from the CO place. I always worry myself sick when I sell a horse off of nothing more than a picture and my word of what he is. I don't want to oversell, or undersell a horse's abilities.

They were absolutely thrilled with him when they saw him though. Gushed over him in fact.

Yaayyyy!! Love at first sight is never a bad thing. I told them if they had any problems to let me know, but they assured me that all would be fine. He was the type they like and they would make it work. He was promptly rechristened Tiller, loaded on the trailer and away he went. LOL. I wasn't sure if I liked them renaming him with my last name or not...but they were so tickled about it, what could I say? Hahahahahahaha

I was really needing a little extra $$ too. I have been holding off getting some of my other horse's to a vet for x-rays and injections because it has kind of felt like I was hemorrhaging money here lately.

Once I had the funds, I immediately made an appointment with a recommended vet.

Jet needed his bad hock and stifle injected again. Shooter needed his stifle injected. Flash needed a new x-ray of his knee and I wanted an x-ray of Ruger's knee to see what is going on with him.

Immediately following making the vet appointment, I injured my knee pretty badly and am totally and completely stalled out on working horses. About all I can do right now is longe them (the ones who longe nicely) or work them in the round pen. I cannot even walk well enough to drive them. It's so frustrating and I am super pissed at myself to how it happened....

I hate to even admit this, but I got bucked off....Of LJ. (insert eyeroll)

The little shit has been trying me off and on out in the desert and this time he just went for it because he bucked me off HARD and I landed with my leg behind me. He has never even tried to buck with me in an enclosed area, but he sure hates going out to the open desert. I know better than to head out with him until I have loped him down pretty good in the yard and for the life of me, I'm still not sure why I just got on and rode out that morning. Must have had a brain fart and forgot who I was riding. LOL.

Anyway, it sure wrecked what I had going because my knee is not healing as fast as I had hoped. But I wasn't about to cancel my vet appointment. It will be almost a week before the horses I had injected will be able to work again anyway, so hopefully my knee will be better in another 5-7 days.

I was thoroughly pleased with this vet. On the phone, he was going into a lot of talk about x-rays and lameness exams on the horses I wanted injected and I told him that once he got here and saw them, he would realize that wasn't going to be necessary. Both Shooter and Jet's issues are obvious and I wanted x-rays on the youngsters anyway. Thankfully, once he got here, he agreed and simply sedated and injected both horses without making a big deal about it. He did take the opportunity to talk to me about IRAP injections vs. cortizone based injections and I found the information to be useful and something I will definitely consider. It was really nice having undivided attention on my horses's needs. As much as I liked my CO vet on a personal level, I was often frustrated with his tendency to be distracted and spending his exam time telling me about his ugly divorce. I knew both of them, liked both of them and did not want to hear about all of that when I was paying for his professional services. The last few years, I feel like he missed a lot of things on my horses because his attention was elsewhere.

With this guy, I was able to communicate my immediate treatment desires and goals for the horses and then he was able to give me a more long-term option. I always wondered how many times you could inject cortizone in a joint before it began to cause it's own set of issues...Particularly the stifle. I mean, on lower hocks...the goal is typically go get the lower carpels to fuse, so injections aren't needed anymore anyway. It's a different story on the stifles and upper hock joints (which I do not have injected). But what about joints that the goal is to reduce inflammation and increase mobility to? According to this vet, the better long-term option is IRAP. Some horses are always going to need extra help for injured or compromised joints. Both Shooter and Jet are uncomfortable and live in low-to-mid level pain (depending on the day) all the time. Both of them show it emotionally. Shooter gets grumpy and looks angry all the time and Jet is always a little kookoo and totally overreacts to the most ordinary stuff.

The goal today was just to help alleviate the acute inflammation they are suffering in those particular joints. This will hold them over for a few months, give me a chance to get them both moved forward in their training and decide whether it is worthwhile to continue on or call it a thing with them. I don't think it will actually come to that. I've been able to get both of these horses sound before and both of them do quite well. Just have to get them pain free again, put the time in on them and keep up with their maintenance.



I'm going to split this up because there is backstories on the young boys about why they needed x-rays....

Where Was I At?

I really don't know how a month has passed by since I last posted. It sure doesn't feel like it. The days just go by so fast here in Arizona. LOL

Let's see...Just a couple of recaps from the last month...

Scamper and Rock are home!!



It didn't take Rock long...just a couple of days, and he got over his 'You can't touch me' attitude and has become as friendly as my other colts have been. He's a little different though. I have to watch him. Not only is he prone to snapping, he has jumped up and tried to strike me a few times. He has a very Thoroughbredy temperament.

He is getting better though. I think some of it was just from being cooped up in a 16x16 stall for a month. Now that he has room to run and play, coupled with firm dissuasion of those kinds of antics, the edge is coming off of him.

I am just so thrilled with how he is made though. I was just praying that when crossed with a superior stallion, that Scamper's genetics would shine. I think Rock is going to be spectacular.

Right now, he looks very small and kind of dainty in comparison to Sneaky...



But I mean, pretty much anything looks 'dainty' compared to Sneaks...


I thought Ruger was a big, stand-up colt at this age, but Sneaky has him beat. I was comparing pictures of Ruger and Sneaky at the same age and Ruger was almost 5 months old before he really started beefing up. Sneaky is just a little over 3 months. He's going to be a powerhouse.

And...He is sold.

I knew I was going to have to actually list Sneaky for sale come weaning time. I HAVE to get my numbers down. Including the 2 foals, I am up to 10 head of boys. That is way more than I can handle, so it is time to start thinning the herd. As fate would have it, one of my friends from back in CO asked me if Sneaky was for sale, so I priced him and she snapped him up.

I was a little in shock for a couple of days. I mean, I have had a lot of interest in this colt from early on, but still, I put a healthy enough price tag on him that I thought I would have to list him for awhile and then do some dealing on the price to get him sold.

NOPE!!

Just and 'I'll take him...Where do I send the check?'.

He's going to a good home too and that means the world to me. This gal knows how to raise babies, they get broke, they use them on the ranch and then she runs barrels on them. Very seldom does she sell a horse and it's never for nothing. Sneaky is going to have a very happy and useful life.

Sneak will be here for another couple of months. With Beretta not being bred back, there is no reason to wean him before he is at least a full 4 months old, probably closer to 5 months. I'll get him halter-broke and weaned and then haul him back to CO.

The abruptness of the sale shocked me a little, but man is it a relief. That means that this Fall I only have to concentrate on getting the Canadian horse and the big bay horse sold.

The Canadian horse is doing good. At first I just spend time riding him out in the desert, but now that he is in better shape, I have been working on livening up his handle. He has had good training. He knows how to do what I am asking. He's just L.A.Z.Y!!! It took a lot of popping him on the shoulders and hips to get him to decide to liven up and start moving his feet with any speed or lightness, but it's coming. He has gears he didn't even realize he had. LOL. I think at this point I need to get him shod though. He's not really tenderfooted...but I can feel that maybe part of the reason he doesn't want to move his front feet real fast is because he's hesitant. That usually means there is some tenderness/pain associated with having to hustle his feet. There aren't many horses that can stay barefoot very long in Arizona, if they are ridden on the native terrain very much. The soil here is hard on feet. It exacerbates how a horse normally wears their feet. In this horse's case, he has a tendency to land hard on his heel on the fronts and stub his toes in the back, resulting worn down heels and belling toes in the front and no toe and lots of heel in the rear. If I trim him to where he needs to be, he gets sore, so shoes it will be.

I've had people interested in this horse. The one gal that really wants him, I don't think he is something she will enjoy for very long. She has a background in hunter/jumpers and cutting horses, but has been away from the horse world for quite awhile. She thinks she needs a nice, gentle horse like this one to get back into the swing of things and I think she will be bored with him in 30-60 days. I've had a couple beginners ask me if he is suitable for them and while I think, in a lot of ways he would be perfect for a beginner (he sure isn't going to hurt anyone on purpose), unless they have a trainer or someone with experience to keep him tuned up...again...going to be sorely disappointed in 30-60 days because he'll just stop working altogether if they don't know how to get it out of him. I'm really thinking my best bet will be this Fall when the sorting start back up and I can take him to some of those, or when the trail riders start back up. He'd be a nice trail horse for someone who likes to just poke along. It remains to be seen whether he has enough speed to catch a cow, but we'll start rope practice one the weather cools down and the roping cattle come back.

Jet has really been my big 'What the hell do I do with this horse?'. There is just no way he is going to work for my brother. Decided not to even go that route. Someone would have just gotten hurt and the horse would have been ruined. I was literally at the point where I thought I would just have to put the horse down. It sounds harsh, but I have some super-duper young stock here that is NOT going get put on the back burner while I mess around with these odds and ends that aren't going to make barrel horses. But then I thought, 'Well, maybe I'll just go straight English with him'. I mean, those English people are used to dealing with flighty TB-types and his size, color and build is perfect. Even his age is not much of a hinderance for the English crowd. So, I am preparing Jet for an English show in September. He rides well enough that it is mostly just going on with him. I'm working on his showmanship and flatwork skills and will progress to crossrails with him soon. He's doing quite well now that I actually have a focus for him.

The only other horse I have on my 'for sale' list is Flashy, but that won't be until next year. He'll sell better as a well-broke 4y/o than he would now (even if he was riding). He needs to go to a roper/steer wrestler and those people prefer them with some age on them so they are ready to go into training and then to work when they are 5 or so.

This!

It's only Wednesday and it has been a fabulous week.. THIS is why I moved to Arizona!!

On Monday, I went and saw my little race horse...



Had to check me out a little bit before he would come out from behind mom.



Those legs!!!

Lil Rock is ALL stem!! LOL

He's got a pretty rocking bod too, but I just couldn't get any decent profile photos. Scamper is super protective of her baby and kept inserting herself between me and Rock. Nasty old hag!! She did relax after I spent some time brushing her, so in time, she will be fine. Just a lot different than Beretta, or even Sassy. Neither of those mares gave a 2nd thought to me checking out and handling their babies. I can already see the difference in the baby's attitude too. Rock is most definitely not as friendly or as outgoing as my Firewater Fooler babies. Oh well, he will come around. He was curious about me and did come up and I let him sniff me all over, but he was not allowing any reciprocating touches. LOL.

After I visited those two, I got to do lunch with Firewater Fooler's owner and her summer intern. What a great kid!!

A was telling me about the fiasco her rodeo trip to New Mexico was. I guess there were PETA protesters at the Taos rodeo and apparently, in order to protest the 'abuse' of rodeo animals, they thought it was appropriate to throw bottles at the contestants's horses. :-o.

I hate those stupid PETA/HSUS/Animal Rights people so much!! Stupid, F*&%ing morons!! They all deserve to be punched in the face...with a sledgehammer!!!!!!!!!

Nevertheless, we spent a good couple of hours catching up and laughing our butts off.

On Tuesday, I returned a borrowed trailer to Cindy D.'s neck of the woods and got to do lunch with my bestie!! More catching up and much laughter. I had kind of forgotten how enjoyable human company can be.

The heatwave has broke and we have returned to 'normal' summertime temps for the valley. 103-105*...It feels fantastic!! Don't believe them when they tell you there is no difference in how 'hot' feels once it gets over 100*. There is a HUGE difference between how 105 feels and 115 feels.

With the return to normal, we can start going back to the lake. I mean, it's just not safe to take horses when it's as absurdly hot as it was.

I met up with A and her intern again and Shooter and Jet got to go for the first time...



I was pretty sure Shooter would be okay with it. In fact, he was more than okay...He LOVED it!!

Once he got his feet wet, he started dragging me IN to the deeper part. LOL

Shooter has really been struggling lately. He is hiking his injured leg again and the skin around the scarring is breaking open. Of course trying to take weight off of that hind leg puts more weight on his opposite front leg and he has been really lame in the front again too. I figured the water therapy would help take some of the inflammation out of his legs. At this point, I don't really know what else to do. Shooter is obviously uncomfortable. He's crabby with everyone else and just swarms me, hoping I can make him feel better.

I really hate the thought of it, but I cannot, in good conscience, keep him alive if he is going to be living in constant discomfort. I really don't want to think of having to put him down. I love this big boy with all of my heart. Actually, it was my love for him that prompted me to save him in the first place. If any other horse had been injured that badly, with as poor a prognosis as his was, I would have just put them down at the time of injury. But it was Shooter!! And I just couldn't put him down without trying to salvage him.

I think the water therapy will help though. He was walking lots better afterward and loaded in the trailer without hesitation. I'll probably take him every day for 3-4 days and then take him every other day for a couple weeks and see if it helps him. Once I can get my finances regrouped after Rock's veterinary care bill, I will get Shooter's stifle re-injected and hopefully that will help as well.

As for my other nutcase...Jet...

He was not sure AT ALL about any of this. He wouldn't even unload from the trailer at the lake. I had to unload Shooter first and then it still took a good long bit before Jet decided to get out.

When it was time to take Jet to the water, he had finally calmed down a bit and was t.r.y.i.n.g. to be a good boy. I feel bad for this horse. He really, really wants to be a nice horse. But he definitely has 2 voices talking to him. An Angel on one shoulder and the Devil on the other. You can literally see him having conversations with himself. When the Angel is talking, he looks up and kind of tips his head to the side. When the Devil is talking, he looks down and his neck gets real tight and his nostrils flare. To get along with him, you have to let him have that conversation in his head. So far the Angel has won all of the battles, but if a person was ever to force him while the Devil was doing the talking...It would not be a good outcome.

I realize, at this point, that Jet is never going to change. He is just mentally fragile. I was supposed to take him back to SD, because my brother wanted to use him on the ranch, but once I started working with him again, I just knew that was not going to work. My brother likes a horse he can just go catch, saddle up and go to work on. Jet isn't that kind of horse. He tries awful hard to get along with me because he knows and trusts me. It's taken years to obtain that. I don't usually go for all of that mumbo-jumbo about 'building trust' crap that all of the snake-oil clinic trainers sell to people...but in this horse's case...Trust is the only thing that keeps him from overreacting to e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. LOL. He just doesn't process and retain like a normal horse. I just keep exposing him to everything I can though and in spite of having to have that conversation with himself, he generally ends up handling everything pretty well, so I keep thinking there is still hope for him.

I'll be heading to the lake daily with horses now. Luckily it is a very enjoyable 'chore'. :-)

A Little Color Afterall

Well, surprise, surprise...

Awhile back, I noticed that the hair that had grown back in on a nick on Sneaky's forehead had come back in white. I was kinda surprised, it was just a scrape, not an actual cut or anything, but I didn't put a whole lot of thought into it. Just figured that I would have to remember to note on his registration paperwork that he had white scar hair on his forehead.



This morning I was giving him a good grooming, he doesn't like baths, but does like to be vigorously groomed and wiped down with a wet cloth, and I noticed a couple patches of white hair by his wither...



Hmmm!! So I got to really looking at where he is starting to shed out around his eyes and...

I'll be darned, but Sneaky is gonna be a gray after all.

Took long enough to get one of those!! Hahahahahaha

Melting The Sassiness

I'm not going to lie...Absurd heat is exhausting. The running joke of, 'But it's a dry heat'...stops being amusing at about 105*.

But in the grand scheme of things...It has been 102-106* in Colorado and I can tell you from experience...That is every bit as uncomfortable there, as 115* is in The Valley, so I cannot say that I wished I was back there either. The ponies probably miss the grass pastures, but I am not missing having to bust my ass in that heat to keep those pastures green.

The heat does have it's advantages though and I am capitalizing on them. There is almost no sassiness left in my horses. That never really happened, even in above normal temps in CO.

I have spent a lot of time over the last 3 years trying to make friends with Frenchie. To be sure, she HAS gotten better over time. I know she likes me because this last year or so she has taken to hanging close to me. Juuusstttt out of reach though, and every time I took a step to pet her, her reaction was always to leave. (sigh). Even in a pen, she just couldn't help but take at least one step away from me. She did get to where she kinda liked being groomed, tolerated a bath and appreciated her fly mask being put on...but always, she just had to try to leave before submitting to any contact.

It always made me a little sad. Frenchie is so much like her grandmother that she has a very special place in my heart and I kinda just want to hug and pet on her a lot more than she lets me.

Well...A few days of miserable heat and all of Frenchie's resolve to keep that distance between us has melted...



I only had to catch her the first day and spend some time hosing and scraping her down and all of the sudden I have a pocket pony.

Baths are no longer to be tolerated...They are enjoyed!!

She even let me scrub her tail up...which is something that I have hesitated to do until now. Frenchie is not afraid to kick!! She has narrowly missed me several times. I think the misses were intentional...but still not a good feeling ya know?

Breaking the barrier with Frenchie hasn't been my only win though.

I have been using bath times to further my colts training as well.

Flashy and Ruger are used to me leaning over them, but I have been taking it a few steps farther and laying my weight across their backs and they are just hunky dory with it. Saddling these two and getting them going under saddle is going to be a breeze.

The Golden Boy is more flighty than Ruger or Flashy...it's an age thing...so I still have to catch him to hose him down, but he is also getting the touched all over treatment and leaned on and his sides squeezed. He's better about it all when the other horses are not hovering nearby and causing him concern. He's the low man on the totem pole you know. As long as no one is beating him up...which they aren't...they just like to push him around a little, I don't mind the big boys keeping him in his place. He is not acting study at all because of this, which is a relief. The longer I can keep him from thinking he's 'a MAN', the better it is for all of us.

Belle is also getting the water treatment and I actually laid over her the other day and put my full weight on her and she was fine. That is a huge improvement because she was turning into a little wasp and I was kind of hating on myself for letting her get to be this old and not having her broke. All indications were pointing toward her being a handful to get going under saddle, but not so much anymore. If I can just get her going under saddle before the weather cools off, she shouldn't be as bad as I anticipated. Separating her from Moon was a good move, but also none of the mares are cycling anymore, which really helps too. See heat does have it's advantages. ;-). LOL

Okay....NOW It's Hot!!

Whoooffff-da!!

The heat wave is on in the valley!!

116* yesterday and looking to be around 118* today (it usually peaks around 4pm and it's 3pm now and right at 116*).

I have done about all I can for the ponies. Shades...misters...and I have some large plastic jugs of frozen water to throw in the big tanks. I need to make more, but the freezer is so dinky on this refrigerator, that I'll never have enough room to be wholly effective. What I wouldn't give to have one of my big freezers right now. :-/. The little tubs of water, I just dump out the warm water and run in fresh. It's not what you would call 'cold' coming out of the well, but it's cool enough to encourage the horses to drink.

Although I did buy a couple salt blocks to put in the big pens, I have also been adding a good handful of salt to everyone's grain in the evenings. They never get enough off of those blocks and jerk horses that I have...They will terrorize any mineral/salt feeders that I put out until they manage to dump it out if I tried to do loose salt.

My main concern was Sneaky. Although it is 10-15* cooler under the shade and I have it nicely bedded...He absolutely won't lay under there. He insists on laying out in the blazing sun. I'm about ready to take some panels over there and lock him and Beretta under the shade during the day. Horses can be the dumbest of the dumb animals sometimes.

People keep saying that horses prefer standing in the sun over shades because of the flies in the shade, but that is not the case at my place. I have almost no flies. It's too hot, but also, knowing how bad the flies can get down here, I have really stayed on top of knocking the manure piles down and keeping pens cleaned out and spreading out the manure. Those measures ensure that the manure dries out before the flies have a chance to hatch. I also alternate spraying the ground with chemicals and using Diatomacious Earth. It's been effective so far.

I do notice most of the horses using the shade here and there throughout the day, so putting them up was not a total waste of time and money. LOL.

While my concern was on Sneaky...I totally missed the fact that The Big Bay wasn't using the shade at all yesterday. When I went out to start evening chores, I saw he was laying down. Didn't think much of it, since Shooter was standing guard. They alternate this position often, so all seemed entirely normal.

It wasn't until I noticed he wasn't getting up and coming to hover in anticipation of supper that I walked over to check on him. He still didn't get up and that is when I KNEW he was in trouble. I immediately drug my hose over and started hosing him down. He rolled up, but did not get up and just laid there and let me hose him for a good 10-15 minutes. I finally made him get up and he wandered over to the tank, but just stood there. I continued to hose and scrape him for another 10-15 minutes before he wandered off again.

I knew I needed to get some moisture and salt into his system, so I hustled over and mixed him up a nice, sloppy mix of beet pulp and oats with salt and put him in a pen by himself to eat. He didn't touch it. Now that is when I was really starting to get nervous. The sun had set and it was cooling off, but Jet was still in distress. He kept laying down, but wasn't rolling or acting particularly colicy, so I wasn't ready to call the vet just yet. I just kept hosing him and started shoving spoonfuls of Epsom Salt into his mouth. It was another 30 minutes or so before he finally perked up and started to eat his grain, but once he did, I was sure relieved.

I kept puttering around doing a few chores and then going back and hosing him down some more. When he finished all of his grain, I made him another batch and he ate that too. By then it was dark and not only had he eaten all of his grain, he drank a fair bit, so I finally threw him a flake of grass hay.

Years ago, when I lived in Arizona the first time, I had a big Thoroughbred that this happened to at the beginning of every summer. I had to take that horse off of alfalfa in the summer and just fed him grass hay and beet pulp/oats. Back then there wasn't all of these specialty feeds, so it was a lot harder to keep a horse like that looking good. He always looked rough by the end of summer.

This morning I moved Jet over to the other pen, with the babies. I didn't know if Moon had kept him from using the shade or that was his own doing. I'm guessing his own doing because this afternoon, I had to lock him in a stall with a mister because he was the only one of the bunch that never did go stand under the shade/misters at all. Everyone else at least goes in and stands there for a little bit before going back out. I guess some horses are just so lacking in common sense that you have to force them to take advantage of the amenities you provide. LOL.

I was going to take horses swimming this morning, but I got to fighting with my wheelbarrow...and lost. LOL. The pan has split out where it bolts to the frame, so I bought some big washers to put over the cracked out parts, but for the life of me, I cannot get a couple of the bolts to come loose.  Uuggghhh!! P....I...T...A!!!!

We have about a week of this ungodly heat to survive and then the temps will return to 'normal' summer heat for awhile. I knew what I was getting into when I moved to this area and it might be a bit of a struggle for a little while, but I already have great ideas for how I am going to set up barns at the new place when we get rolling on that. Things will be set up right from the get-go there and while the summer temps in the valley will always be hotter than hades, the horses don't have to fry.

How The Time Does Fly

The days sure go by fast. Especially when your outdoor time is extremely limited. It's that time of year in Arizona....hot, hot and hotter!!

I have been impatiently waiting for my Tiny Watch mare to foal. It was stressful because the temps were reasonable, but steadily rising and lord knows it doesn't take much to do a newborn foal in. I thought I had everything pretty well set up for Scamper. She's not a particularly easy mare to do things with. She is extremely buddy sour and does not handle change well if she doesn't have a buddy horse right there with her. Knowing how she is, I kept her and Beretta together all of this time. Thinking that since both of them were going to have foals, they would get along and yet not bother each other. It worked out well, as far as feeding and leaving each other alone. Sneaky (Beretta's foal) was a bit of a problem though. He was determined to be buddies with Scamper and she was having none of it. The older he got, and the more insistent he became about hovering around Scamper, the more I wondered if he was going to be a problem when she did foal. I did try moving Scamper to the round pen prior to her foaling, but she was making such a fuss, I quickly put her back in with B and Sneaky. I wasn't willing to risk her making herself so upset that she foaled prematurely. Stupid mare!!

As Scamper's due date came and went...and the days passed...and the temperatures got warmer...I began to make arrangements to take Scamper to a breeding facility to foal out. As luck would have it, we got several days of very moderate temperatures, so I pushed moving her back a little bit. I knew she was close to foaling and I figured if she would just foal during that cool spell and all went well, that everything would be fine by the time the heat came back. I mean, I do have a shade for the mares and misters set up, so it's not like they HAVE to stand out in the blazing sun.

On Sunday night, I knew Scamper was ready to foal. She didn't wax up, but all other signs indicated she was going to foal in the next 12 hours or so. I was up and down all night checking her. Nothing!! I knew at that point that I just needed to move her to the breeding facility to foal because the temps were going to rise rapidly over the next few days. At daylight I saddled up a couple of horses and went for a ride in the desert, planning on texting the facility owner when I got back and moving Scamper to her place before it got hot.

When I got back, I noticed Scamper standing off by herself, but nothing seemed unusual, so I just rode straight to the trailer and began unsaddling horses. I always throw everyone a flake of hay first thing in the morning, but don't really do chores until I get back from my first ride of the day. It just helps keep the flow going in the morning and I can get more horses worked that way.

As I was gathering up a wheelbarrow full of hay to put out, I noticed that Scamper was now standing up in a corner of her pen that the horses don't normally stand in. I watched a little bit and she seemed like she was acting funny. I thought...Oh, sure, NOW you are going to foal?

I walked over to the mare's pen and as I was going through the gate, I saw extra legs on the other side of Scamper. Well, that sneaky rip!! She waited until I rode out the gate to lay down and have her baby. Neither Beretta or Sneaky were bothering Scamper, until I went in to check things out. It was like giving them the greenlight. Both Sneaky and Beretta converged on Scamper and her new foal and the ruckus went into full swing. Scamper went after Sneaky and Beretta just swooped in and got between her and the baby. The baby latched onto Beretta's side and B just walked off with it. Before I knew it, everyone was a swirling mess and Scamper was loosing her marbles. Beretta wasn't deliberately trying to take Scamper's baby, but Scamper go so frantic she was freaking everyone else out...baby included.

I finally managed to get in there and get B caught, choused Sneaky off and Scamper was reunited with her foal and away she went with him.

Yes!! Another HIM. My 5 year colt streak is still intact. LOL. I guess the breeding gods has decided no fillies for me!! Hahahahaha....Well, I got news for the breeding gods...I WANTED a colt this time!! So Hah! And if all they are going to give me is colts...Then that must mean I am going into the stallion raising business. Double Hah!!

Well, after that, Scamper just wasn't settling down, so I finally had to move her and her handsome, little man to the round pen....


This is Rock!! By First Prize Stone, out of Watch That Scamper. And he is going to be my very first race horse!!

Well, things were still pretty stressful for the next 24 hours for lil Rock and he ended up having to go stay at the hospital for a couple of days. His breathing was very loud and he seemed a bit dehydrated. I wasn't sure if Scamper was milking or not. I mean, I know that she had a full bag before foaling and the foal nursed well the first day, but by the evening of the 2nd day, I wasn't getting any milk out of her and Rock seemed very hungry, so off to the vet's he went. I was taking no chances with this.

Rock responded to the fluids and being in a climate controlled environment almost immediately, but it took another day for his breathing to become normal. X-rays of his chest did show some inflammation in one of his lungs, so I suspect that by prompt action, I headed off a serious case of pneumonia (probably from the dust he inhaled when all hell was breaking loose immediately after his birth). He was given some antibiotics and released.

I took the pair straight to the breeding facility, where they are in a fully covered barn, with misters to help keep the temps bearable. Scamper has finally settled down and lil Rock is doing fantastic...


I am just so tickled with this little guy. He is just gorgeous!! Everything I hoped for when I crossed his parents. It's going to be very exciting to watch him grow up.

So while all of that was going on, I was also trying to get these assembled...



Covers for my 6 stalls. They are all up and have misters installed in them now as well. Just in time for the arrival of...HELL!!!  Hahahaha

I won't be doing much riding over the next week or so. The temps are just too outrageous. The horses are getting lots of baths and I want to start taking them over to the lake in the mornings for some swimming and water therapy.

Feet First

I wished I could say that I got right to riding once I got moved...but that really hasn't been the case.

It has taken a good long while to get this crew back on track.

Coming off of a CO winter, pretty much everyone has needed a make-over. It took a lot of time to get them all cleaned up, trimmed up and acting like they were more than a bunch of wild brumbies.

I ran into a lot of feet issues along the way that has sidelined this horse or that horse until I was able to get it resolved. Oddly enough...A whole lot of abscesses. Something I have almost never had problems with on my horses.

The first 2 to have problems was LJ and Tavi (the Canadian horse). First LJ popped a big splint and then went dead lame after I trimmed his feet, then Tav went lame. Both of these guys ended up with some abscess issues in (late) summer, after the irrigation water overflowed into their pen. I didn't think about it too much at the time, I mean, it's happened before and not been a problem. Apparently that time the aftermath was a problem. After the pen dried up, it was pretty cloddy from the horses walking through the wet spot. Both horses ended up with bruised soles and then abscesses. They were quickly fixed up by my CO farrier and that was the end of that. So when they both went lame again, I immediately suspected bruised soles and/or abscesses. All of the horses had a lot of sole packed in from the winter and were just starting their spring shed.

I cleaned out all of the old sole, packed their feet and diapered them. After a couple of days, I trimmed them both up again. I did find an abscess in one of Tav's bars, cut it out and repacked and diapered him. He was totally sound in another couple of days.

LJ on the other hand was not coming sound at all. I was trying to find the time to get him down to Cindy D.'s farrier, but ended up using a farrier several of my barrel racing friends use. He got to work on LJ's feet and found an abscess in each front foot (in the bars, just like Tavi). Because I had been packing LJ's feet with a Drawing Salve, the abscesses cut right out, but after he was shod, I repacked and diapered his feet again to protect them for a couple of days. LJ wasn't lame anymore, but it took over 2 weeks before he was completely 'right'.

I also had several other horses with feet going every which way, but they all resolved with a couple of trims.

Needless to say, it was hard to get going on any one specific set of horses because of all of this going on. I'd get started and then have to rotate to different ones while ones I intended to work needed doctoring.

I did get started working Shooter and then he suddenly came up lame too. Ugghh!! With Shooter, I wasn't sure if it was in his foot or in his suspensory. He was 'off' for most of a year due to this same problem and even then I never did figure out exactly where the issue was. It's not uncommon for a horse with a severe hind leg injury to eventually have issues with the front leg on the opposite side of the injured hind leg. It's called compensation break-down. In Shooter's case it is his left hind leg that is injured and his right front that has been giving him problems. I believe most of the issue is suspensory strain, but with so many other horses sporting abscesses...I opted to treat both issues. Lots of cold hosing, ice boot and then mudding the leg and then packing and diapering that foot. It took about a week, but Shooter did come sound. It was right when I was putting him back to work on the long line that I suddenly remembered...Last late-summer, I had the vet inspect Shooter's stifle in the injured leg side and he said their was a significant amount of inflammation in there, so we injected his stifle. Shooter was plumb sound after that. Duuhhhh!!! The pieces all kind of fell together this time...It's not a surprise that Shooter would have some stifle soreness on that side. He will never have the correct movement in the lower fetlock on that injured leg, so his stifle has to pick up the extra effort. When the stifle gets sore, he stands/lands harder on the opposite front leg and that is what is causing the soreness issues there. I will have to get Shooter's stifle injected again as soon as I possibly can and that should help him a bunch.

I've pretty much worked through all of the feet issues on everyone now and they are all back to work. I am taking it easy on Shooter and Jet since they both need their injections re-upped. I don't like working either of them in circles very much because of this, so Moon has had to become a pony-horse again. I don't think he minds. He seems to be feeling pretty good and he sure looks awesome, so he might as well make himself useful. LOL

Busy, Busy Bee

Oohhh Man! I have been working my butt off this last week. I'm sore and tired, so I have been sleeping at every opportunity. LOL.

The heat finally hit, so my schedule has changed. My alarm goes off at 4am now. Although, I am still struggling with that a bit. It takes me a bit to drag myself out of bed, but I am still up and rolling by no later than 5am. You cannot waste the morning this time of year.

I was getting at least 4 head of horses worked, along with a bit of random cleaning done, but I had to put all that aside to get some shades put up for the horses. I bought 2 kits awhile back and have been waiting to get help to put them up...and waiting...and waiting!!

With 104-106* temps in the forecast, I couldn't wait any more. I had to get them up. My poor hubby came home for a few days and helped me get started on one. I feel bad...it was over his birthday and to be perfectly honest...I was so concerned about getting the shades up, I totally forgot about his birthday. :-/. He said he didn't care, but I kinda think he did. Poor guy!

He had to go back to work before we got started on the 2nd shade, so after the promised help from someone else got pushed back another week, I said 'Screw it!' and put the shade up myself.

Let me tell you...It was no easy feat. These shade kits were not at all what I had in mind. They are m.a.s.s.i.v.e. The legs are 4 1/2" pipe and the purlins are heavy gauge, with the short sides being 12' and the long sides being 16'. It took me 4 mornings (about 20 hours) to get the damn thing up, whereas MH and I had the frame up on the other one in one morning. And in all honesty, I'm fairly surprised I didn't kill myself doing it alone. It's not perfectly square...and I do have one leg that is tipped in...but it's up and now both shades have their roofs on too. I even got a mister set up for the mares and baby(ies).

Oh yea...Still waiting for the Tiny Watch mare to foal. That poor mare. It's hot and she has gotten huge. I know she is miserable. I am praying that she foals in the next few days. We are supposed to have a reprieve from the hight temps for a few days and it would be nice if she and the baby got a few days before the intense heat comes back. I need to move some panels around, build her a foaling pen, add some sail shades on the ends of the structure shade and another mister and go buy some more straw bales to put down. I contemplated moving the mare over to a friend's, because she has an enclosed barn and it would be much cooler in there than here, but Scamper gets so freaked out about being moved around and separated from her friends that I decided she is too close to foaling to risk it. We'll just have to make do here. I'm trying not to be overly worried about this foaling, but so many people have had foals born dead, or lost them, or lost the mare, that I cannot help but feel more anxiety than normal. It doesn't help that this foal is very, very important to me. I am hoping for a colt this time. Hah!! All this time I keep hoping for fillies and have gotten colt after colt....Now that I actually want a colt, I'll probably get a filly.

(shrugs)...Either way, this foal is a keeper, so more than anything I just don't want anything to go wrong!!

On the sad side of things...Sassy absorbed her embryo again. Even with receiving the regumate shots. :-(. I don't know what is going on with her. Physically, she looks fantastic and she is traveling good. Something in her system isn't right though and even though she is making an embryo, she cannot carry. It's a sad, sad blow. I love my yellow colt by her and was hoping for several more. Not to mention that Cindy D. will not get her foal out of Sassy. I feel horrible. Talking a friend into jumping into the 'make a baby' game and then having it go so badly just sucks. I was hoping to raise a Starlight baby out of Sassy for myself too, so both of our plans are shot. I did tell Cindy D. that I would buy her stud fee and next year I will breed Belle to Starlight. That should be a good cross and even though I intend on using Belle, raising one baby won't set me back too much with her. I'm not opposed to riding a mare that is bred, so I can keep going with her for quite awhile next year and she will still only be 7 when she is ready to go back to work.

I dunno, this breeding business has been very costly these last couple of years. Two studs I bought stud fees to are dead, with no babies by them, one mare dead with no baby out of her, a lost stud fee because Frenchie didn't settle last year and now Sassy out of reproductive commission. It's a good thing I don't do this thinking I was going to make money on it. LOL.

And with that...I have to get back to work. Horses need rode. Right now is not a good time to try to sell horses down here, but I have to keep after it so that the ones I do plan on selling are ready to go when it's time. ;-).

Re-Awakened!!

Hellloooooo!!!!!!!

It has been a long, long time since I have blogged. I just wasn't into it anymore and finally just gave up on it.

So, so very much has changed in the last few months though and life is interesting and vibrant again. I feel like I have awakened from a long nap. Rip Van Winkle style. LOL.

I guess if you aren't on my fb page, you probably don't know, but...

We moved to Arizona full time!!

Yayyyyyy!!!

Colorado just wasn't doing it for us anymore, especially for me. It wasn't the same with My Honey working out of state again. I was lonely and depressed. Hah! I didn't even realize it was depression that was kicking my butt last year, but once we made the decision to move, I couldn't get out of CO fast enough and that was a pretty big clue. Hahahahahahaha.

I am settled in, with all of the horses and pets at the 'winter home'...for now.

When we decided to make Arizona our full-time home again, we decided that we needed more land than we currently have, so I did what I do and found us a lovely little 12-acre plot of raw land.

In the not too distant future we will begin construction on our dream property. It's all very exciting!!

In the meantime, I still have a few things to do on this property. I had been buying used panels every chance I got and I hauled the majority of the panels I had in CO down here too, so I do have nice pens set up for the horses and 6 stalls, with actual gates even, but there is no shade on this property to speak of, so putting up shades has been a big priority. I bought 2 kits that I will be getting up in the next few days and then I will be buying clamp on shade kits for the stalls. It won't be fancy, but it will be functional and I can add to it all as needed.

It took a good long while to get my horses back up to snuff too. Over the last year or so, I just wasn't riding much and everything was just kind of done as necessary. The whole bunch needed lots of TLC to get them back up to my normal standards. In the meantime, I was getting 2 mares bred and then had to contend with a little 'surprise' that I wasn't expecting, but was plumb tickled about. ;-).

I brought Beretta and Frenchie down in anticipation of taking them to Firewater Fooler to breed. I left Sassy in CO, where she was getting bred. The timing on everyone was working out perfectly!!

In case it has been forgotten...last year was the absolute worst fiasco I have ever endured when it came to getting mares bred. The gray mare wasn't breedable, Frenchie never did settle to that race stallion out of Oklahoma, the vet couldn't get the brown Tiny Watch mare to settle either...hell he said that even Beretta didn't settle. According to him, Sassy was the only one in foal.

Eventually I did get the brown Tiny Watch mare in foal. In fact, she settled immediately upon arrival at the breeding facility in Utah.

By September it was obvious that Sassy was no longer in foal though. It was a bitter disappointment.

I was hoping that by starting early this year, as my mares were most definitely cycling...and February, early March babies are the norm in Arizona, that this year would be better.

I no sooner got Beretta down to Arizona and it became abundantly clear that when the vet told me she didn't settle last year, that he was wrong. Hahahahahaha. Yep, Beretta was packing a baby already. I had several people ask me how I didn't realize that all winter...but Beretta is a big mare and she is a complete fatass 'healthy'. It wasn't until she started bagging up that I actually realized she was in deed, pregnant. Well that and the fact that I watched her getting kicked from the inside. Hahahahaha.

In all the hubbub, I missed Frenchie's heat cycle, but it was still plenty early yet, so no big deal. Sassy did get covered in CO and the watch on her began. I decided that this year, I wasn't paying a damn vet to check mares at 14 days. It just didn't work out very well last year. I know my mares like I know that back of my own hand, so I just went with my gut and waited to see if Sassy started to come in or not. When her time to come into heat again came and went without a sign from her, I was confident that she had settled.

In the meantime, Frenchie did start coming in, so I hauled her to the stallion for live cover. Apparently, that didn't go very well. Frenchie was having none of that. It took 2 days of teasing her for her to let the stallion cover her and then after that, she went right back to wanting to kill him. The stallion owner was not confident that she would settle. She did not believe that Frenchie was truly cycling. I have no reason to believe that Frenchie has reproductive problems, she was an easy breeder before I got her and I tend to believe the reason Flashy was born premature was due to me hauling that poor mare all over and not a problem with her, but you never know, I mean mares don't generally give you any warning they are going barren, they just suddenly can't reproduce. However,  I have long suspected that mare has some sort of pain issue. She is unreasonably grumpy. I've had her checked out by a chiro...who found nothing. A friend suggested ulcers...I was kind of skeptical. I doubted it was gastric ulcers, but didn't rule out hind-gut ulcers, so I started treating her with a cup of aloe vera gel in her grain and it has made a huge improvement in Frenchie's demeanor. I didn't know if she had settled in foal or not yet, but figured that if she hadn't that at least the next time she went to be bred, she would feel better and probably be more receptive.

In the meantime, Beretta foaled a healthy baby...BOY! Yep...Another boy!! LOL.

At this point, I really want the boy streak to continue. I am really hoping that Scamper has a colt and not the long-awaited filly. But, with my luck...I might as well resign myself to the fact that Scamper will have a filly. Cause that is the way it always works right?

As it turns out, about day 40, Sassy suddenly decided to show some interest in the geldings next door. Uh-Oh...That was not good. It was just a flash and then she was disinterested again for several more days. I kept my fingers crossed, but I already knew in my gut that she was going to come into heat soon and sure enough...on day 45, she was. The timing told me all I needed to know though. Sassy is catching...she is just absorbing immediately after the 30 day mark. That is a classic sign of low progesterone.

If any of those assholes in CO had listened to me, we would have caught it last year. I told both the vet and the breeding manager that I thought she had come open, but they both just brushed me off and said, 'Some mares just show heat while bred'. I reminded the stallion manager of those conversations when she mentioned a 're-breed fee' and she decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try to charge for that.

Anyway, I took Sassy over to a well-recommended breeding facility here in the valley for an ultrasound and about half fell in love with the owner. That woman knows her shit and for the first time in 3 years, someone took the time to TALK to me and explain my options in regards to Sassy. After all of the money I have paid frickin vets over the last few years and I got less than nothing out of them. A bunch of half-baked explanations and shrugged shoulders.

Sure enough, Sassy was open again, but ready to breed, so semen was shipped and she was rebred immediately. This time, she will receive a regumate shot 5 days afterward. We will have to ultrasound her at 16 days to see if she has taken or not...only because that determines whether to keep giving her the shots or not. If she has an embryo, she will receive a weekly shot of regumate to help her maintain the pregnancy. If she didn't take, then we will have to determine what we want to do from there. I have a good feeling though, 'catching' hasn't been Sassy's problem...it's just the maintaining part. I think we have that figured out though, so if she catches, we should be good this time.

Because I was already going, I decided to take Frenchie for an ultrasound too. I was about half expecting her to be open. Not that I didn't think one breeding was enough to settle her...I mean, nature dictates that it only takes one little wiggly dude to find their way to the egg at the right time...but since there was concern that she wasn't cycling right, I didn't really know where she stood.

As luck would have it...Frenchie did settle. Yayy!!

Oh, and if my disgust of vets hadn't reached it's peak yet...The VET who was ultrasounding Frenchie made a quick swipe and pronounced her 'open'...but the lady who owns the breeding station was watching and said, 'Wait a minute...Go back'....and sure enough...There was an embryo. Thank God she was watching the machine!!!

I am still awaiting the arrival of Scamper's foal. Got a few more weeks though. She isn't due until the first week of June. Poor girl. All I can say is, the unseasonably cool weather for this time of year in Arizona has been a godsend for her. The heat is coming...but I will have a shade and misters set up for her in the next few days, to help keep her comfortable.

I'm sorry I have no pictures in this post. My computer is wildly out of date and I can no longer plug my phone in and download pictures. I will actually have to dig out my camera and do it the 'old way'.

But...I'm back and feeling more like my old self than I have felt like in a good lone while. Yaayyy!!

Back At It

Okay, after losing the morning to the hot tub delivery, I am finally back at the ponies. I also took the time to rip and harrow my arena again. That last shot of moisture was exactly what I needed to finally get it worked right.

I switched up my focus. In the beginning I didn't have a plan to begin with. Just started working horses.

I do actually have to start focusing on getting Twister and LJ going, so this time I started with them. I have ridden LJ off and on over the summer, so he's a little bit more with the program than the others.

A little lunging and then I just got on and got him moving. LJ has really matured and changed. He's a lot more relaxed these days and I really enjoy the way he just gets out there and walks. For a little horse, he can really get the reins a swingin. Like everyone else though, he is tubby and out of shape, so right now, it's mostly what I call 'just riding'. I think it is really unfair to a horse to go from fat, pasture ornament status right into 'training'. I also think it leads to a lot of injuries. So I don't really 'train' until they start getting into better shape. I did have my barrels and poles set up, so I just trotted LJ through the patterns and he remembered them just fine.

Next up was Twister. I didn't even bother saddling him. He was so aggravated about being left tied up by himself while I worked LJ that he dug a hole 1/2 way to China and had a good sweat going on. I thought, all right goofball...Let's get some of that energy off of you. Twister lunges well. The horse has all the right foundation on him and no bad habits. He does have a tendency to waller around a bit though and when he wants to leave, he just gives you his face and lets his shoulder to the leading. Awhile back, I started working with him and was getting really frustrated because he was so dang heavy on his front-end. Well, come to find out...he had bruised his soles after I accidentally flooded the dry lot pen and then when it dried out, there were big clods from when the horses walked through it. The ground here can be a real bitch. When it's wet...there is no bottom to it. When it dries out, clods turn into rocks. Once I realized why poor Twister was being so difficult and got his feet fixed up (LJ was bruised too), he has come back around like a Champ.

Specifically what I am working on is getting Twist to elevate his shoulders and cross over correctly in the front. He wants to rock back on his hocks to start a turnaround, which causes him to pull his outside front foot behind the inside front foot instead of crossing over in the front of the inside front foot. Whether a horse pulls that leg behind to cross over or crosses over in front really affects the fluidity and speed of a turnaround and/or spin. For me, correcting a horse is easier when I am on the ground and can ask them to 'almost' take a step forward and then push the shoulder and/or ribcage over at the same time, so they really start crossing over and stretching through. Pretty quick that becomes second nature to them and they'll progress pretty quickly when you start asking them from their back.

The days are notably shorter now and only another week and it's back to really short days. :-(. I may not get every horse worked every day, but at least I'm back at it. If it's just 2 or 3 a day, then so be it.

Kiss Of Death

Writing must be the kiss of death when it comes to staying on track with the horses, because no sooner did I start journalling and other crap started taking up my time. The days are decidedly shorter now and as much as I hate to admit it...I have limited energy.

The rental house got re-shingled and since MH is out of town working, I dealt with the contractor. He seemed like a really nice guy. He was totally surprised when I climbed up on the roof to survey the work he said needed to be done. LOL. I was contemplating hiring this guy to do some other work for us, but then he started telling me about how he was going to sue his new neighbors because their fence was 6 INCHES over on his new property. I F*king hate people like that, so I just wrote him out a check for the work he did and won't be contacting him ever again!! I don't think he got it when I told him, 'Thank God, I have great neighbors!'. I totally meant that to imply that I realized he was a douche and was thankful that no one like him lived in my neighborhood.

I bought a large amount of hay and that had to be hauled in and stacked. After feeding the oat hay that came off of my field last year, I decided I wanted to feed it again this year and bought 30 bales (all that my hay supplier had left). It's an extra-ordinarily inexpensive hay to feed, but many horse owners won't feed it because they think it's wasteful because of all of the straw that is left after the horses pick through it. I think it's great because then the horses always have a dry and cushioned place to lay in the winter months.

I scheduled The Big Bay's injections and for the first time decided to just have the vet do them right at my house instead of hauling him 5 miles down the road to the vet clinic. Of course...it rained the night before. I knew it was going to and meant to put Jet under the barn...but I forgot to do that and he was a muddy mess the next morning and it was still a bit drizzly, so I postponed it. My vet gets a good laugh whenever I schedule a home visit from him because inevitably it rains/storms and I end up postponing my appointment.

The rain also postponed the return of our (finally) repaired hot tub. Of course, I had already spent the time cleaning up and preparing the area it sits in in preparation for the delivery. It's been gone all summer. LOL. I know that I am ready for it to be back though. My back and shoulders have been killing me. I am not sleeping well because of it and the first thing in the morning when I get up, I have to sit on my back massager for 30 minutes to even get loosened up enough to get my day started. I don't know if the aches and pains are from starting to repeatedly saddle and unsaddle horses again or from pitching hay off of big bales. I'm kind of thinking the latter. I had been feeding small bales for the last couple months and haven't had shoulder pains. I get so pissed at my body when it reminds me that I am no longer in my 20's.

I'm now on my last run of water in the pasture and as each section is done, I am flushing and pulling the pipes. Two happiest days of the year is when the water comes in and then again when the water goes out!! Next year, I will overseed the pasture and fertilize and then let it come in for a 1st cutting of hay before grazing it. That should fill in the bare spots and get a nice, solid base of grass growing. As much as we are looking forward to finding another place in Arizona, it's hard to think about selling this place. Dumping money into something is just dumping money into something...dumping time and effort into something is entirely different and I have a lot of time and effort invested in this place. I kind of thought this place would be our 'forever' home, but once MH stopped working in this area and knows he most likely won't ever work in this area again, we realized that this was just where we landed...not necessarily where we want to stay forever. It really has nothing to do with not liking the area, so much as both MH and I just got itchy feet again.

It's not like anything is going to happen in the next few months though. I kind of have a 1 year plan that allows me to finish up some things that need to be done to make this place worth a premium price. It does change how I view the things that I do. I'm no longer doing things just because that's what I want, I look at the things that still need to be done as 'how will this improve the sale price?'. And of course, we have a LOT of decluttering to do before we can even contemplate a big move like what we are wanting to do. There is just no two ways around it...MH and I have A LOT of stuff... and I'm not even talking about the normal little stuff that people accumulate...I'm talking BIG stuff...like cars and horses and machinery type stuff. It's not going to be an easy feat even after we declutter. LOL. I mean, it's not like we are a 2 car, 2 horse family, no matter how you look at it. So, it's a bit like living in limbo. We know we want to do something else, but have to slim our way into being able to make it happen.

Daily Journal Day 4

Day 3 was errand day in town. Usually it doesn't take me a whole day, but since I haven't been in a couple of weeks, I had a long list. Bleh!

Day 4 was hauling hay day. No better feeling than stocking up for winter. Having to restrain myself somewhat, hay prices are a.w.e.s.o.m.e. this year and I am scooping up hella-good deals!! So good in fact that I am considering buying a few hundred small bales to take to Arizona instead of buying hay down there.

Back to the ponies tomorrow!!

Daily Journal 2

Shooter graduated to drive lines. That helped him tremendously traveling to the right. He was landing much squarer at the trot and picked up his right hind lead without humping and hopping into it. I guess he was tipping that hip out more than it looked like on the lunge line. He is showing some crabbiness when being saddled, so I know that he is sore. I am keeping his work time to 15-20 minutes or so. Just enough that he has to work all three gaits in both directions. Now that he is back in drive lines, I can really get to work getting him squared up under himself again and begin reconditioning his muscles. All I can do is keep working with him and hopefully as he gets squared up and stronger over his topline, his leg won't continue to be so sore. I definitely need to look into some laser or P3 treatments for him though, as those will help the circulation and relieve inflammation.

The Big Bay got saddled and lunged. He was traveling in a more controlled manner. Right stifle is definitely bothering him. Will schedule him for right side stifle and hock injections.

Saddled Twister and lunged him. No ride.

My body is screaming. Three days of bareback riding and I cannot hardly move today. My legs are like jello. A hot bath with epsom salts is in order!!

The Daily Journal Begins

I'm not exactly sure where the last 3 months went to, but summer is gone and lord have mercy...I actually have time to work horses.

Those few people that still read blogs will have to forgive me for turning mine into somewhat of a daily journal. I am working horses back into the rotation, without a whole lot of thought and I mostly just want to keep track of what's what until I regain some semblance of a plan.

Shooter is at day 5 and was the first one to return to a regular routine. Mostly because I noticed that he was 'high-stepping' with his injured back leg in the mornings. I suspect that the cooler nights cause some discomfort in that leg due to poor circulation. I got him up and started using a BOT boot on that leg overnight, which seems to greatly help. I figured as long as he has to come in, might as well start working him. He remembered his lunging pretty well. He travels square at a walk, slow trot and lope, going to the left. Going to the right, he is square at the walk, travels off kilter at the trot and breaks into a buck every time he is asked to pick up a lope on the correct hind lead. Compensation soreness in that right hip has bothered him before. Began adding BOT sheet at nights as well. That seems to be relieving some of the soreness and while he still wants to hump and sort of leap into that lead, he is better.

Moon is at day 3 and I am basically just jumping on him bareback and loping him to build up wind. He is a bit tubbier than normal, but has been on pasture and had free movement all this time, so is not horribly out of shape. He feels strong. I am letting him determine how long he is able to lope before losing his air and not forcing him to keep going when he choses to drop out of a lope and start walking. I have learned to give Moon credit for knowing when to say when.

The Big Bay is on day 2 and it was like starting from scratch with him. P-sycho spooky again!! He travels fine to the left on the lunge line. Off kilter to the right and keeps kicking his hip out and refusing to take the right hind lead. Does not seem 'off' in his stifle though, so will work with him awhile before determining if he needs his injections re-upped. Will begin keeping him in as well and using a BOT sheet on him to help loosen up his hips.

Day 1 on Twister (the Canadian horse), saddled fine. Got a little humpy on the lunge line. Scared himself. Made me laugh. He's not a bucker, just fat as a toad and feeling kinda froggy. Lunged out of it fine.

Finally...Some Good News!

Just got the call that..Scamper, the bay Tiny Watch mare checked IN FOAL, with an 18 day embryo!!

She is the one who was bred to First Prize Stone...

Thank the lord!! I will have one baby next year!! Not counting Sassy's because that one already belongs to Cindy D. :-).

Will be heading to Utah in the next day or two to pick Scamper up and bring her home. Yayyy!!

Boring!!

I keep saying I am going to get to riding these horses...and I get a couple up and clean them up and do some groundwork...and that is about as far as I get before I get sidetracked.

Quite frankly...

It's HOT!!

Not Arizona hot...but still hot!!

And dry! OMgosh, we are so damn dry!!

Back at the end of June we got that week of nice rain and cooler temps and I really thought we were in for it this monsoon season. But it just dried up and we haven't had a drop of rain since.

Since I have my irrigation working properly, my pastures are doing well, but without any rain, I have to irrigate more often and I can't have horses on the pasture when I irrigate, so it's a catch .22.

I noticed that Flashy and Ruger were starting to look a little bedraggled...so I got them and Twister (the Canadian horse) up. They are all appreciating a little stall time.

Sassy and Hawk have been enjoying some pasture time in the mornings, but usually by about 1 pm, Hawk is ready to come in. He says it's too hot out in the pasture. At 3 months old, he is extra-ordinarily independent. When he is ready to come in, he will come stand by the gate and whinny. Sassy is usually on the far end of the pasture and could care less. Weaning this one is going to be easy peasy!!

I am working on a few different projects. I guess my goal is to just get as many of them done as I can while I wait for better riding weather. Every year my raised driveway island fills up with weeds and every year I pull them and say, THIS is the year I am going to get grass planted. Well....This IS the year I will get grass planted!! I have irrigation water to the island now, so there won't be having to drag hoses back and forth over the driveway.

I didn't get a garden put in this year. I just didn't want to deal with the extra work. I am missing my fresh produce though!! So, I am in the process of killing the weeds, then I'll burn them off and get the garden tilled up and I have some good rotted manure to put on it before winter, so that next spring all I have to do is retill it and plant. The wall on the backside has collapsed in a couple of spots, so I guess I will get that fixed and haul in some fill dirt to bank up back there.

I still have a bunch of old, broken pipe to clean up on the far end of the pasture and I have been bringing a skid steer bucket of that junk down every 2 weeks and putting it in the dumpster. I kept saying I was just going to take my big trailer up there, load it all up and haul it all to the dump in one fell swoop...Well...That has never happened, so if it takes me all summer to get rid of it in out dumpster...then so be it!!

It actually works out pretty good because every time I take the skidsteer up there to get a load of junk, I make myself go around and pick up a pile of rocks (picking rocks out of my pastures and arena is a non-stop job) and haul them up to the rock pile. Then while I am up there, I gather up all of the piles of weeds that I have pulled and pile those all together, so I can burn them this fall. So, in a way, I am accomplishing 3 projects every time I make that little round trip. :-D.

I am also, slowly, but surely getting my tack/feed room finished. Last fall I finally got all of the walls lined with the plywood that has been stacked in there every since the barn was built. Then I started adding all of the things you need to make a tack room useful, like hooks and shelves. You wouldn't think it would be that big of a project...But I have A LOT of crap!! Even I didn't realize how much until I started unpacking storage containers. Two years ago I went through everything and got rid of a bunch of stuff that I didn't want anymore and I STILL have a ton of stuff.

But you know, it's all coming together!! I have one spot of weeds to pull yet, which won't happen until we get another good shot of rain to soften the ground up, but other than that...I am pretty on top of everything this year. When the weather does cool off, I won't be killing myself to get horses worked AND get Fall work done. I can just go to riding horses and enjoy it!!

I'm pretty sure my husband wishes I would put as much effort into cleaning the house as I do into walking and weeding and watering my pastures, but I have my priorities straight!! LOL!!

Mouthy Lil Buggers

The last of the bad news for this breeding season is...Frenchie didn't take the 2nd time around either. I just had a feeling she wouldn't, plus, I noticed she had her tail up and was nickering to the geldings across the way a couple days before her ultrasound, so I wasn't surprised when he said, No baby.  I don't know what the hell went wrong with this vet, but he sure didn't get the job done.

You can bet he will NEVER, EVER breed another mare for me. I think he was expecting shit to hit the fan because he had a very worried look on his face, but I was just so disgusted that I loaded Frenchie up, got in my truck and drove away without saying a word. There was nothing left to say. He made a pretty penny off of me this year and I have absolutely nothing to show for it.

I have no doubt that Scamper will have no problem settling in Utah and if that is the case, I very well may ask him 1/2 of my money back because that means the problem is NOT my mares...or 'bad luck'...It means he did a shit job on his end.

I'm getting a little tired of these vets constantly whining about how their clientele doesn't appreciate them and yet when they fail on their end, they still have their hand out. Pretty damn easy for them to just shrug and say, 'Well, that's just how it goes sometimes.'.

So that is my last little rant about that. A person can only be so mad for so long. I just know that next year, whatever it takes...I WILL be hauling my mares TO the stallion.

I have to say...I am having horrible seller's remorse over my little golden boy, Hawk. He is just too damn adorable for words. I am trying hard to keep myself emotionally distanced from him, but it's impossible not to love this face...

From the first moment I laid eyes on his little golden form, I could tell that this one is as self-assured as they come. From the git-go he has been ornery to his momma too. Sassy won't be sorry to see the last of this little Satan's Spawn.

He just has to have his mouth on something...all.the.time. LOL. That's pretty natural for babies though. They are just like little kids...they explore their world though touch. As mouthy as he is, Hawk is not the biter that Ruger was when he was this age. Hawk just likes to touch and taste. He's never actually bitten me, whereas I had to keep a weather eye on Ruger, cause he was quick to bite down.

Ruger still likes to use his mouth on things...

It took me a little bit to figure out where Ruger came up with the 2x4 from, but finally figured out that it was the one that I had bracing up that leaning post in front of Flashy. It was on the outside of the fence. Ruger was happily just picking it up and dragging it around and then tossing it. LOL. When he saw me standing there watching him, he started throwing it at me. Silly boy!!

No, as sad as I will be to see my golden Hawk go this fall, I cannot re-nig on the deal I made and it will be the best for him in the long run. I would probably get frustrated dealing with a young stallion and geld him and I know his new owner won't. I reserved lifetime breedings to Hawk as part of his sale price, so before I know it...I will be raising little Hawk babies. :-D. With any luck, within a couple years, Sassy will give me a golden GIRL by Firewater Fooler and you can bet that little lady won't be for sale at any price!! ;-).