Puppy for Gabi and Crewser

This is baby Quincy. She is the puppy Mandy and Edward bought for Gabi and Crewser. She is a 13 week old Rhodesian Ridgeback. She is hysterical. I am taking her with me to Qatar in a few weeks, if we can get the airlines to act right.

She thinks she is brave, but really she is a big ol cuddler.

She has finally started playing with Cinder though and it is pretty funny. She is still scared of the big boys though so I only let her play with Cinder. Quincy will pick a tussle with her then run and hide.

She is a trip and the kids are going to love her. She has been a lot of fun to have around too

Week 1 update on the formerly starving horses

I first was going to say I do not see a lot of difference in ol Rex here--but in the pics, I think I do see some improvement. He certainly is not critical by any stretch. He is tough enough that he was dewormed this weekend and handled it fine--I would lay odds that he had never been dewormed so I will keep him on a tight schedule. What do you think of him after one week? See any difference?

Even Sweet Rowdy is looking better---he is a hell of a long way from not being a starving horse, but he is a sweet baby, and seems to be feeling better. He does have the snotty nose of course, and crawled under the board fence to scrape his back bald on his spine.

Until you see this shot--and see how bad he really looks. I am not sure he made any improvement this week, other than maybe a little more cover on his ribs. Under his tail looks terrible too--he is a thin little monkey. As he fills out, I will still think he looks off because I am not used to what a TWH looks like as he grows up, but I can sure tell when one needs to eat. And eat he is--these boys have two round bales because the first one displeased them in some way, and they are eating Purina senior just for the digestability factor, as well as some alfalfa pellets and loose minerals. I will add soy oil at some point, but not yet.

They have some weird habits--they refuse to leave their food in a dish--they want it on the ground. If I do not put it there, they do. They want to share their food--giving separate servings does no good as they eat the first serving together then move to the next one. I find that odd for starving horses. They also drink an unGodly amount of water. It is slowing down but they were putting down 60-80 gallons a day.

Stay tuned for next week's updates!

Do gooder weekend

I have been on a roll lately with the charity type things. I thought it would be good for me to get out of my own head and do something for someone else for a change. I am looking for something that will occupy my brain and that is not easy to do for long. Meanwhile some little things popped up for me to do this weekend.

After I got back from my conference Saturday, I went straight to the Fall Family Cookout thing that my friends hosted at the park. I was really just stopping by as moral support but when I saw how many people were there, I got thrown in to help. I helped with the hotdogs and we served over 1200 people--all for free. It was crazy.

Then Sunday morning, I had delivered two starving horses. My friend Lori asked me to help out a rescue she works with who was being flooded with starving horses, and I said I would. She showed up with two colts early Sunday.

This is Rowdy, a yearling Tennessee Walker. He is sweet but in pretty bad shape.Look at his spine And absolutely no meat on his thighs. He could be a long term project to get the weight on him.

This is Rex. He is a bit of a handful. He is supposedly a yearling stock horse, but based on the length of his tail, I bet he is two years old. He does not look that horrible in these pics, and he is certainly no where near as bad as Rowdy, he still needs a lot of work.

He is much worse than he looks in these pics, but I am confident that just a few weeks of good food will have him in great shape. I will take pics once a week to compare the progress. I am starting them on several small feedings of Equine Senior for easy digestion and all the hay they can eat. In a week or two, I will add in some alfalfa pellets to help as well. I dont want to make too many changes at once.

This could be interesting, I have no idea what I have gotten into but if I know anything, it is how to fatten someone up!

Pepto Taz Dies

Stallion Pepto Taz Dies

Written by Mark Thompson

Pepto Taz & his trainer Randy Cherry Ten years after his top cutting run, a 226 Derby Open finals finish with Randy Cherry that earned a Championship title and $12,076 at the October, 2001, Sun Coast Futurity in Las Vegas, Nev., 1997 stallion Pepto Taz, a dynamic performer and a $1 million-plus sire, died Monday, Oct. 10, from a reported lung problem. Pepto Taz (Peptoboonsmal x Sweet Lil Lena x Smart Little Lena), trained and ridden throughout his career to many Open finals by Cherry, Whitt, Texas, was owned until recently by Don and Netha Leser, Canby, Ore. Trent Jorgensen, Provo, Utah, bred and originally owned Pepto Taz. The Lesters bought him prior to his 4-year-old season. Sold in July to Brazil resident Fabio Anotoni Pozzi, the stallion had traveled to Brazil last Sunday, Oct. 9. He reportedly died the next day. The horse had been vet-checked prior to his mid-summer sale and had no apparent major health problems. Before winning a Derby Open title at the Sun Coast (now South Point) Futurity in Las Vegas 10 years ago this month, Pepto Taz and Cherry won a Derby Open title at the Sun Coast Winter Championship, also in Las Vegas, in February, 2001, with a 222 to earn $15,505. As a 4-year-old, “Taz” also carried Cherry to Reserve Championships at Bonanza Cutting and Polo Ranch Cutting events in Texas and Oklahoma, plus a sixth-place 4-Year-Old Open finish during the 2001 NCHA Super Stakes finals in Fort Worth. Also a standout sire, Pepto Taz has produced 120 performance horse money earners so far, primarily cutters but also several solid working cow horses, one reining horse and a barrel horse. They combined to earn more than $1.38 million prior to his death, according to Equi-Stat.

*************************************************************************************************************************************************

I had a beautiful colt by Pepto Taz last year, that Gypsy foaled. I had in mind that I would breed her to him again because they were such a nice cross. I guess that won't happen. What a shame.

More from Colorado Springs

The above four photos are from the Garden of Gods.

These two are of the same tunnel taken in a canyon somewhere. I am not sure which version I like best.

This is at the base of Helen Hunt Falls....a beautiful waterfall that I took a bunch of photos of. I have a lot of these to work on still.

This is the back of the Broadmoor Resort. What a beautiful place.
There are still more pictures to come, along with the stories of what we did on my trip.

Manitou Springs, Colorado

Last weekend, I went to Colorado Springs to see my friend Bryce. We had an amazing weekend I will post more about but I wanted to put up some pics of one of our adventures.

Monday one of the many things we did was go to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings in Manitou Springs. This place is pretty cool.

The Cliff Dwellings were built 700 years ago by the Anasazi, out of the sandstone cliffs

There was even art on the walls. It is presumed that this piece was a prayer for rain.

This was a window hole and I have no idea what the vines and sticks were about but it made for a very cool picture

You can wander inside all of the rooms. Many were single family rooms but some are two or three stories tall for multiple families. It is amazing how cool it was inside of them, even though it was really warm outside.
This is a door opening and the stones used to close it up. I guess if you had to get out in a hurry, you would be screwed.

It was a pretty cool place--the museum had a lot of amazing artifacts in it, so I got all cultured up. That always makes me feel better for being frivolous and taking time just for me which is what this trip was really about.

Stay tuned for more photos from other adventures and takes of my great weekend with a treasured friend I am so glad to have back in my life.