Photo day--I got nothing

I muse be losing my personality or my sense of humor or something--maybe it is the cold. But I do not have anything entertaining to post about--which is crazy as I have so many funny things that have happened lately. When that happens, I go back to pics---see how round Xanadu is getting? And how evidently her mane has been neglected- I swear I just worked that thing out not ten days ago and it already looks like dread locks again. I do like how healthy she is, you can even see those dapples through her winter coat.
Squiggy will be getting the cockleburr treatment this weekend, it appears to be past due.
She is more than a little fat. I know she is short and squat now but I know she will be a gorgeous mare--she is only about 18 months old so far. She will blossom next year, I am sure of it. I have never had a Diablo baby past weaning, so this will be my chance to see what they do with my own two eyes--I have obviously kept up with the others, but it is different to see their stages with your own eyes instead of someone else's pictures.
Hotrod is another one that is due in mid March. She is always pretty, but it was nice of her to pose for me as I was losing the light.
This is Fuzzy. She is 7 now I think. She is open for next year.
This is her with her yearling daughter--they have the same front ends, I have never noticed that before. They actually look a lot alike, I never noticed how strong the resemblance is between them.

This was the comedic relief of the evening--donkeys running crack me up. They are not very good at at, and their legs are so short that they have to move their legs really fast to get anywhere---they are kind of built like me. That is not a good thing.


Come to think of it, I run funny too.

Knocked or not?

You make the call--what say you about Miss Fuzzy here? She was ultrasounded open at the end of the season. I am just not sure I buy that looking at this tummy. She would only be about 4 months at the most, and of course should not be this big under any circumstances.
This shot is from last week.

It would not be the first time an ultrasound was wrong up in here. What do you think?

Medical issue of the day

I swear, sometimes it seems like there is a new one every dang day. Yesterday's issue is the appearance of freak bumps all over the side of Fuzzy.
Aren't these pretty? She only has them on one side, and there are more of them on the upper part of her body, and the numbers decrease as you get closer to her belly. There may be a few on the other side, but nothing like this.

I assume she rolled in something but who knows what it was. She was having no part of letting me hose her down to give her some relief, so to heck with her, let her itch and be bumpy and ugly. See if I care.

Fuzzy -1, Paige -0

ouch. this is my knee. Evidently I skidded on it.

I did that after I took a hoof to the ass--see this pretty hoof print? I almost never bruise so that this is here just a few hours post-connection is pretty impressive.

Purely the fault of me, I made a mess of a scene this evening, scared Fuzzy to death and she had an unfortunate reaction. She also had an unfortunate consequence, standing saddled and tied for two hours in the stall. She has simmered right down and returned to her normal behavior.

But I kinda hurt. And sting. And have a knot on my left calf

For Holly--Fuzzy pics

I thought while I was getting shots of Fuzzy for Holly, I would show her non-phantom of the opera side of her face. She has a really short head.
Here you go--Fuzzy points right. With her phantom face showing, but you cannot really see that much. Besides, we are not the sort of folks who get worked up about appearances up in here--a little scar or two builds character, that is what we think!
Non-phantom side of Fuzzy. Dang she is fat. And I am starting to recognize that when I think I have just the right leg placement, I usually have the near rear leg stuck out behind her some. I wonder if it is supposed to be like that. In my photog class, the teacher said my Sly side shot had perfect legs, and I am pretty sure his was stuck out like that too. I better clarify. Does it make her butt look wierd?

Now here is another thing---I like the shots with their head up a little bit--not a lot--because I think that really low headset is so unnatural looking. At least in non-pleasure horses, it looks contrived. I am not sure why I think that, it might just be because I don't take pics like that.

Any thoughts on that?

Fuzzy's face update

So pretty huh? It is actually healing all right, I think---hard to say how much of that chunk of skin and tissue we are going to lose though. That is always a crapshoot.
I have to admit that the hardest part for me is looking at the bugs land on the wound. These pics were before she got new scarlet oil and that helps to keep the bugs away.

Meanwhile, could she BE FATTER? Maybe she did this because she heard me say I am going to sell her? Or maybe it is because we put her into boot camp?

She is a cute girl, I think, more so as she gets older even.

Next tragedy

Well that is overstating it. After killing the poor puppy, I went to the farm and had a nervous breakdown. That got over with and I was attempting to collect Squeaklet and Rondee to move them to a different pasture, when I noticed that Fuzzy was acting a damn fool. A damn fool. I cannot emphasize how much she was acting a damn fool.

She was running all crazy, with her neck stretched high and her head held at a wierd angle. Barry, Madison and I all stopped to watch her and try to figure out what was wrong with her--we speculated maybe she had something lodged in her throat, a bug in her nose--something crazy. While we were discussing what it could be, she was chasing either Target or Rondee--and as the other horse ran through the gate, she RAN INTO THE FENCE. She hit the post so hard it pulled it out of its concrete setting, and knocked all the boards off.
She bounced off and looked dazed---

This picture does not show how nasty it is--the whole flap was laying wide open so you could see her face bones. She also ripped her nostril open.

We got her in and called Dr Miles to decide whether he needed to come up and staple her shut and to give me a good shake back into reality as I was so wigged already, and barely holding it together that this made me plum ignorant. I was not sure what to give her or put on her, etc--of course I normally do, but I was not having a good nite.

She will be fine, face things always look awful but since she is not a halter horse, it is more a nuisance for her than anything. She get a tetanus update, some antibiotics, some pain killers, a good flush and some scarlet oil--which she fought like a bitch.

I bet she did this so we would not continue with our riding lessons. Too bad--she may get a timeout but that is all she is getting.

Long nite at our place--and it is not over yet. I cannot find the pig, and just as I got home, I heard three shotgun blasts. I see no reason for someone to shoot my pig, but I will feel better when he brings his fat ass up on the porch like he normally does. I need someone to love on

Fuzzy's first saddle--the Saga

Fuzzy has been neglected in her life. She was part of the foal crop that included Gypsy. As most people know, Gypsy went to cutting training and came home with a broken pelvis. That put the kibosh on anyone else going to training that year--for several reasons, the greatest one being I had the fear of God in my heart that something else would go wrong. Naturalloy, I had more than a little trepidation about using that same trainer again--who, although I do not blame him for her injury--did not react in what I considered an acceptable manner when he was informed it was not a temporary stifle injury as he thought but instead a career-ending broken pelvis--his reaction? NONE. No acknowledgment of the info ever came forth....leaving me without a trainer handy.

Anyway, long story short.....the rest of the keepers from that foal crop stayed home. HaidaGirl went to a different trainer the following year, and Fuzzy went to the broodmare band.

In telling someone that all my broodmares ride, I realized that was not in fact true--so it had to be remedied and in a hurry.

Today was day 1.

This is what she thought of the first saddling---please ignore the ugly cordura saddle--it is disposable in case Fuzz were to come in two and put the hurt on it.


She did not so much care about the whole saddling episode. I did not cinch her up real tight, but it was on enough to be irritating were she to take issue. She did not.

Next step was to let her go in the small pen --if she is going to buck it might as well be then with no one on her. I thought she would take off in a hurry--instead, she stood there, in this funny position, as if she was not sure if she was supposed to do something.

There was some moseying.
There was some standing in the corner, wondering what in the hell I was doing watching her so closely. About that time Madison showed up, so we did what we could to get some action out of Fuzzy--maybe that would spark some rodeo out of her. Not so much. Since she was being so easy to get along with, we put some weight in the stirrups, bounced up in them some...just general testing. She just stood there.

We decided to go out in the world and lunge her. I do not know what I was thinking as that is my major defect- I am too much of a clutz to teach a horse to lunge. I will hurt myself, not to mention probably everyone else in the immediate vicinity.

That left just investigating things, and for me--what else? Taking pictures.


Looking good huh? Especially for a previously neglected, unnecessarily fat mare in an ugly saddle. We ended the evening with some more stirrup pressure, and ultimately, laying across the saddle on her. Madison is an agile little thing, so we stayed in a confined area and I kept a good hold on the lead rope as she put herself across the saddle, and I led Fuzzy a few steps. She handled it beautifully, so we ended on a good note and called it a nite. I am so proud of her and Madison both.

Stay tuned for updates on her development

Bad News: 3 Paige: 0

Well this sucks--my pipe dream that Rock had something in her eye causing all the trouble has come to an end. She had it stained this afternoon, and no ulcerations were found, but you can see where the blood vessels are dropping into the iris--current diagnoses: periodic uveitis. Well , hell, join the club, it is running rampant around here. I cannot get a functioning set of eyeballs out of any of the seniors except Grandpa, and he has a hitch in his gitalong, and Playmate, who thinks it is funny to run from me when I want to ride her.

Is that about the coolest picture ever though? I am kind of proud of it, even though it brings bad news that Rock's eye is a disaster. We are upping the eye ointment to 4-5 times per day and adding two shots of banamine per day for a while though, and the first one seems to actually have brought some swelling down already, so hopefully we will get some improvement soon. After the 10 pm doctoring, I turned her and Squeak out in the front pasture for some fresh air--they poop too much for my taste to just be standing around all night when they could be pooping outside. They are half blind anyway, so nite seems like a good time to go out!

Bad news #2: Foxy is open. I am not surprised, as I could tell by looking at her. While waiting for her appointment today, I actually thought she might be in foal as she has gotten rounder---but no go. Completely empty. Look at that tummy down there! I think I will start riding her, at least for a few months. We have too many babies coming anyway, but I really hate to lose one of Foxy's--as it stands already, she has lost far more than she has had for me. Every repro exam says she is perfectly fine, but these things happen. That does not make me feel any better (even though I was right in my prediction, it still sucks)

Bad News #3: Fuzzy is also open. I am actually surprised at that a bit, as she was starting to puff up and was not due until May anyway. Incontrovertible verdict (is that something?) rendered by the pro, so on this one I was wrong.

I pretty much told Dr. M he had to get off the property before the whole damn thing imploded as full as he was of bad news today. Instead, I took off, late for the 4:30 water aerobics class--which evidently started at 4:15. I got in the water at 4:47, and teh stupid class ended within 10 minutes. I did 30 more minutes of work, ran to the tanning bed, when I did something funny and now have a stripe of pink itchy skin on my middle, then rushed home to shower and head to St Clair to get clickers.

Which is another story altogether

More Fuzzy photos

I guess it is pretty clear what I did this afternoon---I played at the farm. It was a nice day, about 45 degrees and there will not be many more of those. Madison and I played with the mares, and I probably took 1000 photos. I will not post them all- I promise--but evidently I am going to post a bunch of them!

This is Fuzzy watching us play with horses in the other pasture. This picture sure does not tell us anything about whether she is in foal or not.

















On the right is Fuzzy running from us and acting silly---and she sure does not look in foal here at all. Yet in the photo of her running away, she has all kinds of tum hanging down there.

I guess a doctor visit in order.

In foal or not?

I am starting to wonder about a few of these girls.

Foxy in particular has lost her tummy, and she is usually ALL tummy. Plus, I think she is due at the end of March or early April, so she ought to be swinging to and fro by now. I just don't think she looks the same as she normally does by now. Then again, with a complete change in our feed program, different feed, etc....could that explain it? I am probably grasping at straws here.










Same for Fuzzy--she is usually pretty round in the belly, but is not at all. She is not due until May though, maybe even mid-May. What do you think?

Well I lied-- no vet visit today

Fuzzy is a pain in the ass, that is all there is to it. If I did not want her, she would be all over me, but since we need her to go to the vet, she is acting a fool. Whatever---she must not comprehend that the vet is open practically every day and I will eventually win. And Barry is right, she is surely in foal, and if she is not, what would I do about it? Nothing, that is what- it is July. She better hope she is, as if she is open, I am sending her happy butt to the trainer where she can get a Come to Jesus about who is running this operation.

In other news, a funny thing happened this morning. My cleaning lady comes on Fridays. She loves Thor, and he "helps" her clean. HA! But she is scared of the other two dogs, as they are not quite so happy go lucky--or at least they do not appear to be. I keep them in the backyard while she is there to appease her.

Evidently they have a new trick of opening the fence gate and when she arrived, she believed they would not let her out of her truck. That was how I was awakened this morning--her phone call to tell me she was trapped in the driveway.

I let her in and went to fix the fence gate AGAIN. When I came back in, Kathy was standing on a chair in the kitchen, shaking and looking terrified. Slater was wandering around looking for something to eat as usual...he had opened the back door and let himself in. I normally keep it deadbolted to keep him out, but since I was in the back yard, obviously, I did not lock my own self out of the house.

I guess I should not laugh at this. But I cannot help it. He is such a sweet baby, and anyone that really knows him knows he is not scary---he was grinning like a monkey, and must have thought there was a fun game happening with the lady standing on the chair.

Thank God it is Friday!