Other scenes from the Play Date

Diablo is still playing the am I or aren't I pregnant game. And this pic sure does not help answer anything. I am more encouraged than I was though--evidently the Demon had been nursing occasionally, and since D was just on pasture with hay only, she had lost some weight. I brought her up, found out about the nursing, and am now seeing a little more going on with D's belly. She would still have a few months to go anyway, and I am crossing my fingers for a swell Laredo Blue baby this year rather than next.
Whatever has been going on out there has been good for the Demon. She looks great, especially for this time of year, when every one looks gross in some way. If it is not hideously shaggy hair, it is mud balls all over and jacked up manes. She is filthy, but she is in great condition.
Foxy and Rock played together a while, working on the fence like there was a cow in the mix somewhere. Maybe Rock is getting senile as well as mostly blind. I was glad to see her 28 year old butt keep up with Foxy with no problem too, especially since Foxy was wound for sound.
This is HaidaGirl--my only maiden to foal this year. She is due first, in about a month, with a Sophisticated Catt baby. I have a vision it is a boy. I don't care, I just want healthy. Since I raised HG, and remember the day she was born so clearly, this will be extra special for me. I was so proud of her, and she was the ugliest newborn there ever was, and I wondered if she was retarded as well. Turns out she is really impressive looking, smart as a whip and probably the most athletic horse we have ever raised. I will never forget calling mom to tell her she had just been born and she was hideous--and arguing with Barry to move the water bucket before she fell in it, and then she went head first into it.

I just told someone else that she was not really showing much , but that I knew she was still good. Then I looked at this pic. She is not hiding anything is she? Is she is not almost full term, there is something bad wrong here!~
But this shot does not scream huge pregnant to me. This is the pic in my head when I think of HG--and it is accompanied by a noise like a thunderstorm coming. I can recognize her hoofbeats in a crowd, they are so distinctive--but so similar to her mothers.
And here is her mama--Playmate. She is 29 and still has not been lame a day since I bought her about 10 or 12 years ago. Her feet look like draft feet, they are so big. That may have something to do with her staying so sound.
I cannot wait until we can have a three-generation family photo soon. And I hope this new baby grows up to be half the horse her grandma is.

I realize these are not particularly fascinating photos, but you gotta go with what you got when you finally get a decent day outside, that is not freezing, or raining.

I have big news to report but I do not want to jinx it so it will have to wait a day or two. As it is, I am scheduling this in advance to post while I am on my adventure---stay tuned for it

Project Rebound-Foxy's first update

I took these photos of Foxy Thursday, but have not had time until now to post them. That turns out to be okay since now I have more info to add to the update
Foxy is 14 hands on a good day. She always has belly, because she is out of shape. Even when she is fit up, she has a belly, come to think of it. Now she has no ass-a-tall (worse even than my friend No-Ass Dirty) and her topline is hideous.

Ignore the scurf from her blankets--it makes her look even grosser than she is. And that aint easy.

This angle makes her look the worst. No thigh at all--and had I had some help, I would have a photo of her with her tail pulled up, so you can see how messed up her back end is. It is embarrassing to show these, but if I am going to be honest about this, I have to show the worst pics. I tried to choose the pics that made her look the worst so I can fairly evaluate her progress.
This is the goo she has been draining out of somewhere. I had already coated it all with Vaseline by the time I thought to take a picture of it. That is just plain nasty, isn't it. On a good note, I do not think she still is draining it.

Since she came in --Tuesday nite, was it, or Wednesday? She has eaten well over a bag of senior--close to two actually, and finally got through about 20 pounds of alfalfa pellets and beet pulp. She goes slower on that because she loves the senior so much that I don't think she bothers with that until she has eaten all her senior. In an hour today, she ate about 12 pounds of senior. She is not paying much attention to her hay, other to strew it all over the damn place. The rest of the time, I think she is just peeing--I had to strip the stall already and start over. In all the years of doing this, I have never seen so much pee.

Yesterday, the vet came to see her. He is doing a fecal and running a full blood panel, but we won't have significant results until early in the week. He is concerned that she may have some bleeding in her bowels, which would explain the goo. I don't think the goo texture is right for blood. I think it is more likely that she has some filthy uterine infection, but he knows better than me. The fecal will tell us more about that. He also thinks she may be diabetic, based on how much she is drinking and peeing. It is true that when she is out, I cannot monitor either of those things, but since I stalled her, she has been drinking a good 15 gallons of water a day and peeing like a freak. In the back of my head, I am hoping she is just going through so much water to make up for having limited access to it over the past ten days since the world was frozen. I do not know if that is even a possibility.


On the other hand, when I am not tending to Foxy, I am changing Rock's clothes. She does this to her blanket every couple of days. It is exhausting. I would strip her off and make her deal since it is so much warmer now, but I hate to get behind on her weight etc at her age.......so maybe I keep doing this til I am out of blankets.


ETA: Approx eight hours after I left the farm with Foxy still working on her senior feed, and with a brand new fresh un-peed in stall, I went back to check on her and feed again. She had finished her senior and was happy to get a new full bucket of it--which if she finishes it tonight will put her at about 30 pounds in one friggin day---and had pooped two or three times. Most significantly--NO FLOOD! In fact, there were no obvious pee spots at all, although I am sure she has peed. She had drank five gallons of water or so--hard to say, since I use a 20 gallon bucket for her, so I am estimating that. It will be at least twelve hours before I check on her again--probably closer to twelve, so it will be interesting to see how this 24 hour period compares to the previous 24 hour periods in terms of pee. If at all possible, I am going to put her in a pen to play all day and pee somewhere I don't have to clean it up.

Indulge me

I just love this horse. Rock is my special girl, even though most of the rest of the world hates her for her quirks. I sometimes call her names--but then again, sometimes she calls me names. You can see her age here above her eyes, but she sure does not scream out that she is a 1982 mare, does she?
Can you see the cloud in her eye here? I love this photo, for some reason. I took it tonight from a distance and liked how it came out--finally I got the dang lighting right! I do not think it is obvious at all that she cannot currently see the broad side of the barn out of that thing--which makes these recent successes with Madison even more significant to me. After all, this lack of vision is a new thing for her and she is absolutely working it out.
This is part one of what you should be indulging on me here--I am trying to be artsy and take the damn detail pics. It was kind of fun taking pics of her bath--she earned it after her workout tonight---she loves some water like I have never seen (other than her daughter Cash who will still put her whole self in a water trough, at age 6).
Ok, you can see some age here in her topline getting low. But hey, that is what they make those built-up cut back pads for, isn't it? I gave her Grandpa's, God knows he is not using it, standing around eating me out of house and home.
Madison gave her the bath--she actually did everything tonight---untacked her, groomed her before and after, and bathed her. I did not even tell her to, she just did it. She is learning the whole picture.
Indulge me #2: I realize I just put up Madison riding Rock pics, but I have more. And it is my blog, so if you do not want to see them, just move along. I do, and I know Madison does, she is psyched about getting new pics for her scrapbook. I do not know what they are looking at here, but I had them ride in the empty front pasture while I mowed a section that is getting out of control with burdock again. I wanted to be handy in case she needed me, but I also wanted to give her some space to see how brave she would be, and let her feel some authority of her own, and some independence. This was after she trotted over some ground poles etc, a first time they have done that.
Rock was an angel tonight, she was so excited to ride again ( you do not know how many people will laugh at seeing Rock and angel in the same sentence). She trotted right off, instead of having to be convinced, which is often the case with a child rider on her. When she is happy, she flaps her bottom lip and makes a smack smack smack sound--it is one of the best sounds--she flapped away tonight. When she is irritated, she growls, and I did not hear a single growl at all.

I stayed out of the way and watched Madison practice trotting, as I clicked away and mowed the incessant burdock. I was afraid to turn away to mow the other direction in case I missed something, or she needed me.
I do not know who I am kidding. She did not need me. Trotting is still relatively new to Madison, but man has she taken to it. It helps that Rock has a great trot, especially for a fat old cutting horse. Even I can work her trot, and everyone knows I am damn near disabled when it comes to sitting a trot without needing a doctor visit afterward. Rock has about 40 speeds of trot, and whether Madison realized she was rating her or not, she was---and the look on her face when she got some speed out of her was a hoot. She was thrilled, but she was also concentrating very hard--I was so proud of her.

Something that is cool about Rock is that she has figured out that Madison is just learning the tricks and to use her leg. She is letting Madison direct rein her without giving her any shit about it, and seems to know when Madison is ready to step it up a notch and move out a bit. They did small figure eights, and turn arounds and just generally played, which is what I want to see. It takes a lot to feel comfortable and safe, and that just takes time time and more time (even if you are a kid who does not have the good sense to know you are going to get hurt in this game, one way or the other---and all kids are like that). Madison has amazingly good horse sense though, which makes it seem like she has done this forever and she just has not.
See look here at the two serious parties--Madison is adjusting her reins--and she is already comfortable using two reins like we always do, and never wants them knotted like she did just over the winter. She is coming along so well, I cannot stand it. Rock is chilling waiting for the next event, having already been lined out by Madison on standing still when you are told to.


I even have another good shot or two--Madison showing her little sister Aly how to ride Rock--she had her first tour on one of our horses--she is a little squirt and it was a three-man operation to make it as safe as possible. Aly was almost mute which is something I never thought I would see!

Long day- stage 3 ( I think)

Contrary to the expression seen here on Rock's face, she had a great time today helping me out with a project (please do not call Fugly on me for the obviously done wrong things in this story, I don't want to hear it). I had to take some trotting photos for class, but I also had the farrier here today. Rock came in to have her feet done, and Madison was helping so I let her have a ride--it has been quite a while since she has had a ride.
We moved her to a different saddle, an old Circle Y that is a heavy thing, but a really well made saddle. Madison has been on a growth spurt this summer, so she could get into these stirrups, which was a first and the reason we had her in an old Cordura saddle up until now. I just do not trust that thing as much as I do a well made saddle like this one, and Barry and I had talked about taking her to McKinneys to try out some styles and seat sizes so we could pick her up something decent at the auction. That this worked eliminates that need, which is awesome, as God knows we do not need any added expense. We had to dig out an old girth to find one big enough for big fat Rock. She may be an old broad, but she is one beefy sister. That accomplished, we got Madison up and warmed her up in the front yard.
The matter was complicated by the fact that Rock's right eye has gone cloudy --I am 99% sure that we did not have her injected for ERU in this eye, so I guess we can do that. I am terribly disappointed in it, the poor ol mare cannot get a break. If you were not looking at it, you would never know there is a problem--she never spooked, never did anything out of the ordinary (well out of the ordinary for Rock--everyone knows to expect her to try to go back to the barn unless the gates are shut, she will argue with Mad about standing still, and when she gets mad, she will throw her head like a firecracker is in her mouth). She really enjoys toting Madison around, you can see it in the way she moves and keeps those ears perked forward and that lower lip flapping making her happy noise.

I like being able to do this for Madison. She works her tail off at the farm, and is so reliable, I cannot explain how much help she is to me. I would have been beside myself to have been able to do the things she does when I was her age, so I know what it means to her.

We both had a really hard week with an accident with one of the precious kitties (RIP baby girl), and with her love for cats, I know it had to take a toll on her. It did me, but those kitties mean so much more to her.


This made an otherwise hard morning livable--shortly after these pics were taken and while I was doing some of her and Barry on Radar for the class, I must have gotten overcome with heat, and just dang near bit it in the pasture. Marvin was there trimming and saw it and came after me, thank God, and then Barry saw me, so they go me in and cooled off--but it was ugly for a bit. I do not know what happened, I had been there for less than 2 hours, it was only in the low 90s and was not even noon yet, but I got my ass kicked by the heat but good. It is 11 hours later now and I am still not right.

Family affair

This should have been a good one, but I was screwing with my camera settings and Cash moved. It is still the first time I have ever really noticed how much alike Rock and Cash look alike---which of course, they should since they are mother and daughter, but it is not something I have noticed in the past.

In this shot, you would not even know that Rock is 26---20 years older than her daughter, would you?
I love Rock's nose--she looks like she dipped it in milk.

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

A three part update

Issue 1: Rock's eye is making me crazy. Dr M is going to come see it tomorrow to tell me what the deal is with it--I think there is something in there, as her lower lid is still swollen and she is mad as hell about it. While he is here, I will have him palp Foxy and Fuzzy to answer me on that, and I guess he could do Square Babys Coggins as well.

Issue 2: I have done two days of clicker training with Mojo--albeit with no clicker, as I have to go to Petsmart and get one. I am doing that Friday nite as it is an hour away and we have to pick up Barry's suit anyway. He is currently in the round pen. (EDIT: Mojo is in the round pen, not BS) The first day I rewarded him for looking at me. It went pretty good, but I am just not confident that I am doing it right. I would treat him in the bucket, but he would not come to it if I stood next to it--I had to step back 6 or 8 feet.

This led me to talk to the clicker queen Holly (whose idea this was in the first place) about what to do next. Her suggestion for last nite was to ask for a little more--do not treat until he looked at me and took a step to come to me.

I thought that might be hard. And it was, in a completely different way. I rarely had time to say "Mojo, come here" before he was headed toward me. I did not even have to step away from the bucket much, if at all. Sometimes, I put the bucket right next to my feet and he would still come--warily, and would approach so that the bucket was between us, but he did it. He won't let me touch him yet, but I can see it happening soon. I am not sure that this is how it is supposed to work actually.

Tonight, my assignment is to get the lead clipped on his halter. That should be interesting. I do not anticipate this going as well. Then again, I never would have thought that one day would make him willing to come that close to me. I guess we will just have to see.

Issue 3: I have been to the gym twice. This is not a big deal to most people but it is me. Once I get in the swing of it, I can stick with it, it is the starting that is hard. Last nite, I did 50 minutes of weights, and 15 minutes on the bike. I have to work my way up to 30 minutes a day on that, but it happens quickly. I could not get the seat adjusted though, so I had to sit at a wierd angle and it gave me the dead ass. Hopefully I can get that fixed, as there is only one recumbent bike at the gym and that is the one I like.

I also watched the Cardio Boxing class they have on Wednesdays. I think I can do that. It is a small group, so I might get up my nerve to try it. That will be a first for me, as I am an oaf, and terrified to do stuff like that in front of people. I am also considering the beginners step aerobics class that is at 5:30 tonight. I just do not want to be embarrassed by not being able to do the whole class, know what I mean? After all, I am a big fat sister who is out of shape and has other issues with my right leg, etc. None of which is an excuse, but it is a fact that could lead to my embarrassment. Nothing I ahte worse than being laughed at

Tomorrow is water aerobics. We were supposed to go yesterday but I only want to go with mom, at least until I am back in the swing of it, and she is still down with a cold. That is all right, as I cannot find my required aqua shoes, and had to order some--I would have gotten in trouble with that. I really like water aerobics becuase there is little sweating! And it is a really good workout actually-that would probably surprise people. If I can get my life really in order, I would like to do a class before work, then that would leave evenings open to go to the gym to have a regular workout after work.

What really needs work is my fat gut. Oddly, no matter what exercise I do, I never really feel it in my abs--that I can only get from riding horses. Now how in the hell am I going to add that in? When do I have time for that? I am thinking of extending my round pen so that it is longer--a round oval, I guess that would be--then I could do a quick 15 -20 minute trot and work that in at least a few nights a week. I will mention that to BS and see what he says.

So that is that--I am totally dropping the ball on the photo a day thing. It is really hard to do when it is dark when I get home from work. I will do better though. Come hell or high water.

Oldsters

Since it was so nice yesterday, all the blanketed horses got stripped down to their nekkid selves. That did show me that Grandpa and Lucky are dropping a little condition--now is it because they are not being fed the same amount I feed them or is it because they moved to a new pasture with a round bale, and thus, no one has been feeding them the extra special alfalfa they are used to? The round bale is nice stuff though--really nice--I just do not know that they eat it like they did the square bales that they snarf up like candy.

See me justifying posting photos of Gramps and Lucky when I just did it a few days ago? I am so absurd, it is my blog and if I want to post repetitive pics, who is going to stop me?

In any event, even though he need not drop another pound, I am still very pleased with Grandpa's condition. He is 28 now, and the oldest 28 year old horse that likely ever walked the earth, but with the exception of some artritis, he is really doing well. It is almost like he has gotten younger over the past few years, rather than older.

I can see the loss in Lucky more than I can him, particularly in her butt. Oddly, these photos were taken only 4 days later than the one I just posted of her and I see the difference. Hopefully we can get this reversed in a hurry.


On a good note, Rock is holding her weight beautifully. Cannot see the broad side of a barn out of her left eye, but is round as she needs to be. Doesn't she look good for a 1982 model?

Yesterday was the first day that she came out of her stall without any goofy foot maneuvers at all---just followed Madison right out like it was a normal day. She led beautifully all around the yard, and even trotted when asked--she would not do that at first. She is still fighting over her eye meds, but they must be working as she at least has some vision in her right eye. She is acting like her regular self, not scared at all and to me that is the greatest sign to me--Rock scared is not something I have ever seen or ever prepared myself to deal with.

Isn't it about right that we get her to a good healthy weight, happily toting Madison around, and she does something to her eyeball? I am no longer sure it was a stroke, but perhaps an eye injury only--it just seems strange that all those other symptoms accompanied the vision problem.

Rock update

This morning, she was definitely tracking better. She trashed her stall in her normal fashion, but was hesitant to leave it. She was really timid getting over the threshold and hesitant to go where I said without wierd steps.

By the time I got her out into the daylight, she was walking really well. I felt such a weight off of my shoulders, even though I know this is just the start of recovery--at least we are starting somewhere!

She still is not seeing a thing out of her left eye, and now I can see some glassiness in her right eye as well. She fought her eye meds like a banshee though--she lost, of course, but put up a hell of a fight.

I am an hour from giving her DMSO shot, and her blood thinner--stay tuned for more developments

First scare of the new year

Rock has had an incident. We do not know what, but the first and best guess is maybe a stroke. What part this eye business has to do with it is anyone guess, but this photo shows her at most of the swelling gone.

She has a botched up eye, is seeing little to nothing out of either one, and is uncoordinated. The eye thing is something to show you, but does not bother me nearly as much as her ataxia.

She is eating well, stealing hay from the stall behind her and otherwise, acting relatively normal. She was cold and shivering when we found her, and kicking at her belly, but that has stopped with some good blankets and some banamine.

Now she is on DMSO, aspirin for a blood thinner, and whatever else she asks for. When you look at this photo on the left, she looks like her regular self--if you ignore her left eye.

She seems almost confused as to where to put her feet when walking forward, but backs well and seems to not be as out of whack when in a stall as opposed to being walked in the aisleway. It is a mystery all around.

I was afraid to say stroke out loud, but that is what Kevin thought first too, with EPM a distant second. It may be wishful thinking but I dont want it to be that, and she is not asymetrically goofy, so that is a good sign. And at 26, a stroke is certainly not out of the question.

Extra good swell thing

At this time of year, I inevitably spend a lot of time thinking about the oldies but goodies here at the farm. Everyone knows my oldest mares are the most special to me, not only becuase I have had them so long, but because they each have taught me so much, and been so good to me.

Seeing them look this good as they turn another year older is good for my heart. Playmate is turning 27 and still in great shape. She has no idea that she is old.

Rock was keeping up with the young whippersnappers without a second's hesitation today, and is still clearly the boss of them. She is in good weight, maintaining on only 3 pounds of Strategy a day, and sound as a dollar still. Sounder, actually, since the dollar sucks right now. Not bad for a girl of 26 (well, in two days).

Hell is thawing

Rock pooped! Sometime between 5 am and 8 am. Nothing since then, but she was not grained for breakfast. She still has some hay from the night before to work on that she is dragging around in her stall, but she did drink about 8 gallons of water. That makes me feel better than anything---I know we are not out of the woods yet, but at least we can see daylight from here.

On a very bad note, my sister's adoption has hit yet another snag...they thought they were within days of getting the signature on their adoption papers, but they were instead thrown out of the PGN system. Oddly, it happened the day the returned home from Guatemala. I do not have any details other than that it has happened. So much for a Merry Christmas, but I guess it is important to keep things in perspective--she WILL come home, it just won't be as soon as was anticipated. Everything happens for a reason.

Big day today--after work, I have the farrier coming, and I cannot find my wallet. Nothign is ever easy around here

Hell has frozen over

Rock is off her feed.

Not only off it, she would not even get up to look at it. Three pounds of fresh strategy and 20 pounds of some fancy fancy alfalfa delivered to the Queen Suite and she would not get up. (she is in because she scratched her eye and is taking eye drops like all the other geriatrics around here)

This is slightly less likely than me being off my feed- it just does not happen.

LeaAnn caught this peculiar behavior and called me at work. Between the two of us, we got her up, got some banamine in her and waited for Kevin (the vet)--I do not mess around when it comes to my special ol girl. Normally I could handle such a thing myself, and would, but I got a really hinky feeling this time.

As is usually the case, by the time he got there, she was acting markedly better, but we went ahead and tubed her with a gallon of mineral oil-0-God, I hope no one ever does that to me. He checked her for impactions, and felt no distention at all but her waste was an odd texture. Love those details dont you? She got some other shot of buca-something, to calm her down.

She is now back in the Queen Suite munching away like nothing happened. She better be thinking about pooping all over that clean stall. Then she better do it. Repeatedly. Her gut sounds are rowdy, with some pinging suggesting gas colic.

While he was here, Kevin also check Nita's weepy eyes and low and behold she has ERU in her right eye as well! And a cataract starting to form in her left--but at almost 27, you would expect a few quirks wouldn't you? He was having so much fun finding floates in eyeballs, we were looking for other eyes to check out! He checked Squeak's eyes, which may be actually getting a touch of vision back in the left (which seemed to have lost it for sure), so that is encouraging.

Meanwhile, we await the results of her Lepto test to know if she is eligible for this wierdo injection thing that may help her.

For a nite that I thought would be low-key (either I was going to go ride Radar or come home and watch the Illini-Maryland game), things sure got busy here in a hurry.

Already I am finding the value in LeaAnn--she caught Rock's wierdness well before I would have.

Kid tested and mother approved!

Thanks Lorna for the good title!

After work today, mom came out to ride with Madison and me. I let her pick which one she wanted to ride and she picked Radar (well, I only gave her two choices, but still). It has been almost four years since a freak horse accident broke her back and she has only ridden a few times since then. It still hurts sometimes, and she is so busy playing golf and socializing that she does not have time to ride. The few times she has ridden, it has been on the same horse she was riding then, and although it makes her nervous, she has barrelled through and done it. I am not sure if she is brave or getting senile since she is almost 64, but it is cool that she still rides.

This was a big step though. I knew Radar was up to it, because lets face it, he is too lazy to act up unless I make him use a bit that is in the wrong place is his mouth. I did not do that today.

He was PERFECT for her. I could not have asked for more from him. We did not have trails to work with on most of our adventure, and we rode in some areas even I have never been on. There were lots of stickers and thick brush, and lots of wierd stuff underfoot that would get their feet tangled up---and Radar just kept plugging. He was so cute, picking up his feet all the way to his belly to get loose of the tangles...just a real trouper. He never so much as flinched at it, let alone acted up.

We had a good time, and this discovery of fun woods just behind Madison's house is very exciting--we have a whole new place to investigate. On the way home, we stopped and let her sister and the baby pet Rock. While we were waiting, Mom said "Dont you bet she is just in heaven?" Man I sure would have been! Which is what I said, and then realized that I still am. It is so much fun to get to share the horses with her. It is possible that it is pathetic that my best everyday riding buddy is eleven years old, but what can you do? It gets me out there, and I can feel virtuous about it. I may take her to Rend Lake to ride this weekend since BS has some 100 miles bike race that I dont think I can bear to sit through.

That reminds me--this is so cute. She bought us necklaces from Claire's. They are on suede strings, and they have a horse on them, and one says "Best" on it and one says "Friends". Is that the cutest thing you ever heard? She let me pick which one I wanted, so I took the friends one. I forgot to wear it today and she asked me about it, so I have to do something to make sure I do not forget tomorrow.

The geriatric ladies

Since I was hanging out at the farm so much this weekend, I took pics of horses I usually do not take lots of pics of. That may be due to the new length of the pasture--since I bushhogged the middle pasture- about 8 acres- I could actually see them.

Anyway, I am pretty pleased with how they are looking.
This is Rock, who is usually known as Big Fat Rock. She is 25, and the last two winters have not been her best, so I am thrilled to see her in this condition. She has been having a ball toting Madison around. I thought about breeding her one last time this year, since she is the only daughter of Docs Hickory I have, but just never bothered. I enjoy riding her so much, it is no great loss. Her three year old son by Haidas Little Pep is doing great in cutting training with Dale Dodd in Canada.

On the right is Playmate, who is 26. Her last foal is Haida Girl, the Haidas Little Pep daughter that Barry has been riding for the past two years--he loves that filly to death. Play gets lots of comments, because her papers are so funny- her dam was born in 1959! She still has Pretty Boy On her papers, for Pete's sake. Play is the most competitive horse I own, and is tough as nails. She literally shakes at the sight or smell of cattle, it is wild. She is also the fastest horse I have ever ridden--it feels like an earthquake but is a lot of fun. This was her first year to have weight issues, so to see her looking this good is a huge relief, considering that we have had no pasture at all this year. It has been dried up since June, due to the drought.
Finally, this is Nita, who had such a close call in the last couple of weeks. She is also 26, and sired by Peponita. Her last foal is High Brow Gypsy. Nita is just a classy chic, and was the first big time broodmare I ever bought. I have had her forever. She has always been swaybacked but usually pretty round, until this year-she has taken the heat and drought harder than anyone. She is gaining it back slowly but surely. The best part of the series of pics I took of her today was the sheen to her coat. It is virtually impossible to take a decent picture of a horse this dark, but I think this shows how shiny and healthy she looks. There is more weight to be gained of course, but this is a marked improvement.

These are my oldest ladies here, and all are retired from the broodmare band, but we still ride Rock and Play a lot. We have never ridden Nita as she was alwasy swaybacked from so many babies since we first bought her, but I can imagine she was something in her day.

A reprieve for Nita!

Hallelujah! I thought today was the day for Nita. I even had Joel, the handy dandy backhoe man, on standby, just in case.

Dr. M was here this morning to xray to see what in the world has her three-legged lame. I have been treating it as an abcess but getting no results, even though I was sure that is what it was. I was getting discouraged, and it broke my heart to see her in such pain.

Lo and behold, we found an abcess! Hot damn! It is a long way from coming out, but we know what we are dealing with and that is half the battle.

So Miss Nita lives to see another day. I think I will give her a job this fall tending to weanlings, she is a wonderful mother and disciplinarian, so she can tend to these babies post-weaning.

On another note, Dr M was quite pleased with the progress of Rock's eye. Her vision is coming back, the cloudiness is clearing up some, and we get to cut out the atropine altogether, and cut down on the antibiotics from 6 times a day to twice.

Woo hoo--A great day at Onn-A-Wym Farms, for the over-25 set!

Reward nite for the farm help

I have this kid across the street from me that helps us with everything. She waters everyone and keeps tabs on who is coming and going at the farm, and helps me feed, and tells Barry which horse is which, because he can never remember. She is a handy kid, and a huge help to have around. She is in fifth grade as of today.

Anyway, I have been telling her that when the weather breaks, I will bring Twister over and give her a ride. I know she is itching to get on him so bad she cannot stand it, so tonight, while we were doctoring Rock, I realized that it was not miserable hot and that she would do as well as Twist would and off we went. I figure that even with Rock only seeing out of one eye right now, she is still twice the horse most people ever sit on, so she would do just fine. And it also gave me the excuse to get back on her for the first time in a while-- always an ulterior motive with me!

She was so excited she was about to come out of her skin. She goes to horse camp and has ridden that type of horse a lot, but it has been a while and she was nervous when she first got up there. She relaxed and had a great time, so it was really fun for me too. What I would have given for that at her age, I cannot tell you, so I love doing this.

Rock may be 25 years old, and temporarily (we hope) blind as a bat in her right eye, but you would not know it to look at her or by how solid she was for her tonight. I was so proud!