Boys will be boys--and more school

Today started out a typical way for me--we had a nice brunch at a friend's restaurant, and I made sure to make a fool of myself on the way out. I got through the whole meal, and after I paid, I knocked over the specials board. Leave it to me--it made a huge clatter and evidently, I said "oh shit". Imagine that. So Billy, the owner tells me--"hey, this is a f%$&n family restaurant". Which of course made me laugh even harder, so anyone who missed it that I had knocked everything over knew then.


Oy. Next step was to get some odds and ends done at the farm. While Barry was teaching Mojo how to get in the BIG trailer, instead of the three horse which is much lower to the ground than the Mack Daddy trailer, I watched the 3 year old geldings play. Note: It was doing some sort of weird precipitation thing out there that I will not call snow, because that is blasphemous, but there was a certain dampness that could not be ignored. Especially by me, in tshirt and Crocs like every other day.

This is my precious Radar aggravating Boogie--Radar is almost always the instigator of Playtime. Biting, nipping, rearing and kicking and striking are how colts play, and how they provoke each other to play back--no damage is done in these episodes, but it is a miracle sometimes, as they can get really rough with each other.

Young horses like this, especially geldings, play hard but have short memories--they are kind of like a pack of first graders. They can have it out in a game, and be cuddled up together the next minute. I do not know if that is because of short attention span, or just an unwillingness to hold a grudge.

However, there is always one in the pack who is more sensitive, and here it is Boogie--he is more timid, and gets his feelings hurt---I know he would rather be pounded on than ignored, so I know he enjoyed this. It cracks me up to realize how much I liked watching him get in the fray with the others

Boogie was quick to jump in and play hard with Radar. I have not seen that a lot as he is normally standing off the side like a wall flower, hoping to get picked.
He played awhile but he was also quick to call it off--after he got his licks in, of course. Lest you feel sorry for Radar in that he got popped early on, don't--he starts it and Boogie was not his first victim of the day. Most of the time, they do not even make contact when playing like this.
And see, they made up. Ignore that doofy line of fence--we were moving horses all over and did not put it back correctly until we were done.


This is what first got my attention---Radar and Hawk, who are two peas in a pod and best friends, were circling each other. I know were that leads, so I just kept clicking away.


Round and round they went for a while, like boxers waiting for the other to take the first poke.


I do not know if Hawk did not really want to play, or what his deal was, but he threw a kick in early.
Which did not even slow Radar down--he upped the ante by popping up on him and the game was on.
They crack me up how they carry on.
After this, I started wondering about Radar's sexual orientation, so I will stop this line of photos right here. Note how Hawk's ears are forward like he is fine with this behavior. He is an odd one as well.
Poor Target tried to get in the game and BAM--see what he got for his trouble? Poor fool. I think he feels left out sometimes too, since Hawk and Radar are attached at the hip. He did not play much in this game today, but instead stood around and posed for me. Everyone knows someone like that, don't they? He is the one that would rather look pretty than get dirty in the game.


Much more went on after the games were over. Hawk was on the schedule to be one with the trailer this week. He was going to get the 24/7 trailer experience this week, as he knows full well how to get in the trailer, but may not choose to do so on any given day. And when Hawk decides he is not going to do something, he is NOT going to do it.

But as you see, he ruined my plan by getting in and out of the trailer four or five times so easily that it seemed kind of silly. I wondered in the back of my mind whether something had scared him on a trip and lead him to his refusals to load--but evidently not. He did so well loading and unloading repeatedly, he got to go back to the pasture.As I said, Mojo learned how to get in the big trailer. He was so cute. It really is a much bigger step than he is used to. No problem though---look at his big effort trying to get out. Isn't that funny?
He had some other milestones today--he HATES having his mane brushed and I had not messed with his tail much. Today he got a good grooming, and his tail braided just because I could not think of anything more we could be doing with him, and he leaves on Friday. He also got his vaccines and more loading practice. He did so well, he too was chucked back out in the pasture.
Next, we did baby booster shots and gave them all a hit of ivermectin---and I noticed that Tango's hind fetlocks are goofy looking. They are much bigger than anyone else's. There is no heat, she is not off. It does not feel squishy like it is swollen, but it is also not just hair making them look puffy. They feel like normal joints, but are clearly larger than everyone else's.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what in the world might be going on there?


All in all, a productive day. Trailers are all moved around so that the transport company can get in and out at the farm on Friday. That means that there are SIX trailers of some sort in my yard at my house--two horse trailers, the boat on its trailer, the red flatbed trailer, the small trailer for the lawnmower, etc, and Barry's work trailer. We look like hillbilly heaven.

Sly weird face shots--and an odd Target thing

I think this is my favorite one.


I like this one too though.
Target has a weird star, doesn't he?

He has roany parts that come and go, but this is his newest one--his right hock. Just on the inside. Isn't that goofy?

The Three Stooges

or My Three Sons....or some other show with Three in it. That is what I thought of when I got to the farm after work, in a hurry to get things done before the skies opened up and we got pelted.

This was the scene I was greeted with at the first pasture. Radar is sneaking in under Target to see when the dinner was coming.

And Boogie, a day late and a dollar short--he picked an open end of the gate to stand at to have his own space, but of course it was the wrong end that did not open. He is always getting beat out of the good stuff, the poor fool. He is such a sweet horse though, he would be the main stooge, I think.

He should head to Jackie's this week.

Otherwise, we did some work on Reno, and did his photos for registration. Here is something that concerns me--I dropped my big lens out of the truck--or rather it rolled out of my purse and went splat at a gas station. These shots were taken with the short lens, but the ones of Reno were taken with the long lens and they are not so great. I am REALLY worried that it is damaged. It is hard to say as the shots were taken in very overcast skies, at a totally different angle with a different background than I ever use, so I cannot really even compare the shots to other ones to see if the quality is suffering. Cross your fingers that I have not really screwed it up, or I will have to take to my bed.

How do we miss what is right in front of us?

I often wonder this, but rarely as much as I did this morning, when we finally got it together enough to take Madison on her trailride I had been promising her all week and kept having to put off. We all went, and rode behind the farm--there are about 250 extra acres back there that we never take advantage of--which is just stupid. We decided to check it out, since the hunting outfit had cut trails, and we only have until the end of this month to use them (at their request). I sure wish we had been back there more often, as it is so pretty--and we just ignore it.

Probably the reason Barry was willing to go was that he got a new saddle last nite. It is really plain, but really well made, I love how it feels. Barry was excited to get it on Target, who he is really clicking with and enjoys riding a lot.

Target pulled a screwball stunt before we mounted up (first exposure to a rear cinch, which resulted in him wigging out on the lunge, slipping on dewy grass and wiping slap out in the front yard), so I was a nervous wreck about this, and to ride behind our farm without going through our pastures (never a great idea with young horses), we have to ride a couple of hundred yards in the road. Why country people do not understand that it is not cool to zoom by at 60 mph, or think it is okay to speed up just as they reach us, I have no idea. But they don't.

Anyway, the above shot is taken on the farm road bordering our fence line, which leads back to the back part of the farm where we were going to ride--the houses across the street are the cul de sac across the street which often shows up in my photos.

This next one is taken from the same spot, but the other direction--you can see Gypsy and Aries in the pasture, behind Madison. Unbeknownst to them, they were experiencing their last hours with their babies--we weaned them when we got back.

This is the cattle pass under the railroad tracks, where Playmate used to escape and end up out in the damn wilderness. I was always sure she was dead, laying in the tall grass somewhere, and I would race around in the Gator and be sure I was getting ready to drive right over her--but nope, she found an escape, and tore down the gates on both ends so she could use it. Those old ladies can be tricky. Not as tricky as me though, as I eventually busted her out.

This is to the east of our farm, high up on a bluff overlooking the Little Muddy River. There are all kinds of artifacts in this area--broken pieces of pottery, arrowheads, etc--the man who sold us our property said it was called Indian Ridge. By who, I do not know.


This is the larger of the two ponds back there. Both of them presented Radar with some serious stress--as we approached, big frogs would plop around in there. I thought poor Rad was going to come out of his skin--he was a spooky monkey all day, completely unlike him. I don't know why he was like that, but it was a little unsettling. If he cracked a dead branch, he wigged--if he bent one over and it wacked him, he wigged--you name it, he was just wound way too tight today. He actually acted like he was a baby 3 year old, for the first time ever. I realize that he IS a baby three year old, he just never acts like one.

He was not the only wackaloon though--Twister gave Madison her first real buck and he meant it. I am pretty sure that we got into some ground bees or something as Target was fine, then there was a good amount of time before Twister hit that spot, and just as he quit, Radar got set off. Fun times. I was so proud of Madison though, to do so well with her first one--she never grabbed the horn, she did not holler like a little girl like I do when that happens, and it did not ruin her ride. He pulled another stunt later, which flat pissed her off, and I was so proud of her for working through it--I know she was scared, but she would not admit it. I also knew full well that he was being a pecker head for the fun of it and not because he hurt--which is good news to me.
This is an example of the paths the hunting outfit put in--most are not like this of course, as most either edge a bean field or are through woods, but there were some areas like this. It made for a very pleasant ride, to work through the squirriliness most of us were having.

This is what 70% of that land looks like--it is in beans right now. This year, things were planted in a different pattern than they normally are--so had it been up to us to find a clear path to ride, we would have been in a world of hurt, I think--all our paths are covered up.
The hunting outfit cut trees and brush in a completely different pattern than we have ever ridden, so it was kind of interesting to see parts we had never seen before.

Isn't this a cool tree? It is all twisty. I swear I did nothing to this photo, it is just so thickly wooded in some parts of the property that there is not much color--just Radar's ears and some leaves.

As always when we ride back there, I wonder why I do not do it every day. Most people would love to have this at their fingertips and we do not even use it--it is silly. We may be able to get out after work a day or two this week, but then we have to get out til hunting season is over---but it will be there all winter and from now on--we have to take advantage of it. We rode two solid hours with no breaks and did not backtrack except in the rare occasion where we hit too steep of a cliff to traverse, or the brush got too thick.

Target's Debut

Target's first outing was this weekend, when we took him on our camping trip. I was really holding out that wearing him out in the woods would go a long way to gearing him down, but I did not really know what to expect from him regarding his willingness to handle obstacles, water, etc.

He was INCREDIBLE. He was excited when Barry first got in the saddle, but he did not act bad---just kind of trembled with excitement, and you could tell he really wanted to let loose and GO. The minute we hit the woods though, that was all gone, and he settled in easily to do anything he was asked to do. He climbed rocks, slid down hills, tromped through his first water crossing which was pretty much a big slab of rock with just a few inches of water running over it---I think that is the hardest kind of water crossing as it is slippery, and their depth perception cannot be good. He also crossed deep water, and water with rocks that moved and will scare many much more seasoned horses. I honestly cannot think of anything he had an issue with on the entire ride.

He does not like to get terribly far behind, or stand still while the rest of the crowd takes off, so there was some discussion there, but it truly was the only bobble. Many young horses are that way, so it is something that we will just have to work on.

He had good manners at the campsite too--he had never been on a picket line before, and he handled it beautifully. I thought that would be our downfall and he impressed me by not having a problem at all.

Because my powershot camera has gone straight to hell, my in the woods pictures totally suck. His post-ride bath on Saturday made for some good shots though, so here they are.
Isn't he a good looking young man? He will really be something in a few years and he thickens up, but he sure is a cutie now.
He loves to drink from the hose, who knew?
And enjoyed his sleep very much, thank you.

I cannot wait til next time!

The horses we took

Target's first laydown on a picket line. I have a thousand more pics of him so he will get his own post.
Twister. A new angle, his post-ride shower. I figure you have seen enough of him lately, I could skimp a little
This is Dirty and Logan. Dirty is 20, and Logan the bay, is 8. Note, Headley, you have made the blog again and I am not done with you yet.
This is Tumbleweed, or Weed, or quite often Dickweed. He belongs to Linda and Randy. This photo was taken the day before Weed and Amy had a run in with a big log that ended up with her knocked off and wacked by a hind foot. Bad Weed. She is okay but I imagine she is barely moving by now, once the soreness really set in. Non-fat people do not bounce like the rest of us
This is Ginger, the old kicking pony--she likes to jump stuff, and she looks like big Fonzie. She is a really nice pony, even with the kicking.
This is Spud, Adrianna's horse who is a mix of three things--she lent him to Diane, who is running the campground for her. He is a self-exercising feller who goes round and round where he is tied
Chinkapin, Adrianna's big money earning race horse she is going to make into a jumper, and jack of all trades. This is a nice nice horse who will also get his own post.
Fred, Jodi's gelding who was a very good boy who discovered a love for living on a picket line. He might even get one for himself to take to barrel races--which is his real job.
Radar---is he cute or what? I do not know how I stand it, I am telling you, he is so pretty.