Liebster Award

Beckz of I Will Jump Sweet Jumps blog awarded my with the Liebster Blog Award.  I want to thank her for that.  I began blogging in 2007, and though everything about the blog world has been changing, I still enjoy it.  If anything, blogging has helped me develop a thicker skin.  I remember that within a few hours of publishing my first post, a comment appeared that was essentially along the lines

Working Out a New Feeding Routine

Because of all my injuries, minor as they may be, and because of the heat and because the horses are so anxious with the pecking order going to hell with a new horse in the mix, I knew I had to kind of start my own "Scared Straight" program for both the horses' and my sanity.  Several things happened to change all around the same time and the old feeding routine was no longer working.

First off,

How I Sprained My Thumb...

...on the opposite hand that I sprained my index finger on last week.

Let me begin by saying that there are two projects that I have been working on for years and I would like nothing more than to be able to finish them.  One is the novel I am writing while the other is a king-sized bed quilt I have been making.  I had some spare time and decided to work on the quilt while thinking about the

Gettin' It Done

We had another day of bearable temperatures and a nice breeze, so I talked with P.S. about taking a trail ride.  She had been looking forward to taking Gabbrielle out on the trails, and I was considering taking Rock on the trails, but since both horses were the least experienced with our routines and the location, we had to take one of the more experienced horses.  There was also the logistics of

Boys in a Locker Room

I had another crazy morning with all kinds of hassles and unexpected problems coming my way, so when I alerted on the fact that the "boys" were face-biting again, I grumbled in frustration.  When I'm running around trying to get stuff done, the last thing I need is to have to race down to the barn to discipline rowdy horses.  I bought them a new Jolly Ball last week and within an hour they had it

First Ride on Rock in New Saddle

Doesn't he have such a silly face?



The round pen looks huge from this angle.



Obviously, the stirrup length wasn't a problem.  I'm thinking I could go a notch lower, but then I'll be laying my heels into his belly instead of his sides.  We should have bought a bigger horse.



There doesn't seem to be that much of a difference between a 16" seat and a 17" seat.  I guess I'll just have to

Special Delivery

I ordered Rock's saddle at the end of May and found out that it had been back-ordered.  After a couple of weeks I called to ask whether the wait would be a matter of days, weeks or months, because if it was going to take too long, I would order something else.  The customer service rep told me it would be shipped within the next two days.  I called five days later to ask for the tracking number,

June Trail Ride

I thought I was done with trail rides until September or October when the nights begin to cool down enough for us to have cool mornings, but yesterday I came home from Scrappy's vet appointment and realized that between a cooler temperature and nice breeze, I could probably go on a trail ride.  BUT FIRST I had some things to do, and by the time I got out to the barn half an hour later it felt

What's Up With Rock?

With the various hassles and fiascoes happening in my life lately, I know I've neglected to report on Rock's progress as a new member of the herd.  The majority of the work I have done with him, between fighting "floods" and trying to learn how to fix or replace things faster than they can break, has involved teaching Rock manners.  When he first came here, he appeared to be very calm, stoic

Stick a Fork in Me

Alrighty.  Who made the voodoo doll of me and is sticking forks in it?  So, I walked outside to find that someone bit Rock and took a chunk out of his side.  The wound was covered in flies and they were crawling under his skin.  More vet work from me.  Lots of Betadine and Swat.  Can you believe that one of the local horse supply stores has never heard of Swat and doesn't stock it?  The guy tried

Unplanned Kitchen Remodel

While some of our blogger friends have been evacuating their homes thanks to a fast moving fire in Colorado, I've been watching an army of men tear my kitchen apart thanks to water damage.  It's amazing what one little leak under the sink can do to your entire house before you even get a clue that something is amiss.  We're going to need all new cabinetry, all new drywall, and probably new

Expansion

My husband installed a round pen on the unused portion of our property this weekend.  He first dug out all the bushes and rocks, spread some manure, and then dragged the area with a harrow.  We were able to nab the last gate and panels for cheap, because they were a mish-mash of 10' and 12' panels, some with chain hookups and some with peg hookups.  We figured it didn't matter.  We're not

Dog and Herd Updates

Scrappy is turning out to be the best dog patient in the world.  He makes my job of nursing him back to health so easy.  He eats everything I put in front of him, including cheese balls that thinly disguise pain pills and antibiotics, without spitting out the pills.  He happily wolfs down his anti-inflammatory liquid tainted dog food and doesn't complain about the funny taste.  I find it amazing

Post-Op

Scrappy survived the anesthesia.  It will be about a week before we know the results of the biopsy on that sore on his leg.  He came out of surgery with 12 less teeth.  I knew he'd have to get some teeth extracted, but it didn't occur to me that he would need to be on soft food for a while.  It's obvious, but I've been so busy chasing the horses around, working on Bombay's leg wounds, getting

I Smell Bad

This was one of those days when I purposefully didn't have anything on my calendar beyond taking the trash to the curb.  I purposefully wore no make up, and I purposefully dressed like crap in spandex pants.  This was going to be my lazy day to avoid going out into public.  Boy, was I surprised when a strange man knocked on my back door.

I stared at him from the couch in shock thinking Arizonans

Coming Along

On Sunday I tried a different approach to integrating Rock with the herd.  I found that though Lostine accepted him and had no aggressive behaviors toward him, he had this tendency to snowplow her, which annoyed her and caused her stress.  Rock is like a big dog.  He makes a beeline for the horse's butt, sticks his nose in there, and pushes the horse around from behind.  Of course, no one likes

Turnout Results

This morning I let Rock out with the rest of the herd under my supervision.  Just like the little boy he is, he exuberantly trotted across the paddock to join the other horses and Gabbrielle quickly put him in his place by chasing him off.  Rock walked to the far side of the paddock and laid down.  Everything was cool until he woke up and tried approaching the herd again.  Once again Gabbrielle