Mudfest

Another 8-Week Trim

My farrier has an eagle-eye when it comes to hoof health, and I hate to hear that anything is wrong with my horses' hooves, so I try to keep them clean with just the right amount of conditioning.  Sometimes he comes and says that my horses' hooves are too hard and dry, and they are ruining his tools.  Other times he comes and says that the gunk I put on the hooves to condition them is ruining his

One Man's Trash...

...is another horse's treasure.






We've had some trash laying around right on the property line between us and our neighbor to the south since we moved in over a year ago.  I thought the trash was on my neighbor's property, which is why I didn't clean it up.  I didn't want to trespass.  Yesterday I finally went over there and cleaned up everything on the edge of his property.  I was going to

Waterfalls, Floods and Mud

On Sunday we had a rainstorm, and my husband noticed waterfalls pouring down the mountain behind our house.  It was difficult to get good pictures with all the clouds.  We looked at the waterfalls through a telescope and realized just how dangerous it would be to be hiking up there when a rainstorm hits.  The lines from the water look small here, but through a telescope we could see that they

Riding Rock

My husband was hoping to take a trail ride with me today, but despite the lower temperatures, the humidity was so intense that it felt really uncomfortable outside.  So, instead he took Rock for a quick spin in the round pen.  I have given him lessons on tacking up before, so I stood back and directed, giving him hints on what to do next.  Watching someone who has never bridled a horse before try

Got It

As promised:

It's a Dog's Life

I leave a dog bowl full of water out for whatever creatures need it.  I've seen all kinds of birds, ground squirrels, and bunnies drinking out of it.  I keep a rock in it so that the baby quail won't drown.  Today I saw the bunnies scatter, and this fellow found their watering hole:

Recycling, Screw Ups, and the Two Sides of a Rock

So far the barn chore reminder list hasn't gone so well.  The first day I completely forgot to read it, and forgot to take the ointments from the house to the barn even though they were right by the door.  The second day I remembered the ointments, but overslept and did not have the time to read the list.  Of course, the point of the list is to save time, but I was more worried about getting back

Trying to Out-Smart my own Lousy Memory

If someone told me that more than one year after moving I would still be trying to work out a barn management routine that is efficient, I wouldn't have believed them.  I think most people who keep horses on their own land, unless they recently moved, are already set in their routines and don't face many issues on a day-to-day basis.  They probably don't remember all the problems that popped up

A Strange Place to Lay Eggs

A Post with Pictures

I spared you the pictures of blood and guts this past miserable week, and now I've got some happy pictures for you.  First off, this was Bombay's predicament yesterday:



Rock somehow managed to rip one fly mask ear cover off Bombay's ear.  And this was Lostine's predicament yesterday, brought to you by Rock and Bombay:



A dripping wet fly mask just fished out of the water trough.

And then

A Day of Boom Booms in the Life of Midge

This morning I found flies trying to burrow into Bombay's face wound, so I tied him to the trailer and washed it really well with Betadine, dried it, and sprayed it with AluSpray.  Some neighbor kept shooting a gun at 5:30 in the morning while I was trying to treat Bombay's wound.  My horse jumped at the gunshots and I was afraid he was going to stomp on my foot or knock me down, so I yelled out

Book Review: NAKED LIBERTY by Carolyn Resnick

"Naked Liberty" by Carolyn Resnick is an enchanting memoir covering her younger years of growing up around both wild and domesticated horses, and entails what she learned from them that has shaped her horsemanship philosophy.  Resnick was gifted with parents who had complete confidence in her, her horses, and her ability to handle anything as a child out in the desert on horseback alone for hours

More Blood and Broken Stuff

There are times when the horses wear me out to the point where I try to choose my own health over them.  "Try" being the operative word.

The fly mask ripping got so out of control that they destroyed 3 fly masks in one 24 hour period and slashed up their faces pretty good in the process.  Bombay actually has proud flesh on his cheek and probably needs surgery to remove it.  He's had so many

What's Working

Though the geldings are still on their destructive streak shredding everything they can get their teeth into, costing me money and driving me batty, there are a few adjustments I've made that have been working.  The first is that as long as I lock Rock up in his stall at night, there are no more injuries or blood spilled come morning.  I still have to put Bombay in timeout in a stall throughout

Steaming

The title of this post reflects the intensity of the heat and humidity outside, my mood, and that life has just been one big pile of steaming manure lately.  I was naively hoping that if I sat really still and did nothing, then nothing bad would happen, nothing would get broken, there'd be no more injuries, and I would be in a more meditative state and have the presence of mind to handle one task