Getting On With Life.

This morning when I let the horses out the first thing Trax did was go to Danny's pen.  At first I thought he was still looking for his friend.  Then I realized that he was just checking to see if there was any senior feed or hay cubes left laying around.

He has moved on, and so have I.

It is interesting to see how the herd dynamics change when you add or remove a horse, and my herd is no different.  Trax is gravitating towards Sassy, and she is enjoying the company.  Sassy "belongs" to Killian, everyone on the property knows that, but Sassy likes to play.  Killian does not play.

Ever.

Killian does not "do" friendship, or frolic, or fun.  He does food, and leadership, and "get away from my mare", if he thinks his authority is being challenged.

Trax loves to play, and now Sassy is his new playmate.  For some reason, Killian seems to be cool with Sassy being friends with Trax, I guess because Trax is the low horse.

No longer having Danny here, does make some things easier.  I no longer have to separate my herd for fear of someone getting hurt. This makes morning feeding time so simple.  I just let everyone out to graze.   I won't have to buy senior feed any more either.  Of course it doesn't mean I don't miss him, I'm just trying to focus on the bright side of things.

To keep myself from dwelling on being sad or depressed I dove into a project that I have been wanting to get done, actually a few of them, and was pleasantly surprised when Simon jumped in to help.  In fact he practically took over my big project and is doing a wonderful job with it.

We are building a fire pit in the back yard, so we can sit around a fire in the cooler evenings with friends.  I'm not sure why we want to do this, it isn't like we entertain a lot, but TC brought home a huge iron cone from a rock crushing plant, which we have set into the ground, and now we just need to get our paving stones laid around it.

I think it is going to look really cool when it is done.

Our other project was sort of an impromptu project.  TC is even worse about yard sales and estate sales than I am.  Yesterday as we drove into to town to dump our trailer full yard trash (tree limbs and such) we saw a couple of sales and ended up stopping on our way home.

One was right down the street from us, and I got a barely used wool fitted saddle pad, a brand new pair of shipping boots, and an extra large doggie door that had never been used, for 40 bucks.  We also got a couple of little things there for a very good price.

In Apache Junction there was another one. This was an actual estate sale. Everything in the house was for sale and the find of the week was this headboard.

Our bed sits atop a craftmatic adjustable base, which I love love love.  Because of this, a conventional bedroom set or frame will not work around it.  This head board just mounts to the wall and is exactly what we have been looking for.  It is custom made out of solid cedar.  The man who passed away had made it himself, and I was honored to be able to take it home.  65 dollars.

Then we went to one more which although they had some quality stuff the attitude of the people left such a sour taste in my mouth I was ready to go home and get back to the fire pit.

The last event of the day was Simon's championship football game.  They didn't win, but they put up a good fight and earned second place in their division.

So now it is on to my yard chores and hopefully some riding time today. I took Friday off to deal with Danny and now it is Sunday and I cannot believe how fast this weekend has flown by.  Oh, I also found out that on Dec 2nd I will be switching to second shift. 3:30 to midnight.  Since I'm usually in bed by 9 pm, this should be interesting, but on the bright side, I will have my mornings back again!

I do want to thank all of you who commented on my last 2 posts.  Your words helped me so much.

Have You Seen My Friend?

Hello nice Ladies, Trax here with a very important message.



My Friend is missing.


I was hoping maybe someone has seen him





Yesterday my lady came out late to give us our breakfast.  She seemed funny, and was making funny noises.
A little later the nice man hooked the truck up to the trailer and my friend, the old guy, got in.  I asked him where he was going, but he did not know.

I thought they were taking him to the pony doctor because he had told me that he had not been feeling well and that all his feet were hurting all the time.   Our lady is pretty good about getting us help for our owies when we need them.

I yelled to him as they drove away that it would be fine, that the lady would help him. And he yelled back that he would see me in a little bit and maybe we go go romp and play in the arena.

I finished my breakfast of icky grass hay, and waited for him to come home.

My lady and the nice man came home with the trailer. I called to my friend but he was not there.

I called again and again, but he was not there.

Then my lady put a saddle on me, so I thought he must have escaped and we were going to look for him, but we did not find him.  She made funny noises the whole time we were searching too.  I think she might be sick or something.

Here is a picture of me looking for him

Finally we headed home and I called again and again to see if he was back yet. After all it was dinner time, and Danny the old guy never misses a meal.   But he was not there.  I am very worried about his disappearance.

Here is a picture of my friend.  My lady took this before they left.  If you see him could you please call my lady on her little thingy that she always talks into.

 I miss my friend very much.

Saying Goodbye

This is by far the toughest post I have ever written. (it is 7:34 am right now)

Two days ago I was leading Danny from his pen to the arena to stretch his legs. The pasture is off limits due to irrigation, so all anyone is getting is some roll time in the arena while I clean pens.  But Danny was having trouble getting there.

He is weaving and bobbing (more than usual) not wanting to leave his pen, not being Danny at all.  His feet hurt.  I can see that they hurt.  His lower legs are warmer than usual.  It could be laminitis, caused from the senior feed he gets, although he is not over weight.  In fact he is thin, his hips are starting to sink in, his back bone is sticking out he is losing the muscle tone in his front which is what allows him to pull himself along.

What I see is a horse that is no longer happy, and with that in mind I made a decision. That decision will be carried out today.  I have spent the last 24 hours questioning if I am doing the right thing, but each time I go out and look at him, I feel like I am.

I keep trying to focus on the last 8 years of his life. 3 with my mom, and 5 with me.  He has been happy and well cared for.  He has been loved, and spoiled and enjoyed as a pasture ornament.  He was taken from a horrid environment and treated like the king.  I can take comfort in that.  He was my class clown, always making me laugh with his silly antics and big personality. I will miss him so much.

Danny was somebodies wonder horse at one time, and I am so glad that he was a part of my life.

A Brief Word on Alcoholism

We can lead them to the door of sobriety We can even agreee to walk through the door with them. But they have to be the ones to reach down, grab a hold of the knob and open the door. We cannot do it for them. If they choose not to, we have no choice but to walk away, leaving them standing at the door to wither and die. It is a hard reality. Yesterday I left someone I care about at that door. I hope she finds the strenght to open it before she kills herself. It is one of the hardest things I have ever done.

A super cool fnd

I'm starting to get over the whole "oh look a yard sale" thing, except once in a while when I get a good feeling about a certain neighborhood or the way the sign was made.

I had one of those feelings the other day out in Apache Junction, and this is what I found....

The gal ended up giving it to me, because we bought a few other things. They had some other stuff that I would like to go back for some day. This is one of those "everyday" yard sales. I just love this little pic. I wish I knew who this guy is.  Actually I'll bet I can find out. I will research it and share what I find.


We went to Casa Grande yesterday for Simon's football game where they won again, but boy howdy was it a close game.  So now it is on to the final championship game of the season.  They might actually win!

After the game we ran over to Stanfield. There is a company there that makes hay pellets rather than cubes.  I am addicted to the cubes, as are my horses, but the only cubes available around here are from Sacate, and they are just to expensive.  I bought a few sample bags to try out, to decide which blend I want to buy in bulk.  There are few different blends and I am unsure as to which one I want to use, or if I want to stick to just straight alfalfa. You will have to biggefy it to see my options.

I bought a bag of the Relieve, the Relax, and the Total.  The man who makes them recommended the total for older hard to keep horses, and the relax or the relieve for horses that don't get ridden everyday.  He also encouraged me to keep up with the grass hay.  He believes that even though there is the bermuda in some of the blends, having the true roughage is still paramount to intestinal health.  This morning I have Danny some Total mixed with his senior feed and the rest got some of the Relieve and then grass hay along side.  I'm introducing it slowly.  My concern is that they are all mixed with 7% corn.  I was under the impression that corn is not good for horses.  When I asked about that, he said that straight corn is very bad for them, a small amount is ok, and he cooks his first to make it even more digestible.

I will be sending some samples into our friend over at Dancing Donkey for a true analysis.

Just for the record, they seemed to love the stuff, but then my horses have never been picky eaters. Well except Danny, who refuses to eat the grass hay.  Luckily he will still graze so he is getting the forage needed.

I was hoping to get to ride today, but I don't think that will happen.  A friend just called who is in dire straights and needs me.  Sometimes ya just gotta go help. This is one of those times.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Talky Tuesday

Since I didn't say much about our trail ride on Sunday, I will talk a little bit about it now.  I mean it was pretty uneventful, so there isn't much to say except that I am addicted to wood stumps.  I don't know why.

I mean I do know why, but I don't know why I hang on to that addiction.  I want to go dig them up, but I know I do not have the physical capability that I had 15 years ago when that was my favorite past time, and supplement income.  Mostly though I just love the way they look. I love the odd formations these desert trees grow in.  I love the blooms in the spring, and the smell of fresh cut mesquite on a fire.

We are planning on adding a fire pit to our back yard for socializing around, I have a really cool plan worked out for it, and can't wait to get started on it.  Once it is done we will need firewood for it and there is a literal gold mind of already dead wood out there.  I think it will be a great exercise for the horses to have to drag some of it to the fence line to be loaded into a pick up. Especially Trax who seems to be reverting to his "OMG I'm afraid of rope" frame of mind again.   I have come to the conclusion that he might be faking it, to get out of working.  He learned that from Killian.

After our trail ride I took him out in the arena and attempted to work a little on some of the things that Charlie showed me.  I'm just not getting it, and there for neither is Trax.  I need to go for another open ride night, but football keeps getting in the way.  Once football is over I can try to go, although I was informed that about the first of Dec, I will be started on the 2nd shift, which means no more open ride night at all.

Later in the day on Sunday, we got Sassy out and put the old Circle Y roping saddle on her.  It used to fit her perfectly, now it doesn't.  Time to sell it, since I don't have a horse that can wear it anymore.  Still I left it one because I wasn't sure how she was going to react and if she was going to ruin a saddle I'd rather it be one I don't use.

My concerns were unfounded though, except for a funny look when we tightened the cinch she acted like she has been saddled every day of her life.

Good Girl.

We worked her in the round pen and at first she was really limping, but I kept her moving at a walk, and an occasional trot, and it actually seemed to get better.   In fact I know that it did.  Charlie did say that exercise is key to getting her healed.

Finally Simon asked to get up on her, I said okay because I knew that we were only going to walk.  I have a video of him riding.  Simon is not the best rider, but he is trying to learn.  I am trying to teach him the concept behind using his legs to steer.  I need to show him on Trax, so he can grasp it a little better.  I kept telling him to put his heels down and he couldn't. Then I realized that his stirrups were way to short.  So I fixed them. But then my camera was out of memory so I didn't get any video of him doing better.

He was riding her in a halter, and it wasn't until we were done that I remembered that I have a nice side pull that would work so much better on her.

For the most part she was totally relaxed, but then towards the end she kept wanting to stop and started pawing at the ground.  I told him to kick her forward because I was afraid she fixing to roll, so he did and she relented and kept walking. We worked on some turning but mostly it the session was about exercise and blood flow to the foot.

I wold like to ride her, but I am afraid that my extra weight would do harm to her feet.   I will say that she seems to be doing great on the right but that left is still the one giving her issue.

Here is a picture of her special shoes that Charlie has her in.  She has gel in between the wedge and her hoof.   She still walks toe first, I don't know how to change that.

Here is the video of him riding her, before I let out the stirrups.   Next time I will put a saddle on her that fits better.


A couple of weeks ago I was driving home through my neighborhood and saw CNJ out working her pony Kat.  We have texted back and forth several times but never actually met in person so I stopped for a minute.  She has the most adorable little girls I have ever seen!  We chatted for a minute but couldn't talk much due to to time.

 A little later I got a text that said, "My car is in the shop or we would go for a drive and I'd be happy to help with you learning to rasp hooves."

I thought, "Hmmmm, maybe she needs someone to talk to."  So I texted back the next morning and said I could pick her up.

She asked where we were going, I said, "My house I guess."  So then she said she would just come by when she went to get hay.

Now there is a reason why I am giving you the whole conversation.

When she stopped by she was all set to work on hooves, and I was in the middle of shampooing the rug my dog had thrown up on the night before and not prepared to work on hooves.

What we finally figured out and had a good laugh about is that she was talking about her cart, not her car being in the shop and taking a drive in the cart with Kat pulling us.  I thought she just needed to talk. So we ended up chatting for a while, I showed her my place, and then she went on to get her hay.

Moral of the story...sometimes an actual phone call is much better than texting!

Still it was great to meet her, and I am hoping that we can go riding together soon!

Er...Um....Silent Sunday????

Today I'll let the pictures do the talking.

(if you look through the eyes of a paint horse,
 you can see horse eating sharks swimming around out there)