My Impromptu Costume

I have not missed dressing up for Halloween in years.  But I went to the storage closet for my Halloween box and it is missing!  Argh! 
This is a true tragedy as there are years and years worth of cosutume pieces in that box. 
So I had to improvise this year.

 

This year I went with "Roxanne- Cowgirl Cougar"!!!

If you look closely at the window in the background you can see green walls...thats my office.  It is always summertime in my office!

More trip pics and "Why Blogging"

Here are some more pictures taken with my Sony Nex 5 Camera (which I love except that I need a better zoom lens for it)

Our Rig

I think these might be part of the Uinta Mountains

At our destination- I was blown away by their view.
  Wouldn't it be awesome to wake up to this every morning?

 They had 2 old labs and a couple of cats who were very friendly

but obviously did not want their picture taken

 

The start of the loading process- these curtain side vans are real handy

 

 Barrel Racers

 

 Here is Little Hippie again- so cute!

 

 One of the ponies for the grand kids

 

 I could not recall his name yesterday- but today "Jasper" comes to mind

 

Holy Hay Cubes Batman!!!!! 

 

All in all, even with the problems we had a good time, but then we usually do. There is something to be said for a man that you always have a good time with. Even when what you are doing wouldn't be considered "fun".

 

Tom doesn't understand why I do this blogging. He doesn't mind it but he doesn't "get it" either.  I don't have a lot of followers, which is ok.  I think it is really for me. Lately it seems as though my memory has more and more trouble functioning correctly.  (in really scary ways- sometimes) So maybe when my life is a fog I can come to my blog and look and read it all and hopefully remember.  Also I know that everything I post is out there forever now.  Maybe someday, after I'm long gone someone will run across it and say, "Hey, this is pretty cool. " (or maybe not)

 

One of the blogs I follow is the "old Picture of the day" which is really cool if you are a history buff like me.  But today he put an "embargo" on the pics because only one person commented yesterday.  Seriously????  It makes me wonder if he is blogging for recognition or because he enjoys what he is doing.  I enjoy his blog because he is preserving history. I thought that was his goal. I guess I was wrong.

 

I enjoy blogging, I love reading others blogs.  I comment sometimes, but sometimes I don't.  Even if I don't it doesn't mean I am not enjoying the blog.  It just means I did not have a comment for that particular post. Or perhaps it means that several others have already said what I was thinking, so why say it again?  Or maybe I just didn't have time..... Time is not something I have a lot of these days. 

 

 Just ask my poor unridden, unbrushed ponies!

The "14 Hour" Trip

So we headed off this weekend to lovely Lehi UT to buy hay cubes.  We decided it made sense to make the trip worth while, so we bought a semi load.  That way we have enough for us, plus our neighbor, and anyone else who may need some.
We lit out early Saturday morning.

Before we left Tom says to me, "I can't drive 14 hours straight, you are going to have to drive some." Normally I am fine with that, but this time we were in a Semi, which I have never driven.  My response was, "Absolutely not!"  Not only is it illegal, but I'm not that good of a driver anyway, there is no way he was going to put me behind the wheel of an 80,000 lb weapon, while he slept.  I told him I would buy him a hotel room instead and we would take our time and be much safer.

We stopped at a place in Rock Springs WY for brunch.  Obviously my reputation precedes me, because they put this sign up right before we got there.  I love the quarter pony rides!

When we pulled in to the place with the hay cubes I saw this guy and had to take his picture.  As soon as I saw him I thought of Andrea (Mustang Saga).  Now I will admit, this is not the first time I have seen donkey, but the first time I had taken the time to "meet" one.  I've been reading about George, Alan, and Lucy at the 7MSN ranch, and then Pedro and Bob at Mustang Saga, and have developed a new appreciation for these asses.  I can see now the fascination.  They are completely different personalities than horses.  Even the look in their eyes are different.

He was very friendly and I wish I could recall his name. But I enjoyed meeting him for sure!

This guy is" Hippie" He is a mini Donkey and what a little cutie he was.  They also had some ponies, and some gorgeous quarter horses. 
I have more pics but they are on the good camera which is at home. These were just my phone pics.

We had a wonderful time meeting Larry and Marilyn, who own the company "Dry Creek Shavings".  The sell pine shavings and haycubes. Their son Rusty came and loaded us up because Larry is in a cast and cannot run the loader. We also got to meet Rusty's family, who just got back from the local barrel races.

Here is Tom banding all the totes together.  Our trailer has curtain sides so we could not afford to have any totes tip and fall on the curtains. 
We ended up with 21 tons of haycubes which comes out to 22 totes. 
We weighed at the port of entry on the way in to UT so we knew exactly how many tons we could have and still be in the legal limit of 80,000 lbs. We came up with a total of about 300lbs under the limit.
About an hour later at the WY port of entry, they weighed us again....we were 1,000 lbs overweight!  The lady was convinced that we were from a big ranch and that we make our living off of hay cubes. 
She tried to sell us a permit to drive to Evanston to offload the 1000lbs of haycubes and then come back. 
She says, "Surely you must make some sort of profit off of your horses, why else would have them?"

She has obviously never owned a horse!

I laughed so hard at her comment I thought I was going to pee my pants. 

We finally convinced her that we are hobby horse owners and no profit was coming from this load of haycubes and let us off with a strong suggestion to unload some before we headed on.

We found a nice hotel in Evanston, spent the night, and got up the next morning ready to hit the road.

Tom went out to start the truck.....we had a flat!

We ended up driving with the flat an extra 30 miles to find a shop to change it for us. Which took 3 hours!

2 miles later...we had another!  Now we were out of spares.  We limped along at 60 mph while I texted Dan, Tom's top mechanic.  He grabbed the service truck and some tires and headed towards us.

We finally met up just outside of Rawlins.  Oops!  He brought spares for 10 hole wheels, the trailer has 8 hole wheels.

I took this through the side view mirror so I didn't get a tire iron thrown at me! 
This is Dan and Tom trying to get a tire mounted onto the correct rim with ether and a match.  The wind was blowing 50 mph.  They finally gave up and we limped the final 100 miles home short a tire. But we made it safe and sound!  48 hours after we started!

I was glad I had made the decision not to try and drive, otherwise we would have been dealing with flats in the middle of the night.  See...sometimes it pays to be a wussy!

Anyone need any haycubes?????

Morning Greetings

I am greeted every morning by four hungry beasts, and they each show me theirdispleasure at being late with their food (even if I'm not late) in different ways.


Sassy and Killian are in one pasture together.  They stand at the shed door and the minute any one walks out the front door, it is a full blown demanding whinny from Killian.  Then Sassy follows with her own little whinny.  If I walk over to the jeep to start it first, he whinnies even louder. 
When I come to the shed they back up to let me in, then both stick their heads in the door to try and snatch a bite.

Danny and Trax are in the other pasture.  This pasture has a shed with Two stalls attached, so they are separated at night.  There used to be walls between the feed shed and the stall, but Sassy and Killian chewed them down.  So now it is just open on two sides.  I have to stack the food up on the far side, or they will grab a bag of cubes and rip it open and help themselves!   Danny has a nice soft nicker when it is feeding time.  Then he stands and paws at the ground.  Here he is sticking his head in to watch me scoop his food. He can actually get quite pushy, so I have to make him wait just to remind him who is in charge. 

 

Trax paces when he is hungry.  I tried to get a pic of him in the shed but this was all I could get.  Nice butt though!

 

Yep still pacing!!!  He still looks funny after I butchered his mane to get the bot eggs out.

 

 

He looks chubby to me, but I really think it is because of his winter coat.  It comes in so thick.  Doesn't he look like his mouth is stitched together? 

 



 



A close up of his "stitches"

 

 

See how thick his coat is?  It is thicker than any of the others.  Not like Cushings thick, just Wyoming Cow pony thick. It is soft too.  I love his hair.  I love my horse.  I actually got to work with him for a few minutes on Sunday.  We did very little, just some moving of body parts, gait transitions and moving him sideways in both directions.  Ground work, didn't have time to ride. But I was very pleased with how well he moved sideways away from me, crossing his legs, and moving softly, not running from me, just doing as I asked.  I think the next time I ride, it will be good.  I just hope it isn't a month from now. 

Trax was becoming very standoffish again in the big pasture.  Moving him back to the stalls has turned that around in just a week.  When left to his own demise he becomes a solitary soul.  But when forced to interact, he seems to enjoy it. 

Yesterday when Simon and I went out to feed, the Arabians next door were running around like crazy. Danny and Trax followed suit and it was fun to watch them, even Danny, race around the pasture.  Danny really seemed to be enjoying himself.  He doesn't run much anymore.  I really think the stretching exercises help him.

With any luck I will have some time on Sunday to take the two of them down to the arena.  I would like to put a short ride on Danny and work with Trax on his Ranch Horse Skills.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

This was the sunrise this morning.  I took this with my Iphone and have not edited it.
I am amazed at the sky lately!  

It actually was cooler through the lens than in person.  My phone usually doesn't do well with low light but this turned out wonderful!

Some pics of the weekend

It was a pretty productive weekend- we got quit a bit done on the barn.

The beginnings of stall dividers

Danny Supervising

Trax is very interested in something, not sure what.

 The sky was cool on Friday

 

 Simon at the gun range shooting his new hunting rifle

 

 More cool sky

 

 Not every one cares for the windmills but I think they look cool here

 

 Sassy Says:  Hey Lady, did you fall down?

 

 Killian Says: Hey Sassy, look at this crazy lady!

 

 Sassy Says: I don't know what she is doing, do you? 

 

I love our view of the mountain.

 

Some Friends came over and their daughter wanted to go for a ride. Her name is Rachel.  She wants to learn how to, so I put her up on Killian and taught her how to use her legs to turn

  as well as the reins. 

 See that smile on her face!!

 

Look how well he takes care of a small child. 

I wish I had pictures of her leading him back to his pasture.  He watched her so closely to make sure he did not step on her.  Stopping when she stopped and then backing up if she backed up.

Killian is worth his weight in gold!



Blind Mare Finds A home

For the few of you of follow my blog, you may recall the "Pink Eye" scare and the guy Randy, in Riverton, who ended up with a mare who is now blind in one eye. His vet said that his horses got it from my horse Killian, who was there for a week. (remember the "trade" I did because I thought I needed a better horse for ranch competitions?)(yea- stupid move on my part)

We still, of course, have no idea if it really was from my horse, as none of my horses every had to be treated for this condition. (One of these days I will share the vast knowledge I obtained while researching the various different forms of pink eye)

ANYWAY..... you also might recall that Randy told me he was sending this mare, that he just spent a thousand dollars on training for, off the the slaughter house. He said, "No body wants a blind horse." I was devastated, and considering buying her myself....well except that I am over the legal limit of horses on my property. But I was really torn on what to do about this, so I decided to wait and see how it all played out.

I just got off the phone with Randy, I asked about his mare, and he told me that he found a good home for her. He had mentioned his plans for her to some other people, and they said, "Don't do that, we have one blind horse already, and he is great! We will take her." So he gave her away to a loving home. YAY!!!!


This is the only pic I have of her- this is her good eye
I do not know her name
He always just called her the little black mare

Now I have learned much from this whole experience:

1. Follow your gut- guts never lie.
2.The grass is not greener over there- its a mirage!
3.Just because someone tells you they take good care of their horses, doesn't mean that they do.
4.Some people lie to get what they want
5. Most vets do not do enough research on things they don't know much about. (and will not admit it)
6.WY may be the "Cowboy State", but most of the cowboys I've met are not so nice to their animals.
7.If you think you need a better horse, try looking in your own back yard.
8.If you think you need a better horse, maybe the problem is the rider, not the horse.
9.Wyoming really is 20 years behind the rest of the world.
10.Bot flies look like bees.

That's it................. my wisdom for today.

Sunrise and big surprise!

One thing about the fall, we sure get some nice sunrises.

This one is rather plain compared to some...but I liked it.


My next pic has nothing to do with horses...except for maybe horsepower.....

Tom called me the other day and said "Happy Birthday"  But I already had the picture hanging on my wall so I wasn't sure what he was talking about.
Yesterday he came and got me and we went and picked up this....

I'm going to go with...BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER!!!

It needs a little work in the steering, but nothing too bad.  I had been driving past it and and mooning over it for weeks.  I have a gazillion pick ups at my disposal to drive, but sometimes in town they are not practical. Parking lots seem to get smaller and smaller. This thing turns like a well trained cutting horse!  I am pretty excited about it, totally blown away, and I say once again...Tom is a good good man!

Butt Comparison

When I took those pics the other day of Sassy trying to get me to follow her down to the food, I was noticing that her butt is almost as big as Bricksters was. 
I always said that the two could be sisters, so lets do a comparison.....

This is Brickster

And here is Sassy.  I just took this two days ago

Well Sassy is not quite as big, but I think Bricks was also a little bit over weight.   Sassy is also a full 10 years younger and not truly mature yet.

If we are looking at butts lets look at one more

Killian has the most gorgeous tail of all my horses.  It is so long and thick. 

Birthday gift

My birthday is coming up in a week or so and Tom decided to shop early and he bought me this.

I am an artwork junkie, if horses or dogs or western anything are the subject it is a bonus!
There is a copy of this up in the Sportsman Warehouse store here in town.  I have always loved/hated it.  (I will get to that explanation I promise)  It was presented as some sort of award to them.  I have searched for a copy but could never find one.  Then recently a copy was brought in for sale at the store.  I didn't have the money for it myself, but I went in often and looked it.  THAT is why he bought if for me, so I didn't have to go into the store to see it.   It is hanging in my office at work now.

It is titled "Pull It One More Mile"

I hate that it depicts how horses have been treated less than nicely in the past.  It hurts me, and makes me sad.  I wonder how long that big strong guy was able to work as hard as he is in this picture?

At the same time I love it because it shows how extraordinary horses are.  They give and give to us. This horse is giving his all to pull (I assume a mine cart)  It reminds me how horses have been with us for centuries, often doing our dirty work for us, giving us their all. They have been under appreciated for so long, and it is up to people like us to change that.

 I wonder if this horses owner appreciated how hard he worked. Did he take him into the stable at night and make sure he was ok, giving him food and talking to him?  Its hard to say, because although he is pulling more than he should have to be, he also looks to be healthy and well cared for. Of course in those times, horses were tools, not pets. So the mindset of horse owners was different I think.

I am curious what sort of emotions you feel when you look at this picture?

How to get nothing accomplished in one day.

Well first you get up and then get coffee.  You snuggle up in the recliner with your coffee and doze off till 8 am or so.  Then you get up and throw some clothes on with the best intentions of what you plan on doing that day.  (in my case, work on the barn)  Then you make 15 trips to the hardware store, along with one trip to the auto parts store, two trips to the daughter in laws house to get back the sawsall that was borrowed 6 months ago and never returned, a lunch stop, and of course a quick stop in the used car lot because they have a Jeep Wrangler that caught your eye.  Better go ahead and take it for a test drive, that way you can torment yourself on whether or not you should buy it if it you don't really need it, you just want it.
Once all of that is done you can finally come home and drive 3 screws into the siding, before calling it a day.
Yep, that is how you waste an entire day!

I did get a couple of cool pics though.

This is my neighbors Arabian Attan

And his brother Smoke (they aren't really brothers but 

they think they are)

Killian says "I don't care if it is 2 hours early for feeding time- I'm here and you should feed me!"

 

 

 

Sassy walked back and forth from the little barn 5 times trying to get me to follow her down to feed them

Hey Lady, the food is this way- are you coming?

Danny Says..."Um that's my dinner you are sitting on!"

We only have one more trip (hat we know of ) that we have to make to Home depot. Then we should really be able to get down to business on this barn tomorrow......tee hee!