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If you were to walk by our house on any given night [after the animals are taken care of], this is pretty much what you’d hear:
Bait could kick Bob's butt any day, any time
Foo Man Chu is way better than Bob
What do zombies do for entertainment? This kind of thinking causes me to lose sleep.
And then the unmistakable strains of Ms. Pac Man start up.
Much to my dismay, Bill was right ... I can't plug this into my laptop.
Last night Bill noticed that Short had two rather large mosquito bites on her flank so he drug out the bug zapper and hung it up. Traveller hates the bug zapper. I mean HATES it. It’s not the zapping noise that bothers him, it’s the light itself. Poor Trav actually left his food and paced around the back end of his stall incessantly. Bill actually had to move his food to the back of the stall so Trav would eat.
Bug Zapper of Doom
We waited around to see how the “wild” mustangs would handle the zapping noise, but we didn’t get the comic book bug-eyed expression we expected. Oolong crow hopped the first two or three times and then settled down and ignored it. Short had absolutely no reaction, nor did the rest of the horses.
We’d take the bug zapper down so Traveller can calm down, but last year Oolong looked like she had chicken pox because of the mosquito bites she acquired while being boarded. The ranch owner told me that mosquitoes have a tendency to be drawn to the buckskins and duns as opposed the bays or darker colors. She also told me that mosquito bites don’t affect horses like they do humans [it doesn't itch as much], but I can’t think it’s comfortable to be bitten repeatedly. So, the dreaded zapper stays up for a few weeks. Poor Traveller might need a horsie shrink by then.
As an aside, some of the bugs we get out here are actually too large to fit through the bars of the zapper. Yeah, that’s comforting ain’t it?
Thought I’d explain why the round ring is up for sale – we’re moving! We signed the paperwork Saturday and are moving a whopping 2 miles from our current location. I know, sounds silly, doesn’t it? The new place has a gorgeous horse facility built in, completely finished, and is available right now.
We’d been trying to buy the property we’re at for a year now, but the owners don’t want to sell, so we started to look around last week. We came across this property on Tuesday and by Saturday we’d made a deal and signed the paperwork. It’s the first time ever that Bill and I agreed on a property/house. The new location has a beautiful 60 ft. round ring and a clean riding pen, as well as stalls with automatic waterers and overhead misters for our precious horses. The people that owned this house loved their horses, and it shows. They built all of the wood fencing, stables, and tack shed by hand so it all matches and it’s exceptionally well made, and the riding area has plenty of lights so we can ride at night with no worries.
We’re in the process of packing, so our posts might get spotty over the next month. I’ll apologize now. This doesn’t mean that we won’t be working with our horses though, so I’ll probably fill ya’ll in at least once or twice a week. Unfortunately for you, it means I’ll be rambling on [as usual] and generating long posts. *snickers*
We’re off to work with Short and Oolong on saddling, so I’m sure they’ll be a picture or two shortly. Here’s two from yesterday’s saddle blanket lessons …
ShortFuse says: "Dad, do I have to wear this thing again?"
Oo was ticked because Short had “her” blanket, and she made it known that she wanted nothing to do with the dark green blanket [which, incidentally, I purchased for her because I thought she'd look good in green]. She gave me a really hard time – I don’t know, maybe it really was because of the color. The training blanket from Mexico is a sky blue and her normal blanket is light grey with an aztec print, so maybe the green really did throw her [or maybe she's just acting like a three year old].
Oo says: "Green is SO not my color"
We have a round pen we purchased about two months ago, but have decided to sell [more on the reason why tomorrow]. So we listed it on Craig’s List and Bill tried to describe it as honestly as possible because he’s such a nice guy. We’ve had three people call on it, and two come out and take a look at it, and I’ve come to the conclusion that horse people are different from “normal” people.
A gentleman called me last night about the pen, and I gave him directions to come take a look at it. He and his wife drove by while I was in the house, and they called me to let me know that the round pen was exactly like Bill described it … it was just too light weight for their big horse. It was so nice of them to call me back – they didn’t have to, and yet it was so polite of them to do so!
Then I had another person from our valley call and ask if he could come take a look at the fencing in 20 minutes. He showed up in 18 minutes. Who does that?! I was amazed. Unfortunately, he wanted to use the round pen to hold bulls. The fencing is great for mustangs – it’s not so good for long-horn steer. He called his brother-in-law [a fellow horse owner] and told him to stop by on his way home from work. He said he would pay for it if his brother-in-law wanted it because it was a great price. I come in contact with some truly nice people!
I had another gentleman call me from work. We spent 30 minutes talking about horse related things and I learned a thing or two … I love learning new facts about horses! I didn’t think the round pen would be a fit for his horse, and I gave him honest reasons why because I didn’t want him to make a 45 minute drive [one way] and see that it wouldn’t work for him. He seemed genuinely appreciative. We’re not in this to make a quick dollar … we really want to make sure the new owner is happy with their purchase.
So, we still have the round pen. Which I guess is ok. I have a tendency to anthropomorphize [give inanimate objects "human" emotions/feelings] and I believe that this little round ring is waiting for someone who really needs it, just like it found me when I was on the verge of sending Oolong off to a trainer because I felt like I couldn’t reach her and she deserved someone smarter/better equipped/more experienced to handle her. I was at the pinnacle of my doubts in my horsemanship skills when our neighbors sold us the round pen. Bill worked my Oolie in it for an hour and waa-laa! I’ve got a different horse and a chance to really work with her now.
In the meantime, I was fortunate enough to meet/talk to some exceptionally polite people. When we’ve sold items in the past, we seemed to get quite a few people who would call and ask questions that Bill had already answered in the ad then be upset because Bill’s answer’s didn’t change; or they would get directions and say they’d be by at 3:00 pm, so we’d sit around the house and wait until 6:00 pm - just when we decided they weren’t coming they’d call again and say they were on the way, so we sat around for another two hours before giving up; or sometimes I’d get someone who would call me once a day and ask about the item, seem very interested, ask me to hold it for them until their payday on Friday, and then never call back or show up. Yep, horse people are definitely different – and I like them!
Look at those ears!
Sirius held still for a moment so we grabbed a quick picture.
Bill and ShortFuse say hello!
Sundance says hello!
I realized we hadn’t put pictures of Sundance up since she first arrived at our home, so I grabbed a few while she was prancing around.
Did someone say "treat"?
Treats? Where?!
Thursday is usually bucket scrubbing day, but since neither Bill nor I slept well last night we agreed to forgo buckets today. We decided that it would be a great day to go home, have dinner, and curl up in the bed with our respective books. Sounds delightful, doesn’t it?
Yeah, and then we got home and realized that the horses had other plans. We pulled up to see Sundance and ShortFuse wandering around the front yard. No telling how long they’d been out, but as soon as we pulled up they sauntered over to their stall and stepped inside nonchalantly. Smartie pants.
Bill had covered the hay with a tarp this morning so at most they ate one flake. The senior feed and rice bran were easily accessible though…fortunately there was only about 1/3 of each left so I don’t think we need to worry too much about them foundering, but we’re keeping an eye on it.
We let the others out so they could run around and taunt Short and Sundance; they’re really good at showing off when someone else is still penned.
I was scrubbing water buckets when I heard Traveller snorting in fury around the back of the house. I hustled to see what the issue was and noted the fact that the neighbors behind us had purchased two horses. One of their horses must have been a stallion/gelding because Traveller was establishing dominance and shielding Kessie from the other horses’ view. Oh yippy … I had to separate the two overgrown egos. I pushed Traveller until he moved to the far end of the pen, and since the neighbor’s horse couldn’t walk that far everything settled down rather quickly.
Back to scrubbing buckets for me, all the while wondering where my plans for a cozy evening on the bed went. I mucked out three stalls and put feed in everyone’s stall. Then I let the four wanderers in, and wonder of wonder, they actually put themselves away in their proper stalls with no fuss.
We might still get a chapter or two read if we hustle … hold a good thought for us!
Well, there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot exciting today, unless you count getting home from work! Amber reminded me today that I hadn’t captured any of photos of little Sirius Black growing up!
Well, there’s a lot of truth to that. Truth be told, puppies and kittens grow so quickly you just don’t notice it until it’s too late. While not nearly full size, Sirius has grown to about 2/3 of my oldest friend Justice’s size! It is incredible how fast he sprung up. He’s entered the nutty stage, just tearing around chewing everything!
Almost all of our dogs are in the “senior” years of their lives. Justice is my oldest. She’s roughly 14 years old or so, and has always been the bedrock of our pack of animals. I could write a book on all her dorky exploits, and Amber could go on for hours about losing one shoe from each pair, etc etc.
But she has begun to lose a step or two in her walk, and sometimes it takes nothing short of hollering to wake her up at times.. hence why we adopted Sirius. She has been mentoring him patiently, showing him her old tricks, and hasn’t lost her temper too many times.
So the other day when we were feeding the herd, Sirius and Justice jumped on a trailer and were goofin in the hay. (Much to Amber’s protesting that it cost too much to be scattered everywhere *grin). Of course she was right, but it still made for a couple funny pictures I thought I would share with everyone….
P.S. Check out Sirius’s goofy ears!
Until next time….
Here's My Butt
I really think Bill getting Oolong to “join-up”/”hook-on” [whatever term you want to use] was a powerful turning point. She’s far more amiable lately and when I’m working with her I can tell that she’s really trying hard to figure out what I’m asking of her. I still get the “here’s my butt” stance when she is introduced to something new, but if I point at her hips she’ll disengage them and turn to “face up.” She still snorts marbles at new experiences or new objects, but she’s learning to stand and face the item. That’s a vast improvement from running to the far end of the stall and snorting marbles at me over her shoulder, then making me move her all around the stall before I could attempt to touch her with the object.
Scary Saddle
So today’s lesson in something new was the scary saddle. I set it on the dreaded pickle bucket and tied up the stirrups after I removed the cinch. She eyed it, but didn’t seem all that worried about it.
Saddle on!
Since she had no reaction to the foreign object I decided to put it on her. You see how worried she was … she continued eating. I was trying to hurry up and take the picture before she could move and have the saddle slip off her, so it’s a bit blurry. I put it on and off three more times with absolutely no reaction. So I decided to push it by putting the blanket and saddle on at the same time.
Saddle and Blanket
This was getting rather anticlimactic. I got the cinch and touched her with it, which sparked some uncomfortableness from her. She moved off before I could grab the saddle off her back, but she didn’t go far so I snitched it as she walked by. I decided to leave the cinch for another day. I spent a bit more time with the blanket and saddle, but it was refreshingly easy. Kudos to Bill for his hard work with her!
Just an odd random thought I had this morning: Why is it that when I am wearing a button down shirt and dribble toothpaste it always lands between the second and third button? I mean, why can’t it land on my shirttail?
Ok, anyways …
Bill and I went for a ride this evening. A very short ride, but a ride nonetheless. Then we spent some time with our mustangs, Oolong and Shortfuse. Short has been hesitant about the saddle blanket the last few times Bill worked with her, so he saddled Sundance up while she was standing in Short’s stall tonight. This really seemed to help Short see that the blanket is nothing to sweat.
Oo’s been watching me saddle up Starfish three times a week so she’s beginning to think it’s just par for the course. I took Oo for a walk around the property with the blanket on and pushed her to a trot a few times. When the blanket would slip too far to one side she’d snort marbles at me and stop walking until I fixed the blanket. It was her normal dinner time and she couldn’t see any of the other horses because they were in the front yard while she was behind the house, yet she handled herself admirably.
Oo and her training blanket
On a side note, my shoulder is still achy but by Wednesday it’ll be just a memory. I certainly can’t complain about a little shoulder pain when I read a story about an 83 year old woman who still rides … I mean, she probably has aches and pains just getting out of bed let alone tacking and riding [I shudder to think about a horse Traveller's size stepping on her toes]. Bill’s been watching me like a hawk to make sure I don’t over do it [I have a tendancy to do silly things like that] which is probably why I only got a 15 minute ride in this evening. He knows how much I enjoy it, but he wants to make sure I give my shoulder a chance to heal.
PS – Still no paperwork for Oolong. Hold a good thought for me that it will arrive tomorrow.
