Happy Fourth of July

I can't get my picture to download today. I get so irritated with my computer.

We went this evening into Spokane for the fireworks and it was beautiful as always. We walked around for a while and then found us a spot and just relaxed for a while. A fun evening for Bob and I and Tyler.

Sierra did her trotting this morning and we worked on side passing. That is not coming as easy as some of the other things. Both ends don't work at the same time. We worked on whoa too. She only seems to think that works when we are leading or she is free lunging in the round pen. I want her to know it means anytime. Tomorrow is another day.

July 3

The picture is when Sierra followed me up onto the front porch and played with my poodle Skeeter thru the bottom of the door.

Another hot day and I just did not have it in me to do too much with Sierra today. I did put her in the round pen for her half an hour of trotting. She did not object. I have 5 poles in there about 5 strides apart and she rarely clicks them. When she does I speed her up a little and tell her to pick up her feet. We practiced whoa mostly. Some days it is excellent but some days not so much. 6 weeks to get it all down. Did let her out to eat for an hour while I cleaned her stall and rebedded it and then just watched her. I just leave the lead rope on her and turn her loose in the yard. If I put her in a pen she paces and gets upset so I just let her free range for a while. She never goes far from where she can see me and is happy. She is eating her grain just fine now. She is getting a supplement to help her with weight gain, a scoop of ground flax seed, a coffee can of oats and 2 1/2# of soaked beet pulp topped with a vitamin mix. She gets a can of oats in the morning and then the concoction at night. She seems to be putting on a little weight. I know she needs to compete in the conditioning phase. She seems to like it all.

Had a little disaster this evening. Katie came out to ride Abby and Abby decided to be a total jerk, ran away with her in the arena. She rode the running fine but when she made an abrupt stop Katie came off and landed on her back. She is kind of a timid rider anyway but was making progress. Don't know what got into Abby. She spooks at stuff. Katie tried to pull her ahead around but she just bowed her neck and would not give. It will be back in the round pen and work on some of these things. This was the first time we have let her go out and ride without one of us being there. We were eating. Her parents are going to be so upset. Very protective and this will be difficult. She was OK, just her back hurt.

We have a small pasture full of young goats. One is ours, the rest there to help eat the weeds. I went out to check their water this evening. One of the little guys had his head stuck in the fence. Its a field fence and he has little horns

Another thunder boomer is headed out way. As dry as it is, fires are always a problem.

Wednesday

A good day overall. It is still hot - probably till Sept.- I promise I am not complaining. I worked with Sierra this morning. She got sweaty again and doesn't like it. She is a princess. I lounged her to get some muscle on her yearling body. Bob has some sacks full of shavings tied together and I put them over her back and she just looked at them. Took a bite at one of them but did not do anything. She did not mind the purple noodles flopping in the breeze and had a time with the big green ball trying to smell it and have it move. Did some work without the lead on her and she did very well. Bob was duly impressed but I really think he is prejudiced though. He thinks all I do is wonderful. That makes me very happy of course. I hope the judges in Reno think so too.

Katie came out and rode Abby today. Since we gave Abby to her she has come more often and is riding much better. She is a sweet girl.

Bob talked to Ramona in Burns today and we have another horse coming when we come back from Reno. A 3 year old filly. I have not seen her. Andi does not have room so I hope that Ramona can find a place to stow her till we can get there. He better think of a name for her. Tracey calls her Tank but I would go for something a little more feminine. Bob will come up with something I am sure. He named Pepper and Abby.

I wonder why my pictures went across the top. I wanted the one on the right to be down further on the page. Oh well, at list it printed.

Thunder storms

Last night I did not write because a number of thunder boomers came by and I had to turn my computer off. It makes me nervous to have it on with lightening striking all around us. That is the one part of summer I HATE. It scares me spitless.

I think the up coming storms are what convinced Sierra last night that she could leap out of the round pen. She worked herself into a sweat and she didn't like that either. God forbid that my princess sweat. She never has tried to leap out, not even the first day but she did last night. We just kept trotting until she settled down but we were both sweating. I put the biggest bouncy ball I could find a Walmart in with her and 6 purple pool noodles. Neither of the caused her more than a glance. She pushed the ball around some. I bounced it and bounced it off of her all over including her face. Not a reaction at all. I waved noodles all over and she just looked so am feeling good about that. We also worked on the side pass. She is doing much better. 2 or three steps of good. Now if both ends would do good at the same time we would have it made.

Totally off the mustang thoughts, our 14 month old great granddaughter fell off her Mommy's bed in the middle of the night and broke her arm. She usually sleeps with mommy until Dad gets home from work about 2 AM. She was so sad and pathetic looking. We went back in the evening and she will be ready to go home this morning. Her name is Lilianna.

I am going to try to add a picture of Sierra trying to get thru the front screen door from the front porch. Bob took the picture. She wanted in. She is a funny girl.

Well, I finally got a picture to upload. Yay for me. I will try to get some pictures that Bob took of Sierra on the front porch trying to get thru the screen door tomorrow. She was really funny. She will follow me anywhere.

A fun day

Worked Sierra 3 times today even with the unbearable heat. The first time was 8 this AM so it was nice out and then let her out to eat for an hour while I cleaned her stall. It was about 100 out so not fun. Then this evening we went to the arena to work on the trail stuff. She does pretty well on all of that. She is side passing both ways pretty good. Still not trotting with me but will when Bob kisses behind her. We will keep working on that.

I tried to upload a picture but don't know if it worked or not. Will keep working on that too.

Bob found out today that he is going to get a 3 strikes horse from Burns. A cute 3 year old filly, not quite 14 hands. He wanted her at the Pasco adoption but she was not a 3 strikes horse then but went to Albany and did not get adopted so now she is. But we got really good news and Nick was adopted. He worried me because he is so shy. He is at home in Salem, Oregon. Fostering is tough because you get attatched to them. It is going to be so hard to let Sierra go but I will. Tears I am sure. Have poured so much of myself into her.

One hot Sunday

It was 105 today. Not a good day to be outside from noon on.

We met some friends this morning at 7:30 AM at Riverside State Park and went for about a 10 mile ride mostly in the canyon. It was not too hot there. We were up on top of the area for a little while and watched about 9 turkey buzzards soring around and sitting in the tall snags. They are pretty ugly birds but it was fun to watch them. We also watched an osprey feeding her youngsters. Then down along the river. I had never ridden Dixie where there were a lot of bicycles so I walked her along the Centennial Trail. Of course no bikes while we walked. Then went down to the river and let the horses drink and play in the water. We only had one bridge to cross and then back up the trail thru the trees. And guess what happened in the middle of the bridge - a bike came soaring down at us. He slowed way down and Dixie just looked, no spook. I would want to know how she does when one came up behind her but did not have to worry about that. Got home about 11:30 and BBQ'd burgers but we ate in our cool house.

I worked Sierra about 15 minutes but it was just too hot. Sooooooo I gave her a good wash off. She didn't seem to mind too much. I will go back out in about an hour and do some more. Maybe even 2 hrs. It is still 95. I promised I would not complain about heat when we had months of snow. And I am not just is too hot to work outside.