Saturday

When my telephone does not work, I don't have a computer because I have dial up. Sorry but thats how it is. Last night when I sat down here I discovered I could not get on line and when I went and checked we had no telephone either. That happens when it gets really wet.

This morning bright and early we went out to Centerplace to McKinley Equine customer appreciation day. A vet talked first about composting manure, shavings ect. into horse bedding. That sounds interesting. Bob is going to look into it. Each horse generates an incredible amout of manure in a year. I think 10,000# per horse. She also advises feeding your horses every 2 hrs. Not happening here. She recomends automatic feeders but they are pretty spendy. She writes books now about horse management

Also Dr. Bob Peters spoke about dentistry in horses and I learned ALOT. He was very entertaining as well as informative. He talked about a horse with a mishapen tooth that grew wide as well as outward and the baby tooth was still under it. He had to open her jaw and use a chisel and a mallet to remove the tooth. It sounded alwful but the poor horse had been in pain when she went to the trainer and of course that did not go well. He has to do some more surgery on her mouth soon. He had pictures and exrays.

Then we broke up into groups, One on emergency treatment till the vet gets there - one on colic, one on shots and one with the purina rep about feeding. It was interesting and informative. I did not get to the one on shots but did the other 3. Time ran out.

We had a nice light lunch/brunch type refreshments, all coffee and water you wanted. Lots of door prizes but we didn't win any. It was a good day. We stopped at Big R for some Sr. Allegra and some dog food and we ended up with some other things. Who can go to Big R and only get just what you went for?

Yesterday I went to a baby shower for the mother of our soon to be 4th. great grandchild. If the ultra sound is incorrect and this is a boy instead of a girl, he will look pretty in pink or she will have to return alot of things. Baby is due about the 20th. Like most first time mama's she thinks the baby will come early but its not usually what happens. It was good to see our grandson Robby. It has been a really long time and that has made me sad. He is the son of our son who died 6 years ago the 16th. of this month. Today would have been his 48th. birthday. We miss you Scotty.

Barbara at the Serenity room is giving away a book. I didn't win the Valentines Day prize, but I would like to win the book. Here's my entry Barbara. You are so generous.

I made reservations in Albany for the Horse Expo. I hope Cathy Johnson can go with me but if not, me and myself will go. I am excited. Not only to watch the Extreme Mustang Makeover but Craig Cameron and the Extreme Trail Challenge. Plus all the vendors and all the other clinicians. I am leaving March 19th. and coming home the 22nd. Its my exchange for not getting to go to Mississippi this year. No way can we afford that. So I am sad about that but glad for going to Albany.

See you tomorrow, God willing.

Thursday the 5th.

Sunshine and nothing bad happened. I went out and played with Dixie and Ditto for a while. They were having fun and so was I. They ran laps around the barn playing keep away. It was a good day.

The people with the chicken eatin dogs, happened to be friends down the road will make it right and the dogs are tied up. If they are caught loose, they will be incarcerated permanently. One of the hens that survived is the oldest hen we have. She probably doesn't even lay any more. She is blind in one eye and has a funny leg so she limps around. She got that way in the first dog attack we had several years ago and she got away. We thought she would die but she lived to survive an attack of a wild critter for life two. She disappeared that time and we thought she was dead but after a few days came hobbling out. Now she survived another. I was so glad to see her. We call her Lucky.

Bob calls our place the funny farm because of the funny animals we have. The horses each have their own personalities, the donkey is a clown, the goat thinks he is King Tut or something like that. His name is Oliver. We have the gimpy chicken and Pretty Boy the rooster with no tail left. He is embarrased.

Tomorrow I am going to a baby shower for the mama of our next great granchild. She is due to be born in about 3 weeks. It will be fun to have a tiny baby around again.

I just looked at the calendar and my oldest, bestest friend's birthday is tomorrow. She and I have been friends since we were 4 I think. Her name is Louise and she lives in Denton, TX. I will have to remember to call her.

Wednesday

Do you ever feel like you are in the middle of a black cloud hanging over you. One thing after another - nothing good. Or an attack from some evil force? We are in that place.

This morning, before I got up, and Bob had left for work, he got a call on his cell phone from a friend who lives down the road a ways and told Bob that a big black dog came out of our driveway with a dead chicken in his mouth. Bob called me and I went out to check and there were dead chickens all over the place. I saw the dogs, they were there with the chickens and I yelled at them and they took off. I got a little hysterical and called Bob back. I went walking down the road to see if I could see where they lived maybe. They were in the field next door. I came in and called Animal Control.

They sent an officer out, she took pictures and we saw the dogs next door just watching us. She went and caught one but could not catch the other one. He is still at loose. We think we know where he lives. Bob will go take care of it when he gets home. We have 15 hens and one rooster. We now have a rooster with no tail feathers and 5 hens. All traumatized and feathers all over the place. Makes me sick and MAD. If a coyote or some other wild animals gets them, they take them for food, don't usually kill for the fun of killing. These dogs did that. Just killed. If I could have gotten close enough I would have shot them but couldn't.

So thats been my day. Not fun.

Our horses are better. Even Rusty ate this morning. I put our horses out for the day. They are not 100% but well on their way. It took Ditto a long time to eat her breakfast but she ate it all and so did Rusty. The other two seem to be pretty normal this morning. That is a huge relief to me. I want to ride soooooooooooooooooooo bad. It is still too icey though except on the road and I don't like riding on the road.

Tomorrow Barbara of Serenity Room is drawing for her Valentine giveaway. Go and make a comment and you will be in her drawing.

Tuesday

Well after a night of watching the horses. Dixie in particular gasping, they all made it thru the night. Pepper was pretty much himself by midnight, Dixie started her turn around about 7 or so this morning, Ditto later this afternoon and Rusty still had not eaten at 5 but was up and moving around. She got another dose of Banamine.

Dr. Porter called about 4:30 today with the blood work results. Nothing in particular showed up. We are quite sure there was something poisenous in the bale of hay that got fed yesterday morning. They could not pin point it though. If she had not tubed the 2 mares they would probably have died. That flushed their systems and got it out before anymore got absorbed. So this evening they got some grain and a little hay that we knew was OK. Tomorrow we start them back on regular diet and watch them like hawks. The three in the barn will get to go out tomorrow though. Dixie and Pepper wanted to today.

If Rusty is not chipper tomorrow she will have to come and due some more checking. I am sure she will be though. For a barely gentled mustang she was wonderful about shots and all that the vet did last night.

We had fed about 2 tons of the very same hay and this one bale was bad. It makes us leary. We have bought hay from the same guy from the same fields for the past 6 or 8 years. Cannot imagine.

Anyway we all survived. I got very little sleep, Bob got less and bed will be very welcome tonight.

Today is our oldest son's birthday. We almost forgot to call him. Bless his heart.

This is the last week of Serenity Room blog give away. Its a great give away. Worth looking at.

Thanks everyone for your concern.

Not a good day

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Four of our horses are really sick and the vet does not know if Ditto and Dixie will pull thru it. Pepper seemed better this evening and Rusty is so so. At least she stayed on her feet. We have not an idea for sure what is the matter except they eat the same hay and the pasture horses eat another hay. They do not have good gut sounds, Ditto had barely any. Dixie's were not good either. They all four had blood drawn, and Ditto and Dixie got tubed, and all 4 got Banamine shots. As sick as Dixie is she had to sedate her but Ditto is so sick she just stood there and let the vet stick the tube down her nose. So $815.00 later we still don't know if the two mares will make it or not. they were fine yesterday but did not eat this morning. Dr. Porter thinks there was something toxic in that bale of hay but its gone so she could not take a sample of it.

Thanks loads for your good thoughts and prayers. I will keep you updated. Bob is taking the first stretch in the barn and I will do about 1 or so for the rest of the night.

My Dixie Chick

This picture was taken by Romona at BLM at the Odessa Adoption last spring. Not many adopted but we sure fun riding. I had not ridden Dixie in several months and she was like a rocket ready to launch at any moment. Actually it was the first time I had ridden her outside the arena and about her 3rd. ride in 3 years. I ponied her behind Pepper one day and the next I rode her. She got a tumble weed in her tail and we did some real spins. FAST. I thought I was going off but didn't.

I rode her then next Memorial Day and she was full of it for the first halt an hour but then was great. She relaxed and just walked along the trail. It was great the rest of that summer. She is a great trail horse. Her big deal is she is quite herd boud and does not like to go out by herself.

The people who I got her from had rescued her. See the mark on her nose when she had a halter grow into her nose. I thought she might be a little shy with her head but she isn't. She is really good. How could somebody do that?

They gave me Dixie because I had my dream horse, Star. A big grulla mustang mare - I loved her and she took me anywhere I wanted to go. She did not like to go at any speed but a walk and that was fine with me. We rode all over that summer - up in the mountains of Montana, Idaho and WAS. We were up on Hoodoo Pass which is between Montanta and Idaho at about 8,000 feet. We were riding up a quite steep trail. We got up it OK and rode around up on top and started down and she started make a funny noise with every step. I got off and she was limping. I walked the several miles back and untacked her and took her to drink. She walked out into the middle of the cold mountain creek and stood there for most of an hour. The rest of the group rode for the next two days and Star and I lounged around camp. We got home and the next day I took her to the vet. He exrayed her front legs and the bones were nearly deteriorated from arthritis. they could have collapsed at any time. I cried two days, went to Leavenworth to meet our daughter and she was put down and buried before I got back. I just could not be here but Bob was.

So, our friends in Back Country Horsemen felt sorry for me and about 4 months later they gave me Dixie. A small horse in a plain brown wrapper that I could get on from the ground. Star was 15h2 and Dixie is 14h1.

This was my first ride on Dixie. It was 2 weeks after I had the stroke. I was so ticked off at my body and so ticked off being confined to rest ect. Bob was not sure about it but he lunged her and worked her from the ground before he would let me get on. She was fine and I felt much better after being in the outside and on a horse again.

Last night Katie and I went to the awards banquet for the Northeast Zone. She kept thinking next year that will be me. Bob and I our placques for miles rode. We did not get near as many as other years because all of Bob's accidents left summer.

I think I might do Raven tomorrow. I will have to see what pictures I can find. Hope this not boring to anyone. I am enjoying chronicleing our horses, how we got them and how much we love them.

Dixie is darling and other than being full of energy she is a great partner.

Yuma, our clown

About 20 years ago I went to a horse auction in Couer d'Alene with a friend. They sold the run thru horses/equines first. A donkey that could not seem to lift her head all the way up walked in walked straight over to where I sat in the first row and looked right into my eyes. What could I do but buy her, and I did for 15.00. We named her Canary and we had her for a long time. She did not like having her feet done but you could do anything else with her. One time we had the vet out for one thing or another and he looked at her and said she was about 40. The next year She could not get up. We had picked her up several times but this time she did not want to any more. The vet came and put her down. I missed her so bad. We loved her and I wanted another donkey so bad. So about 8 or 10 years ago there was a horse/burro adoption at the fair grounds. It was Mothers Day weekend. So my gift for Mothers day was this cute little donkey about 6 months old. He had been gathered in the Yuma, AZ area so consequently we named him Yuma.

He was the easiest critter to gentle. In 3 days I was leading him all over the place. We had a mutual love fest. He loved us, we loved him. He is a real clown. No matter what time of the day, evening, night we get home he hollers at us. When we go down to feed he starts hee-hawing at us when we go out the back door.

He loves attention. He will come and put his head under your arm for a hug. He has had a pack saddle on but we have never tried to put anything on it. Bob has sat on him with no halter and just hung on while Yuma ambles around. But other than that he is just a pet. He thinks he is head honcho but isn't. When the other horses are out in the pasture he sneaks up for a treat of oats. He is the first to get a horse candy when we go out.

His only bad thing is he does not tolerate dogs. He did stomp on a little dog we had a few years ago and killed Shane. I wanted to do something bad to him but we didn't. I just make sure they stay out of the pasture. He is very protective of his area. Our friend Andrea would take him if we ever wanted to give him to someone but thats not going to happen any time soon.

This evening is our Northeast Zone awards banquet. I won't be getting any awards but will be giveing the Sportsmanship award to a worthy person. I did the shopping for some of the awards and took them out to the people setting up. Katie is going with me. It is always a fun evening.

Loved the sun today even if it was cold and windy. If it has to be cold and windy, I like the sun to shine.