Been a While

OK did you get enough of her yet? I sure have not. I love this filly. Also have a small video. Don't mind me yelling at her, she is getting a little brave in testing fences and it is stressing me out. Little turkey. It is like she likes getting me upset. I also can not believe how big she is getting.

Cricket Video and a little update

Yeah the video finally posted. Look at this little snot, running right towards me. This is her idea of a joke. Dad says till she does not turn one day, then I will have an America's Funniest Home Videos Video. I only stood there to get the full effect of her little game, I do not usually let her do this to me. She got her first "real" lesson with me on this day. I made her walk on the lead like a real horse, not just however she wanted to. And she was expected to stop and stand still when I stopped. She got quite the little sweat going on. I also introduced her to a sheet. I bought her a blanket so I want her to wear it of course, so gotta start somewhere. She can be a handful, but she is so smart and sweet she will straighten up. She is only 5 months old. She is soooo dirty. I really wanted to give her a bath also, but I did not. It gets too cold once the sun goes down and I was worried about her not being dry by that time. Oh yeah forgot to mention. Notice her head shaking. She seems to only do this with the halter on as I have not notice her do it in her stall. I do not want this to end up being a learned habit. I need to stop it, but don't know what to do about it. I was trying to check her ears and I stuck my fingers all the way down her ears, she just stood there. I think she liked it. I got gross black stuff on my fingers. So any ideas?


One still shot to see that cute little butt of hers. This was the second time I trusted to turn her out in the arena. I was worried she would run through the fence. She could but she has no desire to yet. I also try to be careful about turning horses out in the arena for fun time, because a day will come when the arena is not just fun time, but work time. I have had wrecks because a horse thought it was play time instead of work time.

A guy came out to look at my palomino yearling today, but he is worried that she is too short for him. I told him on the phone she is little, but her brother was a late bloomer. I expect the same for her. She was so sweet though. Just did what he asked, nothing more, nothing less. I brought this filly to my house on Saturday and she just seemed a little off. Could not really pen point it. Thought maybe a little colicky, but was not giving very many signs. Was not into her Stratagy, which she has never gotten before, and really did not like the oat hay. This morning I go out to feed and her poop looks like it has chocolate chips in it. I get a sandwich bag and pick up a handful and they are little black rocks. No idea where these came from. She has not been on DG, it was really strange looking. But I think she is getting back on track now. Started her on Syllium this morning with her Stratagy. Hopefully she gets her energy back soon. She has already put on a little weight, which is why I started the Stratagy to begin with. She looked horrible this weekend at the sale. Nicks all over from the other mare, underweight, she looked like and orphan. She got here, got dewormed and pushed the feed to her, all at the same time she was trying to colic on me and I did not even notice it was colic. Boy I am lucky sometimes.

Horse Facts

WHAT DO YOU DO ...
To induce labor in a mare?
Take a nap.

To cure equine constipation?
Load them in a clean trailer.

To cure equine insomnia?
Show them in a halter class.

To get a horse to wash their own feet?
Clean the water trough and fill it with fresh water.

To get a mare to come in heat?
Take her to a show.

To make sure that a mare has that beautiful, perfectly marked foal you always wanted?
Sell her before she foals.

To get a show horse to set up perfect and really stretch?
Get him out late at night or anytime no one is around to see him.

To induce a cold snap in the weather? Clip a horse.

To make it rain?
Mow a field of hay.

To make a small fortune in the horse business?
Start with a large one.

Cricket the Cutter

When I went to feed for my parents this weekend I noticed Cricket has some dark spots on her. I am not sure what is going on unless it is her way of bringing in her winter coat. I told myself to take a camera when I went back that evening but of course I forgot it. And boy was Cricket full of herself last night. I then remembered that I had a camera on my phone. I got some shots of the dark spots, but then I was able to get a really cool picture of her cutting me. It was actually a fluke. I was chasing her, she turned and came towards me. As she spun I clicket the camera, then realized she was coming at me so I jumped and still got this great shot. She had her eye on me the whole time. Just look at those eyes.

Why do I let things get to me so bad?

OK why do I have to be so dang sensitive? Sometimes I hate my personality. I have always been more of a follower than a leader, but something has come up at work that I have to stand my ground even though I am standing alone. Next week is Boss's Day and the office manager suggested that we dress up as gang bangers like our students. Now here we are fighting these students everyday to not were "their" colors and now we are going to dress like them, throw signs, take a picture of this and give it to our boss? I just don't get it. So I told the office manager that I do not agree with this. I do not want to glorify the gangs. She tells me we are making fun of them, like that is OK. Now this gift that we give our boss he can not display it in his office. Can you imagine the response if our students or parents saw it. I think we would lose some respect that we have worked hard to get. So after work today she tells me that even if I do not want to dress out that is OK but they want me in the picture. I feel so strongly against it I don't want anything to do with this project. I will not be in it at all. Now the only person that agrees with me is our campus probation officer, but did she speak up for me, nope. I am so darn stressed about all this. I really do not want to go to work tomorrow, but I can not hide from it, but I will go home after work and have nothing to do with the picture.

My fingers are crossed again

Well Saturday morning my family went out to look at a house. It is 2.46 acres, decent size mobile home, 30X40 shop, and a huge, wonderful landscaped yard. Oh I just loved the setting. When we got there the current owners said they had an offer the night before but had not looked at it yet so did not knoe if they were going to except it. We looked at the house and I immediately wanted it. So our agent, really a good friend, worked some numbers to let us know what we needed to sell our house for and how much we would have to put down on a new house.

Today we found out that the offer was not excepted and we still have a chance. We have an idea what we need to sell our place for. So last week we told our neighbor that we may be moving, and this evening she told Frank that her daughter would like to look at our house on Sunday! Oh that would be so awsome if we could really sell it that fast and get that other place. So everyone needs to be praying for us all at once and it could happen. Now I feel like oh crap I really need to clean this place up. I just do not know where to start.

I will keep you all up to date.

Mares and their foals

Ok as promised I am posting the mares with the foals they have had for me. The bay mare has had three and the grulla mare only had one for me.

San Lasan

Feb 2006 "Glory" Sold at 6 weeks old. She is 2 weeks old in this picture. Sorry about the mud on her face.


















Glory a little older. She was weaned at 4 months and gone right after that.

Apachedansmst Dawn

Tuf Lady Liberty "Liberty" Feb 2004
On breed lease and training for exchange. Will be home next August.













Smokey Mountn Majesty "King" March 2005
Sold to a 14 year old girl and she was riding him within a month of buying him. While I had him he had only carried a saddle and I sat on him bareback once. This was taken the day after he was gelded. Sire is a grandson to Just Plain Colonel who is by Colonel Freckles.






Jessa Mst Of Hope "Hope" April 2006
Sold this year to a very excited lady. This picture was taken as a yearling and you know we love those yearling shots, so out of wack.

What a difference

Ok these pictures really do not show how bad this mare really looked. I thought she looked like death. Pictures below were taken today. She was immediately started on Nutrena's Safe Choice, but is now on Purina's Stratagy. She is also back in foal as we discussed yesterday, but only just under 5 months. So I am happy with the way she is looking. She does still need muscling, but that is probably not gonna happen as she does not get ridden. We are now working on selling our house and buying another place that is 2.5 acres. We will have more room to make better pastures and more room to run. We are first waiting to hear about a new job for Frank. They said they wanted him, gave him an offer on pay per hour, but said they would email the other info like 401k, health insurance and that good stuff. I really wish they would hurry up and do it so that we can decide what to do. We do have plans to see this house on Staurday. It is right around the corner from the friend of mine that does all the AIing for us. That is also where my sister's stud is standing next year. She also does our ultrasounds for free. Now she is not a vet and sometimes we do need a second opinion, but for the most part she can do it all. That will be nice.

Expecting next year

Well I am expecting 3 foals next year. May only get 2. The first two are bred to sister's smokey grulla tobiano, Lil Bit. He is tested homozygous for black. Mare one is a grulla tobiano, so her foal will be black. Then add any of the following modifiers, dun (making a grulla), creme (making a smokey black or smokey grulla), and tobiano (possibly even homozygous). The other is a bay tobiano. Her possibilities are bay, dun, buckskin/dunskin, slight chance of grulla or smokey black. She has never been tested, but I suspect her to be homozygous Agouti, so that is why I say slight chance of grulla/smokey black. Her baby is the one that is like waiting for Christmas day. So many options. Also adding, on the tobiano. If the grulla mare has a homozygous tobiano filly I plan on keeping that one for my paint. I will sell all other paints. The bay mare is for sale and really would like to sell her before she foals since that is her only real selling point.
The other mare I am not sure what I am going to do with. She is the crippled sorrel overo. She is in foal (? to be rechecked soon) to a perlino QH. The sire of the two palominos I had/have. I only have one now. Her leg looks to be getting worse and I am really worried about her being able to get around, and even lay down to deliver. It looks like it is about to snap at the hock. I may have a vet look at her, maybe x-ray, and give me her opinion. If she thinks it seems to be as bad as it looks I will put her down. If she has already lost the foal I will put her down. I gave her a chance at life and if she can not handle it then the fair thing to do is let her go. She is so young, but crippled.

This is a VERY dirty picture of JB the stud. That is my hand on his nose, we were trying to get pictures but he just wanted some scratching. He was in a huge pasture and was following me around.

One Month ago today

Well I had a little available time so I went out and played with Cricket. The first thing I noticed was she has quite the belly. So I thought I would let her run. I put her in the round pen. I keep using the round pen because she can not get out of it and it has sand. But it is too small for her to be able to stretch so I put her in a dry lot. The ground is very hard and lots of rocks, but she did not hurt herself. So I decided I should go get the camera since today is the one month anniversary that I bought her. And of course when I got back outside with the camera she was done running. So I chased her a little and just got a bunch of pictures of her wondering around. She is also getting a little confident and getting a little of that yearling attitude, and she is only 4 and a half months old! After she got to run a little I took her out for a walk. I took her to the back porch and asked her to walk on the spa deck and back off, to give her confidence of backing out of the horse trailer. She got on pretty good and walked across it very nicely. Then on the other side she kept wanting to walk directly behind me. I hate this with young, unpredictable horses, because if they spook or get a wild hair they run over you. So we fought a little about her being next to me not behind me. Then one more pass over the spa deck and off again. Now we are heading towards the barn and she thought she would run, of course I said I don't think so, and she hit the end of the lead rope and stopped her in her tracks. At least she responds quickly to pressure, and not fight it. She did make me work at making her walk to the barn. I should have made her walk past her stall, but I am not real sure her intentions were to just get back to her stall. I just think she is getting a little confident. I still would really like to pony her as I have two mares that will not put up with non-sense.

Wachee pictures

Here are some of the picture of me and Wachee. I did not find any drill pictures that really show him yet. I found one of the first four leaders, carring flags, but it is hard to see Wachee. So here are the others. Now remember these are very old pictures of me. The hair is hideous in most of them. And damn I was skinny.


Gymkhana. Don't know his age here, but in his 20's.







Wachee giving kisses. He was quite the kisser.











One of my senior pictures with Wachee






Another senior picture with Wachee










Another of gymkhana at the ripe ole' age of 23 years old, Wachee not me.




Wrangler going for a ride with me. This was my first Queensland.





Wachee at the age of 27, and still holding his at gymkhana




My sister and I traded horses when Wachee was 21 & 22 years old. Both years they won the saddle in their age group, 13 and under. I think she was one of the youngest competing then.
He was 100% retired at the age of 30 due to his hips being unstable.

Nothing much around here

I don't like to not write to many days in a row. So I am doing my check in today. not much is happening around here. I have been working on my website, which I have not done in some time, and making flyers for two horses I would really like to sell. There is a ranch sale in a couple weeks, like 3 I think, and it would be really nice if I could sell one or both of these girls. I have my eye on a mare I would love to add to my herd. I don't know why I am so attached to her already. I have not seen her in person, but will probably make time to go see her next week. And get this, she is very close to me. Wow what a concept, buying a horse I do not have to be on the road at least one day to get. Ok so two of my current horses I also got locally, but still we usually travel for our horses. Today my mind has been fixated on selling a horse and buying a horse. I could probably convince husband we need this mare, and we could afford the price tag, it is just the idea of my numbers adding up again. Right now I am at 3 broodmares, a yearling, a weanling, and the pony. I would really like to sell one broodmare and the yearling. I have had a couple emails on the yearling. Only one sounded like a serious potential buyer, but she is in the same boat I am, need to sell one to buy one.

On another note I did find a bunch of pictures of Wachee. I also found the pictures of one of my litters of piglets, oh they are so cute, and a super cute picture of my sister at the age of 6 showing her old horse english. When we bought the horse we also bought his tiny english saddle. Now we were new horse owners and new nothing about english, but it was a cheap saddle.
Borrowed clothes and threw her in a ring. She looked like she knew what she was doing. I believe it was a walk/jog class.

Darcy and Mr Tator. He was her first horse and we bought him at the ripe ole age of 21. What a wonderful horse he was.











My first litter of piglets. The mama's name was Kanga. This contraption was a portable birthing barn. Sorry the technical name just escaped me. It has been many years since I have bred piggies. Kanga weighed a wopping 600lbs.





The piggies ready to wean out for a daily romp.

Have I told you ....

Have I told you all lately how much I love my filly. I went out to the barn just to check on my Stratagy level and of course had to play with Cricket. She was begging for attention. So I gave her lots of scratching. She was getting a little pushy, but I would puch her off of me and she would listen. She had a little sparkle in her eye like she wanted to play, so I went outside of her pen and ran and she chased me. With each run she would get a little more wound up. Several nice spins and a couple nice stops. She would let me get a head start, then take off and pass me. My dad was watching us and he announces "she wins". Yeah she does have a little more speed than I do. I guess I just never had a foal that wanted to be with me. I had a few older mares and my one gleding I talked about last night that would follow me everywhere, but no babies.

I just know that this little girl is going to be so much fun.

A memorial for Wachee

This is a plaque I bought while on my trip to get Cricket. I will mount it on a wall with pictures of me and my first horse, Watchee. It has been 2 years I think since we put him down and I cried as I read this. I just could not walk out of that store without it. I hope you all can read it, it is sad, as I know we have all been throught this, or will unfortunately have to go through this sometime, but it is worth reading. I will put my senior picture that was taken with him, a drill picture and a barrel racing picture for sure. I don't have any of him on this computer, but when I get some scanned I will share those also. And maybe even a shot of the finished wall.

Pictures

I had some down time just waiting for my parents to get home with my kids so I went to the barn and started playing with Cricket. Took her out and led her around, got a brush, the camera, and just practice doing basics. Walk, on different types of grounds, stand quietly, back, turn. Nothing too stressfull. Then decided to try and get pictures. Parents got home and mom helped with this part. The top of her rump is black. Her sire gets very dark when he is shedding, that is what it reminded me of. She is also VERY dirty. But here are a bunch of pictures anyway. Also took her to the round pen and let her play a bit. Also notice her cute little newly trimmed up feet.