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.

Well today was the day

As I was getting ready to leave mom's this afternoon my ferrier pulls up. Oops I had the wrong day for trimming. So Cricket got her first trimming today. She was OK. After I wrapped the lead rope around the panels so that I had a little more strength to hold her still, she learned faster. She had about two good pull backs then stood like a broke horse, even fell asleep. Even my ferrier made a comment about what cute little feet she has. All we did today was the ponies, and Cricket. At least one pony is about 14 hands, but the other three we did Cricket is the tallest. I really wish I had my camera on me just to get a picture of him trimming Zach's pony. She is so stinkin' tiny, it was funny. She was pretty good for a little pony off the reservation. So all in all Cricket gave the most fight. (As expected) So today Cricket got a mini tying lesson and feet worked with. I got a bicycle inter tube yesterday, from my bike, and I plan on trying that with Cricket for tying, even though today she did fine with out any give. We shall see, but I really want her tying out well soon so that I can take her to some gymkhanas with Zach. Also I have a few friends that ride at a covered arena on Thurdays and can take her to tie out and pony.

Well a short post, but wanted you all to know that today was a big day for Cricket. Sorry no pictures the camera was in the car. Besides Brian would have throughly harrassed me for taking pictures.

Been MIA

Sorry I have not been around much this weekend. I was swamped. Friday night we had to drive to LAX to pick up my aunt who was coming home from Hawaii. Last year her husband decided he wanted a divorce and left. She had no idea what was wrong, besides he was spreading lies about her. Of course those close to my aunt knew they were lies. So now she had this huge house for just her and her dog. This dog was her beloved best friend. My aunt carried this 60lb dog upstairs everynight because Lindsay could no longer make the trek on her own. She was also affected by the dog food recall. So while she was in Hawaii Lindsay had to be put to sleep. She stopped eating, drinking, and no longer go up at all. So her best friend took her in and the vet talked to my aunt telling her there was absolutely nothing he could do for her. So my aunt did not want to go home to an empty house so we stayed the weekend with her. It was weird walking into that big house with no dog. My aunt is a work a holic. She has said that the only reason she came home when she did many times was to take care of Lindsay. So now I am worried about her. I understand not wanting another dog, but I almost think it would be good for her. She does live in So CA. She could use something to be a deterant for a break in or something horrible. So we had a good but busy weekend with family. Saturday my aunt went to work so we went to this huge tack store that was having their annual sale, where you get a free 4 qt bucket just for walking in the door. They have hourly prizes, where we won a nice tan halter with the leather overlay, and a lead rope. Did not buy anything for Cricket, but mainly because I was not sure what size blanket I should get. Then we went to visit one of Frank's sisters and her family and the kids had a wonderful time playing with their cousins. From there we went to another one of my aunts house and had dinner while visiting with my cousin, and his wife, and again my boys playing with another cousin. With only getting about 5 hours sleep the night before, and then playing very hard all day with cousins, they were wiped out. And another long day. On Sunday they slept in a little, which Zach never does. We then went and visited one of Frank's brothers and got to meet our newest nephew, he is the newest for now anyway, there is another on it's way in the next couple of weeks. So we met Josiah who is about 2 months old. Of course he was quite cute. Then we drove home.

Coming home did not make things easier. I normally get off of work at 2:30, on Monday I worked till after 5 to help the new Adult Ed teacher get his classes started and students signed up to take the CA High School Exit Exam, CAHSEE. Pronounced just like my name, so get confusing around school this time of year, and three other times during the year. I had every intention of spending time with Cricket this week, as she is getting her feet trimmed next week. Well not getting off work till after 5, then I had to be somewhere else by 6:30, so Cricket time got cut.

The good thing is we actually do not have any plans this weekend so I really should be able to play with her for a while this weekend. Maybe even a bath if the sun is out. I am sure it will be. Still hot here during the day. Mornings and evenings are cool though. Oh yeah and Friday there is a tack auction near by I am thinking about going to. We will see. It is hard to go to a tack place when I do not have anything to ride, yet.

So that is where I have been and I will try to come out of hiding now. There is no new news on selling our current mobile home, and buying a new one. So nothing exciting there.

Selling horses

I am to a point where I absolutely hate selling horses. There are buyers who think they can buy your horse, use it to no end, then threaten you to buy it back. Here is the story. 2 months ago my sister sold her favorite grey mare. This is a mare that my 7 year old niece rode and both of my novice boys have ridden. While she had her foal at her side sister would hop on her and ride her halterless and bareback around the pasture. Now her background was she has been known to be cold backed, but has not bucked in a year. She was laid off for quite a while while she had her foal, then was back to being ridden when the foal was 2 months old. At this point she did not buck at all, which was expected. So sister sells this mare to a man in Northern/Central CA. She even delivered her. Darcy did tell him her history of being cold backed, but has not had a problem recently. And told him about her step-daughter riding her and nephews. He calls her last weekend and leaves a message that she has to come buy this horse back, she has bucked every single time they have ridden her. He at first thought maybe she has sat too long, so sends her to some Miss CA Rodeo 1995 chick and she continues to buck everyday. So he says. Calls back a little while later and gives her the address where the horse is, like she can drop everything and drive 6 hours to pick up a horse that was sold 2 months ago. Then sometime this week he calls her again and leaves another message, telling her he just re-read the sales contract and he does not care what it says if she does not come get the horse she will be hearing from his lawyer. Now the contract states something about buyer and seller agree horse is sound and there are no refunds for any reason. The hardest part about this is Darcy would drop everything and buy her back if she had the money. The mare is in foal to a buckskin QH for next year, and Darcy absolutely loves this mare but really needs to sell some horses.
I know I sure do not want anything to come back on me as I am brutally honest about horses I sell, and sometimes it has been known to cost me a sale. My sister is the same way. She has a horse out right now with someone who was trying out a horse of hers, and he finally decided he was not gonna buy her but really thinks he can sell her. So he tells Darcy I have been riding this horse everyday and she has not taken a lame step, I would not mention the injury. Darcy tells him if you want to sell her and not mention it that is up to you, but my name is left out of it, I feel I need to let a potential owner know about her injury. I have started a file where I keep every email ever written about the sold horse just in case someone wants to say that I did not tell them about something.

But why do people think they can bully girls around and threaten them like this? Does it really make them feel better? The fact that he can not ride a horse that a 7 year old girl can ride just may make him feel pretty little himself, so he needs to bring someone else down with him.

I am so tired of crappy people.

OK more on the pictures

This is Cricket (duh) in the round pen with me. Her lead rope is thrown over her back. When she spins away it is because I kicket dirt at her when she decided she wanted to eat dirt.

And then pictures of not Cricket. Yes it will happen from time to time.



Toby looking oh so sad because he has to sit on the floor of husband's new car.













The cat Nemo loving Toby. He missed Toby while we were gone. Toby has to stay with grandma when we are not home.













Mom's very fat pony. She may be in foal to sister's grulla tobiano also. But not that far along. She has started the grass only diet and hates us for it.














Windy the yearling mule out of above pony. Also on grass but taking it better than her mom. I love her coloring, but she did not roan out like I thought she was going to.














And the goat. Just because he is so dang cute. And also fat. Guess we need to start a Jenny Craig pen at mom's house.

Picture Day

Took a bunch of pictures after work today. Moved Cricket into the barn. She also loaded right into the trailer, just for a refresher, but she refused to back out this time. She even had to go through a down branch to get into the trailer. Did not bother her one bit. I had to run to the front to stop the bus nad she walked right up to it. It was a little scarry to turn her back to it and walk away, but she did fine. Also got her to run in the round pen for a bit. She is next to the mule, and in front of the goat and sheep.





Ooo loving that scratching
















Not sure what we are looking at, but must look good.

















Will be back later with more pictures and maybe a short video of her following me.

Not much excitement

Well I got to show cricket off this weekend. My sister came over yesterday morning, but brought a friend so I did not have a chance to say anything to her about her actions. She liked Cricket, but did comment on her little hay belly. Darcy was scratching crickets rear, and of course Cricket was loving it. When she stopped Cricket backed her butt into me for me to scratch, which of course I did. I know I can not do this forever and really need to teach her some manners and I will, I am just enjoying the fact that I have a horse that actually likes me. Then I preyyt much slept most of the day. I just did not have any energy yesterday. I kept trying to wake up but I could not.

Then today my former co-worker came over to see her. Last year I used their pasture to foal out one mare and then took the other mare and foal over there to have on nice green pasture. I eventually took over my Doc's Jack Frost daughter just to have room to run, and they kept her. Their grandkids climb all over her, even ride her bareback and a halter. Before they got here today, I brushed Cricket, combed her mane and tail, and fly sprayed her. She was not haltered and she was not fond of the fly spray, but she was ok. I took her out and led her around while we looked at the other horses. Then we trotted back to her stall. When I turned her loose, she took off running and kicking. Of course I did not have a camera. I did think about taking it, but she has never done that before so I thought I probably did not need it. I hope to get some shots of her playing soon. I love the way she moves. Really goes off her hind end.

Going back a step

Since I have not had time to spend with the horses since Wednesday, I thought it would be a good time to take a step back and tell you a little about the horse that drove me to start a blog. I was suppose to go to Montana with my sister and some friends the end of August, but before I left I had decided that I really wanted this little filly that happen to be in Nebraska. I was going over ways to get her here to CA. When I finally started talking to my husband about it he offered to give up his weekend of backpacking with the husbands from a group we belong to, in order to drive me to NE. I was shocked, but I guess I really should not have been. He is good to me. Cricket is a great granddaughter of Hollywood Dunnit and Shinning Spark. Then one more generation back is Zan Parr Bar. This filly should rein. Yes those names are back a ways, but her sire, and grandsire on both sides, have show records. And now the sire has a son showing and doing well. She is loaded with potential. She was weaned at 3 months and began halter breaking. She had to have a trailer loading and traveling lesson also in order to get her health cert and coggins. So of course being a horse, she banged her leg and head in the trailer. No big deal, but you know how horses are. She did get a clean bill of health and had a mini pre-purchase exam. About a week later the breeder noticed that her head was a little larger, so back in the trailer she went and back to visit the vet. She needed to have the wound lanced because a little abscess formed from the trauma. Again vet said this is nothing that should jepordize her being able to travel to CA. The good side of this is she got more handling and she was able to get some antibiotics into her system before the long haul home. So many times horses stress on a long trip like that and get to their destination and get sick. So now she needed to be treated everyday. She did not like her antibiotics, but she was good to treat.

So on Aug 30 Frank and I left our home at 5 a.m. Our first stop was in Salt Lake City, Utah. Then next morning we got up and headed for NE. We could have been there around 4:30 that afternoon, but then I felt I would have been rushed to see all the horses. So we called Desiree, the breeder, and made arrangements to meet the next morning. So now we had time to play and spent the last 15 minutes of store hours at Cabela's. What an amazing store. Also went to some western stores, one clothing and one tack and western furniture. So finally Sunday morning we make it to Desiree's. Both Desiree and her husband were out waiting for us. The men stood around and chatted while Desiree and I went around the place meeting everyone. It was kinda funny finally meeting the horses that I have seen so much in pictures. Many of them I know from the pictures. I even knew who belonged to which mare. Oh and the two mini's, they are so stunkin' cute. Midnights pictures do not show his short little legs. He is so comical. He has these stubs called legs. I was teasing my husband that Midnight was by Cricket's dad, Bucky. Telling him he was the one with the show points, giving Mooneys stats to Midnight. Of course he did not fall for it. But then again I also had showed him pictures of Mooney before anyway. So we load Cricket up, who jumps in the trailer like a pro, say our goodbyes, and head back out to the road. As we were diving down the road just about to leave NE, I spot a storm up ahead. I tried to get a few pictures of the storm. Sure enough we head right into it. It lasted for a little while, but it was all good. That night we made it back to Rock Springs WY. Right next to our hotel was a Drive-In Liquor Store. This just did not seem right to me. Oh yeah and in Utah there was a huge store that on the front in huge letters said "Liquor Fireworks". Another good combination. On Monday we make it to Nevada. So finally we make it home Tuesday afternoon. I unloaded Cricket, who backed out like a big girl, and put her in her new stall. I really expected her to run and stretch a little but she did not. She was so calm and collected. Just as I put her away the bus pulls into the driveway and my boys are home. All I get from them is, "Can I go in the house and do my homework?" Geeze what a welcome. They would rather do homework then say hi to mom and dad. So Cricket is settling down quite nicely and will probably be moved into the barn soon.

I get to show her off again tomorrow to a few people. My sister is finally coming to see her. And then in the afternoon a friend of mine who has my Doc's Jack Frost daughter is coming to see Cricket. So this will be fun showing her off again. I am very proud of my new little girl.

Storm in Wyoming

Day one with the little Cricket and working with Jessie

So after work today I went straight to mom's to play with horses. I was a good girl and went straight to the yearling, Jessie. She let me walk right up to her and halter her like a big girl. This horse loves to be loved on, but a halter means work time. As I was lounging her I called my ferrier who proptly called me back, finally. He came out today and trimmed her long as heals. For some reason this horse grows heal like there is no tomorrow. Then we have and older mare that we can not get any heal on. So wierd. She was good for the lounging. We did not work hard, but did not have to when she did eveything right. Then we went for a stroll around the property.Had her second tieing lesson. I clipped her first briddle path, but she has had her muzzle clipped before, and was done again today. Dad and I started giving vaccination to the other horses while Jessie was tied out. She then started throwing a fit, I am not sure why. Maybe because she is a horse and she can? Put her away and continued to vaccinate horses. We were very bad this year and are very behind.

Then while waiting for Brian, the ferrier, I took Cricket out. We strolled around the property also. Was not to sure about going under the big mulberry tree, but we managed to get past it with out it eating us. This was the only time she actually tried to back away from me. And Desiree I never put a but rope on her, it did not have to come to that. She was willing to follow just was not sure if she was suppose to really trust me on this. We walked around the outside of the arena, back up the drive and under that tree again. This time we stood in the nice cool shade for a while. Of course the wind blows while we are under it, but she just tensed up a little, but did not move. I think twice today she tried to run past me, but becasue she is so responsive she was easy to stop. Went into the round pen to see if she would run in the sand. Took her off lead, and she just stood there. I swung the rope at her and she barely walked. OK this was not doing anything, so I caught her back up. Walked around again. Jogged on the lead line, she just followed. So I got brave and pulled out the clippers. Her muzzle got clipped, but she did not want them any higher. I just laid them across her neck where there should be a briddle path with them running, but did not clip anything. I got about half a clip on one ear also, but that was the end of that. Oh yeah and she walked up on some steps at mom and dad's back porch. It is just steps made of DG with 2X4's on top. Kind of gives the sound of walking on a bridge. Again walked on without using a butt rope. And stood there for a while. I do see that I need to work with her on patients, she does not like to stand around for very long. So Brian finally got there and I put her away. He pulls up next to her stall and says "so that is how they breed them back there." I say "what already broke?" To which he replys "yep". He trims and shoes some big boys at the Ward Ranch, and also for Fairlea Ranch. He knows his cow horses. He was impressed with Cricket, of course. Who could not be. So after we finishe trimming up Jessie, who was perfect for once with her trimming, we went back to look at Cricket. I walk in and scratch and lay on her. As I walked away she followed. So I had to continue. I reached down and picked up a front foot, not haltered. I know Desiree told me she had picked up her feet before for practice, but yesterday she wanted nothing to do with it. I could touch her legs, and she would pick up her foot if I asked, but then got mad. Today it was all good. Of course that was one out of four feet. Have I told you all how much I love this horse?