Worry, worry, worry - fret, fret, fret

The brotherhood of evil mutants.... awaiting the birth of their leader... from my goat, Spot.

This time of year, as the does get ready to kid, I begin playing all sorts of weird scenarios in my head.

This year a fellow goat lovin' friend sent me an e-mail from one of HIS friends who had a doe in labor. The doe couldn't pass the baby, the owner went in and tried to see if she couldn't pull the kid... something just was not right. She took her doe to the vet and the vet performed a C-section.

The doe had a TWO-HEADED kid in there! It had a perfectly formed body and head with a fully formed 2nd head coming out of it's neck. They immediately put it down.

Add that to my list of things to worry about with goat birthin'. Two headed kids.

The other things I worry about?

What if with all the breeding issues I had with Spot this year that she has 2 sets of kids in there?

What if she did take the first time and then when we gave her the shot for her cystic ovary a month later and bred her a 2nd time... she took again?

What if one of them aborts and something goes awry and I'm at work and I come home to a dead doe and little malformed, unfinished kids?

What if I have to go in to sort out kids - untangle them - and I tear the doe's uterus or something?

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What if I pull the leg off a kid trying to pull it out? (not completely rational but it does go thru my head!)

What if the doe gives birth to a mutant?

With super powers?

Who is evil incarnate and it destroys the world as we know it?

Aren't you glad you don't live in MY head?

'Nother Debbie Clinic...

This clinic was supposed to happen 3 weeks ago... cancelled due to snow... cancelled cuz only 3 people could ride in it... cancelled cuz Debbie got the crud.

Today it finally happened!

My ride was at 9:45. I left the house at 8am leaving me plenty o' time to get to the Johnson's Corner exit and a couple miles down the road to Bey Breze Farm. I arrived at 8:45. Ahhhh - plenty of time...

I unloaded Sera from the trailer, took her on a walk about in the mud and muck. We were supposed to get 3" of snow but only got enough moisture to make things muddy. In fact I had to put the truck in 4X4 to get it through the farm parking lot. uck.

I tied Sera to the trailer with a hay bag full o' hay. I groomed and tacked her up while she contentedly munched said hay. I did NOT want to go thru the mud in my freshly cleaned tall black riding boots, so I grabbed them and marched through the slop into the barn.

I'm glad Sera stands well enough for me to hold her while I take muddy Blundstones off to put on shiny dress boots...

I put my ear piece in (fancy mic and earpiece gig!) and mounted up. She was pretty stiff today... shrug. She can be that way... My lesson started and we worked on getting her round and through, Sera gives it up pretty quickly. Counter flexion, half halts and inside leg to outside rein get her where she needs to be.

We moved into haunches in, shoulder in, renvers... she went from shoulder in to renvers easily but when asked to go from renvers to shoulder in? Not so pretty. We worked on that a bit...

Moved on to collected canter. Sera's rhythm was MUCH improved from the last clinic when she'd get sorta funky in her collected canter. It wasn't that she was having a tantrum, which she can have, I think it was more about being hard for her to find her balance and rhythm in collected canter last clinic.

We worked on medium canter from collected canter - the up transition was good - the medium canter was good... the medium back down to collected? Not so good.

I was supposed to tickle her with my whip coming to collected to keep her from falling out.. keep her collected, using her hind legs and moving onward vs. losing her frame and looking sloppy or dropping down to trot.

Sera didn't think much of the whip idea... esp. coming down from the excitement of the medium canter! She gets awful pissy about the whip. She's got to get over it... I ignored her flattened ears and both hind feet kicking out. I touched her with the whip various times throughout the ride and she accepted this.

We worked on our turn on the haunches - she needs to move quicker off of my leg. Again I had to use my stick, tho' she accepted it well. No kicking...

It was a really fun ride. Sera Sue works HARD for me. I love her to death, we've been through so much to get to this stage where we are truly a TEAM.

I took her to the trailer, untacked her, put her wool cooler over her ears to tail sweaty self and walked her about. We found a lovely patch of fresh spring grass in a sunny spot for her to munch while she dried out.

Good, good mare.

Laura Crum mystery series

Another blog I read is Equestrian Ink. It contains posts from various published authors who include horses in their writing. Through this blog, Laura Crum offered her latest book in an exchange for a review post.

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I am all about free stuff!

I searched for, purchased and read the first 3 books in her mystery series. The main character, Gail McCarthy, is a horse vet who seems to wind up in the middle of big trouble regularly.

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It's fun to read a book incorporating common horse issues, people and sports tho' I'm glad my horse vet doesn't have as much drama in her life!

It's a pretty cool series and I'm looking forward to finding the other 7 books and having a read. You can find the titles of her other books here. Perfect for summer!

The latest book, "Going, Gone", finds an older Gail McCarthy, more in tune with her family and living a slower paced life. The imagery of the trail rides she takes with her son are lovely and you almost feel as if you are right behind them.

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Her family has experienced loss and the story touches on how to explain death and loss to a child.

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Don't you worry, there is still mystery and intrigue for our heroine, Gail! She finds herself looking for a way to clear an old friend's name of murder while staying true to her family. See if the climatic chase scene doesn't have your heart beating a bit faster...

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If you get a chance, check her series out. I'm hoping to get Furry Husband hooked. He likes mysteries but hasn't read a female author before. I think he'll enjoy the horse references mixed in with bloodshed and mystery....

Finnish Proverb...

The quote of the day on the Information Week Newsletter is:


If you are short of trouble, get a goat.


Speaking of... Speck is due in 2 weeks. She has a little udder and teeny, tiny teats the size of your pinky finger. It makes my big man hands hurt just looking at them and thinking about milking her.

We shaved her backside this weekend. I shaved, Furry Husband stood on one side so she couldn't jump around. Clippers tickle! I clipped all the hair on her tail, down the backs of her legs and on her udder. One year, I didn't shave the does, thinking "oh, how messy could it be if I leave the hair?"

Plenty.

Plenty messy.

Eww.

Little House

What was up with Blogger yesterday? I tried to post and couldn't so there are 2 posts today...

Last week definitely felt like spring! My day lillies are showing up... the yarrow is beginning to show some green fronds, I think I've spotted some iris greenery...

I don't know what else is under there because I'm a lazy gardener and pretty new to gardening at that. I need to clear out the debris (today's chore).

My gardening goes like this: If the plant lives and I like it, I keep it. If I don't like it, I pull it. If something can't tough it out on our place, I don't keep trying. I don't baby any plant. I hope I remember to water.

I planted a bunch last year! I had free mulch and a ton of free divided perennials from a friend.

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This year I hope to keep away from planting and focus on:

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Creating a drip system for the plants who've been hardy enough to survive my minimalist gardening.

Finishing my wine bottle border idea.

Complete the wicker weaving in the front gate

Making a functional gate for my garden square.

And (sigh) we will sow native grass seed again this year. (third time's the charm! says the eternal optimist)

My vision is to have a native prairie grassland with some cheerful wild flowers one day... enough that we won't have to mow or water much but it still looks charming and "Little House on the Prairie" -esque vs. the current state of "Deliverance".

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Ooooeee! You got a purty mouth....

Signs of Spring...

Goldfinches losing their winter drab and turning fabulous 'lellow! Cat mint spreading into places I didn't expect

Muddy horses.

Is that an iris peeking thru?

Daylillies!

SHORTS!

Now THAT'S a nun!

I was at that tracking test last Sunday and there was an older woman competing with her GREAT BIG German Shepherd dog. It was sort of an odd looking match because she was tall and thin, older - maybe 70 with white hair, arthritis fingers... sort of frail looking and here she has this great big intact male dog.

I met her at lunch - Sister Sue. A nun. Oy, I haven't seen or talked to a nun since my days at all girls Catholic school with a convent ATTACHED to the school. It threw me a little. I think I stammered my name --- she had to ask me to repeat it.

At lunch I asked if I could meet her dog, Storm. She had him out to potty and I was on my knees, in his face, scritchin' his ears.

She tells me in her quiet, peaceful, reverent voice, "Oh yes, Storm is a wonderful dog. We do some agility and of course this tracking. (She smiles benevolently down at Storm) And he's trained to Schutzhund level 3*... wonderful protection dog."

Gulp. Maybe I should not be smack dab in this dog's face, so close to his mouth? He seemed very happy and stable...

Boy, ya sure wouldn't expect that from a nun would ya? Are nuns allowed to have hobbies involving attack dogs?!

Anyway - people sure are interesting aren't they?

*for those who don't know Schutzhund training is specialized training for personal protection, level 3 is the highest level... they also compete in obedience and tracking and are evaluated for temperament