Horse report...

Sera seems happy in her work ... walk, trot and CANTER! We kept the lesson light because she's been rested for 8 weeks. We didn't get into the small figures or collection. It felt like I was "home" to be back on her. I really, really, really love my red-head mare.

We discussed a couple shows in August... I hope things stay good and we can try some Second Level tests!! Fingers crossed!

My lesson on Rosso was also great... we didn't really DO so much as it was more of a thinking lesson for me and I completely dug it! I lunged him before I got on him like I always do.

Someone was loading their horse up to go home.. it was a big stock trailer and it was loud - lots of banging around...UP went Rosso's head... he hollowed out and began scurrying madly around on the lunge. He still listened to me insofar as his transitions... he'd trot, canter and walked when I asked.... but he looked a mess - quick, inverted, strung out, high headed, eyes bulging.

I accepted it cuz he was listening to me and changing gaits when asked. Nope it wasn't enough. I felt a little embarrassed since I've had this discussion with Rex before but maybe the light bulb was just a little slow to really be illuminated?

I've always thought of the lunge as a way to expel excess energy... and it is... BUT it is a really great tool that can be PRODUCTIVE. Rex discussed how you see horses running willy nilly on lunge lines across all diciplines. She says no, you won't tire your horse out on the lunge contrary to popular belief. If you use the lunge correctly, you will help to create a more fit horse. One that can do the work you are asking.

This we think will also assist Rosso... he gets nervous. When he is more fit, he will feel stronger and the work on the lunge will also help him feel more confident.... and to me it's also a submission thing. I can evaluate his mood before I'm on his back.

Rex had me get him balanced, get him round and get his attention back on me. I want him on the lunge just like he'd be with me on his back. So when he begins to looky-loo and go around all disjointed... what would I do were I on him? I'd get his attention on me, get him balanced and listening... get him round. (well after I stopped screaming that is... snicker)


Once he was going nicely, I got on him and there he stands... perfectly still... sniffs my toe... I pat him and tell him how great he is and I settle in... I wiggle around... and I ask him to move off. He does... quietly. (oh hooray!)

He is opposite Sera in his carriage. He carries his head very low. I am constantly struggling to keep Sera deep and going lower. It's very interesting to me.

He seems to relax more, chew the bit more, his ears relax and get a bit floppy the lower his head goes. Yes, he is probably over deep at this point, but this is where he needs to be right now.

His contact in the reins is even and steady... Rex confirms he is using his back. She asked if I could feel the relaxation and swinging through his back .... (uh? Through my clenched buttcheeks? No. I'll take your word for it! )

She talked about how Rosso uses his ears as radar. When he is going to get upset or freak out his little ears come together and point straight forward... it is up to me to get him paying attention to me any way I can... and I can tell some of his attention is on me when I get an ear or two swivelling back to me. Watch his ears.

When his head comes up like a giraffe, there is going to be trouble... I have to get him down and round WHEN I WANT HIM THERE NO MATTER WHAT is going on around us.

We practiced this with the next truck and trailer pulling in... as he gave some "looks" in that direction. He wasn't flighty or freaking out but he was looking... I practiced and he responded. It was really cool.

I enjoyed my lesson on Rosso in a huge way. Made me think things are just gonna be A-OK between us. Felt like I was thinking about him and how he goes and what he needs from me... really learning to ride this particular horse.

Anyway, it was cool and I was so happy all weekend long thinking 'bout my two nice red-headed OTTBs.

Snake check...

This part has nothing to do with snakes but thought I'd share some pix... the "new" garden bench I found on Craig's List... the one I bought from the Denver market last year rotted. Whaaaa! I sat on it and it busted. And of COURSE I don't think I need to lose weight... heh heh.

It was unfinished so I'm coating the crap out of it with Minwax sealant... This looks like your plain white geranium. Oh-ho! Do not be fooled people. This is the first ever YELLOW geranium. I saw it advertised on the sign at the nursery I pass on my way to and from work...."First ever in the U.S. - yellow geranium - available til gone!"

I bought one.

Furry Husband says, "How do you KNOW it's the only yellow geranium?" I really don't... I took the nursery sign at face value. So call me a sucker....


Our rose bush... this thing will outlive us all in the event of a nuclear melt down. It blooms wildly for 2 weeks in June and then it makes plans for world domination.

We cut it back to the ground one year per the advice of a landscaper... we did it later than we should have and we were worried we may have killed it.

No.

We simply made it stronger.

The sad part of this picture is that we had black-eyed susans planted in front of it and none of them came back. I don't think I'll try again... my vision of thick, happy black eyed susans nodding in the breeze all summer long has been destroyed. sniff.


And now here's something you'll really enjoy! (do you remember those Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons?)

Friday night, Mojo, our giant black kitty ... someone had to have removed him from a litter o' panthers and stuck him into a litter of barn cats... was all a-gog. He kept looking, running and was repeatedly trying to get to the other side of the garden square fence.

I figured there was a vole or a mouse playing in the weeds or something.

Didn't give it another thought.

Until....

Furry Husband pointed out a big ol' snake on the other side of the fence! I handed him a manure fork. We smooshed the snake under the fork to examine it closely without allowing it to strike.

Turns out it was a 4-5' long bull snake.

They mimic a rattler and their markings are similar ... but there were NO rattles on it's yellow and black striped tail.. We relaxed and watched the now EXTREMELY pissed off snake coiling and hissing and striking.

Then I thought... OH! Perfect opportunity to test out the rattlesnake clinic the dogs went to!

I brought each dog, one at a time, on lead from the house. Bequia didn't want to go near the snake. Sammy didn't want to go near the snake. Toe.... well..... Toe ran to the snake to investigate but stopped about 3 feet away.

And for Toe, this is showing quite a bit of restraint. His m.o. is to run in (just because he's short does not mean he is slow that's fer sure!) touch, grab or eat whatever it is before the hoo-man can say "leave it" or grab him and take the "prize" away...

Since he was still SO interested in the snake, I did give him some leash corrections with a very firm LEAVE IT.... he got the point....

We went inside to get the camera and when we came out the snake was gone without a trace. He slithered away from our place as fast as his little scales could carry him....

Who can blame him? He'd been smooshed, poked, prodded and used as bait for 3 dogs.

Goat noise...

Houston, we have a problem. Goats seem to be quite pleased with themselves if they can make a little noise....

The kids figure out how to jump on top of their housing and they begin tap dancing like Gregory Hines. You can see them grinning with each little staccato noise....

Speck in the doe pen not only accompanies the babies with her own tap routine on top of her very own house, but she grabs this little welded chain that hangs off the doe pen gate. (It came with the gate, we didn't put it there.) She holds it in her mouth and nods yes. It makes a constant rattling noise which sounds a little like the clickity clack of train tracks.

And yet, we take all of this in stride because we love our little caprine friends.

However, our buck, Mario, is being annoying. EXTREMELY annoying....

He has been lying/laying - whatever the correct grammar is - in his house and running his horn scurs (yes, he was disbudded but the raging testosterone in his system caused some horn to grow back) across the corrugated metal that is his quonset hut house.

It sounds like a rapid fire machine gun BRRRAAAAAPPPP, BRRRAAPPP, BRRRRAAAAAAAAPPPPP

In betwixt the running of his horn scurs back and forth is the intermittent BANG! BRRRAAAAPPPP BANG! BANG! as he bashes his head against the house.

He does this at midnight. 2am. 2:45am. 3:18am 4:32am 5:00am. 5:07 am.

I think you get the idea.

We decided to put the street sweeper thingy in his pen. It's a cylinder of hard, bristly spikes to scratch against. Our hope was that he would run his scurs along this thing vs. his house.

Please, oh, please, oh, please let it work.....

Wilbur's Goat Fest

This was our fourth year bringing our goat kids to town for a little goatie love. Lots of children and parents come to see the goats... This is the guy who makes it all happen... he wuvs the baby goats! What a softie...

One little boy (not the one below - tho his stance helps to illustrate my story) was having a merry old time with the goats... laughing, giggling... the goats nibble. They nibble shirt hems and pants and pockets and zippers.

This particular boy had some cargo pants on. There were many, many zippers and pockets to nibble. He was giggling and telling his Mama, "Mama, Mama! They like to eat my zippers!" and then....

Oh lordy.... you can see it coming....

The goat kid moved around front and began to investigate the boy's fly zipper... "OH! Mama! They like eating my pee pee too!"

Try explaining THAT story to your friends later....

There are lots of adults that don't want to come in the pen and you can tell they are just itchin' to pet a goat. I like to keep one up on the "wall" for people to see, touch, ask questions about...

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There were some college boys that stopped by. "What IS that?" When I told them it was a goat kid, they exclaimed, "Dude. That is SICK!" They called a couple friends to tell them they were petting a goat.... they took a couple pix with their camera phone.... totally sick.

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I know. Right?

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Seriously.

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Mostly we get questions about what happened to their ears? Nothing, they are Lamanchas and their ears come out that way. Little gopher ears that make them look like Kermit the Frog... or like grasshopper heads....

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How big do they get? 180 - 200 lbs, about mid-top thigh high...males being bigger

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Are those their horns growing in? No they are disbudded...

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Why do you take the horns off? Because their heads get stuck in fences, they can injure themselves or us... (I know others do not disbud and it's all good, there are a ga-zillion ways to raise goats!)

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What do you do with them? We milk the does and use the milk for drinking, cheese, yogurt, soap, lotion etc. Males usually go to homes to be companions for other animals or as pets or people raise them and eat them....

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I bet the goats eat everything huh? Actually no. They will go straight for your expensive landscape vs. the weeds you want them to eat!

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Is goat milk really different? Not if it's handled right. We have taste tests all the time with people using whole cows milk from the store and our goat milk. In 6 yrs one person picked the goat milk. Everyone else says the grocery store milk must be our goat milk.

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We had leashes on the goats this year which worked well. Many people hesitate or linger at the gate to come in. The gate stays open and baby goats are quick! If one escaped, it would not fare very well against the cars in the busy parking lot.

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I'm guessing a smooshed goat kid would cause lots of emotional trauma to the young children.... years of therapy... Do you still hear the lambs screaming Clarice?

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If a goat was eyeing the open gate, a foot on the leash or grabbing up the leash worked like a charm. Besides, little humans like to have something to DO with the goats and this way they could "walk" the babies. Not that there was much room to go a'walkin'. The children don't seem to care.

One more successful goat fest under our belts!

General update at Star's Hollow Farm...

Mondays are HARD. Hard to come back to cubicle land after two days of freedom.

Saturday we had Goat Fest at Wilburs Liquor Store in town. We take our kids to meet people and spread the goatie love. There are many misconceptions about goats. I have pictures and a post to write up for you!

After Goat Fest, we rushed home, I changed and headed to a lesson with Rosso. He was a very good boy. Every time I ride and have a good experience, I feel my confidence strengthen. So here's to more and more good rides!

Did I tell you I taught him to give me a hug? I stand at his shoulder on the off side and say "hug"... he wraps his big ol head around me. I give him a cookie. He does it without the cookie tho he always looks a little surprised there wasn't one. It was another thing that helped me work with him to get over my fear issues. Next is to teach him "smile" by lifting up his lip. He has missing front teeth from a starting gate accident and looks very goober-like... it will be an amusing trick. My white trash, overly sensitive, race track reject.

Next weekend is my first real ride on Sera to see how she rehabbed and if she is sound at canter. Keep your fingers crossed! I scheduled two lessons tho' so I can keep going with Rosso.

I sprayed our yard with 2,4-D this weekend to kill the weeds but not the grass. I have more grass seeds - blue grama, some buffalo and a little bit of white clover for nitrogen/natural fertilization to sow once the weeds are gone.

My dream is a yard of native, low growing, xeric grasses. We'll never have to mow! (Wait. We? I mean Furry Husband will never have to mow!)

My water lillies are going CRAZY. My tiny pond is too small for two full plants. I'm going to call Koi Lagoon to see if they'll take one and trade me for in store merchandise. Tho' I'm a little loathe to get rid of one. Sort of silly for me to keep both and overcrowd my pond tho'.

Toad is happy. I like to call her Esther, Furry Husband calls her Big Head Toad... we often find her sunning herself on the rocks and sitting in the pond with her head peeping out under a lilly pad. Last night she was near the house catchin' bugs like a good toad.

That'll do Toad. That'll do.

On my way to work...

I see so many little things that make me smile as I drive to work.

O.k. sure, I have tunnel vision and people tell me they honk and wave and I stare straight ahead like a zombie on a mission. I've offended people who think I'm ignoring them... I'm not at all, I promise... I just ... uh.... focus on the road?

Furry Husband will probably drop his jaw to the floor over this post because he teases me all the time for being so ... zombie like... when I drive.

I do see things... really I do....


I see our vet's calico cat across the road from her house, hiding in the tall grass hoping to catch a mouse or vole.

I see the shiny mules and horses in the pasture next to the big power lines...

I look for pronghorns in this pasture. I saw 20 or more there once and haven't seen them since....

I saw a little bunny to my right jumping around in the grass. I thought he might dart in front of my car so I slowed down as I passed him...

I saw the pretty heads of 2 Jersey milk cows as they poked them thru the feeding stanchion for some breakfast at the small dairy on Taft Hill Rd. I used to sell that guy feed when I worked at Ranchway Feed Mill and always really liked him. Glad to see he's still there...

I saw a red and black truck parked on the side of the road. It looked like our neighbor's truck and I wondered if it was them and if they needed help and if I shoulda stopped? They know my cell number and my phone wasn't ringing... so I'm pretty sure it wasn't them and whomever it was was there on purpose (I hoped). Fixin' fence perhaps?

If I leave for work on time, I always see a guy going in the opposite direction on his motorcycle... in all black, shiny black helmet, legs sticking straight out in front of him, arms high on his ape hangers.... he must work the graveyard shift.

I pass the house with the beautiful flowers in front. Always flowers for every season... there is a sign in the yard that says "Garden Goddess". I believe it!

A nursery with a sign about buying blooms for July and all the fabulous hanging flower baskets...

Suburbia begins to appear.... I go through the round about... the children normally waiting for the bus in front of their houses are gone... enjoying summer vacation. Man, I wish I got a summer vacation!!

I wait at the intersection of Taft and Prospect and I watch the swallows... little fighter jets... diving and swooping and near misses as they chase moths and bugs... I'm amazed how fast, reckless and precise they are in flight.

Closer to work I see a sign on the corner hand written in Sharpie marker... "Fresh boiled or live crawdads Today only!" And that is funny to me. Especially since the sign has been there all week. It's also gross to me... eww.... crawdads.

Oh - there is the curly red haired lady who always walks her red with a black saddle bloodhound dog. They always make me smile and she walks him every day....

I make the turn into work and begin my day....

Rain, rain go away...

We've been getting lots o' rain lately. I heard on the radio that Denver is running out of places to store water... pretty amazing since our state is usually drought ridden.

When Furry Husband and I went on our honeymoon, we travelled on a Windjammer cruise to some small islands in the Caribbean. It rained one day and one of the island natives said with a smile, (say this in your best island accent now) "Any-ting from above is blessing!"

I try to remember that but when it begins to interfere with riding and seeing the sun... well... I begin to get a bit grumbly. The little boreal chorus frog living in our pond was the only happy critter at our place, singing his little green amphibian heart out in the rain. Kermit woulda been proud... tho' it was no Rainbow Connection and I don't think our frog has learned the banjo yet.

The goats and horses stayed under cover doing their best to keep out of the mud, looking gloomy, disgusted and bored.

Sunday I had to cancel my normal 10:00am lesson because we had a lake forming in the front pasture and that happens to be where we park our horse trailer. The clay soil becomes so sticky slippery and there was no way I'd be getting it out to head up the road for a ride.

We saw sun yesterday for the first time since Friday. Oh, it's nice. Amazing how I instantly feel better with some vitamin D and blue sky ... bye-bye doom and gloom!

We got the trailer out of the pasture last night, (next big rain, we are parking that sucker in the driveway where we can get it out ) loaded Rosso and headed off to Rex's barn.

I tacked him up, lunged him and got on. He was sore in front from the wet... it softens his feet and makes them a bit ouchy. He is sound at walk and a short ride would be good for both of us.

We stayed at a walk... leg yield, small circles, serpentines, lots of changes of direction, spiral in and out on a circle... he was very agreeable and offered a trot. I kept him walking. After about 15 min. we stopped and hung out... I jumped down and gave him lots of praise.

See? We'll get past our brain bugs yet....