New things...

Man oh man do I have a lot of new things going on!

First of all, Rosso is on a 30 day trial with a woman here who had an OTTB from age 3 until she lost him to colic at age 12.  I met her and she would be an excellent home for Rosso.

So far, so good. 

Rosso has been well mannered and she even took him out the other night in 35mph winds "just to see what he'd do". 

Crap.

Much braver soul than I.  She said he gives her reason to smile every time she rides him.  Which is AWESOME and that gives ME a reason to smile.

Told Furry Husband, I would ride Sera in 35mph winds without a thought... so it really is that Rosso and I's personalities just don't jive. 

If you could all keep your fingers and toes crossed that he keeps making this woman smile... I would love for her to have a horse heal up that empty spot we all have in our hearts when we lose a loved animal.  And I would love for Rosso to have his own human to work for and enjoy and be enjoyed.

Once I knew this woman would be taking Rosso for a 30 day trial, I called this well respected, been here forever, has a good following horse vet.  I called and told him I was looking for an old, doesn't have to be 100% sound, has to be SAFE for kids or husbands kind of horse.  A horse that would not be used regularly - would be more of a pet - with occasional kids riding him and occasional trail rides etc. 

I would love to have a horse I could put my niece up on or that my friends who now have children could put their kids up on... that I could go on a trail ride with someone else or even just have someone over and put them up on said horse, without worrying about them coming off and we could just dink around riding together.

This vet didn't know of any horses like that, he gave me the name of a dude string that sells in the fall that he has had excellent luck with and bought a horse like that for his wee son.  Said he'd keep his eyes open.

Well, as luck would have it, the vet called me back that same day asking if he could give my number to a woman who has, and I quote, "just a very, very cool old horse".    If this vet says the horse is a very, very cool horse?  The horse is.

This woman was looking for a retirement situation for this horse to make room for another riding prospect.  He's a 15.3hh, 20-something QH, retired sheriff posse horse, extensively trail ridden, enough arthritis in his front fetlocks that he can't hold up to regular use, however, light riding would be good for him and would loosen up his arthritis.  He doesn't have a buck or a kick in him and they aren't interested in selling him but I could have him for $1/mo. lease.  If it doesn't work out for me, he goes right back to them and vice versa. 

I brought Mack home 1 day after Rosso was picked up.  Poor little old dude was pretty freaked out.  Change is hard when you are old and set in your ways.  He is settling in nicely and I'm tickled to have a wise old-ster around.  I didn't realize how much I missed having one of those old gems around our place since Brandon died. 

Keep your fingers crossed for the horse gods to be smiling down upon all our horse situations!

Washington DC

Had to spend some time at our Nation's capitol.   Shew.  BIG city.  Makes Denver look like a small cow town.  Which I suppose it is....moo.

Had a funny story from a morning I was there -

Stopped at a place to get some eggs one morning – it was cheaper than The Corner Bakery or Au Bon Pain… there were two women inside, one waiting for food ... the other sitting at the counter eating a breakfast sammich.

The one waiting for food was mad about a co-worker and talking very loudly… was calling her a “muther fu*&#ing rat tooth muther fu*&er”

Alrighty then.  Turns out I didn’t need much coffee that morning, eye opening enough at 7am.  Grin.

I bought a sea salt caramel at a place called Chop’t - it's a salad place at lunch.  Good thing I only bought one.  Those things are like crack and I turned into a sea salt caramel crack whore.   I wanted 20 or 30 of those rat tooth muther f*&ing candies…. didn’t have time, had to get back to class cuz my lunch break was over.

Furry Husband was struggling with first milker goat teats while I was away.  They are very tiny, teensy, small in his big man hands and the goats were objecting … lots of kicked over buckets.  Poor Furry Husband.  Good thing goats don’t speak… they are learned lots of good cuss words last week… maybe as much as me!

How far is too far?

I am a true animal dork.  Dork, dork dork.  I know this and embrace it....

I have my little English Cocker Spaniel, Toe that I'm working with in agility.  He gets it - however, he has to suffer through his owner's herky jerky clumsy movements when she tries to run the course in practice.  

I enrolled in an online dog trick class offered by Silvia Trkman who is an amazing dog trainer and agility competitor - tho I did not know this when I registered.  Others who know more let me in on that tidbit.  Many of the tricks will assist in body awareness and agility for the dogs and people.

Online dog tricks?  Yeah.

Weird, I know.

She gives us written homework every 2 weeks.  We practice and leave comments or questions and she answers us.  People that paid more money can post video, she watches and offer them specific suggestions.  We all have access to watch the videos which is very helpful as many dogs seem to offer similar things and most people struggle with similar things...

It's actually pretty effective.  Good thing since this woman lives in a small village in Slovenia! 

Technology.  It's an amazing thing.

And now we fast forward to my question above. 

I had an incident with Toe about a month ago.  I let him out of the car and instead of running to the front gate to wait and be let in the yard, he ran the other way.  Down the dirt road.  I called and he didn't even hesitate.  He just kept running.  Away from me.  

He's always just jumped out of the car and run to our gate to come in the yard and into the house.  We also had an agility practice around that time where he just really didn't want to come to me... he was sniffing the ground, became hugely interested in that thing over there, and I was just not the thing he wanted to see or listen to or respond to.  It really bummed me out.  As when a dog is reliably coming and then they don't.. somehow I think the handler is doing something to cause it... whether I'm aware of what I'm doing or not. 

Now I don't trust he will come when called.

I thought about it and I upped the ante.

I call ONE time.  I have a habit of chitter chatter... I need to cut it out.  Think about the co-worker in your office that talks all day long.  You eventually tune them out.  Same things with our dogs.

And when he comes to me, he gets an extra special, never before used treat.  I don't use this treat for anything else... not for tricks or agility.  It has to be so awesome that he will really WANT to come to me come hell or high water.   So far I've used left over turkey or chicken that we've had for dinner, all seasoned up nice and juicy and flavorful...  I tried sardines once... figured dogs would love something fishy and stinky.  But that didn't work well in my pockets.  It was pretty wet and crumbly and then I stink like sardines.

He still goes nuts when he is on the trail of a rabbit.  

Hmmm.

Rabbit.

We have that kitten with the digestive issues we had to feed raw food to... many raw food cat sites talk about using raw ground rabbit.  I know where it can be sourced....

I got online to see what else this company might have.  I was thinking along the lines of rabbit pelts or skins... maybe if I pulled something like that out of my pocket, Toe would actually GET some rabbit fix vs. the ones that always run away, eluding him.

They had dehydrated rabbit feet... dehydrated rabbit ears... dehydrated ground rabbit....I bought some of each, along with a fleece tug toy that had a rabbit skin woven into the braid.

I told Furry Husband what I was doing.  He sort of "um-hmms" me and nods but he is so used to the training talk and the classes and the different training concepts that he begins to tune me out ... much like that co-worker from above I described.

I got my special package full of bunny parts last night.

Gross.

Furry Husband was pretty much horrified.  If I thought it was gross, he thought it was 10 times gross-er than I did.

I had house rabbits for a time - tame, litterbox trained bunnies.  It was as if I cut my pet bunny's feet off and put them in a bag.  There was dried blood on them, tissue, sinew and the little furry paws... front and back.  Guess the "idea" of them is one thing and the "live" version another.

I kept saying, "But honey, I told you what I ordered..."  and he kept saying, wide eyed and backing slowly away from me... "yeah, but I thought it was like a TOY or something!" 

I haven't opened the ear package yet.  I used to rub my pet rabbit's ears in mock grooming and she loved it... so it may take me a minute to open that package.  I'm feeling a little Silence of the Lambs and fava beans and ... and.... and....

Anyway - I am trying to become all things bunny for Toe so I am such high value he really really wants to come to me to see what awesome fun or food I might have for him vs. whatever else the world may offer. 

I fed one hind foot to each dog last night to see what reaction I'd get.

All their little eyes got as big as dinner plates... pupils dilated in awe and amazement....they each took a foot and then the crunch, crunch, crunch was almost more than I could stand... really gross.  Yup.  Think that is gonna be one heck of a high value treat ... IF I can get over my "ewwwwwie".

It's like I've become the Jeffery Dahmer of rabbits with their feet, ears and dried entrails in my freezer.

That isn't going too far for your dog.... is it?


(shhhh - don't ask Furry Husband that question - I think I already know the answer!)

Wow, wow and WOW!

I bought Furry Husband and I some tickets to the Ft. Collins Lincoln Center to see Tao - a Japanese drum troupe.

Wow.

Amazing, amazing, amazing.

The coordination, precision, athletic-ness, strength, art, grace was incredible.

There were drums - sometimes as big as a VW beetle - and someone would stand in front of this ginormus drum and wail on it.  The intricacy of the rhythms, the skill at creating soft drumming and then so loud you felt your rib cage rattle.... oh, it was just so fantastic.

I had goose bumps during most of the show.

There were 4 or 5 women in the troupe.  Most of the numbers had them in backless outfits and damn if they did not have the most muscular, incredible backs of all time.   There were several numbers where the men wore no shirts and they had zero body fat.  They all held low squats and lunges for long amounts of time - sometimes carrying large drums, other times leaping light as a feather out of the pose with so much explosive energy.

The complete mastery they had of their bodies was just beautiful and awe inspiring.  If you ever get a chance, go see these people.  They are amazing!

http://www.drum-tao.com/en/



If you watch the 2008 Australia Tour video clip, it shows an entire number so you can get a sense of what they do.  http://www.drum-tao.com/en/video_gallery/index.html

Tho' watching a video clip vs. being there live and in person with the energy and sound moving you is like night and day.

On no posts....

Hmmm - this winter has been sort of slow and boring for blog posts.  It's been cold and I go to work, come home, cook dinner... we eat... we play with dogs, feed horses, milk goats....go to bed, rinse and repeat.

I've been a bit of a weenie about riding in the cold we've had recently... go figure.  We can get up at 4:30 AM, bundle up and take the dogs for a 2 mile walk under the stars and yet, when I get home and it's cold and dark I have no desire to climb up on my little red mule. 

Debbie clinics have been cancelled due to snow and people unable to dig out trailers and I guess it assists in the "no motivation" piece of riding.  I'm looking forward to longer days and sunlight for me arse to hit the leather again!

Dog agility has also been postponed several times due to snow.  Hopefully this weekend I'll get a ride in with Rex AND an agility class with The Toe!  What a concept.

I've been continuing on with my clean eating habits... no grains, lots of veggies (who knew brussel sprouts were so friggin delicious roasted in olive oil and salt til they are all carmelized and scrumptious nuggets of yum?) and yummy animal protiens - fish, chicken, beef, pork... little sugar (1-2 squares of 85% dark chocolate a night along with a glass or 2 of red wine, some fruit here and there) and I've been working on my bodyweight exercises.  I feel stronger and healthier than ever...

As I continue with my bodyweight exercises things will only get stronger and better... it's fun and interesting to feel my body change as well as my moods/energy/mind getting stronger and happier.  Never thought I'd feel this good again thanks to Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson.   (http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ for all the free info you could want, free e-fitness book, free e-cookbook etc. etc. etc.)

Check out these awesome blogs:

Team Gorilla - I look at this site every day to keep my motivation strong.  Strong women working hard and getting stronger!  Amen sistah! 
http://wildgorillaman.blogspot.com/2012/02/wednesday-warmup-strong-is-new-strong.html

This woman is also very inspiring, check her out
http://www.nancyjohnsonchavez.com/

And this is a great site for fitness/nutrition geared for women tho' any man would get great info here as well:
http://www.stumptuous.com/no-weights-no-problem 

Chicken Tomatillo Stew

I don't post many recipies here, however, we made this for the first time last night and it was FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!

We are supposed to get a storm blowing in today and this soup is perfect for a cold, wintery day stuck inside.... so warm and a lovely level of heat without being hot or spicy... warms you up all the way around!

2-3 poblano peppers
1-2 jalepenos
2-3 red or green peppers (optional)
1 cubanelle pepper  (dunno what this is and they didn't have this sort of pepper in our grocery store - we used an anaheim pepper and we threw in a serrano pepper too)
1-2 small yellow onions
2-3 garlic cloves
chop all
add
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp paprika
1 Tbl cumin

1 24oz jar of tomatillos

2lbs chix

4C chix broth

we put it all in a crock pot on low for 8 hrs... shredded the chix with 2 forks in the pot when we got home....

scoop into a bowl, add a little sour cream....AMAZING! 

Recipe says you can add or subtract as many veggies as you like.

Enjoy!

yo-yo-yo word....

No.  Not that sort o' word...not to yo' mutha...

WORD for the year.

Yesterday was my lunchtime yoga class.  I absolutely LOVE my instructor, most of the things she discusses before class really resonate with me for some reason.  They click and make sense in my little life.  Yoga is my brain candy... I like the peace it brings the hamster running on the wheel called "my brain".

 

Yesterday she talked about having a word for the year... said she asks people to think of a word specifically on Nov. 1 - something to do with alignment (some of the yoga concepts are over my head - can only take so much in) and it becomes this seed planted in the ground to grow in the coming year, right?  A visual about your word. 

 

I was not in that particular class... I didn't know about the word thing...and of course it is fine that you didn't have a word in November and she asked us to think about what a good word for the year might be.

 

My word flashed into my head like a giant neon sign.

 

Right around November 1 is when I wanted to become stronger and started investigating the body weight stuff... I have been thinking STRENGTH since November.  Took some pix o' myself November 2nd to track progress and body composition changes.  Co-inky-dink?  I think not. 

 

This may be too fru-fru for you vs science based  - maybe a little too Mulder and not enough Scully - and yet, I think things happen for a reason and there are no coincidences.   

 

When she was talking about all this and how right now is the "quickening" when your word is really wanting to burst forth and you have all this energy surrounding your word and what it means to you.  

 

I've had this renewed energy and increased motivation for my workouts....?   Furry Husband was saying the other day I seem a little "obsessed".  Heh.  Me?  I have had a lot of excitement about it - reading and researching it all. 

 

Very interesting.

 

My word, that I didn't have to think about and have been focusing on since November,  is STRENGTH.  And of course this can cover many other aspects of my life - not just physical strength but the strength to do what I think needs to be done vs. what others think (I think I easily cave to go with status quo), emotional strength (to conquer fears I have) etc.

 

Just thought it was cool. 

 

She said to think of your word often - when you are lagging or tired think of your word and it will help you move toward that word.  Of course it goes right along with setting goals, it's not like it's magic or some sort of yogini juju ...  sure is a neat way to think of it tho!  An idea, planted... growing and becoming something of substance in your world/mind/body.

 

Now, think of a word YOU want to focus on this year.   Let's move toward that idea, word, goal, concept in 2012...

 

AND speaking of strength... here is a YouTube link for some amazing "wow" factor.  This is my body weight role model, Al Kavadlo.  Check this man out... talk about some serious STRENGTH.   Dang.