WE FINALLY DID IT!

I can't believe it, the rescue horses were FINALLY relinquished to the Yamhill County Court and they are no longer in any danger of ever being retuned to the sick woman who beat and starved them nearly to death. This has been a long, time consuming and frustrating journey and it is finally beginning to come to an end.

After finding out this wonderful news I went out and gave both of those mares a big fat hug and told them they are safe now.

I have two new horses in for training; Socrates and Dusty. Socrates bucked me OFF last night. I don't know about you but I think that unscheduled dismounts SUCK! He wasn't trying to be naughty but rather got spooked when we walked past the mounting block and some sand got kicked up on it, the sound of that sent him sideways and knocked me off balance. Then he darted the other direction and took a couple hops which sent me into the air and off to the side and I accidentally harpooned him with my spur. He wasn't very fond of THAT so went off into the other direction and just when I thought I'd stick he took a big jump and sent me flying into the air. Unfortunately, this is when long legs do not work in my favor, I didn't clear the saddle and my spur hung up under the horn so I went down head first and became a human sled for a second. I didn't get hurt other then some sore spots on my body but my hair, mouth, nose, ears and underwear were full of sand. Take it from me, this is not a pleasant experience!

After I had a moment to gather my wits about me and shake the sand out of my hair, I noticed that poor Socky was standing there with a Steve Erkle “Did I Do That?” look on his face. He didn’t seem too rattled so I just lead him over to the mounting block and kicked sand on it a few times so he could see that the Booger Man wasn’t going to jump out and attack him, hopped back on and went back to work. The rest of our ride was uneventful THANK GOD! He did finally start responding to my voice whoa so I didn’t have to reinforce with the reins and I was able to work him into the corners that were pretty darned scary the night before. I’m hoping that soon I’ll be able to keep him moving smoothly forward and begin trotting.

Dusty got more ground work. His owner wants him to walk, trot, canter and whoa on voice command so I worked with that for quite a bit free lunging. It takes him quite a bit to whoa and transition from the trot to the walk so I might put a long line on him next time so I can reinforce with that a little. I’ve also been asked to work on his fear of plastic so the old tarp came out. I was able to drape it across his back and I got him to walk across it. He is still afraid of it when it’s just lying in a heap on the ground so tonight I’m going to heap up several tarps in the arena and work him around them for awhile. He’s a really smart horse and working with him is fun.

Both horses have a bad habit of trying to come out of the stall before I have them haltered so I make them both back up when I open the door and stand there quietly while I’m facing them. If they come into my space I twirl the lead rope right in front of me so they have the choice of backing off or being smacked with the twirling rope. I don’t hit them, they get themselves hit and it seems to be working well. I made them both spend the night in the stalls last night in the hopes that they will be more calm about staying in them to wait their turn to be worked each night.

Todays Photo is a warm and fuzzy. It's the neighbor kid petting Kiwi and Babs, this is one of those photos that just "has it all!"

Yet Another Day in Court

I have two new horses in for training and as soon as I get home today I'm going to get started with both of them, I'm really looking forward to it. Is it weird that I love working with horses so much? Does my desire to train horses make me some kind of a dominatrix? I don't think so, I think that my desire to work with and train horses stems down to my desire to make sure that each and every one of them are somehow given a "get out of jail free card". I strongly feel that educating your horses will hopefully ensure that he will have a good home to live out his senior years and not be sold for slaughter.

Finally Got Some Rain

We have finally been blessed with a measurable amount of rain. With it of course comes thunder and lightening but that's always fun too! This morning the rain was comming down so hard that it felt like ping pong balls hitting me but I really didn't care, it felt so good to have that wet stuff comming out of the sky and seeing the thirsty earth drink it up just as fast as it could come down.

The only downside of all this is that Cindi the old dalmation is scared to death of the thunder. The poor dog spent all night in our bedroom crying while the storm passed over our small ranch. I tried to comfort her as much as I could but I guess she just couldn't help being afraid.

Today's Photo of of an American Kestrel Falcon that was kind enought to let me photograph it. They are really pretty, very shy little birds of prey.

Dog Sitting Whether I Like it or Not.

It seems that the word is out that I am a pretty good dog sitter. I am now watching an old Dalmatian for two months while her owners are on vacation in the Philippines, her name is Cini and she really is a sweet old girl. The downside of this dog is that she is a house dog and we are not house dog people. This hasn’t been to terribly difficult to deal with though, I just vacuum more often, brush her a lot with the Furminator and sweep the kitchen more regularly. Hmm, maybe this is a good thing, my house is finally cleaner!

I think that the dog’s owners will be very pleased when they return from vacation as they will find their dog happy and healthy, well groomed with shorter toenails and they’ll get some awesome photographs of her, all for free!

So in closing, today's photos are of Cindi, my new house dog for the next two months. The backdrop is one of the wonderful sunsets that our recent hot weather had been providing us.

Getting A New Puppy

John and I are babysitting a mother dog and her 8 puppies for some friends while they are on vacation. Of course we've become quite attached to the lot of them and are thinking about keeping on for ourselves.

This is the one we are considering, we've already picked a name for her; Agnes.



On another note. The owner of the Big Red Horse came out Sunday and I took her on a long trail ride up at the Flying M; I rode the Big Red Horse, she rode Buster. We had an awesome ride together up the water fall trail to the top of the hill and on across the river and down the other side. The Big Red Horse was awesome for the entire ride, even when she got stung by a bee.

Sadly, the owner of the Big Red Horse has decided to take her home when my first 30 days is done. I'm sad because I'm having fun riding that horse and also because that will mean I won't have any horses book for August. I had someone bring a big thoroughbred in but I had to send him home because he was limping and coughing. Hopefully I'll get some more horses in soon, in the mean time though it will give me some more time to ride Kiwi and Stinky.