Ride a Good Horse

Wordless Wednesday

2012-02-01T05:26:00.000-08:00

Soakin' up the sun

2012-01-31T15:07:00.000-08:00

We're having such lovely weather -even though we had a snowstorm last Saturday!- that it really feels like spring can't be too far away. I spent some time out in the pasture today with Rio and the mares, they were just soaking up the sun and didn't want to play.

Doesn't Coyote Belle look just the picture of health? I so can't wait for this baby!

So here is a photo of Gussie today,- she is not fat, by the way-

and the one below, for comparison, was taken last May, right about the time we bred her. Hmmmmm.

Do you see what I see?

Ted swears she is pregnant.

The jury is still out.

Rio was the only one with enough energy to bounce around, but even he was more interested in seeing if I had anything chewable than in cavorting around.

He pestered Chickory a bit, and got TOLD.

**pout**

Saturday visiting

2012-01-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

After heading up the valley in the snowstorm to get photos of Kai, Ted and I and Merle went down to Idaho to meet fellow blogger, Sarah and her husband, Malcolm, and their three Chinese Crested dogs. Merle's first date! The snowstorm continued most of the way there so we took the old 4X4 Chevy, otherwise I would have brought Tess too, but there wasn't enough room.
We met in the parking lot of the local truckstop just outside of Bonner's Ferry, about a half hour drive for us. Merle was a chick magnet for all of about 30 seconds for the girl dogs, the only one that gave him more than a sniff was Paris, who did a lot of tail wagging before she decided that Merle wasn't her type.

We thought it cute that the girls all had matching outfits.

We had dinner in the truckstop and visited for about 3 hours. It was just like meeting friends we already knew- that's the beauty of sharing our lives in blogland; we already know lots about each other. Sarah is just as interesting and sweet as she seems on her blog, and Ted and Malcolm had a good visit discussing guy stuff.

Stay safe in your travels, Sarah and Malcolm, and I hope your Florida vacation is wonderful and refreshing. We look forward to getting another visit with you next time you are up this way.

Sunday Stills

2012-01-29T06:10:00.000-08:00

Today's challenge is to find scenes that are framed by nature.

...no words necessary...

Some scenes just catch your eye; I shot this before the challenge was posted.

I am fortunate to have trees surrounding my yard, they make wonderful natural frames for the ever changing mountain scenery here.

I threw this one in just for fun- hoofprints framed by snow.

Kai update

2012-01-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

For those of you who guessed that it's Kai in the photo in the post below- you are right, and the news is that his owner is putting him up for sale. He's 2 this year, and has the sweetest. disposition. ever. He still has some growing to do, he seems a little small right now at 20 months, but I measured his legs again today and the measurement is bang on 15 inches; so he should be 15 hands when he's all done growing.
Unfortunately, it was snowing to beat the band when I went over to take photos today, so this is the best I got:

I didn't spend a lot of time on photos, I'll get better ones when the weather improves.

The only white on him is that little bit on his forehead. He was tested for color and is smokey black, but he looks very dark brown- pretty much the same color as little brother Rio. Yes, he is Rio's big brother, sired by Beamer and out of Coyote Belle. Did I mention how sweet he is??? Just like he was from day one.

So if anyone out there is interested in a Beamer baby, here is a good one. He is gelded. He will be coming here in a month or so when the snow goes out of the round pen, and we will start ground work on him. And, the price is right, at $1500. He'll make a nice horse for the show pen, the trails, for a kid's horse because of that disposition, and should be cowy too. Personally, I'd send him to the reining pen if showing is what you want.
If you want to see photos of him from the day he was born, check the labels section on my sidebar under Midnight Coyote.
Anyone interested can get ahold of me by email or in the comment section, and I'll put you in touch with his owner.

And now.... I'm off to Idaho to meet up with fellow blogger Sarah and her husband Malcolm!

Here's a hint

2012-01-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

Janice, don't say anything!

The waiting game

2012-01-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

It's been a quiet week, with lovely warm weather; a little snow, a little rain, but pretty nice over all.

There is that spring feeling in the air, even though there is snow; it's melting pretty fast.

Waiting for spring is tough at this time of year.

The horses all got their feet trimmed on Monday; Gussie was the fidgetiest but they were all good. I was proud of Rio, he did really well. They are all starting to shed now. Rio was first, he started shedding over 2 weeks ago.
Got to go to Cranbrook tomorrow- our trip last week was cancelled because of the dump of snow. I'll get my ring that I got for Christmas resized, and meet up with Janice to do some girly stuff while Ted goes to do guy stuff. He has started working at home now, doing his repair business, although I have been his main customer so far: he built the hitch for my truck including re-wiring it, and then the heater core went so he just replaced that. Handy guy, my husband!
I got some news a couple of days ago that I'm just bustin' to share....

News? What news? Is it about me?

No Beamer, it isn't about you.

Aw c'mon! tell us please! Is it about us?

No girls, it isn't about you.

But it is about a horse. And you all are going to have to wait for a couple more days.

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-25T03:33:00.000-08:00

Great day in the morning!

2012-01-24T15:16:00.000-08:00

Woke up to a frosty morning and some gorgeous color at dawn.

We haven't had such lovely color for some time!

Even the hoar frost was pink. I love me a pink and purple morning.

Rio gets to go back in his alley for his morning scoop of oats, as I'm keeping the stall free for mama Belle who now gets a scoop of grain every day, ramping her nutrition up for foaling. She was bred April 22- 24, which means that foaling could be as early as the end of March- only 2 months to go! Speaking of foaling, Ted swears that Gussie is in foal, and someone else who looked at her today said she wouldn't be surprised if Gus was in foal. We'll see!

The girls. And Rio, of course!

2012-01-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

We had a little fun in the sun yesterday, the mares and Rio were feeling good. I took a couple of photos front on of Belle and Gussie- I'm pretty sure Gussie isn't pregnant.

And I'm positive Coyote Belle is!

It's just the foreshortening in this photo that makes Gussie look so wide.

Yes, Gussie, that's your good side. If you say so.
It didn't take much to get them to move out and have fun.

Even Mama Belle hiked up her big belly and raced through the snow.

Rio too!

Sunday Stills

2012-01-22T03:33:00.001-08:00

Sunday Stills has gone to the birds... at least, that's what today's challenge is. This was a tough one, with grey skies and missed opportunities (like the bald eagle that flew over me just after I put my camera away). I managed a few shots of the gold finches at the feeders:

When I took Beamer for a ride yesterday, I spotted a couple of hawks in the trees. I snapped some photos but they were really uninteresting, just grey skies and snaggy trees with them just sitting still. So I left, and on my way home one of them swooped down close to me, looking for mice in the snowy fields. This time, my camera was ready, and I was lucky to be able to get a quick shot.

I thought about going to my archives, but I really try to meet each challenge every week without doing that.

Back on black

2012-01-21T08:09:00.000-08:00

Happy me- I got to ride yesterday. Beamer was happy to get out of his boring pen too. I figured we had better ride before we got the big dump of snow (it's snowing this morning) so I hopped on bareback and went for a little putt.

I love his walk, he just gets out and strides with purpose. The purpose in this case was to get back to the mares as quickly as possible.....
Gotta haul wood and hay today, might be able to squeeze in another ride; I love riding through snowy fields.

Just a little

2012-01-20T06:34:00.000-08:00

We did get some snow out of the system that passed through, but... just a little. Enough for Ted to get out and play with the tractor.

I think we got 3 or 4 inches, and -5 Celcius, which is 23 Farenheit. Much warmer than Alberta, and even warmer than Cranbrook and Kimberley which are only an hour away- they had -24C. I think this is the banana belt of the Kootenays.
The horses hung out in their shelter for the last few days, so they didn't get covered with snow. Wusses.

I'm going to have to get the tractor in there today and scrape all that poo.....
Tess didn't mind the snow, just gives her softer footing for her outruns as she "helps" me do chores.

We are supposed to get a heavy snowfall tonight changing to rain tomorrow. Great- we are going to Cranbrook tomorrow, guess we'll take the 4 wheel drive.

Thankful Thursday

2012-01-19T13:29:00.000-08:00

A heartfelt thank you to everyone here on my blog and on Facebook who sent me birthday wishes yesterday-I was smilin' all day!
My sister came to town and went to Mass with me, then was kind enough to go to Tim Hortons and bring me tea and a muffin, and surprised me with flowers and birthday cupcakes for both of us; her birthday is tomorrow.

Thanks, Georgia!

Ted had flowers delivered to me at work, which floored me, I was definitely not expecting that! There were also a couple of bearpaw chocolates attached.(nomnom!)

Thanks, Ted!

I love the vase set-up, I will be using them this summer for my garden flowers.

When I got home from work, There was another bouquet of flowers, this time from my daughter and her husband; lovely white roses.And chocolates! (more nomnom!)

Thanks, Jessi and Scot!

With the internet wishes and phone calls, and all the lovely flowers, I had a most wonderful day, topped off by Ted taking me out for supper. I love being spoiled.... at least, once a year!

Look at all the lovely colors- so refreshing in the middle of winter!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-18T03:33:00.000-08:00

Here it comes...

2012-01-16T16:44:00.000-08:00

Here comes winter.... at least, it looks like it. We'll see how much white stuff this system brings.

Yesterday:

Same view this afternoon:

Looking west:

Looking east:

and same view10 minutes later:

The storms seem to roll along the mountains here, and often don't dump any moisture out here in the middle of the flats where we live. I checked my archives for this time last year, and although we had a little more snow, the weather was similar- alternating between rain, snow, warm, cold, ice, mud.... very different from the January weather I remember as a kid, and even 30 years ago. (I grew up not too far from here, about an hour's drive.)

Ted and I hauled a load of wood on Saturday, we wanted to take advantage of the weather to get up the mountain road before the storms hit and make the roads impassable.

We got a nice load of tamarack (larch); my favorite wood as it's so easy to split. The branches are small and as the trees get taller they tend to not have many branches on the bottoms, therefore no big knots at the branch bases, so it makes for easy splitting. Burns hot, too.

Ted is busy fabricating a hitch for the truck in the above photo; it's a 1976 Chev 3/4 ton 4X4 and it is going to be my horse hauling truck. He had to put a deck on it as the one that came with it was rusty and ugly.The new deck is quite high, so he has had to design and fabricate a complete system to drop the hitch low enough that the horse trailer will ride level.

Salvaging some steel off the old deck

He's a talented man, my Ted. I'm baking him a cake for when he comes in out of the cold. I'm not as talented as he is, but I can bake.

Middle of January

2012-01-16T08:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday- the ides of January- was an absolutely gorgeous day and certainly did not feel like the middle of winter. Didn't look like it either.

For all you southerners, this is particularly balmy weather for this time of year in Canada!

When I went out to do my afternoon chores, I had an entourage. The cats followed me around, and the dogs kept bringing the ball and dropping it at my feet with that pleading look that border collies have down to a fine art.

The cats were in fine form, posing and playing.

We are expecting cooler temperatures and some snow, probably on Thursday. But nothing like they are getting in Alberta.

I love living here.

Sunday Stills

2012-01-15T03:33:00.000-08:00

Corners- they are everywhere, and are the subject of today's challenge.

I have always admired the artistry of dove-tailed corners, like on this old Kodak tank box my husband recently acquired.

This corner is on a church window that I will be restoring; these are the windows from 1906 that were in the original Catholic church here.

Strong light puts some interest in the corner of the shop that would be otherwise uninteresting.

The best corner of all, the corner of Beamer's eye......

A gorgeous day

2012-01-13T16:21:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days that just gets your heart singing. A gorgeous sunny day in the middle of winter, the morning dawning with a clear blue sky and the moon in all it's waning glory.

Beamer was hanging out in the top corner of his pen, all relaxed.

When I got home from work I peeled off his blanket and turned him out, then spent about half an hour playing with him. He was almost too relaxed to play, but we did have a little fun. We played follow the leader, where I walked and he followed, no matter which way I went.

Of course, Reba had to follow too; she thinks the horses are her personal wards and she has to keep track of everything they do.
Then we had our little dance,

and after much coaxing I got him to show me his belly and toes.

(Yes, he does need his feet trimmed! Next week!)

But he was much more content to just soak up the sun.

There is supposed to be snow in the forecast but so far, the sky is still clear, just a little cloud coming up from Idaho. We could use some snow, or there will be problems this year- unless we get a lot of rain. Drought, forest fires, and low water tables are all issues of concern when the snow pack in the mountains isn't deep enough, and as you can see from these photos, there is hardly any snow in the mountains here, and none down on the flats where we live.

Spoiled

2012-01-12T07:17:00.000-08:00

Since Merle spends a lot of time in the shop with Ted, and is pretty good at being underfoot, Ted designed a way to get him out of the way. Merle likes to keep an eye on things, so the idea was to get him up out of harms way to a little higher elevation, and when my husband designs something, he does a really good job.
He built a ramp

complete with a chrome siderail, that leads to a little cubby with Merle's name on it.

Just perfect for little Merle legs!

He quite likes his new little kingdom.

And he doesn't share.

Ted showed me all the things Merle has packed into his ~~lair~~ mancave - things like electrical wire bits, tubing, pencils, you know, all those boy toys!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-11T06:57:00.000-08:00

From beauty to blustery

2012-01-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

This was one of those mornings that just makes your heart sing, warm and still, and with beautiful clouds hugging the contours of the mountains.

I put Beamer out in his paddock, and felt it would be a good day for him to romp around without his blanket on.

By the time I got home from work, about 5 hours later, the north wind had kicked in and the first thing I did- before I even parked the car!- was to put Beamer's blanket back on. Poor boy! He seemed quite relieved to get some relief from the wind. By evening chore time, right around sunset, the mares were performing- and that always means a photo op around here. It was miss Gussie who was putting on the show.

She didn't succeed in getting the others riled up though, much to her disgust.

"humpff! Spoilsports!"

Since the others wouldn't play, she challenged herself by deliberately walking across a patch of ice.

Soooo, all you astute horse people out there, here is a question for you. Is Gussie pregnant? Here is a photo of Coyote Belle taken today: (let's just call her Coyote Belly!)

and here is a profile of Gussie today:

Keep in mind that Gussie is a much bigger mare, and that Coyote Belle was bred 3 weeks earlier than Gussie and has had a foal every year for 3 years in a row. Gussie was last bred 3 years ago. To me, she looks open. Which isn't a bad thing as it means that I would have an extra riding horse this year. But I was so looking forward to two foals!

Sunday Stills

2012-01-07T19:26:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge was light painting, and I really had a blast with this one! I set my camera for the night setting, and made sure the flash was off. First I tried candles as my light source.

This one was my favorite of the candle ones. Next, I plugged in my Christmas lights outside- they are up all year round.

This was getting to be fun! So then I focused on the distant lights of town, zooming in on them.

The yard light..

All of the above photos, I moved the camera in patterns. So then I tried using a flashlight, moving the light instead of the camera.

Thanks for the challenge Linda, this one was really fun!

New Year plans

2012-01-04T19:46:00.000-08:00

For the last week, I've been battling a particularly nasty chest cold- you know, the kind that starts out feeling like your lungs are getting heavy and filling up, but no other signs, and then days of trying to cough it up.... bleah! On the bright side I now have abs of steel from clenching them during cough spasms. It will be a while til I'm back to normal. This really put a damper on my plans for riding; I was planning on riding both Beamer and Chickory on the last day of 11 and the first day of 12, but spent those days curled up on the couch with a wad of tissue. So sadly, the equines have led a really boring existence for the last week or so. Beamer did get saddled up on Boxing Day so that the wife of the fellow who did my header shot could ride- her second time on a horse. She couldn't stop smiling! Her husband took lots of photos which I hope to get a couple of to share here. After we rode I put Beamer in the round pen to play while Larry snapped more photos. Can't wait to see them! He said he'd do me another collage.

The snow in the photo is all we have- less than an inch, it sure has been a mild winter so far. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and the temperatures plummet, but mild weather is in the forecast for a while yet. I'm okay with that.

I should have the hitch on my truck soon and be able to start hauling to the indoor arena, which means little Miss Chickory will be entering the serious part of her education. One of the things on my must-do list is getting the equine dentist out this spring to do all the horses again; that should run about $700 to get them all done. Sigh. Rio will get branded, once he is sedated to get his wolf teeth out.

I now have a building to set up as an art studio; Ted's former shop is now mine since he has moved his set-up into the larger shop . I need to get a window framed in, and put in my mom's old wood stove for heat, and build a drawing desk. It will probably be spring before all that gets done as Ted has a lot of projects on the go. I'm hoping to make enough money doing artwork to pay for my horse habit!

That isn't a lot of goals but it sure should keep me busy this year.

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-04T06:52:00.001-08:00

Sunday Stills

2012-01-01T03:33:00.000-08:00

The challenge to ring in the new year is to post our favorite photo of 2011 and to tell our photography goals. I had a lot of trouble picking my favorite photo. What makes a photo good? To me, it's the one that gives you either the wow factor, or has a strong sentiment attached to it. Since you all have seen my horse photos, I'm going with sentiment on this one- every picture tells a story, and there is a story attached to this one- you'll have to go over to Own A Morgan & QH and click on the label "story"

It isn't perfect, but it shows the love between Janice and her 34 year old horse, Tex.
My goal is to improve the technical aspect of my photos, which Sunday Stills has really helped with, but I have so much more to learn.

Soft away the old year passes....

2011-12-31T10:19:00.000-08:00

I've been reading a lot of reviews of 2011 on blogs, and my life seems pretty tame compared to others. There were some highlights, like going to Kamloops with my sister (and getting to drive the Dodge Charger) to visit my dad, who is in declining health.

I come by my love of dogs honestly

Another highlight was my trip to Red Deer with Janice, to watch the events of the Canadian Cowhorse Supreme and meet up with Crystal (Ranch Riding) and her friend Charlene, and Sherry (Fern Valley Appaloosas). Good friends, good weather, and good horses = a good but short vacation.

We had a few canine type highlights too- the Stock Dog Championships that Janice and I attended,

I loved seeing so many border collies all in one place- and everyone of them watching the sheep

and a lesson with sheep for our dogs: finding the right home for Sammi:

and having a new little bundle of fluff in our lives- Merle!

As far as the horses go, it was pretty well all good, only a couple of hitches like Rio getting banged up and coming off Gussie. Getting Gussie back in February was for sure a wonderful moment (Thanks Pat! She is loved and cherished here!)

Reunited with her daughter Velvet

Finding a new home for Velvet was a good thing, even though she didn't get to stay with Jessie she is now ruling the roost over in central Alberta.

That helped me to buy my new custom-built-for-Beamer Wade saddle:

After riding it for a while, it really is a good fit

One of the greatest joys was the birth of Diamond Rio Peppy (aka Rio).

5 days old, in full flight

He quickly became a favorite around here, with his sweet disposition and cute heart shaped star.

With my husband working away from home most of the year, we didn't do a lot of things together other than routine farm maintenance, but we did work an auction together. A big highlight for Ted was getting together with his son (who had been adopted at birth) and family this year. We are blessed to have them in our lives.

The only really sad thing that happened was losing our old cat Bubby, who had been with us through thick and thin, and was one of the best cats ever.

Like I said, it was a pretty tame year, but the older I get, the better I like it that way. The only thing I'd like to improve on for 2012 is more time in the saddle especially with Chickory. And getting together with some of my blogging friends for a riding vacation in Alberta.

From Diamond Lazy H to all of you who read my blog, I wish for a happy and prosperous 2012, full of love and laughter, and not too many heartaches.

Winding down

2011-12-27T19:17:00.000-08:00

I didn't take any photos of our family and friends who came over Christmas, I was too busy just enjoying their company, preparing food and eating way too much, especially the sweets. I do have a sweet tooth, it's my downfall. One of our friends who is a professional photographer took some photos on Boxing Day and will share them with me after he makes a couple of collages. He did the new header- good job, Larry!
The horses got plenty of hay and extra hugs, the dogs got new toys, and all in all it was a wonderful Christmas, spent with some family and friends- and warm weather made it all that much more enjoyable.

Feeding time....

has become a fashion statement, apparently.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

2011-12-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

Some eye candy, Diamond Lazy H style

2011-12-21T19:21:00.000-08:00

I figured since I will someday be riding Rio, I could put him on my header...... just for a change. Move over, Beamer, your little boy is growing up.

I reopened the pasture where Rio got injured, but not until I blocked off the area where I think he got hurt. He and the mares enjoyed romping around in the sun- unseasonably warm as it is all across Canada.

He sure is spectacular!

Gussie got out and floated along,

and had a face off with Belle.

In this photo you can just see what's left of Rio's wound on his left hind. If you can look away from that stout little dun mare for a moment, that is.

She is definitely not stiff in the neck.

A good time was had by all......

including Beamer; I put him in the round pen so that he could see the mares playing.

He kept an eye on them.

and did a little performing, too. Hold that pose, Beamer!

Winter Wednesday

2011-12-21T07:22:00.000-08:00

Winter solstice- the shortest day of the year- yay, we're moving towards spring now! These 3 photos were taken at 8 AM this morning.

We got just a little skiff of snow last night, hopefully it will stay so we can have a white Christmas.

Christmas Eve, there is a new moon, so the only light will be the stars and the Christmas lights throughout the land. And the light in our hearts as we welcome Him whose birth we celebrate.

The world in solemn stillness waits, to hear the angels sing.....

This shot, the clouds look like angel wings.

Sunday- in motion

2011-12-18T19:57:00.001-08:00

Today's Sunday Stills challenge was to photograph what Christmas means to you. I know what I wanted to do, but couldn't find it. Christmas for me is the celebration of the birth of Christ. Anything else- the tree, presents, decorations, parties and big dinners, are all just things that go along with such a joyful occasion. And since I don't have a nativity set worth putting out this year, I didn't get a photo to share. Didn't find any displayed around town either, although I heard of a good one but didn't have time to get up to see it. Our church is setting theirs up today, so didn't get that either. So, instead of Sunday stills, I have some other tidbits for you.
A while ago, I mentioned that I had submitted some photos for the Credit Union calender again this year. There were over 400 entries from 33 people, and they chose one of mine for November. Do you all remember this shot? Also, they are using the photos on their new website, and I was pleased to see mine there the other day.

If anyone would like one of these calenders, I have a few and can send some out. They aren't anywhere near as nice a calender as Fern Valley Appaloosa calenders, but there are some pretty shots in it. This really is a lovely area.
I took Chickory out for a little longer ride around the hayfield today, a nice relaxing ride. She was on alert about a few things, like the car with the dog running beside it, and the mysterious lumps at the edge of the hayfield (last years round bales) but over all she is turning out to be a pleasure to ride. Her version of alert is ears up, stare holes in the object, and keep walking. Her body doesn't tense up. Yet.

Did you notice, no snow?

She is a thinker, which surprises me a little, I thought she'd be way more reactive. She was very light to the rein and leg, but does not like to ride with contact on the reins. A few times she stretched her neck down and leaned on the bit, but a bump with my leg and a vocal reprimand fixed that. I know she is having some teething issues because I found one of her caps in the corral the other day. She will be 4 in April.

Another thing I like about her is that she isn't bothered by the dogs, she pretty much just ignores them even if they come running up from behind. Good Chickory.

Isn't she a stout little mare? Gussie is a full hand taller than her, but Chickory is as wide in the chest. Strong back and good bone too. Cute doesn't hurt either.

Some Beamer time

2011-12-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

I felt sorry for Beamer today, he's been moping around his pen looking like he is feeling sorry for himself, so we went for a little bareback putt around the field, then I turned him out in the pasture so he could roll in the tiny bit of snow we have and maybe get rid of some of the dirt that is still left over from the summer's dust. Sure enough, as soon as I turned him loose, down he went!

He managed to leave some of the dirt behind, but I think I still need to vacuum him.

I'm having a little trouble with my camera focusing quickly enough in action mode, I think it's a little too cold out for it; must be a California camera! So I missed a lot of good action shots, but did get a couple.

First one way....

then the other...

Funny thing is, if I walk away and leave him by himself, he follows me to the gate, and if I go away he gallops up and down the fence line. If I stay, he wanders around exploring smells and grazing. He is definitely not a loner.

Back to normal

2011-12-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update on Gussie, she seems to be back to normal. I washed her off this afternoon, and when it came time to put out the evening feed I was happy to see this:

She was standing with Coyote Belle at the (nearly) empty feeder, patiently waiting for hay to be put out for their royal highnesses.

Big Butt Brigade

As you can see, the girls are well fed. Other than that last bale, I feed straight grass hay, free choice salt and Hoffmans Horse Minerals, and water (with a tank heater). Nothing fancy, and usually I have no problems. One thing I meant to mention in my last post, my friend Carol over at All These Pretty Horses is a distributor for Dynamite Marketing and one of the products I ordered from her is Dyna-Pro, a probiotic- and I ordered it especially for Gussie. I used it on her years ago and it worked really well. It should be here soon, along with a couple other products. Check out her website, these are some really good products.

You're disturbing my dinner.

The tree, and alfalfa issues

2011-12-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

I got a good start on decorating the tree yesterday; I'm going with silver and red this year. My clear lights (all 400 mini lights of them) are getting kind of yellow unfortunately, so I'll probably hit the sales after Christmas and get some new LED lights for next year. I still need a few more decorations, I want some red mini poinsettas and maybe some bows.
So far- so far- the cats haven't torn anything off the tree.

As I look at this photo, I can see that there is still a lot of tweaking to do to make it just right- like I said, it's a start!
To change the subject, do any of you have a horse who is allergic to alfalfa? The last large square bale I bought had a lot of alfalfa in it, and Gussie reacted to it; her back end is pretty messy; not diarrhea but pretty sloppy. When I went to my supplier, I made sure I got straight grass hay this time; it's a little bleached from sitting in the swaths too long, but no alfalfa. I switched to it 2 days ago. When I fed last night, Gussie didn't come up, so I went to see what was up and she was standing with her tail out, looking a little snarky (you gotta know her; she has nostril curl down to a science when she's crabby). I got a couple of my oils (DiGize and Peppermint) and applied them to her tummy and walked her for about 20 minutes. Even lunged her at the trot- she figured I was crazy and was quite offended that she had to work! But at least she seemed more comfortable afterwards, and regained her appetite. She's usually the first one at the feeder, so when she doesn't come up, you know she isn't feeling good.
Fortunately this morning she seems much better. After I wash her up after work today I'll better be able to monitor her.
Forgot to mention, I got Polysporin eyedrops for Chickory- couldn't find the ointment which would have been easier to use- and it did the trick.

Monday

2011-12-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

I didn't get up early enough the other day to see the eclipse, but the moon has been shining brightly in the mornings when I go out to do chores.
Today was a beautiful day, sunny and warm; it seemed like a good day to bring the tree in to the house. You know you love Christmas when you will rearrange furnishings in three rooms to have your tree in the perfect spot.... and oh how beautiful it smells in here now, the tree is a very fragrant Balsam Fir. I'll let it sit until after work tomorrow before I start decorating.
My plan this afternoon was to ride Chickory- well that plan literally went to s**t when I noticed that one of the mares (**ahem** big, and red and roan**) pooped in the water trough.... the water trough that I had just filled yesterday.... 80 gallons.... so I had to bucket it empty and clean it. No sense leaving it where it would get pooped in again, so I moved it to a spot where they don't hang out, which meant moving panels, relocating electrical cords, and bringing out a longer hose to reach the new spot, and then refilling with fresh clean water. By that time the sun had slipped behind the mountain and it was time to do evening chores. I guess today was all about relocating things! Tree, furniture, water tub....
Beamer seems to be walking fine today, and Rio's wound is rapidly healing. The only oil I'm using right now is Lavender, which helps tissue regeneration and will help the hair grow back.

Sunday Stills

2011-12-11T03:33:00.000-08:00

It's the three year anniversary of Sunday Stills, and I want to thank Ed and Linda for getting this rolling- it has been a lot of fun over the years, and has really helped me to get involved with photography.
As with the first year, the challenge is to photograph our pets. I don't consider horses pets, so no shots of them. But I do have plenty of pets!

Thumper and Pearl. Thumper is the great mouse slayer, and Pearl rules the household, and never goes outside.

Foose is aloof although he has been known to cuddle with Pearl, he prefers not to be held. But he does have collapsible legs....

He has a very quiet little meow and will come and pat me gently when he wants out.
Then there are the three hooligans:

all sporting their Christmas jingle bells. Merle is finally getting long hair after shedding out all his puppy hair. Reba is 10 years old now, and still going strong.

Tess seems to think she's joined at the hip with me, she sticks close by me.

She turned 5 in October.

That's my crew! I look forward to seeing all you lovely pets.

Done!

2011-12-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

Nothing like facing a growing list of things to be done to light a fire under me to get going. It was a beautiful day today, and I managed to spend most of it outside. Started splitting the woodpile in the morning, then took a break and went out with the dogs to find a Christmas tree. This one was a contender:

I was looking for a small tree, but you know how that goes- the next one we found was this one:

Tucked away in the ditch, I checked it out- very nice! And dog approved.

It was only about 10 AM, and the sun hadn't hit this narrow valley yet. Too bad you can't smell it- divine!
It looks even better at home, but I'm going to have to chop a foot or two off the bottom.

Remember that big pile of wood in my last post- well it's all split, except for 11 chunks that I left for Ted to wrassle with.

I spent some time taking photos for tomorrows Sunday Stills and have a couple of outtakes for you:

Thumper was in fine form today. I think he likes having his photo taken.

Beamer got in a bit of a wreck today; I was taking photos outside when I heard a ruckus; he had rolled next to the fence, and had gotten his back legs through the panels. By the time I got over there, he had gotten up, still with one leg in the panel, but pulled it out. He is a little gimpy, but I don't think he broke anything. Sure gave me a scare.
I had plans to ride him, but that put an end to it, so I rode Chickory instead. I took the dogs with me and we headed out to the hayfield where I usually ride Beamer; here's a horse of a different color than you're used to for my ear cam:

She did really well, volunteered to trot a few times but was easy to correct and seemed to enjoy getting out. There was no calling to her buddies, even when they called to her. I can't wait to hit the trails with her next year- Janice, better plan some time off! Sure would like to put her on cows too, with Doc's Hickory and Peppy San Badger on her papers she should love working cows. There may be some plans afoot at the local arena to do a working cowhorse clinic. Sure hope it happens!

Ready or not...

2011-12-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

I am so not ready for Christmas. I have one batch of cookies baked and in the freezer, and that's it. So I guess I'd better go get a tree this weekend, and start making those squares I've been planning, and I sure hope it isn't too late to mail cards! Need I say I haven't done any shopping either? Yikes! Only 2 weeks to go- I'd better get my butt in gear. Of course, it doesn't help when I step out my front door and see this:

Yep, it's not going to chop itself and jump into the woodshed.... there should be an app for that.
I was battling a Chinook headache yesterday and was pretty much immobilized. Today my plans to ride Chickory were preempted by some much needed afternoon nap time. I'm not really procrastinating, just having a hard time getting motivated when my husband is working away from home (pout).
Maybe this will help...

Wordless Wednesday (sort of)

2011-12-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

fiu

Some links.

2011-12-06T20:36:00.000-08:00

For those of you who missed the post on Rio getting injured, here is the link. I find that lower leg injuries take a while to heal. Also, here is a link to Young Living's main website.
While we are on to links, if you haven't been following the story of Janice's 34 year old horse, Tex, here is a link to the whole story; start at the bottom post to read it chronologically. Yesterday's post was quite moving.

Running around

2011-12-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

It was a no time kind of weekend- Ted was home, but had no time to relax; the weather was nice but I had no time to ride. Saturday was run around and get things done- like having to deal with the cell phone company with a phone that quit working, only to be told that the techs will have it figured out in 3-4 business days... yeah right.
Sunday- s'posed to be a day of rest- sure, after we went up the hill and cut firewood! At least it was a lovely day for it- but then Ted had to leave for work. So it goes...
Rio's wound is healing well. I know I said I was going to get some Uniprim for him, but I checked with the vet, and would have had to pay to have the vet visit and tell me what I already knew, plus they would have had to order it in. So I went with what I knew best- my essential oils. I cleaned the wound with a mild solution of Theives cleaner, and used Purification and Melrose blends to get rid of the infection. That took about 3 days. The wound was really deep; to the bone, and an inverted v shape. The Schreiners Solution that I originally used tended to close the outside of the wound, which didn't allow it to drain, hence the infection. Once the infection was gone I applied Ocotea oil along with the others- and wow did it start healing fast then. I have also added Lavender, which regenerates tissue. All the time, Rio has been really good to treat. He stands quietly while work on him, and when I pull his foot forward and hold it between my knees as I apply the oils he doesn't try to pull away, even when I take the time to go through all 4 oils. Good Rio! I did have him penned up for a week as he'd get to running around and reopening the wound when he was out with the mares, but it's healed enough that he's back with them now. Happy Rio!

If anyone wants to know more about the essential oils, email me or leave a comment and I'll try to answer your questions. Also, I suggest you check out Gary Young's blog - he's the founder of Young Living Essential Oils.

Sunday Stills

2011-12-04T06:39:00.000-08:00

Out photo challenge this week was to use backlighting, and there were some lovely examples of backlit leaves as examples. Alas, no leaves here! But I did get my flag, backlit in the morning sun.

This is a photo I took of Tex, Janice's 34 year old horse, who is featured on her blog every Tuesday with her "Tuesdays with Texas":

Photographing Beamer backlit usually ends up looking like a silhouette.

Sometimes I am lucky with a backlit shot, like this one:

And this one is from my archives- a little color to brighten up your Sunday.

For the birds!

2011-12-03T17:18:00.000-08:00

When the goldfinches first came to my feeders, there were only a couple of them. If you recall, when I first showed photos of them, I hoped they'd tell their buddies all about the free groceries at Diamond Lazy H farm- well they sure did! I'm now feeding a flock of around 100, and they empty both feeders every day. I think I need to buy stock in the sunflower seed company!

They clean up the seeds they spill, too. The cats seem to be leaving them alone.

I've been watching for other types of birds to come, and yesterday I spotted this Grey-Crowned Rosy Finch.

He wouldn't come down and eat, but he watched carefully, and I expect he'll be back, probably with buddies.
Went for a nice bareback ride on Beamer, and we saw our hawk again. Perched on top of the tree, he watched us approach, and once again, graced me with a photo op- this time from behind.

This hawk does fly-bys over our yard, so I'm very careful with Merle- he's always on a string, close to me.
My ride on Beamer was wonderful as usual, and I practiced bareback posting a little- can you say sore inner thighs? I always practice riding with no hands , inspired of course by Stacey Westfall, and it's a lot of fun. We can sidepass, circle, and stop, and we are working on the spin; if I start it with the reins, I can continue without them, and we are working on the bridleless back up too. All at a walk of course. This next pic is for Janice who says I never show Beamer all dirty; no matter how much I brush I can't get the residual summer dust off him. I may have to vacuum him.

I took Chickory for a walk, in hand, and we checked fence in the summer mare pasture. She was very patient with me as I wound up a lot of electric fence wire that had fallen down- it's the small wire that she was tangled in earlier in the fall, and tore a bunch of it down. She didn't try to dive to the grass and graze as I was struggling to wind up all that wire, and showed curiosity and calmness even when we got a loop of it around her front hoof, standing quietly while I sorted things out. Good Chickory!
I noticed that she has a chapped eye, and I wonder if any of you know what I can do to treat this:

Poor girl! I'm not sure if it's pink eye, the other eye is just fine.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-30T03:33:00.000-08:00

A good Monday

2011-11-29T07:10:00.000-08:00

Monday is my day off, so I spent it on "me time" which, of course, means horse time. First I got on the tractor and cleaned the mare pen, turned the manure/compost heap as much as I could. In the afternoon, I took Beamer out for a ride, just a nice walk and trot around the hayfield. We worked on shoulder and hip control, which with him really isn't necessary as he's so light I just have to think what I want and he does it.
What we were doing looks like this(sort of!)

Working in a straight line, I moved his shoulders over (not just his head and neck, the front feet had to track off the line of fall) for a few strides, then went straight, then asked him to move his hip out of the line of fall, all the while riding a perfectly straight line. We did both directions for shoulders and hips, and then did a more difficult maneuver- ask all four feet to go straight while bending in the ribs. You can't ask for much bend before the feet move out of the track, but it's a good exercise to work on keeping your aids light and your horse responsive. This whole exercise will also tell you if your horse is sore or stiff in any part of his body.
Beamer was so good, we just relaxed for the rest of the ride. We checked out the neighbor's cows, and used the opportunity to see where individual cow's flight zone was. Some didn't move at all as we approached, and some were turning away at 50 ft.
As we rode along the edge of the hayfield where there is a drainage canal, we spotted this hawk at the top of a tree.

The tree was tall and my camera was maxed out on zoom. Beamer kindly stood still for me, and I was real happy to get the next photo.

Also, I wore my new helmet; it was quite comfortable and fits really well, I hardly noticed it. It was a really good day, topped off by a prayer service at our church in the evening. Life is good- at least, as good as it gets- I can't wait until Ted is back home from working out of town.

Shopping list

2011-11-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

If you check my sidebar to the left, you will see a list - consider it a shopping mall! I would love to add more links to it, and if you see your link there, and don't want it on there, or want it edited, please let me know.
C'mon bloggers, I know there are more of you that sell stuff online- leave me a comment with your link. Also, any of you may feel free to copy my list for your own blogs.

Making a halter for Rio

2011-11-27T18:37:00.000-08:00

Rio has outgrown his baby halter- at 7 months old he is as big as some yearlings. I bought 50 feet of rope a while ago, enough to make a couple of halters- cost, $10.
Here's a step by step on how it looked to make it. I start with about 21 feet of rope. The first two knots are the noseband knots, with the left one 82" from the end, and the next one about 10 inches away.

(Sorry about the fuzzy photo!) I'm using a simple overhand half-knot. The tape marks where the next knot, the Fiador, will end up.

Making the Fiador- start with the right hand length (the long side)

The Fiador before tightening it:

And tightened, it becomes the knot below the chin that the lead line gets attached to:

Remove the tape, and using the long (right side) end make a knot 6 " away (5 " for a yearling) - the jaw knot. The next knot is 9 inches away (7 for a yearling) and becomes the knot and loop for fastening the halter when it's all done.

When you tighten this knot, leave about a two inch loop for doing up the halter. Take the rope and run it 9 inches (7 for a yearling) to the noseband knots, making another half knot inside the existing half knot, which now becomes a double overhand knot. Here's how you make a double overhand knot:

The first overhand half knot

Making the second overhand half knot inside the first one so that it becomes a double overhand knot and looks like this when tightened:

Then do the next noseband knot, making sure there are no twists in the rope. The next knot is for the offside and is the last knot using this part of the rope- it should be 9" away (7 for a yearling).

The remainder of that piece should be plenty long enough for tying the halter. Next, take the original short end that comes out of the Fiador knot, and make a knot inside the jaw knot. Then run it up to the last knot you made in the other rope -9' for a horse, 7' for a yearling:

Tie your last double overhand knot there, and even up the remaining lengths. Before you really tighten down all the knots, it's a good idea to try it on the horse first in case you want to adjust the length in between knots, as every horse is different.

You can finish the ends in a number of ways- copper tube, shrink tube, splicing. or what I used is some industrial grade reflective safety tape.

The best part is trying it on Rio and it fits!

I made one for Chickory too, and have enough left over to make puppy chew toys for Merle.

She really needs a new lead rope.

Sunday Stills

2011-11-27T03:33:00.000-08:00

This was an educational challenge for me. I've heard the term bokeh, but never really knew exactly what it was referring to.

Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas. However, bokeh is not limited to highlights; blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.”

So thanks to the posted explanation of how to achieve this, I think I got it. There was only one really sunny day this last week so I took my camera and did my best to get some good images.

None of my photos got the really sparkley bokeh, but I think I kinda got the hang of it.

Christmas shopping idea

2011-11-25T18:55:00.000-08:00

I meant to post this a while ago, but forgot- sorry! Gttyup was kind enough to award me a gift certificate to Heart of a Cowgirl who makes wonderful things to sell in her Etsy shop. I picked out these lovely earrings:

There are quite a number of talented bloggers who make things to sell, and I would like to encourage you to do some of your Christmas shopping by supporting them. There is jewelry, photo products, calenders, soaps, artwork, so many things. I'd be pleased if commenters would mention some of their favorite bloggers who have online shopping. You may include links. Let's support each other.
Edited to add: Links to your own site are welcome!

Thankful

2011-11-24T16:12:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all the folks in the US who read my blog, hope your day is happy indeed.
I was thankful this morning to wake up to such beauty:

Especially thankful that the snow stayed on the mountain tops, and that the rain quit, and that the ground thawed out and Lake Beamer mostly disappeared.
Thankful, to see that my hardy little pansy is still valiantly blooming through all the nasty weather, including being buried by snow.

In fact, I am amazed that I still have viola flowers,

and that my Bee Balm looks like it has new growth.

(Even though it did get knocked over by the snowfall.)

Rio is improving, and when I run out of penicillin tomorrow, I'll get some Uniprim (thanks for the reminder Sherry- I have used it before, but forgot about it ) so I don't have to keep poking holes in his poor little self. Also, it's pretty certain that he will be a big brother next spring- what do you think?

White to wet to green

2011-11-23T16:05:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, it looked like winter had set in. I spent a couple hours plowing snow and watched it pile up til we had 8 inches of the white stuff. Then we got a coastal rain system moving in, and within 48 hours, it looked like this:

Yep- Lake Beamer is back. (Yes, he does have high ground, this is the middle of the pen )

All that's left of the snow is the pile from plowing the yard- and it's still raining. One good thing- the frost has gone out of the ground, so all this rain should soak in, once it stops raining. Assuming it doesn't freeze hard immediately!
Some bad news, Rio's cut isn't looking good, it was slow to heal, and yesterday I managed to scrape off the dead skin and get it draining again, but it looks infected so he is on penicillin now. I'll spare you the graphic images. I've got him penned up again, and I'll be keeping a close eye on things. At least he is -so far- easy to give shots to, he'll be getting the penicillin every 12 hours, so I'd bet he gets fed up with needles after a day or two, poor boy.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-23T05:13:00.000-08:00

Playing in the snow

2011-11-21T18:48:00.000-08:00

We got another blast of snow today, and I'm happy to report that my little birds did indeed tell their buddies about the free groceries over at Diamond Lazy H - there were a bunch of them all squabbling over the best position at the feeder:

This poor little fellow not only got kicked out, he had some snow landing on his head:

It was fun watching them; I made sure to keep the cats inside while they were feeding.

I did put up another feeder today, now that I have enough birds to warrant it. Third winter here, and this is the first time I've had birds to feed. About time they found me!

The snow finally quit around 3 PM, so I fired up the old Kabota tractor and plowed for almost 2 hours. We have a fairly large yard, so it's time consuming. I got to thinking :
You might be a redneck if:
Your wish list for when you win the lottery is topped by one of these:

source

Having been a snowplow operator for over 16 years, I love plowing snow- but the tractor I use is so worn out that every time I tilt the bucket, I have to use both hands to hold the linkage together. Sigh.

Sunday Stills

2011-11-20T03:33:00.000-08:00

Portraits around here are usually about the critters; not too many people around here, unless I set up the bathroom mirror so that it makes multiple images! Ted has been working out of town, so critters it is.

Merle

Foose

Thumper

and, of course,

Mr. Handsome.

Simple Saturday

2011-11-19T08:16:00.000-08:00

After the storm

B.C.- or Alberta???

2011-11-18T15:24:00.000-08:00

One of the things I don't miss about Alberta is the winter wind and blowing snow. Well, today, it felt just like Alberta- howling wind, drifting snow, but the good thing- it wasn't anywhere near as cold; only -2C (28*F) But it sure looked like Alberta- no offence to my Alberta buddies!

Now you see 'em (just barely; 1 PM)

Now you don't (3 PM)

The wind is out of the NE, and all the horses are huddled behind the windbreak of Beamer's new shelter.

This is the area of Rio's former pen that I opened up to put the water tank in for the winter; it had to be in reach of a hose, and an electrical outlet to plug in the tank heater.

This photo shows how creative I had to be; the plastic pipe tied to the panel contains the electrical cord for the heater, effective in keeping inquisitive horse teeth from chewing it in half, thereby electrocuting themselves (even though it is covered with metal conduit!) The extension cord goes to a snap on top of the divider wall, so Beamer can't reach it, also I angled the panel so Beamer and the mares can't reach each other. It's far from an ideal set-up, but when you don't own the place, you have to make do with what you have to work with, and try to keep things as safe as possible. I'll take safety over pretty any day.

Speaking of pretty, at long last I have birds at my feeder! This pair ( I think they are Audubon Warblers) have been happily munching away for over a week now; I hope they stay, and tell all their feathered buddies about the free dinner.

First snow!

2011-11-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

Beamer wanted to give you all a big kiss today.

And poor Merle was quite surprised when he went out for his morning pee; I had to shovel pee paths for him.

I'm happy with Beamer's new shelter, and he is too.

When I checked Rio's leg this morning, it looked more swollen, so I turned him out, reasoning that some exercise will help keep the wound draining and reduce the swelling. Don't have to worry about dirt getting in it with all the snow! The water heaters went out today too- I did Beamer's this morning and will do the girls' this afternoon as I have to move their tank. So I guess it's officially winter!

The Wonder Year Begins

2011-11-16T16:49:00.000-08:00

Tuesday afternoon, I brought Beamer in with the plan of saddling him up, and ponying Rio, since the two boys get along so well. However, the best laid plans- you guessed it- Murphy stepped in. There oughta be a law against Murphy. Rio didn't come up to me in the pasture like he usually does, and when I got to him I could see why. He had a nasty gash right below his hock, and it had obviously just happened:

The only culprit I could find when I walked the pasture was a large nailhead that I had overlooked; the kind where when you can't get the nail in all the way you bend the nail up. Either that, or he managed to get his leg in the barbwire somehow (have I ever mentioned how much I hate barbwire?) The wound has a deep puncture type centre and ripped skin above the puncture. I washed it out, and put Schreiners on it and wrapped it, but had to take the wrap off about three hours later as there was some swelling. However, by then the bleeding had stopped. Rio proved that he is very much his father's son; he was really wussy about putting weight on that leg, even when I put his feed out he wasn't sure he could walk the three steps to the pail! I also went and got him a tetanus shot, and my friend Terri came and held him for me, as this was his very first shot- but he was a very good boy and didn't even flinch. He is much better today, but I'm giving him stall rest for a few days until the swelling goes away. If you check out the link to Schreiners, be sure to read the testimonials.

After all that drama, I did manage to get in a ride on Beamer- it was fun, and we galloped straight at the setting sun, as it disappeared behind the mountain.

The weather has turned colder and there is 4 inches of snow in the forecast, but I bet it doesn't hit that hard here. I leave you with the last pansy, still bravely blooming as of yesterday.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T05:46:00.000-08:00

Still holding off on the snow

2011-11-14T20:10:00.000-08:00

This weekend was all about getting wood in- with Ted working out of town so much this summer, it was one of the things that got put on the back burner, and now, I need some fuel for that burner! So Saturday we headed up the mountain.

This photo was taken from the landing where we were cutting firewood; overlooking Wynndel and Duck Lake. We got a load and headed home, I love the view from up there.

This is a little closer to where we live, our place would be just out of the picture on the left. Those mountains (the Selkirk mountains) are straight west of us. We live "down on the flats" which is land reclaimed from the Kootenay River. To the east of us are the Purcell mountains, locally called the Skimmerhorns, and they are sporting a fresh coat of ~~white paint~~ snow.

Why do they have to eat the weeds in the dirt when they are surrounded with plenty of grazing??

We've got a good start on filling our new woodshed, a couple more days labor and I'll be set for a while.

I must say, I'm glad we didn't get hit with the snow that Janice got today. I'm going to have to get a photo tomorrow of my pansies that are still hanging in there!

Sunday Stills

2011-11-13T03:33:00.000-08:00

Interesting challenge this week:

The challenge this week is for you to post a couple of pictures……..one bad and one good of the same sort of subject. Do a critic of your own work.

So here goes:

The bad- ears wonky, and a distracting pole in the background.

Better- shot from a lower angle to eliminate the pole, and the tongue gives a focal point and adds humor. Ears still wonky but draw the eye from one horse to the other.

The bad- nice light but poor angle.

Better- the light isn't as good, but the angle of the shot is more interesting.

11/11/11 We will remember them

2011-11-11T06:20:00.000-08:00

God bless all those who died for our freedom, and all those who continue to fight against evil and injustice throughout the world. I attended the ceremonies at the Legion today, so following is a photo essay of the tribute paid by our town. God bless our troops, and the children portrayed here who care enough to join Cadets and Scouts. I am particularly impressed with the Sentries at the cenotaph, who stood silent and unmoving for over half an hour in the pouring rain.

The Legion Colour Party

The parade led by one of our war vets

The Mounties resplendent in their Red Serge

The following two groups represent our hope for the Future.

Bless his heart!

Then there was the Salute from the local pilots- the "Fly-By" at the end of the two minutes of silence.

Rio at 7 months

2011-11-10T18:35:00.000-08:00

My little "heart throb" turned 7 months old today. So this post is just about celebrating him, in all his baby glory.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-09T03:33:00.000-08:00

Introspection

2011-11-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

I guess I'm feeling a little blue today, not sure why, couldn't get motivated to do anything with the horses today on my day off. Lots of things to think about, and feeling like I need some motivation. Chickory needs riding, Rio could use some ground work, and Beamer could use some exercise. Hey- so could I! I think it's the pre-winter blues; we need to fill the woodshed, the house needs cleaning, I have paperwork to do, sewing that needs doing, halters to make, things that need to be stored for winter- and all I wanted to do today was just cocoon.

I think this post from Breathe hit me hard this morning, especially since two other bloggers, GoWestFeralWoman and Rising Rainbow are dealing with serious illness; and this coming Saturday is the second anniversary of my mother's death. I have a landmark birthday coming up in two months, and I guess I'm feeling old and vulnerable; life is so uncertain and so precious. We don't know the number of our days, but we can make the best of the time we are given.

Maybe I should kick up my heels and let my hair down....

Gallop full speed into the future....

Enjoy the beauty that surrounds me....

No matter which way life takes me....

But today, I think I'll just cocoon.

Sunday Stills

2011-11-06T03:33:00.000-08:00

Shooting in the dark- for this challenge, I went back to my little Sony Cyber Shot camera for all but the first photo.

Nothing like a wood stove burning bright on a cold dark night....

Some candlelight.....

Warming up the room with a soft glow....

Even the Teddy Bear agrees.

Another good dog day

2011-11-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Those of you who read my facebook will know that Sammi has found her new person; she will be living in Kimberley, and I think she has found an awesome home. I took Tess, and went with Janice and Kali up to work sheep again today, and Sammi and L. came to play too- it was a border collie day- 6 of them were there, and we had a wonderful afternoon.

P. was working Moss on a group of lambs when we got there. I love watching her work her dogs, they are so responsive- I've got to get one of those whistles and learn how to use it.

The lambs weren't too flighty, so after Moss worked, it was a good opportunity to work Tess, who hasn't been on sheep for a year.

We were pleased with the way she worked, and I think Tess was pretty happy to be working.

Janice took Kali out and while she was doing that, I chatted with Sammi's new owner, and I think she is the perfect person for Sammi. I look forward to keeping in touch with them, and we may see Sammi in some agility shows in the future- she might even be competing with Tess's daughter Abby, who is well on her way to showing in agility next year.

This is a bit of a family photo, the only one not related is Sammi, on the left. From left to right, there is Quill, who is Tess's daddy, in the back is Moss, Kali's daddy, and in front of him is Kali, and on the right is Tess, Kali's mother. So Kali's mom, dad, and granddad are in the photo.
After our dogs worked, P. worked her new dog Druid, who is about a year old. What an intense dog he is! A very different mindset than all the dogs in the photo above.

At the end, we all got to talking, and Janice and I are both convinced that we need to get about 3 dog-broke sheep each. I believe that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission, and Janice already has the go-ahead from Dave, so things might get to looking a little sheepish on our blogs in the near future!
One more photo, with all six dogs as we headed back from the sheep field:

Happy, well behaved dogs

Chill in the air

2011-11-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

We had our first snowflakes today- just enough to put the fear of winter in me. Lasted only 10 minutes though! The horses are feeling the chill in the air, and it's making Gussie quite frisky, she did a lot of rippin' around today when I turned Rio out with the mares this afternoon.

Speaking of Rio, he is starting to look like a horse and not a baby.

He has lost that growthy ribby look and I think he just gets better looking every day!

Don't you think he looks a lot like his sister, Janice's horse, Jazz? (Except for the white!)

Sammi working

2011-11-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to the post Janice did on Sammi working sheep
She did a great job on the photos and explanation. Thanks, Janice.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

November- already!

2011-11-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

Things are pretty quiet here; we are trying to get a few things done before Ted has to leave for work again; firewood, fall yard cleanup, winterizing vehicles etc.
Now that the cows are off the pasture, I have turned the mares out on a bigger pasture, where they can stay out overnight- which really annoys Beamer; he can't aways see them, so he goes rippin' around.

When I bring him in I have Rio next to him for the night so he should be quiet- I hope!
He has a bit of swelling above his left knee; not sure why as I can't see any cut or puncture.

You can see it in this photo. I'll see if there is any change in it tomorrow; he may have just banged and bruised it; I'll put some anti-inflammatory oil on it and give him some time off.
For those of you who are Stacy Westfall fans after watching the bridleless reining videos I posted, here is a link to her blog. She has a 4 video series on halter training that I found quite interesting.

Sammi is doing well in her training, and there are some people who are interested in her, so I'm hoping they will decide to buy her. Janice saw her work today, and will be posting some photos shortly. The trainer really likes her and wants to make sure she goes to the right home. Good Sammi!

Sunday Stills

2011-10-30T03:33:00.000-07:00

This was an interesting challenge to photograph:
Choose a starting spot, walk 25 steps in any direction and take 3 photos. The 25 steps can be outside your home, inside your home, in your neighborhood or away from your neighborhood.
Once your steps have been counted out, you must anchor one foot, you can pivot on that foot but your anchor foot may not move.

I chose to use Beamer's steps instead of my own, as we gathered cattle Saturday morning. Because, he can anchor that pivot foot!

Here is our starting shot:

I counted out 25 steps:

We pivoted:

No cows left out that way!

Pivoted the other way:

Nothing but morning mist over there!

Pivoted the other way:

More mist and the mares. Cows are all gathered! (All 26 of them....)

For the 50 step part of the challenge, I took a starter shot when I was leading Rio out to join the mares in their pasture:

50 steps brought us into the pasture and I turned him loose.

As I turned, I found that Reba was watching closely:

I turned the other direction- and there she was again! Much nicer to photograph her than boring old mist that you can't see anything through.

Sammi on sheep

2011-10-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

First of all, a big thank you to my sister for taking me to the Terri Clark show- she was fabulous, love her sense of humor. Here's a You Tube link to her song Northern Girl; the video was shot in Cranbrook and Kimberley- just down the road from where Janice lives.

This mountain, Fisher Peak, is in the video, and is the view from Janice's yard.

Speaking of Janice, she and I took our dogs and spent a wonderful afternoon at Penny's. She gave us a training exercise to do on leash, and then we headed for the sheep pasture. She took Quill, to control the sheep,

Quill splitting the sheep

Quill bringing one back

and then worked with Sammi. This was the first time Sammi has been worked on livestock; she was very keen to work, and a little wild at first, kind of like a kid turned loose in a candy store.

Penny worked with her until she showed some improvement, her tail came down and she was able to get a bit of balance, then we parked her and she worked Quill for a bit. Then it was Kali's turn, and you'll have to visit Janice for that story.

Meanwhile, Sammi was just beside herself watching the other dogs work.

Penny gave her another turn at the sheep, and all the excitement made her even more keen, and she really started to work. The tail came down, Penny was able to flank her a little, and even got the start of balance.

I was impressed with Sammi, and I'm really looking forward to next week- I'm leaving her with Penny for a week's assessment and will pick her up on Friday- unless she sells before then.

Tail down and working

Here's a parting shot of the awesome view, and the tail end of a great afternoon.

Trimming and training

2011-10-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

I had all the horses trimmed on Tuesday, and I must say I'm pretty proud of Rio. Not only was he quiet for the farrier, he stood tied for two hours.

I had all the mares tied too so he had company, which helped. I took a video while Rio was being trimmed. There is a spot in the video where I had to let the camera dangle from it's strap when he leaned on Scot and we had to correct him, but once again, I was complimented on the good nature of this colt.

There were no problems with the feet on any of the horses, no thrush either. Yay! Also, I measured Rio and he now stands 13 hands and 3/4 of an inch- nearly 13.1-so he is on track for the 15.1 that I guesstimated him at.
Today is a big day for Sammi and Janice's dog Kali. I'm taking Sammi up to leave her for a week with the lady who owns Kali's dad and granddad- Sammi will get assessed on sheep for the week, and Kali will get introduced to sheep today. Can you say, photo-op?
After that, my sister is taking me to the Terri Clark concert in Cranbrook, so it's going to be a long and busy day for me, as I have to work this morning too.

Wordless Wednesday -Killing Frost

2011-10-26T03:33:00.000-07:00

Foghorn?

2011-10-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning dawned foggy- well, can't say as it dawned, because we didn't get to see sunup. The cows were missing their babies, and their bellowing reminded me of foghorns. When they saw me out doing chores, they came up to the fence where they last saw their calves.

Hey- don't blame me!

The bawling brought in more cows from the foggy reaches of the field.

No, I haven't seen your babies.

Yes, I'm sure they aren't here.

The fog burned off and the day improved, so I caught Chickory and saddled up. I rode in the round pen, this is the first real ride I've put in on her since I got her back from the trainer. The cinch gall is nearly all gone, but the hair hasn't grown back yet, so I only rode 20 minutes. Didn't want to aggravate the bare skin. We worked on leg yielding, and I'm finding out that she has issues to the right. Circling the pen to the right, she fades to the center of the pen, but clockwise, she stays on the rail. If I ask her with my leg to move over, she just leans into my leg. So I worked on getting her to move off my right leg, one step at a time. Of course, I balanced it with work off my left leg too. Things fall apart at the trot, so I worked mostly at the walk. I quit when she gave me some nice yields both directions.

Also found out Chickory likes apples. So she gets a little treat after riding.

Sunday Stills

2011-10-23T03:33:00.000-07:00

Today's challenge is to portray rock or stone, in any of its many forms. There is a rock wall on a back road that I have long admired:

I like the stone house in the background too.

I like the stack stone used on the corner of this new building.

One of the many crystals at a local rock shop. I would have loved to go in the store and photograph many of the interesting rocks and stones they have, but settled for shooting this one through the window.

This is the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, right next to my office at work.

And, last but not least, one from my archives- from the cemetery in Nelson.

Short 'n' Sweet

2011-10-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

Helped sort the calves off the cows today, Beamer really enjoyed himself, and I got a nice compliment from the cattleman, that everything went easy; and I bet his wife appreciated that she didn't have to slog through the pasture at all, or run to head the cows off. Beamer did all that!

We brought them in off the 75 acres into Beamer's pasture.

Pushed them all into the mare's pen, then sorted the cows back into Beamer's pasture;

Then pushed the cows back out to their pasture. The calves went into Rio's run, which is a 20ft. wide alley between the mare pen and Beamer's pen (it goes like this from north to south- Beamer's pen, Rio's run, mare's pen, then Beamer's pasture. The pens are dry lots.)

Like I said, short and sweet. Only took about half an hour. Would have liked to be able to do this for longer, but it worked out good; after the calves were loaded it started to rain.

An Inspiring Ride

2011-10-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

Just had to post this video.

Here is what Stacey Westfall had to say about this lady:

Congratulations Ann and Echo! Ann set the goal a few years ago to win at the Congress and she has been working hard to get to this point. This video was taken at the All American Quarter Horse Congress 2011 Non Pro Freestyle. In case you are wondering, the freestyle class at the Congress is divided into two groups, Pro (people who’s profession is horse training) and Non-Pro (I bet you can guess-they don’t make their living training horses).

Ann was actually my roommate in college! After college she trained horses but was injured a few years out of school when a stumbled and fell. She had multiple back surgeries and was told that she shouldn’t ride anymore. I remember the first few years after the accident when she would drive back from North Carolina to visit during the Congress. What I remember is that although she was in her 20′s, when she tried to stand up after sitting, she struggled like you might see an 80 or 90 year old person who was very stiff.

To say that the road has been long and that Ann has worked hard would not do her justice. I loved her music this year. Echo truly does have a ‘Heart of Gold’ and her feeling that ‘tonight’s gonna be a good, good night’ really did come true. Congratulations again Ann and Echo!

Safety First

2011-10-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

There's a series of posts going around, started by Deanna over at My Country Genes on safety around horses. Fern Valley and Ranch Riding blogs have contributed with very good tips and thoughts, and I have a little bit to add.
My number one concern is my safety. I'm getting old and brittle, and don't quite bounce as good as I used to. My tip, is to be aware. Not just of where your horse is, but of what she is thinking. Read your horse. They have very expressive bodies, so take the time to get to know what each nuance means.

When I walk into my mare pen, I can tell what kind of morning I am going to have with them.They tell me by their actions and reactions.

I lead the three mares and Rio all at the same time as I take them to pasture, and it requires having eyes in the back of my head. There is no crowding me, stepping on me, biting each other or lagging allowed. Also, I am very aware of what I am doing with the lead ropes; I don't let them get tangled or wrapped around my hands, and I always have it so that I can use a tail end of a rope to snap with if one of the horses gets unruly. They aren't allowed to be pushy as they go through the 4 ft. pasture gate; one at a time, and politely.

I'm not going to tell you how to create respect in your herd, you do what works for you. But being aware of what's going on around you is the ticket to staying safe. Put yourself out of harm's way. Listen to that little voice in your head that tells you when something is unsafe. Create safe situations by habitually doing things with safety in mind. Make safety a habit!
Another post at Own a Morgan

Updates: Abby, Velvet, Chickory

2011-10-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember that Tess's pup Abby went to a friend of mine, the daughter of Carol over at All These Pretty Horses, and she has her own blog; The Life O Jenn. So I have an update on Miss Abby, and I'll let Jenn tell it in her own words.

I think she looks a lot like Tess in this photo, except with a finer muzzle.

Abby:
We are attempting to gain our Level 2 in Rally Obedience. We did really good with our level 1, but now we are off leash and there are some major hard signs to do soon! I really don’t know what to say!!!!! We are gonna attempt an agility competition next fall in Kimberly; hopefully we are good and ready- she is more than willing and focuses great when we are working. Right now doing the off leash training for the level 2 she is a doll have to get after her when we are going through the food dishes but that’s ok, we eventually will get there! She loves jumps and tunnels, and my goodness she is fast! It’s really hard to work with her sometimes because I have no time to react to things and have to be one step ahead of her in smarts to make sure I get to where I need to push her.
Really she is growing into a great learner. We had our issues to start but working through them and she has definitely become a one trainer dog.

Abby would have been 11 months when she won her Level 1; her scores for that trial were 192 first run 178 second run 178 third run 190 fourth run. The highest score you can get is 210

Abby and her ribbons

Abby is doing great and we love her very much in this family even her quirks ha ha! She is fast asleep with her ball in her mouth!

Beautiful girl!

I also got an email from the lady who now owns Velvet.

Here's what Kristy has to say:

Velvet is doing wonderful.. She has really grown this summer. She is going to pass my pinto for sure in size!! People can't believe she is only a 2 year old!!

She has the prettiest head and the most beautiful doe eyes :) everytime my dad comes over he says where was she 20 years ago when I had horses... (he has a weak spot for dapple greys and blue roans).

Gonna start some work with her this fall, know a few people that are professionals around here to get her started for me (she has a lot of spunk!)

Velvet looks like the queen of this wonderful big pasture.

Meanwhile, I've been playing around with Chickory in the roundpen, bareback. Her girth gall is nearly healed now, so I should be able to saddle her this weekend. I'm a little nervous to ride her bareback, so I worked at my own chicken-s**t pace. Day one, I just taught her to position next to the fence, and to let me climb the fence and flop around on her, then get on and rode a few steps. Day two I made it more fun, and ended up having a nice ride. I came to realize just how sensitive she is from riding her bareback; this girl is really light on the leg aids, and rein aids too. She responds quickly, which is a little unnerving bareback. Here's a day 2 video:

Today, she wasn't as cooperative, so I backed off and did groundwork for a bit- including a sidepass, which is better to the right than the left. I rode too, but just for a few minutes. I figure a few minutes a day is better than no minutes.

This weekend, is sorting the calves off, so Beamer gets to work. Yay!

Wordless Wednesday- C'mon girls!

2011-10-19T03:33:00.000-07:00

True Bitless

2011-10-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

When she hugs her horse at the end of the ride, my eyes got a little leaky.

Frosty Frolicking

2011-10-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is the view of our yard taken on Saturday- get a good look, because all that green isn't going to last much longer. There is just a little color in the Maples near the house:

The last couple of days, there has been a heavy frost in the mornings- good thing I took those flowers in the second post below when I did, because I think they won't last much longer now.
The frosty mornings are making the horses frisky when I turn them out in the morning.

They frolic for a while, giving me plenty of photo ops.

Rio, leading the pack.

Big Red- Gussie in all her glory...

and being a brat.

Chickory looking proud - I always think she looks like a mustang.

In this photo you can clearly see her girth gall. The white area is dried up now, but there are still a couple of crusty areas to deal with. Yesterday, I put her in the round pen with the idea of teaching her to let me ride bareback. Since I don't use a mounting block, I wanted her to stand beside the corral panel fence, and let me climb a couple of rungs up the fence to get on. It took about three tries and repositioning till she had it figured out. I flopped over her back a couple times, then got on. I didn't stay on long though, because I'm really nervous on this horse without a saddle on- one quick step sideways and I'd be on the ground- I'm not that good bareback on colts! But, she did tolerate me fairly well, and I may get brave enough to try again today.

Sunday Stills

2011-10-16T03:33:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge from Linda is focusing on the foreground, with a strong visual in the bottom section of the picture.The idea is to have the whole picture in focus. I didn't remember that part when I took this photo, and the background is out of focus.

The red is sure a strong visual though.

Cowbirds

And one from my archives.

Still blooming

2011-10-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

Here it is mid October, and I still have a lot of flowers in my garden. (All photos taken today)

Osteos in my oak barrel planter

My favorite dianthus

Morden Sunrise rose

Carnations and Sweet Williams

Portulaca

Plenty of Pansies

Marigolds

Snapdragons

I also have Catmint still in bloom, and even the Beebalm. The hanging baskets on my deck still have Nemesia and Begonias. I was looking back in my photos for last year, and we had a lot of leaves on the ground and bare trees. This year, there are only a few trees in my yard that have turned color, the Amur Maples, and the regular Maples are just starting to turn- not many leaves on the ground yet. I've heard the weatherman from the Calgary TV station say they are expecting a colder than usual winter; be interesting to see what we get here.

Afternoon delight

2011-10-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

Took Beamer for a ride the other day , just a nice brisk walk around the hayfield, enjoying the sunshine and the company of the dogs. There is a place where we can ride along an old canal that holds overflow water; it's a favorite hangout for birds because of the trees lining the banks. We spotted this fellow:

Can you see him? Look at the trunk of the big tree on the left.

I think this might be the barred owl we rescued last year. I don't see great horned owls in the daytime here, so I'm pretty sure this is a barred owl. Pretty cool to see!

We also saw some ducks and I managed a quick shot; Beamer didn't want to hold still so I didn't get a good shot of them when they flew up.

I was hoping to see some deer or elk, but all we saw was some cows a field or two over, they got Beamer's attention while he tried to figure out what they were.

We're back in the sunshine for the next week or so, yay! I'm still waiting for Chickory's girth gall to heal before I saddle her again. I'm using aloe vera with a couple of drops of melaluca alternafolia (to combat fungus) and lavender (to help with tissue and hair regeneration). Hopefully another week will do the trick. I may try her bareback today- never been on her bareback so I'm not sure what she'll think of that.

2 Bads = some good

2011-10-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

First- my bad. I am a creature of routine, and when I change my routine, I really have to think about what I'm doing. Every morning, I take the mares out of their pen, leaving the gate open, and put them in their pasture. Then I go get Beamer, and lead him through the open gate through to his pasture, and close both gates behind me. Then I open Rio's gate and let him into the now empty mare pen. Since we have so much mud over the last week, I decided instead of taking Beamer through the mare pen to his pasture, I'd use a different route and gate that kept me and him out of the mud. Then I let Rio into the mare pen, and went to work. And.... you guessed it, I left the mare pen gate open. So when I came home 3 hours later, Rio was happily munching grass next to the mares- but not in with them. They had obviously been ripping around, judging by the sliding stop skid marks in their pasture next to where Rio was. So, I just put him in with them. He didn't try to nurse, so he is truly weaned now, and Belle is dried up. So, I can now put Rio back in with the mares, during the day, but he goes in his own pen at night. I was thinking that morning that it was time to turn him back in with them, funny how things work out.

Kicking up his heels and flagging that yellow tail!

His winter coat is coming in darker.

He's getting really big too. I'll measure him soon.

Helpful Reba, bringing Rio in.

Speaking of Reba, here's the other bad. Sammi has started showing more dominance and aggression in the dog pack. It started at play with the ball- she is now actively going after the ball and taking it away from the other dogs. And when I let them off the porch and they run out and grip each other like border collies do, she has started getting pretty rough. The other day when I came home from work, and they had all been on the porch together, Reba had a couple of nasty wounds right by her eye. Now, another thing collies do to show dominance is to bite right over the muzzle of another dog. Since I know Tess wouldn't do this to Reba, it had to have been Sammi, testing her place in the pack.

Warning- graphic photo below.

The one on her lower eyelid isn't too bad, but the one in front of her eye went right to the bone and bled for a long time. So now I separate them. Reba gets the porch, and I put Tess and Sammi in the Canine Hilton, and sometimes Sammi by herself. The good part is, that I finally got off my butt and booked Sammi in for evaluation on sheep- putting her to work will give her a focus and channel all that energy. She most likely will be going up for sale, as there is no way I can have sheep at the moment, and I hate to waste a good dog. We'll see how her evaluation goes, she may be more suited for cattle. The last week of the month is when I take her.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-12T03:33:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving

2011-10-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

It has been a quiet Thanksgiving here, as Ted is away; he had to go to Edmonton on a work related trip and took the opportunity to visit his family and have dinner with them on Sunday. His mother is ailing, in hospital and not doing well. So it was a blessing that he had to go, that he got to see her one more time.
It has been rainy here the last few days, so today I got all my indoor work done; sweep, vacuum, dust, wash floors, and do laundry. But that only took two hours, so I went out and fired up the table saw to cut up some scrap wood from the building projects , into firewood.

This is the woodshed that Ted is building; it is being sheeted in with rough cut slabs that we trimmed to fit better. Until we ran out of slabs, so we need to buy a few more to finish.

Once we finish the back wall and sides, we can start filling it up with firewood.
Rio is six months old today. He's been growing like a weed, and it's all up, up up. I have had a few people ask if his tail is going to stay that color, and checked it out. There are a lot of hairs that are silver all the way to the root:

so I think that yes. he will always have a light colored tail. He also has a good sprinkle of white hairs all over him.

This is his flank area, and his neck shows about the same amount of white. I'm thinking he takes after both of his grandmothers: his size and smokey black from Coyote Belle's dam, and the silver and white from Beamer's dam, who was a black rabicano. I think when I get Rio's color tested, I will get the test done for the silver gene.

Some lovely friends took me out for dinner tonight, and it was a wonderful turkey dinner, most wonderful because I didn't have to cook or clean up after! And a scrumptious pumpkin dessert; a square with an oatmeal base and pumpkin pie filling, topped with cream flavored with pumpkin pie spice. Yummmmm!
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving- well Canadians anyway!

After that dinner, this is how I feel!

Sunday Stills

2011-10-09T03:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday Stills challenge this week is vanishing points. Although we tend to have things butt up against the "Vanishing points are just another way of taking pictures with perspective in mind. It’s all a part of composition…..they can create balance or lead your eye to something in the distance. "
Although we tend to have things butt up against the mountains here, I did manage to find a couple of things that give your eye some perspective.

I put this one in because even though Beamer is walking away from the center of the photo, the fenceline still draws your eye to the vanishing point. And because, well, I just had to sneak one of Beamer in there!

In this one, even though the landscape is stopped at the mountains, the light on the wires creates a vanishing point. Guess those pesky telephone wires are good for something after all!

This one I switched to black and white because the morning fog washed out all the color. The fog creates its own vanishing point.

Dancing with Beamer

2011-10-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I featured Beamer at play, so here you go- enjoy!

Off and running...

shake, rattle, n roll...

Showin' off my hip-hop moves...

and a little waltz...

That's it folks! I'm outta here!

Rio: "Bout time! Show off!"

Home

2011-10-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

Brought Chickory home today. Terril rode her out again, and said she did really well. I rode her a little, but not long as she has a cinch gall; anyone have any ideas on how to quickly heal those? I had been putting salve on it, but this afternoon I washed it with a mild betadyne solution, and I'll let it dry a little before I figure out what to do next. At any rate, she'll get a few days off.
Ted finished building the corner feeders for Beamer and Rio, and as usual, did a really nice job. Thanks sweety!

Hey, Beamer, get your head out of the hay- we have a job to do.

Beamer- I said, we have a job to do! there's a fence crawling calf in the alfalfa field!

One fat calf, busy munching on the alfalfa was no match for Beamer and 3 border collies.

We moseyed him back through our yard, and back into the proper pasture. Ted helped head him off so that he turned right, into our yard.

Back where he belongs! the collies were really happy that they actually got to WORK SOMETHING today. We rode out and checked fence after, but there was nothing down; he just crawled through somewhere.
The calves will get sorted off the week after Thanksgiving, so Beamer and I get to help.

Chickory update

2011-10-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

Went to watch Terril ride Chickory this evening. It's rather amusing that the only think he thinks is wrong with her is that he doesn't own her! He really likes her, says she's really soft, learns fast, and is going to be a fun horse for me to finish. Well, he could have bought her back in August when I was mad at her for playing hard to catch, but as for now, I have taken her off the market. I plan on having a little fun with her myself over the next year, and then we'll see where we are at with her.
Here's a little video of loping.

He rode her out yesterday (day 3) loping in a field, and took her down to the highway so she could get a look at traffic. Tomorrow, he'll ride her out again, and then I'll ride her but it looks like I'll be bringing her home tomorrow; I think he has accomplished what I asked him to.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Chickory goes to school

2011-10-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

Terril came and picked up Chickory yesterday, and I followed him to his place to watch him ride. What I'm asking him to do is to get her comfortable at the lope, and to be able to ride her out by herself on the trails. All so that I can ride her without having to deal with worrying about her jumping out from under me or getting scared at the feel of loping with a rider.

He went through some basics with her, asking for her to give her face, and move off the leg; all of which I have done with her, but not quite as persistently as I should have.

She moved out nicely at the trot, but didn't stop automatically when he sat down and said whoa; but considering she hasn't been ridden since the beginning of August, that's not unexpected. By the end of the hour, she was stopping nice and softly.

Then it was time to ask for the lope. She did reach down and shake her neck a little the first few strides, but that was the extent of her complaint- she does the same thing on the longe line.

She loped nicely, not too chargey and not breaking back to a trot. No buck in this girl!

I told him that she was a smart girl and that she learns quickly, and he found out that it's true. He worked her at the sidepass on the fence and a while later asked her for it in the middle of the pen and had a big smile on his face when she gave him a nice sidepass.

Overall it was a good session.I could see a bunch of progress in just one ride, and I'll go back in a couple of days and watch again. One other thing, there were horses in the other pens who were racing around doing the full tilt boogie, and initially she watched them with a little concern, but didn't get goofy (like Gussie would have done) and came back to putting her attention on her rider. I'm liking the mind on this mare!

A Supremely good time

2011-10-02T21:33:00.000-07:00

The road trip to the Canadian Cowhorse Supreme was a pretty good mini vacation for me- despite the endless hours sitting in bleachers (Note to Self- bring comfy bleacher seat next time!) We saw some darn good horses and visited with some good people, most notably meeting up with bloggers, Sherry from Fern Valley Appaloosas and Crystal (Ranch Riding blog)and her friend Charlene-the two ladies who went on the blogger trail ride with Janice and I last year. Sherry I have known for a while, but it was the first time Janice had met her.

From left to right- me, Sherry, Janice and Crystal- thanks, Charlene for taking the photo!

But I'm getting ahead of myself a little. First, I drove to Janice's place about an hour and a half from our place, and while I was there I got a couple of photos - this is Jazz, a full sister to Rio, and in the background is her 34 year old horse, Tex.

Jazz, who some of you may remember as Sparkle, is turning out to be a solid looking mare, and a real beauty.

I was also entertained by the cat and pigeon game going on on the roof of the barn.

It was a stand off; I don't think that pigeon is ever going to be a kitty dinner. We hit the road and about 6 hours later were in Red Deer. We booked into our motel and headed over to the Westerner show grounds- the only thing going on at that hour was the trade show and some riding in the reining ring.

Sunrise outside the Tim Hortons coffee shop

The next day we spent the whole day there -about 14 hours. We watched the reining first, and got to see Tyrel Smith, (the son of the fellow who trained Beamer) ride. He's 23 years old, and was competing against some of the top Canadian trainers and placed 4th in both the classes he entered. Here is a video of part of his run.

I really like the way this young man rides; such a natural way to him, and a quiet manner both on and off the horse. My camera did better with video in the poor light so only 2 of the photos are worth posting. This one was a really pretty dun horse that caught my eye:

Not sure who this was, but it's the only other photo that turned out.

If I'd known how good the videos were compared to the photos I'd have taken more videos. My favorite part is the working cowhorse class; the fence work is fast paced and really gets the adrenaline up!

This is a horrible blurry photo but kinda artistic in its blurriness, it definitely gives an idea of the speed involved.

We stayed for the horse sale, which was very interesting to me. The yearlings topped the sale, with several of them going in the $8000 -$9000 range and the sale topper was a yearling stallion by Sophisticated Catt who sold for $10,800.

Well started 2 yr. olds were a tough sell, anywhere from $800 to $3900. The reining horses didn't bring as much money as the cutting bred horses- which isn't surprising, as there is more prize money in cutting than in reining, at least in Canada.

I managed to spend a little money at the trade fair (imagine that!) but not too much. A belt and a purse with a matching wallet, and a billet strap for my saddle. But one of the best things was that Sherry gave Janice and I copies of her book of poetry.

It was a great couple of days but it's always nice to get home.

Sunday Stills

2011-10-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

Water drops- today's challenge is to photograph drops of water. Well, since I couldn't get any raindrops to fall from the sky and cooperate with me, I sent some droplets skyward.

My handy husband

2011-09-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

We've got a construction project or two going on here. First, Ted has decided to go into business for himself and is remodeling one of the rooms in the landlord's huge shop to use as a fix it shop. He cut a big hole in the wall and built a sliding door, so that he can get vehicles or small machines in. 8ft. high and 10 ft. wide, he built the door completely from scratch. By himself. I had to help lift it in place, and it's a heavy brute!

It still needs the window installed and a coat of white paint.

So I guess his finger is healing fine, even though it still isn't quite up to par. The business will be fixing just about anything as long as it isn't computer type stuff. He's a carbeuretor specialist, and is really good at diagnosing and fabricating. He hopes to get a contract for wheelchair repairs as nobody locally does that. Small engines, brake jobs, wiring, all that stuff he can do. His business will be called Take it to Ted- because that's what everyone does when they need something done! I'm so proud of him.

He's taking the time to do a project for me too; we are building walls in the overhang that Beamer uses as his new shelter. We bought some lumber and a lift of slabs, so there will be 8 ft. walls to keep out the snow and the winter winds, although it will still be open at the top- the roof is about 9 ft high on the low side, and 15 ft. high on the high side.

It looks like a mess here, but it's organized confusion.

One of the benefits of doing this is that we can open the alley between Beamer and the mares for Rio to run in- and he was doing laps in it- that's him on the right.

It was dark long before they were done, and there is still some trimming to do and ties to put along the bottom, but it's nice and snug for Beamer for the winter. The low wall on the left is where I will feed from, and a feeder will be built along the front wall.

Ted has other projects on the go too; he is building himself a truck, which is the project I mentioned this spring. It has been put on hold a lot this year because of him working away from home, and a bunch of trouble with getting Napa to bring the correct parts in- 3 months to get the right brake parts! (I'll wait til its all done to show the progression of the project.) And then getting injured- well hopefully all things will start working out a lot smoother for him now.