New stuff

 I took a little trip to Alberta a few days ago. I stayed with a friend and got to spend some time with her, as well as getting in a visit with my daughter and her fiance. They traveled all the way from Ontario to spend some time with me; I don't get to see them very often as I don't travel, and all the restrictions from the last 2 years have screwed up a lot of their travel plans. 

It was really kind of my friend Carol to host us over the couple of days they were there, and really great to reconnect with her as it has been 7 years since I have been able to visit her; she lived a little too far for a day trip but recently moved just under 5 hours away. The bonus- I got to spend time with her dogs too; she has a Tess daughter, Pip and the cutest Jack Russel ever. 

Pip does not like her photo being taken!

Midge was absolutely adorable and forever changed my mind about Jack Russels. 

Both these dogs are very adorable and cuddly as you can see:

The day I drove home was just after a big snow and wind storm hit, but it was short lived and by the time I started my trip home it wasn't too bad. 

That was about as bad as it got; mostly the wind had blown the snow off the road in all the areas where traffic was moving along, only the areas where there were turn offs for towns or side roads were compacted snow. 

I stopped to fuel up at  a place at the foot of the Frank Slide. 

Although it was wonderful to see my daughter and my friend again, it's always nice to be home! Also nice to get a gift in the mail-

This is the book I won courtesy of TeresaA over at Journey With A Dancing Horse. I am really looking forward to reading it! I have a feeling it's going to tug at my heart strings.

Ted did a good job of looking after the horses for me. And keeping the home fires burning- (literally, we only have wood heat, so we can't go away together in winter). 

I made Sophie her own halter testerday, and went down to check the fit on her today. 

But first, we had shenanigans. She was sleeping when I walked into the pen, but not for long once she saw I wanted to put a halter on her. 

Silly mare. 

Once she is caught she is as sweet as can be. I can't wait for spring and getting lots of riding time!

A blogger returns

 Hey everyone, just a quick note that one of the original blogs that I followed is back after a 5 year hiatus. 

Linda over at Just Another Day on the Prairie. She's a ranch wife, photographer and saddle maker. Stop by for a visit!

Blogger author

 Any of you who read the blog Journey with a Dancing Horse will already know this, but she has contributed to  a book which is now available on Amazon.  Head on over to her blog and read about it! 

I think people who blog and stick to it over the years despite the attractions of faster instant gratification social media, are a very talented and creative bunch. It takes time, preparation and persistence to write blog posts, so it's no surprise that TeresaA has contributed some of her writing to this book. 

New blog

The lady who is buying Mesa is starting a blog  and I thought all you folks who love Mesa might like to follow her! Here is her blog, Two Baileys Please . Stop by and say hi!

Au revoir

which translates as until we meet again.

Today was moving day for Tumbleweed and Rosalee.

Say goodbye to your buddies, T'weed....

Linda and family arrived right on time, we made sure all the paperwork was in order and then it was time....

The grandkids came with them, it was nice to see these girls again. 

A little visiting and going over some pointers... and it was time to load up.

Convince me....

I guess it passed inspection! Once she was in it was time to load T'weed. 

Yes T'weed, your mama is in there.

Well, all right then!

He took less time to load than his mama!  Off they went on their way to Washington state. They are within 3 hours of us and I do look forward to being able to visit, hence the title of this post. Rosalee will stay there for a few days until her new owner comes to pick her up, which gives T'weed time to settle in to his new surroundings. 

Photo courtesy of Linda

Pretty nice set up in their new home! If you want to follow his journey, go to Beautiful Mustang blog.

The herd looks pretty small with them gone! Now I have to find a new normal. Time to start working Mesa again.

Water Baby

It's been a while since I had Tumbleweed out, I have been kind of busy so he got put on the back burner this last week.
But- we made up for that today. Linda and some of her relatives came to visit him ( and thanks Linda, that huckleberry scone was delicious!)
The mares didn't make it easy to catch him, they kept herding him down the fence.

But persistence paid off! and

he decided that he liked all the attention being on just him.
 I caught Rosalee and we went for a walk down to the pond, his first time out that far, but with mama there he was quite willing.
Rosalee was happy to wade right in and munch on those juicy swamp grasses.

T'weed was a little more cautious.

but discovered that yummy grass too. Mama's willingness to go in the water helped him to be brave enough to try something new- getting his feet wet!

We spent quite a while there, letting him just enjoy the new experience. 

Look at that hip! The black spot is where he rubbed the hair off, not sure on what. The hair is growing back and it will be fun to see what the colour looks like.

Sure was a beautiful day to be playing in the water!

After that there was some hand grazing to do, very important! Then before putting him back in the herd, he got some very relaxing brushing, which he thoroughly enjoyed!

The next couple of weeks will see more new experiences for him, as we want to load  him with his mama to haul to a local arena (about a 3 minute drive) so mama can go back in training, as she is still for sale.

Youngsters

Thursday was another Tumbleweed day, he got another visit from his people, who brought along their granddaughters.  I really enjoyed the visit, including the yummy scones that they brought with them; coffee for the adults and tea for the girls, and a nice visit around the kitchen table before we headed to the barn.
This time, Linda did most of the work, catching him, encouraging him to lead, and generally handling him all over. He was lapping up all the attention!

He was very good with the children and seemed quite taken with the smallest one, someone just his size but in people form!

Both girls did very well handling him, and he allowed as how the older one was ok to lead him.

I did step in to help accomplish picking up his feet, he is still not too sure about that, but he is coming along. He was better with his back feet, but struck with a front foot this time.

Then it was Mesa's turn for attention.

They took turns leading her, and Mesa didn't quite see the point in it as there was no food involved and actually pinned her ears at one point, but Linda helped and got her over that.

Reward for being good- stop and get petted! She does love attention.
Then they all visited Da Man. Aka Loverboy  😍
He too loves attention, you can see where his foals get it from.

This photo and the next photo are my favourite moments of the day.

Both these girls are good hands around horses and I hope they continue to be involved with horses.

We also introduced Tumbleweed to foal ration. He wasn't too sure about it at first, but when mama dove into it like she was starving, he figured it must be something to eat and did try nibbling on it.

Gussie wanted some too! 

It will be about 3 weeks before they come back, so I'm hoping/planning that there will be some major differences by then. Better with his feet, easier to catch, and he will be much bigger by then!

Blogger visit!

Tumbleweed got to meet a Very Important Person today.

He was being his normal sweet self....

Some of you may recognise this lady- She is Linda from Beautiful Mustang blog. I live nearly 3 hours from her, and she decided that she needed to come and meet this li'l cutey. I have wanted to meet her for years now as she lives so close, and today was the day! I love meeting other bloggers, it's like meeting an old friend.
Of course the visit started with paying attention to Mr. Handsome himself.

We had a really good visit, it was nice to also meet one of her friends who came along. We swapped stories, and spent some time in my hideout away from the heat of the day.

More time playing with Tumbleweed,

and her decision was made. At weaning time, Tumbleweed will be heading south to one of the best homes I could wish for him. He's a lucky boy!

And of course we will all be able to follow his progress on her blog. 

Wordless Wednesday

Woohoo!

I got a parcel in the mail today; I wasn't expecting anything so it surprised me. A good surprise! It's from Aurora over at Equine Expressions blog- it felt just like Christmas as I excitedly ripped off the wrapping.....
and I am super pleased to get THIS!

I have always wanted to read Mark Rashid's books but never got around to buying one. I'm going to bury my nose in this one!
Thanks, Aurora for picking me to win the giveaway that went away! Loved the note card and letter too.

300! And a giveaway.

A long time ago, I celebrated my 300th post- now I am celebrating my 300th follower- it kinda boggles me that there are 300 people who thought it worthwhile to follow this blog. I know that all 300 don't read every post, just as I don't get around to reading every post on the blogs I follow- although I do try, time permitting. So, to honour you, my readers, I am doing a giveaway; all that is necessary is to be a follower and leave a comment telling when you started following this web log of mine.
The prize? Well, it will be a grab bag of products from local people, maybe even one of my creations depending on who wins. I will make a random draw on the first day of spring- the 20th! I'll make sure to link to this post with every post I put up.
Fire away- I'd love to hear from you!

A blog I like

For those of you who have never visited White Horse Pilgrim blog, you might enjoy a visit there. He is a wonderful writer, and I think you would enjoy the scenes he photographs from the back of his good mare, Brena.

Answers

My last post generated several questions, so I thought I'd cover them all in a post.
First of all, I will continue to blog- that is for sure! I love interacting with all of you, and even if I don't leave comments on the blogs I follow, I do try to read them. The blog community is a wonderful, supportive and caring group, love you guys!

Aurora was surprised that I'm letting Gussie go; it was a tough decision to let both mares go, but I have Rio to ride now, and Gussie will do much better if she is given a job to do. She doesn't do well with a lot of time off as she tends to get herd bound, but whenever she is ridden regularly she is awesome. Also, I would like to see her crossed out on a different stallion, so the choices for her in Saskatchewan are better than me keeping her. The fellow that will be checking her out might be a perfect fit for her, we'll see.

Malory asked, how long have I been doing this? I assume she meant breeding horses. 18 years. Selectively breeding just a few horses, with temperament, conformation and athletic ability uppermost in my breeding program.

Several of you have encouraged me to keep Josie, and I agree that she is a little charmer. I may just keep her, as I really do prefer riding mares, so we will see what happens over the next couple of years. Also, I have made a deal with Belle's purchaser that if she is in foal and produces a filly that I get to keep the filly.

And finally, Stella Belle. Yes, I have received the test results, all of which were negative for neurological diseases. No West Nile, EV1, or EPM. Not Rabies or Tetanus. I had the opportunity to speak with an experienced horse vet a couple of days ago, and the first thing he said when I described what happened was trauma. Apparently when there is trauma to the head, there is a bone at the base of the skull/neck that breaks during head trauma such as falling over backwards etc. and all the things that happened to Stella were what he described. The suddenness and violence of the incident and the rapid deterioration all were there. My first instinct when this happened was that Stella got her head through the panels to visit with Nitro, and jerked back and hurt her neck , then panicked and ran out of the shelter, where she started running into things and crashing around. I didn't see her put her neck through the panels as I had my back turned while I fed Beamer his hay, but turned around when I heard the clatter of Stella running over the poop scooping shovel that was leaning against the wall as she fled from the shelter.

So basically, Stella had a broken neck.

And me having to make the call to euthanize her was better than having her suffer until she died, because there is no recovery from this kind of trauma. I cried when I realized that, because until then, I wasn't sure. What if...

The expense of having the neuro tests also gave me some peace, because I know for sure that my little herd is healthy.

And now that I have made these changes, it's time to get on with life. New goals include getting Rio legged up so that I can ride him in a Jim Anderson clinic in January. My goal for Rio is to enter Cowboy Up challenge competitions, and if I can, get someone to show him in English classes that will showcase his lovely movement. (Shayla!)
As for Beamer, I will stand him to other people's mares and he will get lots of riding too.

But I'm going to miss my girls.

Dancing in the Mist

Thank you everyone for your comments, kindness and support  for us in the loss of Stella, it really does help to know that so many other people loved her too and I know that many of you have experienced the same loss, even this year.
However, we must move on. I expect to have the results of the test sometime next week and I'll post once I have some answers.

This morning was a lovely misty morning, guaranteed to be good for the type of photos I like to take, and it did lift my spirits to see my herd (and Shayla's Rio) out dancing in the mist.

Definitely helped!