Oh no.

“Don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.”

Wordless Wednesday

Sizing up and spring

I really should have ridden today and yesterday, it's been so beautiful. Procrastinator that I am, I'll go tomorrow. I guess I'm just enjoying puttering around in the sunshine. Today I measured Rio and the mares- and double checked with the leg measurement on the adult horses; it's bang on. Rio is 1/4 inch away from being 13.3hh; Chickory is exactly 14.2, Coyote Belle is 14.3, and Gussie? She is a whopping 15.2 and a quarter inch. No wonder I have to really stretch to get on her! She is the biggest horse that I've ever owned. I think the perfect size for me is 14.3; what about you? Since I don't rope, or ride English or jump, I really don't need a big horse.
I rechecked Rio's leg measurement; when I measured him in August, he was only 4 months old, and really the measurement should be done after 5 months old. So.... he's going to be 15.2hh. Holy Moley! I think I'll talk Ted into selling him; we'll probably geld him this spring and do all the basic ground work this summer, then put him up for sale as a two  year old. Unless someone just has to have him before then.

I checked my gardens today and found the iris's are starting to send up new shoots- woo-hoo! This is the earliest I've had flowers start growing.

Now I've really got spring fever. 

I hope it doesn't translate into the urge to do spring cleaning. Yet.

Sunday Stills

Today's challenge is to photograph liquids. There's plenty of frozen liquid around after the recent snow, but the weather warmed up and we got a meltdown- so I took the opportunity to wash the mud off the border collies by having them chase the ball through a big puddle.

Come for a ride with me

Such a lovely day today I just couldn't stay in the house and do the long overdue paperwork. So this afternoon I saddled up Beamer and me 'n' the dogs went for a ride. We did our usual hayfield ride, visited with the hawk in his usual tree, and moseyed along the canal. There were plenty of things to delight us.

The fluff from wild clematis, glowing in the afternoon sun

The resident Canada geese across the canal

The view to the northwest

and always, always the view to the east. 

Beamer was busy checking out the cows in the photo above, and Reba was checking out coyote smells.

After that we loped back across the field; the footing is fairly good when the sun softens the 3 inches of snow. Beamer is cautious, if he thinks there's ice, he stops in his tracks and then proceeds cautiously. He was feeling pretty good and even kicked up his heels a little when we started loping- and got scolded.

We got home after a too short ride, so we went into the round pen and trotted circles, trying to break up the snow so it will melt faster.  Of course, we had to practice our spins.

Hope you enjoyed the ride!

Just a few goin' - ons

This morning dawned a little crisper than the past few, and I finally had something camera worthy. T'was a beautiful start to the day- and yesterday morning was cloudy, so the groundhog didn't see his shadow so yay-  early spring; as if there was any doubt! I swear, this will be known as the winter that wasn't.

Yesterday, Ted did a little reno in the kitchen. (Thanks, Ted!)We have our wood stove in an addition beside the kitchen (we live in a mobile home) and to heat the house we open the kitchen window and use fans to push the heat into the main part of the house. I mentioned that I'd like to have sliding doors instead of the window so we could eliminate at least one of the fans and have a bigger area for the heat to come through, and the landlord approved it. So someone gave us a set of doors from their own reno, and Ted installed them yesterday.

Now we have a door that opens into the mud room/stove room/dog room, and the next project will be to get some drywall up in there. Now, if only I could talk them into tearing down one side of the wall between the kitchen and living room.... better not push my luck.
It was nice enough this afternoon to take Beamer's blankets off and turn him out. But there seems to have been an "occupy the hitching rail" protest going on.

And they weren't in a hurry to leave.

Do I hafta share? Pesky cats!

Hey! We were here first!

When I turned Beamer out, I knew the first thing he'd do is roll- and sure enough...

He wasn't interested in playing at all today. I'm hoping that I'll get some riding time in this weekend, he's so out of shape- but hey, like owner like horse!

Wordless Wednesday

Soakin' up the sun

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

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

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

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

Janice, don't say anything!

The waiting game

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

Great day in the morning!

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!

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

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.