Sunday Silence

More Chickory and an upcoming contest

I am happy to report that things are moving along quite smoothly with Chickory. She now willingly gives me all 4 feet without pulling back, and is allowing me to put her front feet between my legs like the farrier does (won't he be happy!). I almost was able to walk up to her and catch her today, out in the open, but when I went to tie it, she wheeled away, so I had to walk her down- the good news is that she let me put it on out in the pen, and not by cornering her in her stall like we have been doing. Also, she is walking much better and is weight bearing on her whole foot, and her limp is barely noticeable. I think another week and I will be able to take the support bandage off. It has been twenty days since her injury, so I think that she really responds well to the use of essential oils on her; I am using lemongrass and lavender on her tendon, and wintergreen on her ankle. The lemongrass helps repair the tendon, lavender regenerates tissue that has been damaged, and the wintergreen helps with any joint or bone problems that may be associated with the stress of the injury. I am also using a blend called Release, which aids in the release of negative emotions caused by bad experiences; I put this oil right in front of her udder on the thin skin there. Since I started doing that, she has become much more willing. She is so much more relaxed now, she is so different from when I started working with her. Yay!
I have decided to do a Christmas Giveaway Contest; keep an eye out for my post on Monday, and I will tell you all about it! Here is your chance to get a free Christmas gift, to keep or pass forward!

U. S. Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers and blogging friends. May God bless you abundantly! Please remember in your prayers all those who are not so blessed, and who struggle daily just to survive.

Random facts tag

I was tagged by Nuzzling Muzzles to post six random facts about myself; since I have been tagged before with this one, I am not going to pass it along to anyone, but will play the rest of the game.

1. My eyes are not brown or green- they are both! the center is brown, surrounded by green.

2. I am left-handed, but rope right-handed.

3. I have never been on those rides at fairs; roller-coasters or whatever, and have no intention of ever going on one!

4. I like my coffee, and I like it black and strong.

5. I come from a large family; 9 full siblings, of which 2 are no longer with us, and a half brother and half sister.

6. My husband and I got married on horseback; I rode a Quarter horse and Ted rode an Appaloosa, supplied by Anchor D Ranch, which is where we got married. (Three years later, we remarried in the Catholic Church.) Here is a photo from just after the ceremony:

Trimming feet and measuring legs

Look who is learning to stand tied! She is doing really well; I now keep her in the box stall at night, and have her turned out during the day. I noticed that she was walking on her tippy toe on her sore leg, so I decided to trim her foot, thinking that if I shortened up that toe, she would be more inclined to put the whole foot down and stretch those tendons out again. So I tied her to the hitchin'rail, and set to work. She stood really well, and let me use the nippers and the rasp, to my surprise.

That, folks, is a freshly trimmed Chickory foot. She was so good, I decided to trim the other hind foot, which was also no problem. So, feeling quite brave by now, I moved on to the front feet. Now, in my experience, babies are much more reluctant to let you have their front feet than their hinds, and Chickory is no exception. So with a little patience, I got her to give me her front feet; this is where she tested being tied up. She pulled back a few times, but didn't panic, and shortly after, let me rasp the fronts. The nippers I couldn't use, as holding her leg between my knees was just a little too much for her. All in all, I am happy with her- just hope she heals up well and comes sound soon. She is walking much better since I trimmed her.

I did a post a while ago about measuring a horses future height by measuring their front leg. Here is where you measure from:

(This is Sassy)

And this is where you measure to- the top of the bottom bone in the knee.

Use a metal tape (why are horses so wary of tape measures?) and lay it along the contours of the leg. What you get in inches is what you will get in hands. Sassy measures almost 15 and a half inches, so she should mature at just under 15.2 hands.

F is for Friends

I volunteered for the letter meme over at A Cowboy's Wife, and she gave me the letter F; I'm supposed to list 10 things I love that start with the letter F, so here goes:
1. Faith in God
2. Friends are life's treasures
3. Ford trucks are what I drive!
4. Frankincense essential oil , spiritually uplifting
5. Flying lead changes when I get them right-not easy!
6. Feta cheese, especially in Greek salad
7. Flower gardens- the more flowers the better!
8. Finches, especially the Pine Grosbeak and the Common Redpoll, their red colours are a welcome spot of brightness in the drab of winter
9. Farmers, those unsung heroes who spend long hours in the fields, making sure that the world has food to eat
10. And last but not least, my family

Sunday Silence

It never rains but it pours

Today was super windy, there are strange lights in the sky, and things seem to be falling apart all over the place. My sister had her car impounded because the shocks were worn out; my cat Bubby has some sort of skin condition that is giving him scabs along his spine; I had to euthanize my other cat, Otis, due to that condition male cats get with their urinary tract; I lost one of my jobs; I had to put my pretty red truck in the shop to get a new rear end ($2500); other than that, things are going along just fine! Nuzzling Muzzles knows what I'm talking about with her recent bad day. Seems that things just pile up and hit you all at once. Oh well, life goes on, and I trust that God has a reason for everything that happens to me, so let's just focus on the positive things:

Chickory is now getting easier to catch, and although I still can't walk up to her and put the halter on like I can with Peppy, she no longer turns her head as far to the right as she can. I can walk her down in only a few minutes, and can pet her out in the middle of the pen, but have to get her in the mini pen to catch her. She lets me pick up all 4 feet, and is quite happy to eat grain out of my hand- which is not something I normally do, but I am using it with Chickory to build trust. She leads much better now and has discovered that she can't get away from me on the lead line- she tried!

Peppy is back out with the mares, enjoying roaming around on about 8 acres of pasture and bush, and coming in every day for his Frisky Foal.

I plan on hauling the last 12 round bales this weekend, then I will have all my winter hay in, and can start my winter program- move all the horses around so that Beamer is where Chickory is now, and the mares and weanlings are all in the pen where the hay is- which means less work for me! I will use a round bale feeder for them, but will fork hay over the fence into Beamer's feeder. I may put Chickory in the pen in front of the barn and use one of the stalls as a run in shelter for her until she is 100% sound on that back leg. She is coming along really well on it, but is still limping slightly.

So even though things went all cattawhumpus for a while, it's not all bad. Life goes on, and I still have the best husband, the best dogs, and the best horses I could ever want! And, I may add, the best friends and blogger buddies!

By request

KDW suggested that I post a comparison of Beamer and Peppy's eyes, so here you are!

And in case you have forgotten how beautiful Beamer is, here is a photo from May of 2008.

Updates on the little hooligans

Check it out! A relaxed Chickory- and notice that she is now OK with me being on her right side!

Can't get much more relaxed than that!

She took some grain from my hand for the first time.......

And she leads now without me having to put pressure on the lead rope! Yahoo! I'm very proud of my little filly. She let me brush her all over, including her front legs and her belly. I can pick up her feet on her left side, and should be able to do the right side on our next session. I'm not calling her halter broke until I can walk up to her in the open and catch her, have her stand tied, and pick up and clean all four feet. (In the first picture, the rope is just threaded around the panel, not tied off.)

Meanwhile, Peppy is growing like a weed, and has finally filled out again after going through a growth spurt.

But he is still as cute as a bug's ear!

And he has a nice soft eye, like his daddy.

Sunday Silence

The barn project

I have to give a big thank-you to Rick and Wendy and my hard working husband for taking on this project, which is going to make life easier for me this winter.

First there was an idea. Then there was a plan. And then the work began! When these old power poles were first put in their holes they looked like a drunken Stonehenge:

With a whole lot of effort, the poles were straightened and tamped:

Then the plans for the shelter to be added on the end started....

*Ahem** the end of the barn, that is! It took shape quickly, and will be a nice run-in shelter for the herd this winter.Of course, every project needs an overseer- Marble had to see if the tin was going on just right!


The supports were placed for the tin on the front- this was all done with 2X6 rough cut lumber from a local sawmill.

The tin was put on, everything got a fresh coat of paint, the doors were rebuilt, et voila! a very nice project, finis!
(Sorry, the Canadian in me comes out sometimes!)

And just in time for winter! And isn't that a great hitching rail!
I now have a nice sheltered area in front of the stalls so I don't have to shovel snow away from the doors, and an awesome series of lights for each stall, the walkway, and the front that overlooks Beamer's winter pen, where the weanlings are right now. As you can see in the background, I have my round bales ready for winter feeding, just have to put the panels up around them to keep the horses and deer out of them.

Getting it figured

I am so pleased with Chickory! The last few days, she has really come around. I still have to send her into the "trap" to get the halter on her, and it is quite funny to see her try to evade by sticking her head through the panels, but she does let me halter her, brush her, and doctor her leg. The strange thing is that she doesn't mind being handled; no fight in her, and even in the close quarters of the little pen, she has never once offered to kick. Not a mean bone in her body. Yesterday I worked on getting her to accept me on her right side; I leaned over her when brushing so that she could see me in her right eye, then when I was brushing her face, I slowly worked my way over til I was standing just to her right. I could see her thinking, trying to decide if this was acceptable; apparently it was, because she didn't turn like she normally did. So I left it at that, then moved on to the next challenge: leading! I opened up the panels and asked her to follow me up to her shelter. It took a little bit, and a number of sideways tugs, but we did get there and she got her reward of oats in the bucket that hangs there. So today, I will work on getting her to let me halter her without her sticking her head through the panels, and another leading lesson.
Meanwhile, Peppy is quite bored with all this, as I take him out of the pen and tie him up with his grain bucket. I make sure to give him some attention too- he gets brushed and loved up on. I need to find some new challenges for him. Maybe I'll make a bridge or step to work on his loading skills.
The addition on the barn is finished now, so I'll get one more picture then post a start-to-finish for you. It looks great!

90 years since the end of WW1

Almost there!

In two days, Chickory has come a long way. I went from taking over an hour to get the halter on to only about ten minutes. Now she stands there and turns her nose as far away as she can without moving her feet- it's really quite comical, sort of her last bastion- but eventually lets me halter her. Which is a good thing, because yesterday she sprained her ankle in her efforts at resistance.

Surprisingly enough, she is very good about letting me doctor her. I put her in the little pen, and could likely wrap her without the halter on, but to keep the program on track, I halter her first. I can touch her all over, except the front legs, but she really doesn't want me on her right side yet. Check out how dark Peppy is now! He is doing really well, and growing like a weed. He's about three inches taller than Chickory. This picture was taken just before dark. Work sometimes interfers with the time I want to spend with my horses! Oh well, gotta pay for the hay! The days are really getting dark early. On my non working days, I spend all my spare time with my little critters, trying to get as much done as I can before the snow comes and winter hits with a vengance.

Sunday Silence

If at first you don't suceed.....

Imagine that.

I got it done too. It took me longer than it took Ted. But I got the halter on Chickory.

And she isn't snarling!

Back for my 200th post

I have been working some long hours this week, so haven't had time to keep up with all my blogger friends. We had a long day at the cattle auction, the highlight of which was a group of these extra big, extra wild Charolais steers and bulls. One of them stood in his pen in the alley before he was sold, following every move of the young fellow who was loading cattle into the sales ring, swinging his head from side to side, and charging at him time and again. Creepy! In this picture a pair of them are coming out of the sales ring; one of our brave girls is at the door ready to close it and me, I'm up on the fence -I didn't know if they were going to try to leap the fence or not- then I had to scramble down and close the gate that you can see in the foreground. We made sure the alleys were clear, then sent them down to their pens ; they went full tilt, with the pen rider hard on their tails and got them penned without incident. The one that was hunting the young fellow got sent straight from the sales ring (where he tried to climb in with the auctioneer) to a pen; we didn't try to contain him, just sent him straight down to a good strong bull pen. At the end of the day, the last 4 or 5 were some of these, so we ended the day on an adrenalin rush too! I love my job.... really I do. I'd rather do this job than my other job, cooking in a restaurant.
All the horses except Chickory got their feet trimmed yesterday. I won't have time to work with her today, but tomorrow she will get some attention. I really need to get her halter broke before the snow hits so that I can turn her and Peppy out with the other two into the winter feeding paddock and put Beamer in the pen they are in, as it is his winter pen.

Ted gets it done!

This is very much like the post Mikey did at Horseshoeing Housewife; for her, Wade got it done- for me, Ted got it done. He was watching as I worked Chickory, and we hit the usual [Wall] where she allows me an inch of progress and no more. Husband says "you want the halter on that horse?" "Sure!" says I. So I got my lariat out, slipped it on her neck, while he worked with the halter to get it on her; she did try her usual rapid flight take-off that would put the Snowbird airplanes to shame, but he persisted, and in a few minutes, the halter was on, and he handed me the leadrope. Did I tell you my husband is very intuitive when it comes to animals? Check out the look on Chickory's face:I swear she was snarling! I worked her in a circle both ways til she relaxed a little, then let her go. She did try to get away from me after she was haltered, but it's a whole different game once you can control the nose. Ted says we'll halter her every time now. I think it is no longer a fear issue with her; she has had plenty of time to get used to us. She has some sort of barrier to being handled unlike any horse I have ever known. But I intend to go on loving up on her until she figures out that I am her human -the feeder, the protector, the leader, the partner. She'll get it someday; and I have time-and my husband- on my side!

Sunday Silence - 10 years ago

Chickory, continued

Today I spent a lot of time with Chickory, as I have to work the next 5 days so won't have a lot of time to spend on her. This morning she came up to me and sniffed me, which she hasn't done before. I got her in the little pen and she let me touch her- just barely- and it's like she has a wall that she won't let me past. So I got the rope around her neck again, and worked with her til I could get both my hands on her, for the first time; one over her heart and the other on her withers. (Thanks, Twila). We ended the session there, without the rope, and getting her to circle me so that she was looking at me out of the right eye.(Thanks again, Twila.) So every session, we are making progress, but she is only allowing me one small step at a time. Which is fine with me, because I want to give this filly a forever home, and I need to gain her absolute trust. She behaves like a wild mustang, so I can really appreciate all the work that people like Tracey at Mustang Diaries goes through with all the horses she works with. My hat's off to them!This is the look she gave me after we finished and I was sitting quietly in the pen with her.