Force

 Goodbye Forevuary I'm not going to miss you. 

Why is the shortest month of the year the one that seems to last forever....

This February is one that will go down in the history books. A government who used force on a peaceful protest and froze the bank accounts of those who supported it,  even denying Farm Credit loans this year to those farmers who supported it. Forcing people into bankruptcy and financial ruin for standing up for their rights. 

Another government who used force to invade another country, causing endless misery and death and destruction. 

A world elite who forces people to take an experimental and harmful jab or lose their livelihood and freedom, and in some cases their health or their lives. And not allowing doctors to use medicine that works. 

There is one force to be reckoned with: God's mercy , love and Justice.  I know which power I will side with when the time of reckoning comes. 

Ok rant over. 

Then there's the force of nature.

We are getting a lot of snow, big heavy wet flakes that piled up to over 5 inches in a short time, and it's still coming down. 

Can you feed me in my house today please?

I got my exercise today shoveling that long path to the barn!

He did come out of his house so I could muck it out before I put his hay in there.

Jayne was just hanging around in the snow. 

She will be leaving on March 18th  for Shayla's place. She will be reunited with Belle and Gussie. I sure hope she throws me a filly again this year! If so, this one will be a keeper. 

Sunday Silence

 

Saddle repairs

 I picked up 2 of my saddles that I had in for repairs. My newer riding saddle, I had asked for the hole where the latigo attaches to be enlarged so that I could more easily feed the latigo through, and to turn the stirrups so that they hang perpendicular  to the horse. 

Before

After

Much better, now I can reach through there.

No more groping with your foot to find the off side stirrup when I get on.. Yes I did finish doing up the keeper strap!

I also picked up my saddle with the broken tree. I tried to find the photo I took of the breaks at the back end of the bars, but it's no longer available on my blog and I didn't save it to my computer. The breaks were right where the conchos were screwed into the tree behind the cantle. My repair guy built a whole new tail piece out of fiberglass and attached it to the tree with pins. It's probably stronger than the original tree at that point!

Both sides

I gotta say, it feels good to have a couple of saddles back in use!

Now I need to buy a decent set of stirrups for my little saddle (on the top) . The good ones I used to have on it were on my Wade saddle when I sold it. I was looking at prices....😮 90 bucks for  a standard pair of wooden stirrups and over 400 for a name brand pair!

Today I will try the little saddle on Sophie, I think it will fit as far as the gullet and hand hold area goes but the bars may have too steep of an angle for her rather flat back. She does have a good wither so  clearance there will have to be considered too.  Fortunately my newer saddle fits her perfectly.

Focus

 I was going to post my thoughts and feelings about the unprecedented and very disturbing things going on in Canadian politics and my worries about how it will affect the lives of Canadians....

but I choose to look at all the positive and beautiful things of this world instead. Like for example, the fact that I am certain that Sophie has a baby belly! It sticks out on one side or the other. 

Getting rounder!

She is also mellowing out quite a bit and getting quite friendlier. We have a cold snap going on, and I had to chop ice in her water tub this morning, and she stood there waiting while I did that and immediately took a nice long drink, whereas normally she would stand back at a distance and wait until I moved away from the area before coming up to drink.  

I also was able to put Jayne back in her own pen as a lot of the ice melted in the warm weather preceding this cold snap. She hadn't laid down to sleep when she was in with Sophie, and I could see that she was a bit off so I think that was why. She seems quite content to have her own space back. 

Today is a good number day- 2/22/22  so let's celebrate some beauty to quell the February blahs!

Bouquet of tulips I bought for my husband

Sunday Silence

 

Peace, please.

 As many of you know, our cowardly Prime Minister has refused to dialogue with the peaceful protesters who have a legal right to a peaceful protest under our Charter of Rights (which was also cleared by a Supreme Court Judge) instead calling them illegal protesters and various other derogatory terms.

The  people have been very calm, loving and peaceful in all they have done. So what does he do..... calls for the Emergency Measures Act, which is basically martial law that enabels him to do whatever he pleases. He has called in Police and military from wherever he can in an effort to force the people out without engaging in a single word of dialogue with them. He has illegally used an illegally obtained leaked document with a list of donors who supported the legal protest financially and moved to freeze their bank accounts. This is the most despicable excuse for a national leader that I have ever seen. He refuses to answer questions directly (even from the first day of his dictatorship rule as PM. He is doing his best to turn Canada into a Communist country, and the people of Canada are fed up.  Being good Canadians we are doing this in a non violent way, but holding the line. Despite the strong police presence, which was pretty intimidating, people were not afraid, but sad. 

Note the mounted Patrol in the background

Sad indeed when most of those police officers were only there because they had to be, and good on them for their mostly non violent way of doing their crowd control kenneling tactic. I lstened to a few of the people on the live feed talking to the officers. Some were stoic and not answering , but the message that was being offered to them was one of love and peace. People telling them they love them.... how many police officers get that?

As far as I can ascertain there were 70 people arrested, and only one case that I could find of police brutality. 

                                                  But really? Snipers on the rooftops?

I am beyond proud of how Canadians are dealing with this. Things could have goyten really ugly really fast, but didn't. I call to mind some of the protests in the USA where protesters became rioters and were hell bent on destruction. 

There is supposed to be a vote in Parliament on Monday on whether or not the Emergency Measures Act will be fully implemented or struck down.  It might be a pretty tight vote, but I hope enough members of the ruling Liberal Party MP's have enough cojones to stand up for what is right. All of this mess could have been avoided by simple dialogue. 

I hate to see what will happen if it isn't struck down. 

EDTED TO ADD:

Just watched a brutal video of 5 cops on one protester beating him with a rifle butt and the mounted troops mowing people over. Not good. Also- Trudeau shut down Parliament... imagine that. Typical tactic for him when things don't go his way. 

....sigh....

Meanwhile, I leave you with something that brings peace to my soul.

Going for a nice quiet walk with my girl Sophie.

Sharp shod and saddle repairs

 I made a purchase a couple of weeks ago and I sure am happy I did! 

I got a set of ice spikes to slip on my barn boots. They work great! But I am looking forward to the day I won't need them. 

                                               They fit nicely over my el cheapo barn boots.

My catch and release program is working well with Sophie; the last couple of days she just stood and let me walk up and catch her.

I took my saddles to a local saddle maker/repair guy. He thinks my saddle with the broken tails on the ralide tree is fixable, and on my new saddle  he is going to make the hole where the latigo attaches to the cinch ring larger so I won't have to change out my cinch rings to a different style. 

I also had an old Saddle King of Texas saddle given to me last summer- it was in deplorable shape, having been left out in the weather. It was all dried, curled up leather and it was moldy. I stripped it all down and cleaned it up; the saddle tree is in good shape and the leather responded well to all the treatment I gave it. It needs a few things to make it complete; new sheepskin, new stirrup leathers and blevins buckles to replace the old method of lacing to adjust the stirrups; new saddle strings and conchos. I opted to have straight leather sewn onto the skirts instead of sheepskin. He showed me a couple of saddles he did that to that have seen a lot of use and it does just as good a job as sheepskin, given the quality of saddle pads that are available these days. Will also probably hold the saddle in place better than sheepskin. I will post pics of it when it's done, but here is what it looked like when I got it.

Rotted sheepskin

Rotted stitching

Moldy leather

Random bent over nails (and mold)

Mold on the bars of the tree

Saddle skirts removed so I could see that the tree was actually in good condition

Moldy saddle skirts

This was before I started tearing it apart. I didn't take a photo of it all dried up and curled up leather; what I was doing here was I had wetted down the jockeys and tied them down to take the curl out of them.

This is what everything looked like all torn apart, cleaned up and headed to the repair shop.

I'm pretty excited to see how it will look and ride once I get it back!  It's destined to be my colt starting saddle.

Sunday Silence

 

Deer spotting

Really enjoying the sunny days we are blessed with now. The pattern is melt down during the day and freeze up at night, which makes the driveway look like this:

But it sure is pretty, with the half moon in the sky every morning.

Sophie had a hair appointment with Jack Frost.

I'm working on catching Sophie every day even if I don't do much with her once she's caught. It's the catching that is the project. 

I got the usual runaround, but it was a little more half hearted. 

Today's evasion ended when she spotted deer on the hillside. At this point I walked up to her and caught her and we stood together and watched the deer traverse the hillside. 

She likes it when I check out what she's focused on. I bet she was a good horse for hunting, she sure can spot even the tiniest movement. 

I worked her for a few minutes on just circling and moving her hip over as well as roll backs to change direction- she was light as a feather, but seems to want to quit a bit when working to the right so I just have to be ready to drive her forward when she hesitates. 

We are in for another week of this weather, with a little rain mixed in- sure hope it melts that snow pack. I had to move Jayne completely out of the foaling pen as it is flooding the stall with the run off and then freezing it . But she and Sophie are getting along pretty good. With both pens open they have a lot of room to move around.

Two sides

 Sophie can be both frustrating and sweet. 

Let's start with catching.... sometimes if her mood is right I can just walk up to her and catch her, but mostly it's like this.

She makes me work for it!

And pouts too

Then there is how she is when she's at liberty vs. in hand.

Once she is caught she's a different horse. All sweet and willing. I kinda was worried about those big moves she makes, and I hope she doesn't do them under saddle. It's a big part of  the reason I haven't ridden her out by myself yet, I want to wait until I can get someone to come with me; discretion is the better part of valor.  And I have nothing to prove to anyone. So I will bide my time and hope the snow and ice go away soon and I can get someone to  go on a little trail ride with me. 

So for now, I catch her, love up on her, brush her and let her stand tied for a bit before putting her back in her pen.

These warm sunny days have me itchin' to ride!

This photo cracks me up, it looks like the speed swing (machinery in the background) is a toy sitting on her back!

By the way, she has never offered to pull back other than when she was loaded in the trailer when I bought her. But then, I haven't hauled her since then so it will be interesting to see how she handles being loaded and hauled. Hopefully, soon.

Updates

 Got a couple of updates for you on the Diamond Lazy H horses. 

Remember Midnight Mesa? She has been resold to a young family and is doing great! Not the greatest photos but all I can get. She apparently instantly loved her new people. Mom rides her sorting cattle and daughter is doing leadline gymkhana on her.

Just another Beamer kid teaching a young 'un!

Mesa's original buyer wanted to do cutting and Mesa didn't like it. But apparently she likes sorting. 

Then there is a Derby update:

The lady who bought him as a stallion prospect decided to put him up for sale as she just wasn't clicking with him. And I'm happy to say, that he will be joining his brothers! Yup, he was sold to the young lady who owns and rides Rio, and will be living with Rio, Kai, Josie and Pistol. I am so happy that the Perrott family likes the DLH horses enough to have bought 6 of them over the years! I don't have any current photos of him, hopefully I will be able to go to Alberta this summer and get photos of him with his siblings. 

I decided that Jayne can be turned out with Sophie during the day, and back in her pen at night. That way they are both likely to get more exercise. Sure enough, Sophie took it upon herself to herd Jayne around right away!

Early morning/low light cell phone photo- sorry!

I included that photo because it shows that s'picious bump on Sophie! I actually hope she isn't in foal!

Had to throw in at least one decent photo....

or two, for my Jayne update. 

Jayne will not only be going to live with Shayla, she will be owned by her too! I decided to gift her to Shayla, partly because it is such a great home for her to live out her days (she will be 20 this year), and partly to help Shayla get another mare with great bloodlines in her herd as she establishes herself as a breeder. And I know Shayla loves her! Such a sweet mare. 

Blogs and beauty

 To all my faithful blog readers, I want to draw your attention to a couple of blogs. First, Sherry is returning to blogging- pop on over to Fern Valley Appaloosas  for a visit!

Then there is 4R Ranch, a Virginia blogger, veterinarian, ranch wife, and birder. 

Both these ladies have been blogging for a long time. Let's support them! 

February has been giving us some lovely sunrises. This one heralded an Alberta Clipper that brought wind and plummeting temperatures to the prairies and down to -16C here.

This is the month where we have to look for beauty  because most of us are anxiously awaiting spring in all it's promise- whether we are horsemen waiting for riding or foals, ranchers waiting for calving season, gardeners waiting for planting time, birders awaiting the arrival of spring songbirds, etc; 

There is always something which can bring us joy! 

I challenge you bloggers to post about the things that get you through the February blahs. 

Here's something that made me happy. I moved my Christmas Cactus in December from it's south window to a north window- it was Not Happy and wouldn't bloom in December as it usually does. So I moved it back to its usual spot - et viola!

I now have lovely flowers that will bloom for most of the month! Yes it is two different colored plants in the same pot. 

But- here is the thing that gives me a big happy!

Yup it's shedding time! Beamer is the first one to start blowing his winter hair. The mares are still hanging on to theirs so far. 

Also the geese are returning, we have seen increasing numbers of them over the last couple of weeks. 

The circle of life rolls on!