One more

 Yesterday was one year since I made the call on Beamer; it was a bit of a tough day but it was made a bit brighter when Jared sent me a photo of Theo. He sure does look like Beamer, although his head is more like Velvet. 

His owner is still quite happy with him. 

Rally is keeping me busy; I have sat on her a few times now, and started putting a snaffle bridle on her when I longe her.

She didn't mouth it for long and is longeing well now but I still haven't asked her to lope in the round pen yet, due to heavy morning dew making things slippery. 

I am happy that she has shown zero inclination to buck and hope it stays that way!

Mementos

 I believe I mentioned months ago that I had sent off some hair to be made into a few items; hair from Beamer, Coyote Belle, Gussie, Jayne and my first stallion, Chipper. It took a while to complete the order as the lady is a very busy and well known horse hair artist.

Yes she does make items for folks from the US and I think Australia too, check her website. 

The package arrived in the mail a couple days ago, and I eagerly opened it- and didn't I burst into tears as I saw the beautiful work she did for me. 

She did everything exactly as I requested, and sent me a letter explaining whose hair was in each piece. 

The hat band looks perfect on my grey felt hat. 

The stampede strings are for my palm leaf straw hat, which tends to come off if it is windy or if I am loping. 
The tassels with the tin stars (one for me, one for Shayla) are made from Belle and Gussie hair, as bff's they are now always together. The little tassels, made from all the combined horses hair, are perfect for everyday use- the zipper pull goes to Shayla and the key ring for me. 

I highly recommend Donna's work and professionalism. If you want anything made, though, plan ahead as it takes about 4 months for her to get to your order . I must also say, her prices are very reasonable. 

Having these special pieces means a lot to me. I can remember the horses through my photos, but having a piece of them to wear or touch is so much more meaningful. 

Adios 2024

I have to say, this was not my best year. The best thing that happened, though, made up for a lot of it, and that was Theo. He was such a joy and a delight to work with, and he couldn't have gone to a better home. 

The loss of Beamer and Belle was topped off with the loss of Jayne, who was laid to rest for the same reason as Beamer and Belle- crippling arthritis and inability to maintain her body weight. Shiner was Jayne's last foal, and he went to a very good home. The lady who owns him is the one who started his brother Boe under saddle, and she was so delighted with him that she decided to buy Shiner for herself. Jayne was such a sweet mare, and she passed her personality on to her foals- although Shiner got a bit more pizazz from his sire, Shayla's stallion Rex (Majors Pistol). 

As most of you know, I got sick at the end of September with pneumonia , and it took me pretty much 3 months to get over it. I still am not back at full strength, but every week I am better. So autumn was pretty much a write off for me; not much activity for most of it although recently I managed a couple of short rides on Gussie. 

Gussie is such an expressive mare, she leaves no doubt as to what she is thinking. When she sees me coming with the bridle she gives me that disapproving look ; the lady does not like cold steel in her mouth in the winter, thank you very much! So I have been using the bosal on her, and she goes well in it. I will probably buy a nice light one for her, as she is so broke she doesn't need much, and the one I have  was meant for starting colts. 

The girls are wintering well! 

Theo's owner posted a photo of him on Fb with his pasture mate, a Warmblood filly. 

She is younger than him, but she will be a whole lot bigger! He is looking good. It's nice to get updates on him- his people love him. 

The loss of Beamer was huge for me this year. I knew it was coming, and it took me a year or more to finally make the call on him. He went downhill so  rapidly though from May to August that I knew it was finally time. Today when I was doing chores and went into his empty barn to get some salt for the mares, I could almost hear the echo of his whinny that he would give if he was there to see the mares come running over as I went in the barn. I miss his bright eyes and handsome face, peering out from his barn door, and his glossy self following me along the fenceline as I brought his feed out. I guess I am feeling a bit empty today, and I will be glad to welcome a new year, hopefully with less sadness. 

Memories

We took a little road trip today. Ted had to go to Nelson for a doctor appointment and I went along for the ride. 

It was a trip down memory lane, as the route home we took was through an area that I grew up in. I took the opportunity to check out a place we used to live. Originally it was an old log house, with no power although it did have running water. Gravity fed, I believe. 

This photo was taken 25 years ago....

That upstairs window was the girls bedroom, our parents and the boys had the bedroom on the other side of the upstairs.

Sadly, the old house has disappeared and now there are 3 or 4 modern homes in its place. 

Just up the hill a few feet from there, the old barn was still... just barely... standing.

So sad to see it surrounded by junk and slowly sinking into oblivion.

 So many memories of playing in the hayloft, of pretending the lower part was a tack room filled with fancy gear for the horse of my dreams, for dreams were all I had at the time.

We lived there when I was 10 to 13 yrs. old.  I remember braiding a halter out of baling twine and stealing a ride on the neighbours horse, and even though one time the mare dumped me and knocked me out it never stopped  me from wanting my own horse. It took me another 12 years to fulfill that dream.

I remember days filled with drawing horses, of reading all the horse books I could get my hands on, even trying to write a book about a girl and her horses. That love for horses never left me and it still is the main focus of my life. I still draw horses, I still make halters, and I still fall off horses and get back on again! 

If you have a young girl in your life who is horse crazy, encourage her dreams, for good things will come of it. 

December 11

This day was the day, 60 years ago, that my sister Sharron was born. She lived 16 and a half years. We lived along the shores of Kootenay Lake, and there was a little store about a mile away that we would walk to. One evening in June, she, and two of my brothers, went to the store, and made the fatal decision to walk another 100 yards to the Starlight Drive-In to watch the cartoons that come on before the movie. Any of you remember Drive-In movies? They had a huge screen that you could see from the road, so they walked along the shoulder of the road to find a good vantage point to see the screen. The driver of an approaching car was also distracted by the movie screen; but with one more distraction- he had been drinking. My brothers and sister were walking single file along the shoulder of the road (narrow shoulders in B.C.) and he missed one brother, hit the other one in the hand, and hit my sister full on. My sister died within seconds, but her memory has never died for me. I pray for her soul, and still grieve for her, a life cut short, for reasons only God knows.

When oh when?

When I wake up to frigid temperatures of -32C, and work outside all day in it, it's hard to believe that spring will ever arrive. The green of grass and leaves and the brilliant colours of the flowers in my planters are a distant memory, almost a dream. But hope carries me along just like this strawflower that bravely remains standing through the snow burying the planter it grew in. Hope that I will soon see the friendly faces of the pansies poking up alongside the house, that the birds of spring will be winging their way back any day now, that the horses will be all shed out , slick and shiny, and a frolicking foal dancing around his mama; hope that I'll soon be enjoying the sunshine reflecting on water instead of ice. Hope that riding through the fields will bring sight of beautiful wildflowers like these ones from last year:

Ah yes, hope springs eternal.

My 300th post

I wanted to do something special for this post, so I am going to introduce you to one of the best horses I ever was blessed to own; Coyote Belle's dam, Sundee. I bought this mare as a weanling at the McLean sale in Calgary in 1995. My husband had just received his first paycheck as town councillor for Black Diamond, so, jokingly, he gave me all $400 of it and said, "here, that's all you can spend!" I don't think he was really surprised when I came home with a little black filly. He helped me to get her halter broke, and we registered her in his name- and he got to name her. Since she went back to Sunday Times and Wagon N, and her dam's name was Destiny Dee, she became Sundee Wagon Ride. So technically, I never owned her, but as time went by, she was definitely my horse. I sent her to a friend for the first 30 days riding on a ranch, and then to a reining trainer which proved to be a mistake- this person rammed and jammed her too much and got her afraid to stop- which really isn't a good idea on a horse that's 25% Thoroughbred! It took me about 2 years to get her soft and willing in the stop after that. When she was a 3 year old, I hauled her to Montana to help in the fall cattle gather on Walt Vermadahl's ranch near Polson. We covered about twenty miles that day, and she worked every minute of it and still was willing to give me more at the end of the day. That mare had heart!The next year we hauled down there again; she loved working cattle and I could always count on her if we had to bust through trees and brush to head off a bunch quitter. I rode her in many parades, and won a little money team penning on her. I loved riding this mare, she was feather light in the face and leg, always willing, and she had no quit in her.

Sundee raised three babies for me; this one is Jess Dial It at about 8 hours old. All her foals were fillies. Coyote Belle was her third and last baby. I was boarding them at a friends place that year, and shortly after weaning, Sundee was kicked in the front leg by a draft horse, breaking her cannon bone clean through. I called the vet and had her euthanized. She was only 8 years old.

She had the kindest disposition, all the other horses loved her- she fit into any herd she was introduced to.
She was a smoky black, and went through 4 or 5 colour changes in a year, just like Coyote Belle does. I see a lot of her in Coyote Belle, and hope her legacy of heart and willingness carries on through her daughter. (I don't ride Belle because of an old injury to her right shoulder.) I'd also like to buy back her buckskin filly, but the owner is using her as a kid's horse ( which I'm not surprised!) so it's not too likely at the moment. Maybe someday.

Sunday Silence