Sunday Stills

Sara gave us an easy challenge for this busy weekend- some interesting road shots- I say, easy, because I didn't go anywhere so I get to use my archives.
Any time I travel to Alberta, I pass through the Rocky Mountains in all their splendor.  So I will share with you some of the amazing, breath taking, glorious Rockies.

This one was taken on the road through the Columbia Icefields.

The next photo was taken from the highway, it is Columbia Lake, near Canal Flats, B.C.

The lovely Abraham Lake, west of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. This lake is a reservoir for the water for Edmonton and many other towns.

These are the Steeples range, between Cranbrook and Fernie B.C.

One more shot, from my own back yard... not the Rockies, but it has it's own beauty.

Any day in the saddle....

Is a good day- especially on a beautiful fall day with good company and of course- good horses. Janice hauled her two intrepid Morgans, Mattie and Moxie, to our place yesterday, one for Shayla to ride and show us the trails. This morning at 9 AM we hit the trails for a couple of hours and had a great ride.

These trails wind through trees, and are well maintained by the people who ride them. We only had to move one branch, and made note of another that we will need to bring an axe along for on the next ride.
Gussie had to step it up to keep up with these Morgans, and we climbed a few steep areas- a good workout! We took a break at the scenic spot on the top- photo op for us, and breather for the mares.

Shayla on Moxie

Janice hates getting her picture taken so although I did get a really nice one of her, I won't post it here.  

Coming back, winding through the trees......

I'd like to go again before the snow flies, but my priorities have to shift- it's elk hunting time! I'm going tomorrow afternoon, and for all my gun crazy blogger peeps I'll take a photo of my rifle tomorrow. 

Happy Thanksgiving, all my Canadian friends and family!

Fall colours

No, I'm not talking about leaves; my horses are sporting their fall colours. That's something I like about having smokey blacks, they change colour every season. Remember Belle's buckskin look?

Here is how she looks today, frolicking in the frost:

Back to black! Rio is the same way- here he is back in August, all golden brown:

Today, he's a horse of a different colour!

Looks like a liver chestnut, doesn't he? I plan on getting a DNA test on his colour soon.
The other horses don't change colour much- Gussie gets a little darker red,

especially around her shoulder and flank. Chickory doesn't change- just gets fuzzier!

Beamer in the summer will fade out a little, not much, and he gets a rich black all over in winter. He gave me the I-need-my-blankie- look this morning, we had a really heavy frost as you can see in the last 3 photos.

The mark on his nose is from trying to nibble the grass tidbits under his panel fence. His wound is healing really well, if I wasn't having so much trouble with my camera I'd get a photo- can't do close-ups.

Wordless Wednesday

Nitro update!

Janice has the story of Nitro's first adventures here. 

Smoke? what smoke?

The wind that blew the smoke in yesterday, apparently blew it right back out again. I was delighted to see beautiful blue skies this morning,

with not a hint of the lung-clogging smoke that was here yesterday. I often wonder how badly air pollution affects the horses. Both Beamer and Gussie have a chronic cough, usually from hay.
I was reflecting a bit on herd dynamics this morning; when I bring the mares in from pasture, they all head to the hay feeder, and always stand in the exact same order:

Then when I turn them out,Gussie and Chickory just have to eat from the same spot - not like there isn't a few acres to choose from!

Coyote Belle wanders off to find the best spot, she is the alpha mare, so I think she just expects her minions to follow.
There's a little dog dynamics going on too- Reba knows that it's her job to monitor the herd and keep on the far side of them, while Tess is ever ready to do my bidding... even if there isn't any bidding forthcoming.

Sunset

Just had to share this with you....

This'n'that and Nitro pics

Holy smoke!

This smoke rolled in on the wind this afternoon. This photo was taken around mid afternoon, sure darkened the sky. I don't know where the fires are but I think a little rain would sure help!
I am once again in dire need of a new camera; my Olympus is pretty much worn out. I take the lens off to clean it, but there are so many scratches and spots on it now that it's a lost cause- you can see the spots in this photo. I think I'll go for a pocket camera, and head down to Idaho to buy one. Or maybe online.; I've got my eye on this one: Nikon Coolpix S2600 There is a Walmart in Sand Point, about an hour away- I guess I should phone and see if they have any.
Beamer seems to be doing fine, the wound is staying surprisingly clean considering, and the Dermagel and oils are doing their job.
Nitro left yesterday for his new home. He loaded really well , only took about a minute.

 It seems strange here without Nitro now, but he is doing well in his new home.

Here he is right next to big sister Jazz (aka Sparkle N Peppy, Coyote Belle's first foal).

 He had a little adventure, but I'll let Janice tell you  about it (he is being boarded at her place). I'll post a link when she gets the story up.

Sunday Stills

The signs of Fall.... we don't have a lot of leaves turning colour here yet, but there are other signs of Fall to be found.

The local fruit stands are full of pumpkins, squash, and gourds- including these odd looking "Turk's Turban":

Although there aren't a lot of geese on the move yet, I did manage to get a lucky shot when I was doing chores last night.

The full harvest moon was just setting this morning and I just managed to get a shot before it dipped below the mountain.

Beamer and Bushwacking

First a Beamer update. Took him to the vet yesterday, and he had a big chunk of chin removed; it wasn't likely to fuse and would either dry up and break off, or get necrotic, so we opted to remove the chunk that was hanging down. He was really good, they were impressed with his good manners (and good looks!But manners were more important). We sprayed it with Derma Gel and I'll clean it every day and apply some of my oils to speed up the healing. I'll spare you the wound photos.
Went on a group trail ride today; took Gussie, and we rode for around 3 hours. I must say, it was a great group of people and a variety of well behaved horses. 4 Morgans, a Suffolk/QH cross, a paint, a pretty bay grade horse, and Gussie.

Our trails wound through the forest, with frequent stops to put up ribbon markers; this is an area designated for horse trails.The fuzzy orange thing behind the stump is a red merle Aussie dog; and I brought Tess along. Both dogs were very good. We eventually made our way up to the top, overlooking the valley between Creston and the US border- great view!

The 4 Morgan horses; the youngest, bottom right, is 4 yrs old, and the one next to him is 20.

As you can see there is still plenty of smoke from the forest fires, and the bush we were riding in is pretty dry. There is still a full out fire ban in our province.
As we wound our way down, we could hear an elk bugling, but we didn't see any wildlife. The trails are good- a lot of us were riding barefoot horses and there were no bad areas. At trails end, we were treated to muffins, Timbits, bagels and cookies from Tim Hortons, thanks to the young lady who organized the ride. It was a great day, and I look forward to making this a regular outing.

Owwy

There is one problem with taking the horses out to pasture before daylight- you don't get a good look at them. I found an owwy on Beamer this afternoon after work- one of the reasons I didn't notice it  this morning when I put his halter on is that he always yawns just as I go to slip the noseband over. I did take some photos of him in the fog this morning, and downloaded them this afternoon before heading out to do chores. I was wondering what the heck as I looked through the photos of him going full tilt boogie:

Do you see it?

Warning- wound photo below.

Anyway, when I brought him in, this is what I found:

One tetanus shot later, and a vet appointment for tomorrow afternoon. We'll have to cut the big flap on the bottom off as it was much too late to try stitching.I cleaned it out as much as I could and put some Purification oil on it to hold until the vet can clean him up tomorrow. I fear this will alter his lovely profile a little.
Edited to add: After searching his pen for the culprit, the only thing I could find is a broken root with a sharp edge  right where he rolls. You know how they like to smoosh their face in the dust when they are rolling? Yeah.  I took my splitting maul to it and bust it into smithereens.

Foggy fotos

Every morning the cooler fall weather brings mist to this low lying valley. I think it's one of the things I enjoy most about these late September mornings, it helps to clear the smoke from the air, and it has that peaceful quality to it.

That is, until I turn the horses out. 

The brisk air and the dwindling pasture means they would rather stay in their nice large pens and eat hay.

Except Nitro, who is always willing to get out and stretch his legs....

Searching for that perfect spot.....

 To grab his first mouthful for the day.

Wordless Wednesday

Hangin' in there

Had a yucky couple of days, details not necessary but not feeling good. So I didn't get a lot done, but that didn't stop me from taking photos. I did get down to Idaho; the smoke was so thick you could see it laying on the fields and the mountains were pretty much obscured. Apparently there are large fires in Washington State and that is just south and west of us. Even the mountains in our valley are barely visible, we really need a good rain to clear the air and help the firefighters. This is not a good photo but it gives you an idea of the air quality coming home from Idaho.

It may be fall, but summer is still hangin' in here. The horses are just barely starting to grow their winter hair, and there are very few geese on the move yet.
Nitro is here for a few more days, he's growing like a weed. He got his 5 way shot and dewormed so he is all ready for his new life.

I spent some time hangin' out with the mares tonight, and there was a pretty sky, so I tried some silhouette shots.

I'm ok with summer hangin' in there, I still have a lot to get done before freeze up. Guess I'd better get my spuds out of the garden this week, but I'm really hoping for more ripening time for the tomatoes.
I was too late to buy peaches to can- sold out at the fruit stands. Ah well- it's apple season! Applesauce coming up!

Sunday Stills

This is an interesting challenge; we are to take photos that reflect the music in our life. To me, this can be interpreted in a lot of ways; actual music, or things that make my heart sing, or something that reminds me of a song. Here is something that reminds me of the song that goes "Yeah baby you got it":

and "Wild thing, you make my heart sing".

Then there is this beautiful fall season. Every fall, I start singing the Johnny Cash tune "At my door, the leaves are falling, a cold wild wind does blow...."

The first fallen leaves of fall

But the main source of music in my life is my husband. Every Sunday, I get to hear him sing in the church choir, and he does a great job of singing in the shower. Even sitting at the computer, he'll find Pavarotti on You Tube and select one of the hymns that they do at Mass and sing along. He's always playing cd's in his shop as he works, and he plays the harmonica too. In this photo from my archives, he was playing the harmonica and one of Tess's pups was listening attentively.

Schooling Rio, continued

Who said there's no school on Saturdays? The first day of fall and a perfect day to get back to working Rio. The bot flies are here and we had to contend with one of them buzzing him while I was trying to work, but over all it was a good session. As always, we reviewed everything first, and I did a little more in-hand longeing this time because I wanted him to longe with the saddle on at the end of the session. He also got to wear boots for the first time.

Look at that perfect natural head carriage!

I raised the level of difficulty one notch with the tarp by putting a pole on it for him to step over.

....no problem...

 Then he got to wear the tarp fly sheet and this time he didn't mind it sliding down his rump. I flapped the sides vigorously; no problem.

Pretty relaxed!

We moved on to saddling. This time, when I threw the saddle up on him, he had just dropped his head for a bite of grass, and got a little surprised, and side stepped- the saddle fell on the ground, but he didn't get too concerned about that. I picked it up, dusted the blanket off and put it on and off three or four times, then led him around uncinched.

Then I pass the cinch under and run the latigo through without doing it up, and pull on it and lead him a few steps before I do it up, just in case he gets worried, but- I needn't have worried! he was fine so I cinched up and led him out. 

Around and around we went both ways, then it was time to ask for a few trotting steps. If he was going to blow, this would be the time. All he did was grab his tail a little and scoot to the end of the lead rope:

Just a few steps and he got used to the new feel , we did it both ways, and he probably scooted 3-4 times. Once he relaxed, we called it a day. Good boy, Rio! 

I'm not ready to turn him loose with the saddle on- it will be some time before I do that. Doesn't he look great under saddle?Once he's all grown up, he's going to be pretty spectacular- what still photos don't show is what nice movement he has. I'm saving my dollars up to send him to the trainers- I really want him shown.