New Digs!

We decided that we needed the boys closer to home. Several reasons brought this decision about. First was cost. At 52.5 miles round trip, it was rather expensive driving up to the farm every day, especially when that trip was made just to feed while it was raining. And it's rained a lot this year, which brings me to the second reason; MUD
Way too much mud. The boys are on a hill, you'd think the rainwater would run off. It does, but only to an extent. The bottom of their area has been wet since ohh about February. The top of our hill has been waterlogged for weeks now. Parts of the round pen dry up just in time for another deluge to come down. Outside of the round pen never did dry up. Bob and Earl are both suffering from heel cracks. This really bothered me and got me started on my campaign with Ron to move them.
Third reason: Hay. We have to feed it year round in this area because it's not a pasture. It's a wooded hillside. It's been great for strengthening Bill's bad hock. I think it's also helped Bob's stifles because I haven't seen any sign of weakness yet this summer. But there's no grass to really speak of. Not to mention they can't go for a good run across the pasture like most horses can. They fly up that hill, ditching and diving around trees and buck, but it's just not the same. Anyway back to hay... We took to feeding the big round bales our first winter at the farm (2007) as per Auntie's request. Certain family members do not show the respect they should for an expensive piece of farm equipment - the tractor. Auntie decreed not too long ago that no one drives the tractor but Gerry. Ok, Gerry has to put the bales into our horses now. Except Gerry and Auntie aren't there. They're down at the lake. New crop bales sit there in the rain while I run around and buy small squares to feed. Getting my truck up the hill with these small bales is no easy undertaking when it's muddy.
The decision to move the horses became an easy and logical one. I found a 7 acre pasture with a barn and woven wire fencing (no more barb wire to pull manes!) 1.8 miles from our front door to parked in their driveway!
Earl and Jake were moved Tuesday into this 7 acre pasture. They look so small cuz it's a big space for two horses... They love it. I love it. Steve and Dawn, owners of this property love having horses in it. The little dog, Buster loves having horses to follow and chase, although they outrun him pretty quick. These two pictures were taken with the camera zoomed in as much as it would zoom in. Did I tell you it's only 1.8 miles from my door?

I moved Bailey on Thursday. Bill and Johnny/Blue will move in today, as soon as I get in gear and go to pick them up.

And there's another new one in the group, but those pictures are still in my camera so I'll post about that later...

Introducing.... Bailey

"Wanna Be My Friend?"

Bailey and Scooter the mustang (also known as Orian to his adopter). Scooter is the foster colt I had last fall. He was all legs and head then. Now he's quite the big, handsome lad.

I took pictures of Bailey with thoughts of showing off her Paint markings in mind, so excuse the weird angles please. I haven't uploaded the ones of her underneath, where most of the markings are cuz they just look too weird... LOL I did discover today though that she has large white patches on the underside of her belly - one up just behind the girth and one back behind where a back cinch would go along with the all "polka dots" she has scattered everywhere

Above, you can see a sample of the polka dot markings in her throatlatch area and, below shows off the spotting on her jaw, and the dark spots on her nose (she's got one inside her nostril too)

Debating that green thing hanging from her halter:

Bailey learned to lead today, rather well too. Good enough that I led her out to the pasture and turned her loose with brother in-law Rick's horses. Scooter took to her and will hopefully be her protector with Jack. Jack attacked her and chased her quite a bit until I got in there and charged him.

Anyway back to today's lesson - Leading. Saturday night when we bought her we put a rope halter and lead on her. That stayed on overnight to get her used to the pressure created when she stepped on it. Sunday, Rick removed the halter as it was rubbing her face. We will not discuss his methods to do this...

Monday I put the web halter you see in the photos on her and made great progress in touching her. Even got fly spray on her so I thought that was quite enough for one day and left her alone, without putting a lead rope on her at all. Today was her first real lesson in leading and I had some resistance and panic for the first very few minutes. When I moved with her instead of maintaining my position and thereby creating more pressure, she almost instantly looked for the "right answer" to relieve that pressure. Two steps sideways with one step forward brought an instant release. A few more tries and it was two steps forward and one sideways. And lots of face rubbing and "good girl" comments. Next thing I know she's following me to get her face rubbed! Does that qualify as leading? Let's find out... I opened the gate and headed out. The round pen was already her safety zone and she was a little hesitant to venture forth from it. She backed up, felt the pressure and came forward. More face rubs and "good girl" praise had her following me across the yard. She wanted to stop and munch grass a few times and I saw that as a good opportunity to test my control and I didn't let her eat although I did pet her when she stopped and told her how well she was doing. That was all she needed to move forward again. In to the pasture we went and I turned her loose. Hopefully she'll be easy enough to catch? I doubt it and suspect we'll have to catch whoever she buddies up with to catch her and it's looking like Scooter will be her buddy.

And, that's it for today :-)

More Catching Up

Is GoDaddy.com THE God of the internet? They think they are. My domain name expired in May and I couldn't renew it at the time as my user ID and password was locked in this computer which was in storage. There's no plugs or internet connections in storage units. It expired on May 17th. To let me use my own name again for this "expired domain" they want a fee of $80 in addition to the usual fee. No way am I paying that so people can click on the blog link! My only regret, and it's a big one is that I may have lost Bob's Wordpress blog as well because it was linked with the website, however Deirdre did that. Wordpress has free hosting just like blogspot but somehow - something I just don't understand - the blog and the website became one so it may be lost. I have most of the posts, but the pictures, videos and comments were not backed up at all. Links to other EMM bloggers are lost along with all the wonderful comments we received from people following that blog. I really regret losing all that.

So, on with the updating stuff. Bill, the QH we got in February has turned into a dream gift horse. His hock is "damaged" but he seems to do just fine with what we ask of him. We take him out for trail rides, or up and down the road just like we do with the other horses and this doesn't bother him one little bit. I wonder if being on the hill with the boys and working that hock just that little bit more to move around on said hill has been benificial to him? I assume it has been because he hasn't taken an off step since he recovered from being ridden by his previous owner. We've had him shod all around since he's made it plain that he wants to belong and be one of "the boys". This horse went from uncatchable when we got him - he had to be herded into the barn yard, then into the barn and into a stall to get a halter on him - to being a total pain in the butt for attention. The picture below is a prime example. Ron was trying to break in my rasp and fooling with feet on Jake and Bob when Bill kept butting in looking for his share of the attention. Ron gave him his wish. How many horses will let you rasp on their feet when they have the choice of simply walking away?

Bill is such a sweetheart, anyone can ride him, and he's very well trained. Our problem is convincing him that he doesn't have to work off his hocks anymore (to avoid stress to that injured hock), but he doesn't listen and does everything with all the training he's ever had. Memorial Day I finally asked for a lope and got a VERY enthusiastic response in the form of a little "Yippee" buck before he settled down into a beautiful rocking chair lope. He went on his first real trail ride on June 26th with Bob, and John R's Paint horse, Hoot. It was Bob's first ride back since last Sept (except for the antics when he throws people) and I admit to being awfully nervous. I credit Bill's calm, steady influence with Bob's admirable behaviour.

Holly presented us with a filly at about 10 PM on Friday, April 3rd. We didn't get the Paint we were hoping for and Ron didn't get the horse colt he wanted, but we did get a cheeky, independant little girl who looks like she'd been playing with Mommy's makeup. She has white rings around each eye. Looks like a little racoon sorta thing. She's 1 day old in the picture. Her biggest thrill in life is hanging out with "Uncle Jack". Than Holly comes running to kick the living daylights out of Jack. Poor Jack, he learned fast that this baby is bad news for him! At 3 months she's been named Sam by the kids and still gets her thrills from getting "Uncle Jack" into trouble. Rick, Ron's brother now owns Holly, baby Sam and Jack. His wife, Shawna was upset at the thought of Jack leaving to come home for training/riding time and Holly leaving to be rebred or just come home. Brenda also is still in love with Jack so he's theirs now. Ron gave the filly to Rick and I sold Holly to him.

By two months baby Sam is starting to show her true colors. She's going to end up a grey or maybe a rose grey, but for now she's a strawberry roan. She's a big girl and still bad or should I say good at getting Uncle Jack in trouble?

We have another new one - a yearling Paint filly, as yet unregistered. We went tot he Warrensburg horse auction Saturday night. It was our way of doing something for the 4th of July. We went looking for a saddle for Rick. Well, we missed the tack part of the auction, but since we were there we decided to sit down and watch the horse portion for a bit. The first horse through brought $675, which the seller wasn't willing to accept so the Auctioneer conned the byer into parting with $750. This had me thinking that the horse market has picked up give the horse in question, a mare, wasn't registered or anything special. Just a sorrel mare who rides and neck reins. Nope, that wasn't the case. Those first buyers paid way too much if going by the other prices is any indication. Mike Jullian, the auction barn owner has a habit of bidding pretty much any horse in at $300; I assume in an attempt to get bidding going and bring more money in. I also think that most bidders are aware of this and no one really jumps in to outbid him. That's when the Auctioneer drops the price. Not a decent way of doing business that's for sure and I wonder does Mike Jullian realize what a crook he comes across as? We never did get a number but that didn't stop Ron from bidding. He had a nice small Paint mare bought for $200. The seller said no sale. He bid on another one that went for $110 (his bid to up that price went unseen by the Auctioneer) and that one was a no sale as well. Then this yearling filly comes into the ring with no halter and no papers. Bidding was slow to start and finally started at $35 I think. I have a very hard time understanding auctioneers. I went out the truck to get my smokes when Ron jumped into the bidding. As I was returning to I heard sold for $85 and then the word "Ron". Oh, I guess we just bought a horse.... Then he had the gall to tell me her bought her for me! LOL Good story Ron. After the auction I went back to see her while Ron paid and arranged transportation with the seller, who, it turns out is an old buddy of Ron's. They used to play music together. I get back there and get looking at this little girl and I have to admit, she's one nice filly. The name Bailey came to me so that's what we're calling her. She's never been handled... sound familiar? LOL A mustang without a brand. Being young, she's curious and once I went and got a halter, she allowed Ron to slip it on within 15 minutes. Gettingher to lead was a whole nother story though. She was finally shooed into the trailer and we took her to Rick's and put her in his round pen. Gave her Sunday to settle in and I went to work with her yesterday (Monday). Stoopid me forgot my camera! Rick took the halter off her, it was rubbing her face.... To her credit, in less than one hour I had her haltered and fly sprayed. She got hot but didn't break a sweat. Smart little girl. She's not following right behind me like I'm her new bestest friend yet but she was staying close by so I could easily walk over and rub her face or body. I was also able to remove the numbered sticker from her butt. Once she's leading and easy to catch she'll go to friend Sue B's for us to get lessons in halter showing these QH types.

And that's it for now....

Long Time, No Blog

Life's been crazy and there's been no time to blog. Oh yea, I didn't have my computer to blog either and that really does affect things! We moved. We thought we bought a little dream farm (10 acres) for us and our boys to live happily ever after. We gave up the rental house and I stayed with a friend while Ron continued trucking until we could take possession of the farm. This was supposed to take a week or two max. 2 freaking months later (almost to the day) we found out the farm had been in foreclosure and was about to be auctioned off. The guy selling it to us - James Gegory Smith - was going to take our money and run. I assume. What else was he gonna do with it? He messed with us, keeping us hanging on and hoping for 2 months after we gave up the rented house. The whole nightmare took place over 3 months.

So... the computer was in storage along with just about everything else we owned. My website is now down and I'm "negotiating" with GoDaddy to get it back up. I missed the renewal date to hold on to my domain name. Who made a law that says I have to purchase it from them anyway when I'm paying someone else to host it and manage it? I don't understand any of this stuff. All I can say ther is hopefully it will be back up again soon. Ditto for the Wordpress blog. It's somehow linked with the website so when the website disappeared so did my blog. Sounds like a good excuse to switch over to Blogspot on a permanent basis eh?

Ok, in a nustshell that's where I've been.

In the meantime I somehow managed to garner two followers! Thank you so much! I sure don't deserve it given the posts here but I'll make an effort now to get better at posting!

Bob update: Yea, the lil shit's back and doing well. I finally got the nerve to get on him last week and he was awesome. We went for a short trail ride and he behaved admirably. In fact he behaved so well that he earned a compliment from Ron. We went on another trail ride the following week (July 2nd) with the club I created last year for the American Mustang and Burro Association (AMBA). More on that in a bit, I gotta upload a picture of Bob first right?

If you look closely you'll notice that Bob now sports a real tail... almost. Yuppers it's growing! It's now down to his hocks and he can use it to nail the odd fly if said fly is in just the right place. If said fly is not in just the right place Bob still does the lil buck thing to let me know I have to reach back and be his personal fly swatter.

Oh, you might also notice that my hair is shorter.... MUCH shorter and MUCH greyer. Ron was complaining about my "shedding" back in March so stupid me handed him my good scissors and let him go to town on my head. It'll grow back right? I also gave up trying to hide the grey since it was becoming so much more predominate, probably thanks to Bob and Ron... Anyway, I do love having it short and so easy to care for during these hot summer months. I'll let it start to grow back come winter and see where I end up with it.

I brought 4 foster horses home at the end of March from an adoption event in Humansville MO.

Frankie on the left and Johnny on the right. Both 2 yr olds.

Frankie is from Beatty's Butte, OR. Adopted by John S.

Johnny is from Jackies Butte, OR.

Johnny is still available for adoption if anyone is interested.

Chigger is from Jackson Mountains, NV, part of the herd at Palamino Valley when so many died.

Another 2 yr old, he's nothing short of a pocket pony, and adopted by Sue B who says he's named because he's just like a chigger - you don't feel a bite (he doesn't bite) but they're "damn annoying" (that he is!).
Chigger is already a lesson horse in Sue's kid program. He's used with kids on the ground to learn about grooming and horse handling. Only 3 months from being wild and he's already stolen way too many hearts.

Last but not least is Josey. Born in a facilty and adopted by John R, Josey is a yearling and doing very well with his adopter.

And that's it for now. There's lots more to blog about, but I've got to get off the computer and do other things....

Next I'll do an update on Holly, my QH mare. She had a filly in April. That's all I'm saying for now... hehehe

I Feel Useless

OK, I'm already having trouble with Blogspot. The trouble is.... I don't know what I'm doing! I can add gagets so I tried a couple. I added subscribe, whatever that is??? I'm hoping it means that you click on that to subscribe to my blog so that whnever there's a new post you'll be notified so you can read it if you're so inclined.

I went to my profile to add my WordPress url for Bob's ongoing blog as well as the new additions. Hmmmm I couldn't add it, yet this blog was added automatically, as if it was worth reading?

Finally, it wouldn't bother me int he least to move everything from WordPress to here. IF I knew how to do that. Surely I don't have to copy and paste each and every blog entry? Do I?

That would take at least a month of Sundays and I already know I just don't have that kind of time or patience! Many of my enties weren't written in Word first so there's no copy of them on my computer. Mainly all the early entries. I just jumped into WordPress and went for it. I have been slowly copying them and pasting them into a Word document so that I have that back up just in case. That's how I already know I won't have the time nor patience to do it in order to move my blog here. Been there done it already and still not finished!

Now to test the add image functions of this. It's got to be easier than WordPress was.
Ok, that went not bad. I had the curser set at the end of that last sentence but the image ended up at the beginning of the entry and on the left side. I had to move it to it's current location. At least I could move it! In WordPress if I move it I lose the caption or lose a whole lot of other things including my typing, so this is better..

Anyway, this is a pic of me and Bob while I'm wearing my Bob shirt. I haven't posted any pictures of the Bob shirt since I got them. Lazy, forgetful, pre-occupied are three good reasons I can immediately come up with for not posting about the shirts before now. I will continue to play around here while blogging over "there" until I can figure out how to either marry the two or move all those other entries over to here. A Fairy Blogmother is what I need!

By the way... I thought I gave myself the display name of Silly Mustang Judy, but I don't see it anywhere so I guess I didn't need to write an explanation of it after all. *sigh*

To keep with the horse stuff check in with the other blog http://www.ballengertraining.com/blog

This is my first entry on blogspot. If I like this better and it's easier to navigate I'll be moving Bob's blog here. I'm getting sick of Word Press and the crap it keeps dishing out to me.
So, I'm off to play with things and see how easy blogspot is to navigate and work with.
Oh, before I go any further a bit of an explantion for the name Silly Mustang Judy. I got it on a Yahoo quilting group I belong to. They've found my adventures with Bob to be very entertaining. So much so, that I earned the nickname Silly Mustang Judy. I call myself that here in honour of them, a great bunch of quilters whom I've been able to turn to for a good half dozen years now.
In the meantime Bob's continuing adventures are documented at http://www.ballengertraining.com/blog
I can't figure out to list it in my blogs on my profile here.