New Family member Bunny

Well that is what I call her though the rest of the family isn't sold on that name yet :)

Momma is "She is outta here" daddy is The Card Shark. Both are from good running lines. The mare was so kind and patient with her new born and was proud to she her off. By far this was a blessed Easter it has been some 17 years since we had an easter baby and I just feel all is right with my world right now. In a month we should have another foal. So I can start to worry in a few weeks but for now life is good

Our Horse History 1

When I started this I thought that I would just have a pictorial of our horses over the years. Over 90% of the pictures we have have our daughters on them so this is probably a historical mixture of the daughters and their horses.

The Beginning

  There was Golda. We bought her to be the family horse for all of us to ride.



Seems once you have one horse the next one is not too far off. Golda was A little big for our oldest at 9 so we bought a second horse(pony) This pony Velvet ended up having both daughters learning to ride.

As she got older it was time to pass the torch to her younger sister and ride Golda.

Since Golda had an injury that took hours of riding to keep that easy movement, off we went to get another horse Jerry

Hours and hours of pony club and 4H life was good but as the oldest got older the need for speed crept into our vocabulary. Golda's first get Buddy had a severe freak accident during halter breaking so off again to get another horse Barchic.
                                                                    Buddy

                                                               Barchic

Barchic started off as the english, western pleasure, jumping horse. As he got older he went off to Myllymaki's for barrel training. With a long stride and great speed he had the capabilities. After he got hurt at a clinic by the clinician we had one coming up named Coco. So the switch was made.

Coco doesn't really like people but he knows his job and if you get out of his way he just does it. HE is out of Chocolate Jody which was our other broodmare and I will do her papers at a later time.

She even queened as long as there was a horse involved she would give it her all.

As with all things the daughter became a young lady and now has daughters of her own. Thus starts the next generation of pictures with girls on horseback.

                                                    Mojo   Golda's grandson

  Golda had a total of 4 gets. Two are still alive. Her filly has been our lead broodmare since Golda passed away. She has been in our hearts and can still see her in her grandponies.

Part 2 will be the other daughter and her group of horses.

Genetics or learned behavior

I’ll admit it I enjoy cruising around to different horsey type blogs from around the world. I get to see lots of nice horses, see different ways to set up barns and learn how other people work with their horse. The one thing that just has a real different feel to me is the way riders dress in particular chaps and gloves. I guess it is the western way but I don’t even own a pair of riding chaps and only wear gloves when my hands are cold or absolutely needed. I will admit to sometimes remembering to wear my farrier chaps when trimming a horse but most of the time I forget. So I suppose spending the money on riding chaps that would just hang on the coat rack would be a waste. Out of the many choices shotgun, batwings, full dress with fringes and sparkles I guess I might be persuaded to wear shotguns in the hopes that it would ease the chaffing on the inside of my legs. The long and short I guess is that it would be one more piece of leather that would need to be cleaned and oiled that frankly I know I wouldn’t do. Besides who wants to show up at a branding with everything looking with a fresh newness that we know are going to be covered in mud and manure within 10 minute of starting.


Almost every coat I have every rig I drive and various other spots have a pair of gloves. At times they are needed but most of the time I won’t wear them unless I have to. It is a matter of feel especially when it comes to handling reigns. When I ride with gloves I feel like I have lost touch with the bit and the horse. Maybe if I had started riding with gloves I wouldn’t feel so out of touch but it is a habit that I probably won’t break. I’ve had a lot of rope burns when dealing with a horse gone unruly but when that happens it really lights a fire that the beasty needs some work.



Just an odd point of view

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Week at a glance

Week at a glance well actually just another list.
   1. The daughter went to remove one of the preifert stalls so we can start building a proper wash bay. She got the 12 ft. long 8 ft. high wall disconnected and realized it was way too heavey for her to move. So she threw a rope over the rafters to hold it up until I could get home. Got home and moved it out of the way. Maybey next time she will remember to remove the 2X6's from the metal frame first. :)

  2. Wifey Maria bought a nice well broke and bred running mare that is due mid April so hopefully we will have 2 babies to play with this spring. Downsizing isn't an option but I do think we have rounded out our wish list so we will see how this plays out.

  3. We have all decided it would be good for me to go and get my equine message certificate this summer. I am constantly petting and rubbing my horses so now I will be able to do it as a professional. ;) With this we will also be getting a thermal ir scanner. Some how I never seem to be able to feel the color red. I claim that it is because I am a guy and color blind.

 4. Tied up the old 30+ Appy to the tie ring in the barn and he proceeded to start chewing on the 2X6 rails. It seems once one horse has put their mark on wood the others are just obliged to put their chew mark on the wood also. So we went and got some 4X8 sheets of osb and put them up. Poor dears all they can seem to muster up now is a scrape which seems not to leave marks. Will be putting some nasty tasty stuff on soon!.

 5. Mud and more mud mixed with daily snow....arg. Went to clean out some runs and there was still an ice layer. The ground was so slippery that I couldn't even walk on it. It will be awhile before I can safely put any horses in those 2 runs now. It is a lousy choice; manure or snotty ground. Some dry weather would be nice.

6. Working on putting together a picture/lineage of our horses to post. Getting decent pictures of the horses seems to be a challenge since we are all shy.

 7. Rode my mare. Saddling isn't a calm time yet but at least it takes me less than an hour to get it done. on the last ride I did a lot of shoulder in and spiral in work at the trot. On the clockwise shoulder in she was feeling stiff then there was this popping sound and the back end dropped. She came right back to a much more supple relaxed trot. Hopefully this was a pop in not out. My legs were exhausted by the end of this ride so she and I got a day off.

Until the next list

    Oh! one thought/picture that keeps going through my mind is from the opening of the Secretariat Movie.
    the images of the horses coming around the turn and the voice overlay

     "Do you give the horse his strength . . . . . . or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?
      Do you make him leap like a locust,  striking terror with his proud snorting?
      He paws fiercely, rejoicing in his strength, and charges into the fray.
      He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing;  he does not shy away from the sword.
      The quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance.
      In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground;
      he cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds." Job 39:19-25

  Some things just touch the heart.

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Hibernation is over

Well at least it feels that way. The snow/ice is almost all gone now and I guess so are my excuses.

 So to catch up a list, I love lists.

 1. I graduate in 16 days. That is what we are calling my retirement from my current day job. It was just getting in the way of my work out at the farm. Sooo one of them just had to go......It was an easy choice.

 2. The daughter and I have been negotiating on what we will do here at the farm. Since she has a degree in athletic training, certified horse and people message, and a love for the horses we will be putting together a horse rehab facility. Should be fun and lots of work to get it ready.

 3. Bought a 2yr old filly out of Texas. just off of pasture but so sweet. She is bred to cut and is already showing signs of being very athletic. Will be starting ground work on her soon. No riding until she grows up some more.

 4. My mare that was doing back flips when I went to saddle her is on the road to being a saddle horse again. It has been slow but we are making good headway.

 5. My 2 horses that had tendon issues are sound and we will be building up their strength this spring.

 6. My lead broodmare is big and prego and should be due in a month and a half so I am already worrying over her.

 7. We are trying to book some clinician for this summer that should fit well with the other clinics that go on around here.

 Well that is all I can think of for now.
 Now this list is done I can start another list :)

 Later
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Sundays

This Sunday I went to Whitehall for a benefit O-MOK-SEE. I got to take my 9 year old mare. She is just learning the games and is showing to be calm and response at any speed. That really makes it fun. It still doesn't offset the 4 horses we have lost this spring. Each to a different issue. My mare is helping me get over this fact. Live in the present not the past. In one of the events Team Arena there is a team made up of 4 people. One horse at a time goes out and runs around the outside of the arena and then passes the batton to another rider. This is an all out top speed event where if the horse has any running ability you can feel them drop down and stretch out for a full ground covering run. My mare started to stretch out then had a little bobble on the front end but went right back to full run. Didn't phase her a bit. Our hand off was clean and she didn't shy away from another horse coming along side her at a full run. At the end of the day both of us were tired and in a good space. RIP Mona, Lacey, Lacey's baby, Magic, Close friends horses buried with ours this spring Farmer, Britchy---- and if you have time watch over the rest of the herd.

They all stood to nicker and watch

Not me though I hid in the barn with my granddaughter as my close friends and vet took my 2 year old filly for her last walk. It has been hard for me to get to this point where I can write about it. It was just a little nick by her ankle. Like most young horses getting them through to maturity without cuts and scrapes is near impossible. It looked like no big deal. We washed her up and put some salve on it and repeat. Two days later her lower leg swolled up like a sausage and very hot.  We picked at it cleaned it and started her on antibiotics. Four days later the leg went down to normal size but not the ankle. Off to the Vet then off to the Horse hospital ninety minutes away. Prognosis the infection had already damaged cartilage and was in the bone. The poor thing even with max pain meds was in pain and couldn't put weight on that leg. The next day the time had come. Our vet that we've known since her Junior High days and when she was in High Shool Rodeo she traveled with us and our daughters was there to perform her duties as our Vet. We had a total of three horses to have done that day. Our friends 2 horses that had been scheduled for that weekend were brought out so that all three could be done at once.  From my occasional peeks from the barn it looked so surreal and sombere all the horses from the 2 pastures and the ones in the paddocks stood there and intensely watched. At one point they all nickered out but then as on que they all turned around and went on with what they were doing before hand. With 14 horses and 2 outside horses being trained I really don't think we will have anymore baby horses in the future.The old man (daughters old barrel horse now 30+) will probably need to be put down this fall but at least I have time to prepare myself for it. It is always tough. I'm tired now of the effort to get a herd of broodmares to help with retirement time. The idealic thought of being retired and working with the baby horses to barrel futurities is just not going to happen. The hours of going over breeding programs and hauling mares just isn't fun if I have to spend waking momemnts worrying about a sudden loss. This filly was the the last of a line since we gelded Mojo now that line is done.Well I guess it is time to start working with the 4 yr old gelding again, his injuries have healed nicely.  Later