Let the winter festivities begin!

The first of the seed catalogs arrived yesterday! I read the Pinetree catalog cover to cover last night. Stokes can wait, I rarely ever order anything from them since they're geared more towards hybrids and mass marketing. When the catalog is sleek and shiny and filled with color photos you know you're not getting the best deal on seeds. But I keep getting the catalog so I can enjoy looking at all the color photos. Ooooh, aahhhh, pretty eggplant...

I know, I should seek help. At least the first step is admitting I have a problem, right? I had to look up the 12 step program on Wikpedia to get a basis for my 12 step plantaholic program outlined below.

1) I admitted that I am powerless over my urge to plant way more than I need.
2) I came to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity (Baker Creek!)
3) I made a decision to turn my will and my life over to seed catalogs as I understand them.
4) I made a searching and fearless seed inventory.
5) Admitted to Thor, to myself, and to April the exact nature of my wrongs.
6) Am entirely ready to have Thor eat all seeds if I leave them out where he can get them.
7) Humbly asked Thor not to eat the seeds.
8) Made a list of all persons I had harmed with an overabundance of maters this year, and became willing to bury them in zucchini instead next year.
9) Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others with overly large zucchini.
10) Continued to take seed inventory and when found something lacking, promptly ordered more.
11) Sought through many seed catalogs to increase the veggie bounty next year.
12) Having had a rude awakening as the result of these steps, I will try to minimize the amount of new garden beds Glenn has to build in the Spring.

What do you think? Do I have a chance at recovery or am I doomed forever to plant way too much and complain about all the canning in the Fall?

Random Lunch 11/17/08

It's been snowing on and off all day. While very pretty it does make trudging up the hill of death to the barn a treacherous undertaking. I have visions of me slipping and rolling back down the hill becoming a large snowball and taking out the chicken coop in an avalanche of snow and mud.

I'll try to have the camera with me. Just for you.

At least the spinach and collards are still doing well under their protective covers.

I wanted to fertilize with fish emulsion last week, but never got around to it. One of the many vacation tasks on my list that went unchecked.

Four letter words

Wind
Rain
Cold
Snow

These are the reasons there were not many training updates posted last week. When I tell you I'm going to take vacation next year, will someone please remind me to take it during WARM weather?? Apparently, I'm not bright enough to figure that one out on my own.

We did have a wonderful ride on Friday though. Anne and her friend Michelle and I rode the North Bend Trail, which used to be a railroad.

There was much chatting.

And many smiles.

And dark and scary tunnels that both Willow and Meghan marched through without problem.

I was the only one taking pictures and Willow was feeling left out. To make up for that I took a picture of her ears. You can see how absolutely thrilled she was about the ride.

This is definitely a trail that I'll be utilizing more often in the training of some of the rescues. If they can go through dark tunnels and over scary bridges without fail then they are ready to move on!

Vacation? Where???

I know, I know. I said I'd be doing most of my posting this week over on the training blog. But the only horse I've had a chance to ride yet has been Quest. I rode him for about 10 whole minutes on Sunday and he was a dream. Next time I ride him, it will be with the dressage saddle. He's got such huge motion, especially at the canter, that I felt like a fish out of water in that synthetic western! I couldn't get my legs right and my seat was equally useless. Now if the rain that they are calling for for the rest of the week holds off, I'll get on him again before the weekend and really see what he's got. Maggie was here at the time taking pics with her camera phone, but she hasn't had a chance to send them yet. So you'll just have to make do with this one that I took today.




Saturday was spent with Anne picking up blankets and other tack from a woman who just happens to be very interested in the 4yo TB filly coming from Mountaineer. Lucky me.



I picked up Lady's Mandolin, aka Mandy, Saturday afternoon. A little girl is coming to try her out this afternoon. This is the 20yo QH mare that has been there, done that. She's a real sweetheart that I haven't had a chance to get on yet, but I'll get on before I let the little girl on. Mandy, Meghan, and Steel have become the three musketeers. They have developed their own little clique where Meghan is in charge. She is so totally happy with finally having someone to boss around! Jewel can't stand Steel, so she has buddied up with Indy and Radar.









This is Steel, the 10yo (not 8 as I thought) gelding. I picked him up early Sunday morning before the volunteers started rolling in shortly after 10. A friend of Anastasia's is coming over today to try him on for size. She just told Anastasia yesterday that she was looking for a horse and asked her where she got her two TBs from. The next thing I know I'm on the phone with B and she's telling me how excited she is to come out and see Steel. Okie dokie then.








Mandy and Steel. Adorable, ya?

This is for those of you going through Maverick withdrawal. Here he is in all his fabulous fuzzy fatness.

It's official!

I am now on vacation. I'm already sitting a bit straighter, my headache is fading away, and Stride is calling me from that back pasture wanting dinner. Not that the third thing has anything to do with me being on vacation. Stride just has a way of crashing through my happy thoughts with his "hey human, I'm hungry!" nicker.

I've warned Glenn that the place will be rife with estrogen on Sunday and he's already making plans to find something to fix somewhere far away from home. Three new volunteers are coming on Sunday and we'll be spending the day grooming, lunging, and riding everyone. Maggie may also make it over on Sunday if she can escape her studies. Anastasia also warned of an impending visit on Sunday if she can get away. Those horses won't know what to think!

Check the training blog daily next week for updates on how everyone is doing. My goal is to finally ride Quest over the weekend and put some time on him next week. I also want to ride Tabby and Megalia, since the vet didn't find anything wrong with her the other day. Meghan certainly needs some exercise now that we know she's just a beached whale and not pregnant. Radar and Jewel will be worked with and I can't take a week off on vacation without riding Kita! Glenn also wants me to work more with Willow and her gaiting issues.

We have a new horse coming tomorrow who already has a potential home. She's a 20 yo QH mare who has been there, done that and spent many years as a roping horse. Her owner had to give her up due to divorce and just wanted to make sure she went to a good home. Another QH gelding also comes to us over the weekend. He's 8 years old and owned by a pregnant friend of mine who's husband can't ride him much anymore due to his bad back. She has several horses of her own and with current pregnancy issues she can't ride either. Steel gets a bit pushy and aggressive when not ridden enough, so he's coming to me for mileage and manners, then to find a good home.

There's a 4yo TB filly at the track from the same trainer as the others. She's waiting for a spot here, but is in no rush. She's totally sound, just not fast enough for racing. She's a plain bay, about 15.3h. If anyone is interested, please leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

I think that covers it. I'll try and post here as often as I can next week, but most my posting time will probably be spent on the Training blog.

Have a great weekend!

Lovin' the new vet

Yup, I love him. First, he was smart and made sure I was the last appointment of the day because he knew he'd be here awhile. He was here for three hours. Second, he didn't just rush through everyone. He took time with each horse and discussed different treatments with me and the reasons behind the treatments. He also talked about why he came up with the diagnosis that he did. It wasn't just a vet visit, it was Veterinary Medicine 101.

Third, and most importantly, he actually spent a little time petting the horses as he was talking to me about them. A lot of vets I have used before simply do their thing and walk away from the animal when they are done. The whole time he was holding up the saline IV for Classy, he was petting her, stroking her neck, or picking burrs out of her mane. When talking to me about Manny he was doing the same thing. Same with Dolly. He seemed amused instead of irritated when Junior took every opportunity to shove his nose at the doc and investigate all pockets for treats.

I'm tellin' ya, I'm in love. Completely in the platonic sense, of course.

We started with Classy first because she's in the worst shape. We think she found a hornet/wasp nest somewhere in the pasture (and we did find a HUGE hornet nest in a tree the other day) and was stung multiple times. All four legs were swollen and the next day her nose was also swollen. I put her on bute for the swelling and that helped a bit, but she proceeded to drop a lot of weight, act depressed and lethargic, and hasn't left the barn in days. His main concern was that the anaphylactic shock from the stings caused her immune system to go down the drain and now she's sick with something else. He didn't think a blood panel was necessary at this point, but gave her a saline IV, a shot of something (sorry, can't remember the name of it and it's up at the barn right now), and gave me some banamine paste for this weekend if she's not any better. He expressed some concern about EPM, but at this point it's a waiting game to see if she gets better or not. If she's not better by next week he'll come back out for more tests. The good news is that by the time he left, Classy was out in the pasture grazing with everyone else for the first time in days!

He actually seemed impressed with the way Dolly looked at her age. She's fairly sound with some minor arthritis, but other than that he said she looks pretty good. She's still thin, but after hearing her history he said to just be patient because it may take her as long as a year to get back to the weight she should be. He actually felt like I might be feeding her too much right now, but since she's gaining a little weight I should keep it the same for now. The lump that I felt on her neck the other day is a hardened and irritated lymph node. They are easy to find on very thin horses and he wasn't concerned. At this point he didn't see a need for blood work, but if she doesn't continue to gain weight or starts to lose weight he'll come back out and get some blood. As suspected, Dolly's teeth need to be floated, but he doesn't have all of the necessary equipment yet. He'll be coming back out at a later date to start getting everyone's teeth floated.

He's pretty sure that Manny's on again off again lameness is arthritis and I should keep up with the MSM/Chondroitin supplements. He's actually been fairly sound so far this week, probably due to the warm weather we've been having.

Because of the severity of Indy's laminitis it's questionable whether he will ever be sound enough for light riding. He may never even be comfortable and may always have ulcer issues. This is just a guesstimate on his part since he hasn't seen any x-rays yet. We gave Indy until next Summer to either get better or not. If he's still uncomfortable at that point then we will have to consider putting him down and out of his misery. But that's a long ways off, and with the changes I've seen in him recently I'm still hopeful for at least a partial recovery.

When I pointed out Meghan and said I wanted him to palpate her, his first words were "Soon. She's as big as a house." But during the palpitation he couldn't find any foal. In fact, he said she had recently ovulated. That big and not preggers??? What a relief!!! Darn air ferns. I wish they could all be easy keepers like that! So next week while I'm on vacation from work I'm going to doing a lot of Meghan riding to get her ready for the Christmas parade that Emilee wants to ride her in.

When I took him to look at Maverick, Quest became a raving lunatic. I had the halter on Mav when Quest decided that tearing around the pasture at a full gallop was the way to make us let Mav go. The whole time Quest was being an idiot Maverick stood perfectly still for the vet and let him get quite intimate with his danglies. Doc even commented on how atypical Mav was and how most stud colts weren't that gracious about the treatment. Mav made me so proud! When Doc was done feeling Maverick up Quest came galloping back and stopped right beside Mav and rested his head on Mav's back, all the while staring at the Doc. It was like he wanted to protect Mav from imagined ills, but was well-behaved enough not to eat the vet. I'm pretty sure Doc appreciated that. He did say that the second nut still hasn't dropped and at this age there's only a 5% chance that it will. So once Doc's new building is up Maverick will be taking a little field trip to be gelded. Doc also said that Mav probably would only grow a couple more inches, which makes me incredibly sad because I really wanted him to be big enough for me to ride. I guess this means that when the time comes he'll be headed over to Anastasia's for pony training. I'll miss the little guy!

All in all it was a pretty good day. Doc said that the horses seemed happy and healthy considering their history and was impressed that everyone got along so well in that large of a herd. Now maybe I can breathe a little easier and stop worrying so much!

Random Lunch 11/4/08

I'm doin' the Happy Dance. I have a little celebratory dance that I jump up and do whenever something incredibly wonderful happens. I just finished entertaining the dogs with the dance and now I have to share.

THE NEW VET IN THE AREA IS COMING OUT TOMORROW!!!!!!

He just started making appointments yesterday and I am in like Flynn!! I just spent 15 minutes on the phone blathering on like an idiot in my excitement to finally have a vet that is taking new clients and isn't too far away. LIFE IS GOOD! He doesn't have all of his equipment yet, but has enough to do what I need done for now.

Whew, I think I'm calm enough now to post the random lunch pictures.


This will be a common occurrence in my yard during hunting season. Oh, yippee.




The guineas! I know you've been losing sleep at night wondering how they're doing. It's ok, you can admit it.

Egads, they're ugly.

Looking Back - Cody & Brie

Read the history on Cody and Brie here. I just wanted to share some old photos with you. Because, be honest now, wasn't Brie the most adorable puppy ever???

It took three year old Cody about a week to warm up to the annoying little puppy wanting to play with him constantly. Once he got over himself he figured out that Brie was actually a nifty little chew toy.

And no matter what kind of abuse Cody inflicted, Brie still loved him. More than Cody was sometimes comfortable with.











When Brie got to be 4 months old she started wandering the farm hunting groundhogs. But when she wasn't busy ridding the world of gophers, she could be found chillin' out in the hammock. I used to sit next to her and swing the hammock for her. Can we say "spoiled"?






Cody with one of his sisters, shortly before I took him home. There was a time when I wondered if he'd ever grow into those ears.

That's it for now, because I'm sure you don't want to hear me whine about how it's dark already and not even 6pm. Is it too early to say I can't wait for Spring??

Playing Tag

And I'm it. This is the first tag kind of thing I've done, so bear with me here. First of all, I had to cheat. Just a little. The idea is to grab the nearest book, flip to page 56, go down to the fifth sentence and post the next few sentences. I believe the idea is to share a little bit about yourself, which is why I had to cheat. These are the books I can currently see from where I'm sitting:

Gun Digest 2002
Driver #8
The Earnhardt collection
Dale Earnhardt: Rearview Mirror
American Hunting Rifle



... and the list goes on. Obviously, these aren't mine and just listing them should give you insight into Glenn. I hope you feel enlightened now.



If I hop up and hang a right into the kitchen I find my "china" cabinet which is filled with recipe and herb books. Since no one probably wants to have only part of a recipe, I reached for the first herbal I came to: Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs. On flipping to page 56 I have to chuckle. This is a picture of Jewel that I took today at lunch, her forelock tangled up with burrs.





On page 56 of Rodale's, I find this:

Burdock, Arctium Lappa

Two species came to the New World where they quickly escaped to become hardy, widely dispersed weeds. A fast-growing biennial with large, wavy, egg-shaped leaves, burdock has been distinguished throughout by the burrs it sets after flowering, but it is burdock's long thick taproot that has made it a boon to herbalists and an implacable enemy to other gardeners. Yanking a misplaced mint out of the garden in one thing, but burdock roots just don't yank.



Perfect timing.

Looking Back - Mariah

I'm on-call for work and wouldn't you know it's a sunny and beautiful 70 degrees outside. I'll let you imagine my frustration for yourself. At least I am finally getting the house cleaned. Sort of.


While pretending to clean the house I came across my photo albums from the "good ol' days". Way back when Windows was just a gleam in Bill's eye, digital cameras weren't even used in Star Trek, and my step-brother's top of the line Commodore 128 PC had a tape drive. Yeah, I am that old.

When I was five I finally wore my mom down enough to get me a pony. It took three bratty ponies and a million bumps and bruises for my non-horsey mother to realize that maybe one of us should take lessons before getting another horse. After a year of me taking lessons I finally convinced my mom that I was ready for my own horse. I mean seriously, they had us cantering on our second lesson and jumping small cross poles the next. After a year of jumping anything they put in front of me I certainly felt ready for my own horse. They taught me how to groom, pick out hooves, proper feeding, etc. I knew it all by the time I was 12. Or at least I thought I did.

Horse shopping is the greatest thing ever, especially when you're 12 years old and searching for your first real horse. The market was a lot better than it is these days, but you could still find a good kid's horse for under $800 and there were plenty of them in our area to choose from! I'm not even going to pretend I remember everything about the day I found Mariah. All I do remember is that we went to the farm originally to look at this Palomino walking horse mare, but when the guy told me that Tennessee Walkers "couldn't" canter I didn't want her anymore. Apparently, I didn't know as much as I thought.

Mariah was at the same farm and the guy told me they had been trying to change her name to Copper, but she wouldn't hear of it. Good thing! Silly humans. We were told that Mariah was 12, but later found out from the vet that she was closer to 18. We were still too stupid at that point to think of a pre-purchase vet exam. Just trust the seller and take them at their word. Why would they lie?

This is Mariah. Ain't she just the cutest???



We found a neighbor about a mile away as the crow flies with five fenced acres and a three stall bank barn who let us board Mariah for 50 bucks a month. I had to walk through our woods, cross a neighbor's pasture with one very ornery bull who liked to chase me, then up that neighbor's incredibly long drive to get to Mariah. I loved it.

Mariah and I spent every free minute together. My mom had turned me loose on the countryside and I could go wherever Mariah's legs could take me. We rode down to the Potomac river, down to the little country store for candy and soda (Mariah loved Kit Kats), or down the road to the girl scout camp where an uncle was the caretaker. Back then all roads were gravel, everyone waved as I rode by or said hello by name, and very rarely did a car pass us by.

One day someone else got the same idea and brought her gelding to board with Mariah. Gus was a great little gelding that bucked when you asked him to canter. His owner let me ride him when I had friends over.




One of the many stupid things I tried doing as a kid. A buddy of mine, Lisa, took this picture after our ride. This was one of the thousands of days where parental guidance was a mile or more away.




Oh look, here's another stupid kid trick. Lucky for me, Mariah took everything in stride and never once took a wrong step. My grandmother actually took this picture, then proceeded to lecture me about it.





That summer I had to have knee surgery to remove a part of my knee cap that had broken off while climbing a tree. A full length plaster cast may have stopped me from swimming that summer, but didn't stop me from riding. The doctor had to replace my cast once because the stirrup on my western saddle wore it out on the bottom of my foot. I had another surgery on the same knee the next summer and by then they had come up with fiberglass casts. That cast had to be replaced twice for the same reason. But at least I could swim in it!

I had Mariah for six fabulous years. The only problem I ever had was that she would colic several times every summer, without fail. Usually just walking her around for a couple of hours would do the trick, but sometimes old Doc Howard would have to come out and pump mineral oil into her.

Once I had left home and had three other horses to take care of, I found a great home for Mariah. She had six kids who doted on her and parents that trusted her as much as mine did. I lost touch with the family for five years and thought I'd never see Mariah again. She was certainly dead by then, she had to be over 30 years old! My only hope was that she had gone peacefully and led a happy life. I regretted selling her for many years, but I just couldn't take care of so many horses when I was only 18 years old. I thought she'd be better in one place instead of moving all over the place with me. At least that's what I told myself whenever I missed her.

When I was 28 years old I was trying to find a new home for Semi. I thought she was ready to move on so I could rescue another. A mother and daughter came out to ride Semi and while the daughter was riding I was chatting with mom. She was telling me how they already had a horse, but she was too old to ride anymore and her daughter needed something bigger. She also said how much they both loved this other mare and how she took such great care of her daughter. Then she mentioned that the mare had come from a family with six foster kids that had given her up when they moved to Montana... and her name was Mariah.

I ran into the house and grabbed a picture of Mariah. I handed it to mom and asked if that was her horse. We spent the next two hours talking about Mariah and how a neighbor's stud had escaped his fence two years before and Mariah had a bouncing baby boy 11 months later. They invited me to their place the next day.

I slept about two minutes that night. Would she remember me? Would she care? Does she look ok, have they been taking care of her, is she showing her age??

I just realized how long this post has become. I should get back to my house cleaning before YD comes down here with her whip.






Just kidding! Mariah greeted me the next day with a nicker and a nudge. I spent two hours alone with her, just catching up on old times and feeding her the Kit Kats that I'd brought. It was one of the best days of my life and I will never forget it.

In the Fall of 2001 Mariah laid down in her pasture for a nap and never got back up. She was buried in that pasture, on a hill under an Elm tree.