I am feeling stressed today. My hay people ran out of round bales they could sell me, but promised they had another guy who could get me some. Maybe even enough to get me through until first cutting. I talked to my lady the end of last week. She said the other guy would call me by the end of this week, but I haven't heard from him yet. I am down to my last bale. I don't have this other guy's number, so I am contemplating calling my lady again to see if she'll give it to me. I'm gonna need a delivery by Monday. Eek!!
Still playing phone tag with Lucy. Sent her an e-mail today to see if we could get some things worked out over e-mail. Thinking about going to the AHHA clinic in the spring. We'll see if I can get the time off. I am on day number nine of working and looking forward to a day off on Sunday. Still not sure what I am going to do about Token. Kim has offered some friendly advice about getting him into the barn and spending a whole day trying to get a rope on him. A whole day?!? Is he insane? I don't have an hour in a day to do my dishes and clean the cat's litter box, let alone a whole day to spend in a stinky barn in the freezing cold trying to get a rope around a horse who wants nothing to do with me. I remember the last time Josh and I tried to rope him. He ended up standing in the corner of the barn pretty much just laughing at the two of us because we were so horrible with that stupid thing. I'm trying to con Kim into coming up and doing it for me. For those of you that know him, know that it will take bribery with work and lots of gas money to get him to even think about it. Oh well, I have plenty of horses that need their feet done and the possibility of making room for a few of his older mares. We'll see how it goes.
Becky
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Argh...
Well I talked to Kim today, and there's no way he's going to be able to take Token back. Go figure!! I guess he's in a pickle with a butt load of horses already and would have no where to put him. He's at the ranch, digging paths out to the horses and dropping hay off for the next few months. I may be able to get my hands on a few mares that need some extra attention. Who knows, we will see. I printed off some membership and registration forms tonight from the different registries. I've been sitting here at work all night filling them out and coloring in wonderful descriptions of Remme. Why do I like the wild paints again?? Such a pain in the butt to get them to look like they are supposed to. Lucy Roda and I have been playing phone tag for the last few days. She wants to chat about Windcross and the AHHA. One of these days we'll hook up. Lots of exciting things going on....ok, or not!! It's 10 below out right now, and I still have to go out after I get done with work and feed. Another glorious fight with a round bale. Gotta love it!!
Becky
Becky
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Realizations & Resolutions
So I haven't made any resolutions per se, but I have gone on a two week alcohol free stint due to doctor's orders. Does that count as a resolution?? On day two and things are going well!! (I know, I know....random.)
Anyways, if any of you read the focus board lately you know about the "issues" that arose there. I have no idea what those problems were or how they came to be, but they got me thinking. (Here comes the realization part.) I realized that sometimes I really have no clue what's going on in the world of my horses. I am wrapped up in work, and feeding, and the baby, and god knows what else. I realized that I need to introduce myself and start a convo with people I don't know, and get to know the people I don't know well better. (That make sense to anyone else?) I realized that things I thought were the truth weren't the truth at all, and that I need to be more open to the people I had shut out. (This post probably resonates with my other post on the focus itself.)
With that said, I have decided to become a bonafide member of all 4 Spanish Mustang registries. (SMR, HOA, AIHR, AHHA). Starting immediately, ok, when I get the cash. LOL!! I've got some big loan payments to make, but expect a nice weekend at work coming up to help pay to get the ball rolling. After my memberships are effective, I will be registering horses. Starting with Remme and making my way down the line. I hope to help out in the SMR as much as possible and also have offered my services to the AHHA. I have a four year degree in Equine and have dabbled in many different disciplines, so I think that I could be of some help to whoever will let me in.
Moving on, Ransom and Token. When I got these guys they had minimal handling and were quite skittish around people. There was no way I was going to be able to spend much time with them in my current boarding situation, and looked into getting a stall at a local boarding barn for a month to put them through an intensive training routine. As stated below, that didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. Ransom has come around on his own. He was the first of the two to approach me if I had grain, and would allow me to touch him and lead him around. In the last few months he has decided that people are his friends and will walk up to me on his own for a good scratching. I have no doubts that I will be able to halter him again and do work with him without the need for a stall when spring comes. Token, on the other hand, will only come to grain. You have to start very slowly to touch him while he's eating, and you can't get past his shoulder if you do. I believe that he will come around with time and the right facility to house him. The latter is the problem. I have the time, or could make the time, but I do not have the stall/pen he needs. Don't get me wrong, he has been handled, leads and loads, but you sure as heck can't get near him without a bucket. I am at the end of my rope with this situation. I know he is going to be an extremely athletic competitor in his chosen discipline once he gets going, so it bugs me that I have come to the conclussion that I have. That is that he needs to move onto a home that can provide him with what he needs to be a stellar example of his breed. I have offered him back to Kim as a trade for something smaller and more handleable until I am in a better place myself, but he's at the ranch this weekend and won't be back for a few days. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what he says. Otherwise I will have to look into something else. Not sure what that is, as I am sure as heck not going to dump him at an auction. Anyone have any suggestions??
Becky
Anyways, if any of you read the focus board lately you know about the "issues" that arose there. I have no idea what those problems were or how they came to be, but they got me thinking. (Here comes the realization part.) I realized that sometimes I really have no clue what's going on in the world of my horses. I am wrapped up in work, and feeding, and the baby, and god knows what else. I realized that I need to introduce myself and start a convo with people I don't know, and get to know the people I don't know well better. (That make sense to anyone else?) I realized that things I thought were the truth weren't the truth at all, and that I need to be more open to the people I had shut out. (This post probably resonates with my other post on the focus itself.)
With that said, I have decided to become a bonafide member of all 4 Spanish Mustang registries. (SMR, HOA, AIHR, AHHA). Starting immediately, ok, when I get the cash. LOL!! I've got some big loan payments to make, but expect a nice weekend at work coming up to help pay to get the ball rolling. After my memberships are effective, I will be registering horses. Starting with Remme and making my way down the line. I hope to help out in the SMR as much as possible and also have offered my services to the AHHA. I have a four year degree in Equine and have dabbled in many different disciplines, so I think that I could be of some help to whoever will let me in.
Moving on, Ransom and Token. When I got these guys they had minimal handling and were quite skittish around people. There was no way I was going to be able to spend much time with them in my current boarding situation, and looked into getting a stall at a local boarding barn for a month to put them through an intensive training routine. As stated below, that didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. Ransom has come around on his own. He was the first of the two to approach me if I had grain, and would allow me to touch him and lead him around. In the last few months he has decided that people are his friends and will walk up to me on his own for a good scratching. I have no doubts that I will be able to halter him again and do work with him without the need for a stall when spring comes. Token, on the other hand, will only come to grain. You have to start very slowly to touch him while he's eating, and you can't get past his shoulder if you do. I believe that he will come around with time and the right facility to house him. The latter is the problem. I have the time, or could make the time, but I do not have the stall/pen he needs. Don't get me wrong, he has been handled, leads and loads, but you sure as heck can't get near him without a bucket. I am at the end of my rope with this situation. I know he is going to be an extremely athletic competitor in his chosen discipline once he gets going, so it bugs me that I have come to the conclussion that I have. That is that he needs to move onto a home that can provide him with what he needs to be a stellar example of his breed. I have offered him back to Kim as a trade for something smaller and more handleable until I am in a better place myself, but he's at the ranch this weekend and won't be back for a few days. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what he says. Otherwise I will have to look into something else. Not sure what that is, as I am sure as heck not going to dump him at an auction. Anyone have any suggestions??
Becky
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Excitement on the Farm!!
Since I started renting property from a friend last Feb. I've been forced to feed the horses after I get done working at 1:30 in the morning. Lately, I've been making it work out to feed at 8 am before going to pick the baby up. Monday night I took a friend out there after work to help me feed because I had a migraine all day and couldn't make it out there that morning. So we pulled up to the yard, it's dark out of course, and I make the comment that it looks like someone was hot balling through the yard in a truck. I parked the car by the garage, got out and started making my way to the paddock which is on the other side of the yard. As I got closer I noticed that the "tire tracks" were getting smaller and more round. I stopped, bent down, and sure enough, not tire tracks.....hoof prints. So I got to the gate, which was down, and called for the horses. One little loan whinny answered me back.
I have one large paddock and a smaller one in back where Remme lives with Token. I went to the back to check the fence and not a wire was out of place. The fence is up to my chest, and the only way I can figure that Remme got out was to jump. Which is good for him and for my program (his designated job when he grows up is to be an eventer), but bad for me when he figured out he could clear it and get out to run with the rest of the herd. Poor Token was sitting there, all by himself, calling for his friends. Thank god he's not going to be a jumper, cause he'd stink at it!!
So anyways, I called the cops to report them missing. I can't say much for the dispatcher that answered the phone, she cut me off mid-description and asked for my number so they could call me if they found them. Went home to bed and woke up to a 7 am phone call that some guy found a herd of horses in his back yard. Now for the fun part......
Picked up the same friend that was with me the night before and headed out to do some fence repairs. So we were in the back, fixing some wires that had snapped because of the wind and snow drifts, and I look up to see a single file line of horses walking down the road about a mile away. Jumped in the car with some halters and a bucket of oats and went to wrangle up some ponies. They had better ideas. Okauchee was leading the pack, and they were making good time trotting back toward the farm. They stopped when they saw me get out of the car and came over to investigate the bucket. I walked them back toward the car and took out a halter for Okauchee. He saw it and bolted back down the road they had come from. Needless to say, we spent a good hour playing a not-so-fun game of catch me if you can. Okauchee would lead the pack far enough away from us and then stop to make sure we were following. Finally they went back to the same house they were at this morning to dig in the snow and eat some grass. They weren't hard to catch after that.
Walking two and a half miles home in near zero weather leading a pack of horses is a story in itself. We got some pictures, but they didn't turn out to well because my friend was taking them from the car. Plus, I don't think I could even get them posted!! I haven't had the time to figure out how this whole thing works.
I now know that I will have to work on the separation anxiety Okauchee has. I ended up having to put a chain on him on the walk back. Rain decided about a quarter mile from home that she was done walking and was going to run the rest of the way. The rest of the herd followed, and Okauchee didn't take it well. He's normally extremely well mannered, but that day he bolted, screamed, and tried to run me over a number of times. It was hard to get his attention back on me before the chain. He wasn't responding to just the halter and lead. Once he was wearing the chain I was able to get him to stop, bend and flex, back up, and stand. I wish I had a better facility so that I could separate some of the horses and really do some hands on work with them. The barn I planned on putting stalls in has such a bad roof that it leaks constantly. I'm not allowed to set up any separate pens opposite the shed next to the paddock because of reasons I won't speak of right now. There is only one quality boarding place on the edge of town, but the guy is getting old and isn't taking any more horses right now. This is the same guy that told me he'd take Ransom and Token for a month and then called me the next day to tell me he changed his mind. He's actually thinking about quitting in the spring. The other place that boards is the one I had Remme and Rain at when I first got them. These are the same people that didn't feed Remme and left Rain out in a pasture to fret herself down a hundred pounds in three days while I was gone. They aren't worth the two hundred some dollars a month plus the butt load of gas money I'd spend traveling and the anxiety pills I'd end up having to take from worrying so much. For how much they charge I could feed my brood for a month. What's a girl to do??
Becky
I have one large paddock and a smaller one in back where Remme lives with Token. I went to the back to check the fence and not a wire was out of place. The fence is up to my chest, and the only way I can figure that Remme got out was to jump. Which is good for him and for my program (his designated job when he grows up is to be an eventer), but bad for me when he figured out he could clear it and get out to run with the rest of the herd. Poor Token was sitting there, all by himself, calling for his friends. Thank god he's not going to be a jumper, cause he'd stink at it!!
So anyways, I called the cops to report them missing. I can't say much for the dispatcher that answered the phone, she cut me off mid-description and asked for my number so they could call me if they found them. Went home to bed and woke up to a 7 am phone call that some guy found a herd of horses in his back yard. Now for the fun part......
Picked up the same friend that was with me the night before and headed out to do some fence repairs. So we were in the back, fixing some wires that had snapped because of the wind and snow drifts, and I look up to see a single file line of horses walking down the road about a mile away. Jumped in the car with some halters and a bucket of oats and went to wrangle up some ponies. They had better ideas. Okauchee was leading the pack, and they were making good time trotting back toward the farm. They stopped when they saw me get out of the car and came over to investigate the bucket. I walked them back toward the car and took out a halter for Okauchee. He saw it and bolted back down the road they had come from. Needless to say, we spent a good hour playing a not-so-fun game of catch me if you can. Okauchee would lead the pack far enough away from us and then stop to make sure we were following. Finally they went back to the same house they were at this morning to dig in the snow and eat some grass. They weren't hard to catch after that.
Walking two and a half miles home in near zero weather leading a pack of horses is a story in itself. We got some pictures, but they didn't turn out to well because my friend was taking them from the car. Plus, I don't think I could even get them posted!! I haven't had the time to figure out how this whole thing works.
I now know that I will have to work on the separation anxiety Okauchee has. I ended up having to put a chain on him on the walk back. Rain decided about a quarter mile from home that she was done walking and was going to run the rest of the way. The rest of the herd followed, and Okauchee didn't take it well. He's normally extremely well mannered, but that day he bolted, screamed, and tried to run me over a number of times. It was hard to get his attention back on me before the chain. He wasn't responding to just the halter and lead. Once he was wearing the chain I was able to get him to stop, bend and flex, back up, and stand. I wish I had a better facility so that I could separate some of the horses and really do some hands on work with them. The barn I planned on putting stalls in has such a bad roof that it leaks constantly. I'm not allowed to set up any separate pens opposite the shed next to the paddock because of reasons I won't speak of right now. There is only one quality boarding place on the edge of town, but the guy is getting old and isn't taking any more horses right now. This is the same guy that told me he'd take Ransom and Token for a month and then called me the next day to tell me he changed his mind. He's actually thinking about quitting in the spring. The other place that boards is the one I had Remme and Rain at when I first got them. These are the same people that didn't feed Remme and left Rain out in a pasture to fret herself down a hundred pounds in three days while I was gone. They aren't worth the two hundred some dollars a month plus the butt load of gas money I'd spend traveling and the anxiety pills I'd end up having to take from worrying so much. For how much they charge I could feed my brood for a month. What's a girl to do??
Becky
Monday, January 5, 2009
New Blog!!
So I started this blog in hopes of keeping track of my horsey adventures. I am starting to think that I should have done this a long time ago as there is so much that I could tell about life with my horses up until this point. We've been through a lot since I embarked on my journey with Spanish Mustangs, starting with my short lived time loving and learning with Maggie and her tragic death....and progressing through new arrivals, issues with boarding places, moves, and the fight to keep the dream alive.
The brood has grown to seven......yup.....SEVEN!!! Who knew I could ever afford them?? I guess as all horse people know, you can always find the room and the cash for one more!! In all seriousness I am capped out. Out of room, out of patience for problems with people who really have nothing to do with my horses but stick their nose in my business anyways, and out of ideas on how to keep plugging away in the crappy economy and lack of time to do what I want to do.
And now to the good points........
I have a wonderful brood of seven horses.
I have foundation bloodlines with the extreme likeliness to excell in their chosen disciplines.
I have one of the only (soon to be) standing stallions of Comes From Dream.
I have horses with heart and the willingness to do what I ask them.
I have SPANISH MUSTANGS!!!
What more could you ask for??
Becky
The brood has grown to seven......yup.....SEVEN!!! Who knew I could ever afford them?? I guess as all horse people know, you can always find the room and the cash for one more!! In all seriousness I am capped out. Out of room, out of patience for problems with people who really have nothing to do with my horses but stick their nose in my business anyways, and out of ideas on how to keep plugging away in the crappy economy and lack of time to do what I want to do.
And now to the good points........
I have a wonderful brood of seven horses.
I have foundation bloodlines with the extreme likeliness to excell in their chosen disciplines.
I have one of the only (soon to be) standing stallions of Comes From Dream.
I have horses with heart and the willingness to do what I ask them.
I have SPANISH MUSTANGS!!!
What more could you ask for??
Becky
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
