temptations...

Everywhere I look there are horses going cheap or free. Hay prices are going low due to the dairy industry suffering now, which is sad for them but finally I get a break after the last few years of buying outrageously-priced hay. I'm sure the wheel will keep turning and soon I'll have some other reason to rob Peter to pay Paul, as the saying goes. Somebody's always getting a break or needing one, we all get our turn.
I haveta quit looking at all the ads online, in the paper, in store entryways, ads for horses that would look so nice being in my pasture. And it will only be more so this fall when people are looking to sell instead of feed them all winter- and the babies will be weaned and needing new homes. Man, it's times that I wonder WHEN?? Why not now?? Why not build my breeding program NOW when good horses are so cheap and hang onto them till times are better?? Last time I had it the other way around, bought high with high hopes to match and sold lower, but luckily got out before things hit too bad. Now it's rock bottom. Now is the time to buy but who knows what'll happen in a couple years. With any luck peta will exterminate itself and the horse industry can recover from the destuction/havoc they've wreaked upon it.

Some ads that have really caught my eye are a couple of Fresian crosses, a palamino filly, and several others. But I dont dare look at them in person, I would be wracking my brains for a way to get them home, and dont need to start a fight. So when that mood hits I just go spend some time pampering the ones I have, which is what I did tonite.

And it helps. Somewhat lol.
I'm hopeless

weekend of chaos

Yes, sometimes those hit even my quiet corner of the world. But things have quieted down and today I'm going with the kids to see a movie- Harry Potter for my niece n I and IceAge 3 for the younger kids n Gramma. So that'll be awesome, as I'm a huge Harry Potter book fan. I greatly admire JK Rowling for her incredible imagination, and kudos to her for getting kids excited about reading. Even though the movies are never as great as the books, the HP ones do a pretty good job.
Afterwards I plan on visiting my horses, as I didnt get to see them much yesterday, only a couple minutes.

storms today

But luckily our place just had 2" of rain and a bit of hail, nothing like what hit north of here- lots of hail and crop damage- so we are really lucky.
In horse news, Buckley is home again and hopefully pregnant. I havent had a chance yet to go riding which bugs me, and no idea what the weekend holds. I should just hide and do my own thing cuz waiting on other ppl's schedules can get old. Only take so much putting off my plans and then I get onery that they get pushed aside. Sigh. Just alot on my mind and sometimes it gets cluttered lol.

Sleeping in

Man, what a blessing that doesnt happen nearly enuf! From there to sitting out in the swing with a glass of oj- mobbed by 4 dogs and 10 cats to see what it is- lol not the relaxing early morning ritual I'd pictured. But that aside, once they settled it was nice to just 'be' for awhile- no stress, no nagging, nothing but just breathing and listening to the birds and looking over the flower beds.
But now it's onto buisness, gotta work this afternoon and hit the timeclock running.
But I plan on getting a project going once I'm free.

just an update

on Days of my Horses Lives.
Buckley is still at the Jack's place, and we really hope she'll have a mule colt next year. They told us she's wonderful to work with and doesnt get excited about anything, so that's good it's going well.
The boys rode thier ponies the other nite but I didnt get a chance to ride mine cuz they needed help. Everybody else is buisness as usual. One of these days I need to bring a couple saddles in and get them cleaned up.

a bit of earth, my secret garden

The gardens are doing well, but needs a major weeding after a week of neglect. I started some this morning but it has since gotten hot today and I dont take the heat, or the cold for that matter. Lol, yet here I am where we get both. But we have spring and fall that make up for it. This is the last of the columbines, I had many different colors this year that I didnt plant but they must reseed whatever thier hybrid heritage is. I had blue, purple, yellow, burgundy, white and pink- Last year it was just the blue n purple. I think they're so elegant. And soon the summer blooms will open. Some of the clematis are blooming again or for the first time this year, so there's all shades of purple, white, red, and pink everywhere. After the bombing of climbing roses, which I love but most cant survive our winters, I've switched gears and collect clematis instead-they are way cheaper and survive! The roses I have left do very well and I plan to add more 'tough' ones in the future. No more walmart ripoffs! The 'tough' ones I have left are 'Climbing America' which only gets about 3ft tall even with Miracle grow, but blooms profusely; "Love' which is a grandiflora that is silver with red reverse, very striking florist rose type; 'Heritage' a pale pink David Austin English rose- however, it only gets about 3ft tall instead of the 6ft it should. "Seven Sisters" climber that grows all over its trellis and then some; "The Fairy'' pale pink everbloomer, ''Pink Knockout" & "Red Knockout" lanscape roses, and a freind gave me a cutting of a shrub rose that looks exactly like "Hansa" but is pink instead of burgundy. I hope it survives, so far it looks good but I need to find a better place for it. The rest of the garden is full of perrenials and 3 wisterias which are only a year old, but in a couple years everything should be established. I was disappointed my butterfly bushes didnt make the winter, I bought another this spring anyway cuz they're only a couple bucks at the local greenhouse and the butterflies do come for them. But it stinks cuz I used them as a main focal for several gardens. I also had to replant most of the herb garden cuz the seeds i had were too old or something, but I have success at last. I'm trying to figure it out as I go cuz so many plants have different likes and sometimes they get sick/die in one area and flourish in another. It's very confusing for a 'wanna-be' greenthumb such as myself. The veg garden is doing awesome, any day now the tomatoes should start ripening, and the peppers. I cant wait for peppers and make a beef roast with peppers n onions. I havent done that since last time I had a veg garden, 4 years ago. Anyway, I also need to come up with a plan for the area in front of my picket fence, it has short phlox, painted daisy, and creeping thyme in front, and a purple/white clematis climbing thru it (whose name escapes me now), and a pink clematis at one end and a wisteria at the other climbling up the garage. So in spring it looks very cute, but now it's very boring cuz nothing is blooming. I put sea lavendar there and will see how that looks but it wont bloom till late summer. I had butterfly bushes all along it for summer but they're dead, so the challenge is to find something that wont hide the fence but survive a harsh winter.... But its dangerous to go to the greenhouse lol, too many plants to try.....

Early Saturday morning, and I can't sleep. So went out to see my crew in the early light. As usual they were already at breakfast.

That day was awesome, horse fun day at the fair and I was helping. Hopefully next year I can take somebody and participate.

It seems that now that fair is over and nothing coming up for a couple weeks that I can get back to playing with my horses again. Today I finally got my own helmet, so training can commence once again.

And I'm ready for it....

These guys are the ponies. Both are geldings. Kazza is the little bay roan, he is 5 and broke to ride, and Dusty is the blue roan and is 2. We bought Dusty as a yearling and he's a good match for my older boy, currently we're breaking him to ride. Dusty has a blaze and 3 socks, a stripe down his back, and has obvious Arabian heritage. Dusty is big enuf, but not old enuf yet, for me to ride so that'll help with his training, as he gets away with some stuff with Jake as ponies tend to try. The original plan was both boys would share him but Luke was intimidated by his size and it wasnt working.

So I found something shorter and more suited to Luke's needs and those 2 get along perfectly. Kazza (short for Alakazzam) has no markings and is such a character. He loves to explore, get into mischief, and doesnt mind being by himself, and calls at Luke whenever it sees him. Kazza and Dusty play 'wild stallions' all the time, and whenever the horses run, little Kaz has 3 times the work to keep up. But in his mind he's 10 ft tall. We bought him this winter and he was chocolate colored, with a few white sprinkles here n there. Now he has shed out to have a bay head/points and silver body, so he's very striking. His funniest quirk is when he's done giving rides he just lays down, I guess that's better than fighting, but it is funny.

I don't know what happened- it used to look like an Indian (Native American) herd around here with all the Paints- and Cim was the only solid horse to be seen- Now the Colored horses are outnumbered 2 to 6, and it looks like a Cowboy herd with the buckskins and roans......

This girl on the right is Rohan, a 3 year old bay Paint breeding stock filly. She is full sister to Twista, but favors her Paint grandfather who had some Throughbred in his papers. She has the longer, leaner look and a plainer head, but is still pretty and I hope to someday make a jumper outta her. However, first I haveta convince her not to be a bucker! A few weeks ago she sent me to the hospital with a concussion, and I've just been doing more groundwork since. I hope I'll be able to handle whatever next she dishes out. Before that I was enjoying great success with her training. She has 1 white sock and a wide blaze. She was the last colt outta Chika x my stud while I owned her.

My stud Rado sired a couple other colts after Rohan but they were sold or sold inutero when I sold my mares. Rado was gelded and then sold.

Someday I hope to get back into raising colts every year, but I think I'll skip owning a stud cuz I'll never have another like Rado was. And it'll be easier letting somebody else deal with the stud aspect year-round.

The lady on the left is Buckley, a 15 year old buckskin Quarter horse that I bought at Xmas from a freind of mine. The pic is from the day she came. Buckley is awesome, she does everything, your average ranch horse. Only you cant tie her to anything but a trailer and once you get on she's all buisness, no dinking around waiting, but those are minor compared to how broke she is. I rode her some in the spring, and summer thus far has gotten away on me. Currently she's down at a freind's, getting bred to a jack. She's had mule babies before and we tried 3 years in a row, several years ago, to get one but none of our mares would take, so once we got her we thought we'd try again. So maybe my hubby will finally get his mule and enjoy riding again. He doesnt ride horses anymore cuz of his knees. She almost matches Pheonix but has dapples, 3 socks, and a star, and of course is bigger. Pheonix also has the zebra stripes and a line down her back which Buckley doesnt. But they're my Golden girls- and it's so ironic, I never thought I'd ever have a buckskin and now I got 2. Buckley is a talker, that is she's constantly nickering when she's sees me or it's close to suppertime. She's freindly but not the 'cuddly' type like the others who sponge up the attention, I guess it comes from her remuda days. Still, as long as she's glad to see me , freindly enuf to come when called, easy to catch and enjoys a grooming, I'd say she's fine as is.

These guys are Kajun, 14 year old Paint mare, on the left and Cimmaron, a 15 year old grade gelding, on the right. Cimmaron, or Cim (that's Sim) is the first horse I ever had who was my own. Before that my brother got a pony and he shared her with me. I bought him when he was a yearling, wild and unwanted. He's come a long way, but is now retired. how that started was I had broke him and he was lots of fun cuz he loved to go riding ( except cross water!) But then a couple of years passed and I had severeal young ones around that always needed time, add a couple kids, and life gets away. Then he got joint problems cuz of his conformation (he has club feet/legs and is jarring to ride) so, with so many others around, he can just be a pasture pet and buddy to Kajun, who is long retired from any riding due to a surgery she had at age 4. She had punctured her esophagus and the ordeal that followed was labor intensive, infection had set in, the surgery took 4 hours in a blizzard no less, and she nearly died of shock that nite. For 2 weeks I tube-fed her with a syringe every 2 hours, and she had gruel-feed for 6 weeks total, and her chest was open to her heart and lungs where the infection had been cut away. But she pulled thru and now has only a thin line down her brisket that you haveta search for as the only reminder.

She was a broodmare a few years later and had 3 colts over 6 years time period. Sadly I dont have any of those, but she had a black n white filly, and a bay medicine hat stud that we sold due to enemployment, and her last one was lethal white, which didnt survive. After that ordeal I decreed her to be permanently retired from everything and she can just be a lazy horse who's earned retirement.

Some of my girls... The sorrel Paint is Twista, a 7 year old mare, and the dun is Pheonix, a 2 year old Paint breeding stock filly. There are 4 other horses and 2 ponies that I'll get pics later, but a bio of these 2: Twista was born here and was the first foal outta my stud and mare Chika, neither of which I own anymore. I broke her at age 4 to western and english but consider her green yet, as she needs alot more miles. But she's quiet and easy going, and was my favorite since day 1. Now she shares that spotlight with a couple others, Pheonix being one of them. Pheonix I bought as a yearling and she has such an awesome brain and beauty beyond. She's been saddled and bridled and no big deal. This fall I plan to start getting on her and see what she does.... the only white on Pheonix is a sock on her left hind leg, but that's cool cuz she has zebra stripes down her legs instead ;).

So the horses and a zillion other projects keep me busy-- it's my own fault if I ever get bored. Family, pets, a farm, plus painting, needlework, beadwork, scrapbooking, gardening, well there's never a dull moment.