When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Ha, I’m pretty sure I wanted to be a horse when I grew up at that age. I know I tried eating grass, and spent time practicing my whinnies. I also wanted to be a dog herder. I would gather up all the neighborhood dogs and try to get them to follow me (no leash laws back then).
We want to herd cattle. Or play with them.
After that I wanted to be a veterinarian or Supergirl. As you see, I haven’t changed much, except now I write all those ideas down.
I got a monarch to sit still!
Things are good here:
Monarchs are here, plus I saw a big zebra swallowtail.
Our niece is not too badly hurt from getting kicked by Big Bag Betty B**** (a cow who m, deservedly, leaves for the sale barn soon) even though she was life flighted by helicopter to a hospital pretty far from her farm. (She posted the story, so for once I can do more than vague hinting.)
I had a great session with Apache the Paint today, better than usual, even. He sure has energy and joy now.
Tarrin has a plan to get my gray horse Drew better, which involves some expensive veterinary stuff, but gives me hope for our future.
There was time this afternoon to watch the dogs play with cows (nice ones) and to hang out on the patio with Lee. We are much less stressed than yesterday!
My herd, minus Harvey, who doesn’t play with cattle, and Vlassic, who was in the garage.
I wish every one of you at least one beautiful spring day to spend with those you love, and I hope your childhood dreams came true, at least a little. I can’t BE a horse or herd dogs, but I can hang out with them!
GoldieYoga GoldieAlfredAfternoon woodsAnother monarchWhite throated sparrowDew on grassOur house in springBonus photos to bring you peace
I love a sunny day where you don’t need a jacket but don’t get all sweaty. Today was such a day, as the capricious Texas spring granted us a good one. (By the way, my second favorite weather is a cool mist, which is what I woke up to today).
Even the welding stuff looks good surrounded by mist-covered grass just after sunrise.
Since Sara and I aimed to leave for the first live horse show of the year for our Working Horse Central group, I was up before dawn trying to get Apache ready. He had, of course, slept in mud last night. So he was both wet and muddy.
I managed to get him back to mostly the correct colors and got lots more hair off him. I tried to bathe him a bit, but whoever coiled my hose up last time the grass was mowed created a tangle I cannot solve. I need to fix my horse bathing situation. I’m glad Apache was a good sport about it.
As you can see, he ended up looking white on his rump, miraculously.
The beautiful weather contributed to the most pleasant horse show experience I ever had. Each and every human and horse showed great improvement, to our collective delight. It was young Maizy’s first show, and she did way better than she expected on a borrowed horse. Good for her!
Love this picture with the horse totally unfazed by the rope. Believe me, my roping didn’t look that good.
Sara and Aragorn had their best show ever. He seems to feel much better on the same medication Apache is on, plus another. He was a cantering rockstar! And every other task he was asked to do went as well as he could possibly do. Hard work pays off! It was a joy to watch them and to see Sara’s smiles.
The experienced riders were so great to watch. I learn so much from them! I’m the least experienced, even though two participants were teens. That’s why I don’t compare myself to the others and just hope to improve!
Some competitors
I didn’t get any photos of Kate, who went before me, because I was always in my horse waiting for my turn, but she’s such a great horsewoman and the horse she rode was just gorgeous. She showed me how the things Apache and I did were supposed to look. Ahhh…
Of course we got to visit poor Drew in Reform School. Apache seemed glad to see him and called to him whenever I returned him to his stall.
As for our performance, both Apache and I were a lot calmer than we’d been before, which meant we did some things well. There were also mental lapses by me and Apache oopses as well. The best one was when we were supposed to walk straight down a corridor, stop in front of an obstacle, then back out. Well, the obstacle was a fake Christmas tree, and Apache tried to eat it and pulled it over. I just had to laugh! Of course he did it perfectly in the Agility phase, where form didn’t count.
The fatal moment. We got 3 out of 10 for the tree pulling.
Nonetheless, our trotting was better in all phases, and I exhibited improved handling. That’s what counts, improvement! I’m doing a pretty good job of not beating myself up for not doing better. That’s an improvement, too! See, I can learn.
Varied terrain. He does this ok. Bridge. Got 9.5 on one pass over this!Cowboys curtain, another success. Roping. He looks good. Me, ugh. Side passing over a pole. Did better than in the past. A moment of not looking hollow.
He and I did pretty well on the last thing, Agility, which is timed. if I hadn’t gone through the gate the wrong way, it would have been spectacular. But we ended up winning that one (out of 2 people) because I let him trot as fast as he wanted to. My Goddess, that was bumpy. My helmet kept falling down, as did my glasses. But it impressed the judge (Tarrin). And I lived, albeit with a headache.
The best part was watching everyone on this beautiful day.
I’m a bit sore from the trotting, but it was worth it. The shoes are a little of work for everyone, but well worth it. I’m grateful for everyone who helped judge, score, set up, and tear down.
Right now I’m conflicted. There are two things I’d like to do more of every day, and it’s not practical for me to do both.
Staying out of the rain is what we’d like to do more of.
One thing I’d do more of if I could is work with the horses. I’d love to have the opportunity to get more education, ride more, and learn more ground skills. I would love to have someone to trail ride with (I do have an Easter date to ride with Sara). Apache does fine when he’s with another horse.
Who knows how Drew would be, since I’ve still never tried it, since we’re moving backwards rather than forwards in training at the moment. It was pointed out to me that I forgot to say how Droodles is doing at Reform School. He is making progress but slowly. He’s not happy going right still. Maybe we can only go left from now on. He will see the bodyworker again soon. The upshot is I paid for two more weeks of rehab at Tarrin’s.
It was hard to fit this all in the frame. Glad I’m not driving it.
All right, so the second thing I wish I could do more of is travel. And as you can see, we’re finally all set to go places in style. Hermee looks pretty good behind Seneca! That’s one tiny Jeep!
Clever hitch
I was really impressed by this fancy hitch. It collapses into practically nothing and stores in the belly of the motorhome. It attaches and detaches much more easily than I expected, too.
What freedom! I can’t wait to go somewhere and be able to explore the area! I’d love to go all over the US, but I know that’s expensive and uses a lot of resources. Plus, I really miss the horses and Fifi.
I do know of a few folks who travel with horses. I used to enjoy reading in one of my horse magazines about the Krones, a couple who roamed North America with their two horses. They sure had some adventures! But it required money, dedication, and more bravery than I have!
So I’ll continue to keep my job and do as much horsing and traveling as is practical. Really, my life is just fine as it is.
Hard work and persistence can pay off, and Apache and I learned that today. It’s been challenging and hard, but the two of us have actually managed to learn some things. We can communicate, we can rely on each other, and we can have fun.
He had been standing sort of funny this morning, so I was worried about his feet.
We rocked today’s lesson after Tarrin worked on his shedding soles.
This is after over an hour of me working on his shedding hair. He’s so soft now.
Tarrin was giggling like a kid and telling everyone how happy she was to see Apache shedding sole on his feet. He’d never done that before he started his medication. And the feet are white, not yellow! She found evidence of some bruising, which could explain why he hasn’t been to keen on picking his feet up. Now he should feel really good!
He got his boots back on so he can heal.
Anyway, once the hoof business was complete, we did our lesson stuff. Somehow, in the past month I’ve learned to ask him for a nice, soft trot, and he’s gotten enough muscles to do it. A few weeks ago he could do two or three steps in a rounded trot. Now he can do circles, and circles within circles, and slaloms…wow. It was so unexpected and good that I laughed aloud and snorted in a most undignified manner.
Apache seemed pretty pleased, too. And I feel somewhat competent. I’m even looking forward to doing a little better in the upcoming show. At least I now know how to do a rounded trot! If we execute it, so much the better. It will just be good to have a little more of a clue as to what we’re supposed to do, with different trot and walk speeds, good turns, and subtle cues.
And hey, it’s spring. How do I know? This guy showed up.
My magnificent tail and I have returned!
I am always happy to see scissor tail flycatchers each spring. And the barn swallows have taken over the porch from the house sparrows. Go bug eaters!
Suna, turn off these lights. We’re trying to pair bond here!
Yes, today was glorious. All the butterflies are back, plus more favorite flowers. I’m ready to enjoy a few more days of pleasant weather!
Checkered whiteBalancing Roadside gauraPink evening primrose!Lots of tiny yellow flowers Sunset after a long day.
If so, that may explain a few things. I’m not lucky either. Probably because I don’t believe in luck.
Oh look, some lucky vetch! It IS a pretty plant, which just started blooming.
I’m not superstitious. I’m all evidence based. I’m pretty sure whether I walk under a ladder or not won’t cause the karmic winds to shift and bring bad juju my way. Even if it did matter, I’m not to get all worked up about it.
I may not be lucky, but I felt privileged to enjoy today’s sunrise.
But hey, I’m very happy with my life and enjoy finding the good in whatever comes my way. You can learn from everything, as my friend Sara was telling me today. So even bad “luck” has its usefulness.
It’s Tuesday, so we had horse lessons. it was a spectacularly beautiful day, and both Apache and Aragorn did well. Even the parts that were challenging taught us, and Sara and I learned from each other, too. It’s great going to lessons together.
I’m making some real and tangible progress working with Apache on calming down when he wants to rush ahead or gets worried. Tarrin’s been helping me develop tools that may well help both me and my horse!
Drew sees Apache.
Poor Droodles is making slow progress in his rehab. He’s all a-flutter about lady horses, and is slowly getting better from his severe pain. We still don’t know what happened, but his right side was a mess. I hope he keeps improving.
Today was my birthday, and I expected to spend the day working, then doing horse stuff, including taking Drew to his re-education camp. I did all that, but when I came home well after dark I found birthday balloons on the mailbox, hanging geraniums in baskets on the front porch, and a nice meal being cooked. Then my son and his partner showed up, so we had a wonderful family dinner!
I brought the balloons in.
I even got birthday cards and a tres leches cake from the local bakery. It has to marinate, so we got to enjoy a sampler of baked goods for dessert after our tacos and homemade guacamole. It was so kind of my family to do this. You could have blown me over with a feather!
Dinner, not cooked by me!
It was just one of those very full days. I enjoy days with challenges that take work to solve, but you can cope. Work was that way today, with laughter on top of it. Wow, it’s great to have a good job and supportive team!
I have no work photos, so here’s a willow branch covered in dew.
Horses were also challenging but do-able. Apache was a mess when I got him from the pasture so I had to wash him off. I think that helped. I was also able to get Drew haltered and ready to go to Tarrin’s safely.
One twitchy, one not.
Once at Tarrin’s he was back in his old pen, but he was jumpy at construction going on, new horses, and mares next to him. They also got excited and ran around their pen dozens of times. We kept wondering if they’d ever stop!
Jumpy Droodles.
Aragorn and Apache managed to do their lessons, though. I got a lesson at putting on Apache’s new saddle pad, and we changed out his straps so he’s all green now. Snappy.
Green is a good color for bays.
I am pleased with the progress my fine gelding and I are making. Tarrin purposefully got Apache annoyed so I could practice settling him down. Maybe this will help when he’s at Sara’s again. Still, he’s doing trot transition work very well and I’m proud of him (and me—lots of butt bouncing). Bonus: Tarrin gave me chocolate ale to take home! And nail strips!
Tarrin took this picture to show how straight he was standing, just as he was going to shake his head.
The last couple of days have given me much to be grateful for! Hoping it stays this nice!
Yeah, they say it goes two steps forward and one step back. Today felt like a big step back for me and Apache. But we have it our best and that’s all we could do.
We think we’ve grown, but maybe we haven’t. Regression time.
Sara and another of our horse friends had set up the obstacles for the Working Horse Central spring virtual show, so I said I’d go over and try it out. So far, that’s never worked out well for us, but I figured we’d get some together time and riding in, anyway.
What can I say? It went better than last time. We got there calmly and did a walk-through of the course with Aragorn, but Apache was not at all interested in riding, just like last time. I got lots of practice being calm and trying not to tense up as he jumped and wheeled around.
There are certain spots he just loses his mind at. I have no idea why. But I did manage to get him back to his normal mind a couple of times. It was exhausting. Sara and I kept trying to figure out what I might be doing differently that caused all our improvements to go out the window. I’m sure I tense up when he starts jumping, though I try my best to not react and breathe calmly. He seems to want me to help him though.
In the end I got the idea that he does better over there with a friend, so Sara led Aragorn and we followed them through a bunch of the obstacles. That actually worked, so we were able to end on a positive note.
I tied my horse up to rest afterwards, and he and Aragorn got all manly at each other. We surmised that Sully must be in heat, like Mabel.
Neither of these guys is known for acting studly.
Apache looked so miserable that I took his saddle off and hosed him down. By that time, the other person who was going to try to film her virtual show. Look at her horse, Cheerio!
Apache just looks like the same horse, a size larger. They are exactly the same color, but A is wet here.
They must have a common Paint pattern. They even share the black forelock and white mane!
I took him home before they did their work. As we arrived at the gate to our property, there was Fiona. She had escaped the fence and came to greet her buddy. I wonder if he’d do better if she came with us? It’s not possible, of course, since Fiona isn’t very popular over there, but maybe in other circumstances she could be his emotional support animal.
But look! Fencing is up for a third pasture! Just need a water trough. I’ll put Mabel and Dusty there, to enjoy the good grass. Apache and Fiona will go to the other pasture a couple hours a day but mostly stay in the small overgrazed paddock, so the pasture they are in now can rest.
Well, at least I got some sun. Apache is pissed off at me, but I hope this episode hasn’t messed up all our hard work becoming a team. I shouldn’t have taken him over there, in retrospect. I just keep hoping we will be able to keep things together better in unfamiliar places. Or familiar places that spook him. I guess no equestrian camping for us any time soon!
Nope. Not at all. Quite the opposite. I’m a big fan of the “sh** happens” school of thought, as a lifelong existentialist. I guess this sort of goes along with my agnosticism. I do feel a connection to the earth and I grant that there may be something we can’t perceive that ties things together, but chaos makes more sense to me. This allows me to enjoy each day to its fullest and not expect either good or bad times to last forever.
One day this dog showed up. Fate? Luck? Coincidence? Who cares. He’s a great dog.
If you believe everything happens for a reason or there’s a magical being watching you and causing things to happen to you, that’s fine with me. You may be right. Or I may be. But we both get to enjoy the beauty around us if we look.
Bluebonnets after rain.
It was a fine, fine day to be alive. I spent much of the afternoon grooming horses and riding. In shedding season they need the help. Tomorrow I’ll try to get Mabel to let me groom her. That should be fine, but I also want to de-bur her. Not so fine.
This boy sure lived his grooming and head rubbing. This one should be much more comfortable soon. Only the beginning of Apache shedding. Birds love it for nests. Drew tried to eat Dusty’s shedding, so I had to remove it.
Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.
The time in life that I wish could have lasted longer was when my sons were teenagers. I really enjoyed being a band mom, watching them make lifelong friends, and seeing them grow into independence. We sure laughed a lot. No doubt they remember it differently.
We are your child substitutes.
But, life goes on and there’s much to both enjoy and endure now. A joy was working with Anita, my mid-century modern expert, on finalizing colors and fixtures for the current remodeling project. Here’s what we picked for the exterior, after much debate. You can see the colors look different in different light.
At left are the interior colors that we already chose, Santa’s Beard and Dance of the Goddesses. Top left, Copper Canyon, is the inside of the porch, to keep it lighter. Ripe Peach in the middle is for the doors. It blends with the brick rather than contrasting. Greenwich Green is the trim color.
Note that we are removing the shutters, since they aren’t the right vibe. We checked to be sure fading hadn’t occurred on the brick, and it just needs power washing. One reason we don’t need the shutters is that we will have a new exterior element, the Hardie board where the new windows are. Here’s how it turned out.
The guy who did this is justifiably proud of how it came out. It will break up the long horizontal line of the house very well.
So, what am I enduring? The continuing saga of my boy Droodles. He seems to have made advances at Mabel and was rebuffed severely. He has bite marks on his side, along with this lovely gash. Only one horse could literally kick his butt, and the theory is that she’s in heat, but only has eyes for Apache.
Horse drama. Apparently I shouldn’t mix the sexes. I’ve spent too much effort getting Mabel into good enough shape that she can kick ass, though, so when we get the new pasture set up, she may get to stay with Apache and Fiona in the old one.
Don’t separate us. We’re a team.
Of course, Drew also bugs Dusty, but that’s calmed down a lot. We will figure something out! In the meantime, I don’t look forward to grooming Apache tomorrow. He rolled after all that sweating yesterday.
I think I look FINE.
It may rain, though, so bit might wash him or mess up my riding schedule. Today wasn’t a good day to ride anyway, since winter came back to say hi, and brought its buddy, the wind.
I was delighted to discover that the woodland floor next to our house was covered in charming little flowers. I’d never seen them before, even though I walk in these woods each spring.
Gosh darn it, they’re cute.
I had to look them up as soon as I went inside after my birding break. Their name was as lovely as their appearance: Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica). I happily read the excerpt of a longer article that appears in iNaturalist as had to giggle when I saw that one of their other common names is Fairy Spud. I had to learn more.
I’m your little spud.
It turns out that the plants grow from tubers that were eaten by many indigenous people in the eastern US, you know, like potatoes! They were thought to cure convulsions and/or prevent conception. I assume the latter didn’t work well, since people ate it a lot. The whole plant is edible, but the Wikipedia article noted that the leaves are “not choice eating.”
Well, I learned something today! As a bonus I managed to see and hear a black-crowned night heron this morning. That’s a rare guest at our pond! So, it’s the Daily Bird.
We usually get the yellow crowned one.
Apache survived a hard workout at his lesson today, but in a great triumph, he trotted more than once correctly. He was NOT hollow, that dreaded word. I’m so proud of him. He also got his feet trimmed by Reagan, the new intern at Tarrin’s. He is growing hoof like crazy.
It requires many dogs to trim hooves.
Apache was sweating away, since he hasn’t shed much yet. He will be very happy tomorrow, when it cools off a bit. So will I! Maybe I’ll cook up a batch of fairy spuds for dinner. Or not.
The Hermits' Rest 