Wenas BBQ Flats

Memorial Weekend, we spent over at BBQ Flats, outside Selah WA. We had not been to this area before, arrived Thursday afternoon and came home Monday. 5 days of relaxation, riding, spending time with friends, eating, enjoying nightly fires and just plain down time!
We prepared Edgar for the trip, gave him his "hopefully will help to not colic" paste, loaded up Red, the dogs and headed out of town. Well Edgar never did come to a full-colic but he definately had an upset belly at times, spent some time laying down on Thurs and Fri, looking at his belly, he quit eating.. he got a dose of Banamine on Thurs and Fri, which seemed to keep him stable. Saturday morning he seemed fine but as Derek helped Sara Jane I was holding Edgar, he started acting really odd, he appeared to be cramping. 5 minutes later he seemed fine.. so Derek got on and about 15 minutes down the trail Derek had to get off because Edgar was cramping again and contemplating going down. After a few minutes, Derek got back on and we had a nice 4 hour ride with no more instances. Very odd.. Very frustrating! He seemed to be crampy after he was given his grain (which he is normally fed twice/day) so I quit giving him the grain for the remainder of the weekend. I will call the vet, talk to her about what happened, see what other ideas may come up. I'm wondering if he has ulcers that flare up when we go camping.. Really not sure. Was thankful to have not had an emergency vet visit once we got him home, but still concerned for future camping trips.

Our setup at camp.. clearly Edgar is down and not feeling great. We had our potty-room between the camper and trailer (hard to see since it is green) and then a screened in shelter to the right of the camper, we hung out in there a lot with the dogs, we called it our living room where the dogs could roam free supervised since they figured out how to go under the screen if we were not paying attention! :)

BBQ flats is a great area to ride, lots of up but you can do gradual climbs. Derek, Sara Jane & I rode out Friday, got our bearings from the map we had, the ride was okay, a little rocky and boggy the first half of the ride. Saturday we had a great ride, able to navigate the map a little better, did a really good loop and Sunday we went out with Jenny, Becky, Tamara and Eric for a good ride. The first half of that ride was good, with some cross crountry type riding, the second half was not as great.. ran into a lot of boggy areas and we eventually broke away from the group to avoid those areas since our horses were working harder than we wanted them to and we wanted to avoid potential injuries to muscles etc.

As we rode out Friday, I had said to myself "I hope we see some wildlife". There is lots of elk in the area. Well as we were getting back on the horses at lunch time a coyote jogged down the hillside not far from us.. My heart skipped a few beats, I was waiting for Derek to come over and help me get back on my horse when my brain went into slight panic mode and Derek had to calmly talk me back to reality! :) Saturday I bravely told myself I wanted to see some other form of wildlife.. We saw a single Elk on the ridge over from us... Sunday I hoped again for wildlife and we came up on a few deer. So nothing overly exciting like a big pack of Elk that others had come across, but I was satisfied!

The weather was perfect.. 5 minute spotty rain showers on Thurs/Fri with sun breaks, a tiny bit of hail on Friday, thunder storms in the afternoon. Saturday we got caught in a big hail storm while out riding, lasted about 20 minutes.. us 3 huddled the horses under a tree to get out of it for a little while.. Sunday was perfect, overcast/sunny no rain or hail. Sunny on Monday as we left. I would definately go back and look forward to it.

This was our weather for most of the weekend Happy to be home, but definately looking forward to our next camping trip. The dogs did really well, suprisingly. Took Ellie about 24 hours to get in the camping groove, but she quickly learned to sleep soundly and relax when we were away. Russell did most of the whining. We were able to do some off-leash work with Ellie, I was happy she listened 90% of the time! :) A few times she slipped away from us when she knew she was going back in the camper.. But I was proud of her.

My back did GREAT all weekend, we had to walk the horses to water multiple times a day... the riding was good, got in 11 hours in 3 days, our butts were a little sore since we've not had much saddle time this year so far. But I woke up Monday hurting so badly with lower back issues, I couldnt even put on my shoes! I was in tears and felt really bad for Derek because he had to do 80% of the work. I helped where I could with easy things.. It's taken a week to get back to almost normal.

Heading out on Saturday's ride with Derek & Sara Jane & I

One of the cabins you can find out on the trail, the only one we found. This one is about 15-20 minutes out of camp.

The start of the hail.. We quickly realized it was more than a few minute passing of hail and sought shelter under a tree.In the middle of the hail storm, huddled under this measely tree!

This is about 15 minutes after the hailstorm.. We rode down out of the clouds and found a great little spot to have lunch. Lots of animals tracks leading up the watering hole.

Heading out Sunday for our group ride.. 7 of us

A little hazey out, but a great view of the valley.

Lunch Break on Sundays Ride. Jenny & Becky toasting a great day!

Cooper Update

Apparently Cooper is doing very well still with training! Always nice to know your hard earned money is not being wasted.. I wonder if that's how parents feel of their college bound kids. :) Trainer is happy with his progress and feels he has good character and disposition. We are happy but miss him very much. I think Ellie misses him too, she is so much more playful with us now, she has more bound up energy now too. I finally picked up the "dogs" yard, filled the lawnmower cart with rocks, sticks and plastic the dogs had dug up from the mound.. was able to mow that yard area for the first time all year!

The other night Ellie was very restless in their crate, so I let her outside.. she did not want to come back in the house; considering it was midnight I was not about to argue with her, so I shut the gate in the entryway and left her there for the rest of the night. At some point later that night, I vaguely heard our bedroom door rattling.. didnt wake up enough to comprehend that there was no breeze in our bedroom to cause the door to rattle! lol I just let it go on for a while until finally I woke Derek and asked him to get up and check the door, well he found miss Ellie sitting outside our door waiting to come in. Yep, she jumped the entry way gate! And the next day when I left for work and shut the gate behind me, well we came home to Ellie in the wrong side of the house, so she officially learned to jump out. Damn!!! So now she gets her way and has rule of the roost while we are gone at work, we'll see how well she does. I know Russell is super happy, I'm just concerned Ellie will get into more trouble than she knows what to do with.

Dexter's cut/stitches are doing great. I have not spent much time with him lately, I'm a little concerned about being able to cut the stitches out, if he will let me get close enough to him to do it. Got the vet bill in the mail the other day :(

Called in Backup

Thursday evening as I was looking at Dexter's cut, it was pussy and very swollen so I opted for backup help and hauled him in Friday morning to see Dr Dana. She asked me to be there at 6:30 am! Yikes.... I realized he probably wasnt missing a chunk of skin, he most likely just cut himself and it parted ways creating the big opening. As Dana cleaned it all out, she asked if I wanted to clean daily or stitch it up.. duh, that was a super easy answer, Stitch! No way was he going to let me clean it out like that w/o being drugged daily! :)

Even under sedation, he didnt want his naughty bit region touched, kicked the wall as Dr Dana felt him up, and yes indeed she found 2 dropped bits.. YEAH! Whew thats one future vet bill that will not cost me as much as surgery if he hadnt been dropped.

Here's his pretty pink stitches! 9 I think total.
Its a bit of a challenge every day to put an anti-bacterial spray on it, the fighting him twice a day got old very quickly and we were getting nowhere, so I now spray the solution in my hand and wipe it on his face, which is challenge enough! All the while doing this with no halter on him, just a rope around the neck. I'm staying positive and using it as a learning experience for him to learn to lead and be handled without a halter.

What now!

As I approached Dexter to halter him this afternoon, he seemed a bit spooky. He really did not want me to put his halter on and I struggled to get him to allow it. I thought "Hmm.. this is an odd setback, what the heck is the deal today?"

He was a bit jumpy, he was throwing his head up in the air, being overly flighty and sensitive in the face when I was leading him out of the stall and working him around in the barn isle. Since I dont have an arena or round pen, most of my work with him is in the isle or out in his corral, but its much nicer in the isle because the bugs dont seem to come into the wide open barn space, but they sure can get nasty and gross in the pasture and corral. So anyways, I was working on desensitizing Dexter with a plastic baggy on the end of a stick basically, he was doing okay, but I still was perplexed at how jumpy and sensitive he was on the leadrope.

As I worked on his left side for about 5 minutes, I decided to now work his right side. And after a few circles around me, I noticed something not quite right about his face.. It looked a bit odd, so I stopped him and immediately felt sick that I had not taken a few seconds to stop and wonder why he had been so sensitive and unwilling to be haltered. No, I just put him to work.. Poor kid had a huge cut/chunk of missing hair and skin on his face, just under the damn halter buckle! NO WONDER he was so sensitive, that halter was touching up against raw flesh..

Yes yes, very gross details, but thats what it is.. just a huge (bigger than the halter buckle) area, clean edge chunk missing from his face. I called out Derek to come help me, took the halter off immediately and just used a rope around his neck. We searched that stall and corral and found zero evidence of what might have happened, so maybe I am left to believe one of the other horses bit him?? I really have no idea, its big enough that the chunk missing should be somewhere.. mystery may never be solved.

We opted not to call in backup (the vet) because he was eating normal and it doesnt appear he broke anything. It certainly was painful for him, we had to really fight him to doctor it, flushed it with some irrigation solution and then spent another 5 minutes fighting him to try to get him to stand still long enough to goop it up to keep bugs out and infection away. That was not working, I finally told Derek to grab ahold of his ear and twist as hard as he could.. Well that worked! Finally I was able to even touch his face to get the goop on him. Poor poor kid..

So it's a minor setback as I will be unable to halter him for a week or two. It will need lots of time to heal and scab over before I can let anything put pressure on it like a halter. Which is OK I guess, he will learn how to be led and handled with a rope around his neck I guess! :) Unfortunately I think we will have to continue to "man-handle" him via ear twisting to doctor him up... for a stallion, he's sure acting like a sissy!

Mini Crisis Overcome

I get home Friday not to find any disasters with the dogs this time.. no, the problem was out in the pasture! I had about 15 minutes time between getting home and needing to leave to head out to a meeting and what do I see.. Red out in the pasture where Oakley is supposed to be and Dexter in the corral that opens up to the pasture and Oakley out in the pasture as well... hmmmm Not where they were for their morning feeding, thats for sure!

Here is what I gather happened. Dexter's stall door was shut all the way but not latched properly. Edgar, who gets bored, was lipping the door through his stall window and got a bit pushy and pushed it open a couple inches.. So then Dexter sees this opening and explores it, bolting through (which meant he had to of half jumped over his feed tub which somewhat blocks his stall door. The door was only open just enough for him to get through. With Dexter getting out of his stall, he now is in Red's corral. Red musta chased Dexter out of his corral because the temporary fence poles were all askew and wire was way out of place leaving openings for Red and Dexter to now get in with Oakley. Red took the opportunity to find his way to the green pasture. Who knows if Oakley may have also chased Dexter, but 25 minutes after discovering the mess, all horses were back where they belonged!

The next morning I saw that Red had minor swelling on both his back legs, not sure what that is from, he seems to have cut one of his back legs a little on something, probably all the running around and being silly. He's not lame so I'm not too worried at this point. The next morning the shoer came out for a fresh set of shoes, Jon was nice enough to get Dexter's feet done. It was a bit of a "panic" session as Dexter was pinned next to the horse trailer to get him to stand still. Once Jon had his feet up, he was just fine, its just the approach and initial touch from the shoer that was the biggest issue. He's still not okay with such bold movements. I'm working on it with him, but again my broken record keeps saying.. slow slow slow progress. :)

He is easier to catch these days, hardly even backs away from me in his stall, I have been exposing him to fly sprays and now water from the hose on his legs, also working on getting him to move around me in a lunging fashion via just hand movements and getting him to stop based on hand movements as well and when I shake the lead at him as he is standing, he will back away. Very good progress, he is a quick learner I think the biggest struggle is just getting him to relax with movements and touch still. I might try putting a baggy on a stick and just working that all around and over his body for a few days.

I did a string test from his knees to his coronet and it says he should reach 16.2!! I'm going to try it one more time with a different type of string, see if I get the same result. If so, then I am SUPER Excited because supposedly this is a fairly accurate indication of his full grown height.

I rode Red and ponied Edgar around the neighborhood the other day, Saturday I think it was. As I rode past one house, 3 dogs were pacing the fenceline and making Red quite nervous. I was intently watching as one dog in particular seemed very eager to get out and sure enough he climbed out in the corner of the yard. It was a husky and he immediately went to circling the horses, he definately was considering nipping at their legs, I was yelling at the dog and just stayed put in fear that if I started walking away, he might get more aggressive with the movement. He was coming up to their legs and touching them, I secretly wanted one of the boys to kick him, but the owner came out and it took him a few minutes to catch his dog as it circled away from him, weaving in and out of the horses. A lady down the street had come out and was even yelling at the dogs as she heard the commotion. I safely got out of the situation, hoping the owner has rectified his inadequate fencing. If it happens again, I wont be so nice next time and will have a conversation with him because the 3rd time, animal control or 911 will be called. I know I put myself at risk riding down the road on my horses, but I should not have to endure the added danger from his dogs getting out and acting so aggressively towards the horses.

Derek called down to Cooper's trainer yesterday for his first update.. our little Coopidy Coo (as we call him) has impressed Butch this past week with how quickly he is picking up on training and seeming to love it! He says Cooper is just like his daddy (which is awesome cuz his daddy Earl is a champion dog and Butch did his early training too!). We are so proud of Coopey (another nickname we gave him) and miss him and his obnoxious antics.. He's not obnoxious in training at all, Butch says that is normal for him to act differently at home vs out on the "job". We only wish that they had videos we could watch weekly of our boy and his progress.. We dont get to see him for a couple months still.

Lost Priveleges

Since Cooper went down to OR, we've (okay I've) been letting Russell and Ellie have rule of the roost of the house while we are away at work. Every day I come home and find something different. Actually when we went down to OR we left the dogs free to roam and came home to a shredded magazine and an empty chips bag.. both had been left on an end table.. Of course Ellie is the ONLY culprit here to blame.. I'm sure Russell shared in the eating of the chip crums, but he never gets into things left on the end tables.

So Monday morning, I put things up thinking all would be good. Came home Mon Tues and Wed to minor things moved.. My sandals were pulled off the chair and set in the middle of the living room, stuffed ducks had been moved to living room, a cowboy boot from our entry way moved to living room.. Nothing chewed up, just moved - almost to say "look at how good I was for NOT destroying these things that I could if I wanted!"

Well then I get home Thursday afternoon and am welcomed with a wiggly Ellie who is so proud of herself, smiling (if she could) and wagging herself all around, mouth as full as she can get it with bread! She musta had 2 or 3 pieces hanging out her mouth and she pranced and danced all around me, just so very proud of herself! Out in the living room is another chip bag and 1 slice of bread still inside the bread bag.. Now both of these were on the kitchen island when I left for work, the bread was UNOPENED and the chips were basically crumbs.. Russell is sitting in the chair hoping I dont see how BLOATED he is!! LOL

I am 100% certain that Russell ate about 80% of that bread!! he was SOO incredibly fat with a rock hard belly, he waddled as he walked.. :) I'm sure Ellie ate some and I KNOW she was the culprit once again because only she has the ability (or desire) to jump up on the stool and then onto the counter to pull these things off... So because of her, they have lost their house priveleges and are now treated once again as... dogs! Confined to the front entryway while we are away and not able to nap in luxury on the couches and chairs.

Dexter is doing really good. Progress is still quite slow, well it feels slow anyways. I am now able to clean out all 4 of his feet, can walk behind him feeling fairly confident he's not going to kick me, catching is getting easier and Derek can even go up to him now too. He wants to like us, he will follow us around but he's still pretty leary of a reached out arm, so instead of touching his neck prior to catching him, I now just hold the halter up to his face as I approach him and let him put himself into the halter.. it works pretty good, actually a lot easier to catch him that way. I was able to get my hand back to his naughty bits area, but he was too uneasy with it for me to feel if he has "dropped" and I'm not sure I even know what the heck I'm feeling for! Okay well it's pretty obvious I'm attempting to feel for his balls... but I've never really felt a horse up like that before so not sure if I'll realize what I am or am not feeling once I am able to even reach up there.

Not so Expensive

That's what I have learned this past week... If I hire someone to come in and clean, it will cost me about $75 per cleaning. Well I might just consider it once a month as I still havent found the happy balance yet. :)

Derek and I have been a bit unsatisfied with the name Tucker for the colt. It wasnt fully sinking in with us, so as we drove down to OR on Saturday, we contemplated all the way down and most of the way back on a new name. Sometimes these things just take a while.. As we ran through a list of characters from TV shows we like, then on to gun brands, off in another direction then back to TV characters, Derek just snapped out quickly, Dexter. YES! That is it.. The colts new name that we hope to register him as: "Blue Driftin Dexter" Whew, I feel so much better! Kinda suits him if you watch the show at all. Well all but the murderer part.. LOL

We were driving south on Saturday to take Cooper off to College, Parkdale Kennels in Rainier OR. He got sick before we even left Monroe, spent half of the rest of the trip panting and the other half laying quietly in his kennel. He did great! We waited about an hour for the trainer to finish up with some of the dogs in training and just watched. Cooper was curious, anxious, quiet and drooling at times! I got some GREAT pics of him.

He is such a BEAUTIFUL dog

Standing outside the office, the kennels are in the same building in the lower level.

He will be training in these fields

Waiting patiently

As they took him away from us and into the back room to the door to the lower kennel level, he sat his butt and refused to walk, scared mostly of what was behind that door! A lot of dogs were barking from the kennel area. He was drug through the door, we looked away and then looked back at the door to see him now facing us and clawing at whatever he thought he might be able to grab to get away from going down into that kennel area. Poor kid, he was just scared and we felt sad for him. But happy because he is going to have fun once he figures it all out and is put to work. His instincts will kick in and he soon will be itchin to get out to work. Exactly what he needs, a job! Things are a little quieter at home, okay a lot quieter but Russell and Ellie seem OK for now as they now play more with each other.

Sunday we had to go get Oakley from the lady that was going to lease him. Because he's outta shape and was barefoot in the hinds, he didnt pass his vet check for soundness, but I'm not worried. He will head up to Amber (a good friend of mine) on Saturday, she's going to lease him for the summer, get him in shape and love all over him. He looks good, he was happy to be out in some real dirt again to roll. After much debating on whether we should burn branches or go for a ride that afternoon, we didnt really come up with an answer and Derek headed into the house as I brushed and shaved up the horses. It was a very nice day outside. Derek finally came back outside and we got in a ride around the neighborhood.

Spent the evening at Eric's house for a BBQ for his birthday, nice relaxing way to finish the weekend. I always enjoy going to their house and seeing what is new and changed. They have a cute house with a great country feel interior (there's always some new decor items to google over), a cool country garden, and soon a cute little hen house! :)