Cooper

We were very excited to go down and see Cooper this past Saturday, it has been a long 3 months without him. The trainer had loaded up his trailer with 19 dogs that morning, although we didnt see Cooper go in, we were pretty sure he was in there as the trainer, Butch, knew we were his owners and there to watch him work and talk about his training to date.

We watched black lab after black lab after black lab (and so on) work for most of the morning. The dogs sit in their kennel on the trailer until it is time to work, come out and do their job, then go back in the kennel so Butch can work the next dog. Of 19 dogs, 17 were labs and 15 of those labs were black! The 2 non-lab dogs were Cooper and Molly..

Here is Molly, she is 1/2 sister to Cooper and owned by Elroy (who owns Earl, who is Coopers daddy). She is 2 and a very pretty little girl, very dainty like.
Finally after hours and hours of watching the other dogs work, Cooper was brought out. He hardly looked the same to me, his coat has changed A LOT! As you can see from this picture, it is a lot curlier than when we dropped him off (but I love it!).
It was 85 degrees that afternoon.. and we were excited to watch our dog work. After watching the other dogs retrieve their 2 or 3 birds and the dummy, we had high expectations for Cooper. Butch set him up for 3 retrieves I think it was, as he approached the first duck (in a really slow, lazy fashion) he hunkered over the duck, a little reluctant to pick it up. We realized he was pawing at the duck to roll it over so he could grab the softer belly side of the bird!
He looked very proud as he carried his first duck back to Butch!
I could look at pics of our Cooper all day long, he's just so beautiful holding that bird!!!
Cooper slowly trotted out to retrieve his second bird and managed to carry it back to Butch, no problem. He seemed to be a little lazy and uninspired to work that day.
Cooper's desire to work was going downhill, quickly! After he retrieved his first 2 ducks and was supposed to be on his way to retrieve the 3rd, Cooper decided he was done for the day and bolted back to the kennels which were a hundred or so yards away.. Butch snagged the 4 wheeler and chased after him, bringing him back to work. He set Cooper up to retrieve a dummy, inwhich Cooper reluctantly did so. After that retrieve, Butch was attemping to set him up for another dummy retrieve, Cooper here is getting a little lecture on behaving at this point. :)
After Coopers 2nd bolt back to the kennels, Butch took the 4 wheeler again to go get him and brought him back, placed him behind the blind where Cooper is supposed to "stay" and wait for instruction. Cooper thought it was funner to ignore Butch and sneak out behind his back! lol

Look at him hunched down, practically crawling out with both eyes up on Butch..
After attemping to once again get Cooper to go out and retrieve the dummy, Cooper bolted a 3rd time back to the kennels. Now imagine you are his owner.. imagine our horror as our dog is the ONLY dog to bolt like this, of 19 dogs! To realize you have no say in what is going on, to know your dog is pushing through his shock collar and just out-right not listening.

I was sad at this point, dissappointed that Cooper did not look happy. I started to question why we were putting him through this if he wasnt enjoying himself. After the 3rd escape attempt, Butch realized Cooper was HOT and when he was up at the kennels, he hosed him off, brought him back down and put him back in the trailer to sit for a while and cool down.
45 minutes later, he brought Cooper back out to work, as you have to end on a good note. Cooper retrieved 2 more dummies without any more problems or bolting episodes and he did look happy doing so!
We left that day unable to pet our dog or give him praise, just had to watch it all unfold. Cooper is very smart, we could see he knew where all his "marks" were at, which means he knew exactly where the ducks or dummies were at, he just didnt feel like working on Saturday. Blame it on the heat, not sure. Butch indicated that it was NOT a good representation of Cooper's abilities and that just a few days earlier he was doing triple retrieves with one being 100 yards away no problem.

We really want to get Cooper home at this point. We feel he has learned what he needs to learn from Butch and Butch has done a GREAT job with him. Our dog is healthy and as happy as a dog in training can be. But Cooper now needs the one on one time with Derek. He needs to remember his passion for retrieving simply because he loves Derek enough to do it. Cooper is probably a little bored and tired of retrieving for what Cooper would see as just this trainer guy who doesnt love him! When he retrieves for Derek, he will get TONS and TONS of praise and petting, something the trainer doesnt do. Cooper loves to retrieve for Derek and he just needs the time to remember that! Butch did tell us that this happens, the dogs will almost always work better for their owner because there is that special bond and love between man/dog that he just cant duplicate.

One other area we have work to do, is on the water! Cooper has not had a positive water experience is how the trainer phrases it. Cooper loved water at our house, but has yet to love water with Butch. But to be fair, Butch's expectations is for Cooper to run off a ledge and JUMP into the water. We need to take Cooper back to baby steps and get him to love just running and playing in shallow water, and work him up to swimming and then we can work on teaching him to jump in the water. We have a lot of work to do, but are looking forward to it.

I think I am most excited to just grab Cooper and hug him. I miss that little guy and I know he will be more than happy to get back to his old ways of doing whatever it takes to please us type attitude! 3 more days and he'll be home :)

How do YOU cool yourself off in the heat?

Well apparently THIS is how Edgar cools himself off when it gets to 85 Degrees...Dad caught these pictures of Edgar playing in the pond this past weekend. Silly horse!

Dexter has been so bored at home, he looks for anything he can to play with. Some days I play with him, we play a horse/human version of hide-n-seek and when he finds me I jump out at him, he bolts and prances away and comes back for more! When I'm not around, I watch him out in the barn having a fight with a tarp! There is a tarp over the feed room that used to hang above the feed room, but he tore it down so now it hangs on the wall. He bites that tarp and tugs on it, rears up at it, goes between the tarp and the wall, he will trot away from it and then turn around run to it and get pissy at it, biting it some more! His ball used to be in the barn, now its in the middle of the pasture.. he is quite the character these days.. and I love every minute of it. I feel a little bad he is so bored, but this really is still so great for our relationship that I'm not ready to let him have horse company quite yet.

We have decided to add a couple goats to the farm again! We've been contemplating for a little while and after seeing all the brush that has been starting to take back over what was cleared, decided it was time.. We went to a farm in Snohomish just around the corner from my parents, she raises Nigerian Dwarf goats.. she had a couple online that looked pretty cute, so we stopped by on Sunday.. They are a lot smaller than I anticipated and my initial reaction was that they are too small. They are less than half the size of the Kinder goats.. but Derek fell in love with them as I knew he would and we committed to not just 2 goats, nope not 3, but 4!! There is one that is really small, not growing as well and we didnt want to leave him behind... so the plan is that they will come home to us in a couple weeks when their naughty bits have fallen off and hopefully the little one will get a bit bigger and stronger. We have yet to name them, 3 of them are less than 2 months old and the other is a year old. I cant wait to get them home, they will be seperated from Dexter until they all are ready to share the pasture together.

The top left goat is the smallest one that needs to grow up a little more and is full brother to kitty corner goat from him. The one on top right is about same age as the other 2 and the biggest of those 3, and then the bottom left goat is the one that is a year old. Just for a little perspective, the little guys are only about 10 inches tall and the year old one is about 18 inches! :)

My Plan is Working...

I moved Edgar & Red to their summer vacation home (parents property!) for a couple reasons. 1) My sacrifice gravel areas REALLY needed the relief, w/o as much rain to wash the gravel out, the smell was gettin pretty bad 2) The boys I'm sure love having grass to eat and being out free to roam vs cooped up in a paddock with hay & 3) I thought it would be good for Dexter to be left home alone without them, so he could learn to count on me as his support.

In the beginning when I moved the horses away, Dexter would sometimes whinny when he heard me in the driveway or yard, and he always came trotting up to see if his buddies were back. As soon as he would realize it was just me, he would turn around and leave almost as quick as he came in! I was a little dissappointed that he still was not really connecting to me. After about 4 days, he just quit coming up and worrying about being alone. Then this past weekend we took out the temporary fencing inside the main pasture and moved Dexter out of the sacrifice area, so he only has pasture now and the center barn isle. Not sure what it was about all that, but he got all worked up, he was playing and running all over the pasture as we made these changes, he was feelin frisky! Ever since then, he comes up to me every time I go out, he's in my pocket and wants to know what's up.. :)

He actually will go out of his way to make sure he practically rubs up to me, expecting me to pet and scratch him (which I do!) Sometimes he'll walk past me just far enough that his butt is almost in my face and then will back up to me a little just to get a good scratchin.. He follows me around the barn, will follow me if I walk out in the pasture and yesterday as he was turned in the yard to eat grass, he and I were playing a game of chase!

I think he sometimes looks at me as his pasturemate and a couple times has tried to play bite me, but I am nipping that real quick and the second he thinks about biting, he gets smacked!!! But after he bolts away, he always comes right back and stands quietly and realizes his mistake.

He still needs more and more desensitizing but we've really come a very long ways. I need to get updated pics of him soon so I can get him registered and will post them on here as he lost all the silver color from his winter coat and has shed out to be a very dark roan.

Who the hell is in my pasture!

A couple weeks ago we had Jen/John over for a BBQ and as we relaxed in the living room, I was looking out into the pasture and noticed something "blue" was out there behind a pile of brush/sticks. I looked at it for a minute, trying to determine if I was just seeing things or what.. About this time the horses started snorting and running around, looking at this same thing.

As I am standing on the porch now, I see movement! The blue is now moving and I see what I think is a face of some sort.. I'm thinking "Who the F is in my pasture!!!" A few more seconds of starring at this moving object, I think I see an owl face.. I throw on the boots and walk out and the closer I get the quicker I realize it is a bundle of mylar balloons! LOLOL

I had wanted to get a picture, there were 3 or 4 mylars and then one regular balloon, the face was a big huge owl balloon, then a blue cake type one, a fire engine one... It was hilarious! The horses were all worked up as I carried the still floating but not enough air to lift themselves back into the sky, back up to the house. How random that some kids 1st birthday balloons from who knows where, end up in my pasture hiding behind some sticks making me believe for a brief second that someone is actually hiding in the pasture.. :)

Time to Catch Up!

Where to start, lots of little stuff to mention!

We have noticed Russell's eyes started to change again lately, going from cloudy to now they are a dark color with red marbled in them and about the time this all started to happen, he started bonking into things :( Poor kid.. he doesnt seem to be blind 100% of the time, he has phases of blindness right now I think, almost like it comes and goes. He definately has issues even on his good days but I wouldnt call him blind yet. Andrea said we would need to take him to a specific eye specialist vet to diagnose what is really going on. He doesnt seem to be in pain but she did think his eyes were very unusual. Probably not what you want a vet to say when they cant help you to fix it.. We are running blood work on him, just to see if that gives us any answers

Ellie & her friend Patch playing.. not sure what happened to Ellie's legs!! I took my friend Rachel riding about 10 days ago, I always like when she goes because I get to ride Edgar! She LOVES Red, so I'm happy to let her ride my horse so I can work with Edgar a little. My friend Tricia drove down from Bellingham with her new mare, we had a great ride, not counting the part where Edgar went lame on me halfway through the ride! :( It was a very slight limp, he wasn't going up any big hills, nothing major it just happened. I was pretty dissappointed, over the next couple days he limped real bad. The shoers came out a few days later and indicated it possibly could be in the hoof and gave me the # for a vet who does x-rays fairly cheap. Well cheap would consist of $250 apparently (after calling the vet to get prices). That price includes the farm call and full set of xrays on his hoof, but now he is back to sound, so will wait for him to go lame again and have the vet out possibly to rule out any navicular type issues that the shoers think could be the culprit for his on/off again lameness problems.

Tricia's new mare is pretty nice, big stout horse who has decided the horse trailer is no longer her friend. It took the 3 of us over 2 hours to get the horse in the trailer after our ride.. I felt bad for Tricia, she lost her best friend horse earlier this year to a broken leg, his femur! Found him in the pasture that way. She told me on our ride how/why he broke his leg, which I had not been previously told. Her horse was very similar to Edgar, draft cross, big bodied, solid good 'ole boy. Well the shoer had filed down his size 3 hoof into a size 1 shoe! The pressure over the months finally caused his leg to just break. I was stunned really at the ignorance of someone you put your trust and faith into that they know what they are doing! So she has struggled with finding a new horse and now has a good horse with a bad loading problem, one of the most frustrating issues one can have! If she lived closer I would be helping her out, but Bellingham is just too far away to be there for her.

I moved the horses to my parents pastures for a while, giving some relief to my paddocks and letting the boys be horses and just free to graze as they want! I left Dexter at home though, he sure misses his friends! He is eager to come see me, but when he realizes it's just me in the barn, he's almost just as eager to leave me... I'm hoping over a few weeks, maybe he'll learn to count on me and trust that I am his best friend since he will have no other distractions. I was SOOO happy, when the shoers were out, John was able to pick up and trim each hoof with NO fight, NO pinning him against the trailer, I didnt have to have him tied up, he just did really great.. that is some good progress!! He's still pretty jumpy, but we are workin on that as much as I can anyways.

We got a dissappointing progress report with Cooper a week ago. Apparently Cooper is NOT loving the water and was refusing to go in. :( and was missing some of his marks lately with retrieving. We are HOPING he is just hitting a wall in his training and will push through it. Derek is hopefully going to get an update this week as the trainer was going to spend a week straight just on water. He LOVED water at our house, well I'm not sure if you can count the bathtub water as pond water, apparently Cooper thinks there is a difference. It is frustrating to get a bad report card, we want Cooper to excel at his training, we want to get A++++++ reports because we have the BEST dog EVER! We are not too worried, we can expose him to more water when we get him home, take him swimming with my brothers dogs who LOVE to run in the water, maybe if he sees that he will change his mind and realize it is fun and not just work work work. He might be craving the personal attention of just being a dog right now too that we are not sure he gets being in training.

This past weekend our horse club was part of a big fundraiser ride at Harry O out of Sedro Woolley, the NW Regional Prize/Challenge Ride. This year the theme was the 60's. I actually was not real excited about the theme, heck I wasnt even alive in the 60's, but a few of us got together at our place and made some tie-dyed shirts.
I bought a couple tie-dye kits and we spent a Saturday afternoon creating some really awesome shirts! When we started doing the dying, I started to get into it a little more.. We had a lot of fun actually, I was glad to have the other ladies there as we all laughed and explored our dying options! Everyone left their shirts with me since there is this process of sitting for up to 24 hours after dying before being able to see the results. I had a GREAT time opening all those shirts and seeing just how cool they turned out, I was really amazed. But then I opened my shirt.. I hated it! See I thought I would be cool and try my own method and not follow the suggested methods and I got an ugly spotted mostly white shirt! Well there was still dye left over, so I just redid my shirt with a swirl pattern and added a LOT of color, then realized maybe I added too much.. maybe I was going to get a big blah shirt all of one deep ugly blurred together color. I was upset and went to bed worried about it, so at about 3 am I woke up and although it was only about 6 hours since I had colored the shirt, I opened it up anyways and WhaLa! I loved my 2nd try!! :) I then went back to bed and slept in peace..

Here are all the shirts we made that day
I got into the theme as much as I could, made some hippy pants, flowers in my hair.. we had a great time at our station on the trail, the weather was perfect and the turnout was good.. some money was made!

Derek & I at our station.. I think we look pretty cute!

Barbara Sue & I at our station, watiting for the first riders to show up

This is Rob (who helped at our station) riding his horse through one of the obstacles at our station.. Not many horses would go through this!!
Our 4th of July was fairly uneventful really, decided to stay home to ensure all our children were safe and happy, I think we made it to 10pm watching movies, not fireworks. Earlier in the day we did go over to Adam's place for some pistol shooting and a BBQ. Derek has been wanting me to shoot his 9mm handgun for a while, but I've been pretty apprehensive about it. The last time I shot a handgun was probably close to 15 years ago and I didnt like it at all.. had a lot of kick, I felt like it was unsafe and unpredictable. Derek assured me it was a crappy gun I shot before (it belonged to a friend) and his would be a better experience. Put a shot gun in my hands and I am pretty comfortable, the smaller it is the more I am afraid of it. So I was dreading it a little (okay maybe a lot), but he stood with me and instructed me on how to load, unload, prepare to fire, turn safety off and shoot! Derek kept telling me to breathe, I was a little uptight and tense.. but I didnt mind it so bad and more importantly, I was within inches of the bullseye!! After firing off a few rounds, I sat back down and watch the others for a while, then asked if I could shoot some more.. then they started shooting a tin can and well I just couldnt resist and asked to shoot more again! I actually enjoyed it.. It is a pretty big gun, but the kick was not bad, I felt fairly safe and secure with what I was doing. We will have to get back up to shoot again soon so I can test my knowledge on handling it properly without instruction this next time. I cant imagine shooting it w/o ear protection though, hopefully I'll never have to wonder what that feels/sounds like!

Odd Story

A few weeks ago a girl asked to be my FB (Facebook) friend.. Her first name was Faye and it seemed familiar, but in all honesty, I had no idea who she was. After confirming her friendship, I saw she was from Snohomish, a year older than me but her current pictures did not really ring any bells. I didnt think much of it til 2 days ago!

I am on FB and I get an instant Message from Faye, she says to me:
"Hi Piper, I just want to tell you that you were one of those friends that were never forgotten. I feel fortunate to have had the child hood experiences I was able to have thanks to you and your family. I just want you to know how much those memories mean to me. Thank You!!!!!"

Now I'm thinkin "OH SHIT" WhoTF is this girl! All I know is the name Faye rings a very tiny bell, but thats the extent of my rememberance of her.. So I apologize to her and tell her my gradeschool memories are quite faded, asked if we were in girl scouts together? I did meet some girls way back then and couldnt tell you now who they were. I told her my memory from that far back has escaped me. She then says:

"It is ok but I must say I am suprised and a litte hurt but I will get over it!! I stayed with you a lot when we were young kids and you taught me to ride but it is ok. I got to run errands and all!! Ya know how it is I am sure!!"

So now I'm feelin like a jackass.. I really hadnt intended on hurting her feelings, I just honestly dont remember her. She's musta been talkin gradeschool years and if we had remained friends through Jr High or HS I would definately have remembered her more clearly. So I called my mom, I was actually a bit upset that I made such an impact, but she didnt ring any bells with mom. I talked to dad later that day and he couldnt remember her either, says his memory is usually pretty good but she didnt ring any bells for him. We are talking almost 30 years ago! Damn I'm gettin old.

Well I decided to send her a private message and typed out a sincere apology to her, asking her to please refresh my memory, that it was not personal, I just am not good at remembering friends in my gradeschool years. Well she done UN-FRIENDED me and not only did she un-friend me, she BLOCKED ME!! If I type in her name, I cant find her on FB, yet I had Shana try and she found her just fine.. apparently I really pissed her off and/or offended her quite badly and it frustrates me that I have no way to email her and apologize, she just didnt give me a chance as she blocked me within 10 minutes of her last message to me through instant messaging. GRRR

So tonight as I was getting ready to type out this post, I pulled my Jr High yearbooks and found her (we didnt have gradeschool books back then!).. When I was in 7th grade, she was in my class, Faye Ellis. Now that I hear her first and last name, it definately rings them bells of mine, but I still have ZERO memories of her other than her name. I just feel so badly. The following year, looks like she was held back as I progressed to 8th and her picture was again posted in 7th. I'm guessing we must have been friends in gradeschool, doesnt seem like we would have been Jr High frineds since I dont remember her... But who the hell knows at this point, all I know is she didnt sign my 7th grade book. I'm fairly positive she does not read my blog, but incase so.. Faye, I am very sorry! I dont know what else to say, I am happy we were able to provide great memories for you, I wish I could remember them as well. I have lost a lot of my younger childhood memories as the years go on... Piper

Nothing New

Life seems busy, but I'm not sure much is getting accomplished. Well I know not much is getting done lately around our farm. Everything is green and beautiful, if you can call a driveway full of weeds beautiful! I'm trying to get a handle on it all, but sometimes feel like I'm getting swallowed up. The goal for this year was to get organized, I think we need to start with organizing our thoughts so we can eventually get to organizing the garage, shop and shed.

Taking pictures of the horses has been about the extent of their interaction with us since Memorial Weekend. I did get out for a ride a week ago with a friend around the neighborhood... sad. Derek's been workin OT again, he had a couple week break from it all but things have picked up again. I try to do what I can around the place, I did manage to get the house deep cleaned a couple weeks ago, the bedroom has been un-cluttered for 2 or 3 weeks now.. This may be a first! A bedroom I'm not ashamed to be shown on a whim, cant say the same about the kitchen all the time, which is funny cuz the kitchen is the first thing you see when you walk in the door! lol

I've not "worked" Dexter a lot lately, he's been limping on a front leg, I'm honestly not sure if its his shoulder or his hoof.. He limps at random, it just comes and goes.. one second he's walkin fine and then he limps real bad, then back to fine again.. Not really too concerned about taking him to the vet. I'm still cleaning his no-naughty-bit region almost daily, it seems to be draining well and doing good, swelling is now almost non-existant. Yesterday as I was washing it with a rag, I think he actually enjoyed it! He stretched his neck out and quivered his nose... I still cant approach him in the pasture, thats one of my next goals but that is still all about trust from him. He has come a very long ways, just needs LOTS of desensitizing! LOTS!!

Yesterday Derek & I celebrated our 15yr wedding anniversary, 20 years together!! I cant believe its been that long.. holey moley. :) We didnt make a big deal of it, just went to dinner. He had to be up at 3am this morning for more OT at work, so last night was dinner then bed for him.. alone bedtime while I wound down watchin some TV. I sat there thinking about it being our anniversary and how we literally spent maybe 1.25 hours together the entire day... But I'm okay with it, thats what being in a relationship is about, its not about me or him, just about us still being strong enough to accept the reality of life and continuing to love and live!

Cooper is doing great! We havent had an update in a couple weeks, but last we heard, there were no problems or issues. A friend from the Hunt Club we belong to, she is going down to Parkdale this weekend (where Coopey is at) and she promised to take some pics of him, so we are very excited to see him!! When thinking about him being gone, I would say "sure I miss him", I'm in a groove with the morning routine at home and how hassle free it is not having him being his rambunctious self, but then I watched a segment on Dogs 101 from the Animal Planet channel, it was about Boykins.. As I sat there alone at home on a Saturday watching, I started to cry! WTH.. I then realized just how much I missed our dog!! :( I was overcome with loneliness of not being able to hug him and see his face and pet him, I just cant wait to get him home. I really didnt expect to feel so sad about him being gone, but I guess I'm a bit more attached to the little bugger than I realized.

Who knew...

Who knew that the trauma of naughty-bits-b-gone was gonna bring Dexter and I closer! I certainly didnt. Over the past 6 days, he really has jumped leaps and bounds with accepting me and standing still when I approach him for haltering, he even walks towards me when I open his stall door.. I am just amazed by this kid!

Yesterday afternoon he was not feeling well though, very lethargic, his body was really warm to the touch, and he hadnt finished his breakfast. He let me take his temperature (something he wouldnt let the vet do prior to his surgery), it was 104! I phoned Dr Hannah to find out the dosage to put him on antibiotics; this AM his temp was back down to normal and his appetite was normal as well.

I figured this procedure would have been a set back, but maybe because he hasnt felt 100%, he just doesnt care as much to fight me. I can scrub his nether-region daily, although he doesnt like it, he doesnt try to kick me either. I can hose it, sitting right next to him in a chair and he'll stand there perfectly still.. Thats after only 2 times ever being approached with a hose! I have turned him loose in the yard to eat grass and can approach him to catch him. We've gone for walks down the road and although the cars make him nervous, he respects me and listens and when we dont go for walks, I lunge him in circles and he's picked up "WHOA" already and learning to walk and trot just from the click of my mouth and will change directions with just the pointing of a finger and learning to stop with non-verbal signals as well. He's not perfect yet, but he is awesome!

Naughty-Bits B-Gone

A few weeks ago I heard about a castration clinic that was going to be held about 15 minutes from my house on 6/4/11, for a cost of $50.. I had already had Dexter scheduled for this procedure with my regular vet in July, but figured why not send in an application and try to get him in to this clinic instead.. save myself about $250! Well a couple weeks went by and I was sure I didnt get in as it was 5 days before the clinic and I had not heard back yet.

But what do ya know.. 4 days before the clinic I get the email that I was accepted! It sounded like they had a lot of applications come through and I'm not 100% sure what their criteria was, but apparently we qualified! Derek & I hauled him in Saturday morning to the clinic arena, he was NOT happy about the pre-shots he was given and he had to be given extra sedatives because he was fiestier than she had hoped. Once he got the last "knock-out" drugs in him though, he went down immediately and we were able to watch the entire surgery.. It was interesting and Derek even watched the whole thing. His bits were unimpressive (little) and one side was "sucked up" a little ways, so she had to work a little harder to ensure she got it all; 15 minutes later, he was done.

I was told to bute him if need be and clean it every 1-2 days, as well as two 20 minutes workouts every day to help with swelling and keeping it open to drain and healing properly from the inside out. Poor guy, he was hurtin pretty bad Saturday night, really didnt want to move much. Sunday he was doing much better, he got some excersize, showed a little stiffness in his hind end. I was able to actually hose his back legs on Sunday, something I had never done before, but they needed to be cleaned up. He danced around me some, but took to it very quickly with little fight; I was really happy with him. I am not supposed to hose his naughty bit region though but his legs did get cleaned.

Monday we took him down the road for the first time, for his 20 minute walk and he was great. Derek led Edgar incase Dexter needed the moral support of how he should behave! He did fairly well, I would stop him and make him face the cars as they passed by and he had minimal spooking. What really spooked him the most was the kid on the bicycle who rode quietly by! :) I also worked him on not walking past me so as to avoid him trying to run me over or push through me if he spooked.. I would walk 10 or more steps, then stop and expected him to stop with me. He again, picked that up so quickly!

There was an older guy at the clinic with a 2yr old colt that was to be gelded after Dexter. The guy was talking with me, trying to give me advice on how to deal with Dexter when I got home etc.. I didnt ask for the advice, but I wasnt going to be rude, I tried to tell him I had been through this a few times in the past but he still was insistent on letting me know that when I got home and over the next few days, Dexter would be unwilling to want to move for his twice daily excersize sessions.. He told me what he has done and I should do, is tie Dexter to the bumper of my truck and drive! That will get him moving!!! And this guy was 100% serious.. I just nodded and smiled, internally thinking WTF! Old School Old Man! Just an FYI, Dexter actually is more than willing to excersize, this morning I couldnt keep him at a walk, he was trotting and loping circles around me.. :)

When I got home last night from our walk around the neighborhood, I knew I needed to attempt to clean him up and scrub the surgery area. Tied him in his stall, put the wet rag up to his belly and just ran my hand back to his non-naughty bit region and he took it like a man! Never once did he attempt to kick, he actually spread his legs open when I was scrubbing behind his tail where he had dried blood. I was able to get both sides, cleaned the "wound" area really well and put a fly repellant ointment on it. I was smiling ear to ear, just so very proud of him!! 3 days ago you couldnt touch that region without him kicking out (even under sedation) and now I am able to clean an open wound. Wow! Progress!!

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! :)

Progress

That which has been a 6yr thorn in our side, has now been completed.. well 95% anyways! Privacy fence finished. Pasture fence finished. We still need to finalize it all by cutting off the 4x4 post tops, but otherwise it is secure and un-passable by horses or dogs!! Not sure if we will still get the deer in our pasture, I'm hoping the apples still draw them in and they are able to jump over. Once we get all the fallen trees out of the pastures and branches burned, we can move forward with daily turnout.. I'm sure the horses will love it!

Progress with Tucker has been slow, but steady. I cross tie him in the barn which allows me a lot more freedom to move in/out from him. Someone taught him to tie, he handles that part just fine. I can now pick up his front feet although he doesnt let me hold them long, and I can somewhat pick up his back legs. He's still very jumpy and unsure about being touched at random. I intend on building a temporary round pen to work him in, it is desperately needed to move forward I think. I'm planning to utilize the Monty Roberts method on him, hoping it gets him to want to join up with me and think of me as his alpha instead of being so shy of my interaction.

Our horse club had a Dutch Oven Day again this past weekend, BEAUTIFUL weather we had for it!! We all should have been out riding instead of cooking.. oh well, I suppose just maybe we will get another 60+ day in our future and maybe we'll get lucky and it will fall on a weekend, although the snow level is supposed to drop to about 500' again tonight.

I struggle with trying to find the balance of my evenings with working Tucker, needing to ride Red and get him in shape (soon!), cooking dinner, cleaning, laundry and spending some down-time with Derek watching some shows and off to bed by 9:30.. There just isnt enough time to do it all. I am failing with Red, cooking, cleaning, laundry and sometimes getting to bed by 9:30! LOL Ideally I would love to hire a housecleaner to come in every other week and take care of all the chores I just dont have or make the time to do, how expensive can it be???

Nothing Stays the Same Part II

Yep, things are changing again, just 24 hours later! :)

So Oakley did not pass his vet check.. He appeared stiff in his hind end, vet indicated could be suspensory issues with his back legs. Janet did a lot of thinking and decided she wants to ride now and not have to rehab a horse so she is sending him back. I dont blame her, she doesnt need to spend her entire summer with an out-of-shape horse that should be brought back up slowly. So I will pick him up within the week.

I did call the vet this AM to get my own clarity on his opinion. He indicated that the suspensory issue was just something he threw out there as a possibility but not something he focused on and that the puncture might be causing some lameness, his feet are not shod in the back, that could be the problem, his angles are off on his feet, he doesnt have the muscle mass in his hind end from not being in shape.. ALL of these things could be contributing to why he was lame in his back end and vet said if he is just "legged up" (basically just in shape) that he might very well pass sound in a few months just fine! THAT is what I believe is the issue, so I am MORE than happy to pick him up and move on.

I really like Janet and hope to remain friends with her, but I know Oakley is sound, his videos from 8 months ago clearly show him sound.. the problem: He sat for about 6 months with little work.

So I got on the phone this AM and have some options, one of which is my friend Amber is considering leasing him for the summer. She would keep him at her place and ride him, love on him and her inlaws would ride him as well. They live in the backyard of some GREAT trails up there at Heart Lake, it would be perfect to send him up there. I trust Amber very much.

We have options though which is great.. One of which is to just keep him and let others ride/lease him until we are ready for him to be a regular fixture at our place. He is a great horse and its tough to want to sell one that you dont always have an easy time finding or affording down the road.. Janet has found a horse to ride for the summer, she expressed interest in re-considering Oakley after he is established as sound, but would we sell or lease?? Who knows what the end of summer will bring for Oakley!

Nothing stays the same

A girl that was interested in Oakley a while back who has since purchased a different horse, forwarded someone to me that has been looking for a horse for a while. I was pretty reluctant to show him to anyone just yet, he is at his worst and looks like shit; underweight, nicks all over him and a puncture wound on his back leg. This lady was eager to see him, she loved his videos online and was heading to a clinic in OR in a week and thought maybe she could take him to try him out at this clinic. So against all inside of me that was embarassed to show him to anyone, we met her at a public arena in Redmond.

Her name is Janet, she is an exceptional owner and rider.. She has won lots of money and awards including the 2009 Oregon Foundation Quarter Horse Ranch Versatility. She's looking for a solid horse to use out on the trails and to do the trail challenge courses with, maybe work some cows etc. Exactly the type of home I would have hoped to find for Oakley. She was able to look past his weight and nicks and wanted to give him a try, although she is not hauling him to OR this weekend, he's just too out of shape for that much work.

I had a momentary lapse and self destructed in devaluing my own horse when we had to set a price on him. I think I felt so guilty for how bad he looks now that I allowed myself to get talked out of a bit of money for him. For now Janet is doing a 6 week lease and will determine at the end if she wants to A)buy him for $5,000 B) lease him on a long-term basis or C) send him home. I'm okay though with the offer she made because she is such a terrific home that I am staying positive. I met a new friend, I hope to ride with her and Oakley in the future and watch them progress and see just how far she can take him with what she does! Plus.. I know I could get him up to weight no problems, but do I really have the time to get him in shape when I cant even get my ass on my own horse these days. lol

And I have the colt to work with now too. :) He's coming along great. Very SLOW progress, but he is learning to respect me. I was able to approach him and catch him from his right side the other day, that is a HUGE deal because he has been very leary of even wanting me on that side when he has a halter on. So that is progress... I have been able to touch his back legs with the whip (used as an extension of my arm) and he has not kicked. I have brushed him almost all over, started picking up his front legs. I dont trust him and I dont think he trusts me just yet. I also hung a bunch of hay strings on his stall door, yes it looks pretty silly and odd, but I want him okay with random things touching him.

We settled on a name, his new name is Tucker! Derek won the battle in picking the name, of course. :)

Derek's 38th bday was this past Saturday, clearly we didnt end up out of town on our camping trip to Easton, had to cancel it with all the work Derek has been doing lately and with the added horse stress.. just wasnt feasible to get away. Instead we had dinner with Jen/John & Sean/Sophy on Fri night.. We all went back to Jen/Johns place and had some really great conversations mixed in with a few shots, finally left at 3am! It was just really nice to have some bonding time with them all. Spent Saturday night out to dinner with my parents, Eric/Andrea and Crystal/Aaron. A laid back kind of day, worked on our fencing too.. paying my dads x-workers to finish it off with the wire, it will be nice to have that project thorn in our side completed.

Things are looking up for us a little, the hard work of fighting the bank paid off and we are signing new loan documents tonight and I'm sooooo ready to start fresh. Now if we can find a way to add some hours to the day so we can finish some other projects, that would be ideal. Cleanup has slowly started at the Fecht household.. once the fencing is done, we can clean up all the excess wood, get some dump runs out, and clear up the shit outta our shop, shed, driveway, pasture, garage, yard and anywhere else it may be stored... lol

Back/Forth

I go back and forth in my mind about the decision to bring home this colt. Maybe I am over-stressed with Oakley, the colt and our mortgage issues, my brain is full! Its not like the colt costs a lot to have him around, but it is added cost and one more project in our never-ending sea of a busy life. I do have options with him, its not like I have to keep him, I can always work him and sell him next year as a 2yr old.

He is turning out to be quite the project, that I will say! He's a lot "wilder" than I initially realized and basically I have to treat him as a wild horse. He does NOT like to be touched much. He kicked at me twice yesterday when I was close enough to pet his butt.. I actually thought he was enjoying it, I was brushing his butt and he moved his rear closer to me.. Red does the same thing because he wants me to keep scratching it! But not the colt apparently, as he kicked at me.. I quickly realized I needed to start out much much slower.

I previously had thought I would wait to re-halter him until he was 100% approachable, but determined after yesterdays kicking episodes it was much safer for me to have a halter/lead on him when handling him. That way I can control his head at all times and his rearend, so if he swings towards me with his butt, I can get ahold of his face and manually pull him around which means his butt has to go the opposite direction of me.

I spend 15-20 minutes every morning haltering and working with him as well as handling him every afternoon. This AM when I attempted to run my hand down his chest to his front legs, he tried to bite me. I immediately reacted as the "alpha" and let him know that was NOT okay by "biting" back with a pop from the leadrope and "charging" after him to get him to back away from me. He might be half wild and scared by his new experiences, but I am still the boss and I'm not going to "baby" him. The plan is to teach him to respect me and my space in a manner that he understands and that will yield me a respectful horse down the road.

He shows signs of wanting to follow me around, he is just so uneasy with any touch right now, it is going to be a long and slow process! I'm certain that he is biting and kicking out of fear, and not because he is an asshole.

Maybe part of my anxiety about him is my own fear of the "what if". What if I cant get him to accept and trust me, he is the biggest ground work challenge I've had to deal with and a small part is afraid I will fail, so my brain says "you cant fail if you dont try". Bad brain bad brain, that is the wrong way to think so I am attempting to supress those thoughts and move on! because What if I succeed.. What if he turns into a 16H+ easy going, well built, well bred, good looking horse! :)

Started the day with 2, ended with 4!

Well I havent had much exciting to write about lately until today! :) I did another work party yesterday, this one w/o the horses.. we cleared a trail that had been logged over 2 years ago up at Victoria Tract PTF. I was really impressed with how many non-horse riders were there to help, we accomplished the trail clearing goal much quicker than anticipated.

Derek has been working a lot of OT, today is Sunday and he worked yesterday and today. :( I feel bad that he doesnt get much of a break, although the money is really good, I just hope he can hang in there until the company slows back down. We hope to get some projects finished with the extra cash, like our fencing!!! That is probably #1 on the list right now especially with our new circumstances.... He finished the cabinet, it turned out great and the guys at work were all impressed (and I'm guessing a little jealous too).

The dogs have all been great, we've been babysitting my parents dog Sarge all week as they had to drive back to ND, my dad's brother Wayne passed away. So the household has been a bit crazy, Sarge loves to run and he and Cooper wrestle around a lot. My dogs are super jealous of Sarge's feeding though, they go nuts to lick his bowl when he is finished!

I know I know.. everyone is bitching about the rain! But it is getting ridiculous. I dont normally complain much, but it is almost a bit depressing this year for some reason and if you live here, you know what I mean! We had to cancel our trip to Easton next weekend, we were going to take the horses and Russell to go camping for Derek's bday but he has to work and it was a bad time for him to take a day or two off work with his boss out all week. I think they appreciate he was willing to compromise. So now we have no plans yet for his bday, I'm not even sure if he is working or not on the day.

I got a text from Shannon on Friday asking if I could pick up Oakley on Saturday. When we got to her place, she was on the verge of tears.. she felt really bad for not having him sold and asking us to take back our horse. I told her no worries! The possibility of her taking him back in another month is still there, but i'm not counting on it. We kinda have room for him, we created a seperate corral behind the barn for him, but we also still have pasture options at my parents or at Roger/Diana's place if need be.

We have been talking about our options with Oakley and what to do.. We dont need a third horse, but he is a great horse. We called Tracy and asked if she might be interested in riding him because her mare is having hoof issues that will take a few months to recover from and she is out of a trail horse and we hardly have time to ride the 2 we got! She was very interested, so that is great.. it would get him out on the trails and keep him in shape! Whenever we get a free day soon, she's going to give him a try and go from there. I may still put him up for sale, just all depends on how things play out.

As we were driving out to Shannon's, we passed a blue roan horse that is about a mile from her place.. I mentioned to Derek that I LOVE blue roans and Derek joked, said his favorite is a red roan because well.. thats what his horse is! :) We get to Shannons place and are chit-chatting with her about who knows what and she says to me "Hey I gotta show you whats in my arena". As we walk over I see a 10mo colt, she got him on a trade deal and doesnt want him. Guess what color he is?? Blue Roan!! Sometimes the world works in mysterious ways.. so she proceeded to attempt to "sell me on him", talking about his great legs, responsiveness, movement, breeding lines, potential future height and good price. I was ho-hemming about it, what the hell do I need another horse for? As she was leading him around the arena, Derek and I quietly chatted and decided that we would take that colt by golly! I'm not sure if it was her persistance that she really wanted me to have him or my desire for a project or the potential that this guy might just be 16H when he's finished growing or what.. but we loaded that colt up and took him home!

He is basically a range baby, born w/o personal human interaction and is very scared and nervous by human touch. Shannon had a halter/lead on him 24/7 and he picked up how to lead with the minimal work she put into him, he is pretty responsive. As Derek led him to the horse trailer, Derek stopped at the back of the trailer to let the colt sniff it out, and that colt walked past Derek and jumped right in the trailer on his own.. Just the way we like our horses to load! He hauled home quietly as well. We got home and said "Where the hell are we going to put him?"

Since he is still pretty nervous around people and is NOT easily catchable, he needed a super safe area where he could not jump over, under or through any fences while trying to get away from human interaction. So we put him in Red's stall and closed it off completely. We left Red in the corral section with no stall access. We left Edgar in his normal corral and put Oakley in the new corral. It was dusk as we settled them all in, I took the colts halter/lead off of him and left him loose in the stall.

I was anxious last night as I played on the computer, wanting to go out and visit my new project.. So at about 11pm I headed out to the barn! :) Well things were not as hunky-dorry as they were when I left them earlier. When I went out to the barn, the colt was circling around in his stall, he seemed very nervous and anxious as well. As I walked over to the stall door, from the outside corral I see Red CHARGE that stall, MOUTH WIDE OPEN, TEETH OUT and he slammed against the stall, teeth literally racking across the metal bars! Oh shit, the colt was freaking out! I was calm, but internally a little freaked out by the anger and furry of Red, he kept wanting to charge that stall.. So in the late hours, I'm out there yelling at Red, trying to calm the colt with nothng more than my voice and wondering how I'm going to switch things up to alleviate the stress of it all.

I moved Oakley into Edgars stall/corral, moved Edgar over into Red's corral since I knew he would NOT charge the colt and then put Red in the corral behind the barn. Red had no way to basically see/charge the colt from that area. Things started to settle down, I was just about to get the colt to let me touch him, when Edgar accidentally touched the hot wire and bolted, stirring up everyone all over again. They finally settled again, I brushed Oakley for a while and then was able to get the colt to let me touch his left side only. This morning all seemed pretty good with the horses. I decided to give the colt the corral section as well as the stall, so I had to move Oakley and Edgar in together. Edgar is a little grumpy at Oakley, but they used to share a stall just fine together at feeding time, so I know it will be okay.

Red got PISSED again, because now that I moved Edgar, he couldnt see him and he spent his morning running around, rearing up and being a butthead instead of eating his breakfast. I was able to get the colt to allow me to touch him again on his left side, used a brush on his neck, he's good with touching his face (not his ears) and his neck, but once I move beyond his neck to his back, he gets nervous and moves away. I am doing this all very slowly. For now as I initially approach him, I have to do it facing away from him and backing up to him. I think he feels less threatened this way, it is non-confrontational. The colts name was Stone, but Derek does not like it, so we are in the process of trying to come up with a new name. It will be interesting to see just how much he lightens up when he sheds out. :) I LOVE projects like this so I am excited to have a colt to do some groundwork with. I was frustrated with Red last night, but I knew this about him, that he can be intolerable of new horses.. I was so glad there were metal bars between him and the colt! Yesterday morning I had 2 horses and now I have 4!