frustration continues...

I dont have a picture of horse # 3 that Rachel & I went to look at for Derek, the ad was pulled offline before I could copy it..

So this horse was about 9-10yrs old, a paint gelding, about the size of Oakley.  The reason for selling the horse, raised a little flag for me but I trusted and we hauled Edgar down south to Orting, to go try out this horse and take him out on a trail ride.  The guy said he bought the horse 5 months ago for friends to ride, to have an extra horse, but then realized his friends were not really too interested and decided to sell.  Sounds a tiny bit fishy, but I trusted.

So we get to his home, watch him do a lot of ground work, I did some ground work, very responsive, very nice manners, laid back easy going horse... and cute!  :)   So he then got on and did a lot of trotting and some loping around.. didnt seem like the horse was willing to walk much, but it also seemed like the guy didnt want the horse to walk and kept him moving.  He then stopped him and said "if the horse is going to buck, this is when they will do it" and then from the stand still, he basically stuck his legs out as far as he could, leaned forward and kicked as hard as he could, pushing the horse into a lope.. Well sure as shit that horse bolted forward a few strides at the lope then proceeded to buck the guy off!!  Well I didnt blame the horse too much, wasnt impressed that he bucked, but the guy about scared the shit out of that horse.  He didnt just come off either, he did a complete summersault in the air, landed flat on his back!  But he got back on and asked the horse to lope off a number of times and there was no other buck, and the horse didnt appear to want to buck either. 

I was not 100% sold on this horse, and that was before the bucking even happened.. I felt he was not as quiet and laid back as we would want, but its hard to know in a round-pen environment and Rachel wanted to get out for the trailride still, so we loaded him up and headed out to Mud Mountain Dam in Enumclaw to ride.  He was pretty good!  Had some issues with being left behind when we tried that scenario with him, but nothing too major.  He was definately a leader, he wanted to move out and be in front, was willing to cross anything and go anywhere directed.  At this point again, i'm still feeling like he's not quite what we want.  Although a very good trail horse, he just didnt do it for me.  Well the seller likes to run/lope on the trails, so he kept encouraging Rachel to get Chico(horse) into a lope and they did so a few times.

We get out to an opening, they decide to lope again and out of the blue, Chico lets out a big 'ole buck and off comes Rachel, landing on her back with a VERY badly rope-burned left hand!  She is laughing, so I am laughing..  Chico runs off and catches up to Ryan (owner) and she gets back on.  Persistant my damn friend is, so shortly after that, she and Ryan take off loping again, this time up a big gravel hill.  In my head I'm thinking.. this chick is nuts!  After that round of loping, they decide to lope again, going uphill on that same gravel road and this time Chico decided to let loose once again, this time I knew Rachel hit the ground much harder.  The burns she had just incured 15 minutes earlier, well they now were torn open!

She got back on and we told the guy, you need to lope lope lope this horse and then re-list him in a month or so when he is over that crap and list him for more than he was previously asking.  Chico is a GREAT trail horse, if he can get over bucking. 

Today I went online and randomly decided to google search the guys phone #.  I wanted to see if I could find his full name so I could see if he was on FB so I could see if he had a FB picture of this horse, so I could post it on my blog..  Whew.. that's a lot of  "so I could..."   Well in searching for his name, what I really discovered is 3 other ads for horses for sale by this guy...  The ads were expired, so the links did not take me anywhere that provided a date, but regardless I now realized this guy was a liar!  I had been defending him online and to friends and I was immediately PISSED OFF and ANGRY that this MF*er duped me. 

I sent Rachel a text to tell her about this asshole and she proceeds to tell me just how bad off she really is.. she was going to hide it from me, but came clean..  So here it is 11:45pm on Sunday night, I'm a lot angry and I decided this seller needed to hear from me; here's my email to him (which was cc'd to Rachel as well)

Hi Ryan..

I wasn't going to send an email, but really feel that maybe I should. Even after the bad ride we had yesterday on Chico, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt about what happened.. I believed what you were telling me about Chico.

Although a few things did raise little flags for me about the information you provided; however, I trusted. When you said you bought Chico for friends to ride, but then 5 months later decided to sell because they no longer were interested, that raised flags for me.. That didn't seem logical to me, but again, I trusted.

There are 2 things I want to say about this whole thing.

1) I went online today and decided to put your phone # into google search, I was curious if you were listing this horse anywhere else online. And I found 4 horses you've listed for sale in the online history (although there are no dates since the ads have expired) ! Chico, a 13yr Arab, a QH Mare and a 16h Appy Gelding. What a shock that was to find.. to discover the person I thought was being up front with me, is actually a horse-trader.. most likely buying them cheap and selling them for a profit.

2) I called my friend to check on her today and I want you to know she spent 3 hours in the ER today. She started slurring her words and was seeing spots in her vision, so her children took her to the hospital.. She has a severe head injury/concussion, her ankle that she broke 2 months ago is now bigger than it was when she originally broke it, her left hand is useless (she uses her hands daily to make a living) and is covered in bruises all over.

We know the risks involved with riding horses, we get that. BUT you encouraged her to lope Chico on numerous occassions, 2 of which resulted in her getting bucked off. We TRUSTED that you knew this horse WELL ENOUGH to know that he would NOT do that! You didn't seem to show much concern when she was bucked off or emotion about it.

We then find out as we are riding back up the rest of the road to the trailers, that you've only ridden that horse 10 times in the 5 months you've had him and that he sat for 2 years.. You did tell me about the 2 years of him not being ridden, but you did NOT tell me you only put 10 rides on him.

So now I'm pissed. My friend was BADLY injured/hurt by your horse, BECAUSE YOU MISLED ME! I feel Duped and now know I was lied to and I think you need to understand the DANGER you put people in when you indicate what a great trail horse this is, then highly encourage loping and running on the trail. I am so angry you put myself and my friend in such a bad position, for a few bucks!!!!

We felt we were trying to help you out, give some advice about what that horse needs and what we get in return is an ER Bill, a hand so injured she's not sure she can go to work for the next day or two and an ankle she is unable to walk on, again preventing her from working for possibly the next few days. I'm angry that I was lied to and it cost my friend quit badly, physically & financially.

If you are going to buy horses cheap and sell them for profit, I have no problem with that, but you need to find a way to be a lot more educated about the horse you are selling and that horse's limitations because this time it cost someone dearly and it could have been prevented.. That horse was NOT ready to be loped freely and you SHOULD have known that! I'm not sure how to end this email, I'm just so disgusted after finding your selling history online and then minutes later find out how bad off Rachel is. I really feel you should take some of the financial responsibility here..

Piper    

Well I think that about sums it up!!  I think I'll end this blog post with this letter as well...

Where's my punching bag.

Tonight is one of those evenings where I dont know what to say, how to feel, what to do..  I want to scream, but that seems drastic, I want to cry, but that seems irrational, I want to sleep but how's that going to help..  I'm struggling to think clearly right now so I just need to get off to bed and hope I wake up feeling a bit more refreshed.

What's all the frustration and fuss about.. well I spoke too soon and Willie is still limping!  :(  I am so angry and incredibly frustrated that I can hardly function or even think straight.  I think the only logical option is to get him in to a vet, I just had really hoped to escape the $300-$500 bill that will surely accompany my vet visit.  But I just dont see any other options, this has been going on now for 3 months and although the pads have helped, they have not fixed the underlying issue, clearly..

So give me a day to "freak the F**" out because I'm close to panicking at this point and again back to thinking worst case scenario.  My irrational brain right now is telling me to ditch the horse, hold off on buying another, give us a year off w/o horses and come back to it in a year with lighter bodies and clearer brains...  I'm not seeing any of that as a downfall at this point, which tells me I really need to get to bed cuz I'm not thinking straight..

Spring has sprung..

Spring is here, the weather is changing, the air feels clean..  time to start getting motivated, get outside and get some shit done!  Easier said than done...  right!

We (okay Derek) almost has the horse trailer done and ready to paint, the goal is to get it painted this weekend.. I think I've said that the past couple weekends, but Derek has been working a lot of hours at his "paid" job so I cant push too hard..  :)

We have not gone out to see any horses, probably this weekend Rachel and I will go look at one.  It can be an overwhelming, frustrating process, so I think my friend and I have come up with a new way to try to approach this, so as to not take up and waste so much of Derek's free time with the crap that tends to be, when we get out to see the horse in person. 

On a positive horse note, I "think" we have hopefully found the solution to Willie's limping problem..  He's a pansy!  Yes, I've known for a while my horse has thin skin, is a little more sensitive.. but now that has migrated down to his feet too, so the shoers have put pads on his front feet and magically, he seems to not be limping anymore.  I am not 100% convinced yet, will have to wait and see how he does with regular work and see if he stays sound, but so far so good and its been almost 2 weeks!  I've lunged him once and he appeared sound, I rode him for 2 hours around the neighborhood, he felt sound.. He will get lunged and ridden again tonight, so we will see.. my fingers are crossed.  I was really starting to worry and was picturing worst case scenario with him..  3 months is a long time for a horse to be limping!!  So I am anxious, and excited about getting him out to the arena tonight.. 

And on an even more positive note than that, I am doing GREAT with my WW!  Every week I feel like I am not going to have a good weigh in, I approach the scale with worry and anxiety.. and every time I suprise myself with continued weight loss..  I have lost 17.4 pounds in 5 weeks...  I feel some of the loss in my waistline.. pants are not as tight!  :)  I will keep moving forward, learning as I go how to eat better, reprogramming my brain after 40 years of bad habits and bad-programming!   I am still doubtful in my head that I can do it, but the reality is that I am already doing it... so my doubt comes from the fact that I cannot actually picture myself skinny, cannot see myself being able to get on my horse w/o the help of a rock or stump or stool, cannot picture myself ever being proud of how I look, or that I will get to someday shop at regular clothing stores.. it all seems like an un-attainable fantasy!  My hope is that eventually my brain will flip a switch and start telling itself that this is do-able.  I dont know what other proof is needed to flip that switch, but 17lbs is not enough to convince myself.  I have set a goal to reach by my 40th birthday in 7 months, I hope I dont dissappoint.. 

Thanks !!

Thanks so much Derek for all your hard work at your job...  Just wanted to recognize how much you have been working and that I appreciate it..  :)

Due to all this work he's been doing, we havent had a lot of time together, so any time he has off on the weekends, its been nice spending time together.  Saturday we spent the day with our retriever club, had a board meeting in the morning, then a training day that lasted til almost 4, then another meeting after that to plan for a big upcoming event we are helping host.  It was a beautiful day!!!  And although Cooper didnt run great, he didnt run too bad either.  He's still balking at picking up the birds (yes yes, same story every time)...    Met some new folks and had a great day.

Sunday we drove down to Winlock WA (2.5hr drive) to look at Marshall

We were very excited to go see him, he seemed to have just what we were looking for and upon arrival he was basically everything she had described; however, he had (what I would call) a bad club foot.  The gal had mentioned it in passing upon my initial inquiry, but when I saw it in person, felt it was not really a minor issue but one that would concern me and how long he would stay sound.  After reading online, sounds like many horses do just fine, but I dont want to take that chance.  Lesson learned:  If seller says they have a club foot, ask for a picture up front before wasting time driving down!  He was a nice horse though, but I guess that means a better one is still to come.  

We were going to go look at another horse after Marshall, but the gal sent a text that he had sold that morning.  We'll see what we can conjure up this week to go look at over the coming weekend...  ;)

WW

My good friend Rachel had started to bring up 2 words that I didnt want to hear..  Weight Watchers!  She had tried it in the past and felt she needed to start up again, really wanting me to do it with her.  Well its quite obvious its a much needed path for me at this point, but I wasnt really feeling it...  But I agreed!  Damn Peer Pressure.

When we walked into that first meeting, my heart was pounding, my nerves were awake, my blood was anxious..  By the end of the meeting, I was skeptical.  But I paid my dues and jumped in with 2 feet, I knew there was no getting out of it at this point, not with Rachel as my WW's Buddy!  Took me a few days to get settled into the new routine, learning how to use my phone app and the computer setup to keep track of my daily points.  I did recognize early on that if it was not for the phone and computer calculating all my food intake, that I would not be happy doing this program.  But I was seeing just how easy it was to log in food and pre-determine how many points my food was worth.  I was making sacrifices and telling myself that this is not a "diet".. instead I am learning how to eat right!

So its been exactly 2 weeks now since we started and I have learned 1 thing:  I can still suprise myself!  Within these first couple weeks, I have been eating more food than I had previously but I now am incorporating fruits and veggies into my daily routine.  I am eating 5-7 times per day.. No I'm not eating meals, I'm eating my breakfast lunch and dinner as well as snacks every couple hours inbetween..  Whether it be a cheese stick, a WW low-point snack, fruit or veggies.. i'm flippin eating a lot of food!  Some days I felt like the biggest little piggy. 

At my week 1 weigh in, I had dropped 6.2 lbs!!  YeaHaw
Tonight is weigh in #2 and I am anxious and nervous.. I've been doing great with my points intake and am hopeful for another great week.

Why am I suprised?  Well, because I am in this...  I am 100% on board..  I am not craving crap food (except sometimes I do want to just eat some potato chips)..  I am shopping in the outside isles at the grocery store, so sticking with fresh whole foods, not boxed crap.  I'm learning to allow my stomach to tell me when its time to eat and not my brain!  I have some WW snacks (yummy delicious ones even) at my desk at work, and I hardly ever eat them and they are low points.  Before, my brain would tell me to eat them.. just because they are there, and dont stop eating them til they are gone.  So I'm learning healthy self-control!  I'm learning to enjoy the sacrifices I am making.. less cheese, low-fat foods, less un-healthy snacking, using healthier dressings..  and I'm doing great with it all, mentally!

I think I have also realized that part of my problem before was that I felt guilty EVERY time I ate ANYTHING!  It didnt matter if it was salad or an apple or a candy bar or chips or chicken.. I just felt like shit (in my head) no matter what I ate, because I felt I should not be eating anything, I should just have the mental ability to starve this weight off.  Now, I have a realistic points system that I can live within and I have YET to feel ANY guilt for anything I eat..  I can eat all the fruits and veggies I want, they are zero points.. so I eat them as the fillers in my day when I feel hungry.  Somehow my brain has been tricked and its working!

I owe a HUGE Thank You to my friend Rachel and I tell her often, as I wouldnt be able to do this w/o her!  Although I am now already completely comfortable going to the meetings and have no anxiety about doing so, we text almost daily and she really is the best support system I could ask for. 

I am proud of myself for sticking with this and actually "wanting" to do it..  I need to learn to eat healthy, period!  I have a long ways to go and a lot to learn about what to cook and how to eat etc but I am starting to feel like maybe, just maybe I can do this. 

Great Weekend Recap!!

For over a year now, I've been wanting a bigger trailer.. heck its probably been atleast 2 yrs..  but it never seemed within reach.. I dont just have thousands of dollars laying around to go buy one and I certainly couldnt take the risk of selling my trailer and then "hoping" to find another rather quickly.  We had contemplated buying brand new, putting down a large downpayment and making payments, but when we lost Oakley, there went that down payment, now its needed to buy a new horse.  And its just not easy finding decent used trailers in the price range we wanted, everything was rust buckets & aweful!

So in the midst of shopping for a horse, I occassionally was also looking for a deal on a decent 3-horse trailer on CL..  What do you know.. I found one!!  From the pictures posted, it looked like a very nice clean trailer with everything we wanted.. roof rack, solid back door, 3 stalls, same stall dimensions as ours to fit our big boys and a fully enclosed tack room.. but it had some bonuses..  an extra long tongue (no more extended hitch for hauling with the camper), padded dividers, solid divider between the heads, hay bags and it even came with a brush caddy with brushes, a helmet and a nice leather hole punch!!  When I initially called, someone else was going to look at it but alas, they did not buy it and we jumped all over that..  drove down to Bonney Lake on Saturday with cash in hand, loved everything about it, and drove it home!  Especially loved the price, we got a GREAT GREAT deal on this trailer, even after the new tires we just put on it, we still are into it about $1,000 less than we both feel it is worth.  It is older, its a 1997 Circle J, but it has been very well cared for with minimal rust.  I just cant believe it.. I look at it every day and smile because it is something we have wanted and needed for a long time!!

Now we (okay Derek) will do some paint work to our original trailer and hopefully sell it sooner than later so we can recoop most of that money..  Thank Goodness for Income Tax Return Cash!!!  :)  Oh and thanks to an owner that didnt realize what she had..   It helped make this all possible..

Sunday, we were supposed to go look at a horse, but.....

Well we didnt even make it up to see horse #2 before we were "educated" on the truth about that horse.

I was fairly excited about this mare, she had the trail experience we were looking for and in general, sounded like a nice horse.  She was up in Sedro Wooley, and we were set to go up on Sunday this past weekend.  Saturday night we went to some friends house for a BBQ and got to talkin with them..  they seem to know a lot of people, so I asked them if they happened to know the owner of this horse and/or the horse!  Sure enough, they are personal friends with the guy, have camped with him, ridden with this horse and heard the stories about her..  Apparently it seems to be a running joke how much "mare magic" they give this horse before every ride and around camp, the guy complains all the time about her bucking problems!  Well, I'll be darned......  I do recall asking if she had any bucking issues, and somehow the answer to me was NO!   So I emailed the guy and politely told him we didnt feel she was the right horse for us.  I probably should have told him off for lying to me, he doesnt realize what a small world/horse community this really is.. but I also didnt want to throw my friends under the bus either.. so I let it go.  Cant help Stupid!

Best Horse Ever!

I think Edgar has to be one of the best horses I've ever owned.. I've owned a few really good ones..  Shammy, Abbey, Oakley and now Edgar!  He's always been special but I get a lot of joy when I see moments like this..

Rachel's niece had been wanting to start riding lessons so we decided to start using Edgar for those.  Sophia is only 7 and she's a true cowgirl.. she's not one bit afraid of big ole Edgar!  Maybe a little intimidated by him when standing next to him, but she was not afraid to climb up on him and ride.  She's got a lot to learn, as she struggles with keeping him walking and remembering the word "whoa" and remembering to use her reins to turn and stop him but I have no doubts she'll progress and be riding off on her own soon.  For now, she is still on the lunge line and she prefers my big 17.5" saddle than this bareback pad.  She's wearing Rachel's 30yr old english attire that she just found in storage and looks super cute..  Rachel had told Sophia months and months ago she couldnt start riding lessons until she saved up enough money to buy her own helmet...  well look at her now!  She's a great kid and I thoroughly enjoy watching our Edgar help her learn how to ride.  He may not be a fancy show horse, but he is safe!!  Plus she has to work really hard to make him listen, her little tap tap of her legs does nothing for him..  :)  This last lesson, we gave her a little crop/whip to smack him with to get him moving.. but how hard does a 7yr old really smack?? ....  not that hard!  lol

Suzi is still leasing Edgar as well, we just borrow him once a week for our lessons here..  The more work Edgar gets, the better.. helps keep him healthy and sound.  Although we did have a health scare with him just a week after we lost Oakley.  It was the night of Sophia's lesson and I came home and could see from inside my house, that something was wrong with Edgar, he was visibly shaking.  I went out to the barn and tied him up, his body was shivering/shaking from head to tail..  I phoned the vet for advice and she said if he had a fever, to give him a dose of banamine, to watch him and see how he does in a few hours.  I blanketed him, gave him his dinner right away and that was helping, he slowly was eating, although not 100% normal.  I saw him go for water too, so that was good.  I had to wait for Derek to get home, as I asked him to stop and buy a thermometer.  His shaking really slowed down by the time Derek arrived, but upon taking his temp, realized he definately was sick as he was running 104 temp!  Horses avg is about 99-100.  I gave him a dose of banamine, stood talking with Rachel for a while, she left, I picked up manure and walked back into the barn. By this time it had been 45 minutes since I'd given him the meds and he was sweating really badly!  His body temp was very hot under the blanket, so I phoned the vet again, concerned about what I saw.. she said it was normal, he was sweating off his fever and to just leave him be and check on him in an hour.  Well a hour or two later, I did check on him, his temp was down to 100 and he was no longer sweating..   I went to bed hoping he would be back to normal, as the vet indicated if the fever came back, she'd need to come see him.

As I walked in the barn the next morning, he nickered at me to feed him and I knew right away he was just fine!  Took his temp, it was 99..  I took a sigh of relief.  All night I tossed and turned, my heart hurt at the thought of something happening to him, especially so soon after Oakley.  I dont know what exactly he had, maybe he just got cold.. but for now he remains blanketed until the weather warms up, not taking any chances of him getting sick again.  Maybe with his older age and because he's started to shed his winter coat already, he just caught a cold..  I cant loose Edgar..  I am so happy to have him back home, I never imagined how much joy and happiness I would feel inside just by simply providing a horse for others to enjoy.

Deja Vu

It was exactly a year ago that I had just started the search for my next horse.. here we are again, now on the search for Derek's next horse.  I had plans to start riding every weekend that I could, not driving all over the state!  Lets hope we dont have to drag this on for months and months, but the pickin's are slim right now in our area and although I'm seeing some great horses out there, they are far enough away to warrant overnight trips!  Maybe the plus side of that, is that Derek & I can have a bunch of mini-vacations coming up..   Always trying to find the bright side of the story!

Horse #1 was supposed to be a 15.1h 8yr Palomino gelding.  I saw this picture and immediately liked his build.. just look at that butt!  He was up in Mt Vernon, $2000 and he had a lot of trail experience that we were expecting in Derek's next horse. 

When we arrived, he was MAYBE 15h at the whithers, but he had a much bigger dip/sway back than it shows in this picture and his actual back was probably only 14.2..  He was short!!  He was well built though, stocky little bugger and he was very sweet and calm.  Stood quietly as we fiddled around and looked him over etc.  At this point, I was already 75% sure he wasnt going to work, I just felt he was too short, but Derek was OK with it, so  we put Dereks saddle on him, seemed to fit okay and then I bridled him and started to lead him around. 

His energy gears kicked in as soon as I started to lead him away..  He was a bit antsy, wanted to move and wasnt too keen on standing still.  I led him over to an area where Rachel (my friend) could get on him.  She offered to come along and ride the horse for Derek so we could see how he moved and just watch how he behaved under saddle.  He was pissy when I tried to move his body over to Rachel, he started moving as she mounted and she almost came off, but finally prevailed and was on his back.  By this time I was 95% sure I was not liking this horse.  Rachel rode him off and he was full of it.. he was wanting to trot, lope, his head was straight up the entire time and he just wasnt relaxed and laid back at all.  Rachel had a decent ride on him, but come to find out he basically has had 6 months off and he would require someone else to get the kinks back out of him before he was ready for Derek. 

I was 100% sure by the time we unsaddled him, that I wasnt going to be ok with buying him.  Derek and Rachel really liked his ground manners and were quite impressed by that and Rachel even thought he was worth a 2nd look out on a trail ride.. BUT in reality, we need a horse that can sit for a couple months and be the same horse as it would be if ridden daily...  Derek doesnt have the ability or want-to of riding a horse like that.  So the search continues..

Not sure how to label this post, so I won't...  Most our family and friends know already but we suffered a pretty tragic loss the day before Valentines Day.  A friend was on her way to my house, we were going to start WW that night, but when I went out to the barn to feed the horses, I noticed Oakley was flat out laying in his stall.  My horses dont use their stalls for laying down (EVER), they lay outside as I dont provide bedding in the stalls so I knew something was wrong immediately.  I ran to the house to put my muck boots on, called Derek to get him to hurry home and rushed back to Oakley.  He was covered in sweat and goat poop (from the stall floor), he'd been down for hours from what I could see.  The barn walls were all tweaked and bent out, the stall door chainlink wire was mangled and he was missing a couple shoes..  None of these were good signs.  I was able to get him up and he staggered out of the stall into the gravel area and I got him walking around.  He was exhausted..

I let him lay back down as he just didnt have the energy to keep moving and he didnt seem to be wanting to roll a lot, he just wanted to lay down.  I was quite concerned that he had spent hours rolling around when we were not home and that his intestines were twisted already and we were too late.

It took about 45 minutes or so to get ahold of a vet, apparently it was a busy night!  :(  She was about 45 minutes away, all we could do was wait.  We tried for quite some time to get him back up, 4 of us pushing and pulling on him and he just wasnt putting any effort in.  I knew he needed to be up for the vet exam and right before she got there, I heard Derek utter the word "Duck"..  DING DING DING..  My eyes filled with excitement and I told him "If anything will get this horse up, it will be the scent of a dead duck!"

The neighbors were over as well, I felt badly for Suzi to have to see this going on, but also realized that this is the reality of horse ownership and although I didnt feel we were on a very good path with Oakley at the moment, you cant hide from this happening forever. 

So Derek comes back with the dead duck and we put it down by Oakley's nose and that horse jumped up so fast, you'd have thought he was on fire!!  We all cheered and even laughed, I think the onlookers wouldnt have believed it if they hadnt seen it happen. 

Long story short, Oakley had a blockage in his small intestine and the outlook was very poor.  It was not likely he would recover from this on his own and surgery was not an option ($10k plus!) so we made the heart-wrenching decision to put him down immediately.  We gave the neighbor kids the time to come over and say goodbye to him and then everyone left except my friend Rachel.  So it was an intimate setting I guess you could say for Oakley's last moments..  We all shed tears, Derek, myself, Rachel and even the vet....  Oakley was the perfect horse for Derek and it will be hard to replace him. 

Drama Drama Drama

This has turned into the week of Drama and I'm ready for my brain to shut down; however it is not cooperating!  I love gossip and drama, just not when it is directed at me.  We've been dealing with a bit of family drama the past couple weeks that I am curious, nervous, scared and a little hopeful to see how it all turns out, but it does not directly affect me.  Then there's been the personal drama that I am smack dab in the middle of, circulating around me this week and this is why my brain is in overload.  Feel like a mental patient just starring off blankely, feel like Charlie Browns parents (whah whah wha wha wha whah), feel like the monotone commercial guy that says "dry eyes...."    Thank goodness for good friends to help me smile and move forward.  Then there is the animal drama..  took Willie and Edgar to an arena last night so my friend Rachel could give her niece a lesson.  She was going to ride Willie.  Well her niece is just too young and inexperienced to be off the leadline, so Rachel spent the first part of the lesson on the ground leading Sophia around while I got on Willie to warm him up.  He was a complete ass, nearly dumped me at one end of the arena while almost running through another horse that was being lunged.. Thank god what balance I do have stuck with me and I was able to get him under control and kept him from colliding with the other horse.. Poor gal that was lunging her horse looked a bit scared when she saw crazy Willie headed towards her horse!   So I decided my mindset was already in a bad place and to avoid wanting to kill my horse, I rode him a few more minutes then got off and swapped with Rachel.. He did fine with her, she kept him moving.  She's a good rider and has great balance and enjoyed working with him so I was happy to let her do it.  My brain was telling me to sell him, give him away, ditch him...  I was thankful she was there to fill in when my head clearly was in no mood to ride.

Derek and I have been fairly occupied lately, always something going on.  He started hiking with Lance a few weeks ago, they've been on a couple good hikes so far and he loves it.  Our dog club is starting to get active again now that hunting season is over, we've got a lot of weekends planned out already for the summer between the horse club and dog club, as well as 2 family reunion camping trips this year!  Our dog club is hosting 2 major events this year that we will be very involved with, a Duck Dog Challenge in Mid May and then 2 weeks later a Hunt Test..  should be interesting since it will be our first events and we are new to being involved in things like this, but should be fun too!!  Oh and thats another area of drama is this hunting retriever club we are part of..  there is some bad blood between a few board members of our club and the board members of another local club (although our members have taken the high road and are trying to move on)... unfortunately the other club is pushing their big wig weight around back east and keeping us from getting our affiliation with the main HRC club and its been a challenging, frustrating, eye opening adventure to be involved with.  Derek and I have become fairly involved now in this process of trying to move forward and get our affiliation.

Sometimes I wish I were a drinking person so I could just use that excuse to put the shit behind me and just go have a drink!!

Happy New Year

The new year is 15 days in now and so far so uneventful..  we've been staying plenty busy with little things here/there..  I've been helping a good friend find a horse for her family.  First we found little June Bug.. a mini mare that is PERFECT for her little girls and she's the cutest thing!!

This past weekend we found a riding horse, I plan to deliver him to my friend on Saturday.  Hopefully he works out well for Amber!  :)  Derek's been getting out hunting a lot, but not a lot of birds so Cooper is not getting as much experience as we had hoped.  He still loves to get out though and really seems to enjoy upland hunting!  Derek & Lance headed over to Eastern WA a few weeks ago and although they didnt find anything but frozen ponds and frozen lines in our camper, Cooper did flush a female pheasant (unshootable) and they had a good time.

All is quiet still out in the barn, so I am happy!  I've had no thoughts of selling Willie and look forward to riding him again.  I am contemplating having his testosterone levels tested though.. due to his behavior towards others horses and because he poops in 2 places in his paddock which could be a stallion type behavior.  I'm not convinced he was gelded wrong, but I'm not convinced he was done correctly either..  I'm overly paranoid now about it since the last 2 geldings I've owned have not been gelded properly.  Might help explain some things with Willie.

We've had quite the nice dry spell of weather around here lately, it was desperately needed.  It's bone-chilling cold but I take the cold/dry vs warm/wet during the winter!  We've had a couple snow flurries too so the ground is white, enough to satisfy my winter needs!

What's that you hear....

Nothing!! 

Yep, its been just 2 days but so far it has been a quiet 2 days and I think I'm starting to like my horse again!  LOL  He actually got zapped on the butt this morning, he stood too close to the wall and shocked himself, then kept looking at the wall as if to say "What the heck just happened, why did you shock me?"  :)  I was smiling of course because I have seen a jerk of a horse, act normal..  He doesnt come in the barn/stall trying to bite Edgar anymore, he doesnt try to charge at the other stall, he hasnt been kicking or leaning..  he still pins his ears towards Edgar, but thats normal feeding behavior for a horse and is the extent of it, I could not be happier!!!  I will continue to cross my fingers that he doesnt find a way around this latest plan (as he could if he really wanted).  He's far from "fixed" in behavior issues, he has a lot of maturing still to do, but I am hopeful once again...

Plan C

Unfortunately I had to come up with plan C when it comes to the A-hole out in the barn that is still trying to kick the walls..  The chains work OK but are not 100% fool proof..  they do break off inwhich he quickly discovers this and gets back to kicking and when the chains are still in tact, he leans on the wall and constantly is still finding ways to bang on the barn.  Its driving me nuts!! 

So tonight as I sat watching TV, listening to bang bang out in the barn once again, I implemented Plan C on the spot..  At 9pm I was nailing out in the barn, installing hotwire on the wall that he keeps banging on...  So now he cant lean on it and I suppose he could still kick it, but hopefully he'll find himself getting shocked in doing so and learns to quit.  I did take the chains off, I want him to feel full power to attempt to kick or lean so he will get zapped, so fingers crossed this works.  The bummer part of all this is that its winter.. so I'm not riding much these days and riding him seems to be the only time I like him!!  :)  lol  I still daydream about owning my dream horse but I'm still not ready to put him up for sale, so he's still has a home with me for now.

Christmas was yesterday, was a non-traditional year for our family since the Schwartzenberger Family had our gathering on Saturday, the first time I can ever remember it not being on Christmas Eve!  I thought it was great though because everyone was able to attend and noone had to really leave early or come late due to other family obligations.  We spent Christmas Eve this year with my dad's family whom we have not celebrated with in probably close to 20 years!!  We also did our immediate family on Eve as well so that left Derek and I with no plans for Christmas Day.. and nothing is what we did..  :)  Unless you count waking up, making breakfast, opening presents, watching TV / Movie, cooking Prime Rib dinner and in bed by 8:30pm!

The Schwartzenberger Christmas had a competition this year to wear an ugly Christmas Sweater so this was my creation!  I thought it was kinda cute, so I'm not suprised I didnt win; however, I did take 2nd to Jennifer  :)

 

And we finally got a full Christmas photo of all that attended this year...  turned out to be a great picture!

 Derek and I have been wanting to get a logo created for our dog club, so we went to a website that designers go to and listed our wants/needs for a logo and after 5 or 6 creations were submitted, we picked this one!  We had him modify a few things to get to this final stage but we love it!!  We just hope now that the rest of the club likes it..  As we didnt ask permission to create a logo but also will not be asking the club to pay us back for it.

Ho Ho Ho

Ready for Christmas, with 3 days to spare even!  Took all of December (to date) to get motivated to do the shopping and just get zoned in to the festivities coming up.  Derek and I finally spent a day out together, buying presents and accomplished our goal of getting everyone taken care of within about a 5 hour window!  The list was not long but we had fun. 

Yesterday I finally sat myself down to find a craft idea (or 2) for our family gift exchange and am very happy with what I came up with.. spent the evening crafting and I think they are both pretty cool..  Jennifer is trying to get me now motivated for the ugly sweater contest, she says she's going to kick my ass with her ugly sweater, which is probably true since I havent decided if I will even do one..  I'm not cute and thin, so I cant just go to goodwill and find some ugly sweater.. although she said she hand-crafted her's, I dont know that I have a shirt I want to ruin to hand craft my own...  so I'm in a dilema.. I want to be festive, but not sure I have the shirt to do it with.

We have not put up a tree this year, I was all ready to get one a few weeks ago, but it never happened and I felt a bit overwhelmed with life, so we just didnt do it this year!  :)  Which i'm okay with, I did dig out our stockings, and the jewelry tree I made 20 years ago and another small tree I made probably 15 years ago.. so we are decorted as much as its gonna get!  lol 

Christmas came early for Derek & I this year, he needed some hunting gear and I wanted an elliptical machine, so we bought them; and there didnt seem to be any point to wrap them, since we both wanted to get right to using our gifts! 

The dogs are about to find themselves on the street if they do not start behaving.. what is with my animals!  They decided the kitchen floor would make for a fine new chewing toy and proceeded to tear up a large (highly visible) section! GRRRRR.. coulda killed them all, well except Russell who just stood on the bare spot as if to say "Do you see what those kids did!!"

I've filled my plate with one more responsibility for 2013, I was roped into becoming the Secretary for our Dog Club..  I was blindsided with the "non-spoken" request.. I accepted.  Derek is on the board, so I typically go to the meetings anyways.  Plus I am the Treasurer of the horse club this next year too, and I'm co-chair of our annual Prize Ride... the year is filling up and 2012 isnt even over yet!!  :)

Willie or Willie Not..

That is still the question! 

I type that as I sit here on my porch at 9:30am in 40 degree weather, waiting for him to kick the barn!  lol  I attempted to do this yesterday, spent almost an hour outside in 37 degree weather, just waiting..  But the cold won out yesterday, I am a bit more prepared today.  The chains have been working, Willie does not stand and kick the wall anymore..  But he has figured out he can lean into the wall and scrape his leg up/down and still bang it around a bit.  So now we are on to option B....

!! Shock Therapy !!

Again, I am feeling more than barbaric, a bit evil.. sitting here almost smiling, waiting for him to misbehave so I can press the magic button.  Although he has not kicked the wall yet (the chains have been taken off for this experiment), but he was biting at Edgar a lot as he waited for his breakfast, so I was able to test the little zapper out on that bad behavior.  The collar has 1-127 levels, I started on 10, that did nothing, 15, 30, 45, 60.. all did nothing..  But 75 worked JUST FINE!  :)  I toned it down to 70.  I think he was feeling it at probably 60, but not enough. 

An now it is snowing!!  :)

So I have been stressed about Willie lately but I'm trying to change my perspective so I dont get to the point of giving up.  I have to tell myself to work through this.. because I do enjoy riding him.  His arena type training is very soft and he's fun to play with in that environment and he always does good out on the trail, better than expected.  I figure while he is still young and dumb, he'll just get the chain treatment when he is tied up to the trailer to keep him from kicking and bucking while tied and I'll continue to work on this barn kicking issue and see if we can resolve it.  Worst case scenario, he gets more work and is worth more down the road.. right!  lol

I have been getting in a lot more riding this winter than normal, its been nice to have a reason to get out.  :)  It can get so gloomy and rainy that you just dont want to do anything horse related, so having Suzi as a neighbor who's always up for an arena ride, has motivated my behind into getting out almost weekly, if not twice!  I am just so darned happy for Edgar and Suzi, she's doing great with him, he is happy and Suzi's friend rode him the other day and got him to lope over and over again.. YEAH!  That might seem silly, but Edgar just doesnt lope often, especially under saddle.. I think i've loped him maybe 5 times since I've had him.. seriously!  He's awkward getting up into the lope, but he did it, so I'm hopeful now that Suzi can grow with Edgar in the future.  What a great match this has been, I honestly dont mind paying some to keep the 3rd horse when I feel this good watching them together! 

Oh the cold is settling in.. Willie is eating quietly and I'm freezing..  I might have to go inside soon...

Christmas is 2 weeks away and we are not even close to prepared..  Havent bought anyone a darn thing, havent crafted our gift exchange gifts yet and today I just want to sit and be lazy..  Last night was our horse club Christmas Party..  It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed the social aspect.. Unfortunately dinner was not good..  Derek had prime rib, which I thought was tastey (he reluctantly gave me a bite) but for my chicken dish, I expected a breast, but got a thigh?  It was dark meat, fatty with the skin on, no bone, but I actually thought it was kinda nasty!  For $30, I expect the best part of the chicken, the white breast...  Not the cheap cut..  So I'm dissappointed.. I ate it because I was hungry, but picked it apart pretty good.  Which is too bad, cuz I LOVE the location and for dinner/lunch any other time, their food is really good.

Well I think I must head in to the house.. although its not snowing any more, my toes are turning blue..  I will just have to listen for barn kicking instead of watching... 

Remind me why I own animals??

Its been one of those days..

I was awoken early by the sound of "bang bang bang bang"  silence...  "bang bang bang"..  If I had a gun handy I woulda shot Willie!   Periodically over the past few months, we hear him out kicking the stall.  His stall is next to Oakley's and apparently, he is not an Oakley fan!  He doesnt care much for Edgar either, clearly my horse is not gay!  So instead of each horse minding their own business, no they both stand next to their adjoining wall, peering at eachother through the gaps in the boards (remind me to tell you why there are gaps) and Oakley antagonizes, while Willie stands there and bucks/kicks the wall...  This morning it was out of control..  Just Bang Bang Bang, non stop almost..   So out of bed I flew to rearrange horses and goats, isolating Willie to the other side of the barn which I had wanted to avoid doing.  I didnt want to displace the goats but I had to put Willie in the goats stall that used to be Edgars...  See Edgar will share the stall, but Wille will NOT!  ;)

So back to the gaps in the boards.. apparently Oakley is bored!  He's chewing the barn, the tree in his paddock, anything his little mouth can reach...  He's chewed a 2x6 in half and many others are on their way to being destroyed completely.

So my morning continues...  When I walked back into the house and headed to feed the dogs, I see something wrong in the kitchen!  One of the dogs (most likely Ellie) decided that last night was a good night to chew on the linoleum floor and create a "spot" that sticks up and now is going to drive me crazy!  See, we have determined that Derek is allergic to the dogs.. not just a minor thing, but he breaks out in big hives, itching and such.  Doctors say you can be breed specific with allergies so apparently Jack Russells are not a breed he is allergic to.  I think it is mostly Cooper, but it is likely to be Ellie as well.  Russell and Ellie sleep in the bedroom in a crate together, Cooper sleeps outside the bedroom.  Last night we decided that Ellie no longer gets to sleep in the bedroom to help alleviate dog dander and my guess is that decision really pissed her off and she decided to make it known she was not happy!

I was so frustrated with animals this morning that I had a lump in my throat and was on the verge of crying..  I'm glad I had to focus on getting to work because I was so angry at them all that I could hardly stand to look at them.  Poor Russell, although I didnt yell at him, the other 2 got a stern talking to and looked guilty as shit..  Blind old Russell just stood there waiting for love and I was in no mood. 

My fear is that today when Derek gets home he will find a kitchen floor torn up..  I have been anxious all day about it. 

I dont really want Willie on the opposite side of the barn, I want either Oakley or Edgar over there because those 2 horses will share that stall with the goats and its the best stall for the goats...  So I want Willie stalled next to another horse, but I dont want Willie kicking, so I've come up with a solution!!   I'm going to buy/create some kick chains..  Each back leg will have a chain attached to it and if he wants to kick, he will hurt himself!  I not only want him to stop because he is going to hurt himself and destroy my barn walls, I want him to learn it is NOT OK to kick.. period!!   I'm hoping this solution will work.. If not the next step will be to attach a shock collar to him..  no joke!  They now make them for horses for issues like this..  We have a friend with a dog collar so I would borrow his collar and hook Willie up to it.  The only reason that is not my #1 option to try is that I have to be around to punish him, whereas the kick chains are self-punishing whether I'm home or not.

The thought has crossed my mind as the year draws near that Willie had til the end of this year to prove to me he was worthy of keeping..  And if I didnt enjoy riding him, he would be for sale.. let me tell ya, I had to calm myself before doing anything rash this morning as I wanted to put his ass up for sale immediately.  I'm a little suprised the neighbors have not complained yet..  BUT I do like him.. he is a sweet horse and loves people, and he's a pretty solid ride.  He's not 100% perfect for darn sure with riding, he's still a bit of a project and maybe thats why I like him so much as a riding horse, I've always been drawn to project horses.. 

Hunting, speeding and 4H..

Once again, it appears I have been slacking in my responsibilities to my readers.. haha

Edgar is doing really great!  He looks good and is now being leased by the neighbor girl Suzi..  She became a bit attached to him in his rehab-state so her parents are going to help cover some of his feed costs so that we can keep him for her to use this coming year as her 4H project! 

I hauled him down to the fairgrounds this past weekend for a training day, it was a great experience for them both.  Suzi is the one in pink.  She is still learning to ride, I've taken her out to Shannon (my trainer friend) for a lesson and I haul Edgar down to another arena on Friday nights so she can get more ride time in on him.  She is improving, as is he..  He will be a great walk/trot project for her this year.  We are excited (well I know I am anyways).. it is fun watching them together, gives me warm fuzzies inside!  :)

We've discovered that Oakley is incredibly frightened by the smell of duck!!  I think I told the story about my brother sitting on Oakley earlier this summer and Derek held a duck up to Oakley's nose.. and Oakley FREAKED OUT!  And I mean panicked..  He jumped, skipped, humped up, bucked, reared and bolted at the smell...  Well Derek went out to the barn the other day and had his hunting gear on and Oakley again panicked and wouldnt let Derek anywhere near him..  Last night, in his regular work clothes, Oakley still is very spooked by Derek and doesnt want him touching him.  So I think we have created a problem and Oakley has a very negative association with Derek and suprisingly, it is going to take a bit of effort for Derek to get Oakley calmed down around him!  :(  Very odd...

Willie has been up/down lately when I've ridden him.  He HATES to be ridden in his paddock, he's a complete shit..  He will buck and rear, do anything to not have me ride him in his environment.. But then I hauled him out to Shannons and in her arena, he is as good as can be expected...  Suzi was with me when he was being really good out at Shannons and when we got back home, she said "I think something is wrong with Willie".. I was concerned and said "is he acting weird in his stall, what do you see?"  She said "He was being good!"  LOL   

This is Cooper (in orange) with his litter-mate Mace!  Derek and Jim (the breeder) were able to take the boys out together a couple weeks ago, on the hunt for some pheasant down south of Eatonville.  Unfortunately they did not get anything, but the 2-legged and 4-legged boys all had a great time together.  Derek has been taking Cooper out for upland birds in our area, but nothing shot yet.  They went out again this morning, so maybe they will bring home some dinner!! 

Derek & Eric were able to get out together last week and shot quite a few!  There are 11 ducks and 1 snow goose on that truck..  Cooper retrieved all but 3 of those birds.  He still shows reluctancy, but hopefully with more birds over the winter, he will finally get over that BS!  He LOVES to get out though... 

Derek's work has been a bit slow the past few weeks, so he's been taking one day off each week and getting out to hunt.. Its not really by choice, but we figure he had a few vacation days saved up so might as well use them to go hunting since he was asked to take the days off anyways. 

My birthday came and went, fairly uneventful..  :)   Got myself a 2nd speeding ticket this year, the other day!  I was really mad at myself.. because I've been really good about sticking close to the limits, but that day, I saw a beautiful sunrise through the trees and wanted to get past the trees to see it come up, so I was consciously speeding.. the one damn day I purposely speed is the day the police are waiting for idiots like me...  so now I drive with my cruise control on.

We have not progressed any on the adoption issue.  We are a bit in a lull about the whole thing, trying to re-evaluate if this foster-to-adopt route is the way we really want to go..  Not really is our conclusion.  But to avoid paying a really high price to adopt, it might be our only option.  So for now, we are just moving along with life until we feel the pull one direction or another to do something about it.  We are just waiting for that family member or friend of the family type person to magically come along and provide a door for us to walk through on the adoption issue.  ;)

Other Updates

While at the ladies ride, a friend was inquiring on Edgar and how he was doing, indicating she wished the timing had worked out for her to have him since she will soon be in the market for a new trail horse.  It got me thinking and wondering if Jen/Timbre still wanted to keep him.  I knew they were headed towards divorce and since Timbre did not ride and that is who Edgar was supposed to be for, maybe she would consider giving him back to me.  Well I sent Jen a text and sure enough she was worried about the upcoming winter and how to feed 3 horses and after a week of consideration, gave him back.

I drove out to pick him up on Labor Day and was I glad I did.. he looked terrible!  :(  He was a solid 200 pounds under weight..  he looked like the run-down version of black beauty; but I kept my mouth shut and thanked her for giving him back and took him home.  It was amazing, after 1 week of food in him, he was already 100x's better looking and now its been 3 weeks and he is looking pretty darn good.  He needs the muscle tond for sure built up, but I am much happier.  My friend Tricia is not sure when/if she will ever be ready to take him so for now he is with us and we just are not sure what to do with him.  He's not ready to be placed with anyone else quite yet...  After that disaster of knowing he got so thin and suffered, we are a bit more leary now about doing that again!  I dont really want to own 3 horses as we dont need 3 horses, the mess the feed the bills.....  so it's a dilema and we are not ready to face facts and come to a decision so for now, he is with us getting fat and happy again and sometime down the road we'll have to consider the options. 

The neighbor Suzi was coming over and working with him, she seems interested in riding him and working him, her mom tells me she was upset over the summer not having our horses home for her to come play with, but I dont know if I see the drive in Suzi to come over and do whats necessary to get Edgar back into condition.  I'd love it if she did,  I want to teach her how to do things, but I dont know if I see a real interest there in learning...  maybe she is just really really shy still and uneasy at my place.. not sure.

Derek's job is doing alright, the company just had an ownership change last week so things are up in the air and who knows where this will lead him..  So far the only thing he has lost is the 401k benefits but they may get reinstated at a lower employer contribution rate.  My job never changes, same bore just another day.

Oh the goat, Mo!   We took him in for his 6 week checkup, he got the cast off and the x-ray was done..  one of the bones set perfectly, the other slipped and is not fusing properly back together.. it is fusing.. side by side!  His back leg will be an inch or so shorter than his other 3 legs as the bone has started to callus and form new bone, too late to fix it!  He still has to stay confined another 4 weeks, give the bones time to form a solid new bone.  He is doing really good and seems happy even though he still doesnt get to move around at all.

Willie or Willie not work out!!

Well I took Willie to our annual CHC Ladies Ride back in August, his first real camping trip, 5 days on his own as I did not have a girlfriend that could come along to ride Oakley.  Which I have to admit was kinda nice just because it saved me the extra work of bringing more stuff and dealing with 2 horses.  Willie was awesome on his highline!  He was next to Bobbie's mare and they got along very well, although Willie never did figure out how to lay down so by day 5, he was tired!!  Many times Bobbie & I watched him darn near buckle and fall over as he stood sleeping.  lol

We got in 3 rides over the weekend and I was very proud of him.  His back was only a tiny bit sore after the 3rd ride too, so I was happy to see that.  We rode last in the pack on our group rides and the gal right in front of me was on a VERY antsy horse.. her horse would not walk a straight line, he was over-amped and was dancing, prancing, trotting sideways.. doing anything but cooperating for his rider.  I was worried Willie would feed off the vibes, but he was steady-eddy and remained calm cool and collected, not one bit phased by any of the antics of the horses in front of him.  I was tickled pink!!!  :)

My drive home, not so happy with him as I realized he was pissed to be leaving his new girlfriend so he put quite a few new dents in my trailer.. He was bucking and kicking in the trailer...  When I got to my parents place (cant remember why I had to stop there on my way home), but anyways, he had the balls to buck/kick right infront of my eyes as I had the trailer door open, so he got his ass spanked while he stood tied in the trailer!  I am realizing he still is not great at standing tied if other horses are out of sight.. he will buck or kick whatever is around him.. definately needs more lessons on that as that is not acceptable!

I did bring Willie back home after the ladies ride to fatten him up, he still has not gained the weight I want him to, after loosing it all in training.  I've been feeding him beet pulp, senior grain and rice bran; it finally is working and he's gained some weight!  He's still a bit ribby, but he looks good.  After the ladies ride, I let him sit for a couple weeks and decided to use him to flag the trails for our club prize ride.  I was worried I had made a mistake as he was feeling fresh on all this new grain, plus he is still a VERY GREEN horse!!  What the hell was I thinking using him to carry hundred of long flowing flags on him...  The young stubborn side of my brain said "Oh it will be just fine"..

As I introduced the ribbons to Willie that morning, his initial reaction was to go straight up in the air, all 4 feet off the ground.. OH SHIT!  What was I in for.... After that initial blow up he seemed to be fine and I put the flags on the saddle horn, got on, and hoped for the best!  And I got about as close to great as I could expect out of him.  He was clearly irritated by the flags touching his legs, he is SOO darn thin-skinned that he feels everything and he didnt like the flags touching him but as long as I kept him moving, he accepted it pretty good.  He was not flaring his nostrils or spooky, he just went with it.. thank god!! 

I actually struggled more with trying to get him in the brush to hang the flags.  It was a 5-hour ride, by the end he was a bit irritated but we had no major spooking, no rearing nor bucking, so it was 100% successful.  I have realized that I am always riding him at the back of the pack so when a horse is behind us, he now gets nervous about that..  so I need to change it up when I ride from now on and make him ride in the middle or front as I dont mind being in the back, but he needs to learn to ride from any position calmly.

So here I have a horse that has been doing exceptionally well with all that I have thrown at him...  we've not been riding as much as we should but I've been so happy with him.  Then Monday night comes along.. I was itching to ride, so I put a Cashel Soft Saddle on him (a friend lent it to me).. basically it is a bareback pad with stirrups, except that when I was riding in it, I didnt feel the stirrups were safe so I did not use them.  I was in the mood to ride bareback, so I fed him his dinner, let him eat all his grain and half his hay, then got on!  Oh I should also mention I put a bit in his mouth too, wanted to try something new.  The sidepull I've been using works great, BUT because of his thin skin, it rubs a raw mark on his nose every time I ride in it, so thought maybe a bit would be better. 

Well apparently this bit was too much bit for him and he was SUPER sensitive, my hands had to be very very light.  As soon as I got on him, I knew there was a 90% likelyhood that I was going to hit the ground.. I could feel it in him as he did NOT want to cooperate.  I was just in the gravel area and couldnt get him to move away from the barn without him wanting to rear or buck so I got off, took him out to the make-shift roundpen and ran his ass off..  he was so full of evergy, I hardly did anything but stand and cluck at him and he just ran...  So when he was good and tired and sweaty, I got back on.. oh much better!  Look who wants to cooperate now.. He was feeling pretty good actually, I rode him out to the round pen but once in there, he said "screw you" and found a reason to spook, spin and jump out from under me.. I was expecting it so I was able to grab his neck on my way down and landed on my feet, but because he was still in spin mode away from me, and I didnt land square on my feet, my ankle landed hard (and poorly) and I buckled and went down.. I heard and/or felt a crunch in my ankle and knew I was down hard.. My body was fine..  but my ankle was in pain.  I called Derek to come help me up and by that evening, I was swollen and in a lot of pain.

I didnt sleep well, it was throbbing and then next morning I could barely walk.  After looking online I am sure I have a partial tear in one of the ligaments in my ankle as it was very tender to touch.  3 days later I can walk on it pretty good but it's still tender and I dont have much mobility and there is still swelling.  My bad though, I knew it was not a good idea but I wanted to ride bareback dammit!  Willie is FAR too sensitive of a horse to handle bareback and FAR too green to ride in his pasture without drama!  So Willie or Willie not work out...  I'm fairly certain Willie will work out in the end, we just have a long road ahead of us and I need to not baby him but accept the limitations of his experience. 

Yeah, we accomplished our goal.. :)

Yep, about damn time I was back on here!  Lots of updates, need to get out the calendar so I can jog my own memory on what the heck has been going on..

I think I'll start with the exciting news..  Cooper

Yes that is the 4th ribbon we had set out to earn this year!!  Which means he got his 4th pass, earning his Started Title..  Whooohooo....  We were over in Chewelah WA for the hunt test, it was a long drive but a nice area to go to.  We had a really great weekend, took all 3 dogs with us so that Cooper would stay relaxed and not get stressed.  Getting this 4th ribbon did not mean we got an easy pass, as usual Cooper tested my patience and was trying to make a fool of me in the middle of his test.  The good thing we did see is that it appears he is probably 80% over his bird issues as far as not wanting to pick them up, now he's just being a bit naughty because he gets to the bird and realizes there are far more interesting things out in the big field for him to sniff out, so he goes on "Walk-a-bouts" while in the middle of his tests!  G-Damn dog!!  lol

But the judges were patient, as was I..  I did not use ANY negative vibes and kept my talking to a minimum and actually the way I got him to pick up the bird finally was a new method I had to come up with on the spot and that was to show him I was leaving without him and turn my back to him and walk away..  That FINALLY prompted him to pick up the birds and come back to me!!  And of course swimming was his strong suit and he handled those retrieves perfectly..

Our hard work paid off, it's been a long journey this summer with him.  We feel he needs to see LOTS more fresh live birds, more dead birds from fresh hunting scenarious and a lot more field work of him just getting over the novelty of being loose out in a big field with so many smells!! 

~  Today (9/27) is Cooper's 2nd Birthday  ~

After our pass, at the ribbon ceremony on Saturday evening, we knew we were going to get wet.  Tradition is that your dog gets wet for you in the hunt tests; therefore, you will now get wet for your dog when the title is earned.  Derek wanted to take the honors because Cooper is his dog and he trains him, but I was not about to give up my seat because I felt I earned that dousing as well by training Cooper and running him in these tests..  I was not willing to let him take the honors on his own..

I earned that seat next to him on the bench!

It was only about 50 degress outside at this point, you can see the moon was out, so this was not a warm part of the day.. just hours earlier it had been 90!  As I sat in anticipation awaiting a VERY cold dumping, I was not expecting that when the water finally reached my body, it was WARM!!  I could feel on my right arm very cold water and I quickly realized that my HRC friends were looking out for me..  lol   I rather enjoyed my dousing of water, while Derek on the other hand got the full honors of the traditional dousing by getting the COLD water dump!  :)  It was hilarious!!!