Heart Attack On The Hoof...

...strikes again!!  Chad's paint mare has been snorty the last couple of days.  But she has this issue with routine.  She craves it, loves it, and then begins anticipating it.  Sometimes she begins anticipating it to the point that she gets herself all worked up.  So last night when she wouldn't let Fiona settle in and eat her grain, I separated them and she paced and ate, paced and ate.  Fiona ate happily and didn't miss Horse Girl one bit.  I thought Horse Girl had started her routine anxiety thing again and it was time to shake it up.

So tonight I come home with a plan.  Separate all of them for their grain.  Leaving Horse Girl in the pasture, putting Fi and Tari in the stalls and then returning them all together in the end.  On my way to feed I decide I should start the car, as it is still stuck where I left it on Wednesday.  Its been below zero and will be again a couple of times this weekend (guess that makes it all weekend), so it can't hurt to run it.  I fired it up and while leaving the poor little car, noticed that there were hoof tracks in the snow right next to it.  Not horse hooves, not donkey hooves.  But cloven hooves.  Just one set.  They are either a large elk or a small moose.  I had stepped on the good ones before I noticed them.  The weren't running hooves.  I could tell this because the toes weren't spread, they were close together.  And there were no dew claw marks if it were a male animal charging through the area there would be two small poke marks behind each set of hooves.  Funny I thought.  Some wild animal wondering through the place inches from the car.  Hope its not bedding down near here...but then again that could explain why Horse Girls being a dork.  She doesn't like sleep overs...

I went on to dish up the grain, load my Danger with the hay and Horses' grain and called Fiona. Fiona knows her name, loves her name, and comes when ever she hears it. Just after I called Fi, Mindy called. I chat with Mindy and call my horses yet again. Nothing, I tell my sister how odd it is that the girls weren't coming.  I grab the halter and keep talking while I walk.  I follow the well used trails to where the hide in the trees...and spy on the house.  I follow their trails right to the end.  Now, Mindy and I are having heat attacks.  I have no horses.  And if I'm missing one, so is she!  OMG!!  Now there are tracks heading farther down the fence line, but they are not on a normal well used trail.  They are scattered and random.  The snow is deeper here because none of us go here...no real reason.  Lovely, up to my knees.

Poor Mindy has to  listen to me huff and puff as I walk down the fence line looking for the girls.  As the far corner becomes visible to me in the fading light, so does that load overo mare!  Thank God.  Mindy and I both breath a sigh of relief as the two "darkies" round the corner behind her.  I let them approach me and say hello to each one.  Horse Girl is on high alert and acting like maybe the animal that was here tried to kidnap her.  Then I notice she has dried sweat on her chest, neck, and flanks.  So does Fiona, and our Baby Momma.  Not cool, because it wasn't a warm day today...warmest I saw it was 16...  My girls shouldn't be sweating in this weather!!  I got them caught up, but they were all wound up enough that they weren't all that interested in their grain.  Fi was also a little sucked up in the flanks.  Although they all showed signs of running around like loons, all were fully intact and no worse for wear.

So I hung out with them until most of their grain was gone and then poured it out on the hay in the pasture.  When I left them everyone was quite.  When Chad rolled in they were still eating.  I told Kage he may have to go out and bark his fool head off later this evening.  He said no problemo!!  When we lived at "The Ranch" I really whined about how the mules were a pain in the a$$.  They were for the most part poorly bred, poorly trained, and Becky was the only one worth the time of day.  But they kept everything out of the pasture and gave the horses (and me) a sense of security from all of the things that go bump in the night or broad daylight for that matter.  So in a case like this, I miss the long eared freaks!  I told Chad we need a mule.  One that doesn't suck.  Oh, and I don't want to pay anything for it....  Doubt there is one of those out there.  But if I find one, I think I'll bring it home.  Doesn't have to do anyting but keep my all Heart Attacks On The Hoof safe and happy.  Oh, and allow its feet to be done, take its wormer, vaccines, and not be a total a$$ all the time.  Hell, it doesn't even have to be completely sound for that matter... ( o:

Man I hope that the first day/evening of 2011 is quieter than the last of 2010!!

Happy New Year Everybody!!

Rounding out 2010!

 So when we were kids and complained about how little time we had left to do whatever activity.  My mom would always say, "Guess time flies when you're having fun."  Now I am not going to say ALL of 2010 was fun, but there were some pretty good "parts" to it and it moved right out that is for sure! 

Here my dad is getting Wyatt "All jacked up on Mt. Dew"!  Yeah, we are "those" kind of people!  If I think Chad is being a drama momma, I often tell him, "You're not on fire Ricky Bobby!" (In my best southern accent.  My grand parents are from Arkansas and Missouri, so I feel like genetically I should be predisposed to have a good one!  Hehehee!!) And if he knows it, or isn't too crabby about my comment, will follow up with a call for help from Tom Cruise and Oprah.  Sad, but true!  ( :  Wyatt, the number one bright spot this year!!  Yeah for Wyatt, he's the best!!

My dad and Chad causing my Aunt Karen some grief...but I'll tell ya what.  She walks right into some of it with a kick me sign!  ( :  Another great spot in the year this year was Chad and I finally getting a house.  Thank God!  And I do mean that!!  We got some great help from my parents and sister Kacey, her main squeeze Germy...I mean Jeremy and their 4 kids.  Chad's dad and step mom came down and pitched in and really made our summer!  It was great to get help from our families!!!

We are also pretty excited and thankful that my sister Mindy has a DTF baby on the way!!  What a great experience this is going to be!!  I can't wait to see what this little girl, (we ordered that sex you know!) is going to grow up to be!!  Her goof mom, now know as heart attach on the hoof did give us quite a scare just before Christmas.  Enough of a scare that I almost wanted to haul her to mom and dad's for the time we were gone.  If it weren't winter in N. Idaho, I may have!!

How the dingy broad did what she did, will of course remain a mystery as will how long she was stuck.  Sorry no pictures as I was pi$$ing myself while trying to figure out if she was still alive and how the he!! I was going to free her dead or alive.  I pulled into the driveway chatting on the phone with Mindy like every other day of the week and I saw Tari laying on her side near the feeder.  Three legs stuck out like a cow with bloat.  I am giving Mindy the blow by blow as I approach the "dead" horse and see her breath...then the "dead" horse realizes I'm there and lets out a desperate nicker.  It took me hours...really seconds to see she had her hoof wedge in a small upright support for the feeders trough.  She must have been wallowing around and some how got it stuck in there.  The feeder wasn't frozen to the ground but she felt herself get stuck and froze.  And then she waited for me to get home.  It was fairly easy to get her foot out and her on her feet. 

She was a little lame for a few hours due to the long period of time her left hind leg was flexed, but by morning she was rearing to go!  I did have to put some blankets and towels in the dryer to get her warmed back up.  She got the shakes once we were  up and moving.  I called the vet for some advice...never heard back from him.  Until the next Monday...when he got my page.  He said that they had been having problems with the paging system there.  He also asked me why I didn't call back.  I told him it was because she turned the corner in a good way so I didn't feel I needed to light up his office.  I don't think he was impressed, but alls well that ends well...and hey, I consulted with my sister several times...that counts right?  LOL!

Chad and I got a new puppy.  She is loosely Kages replacement as last year he had a very bad winter.  Many a night I found myself crying over his dumb butt.  Apparently the angst he feels about us getting a puppy has recharged his batteries.  Although crabby, arthritic, and now officially known as the fun killer...he is fat and happy!  Eating all of the candy I don't like and as much horse poop as he can gobble up at one time.

Chad named her Seven...  Seven times cuter than your dog he tells people!  Such a proud parent!!

Mindy and I decided to theme Christmas this year.  Our theme was a useful stuff only.  If it has to be dusted, then it will have to be re-gifted.  I think that we did a really good job of it!  Dad got a shotgun, home protection.  We bought mom a new snow blower, home improvement.  ( And her old one is ailing.)  I got Mindy 6 bottles of her favorite hot sauce, food improvement.  A misc. leather scrap bag, tack improvement.  And an angry desk calender, schedule improvement.  Freddy got a memory card for his cell phone.  No more deleting Wyatt pictures and videos.  And Wyatt....well how do you get a little boy something that doesn't have to be put on a shelf or box?  We got him a leap frog learning toy.

Kacey and her family showed up late on Christmas Day.  So while waiting for them, mom gave Wyatt rides on the shovel Mindy got.  The Border Collies weren't sure it was that great of an idea.

It worried Kage too.  He wasn't sure that the old lady dragging the kid around could keep from running him over.  Of course he wouldn't get away from the action either.  Silly dog.

Fred and Mindy's kid will ride anything!!  He rode the shovel, the dog, and two different little kid cars while he was at his Grandparents house.

Once Kacey, Jeremy, Chris, and Olivia...oh, and Jeremy's dog 88 (yeah another NASCAR reference...) showed up, it was present opening all over again!!  Chris and Olivia played Santa...  Hip young Santa's with I-Pods and Monster Gear.

It was a pretty good Christmas and family gathering to end the year.  We weren't all together last year, so it was special...like the window licking  kind of special, but special none the less.  ( :  Hehehee!!

Poor little 88 didn't like his niece Seven.  When he isn't happy, he hides his head.  He choose to hide under the tree.  It was pretty easy for her to find him...much to his chagrin.  He tried hiding his head in several other places, only to find her breathing down his neck.

Mindy and I also got to see our 4th sister Bonnie this trip home.  I've posted about Bonnie before, she's the Iron Woman.  She is truly a person that makes you better for knowing her.

Well that about sums it up for me and my rambling...  I am not sure I stayed the least bit on topic.

For once, Kacey is taller than me.  Too bad for her it all ended when I stood up.

Wyatt is such a ham.  I can't wait 'til he gets older.  It should be a wild ride.  Mindy decided yesterday, having him be a farrier would work out smashingly for her.  Ride, rope, and shoe...that'd be OK!!

88's dad.  Germy.  Yes germ + y.  Kissing my sister will do that to a guy.  Poor poor Germy.  Whatever germ he has also got to his head and caused him to be a Dale Junior fan.  SO much of a fan that all of the X-Mas wrapping paper had Junior all over it.  I hope they find a cure for him soon!  ( :

This long and rambling blog post wore everyone out.  Wyatt's done.  Finished.  Kaput.  Dads not really sleeping, he was just trying to hide from the camera.  Little does he know that he has a couple of appearances on here.  Sorry dude!!

Seven had to sleep for two days to get recharged.  Being the center of a new universe is quite hard.

This is a close up of what her mouth looks like when she is snoring on the way home for the holidays.  Funny, isn't it?

Only one day left of 2010....wonder how that will go!  Hahahaaa!!

Hey, Its Still Winter!

We got anywhere between 14-18 inches of snow at our house AFTER we left for work at 5 a.m.

These were taken around 7 p.m.  These trees were mostly uncovered when we left.

The car is buried in the snow just past the barn.  Maybe I will get pictures of that tonight.

Its pretty sad/funny!  When I lead the girls past the "car monster" this morning they all snorted and carried on.  Dorks!

But all I can say is... I love my truck.  Its beat up, old (2000) and probably needs some work...

But its one ton of diesel furry!  LMAO!!

So there you go, its snowy here...pretty snowy!!  ( o :



Don't Blame Us.... Its Genetic!!

For as long as I can remember, my mom has been feeding anything that she can buy food for.  She insists that the wild birds NEED her to feed them.  She keeps cat food, water, AND a litter box in the old house for the stray cats.  Cats that she will catch, place, spay, and neuter.  She allowed us to bring home and feed stray dogs, bummer calves, and pretty much anything else someone would give the Wyatt girls.  I say she allowed us, because my dad has more sense than the rest of us...  Although he doesn't want anything to suffer, he really doesn't want to run a soup kitchen for the neighborhood animals.

So knowing this about my mom, it should come as no surprise that Mindy and I want to save every other horse we see.  Mindy also has an uncanny knack of buying horses that need far more than the owners tell her they do.  Twice she has bought horses off of pictures and video that are on the other side of the States to have the arrive under weight, unkept, and needing more than a little riding.  Both times the owners tell her crazy stories, stop answering her e-mails, and then basically fall off the face of the earth.  The first horse this happened with is now with the breeder of her good barrel mare Breeze.  The second one, now called Stewart is headed to our good friend Julies horse for some work and possible resale. 

So Stewart is leaving and my sister is telling her tale of being screwed to a good friend of hers, whose daughter is rodeoing in college this year.  Her daughter's boyfriend is a roper and she was attending a roping with him and witnessed a snot nose brat have a hissy fit on her horse.  It wasn't the first time she had seen this girls performance, but this time the horse blew and blew big.  She overheard the girl telling her boyfriend that she was done and this mare was headed to the kill pen.

The daughter went to the sale yard and found the mare in the kill pen.  She made a deal with one of the people at the yard and bought the mare before she even hit the sales ring.  The papers were at the yard, but the guy refused to release them because the horse hadn't went through the ring.  Whatever.  At Thanksgiving she hauled the mare home along with her rodeo string.  When she left to go back to school, the mare stayed behind.

Mindy's friend says I just don't know what she was thinking!  We have two really nice horses for sale right now, we don't need a horse that's been banged on and dropped at the sale yard.  So on her way home, Mindy says I think we need this horse.  I said well have you seen her.  Nope, but I will go and look she says.  I told her that I could take Sally no problem if she needed space, but if she really liked the mare, I'd take the mare also.  Do I need another horse, uh- no.  Does Mindy need another horse, uh- no.  Did her friends need another horse, uh- no.  But hey her friends daughter saw something in the mare that made her decide that she needed to make sure she didn't get on a truck to Canada.

When Mindy went over and looked at the little mare she was blanketed.  She pulled the blanket and found two large saddle sores on her withers.  Hmmm, wonder why the mare was having troubles?  Yeah, us neither.  Mindy took a couple of pictures and texts them to me.  She looked a little long in the back, but otherwise conformationally good.  I call and Mindy says, Nikki- she is Midori with two eyes.  14.2-14.3hh and now she yours.  Merry Christmas.  ( :  I said, she ours.  Thanks!  Mindy reimbursed them their rescue costs and now as soon as we can get all of our ducks in a row she'll land at my house.

Until then, Mindy will evaluate her saddle sores.  Check different saddle fits as well as seeing what pad may or may not help.  Once she feels the mares sores are good enough to tolerate it she will ride her.  And as soon as we can get it all worked out she will land here.  After that, who knows.... but I'll keep you posted!!  LOL!!

As a side note, watching the NFR...barrels on right now!!  Several mares running!!  Running hard!  I love it!!  Mare power!!  Mare currently leading!!  Woot woot!!

12 Inches O' Snow!! (Maybe more like 14...)

This is the snowfall from Thanksgiving Weekend.  Its pretty, but there was a lot!  Because we weren't at home for the majority of the snow, we had a lot of digging out to do!

We have since gotten another 9-12 inches, Monday- Tuesday.  Making this the snowiest November since some time in the 1950's.  Nice...

Never mind that it took us about 8 hours to get all of the gates dug out, the garage, apartment, side walks, and barn done too...oh, and the drive way.  Its fairly long and on an upwards winding slope.

Even though I absolutely HATE this teeny tiny little tractor we bought with the place, the snow blower attachment it has rocks!!  After we got the hang of it, it was pretty easy to use!!

And it saved our butts Tuesday afternoon...I got home and blew the driveway clear.  I got in the house frozen and wet/snowy around 6 p.m. (after working all day....awwweee, poor 'lil Nikki!)  And when we left the house at 5:30 this morning, there was just as much snow on the ground as when I started the night before.

The girls are glad to get into the barn and out of the snow.  Fiona and Horse Girl are sharing a stall with a large run and doing really great.  Tari has her own stall, and who doesn't love their own room!!

My poor sweet donkeys are still in there pen by the house.  I am dieing to put them out with the Big Girls, but I am not sure if they will be able to find a place to crawl out of...  Stupid me and thinking we only needed a 4 wire fence...and then not making sure that all our help kept the bottom wire low.  Oh, well live and learn!!

The dogs are moderately amused by the snow.  Abbi is of course well equipped to be out in all weather, Kage and Seven not so much.  But as long as there is fun to have, Kage will tough it out...and Seven party's hard and then goes in the house to warm up...then back out again!

Kage also adores digging in the snow!  I also find it just find as he isn't destroying what could be my pasture!!  ( : 

The snow was so deep, that we even ended up making places for the dogs to go potty.  If it would have gotten too much more, I would have been out in the horse pasture plowing spots for them to get a reprieve from the deep snow.  I say would have, because today it has warmed up to 34-38 and the snow we would have been getting has turned to rain.

So now here we are with over 2ft of snow that is getting rained on.  Only a light rain, but I can see a lot of ice in our near future.  Not conducive to getting around easily that's for sure!!

One bonus of our first winter here being kind of hard, I guess you'd call it, and our fence being only partially done, is that I know what I am going to do this spring for next winter!!

Yeup, got me a list started.  A list that includes, but is not limited to putting power and water to the pasture.  Running an electrical cord for water and dealing with a hose for filling that water is less than fun.  I have over 100ft from the power and water source to where I need it.  Its at the top of my list!!

Then theres the lean to for the pasture.  We have trees, but its just not doing it for me...or them.  Thus bringing in the horse to the barn.  With a lean to, they can be out of the weather without me working so hard!!  Cleaning stalls in the winter is interesting at times!  ( :  We are also adding the 5th wire to the fence...that way I can have everyone together...unless something warrants a separation.  But you know what I mean!!

I have several others, but those are the 4 that are definitely at the top of my list.  Better for me, is that my husband sees that they are important and totally agrees with me!  ( :

We are all sitting around here hoping that December doesn't set any snow fall records this year.  Don't really want it to set any temperature records either.  How about a nice "normal" December?