Just Add Water!

After a long day of barrel racing, it was time to start prepping the arena for the next day's races.

The sprinkler was out doing it's thing and Wyatt asked to go see it.  We drove down to the arena, got out, and the little dude stripped off his clothes and headed out.  

His mom played with him some and then they helped out Brad when it was time to move the sprinkler up to the other end of the arena! 

I'll have a bit more on the race later on!!

Good Gravy...

I know that plenty of people keep their horses/donkeys separated from their dogs...  They don't allow the dogs in the pasture or around the horses in any way.  I really do understand that this is a safety first mentality.  I respect it.  I completely understand.  I don't assume my dogs are OK around other peoples horses.  I always ask... 

Frankly though, "my people" are those that embrace dogs AND horses together.

At my house, everyone is expected to get along and behave!

Most days everyone complies, but then there are days...

Some days it's a horse.  Some days it's a dog.  And then some days it's a donkey.

The dogs are easily reprimanded.  When it's a horse, it's usually Fiona harassing Kage.  Fiona loves to sniff him when he is in the passenger side of the Danger...  Kage HATES Fiona sniffing him.  So I just have to redirect Fiona to something more interesting...easy enough most days.

But when it's a donkey...  Good Gravy!  It's on!

The boys have been around Abbi and Kage as long as they (the Hee-Haws) have been with me.  They have known Seven her entire life.  They actually seem kind of found of Seven.  They will play with/around her, without trying to stomp her flat.  Kage and Abbi are a different story.  They will gladly try and stomp either of them...periodically...and it's usually not too vicious...it's almost like they are reminding the dogs of their boundary's. 

And when we have these Hee-Haw out bursts, it's usually Parton acting out.  He seems to be the dominate Hee-Haw...also the crabbier of the two all the way around.

So on Sunday afternoon, I'm wrapping up feeding and I see Patron start to stalk Kage...Who happens to be eating horse poop.  Must have been a crime to eat horse poop on the third Sunday of July...

I called the dog over to me.  I had the Danger between me and the dog and Hee-Haws.  As Kage rounded the front of the Danger Patron was striking head down in full on attack mode.

Kage turned and answered Patron's charge open mouthed.  I was about 3 feet away from the two, and I yelled at Kage to stop...he had little choice but to stop as the Hee-Haw had him down and rolling and was actually under Patron at that time.  Kage went limp.  The Hee-Haw continued to pass over the dog and turn.  I stepped in between the two just as the Hee-Haw decided to charge the dog again (who was still on the ground waiting to be told he could leave...).  I yelled a few cuss words at Patron and then smacked the little ass on the head as hard as I could with my hand.  He slammed on his breaks and stared at me.  I loaded the dog in the Danger and made sure he was fine.  He was, so then I went to check the Hee-Haw. 

Apparently Patron was still a bit miffed that I had stopped his fun and wanted nothing to do with me.  I had to chase him down and wrestle him into submission to check him over.  He did have a slobber spot on his mid neck, but other than having his dander up, he was fine.  I gave him a stern talking to and then decided to catch up him and Jack-Jack.

The boys are starting to look rather fat.  Patron being the fattest of all.  I hate to keep everyone separated, but my donkey's are teetering on unhealthy I think.  )0: 

So I am now going to follow Ride A Good Horse's lead and putting the boys in a Jenny Craig pen.  Of course this is a Jenny Craig For Men pen, but a diet is in order none the less.  

Just in case you think I'm exaggerating the Hee-Haws weight issue...check out the picture below.  This is Patron's butt.  Those are FAT ripples, not roughed up hair...  Ugh, I may have let it almost go too far...

Too bad I can't pony them off of a horse without taking a whole day of training and frustration...  And I'm not sure that it would work IF I took the time...  Maybe a tread mill!  LOL!!

You Could Buy One Cheaper, Who Turned Up The Vacuum?

That soft sucking sound has now become a full on roar.  Oh, yippee.  Now I know I said it's about the journey just as much as it is about getting the mare in foal...

I'm not changing my tune, but this is getting ridiculous!

I have said before that if it weren't for bad luck, this mare wouldn't have any luck at all!

So here's the latest on Horse Girl and her 2012 breeding season...
Got her infection cleared, egg developing nicely, mare hauled back to farm for breeding....
And she refused the stallion.  She did this on Sunday night and then again Monday morning.  So Terry loaded he up and hauled her and the stallion to the vets office to A.I. her, Monday early afternoon.  I of course was in the loop the entire time and gave the OK for everything.  They got her loaded into the stocks and ultra sounded her before collection of the stallion, and she had already ovulated.  The vet opted out of breeding her because he said that he felt that at best our chances of conception were 50/50 and he felt he would be wasting my money.
He of course has no real explanation why she would stand for the stallion once and then refuse him the next time around.
So now it's a what to do type of situation.
Bring her home empty.  Then what... Try to breed her again next year using A.I. and doing with with Dr. Peters...  Try it again and use another mare.  If we did that, who would I use???
Leave her there and give it one last try.  How many tries is too many??  How much money is too much money??
Well, I decided that I'd cap the vet at $700.  I discussed this with him and the breeder.  They are both understanding.  I definitely didn't plan for this.  I did put some aside for extras, but I am not going to kid myself or you...I didn't plan for this type of issue.
I spoke with the vet and he said that although she is healthy and has had healthy pregnancies, he uterus is just "out of practice" and she is now classified as a problem mare.  Yippee....  He said that if she takes this time, he sees no reason why she couldn't carry full term and then next year getting her in foal  will be much easier.  Probably with no problems at all.  I had to stifle a laugh at the next year thing.  Ummmm, I'm guessing that there won't be a next year breeding unless someone wants to do a breed lease on her...
This is her last hurrah as far as I go.  Chad just wanted a baby to keep out of her.
So getting back on target...we are short cycling her today (Saturday) for a breeding on Tuesday or Wednesday. (Via A.I.) Then we will ultrasound her at or around the following Monday to make sure she didn't/ doesn't fill with fluid AND then we will ultra sound at 15 days to check for a healthy embryo.
Are we having fun yet??
 LMAO!

Fighting The Bugs

Ahhh, summer time bugs.  Good grief!  We have these rotten little black gnats again.  I am thinking that these are going to be an every year thing here.  Bah hum bug!  :0)

I have gotten myself a little routine that I am using that seems to mostly work. 

I also throw in the eared fly masks every other day, but they are ugly and I didn't take a picture of them.  The every other day thing gives them a break from being gooped up.

I'm using the Skin So Soft on their faces and inside their ears.  I don't like to put the "chemicals" around their eyes or in there ears.  I have no good reason other than to me it seems safer to use the Skin So Soft...  ;0)

I use the Repel-X Lotion on their chest, bellies, and inside their hind legs.  I then rotate every second day with the Repel-X spray and the Bronco spray.  Reason for this??  The Bronco has citronella in it and the Repel-X does not.  The One Spot that I used late last week, seems to be taking care of the flies, but not the gnats.  

While getting the horses as close to bug free as I can/could I decided to get a few confirmation pictures.  I need to get some of Fiona so that I can get her registered in my name.  :0)  Yes, that's right.  Fi is 5 and I bought her right off of her momma and she is still registered in her breeders name.  I have all of the paper work in order, just haven't ever got it done.  So I decided this year to just do it...  Well these won't work because of the focus being off and shadows...  But I decided to force them on anyone who reads this!  Sorry!!

I wish her summer coat was more like Remi' and had some dapples in it...  But no such luck. 

I'm sure it's just the coat pattern, but maybe she needs something she is not getting.  Hard to tell...unless I get off my hinney and research it I guess!  

And then here's the knot on her head that kept me from moving her to a better spot to try and get her photo.  I need to make sure the pictures show her very faint star, but don't want them to show her as a knot head!  Heheheee...  It's almost gone today, 5 days later.  It was never hot, and she never acted like she was in any sort of pain, but it looks ugly.

I'm guessing she got stung as there were no hairs out of place anywhere in the area of the bump.

And of course some pictures of Remi.  The Remster of course has papers that are lost to us.  So there is not need for any such pictures of her...

But she is just too awesome not to take pictures of!  (0:

You may or may not notice that Remi isn't tied to the trailer.  That is because she gets kinda weird occasionally when messing with her head while tied.  This way if I upset her, she can take a few steps back with out any restriction and settle herself easily.  She is coming along nicely with her head handling, but she still has her moments.

I've read that diatomaceous earth helps keep flies down when fed to the horses.  I am wondering if it would help with the gnats.  The pasture needs cleaned again, because we have one high traffic/lounge area where they really mess it up.  Sadly it's also where they eat and drink.... Nothing like a really dirty kitchen is there?  :0)

Out to ride before work...  There really are some benefits to swing shift, I get to be out before the heat of the day!!

Ever Wonder About "Our" Horses and The Olympics?

Came across this on BHW and thought I'd share!

It's pretty cool and definitely worth checking out...  I'm going to follow it for the entirety of the events!

Sure wish I could put my girls up in a place like that!  :0)

http://boydandsilvamartin.blogspot.ca/2012/06/american-olympic-horses-have-arrived-in.html

Keeping My Big Girl Pants Untangled...

Trying To Get It Right

In my attempt to get rid of Remi's dry spots over her whithers, I am now on my 6th saddle pad and my second saddle.

This saddle pad is an Air Ride...Professional Choice I believe.  I bought it used.  It was supposed to be ridden in maybe 15 times...  I think that that was an understatement, but it's condition isn't too bad.  Just more used than I thought I was getting.

The saddle is Mindy's that she is selling.  Most likely selling to me... (0:

I had used this saddle before I got the saddle pad, and I noticed that she seemed moving freer in it than my other saddle.  She seemed more comfortable and happier in it, even though she still had some dry spots when I tried all the other pads with this saddle, it seems to be a better fit for her all the way around.

Once I introduced the new to me pad, the spots have all but gone.  It doesn't seem like they are gone entirely, but much much smaller.  They went from the size of my palm to the size of a nickel or so.  I wonder if the scar tissue from her old saddle soars make her sweat less there in those areas...  Because over all she seems much happier under saddle!  

So any one want to buy my Connie Combs?  (0:  LOL!

I will posting it for sale on BHW where I bought it from and also probably Craig's List after I get some pictures of it.

Over all I am pretty excited that I may have gotten all of this sorted out.  Too bad it took me so long.  Sorry Remi!

Yet again another weird picture.  When I look at it in my files, it all looks fine.  But once I transfer it from my computer to blogger, it gets wonkey.  Hmmm...

Who knows!

You Could Buy One Cheaper....That Soft Sucking Sound

Do you hear it?

When I picked up my cell phone off of my desk Tuesday (7/3/12) and saw that the stallion owner had called and left a message AND sent me a text.  I hadn't been away from my phone for more than 10 minutes and she had contacted me twice.

I knew that Horse Girl was headed to the vet for an ultra sound to confirm my...I mean Chad's Si Dude foal that day, but was shocked that she had reached out twice.

I didn't bother listening to the voice mail, I just looked at the text.

It merely said please call me ASAP.  It was left at 10:52 and it was 10:55.  

I thought to myself...for me that IS ASAP!  (0:

I totally felt like a kid who was about to get her butt chewed by her mom when Terry answered the phone.  She said Hello Nikki, we've got a problem.  I am going to put you on the phone with Dr. Goddell (I think...I honestly can't remember for sure)

That's when I heard that soft sucking sound sneaking its way into the room...

It's sound increased as the vet introduce himself and being explaining "our" problem.
When the vet preformed the ultra sound to see the heart beat of the foal, they found a uterus full of fluid instead.  This is the vet that did the ultra sound earlier in June to see if she was near ovulation.  So he knew for a fact that she wasn't fluid filled before breeding.
We talked about why fluid fills the uterus first...  What causes this?  Generally infection.  Lovely...
She had a negative culture.  He assured me that sometime you get a false negative, or you have a dormant infection and that breeding gets it going.
So I say, what's the plan for us now?
He says we will do a culture and see what we get.  He said he wouldn't be surprised to find a positive on her...
They contacted me on Friday, to say that the culture was positive and that they would begin treatment on her on Monday (7/9/12) and then keep ultra sounding her to make sure the fluid left and to also watch for a follicle.  They would then breed her once the follicle appeared.

I haven't hear how much fuel I owe for transporting my horse to and from the vet twice...so I can't tell you that yet...
But we have another ultra sound that showed us our troubles: $45
Vet says treatment, board at facility, and ultra sounds to get her bred won't run more than: $400
(Yikes...)
Another month of mare care: $217
And she ran out of grain...not sure how much I owe there, as they bought her more....I'll throw out another $40 on that just to be safe....
So direct costs thus far, not guesstimated costs: $843.00
Indirect costs: $418.37
Total out of pocket thus far: $1261.37

That sucking sound is slowly growing in volume... it was a distant soft sound, not now...  (0:

Good grief...so much for a home run on the live cover.
Also time to decided if she doesn't take this time, what to do....

Schedule Change...

As you may or may not know Chad and I own our own small business.  Well I like to say we are owned by our won business...

But that's neither here nor there for the most part.  We work A LOT and miss out on quite a bit of fun activities and down time...  But that's the price we are paying for "living the dream" I suppose!  (0:

It's not all bad, because it does feel good to know that we are making it on our own...

Any whooo we have been running a short swing shift  Monday- Thursday...  With two part timers.  One with experience and one without.

On Monday 7-02-12 our experienced part timer quit...to go work for another shop...  One we don't compete with head to head, but have worked with and do compete a small bit with.  We were less than impressed and NOT happy...  But what do you do?

So we have ALL of this work that has due dates...  And we took those job figuring on the 24 hours a week we got from swing shift...  Now we are without them...  

So Chad and I had to figure out how to make up those hours while we try and either find a replacement for the experienced person OR figure out how to get caught up some what and get our production done in one shift.

The best place to start was to put a day shift person on swing shift.  Our most experienced employee has a family.  And was willing to work swing, but needed to talk to his wife and work out their family schedule.  Chad does all the "business" along with programming and set up...I do the shipping, invoicing, prepping, and operating...  So rather than try and get Chad's work done with our customers and suppliers in swing shift hours before they close, it made more sense for me to start the swing shift ball rolling.

I'm juggling a few things a bit, but can get most all of my stuff done without too much trouble!!

This is Sunday at around 10 a.m.

This is Monday 10: a.m.  I am not sure what happened to my picture file, but it looks odd.

Tried to fix them, but I couldn't get 'er done!

Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.  

And today, Wednesday at 9:50 a.m.

To add to the drama of working its been hot here...  It went from cold enough that the pellet stove was running to the air conditioner in two days...  Ugh!  

I tried to enlarge these to make it easier to see the high and low temps for that time marked by the blue (I think) line or stem...

Sunday and Monday were exactly the same, but we seem to be on a cooling trend.  To add to the heat, its humid...  I am such a baby!  I really like the mid 70's to low 80's, so this quick and extreme (to me)  change in temp makes me whine!  (0:

The bonus to this swing shift is that I can get on the horses and ride before it gets to my "too hot to ride" temp of anything over 85.  Got in two rides this week and feel pretty good about it.  Today is an off day, because Kage decided NOT to go with Chad to work.  Darned old dog.  The worst thing I ever did with this dog is to have NOT crate trained him.  At the time I thought it was awful to lock your dog in a box...now I know I was wrong...  Oh, hindsight!!

Chad gets the evening feedings with the girls...  So I get everything ready for him for optimal ease...  He is enjoying getting to know Remi.  She has been pretty stand offish with him before now.  I have noticed that with Tari and Horse Girl gone, the friendly and happy persona of Fiona is wearing off on Remi!  She has been much more approachable and doesn't have as many panicked looks on her face of late...  And Chad is happy to report she will let him pet her now, without holding her breath.  And that, truly is a big deal 'round here!!

And of course, I get myself loaded up for the morning feeding too...before I go off to work!!

And that's what's new here...for now!

Happy 4th of July!!

Remi At 5:30 a.m....

Love the way the early morning sun bounced off this mare this morning!!