The wrong Turn

When you live with a large acreage a herd that plays together, stays together is a thing of beauty. Every one knows the rules..you can wander off grazing, but you best be ready to move, when your herd leader says MOVE!

As a horse owner when you do not have complete access to your horse's pasture within a sight line, a lost horse, away from the herd, can only mean one thing....trouble!

After being gone to town, when I returned home today, my mare herd contained 5 horses, not 6. This is NOT good news...it generally means one thing...someone is hurt and can not travel with the herd....other things come to mind, none of them pleasant....SO, I fed the mares/youngsters and rushed to the house for a quick change of clothes and a 4 wheeler ride to find my lost soul ....Flame.

Lots of things went through my head....where was he ? was he stuck in a fenceline somewhere? had someone shot accidently shot him?( we have an elk season going on ) was he on the other side of the perimeter fence and I would need a miracle , with fence pliers to get him back through the fence?

I was TOTALLY relived to find out that Flame had simply taken a wrong turn...LOL...he was with the herd, and followed one of their "horse trails" but the herd took the other trail instead...and there was Flame, really only 50ft from the trail that would lead him to the herd, but since he is a youngster, and could not see it, and did not know it was there close, from years of experience, there he stood, waiting for help ;-) He was perfectly fine, and downright happy to see me ;-)

WHEW !!! I put my heart and soul into my herd, and never want to see one injured in any manner...this time we got lucky!

Kallie at work

Kallie has been working! I am starting Kallie in harness, soon to be put to a cart....and I finally found a suitable cart for us...a heavy duty training cart with thick, nobby motorcycle wheels...Kallie has shown a stellar attitude in all her lessons, I attribute this to her early training with Trainer Mike ( Mike Kincella- Deer Park, WA well respected dressage trainer ) He found Kallie's work ethic for us, and she has not failed to step up to any challenge I give her.



My process of cart training has been as follows....there was not a whole lot of ground work I still needed to do with Kallie..she even ground ties! so, intro to harness, wearing her harness while lunging, long linning, ground driving, into to blinkers, working with blinkers while long linning, with me out of sight, into to the travers, dragging the travers beside her, travers work with 2 helpers ( Kallie in travers, but not hitched to it ) hitching to travers....


NOW..we start, travers and long linning, travers and blinkers, more long linning, travers and driving OUTSIDE the arena....up, down, over gravel, on the road edge ( I have a huge advantage, we live on a noisy county road, BUT I have a safe place to work a driving horse along side of the road, including room for a travers, and esp using blinkers.

and soon...I will hitch Kallie to our cart...the "keen green" LOL...it screamed NAME ME !!! and we start the whole process all over again ;-)


stay tuned!

Tiny Bundle...HUGE miracle

Our tiny miracle

James and his Son...."AJ"

For those who say miracles do not happen in this day and age, I say to them...you are most certainly wrong!

Last January, my Son James informed me I would be a Grandma. He and his fiance' were surprised with this news themselves. "Elissa" the Mom to be suffers from Rhuemotoid arthritis, for one...and has not been in good health the last couple years. The chances of her carrying this baby to full term were slim...and that was before the problems started.

Elissa spent the majority of her pregnancy in the hospital...she could not take her RA meds, putting her body in severe pain. Seizures resulted from that pain, and meds, meds and MORE meds were given her....seizure meds are NOT what you want to be taking during a pregnancy, the risk of birth defects or the loss of the baby were very real. Many, many times through out her pregnancy she would start having contractions. First we hung on to hope she would make it to 32 weeks, the point of which the local hospital could handle the baby if he came at that point...then we hung on to hope she would make it to 33 weeks, 34, well, you get the picture. We were indeed waiting for August...her due date was August 21st.

After much of Feb. most of April, all of May, June, and 3 weeks of July, Elissa was released from the hospital....she headed home and took things easy. We rushed in a baby shower, and I spent a day organizing the nursery......we soon would see a real life baby arrive...several questions still remained though...could she delivery him ? or would there have to be a C section ? and the big question...would he be alright?

Last Tuesday, I was to meet up with the kids and drop off some more baby stuff at their house..when I got to their house, there was a note on the door....Elissa's water had broke during the early morning hours and they were at the hospital....I headed there.

I really had not intended to be there for the birth of my first Grandbaby...but once I got there, I just could not bear to leave, and frankly, no one asked me too ;-) It was Wednesday afternoon before the baby arrived, but I treasured every moment....My Son was "going" to video the whole thing, haha! but in the last hour he panicked and got way too nervous and scared....I don't blame him at all!

Elissa had a tough last hour, the baby lodged on her bad hip and she could not get him moved for quite a while...but then, almost before the doctor could get in the room, our first Grandbaby arrived.... I cried, James cried !!! Elissa beamed !!!

and...our baby was not only healthy, but handsome too! his name is "August James" he weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and was 20 " long....he is perfect in so many ways...his name was chosen in honor of his two Great Grandpas....and August means "determined" that would certainly describe what he went through to get here...and you see...after all that...we really WERE waiting for "August"

The best news is...his Mom is feeling REALLY good, and is taking excellent care of him...his parents beam when ever they see him ;-) course, his Grandma probably does too. Hours and hours of prayer were spent..and we appreciate everyone who prayed, stressed and cared along with us. THANK YOU !!!

Happy Birthday Krinkle Clown !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv1_qYwn06Y
This month Krinkles celebrates her 25 th birthday ! It is a great milestone in a horses life...Krinkles calendar may say "25" but according to our vet, her body and her teeth say "I'm really only 10" Krinkles came to live with us in 1997 when I was searching for a broke horse for my 11 year old son Matthew to ride. I went to look at a farm not too far from our place, with the intention of buying a gelding. The geldings I saw, were either not for sale, or way too green for a young man to enjoy...so, I took the chance and bought a mare.

Krinkles was nicely started under saddle, but she had her own opinion about how you rode. She insisted on kind, soft hands, and legs that stayed quiet unless she was being cued. I swear her and Matthew went backwards more than forwards that first year...but he eventually got the hang of riding her and him and I and our horses spent many peaceful hours out trail riding together. I do not think there was ever a moment when Matthew felt he could not handle her, she was gracious and forgiving, strict and loving all at the same time. They frequently spent time waiting for me and my gelding to catch up...Krinkles walks out faster than any horse I have ridden...big, swinging stride, that really covers the ground. There is no where on the trail she won't go, if you point her in that direction. There were moments where I thought she was going to blow up with Matthew...but over miles and miles of riding, she never did..she thought better of it, and kept him as safe as she could.

A couple years passed and we decided to raise a foal from Krinkles. We were blow away by what this mare has produced, quality every time, no matter the stallion....As we enlarged our herd, added in more broodmares, she was deemed the herd leader. Over the years there were times she was NOT boss mare, other mares got to eat first, but even those mares fell into line when Krinkles headed out. At 25 years old, she is still leading our herd, and has the current luxury of being boss mare too ;-) I think she deserves it, the luxury of being fed first!

Krinkles is a fairly opinionated horse. She has riders she likes and some she dislikes...and if she dislikes you as a rider, you will know it! She has a way of making her opinion known..without violence or bad manners...just a special way of telling you. I have spent quite a bit of time riding her in the last few years, and found we communicate quite well. She sometimes "needs" to know the reason, but if she understands what is being asked, she willingly obliges.

We have had a variety of foals out of Krinles...but one thing remains the same. No matter how much or how little they are handled at the start of their life, when time comes for weaning, halter breaking, saddle training they are kind and willing students. I can not say this of all the mares we have owned...but I can honestly say this of each and every one of her foals.

I dug through a stack of old pictures and found some of her and Matthew together, and also her and some of her foals...enjoy the slideshow/video.....

My neighbor recently asked...."What is going on when I hear the horses in the middle of the night?" oh...an easy reply..Krinkles is gathering her herd, to move grazing locations or to go to water...and believe you me...if you are ANYWHERE close, you will hear this mare..she has a rather exhuberant whinny!

I suppose our farm, someday will not be the same...but I have learned so much for this mare I will always treasure the moments and miles we have shared..enjoy the video !!!

More video is UP!

New Video of *C-C Handsome Dark Knight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxXwAzywgqM

Here is our video of "Darkie" He shows off his manners and his kind and willing attitude while working with Darryl....enjoy!

Kallie

as promised...LOL...my blog updates are starting....this might be old news to those who surf my website often, but I will add a bit of an update too, so it can be new news!

A couple weeks ago, we brought *C-C Hotel Kalifornia "Kallie" home from the trainers. Kallie had been in training for several weeks with Mike Kincella, a well know dressage trainer. Her training went well. Mike does an excellent job with my horses, and Kallie was no exception. Here is a link to the videos I prepared when we picked her up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVS8a7NB2Wo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAyqSkFNJGg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAjzj99gAQo

Since Kallie has been home, I have started her in the process of training her to harness. She has learned to accept the harness, lunge and work in harness and we will start long reining and ground driving soon.

The more I work with this filly the MORE I love her ;-) She is highly intelligent, very athletic and is very, very lovely to look at! Keep checking as we will soon start our journey in harness and hitching to a cart.....

catching up!

My oh My ! Technology is great when it works....! not so great when it does not though...for the last month, I have been on limited bandwidth, and unable to access and up date my blog! and there has been SO much going on.....so, over the next few days, I will be chattier than usual..and get all our latest news and pictures posted...stay tuned!