A Misunderstanding

"Alright.  Which one of you guys tore the fence apart again . . . Jesse?"  The fence gets 'dismantled' a lot, right where the feeder hooks on to it.  Jesse is notorious for destroying the cross buck pieces when she gets bored from being in the pen; not getting to work.  She hasn't been worked much at all this year as we are trying to get her back and hip healed.  Apparently her back is too long to carry weight well, so carrying me around for long days for the last 12.5 years has taken its toll on her lower lumbar region and she has developed arthritis in her left hip, to the point of making her lame on that side.  It was very noticeable when we brought them up from winter pasture last spring and we have spent the summer with massage, anti-inflamatories, and supposed rest.  Well, now she feels better and nothing is safe.  One of our vets said I might be able to work her up to 2 - 3 hr. rides 'now-and-then', but no more of the tough six hour rides we like to get to our mountain lakes.

Alas, I digress.  All this to explain why I would blame my mare for further destruction. I put boards back as best I could in the dark and tied their slow feed hay net to the feeder.  Then I climbed inside the pen to tie the other end and the horses went crazy.  Even Ranger - the old man - demonstrated his famous all four feet in the air bucking style.  They jumped, kicked, bucked and ran around like fools; not their normal feeding frenzy at all.  They finally quit and came up to me to get fed, but were still quite hyper.  I put it down to being cool out and dark.

Fast forward to bedtime.  Bill goes out each night to check the cars (bears, you know) just before locking the front door for the night.  He came back in and asked if I had seen the moose when it walked across our parking lot.  What moose?  The one that left the huge tracks in the sand just behind the cars.  There were no moose tracks there when I had crossed to feed the horses a couple hours earlier, but the tracks he showed me were definitely moose.

Bill then suggested that maybe it was not my mare, but a moose who broke up the fence, trying to get at the horses' hay - and they were just telling me the story of all the excitement.  That makes a much better story, don't you think?

Bionic Cowgirl

Dinnertime Excitement

Yesterday we took the horses out for a picnic ride.  Ranger did quite well the whole way (whew).

As we were coming back and crossed the road by the horses' corral, we noticed that the choke cherries were fully ripe, and discussed coming back and picking some to make jam.  We marveled that nothing had eaten them yet...

Feeding last night was going along normally.  The horses had their feed; the hay bag was out.  It was quiet and I was enjoying listening to contented chomping sounds.  Then I noticed another sound; the llamas were clacking.  They quack kind of like ducks when something excites them.  I started walking over toward their pen at the opposite side of our corral, thinking they had spotted coyotes on the trail across the road.  That was holding their attention.  Standing there staring at the trail a motion caught my eye - much closer than the trail.  A bear was stripping the choke cherries off our bushes maybe 20 yards from the llama pen!

Washoe had quit eating and followed me over to the fence.  I pointed at the bear to show him and he was so excited he was running up and down the fence trying to get closer.  I think he thought it was a big dog that did not belong and had plans to run it off.  (He's my dog chaser.)

I finally went back up the hill to get Bill, hoping the bear would still be there when we got back.  We watched it until it was almost too dark to see it.  After Bill came over, Ranger stood near the feeder and snorted; Jesse wouldn't even raise her head out of the food.  Gotta love living in the mountains.

The llamas spent almost all of their time running back and forth at the fence line closest to the bear.   Quacking.


Bionic Cowgirl

Meet Reba!

We have a new family member!  I hadn't realized what a funk we had gotten in since losing Sophie (the Lodge dog) last November.  We continued on with life-as-normal (as much as possible) - or so we thought.  Lots of comments along this time about needing a dog; the place just didn't seem right.  So about three weeks ago, we started the "looking" process.  We had made a list of specifics, of course:
1) must be 'user friendly' to guests; 2) younger so as to last longer; 3) mid-size, in the 50# range when full grown so as to be good outside; 4) enough hair to tolerate cold without having to 'put on a coat' every time it needed to go outside - 'cause we have more cold weather than warm up here; 5) Bill prefers female dogs, but not a necessity (he says females "pee all at once"); and last but not least  6) couldn't look too pit-bullish.  NO, we have nothing against pit bull and crosses; even have one in the family that is a great dog.  However, many guests can be cautious of dogs anyway, but way more so when they have 'the look'.

Last week, we visited the Humane Society in a local town and found a 'good' dog.  As we took her to the adoption desk, a man walked in with two grade school age girls and looked shocked to see us with the dog.  Turned out he had been in earlier with a younger child, loved the dog and went home to get the other kids to see what they thought.  He had failed to put a 'hold' on the dog, so they let us take her out for a time.  After hearing the story we opted to let them have the dog, believing that there are too many animals that need homes to argue over this one.  We believed there would be another dog we would like.

A couple days ago, Bill spotted one on the Society's website that he took an interest in:  a lab/boxer cross named Truffles (of all things).  No picture yet as she was still being processed.  Today was our first chance to go take a look.  It turned out she looked like full-blooded pit bull.  How that happened with that mixture, I don't know, but another family was interested in her also (turned out she did get adopted today also).  As we looked at the rest of the dogs, I noticed a cute little thing sitting and watching us very quietly as we walked along the cages - just like Sophie had done!  I kept going back to her so we took her out for a walk and took to her very quickly.  She was smaller than anticipated, but not so small as to be a deal breaker, so meet Reba.

They called her Della, but as I was reading the relinquish report on her, I found she had only been at the previous home for a little over two months and was given up for being 'too energetic'.  Her name prior to that was Reba and she answers very well to that name, which I definitely like better.

Obviously, she can handle Bill's 'rough treatment'; those belly rubs are pretty OK!

Right now she weighs in a tad over 33 pounds, is about 4.5 hands high at the withers.  She is a little over two years old and seems to have had some good training, although maybe she had some rough handling early in her life because things raised over her head tend to make her cower.  She is a 'cattle-dog/cross' and said to be good with livestock.  We will learn about that when the horses come home.  I do know her tail wags so fast you can't see it in the above picture!   So far, she is way more than expected and fitting in well.  Time will tell.  Stay tuned.....

Bionic Cowgirl

Got the Time?

It's been several days now, and he is STILL not happy.

Ranger the horse is not pleased by the games we people play with his feeding times.  Okay, he doesn't much mind the spring time change where he gets fed an hour early, but this fall crap is for the birds.

Jesse and Washoe are comparatively ambivalent about feeding times.  They are just very interested when it happens.  But Ranger gets p!$$ed off.  And he tells EVERYONE IN THE AREA about it.

As  a mustang, he was responsible for finding his own food.  All of the time.  And if the food supply got low, it was time to move on and find some more.  Now.  Right now.  Otherwise, one starves.  It's the way it works in the wild.  Even now, if we plan on adding an extra horse into his herd, we need to remember to over feed them all for a couple days beforehand, or he will try to chase the interloper out because there is BARELY ENOUGH FOOD FOR THE ONES HERE NOW.

As a wrangler told us several years ago, Ranger has now gone over the the dark side.  He pretty much excepts all of the junk that goes with being a domestic, but for that, he requires regular feedings.  Like clockwork.  No exceptions.  IT"S IN THE CONTRACT.

So, for the last couple days since we went off daylight savings time, he's been screaming bloody murder for an hour before the food shows up.

Not happy at all.

Sophie the lodge dog is none to thrilled, either.

Bill

The Animals Got Flooded Without An Ark

My heart is breaking watching all of the livestock that are being flooded out and I was trying to figure out how to help.  I don't have any property, so I can't take any in.  But I do have a book for sale, and I can donate the proceeds from that book to the people who can help the livestock who are displaced.  So, all proceeds from book sales running through the end of the month will be donated to Denkai Animal Sanctuary.  This is a great way to kill two birds with one stone: you can start buying stocking stuffers AND help animals who need it.

Click the book in the sidebar to order.

So, please spread the word far and wide.  Let's help the critters we all love.