Horse as Player

We were driving back up the mountain in the dark after running our errands down in town.

I asked Juanita if she had started the horses' beet pulp soaking (a very tasty treat to the horses' way of thinking) and she told me that she had not.  She told me "This morning the horses were not staying at their usual bowls for their beet pulp.  Ranger refused to stay at his bowl and ate from Jesse's bowl so she shifted over and pushed Washoe away from his bowl, while Jesse went back to eat at her bowl and then Washoe went to Ranger's bowl and Jesse didn't like that at all and chased Washoe away from Ranger's bowl and wouldn't let him have her bowl either and...."

So she decided that the horses should just skip "bowl food" until their manners improved.

It was dark, and an hour or so after their usual dinner time by the time she got over to feed them.

Several minutes later she came back to the lodge shaking her head and told me "I walked up to the corral, and all three horses were lined up, waiting politely and quietly at their usual bowls."  She told them "Sorry guys, no bowl food tonight."  The two greys went over to the hay looking a little disappointed, but Ranger stayed at his bowl looking soft-eyed and hopeful.  When she told him it just wasn't going to happen, he looked down, sighed and shuffled over to the hay.

She felt terrible.

Damn.  My horse can work my wife a LOT better than I can.

Bill

Apple-Cheddar Scones; January's Recipe

As a special request for a friend, here is a favorite scone recipe.  I had not realized we didn't have a single one up here yet.

Apple & Cheddar Cheese Scones

Preheat oven to 425*F. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray.

   2 c. flour

   ¼ c. sugar

   1 tbs. baking powder

   1 tsp. salt

   ½ tsp. dried thyme

   ½ tsp. cracked pepper

Combine in bowl:

   ¼ c. butter or margarine, chilled, diced

With a pastry blender, cut in butter until coarse crumbs form (some pea-sized pieces):

   1 apple –Gala or Delicious-cored, cut into ¼” pieces (1 ½ cups)

   ½ c. shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (2 oz.)

   ¾ c. milk

Stir in apple, cheese and milk until ingredients are moistened and a dough starts to form.

   1 egg lightly beaten

On lightly floured surface gently knead dough until it comes together – don’t over knead.

Shape into 7” wide disk.  Brush with egg.  Cut into 8 wedges and arrange 2” apart on baking sheet.

I use a round or shaped biscuit cutter instead and get about 12 scones.

Bake 15 minutes or until golden.  Cool on rack 1 minute; remove from pan and enjoy!

I found this recipe in a Woman's World magazine back in Sept. of 2004 and it has been a favorite here since.  It's one of a very few recipes that I made absolutely NO changes in - except for high altitude.  This one has not been adjusted; use as is.

Juanita

Home Again, Home Again, Piggety ....

We picked up the horses today.  The weather forecast had originally called for 14 - 17 inches of new snow tonight.  Of course, now it has been down-graded to 1-3 inches.  How does that work?  That's OK; I really love have them back home and it is currently snowing pretty good; just starting to stick.  The amount of snow was the deciding factor.  We had hoped to leave them another month, but I had forgotten about the difficulties of moving our horse trailer once snow does set in.  The trailer gets snowed in and can't be moved, so - we picked up the guys today!

They obediently came when called.

Followed us to the truck like the pied piper... and loaded ... not so great.

Ranger had ice on his front feet and didn't like the feel of it on the rubber mats, although on the second try, he hopped right in.  Jesse was not interested in the least; this from a horse who normally loads easily on voice command.  Something across the highway and neighbor's field had caught her attention and she did NOT want in that trailer until she figured out what was going on!  She then stepped on, turned around and stepped right back off, pushing Beel out of the way.   Ooooh!  So not good.  For her efforts, she got to run up and down the road shoulder a few times until she could pay attention.  Then, she got tied into the trailer when she got on; such an embarrassment for her.  It's been a loooong time since she has had to be tied in the trailer.  By this time, Washoe had seen whatever had Jesse's attention, but his attention came back quicker and he got right on the trailer.  So, instead of a 5 minute process to load all three horses, it took about 15.  I suppose we don't have a lot of room to complain.  99% of the time they are fantastic travelers.

They unloaded like the well trained horses they are and walked nicely to their old corral.

This is what you do when you first get home; get a little home grime on you.  The two grays were at the fence re-introducing themselves to the neighbor horses and mules.  They seem glad to be back!
Bionic Cowgirl

Found 'Em

Yesterday we did a drive-by on the horses; didn't see a thing; not too surprising since it was one of those surprisingly pleasant, sunny January days that pop up now and then in Colorado.  We didn't have time to do more than that, so decided that as soon as the guests left today, we would 'hunt them down'.

We got dressed for hiking and headed out - across wind blown pastures and snowy wooded areas.  We were pretty sure they would be in the farthest reaches ... and that IS where we found them.  They were excited to see us.

They came running ....

and they came ....

and they came!

Then they showed us around.  This is our new grazing spot...

and this is our wind break.  It still needs a little work.

We fed them, and yes, it was that windy.

As any good hostess and hosts, they walked us back to the car.  They showed us the shortcut through the trees....

back out into the sunshine - and less wind ...

I had to stop for a hug; I couldn't believe they were still coming with us.

Oops!  Jesse had spotted Ranger checking my pockets for cookies and was giving him the evil eye .. and Ranger doing his typical "not me" look.

We got back down to the icy snow path and I borrowed Jesse's tail to keep from falling.  Washoe was bringing up the rear guard.  When I did slip and go down on an icy branch, she just stopped and waited for me to get back up and grab her tail again.

Soon we came to the frozen stream (don't worry, they have a whole open pond for water)....and I had to ask Jesse how to get across.

This way. Duck the branches and step on the brush...

see, it works.  Just follow the guides.

R:  Watch your footing, slow poke. 

W:  Good job.  You made it!

Look, Beel's getting something from the car.  Maybe it's for us.

Yummy!  Dried apple treats.

Thank you.

Bye.

A GOOD day!!!!
Bionic Cowgirl

I'm Baaack

I haven't been on to post for a while now.

I couldn't.

You see, some days ago, I read of an alert put out by the Dept. of Homeland Security.  It said there was a security problem with "Java", and it should be disabled in everybody's computer.  If our government has employed people that can find a problem like that, then the 14 year old hackers will be all OVER it.

So I wandered through the Firefox menus and turned off all the Java stuff.

Turns out that "Java Script" is different than the "Java Apps", and "Java Script" has no problems.

Turns out if you turn off "Java Script", blogger won't work.

If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,  then I have just enough to be a Weapon of Mass Destruction to my computer.

Bill

Bill's Bored!

Our horses are turned out to pasture,

which fills them with nothing but rapture.

With a whole mountain side

on which they can hide.

Ummm...eh....well damn, this poems a bust.

Bill

Doggerel is not for horses, Beel.

Can you tell?  It's cold outside; it's been cold outside for a while now! Negative 6 at 7:00 a.m. (don't know the night's low; don't want to know).  It is now positive 8* out there.  The small family group that are staying with us this weekend opted to brave the cold and go for a hike in the park.  Well, darn!  That makes us feel like wimps, so we decide the horses would like some hay.  Now we are not even trying to fool ourselves into thinking we are doing this for the horses.  This is solely for our personal peace of mind - it's such a boost just getting to see them out there loose - and it gets us outdoors, if for only a short time.

We load up the truck with a couple of bales and drive the 15 minutes to their pasture.  Nobody home.  We decide to unload the hay and do a couple of drive-bys to peak into their open spaces.  Jokingly, I tell Bill we should start beeping the horn a couple of times at home when we drive up in the truck, so they get used to the sound.  He laughs and  ....  beeps the horn right then.  We climb out, unload the hay, and head down the embankment with our load.  Half way to the gate I see a white head peak out of the trees beyond the first meadow.

Washoe:  "It is you!  Hey, guys, the hay people are here."  He starts to amble up, then breaks into a trot when he sees what we have just thrown onto the ground.

As we climb through the gate into the field to move the bales away from the fence, Jesse breaks out of the trees at a dead run, bucking her way up the hill.  She gently nudges the bale in my hand and looks at me, like she's saying thank you.  Once we set the bales down, they both dive into one of them; I swear they were purring.

Looking around, we both wonder where the old man is.  Bill starts heading down the hill toward one of their favorite paths through the trees, where the grays had appeared.  As he's walking, I turn to Jesse and ask her, "So, where IS the old man?  Where's Ranger?"  She looks off over my shoulder at a different spot.  I look that way and there he comes, ripping out of the trees like some young colt from a new place.  I call to Bill just as Ranger spots him in his peripheral vision, does a huge leap to the side, hesitates with one of those beautiful stallion poses you see in pictures, then says, "OH, it's only Bill," and proceeds towards us at his funny trot.  All accounted for - and obviously feeling good.  Gee, they look good; all sleek and shiny.  Even Ranger's two-toned mane sparkles now.  We do a complete rub-over of all of them.  They are toned, good weight and feet in great shape.  They have slimmed down; you can see Washoe's ribs a bit, but you usually can, even when he is considered 'fat'.  He's just built that way.  We laid our faces on their backs and you could feel all that heat emanating off them.  They do like their freedom.  We drove home feeling like new people.

Bionic Cowgirl

Moving Estes

Yep, today was the day chosen for moving GunDiva's horse, Estes.  It was really tough - a lot of work.  We had to haul the trailer over to the mountain area all four of our horses are currently 'grazing' (if you call digging in the snow for your daily allowance of food, grazing), which takes, oh say, 15 minutes.  There stand the horses, enjoying the sunshine, right by the fenceline.  You would have thought we had called ahead.  We manage to drag ourselves through the foot of snow on the embankment, crawl through the gate, and ...
"Wait, Estes.  Can you let me stand back up before you shove your head in your halter?"  You'd think she knew what was happening, as the other three head straight to the bale of hay we have brought to entertain them so we can get her through the silly wire gate.

She stands patiently with me by the side of the road while Bill manages to get the gate back together - it's pretty cobbled!  We wave at cars passing by, smiling like we know what we are doing until Bill can open the trailer door (too high for me to reach at the angle the trailer sat).  She loads like a pro and we are off to lower pastures.

Finally, a good shot through all the traffic!  Where are all these cars coming from?  It's early afternoon; they should be at school or work or something.

She has a lot of hair; even got a little sweaty on the half hour trip down the mountain - and she managed to stay in pretty good shape; not a lot of rib showing.  Boy, she did like her new pasture mates, which are friends from by-gone days.

Happy eating, Estes.
Bionic Cowgirl

 Last night, on New Years' eve, the lodge was reserved for a family event.  The whole lodge, for just one family.

Ours.

Our four kids (with spouses) and a bunch of the grand kids made it.

Games, food, drinks, arguments, and love were the order of the night.

Best New Years we have had up here.

 _____________________________________________________


New Years'  Revolutions Restitutions Resolution's for Bill...

1)  Write 2013 rather than 2012 as often as possible.

2)  Make better, or at least more interesting, mistakes.

3)  Avoid buying another ford .

4)  Be more forgiving of others, except for ford.

5)  If we have any more apocalypses, try to survive them as best as possible, with minimal effort.

6)  And lastly, ride as often as possible.

I think those are mostly do-able.

Bill