2024- and welcome to our newest addition, Zaphod Beeblebrox

 And we got Beeblebrox in November from a local cat rescue that brought him up here from New Mexico!

2024 one year with Eleven!

 So I purchased Eleven from a family in Pueblo as a basic working ranch horse. He's excellent and really has been doing great. Getting my riding confidence back has been a long haul this year.

Plans for 2023- Horse

 Back to the old drawing board.

SO I am NOT planning on getting a horse with one eye this time. I want to avoid that pitfall. I am also seriously re-thinking getting an Appaloosa because of the congenital late-life eye issues thay often have. 

I would like to do a rescue/rescue-ish again.

So I'm thinking maybe another Off-Track Thoroughbred (OTTB), maybe a Mustang, maybe a local rescue horse of another breed. 

Do I want a finished horse, maybe older but a known history? Do I want a youngster to train up my own way? Am I too old and un-bouncy to saddle-train a baby again? I haven't decided.

I want to walk, trot, and canter. Jump a few small jumps, maybe go to a schooling show. Trail ride.

RESCUES

There is an excellent rescue here in Longmont called Colorado Horse Rescue, so I am stalking their page. There is also Colorado Horse Rescue Network, whose facility is farther away but they go to the local horse auctions.

There are the local horse auctions. There is a low-end auction every week in close by in Loveland. There are higher-end auctions all over Colorado and Wyoming for ranch horses and sport horses. There are online auctions. I so far like thehorsebay.com, they have several local CO sellers, so if I liked a horse I could go meet them before bidding. 

There is a pre-slaughter feedlot very close by where horses are gathered for a few days to a few weeks before shipping to slaughter. They have a Facebook page I can't seem to stay away from. Low-end auctions and feedlots are of course very high-risk. No history and no pedigree, possibly unsound physically or abused, etc. And lots of pressure to save a horse from a terrible fate.

But this is the kind of video that you get to look at, if you're lucky. Some lots just have still photos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoVruwbGKuY

MUSTANGS

Mustangs in our area usually come from the Canon City Wild Horse Inmate system. Inmates train the horses - either just haltered or under saddle- and they auction them to qualified adopters. There are often two adoptions a month. The facility had an outbreak of Strangles and many horses died. They plan to start adopting out again in Spring 2023.

I could try to adopt from a Mustang event or direct from a trainer. The events are very cool and there are several really really talented trainers I've started following on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXYoZnIsZQk

Honestly, since I would have to board, I'm not sure I could qualify to adopt a newly-trained Mustang. I could look for one that's titled (owned by an adopter for 1 year). 

OTTBS

OTTBs are plentiful close to major racetracks. We do not have a major racetrack in Colorado. There are small tracks in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas,Wyoming, etc. So I have been watching the CANTER site for horses in the western states, including California! I shipped Sherlock all the way from WV, but gas prices are very different now.

Here's what CANTER's videos are like of horses that are still on the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg1qEfAJFZo&t=2s

LOCAL SELLERS/BREEDERS

OK. So if I don't want to rescue I can purchase a horse from a high-end auction, or from a local seller ot breeder. 

I have spoken to a Wyoming QH breeder who has 3 fillies ready to start to saddle. Of course I like the most colorful palomino one.

My riding acquaintances are watching out at their stables for sale horses as well. No news thus far but I see them for lunch every month now!

Another riding acquaintance moved her horse here locally but I haven't been able to connect and see the facility. I was hoping to get some lessons at that place but nothing has come together yet.

I have taken a temp job making cookies until mid-December so I do not have time to shop for horses yet, or even to care for one if I went crazy and got a feedlot horse. I'm doing my freelance Sounds True proofreading when there's work and making cookies Thursday-Sunday. 

These are fantastic cookies. Big chewy, nutty, filling cookies. The kind of cookie you need after you've been hauling firewood in the snow.

https://leckerlee.com/

More news as news becomes available. Love all of you who actually read these!

Plans for 2023- cats

 So, in April we got a new kitten to keep Kaylee company. I don't know how I'd have survived the latter half of this year without Boogiepop Phantom to make me laugh.

Anyway, she is a bit much for 9yo Kaylee sometimes, especially as she is now bigger than Kaylee.

So we will be looking for an older kitten to play with Boogiepop. This SHOULD be a much simpler affair, emotionally and monetarily, than looking for a new horse.

2022- End of an Era

OK. It's been a while again.

This year Grayson and I had to say goodbye to our two elderly black cats and the horse.

Dante we knew had cancer (throat or sinus) and passed peacefully at home 5 minutes before the vet arrived. Sneaky, canny old dude. He hated vets.

 

Ezio I took in for possible urinary tract issues and half his intestine was cancerous. What a lousy day.

 

Sherlock had some vision issues early in the year. His good eye got cloudier again and he cut himself on the fence. He bounced back and we had a few lessons with the local trainers trying to find a good match, but didn't really hit it off with anyone. I didn't really know what to do. Then in July his eye went cloudy again. He got a bad abscess under his jaw - likely from running into something. He hit his head a few times, got more spooky and worried about things he couldn't see anymore. 

We tried to keep him in the corrals while the others went to pasture, so he'd go slower and be more predictable. He freaked out. I started going every day to walk him out to the pasture safely in the morning and get him in at night. He just loved running with the other horses and would get so excited and lose track of the fence- or of the people. It was starting to be an accident waiting to happen. 

I thought about moving him to another facility where he could be in a small paddock all day while we saw if the eye would recover again. But time was already up, as he couldn't see well enough to get into a trailer.

So before we had a bad accident that hurt him and possibly someone else, we euthanized Sherlock in late July. It was a very sad day but I know it was the right thing. 

 

June 20, 2021-Down TIme

OK, I'm trying this again. It's been a while. Sherlock and I are at Eden's Aspens Horsemanship North of Longmont. It's a great place-- pasture, trainers, agility course. But no indoor, which makes winter (and sometimes spring )riding difficult.

But we were doing pretty well. Sherlock started having some headshaking issues that I expected might be photic, since he has so much vision damage. He had a bad summer of bucking and resistance just when my trainer Amy couldn't come very often. Then COVID-19 happened.

I basically have ridden 3-4 times a year, last year and this year. We have been doing some agility but we've both had a lot of time off. 

Amy is moving to Austria, so I am starting some lessons with Autumn. I have liked her agility lessons but want to get riding again, and I am much more likely to ride when someone is expecting me. If I can get trail-ready that would be great!

May 31- Rides # 105,106,107

On 5/4 Sherlock came in from the pasture cut. Again. Inner LF, just below the knee. Shallow, swollen only in inside of cannon bone. Bute in grain tonight. Asked them to keep in for me tomorow morning.

5/5 Leg still swollen a bit but not lame. Grain, turnout.

5/7 Leg still swollen but walking perfectly sound. Grain with BL solution.

5/8 ride #105. Grain, rode 30 minutes, walk/trot. Nice quiet ride, poles, turns, contact. Practiced emergency dismount.

5/9 ride #106. AM fed grain, no pasture turnout due to rain. PM rode 20  minutes bareback, walk, turns, whoa, back. Sherlock especially enoyed biting my foot today.


5/10. farrier AM. I was running late and din't stretch him first and he was pretty stiff. Geldings galloping out to pasture very distracting. Not good. Got through it but had some arguments.Wear patterns uneven- growth on RF and LH, the others didn't grow. She couldn't take mush off and he was sore afterwards. Put sole toughener on. Grain w/ Cosequin/ BL solution. Cut looking good, no swelling. Called Dr. Deb for chiro work.


5/13 1PM Dr. Deb Chiro appointment. Neck OK, hips needed work,  SI, T1, R hock. Well-behaved and quiet for adjustments. I told her the farrier admitted she thought I was crazy the first time she saw Sherlock (and the second and third as well) and Dr. Deb said she also thought I might have gone round the bend, but that I had ended up with a really nice horse once he relaxed and didn't have pain.

Preparing for lesson

5PM Ride #107 walk only lesson with Amy. Contact, 20m circle around x, wide hands, bending/counterbending, spiral in/out. Sherlock did very well- after  learning to counterbend he promptly used it against me to avoid going nto the corner. Now that I've taught him this I have to remember how to reverse it.  Archery work at halt and walk. Need guideline for distance, like a ground pole, he kept getting too close. Arrow bounced off edge of target and hit his shoulder- he didn't care. Good boy! No spookiness with new quiver.


Lots of rain and tender feet this week. Hand-grazing along our little road for calories and desensitizing. Be sure to check my next blog post about the Samurai exhibition- lots of horsey stuff there!

5/20 Rode in from pasture in the PM. Bareback with rope halter. Other geldings decided to come in too and galloped by, but Sherlock held up well. Some racehorse jig but settled nicely.

Yummy tall grass.

Muddy. Sherlock's R hip looked sore and stiff when turning.

5/25 Ears itchy, esp. Left. No unusual dirt, looked down in w/ flashlight...

5/26 Rode in from pasture. A little spooky at muskrat swimming in pond but handled it well.

5/28 So rainy lately, it looks like Sherlock has lost weight. Might just be that he's getting unfit again.  weight tape #874

5/29 weight tape #902. Rode in from pasture. Used emergency dismount due to Remington crowding the gate area. Sherlock was very good. Groomed, fed grain, found 4 tick bites on tail bone. Brushed out and applied scarlet oil to all. Ointment on leg, that cut is almost gone.


5/31 Good deep grooming and grain PM. Tickbites medicated and we grazed on the roadside again.