And Then the Wheels Fell Off (2/6/26)

Skeets and I ended on such a good note last Thursday, that I couldn't wait to give it another go on Friday. A little voice told me that it might not be a great idea, since I'd be getting home from work later, about 5:00 p.m., but then another little voice reminded me that I'd promised Skeeter we'd go out again. I rationalized it as the sun wouldn't be setting quite yet when I got home, and we'd have 10-15 minutes to take a quick walk.

Skeeter happily met me at the gate, and practically haltered herself. Perfect!

Our walk from the pen to our driveway (about 15 yards) was brilliant. I just knew we were going to have another great walk like the day before.

Then her head went up and the geese took flight, followed immediately by shotgun blasts. Ironically, the GunDiva's horse hates guns. Hates them. She settled down pretty quickly, but I decided that going down the farm road was a Bad Idea, and changed our plan to just going for a quick trip around the back yard.

Turns out, that was also a Bad Idea.

Cows had moved into the pasture north of us, about a quarter mile. Never mind that cows aren't new to her. They were in a new spot and that was concerning.

I let her watch the cows for a bit, until she relaxed, then attempted to continue a lap around the back yard.

Cue more geese and gunshots, and we were off to the rodeo again. I'm really happy that I use a 12-15' lead rope. Sometimes I cuss it, because it's a lot to handle, but for moments like this, I really love having the extra length.

She circled, concerned, a couple of times. Then her head went straight up, her nostrils flared, and she must have scented the coyotes on top of everything else. Suddenly, her concern went straight to fear. Oh, holy hell. She could not keep her feet still and wanted to get away, but was still respectful enough of the lead to not yank it out of my hands. She also never tried to run me over, which I mentioned has happened when she was younger.

I let her circle at her speed (trot/canter) in an attempt to get her anxiety/fear under control. When she would stop for a breather, I would talk and pet. I did deep breathing exercises, hoping she'd follow along.

Not thrilled, but trying.

We actually made pretty good headway with relaxing, and started to head back to the pen. A neighbor to our northwest took that opportunity for a mag dump: pop-pop-pop-pop-pop. Rapid fire. I don't know if they were just testing their pistol, or if they were shooting at something, but it didn't matter to Skeets. The shooting came from behind her and she was just barely starting to relax.

It was off to the races again. I've never been at a total and complete loss with a horse before. I'm trying to be less 'cowboy' and more 'understanding' of the horse's needs/feelings, to be more of a partner and less of an authoritarian. It's worked well with Skeeter for the most part. 

I knew I'd have to get Skeeter's focus somehow, but was afraid of increasing her fear/anxiety even more. If she was just having a temper tantrum, I wouldn't have hesitated to get big and get after her, but this wasn't a temper tantrum, this was fear/stress. She's terribly food driven, so I thought that if I could only figure out how to get to the tack room to get a handful of grain, I might be able to catch her focus. 

I don't believe in bribing horses. 

At all. 

And I felt like a failure for even considering it. Just as I was trying to keep hold of my black horse kite, and pull out my phone to text L.E. for help, L.E. walked out of the house to see if we needed anything. I caved and asked her to grab a bucket of grain. She did, and when she walked back out and shook the grain bucket, it set Skeets off again. For some horses, the rattle of a grain bucket means yummies. I've never once rattled a grain bucket for any of the horses, because, well, I don't believe in bribing them and they don't get bowl food.

It took a few more laps around me for Skeeter to realize that L.E. might have something good in that bucket, and she stopped to look at her. Once she saw the handful of grain, she decided that her stomach was more important than her fear.

As soon as I saw the switch flip from "freaking out/OMG we're all going to die" to pushy food mare, I found my footing again. I didn't mind getting big and making the corrections she needed to behave to get her back to the pen.

I'm an idiot who should have listened to the first little voice (intuition) telling me it was a Bad Idea. But, like most women, I ignored my intuition, and rationalized why I was being silly. It almost got us into a lot of trouble.

A Little Walk to the Rodeo (2/5/26)

Last Thursday, I got off work a little early and it was gorgeous out. Skeeter and I are having relationship problems, so I thought spending time with her would be good. She's been okay when I pulled her to ride, but I definitely feel a disconnect, which makes me sad. I decided we'd go for a short walk down the farm road, and just spend some time together. 

She seemed happy with the plan and off we went.

Gentle, curious, and scanning for any
dropped corn along the road.

I have a rule with the horses when we're walking - they can have "fast food", meaning if they can scoop it up without stopping or breaking stride, they can eat it. It's a rule that has worked really well for us for years, though it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

Since I had lyra that night, I'd planned on a short walk, just to the tree and back, which is about a mile. 

Life was happy. 

Skeeter and I were happy. 

And in all this happiness, I decided to stop and take a picture at the farm crossroad. It's a nice, wide spot, easy for stopping and standing. We stopped, I fumbled around trying to get my phone out and activate my camera.

Then, Skeeter caught a whiff of the coyotes. Our coyote pack is large and out of control this year - they're everywhere and they think the farm roads are their own personal highway. There weren't any within sight, but Skeeter smelled 'em and the rodeo was on.

Her head went up, her nostrils flared, and she bolted. Politely, in a circle around me, careful not to run me over, but still bolted. On one hand, I was super proud of how far she's come with respect to personal space, as she had run through me when she was younger. On the other hand, I had to get her calmed down enough to head back home. I knew if I tried to turn her home in the state she was in, it would be a bad thing.

We worked through it - lots of circles, and snorting, and changing directions - until she calmed down enough to spy a corn cob. As soon as she asked for it, I knew she was good.

Still a little worried, but happier with food in
her mouth (so am I!)

Big sigh, "okay, Mom, we can go now."

She was in a hurry to get back, but not so much of one that we had to fight about who was leading the way home. The further from the crossroads we got, the more she relaxed.

She's such a teenager - can you tell how thrilled
she is to have to take a picture with Mom?

Always scanning for fast food.

All the nuzzles and kisses when we got home.

Despite the freakout at the crossroads, I'm pleased with how well it went. I still don't know what's broken in our relationship, but I'm doing what I can to work on it.

Three in a Row

 Last year, I rode twice. I intended to ride more than that, but I blinked. Next thing I knew, the spring was over, summer was over, and we were headed into fall. I rode twice, blinked again, and now we're in a whole new year. How does that even happen?

As of last Sunday, I've officially ridden Skeets more than I did last year (and the year before).

L.E. and I took the girls for a walk around the back yard on the 1st. Probably not Skeeter's favorite way to spend her birthday, but she did it anyway. Back in September, she was so, so chonky that I had to let out all of her tack. We switched to an "extreme" slow feed net from Hay Chix, but I hadn't done any work with her since. I was pleasantly surprised when I tacked her up for her birthday ride - I had to size down the tack a bit. Not a lot, but enough to know that the new hay net is working.

She tolerated the forced kisses.

L.E. and me with the girls, post-ride.

I didn't take any pictures during the ride because I had gotten a new phone and was waiting on a case for it. With my luck, I would have pulled it out and dropped it.

Two days later, the weather was cooperative, so L.E. and I took the girls out again for a quick stroll around the back yard. Skeets has some opinions about riding, and I can't quite understand what she's trying to tell me yet, but hopefully we'll get it figured out soon. She'll go nicely around the yard for a while, then grab the bit and "take off" either west toward our neighbor's or south toward the pen. And by "take off", I mean quickly trot. She's a lazy girl at heart.

A between the ear pic.

Yay! Up on my horse!

For the second ride, I'd just finished painting part of Maggie's walls and was covered in paint, but I didn't want to go change, so I hopped on in my paint-splattered leggings and tennis shoes. I do not have a roughout seat in my saddle, so between having slick leggings on a slick saddle, I got a lot of practice paying attention to my core.

And, last Sunday, after Mom and I finished up in Maggie, we joined L.E. for another little ride. Washoe's back is ouchy, and we're waiting on the chiropractor, so Mom didn't throw his saddle, she chose to hop up bareback for a short ride around the yard and up the farm road the tiniest bit. A little exercise is good to keep him moving, and he was perfect. I've long called him the Wonder Idiot, but he takes really good care of Mom.

I swear, Pearl knew I wanted a picture of both horses and
deliberately kept trying to block my view of Washoe. Can
you see how pleased she looks that I just moved to get the picture?

The sun glinting off L.E.'s stirrups makes it look like
there are floating orbs around her.

I had to get supper started, so Mom and L.E. got to ride longer than I did. I did eventually get out to join them. Mom rode just a few more minutes on Washoe, then traded him out for Big Al.

I love her derp ears. They make me giggle.

Mom worked with Al at the mounting block, leaning across
from both sides. Also, I love the sun dog in this picture.

After playing at the mounting block, they went for a quick
walk to gather some leftover corn cobs.

Mom chose not to swing a leg over Alloy because he was too focused on what the mares were doing, and was completely ignoring her. Maybe as we do this more often, he'll relax and not care so much what we're doing so he can focus on Mom.

Skeets did have a bit of a temper tantrum and tried "taking off", but it didn't work any better than it had the last couple of times. There are times when I do wish I could read her mind. She's trying to tell me something, but I'm too dumb to figure it out. We'll get there eventually.

Happy Birthday to the Wild Ones!

January 1st is the "official" birthday for racehorses, and we've adopted it as the mustangs' birthdays as well since we don't have any actual dates of birth for them. 

Their birthday morning stated off pretty rough, if you were to ask them. Which no one did. Ask them, I mean, but they started screaming bloody murder about 7:30 this morning, alerting the whole neighborhood that they were being neglected. They were starving to death and even dragged the feeder over to the gate to prove to us that it was (mostly) empty.

There were still a few bites of hay in there, but they knew they would need that so they wouldn't actually perish of starvation while Jay and I put the new bale out.

Do you see how neglected they are? Skin and bones, the lot of them. 

We were forgiven once the new bale was put out, even if it took us far too long in their opinion. 

Once they had a few hours on the new bale, L.E. and I pulled the girls for a little afternoon ride in the backyard. Skeets wasn't thrilled, but I was. She's lost some weight, and I had to do some adjusting of her tack. The new "extreme slow feed" hay net is doing its job. 

I didn't have any birthday carrots for them, so after our ride, Jay and I ran into town for a couple of errands and picked some up on the way home. 

They were appropriately appreciative, and would have eaten the whole bag of they'd been allowed to. 

Overall, I think they had a pretty good birthday. (At least this year, I didn't make them wear party hats like I've done in the past!)

Merry Christmas from the Wild Ones!

 Last Saturday, I got really excited when I woke up to snow falling. In all of the years that we've done Christmas pictures with the horses, we've never had fresh snow on the ground.

However, Colorado was being Colorado, and within hours the snow was gone. Sunday, the day we chose to take our pictures, was gorgeous, bluebird sky, 50+ degrees, no wind. Absolutely perfect day for taking pictures, except for the lack of snow.

I crocheted the horses Christmas hats a couple of years ago, but Miss Pearl and Copper kept shaking theirs off, so this year, I added strings to tie them under their throats. Those strings were magic - suddenly the horses thought the hats were part of their halters and weren't bothered in the least. Goofy horses.

I went on a Christmas hat crocheting binge this year, and made hats for all the cats in the family, then thought, why not?, and made one for Mary Kathryn, the hen.

Before the chaos of the horses started, we began picture taking with Mary Kathryn. She did not approve. 

L.E. and Mary Kathryn

She's the only hen I like and will touch. It
helps that she comes running to me when she
sees me. (I'm not special, she loves all humans.)

During our dress rehearsal a couple of weeks ago, she kept shaking it off, so I added a string to tie it under her 'chin' and behind her head thinking that would work. I had a plan - I was going to have L.E. put her down under the arch and get cute pictures while Mary Kathryn ran to me.

Here's the thing: Mary Kathryn has survived bobcat and hawk attacks. I don't know why I thought she wouldn't be able to outsmart the hat.

L.E. put her down, and Mary Kathryn said, "no, thank you".

Hen: 1, Humans: 0

Well, at least it was funny (to us, MK is still mad at me). The horses were next, and things went much better with them.

Copper just adores hims daddy.

Skeeter is a mare,
adoration isn't in her vocabulary.

The 'kids' look like teenagers dragged to
an event they don't want to go :D

L.E. and Miss Pearl (who
does not believe in posing
under the arch).

L.E. and Fred the Farm Dog

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Surprise Horse Cookies

(Cross-posted from It's a Horse Life.)

Two weekends ago was our annual Baking Weekend at the lodge. It's always a big to-do, and we always crank out a lot of cookies, but we've never made cookies for the horses before. The Friday of Baking Weekend, I had to drop Jay off at the airport on my way up to the lodge, and as I was driving, I drove right past the barn where my friend boards her horse. I looked at the facility and immediately thought, "we should make some horse cookies." Now, why I thought about it when driving by my friend's horse's barn and never while looking out the window at our own horses, I'll never know, but the idea took root.

I was running ahead of schedule, and hungry, so when I stopped to grab a bite to eat, I looked up horse cookie recipes that wouldn't require me to go to the store to buy more ingredients. There were a lot of yummy sounding ones, but the one I landed on was this one:

This seemed easy enough, and we had all of the ingredients, so up to the lodge I went with my additional project in mind.

Luckily, I got up there before everyone else, so Mom and I had undisturbed mother/daughter time to whip out these treats for the horses. They came together very easily and quickly. 

I quickly wrote down the recipe on a white board so we didn't have to keep going back and forth to the video. In the video, she said to bake them at 315*F, which Mom and I decided had to be a mistake, so we baked ours at 350*F. Very quickly, we smelled burning molasses, and turned the oven down. If you chose to make them, follow the video's directions.

We dug through our cookie cutters and found a cowboy boot, cowboy hat, and a horse to use. Not that the horses care about the shapes of their cookies, but they made us smile. We chose to leave them unfrosted, as none of our horses need the extra sugar, and we didn't want to bother with the mess.

I did taste one, just because, and it's not horrible to my human pallet, but not great. The horses, however, greatly disagree and think they're about the best cookies on the planet. Washoe and Alloy got the first taste of the cookies after they loaded into their horse uber, but the rest had to wait until they'd finished with their Christmas pictures yesterday.

This is a simple and easy recipe to make, and the horses give them four hooves up.

L.E. and Miss Pearl

Yesterday, when I pulled into the driveway, I saw L.E. and Pearl out riding in the backyard and it took my breath away, it was so beautiful. She had just passed by the no-watermelon arch as I pulled in, and they were perfectly framed.

Instead of continuing on to my parking space, I threw my car in park, jumped out, and got all bossy, telling her to do it again! I was hoping I'd be able to take a couple of pictures. I am by no means a photographer, but I needed to take these pictures.

Almost...almost...

... got it ...

... just to be safe, I took another one.

L.E.'s safe space is across the street in the arena; riding outside of the arena causes her some anxiety, so she's been working hard on getting comfortable riding in the backyard. Riding at home isn't new to her, we've done it together for a few years, but it's not comfortable for her. It's funny, because anywhere outside of the arena is where Skeeter and I feel best, and we feel confined within the fence of the arena. L.E. and I are opposite in that way, but because we're opposite, I know what a big deal it is for her to ride solo in the yard.

Eventually, we'll be riding the farm roads. L.E. might never want to ride the mountain trails with us, but it'll be fun to hack out on the farm roads.

And, just because I love the pictures, here are a couple more.

I cropped it a bit closer, to remove the buildings and focus on L.E.

Then L.E. cropped it even more,
and the finished product is incredible.