soulmates

Goosebumps

I just got off the phone with Ida (Estes' Other Mother) and she's already got the mares at CSU.  Looks like they'll be ready for breeding by Friday or Saturday.

Now that the contracts have been signed and I know it's a done deal, I'll share the sire with you.  Allow me to present Gooitzen fan 't Wyldpaed (Apollo).

Photo cred: Excalibur Breeding Center

He's a handsome fella, isn't he?  16.1 hh, so much bigger than Her Highness.  I'll adjust.

Here's a picture of the new baby's full sister, Digger, from 2010.

As I was talking to Ida, we were talking about gestation period and Ida mentioned that Audubon will be due in early July.  It crossed my mind that if the stars align correctly and Audubon goes into labor exactly eleven months after being bred, the baby could be born exactly one year from the day I put Estes down.

Goosebumps, right?

Or, I could have a birthday baby, since my birthday's the middle of July.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

And don't forget about my give-away!

Things Every Horse Owner Should Know

Since we're likely to outlive our horses, I thought I'd share what I learned at the very last minute that I wish I'd known before I put Estes down.  

1. Know your choice of euthanization methods.  Captive bolt, the blue juice, or "terminal lead poisoning".  Know who is going to actually do the euthanizing.  If you live, like we do, an hour or so from the nearest vet, can you watch your animal suffer for any period of time?  Can you (or whoever you chose) actually follow through with the process? I knew, after the last colic episode, that I would put her down myself.  I spent the night before, running through worst-case scenarios in my head and preparing myself, just in case.
2. If you choose to put your horse down by lead poisoning, do you know how to handle a gun safely?  Do you know where to aim?  Do you have the correct caliber?  For instance, I've always been told that I could put down a horse with a .22, but when the time came, I feared that it was not a powerful enough round for an instant kill, so I went with a .45.
3. Put the animal down in a spot you can access afterward.  With putting Estes down at the lodge, we had the added factor of guests.  We needed a place that we could get equipment in to move her, but that wasn't within eyesight of the guests.  Luckily, Bill had left the horse trailer parked in such a way that Estes could lay down in the grass if she chose (she didn't, crazy mare).  The horse trailer blocked the view from the road and the edge of the lodge and dumpster blocked the view from the guests.
4. No matter which method you choose for euthanasia, you need to be prepared for the physiologic response of the animal.  Damn you, Disney and Ole Yeller!  When Mom put her first Mustang, Shadow, down, he fought the juice, but you can't take it back once it's injected, it's a done deal, you just have to keep pumping it in until the animal dies.  She had nightmares for months afterward.  Some animals will go quietly with the juice, some animals won't.  When I pulled the trigger, I knew my shot was true, but the muscle spasms afterward made me doubt myself.  I looked into Estes' eyes and knew she was gone, but the muscles in her body hadn't quite gotten the memo.  It's hard to imagine what will happen, but be prepared, it might not go like you expect it to.  You might need a second round (which was my fear with using a .22), could you shoot your horse a second time?
5. Make friends with someone who has heavy equipment and knows how to use it.  Without Dan, our neighbor, I don't know what I would have done.  You need the heavy equipment to move a carcass that large.  The added bonus is that a friend will treat your animal carefully and respectfully.
6. Know your disposal options.  If you have property and it is legal for you to bury your animal on your property, you are lucky.  But refer to #5, 'cause you're gonna need someone to dig a big hole.  This is where I really was lacking in knowledge.  I had some ideas in the back of my mind from when Estes colicked two years ago, but I hadn't done any research.  Do it.  Do it now.  It's far harder to think straight when you've just lost an animal.  Yes, I know it's hard to think about things we don't want to, but trust me, it will make that day much easier.  I felt like I called all over the place trying to find someone to come pick her up.  The cost ran between $150 - $500 for in town.  I couldn't get anyone to come up to the lodge without added expenses.  Thank God Bill's brain started working, he suggested we have Dan load her onto the truck (#5 again) and we drive her somewhere.  So I started looking at the landfill ($12/100#) and the rendering plant ($40 disposal fee).
7. Do you want your animal's mane or tail?  If so, who's going to fetch it for you? It's a gruesome task and one that you probably won't be up to, so make sure there's someone who can do it for you.  Me?  I hate hair, so the mane/tail thing was never an option for me.  However, I have a friend whose horse was hit and killed by a car.  Her boyfriend saved the tail for her (he's now her husband, nothing says I love you more than tackling that task).
8. Make sure you have people around to support you, even if you have everything planned out.  Your brain will short-circuit for a while.  Share your plans with your friends and family to help you through that short-circuit time.
9. Life will go on.  You will be able to see beauty in the world again.  You'll be able to get through the tears and the memories will forever be secured in your heart.

"Into the Light" photo by Rachel

A New Chapter

I've got one more post I'm working on about preparations horse owners should make, but I'm going to skip it to share this news with you first.

3 Generations:  Meeker, Audubon, Estes (April, '10)

One of the things that was most heartbreaking to me when I put Estes down was that I felt like her line died with her.  She wasn't a big show horse, nor was she worth lots of money.  Hell, she was a Quarter Horse/Morgan mix, she certainly didn't have any "pure" bloodlines, yet she was the beginning of Ida's foray into breeding.  From Estes, she got Meeker; from Meeker, she got Audubon; from Audubon she got one of the fillies I absolutely fell in love with a few years ago.

I don't know which was Audubon's, I suspect it's the one on the left.

There have been more off-spring, but Estes-Meeks-Audubon make up the direct breeding line.  Ida bought a Friesian mare (the mother of the other baby in the picture) and has been concentrating on breeding that line for the past few years.

Today, she called me and offered to breed Audubon for me so that I would have one of Estes' babies. 

Y'all, I couldn't stop crying.  I might have freaked her out a little bit.  Certainly she knows how much I loved Estes, but I can't put into words how much her offer means to me.

Ida has a Friesian stallion that she likes to use, and is going to breed her Friesian mare, so I'll pay for the semen and the AI for Audubon and Ida will have them done at the same time. Considering her last Friesian colt sold for more money than I'd ever be able to spend for a horse, I'm getting a great deal.

I told her I had to talk it over with Mom, but who was I kidding?  I was going to do it and we both knew it.

I called the Lodge crying and almost couldn't get the words out, I'm pretty certain Mom thought horrible things had happened.

To say the whole family is excited is an understatement.

I've looked up Baby Daddy online and he's beautiful, but I'm afraid of jinxing everything if I post him here.  Once CSU has the semen in hand and we're set up for the AI, I'll put him up here.

(I posted him on FB and am afraid that I've already jinxed it, but I can't undo that, so I'm hedging my bets here.)

Snow Day

We've had some weird-ass weather here lately.  The weathermen have been crying wolf almost every weekend.  Seriously, we've been on Winter Weather Advisory more this month than all winter long.  This morning, without any weathermen telling us the Blizzard of the Century was coming, we woke up to snow.  Beautiful, heavy, wet spring snow.

This is the kind of snow we've been expecting with each Advisory.  This time, no warning, just a mention that we had a slight chance of snow.  We've had eight inches throughout the day and it's still snowing.

Yesterday, just on the off chance that we'd get more than just a smidge of snow, I threw an entire bale for Her Highness.  I found that if I put the bale in her stall, she would stand at the door and eat off of it.  She still won't go into the stall, but she'll eat her hay from the doorway.  Crazy girl.

It wouldn't kill her to do a day without oats, but I wanted to check on her, so Ripley and I battled our way down the dirt county road to check on her.

Hanging out by her house.

Oh, okay, I'll grant you an audience.

Hi Mom!

There were no tracks in the pen, so she had been standing by her house, just hanging out enjoying the snow.  It wasn't cold and blowing, just gently falling and she looked so peaceful.

Mom, the oats go out there, not in the scary stall.

Right here.  This is where they go.

What?  Just put the oats already.

Yum.

Thanks Mom.

No, I did not clean out the oat box - it had no snow in it.  Beel says it didn't dare snow in her oat box.  That's possible.

My Four-legged Personal Trainer

Her Highness has decided she *likes* going for runs and meets me at the gate with a hopeful look every time I drive in.  Or maybe she just thinks she's going to get some oats.

I can't really chalk it up to the oats, because I just started her on them.  So it is definitely that she likes running.  I now have to lock the gate when I go into her pen, because she thinks once I'm there it's time to go.  The crazy thing is that we've only been out running three times.

Late this morning, I went over, fed her, scooped her poop and told her I'd be back for our run.  She looked at me like I was betraying her.  It didn't matter that I spent an hour in her pen, cleaning up after her and loving on her - I was leaving without taking her for her run.  You think a dog can make you feel guilty?  Try those big beautiful eyes.

Not a current picture, but I got the same cranky look.

She looked at me like I was lying to her when I said I'd be back later to take her running.  I didn't want to take her right after she'd finished eating, so I went home and took a nap.

When I got back, I grabbed her halter and curry comb.  I threw her halter on the ground in front of her so I could work on her nasty shedding with the curry and that little brat tried to halter herself.  She pushed and pushed the halter around with her nose until she had her nose in the nose band.  She wouldn't leave it alone until I haltered her.  Once I haltered her, she stood ground tied while I finished currying her.  It's like she didn't believe that we were actually going running until she was "dressed".  I have curried her recently without her halter on and then left, so maybe in her little mind, the halter was sealing the deal that we really were going to leave the pen.

She's so good when we go out on our "runs", which currently are intervals that are more walking than running.  She stays right at my shoulder and has quit swerving into me and lets me set the pace.  I was in a flat-out run on a couple of our intervals and she just trotted along happily, later in our program, when I was tired, I slowed down to a job and she just followed suit.

I'm trying to figure out how to get pics of us running together, but it's all I can do to breathe when we're running - I'm not sure I can breathe, run, AND take a picture.

We are having a good time, though, and I have a much harder time bailing on her, so this running thing might actually take this time around.

Running With My 800# Dog

When I told Jay that I was going to start Ease Into 5K again and do it with Her Highness, he looked at me like I was crazy and informed me I couldn't just run with a horse like a dog.

What?!

Who says?

So yesterday morning, I slipped on my sweats and shoes, put Her Highness in her halter and headed out.  And you know what?  It was so much easier to take Estes for a run than ANY of the dogs I've ever taken out for a walk.

She kept right at my shoulder the whole time.  Occasionally, I had to push her away from my shoulder because she would drift into me, but she really was easier to run with than any dog I've ever dealt with.

She also pushed me a bit on the run portion of the intervals.  Not that she dragged me or put any pressure at all on the lead rope; I just had to move my feet faster than a slow jog to keep up with her easy trot.  That's good for me, because I can do the world's slowest jog - barely faster than a quick walk.

Anyway, it was so much fun that I'm actually looking forward to doing it again tomorrow, and I can't remember the last time (if ever) I've said that about running.

Settled In

24 hours in and yes, I'm loving having Her Highness here.

I got up this morning to a text from her Landlord that she was doing great, so I waited to go over until I was on my way to Easter dinner at Nebalee's house.  That gave me time to finish baking the cupcakes and making the jalapeno poppers without being rushed.

I pulled up and saw her sleeping in the yard, enjoying the sun.

I think she might be part cat - give her a sunbeam and it's nap time.

She roused herself enough when I got to the gate to escort me to the back fence.  It was obvious she *had* to show me something.

"See them, Mom?"

There's a whole herd over there ignoring Her Highness.

She had introduced herself quite loudly to the other horse on the property, but no matter how much she hollered, those darn horses across the road would not respond to her.  She was not pleased and kept taking me back there like she was telling on them.

I checked her hay and water and told her I'd be back after dinner.  I kinda forgot to tell her than when I came back, it would be with Ivermectin.

First order of business when I got back was getting rid of as much hair as possible so she wouldn't look like a curly.  I'm fairly certain the birds will be thanking me once they get a look at the amount of hair I curried off of that girl.

It's harder to see here, but there's, like, half a horse on the ground.

I have a little "issue" with loose hair.  So as much as I love my girl, I HAD to wear gloves while grooming.  And I had to keep moving around so that the breeze would take the hair away from my mouth.  'Cause that's just gross.

Her hooves are long and were packed with God-knows-what; they need some serious work, but I think that if I work on them a little bit every day, they'll start looking better.  I'm still not super confident with hooves, but I am fairly certain that if I go in baby steps I won't screw her up too badly.  At first, I was thinking she was thrushy, but I think that what I saw was unshed sole.  I poked and prodded around her hooves and she doesn't seem tender.

After a good brushing, we took a quick walk around her new home.

Her pen - she loves all the new grass coming up.

The little house she thought she could follow me into yesterday.

The stall she won't go into without me.

This is Buck, he's on the other side of the property.

The farm road we'll be doing our Ease Into 5K training on.

Estes' New Apartment

Thank God for good friends.  When Mom called and told me that Estes needed to be moved ASAP, I called a friend who I know has some land and already has a horse on her property, thinking that maybe she would let me lease a spot for a month or so.  She agreed, but the next morning called me with what she thought would be a better place.

Turns out she has a friend who might have a better set-up for Estes and she wanted me to look at it.  My friend had remembered that Estes is getting up there in age and thought she might appreciate some formal shelter.

The place is perfect and beautiful and only about five minutes from our place.  For the first time since I've owned her, I'll be able to be with her every day.  I'm a lot excited about that.

Mom got directions to Estes' current pasture and we headed out to pick up my baby.

After traipsing through the cow pasture, we spotted the horses.  Estes saw us coming, she went on alert as soon as she heard us, but being Queen of Everything, she allowed us to cross the pasture to approach her.  We had assumed she'd be out there with the big herd, but it was just  Her Highness, Paint, and the Shetland-cross horse-type thing.

Paint was one of our livery string back way back when, so he's an old friend.  And I mean OLD, he's 27 if he's a day and he's lost an eye, which is kind of creepy, but he's still a sweetie.

Oh, I know you

Estee was perfectly happy to let me rub on her, but we had to go through the ritual of pretending to run away.

See how fast she's trying to get away?

Once she was certain I understood that she was still the Queen, oh about thirty seconds, she decided that she could come with me and practically haltered herself.

Ok, you may approach.

Does the Royal Purple still look good on me?

We spent a few minutes loving on Paint, who looks really good for his age, other than that eye thing.

The Shetland-cross horse-type thing is supposed to be Paint's companion animal.  I think that's another way of saying he/she/it is Paint's seeing eye dog.

Ok, so he/she/it's kinda cute.

The thing I *hate* about picking up Estes from winter pasture is all of the crying and going on when I lead her to the trailer.  This year was worse, because it was just the three of them and the cows and I'm pretty sure Paint doesn't count the half-horse as a herd member.  Paint bellowed and hollered and Estes bellowed and hollered and the little one tried, but it came out sounding more like a squeak.

It only took us about forty minutes to get to Her Highness' new place.  She's got a house in her pen.  Like, an actual two-room house, which is super cute.  She's also got a stall that I doubt she'll use, but I did take the time to show it to her.

That's for me?

I guess it might do.

I led her around the perimeter of her new place and turned her loose.  She was more than a little happy to start grazing on the new grass, while the Bionic Cowgirl and I unpacked all of her stuff.  "All of her stuff" was ten bales of hay and her bucket 'o supplies.  She's a light traveler.

Hop to it, Humans.

See that little building behind Estes?  That's the little two-room house I was talking about.  I opened the door to put her bucket inside and had to quickly shut the door.  While Her Highness wasn't overly excited about having her very own stall, she was certainly interested in claiming the house as hers.  Maybe I shouldn't have taught her to follow me through the Lodge, after all.

She hollered after us as we left, but when I went back this evening to check on her, she was quiet and grazing.  Mom and I had loaded up a couple of hay bags and I hung one on a post in the middle of the pen and one in the stall.  When I went to check on her tonight, she hadn't touched either bag of hay.  I took her a handful, which she ate, but then looked at me with disdain and went back to the new grass coming up.

She's got to put on some weight, so I'll be free-feeding as much hay as she'll take and start her on some Senior Feed this week.  I'm hoping to get some weight on her in the next four weeks.

Estes Is Coming Home!

Well, sort of home.

I got a call from Mom today and she started with, "Ida called..."  First, let me tell you that phrase chills my heart.  Estes is no spring chicken and I'm constantly dreading a phone call that could be bad news.  Read: my baby girl is dead, dying, or needs to be put down.  To date, I've only had one bad phone call from Mom, but with Estes' increasing age, I constantly worry.

Sorry - got off track.

It was bad-ish news, but not about Estes' health.  Ida just needs her herd off the pasture, so Estes has been evicted from fat pasture.  Only, it's too cold and snowy for Her Highness up the mountain right now, so I had to scramble to find her a place for the next six weeks.

Luckily, I have an amazing friend who I've worked with for several years who lives not far from me and who has a pen I can lease until it's warm enough to move Her Highness up the mountain.  I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of excited to have her only ten minutes from me.

Now that I know I have a place for her, I can allow myself to get excited that I can go hang with my girl every day.

It's 70*F

And all I want to do is go riding.  But little missy is still out to fat pasture and will be until probably the first week in May.  I miss her, but I know it's best for her to be where she is and I know we still have some cold weather heading our way.

I'm coming to terms with the thought that this might be her last year up on the mountain with Mom's herd, that she might have to live down here on the plains with me.  We spent some time at Rocky Mountain Horse Expo watching a demonstration on at-liberty obstacle courses.  I feel like that might be something to keep her brain engaged once I can't ride her any more.  We'll see how she does this summer on the mountain, but I know it's a possibility that it could be her last year.  I certainly hope not, though.

If I have any readers left, I'll put up the post of the livery's last ride in October.  Let me tell you, if it was a scored trail obstacle course, Estee and I would have won first place.  She was a rock star and did everything I asked of her - including ponying two mules who hadn't been trained to pack or pony.  Too bad there aren't any pictures of the two of us on that ride; the photographer was hired to take pictures of the livery horses and riders, not me and my girl.

Estes' Moving Day

Today, Estes got moved from winter pasture up by Mom and Bill's place down to Lyons, where she'll spend a day or two before Ida moves her out to fat pasture.

Mom was kind enough to take video of the turn out - Estes hooked up with the new herd of two and went on her merry way.  Love that she takes change so well.  Hopefully, she won't be calling for Mom's herd like did last year.  I don't anticipate it, because this is the second year we've done this an she's a smart cookie, she'll get it figured out.

2012 Rides in Pictures

Estes has been out to winter pasture since November and will soon be moving down to a lower elevation, to fat pasture.  I miss the stand-offish old mare, so I thought I'd post a review of my rides in 2012.

February
Every Feb, I hit a bad patch of missingmyhorseitis, so I borrowed Ranger for a ride just to get my fix.

The snow was too deep to use the mounting block,
so Bill had to help me up.

Ranger is good for what ails you.

March
No ride time, but luckily, my February ride with Ranger managed to tide me over until...

April
Still no Estes, so I had to borrow Washoe the Wonder Idiot.

Starting to warm up,
but still not a ton of water in the creek.

May
Finally!  My baby came home!

Look closely, you'll see our matching brands.
(You might have to biggerfy)

Isn't she beautimous?
I love that mare.

June
Got in as much riding as possible.  The forest was green and lush and I loved every minute of it.

I even shared Estes with my mom.

We got some great pictures in June.

July
July is always busy: 4th of July parade, the filming of Horse Master with Julie Goodnight, and my birthday.

I have no idea how we're going to out-do ourselves in 2013.
The be-dazzling of the horses is going to be tough to beat.

My job on the show is super glamorous, as you can see.
I'm the master booger-wiper.

Even in the middle of July,
it was green and lush.
I'm so lucky to get to ride here.

August
This is month I totally jacked up Estes' back by using a saddle that didn't fit me and my arse.  It fit her well, but since it didn't fit me, it put too much pressure in the wrong places and effed her up.  Damn, I hate it when I do something stupid like that.

That stupid saddle lamed me up as well.

Part of her rehab was short rides
for picnics.

So, back to Washoe the Wonder Idiot.

September
Got Estes' back fixed in August, then she had some trouble with her feetsies.  Had our farrier put shoes on the fronts and we were back in business!

Down by the beaver ponds;
it's starting to dry up.
But isn't my mare gorgeous?!

A week later, the trees started to turn.

And Estes decided to come in the people barn.

October
Big month!  Not only did we ride out all by ourselves while Mom and Bill were on vacation, but Rachel and family came for a visit and we got to go riding.

Estee sussed out this view all by her lonesome :)

She's gorgeous.
Mr Daddy's a lucky man.

Rachel is also wicked good at finding wildlife.

Really good at finding wildlife.

November
I have a couple of rides that I haven't written about yet, so some of these pictures might be previews.  Took my oldest son out for a ride and found the herd of sheep.

Digger certainly looks the part.

Lots and lots of sheep.
Estes got me within 100 yds.

Mom and Bill's new header picture.
It was fun trying to get the right picture.

Ranger worked his magic on a grumpy Ashinator.

It was a short last ride,
but a good one.
I don't get to ride with Ashinator much anymore.

I already miss Estes a ton and can't wait for April when she comes home and we can start riding all over again.