The Wind It Is A Howling

Wow! Is it ever windy outside! Blizzardy even!

Luke and Murphy were hiding behind the barn but came out and looked at me rather accusingly. Like "Hey! Do you not see the icicles forming on me?!" They have a shelter, but they only go in there during the summer to escape the gnats.

Luke

Murphy

I put the horses in the barn, fed and watered them, and used the shedder to scrape the ice and snow off of them. They actually stopped eating to enjoy the grooming. They must have been itchy.

Java loves running through the snow. Unfortunately, she runs so fast, it's hard to get a decent photo, especially when your lense is wet from the falling snow.

Ahhh... break time.

Drawing as Meditation and Therapy

About a year ago, I started drawing. It all started with this journaling group that meets once a month at a coffee shop, led by Lynn Fisher. When I saw the notice about the journaling group in a newsletter I thought, hmmm... I like to journal, but what exactly would a group of journalers do when they get together? I was curious.

What I didn't realize is that the group was mainly for art journalers -- I didn't even understand what that was. I simply wrote in my journal, pretty much the same old complaining, whining, promises to do better tomorrow drivel, day-after-day.

I was thoroughly enamored with the artistic ways of these women but held no hopes that I could do the same sort of thing. But then I took a class with Roz Stendahl, who is amazing! I'm not even going to try and keep up with her. Roz taught a group of us how to make our own journals and some basic principles of drawing and painting.

Okay. So I still don't know how to draw worth a darn. But what I've discovered is that drawing is like meditation for me. It forces me to slow down and notice things. My brain tends to operate like a pin ball machine, flinging thoughts this way and that way, some thoughts setting off bells and whistles and lights while others just end up in the gutter. But anyway, drawing stops all that chaos -- at least for a little while.

And what came as a total surprise is that drawing is fun! Yeah, you have to struggle with all those voices in your head, telling you that you have no talent, this is a waste of time, blah, blah, blah. But if you can get past your inner critic, you start to remember what it was like when you first discovered crayons and pencils and the joy of making marks on paper. 

So the heck with being any good at drawing. I just look at it as:

A more interesting way of creating to do lists.

Of recording an interesting event.

Or recording the weather conditions.

Oh, and you don't have to draw. Lots of art journalers paint, collage, or use photos. The main, thing is to take a moment to be still, and notice what's going on in your life, right now. Actually, when you think about it, that's what blogging is all about. But I do enjoy getting off my computer and putting a pen or pencil to good old fashioned paper...

Frisbee Dog

We got a couple of inches of snow last Friday. Java was thrilled (me too). We got in a little frisbee toss and fetch today. Java thoroughly enjoyed her romp in the snow. She ran and jumped and spun. Me? I got a laughter work out.

Which was not quite equivalent to the workout Java got. She needed to do a little recuperating... 

Police Horses

Today I attended a winter seminar that the local veterinary office puts on every year to cover various horse topics. This year the seminar was on Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Protocol and Geriatric Horse Care, followed by a demonstration of how to desensitize your horse, given by the Police Mounted Patrol. 

The presentation on diseases and vaccines included videos of horses with Tetanus, West Nile, EPM, and Strangles. You could tell the presenter was really excited about getting these videos from the University and being able to show them to us. They did add a graphic image that could help if I ever saw these symptoms in my own horses, but for the most part, the attending horse owners moaned at the site of these suffering animals and prayed they would never see such a thing in real life.

The presentation on caring for geriatric horses got me thinking about aspects of my own horse care. Although my horses are still what I consider fairly young (9 and 13), it still made me think that maybe I should reevaluate the type of feed I'm giving them, my deworming program, and that I might want to consider some joint supplements for Murphy, my 13-year-old. I'm also going to look into getting some mesh leg wraps for the summer to try and keep the flies off their legs. The stomping to get the bugs off can cause unnecessary wear on their legs and feet. 

Murphy has a few issues with gnats getting in his ears. The resulting head shaking might explain his scrambled brain.

I tried to take photos of the mounted patrol demonstration but the overhead lighting in the riding arena caused glare and blurring. The photos below are the best I could do. 

Most the horses were a Percheron mix, but there was also a Paint, Quarter Horse, and a Friesan mix

During the Republican Convention, the horses in the mounted patrol were geared up with their own riot gear, including eye and face shields. The horse at the far right in the photo is wearing this shield. They also wear special shoes with metal pads to protect their feet from sharp, metal jacks that rioters may throw on the ground to try to stop the horses.

I wish I would have gotten a photo of the demonstration on how the mounted patrol teaches the police horses to push back a crowd. The demonstrator pushed the horse and hit it's neck and chest with a nerf noodle. The horses are taught to listen to the rider and not the person on the ground. In general, people will move away from a 1000 pound animal. Of course, that's probably not a desensitizing technique you want to teach your own horse or they'll be pushing you back every time you approach with a halter.  

The police had those horses walking over pop cans and through hula hoops. Not just any hula hoops, but the ones that sound like they have beads or sand inside them. The hoops jumped up when the horses hit the edges of them, which I know would definitely have started my horse Luke pushing some crowds aside. 

All I really want is for Luke and Murphy not to freak out when the wind rustles the leaves. Or when a turkey crosses their path. Anyone have any turkey desensitizing techniques for horses? 

Ex-dressage Rider

I guess I really shouldn't call myself an ex-dressage rider. I continue to use the same principles in my riding, I just now ride in a western saddle most of the time. 

I do get out my dressage saddle once and awhile. It's much lighter and easier to throw on when I don't have very much time to work with my boys.

I used to own an Oldenburg named Finian. He was beautiful and I loved riding him. I bought him as a three year old and he was not an easy horse to train and ride, but we had come a long way in the five years that I owned him, thanks to my trainer Julie.

Then I moved to my own place and tried to make a backyard horse out of Finian. It worked pretty well while the weather was nice. But then winter weather moved in. Finian is a horse that needs to be worked hard and frequently, which I couldn't do without an indoor arena.

I tried to ride him in November after he hadn't been ridden for awhile. I should have known better. Finian took off while I was getting on him and I broke my collar bone and wrist when I hit the frozen ground.

Check out the purple cast...

I reluctantly sold Finian and now have two horses more suited to standing around most of the winter, only to be ready to go again in the Spring after a brief lunging session. Neither of them will ever be dressage horses, but they can still do the leg yields, turns on the haunches, shoulder ins and such -- all with a western saddle on.

Horse Love and Genetics

Families are an interesting thing. And I have two of them: my adoptive family and my biological family. Unfortunately, both my families have gotten smaller. 

My adoptive Dad died 25 years ago. My adoptive brother died 13 years ago. And my adoptive Mom died about 17 months ago. And now my biological Dad died on November 28, 2008 from cancer.

I actually met my Dad on Thanksgiving in 1998. Ten years was not enough time, not that any amount of time would have fit the bill. But he lived about 1700 miles away from me so the visits were too short and infrequent. 

My Dad wasn't the only member of my birth family I met at that time. I also met my birth Mom, three sisters, two brothers, and a number of nephews and nieces.

The most fascinating thing about meeting my birth family was that the love of horses and animals appears to be genetic. Who would of known? So many things about me finally made sense.

My Dad and Me on Jacki (2004)

The death of a parent is a difficult thing to go through, but I've found it especially complex with the loss of my birth Dad. Probably something to do with losing a part of myself so recently found. That mixed in with the adoption, rejection, abandonment issues I tote around with me. It's something I'm sure I'll be working through for quite some time to come.

My Dad and Me (2006)

Manicure for Dogs

It's time to clip Java's nails. I truly hate this part of dog ownership. I could take Java to a groomer but nail clipping is something I think I should be able to do myself. I just don't want to nick a vein and hurt her and make it even harder to clip her nails ever again. 

These are my grooming weapons - brush for her hair, nail clippers, septic powder in case I do nick a vein, nail file to smooth edges, toothbrush and toothpaste, and my most recent tool - PediPaws™, the incredible pet nail trimmer! My hope is that PediPaws will eliminate the need for the nail clippers, septic powder, and nail file. 

The instructions do say that "Most pets will have to be acclimated to PediPaws and some pets will take longer to be comfortable." This is Java's face when I turned on the PediPaws. 

Okay. She might be one of the pets that take a few days or more of training before you can file her nails. She's not very good with the manual clippers either.

But she does seem to like the toothbrushing. Tasty!

A Dog, Cat, and Horses Too

I feel as though I should introduce my animal crew. The newest member of the family is Java, a German Shepherd, Golden Retriever mix. I got her from Pleading Paws Pet Rescue (PPPR) last September. She was about four months old then. PPPR picked her up from a dog pound that was going to put Java down if the rescue group didn't take her. Thank goodness they rescued Java in time! She helped to put a smile back on my face after my dear Willow dog died. 

I am so thankful for organizations like PPPR and all the people out there that foster and adopt rescued animals. They do such great work. 

Then there's Shy, a barn cat that came with the place my husband and I bought. I named her Shy because it took many months before I could get near her. The front paw she's holding up in the photo has buckshot in the elbow joint that's probably been there since she was fairly young. The bone healed and fused in an awkward bent position, but she still can move pretty fast. The leg seems to hurt at times, especially in the winter. Which is why she winters inside the house now.

Lastly, there's Luke and Murphy. Luke's in the forward right of the photo. I bought him as a 3-year-old. He had rain rot and was skin and bones. But he's nine now and doing fine. He's supposed to be a Tennessee Walker but I think he has more quarter horse in him than anything.

Murphy (in the left rear) is a Missouri Fox Trotter who I believe successfully bullied his previous owner into never riding him. Murphy tries to intimidate people but if you don't let him, he can be a nice horse to ride. Very smooth.

So that's the crew. I'll be telling you more about them as we go along.

Horse Trailer Tango

I've been dancing around this horse trailer driving thing for years. But I swear, this is going to be the year that I become an expert at hitching, backing, and all around maneuvering this monster.

I actually have driven a two-horse, straight load by myself before. It took numerous repetitions of backing-up to the hitch, getting out of the truck, looking, pulling forward, backing up, looking, forward, backing up, looking - you get the idea. 

But I've never been able to back up the trailer once it's hitched. Instead, I always make sure I pull into a space that I can pull out of forward -- no backing. But that does limit where you dare to venture.

And now, I have a three-horse, slant load trailer that is a lot bigger, in my opinion, than a two-horse. I had this crazy idea that I would join this trail riding organization and load up my horse and maybe a friend's horse (I'm still working on finding a friend), plus some hay and supplies and go on these weekend horse camping trips or even a week long trip to someplace like the Black Hills.

Okay. So I'm downsizing my trail riding goals to being able to hitch and drive the trailer to a park about seven miles from my home, which has about three miles of trails, and going trail riding by myself. I'm hoping to meet someone there that will be my trail buddy.

So if I can learn how to hitch the trailer, back it up, I just have the final hurdle to jump -- our driveway -- which is narrow and doesn't have much room at the mouth to swing onto the street, or vice versa, to swing back into the driveway. If I don't do it right, the trailer wheels will go off of the hardtop and I'm in danger of tipping the trailer into the creek. No problem...

Confessions of a Grinder

I'm a grinder and it's catching up with me. Clenched jaw during the day; blackboard scraping, tooth-to-tooth action at night.

I wear a mouth guard at night, most of the time. It's kind of a turn off in the sex department so I have to leave it out every month or so. Kidding!

But I cracked another molar. I say "another" because this is the second one that I've had to get a crown put on. Monday after work, I went through two injections of Novocaine and spent 90 minutes getting a mold prepared and having a temporary crown put on. I spent another two hours waiting for the fat, lazy tongue effect to diminish.

Until I get the permanent crown put on, I have to avoid chewing on the left side of my mouth. I'm already missing the complete, surround-sound tasteability of normal chewing. 

I agonized over the decision of whether to have a gold or porcelain crown put in. Porcelain is pleasing to the eye but can chip, damage other teeth, and requires that more of the underlying tooth be removed. Gold is a TOTALLY superior material, but sticks out like a sore thumb. Okay if you're a rapper, but not so good if you're not. 

I chipped my two front teeth in 5th grade and spent about four years with silver teeth. I became an expert at smiling without unlocking my lips. But since this is a lower molar, it should only be visible when I'm having a nervous breakdown, as I do every once and awhile. 

Besides, being so near Valentine's day, I'm trying to look at the gold crown as an accessory, a little gold bling for the big heart day.

Snowshoeing Blues

There's a lot of meltage going on

And it's not a good thing

Cuz a freeze is a cominnn tonight.

I could be a songwriter. Or not...

I about broke my neck trying to walk to the barn in the dark this morning. There's some snow, some grass, a lot of ice, and puddles resting on top of all of it. Tonight it's supposed to drop down to 25 degrees and stay in the 20s for at least a week.

I worry about the horses slip slidin away. So I put down a hay and dirt mixture by the water tank to help them out some. Unfortunately, I can't cover the whole paddock.

And you know why we're having this early thaw when just a couple weeks ago we had all this lovely, fluffy snow? It's because I bought snowshoes a couple weeks ago. Java and I had a blast the two times we did manage to get out and snowshoe. Well, I snowshoed. Java just ran around.

Getting Started

My first blog post. I'm feelin' the pressure. I've been brainstorming about these really funny stories to tell, but now, nothin. So I figured if I just got this first post over with, maybe the next ones will pour out of me.

My friend Bev and I got together in January and made treasure maps of the things we want to manifest in our lives. Treasure maps and manifesting seem like such "Law of Attraction" cliches, but maybe it will help me focus on what's really important to me. I'm so tired of time passing by and every year promising myself that this year will be the year I:

• Get off my property with my horses and do some real trail riding.
  
• Finish writing at least one of the books I started nine years ago. 
• Get published.
• Have drawings in my art journal that even in the slightest way resemble something Hannah Hinchman has done.
• Find an outlet for my music. Not sure what yet - community band, church group, be a street corner musician... 
• Teach my dog to skijor. This is a totally new aspiration but it looks like so much fun and she needs an outlet for her energy.

I'm getting too old to be putting things off. So here I go.