Country Living

My kitchen is currently being teased by frogs...little tree frogs... I usually find one little frog on top of the bottom of my commuter mug. This time I found a pair of them! We'll occasionally find a little frog scooting around the sink area... We found one in our barbecue sauce one night. I had to give him a bath before I turned him loose...and I had to toss the barbecue sauce...didn't want any "special" seasoning in there! We frequently find these little guys in the bathroom, but at this point, they're decorating the kitchen. I'm not sure how they're coming in, or what's enchanting them, but they're consistent visitors, and we do our best to work around them! Silly critters!

Bonding...

We are learning about "Horse-analities." Willow is so totally different than the horse we owned before. She continues to be an absolute joy! Although she is definitely "Mama's girl," she's also developing a good relationship with my husband as well. We're both "critter" people, so I knew it was bound to happen...but I also knew that our previous horse mistreated my husband, and left him just a little horse-shy. That was one of the qualities Willow exhibited that drew me to her...she just exuded a calmness I knew I could trust.

Willow has been living with us for a month now. She loves to tag along while Papa B cleans her little corral. We garden, so I'm not overly concerned about the vast amount of horsey poo that accumulated in just a month...I'm sure there are several places I can put it to good use. Willow doesn't nicker to us...I miss that, but I wonder if that's just because she's a Mustang. She does meet us at the gate, and she greets us openly when we come into her corral. I don't know why I keep her halter on... I only use it on the rarest of occasions. We may need to talk about that. Hmmm.

We're getting all of our little lessons in. We groom, we pick up our feet, we walk, we do reining, we do ground work... We found out last night we need a girth strap for our saddle. Oh piffle. Oh well...I wanted to get us a neoprene girth anyway. I guess this just cements that. She does really well with all the bits and pieces. It's like she knows how, she knows what's expected, and if I'll just get on board, we can get it all together! LOL! I wonder if a training session might just be worth it...to teach me as much as anything else!

In the meanwhile...I'll continue going about this the way I've started. A little here, a little there... A little more here, a little more there. By the time I get everything together, Labor Day will have passed us by, and it might actually be safe to think about riding across the road out front...or even down to the forebay! I think riding her on the beach would be so wonderful!! Yes...I'll take a sack with me! It wouldn't be nice to leave leftovers! Just because the geese can...! Patience...patience...

Moving Along...

I don't know what kind of training Willow has had. I saw a video clip of Tawnee riding her, testing her out...but it was short and kind of choppy. So, I know she's been under saddle successfully. Tawnee told me she used a Tom Thumb snaffle. Ok. I chose an O-ring snaffle instead. I'm still having some problems finding her "go" button. *Ü* "Whoa" is definitely her stop button, verbal, and by rein. She does pretty well with "back", now it's the steering that needs some work. I think it's time to crack the books again.

I do know Willow wants to please. She accepted her bridle willingly, and was patient with me while I worked out all my own kinks. We did big circles and little circles, in both directions, we did forward and back...and we did more circles in the opposite direction, and figure eights. I even laid across her back and tried to find a way to get up on her bare back. I'm getting too old for that! LOL! It's a lot harder to mount bare back than it used to be! Next time...we go for the saddle!

Horse Experience

Please, please...don't ever look at me as ANY kind of authority in the field of horses! LOL! Nothing could be farther from the truth! All I know is what I know from my own experience, common sense, and what's working and not working with Willow right now.

You know how they say God loves fools and children? Well...that's why my first horse survived. All I knew was that I absolutely loved horses, I wanted one desperately, I found one I could buy, the time was right, and ...OMGosh...I suddenly owned a horse. On the arranged date, I arrived to pick up the little "stud colt" - okay, stop right there. Are you hearing what I'm saying here?? STUD COLT?? Challenge #1. Yep. Bought a little quarter horse stud. Next? He hadn't been getting his rightful share of groceries in between times, so he was a bit on the gaunt side. Next? Thank heaven he loads in the trailer like a champ, and we drive the 30 miles to our new home....make that 27 miles, almost to our new home. The kind gentleman I hired to trailer us to our house declined to drive the last few miles...it was a rather interesting dirt road. While I knew he'd be fine, he felt he needed to draw the line. Ok. We weren't that far from home. Except the horse didn't want to walk with me. He was totally out of his element. This was wild forest...new smells and sounds, and he was spooked and didn't want to go any farther, thank you so very much. Now what am I going to do? Take advantage of it being way out in the woods, off the beaten track, tie the horse and jog on down to the house for some grain to use as a bribe. Worked. Next? Colic, 2 days later.

Oh, we had a few rough times. The day I came home with his bridle was the day he escaped and disappeared. In the wide open wild forest, where there are real mountain lions and bears. I was terrified. But, we got lucky...he came upon the river...and he wouldn't cross water. He was found, and by that time everyone knew I was missing a horse. Little stinker...he was underweight and we had to ride him back home...bareback. Owww...! It was a long, slow trip!

I got the leg of the trip with the logging truck though...talk about scared! This was my first time on this horse, and my first time on a horse in probably 12 years. My horse philosophy comes directly from books I read (virtually memorized) as a child...King of the Wind...Black Beauty...The Black Stallion series. My heart told my head that if you treated a horse with love and respect, you'd get the same in return. So, when we realized this great big logging truck, thankfully empty, was heading for us, I figured we were both decidedly apprehensive. I moved us as far off the road as I could and made us as comfortable as I could where we stood. I took the slack out of the reins just enough to have a connection with his mouth, and started talking to my horse, patting him on the shoulder, letting him know we were ok. As the truck approached, I tightened my legs around his barrel just enough to be prepared, and continued to talk and pat, but allowed him to turn and watch the truck as it passed by us. We watched it for a few moments as it went on down the road, and then we turned back the direction we were going, coughed out the dust, and went on about our business. We bonded a lot in that 90 seconds!!

Rai was my big baby...and I loved him dearly. We played all kinds of games together. We played a kind of hide & seek game, and he had a game he played with us...I can get out 3 nights in a row! I learned a lot about the intelligence of horses during my time with him. I learned a lot about their memories too...but not as much as our dog did!

A lot of the time, we were the only ones of our species on our property. There were enough dogs for them to pack together to protect the place, and they did. They'd station themselves at strategic points on the property and yip back and forth in the evening to secure the perimeter. My son was usually either gone to school, or sleeping. He had a short period in the afternoons for play or chores, but during the winter, there wasn't much of that. I was also Rai's primary caregiver. He had his snotty moments, but for the most part he tried very hard to please me. I was cautious to make sure he always went to his shelter before I fed him, and I fed him from outside the shelter so no accidents could occur. I was about 26 to 33 or 34 while we lived there. I also made sure I didn't work with him during his most excitable time of my cycle. It became obvious. I had to sell Rai when my mother got sick and I had to leave my home to be with her. I never quite got past that.

There was one thing Rai taught me though... I let him down. I violated the trust we'd built out of being naive. It won't ever happen again. I learned. It cost me a relationship with the horse I adored. He never quite trusted me again, and with good reason. You see...the crusty old cowboy who graciously brought the farrier out to my place simply reacted to my little "stud colt" the way the old cowboys of his time did...no nonsense, hurt them into it. Rai had never been mishandled that way with me. I rarely needed a lead rope! This guy wanted to know where my chain was...What chain?? The next thing I knew he'd tossed a chain over my poor boy's nose and he was miserable and I was in shock! We did our best to be well behaved until that ordeal was OVER! That was a most horrifying experience for both of us, and we quit being "friends" with Crusty Cowboy.

So, those are my lessons and experience. Once I decided I was going to start looking for another horse, I started reading up on this and that on line. I started ordering a few books to see what the "horse whisperer" thing was about. I neither read the book or saw the movie. Life happens at the wrong time sometimes. The next thing I know I'm reading about Pat Parelli and some other gentlemen, and I'm seeing video clips on YouTube of horses doing amazing things with their handlers...and those handlers being even very young... It excites me! So, I read a whole lot more.

I still don't know a pinch of what I need to know, but I do know that everything I ask of Willow she's willing to do. If I can be patient, she'll usually ask to do what I want once she understands what that's going to be, and that she's not going to be hurt by it. I put a lead rope on Willow while I checked the fit of her saddle, but when I fitted her headstall and bit, I didn't bother. We just made a game out of it. Next comes putting all the pieces of the puzzle together at one time. This part gives me butterflies. LOL!! I need to study up on how to fasten, cinch, mount and all that fun stuff! But don't think for half a second that sometimes I don't get absolute butterflies over the next step!!

Willow has been with us about 3 weeks now. She's pretty well settled in, and knows and respects the boundaries.

It's somewhat incredible the way she respects personal boundaries... Bruce has a garden tool area and a potting table that shares her space. We also have a small wrought iron table and fire pit out there (all curved edges), close up to the house. She doesn't go up there...except to nibble a few bites of grass. If her hay blows up there, she waits for one of us to pull it away. And she certainly doesn't mess with the planting table at all! What a good girl she is!

Actually, Willow is so well behaved, I'm not sure how I got so lucky to have discovered her! So far we've had lots of evening grooming sessions with a wonderful rubber curry tool from Oster. I love it and Willow seems to as well! All the loose hairs get stirred up and it doesn't hurt her in the least. She feels like she gets a good massage out of the deal! Then we strip off the old dead hairs and smooth things out with a big ol' dandy brush. We finally got all the Mustang Dreadlocks out of her mane...next...The TAIL. *grin*

One thing Miss Willow still doesn't care for is being sprayed for flies. She'll stand for it if I make her, but I usually try to get her to want it. She knows she appreciates that they stop biting, but she really doesn't like the spraying part. Therefore, the writing is on the wall that she isn't much going to care for something with as much spraying activity as a b-a-t-h. I may ask one of my friends if I can watch them bathe their horse... Ok...I've never bathed a horse. Ever. But we'll talk about my experience level....another time. Ok?

Princess Jasmine

I would be extremely remiss if I were to go any farther along with this blog without introducing you to Jasmine...Princess Jasmine, if you know what I mean! You see... Jasmine is of Shetland Sheepdog breeding, so she believes she is in charge of telling everyone where they need to be, and making sure they get there in a timely manner. That means every creature who lives here...even me. Sometimes, especially me.

Jazzy is also an adoptee...we adopted her from the Mendocino Coast Humane Society in Fort Bragg, CA in January of 2008. We'd been looking for a smaller (smaller than 75 pounds that is...) dog to be a traveling companion, but we also wanted a dog that was good with livestock, and Shelties were on our list. When we ran across Jasmine in Fort Bragg, quite on a whim, we instantly fell in love! We coordinated the rest of our vacation weekend around visiting and playing with her, then picked her up for the long trip home on our way out of town. What a gal...she did a 5-1/2 hour drive home like a seasoned traveler!

There's only one thing the shelter was mistaken about...Jazz has grown much larger than they anticipated. They thought she was fully grown when we got her at 8 mos. and 20 pounds, but she put on another 3 inches in height and another, ahem...10 pounds! That doesn't mean she can't launch herself like a rocket though! She can leap with the best of them!

Jasmine is the Princess of the house, and makes sure she keeps her "brothers" Braveheart (an elderly shepherd cross we've had since birth) and Qannik (a Samoyed cross we rescued from a divorce situation) in line. Jasmine and Tiki keep us amused in the house with their antics... Tiki believes Jasmine is his personal toy, and Jasmine believes she is the guardian of the door, forbidding any of the other kitties admittance to the house.


Jasmine loves the snow...there's nothing more fun! We just have to keep her leashed at all times, because she has this technicolor nose that forgets where she belongs! Her nose gets going and she can't help but follow! When we adopted Jazz, they estimated her other breed to be Eskimo Dog...this shot seems to agree with that!

One thing Jasmine doesn't seem to care for though...water. The boys play in the wading pool...she avoids it. They stand in the sprinkler, she frowns and runs to the porch. She had to have a bath after being in the Lassen Volcanic National Park for a week...she was full of volcanic ash dust! She did NOT appreciate that concept. She tolerated the bath, but she didn't like it...not one bit.

Jasmine is an extremely devoted sweetheart. If either of us leave the house, even to do a chore, she's out the screen door to keep watch. She knocks to come back in. We've thought about fixing a mechanism so she could let herself in...but are afraid she'll bring the "brothers" in too! Jazz sleeps in our bed...she has her own big doggy pillow at the foot of the bed, but prefers to sleep in the space between our pillows at the head of the king sized bed...with her head on my pillow, and her neck, and her shoulders, and her legs...oh heck...she can have the pillow....she's Princess Jasmine after all!

Settling In...

Willow has been with us almost 10 days now. She's really settling in quite nicely. She dropped quite a bit of weight in the first few days, but we chalk that up to her pacing a lot and me not feeding her quite as much as she was apparently used to. We seem to be up on it now. She's leaving some hay behind after feeding.

I'm amazed at how gentle she's become with me. At first she was so timid... I remember her reacting fearfully when I first brought just a brush out to her. Now, as long as I'm not spraying her with water, she doesn't much care what I do as long as I show it to her first.

It's summer, so we're fighting the fly battle. Willow wears a full-coverage fly mask during the day. That took a little getting used to. The velcro makes that nasty tearing sound when it comes apart. She's not as bothered by it now as she was the first couple of days. Willow stands still while I put it on and she appreciates that it comes off at night. I'm sure it's kind of hot and stuffy to have on all day. It's better than having flies in her eyes all day though. Willow tolerates being treated with fly repellent throughout the day well too. She's so good while I rub her legs down and her tummy. Even those touchy spots.

With all the space she has, Willow prefers to hang out close to the house. She's usually in sight of the living room window, or over in the shade beneath the trees along the stream. I knew that was going to be a good spot! Willow prefers to drink from the stream now. She rarely touches her water bucket. She's a sight with her big ol' lips dibbling water... Willow also has a fondness for fruit. Apples, of course, but grapes and even watermelon...

That piece was gone in mere moments...rind and all. She didn't hesitate. She prefers grapes though.

And just so you don't think that ALL the news is about Willow...look what I found in the laundry sink this morning...


The next time I looked there was a cute little calico in there too... I guess Mama decided they weren't safe wherever she had them...so she brought them inside. I wondered why she was being such a protective witch this morning! She was taking all the other cats to task! Even the little ones! Those little ones are teasing Fate playing under Willow's feet...it's amazing that she knows they're there...and even when she's stomping her feet to get rid of flies, she takes care not to put her feet down hard, lest she hurt a kitten. The only way one would get hurt is if she spooked when one was beneath her. Animals are so amazing!