I should come here more often to remember our critter antics... And we have NO shortage thereof!!

2012 started out rather dry... In a normal year, this paddock would be pretty muddy, but not this year. It was chilly though, and the girls gave us frequent shows of simply being spirited happy horses.

By the time the South Paddock got mucky, the North Paddock was full of lush oat grass.  We were able to move the girls for the few weeks their usual paddock needed to dry out some.

With Spring, comes birth and rebirth...  This is our banty-mama...She set quite a clutch of eggs, but we sure learned something about birthing places... There needs to be just a little human intervention for everything to work out well.  Of the 3 chicks we actually raised, we have but one left...the young rooster.  This is a tough place for chickens if they don't follow the rules.  Rule #1 - Pay attention to your rooster and do as he tells you.  Rule #2 - Go to bed at night in the warm, safe place provided.  If you stay out on your own, we can't help you much.

Another interesting thing you can do in the Spring, precisely on the Vernal Equinox date, is stand uncooked eggs on end.  These are standard "store bought" eggs... Hey, in the winter, even the best of us sometimes have to resort to purchasing eggs... *sigh*  I found they needed a towel to keep them steady, but they balanced there just fine!

Let us not forget naps in the sun...  After a bit of Spring rain, there's nothing like a sunny window for a nap...

Unless, it's a sunny paddock...Or a warm spot by a lamp...

Late Spring brought an unexpected guest... A bull from the neighboring pasture jumped the fence...and hung out with us a couple days.  We were able to find his rancher and get him safely home.  He left us the gift of MANY flies.  The horses draw plenty, but this big fella brought plenty more with him!

 Girls will be girls, and sometimes you just have to be the middle man...er, girl.  They've never hurt us while doing this...and they love to love us at the same time.  That's not to say I don't maintain an awareness of being the filling in a 1-ton sandwich!!  Silly girlies!

We would be ever so remiss if we neglected to mention the flowers... We did get to see a few before Shasta "tasted" them.  She didn't care for them.

This is  Tortie. She now has two half sisters who look very much like her, and are called Yin and Yang.  Their sister and brother are called Salt and Pepper.  Pepper is the only boy, and he's black.  Salt is Siamese.

Summer brings gardening...and more horsey help than I want to discuss this year.  Shasta dearly loves to invade the garden.  Somewhere, there's a picture of her helping us "weed" the garden... Oh, she's a minx!  Due to her curiosity, we ended up buying more of our veggies than we should have...but there's always next year!  We were able to get some really nice produce at our Farmers' Market.  I had run out of dill pickles...can't have that!! So we primarily canned pickles and tomatoes this year.

We were also able to score a 35 pound box of Roma tomatoes for a really great price!  It felt rather like the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but we got 'em done!!

With the arrival of Autumn (which arrives while it's still decidedly warm here-especially this year!), we discovered we had "company" coming in for supper...

We've counted up to 7...  I know they're a nuisance, but they're so darn cute!  They aren't causing us any trouble, not really.  They'll clean out a kitty dish in no time, but they leave the chickens alone (as long as the chickens abide by said rules above).  Besides, they aren't the only wild "friend" we have coming in...  Oh, Lord help us, there's the cutest lil skunk that comes in... We think it's a female...not that we've really seen a lot of the "working" end of the skunk.... Jasmine, however, has.  At least twice she's taken a shot to the chest and shoulder.  The first time, she got into the house before I could stop her...and I locked her in the bathroom.  HUGE mistake.  Do not follow that example!!  The second time, she met "Flower" on the laundry porch and we bustled her out to the front yard with infinite haste!  Bruce has seen "Flower" on the laundry porch two different times, and I've found her out in the back.  She's apparently right friendly with the kitties...they don't mind her at all.  They were playing at Bruce's feet this morning.  He said it took great restraint to keep from reaching down to pet the "kitty" with all the others.  I think I'm glad he restrained himself!

Sadly, it was time to bid our big boy farewell and give him his wings.  Braveheart was born here some 15 years ago.  He was the timid pup of his litter.  We anticipated he'd come out of his shell as his litter-mates went to their new homes, but he never did.  It was years before he would let us touch him.  We never knew what made him different, but it was obvious, this was the only place he could ever live.  He caused us grief through the years because he wouldn't tolerate a cat in his space.  Eventually he grew out of that, just like he finally overcame his fear of us.  He never got "snuggly" with us, but he did get to the point where we could pat him occasionally or remove an errant tuft of blown coat.  When Qannik and Jasmine came along, he came out of his shell and would actually try to play with us some.  Farewell Big Boy... Who's a big dog??  I miss you.  "Dad" misses you.  Qannik misses you terribly, still.  Rest peacefully... We'll see you later...

We are in search of another dog.  Ideally, and LGD.  I am shy about Anatolians...I'm afraid Bruce isn't assertive enough.  Although, Qannik is so lonesome, I'd consider a lot of other options while we wait for the LGD.

Somewhat untimely, but our mama banty decided to set another clutch of eggs in the Fall.  Who told her she could do that?  Even more inconvenient was that she stayed with a whole clutch of eggs but only until hers hatched!  We're still waiting to find out if "Peep" is a pullet or baby roo...  It's sure growing fast though!  Mama is THE mama too!  She runs the roosters off, the cats off...I feel privileged that she tolerates me!

We can't let a year go by without a picture of Princess Jasmine!  Although, after the 2nd skunking, she wasn't treated too royally!!  Dawn dish-washing liquid mixed with baking soda (a little Dawn, a lot of baking soda) so that it's crumbly...rub into dogs fur and spray on hydrogen peroxide.  It's strong and it works.  I learned more than I ever wanted to about skunk spray this year.  Baking soda alone will neutralize it if there's a way to pour on enough.  My laundry porch has been twice "blessed" and we've knocked it down.  The carpet... Jasmine rolled on the carpet when she came in the first time...I didn't know she was coming in or that she'd been skunked...I suspected though!  I opened a BIG box of baking soda and poured in on thick and rubbed it in.  It helped that the bathroom was overpowering for two weeks...but the carpet wasn't noticeable at all.  It was bad....

The first real rain of the season decided to wait until right at the first of  December, and did we ever get rain.  We must be in an "El Nino" year where we get warm tropical storms rather than Arctic blasts.  We had almost 10 inches of rain in 4 days.  The South Paddock is fetlock (ankle) deep in mud, so we moved the girls into the front yard.  Shasta, ever the helper, decided the roses needed pruning.

We once heard or read that if your roses still had leaves in December, it was time to get the leaves off the bush, one way or another.  Shasta did her best.

The storm blows out for a few days...

And a surviving rose blossom reaches for the sun.

That's pretty much a retrospective of 2012 here at Rancho Roseberry.  Everyone here wishes you a Merry Christmas or Happy other Holiday that you hold as special this time of year.  We may not have it all here, but we have it pretty good!

Chick, chick, chicks!!

We've had two bantam hens sitting on eggs.  A couple weeks back I discovered we had viable eggs QUITE by unhappy mistake.  I took the rest of the eggs back to the nest.  Another batch came in from another nest where I knew the other hen was setting.  They went back to the hen house too.  About a week ago, we realized we had two little yellow fuzzy balls running around with one of the tiny black hens...two rather large fuzzy balls...omgosh! She hatched the Buff Orpington eggs!!  The little gal above was still setting on her clutch.  A couple days ago, this is what I found when I went out to check...there are 4 tiny chicks in the photo, but there were a total of 6 little bantam babies (we have two roosters and they don't interfere with each others' hens) beneath her!

Yesterday, one of the white eggs hatched, and we now have a tiny yellow chick in with the colorful ones.  We're doing our level best to let Mothers and Mother Nature handle the situation, but we're prepared to intervene if we have problems. 

There is some mystery to this whole thing...  We had two little Buff chicks...then we only had one...that I could find.  The next day, there were 2 again...then there was one...  Now there are 2 again...one acting not as old nor as strong as the other chick.  Mama tends to leave the littler one behind some...so we "help" it get where it needs to be to stay safe...like in the hen house with Mama!  I didn't find any newly broken shells in the hen house, so I'm not sure where this new face came from!  I'm sure it's a Buff baby...and it looks much younger than the other chick...and I wish I'd marked eggs way back when I took them back to their nest!!  Note to self...next time...mark and date them!!

Spring, sloppy, wet, Spring...

The south paddock got too soppy, so we had to move the girls to the north paddock...chest deep in wheat and barley grasses... Yeah. They hated that. The north paddock isn't great for 2 horses, but...it was better than where they were at the time. A few weeks later, it's so sloggy wet up there, I'm sure they both have a bit of thrush setting in.

Shasta has been a problem...she is such a playful, inquisitive creature! She finds her way out of the paddocks if it's at all possible and she's bored. 3 escape episodes later...we got them out of there. They spent the majority of today being passive lawn maintenance...a little trimming, a little fertilizing... I wasn't comfortable leaving them there for the night though. Shasta didn't appreciate Jasmine running through, and struck out at her with a foreleg. I don't think it meant much other than Shasta wasn't comfortable with her surroundings yet, and there was boundless-energy Jasmine...bouncing right in front of her. Silly dog. She grabbed a healthy dose of respect in a hurry though!

A little grooming... A little attention... A little wormer... I can't say that went totally smoothly. I dipped both applicators in molasses, and Shasta took hers fairly well. No big fuss. Willow? Yeah. Right. The last time we did this, it was a bit of a battle, but we got it in her. This time, I thought the molasses would help...and it almost did. She felt that applicator in her mouth and threw her head right up! Okay, she also got as close to bringing her front feet off the ground as she could without doing so... So much for doing things the easy way. I ended up putting a rope on her and over her nose...and still it was a battle. Bruce stepped in to help, and she lifted us both up. Oi. Then...Bruce was tickling her lip and she acted like she had a twitch on her nose...in that wormer went, quick as lightning! Can you say TEAMWORK! *Ü*

The girls are back in the south paddock for tonight. If the weather holds, I'll move them back to the front yard when we get back from Chico. They knocked it down a lot, but they aren't anywhere near finished in there. It will also give their usual paddock a chance to keep catching up and growing.

One thing we both noticed today was the ease involved with catching, haltering and having the horses on lead. They both remember their manners and Willow is really getting much better about being pushy on lead. They both behave much better in Parelli halters than in standard woven halters. After we got them back in the south paddock, I played with them for awhile...rope on, rope off. Caught you....caught you not... I really want this flight thing to die down in Shasta. She's getting better but she's still so nervous about so many things. She had a cute way of telling me she was finished having her mane combed out...she ran off and tossed her head! Silly girls...gotta love them!

Changes with the Winter Solstice

Mornings with two mustang mares can get a little...crowded. Willow still has her nose a little out of place with Shasta's arrival, but that's just for our benefit. She gets along perfectly well with Shasta...she just wants me to suffer a bit longer for dividing my attention.

As the temperatures swing from high to low, and the wind picks up, our girls get a little...energetic. On this particular windy morning, we were treated to QUITE the show! Shasta was in the mood to stretch it out and play Cow Pony...Willow just tried to stay out of her way, and out of her game...as much as Shasta permitted!


Shasta would run circles around the paddock...coming to skidding stops wherever it suited her, then kicking up her heels and romping the entire circuit...even if it meant chasing Willow out of her "comfort" zone!

It's quite a kick to see the horses out there, just being horses...playing and having a good time! Bruce was photographing them...mostly from the porch. Once you step into their space, it's TREAT time...or so they think!

I swear...she must've run for a good 5 minutes, with all kinds of cute little Cow Pony moves...stop on a dime, spin around, launch into a full run from a dead stop, skidding around tight corners, or just running full tilt to feel the wind in her face!


Is that not a smiling horse?



Even Willow was feeling a tad spunky! She did her share of moving out too, but she prefers a trot to a full out run. I'm just as glad...she's a lot more horse to try to stop on a dime! She also keeps her feet mostly on the ground...unlike a little buckskin girlie we know...

Living with Mustangs...

Ahh... A peaceful moment with the girls... Willow and Shasta have bonded. Willow stands nearby when Shasta lays down, being protective of the youngster, yet when she gets into mischief, Willow still stands nearby making sure we know she's totally innocent. She loves snitching Shasta off if she can!

Just a few months have shown me what totally different "horsenalities" (thank you, Pat Parelli!) they have. Willow is more aloof...content to be her own woman. Boss mare. We'll do it on my clock, thank you... She's patient; willful; full of spunk; and if I treat her like a mustang, she'll cooperate with me fully. Shasta, on the other hand, is in your back pocket almost all the time. She's full of mischief...trying to play with EVERY thing...way too smart for her own good...but easy to work with...willing and wanting to please all the time.


Shasta has settled in really nicely. Our first ride was a bit of a debacle, but that was mostly my fault. What was I thinking of...getting on her bareback? She turned so tight, she kicked the mounting block and bolted...leaving me in mid-air. See those gray hairs? I don't do mid-air so well these years! And yes... I know she shouldn't have a halter on. If your horse was an escape artist you'd keep a halter on her too. It makes shorter work of the "You gotta catch me!!" game.

This is how we spend time together... It's important that they spend time with humans who aren't hurting them, or constantly demanding "something" of them. Willow has trust back, but she's a bit high headed still. Yet, when her "working" halter goes on, she becomes a sweet, workable lady. Shasta...what a love-bug. She still shows a lot of distrust, mainly in key areas. Her hindquarters are particularly touchy...and she steps away from just about any touch (at liberty), except for her face. She loves having her ears scratched and her face loved.

Over the next months we'll be getting more into our Parelli lessons again...even if the weather sux. We're getting our standard fog now...not so great for me, but makes the girls all spunky! Bruce will either be working Parelli along side me, or photographing our lessons. We'll see how this goes! You're welcome to join us on the ride!

Progress Report

This was taken on Shasta's first day at home with us...she's not uncomfortable, she's eating a cookie. Minx. She is a cookie loving baby! LOL! She hunts and searches for cookies on you, but...if you remind her that you really are the boss, she'll give in. She's very affectionate, but still very skittish about some things...such as being touched in her flank region. She was spurred by a previous owner during training. We'll work through it. She'll unlearn the fear of that as we develop our mutual trust.


This gal is no dummy either! She wanted the grass that really was greener on the other side, so she pulled the garden gate open and meandered between the beds, cleaning up the grass. She kept her feet (mostly) outside the beds (so that's what the dog was having a fit about!) and grazed down the grass in the walkways. She didn't eat any of the garden plants at all. And she didn't eat any of the produce either...Willow would have eaten every tomato in sight! LOL! Frankly, Willow is too big to fit comfortably between the beds. Willow feels much bigger than Shasta. We'll have to try to get comparison shots to size them...Hmmm....anyone want to do a photo shoot??

We moved Willow to the north paddock for 2 weeks while Shasta settled in. The girls were able to see one another if they were in the right place, but they couldn't reach each other. I'd never introduced two horses before, so this had the potential of not going well if I got scared. I found a Natural Horsemanship site that had a procedure that made sense to me, and used that as my road-map.

First, I haltered Shasta and took her out of the south paddock, which is our main paddock. I walked her in circles up and down the driveway so Willow could see her. After a few laps, I started working closer and closer to Willow, then walking away, all the while, reassuring Shasta that we weren't going to get hurt...Willow wouldn't be permitted to pick on her... Shasta bears a few scrapes even yet from pasture action at the rescue. As we got really close to Willow, I heard her vocalize for the first time! She started a low pitched kind of nicker, tossing her head and acting like she was telling Shasta just HOW it's GOING to BE!! We walked away again. Took another lap or two, calming both horses, and me too! I had my husband take Shasta's lead, and I went to get Willow on lead. Then, we walked...circles getting closer and closer to where Shasta was grazing. That went well...they grazed near each other peacefully for a few minutes, still on lead....so off to the main paddock to turn them out...after another couple of steps. I took Willow to the paddock first and worked her out for a few minutes...she could smell Shasta in HER space and I could feel her temper rising. She tensed up and was snorting in her "I'm so displeased!" voice. Working a few dozen circles got her mind off being testy, and while she was doing circles both directions, I had Shasta come in the paddock as well. We worked them both in circles on lead, not lunging but walking beside us, 180° apart. They could see each other, and smell each other, and both of them were working in the same zone...successfully without any vocalizing or tenseness.

Okay! Time to turn them both loose. We set up feed for both the girls, quite a ways apart, and removed their halters. We had a few squeals and kicks the first night...a few squeals and kicks for the next 3 days as they worked out their preferences. Willow is "boss" mare, but she lets Shasta think she is. Willow is very determined and WILL have her way, when she sets her mind to it. By the second day of the girls being together, they were nuzzling each other and grooming each other.

The girls are an absolute delight. They have a dance-ritual they do at feeding time...who ever gets their grain first takes a bite, then while the other is getting their first bite, they change places and eat out of the other pan, then trade back for their hay. Goofy girls...they just have to make sure the other isn't getting anything special! Parelli training makes them easy to manage together. They both have some background...Thanks Larry!!...and respond to hand cues. They do love attention and they want to please us. They're just way too much fun! Now...to further our Parelli training so they're safe to ride!

Lookie what followed me home...

I suppose it had to happen sooner or later... Although we weren't particularly looking to add another horse yet...Horse Plus Humane Society had an offer going for previous "adoptive parents"...we were welcome to adopt one of the harder to place horses with the adoption fee waived. After a lot of thought and consideration, we decided to go out and take a look. We had one little mare in mind, but found out she has a prospective home...could we be tempted by... Once I was there, it was almost a sure deal that we would be adopting another horse.

Sure enough...meet "Kubota"...we don't think that suits her either. We've decided to call her "Shasta." So...meet "Shasta"...another mustang mare, a beautiful dun color with a really long and thick mane. She's between 5 and 8 years old and only about 14.1 hands tall...she's compact compared to Willow! She has some trust issues...where have I heard that before?? Oy! So far, she's an absolute snuggle bunny compared to our Willow. And she whinnies! Willow never has. She snorts but doesn't vocalize. Interesting...

Miss Willow is on the north paddock until we can get the girls introduced a little more properly. We'll let them get used to one another at a distance for a bit, and then let them have some "over the fence" time...then turn them out together. We're expecting an adventure here!

While we were there, Tawnee talked us into taking their 3 hens and a rooster as well. They're tiny compared to ours...we've got them in the little pen beneath the bench for right now. I don't want Roo to hurt either the hens or the little rooster! He's a cute little guy!

It looks like Shasta is having some fly issues...better go squirt her down. This could be amusing...