Once D and I decided the youngsters needed to go to new homes, I had been worried about Bhen. I think I've mentioned he had lost his eyesight - just had slight peripheral movement that he could catch out of his left eye and that was it - so I knew he was very dependent on the other two for warnings about things that were downwind of him. After Fargo left, he and Zel settled into a nice buddy relationship, so I wasn't sure how things would go once we moved Zel, but I was prepared to give Bhen a LOT of nose kisses and treats, and spend time with him just hanging out, because he had packed me around for so many miles on the trail, he more than deserved an awesome retirement where he was horribly spoiled.
But 3 weeks ago today, I went out to feed and he wasn't feeling well. Doc came and treated him for some tummy ailments about 9 a.m., but by 1, Bhen was a lot worse. Doc came back, was here with me most of the afternoon - we got about 10 liters of fluids into him, tubed him several times, and thought we finally had him feeling better, but after he left, Bhen got rapidly worse and was in a lot of pain, so I called Doc back and had him come put Bhen down. He didn't deserve more hours in pain, and I know it was pretty bad, despite how stoic he always was. Based on the whole constellation of symptoms, we're 99% sure he had a loop of twisted bowel and there's not really a great outcome for that even with surgery. I got the chance to stand with him resting his head on my chest while I waited for Doc to come back. He was pretty heavily drugged for the pain, but I know he at least could hear me - his Yoda ears perked forward whenever I talked to him - and I'm grateful I had the chance to tell him I loved him and remind him what a good boy he was.
I haven't even been able to formulate a post about this until now. I cried for days - cried myself to sleep, cried when I went out to feed Zel - just cried. Still am, actually.
So bear with me - I thought my best riding buddy deserved a post all his own. He was one of my best friends, my go anywhere, do anything horse. There was no trail in the world that didn't have his name on it. I hope where-ever he and Sam are right now, they are hitting the trail at a trot with the wind in their manes and tearing up the miles.
It's been a long time since I had a horses/trail ride post, hasn't it? Most public use land around here is open again, so D and I decided to take the new boys out on Sunday, and our friend, Corry, played tour guide for us, with her horse, Flame. We trailered up into the Carson National Forest, to do a sort of intermediate technical trail, with a lot of elevation gain, up to a set of three lakes right around 11,000 feet.
Neither of our boys had done a lot of single-track, through-the-woods trails, so it was good practice for them. The trail climbs up in a series of switch backs to Hidden Lake, and it was lovely and green and cool up there. Flame and Zel took turns leading on the way out. Our boys hadn't been out in about 5 weeks, since the fire, and they were a bit zippy, but they were keen to trot uphill where we could, and walk the sections with loose rocks.
An added bonus was that we had to do a bunch of trail obstacles neither of them had encountered before. A lot of downed trees and rock to navigate, some muddy sections, and a bunch of creek crossings. Fargo hates HATES HATES water. Seriously low on his list of things he has interest in doing, and he's got a stubborn streak, so we had some dicey times getting him across the first few (which consisted of my getting off, standing in the creek, but far enough ahead of him that when he finally decided to launch himself, I didn't get run down with 900 pounds of horse).
D had an easier time of it with Zel. Zel was nervous and didn't want to cross the water, but other than the very first crossing, he trusted D enough to either follow Flame across or try the crossing himself. We didn't get Fargo into the big creeks without a support/helper horse, but we did get him to cross the small ones (like the 1 or 2-step ones, very shallow) on his own, and he was willing to let me ride him across the deeper ones. He also did great trying the muddy sections, even on his own, on the way home, when we let him lead.
I still have to talk him thru (think QVC host on speed) all the scary stuff, which for him is about 98% of the stuff in the woods - downed trees, large boulders, stumps, weeds across the trail, but he did do it at speed with his little nose out front by himself. This is a really big deal for him, as he's very unsure of himself and not confident at all on trail (being the ex-show horse), so as long as I give him a little twitch of the reins on the side the scary thing is living and tell him it's over there, and I see it, so he should see it and we are both going right by it with no big deal, and then tell him he did great!, he is confident enough to try things for me.
Anyway, the lakes are beautiful. We stopped and had lunch at Hidden Lake and took in the scenery.
At this elevation, there are a ton of mountain wildflowers in bloom too, and everything smelled clean and fragrant.
The boys really did well - it's very hard having had an experienced trail horse for the last 5 years in Bhen, who, while not keen on getting his feet wet either, does just fine with pretty much anything that's in front of his nose. I'm really happy that Fargo did so well and made progress as we went along. Another 10,000 miles or so, and he'll be stellar!
This weekend, if it is in fact possible, we immersed ourselves into the horses even more than usual. We had taken Zel out with D on several trail rides and he was obviously unhappy. He wasn't really keen on working in the arena either. And with a high-strung horse, if they aren't happy, they are a handful and then some. So we decided not to go any further, or do anything to make matters worse, and called our friend, Jerry, horse-trainer extraordinaire.
Some long-time blog readers probably remember we worked extensively with Jerry up in Salt Lake with Bhen and Sam, and he got them (and really, most importantly US) tuned up, and safer and easier to ride, and then we moved, and we lost our weekly sessions with him. Now I know it's going to seem completely over-the-top to get a trainer down from Salt Lake, when I am sure there are perfectly good trainers in NM. Problem is, I don't really know any of them. I have some names, but I haven't worked with them, and Jerry is sort of a perfect-storm mix of being able to work with Arabians (some trainers won't even touch them), getting great results in a short period of time, and getting the RIDER in tune with the horse, which really sometimes is the issue and not the horse itself.
So we arranged for Jerry to come visit us this weekend and he arrived on Thursday afternoon. Friday a.m., D and Zel and he went up and worked for 2-1/2 hours or so in the round pen and the arena that are in our subdivision. They went back in the afternoon for another session and I went with them and couldn't believe this was the same horse. Instead of being tense and jiggy and worried, he was relaxed, floating around at the most beautiful trot with his tail up and his head down, listening to everything D was trying to tell him to do.
Saturday a.m., D and Jerry took Zel and Sammy out for a trail ride, and Zel did beautifully. For a horse with zero trail experience, he worked really hard on scary obstacles, and they did flat trotting, plus hill work, and Zel's got a great work ethic. The boys got home just after lunchtime as the wind was picking up and a storm was brewing, and because Zel had done so great, we let him have a break for the rest of the day and we took Fargo out to the arena.
Fargo and I worked on extending out his trot. He's been trained as a western pleasure horse, which is a very slow measured trot, and what they have required in the show ring, but it is slow to ride on trail and not the most comfortable thing to try to ride for long distances. He and Jerry had a....uh... disagreement about things when Jerry was trying to work him through some flexion exercises (I wasn't on him - Jerry was), and he had a monster of all temper tantrums and pitched Jerry (I STILL feel horrible about this even tho it was a weird set of circumstances with the wind and something he thought was a snake, but still. OMG.). He also, as it turns out, has a stubborn streak as long as mine, and while he is the most mellow horse 99.9% of the time, when his temper really goes, it GOES. (Uh. Also like mine).
Anyway, Jerry got him straightened out and I got back on and we did some more work on his trot. I wish we had video from the following day where he was back to being Mr. Perfect, but at least we did get some.
Sunday, we took both boys back up to the arena. Jerry was a little sore from where he landed on his shoulder, so he was content to let us work. Fargo and I got started first, and he was really quite the gentleman. Remembered the cues he had learned the previous day, put his head down and went to work. After a couple-hour session, we took the boys back to the house, let them and us have some lunch, and headed back to the arena. Because Fargo is so well trained with picking the correct canter cues, and has a lovely soft western lope, Jerry wanted to put D on him to learn how to cue correctly for the canter. I probably should have told Fargo it was okay for him to work with Jerry, when D took his reins from me, he turned his head and looked at me. This time tho, I told him it was okay and gave him a little pat, and to his credit, he took really good care of D and packed him around at the canter for almost 45 minutes. He was pretty tuckered out, not being used to cantering for that length of time, nor carrying that much weight, and he had already worked for 2 hours that morning, but he stayed nice and quiet and D was able to learn all of his body positioning and canter cues in that hour, so when we put him back on Zel, who (being ex-racehorse and all), he knew how to stay quiet and centered and which lead to ask him to pick up.
The boys went back for a final hour of training Monday a.m. before Jerry left to fly to Salt Lake - mostly some quiet round pen work, as Zel's pretty tuckered out from his weekend (as are D and me, to be honest), but he and D made strides together as a new team like nobody's business. We both said to each other that would have been a month or more, assuming we found a trainer we liked and wanted to work with Zel and D, to have achieved the level that the two of them have together now.
I feel like I have kind of off-handedly talked about Fargo, which isn't fair at all, as he is a really nice horse. After his shake-down with Sammy when we switched pastures, while he is respectful of Sam and Sam is definitely the in-charge horse, it hasn't crushed Fargo's spirit at all and the two of them have been out several times on trail together, so they have worked out the roommate issues and come to a (most of the time) nice truce. Sam doesn't allow him to stand in the barn with him, but he does let Fargo come stand in the lee of the roof in the shade for daily nap-time.
He's really a friendly boy. I never have any issues grabbing him in the pasture and getting a halter on him, and a lot of times, although he makes sure to keep an eye on Sam to be sure it's okay, he will come right up to the fence to say hi to me. He's gotten very cognizant of the opening and closing of the various doors of the house, so if I go out onto the back deck, his head comes up and his ears perk forward and he waits for me to say Hi to him.
We've had him out on trail now three weekends in a row, and considering that he is a "show horse", he's really taken to it nicely. The first weekend out, we mostly walked, and he was fairly timid about scary monsters in the bushes and all sorts of things it was obvious he hadn't seen before. I had him walk out in front for maybe a third of the ride, and with some encouragement and praise, he did just fine. It's easier at the walk since the horses have time to process the visual stimuli compared to the trot. Two weekends ago, we went out and did a nice training loop with Sam. We just followed, but we did a fair amount of trotting on the first two-thirds of the loop - and he has a very nice, easy-going trot. If Sam got a little too far ahead of us, I just cued him for a canter, and he moves in and out of his speeds with beautiful transitions (meaning... he doesn't stutter-step between the canter and the trot and vice versa.....) and very little cueing.
He's very easy to rate in terms of speed, and he stays beautifully relaxed no matter what speed we are going. The only time I've gotten any sort of "discussion" from him, and believe me.... VERY mild compared to Bhen or... Digger (OMG)... was this past weekend, where he led most of the second half of the ride, and once he had been out in front, he wanted to stay out in front. He got a little excited, but more in a "OH BOY! LET'S GO!" kind of way, and not in a misbehaving kind of way, and he let me back his speed down pretty easily. He is constantly flicking his left ear back when I talk to him, and really... just saying his name and then what I want him to do, even after only 6 rides on him, is about all I need. So "Fargo..... trot" will move him from a walk to a trot, or a canter back to a trot.
He's been absolutely 100% sure-footed on every technical thing we've thrown at him. We did a little exploring last weekend, and wound up on a single-track cow trail that ran along a sheer drop-off down from the mesa top, and I never worried a whit about him. He stayed right on trail, stayed focused and watched his feet. If he is unsure of something - like whether the rocks on the trail are loose and might give-way, he'll slow down and put his nose down to take a second look and be sure. I like that he pays attention to the trail, and with just 3 rides on trail, he's figured out that unless I tell him otherwise, he needs to keep his feet on the trail for me.
I really think I lucked out with this boy. His under-saddle manners are really great. Whoever did his basic training did a fantastic job with him. I like that he's pretty quiet and got a good smart head on his shoulders. Doesn't hurt that he's pretty cute either.
Oh, and before anyone gets worried about Zel, since he is now in with mellow Bhen, he has turned into a complete jackass tyrant. I have had to get in his face about leaving Bhen alone to eat, and when he went after Bhen with his teeth out the other afternoon, mommy wound up "biting" his arse thru the fence with water from the hose which happened to be on at that moment. The little snot.
Luckily, Bhen has kind of seen it all and doesn't get upset about getting pushed around. Here he is enjoying one of his favorite things in the entire world. Hay soaked in his water bucket (this is best appreciated with the sound on. and why he doesn't get to stand next to the trailer window when we camp, because he does this ALL NIGHT.) In case you wondered, HE drags his feed bucket over to the water. I don't put it that close or else he will put an entire flake in the water.
Zel is not in any way, shape or form, a dominant horse. He is worried about getting the crap beaten out of him by another equine, by things living under rocks, in trees, and I guess a generic consumption by various carnivores is of concern as well.
We took him and Mr. Steady Eddie, Bhen, out for a 13-mile loop on Saturday this weekend (after riding for an hour or so in the arena here in the neighborhood Friday afternoon) and he did actually better than we thought he might, given his overall sort of panic-y outlook on life. A couple of temper tantrums with D in the first couple of miles, but then he settled in and worked. He figured out how to keep D balanced going downhill, and was really smart about placing his feet in safe places around rocks. He had a lot of stuff thrown at him. The local hunt club was gearing up to go out when we arrived at the trailhead, so tons of horses and dogs, and the wind was blowing, so dust and funny noises. He also got to learn about what happens when you go to close to a tree - it makes a zzzzziipping noise along the rider's jacket, somewhere in the vicinity of his ribcage. THAT's potentially spooky. We ran into a guy on an ATV. He learned about cattle, had one of the hunt hounds follow us for the last maybe quarter of the 13-mile loop. Figured out rocks, old tires, the large-bore pipes for watering the cattle, cattle tanks - all kinds of stuff he obviously had never seen before.
It was great to be able to take Bhen out with him. Bhen's pretty much seen one of everything. The Apache helicopter that came out of one of the canyons last year startled him, to be sure, but otherwise? He's sort of blaise about all that stuff. We trotted just under a half of the 13 miles and walked the rest. Didn't set any world records, but also tried to be sure we went slow enough it wasn't a spook-fest for Zel, where he actually had time to look at and process the scary stuff.
Today, Sunday, we took the gray boys - Fargo and Sam - out on a something like 8-mile loop on the trails right here near the house. Lots of technical stuff with serpenting single tracks, and tree stumps, rocks, and since the trails are multiuse, more dogs and people. Fargo did really well. He's got a little anxiety about rock cairns - the obviously look "wrong" to him and he doesn't want to go to close to them, but he did really pretty well for his first time out on trail. He's not particularly spooky. If something scares him, he tries to kind of keep it in direct line of sight while scootching by it. We followed Sam for a while, and did a little bit of trotting to keep up with Sammy's big walk, and then we led for a while out to the overlook and back home then. Fargo's got a nice trail walk once he figured out it was okay and he didn't have to mince along like we were doing western pleasure. His trot's not quite as nice as Bhen's, but I've not ridden many horses with as smooth a trot as Bhen's got.
When we got home, we pulled Bhen out of his half of the pasture and put him in with Zel. Zel's been having a lot of trouble holding his own against Fargo, who he is obviously terrified of. And to be fair, rightfully so, as Fargo is a little napoleon. (I am a bit uh.... perturbed?... at how freakishly similar Fargo is to Digger. Same oral fixations. Same little dictator complex, where they will NOT leave a lower-ranking horse alone, and will just constantly pick at them and drive them in circles. Same HUGE downhill walk. And when we stopped at the overlook today, he turned his head and put his nose on my foot, which is EXACTLY what Diggs did when he didn't want to stand and wanted to going back down the trail. Where do I find these creatures?). Anyway. Bhen is still the dominant horse, but he doesn't torture Zel about it.
We then put Fargo and Sam in together, and I think Fargo thought he was still the king, so he wandered into the barn and Sam does NOT tolerate other horses in his barn without his permission and he went flying in there, all 1250 pounds of him, with teeth bared and lining Fargo up to kick him into next week. D and I had been hanging out along the fenceline - just in case such a thing occurred - and I went tearing in there after Sammy and backed him out along the fence with my best mare evil eye and voice. He knew he had screwed up, and while I don't mind him being the dominant horse (and frankly, kind of figured that was going to be the scenario), he cannot do it in a way Fargo gets hurt. Luckily, horses being smart creatures, Fargo has figured out his new second-in-command role pretty quick and is staying out of Sammy's way and for his part, Sam is just moving him with an ear flick and some snake eyes, which I can live with.
So we will see how the living arrangements work. We'd like Zel not to be terrified 24/7, and while Bhen is gonna tell him how it is, he's a quiet enough, nonaggressive enough horse, that I don't think he will hurt Zel physically. It's always interesting getting to know everyone's personality - and this is what we know.
I think we are a go with both the new horses. I know y'all have been waiting for an update. I was kind of out of pocket for a while as this was my Remicade dosing weekend and it sort of knocks me for a loop.
We had a bazillion and one x-rays done on Thursday at the big equine clinic. None of the things that were of potential concern showed up as much on the films, which was great news. Zel's feet actually are "practically perfect" in terms of interior structure, and the odd mar that you can feel on his knee doesn't show as anything on the films and definitely has no joint involvement.
Here are some casual pics of the boys hanging out in the nice sunny weather in the middle of last week.
Fargo is definitely the dominant horse in this pair. Luckily, Fargo is easy to catch, so if we need to do something with Zel, the current key is to haul Fargo out of the pasture and then go back in and get Zel. I think Zel's had some not-great experiences in his life, and he tends to be a flight-first, ask questions later, kinda horse.
We took the boys up to the arena on Saturday and got on and rode. Or... I guess D did a lot of riding with Zel. Fargo and I putzed, as I am normally pretty feverish and a little out there the day after my Remicade, but we wanted to get them a trial run at least nominally, since D is on travel for 10 days, and the 30-day trial clock is ticking. And while Zel had a temper tantrum at one point (which I give D a lot of kudos for managing EXCEPTIONALLY well without getting upset or angry at Zel), he did really well, considering he's had a total of about an hour of time under saddle in the last year plus. He has the most beautiful, effortless trot, and again, even out of shape, and with an extra 6000 feet of elevation working against him, he worked for probably 45 minutes at the trot and didn't even break into a sweat.
Despite the fact I have the feeling that Fargo is not the uncomplicated soul I had thought he was (and is, in fact, a whole lot more Digger-like than one might expect), he was a great mount for me on Saturday. He obviously has been trained to be an independent worker, so it didn't bother him at all that we weren't toodleing around with Zel. And in fact, when Zel has his meltdown, he stood stock-still, didn't move his feet, didn't do anything (and this is important - a lot of times when one horse goes haywire, the other horses play into that and go there too), so I was really happy with the fact that he took care of me while I was sort of in lala land. Makes me hopeful that will be the case out on the trail too.
Neither of the boys was bothered by the arena flotsam and jetsam much either. It was kinda windy, so occasionally some of the metal fencing would bang, and Fargo would turn his head to double-check what it was, but not in a spooky way, just in an "Oh! That thing is banging. Okay." way. We didn't ride them on the road, but we did have cars and trucks pass us, and that seemed to be an okay thing for both of them as well. Pretty non-phased by the dressage cones, and the cross-country jumps and the other things in the arena too, which was nice.
We've got a little work to do with Zel on some trust issues with us - which we knew would be the case. But we can already see that he's made a lot of improvement in that in just a week with us, and D has been very patient and consistent working with him, so I think we'll get him headed in the right direction fairly quickly!
My home office (where I work every day) is on the ground floor of our house - we have a walkout/finished basement, and my office looks out into our stone courtyard. But just on the other side of the courtyard fence, about 200 yards from the house, our pasture line begins. Some days if there is a storm brewing, or they are just feeling fiesty, Sam and Bhen will gallop and play Wild Stallion games with each other and even with the windows closed in cooler weather times, I can feel the ground shaking from impact as they go tearing around in the pasture.
So imagine how that'll sound with 16 horse tootsies and not just 8. Yup... the rumors are true, we are adding not one, but TWO new horse boys to the herd. (And before anyone panics and I know y'all will ask - as of right now, neither Sam or Bhen is going anywhere. We have space for 4 and they will always have a place here. Assuming Sam doesn't move to Hollywood to star in the talkies or something.)
You might remember we went to Texas about a month ago for the stock show? While we were there, we also went on a stealth horse-shopping visit to a ranch. The owner raises Arabians and she has a lot of horses. 72 on the ground right now... or make that 73, as she just had a pretty gray filly hit the ground a couple of weeks ago. She has a LOT of really nice horses, so we were able to go and look at ones that filled our preliminary qualifications to suit D as a new competitive horse for this season, so we can easily retire Sammy and not worry that we would do anything to make him sick from his metabolism going haywire. We didn't want a really young horse - we wanted something D could potentially start riding this season - and we wanted a gelding and we wanted 15 hands or taller. Those were the basics.
This is Zel:
He turned 7 on Valentine's Day this week. He is a pretty bay, 15 hands tall, and his previous career was on the race track. He wasn't really keen on that job, so after a season there, the breeder brought him home, got him placed with a western pleasure trainer so he could get sort of "retrained" from being a track horse, and then he got to spend a season ponying other horses at the track and basically hanging out back at the breeder's farm. Despite the fact that he is "race bred", he is a kind and gentle horse. He's not wild and "Arab-y" really. D actually thought he might be a little too quiet for what he wants, but after he tried some other horses, he threw a saddle back on Zel, and the two of them took a ride around the breeder's 140 or so acres, and Zel figured out he was supposed to work (Oh!) and got his mojo going.
He's one of the breeder's personal favorites, personality-wise, and she is a stickler for good manners. All of her horses are exceptionally nicely behaved. She has 5 breeding stallions on the property and we walked in to visit 3 of them in their areas and you wouldn't know unless you looked for... ahem... working parts, that they were stallions. All of them were quiet, gentle, let us go up to them after a quick assessment, and give them withers scratches.
Here's Zel again, out with his trainer this past summer for a tune-up.
D, as you might imagine, is really anxious to get him home and see what he can do!
So.... while we were not really shopping at all for me, although at some point in the next year or so, since Bhen's in his mid-teens now, I figured I would have to start looking for a new horse as well. Really not a rush, and I thought I'd probably help D get squared away with his new boy, and then worry about myself.
But.
D tried out this little gray gelding who was a bit too small for him, and when he got off, he said "You know... really... this horse should be yours. He would be perfect for you." So I got my saddle out of the car, and we threw that on Fargo, and off we went. Fargo's breeding was as a show horse. He won his halter class as a 2-year-old at the national Arabian show, and then he was put into training in western pleasure and reining, both of which he showed at for a year, and while he doesn't mind any of those things, being an easy-going, friendly little chap, he does NOT like to be stalled. He gets very anxious and agitated, and starts chewing, and the breeder was worried he was going to get ulcers, so she "retired" him at 5 and brought him home to hang out with her mare group as the uncle to some of her yearlings. She's had a hard time selling him because if you want a show horse, you want a show horse you can... uh... take to shows.
Anyway, he IS perfect for me. D and I had plenty of time to talk about it on our 11 hours of driving back to NM. He is taller than Bhen, but not too tall that I can't get on him without looking around for a stepstool or a rock. He has three years of professional training and is perhaps THE BEST TRAINED horse I have ever sat on. Oh... and did I mention cute? Yah... he is CUTE.
After a lot of thought and talking to the breeder, who gave us a HECKUVA deal on this two-fer for both horses, I decided to go for it. This gives me the flexibility of having a backup horse to ride if one or the other needs some time off for any reason. It lets me take Bhen along with Zel for his first few endurance rides to help keep him calm and focused at the start and give him a buddy if he needs some support. And if Fargo's trial ride is any indication about how mellow and laid-back he is about... well... almost everything... I won't have much trouble getting him legged up to ride this season either. (I should note the video is of D riding him. He hadn't been ridden in a little over a year and had no issues with the tractor up over the hill moving hay bales, or the farm truck that drove out behind us to watch, or really anything at all.) I don't think - maybe I'll be surprised, but I don't think - he is a speed demon and I am totally okay with that. Bhen is not always the easiest horse. He has a lot of motor and he thinks I am an idiot (which he constantly tells me by shaking his head back and forth when he thinks I've screwed up and put us on the wrong trail or if we aren't going fast enough to suit him). I will be happy riding along and looking at the scenery since I don't always have days when I'm 100% but I still really need to exercise my horse.
We are headed back to Texas to pick the boys up and will have them home and hopefully settled soon!
I thought y'all might like some horse-boy eye candy. Many thanks to those of you who have asked about Sammy. I think he actually is doing pretty well. D and I had the boys out for a few walk-rides before the snowstorm that hit just after Christmas, and he was his usual power-walking self with Bhen having to trot to try to keep up. We didn't do a ton of miles. Just walked over to the arena one day to let him walk around in the sand over there, and then a second, more technically challenging ride up onto the mesa out behind our house, and down along the power lines with rocks and uneven ground. He did great with both and if his feet are hurting him, we sure can't see it. He's been busy and active in the pasture too, which is a good sign.
We have been really closely monitoring his food intake, however, and I have changed up his feeds so they are eating 3 times a day, but less food at each feeding (which means going out in the dark at 9:00 p.m. to give them the last feeding of the day, but hopefully means his insulin levels aren't spiking from going without food for all the overnight hours until 6:00 a.m. when we go back out in the dark to feed breakfast). Our vet really wanted him almost skinny, which is, with Sammy, a relative term, because he is NOT a tiny horse. But you can probably start to see some ribs and his shoulderblades in this picture, so I am hopeful we are helping him get down to the least extra weight possible for him. We are trying not to starve him, although I feel certain HE thinks we are, but if it keeps him healthy, then we'll do what we need to.
We have found some grain-type product he can eat (low starch, no sugar, higher protein with added vitamins since the rest of his diet is pretty sparse), so he now gets that in the mornings and his medications and a joint supplement that doesn't have MSM in it (which, upon doing research, I found can also trigger insulin problems. Who knew?). Still having some problems with snack foods. He doesn't like any of the veggie-type things he can have, and he's sort of meh about the diabetic candy, but he is constantly looking for something when I go out there to take coats on or off, so I'll have to keep looking.
And Bhen? Well... he doesn't mind eating 3 times a day, although he also is on the cookie search. It probably won't hurt him not to be getting treats as much either, and he still is getting his small cup of regular grain in the mornings with HIS supplements, so I suppose there is that. Not that he's wasting away......
I'm having a sort of quiet and subdued week here, hence the radio silence yesterday. So here are some random things you might (or might not want to know).
D is on travel all this week. I'm doing my usual gourmet menu of sandwiches and cereal. I also had a dose of Remicade on Friday and I'm still sort of trying to get my feet back under me from that, so not bothering to cook doesn't really sound all that bad.
Sammy gets the melanoma(s?) on his nose taken off today. I'm sure he will be thrilled to death that the vet is coming to visit him. Bhen will likely attempt to hide himself behind the big guy and pretend if he can't notice us, we can't see him. This does not work. He still is hopeful.
I am totally thrilled with the pattern submissions we've had for the December Ennea. We have a TON and they are creative and fun and well.... coming soon. I've already started formatting them to get uploaded into eJunkie for when the next edition goes live in about a month.
While I am making a lot of progress on my Brandywine shawl (which you'll see tomorrow), next up I have a lace cowl I'm knitting for a shop sample (not for my shop - but a pretty purple alpaca laceweight). And I have no size 2 circs long enough to knit it. I have, I believe, every circular needle size known to man and I have no size 2? There's been a schism in the universe or something, as I had to order a set for this pattern. I was stunned.
I am looking forward to Thanksgiving in another 10 days. My folks are trekking east to visit us this year and they'll be here for a week AND I have some time off on the books. Nothing but good.
Whoever arranged for fall to finally arrive here in the NM mountains, I am MOST grateful. We had absolutely stunning weather all weekend and into Monday here (and more forecast for the rest of the week too!). I took Bhen out for a ride on Sunday and we had a fantastic time together. Nothing earth-shattering other than just some quality time together in the beautiful, sunny, morning weather.
Since it was so nice on Monday afternoon as well, I took my spinning wheel out onto the deck with the dogs for company, and sat and spun for a couple of hours after work. Nice! Of course, by about 3:30, the crew in the pasture, who are SURE they are going to starve if they don't start packing on the buffet calories before winter, kept attempting the Vulcan mind meld to get me to come feed them. (click to embiggen and you can just barely make out Bhen standing behind the LARGE white horse - and yes... we still have flies here when it warms up, so the boys have their masks on).
Um.. Hello! I need you to come here RIGHT NOW. Look at me wasting away!
And now onto a new little knitting project. If you are my SIL, Katie, please go away, as this is for you.
Everyone else still here?
I'm really lucky. I adore my SIL (D's sister). She is awesome. Granted, it helps that she is the stellar mom of the world's cutest nephews AND that she agreed without a minute's hesitation to model some knitwear for me for the December Ennea magazine, but she would be awesome even without those details in her favor. In the last few years, Katie's started running triathalons, and she was always a really good athlete growing up (anyone who lets their two older brothers shoot hockey pucks at her HAS to be), but I dunno... triathathlons really push you towards the realm of excellent athletes, don't you think?
So this year, she has a fairly important birthday on the calendar, AND she's qualified to compete in IronMan competitions, and when I found this hat on Ravelry (with the original ALSO knit for a Katie), I knew it was kismet. I decided to knit her this as a gift for her birthday in December. I'm only using 2 colors, rather than the original 3, and I'm working it up in a superwash merino, figuring she can easily pitch it in the wash and not worry about it getting shrunk.
I'm already almost thru the charted patterns of the 3 figures (I'll show you the other two views when I've finished them), but here's the swimmer figure.
I figure I'll have this done in another week-ish, so I'll get you an update when it's complete!
