A few words from our crew

Well, I'm off to Washington DC for a few days and will be blogless (work computer blog access is a no-no), so I thought I'd drop in a few photos to tide things over...

Lest you think we only put antlers on Dyno.

Inspired by the elf training at 7MSN, Dyno ups the ante.

I see you and yet you have no food bucket. These whiskers need sustenance, you know.

Speaking of whiskers, Lucy Little Star has gotten in the spirit!

It's about time they brought me back my tree...

Christmas time confidence, cookies and BFFs

I made it out to the barn today. I was dressed for yesterday's weather, and was soon stripping off layers like a bad vaudeville show.

As a result a day I thought I'd just come out and groom my horse turned into a day to ride.

Cibolo and I headed out to the round pen to see where we were. We were okay and I decided on a quick trail ride. Remembering the new five minute rule, I spent that amount of time getting exact maneuvers with the lightest possible ask. Nothing was perfect, but we got consistent at the end.

To be honest, I'm not sure what soft is, but I did get to the point where I could turn Cibolo with a light leg and rein and stop with my seat only. We headed out to the trail. There was one point where Cibolo was uncomfortable going forward through a narrow section of trees. Normally I'd just push him through, but I decided to try something different. He was trying to turn to the left instead of going forward, I turned him right and up the hill.

I know that motion solves a lot of things within horses. Standing still can be very anxiety provoking, and I've found that moving - albiet in a direction of my choosing - lifts some of the anxiety. Then we come back to the scary area, approaching from a different direction.

He was still worried, but much more willing.

And I felt more confident. Frankly I think it's the Christmas spirit. I'm a major Christmas geek. I LOVE the holidays, even as crazy as it gets. Don't care. Love the busyness, the jillion things to do, cooking all day to christmas carols.

It makes me feel like all things are possible.

We ended very quickly (I guess we only rode for 20 minutes), but it was all good, very positive.


I put Cibolo in with his BFF, Amigo. Given how much grief horses can give each other, I'm always interested in seeing how well they get along with their BFF.

Here's Amigo, getting that last bit of grain that's always in the back.






They can eat from the same pan, nibble hay next to each other. The barn has limited stalls, so in the cold weather they are actually in there together (it's a pole run and open to the little alley way).


Lily, on the other hand, has what I call the greeting stall. It's the one I park in front of so I see her right away. She was definitely wondering if there were any cookies left.





Yep. They were handed out with those gloves. She checked them over diligently, but it was two per customer today.




And here is my biggest problem.

I'm terrible with boots. I don't keep them oiled, don't shine 'em, and now, they are cracking.

So I guess I need a different kind of boot, one that puts up with bad treatment without coming apart at the ... well, there are no seams there. Either that, or I need duct tape.

Maybe for Christmas I'll get a pair of fancy boots that I will shine up regularly. But in the meantime, any suggestions for something a little tougher?

Cold, warm and wonderful

It was ridiculously cold today.

Ridiculously cold for this part of Texas. Because we don't do 21 degrees. Period.

And it was, of course, my day to feed at the barn. Because this is precisely how my life is going. I feed one day a week. So of course it's going to be colder than a well digger's ... you know.

Here's Cibolo demonstrating how cold it is by standing outside, surrounded by frost.





Apparently he... ahem... enjoys cold weather. I thought those things shrunk in the cold.


Personally, we don't really have the clothes for this kind of weather. After all, this doesn't happen but for a few days in January. Maybe. Most years it's too warm for us to even light a fire in the fireplace.

So I was freezing. All my warm socks and gloves have long since disappeared (I lived in Chicago for two years and did eventually learn to dress for the cold - but that was about 20 years ago). I decided the mucking of the stalls could wait since I was losing feeling in my extremities.

Only a few of our horses were blanketed at the barn, most were being kept in, out of the weather. This is big Cloud, he's a sweet MFT.




After I finished feeding, I was stunned to find all the water troughs frozen over. After breaking through the ice on all of them, I hightailed it for the warmth of my car. Needless to say, I didn't ride. I haven't for a week! Darn work.


Onto the warm stuff...

We had our annual tree decorating party. We always invite a few people over to put the ornaments on the tree. Everyone gets in the spirit.




Roxie was shocked at the size of the tree this year.




I got a new camera. I'm not so good with it yet.




But the tree, that was easy...




Next week - Shopping!

Steaming (OT)

I've given my last dollar to the Salvation Army. Apparently they feel the need to check the immigration status of children before they'll give them a toy.

Read more here.

Excuse me, but wasn't a certain baby born in a manger because of some pretty hostile government attitudes?

Who wants to bet they don't check out the immigration status of donors?

I understand some of the reaction people have to tax dollars being spent on people here illegally, but charity? Do we really need to withhold teddy bears and bicycles?

Sigh. Where's my horse? I need a more reasonable animal.