stripes

The gray striped kitten followed me out to the horses again. I guess we need to call it something until we give it away. If anyone has any suggestions we would consider them.

today

Both horses had a good day at the sale. Cassie always does, Leilani is still learning. Paula went to work. She was struggling this morning but finally got going. On the way home I called and they said they had sent her home about 4. She's been sleeping on the couch because she can't get in or out of the bed. Although I should have the bed to myself I'm still crowded. I don't even have all the kittens. Some of them stay with Paula on the couch. Today I showed Paula I got a sticker in my finger from helping her off the ground.

kittens

Since we got rid of Kathy and 1 kitten the other 3 have taken Lucy for their mother. They will snuggle up against her and kneed their cllaws on her. We are sure Lucy likes them. Since Paula is laying a lot they are sleeping with her too. Of course Lucy is too. Lucy just walked through with a kitten following her. They're going to bed.

yesterday

Last night we went riding. I asked Paula if she wanted to ride Leilani. Looking back that was a bad idea. After Monday Paula thought I didn't want anyone but me on the horses which isn't true. So she got on Leilani and after awhile fell off. She dislocated 3 toes on one leg and sprained her knee on the other leg. We were in the ER way later than I usually stay up. But she came home and is supposed to see Hildebrand next week. She's a little sore today. When I rode home to get the pickup all 3 dogs stayed with her. Lucy wants to help so bad. She sat by Paula in the field and wants to lay with her now. I took Leilani out tonight and she was her normal self. The mosquitos were awesome. I was swatting with both hands and she was trying to get them with her head.

another owie

Leilani has another owie, this one on her back leg. I don't know where this one came from. It's on her back joint and doesn't seem to bother her. We gave her some penicillen. It seem better, I don't know if it's the shot or because it broke open and is oozing. Her front leg looks rough but it's healing. Cassie has a sore behind her ear. It just happens we have stuff to put on it. When we went out to feed the horses the striped kitten followed us all the way out. Then it walked through the horse pen over to the feeder. That would be under horses. I thought it was goodbye kitten. Rory chased it out. Lucky he has good feet. It followed us back, we constantly had to stop because it kept getting lost. We were almost back and it ended up on the wrong side of a water puddle. We tried to get it to go around but it wouldn't. It gathered all it's strength to hurl itself across the puddle. It made it about to the middlle and was standing in water. It was really stunned. It looked all directions and of course wouldn't listen to us. Then it stomped out of the water. Now it knew where it was. It's spent the whole evening sleeping. Travel wears out the little ones.

test results

Got Leilani's allergy tests back. She's allergic to kochia and brome grass, 2 of the biggest things around. She's also sensitive to johnsongrass, the nearest field is probably 4 or 5 miles away. Her pen is like 90% kochia. There's also lots of brome around. She sounds typical for a human, kochia bothers many people. There isn't much point of starting shots this late in the summer. Hopefully this is a summer problem. We could put antihistamine in the feed but that's about all we could do short term. There isn't any cream we could put on her to ease the itch. I thought maybe a giant bottle of calamine lotion but no. We switched to a water based fly spray and that's about all we're going to do. Hope for an early freeze I guess.

cows

Went to Lucas to check cows and found 2 calves out. The fence is a little high in places and I think they rolled under and got up on the wrong side. I started to chase them and they took off like a bullet with their mothers after them I thought this was good since I left the gate open, if they got to it they could walk in. Then I thought, the gate's open, so I went back for the pickup so I could beat them to the gate. About halfway there they found a high spot and got back in. On the way out I saw 2 broken fence wires. I'm sure the neighbors bull was in, nothing else breaks a fence like that. Usually thry fix the fence, this time the fence wasn't fixed and the gate beside it was loose. i wasn't too happy about fixing someone else's problem and the dogs about had a heat stroke waiting. They could have laid under the pickup but they chose to run around.

walking

Took Leilani and Cass out for a walk tonight. I'm still trying to take it easy on Leilani because of her cut although she doesn't seem to notice anything. Paula got home late so we went to the pasture that's just south. All the way out Leilan puttered and constantly tried to turn for home. On the way back she wanted to come straight home and in a hurry. I was very encouraged because despite all the arguments she never made a fuss. Mostly I think she thought she had done enough for the day and why should she do more. We did find a new calf.

herding

Lucy was herding the pygmy goats this morning. The other dogs chase, she herds. She's good. She walks behind them, she has a penetrating stare that makes them nervous, and they run. She easily outruns them and turns them back around. If they stop, she stops and watches. One goat likes to rear and shake his head. Lucy waits until he's drops back on the ground and starts walking toward him. Sometimes she'll have them stuck in the middle of the yard and she'll run circles around them so they can't leave. This morning when I came out of the grower she had them on the porch and wouldn't let them leave. She was just sitting, waiting for them to try. Then we went to see the horses and Lucy forgot about the goats.

l;eilani

Zack went with Bryce and me to the sale. Zack really wanted to help l;oad and stuff. When we got there he went back to unload. I came around the corner and he was backing Leilani out. She was very shaky and then slid under the trailer. I had to drive forward to get her out. She got a rip on her knee. It really upset me. Not the injury, I know she's injury prone, but the way it happened. I'm also upset with myself for not jumping in the trailer and stopping Zack. Everyone said I could ride her but I didn't, she is my big baby. I brought Jatim for Levi to ride but he hadn't got there yet so Zack wanted to ride her. I wasn't too sure, he's not near the rider Levi is but he kept bugging me so I let him. It was a typical Jatim day, really good beginning, really good end, something happens in the middle. I didn't see what happened but Zack was limping around for awhile. I'm really wondering what to do with Jatim now because Zack still wants to ride her and I think she will hurt him.

dighton

Paula bryce and I went to Dighton today to take lessons. There were 3 of them and 3 of us so it went pretty well. Hannah and I went down the road posting. I've got it down somewhat, I get lost when I change speeds and when I talk. I think everyone had a lot of fun. When NIck and I went to look for food Julia got on her big dressage horse, Blackie. Paula said he exploded, rearing and crowhopping. Even when we got back he didn't look very calm. Not a beginners horse. Hannah showed me bruises on her leg that she got from a bull a couple weeks ago at the sale. She was very proud of them Julia gave all of us stuff to practice on at home.

they're ok

The kittens have taken mommy leaving pretty well. I'm not sure they know she's gone. The last few days she was really knocking them around if they tried to drink. Right now they are playing all over the house. Earlier today the striped one brought a bird into the house. I think the bird was dead. It is now. This morning 2 of them were in bed with us. I guess Lucy will have to take over as mother.

cats

I took Maggie some cats today. Originally it was going to be the kittens but she wanted only females. Only 1 kitten was a female so I offered her some big cats. I threw in Kathy, the mother, and Naomi. Naomi fell from favor by pottying all over the house. It was getting real old. It wasn't easy getting them into the box. To help, while I was trying to stuff them in, Sue started playing, jumping in and out of the box. I'm not 100% sure the kitten Maggie got was a female. It sort of had that male look. If so, all the kittens were male. Oh well it's gone now. I looked around when I got home to make sure somebody didn't jump out when I wasn't looking. Nobody so far. I've also got bite and scratch marks all over my arms.

went out for a ride

We took Cassie and Leilani out for a ride this evening. Paula was doing a lot of questioning about the heat but once we got out it was pleasant. Of course the horses were sweating immediately but they were wearing wool. The dogs always go with us. They cover much more territory and on evenings like this they're looking for water. Cassie wasn't too sure she wanted to go but once she got it in her head she went fine. She thought it was too close to mealtime. You don't get a body like that without knowing when the food is coming. We've taken both mecate reins off. At the sale they were very obviously bothering Leilani. Levi saw that and said he had some reins he would trade. SoI got 2 reins for my mecate. Then Paula saw the different reins and wanted to change the others. These reins are way lighter than the mecates. It didn't bother Cassie but they new ones feel good in your hand.

monday

Jatim's trip to the chiropractor sort of worked. She was much calmer but still had issues. Leilani had a good day. Cassie were just total wet from sweat John said he would help me switch horses. He would get Leilani out and ready so I could get off Cassie and right back on Leilani and then he would put Cassie up. We did and the first couple runs Leilani was a little tentative. The next time she came blasting out with her ears back and bit the closest calf. She chased them all the way trying to get another bite. Levi had the gate open and a calf walked by him slowly. He said he was watching my horse and forgot to watch the calves. Leilani put everything she had in chasing calves. She tried to follow them into the pen. A lot of people around were chuckling. We went for quite awhile and on one trip I coulds feel her lose her zip. She's a 2 year old and just like a little kid, they go and go and all of a sudden are done. After that I tried to go really slow and let her hide behind cornerposts.

horse chiropractor

Took Jatim to the horse chiro today. She's got a few problems. He said her neck was stiff, which we knew, and her pelvis was out of alignment. We thought her back was stiff. We'll see how this works. it's always been an adventure riding her. We went to some place south of Ellinwood. Tami said to meet her and we could follow her. She knew where the place was but couldn't give directions. It turned out to be a horse boarding stable. There was a horse going nuts in a round pen when we got there. Tami said that's how horses act when they come out of a stall. Ours don't do that but we might feel differently if they were worth thousands of dollars and any scratch would be bad.

allergies

I took Leilani to Dr Dave's. We think she may have allergies. He took a blood sample. He'll send it off and they'll check it like they do on people. If they find something she'll get her own personal antigen. He also suspects fly spray. It would be easier if the blood sample turns up somethingf. There are all kinds of fly sprays out there, many of them are similar. The labels are only sort of clear. Leilani took it all very well. Everyone came out to see her and make a big deal over her. That's the type of thing she likes.

animalfarm

animalfarm

I'm back

This is my second time back. I think I lost the first one. We've got Leilani back. She's a dream to ride. Hannah brought her all the way from Dighton to the sale. Leilani was a big hit and so was Hannah. Hannah is one of the best riders ever and they really appreciate that at Sylvan. Not to mention she's 18 and good looking. I've taken Leilani several times. She's good at moving cows but we struggle on gates .I took all 3 horses monday. It's so hot I don't want to wear them out. That sale had lots of action. Bryce didn't want to go get more tea to drink because he was afraid he would miss something. A bull charged Hannah's horse. I didn't see the hit but I saw the horse rearing. Lots of stuff like that going on. I'm going to try to ride Leilani almost every day. It would be easier if the temps weren't in the 100's.