Panther Cat

When this boy arrived in my yard several years ago he was starved, more for affection than food. I had no success finding his original home.  My black cat of 14 years had recently died and I was not interested in having another, but I was not in charge. He came and stayed and has been one of the most loving cats I have ever owned.  I need to continually remind myself that what is in front of us is where our attention is best focused.

Living with Wild Animals

The Wild Animal Hostelry has closed its door for the season.  The crawl space egress was closed with a flat rock bolstered by 10 pds of concrete.  Cottontails, cats, fox, racoons, and possums who have been spending part of their time in the space during this extreme winter season, milled around in seeming confusion before making tracks to alternates sites.  With numerous outbuildings and barns scattered throughout the country there is no shortage of alternate sites for their evenings pleasures.  The closed hostelry has made for uninterrrupted sleep to the in house inhabitants who had previously been awoken by the excitement of the canine house occupants when wild animals wandered beneath their feet.  We wish all critters a warmer spring!

Wildlife and Horses

One day I stayed for hours out in the pasture with the herd. I had just moved all 6 mares with their 4 month old foals out to the ridge land where they joined up with the older ‘saddle horses’.  Our land in Kentucky was nourished all summer by frequents rains and the grass (and weeds!) were rich and lush.

There was jostling and posturing and baby foal clacking. I was mesmerized by all the activity and stood quietly watching.  Something caught my eye and here are 2 coyotes traveling a well worn path not 20 feet from me.   They saw me turn and fled so fast they seemed an illusion.   Later, gazing up toward the barn I spied a red fox trotting across the top of the pond.  All this activity, I thought, this herd is in the middle of the wildlife.   Finally I tore myself away and as I came out from behind some bushes, I spooked a white tail doe, who bounded off into the woods.  What else is out here that lives with my herd, I wondered?

Later in my house as I write this I looked out the window and saw 3 deer in with the stallion.  They seems to be getting closer…who will be the first to venture into the backyard?…probably the fox!

Musical Mhairs

Musical Mhairs... what's that you say?  Imagine musical chairs with mares as chairs...

these 4 new babies this spring came within a couple of weeks of eachother, their dams  all related; sisters,  mothers, daughters, all bay and all babies alike. 

When I cracked open the barn door the other evening at feeding time, I peered out at a new young mother and watched her baby suckle.  Who? that is not your mama!  I peered around the corner of the barn door and saw a baby following the wrong mare!

A few days before I was watching a mare run with a baby stuck to her side, striding leg for leg along her side. Wrong mama!  This last one showed me how the instinct to stay next to a large body saves their life in a running herd, not knowing why, what, or who, they run and know to stay attached...to someone bigger but just like them!

Seems like they have all sorted themselves out better lately!

 So we are on our herdy way!

Tribute to Ruffles 1981-2013

TAMU Ruffles Copy "Ruffles" Tribute Apr 6 1981 - Feb 8, 2013

Here she is as a 2 yr old when I bought her while at Texas A &M. This mare changed my life. Because of  her sensitivities and my desire to get along with her she pushed me to seek out what is now called 'Natural Horsemanship ' but 30 years ago it was not labeled as such.

My friend while pregnant with her first child drove across country with Ruffles and I. It is the only child whose age I have been able to keep up with as the years travel along and our friendship lasts through our lives.

My path with horses may have led me to the same place because I believe we are given more than one opportunity but I will tribute Ruffles this distinction for my life was led toward rewards from horses that I had only so far dreamed about.  She had a long life and she will be missed. She left gently to go stay with heavenly horses.

Spring

Winter has given way in Kentucky and all the bales of hay and buckets of feed I have been toting all winter have given me the pay off. The grass is greening and the horses are shedding and I start to see the gleam again that has been hidden in long hair, dirt, and mud. There is renewed energy in the hoofs as the horses flit and sprint across pastures, heads lifted and tails streaming. Ahh, it has all been worth it...

Animernal Instinct

I pulled the puppies out from under the barn where the stray Mama had whelped them. I never realized she had so many! But they sure are cute and I was glad to see she had done her job... now that they were in the middle of the open barn in an open crate I started to worry...after darkness fell and everything was quiet as I went to bed I lay there and heard( or imagined!) tiny squeals. I got up 3 times to listen and each time the Mama was by the front door, and not with her puppies. I had visions of tiny morsels for coyotes, foxes, coons, possums, and lord knows what else. Finally, around midnight I made the trek to the barn, found a big box and brought them onto the porch. Of course they escaped as pups are wont to do, but they were safe and sound in the morning. Tonight I made up the rabbit hutch, so after awhile I will lock them up away from critters and varmints that might do them harm.

When I related my story to my sister, she coined the phrase, 'Animernal Instinct'.

(PS, this afternoon a couple of coyotes loped across the pasture).

Note from the farm

Dear Ma and Pa,

Everything is fine here. I am sending a picture of the horse colt born this year. I know you have seen him before but I admire him and his color so I am sending it along. We added a litter of pups to the pack yesterday, a little black dog came a couple of months ago and had her puppies under the old coal bin in the tobacco barn. One hussy mare pushed down the fence to get with the stallion. She is fine but he got a cut on his leg and he is now up in the barn recovering. I haven't had my farm bushhogged lately and the weeds are so tall I can't see my horses anymore. One spot out on the ridge by the pond is bare and yesterday I saw my flock of turkeys hanging out. I know them by their meager numbers (about a dozen) and the one that is all white. I have not seen the foxes lately but I do have a snake in the feed room. I guess that means my mice population is at risk. I use my flashlight to check out the feed bags before sticking my hand down in them. I don't mind snakes but they give me a shock to touch. Your loving daughter...

The Molter

It is hot all over and even the smallest outdoor task takes my breath away. I thought it would be a good day to work with this boy and start him on some manners... what an engaging mind he has! A few times he became uncomfortable but quickly came back to me and I felt as if I could see the little wheels turning in his brain. I love working with the young ones and leaving them in a thoughtful mood, looking for more.

Beneath his molting brown baby coat he is turning to a sleek, steel gray.

The Molter

It is hot everywhere and the smallest tasks take my breath away, but today I thought I could play around with this little fellow in the stall and start teaching him some manners... what fun! he is very sharp and engaged. A few times he felt uncomfortable with my actions but quickly came back to me and I could almost see the wheels turning in his brain. This is always a fun time:working with the young ones, learning to read them better and leave them in a thinking frame of mind. Beneath his molting brown baby coat he is looking like a fine steel gray.

All for the newborn

Here he is! No name yet, but a fine colt born on April 22. He came out ready! It was a quick and (looked to be) easy birth for Silver Bell and when he felt his front legs free he struck and scrambled and struck some more with those front legs. Of course at this point he was entwined with his dams legs, who was trying to get some peace at last, and I trying to calm myself that this is nature and this is all part of it while my imagination is picturing thrashing and tangled and broken limbs. I swear the stress gets to me! When the mare finally did arise, she did so gracefully and carefully and her newborn was off on his search for milk. Whenever he approached her head she would let out a shrill squeal and he would change course and keep hunting. It did not take him long to find the spot and latch on. She has been a great dam and he is bold and confident.

Foal Watch

I am officially on foal watch as of 2 nights ago. When I placed her into her newly bedded stall, she promptly laid down, her belly extending toward the sky. The foal inside moved and moved, causing undulating waves on her belly. Tail flicking and nickering I though for sure it would be that night. But alas, whenever you are sure, it never happens! I have had this mare 2 years but she is still new to me, and I to her. This year she has mellowed (when she arrived, her nickname was "Jaws" ). She has begun looking to me this year and her nickering to her unborn is a good sign of her future motherhood.I am very excite about her foal. It will be the first one from my stallion.

Engaged

I've been called a straight shooter by people enough times to recognize it as a significant aspect of my character~but it tends to have poor results working with horses!.
I've been contemplating the horse/human relationship for many years (see my book To Dance with Horses) and of course, struggling to become a better horseman (woman). But the work of getting the "feel" in the horse world tends to result in a passivity when applied to humans and can border on the patronizing and manipulative. So I believe we need to engage human to human and start with the questions. When was the last time your friend asked you, "When...?" or "What...?" or "How..." or "Why....?" Curiosity of the thoughts of our friends reaps many rewards.

Taking the time

This is Hondo. He was a rescue baby with much too much emotional baggage for a little baby, but he pierced my heart. I have spent years with him, gaining his trust. Then made the mistake of sending him off for 30 days and for the last year I have being undoing the harm that those 30 days did. This last week I rode him 3 times. Not long, and not more than a few steps, but today the quality of his steps was soft and flowing. My head has been in the clouds all afternoon, reliving what he was finally able to give to me: his trust.

Night and Light

Walking straight in to the big dipper with the milky way over my head-so aptly named, a childs' fantasy land:wholesome, ephemeral. My black horse free around the barn, I sense but cannot see him. His ears more acute than mine as he follows my lead. I lose him when I enter the barn but when I come back out with hay he reappears from another direction a large shape moving closer, his foot falls getting more distinct to my ears. Fall daylight casts amber colors across the land. The wild weeds brighten the earth. We have a dry land right now in Kentucky, but the rains will come as we move into winter.

FIRSTS

First horse sold. First horse shown. First PLACE! Congratulations to Brandi and Dual Dee aka Pepolena Playboy! These two are going all the way!

Stopping to smell the roses or view the horses...all in a day's work!
Hope you enjoy the view!

Dreams for Real

Now begins the story of a girl and her horse. This 2 year old gelding is one of the best I have bred and I see great potential in him. I have held onto him and not marketed him because I wanted to direct his life, then last week I received a "breathless" email from Brandi, a young mother in NC. She asked if I might consider a trade with her for her 6 yr old gelding and that "Dual Dee is the horse I have been looking for for years". So I said I would consider it and then her floodgates opened. She showed me with her streams of words that painted pictures for me of her heart and dreams and the "little chili pepper red lena" horse that figured so prominently and now he was at her fingertips. We made the deal. That's how dreams are realized. She tells me she's a show off so look for her and Andy as they take their road together.

Pet Me

Pet Me.This is Chester one hard year old. This is his favorite position, he learned it when he was an hour old and his dam was snappy to him so he found he could stay out of trouble if he stuck his head in and stayed in the corner. Poor Chester. He is a hard boy to unstick. After the two of them made some peace she took him to the pasture where he could have some buddies but she bared her teeth at all of them and he didn't dare move from her side. We're giving him courage little by little. Pet Me...

Spring Morning

Fresh May morning, looking out the bedroom window to see what I could see. Sometimes there are geese honking by the pond, or deer sidle over for a drink and gambol off in a sudden flurry, but this morning it was my little herd of horses, waiting patiently for their morning grain.