Sunday stills, Macro Monday....

Bird House gourds have such a pretty dainty blossom. They are only blooming for one day and usually at night and early in the morning.

Then they turn into these. Ity bity gourd, probably only two inches long.

One of my three trellis's that the gourds are growing on, I loved the glass detail when I bought them.

Miniature pumpkins are coming on to, this plant ant the Bird House gourd plant are going nuts right now!

This isnt quite macro, but I liked it anyway, another blossom with the gnome. It shows how delicate they are, and they are big four to five inches across some of them.

Sunday stills, Sounds....

This weeks assignment-Take a picture that conveys sound. (no captions allowed)
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The life of a cat....

Puppy news!

I am getting one of these!!
So far the word is the puppy truck is coming up from San Rafael, Calif. on Sept. 10th!
And so far the word is I am going to get a male yellow Labrador thats name starts with a "D"!
It will be fun, I have to be in Boring, Or. and the Guide dogs campus by 12 noon on the 10th.
The puppy can still change, and be a different puppy, but this is my preliminary notification.

Questions about snaffle bit.

Katharine, I hope this visual on snaffle fit helps some more.

See comments on prior post for her questions.

A bit about bits, snaffles....

Katharine from http://http//www.ponytalesblog.com/ asked about fit of a snaffle bit for her little guy, Panama. In the first picture you see an Eggbutt snaffle, the arrow points to the rise of the bit on the outside, my opinion is that the horses lips should stop just about in here, or the bit will be to small. I would give an 1/8th of an inch to the cheek piece, on both sides, or you risk pinching the lips. I like Eggbutts because of the 1/2 inch or so of metal before the joint, they very seldom pinch.

Bridle adjustment as I have been taught, you need to have 1 1/2 wrinkles at the corner of the lips, at least one wrinkle. Katharine if your Eggbutt sticks out much more than this it could be to big for Panama. Eggbutt snaffles are made in 4, 4 1/2, 4 3/4, 5, 5 1/2 inch widths, they have the most sizes I believe of all the bits. Chances are if you just bought your bit off of the shelf it is a 5 inch. Panama may need a 4 3/4inch, which is also a popular Arab size. All of my bits I have shown you today are 5 inch bits, except for the Kimberwicke, it is a 5 1/2 inch, it was Mickeys bit, she has a wide mouth and nose, so a 5 inch rubbed to bad where the bridle attaches.

Where this arrow points you can see the lips stop at the swell or rise of the mouthpiece to the outside, the lips are not bulging over the ring hole of the bit so they wont get pinched. It is the same with the Eggbutt or the D ring. Either of the prior bits is a personal preference for English pursuits, and often used for starting horses, even it ridden western. The round ring snaffle tends to be a western bit.

This is the Eggbutt again, always make sure the arch of the bit is towards the back when you put it in the horses mouth, for tongue room.

Not upside down like this, ouch it would really poke the roof of the horses mouth, and could cause them to flip over from the pain.

And the Kimberwicke, it often gets a bad wrap. I personally think it has its place with beginner riders, like 4-H. It is not used at Hunter Jumper shows and in really frowned upon in English circles. It is esentially an English bit with a short shank. I have it pictured here because I have seen it put on the bridle upside down, yes upside down. Even an accomplished trainer I know put it on a clients horse upside down. So, this shows it right side up like it is supposed to be, this particular bit has a solid curb mouth, not a broken snaffle mouth piece.

Even my nylon wonder bit for Mickey has a slight curve to the inside, so you can tell what direction to put the bit in.

You can see how much curve and tongue relief this round ring snaffle has, also copper inlay in a sweet iron mouth piece, with stainless steel cheek pieces. I have said before that it is my favorite bit, Les Vogt stamped. (which means nothing, I just think its cool LOL)

One more thing I personally want to impress on people is, not to buy cheap bits. Chrome plated bits only start peeling and they end up cutting the horses mouth. There are also cheap stainless bits too, just look for smooth finishing with no pits or burs left on the metal.

I hope I answered Katharines questions, that or I created more LOL Let me know if there are any more questions.

Some of you may have noticed that I have a curb strap on my round ring snaffle. It is to keep the bit from pulling through the horses mouth, I have had that happen, and it isnt fun, it was while leading and a horse spooked. Anyway, also the reins have to go above that curb strap or they interfere with each other (see picture).

Thanks vaquero girl.

A fable, the vulture and the apple....

Vultures do eat something besides carrion.
Hubby spotted this Turkey Vulture out in the field the other morning and I grabbed the camera, had to go back and get the tripod because I had to zoom in and couldnt hold still enough, especially with the cat trying to help. We have quite a few of these birds here in our little valley.

He did all kinds of contortions to get at that apple!


It was funny to watch. Never have we seen one do this.

He even carried it around some too.

Must have tasted good.

Interesting looking birds. There is a petty green sheen on those brown feathers.

They must be artists at eating what is available at the time.

All done, he meanders back under the fence.

Another piece?

Not the handsomest of birds, by any means.

And he ruffles his wings, stretches out that six plus foot wingspan, and takes off for other pastures.

One day vulture spotted something on the ground.

Nothing good had been found to eat that day.

This round yellow thing smelled intriguing.

So he decided to give it a try,

and it rolled all over while he tasted it.

Hmm not to bad, different.

Thats enough, time to go find some real food.

The moral of this fable? dont all fables have a moral? LOL

maybe: Eat what you can when you can.

or : Always do the unexpected.

Any other good morals?

Macro Monday....

Spent some time Saturday afternoon cleaning my saddle.
I can still smell the saddle soap!

It sure looks good clean!





Silver and Rawhide


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Snday stills, Open Road....

Had to go back and look through pictures of trips we took this year to find some open road.
This is what I found.

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I rode Emma today....

These well worn boots actually got out to the barn today, for a much needed horse ride. I so want a new pair of slip on boots instead of lacers, I have had these for a long time.


And my favorite saddle got somewhat dusted off, LOL, and actually used too! The saddle is a Crates brand model 4525, which I looked up on the Crates website and it has an equifit tree which is6 5/8 wide , 16 inch seat, reining saddle. If you own a Crates you can do quite a bit of research on them.

I took this picture for a bit fitting post I am doing later, but I love the shadows, showing me taking pics, LOL

And another shadow picture and proof that I was up on her today! LOL

We had an ok ride, she is such a brat sometimes, if I ask her to go faster ie trot, she just quits sometimes, I dont get mad at her anymore, but it is frustrating, she is a left brain extrovert/introvert in Parelli speak. She has her own ideas about what she should do, she never does more that balk and kick out though, when I ride her more she isnt as bad. She is neck reining very well, I would hope so finally, she is 9 years old!

My fat girl, just like me LOL, all the wrinkles on her neck show how fat she is.

Her forelock is turning white! She also has a white stripe down both sides of her crest.

She is an interesting color, I will give her that. Her wild mane, she has a gorgeous tail and not so much mane, it looks good when it is banded. She has rubbed it all off on her withers, the flies have been awful. She has been wallowing in a dust bath too, it took a long time to brush all the dirt off of her, she was back to brown instead of white on her back!

Seafood boil, crawdads and shrimp....

We have been talking about having a crawdad boil for awhile now. The kids went and caught some out of the river, I dont think they counted, but they caught a lot! This is what they look like before they are cooked, live, just like crab or lobster.

Waiting for the water to boil, Hubby added some Zatarans crawdad shrimp and crab boil seasoning.

They turn bright red when they are cooked just like crab on lobster. Well they are little freshwater lobsters arent they?

Colorful goodness!

The table is all ready, the potatoes are cooked, ready to dump in the middle of the table.

This was the biggest one I could find! Look at those claws, dont they look like lobsters?

They quickly became just shells.

This is the second biggest one. 5 1/4 inchs long.

And...... drumroll please..... this is the monster crawdad, stretched out it was 6 1/4 inches long! and has huge claws, boy I wouldnt want that one to get ahold of my toe while swimming!! yikes!

The kids ate the tails, the claws and David and his brother Jesse sucked the heads, like you are supposed to LOL

mmm mmm crawdads and taters!

Hubby had a crayfish finger puppet LOL

The kids made short work of the spread,

Here is a pic of the shrimp and corn added, it was so good! And there wasnt much leftover!

Anyone else cook wild crawdads? We do it every so often. The kids said they only caught them in a 20x20foot area in the river, this river is a small tributary of the Washougal river, named, The Little Washougal. If they caught that many in such a small area, there are a lot of crawdads in that river!! Hope you enjoyed our feast!