Thursday, April 30, 2009

Still a work in progress, but getting there!!!!

So here is the fuchsia pink and green together. Mom talked her into getting the shoes. The sash with a bow that will be on the dress bodice at hip level is just a tad lighter than the shoes, and also in satin.




And we found this necklace at
JC Pennys, the roses match perfect and you cant really see them here but there are little pink rhinestones between the roses, too.




This is a lot of work! but it will be worth it, getting that bottom hemline straight was really hard.




We had to have the boss come over and help finish pinning up the tucks. This is my friend Kara and I have known her for 20 some years, she was the matron of honor at Hubbys and my wedding. She is a hell of a seamstress, and she had already made this pattern for her daughters wedding a couple months ago, shes great!!










Now on Fri. I have to sit and sew in all the tucks and....



These are rhinestone buttons, 5/8 inch in diameter, should add some good sparkle!!







I have to sew one of these randomly on the tucks, there are 21. I shall be busy tomorrow!!
Saturday is the big day!!!





Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Almost time for Senior Prom...


This is the pattern for her dress. The color is similar to the green in my blog background, she will have a fuchsia sash and shoes and fuchsia rose with pick rhinestones necklace. Meghan says she needs to seek help for her pink and green fetish LOL. The dress is still being made, but will be done in time. Each little gather, in the tiers, will have a button with a rhinestone in it. They are going to do three tiers. She is excited! They are going to a fancy place downtown Portland OR I am excited for her, she should have a lot of fun! Pictures and all, will be posted Sat or Sun.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Countdown to State WAHSET meet....


Drill practice again! Meghan saddling up. When we got there it wasnt raining, while we were inside it started pouring, and didnt stop! Wet wet wet, I think we live in Washington LOL

Practicing spacing, that is what they worked on all night.


They want two horse spacing in the wheel.



The old lady watches everything.




Easy is looking pretty good, we added some alfalfa to her diet too.
Countdown!
Friday is the 1st of May, we head to Pasco Wa on the 14th, and they compete on the 15th in the late afternoon or evening. Then we will probably come home on Sat.
Meghan has Senior Prom on Sat the 2nd! I will try to get good pics.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Old dogs....


Been busy this weekend, doing Prom shopping, a friend is making Meghans dress, a really formal one, Prom is Sat so I will get pics!! Went to dinner at Olive Garden Mon. night, yum yum!! oh may it was good! and brought enough home for a couple of lunches!.





Dog Eat Dog by Brian Andeson
I have put pics of Teddy up before, The Hubby found the most perfect cartoon strip that tells what he is going through in his old age.
Half the time he cant jump up on the chair or the couch LOL he gets such a look on his face when he "misses" sometimes he trys again and sometimes he goes elsewhere. Poor old dog, its not nice to laugh at him but he is so funny sometimes. A "little old Man" he snorts and sneezes and staggers around and licks things that get disgusting after hearing it for awhile LOL He is 14 years old now, and still in pretty good shape, he does have cataracts, which contribute to him "missing" Gotta love old dogs.



Saturday, April 25, 2009

A Late silent Sunday....






The Queen surveys her domain, and all is well.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Hooves, and a possible abcess, uhg....


Yay! I spent 3 hours out in the barn yesterday with Easy and Mickey. I touched up Easys feet again its been almost 3 weeks since I trimmed her last and Meghan was complaining that she was a little trippy at the last drill practice, and we cant have that during drill! She was longer that I thought she would be, I only rasped her toes and heels a little though. These are 24 year old legs! Other than a few scars she has no lumps or bumps or stress breakdown of her legs, that is why she is still going at 24!!!

And her pretty front feet after I was done, she has always had bad quarters, straight up and down and they always break out, they are a lot better when I am good about keeping her feet up!! go figure LOL


She looks like an old moldy moth eaten horse right now LOL between all the sweat from being worked and shedding and her rain rot, well she is an old moldy moth eaten horse LOL She sheds in patches and there is not much hair under where she has shed yet, she has thin hair anyway, see just behind her elbow? thin hair, I brushed her all out and shedded her out more.



Grass? grass? grass? LOL I took her out and let her graze in the yard for 15-20 min, you would have though she was starving the way she was chomping down the grass!!





And the other old mare, I never thought she would have the problems she has been developing over the last year or so. Here are her embarrassingly long front feet, before I trimmed her. Dont really look that long do they? But she has tiny feet.





And this, she didnt want to put weight on her left hind for very long, hmmmm whats going on here? I didnt find a lump or bump or swelling from the hip down, a little tiny bit of heat maybe in the hoof, hmmm and she is toe pointing when she walks, only putting weight on the toe. Although she would put all her weight on it to rest her other foot for a short time.






Fat pot-bellied old mare LOL, she is 20 now.
You cant really see it in this pic but for some reason last spring her knees just blew up for no reason. She wasnt being ridden and just a pasture pony, she has bursas on both front knees now and is on and off lame on them. What to do with the lame fat old mare LOL I think that it is arthritis and age though. She is starting to show her age.





I was hoping this would show you more than it does, the front of the hoof is rounded, some signs she has been favoring the other foot for awhile. This mare is so stoic about pain, when I went to catch her, she didnt want to be caught, until I got grain LOL and she was not limping when I went out to catch her!









This is how much came off of her front hooves, I took about a quarter inch more from the toe, yes she was really long. A lot longer than I like to let her get .







Jessie with the toe clipping, dogs so love to eat the trimmings LOL.














These round withers are why she has always been difficult to fit with a saddle, she is really wide through the shoulder blades.
She is slicking off really nice though, I didnt get a lot of hair off of her.










The bottom of the right front after the initial trim, still some more work to do here. She has stayed nice and wide in the heels since I have kept her barefoot. She grows a lot of heel in the front, always has. I have been trimming her feet since she was 2. Geez thats a long time LOL 18 years Wow.












And all trimmed, see she does have little tiny feet, she wears a 00 hind shoe on the front.













Everyone always thinks she has cute pretty little feet, I much prefer Emmas big round thick walled feet than these, Mickey has thin walls and like I said grows a lot of heel on the front, although her back feet are pretty good.
















This is that right hind again, see the flare on the outside, this tells me she has been really favoring the left hind, there was not much growth on this foot either, she let me pick it up and clean it out, but thats all I wanted her to do. You can see the toe is bulgy and polished too. I just wanted to show you all this so you know what to look for signs in your own horses. I didnt trim this foot at all, it wasnt even a half inch long. She wouldnt have let me hold it up that long anyway.










Now I have to figure out what to do about this sore foot, there is not enough heat or anything to think that break out of the abscess is imminent at all. The only thing I felt maybe was a little tiny bit of squishyness on the coronet on the inside, so I will keep a close watch on her, nature will have to take its course unfortunately. I will soak it and use some icthamol when it does some changes.














She is such a pretty black bay in the spring and she already has dapples, they didnt show up very well, she is always so shiny reflective when I take pics of her in the sun.










Grass! grass! grass! LOL





I shaved her bridle path, ears and legs too while I had her in.












And the aftermath of two horses exploding in the barn LOL



We will wait and watch on Mickeys foot.

















And Tuesday we had a friend come down with his big pretty orange Kubota and till up the garden area! So now we have to plant!! I want a garden this year, I missed my Zuchs and squash and I want green beans and so much more LOL But that is another post!








Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Accepting a wonderful award....

As I craft my 169th post, I have received an award, that I humbly accept.


I have received a wonderful award from Nuzzling Muzzles.http://http//nuzzlingmuzzles.blogspot.com/ as I read the reasons that she gave me this award, it made me cry. Here is some information about the award and some of what she wrote, you can link to her blog above to see it all.


Kacy, over at All Horse Stuff, created this unique and meaningful award. One of the things that make this award special and challenging is that you can only choose one person.


This Award is dedicated to those Horse lovers and riders that inspire others to go deeper in ability, knowledge and understanding of the Equine(s) they have been entrusted to. The good of the horse is the ultimate goal apart from pressures to achieve ribbons and fit into lesson schedules.


There are not many rules with this award...JUST :

1) that the person who is given this award, give it to only one person.

2) link back to this post, so they may have an understanding to its true nature. ( Intrepid Riders Faction Blog Post )

3) You can choose either the style at the top of this post or the one below:



I am always amazed by these awards and the thought that goes into them, someone had to create it, and think of who to award it to, and the recipients put thought and care into who they pass it on to.
Nuzzling Muzzles had some wonderful things to say as to why she chose me for this award.
"We all know that with the cost of health care being what it is even with the best health insurance on earth, it would be hard for most of us to hang onto our horses with all those medical bills. It is clear that Reddunappy loves and is devoted to her horses and her children, who are now adults. Her joy comes through in all of her posts. She reminds me to take the time to enjoy life. I don't think that anyone would argue against me when I say that she is resolutely courageous. I'm sure that she deserves and will appreciate this award. "
Yes I do really appreciate this award, I have had a hard road, I could ask "Why me" all the time, but I choose not to, and to try and enjoy what I have been given. My wonderful husband is who I credit with helping me get through all the hard times, without him I dont know what I would have done. The dream of riding my horses again is another thing that has helped pull me through and gave me a goal. I want to thank my daughter Meghan too, whom I blog about a lot, she does all the heavy work and stall cleaning right now. I dont consider myself a courageous person, I have just done what it takes to do the things I want, as hard as it has been, I am stubborn and persistent, I dont know how to be anything else LOL Just ask my Hubby LOL
Now who to give this too....
Hmmm, Lisa over at http://http//laughingorcaranch.blogspot.com/Laughing Orca Ranch comes to mind, with all her getting well she is working on, but she has been chosen already deservedly! She has been through a lot since she came off of her horse.
I would like to mention a lady who inspires me to take better care of my horses and their feet! LOL. I would put her in the, cohesive minority, catagory
Pat Wagner at http://http//hoofrecovery.blogspot.com/ Rainer Hoof Recovery, She lives just a couple hours north of me and She does wonderful Natural Balance and Barefoot work! Following the teachings of Pete Ramey and Her own experience. I think She has a lot to teach and has a genuine love for the horse. I dont know if She will post the award or not, but I think She is deserving none the less.( At least pick someone to pass it on to Pat LOL, and refer them back to this post! If you cant think of someone I do have a blog in mind, so let me know so this award doesnt stop. You are my first choice because I have learned a lot from your blog and website)
I have really loved learning how to blog and getting to know all the bloggers out there, my blog list is huge! so I dont always get to everyone. I wanted to list some of the blogs that I really enjoy! LOL but there are too many LOL see my blog list and you will find them.
Thank you again Nuzzling Muzzles, you have renewed the reasons why I keep blogging.
And an apology to Pat Wagner, I inadvertently thought she was a he, talk about gender classifying! I made it right and now I stand corrected!! I still think she is a great person!! And someday I will meet her in person, she isnt that far away from me!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Beautiful night for an outdoor drill practice....


A warm sunny 78 degree evening. Now that the weather has dried out a lot, the team is using a local outdoor arena that belongs to my farrier and friends, Dave and Nancy.
The girls are so glad to get out of the tiny indoor arenas and be able to do full sized maneuvers.

Their drive coming in past the barn and the arena is to the left. The barn is really cute with its store front look.

They have a beautiful place.
Meg and Carissa.




Starting to come together for warm up.



They have an eight person drill team. They had a few different horses tonight, due to a trailer injury and a broken trailer. The trailer injury, he went down in the trailer and bruised his back, it was swollen where he hit it when he came up under the divider.








Boy some settings on the camera worked good and others didnt. This pic is kinda fuzzy.








I love the ones that turned out good!

#1



#2


This setting brought out nice crisp color.



#3 The line up to start in order.
Beautiful sunset through the trees.

The changing light kept me moving the camera around and changing settings, I did use the tripod tonight.








Wagon wheel, they are now taking wagon wheel into a peel the apple move.










The weave, I like how these turned out.








You can see Meghan coming down the line.



















You can always spot her lime green.

























Coming around the end in a sweep.














The coach talking to them as they cool down. It was a good night, and they had an impromptu Birthday celebration for one of the girls, she turns 16 on Wed.
It is so nice to be able to be outside! and enjoy it. This is a big arena, they built it to practice roping, I would guess its 200x150. It has dirt footing but it is real nice when dry.