Spring Break

Last week was spring break for us. I took the week of and we had a bit of a stay-cation. I loved it but I think a few of the other family members felt a little cheated out of a trip. Sometimes its nice, REAL nice, to not have to worry about packing and driving and flying and activities that vacations usually entail. Sometimes its just nice to stay home and do not much of anything.

Monday was spent riding and dealing with the drama of pre-teen girls. My oh my. We had five girls of varying experience trying to ride two horses. It actually worked out pretty well. Beamer and Ebony were very well behaved and generally did what the rider wanted them to do. Mariah was a freak a usual but I didn't mind. She has really taught me balance. As to the drama, a sixth girl was invited but felt that she was invited out of order and was mad at everybody else. For the whole week. *sigh* That's all I think I'll say about that.

Tuesday was spent putting a new window in the bathroom. Just as winter was starting Kira went to open the window one night. We heard this terrible crash and ran into the bathroom to find Kira in the corner surrounded by broken glass. The windows are so old that when she went to open it the top of the pane fell out of its track and towards Kira. She tried to stop it but missed so she got out of the way. In accordance with long standing household rules regarding the breaking of glass, she did not get in trouble. It wasn't her fault and we were glad she was not hurt. Interestingly, it only broke the inside pane so we stuck the window back up and dealt with a cool bathroom for the winter. The new window is a vinyl frame and really brightens up the room. Plus, I was able to use the project to justify the purchase of a new tool (toy)!

I spent some time in my shop trying to unpack it and get it organized. It has been in boxes for nearly two years now so I am kind of excited to see it actually start to take shape. Mostly it was puttering with purpose.

We made three trips to the video store so we spent a lot of time being lazy and watching movies. We rented some good movies like "Inception" and a positively terrible movie "2010: Moby Dick". It was so bad it was fun.

I love watching bad monster movies. When Nori and I were first married we were living in a 350 square foot apartment that had a small video shop across the street. It featured a huge selection of fantasy titles of the ilk "Warrior Women from Mars". We were living on one income of $7.00 per hour and the movies were only $0.99 each which was about all we could afford. We played them a behemoth of a VCR that was a hand me down from Nori's cousin. We had the best time watching those movies. Good memories.

Anyway, Saturday was spent at Westernaries. 9am to 5pm. Kumi was selected for the White Grand Entry team which is limited to about 16 kids selected from about 30 or so that tried out. She was excited when she got the e-mail that she made it and I don't mind the extra time. There is so little of it left. She graduates in three years and then off to college. It was a beautiful day with a high of about 80°. I even got a but sunburned. (No mom. you may not scold me again!)

Sunday was a bit different. It snowed. Great big fluffy flakes. It was actually quite pretty and relaxing. As soon as the ground got wet enough to make some decent mud, down went all three of the horses for an extra long roll. So much for relaxing. Now we have mud to clean out of tails and manes and cheeks. Now, Kira was feeling a bit disappointed that we didn't go some place so she said all would be forgiven if I would take her to the pottery place. Pretty good hustle. So we went and painted pottery Sunday afternoon. We spent a couple of hours and just enjoyed painting and talking about nothing in particular. The results will be available on April 10th. If they look half way decent I will post a picture of what we made.

Since it snowed on Sunday it reminded me of a poem Kira wrote in 3rd or 4th grade. Its a bit out of season but here it is.

Trying to insert a video

I broke down and updated my cell phone. My Razor was about 4-1/2 years old, the battery was getting week and the girls were texting me more than calling me. Trying to return a text on the old style keypad was a pain in the fingers. (Thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) So I updated to a smart phone. It is the Samsung Galaxy S and I love it. The Android operating system is just too cool. I can talk to this phone and it understands me (though some might claim men aren't all that hard to understand in the first place). I tell it to search for something on Google and it finds it. We (the phone and I) are still trying to figure out how to dial somebody by name but we'll get it. One of the coolest things is that I can ask the phone for directions and it gives them to me. It doesn't heckle me and I don't have to stop, just press the microphone button, tell the phone where I want to go and it tells me how to get there. When it comes to texting its even better. It has an app called swipe that allows you to trace words on the key pad without ever lifting your finger. It is amazingly accurate and fast. But if that is still to slow I just press the microphone button and speak and it types what I say!

It also has and HD video camera built in that I had to try. Yesterday Westernaires held tryouts for white grand entry. When the white division sow comes along on Father's Day, the Grand Entry teams rides in first with the flags, US Flag, State Flag and Westernaires flags. The kids have to try out. They go into an arena and they have to demonstrate good control of their horses riding in pairs and with a flag. So here are a couple of videos of the tryout. They are really short and I am posting them more to see if I can than for anything else. One of them is rotated 90° and I can't seem to rotate it. Sorry, but know I know how I need to hold the camera to take proper video.

Ebony, the Jinxed Horse

Getting Ebony home turned into a far grander adventure than I had ever planned. When last we left you, Ebony was loaded in the trailer and we were headed for home. The street that we were driving down has a few hills in it resulting in limited sight lines and it was late in the day so the sun was low on the horizon.

As I cam over a hill there was a car in front of me. My brain said something is not right with this picture but it wasn't sure what so it took my foot of the gas. The sun was shinning brightly on the back of the car and the tail lights were totally washed out. And then it rolled forward and I saw it - a left turn signal and the car was starting its turn. And I was too close.

Your mind speeds way way up in situations like this. It will take far far longer to describe what happened than the actual events.

• The car is starting to turn left.
• Hand jams on the horn
  
• Foot goes to the break and stomps on it (Thank God for trailer breaks!)
• Eyes scan the scene in front of me: Horses on narrow shoulder to the right - no going there, Left lane (on-coming traffic) lanes are open
• Gently turn wheel to left and move into south-bound lanes (No sudden movements on the steering wheel)
  
• Still stepping hard on the breaks with the horn blasting head for the opposite shoulder
  
• Truck clears the car
• Trailer hits the car (Actually it was the fender)
• Plastic flies
• Everything stops.

The good news, absolutely nobody was hurt. The lady, her son and dog in the car I hit were fine, not a scratch or a bump. Kumi and I were fine and Ebony was fine as well. I thank God for that blessing. The left front of the car from the drivers door forward was fairly torn up but drivable. The only damage to the trailer was the right fender. In the end, I got a ticket for following to closely. My first ticket in some 32 years. Sigh. The cop actually did me a favor (at least according to him) as he claimed he could have written me for any number of things. I wasn't going to argue with him but he did argue with me over one point.

He walked up to me after the accident and said, "I don't normally argue with people but I don't see how you can be traveling north with the sun in the west and claim the sun got in your eyes." I have no idea where he got that idea from. I told him that I never said the sun was in me eyes, that the sun had been shining on the other cars taillights and washed them out. He looked at the cars taillights lights and said, "Well, I suppose the sun shining in the side of the light could have reflected back into your eyes." I chose not to argue the point any further. It wouldn't have changed anything anyhow and sometimes arguing the finer points of something with a police officer ends badly. Leave well enough alone and go home.

The whole traffic thing took about an hour and poor Ebony got bored and started pawing at the floor. Kumi tried to keep her calm by giving her a few treats and once the driver information and reports were done we headed for home.


When we pulled up and parked Kira was home and she was not expecting to see her horse in the trailer but there she was. Boy was Kira excited! She went and pulled Ebony out of the trailer (Ebony came out very calmly) and lead her towards the back yard. I needed to change out halters so we stopped at the gate and I stepped up next to Ebony. Ebony promptly stepped on my foot. Did I mention Ebony had shoes on? I have had Beamer step on my foot once or twice and than hurts. Those steel shoes hurt worse. It took a few seconds before I could convince Ebony that moving her foot was in her best interest. I limped through the gate and we introduced Ebony to Beamer and Mariah.

The first introduction went much better than expected. Kumi and Kira were watching the horses to make sure they didn't start any major fights. I told them to go get three flakes of hay and spread them around the pasture while I set up some panels in front of one of the stalls. Our plan was to but Ebony into that pen while the horses got used to each other. I finished setting up the panels and looked at the horses. They were each munching quietly at a flake of hay. Hmm.

As the fates would have it, Carly called at about that time to see how things were going. Since my toes were hurting and I was still ticked about the accident, I told her that Ebony was jinxed and that we wern't keeping her. Man did I catch Carly off-guard with that one! When I told her what happened she laughed a little. I then told her about the horses all eating quietly together and asked her if she thought we should put Ebony in a pen. She recommended watching them a bit to see how they reacted. The long and short of it, Ebony never spent any time in the pen. The horses figured out their pecking order very quickly and I only ever saw a couple of kicks. Ebony had one bad bite the drew blood and then she had a few hair-bites. That is what I call it when one horse bites another and only hair is pulled out. It was kind of interesting. The hair-bites on Ebony's flank reveal white skin while the hair-bite on her shoulder reveals black skin. She IS a paint. Pretty cool.

Ebony Comes Home

As you may have noticed from the title, we went from having two horses in the backyard to having three. It took one week. Actually, it took less than a week. You might recall that the conversation that started us thinking about another horse or two occurred on February 13. Ebony came home on February 19^th. Scary how fast things can move sometimes.

After we decided (rather abruptly) that we were in the market for a third horse we talked to Carly. She and her brother each had a horse for sale. Mojito is a paint and he was the first horse we were considering. We had watched Carly’s brother training the horse several times while were there for lessons and we were impressed. So we went and rode the horse and it just wasn’t right. Tira-Toes just did not click with the horse. You could see in her eyes that she was a little frustrated since the horse did not respond well to her. I rode the horse and it turns out he is still learning to neck rein and hasn’t worked out all the cues yet. He tends to turn his head to far to one side or the other. He would be a great horse for a more experienced rider who is comfortable with training a horse, but not such a good horse for a novice rider.

The horse that Carly had for sale is a 13 year old registered paint though it does not have the typical paint markings. Ebony is nearly jet black but has brown highlights all through her coat. A very pretty little horse. Tira-Toes had a much better connection to this mare. Ebony responded much better to Tira-Toes’s cues and you could see the joy in Tira-Toes’s eyes as she rode the horse around the arena. Carly and I talked a bit and we both felt the Ebony was a much better horse for Tira-Toes. Ebony has been trained with flags (VERY important for a Westernaires horse) has done a fair amount of trail riding and has been known to go through a drive through or two to get some refreshments. She neck reins well and still moves off of leg cues. She is forgiving so when Tira-Toes stands up in the saddle while trotting, Ebony holds her pace. We are doing a little work to get Ebony to improve her stops as she tends to take a few more steps than she should. Just the kind of horse I was looking for a novice rider.

Next step, vet check. It’s not that I don’t trust Carly, it’s just that Carly is not a vet. It is never bad idea to have a vet check over the horse you are thinking of buying. A friend from Westernaires was looking at a horse they found on Craig’s List and they liked what they saw. They did a vet check and the horse did not pass. It had a lot of issues and they would not have been able to ride it. A couple of days later the add on Craig’s List had changed to discourage potential buyers from doing a vet check. Anyway, we went off to the vet and Ebony did really well right up until we started to lunge her. She was limping a bit on her left front. Carly (who came to the vet check with us) and I just looked at each other. I had ridden Ebony in a lesson once and Carly had ridden her quite a bit over the last year and she had never shown any sign of lameness. But the vet gave her a lameness score of 1. The vet also said that it looked like the front shoes were not on properly, that the shoes were causing Ebony’s feet to twist ever so slightly to the outside. The vet, as part of her fee, told us to bring the horse back in two weeks and she would recheck Ebony for lameness again. That sounded fair to me and, frankly, I wasn’t too worried about it because I trust Carly and I was familiar with the horse. Carly and I decided that I should take the horse home and have my farrier come take off the shoes and re-trim her feet. So we load her into the trailer and set off for home. The voyage home deserves a post of its own.

In the mean time, Tira-Toes has a few words to say about her horse. Without further ado, I give you Tira-Toes.

Hi, it’s Tira Toes again and I have just got my own horse. Her name is Ebony and she is jet black all over except for a white star on her forehead and two white socks on her back legs. She is thirteen and we bought her from our trainer, Carly. She is very sweet. In her first few days she did not bite or kick the other two horses until she became fed up with Beamer bullying her around and kicked him. She rides easy and has a smooth lope and a trot better then Beamers. By better I mean it doesn’t feel like you’re sitting through an earthquake. I have decided to join Westernaires with my friend Tessa Toes in August. I think my dad was about to shoot me when I looked at him and said I want her. A new horse means new tack, a new trailer, and all that commotion of two daughters at Westernaires at different times. But I wrapped him around my little finger and I got my horse. My goal for Westernaires is to be the most obnoxious Tenderfoot there. I have neon rainbow colored reigns, a purple saddle blanket, a multi colored saddle pad, a lime green breast collar, and a purple helmet. I love my horse.

What I love about Carly is the way she helps you learn. She builds you up step by step until you reach your goal. Carly is a fun and nice teacher. She has worked with many different horses and students and she knows the perfect way to help you learn. My goal when I first went to Carly was to be able to ride Mariah. She started me on a easy going horse like Beamer then she put me on a more, shall we say, exciting horse and I barley felt the difference.

Beamer Decides He Dosn't Like the Trailer

I should have figured things were going to good to last. The horses were getting into and out of the trailer with no problems, we were having fun at Westernaires and enjoying watching the horses in the back yard.

Then one day, for no apparent or particular reason we can find, Beamer decided he didn't like riding in the trailer. Specifically, he did not like making left hand turns. One day on the way to Westernaires we were making a left hand turn and we felt all kinds of stomping in the trailer. It stopped as soon as we were going straight again but the next left hand turn we made was also accompanied by a lot of stomping. We didn't think to much about it and continued on our way.

When we got to Westernaires we opened the door and were greeted with a bloody trailer. During all that stomping Beamer had managed to break a few of the boards on the side of the trailer and proceeded to knock a chunk off of his coronet band on his left rear hoof. Swell. We cleaned it up a bit and but some tripple antibiotic ointment on it and Kimi rode the rail that day (she sat on the side and watched the other girls ride.) We took Beamer home and called the vet for advise. They came out pretty quick and I got a rather interesting lesson in coronet band injuries. Turns out, antibiotic ointment will cause the coronet band to produce skin cells. The doc had us use straight iodine on the injury and the irritation the iodine causes to the area causes the coronet band to produce hoof wall. Pretty cool. He was not lame at all so we gave him about a week of stall rest and sure enough, at the end of the week the coronet band was healed over. We were VERY lucky with this injury as he didn't damage the coronet band itself, he only scraped the skin cover the band off. He healed fine.

But he was still dancing in the trailer and we didn't want another injury. Naturally, the solution was shipping boots. We got shipping boots and the first time we put them on him we laughed ourselves silly watching Beamer high step and shake his legs in an effort to get the shipping boots off. We bought some cheap shipping boots but they did protect his legs. For a short while. Until he pretty well shredded them up in the trailer.

About this time there was a parade we had to go to. I was out of town so one of the other dads pick up Kumi and Beamer and headed off to the parade. I don't remember exactly why Beamer was not wearing his shipping boots but I do remember that he scraped the coronet band on his right front hoof. Well, at least we knew what to do this time and we still had the iodine from the first time. Again, we were lucky and there was no damage to the coronet tissue itself.

We had to do something else so we bought a better pair of shipping boots. These did protect his legs but he still danced around in the trailer a lot. We figured it was only a matter of time until he hurt something else so off to Craig's List to do a little trailer shopping. We found a nice two horse slant load bumper pull by Trails West Trailers. The price wasn't to bad so we went ahead and bought it. It has a much larger tack room which is really nice for organizing and we have even used it as a changing room.

The horses had no trouble loading and unloading with the new trailer. But Beamer kept dancing. So we kept Beamer in shipping boots. He hates those things to this day. We weren't sure what to do to get him to calm down in the trailer. And then, one day, he quit. He just quit. We don't need to put shipping boots on him now because he stands quietly in the trailer for the whole ride. We may never know what set him off and I hope he doesn't start again. But just in case, the shipping boots are in the trailer tack room, waiting patiently for the day when Beamer decides the trailer is going to eat him.