Update on mare...

Everything went really good last night! We had no problem loading her up into our trailer, and things went as good as could be expected at the farriers. Her hooves are still needing a ton of work, but she is more comftable, and can walk a little better already. We are so thankful she is home now, and doing well!

She hasn't been named yet, but that can wait. She is such a sweet girl, and wants loved on all the time. Believe me, she gets plenty of attention even in the short time she's been here, and she's loving every minute of it! :)

Okay, her are a few pictures of her.

Eating her hay.

She is blind in one eye.

Her hoof before the trimming. Her other front foot was getting worked on by the farrier when the picture was taken.Notice how her she's standing with her toe tiped up....now picture that on all 4 legs.

Will post more later!!!

Happy Trails and God Bless!

HorseLover<><

Here is a sad story that happened to my family yesterday after church. It is sad but it will hopefully have a happy ending to it. You'll see what i mean in a minute...

We got home from church at about two o'clock yesterday afternoon, and decided we would drive down to the horse pasture and go riding for the rest of the day, like we usually do on Sundays. So we loaded up the 'gear', (saddlles, bridles etc.)and drove the 15 minutes it takes to get down there. My dad got out to unlock the gate, and we looked down the fenceline that runs parallel to the neighbors cow pasture, and we saw a horse. Just standing there by the fence looking over. At a distance it looked like one of our horses might have gotten out and somehow gotten into the neighbors cow pasture. So when dad got back in, we drove up and, even from a distance we saw that it wasn't one of ours. We counted just to be safe and all our horses were still in our side of the pasture fence, safe and sound. We figured the neighbor just got a horse too, since we never had seen it before.

A little while later i was tacking up my horse in the barn, getting ready to ride him, when my mom comes running in! She said she had walked over to look at the horse across the fence and had looked down and saw his feet!! She said his hooves were so long, and so overgrown it looked like he was walking on industrial size aluminum cans!! She said he was so lame he was walking on the backs of his hocks and his feet were literally jacked out from under him every time he tried to take a step!! Well, i tossed my saddle on and rode over there with Emilee to look at him, and my mom was right. Only worse...

The horse (which we dicovered was a mare) who looked to be about 16-18 years old. Her teeth were literally rotted down to the gums and she was thin, i could count every rib on her sides!!

We couldn't just walk away now that we had seen her so it was decided that me and Emilee would ride our horses to the neighbors farm and ask about her, and see if they were aware of her condition.

We had to go across their cow pasture, otherwise it would be about a ten mile round trip to on the road and down his mile long driveway. We had a time of it riding the horses through the herd of cows. I swear that there was a bull in there just waiting to gore me to death for trespassing through his private herd of bovines. We even had to jump the horses over a 6 ' creek and my horse Gunner almost landed on top of me knocked me to the ground! Well, we did manage to get there all in one piece, that alone was a miracle! But we did get there. We tied our trusty horses to a rickity ole gate and went the rest of the way on foot, and all the way i was praying someone was home and would care enough to do somthing for this poor mare. I knocked on the door and a lady answered. We explained we had seen the mare next door and were wondering if they were aware her feet were in need of a trimming. She chuckled and all she said was "Larry knows...". Thats all she said. My sister then asked if we could talk to 'Larry', and she said she would get him. A minute later he came out, and we asked again if he was aware his mare was in need of a trip to a farrier. He looked at us as if we had two heads! He said "..she ain't no good for nothing anyhow"! Good for nothing! How could he even say that!! This horse that was suffering and could hardly stand on her own feet with out colapsing! And all he did was laugh and say she was good for nothing anymore? I wanted to scream in his face! It was all i could do to stand there quiet and let my sister ask about her condition and if she has had any treatment for her lameness. We asked a few more questions about her and came up with nothing but a bunch of crap about her hooves not being the bother but she was lame to begin with and she wasn't any good anymore and not to worry. He said he had had her in the barn all winter, which explained why this was the first time we had ever seen her before now. He didn't have anything to say about her care except she was once a good riding horse but she was now too lame to be any good to anyone. We were obviosly getting nowhere with this old coger so we had to think fast. I did the only thing that made sense to me, which was the first thing that poped onto my head, i asked if he would sell. He asked what we could possibly want with her since she couldn't be ridden anymore and was blind in one eye anyways. Emilee explained we would gladly give her a good home, and since we have kids here they would love to have her around to be a pet if he would be willing to let her go. I offered him $200 cash and he said....he would take it!!! I wanted to scream again!! Only this time it was because i was so happy she would no longer be suffering there. Emilee told him we would be back with the pickup and our trailer the next day anyways so she asked if he would be home then so we could come and get her. He said he would be home from work at 5 so we could come back then if we really wanted the old horse. We assured him we did, so after thanking him for his time, we told him we would be back the next day to get her. We walked back to where our horses were tied and rode back to our side of the fence. Mom and dad were waiting and we told them what had happened and they were so happy we had been able to purchase her. We are heading back there tonight now, with our trailer in tow to bring our baby home and hopefully help her to start a new life here. We are still trying to fill in details, making some calls and try to get our farrier to come out here tonight or tomorrow, and things like that. PLEASE PLEASE pray that all will go well and that by tonight we will have her home safe and sound. And pray we can get a hold of our farrier so she can be bit more comfy on her feet as soon as possible. We are hoping and praying for the best and all will go smoothly.

I promise to keep you updated as soon as i know more, and again please keep her in your prayers as it very well could be a long and painful road to recovery.

Happy trails and God Bless you all!
HorseLover<><

Good morning! I woke up this morning and the sun was shining,the sky is clear and not a cloud in the sky! It looks like its going to be really nice out today. A little later i'm either gonna go down to the pasture and ride my filly Ruby, who really needs work right now after a winter of running with the bigger horses in the pasture. Yeah, that could get a little interesting...hmmm..:)

Or...I'm going to go down to Marion and pick me up a new saddle from the tack store down there. Either way it should be a good saturday.

Yesterday, me,and my sister Emilee, and Colt went to sparta because my brother had practice to be at by 8:00am. So we loaded up and set out. well, me and emilee had nothing to do while we waited for him to get done, so we went to the farm and ranch store, looked around there for a while,didn't buy anything but just walked around and tryed on some cowboy hats. Found one i liked but it was really expencive, because it was a Stetson. So...didn't buy anything. We went over to the resale store but they didn't open intil 10, so we went to wal*mart to pass the time until they opened. its crazy, you either get to a store and its about to close on you, OR, you get to the store and they ain't even OPENED yet! ya just can't win can ya? Well, we finnished at the Wal*Mart, and drover across the road to the resale store. They were just unlocking whe we drove up and there were about 5 other people there already waitin gat the door for the lady to open. At first i thought that was wierd, but then i saw a sign on the front door that said '25 cent sale day'! Everything was only a

quarter! How cool is that?? So in we went, to go bury ourselves in rack opon rack of clothing and such. I found about 3 shirts there for summer, and then i found a dark forrest green prom dress marked $125! I liked the dress, which for me is a HUGE thing cause i NEVER wear dresses or skirts or nothing like that because i just can't stand 'em. So i took the dress up with me when i went up to pay and asked the lady at the desk if the dress was part of the sale or not and she said it was! only 25 cents! For this nice prom dress!

The dress looks like its brand new! So for a buck fifty i got 3 tops, a leather belt, and the dress! Ya can't beat that anywhere. My sister found one too, hers is like a dark cranberry color, and she got one that has some more on the shoulders.*lol* its nice. One of these days we are going to don our duds (prom dresses:) and go take pictures with the horses! my skirt on my dress isn't very wide at the bottom but i can sit side saddle i guess. Thats the only reason i got it is to take pictures,since it was only a quarter!

well, i better run, y'all have a yourselves a great Saturday!!

Adios and Happy Trails,

HorseLover<><

Happy Tuesday! I like Tuesdays, beacause it means that Monday won't come around for another 6 whole days! :)

Yesterday i went trail riding with my sister. We rode for i think like two and a half hours (not including tacking up and trying to get my sisters horse over the creek..*lol* yeah Emilee- we had fun didn't we!haha!!!) When i woke up this morning, i was pretty sore, not because i haven't been riding, because i have been, but because we had to haul a ton of rocks to mark out a new corral. I could have put it closer to the rock pile i suppose, but i really liked this other place, because it has some shade in one corner and its pretty level already. its about a 1/4 mile from the barn, so its really quiet and secluded. Its not nearly finnished yet, we haven't put posts up,or nothin', just laid rocks for post-markers. Cant wait until its done.
Lets see, what else did we do. Oh yes, My sisters horse and the creek it was so funny! We were riding along and we came to a creek. yes, a creek. a little bitty trickle of water no bigger than a foot and a half across. Just running quietly down the rocks,not even rocks,...pebbles! Yes, a 2 foot wide stream trickling over a dozen little pebbles. And all of a sudden, my sisters horse spots this here little itty bitty stream running over pebbles, and she plants her feet down and stops faster than...well..i don't know what..but i'm telling ya after she spotted the stream, you couldn't get that horse to move it you were pushing her with a bull dozer! No kidding! We tried ever trick in the book. Emilee even got down and tried to lead her across. But nuthin, zilch, nadda. That horse simply wasn't gonna get her feet wet if she had say in the matter. And hour of our riding time,and much blood,sweat and tears later, she crossed the stream,all 2 feet of the trickling, itty bitty, pebble bottomed stream. (j/k...there was no blood envolved here-just thought i would clear that up:)
All it took was a little crowding of her space. thats all it took! Imagine, crowd a 1'200 pound horse after an hour of pulling, and wala! Over the stream she goes. What we ended up doing is i rode my horse behind and just to the side of my sisters horse, and then i would turn my horses shoulder into her butt, And let him walk into her hip,which in turn made her want to move foward. So after only about 2 sessions of this 'turn-my-horse-and-ride-into-her-horse's-hip' she decided that it would indeed, be more nicer on the other side of this here monster of water rolling over rocks, over she went, with a little hop and swish of her pretty little tail she was over, safe and sound, on the other side. And we finnished our ride with no further such..ah..incedent.
Well, every good thing must come to an end, so thats how this tale ends today. They usually always have a happy ending:)



Adios and Happy Trails!

HorseLover<><

Horses,horses,horses

Greetings out there!hope you're having a super saturday morning!while i'm sitting here eating some breakfast this morning,i got online to check my email, and thought i to put some pictures on here while i am waiting for my email page to come up. Its gonna be the horses this time:)

No better pictures to look at than horses right?!

(^^i think they were in the middle of a fight)









(^^i think hackamores make for a good picture:)



that's all i got time for this morning, i'm gonna to go workout on the tredmill for a while before i ride.



Adios and happy trails!

HorseLover<><

Earthquake!

Right now i'm thinking to my self Earthquakes?? in Illinios?? but its true,early this morning an earthquake rattled the house at about 4:30am! I'm embarrassed to say i slept like a rock and didn't even feel a bump, but my dad woke up instantly and ran to check on everybody and wonder what the heck was going on! when i got up this morning everybody was talking about it and watching the news and everything! I was really bummed that i was the only one in the house who slept through it. And i was thinking all morning how awsome it would have been to be able to be awake and actually feel the Earth shake!! Well...I got my wish-Less than 10 minutes ago i was standing in the kitchen doorway talking to mom and my sister when i heard rattling and then started to feel the whole house shake! the ceiling fan was shaking really hard and the phone one the wall even rattled in its stand! At first i wasn't sure what was happening and just stood there, but then when mom stopped talking and looked up really fast i knew what it was. It only lasted maybe 5 seconds this time but it was a strange feeling i had afterwards. After it was over we started talking about how in the Bible it talks about how in the End, Earthquakes and disasters will shake the Earth, and Mom said that these earthquakes are a sign of the End times, and that soon, Jesus will be coming. Then i had a thought, if this is happening now, what is next? What will happen before God returns? All i know is that it's comming, and by the way our country is going, its gonna be soon. Mark 13:8 reads "Nation shall rise againts nation and kingdom against kingdom..." Think about it, America is in the middle of war trying to bring world peace. And the verse goes on to say "There shall be earthquakes in divers places.....these are the beginings of sorrows and troubles." There is more to come, and that is a scary thought. very scary. But we as christians have to be ready for the return of God,whenever that is, either a minute from now or 5 years from now, we need to be ready for Him.

Spring!!!!

Howdy! Been a while hasn't it? Been busy busy busy here. My grama and grampa are visiting us for the week,So I last week the house got treated to a spring cleaning! Whew! was that ever a job! but it needed to be done and everything looks so fresh and clean now. its nice actually! You can just smell that spring air a'coming in! I love it! All the flowers are in full bloom and they yard is full of them. The apple trees have all blossomed too. Some of my most favorate things about spring is all of the flowers! They are such a joy to me,all of the colors and smells just lift my spirits and chase out all that ol' Winter Blues. Another thing is the new life simply everywhere! i am such a sucker when it comes to baby animals. Puppies,kid goats,colts and calves,i love 'em all! Green!....i love all the greeness coming up everywhere at this time of year. Green,Green everywhere, on the trees and on my knees! (Lol, thats what my lol brother says anyways...:)

yeah so anyways we've been having such a blast with my grandfolks! They live in Colorado so we only see them about once a year. We're going to Giant City Lodge on Thursday and the Baldknob cross tomorrow i think.They also got to be here for my brother Levis birthday last Friday.

Ok, i can't leave without putting at least on picture of a spring flower up...

I LOVE SPRING! Its as simple as that! :)

I took this shot of the boys last week when the weather started turning warmer and i could sweet talk my brothers into letting me photograph pictures of them for one afternoon.

Don't those grins on their faces just melt your heart!?!?

Happy trails and God Bless!

HorseLover<><

I have a question...Does anyone know how to change the Template/layout on for blogs on here? i have been messing around and trying to figure out how to upload from a 'Layouts' webpage an i've been workin on it for over an hour, but can't seem to figure it out. i read the 'Help' section, but none of that helped me figure it out either. Do any of you guys know how? If ya do i would really appreciate some help.