After steady rain all last night and half of today, the sun finally emerged from behind the clouds this afternoon. It was intermittent but it was there and the forecast calls for more sun tomorrow and for the next few days. Temperatures in the 70s, 40s at night. Sounds mighty nice to me! I think I’ll try hand walking Sheza out through the neighborhood tomorrow or the next day. Desire still has a fairly full milk bag and I am letting that subside before I ride her more. I can’t imagine its comfortable. I’m not going to pony Sheza off Blaze riding him bareback, that’s for sure! So going for a nice walk or two and get some more exposure, more practice on ground manners. And get that practice going out and about without mom for the first time.

I ordered Desire a purple Viking II Turnout from Schneiders and a navy blue Expandable Foal Blanket from Schneiders for Sheza. She takes the size Large foal blanket! I noticed today that she is a little butt high, having another growth spurt for sure. It was funny how friendly she became again once the rain subsided, the sun was out, things were a little calmer. She was spooky and would hardly be touched during the 3 day storm but was nearly back to normal tonight. She was still silly and spooky when I brought her mash in but I made her stand quietly and let me touch her all over when she came to eat. I don’t appreciate the violent spooking around my person and I wasn’t going to let her just do that and then get to eat with no issue. Little brat!

 I’ve been paying bills the last few days and the outflow of money is just crazy. Bills, bills, bills. 

I grew up in a small, community conscious area so “Shop Local” has always been a relatively present concept in my mind. 90% of my shopping is about and for my animals, naturally. I now live much closer to more shopping opportunities, both local and in the “big city” (Sacramento) but the last four times I was actively searching for something for my horses I drove the hour up to the next town to shop at the locally owned tack store. Each and every time, including today, they haven’t had what I needed! Its hard to shop local when its..just not possible. I was really frustrated after driving all that way and not finding a THING I was looking for (if I can walk through a tack store and buy nothing, something is up!). Then I thought about it and realized that it was most likely related to their most common clientele. If I were an average trail rider, or weekend warrior, and/or particularly a western rider with a QH or other good sized animal I suppose that store would be just the ticket! All the leather and camo and western saddles would be exciting, no doubt. Since I’m working my way towards being a full fledged endurance rider, ride English, and have shrimpy Arabs, this store has nothing useful beyond absolute basics like brushes or wound spray that I don’t buy often. They don’t carry blankets small enough, small enough splint boots, much of any English tack, and certainly no endurance gear. Once I got that concept through my noggin I wasn’t so perturbed–its just the way it goes. To this day I have only ever been in one tack store that carries endurance gear in stock, and that’s Christensen’s in Loomis which is a good haul away from here. But a very cool store! Have gotten some beloved tack there and my favorite breeches, half chaps, and winter riding coat as well.

So here I am listening to a torrential downpour, credit card in hand, ready to order the horse things I need online. I tried!

Last night we got some SERIOUS rain. It was gray with on and off sprinkles all day but by dark the rain had started and it absolutely roared and poured most of the night. Since we bought our home last year and have the horses at home (I boarded my horses out most of my horse-owning life) I don’t sleep through stormy nights very well, there is so much to think about as far as trees down or possible property damage, the horses etc. I also get paranoid about the power going out because I HATE it when that happens. It really doesn’t happen very often here but when I was growing up on the coast it happened quite a few times a winter so I am still ingrained to expect/dread it.

This morning Blaze was snug as a bug in a rug in his thick waterproof blanket, the mini looked like a little swamp creature, Sheza was bug eyed and spooky, and Desire was shivering. Poor girl doesn’t have any sort of winter coat. It looks like she at least managed to stay under her shed most of the night since she wasn’t soaked, but Sheza was sure soaked. I definitely need to order D and Sheza’s blankets, it was in the 40s and pouring last night and is supposed to be in the 40s again tonight.With wind and/or rain and a horse with no winter coat that’s pretty chilly!

Everything is soggy and cold and wet. I’m drinking a hot cup of tea with my chihuahua curled up on a heating pad next to me. Enjoying it, since the forecast says sunny and in the 70s by Friday.

Well I’ve been neglecting the blog the last few days. The weather has suddenly decided its fall, or maybe winter, and rain is forecast with winds and 45 mph gusts by Wednesday. The last few days I have been cleaning up around the property, putting the camping gear and other summer stuff away, etc. We need to stack some more wood that’s for sure. So far we haven’t timed the whole restocking the woodshed thing well, we certainly don’t want to do it in 100 degree summer but seem to then leave it to late in the year.

Anyway, Sheza and Desire are doing well, Sheza has started lying down to nap again in the last few days, she didn’t for the first few days after I separated them. She is eating like a hog and there isn’t a wisp of hay left come next feeding time. I’m feeding grass hay with some Elk Grove Milling hay pellets and Sheza gets some Foal Developer as well. The hay grower I am trying to hook up with will not return my call so I’m really frustrated there but hopefully that will come through.

I put Blaze’s blanket on for the first time tonight, since rain is forecast and he and his mini are out in the big pasture with lots of trees but no shed like the other paddocks have. Blaze loves standing in his sheds so I feel a little guilty he doesn’t have one now but he does have plenty of shelter in the trees should he choose to use it, and now he has his thick waterproof blanket on as well. Napoleon the mini is hairy as a little mountain goat so I’m not really worried about him. I still need to order Sheza a blanket though she as grown a nice little winter coat. Desire doesn’t seem to grow a winter coat, she didn’t have one when she arrived last January and isn’t particularly fuzzy now. Curious.

I’m exhausted and have to figure out something to make for dinner…

Desire got a bath alright, and boy did she need it. I haven’t owned a grey horse in a while and forgot the gradual change from white, to whitish, to yellowish, in their mane and tail color. Well clearly she was due for a scrubbing as this picture I posted shows:

Yesterday it was about 93 so I decided we could both cool down and she could use a real scrubbing. I used Cowboy Magic concentrated shampoo and the same kind of conditioner. Diluted it into a bucket, which as my foot got instantly soaked, I realized had a big crack in it. Whoops. Desire is so snorty about the hose, she looks at it like its a snake the entire bath but she puts up with being scrubbed and rinsed fine. I hope that eventually she will relax some about the horse but then her previous owner said she was always that way and a lot of her horses of this bloodline have been consistently scared of hoses. Well anyway, maybe with enough scrubbings she’ll get over it.

So here is the finished product, BAM she’s a model!

Today was my husband’s day off so I actually got to leave the property for the first time in about a week. We are in major housewife-at-home/husband-goes-off-to-work mode and as a rather independent person who spent all spring and summer throwing my horse in the trailer and gallivanting off to the trails–well lets just say this current lifestyle is a bit different. It won’t last forever though, we are looking at getting a second truck in a month or two to replace our Jeep that bit the dust this summer. And salmon season ends in November I think so his work on the boat will be over for the time being. He is having a great time working as assistant guide and its a wonderful opportunity as being a guide is his dream job and he has his foot in the door now with another young guy already succeeding at the business.

Anyway, the point of this post: When we got to town and cell service I got a voicemail from someone who said they were cleaning someone’s belongings out and found my checkbook! My cell phone number is on my checks and they saw the different name on the checks from the person who had the checkbook and decided things weren’t right and they should call the number. I called them back right away but went to their voicemail then I caught them on the phone this evening and turns out they not only have my checkbook but they found my PURSE TOO!! I am so happy about this, my husband and I bought that purse together in Maine on the day of our wedding and its the first nice purse I’ve ever owned. I always wanted a soft leather purse and that was it. I was really pissed off and sad about it being stolen and the funny thing is I hadn’t even dragged out one of my other old purse’s to use, I was rebelling against replacing it and had been carrying my wallet and junk around in my big purple AERC convention bag, lol. And come to find out the purse has been found and is being returned to me! Unfortunately they didn’t find my husband’s fly fishing rod that got snagged out of my truck at the same time–that was a huge surprise gift I gave him a year ago and a beautiful rod so bummer on that. But still, what are the odds of recovering the purse! And I get my nice leather checkbook cover back too, for what its worth.

Day two of weaning went well, Sheza ate her hay well overnight and let me put her fly mask on nicely this morning–sometimes she still skitters away when I walk up to her in the paddock with the mask in my hand, but after a couple steps and giving me the “you crazy person” look she always lets me put it on. AND this evening when I went to take it off she just stood and let me take it off instead of her usual: stand, pull the Velcro open, filly spooks and runs away, comes back, then get the mask off. Or sometimes when she spooks she throws the mask off herself. Tonight however she was all manners and the mask came right off. Desire seems to be off her hay slightly, I am keeping an eye on her. Her bag is swollen with milk tonight, poor thing. She ate her Elk Grove Milling mash in her usual greedy fashion so that’s good. I spoke to my vet this morning and she is coming next Wednesday to do Sheza’s shots. I’m planning to use my big irrigating syringe to simulate giving shots and try to get her used to that so its as smooth an experience as possible. Just used to the sight of a syringe and it tapping her neck etc. I also asked my vet if there was anything I could or should do with Desire as far as her big swollen milk bag but she said the mare just needs to tough it out and the milk should dry up before long.

I picked up a new bag of Elk Grove Milling mix today, this time I got the Timothy/Alfalfa/Rice Bran pellets. I like to add some water to it and make a mush and all the horses eat it right up. I threw some in with Sheza’s Foal Developer tonight and she gobbled it. She is born to eat wet mash so at least I won’t have to worry about that for her endurance career 😉 

Can’t wait to get my purse back!