Another 80 degree @ 7 am morning. Strange orange-y sunlight, must be a fire somewhere. The mini’s forelock is stuffed with stickers again, took him less than 24 hours to undo my efforts. Next year hopefully we will get ALL of our pastures sprayed in a timely fashion; we have 21 acres full of about every conceivable kind of thistle and stickerbush and this year we got about 2/3 of them poisoned off. I am really nervous about using poison so we just didn’t spray in some of the horse areas, but that will be changing next year. I am OVER sticker bushes. Sheza loves to eat the stupid things and I doubt that is good for her in the long run. My husband likes to work outside barefoot (don’t ask..) and doesn’t appreciate the stickers, and I certainly get tired of combing them out of horse hair. It seems like in the last two weeks the horses have really been getting into them too, they have been around all summer but just recently all the equines on the place started sporting unicorn horns of stickers on a regular basis.
 Oh, Blaze’s winter coat is growing in so quickly! That cold week in Mendocino must have really triggered it (though he was blanketed most of the time). He usually has an extreme woolly bear winter coat and has already lost his summer gloss and started getting hairy in the last couple of weeks. I feel bad for him since the last few days have been so HOT, but I know that the rain and cold will be here before we know it and he’ll need it. Speaking of rain, I have the house closed down and swamp coolers blasting and am shopping for turnout blankets online while dreaming of rain. Blaze has a great thick waterproof blanket from Schneiders Tack that I bought him two winters ago. It looks kind of like a dress on him because he is so short but it fits him well and is still in great shape. I was using my old mare’s blanket on Desire when she arrived in January but it doesn’t fit all that well, isn’t very thick, and seems to be losing its waterproof capabilities though I sprayed it down with waterproofing stuff a few times this year. Its got to be three or four years old at least at this point though and I don’t remember where or when I bought it. Schneiders has great blankets at good prices so I think I’ll measure Desire and get her something like Blaze’s. Color???? Blaze’s is red, from my days of all red matching endurance tack, as is the blanket I used on Desire. I think I am officially over my red phase, though I still have all the tack of course. Desire’s tack is denim blue with wine colored overlay but I don’t really think I’ll be approaching either of those colors in turnout blankets, though I could just go with blue. I feel like Desire is a little too feminine and pretty for just a blue blanket, I am almost leaning towards purple or something girly like that. I am going to measure Sheza and order her a blanket too, just not until the bitter end when the rain is really truly coming since she is growing so quickly. I know they make foal blankets pretty adjustable (or I read that they do, anyway) but figure I might as well give it my best shot on fitting for the whole winter. Of course I doubt it will fit more than one winter, since she will be over a year old by next winter..wow that is a crazy thing to think about!
 I bought some new t-post wire-holding clippy thingies–careful, those are highly technical terms people–yesterday so I can run more hot wire in the soon-to-be weaning paddock. I already have new wire at the top of the fence but thought I should run another wire at mid height in case Sheza is having a spazz about weaning and feels the need to crash into a fence. One or two good zaps should take care of that. The last property owner left buckets of electrical fencing supplies which is nice but I’ve used most of it up running new wire on the west side of the property already. As soon as it cools to a decent temperature I’ll be running new wire all along the big pastures and paddock on the east side and hopefully rigging up the full electrical fence system again ( we disconnected it to have good reliable shocking power on the west side when Desire arrived and we were having over-the-fence flirtations). The horses are all getting a little lax on their fence manners since they’ve been on the east side of the property with no hot wire all summer. Nothing I hate more than a horse leaning on/destroying fencing. I’ll never forget that giant brute of a Foxtrotter I owned briefly who was tall enough to and had no issue with absolutely wreaking havoc on my fencing to get to the apple trees and grass on the other side of the fence. I was used to Blaze who can barely get his head over the fence at all in some places and here comes the 16 hand 1100 lb Foxtrotter who acted like the fencing was just a minor inconvenience to be removed at will! I was hopping mad and screwing with the hot wire almost every day. That was what started the hot wire revolution where I ran new wire, replaced the box twice, and waited outside with a stick to beat the horse of the fence (not really but I was about at the point). Fortunately the fence-destroying giant found a nice home up near Redding and the issue hasn’t really come up again, aside from the mini horse who scratches his fat butt on the fencing viciously which made me run a wire at mini butt height wherever he is staying.
  Anyhow I anticipate another depressingly hot day..it still says it will be 88 degrees tomorrow, so fingers crossed everyone!

Today was absolutely STIFLING! I mean, wow. I am really glad and grateful that we only had ONE day this summer like this. It was unbelievably hot, so hot its hard to breath and harder to move. Now I know there are other parts of the country that get hotter and have been hotter for a good portion of the summer but its all relative and for us, in this area, this was a doozy of a day. I think it hit 102 here in the foothills. The hottest we had probably reached this summer up here just out of the valley before today was 98. And there is a big difference even in that small degree gap. Something about hitting 100 degrees and above is just..wow. I didn’t sleep well last night and woke up this morning with big plans of going for a run and/or riding Desire in the arena, but as soon as I set foot outside the house and felt the wall of hot air and read the thermometer which said 80 degrees at barely 7 am..well, those plans changed. There was a gusty breeze and some clouds in the sky, a strange, stifling sort of weather that would have definitely meant lightning and storms if we were in, say, Virginia. There was a NOAA weather warning of gusts and dry lightning, high fire danger, for the higher country, but I don’t know if that ever came to fruition. I do know it was ungodly warm and nasty here. At least the sun wasn’t fully out and blazing, there was a strange cloud cover almost all day. I think due to that lack of direct sunlight it was hard not to be out in it, since it wasn’t blazing and uncomfortable under the sun I felt guilty being inside closed up in the house and decided to round up my mini horse, Napoleon, for de-worming and and to address his unsightly mane and forelock which were sticking out straight with hundreds of stickers. Napoleon isn’t the easiest to catch and is rather skittish and if I’m honest doesn’t get as much daily de-stickering as the others so he was sorely in need of a touch up. He was pretty easy to catch (who wants to run around and have a rodeo when its hard to breath its so hot, eh?) and let me de-worm him no issue, then it took about a third of a bottle of Cowboy Magic and 15 minutes of frantic parting and combing to clean up his hair. As I was working on his mane I started to realize just how hot it was, since the relatively low-impact job of kneeling down brushing the mini’s hair was making me drip sweat and want to keel over. He looked much better afterwards though and its a good couple of things to check off the animal maintenance list. I trimmed his forelock a little too since he has so much darn hair he can barely see past it sometimes. I usually give him a little hair trim a couple of times a year to try to maintain his wild ‘do. I also hosed off the big horses over the fence about midday when I put Napoleon away; I wonder if they will ever figure out how great it feels and just let it happen rather than trotting away from the spray in annoyance. I usually stick my finger across the hose and just let it sprinkle down, not blast them, and I know it feels amazing when I do it to myself but Blaze and the foal act as if they are going to melt when they get sprinkled. Desire actually stood in it the longest and was pretty well freckled with water-spots. Blaze and Sheza used it as an excuse to buck and fart and be dramatic. Well whatever! All things considered I call that productivity with my horses for such an uncomfortable, god-awful day. At least I tackled something that I have been meaning to do for a while by cleaning up and de-worming the mini. Its still hot right now at 8:30. NOAA says it will be 88 degrees Sunday and BOY do I hope that’s true, but I don’t entirely believe it.

Okay, I admit it. I just LOVE reading Craigslist Farm & Garden section. Specifically the horse adverts, of course. I mean what other free reading material is there that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster comparable to those sweet little ad nuggets?  Inevitably when I sit down to browse Craigslist F&G I quickly experience excitement, depression, hilarity and finally, despair. There is so much wrong with 90% of the horse advertisements posted. So very much.
  First, of course, there is the deep and often total lack of spelling ability. Now I know, everyone has different skills etc etc but the Spell Check button is king and good GRIEF pressing it is free! My favorite (and by that I mean it makes me want to grind me teeth) is the ads that start with either “For Sell” or “Must Sale”  ……I mean…man, I just want to go all crazy grammar bitch on them! And I’m not perfect, by ANY MEANS, there have to be hundreds of grammatical gaffs occurring in this blog. But its the basics folks, the basics. There are so many different ways in life to see and understand the concept of For Sale or Must Sell, you know, like signs. Everywhere. Or other ads. The rest of the ads often contain more spelling folly but then, after that ad title you knew it was coming, right?
  Then there are the pictures. And lack thereof. In a brief aside I will say my attention span is quite short while enjoying C F&G, so if you don’t have a photo up I probably won’t even open the ad. Unless you have some fantastic title like “3 Legged Unikorn For Sell.” But back to the photos themselves, when present. You see anything in these photos from a faint smudge of brown at the end of a pasture that might be a horse, to a full body shot of a hairy beast standing knee deep mud. Toddlers sitting three astride–without helmets–on a stallion, horses tied to precarious objects. You get the idea. I’ve sold quite a few things on craigslist, including a few horses, and I found it takes about 15 minutes to pull your horse, give it a thorough brushing, and stand it on level ground for a photo–as a minimum. Its also pretty quick to throw your saddle and bridle on there and hop on up and get a few snaps taken to prove that the horse can, in fact, be ridden! But hey, this is free Craigslist advertising so any photo is better than none.
 Of course you read all sort of fantastical things in the body of the ads as well. My favorite one today, found on Gold Country Craigslist F&G (oh yeah, did I mention I read multiple cities F&G’s, for maximum pain/pleasure?). The ad was for a 6 1/2 yr old Bay Thoroughbred Gelding. Here is my now-beloved quote: “Trailers, stands for ferrier and shots well, you can stick your fingers in his mouth and pull his tail.”  Well by gory, you betcha, if I bought that there gelding I would just be darn sure to continue the standard horse training technique of sticking my fingers in his mouth and pulling on his tail. Honestly what I really would like is to ask the writer of this ad why that made sense as something to type in the ad? Okay, I guess I really follow this thing through to its conclusion, its just a good old fashioned explanation that the horse isn’t a biting, kicking terror, because here he is with fingers stuck in his mouth and someone yanking his tail and no one has had their head caved in yet. But then if you really read it, does it mean you can only pull his tail when sticking your fingers in his mouth?
  Here is another random thing I thought of as I did my daily C F&G browsing this morning. How much of a cosmic F U is it to breed for paints and get an APHA foal that is solid colored??! Please tell me if I’m crazy but it just seems so damn ironic to click on an ad titled “Beautiful APHA Gelding For Sale” and see a picture of a solid chestnut standing there. I had lots of excitement over what color (and gender) my foal would be this year, and that was without any exciting parti-colors available in the mix. I got my flashy chestnut filly with big white markings and then it was all the excitement about will she gray out. Luckily I have a big, healthy, 5 month old redhead on my hands and she is here to stay. Of COURSE the priority is a healthy, safe foaling but I’m speaking to our more shallow sides that are just a little obsessed with a Horse of the Right Color, whatever that respective color may mean to each of us. So just imagine the excitement and debate over what color your APHA foal will be.. Ooo la la its foaling day! And then here comes a cute, healthy….BROWN foal. Boyyyyy I think I would be a little bitter about that, no fooling. What can I say, I just get a little snicker out of those breeding stock APHA ads. I’m sure the same must happen with Appaloosas, though I know nothing about that breed.
 Anyway, the bottom line is Craigslist F&G is a wonderful read and while it may leave me with a bad taste in my mouth sometimes and I’ve even sworn it off a time or two, I’m always back clicking on those little blue advert links eventually.

My farrier came out this morning and put new front shoes on Blaze and while I am (sort of) looking forward to figuring out Easyboots I must say I enjoy looking at a fresh, quality shoeing job on my boy. I am very glad I  “inherited” such a good farrier and vet when we bought the property (previous owner was a horse trainer and vet and farrier had been coming up here for years). Boy do I remember the CRAP shoeing jobs I put my horses through when I first moved to this area 4 summers ago. I tried 4 or 5 different guys who all did terrible jobs and were all convinced they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. The worst had to be the guy who came and threw all four shoes on my horse and my friend’s horse, two FULL shoeings mind you, in about 15 minutes flat! It was unbelievable. And when the horses all started interfering and the shoes were half off and funky after about a week and half, Joe Schmo Farrier Guy was nowhere to be found to come fix the issue. Previously I had always had my horses hot shod and the whole wam-bam-thank-you-ma’am cold shoeing jobs I encountered as a newbie to the area were a shock, all the way around. Prices were just as high but the time, effort, and quality were going down the drain. Thankfully we found this killer property and got a great farrier and vet along with it!!
 Anyway, the barefoot trimmer/Easyboot Fitter is scheduled to come out next Tuesday morning. My farrier even said he might stop by to check out the goings-on. I am interested to see it as well, I’ve never used a barefoot trimmer specifically before, and of course the Easyboot thing is new. I almost feel like a traitor to my good farrier having someone else come out to work on Desire but I am really trying to go about this Easyboot thing correctly and everyone seems to swear that a barefoot trimmer is the ticket. And the fact that she is also a professional Easyboot fitter and dealer is why I really did it, I wouldn’t mind seeing it all again firsthand on the whole measuring/correct/incorrect fit/ etc. Maybe my farrier will stop by and learn it all and then I can just get him to do! Hah! Really I should just learn to trim and do it all myself. Eventually.

Sheza’s official AHA papers arrived today! Now, at 5 months old, she officially exists. Part of that delay was my delay in not pulling mom and baby’s mane hairs right away. I was squeamish and made my husband do it, hahah! My head is sensitive and I couldn’t bring myself to yank hairs out by the root. Anyhow, Sheza Blaznhaat Xpres is on the registration books!