Spring?

I finally got the pictures of Angie! She's so cute and very cuddly. She only issue we've had with her is that her hind feet are very poorly trimmed and she is a little grumpy about getting them trimmed and shod. Today Marie had to resort to the needle. In a few more trimmings she should be considerably better.

I started working with Bailey today. He is Marie's big bay Clydesdale gelding. I am training him to ride so she can sell him. He's broke to drive but unfortunately is a little to "wired" for all the beginner drivers Marie deals with. He'd be great as a show horse or a riding horse but has a little too much "go" for downtown. He sure moves well and I look forward to riding him! Today I had no issues getting the saddle on him but when I started the jumping and hopping on the stirrups from the ground he was rather unnerved. He didn't even really like me sitting on the edge of the round pen. I will move slowly with this part. He's so big that I can hardly get the saddle on and I have a two step-stool that brings me to the point where I can mount normally. He's got to be at least 17hh!

Miss Pye is doing well and she got to go out to pasture with Annie today. I guess Pye pushed Annie around a bit, which I always like to hear. Keeps me from having to do it! =)

School is winding down as Finals are the second week of March. This week I have a paper due and next week is the Anatomy Lab final. Tomorrow Tiny Dog is going with me to do some lab for Vet. Sci. II. He's always happy to go until things start going up his bum. He got groomed tonight (so did Cody!) so at least he'll be looking good.

Morgan got her report card this week and she's doing well in social stuff and science but needs some work on reading, writing , and math. Poor kid, she's taking after her mother. She's doing better steadily but is still just a bit behind. Considering that she is in second grade and is working on FRACTIONS and ALGEBRA I feel she is doing just fine. I mean I didn't start working on that stuff until Jr. High and I was in an accelerated program! Geesh. They sure do school differently these days! Fewer hours, fewer days, and far higher expectations. Awesome.

Well, I am hoping to have more time to write and such here soon. At least the weather has been lovely. It was 65 today and is supposed to be similar for the rest of the week. If this keeps up I will continue to have plenty of riding time! Yippee!

Deep Cleaned

I got to visit the dentist today. Just last night I watched Bill Cosby: Himself on On Demand. As the super nice Doc was sticking me over and over again with the needle and my face was going numb I just kept hearing Cosby's dentist skit. By the time he was working on me I was mentally laughing about my "bottom lip (being) in my lap". Good thing I have a sense of humor or this adventure would have been less than pleasant. Luckily the Doc and assistant were horse folks and as I had my iPod I had pictures of my Annie to show off to them. Unfortunately, the dental visit was the highlight of my day, having taken another Parasitology test this morning. Send "passing" thoughts my way. I may not get through this class otherwise.

The photos included this time are provided by Marie. I am working on setting up her website and she sent photos of the farm today. Above is Marie in the back pasture driving Pippin, her little Suffolk gelding, when he was about 3. He is a little bigger now, and considerably more filled out. The other pics are of Jade, the 18+hh Belgian mare, and Clancy, the 1/2 Belgian 1/2 Clyde gelding in a striking flaxen sorrel coat with 4 stockings and a blaze.

Advisory

Today was windy. Moderately windy here at home and exceptionally windy out at Rockin' IR (Marie's place, where Annie lives). I believe it was blowing at least 50 mph and may have been close to 70 mph! We had trouble standing and couldn't see through all the blowing dirt. All the horses had their butts turned towards the wind. I was laughing quite a bit!

There has been a bit of news at work this week: Moonlight had a major haircut and now sports some lovely satin sheets when working (see photo of Katie and Moonlight from Sunday above), and Irish Rose now had another pretty white Percheron mare named Angie. Angie just arrived on Monday from New York City. She was a Central Park carriage horse and is absolutely adorable! She is built a lot like Sweetie Pye but has a prettier head and neck. I will get pictures soon! Marie hopes to have her working downtown by the first week of March. She also has plans for Sweetie Pye and Angie pulling a Hay Rack as a team this summer and fall. Maybe I will learn to drive teams! We are also still amped about getting little Toby out here. Marie wants us to go to the Waverly auction to see what kind of wagon we can find for him in the spring.

I am also working on a website for Marie's boarding barn. In the process I am playing with photoshop. I have included a few of the photo shopped pics for your viewing pleasure.

As for the rest of the family: Cody has unfortunately had another bad back spasm. He has spent the last three days in bed under the influence of muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatories, and has seen a chiropractor for the last two days. He will likely see the chiropractor again tomorrow. But at least we have airplanes covering every surface of bare wall and ceiling in the house! And the dogs have been working diligently at keeping him warm and loved. Morgan has also been doing stuff for him like bringing him food, and drink, and getting him movies. She has been very well behaved, probably partly due to a four day weekend thanks to President's Day and a "No Contact" day at school today. I have a feeling that she will be a bit grumpy tomorrow when we send her back to school.

As for my schooling, the parasites are still kicking my rear end all over the place, but at least I am doing acceptably in Anatomy Lab. I am still passing Parasitology but it is a close one. Even now I am avoiding looking up my ID parasites. They just creep me out. We saw videos of heartworm microfilae today and I my skin is still crawling. Next is Giardia. Yippee. Lab should be particularly stinky this week. *sigh*

Well, it is supposed to snow tonight but so far nothing. Maybe it will pass us so that Marie and I can get Angie driving. I would also like to keep riding Annie as she is doing very well. Much snow will put a damper on those activities. I say that Arizona can continue getting our snow, at least for another week. Then we can have a blizzard. =)

Effete

I am frazzled. Entirely. Seems like I have missed something every class, every day this last week or two . I will be ecstatic when this quarter is over. I am passing, but that is about all I can say. Today was Anatomy, tomorrow is immunology and parasites. Yippee. I just want to ride my horse and see my daughter. *sigh*

Cody has some work this week. A kitchen for the folks who have given him several airplanes recently. The ones who gave us the little bug I posted several posts ago. He is perking up a bit, which is good. He had been in a severe funk until this week. Annie is doing well. I got some photos which are all over this post. She and work are the only bright spots for me right now. My turn to be in "super funk" mode. Tiny dog had a traumatic day today. We had a vaccination clinic at school and he finally got micro chipped. BIG needle=BIG yip. Poor tiny dog. Morgan was very concerned about him.
Last news is that Marie and I are dreaming about breeding horses. She may be a very bad influence on me! We are going to go see some breeders of Gypsy and Drum Horses just out of town. I also have ideas of breeding Annie with a Friesian. There are some spectacular ones right outside of town. Marie is thinking of breeding some of her mares to Gypsies to make Drum horses. We'll see what happens.

I am concluding the writing section of this blog entry and just showing off my pretty Annie girl. She is really coming along.

Ponies and Planes

I have been dreaming of ponies here lately. I have grand plans of bringing Toby Kieth, the cutie pictured to the left, out here to Denver to pull a carriage with kids around. I have been emailing carriage makers to see what I can stir up. I am also looking into how much the transportation will be. Hopefully things will go well and I can get the little ornery beastie out here. He is currently overweight and in need of a job.

In more interesting news: Cody is currently occupying himself with looking for work and working on airplanes. He needs to find lots of work soon as he is getting down-right jittery. I am afraid he will come up with a credit card and a house full of new planes. So far he has controlled himself for the most part.

He does have one new little plane, a Waco, that he even ordered vinyl graphics and such. It's called the "Miss Morgan". Isn't that sweet? Morgan is quite pleased.

There is little else going on over here. The only other thing of note is that Annie has finally become something close to a riding horse. After a year of riding she finally has all three gaits in both directions. She is quite lazy by nature and getting her to canter has been a struggle. Over the last two weeks she has finally given in and has even been giving me the leads I ask for. She is still pretty "green" but is quite unflappable on trail. Once I get her solid on all gaits she'll be a darn nice riding horse! Now I want to get a training cart so I can finish her in driving. Her ground driving is exceptional and I would love to have her driving also.

I have included a few pics of the "Miss Morgan". Cody took it with him to visit the gentleman who taught him how to fly this last week. It is sitting on a full sized Tiger Moth.