I GOT A HORSE!!! I GOT A HORSE!!! I GOT A HORSE!!!

After searching for over a year, I actually found and was able to buy (barely) my dream horse. He's an eight year old, 16.2 hand, dapple gray Andalusian gelding.

JJ kindly agreed to give Shadowfax a test ride when I asked for her opinion before buying him. I didn't have anyone to take pictures when I was riding him, but JJ said that I looked good on him.

I can't believe that I actually found an Andalusian that I could afford that was healthy, sound and sane. He even has dressage training. Okay, he doesn't have the best conformation, and he has a little arthritis in his hocks, and yes, he is young to already have arthritic changes. But he is still sound enough for what I want to do according to the vet, and should remain that way for many years with proper maintenance. He is also still somewhat inexperienced since after being started under saddle and ridden for a couple of years, he was then put out to pasture and had nothing done with him for about two years. But after being back under saddle for only a little over a month, he was easy and comfortable for me to ride. He's a little lazy, but that might get better with more consistent riding. I didn't have any trouble getting him to trot and canter, though I did have a little trouble keeping him cantering. But just a little extra push with my outside leg and inside hip kept him going. Considering that I'm still learning how to canter myself and that I am just coming back from several months off of riding because of my surgery, it's a pretty good sign that I was able to ride him that easily.

His registered name is Mi Romeo, but neither Foxfire nor I really wanted to call him Romeo so I was trying to come up with another name for him. I was out in the pasture with him and suddenly realized that I had just called him Shadow. So I asked, "Is Shadow your name?" and he walked toward me. Of course any time he hears my voice, he walks toward me(Yes, he already comes to me any time I go out in the pasture. He really WAS meant for me.) But Foxfire liked the name Shadow, so we tentatively started calling him Shadow. However, we already have a cat named Shadow and I also wanted a name with a little more distinction for my horse, so after thinking about it for a while, I decided that I would call him Shadowfax. I know it's a bit presumptuous to name him after Gandalf's stallion in Lord of the Rings, but he is an Andalusian, which is the breed of horse they used for Shadowfax in the movie. And it just seems like the right name for him.

I admit that I'm still a little nervous about having spent so much on a horse. But even though he is not perfect (no horse is), I think he is the right horse for me. I'm still sort of getting used to the idea of having my own horse. I don't think it's really sunk in yet. Maybe once I get a chance to ride him here it will finally sink in. I haven't been able to ride him at home yet because my husband's very mild mannered horse, Ziggy, has turned into a fire-breathing herd protector. Ziggy will not let Shadowfax anywhere near HIS donkeys. The problem is the donkeys (and Ziggy to some extent) are used to coming up to me anytime I go into the pasture in order to get petted and scritched. So anytime I go out in the pasture to try and spend time with Shadowfax, the donkeys and Ziggy come over and chase Shadowfax away. I can't put Ziggy in his stall because when we tried to do that, Ziggy went absolutely balistic and started charging his stall door. We were afraid that he'd hurt himself (and destroy the stall) so we had to let him out.

Foxfire and I have tried several different things to get Ziggy to accept Shadowfax. It's not like we just turned everyone loose in the pasture together. When we brought Shadowfax home, we had Ziggy in his stall and the donkeys and goats in the goat pen. We led Shadowfax around the property and let him see and smell everything. (BTW, Shadowfax behaved very well throughout everything. He was curious and looking around, but not nervous or aggressive.) Then I led Shadowfax up to Ziggy's stall to let them sniff noses. And that's when the drama began. Ziggy took one sniff then snapped at Shadowfax. Shadowfax naturally stepped back, but that's all he did. He didn't snap back or get excited, he just got out of reach of Ziggy. I waited a few seconds and let Ziggy just look at Shadowfax and when he seemed calmer, I led Shadowfax up to him again. Again Ziggy snapped at him. So I decided to leave Ziggy alone for a bit and led Shadowfax over to the goat pen and let him sniff noses with the donkeys through the fence. Tessla, of course, immediately came over and said, "Hi". After seeing Tessla interacting safely with the big gray horse, Kanny and eventually Marie came over and they all sniffed noses. Shadowfax actually seemed to like the donkeys. Maybe he just appreciated that they weren't pinning their ears and snapping at him.

When Shadowfax seemed to lose interest in sniffing the donkeys, I let him wander around a bit on his own. I was still holding his lead rope, but I let him go where he wanted to. He soon found the water trough and took a long drink. After that I decided to try Ziggy again. Same result. Foxfire thought that maybe Ziggy would be friendlier if he weren't stuck in his stall, so I led Shadowfax a good distance away, and Foxfire haltered Ziggy and led him out. We carefully led the two horses closer to let them sniff noses again. This time Ziggy not only snapped at Shadowfax, he reared up a little and sort of thrashed his front hooves at him, accidentally racking Foxfire in the process. Foxfire was okay, just not real happy. Shadowfax remained surprisingly calm and just stepped back out of reach. Foxfire backed Ziggy up and I kept Shadowfax at a bit of a distance and we just let the horses look at each other for a while. Then very carefully we again let them get closer. Again Ziggy displayed very aggressive behavior. Ziggy wasn't actually biting or kicking Shadowfax, but he was putting on one hell of a threat display. We, Foxfire, the previous owner, her trainer and I, finally decided that the two horses would have to just work it out themselves. So I took Shadowfax to one end of the pasture and Foxfire took Ziggy to the other end and we turned them loose.

Shadowfax immediately trotted towards Ziggy who was standing by the goat pen with the donkeys in it. Ziggy charged at Shadowfax and chased him away. As soon as Shadowfax was a good distance away from the donkeys in the goat pen, Ziggy stopped chasing him and went back to the donkeys. This pattern repeated itself several times during which we figured out that Ziggy apparently saw Shadowfax as a threat to his herd (the donkeys). Poor Shadowfax just wanted to join the herd, but Ziggy absolutely refused to let him near. Since Ziggy was behaving so aggressively, we decided to just leave the donkeys and the goats in the pen for a while and see if in a few hours things had calmed down. Watching Ziggy behaving so aggressively was actually pretty frightening. He'd always been such a non-dominant horse before, but now his behavior was really scary. I'll repeat that neither Ziggy when he was attacking nor Shadowfax when he defended himself actually bit or kicked the other horse. It was just a lot of really aggressive display. But even though no one was actually getting hurt. It was distressing to watch.

Unfortunately, even hours later, Ziggy was still chasing Shadowfax away from the goat pen any time he came near. However, both horses were completely lathered and probably exhausted, and the chases were getting shorter and less intense, so we decided to try feeding everyone since it was about time for their evening meal. Shadowfax was quite willing to go into his new stall to get fed and enthusiastically gobbled up his grain. Ziggy had to be haltered and led into his stall and after taking only a few bites started pacing his stall, pinning his ears at Shadowfax in the stall next to him, snaking his head around the stall wall and snapping at Shadowfax. He even started charging his stall gate. At this point, because we were afraid that Ziggy would hurt himself, we had to let him out of his stall. He ran over and checked on the donkeys, then started charging at Shadowfax's stall. Foxfire and I would clap and yell at him and make him turn away, but it was still frightening Shadowfax. For the first time, Shadowfax started displaying nervous behavior. Completely understandably. Foxfire managed to chase Ziggy far enough off so that I could let Shadowfax out of his stall. Once Shadowfax was out of his stall he calmed down. However, Ziggy would still chase him away any time he came near his little herd. Poor Shadowfax.

Once it got completely dark, things seemed to settle down a bit. Every once in a while, Shadowfax would ease up toward the herd and Ziggy would chase him away, but things weren't nearly as dramatic. Since Ziggy hadn't finished his grain which is a very bad thing because he has a history of ulcers, I led Shadowfax into the goat pen and stayed with him so that Foxfire could bring Ziggy's feed bucket to where he was standing with the donkeys and encourage him to eat. Ziggy eventually finished most of his grain, and I let Shadowfax back out. Foxfire and I finally got our own dinner and settled down to watch some tv. But we would go outside every once in a while to check on everyone. Ziggy still wouldn't let Shadowfax join his herd, but at least there were no more big dramatic chases.

Anyway, that was the first day of having my new horse. Which was Sunday, by the way, I'm a little behind in posting this entry. I'll try to post what went on on Monday and today either later tonight or more likely tomorrow.

Wine Tasting Tour of the Hill Country

Well, I'm behind on my posts again. A number of things have happened lately, but I'll start with what happened yesterday. My husband, Foxfire and I are members of Becker Vineyards' wine club (a winery that's about an hour and a half drive away), so once every three months, we drive to Stonewall, TX to pick up our member wines for that quarter. Well, this time, we decided that we were going to make a day of it and visit several of the other wineries in the area and we invited our friend DA to come with us, since it seemed the sort of thing that she would enjoy.

Our first stop was Texas Hills Vineyard in Johnson City, TX. This unique little winery is very green oriented and their winery was actually built using the rammed earth method. I'd never seen a building built that way before, it was fun to check it out. The hostess was very friendly and attentive, asking questions about what we liked and giving recommendations on what we might like and the proper order in which to taste them. She also gave us each a Texas Winery Passport, a neat little booklet that you get stamped in each winery you visit. There is also space to take notes on the winery and the wines you taste. When you've filled all the spaces in your passport, you can go online at www.GoTexanWine.org and fill out a form to get a reward. They don't tell you what the reward is, you just have to wait till it arrives.

Anyway, unlike most wineries, there was no tasting fee for most of the wines. They did have a special wine list that you had to pay a small fee to taste, but since they were all reds and I don't generally like reds, and since the selection of wines free to taste was fairly large, I didn't feel the need to pay the fee to taste the special wines. I liked their Orange Moscato so much that I bought a bottle even though our wine rack is already overflowing and I knew that we'd be picking up three new bottles at Becker Vineyards. DA also bought a couple of bottles for herself. In addition to the free tastings, there was also a very nice selection of interesting and unique gifts, much better than the usual t-shirts and wine toppers that you see in most tasting room gift shops.

Our next stop was Pedernales Cellars. Driving up their driveway, we noticed some cute fuzzy black and white cattle in a pasture on the right and a very skinny horse in a pasture on the left. We were all very concerned about the horse since we all ride and/or own horses. During our visit we mentioned to the hostess that we owned horses and asked about the horse in the pasture, being very careful not to imply anything negative. We were relieved to find out that the horse was a rescue that the owner's wife had taken in and was trying to nurse back to health. Since my husband's horse was a rescue and it had taken us about nine months to get him healthy looking, we understood about the horse still looking skinny and neglected and were impressed that the owner's wife was trying to help her.

The second thing we noticed about Pedernales Cellars was the view. Standing outside the tasting room and looking in almost any direction, you have a beautiful view of the Texas hill country. Inside the tasting room, there was a nice, but somewhat expensive selection of gourmet cheeses and chocolates along with the usual t-shirts and wine accessories. Pedernales Cellars does charge a tasting fee, but they wait till after you've had your tasting to charge it, and if you buy a bottle of wine, they waive it. Also, if you ask, they will give you a tour of their facilities. We asked.

In a hill behind the tasting room, they have built a large geothermically cooled cave where they make their wines. There were several large metal machines for de-stemming, juicing and fermenting, then a large area filled with wooden casks for aging the wine. The casks were made of different woods (French oak and American oak with traditional charring and laser charring) which impart different tastes to the wine. They are particularly proud of their machine for juicing the grapes. Apparently, there is a fairly big difference between first juice (the juice that comes out easiest) and last juice (the stuff you really have to force out). Their machine allows them to control the pressure so that all they get is first juice, which theoretically makes their wines better. I'm not a true oenophile, but I did like their wines, especially their Vino Blanco and their Muscat Canelli. I even liked one of their red wines(Pedernales Cellars Family Reserve) which is extremely unusual for me. Unfortunately, it was $49 a bottle which is rather more than I'm willing to spend for wine, but it was very good. Keeping in mind our overflowing wine rack, I limited my purchase to a bottle of the Muscat Canelli. However, DA (who is more of an oenophile and actually needed to stock up on wines) bought several bottles, so all of our tasting fees were waived.

Next we went to Becker Vineyards. The first time we went to Becker Vineyards was when Foxfire took me there as part of our third anniversary celebration. They have since finished re-modeling and enlarging their tasting room. It's absolutely huge and with the wood paneling and arched ceiling sort of gives the feeling of being inside a giant wine cask. (DA made that observation.) Foxfire and I had already been there twice so I waived my free tasting(as a member of the wine club) in favor of a souvenir wine glass, And Foxfire generously shared his tastings with me. The last time we had been to Becker, we had come home with over a full case of wine and still had a fair amount left of our favorites which for me are the Fleur Sauvage, Gewurztraminer and Muscat Canelli Amabile. Foxfire's favorites are the Clementine, Malbec and Raven. So we didn't buy anything, however DA bought several bottles of wine as well as several jars of fancy bath salts to give as Christmas gifts.

We finished our tour of wineries at Grape Creek Vineyards. Their tasting room is located inside a beautiful Tuscan style villa surrounded by oak trees. It is certainly one of the most beautiful settings for a winery that I have ever seen. Of course, I happen to be partial to that style of building. They had several different tasting options, but DA opted for the $10 artisan tasting(which includes 9 tastings and a souvenir glass) and since the host kindly agreed that Foxfire and I could split a tasting that's what we did, too. After tasting their white label wines, several of which I liked very much (Pinot Grigio, Muscat Canelli and Cabernet Blanc), we made our way over to their black label wine tasting area. Now I don't usually like red wines, but over the course of the tasting tour, I had at least begun to appreciate them in a certain way, so even though I wouldn't necessarily buy any of their red wines, I could at least appreciate the experience of tasting them. The fact that the host was very attentive and gave good descriptions and explanations of the various wines also helped. The final black label tasting was a port, and I actually do like ports, so it was a nice reward for making my way through the previous red wines.

DA apparently really liked Grape Creek's wines because when it came time to buy, she bought 10 bottles (apparently some were to be Christmas gifts). I bought two bottles, a Pinot Grigio and a Cabernet Blanc so that we had a complete case. We got a 10% discount on the wines and our tasting fees were waived. As I'm writing this, I'm actually wishing that I'd also bought a bottle of their Muscat Canelli, but at the time, I was thinking that I'd already bought two muscats and we had some at home so I passed on it. Well, I am positive that we'll be going back so I'll just get it next time. We'll also be sure to plan our timing so that we can take their Barrel Tasting Tour. It costs $20, but it seems like it would be well worth it.

Anyway, when we finished our tastings, it was almost 5pm which is when all the wineries close and Foxfire wanted a chance to sober up a bit before driving home, so DA kindly bought me a glass of port and herself a glass of her favorite(which was the Bellisimo, I think), and we sat on Grape Creek's beautiful patio listening to the talented country western singer who was performing there. Aside from the unwanted advances from an overly friendly yellow jacket, it was a beautiful way to end the tour.

After we left Grape Creek Vineyards, we were all a bit hungry, so we headed over to the Salt Lick for some fantastic Texas BBQ. Foxfire and I both had chopped beef sandwiches and split a peach cobbler for dessert. DA had a mixed platter with sausage, brisket and turkey and a slice of pecan pie for desert. None of us managed to finish all our food, so we took the rest of it home to eat later. We were all exhausted, but it had been a fantastically fun day.

My first buck (from before the surgery)

The week before my surgery, JJ let me come out to the barn and ride Saga after her lesson on him. She was riding FuzzyPony's horse Taran in a lesson immediately following her lesson on Saga and so she needed someone to walk Saga cool and untack him and such. Since I hadn't ridden in a while it was a good chance for me to get a little riding in.

Everything went fine at first. JJ's lesson was at the end of the arena closest to the stalls and so I walked Saga around at the end of the arena closest to the pasture. Now it had been raining a lot lately, so most of the horses at the barn had been kept in their stalls for a week or more, but the barn owner apparently decided that the ground had dried out enough to let the horses back out into the pasture. The horses were understandably excited about finally getting out and being able to run around and stuff. Most of them took off running in their pastures, chasing each other and playing around. When they first started letting the horses out, I worried a little bit about Saga getting excited by the other horses running around, but even though he obviously noticed them, it didn't seem to bother him. He was still paying attention to me and would just occasionally look over at the pasture. I'd wriggle the reins and he would switch his attention back to me. No problem.

However... suddenly two(or possibly more) of the horses decided to get into a squealing fight not far from the arena. That was just too much for Saga. He bucked. (I don't think it was that much of a buck because I actually stayed on him.) First his front end went up and then down and as his front end went down, his back end came up and threw me forward. I experienced a VIVID demonstration of why you want heels on your boots as my feet shot forward in the stirrups until my heels caught. He only did the one buck, but then he really wanted to run. Fortunately, I still had control of the reins and although he sort of jigged forward in this REALLY BOUNCY trot, he didn't actually run off with me. I had to pull and release the reins and say "whoaaaa" three times, but after the third time he actually stopped. (GOOD HORSE!) His body was still sort of quivering beneath me, and I suspected that if I moved at all, he probably would take off. So I sat VERY STILL, making soothing sounds and waiting for him to stop quivering.

About this time JJ, who had apparently had some trouble with Taran acting up at the same time and had not seen my masterful (HA! :sarcasm:) handling of Saga's buck, suggested that it would be a good idea for me to get off Saga since the other horses were making such a fuss that they might cause Saga to act up. I sort of quietly yelled back to her(I didn't want to make any startling noises, but for her to hear me on the other side of the arena I had to be pretty loud) that as soon as Saga finished quieting down, I would get off of him. He did quiet down fairly quickly, but with horses still being let out to pasture nearby, I was a little worried about starting to dismount, getting halfway off and having something set Saga off again. So I asked a couple who were standing near the arena hand grazing a horse if one of them would mind coming and holding the reins while I dismounted. The girl headed my way, but she was rather hesitant and I could tell that she was a little scared of Saga. I tried to reassure her that he really was a sweetie that it was just the other horses making him excited. I don't know if that really reassured her, but she did come and hold my reins and I dismounted without any problem. I thanked her and led Saga back to the barn to untack and wash him down.

So anyway, that was the first buck I ever rode. Like I said, it probably wasn't much of a buck. He wasn't really trying to get me off his back. He wasn't angry or scared, just excited. But it was still a memorable experience for me.

Time to catch up a bit

I obviously haven't been posting much lately. It's taking me a while to recover from surgery and I really haven't been doing much besides laying on the couch and reading. There wasn't really much to write about. However, this weekend I finally got out of the house and did a couple of things. And there is a ride I had on Saga before the surgery that I should write about. I'll do that in a separate post.

Anyway, on Saturday, I persuaded Foxfire to drive me out to our property in Liberty Hill(which we call SpiderFox Ranch in the hope that in the not too distant future, we will be able to build a house out there and have our own little ranch), and I managed to walk around the property a little. I love going out there. It's so peaceful. I love looking at the trees and making my way through the trails between them. And at this time of the year there are thousands of little yellow flowers blooming everywhere. There were also some white daisy-like flowers and some little purple flowers. And a great big jack rabbit ran past us. Since it had been raining so much, our tank was full and there was even a little rivulet going across the lowest part of our property. There were hundreds of dragon flies hovering around the tank, mating and chasing smaller insects. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay very long. I still get tired really easily, and we had to get back to town to go to our friend JJ's birthday party.

For her birthday, JJ had a singer perform an informal concert at her house for her friends and family. The singer was Heather Dale. I really enjoyed listening to her. Not only does she have a lovely voice, she tells fascinating stories about the songs she sings. Some of the songs are classics, others have been written by people she knows and a fair amount she wrote herself. She has a website where you can listen to samples of her songs and download complete songs or albums. You can also buy actual compact discs to be shipped to you.

During intermission, an extremely tasty birthday cake was served (carrot cake, yum!) and there were other munchies. I also got to socialize a bit with friends that I hadn't seen in over a month which was really nice. Although I am a bit of a hermit, not seeing anyone but my husband and my doctor for almost a month is rather boring and lonely even for me. Unfortunately, I was REALLY tired and in some pain by the end of the concert so I couldn't stay to socialize very long after it. But at least I did get out of the house and was able to interact with people for a little while. Thanks for inviting me to your birthday, JJ!

Interesting times... Surgery

I am currently recovering from the surgery to remove the cyst from my abdomen. It turned out to be a more "interesting" surgery than planned. Because of where they thought the cyst was, the doctors had planned to do the the surgery completely transvaginally. Assuming that the cyst was were they thought it was, that would be both the most efficient and least invasive way to do it. Unfortunately, once they went in there, the cyst wasn't where they thought it was. It wasn't on the outside of the peritoneum, it was on the inside. And so they had to go in with three laparoscopes to find the cyst so they could remove it. However, when they went in laparoscopically, they found more than the cyst. There was apparently a fair amount of endometriosis which needed to be removed(which they went ahead and removed since they were already doing the surgery) AND there was an old abdominal hernia that I'd apparently been running around with for fifteen years that needed to be stitched up, so they stitched that up as well. And of course, they did eventually find and remove the cyst. So... the surgery ended up being rather more complicated than originally intended. However, in spite of all the extra work, everything went well, and I am recovering. Just a bit slower than I thought that I would. I certainly won't be posting about riding any time soon.

Of course, since I still don't have a horse of my own, that's not such a big deal. The horse that I really liked that came back on the market... not the same horse. It's amazing what a month with an angry abusive son of a bitch can do to a good horse. Maybe I'll write about what happened in another blog post. But you can see from one of my posts on facebook how I feel about matters:

People who take healthy, happy, friendly, willing horses and abuse them into skinny, scared, fearful animals should be whipped bloody, have saddles strapped to their backs so that they rub incessantly against their wounds, and be left without any medical care or adequate food.

Interesting times... A Texas Tango

So... to continue to try and catch up with all the "interesting times" that have been going on...

Let's start with the good. During my horse search, I came across a Belgian warmblood for sale very inexpensively. When we went to see him, I realized three things. One, this horse was neglected to the point of abuse. Two, with a little TLC, this could be a REALLY NICE horse. And three, that even though this horse had the potential to be a really nice horse, he would probably not be the right horse for me. However, he was too nice a horse to leave in the situation he was in. (No horse should be left in a bad situation, but realistically, you can't save them all, and it's just harder to leave things be when the horse is a really nice one.) He was kept all alone without another living creature in sight or sound of him, and being a herd animal, he had understandably developed some rather pronounced neurotic behavior. His feet were in horrible condition and looked like they hadn't been taken care of in at least six months. He was kept on ground that was basically just one big sheet of solid rock. He was obviously in pain though exactly what was causing the pain was unclear. His feet certainly looked bad enough to be causing him pain, and the solid rock footing certainly wasn't comfortable, but he also seemed to have some back pain which may or may not have been caused by the very badly fitting saddle that they used on him. Plus, he was overweight to the point that foundering was a legitimate concern. I suppose over-feeding is better than starving, but neither is good.

Unfortunately, the current owner was not going to sell him to Foxfire and I. I had made the mistake of calling after we had been to see him to ask if we could take him on trial and offering to pay to have his feet trimmed and shod and to have a vet check him out because he'd been exhibiting signs of pain. She totally freaked out, started yelling at me, repeatedly screamed, "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT HORSE!!!!" then hung up on me.

I simply couldn't bear to leave the horse with that owner any longer, so I decided to see if I could enlist other people's help in rescuing the poor gelding. Since there aren't that many registered Belgian warmbloods compared to certain other breeds, I did some research online and sent out emails to the local Belgian Warmblood breeders as well as to friends and friends of friends to see if we could find someone who recognized and/or was willing to help us rescue this poor horse.

It turns out that a trainer/ex-breeder that we already knew and had taken several lessons from (Foxfire refers to her as the Oracle) recognized that he might be the offspring of her now deceased stallion. She contacted the owner of the mare that she thought was the gelding's dam and positively identified the neglected gelding as her stallion's son, Tango. The fact that she could look at a picture of this horse and recognize not only her stallion's lines, but also know which mare he came from leads me to believe that she might indeed have magical powers. Both she and the mare's owner agreed to rescue him. If he was sound, the Oracle would take him to become her new riding horse and if he was no longer sound, the mare's owner would care for him in his retirement.

The Oracle's daughter and a friend of ours with a truck and trailer went down and bought Tango and moved him to a temporary barn in Austin. A week later, Foxfire and I went to see how he was doing, and he looked like a different horse. He no longer exhibited any neurotic symptoms. He was calm and easy to handle. His feet had been seen by a good farrier and although it was going to be a while before they could grow back into truly good shape, you could see from his movement that they no longer hurt him the way they had been. In fact, he didn't show any more signs of pain. And it even looked like he had already lost some of the overweight that he had been carrying. The Oracle's daughter, who is also a trainer, took him out and free lunged him while we were there. He looked soooooo much better than he had at the place that he had been. Foxfire and I were both impressed by how nicely he moved. With a little more work, he is really going to be a fantastic horse. Since, it appears that he will be sound enough to ride, the Oracle is in the process of getting him shipped to where she currently lives. Her current riding horse is over twenty years old and she is extremely happy to have one of the few sons of her beloved stallion to become her new riding horse. Foxfire and I are both really happy to have helped in rescuing this horse and helping the stallion's owner to recover a son of the stallion that she loved.

Since FuzzyPony and JJ had actually been the ones to drive us down to see Tango, we stopped on the way home to visit Cash, JJ's retired eventer and the horse that Foxfire and I both started dressage lessons on. The farm that he is at is truly pony paradise! Beautiful rolling hills that even in the midst of drought were pretty and green, with stands of oak trees for shade and ponds for swimming in, which Cash had obviously been doing. You can see pictures from our visit on JJ's blog, The Saga Chronicles We brought Cash up to the barn and gave him a good bath, loving on him and giving him bits of carrot. After his bath, JJ offered to let us ride him bareback (or rather with just a saddle pad) for a little bit. (And yes we all wore boots and helmets.) Fortunately, there was a mounting block, and I managed to get myself onto his back without too much trouble. It was great riding him again and remembering how easy he was for me. He wasn't supposed to be a good beginner's horse. He is very light on his cues, very sensitive and he had a habit of running away with people. But he and I always got along beautifully. In my search for a horse for myself, I have basically been looking for one like Cash.

Anyway, that's the story of Tango with a little addendum about visiting Cash. I still have a lot of stuff I need to blog about, but I think that's all I'll do for today.

Interesting times...

I think that I've been the recipient of a Chinese curse. As far as I know, I haven't pissed off any Asians recently, but my life sure has been "interesting" lately. Some of it has been good. Some of it is a mixture of good and bad. And some of it is just plain bad. Starting with the good... I helped to successfully rescue another horse. And a horse that I really liked has come on the market again and I might be able to actually buy him this time. However, since I had to buy a new Air Conditioner because my old one died, I might not actually have enough money to buy this horse even though he is fairly inexpensive and I've been pinching pennies like mad saving up to buy myself a horse. Also, my husband is currently looking for a new job because in his current job he is just really unhappy and stressed by the company's work environment. He is also severely underpaid for his level of experience and what he does. During this time, I took a job assisting with costumes for a local theatre company which should have been a good thing, but which, due to absolutely horrible treatment by the head costumer, led to me quitting a production for the first time in my life. Also, I've recently started receiving stress-filled emails from my brother who is a police detective and a recently divorced father of three little girls which is leading me to worry about his mental well-being. And I'm going to have to have surgery next Wednesday to remove a cyst the size of a walnut from my abdomen. It should be a fairly minor surgery, but having to have surgery at all is just plain bad. So... interesting times.

I think that I'll expand upon these statements in several different posts, otherwise, this would be one REALLY LONG POST.