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.

A very happy birthday to me!

I've been a very bad girl and haven't been keeping up this blog, but somehow despite that the universe rewarded me with a very happy birthday weekend. My birthday was Saturday and at noon I met with the costume designer that I'll be assisting for the next few weeks doing costumes for Austin Shakespeare Festival's production of Measure for Measure. I'd been a bit nervous about meeting her because, frankly I don't always get along with people, but she and I seemed to hit it off. I liked her designs and she seemed to appreciate the comments that I made. So that made for a nice birthday experience.

After I got home, as part of his birthday gift to me, my husband took me to half price books so I could add yet more books to my overflowing collection. I am an absolute bookaholic who has been having to do without, due to tightening up our budget in order to have enough money to buy and maintain a horse for me. So finally having free rein (pun intended) to buy some new (okay used, but new to me) books, was very nice indeed. After buying me some books, Foxfire took me out to Johnny Carino's and we had a very nice dinner out. Another thing that we haven't done in quite a while as part of saving money. I had my favorite dish, chicken scallopini minus the tomatos and mushrooms with capers added, and a pomegranate granita which is just the most delicious drink that I've ever had.

On Sunday, Foxfire and I got up early, joined our friends, SH and DA, and we all went down to Schlitterbahn for the day. The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold, and it wasn't raining which it did last year for my birthday trip. It wasn't very crowded and for some rides there wasn't even a wait at all. We made it through all three sections of the park and hit almost all the red diamond rides, some of them several times. It was an absolutely fabulous day! After we left the park, we stopped at Oma's Haus German Restaurant and had a nice dinner.

The only bad parts of the day were at the very end. As we were driving back to Austin, my stomach started feeling bad and we had to stop at a Whataburger so that I could use their facilities. I think the lunch that I had at the park didn't agree with me. Either that or I accidentally swallowed some water on one of the rides and some nasty protozoa or another was making it's presence known. Also, once we were home and putting things away, I stepped on a scorpion which stung me to express its displeasure or its general scorpion-ness, since I know that simply stepping on a scorpion barefoot isn't going to hurt it that much. (I really should write a post about my unique way of dealing with the scorpions that I find in my house(or more usually that my cats find and point out to me).

Anyway, all in all, it was a wonderful weekend, and I'm already looking forward to doing it all again next year.

Keeping notes pays off

Keeping all those notes about the horses that I've called on or looked at has had an unexpected dividend. I saw this ad on CraigsList posted by a girl looking for the horse that she was forced to sell years ago:

Looking for a long lost horse... - $1 (Bastrop, Austin)

Please don't flag. I am looking for a Thoroughbred Mare I sold a couple of years ago to a girl named **edited** who lived in Bastrop. She has since been sold again. Her registered name is **edited**. She is a Chestnut mare about 16hands, approx 13 years old. She was extremely sensitive and flighty and accident prone. I would like to know she has a good home and I would be willing to buy her back if her current owners aren't happy with her. I was forced to sell her during a rough time in my life and regret it very much. So please if you know of this horse email me any information. Her barn name when I sold her was **edited**.

I recognized the horse's registered name, looked in my notes for the contact info of the person selling her and passed it on to the person looking for the horse. She sent me an email thanking me for the info and later sent me one telling me that she was able to find her horse because of the info that I gave her. It made me feel really good.

The ad now reads...

Looking for a long lost horse... FOUND! - $1 (Bastrop, Austin)