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(My older brother on Sunday.  He drove Klint’s, my younger brother’s car because his motor isn’t done for his car.  Kirk has a red car, #48, notice all the red stuff, like his fire-suit and the seat.  They had to swap out seats after Klint ran on Saturday because it is way too small for Kirk.)

I missed the horses while I was gone, but did end up getting to take my mind off it by taking 731 pictures over the weekend at the races.  I still have to go through all of them and last night I was starting to upload a majority and photobucket decides that it wants to quite a quarter of the way through.  Back to square one since I didn’t write the photo #’s down. 

(This is on Saturday when Klint was driving.)

On our way home from the races we took a familiar route.  One which I knew every Saturday morning when we would travel hours to go racing.  But for some reason yesterday, while going that route again, I got flash backs of the day we brought home Ink.  I remembered stopping at a certain rest stop to give him water and I remember his eyes.  He didn’t see me, but I saw him.  For the first few months of owning Ink he didn’t notice me much.  And when I would ask him something he would shrug it off like, “who the heck are you to be telling me what to do?”  I remember standing there on the trailer rubbing his head, trying to talk to him, hoping that one day Ink would look to me for comfort.  He does :). 

Yesterday evening my mom and I went over to see the horses and give them grain.  Ink was grumpy, but probably because he hasn’t been out and they hadn’t got their hay yet.  I could tell he was mostly mad at me for abandoning him those days.  Although he has room to run and play, he really likes to get out and work.  He likes pleasing people and loves being challenged.  Ink knows I’ll keep his mind and body busy.  I promised work today.  Errika was happy to see us and her grain ;).  I think she was relieved to see my mom finally and that made it all the better while she ate. 

All in all the weekend went well.  Kirk did really well on Sunday despite having his throttle getting sticky.  Both of them had a lot of fun and the track is awesome. 

On 22 Inches!

Grreeat news!!  My parents bought a new desktop :D.  Matt can finally have his laptop back.  It’s the first computer since when my laptop died two years ago and the first desktop for over 6 years.  The first desktop was a well-used hammy down from my dad’s work, so this new computer is quite the treat!

I’m still getting used to the keyboard and the screen size, holy moly. 

We’re going away for the weekend.  Bittersweet I must say, but I’m looking forward to a mini-vacation.  We’re going north for the sprint car races and Klint is going to run.  The city that the race is being held in, all hotels were booked, not one with a room to spare.  Imagine that!  So we had to opt for a place 45 minutes away from the track.  While my dad and the team ride in the truck hauling the trailer, I’m going to be driving my mom’s car with the rest of the group.  Lots of driving to do, but I love it. 

I rode Errika again yesterday, bareback and continued to work on her halting and transitions.  She did well and I think that will be what we focus on until my mom get’s un-busy again and starts to ride her regularly again.  She was quite the grumpy mare today when we went over to give grain, not sure why.  Actually both horses were on edge a little bit, probably the weather.  It’s cold and windy here, but I had to remove their sheets.  I wanted to put their winter blankets on because it’s supposed to rain, yes I said rain, however since we’re not going to be home there is no one to do it.  Matt said they will be fine and I trust his judgement, I just am a over-protective, ensuring comfort, mom.  I’d much rather have their blankets on. 

Yesterday I also managed to ride Ink, bareback as well.  It’s amazing how different both horses feel under me and in my hands.  Errika is rather light and sensitive where-as Ink is heavy and doesn’t move off my leg well.  Maybe he prefers and understands better with the tack? 

I’ll hopefully be back blogging on Monday, but I’m not sure when we’ll be home. 

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend!!

Planning & Deciding

Ok I’m soooo excited right now, I can barely hold my breath in.  I have to sit quietly here and type this out before I throw the computer down and run to my mom.   

Joe, THANK YOU so much for reading the blog.  It means the world to me that you can look through all the posts and see the horse you saved and adopted out to my mom and I.  I’m going to run over to see the horses and tell Ink that his good friend Joe, read our blog and we’ll probably celebrate with peppermint treats :D. 

I’ve been busy planning for this weekend.  I was hired to do some photography for a racing team and I’m really happy about that.  I got that news on Monday and then was asked to do make arrangements for an appointment to do two websites for my families business.  Very slowly I’m seeing my dreams of owning and operating my own business’ a reality and that gets me this much closer to horses.  I’m nervous about the photography only because I really want to do right and make someone very happy.  I kept telling my mom and Matt that I don’t want to settle for something other than what I really want out of life.  I have the oppurtunity to make my life what I want it to be so I have to take that up and make my parents, friends and horses proud. 

Matt’s laptop is having problems and won’t connect to the internet.  So I haven’t been able to get on there and that’s the only computer we have at the moment.  I’m using our friends’/neighbor laptop who is over everyday for now. 

And this: http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_052108WAB_soldier_horse_slaughter_KC.1866d2a6.html

From http://www.fuglyhorseoftheday.blogspot.com

It made the news!  That’s awesome! 

Yesterday we were over with the horses, brought over more bales of hay, grain and a fresh thing of treats.  I lunged both horses in the round pen and rode Errika bareback.  This time I was mostly focusing getting Errika better on halting.  Eventually it will be a verbal cue and no hands, but it’s just time and training.  Ink was looking good, being silly and did some trotting exercises of ground poles.  Today we’ll probably start back up with the stretcher again. 

Follow-Up (Ink’s Bee Stings)

Ink Coming Down from one of His Massive Bucks

As I’m sure you can see Ink was feeling pretty good yesterday! 

It was very warm, in the high 90’s.  I checked Ink’s leg and the swelling has gone down a lot since yesterday and is almost gone.  The heat too, is almost gone.  Still a little warm in the spot where it looks like he was stung.  I’m going to give him the rest of the week off, maybe start back up with the usual-ish lunging routine on Sunday.  Besides it being very warm, I didn’t want to do much, but it didn’t phase Ink from being a show-off and flirting with the mares..  I lunged Errika for about 10 minutes and then had Matt lunge Ink for a little bit to see how he was moving. 

Afterwards we took the horses to the wash rack to get a cool hosing.  For the rest of the time we let them dry, relax, groomed them, braided their tails and then gave them their grain.  Errika is looking a little plump lately so we’re taking her off the beet pulp that we had her on during the winter to maintain and gain some more weight since the surgery.  Don’t need it anymore, little chubby mare. 

Ink gets turn-out gear during the summer.  He gets sores on the front of his his lower leg so the BO told us to put the soft bell boots on upside down to protect that area.  Then I put his hind sport boots on because he keeps knicking himself with his shoes.  The flies are coming out more and more, so I’m bringing over the fly masks and then we have to order the ubber fly sheets.  They come complete with belly band, generous tail over and neck cover. 

The Bath from Yesterday

Pictures of Errika from yesterday’s bath :).  It’s un-like her to want to play and drink the water during her bath.  Did I mention I LOVE the new camera?  Well here are the pictures for your viewing pleasure!  Enjoy!

Ink’s Bad Day

I also considered it my bad day too.  Did I end up getting the camera?  Yes I did!  I’m in love with it, but again when something good happens, three bad things always do.  Number one; Mother’s Day.  On Sunday we took my mom to this nice beach town, had lunch and the weather was beautiful.  On the beach it was a bit windy and chilly, but still very nice out!  I spent nearly the WHOLE time getting awesome photos of my mom, dad, brothers..you know the family just doing their thing.  On Saturday I got pictures of the races, some really cool ones..  My first two days of owning this camera was spent taking some truly great pictures and everyone was proud of me for what I took.  I was too!  Sunday night I go over to Matt’s house to wish his mom and Happy Mother’s day and brought my cord to plug the camera into the TV for them to see.  I was so so so excited about the photos and couldn’t wait to show my mom.  Well we were going to put the photos on Matts’ parents desktop so I could put them all on disk’s and something horrible just HAD to happen.  I lost ALL, every single last picture I took that was on that memory card.  I should have spoken up because I knew that could happen.  All 425 pictures gone just like that.  Most importantly all the memories of a GREAT Mother’s Day, is now gone. 

The next day I was just having a bad day altogether.  Mostly because I was still upset about the pictures.  I was going to the linen closest and Klint was hiding in it to scare me.  Well he did.  I ended up like kicking at the door while I slammed it shut and caught my toe and now half of my toe nail is bruised, bleeding and stinging.  I walk with my foot sideways so my toe doesn’t take the brunt of the walk and in the shower I had to hold the blasted thing up so soap wouldn’t get in it and nearly fell over from my hip killing me.  Gah, anyway……

Number three, I was having a horrible day yesterday that I just needed to get out.  So I left alone to be with the horses.  Took my camera and was planning on just hanging out and taking pictures.  Wrong!  That was the opposite that happened.  I got there, Errika came and greeted me at the gate and I proceed to take her sheet off.  Then here comes Ink, I give kisses and began removing his sheet.  Well to my complete horror I find his right leg completely swollen up.  His knee is huge all the way down to his pastern.  On further inspection I find his right side of his jaw also swollen.  By this time I’m freaking out and crying, very worried and call Matt and then my mom.  Matt rushes over and looks him over too.  I began taking pictures of the problem areas just in-case.  We take the big guy up to the barn and I cold hose him and then take him to the round pen to see if he’s lame.  Well he looks fine, except a little uncomfortable.  He doesn’t want to have the area’s touched.  Besides that he’s acting normal and eating.  My mom get’s over and brings ice.  So I wrap and ice the leg, first the bottom section, then the top.  After discussing it we are pretty sure it’s bee or wasp stings.  The BO says that she didn’t notice any of this yesterday morning so I am assuming it happened between the time I got there yesterday and the morning.  Today I get over there and the swelling has gone down.  All vital signs are good, he’s drinking normally, eating and acting pretty normal.  I can only remember the feeling of getting a bee sting and how tight the area feels when it puffs up.  Not comfortable!  We’re keeping our eyes on him and will call the vet if things don’t improve.  After nearly having a complete melt-down, I think everything will be fine. 

Today is very warm.  Tomorrow worse, continuing throughout the week, goody.  I gave both horses a bath and Errika thanked me by rolling ;).   

All of the pics above were taken yesterday, after finding the boy.  You can see the swelling on his jaw in some of the photos.  Photos are compliment, Matt and the new camera.

New Camera?

Yesterday Matt, my mom and I went to the dreaded mall.  Matt had to go to the phone store and my mom and I trailed along and then we were planning to go to see the horses after.  After the phone store Matt said he wanted to see if the place where he bought his old sunglasses, had a pair that he wanted.  It just so happens that next door is a camera store and after the sunglass place we stopped in to look at the Canon Rebel that I’ve had my eyes on for some time now.  The guy who worked there was very helpful and gave me LOADS of information on the Rebel Xti and also other brands similar to it.  But the Rebel is on a super sale right now and you can get an extra 75mm-300mm lens for it for an additional $99.  The lens it comes with in the sale plus the extra one is even cheaper than the camera itself not on sale.  Matt is really pushing me to get it since it’s been my dream to persue photography and the price is right.  The sale ends today and I haven’t decided yet if I want to get it or not..  It’s a lot of money, but I’d be missing out on a great deal if I don’t take it up. 

Later on we went and gave grain and Ink was a frisky man.  Not being out two days brings out the fire in him ;).  Even though he is turned out 24/7, he doesn’t really get all his extra energy out.   

“Big Brown”

I like that name.  My mom told me today that there was a horse by the name of “Big Brown” running in the Kentucky Derby.  She said he looked just like Ink and was absolutely gorgeous.  I wasn’t the least bit interested, I even forgot that today was the running.  It’s not such a hoot for me considering that behind the running is usually thousands of those horses that were bred for the dream of being in that race, failed and then were tossed out like Monday’s garbage.  It makes the Kentucky Derby something to look forward to.  Being the owner of the racing industries “Monday Garbage” doesn’t really make me say “oh goody the Derby is here!”  I love my horse and I have to be blunt here, screw all of you people who treat horses like $$ commodities.  

It was sad, however, to hear that the filly Eight Belles broke down and was later euthanized on the track.  Tragedy yes, but to all those people who felt for her, her owners, trainer, her staff, think about all the ones that die in slaughter houses inhumanely everyday.  Yes she was in the public’s eye at the biggest horse race, but lets not put a price tag on the pricless lives of those who didn’t make it to the “big” races. 

I’m down ranting on about that.  It just frustrates me.

Moving On

I’m sorry everyone for not posting a lot lately and reading your blogs.  I’ve been having some troubles with finding a new place to keep the horses. 

The barn of our own hunt, rather keeping our ears and eyes open, has been put on hold to manage what needs to be taken care of right now. 

The horses are doing well and exercise is still being continued as usual.  I rode Errika bareback yesterday and hung out with her.  It’s days like yesterday that I am reminded how special she is and lucky I am to have her in my life.