Big fat nothing

Amazing how a horse can hide
and a testament to the area I live in

it's a big open area

I've spent most of the last week
fretting with worry
and riding my butt off

I hurt bad

and nothing

no new tracks
nothing

we got good rain here last night
so tonight we'll trailer out to a different area
and check to make sure she hasn't been there

Wade's horse is still injured
not healing well
and I may haul her in to work tomorrow

it's not a big cut
but it's on the outside of her fetlock
and it's just not closing up the way I'd like

I am coming to terms with the fact
that I may not see Sugarfoot again
and I probably won't write much on the subject
from here on out
unless I have something to report

I've been on a roller coaster of emotions
and I really have to let it go
and concentrate on my regular life

that said...
Sunday morning
we rode out at 6 a.m.
all of us

we found nothing of course
other than seeing one coyote
but we decided after we got back
we'd toodle up the road to Sedona
and play in Oak Creek Canyon

it was glorious

along the way we stopped at the
Chapel of the Holy Cross

if you go to Sedona
this church is a must see

Wade and Mercy hadn't seen it
so I sat in the truck with Little Dude
while they went inside

I still haven't bought a camera
so all I have is the one shot off my phone
but you get the idea

I spent a blessedly horse free afternoon
laying on a rock
letting fish nibble my fingers
and watching crawdads feed off the bottom

while Wade, Mercy and LD
swam and played and explored the creek

I simply must do stuff like that more often

onward and upward
life goes on...

False Alarm

Just talked to brand inspector
not the same horse

dang it

At this point I have no idea
where she is

no tracks in days
no buzzards
no signs whatsoever

she just may not come back

Maybe found?

Reports this morning of a
brand inspector notice
of found horse north of here
matching her description

waiting on a call...

So Frustrated

we're still looking for Sugarfoot

I have flyers up
sheriff
brand inspector
and locals all on the lookout

but no sign of her

Wade rode to the water tank last night
no sign in the open flats
and none new at the tank

I think she's trying to get back
to the area she was originally loose in
although there's many fences between
here and there

so we keep looking

I'm beyond frustrated
I'm sad and pissed
all the time I've taken with that horse
maybe I should have just tied her down
and done things old school cowboy style
and we wouldn't have this problem

but who knows
I second guess myself constantly

I've literally been pacing the floor over this

all I can do at this point
is ride out every day
hope she doesn't get that rope caught somewhere
and hope she shows her face

it may be a while

IF it rains
there will be more water in the tanks
if it doesn't
it'll dry up and maybe she'll show herself

All I can do is keep on
keepin on

More update on Sugarfoot

We're still looking

I know where she is
but it's a big section she's in
and
there are now cows and calves out there

so anything I see
I have to look with binoculars to see
if it's cow or horse

I got off work early yesterday
Wade and I trailered out
called the rancher to let him know
we were out there

he came out
found us in the middle of nowhere
and had a nice chat

apparently the last time HE
tangled with Sugarfoot
he's the guy who caught her last time

she busted his saddle
a very expensive saddle

he asked what happened this time
Wade pointed at me
and I just hung my head in shame

I feel very very bad over all of this

and I'm glad I get to blog
and share this all with you

you get to see my up and downs
successes and failures
if only you could feel the sunburn
I've got right now...

anyway
she's in this section
we picked up her tracks at the water tank
and that water will last about another week

once it runs out
she may very well come back home
because that's the only water available out here

I'll keep riding out to see if I can get close to her
on foot if I spot her
I know I can walk up and catch her
I just don't know if I can get her home

but I'll keep trying

meanwhile I leave you with a cameraphone shot
of a hawk on a saguaro yesterday

he was screaming at us as we rode right up to him
it was absolutely gorgeous out
and 106 degrees

now I must go back to my regularly
scheduled life
and the other horses and dogs and child
who need my attention desperately

No luck so far

Just a quick update
that we haven't seen her

I rode the 10 mile loop yesterday
came back sunburnt and dehydrated

I saw her tracks
I saw where she doubled back twice
on us in the dark the first night

she has access to water
they're running cattle out there
which makes tracking hard

if she loses the rope
it'll be really hard to find her by tracking
and the rope has a small clasp
if she gets it hung up
she can probably break it

I'm glassing from the roof
and see nothing but cows

Sheriff is aware
locals are aware
flyers go up today

it's all I can do

It's amazing that I can be so stupid TWICE

Never a flippin' dull moment here

I lost Sugarfoot again

I made the mistake of taking her out last night
on her 15 ft rope with a heavy halter
and all was well
then she pulled away from me
twice

and the second time
rounded the house
and went right out the open gate

yes
I am SO DUMB

I left the gate open again

and off she went

Wade grabbed his Olga horse
and saddled up
I chased on foot

I caught her shortly
I was so happy

and she pulled away AGAIN

this time she headed for open land
Wade in hot pursuit
8 pm at night
dusk falling

I sent Mercy to Grandma's
forked Monte bareback
and headed out

got a call from a neighbor he's caught her
and come with another halter and rope

turned out he caught her 3 times
and each time she attacked him
jumping herself up and over Olga

the last time he got tired of it
and looked for a tree to fork
he found one
at a dead run
with a drop off and wash behind it

they forked it
both horses crashed head on
everyone went ass over teakettle
and she was gone again

I meanwhile
went back and got another halter and rope
as requested
and saddled up
longtrotted 2 miles out to
where they were

found Wade walking back on foot
Olga limping
big welts on her shoulder
from Sugarfoot
covered in dirt and sand

I got off and we walked the 2 miles back
thru the desert
no trail
no flashlight

that takes some confidence
when it's snake season

I only fell in one wash
because I can't see in the dark
and there was no moon at all

Wade was so mad he couldn't speak

he looked a bit tore up
and wore a hole in his boots
walking home

this is what it looks like when a horse
beats the crap out of you
in the dark

that's his boot he's holding
I think they're about done in

we went out in the truck till midnight
checked all gates and cattle guards
found her trail along the fence line

lost her in a rough spot
gave up

I rode out on Quinn this morning
found where she got around us
and doubled back
twice

4 sets of tracks
dragging that rope

it's pretty easy to track
until the ground gets hard or rocky
then you lose the rope marks

didn't see her though

she's in this section behind us
so far...

at this point I'm so mad

I haven't eaten since early yesterday
I've alerted the sheriff

does anyone want to take over this project?

cause I'm about done with this shit

Back to the saddling

I wanted to write more yesterday
but my Internet was down again

Sugarfoot's first saddling went very well
a rear and a buck
and that was it

she wasn't real happy
but she accepted it
no one says she has to love it

but she came right back to me
mostly to say
"Would you take this off now?"

Debby hit it right on the head
when she said

"the horse has seemed to come to a conclusion.
She's decided you are "good people"
She's allowing you to do all these strange
senseless things because she's decided she can trust you"

and that's the impression I get
and that she's starting to enjoy the attention
just a little bit

prior to this I snugged a rope around her barrel
front to back to make sure she
wasn't going to lose her mind over
that kind of pressure

she wasn't keen when I walked in
carrying the saddle and blanket

much snorting and running away
until the promise of a carrot
changed her mind

I started with the pad
and only moved on to the saddle
when I could slap her fairly hard
all over
legs included
with the pad

all that work with the rope
pays off right here

I used the kids saddle because I knew
I'd be flopping this thing all over her
in the hot sun
and it's too hot to heave a big saddle
over a horse 50 times
both sides

by the time I was done with that
I could slap it up there
or under her belly
or up on her neck
and it was no big deal
cinches and stirrups flopping around

then I set it on
reached under for the cinch
brought it up and just tightened it
with my hands
without actually cinching

she took that well
so I went ahead and cinched up
and stepped back

after the big moment being
not too bad
I gave her a carrot
left her to think on it 15 minutes
then came in
unsaddled
hosed her down
and we're done

and we'll do it again today
and pick up all the feet

soon we'll move to a bigger saddle
and some ground driving
and eventually I'll get on
bareback

I always ride bareback first
I think I get a better feel
for that particular horse

but I also want the horse
to think a saddle is
no big deal

and I am waiting on the child's
return to school in Aug
freeing up 6 hours of my day
to take Sugarfoot out

September
expect to see that picture of us
riding out

it's coming...

Moving forward with Sugarfoot

taken with my camera phone
She took it very well

I am NOT a crazy, really

We're going to get to why
I'm not crazy in a minute
but first

my camera has died it's sad death
it lasted a little over a year
and when I get into town
I'll be buying a new one

until then we're out of luck for pictures

****************
Sugarfoot continues to learn about
picking up back feet

I've been real diligent about that
and she's getting it

that every time I come in
I'm going to want all 4 feet
pretty please

her friendliness improves
by leaps and bounds

now when I come in she's right there
by my side by the time I get the gate shut

I no longer jump sideways when I realize
she's right behind me

it's progress

I'm considering showing her
the kids saddle today

without the kid in it

*********************

my mom's little paralyzed dog
is almost back up

he can take a few steps
and get his hind up

we hope he'll get back to normal
but it's taking a long time

**********************

the strangeness around here
exceeds expectations sometimes

yesterday I watched Wade, Mercy
and Little Dude
dancing

picture this:
there's an electronic gerbil here
that sings
"Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting"

don't ask why I have that

so that's playing on the counter
Wade has the flashlight
and is dancing around while Mercy
and LD go crazy over the beam of light

and Wade starts singing
"Little Dude was Kung Fu Fighting"
"His paws were fast as lightning!"

shaking my head
I'm not crazy
just the people around me

*********************

I had a birthday

I'm 30 again
for the sixth time

I woke up to Wade falling out of bed
running outside and yelling
"You *&$%$*@*!! "

the horses broke off the water spigot
and we had a geyser

Happy Birthday to me!!

********************

I put a new song at the top of the list
that embodies everything I'm about

Justin Moore's
"Small Town USA"

sigh
it's what life is about

My "People Are Crazy" song is
a broken link right now
bummer

but we were listening to it at work
and as it ended I was washing my hands
and I said to my boss
"I believe that's the perfect country-western song"

and he said
"Except it doesn't say anything about Mama"

and I said
"or prison"

and together we said
"or trains"

and we concluded it was not the
perfect country-western song

that honor will forever go to
David Allen Coe
and
"You Never Even Call Me By My Name"

**************

Wade took Mercy to practice barrels
the other day at Grandma's house

they asked if I would go
but I opted to have some quiet time

he comes back and says

"I grew 10 new gray hairs"

apparently she thinks she's a speed demon now
and her horse is working real well at that

I told him
"That's why I sometimes don't want to ride with her"
she scares me something fierce

he said the neighbors were on their porch
having a laugh at Wade barking orders
"You STOP that horse right here!
MERCY!
Slow down!!"

*********************

Ok
here's the part where you'll think
I'm nuts

Wade and I saw the Phoenix Lights

we officially saw UFOs
on Tues and Weds night out in the desert

lights where there should be no lights
and lights moving like they shouldn't

first night we saw 20-30 of them
I thought it was a new subdivision
and then they were gone...

next night we saw 4
farther away
doing bizarre patterns
and behavior

after an hour
they left too

I started looking on Youtube
and I found the closest video of the same thing

and looking around
for the past few years
these have been sighted all over the world
and there's video of them
even in the daylight

so I sound like a nut

but we all saw them
and one of our shoeing clients
he saw them too

so here's my question

have y'all seen these??
or something that you just can't explain?

I'm not crazy

I keep telling myself that...

Pass the Bubble Wrap, please

remember my horse Kat
with the huge hock?

we're still treating that with Surpass
and it's still big

but I'm beginning to think this horse
is just accident prone

there's that big hock
with medicine on it

and Wade tells me yesterday morning
"take a look at Kat's other leg"

and there's this

someone please tell me how she manages this

there's not much around here that she
could possibly do this on

I've looked all over

I thought the wheelbarrow
but it was put away

and then the bench out front
but no
it was unmoved

we have yet to figure it out

not only that leg
but the bad hock has scrapes
down the outside of the cannon bone

so what in the heck did she tangle with??

we were here all night
and heard nothing...

and nothing is amiss

meanwhile
does anyone know if
they make 5 x 30 ft rolls of bubblewrap?

I hate to have put this horse in a tiny pen
and can you imagine what she'd do in there?

UGH!


but in better news
Wade is still hard at work on his project

there will be stalls and fence shortly
but we had to move his heel horse under
some shade quick

anything over 100 degrees and
the horse breaks out in hives

and here's your token Little Dude pic

he's a man of muscle

Elvis the camel, wild burros and a catfish. Normal day.

Here's a shot of what
Jack did when he kicked my arm
the other day

dang that donkey

so in order for us to go to
that gymkhana yesterday
we had to bump 6 horses on
our schedule

which means on our one day off
we worked
but there were benefits

like Elvis here

He loves Mercy
he loves anyone actually
he's quite friendly

get a load of the video

and on our way back
we stopped at the lake to fish
of course

and we picked a spot known to have
lots of wild burros nearby

there's 5 burros in this picture
can you see them?
me neither

can you see them now?
no

there they are!

we stalked the wild burros

they were well aware of us

this jack was guarding the herd above

he did not like us
and he snorted to let us know that

then he rounded his girls up

and took them away

in the video below
they're heading for the brush
and off to the left is another jack
coming thru the brush to chase them

running up the hill

and a look back to where Wade is still fishing
off the point of that big rock on the left

so we meandered back
and dropped out lines back in

lo and behold
I caught a catfish!

a little one
about 7-8 inches long
with my fancy worm and bobber rig
A catfish!

Fierce Family Competition

This is a long, misc kind of post

first
here's a video to warm any mother's heart

she's such a little cowgirl

the next day I saddled up to ride with her
out in the desert
I wanted a picture to prove I'm setting a good example
by wearing a helmet

Mercy just wants to get going

and go we did
I let her push the limits
and lope in certain open sandy areas

we're loping along
her ahead of me as always
and I watch the classic thing happen

horse goes right
rider goes left
in front of this line of bushes

I think Mercy thought her horse was
going thru it
and the horse didn't agree

needless to say
Mercy parted from her saddle
and was out of control
in my parental totally biased opinion

and my heart quit beating

and I shouted
"Pull up, pull up"
and she did
and she landed her butt back in the saddle

and calmly walked her horse around to me

and me and my legs of jello got off
walked up and said
"Are you ok?"

and she looks at me like I'm crazy
and says
"I'm fine, Mama. Can we lope some more?"

I'm about ready to faint

I said NO
our riding time is up
and we are walking back

she wasn't happy
and she rode right off
like nothing ever happened
my arms and legs were rubber for 2 whole hours
I swear

this riding with the child may do me in...

anyway
after all this excitement
I decide I could take some more

so I persuaded Grandma to help me trim Jack
Jack is an ordeal. Can you tell?

he really is horrible

you always end up bleeding
he never has
but Wade and I get something
every single time

so you know
I've been trying to get to Jack's back feet
for the last month

and something always comes up
so whatever
I'll do it myself
It sucked
Grandma did a great job
Mercy took this fine picture
and I got away with only a bloody thumb
and a beautiful bruise on the back of my arm
where he kicked me
despite the ropes

he is SO ornery about those back feet



so I'm trying out some new meds for Kat's hock
We'll see if it works
one week from now I'll take the same picture
and see if there's a difference

it's dang big though, isn't it?


Wade caught me cooking
welcome to my kitchen
I use it

and this evening we attended the local
saddle club gymkhana buckle series

this is the first in 4 gymkhanas

we were having a fine warmup
when all of the sudden
right in front of Mercy and Wade
and me too, but I was off to one side

this girl's horse blows up big time
gave her a serious bronc ride
bucked her forward
then sideways
and she's half out of the saddle
it rears up
she's clawing for all she can get
and after a series of repeat ducks and dives
she gets solid in the saddle again
and we all applauded
everyone

it was quite the show
I tell you

she really cowgirled up

I'm pretty sure I would have been
on the ground

she rode the whole gymkhana too
without another incident


Mercy waiting impatiently for her turn

going down the line on the poles

which she just learned
and had two practice runs before this one

she did fantastic
a perfect pattern

of which I have no pictures
because I couldn't take my eyes off her

but I caught her coming home


then we got into the competition
between Wade and I

we videoed the poles
but not anything else
as it got too dark to do that

Here's Wade doing poles on Olga
and bear in mind
none of us practice this at home

they did good
ran a 30
and took second place

here's Monte and I doing it

we ran a 29 and took first

but then it gets tricky
cause the flag race is next
then they take the buckets off the barrels
and run barrels last

it was so dark
there's no pics or video of that

Mercy started it out
and again
she did it perfectly

that horse is worth her weight in gold
honey, can I borrow your horse?

Wade went next
and Olga boogered a bit as the flag
waved in the breeze right as they came up
but he still ran an 18
taking second

then I went
and I know how this goes with Monte
he always boogers

and he did again
first at the boys on the left
who were arena crew
and then he saw the flag waving on the right
and had himself a heart attack
and I dug my heel in and made him get over it
but we ran a 38
and that placed us 6th or 8th or something

but I also know if I practice at home
he does it no problem

he just thinks when he goes in
and sees those barrels
it's time to run barrels
this flag race really mixes it up for him
and I think it's fantastic to do that

we will be practicing at home again

so then we ran barrels
to Monte's great relief

Mercy went first and did it perfectly
a time of 52
trotting and then loping home

and I want to insert here
the importance of learning your patterns
before trying to go fast..

I saw so many trainwrecks out there
both kids and adults
who either didn't know the pattern
or tried to go WAY too fast
and it's just not pretty

I love to see kids and adults take it slow
and do it right

Wade ran next
he did really well on Olga
who has trouble turning on those pigeon toes
Wade compensates for that
and made out with a 23
for second place

I ran Monte
who let me just sit back on turns 2 and 3
I love my horse

and we turned in a 22 to win it

like I said
we had competition
but steady and consistent wins it
it doesn't have to be smokin fast


At the end of the night
overall

Mercy takes first for her age group

and guess what?

Wade won it overall for the adults
I took second

5 points for first place per event
4 points for second

so his 3 second places trumps my
2 firsts and 6th place

how about that?!

so now
you know there's some serious
competition happening

be interesting to see how this series plays out...

I will have those back feet. Oh yes I will.

Here I said earlier I wouldn't post for a week
but look at me
twice in one day

I was able to get out of work early
and for the first time in weeks
I felt like I had my "A Game" on

so I finally accomplished something important

ahhh HA!!!

I've been fooling around with these back feet
for so dang long
because it's been a big dangerous issue

just getting into the back half of this horse
has been a trial

inch by blessed inch
I've worked my way into it

and this 10 second video will show you why
I've been taking so long


she still has that little kicking issue, you see?

and me personally
I am. not. putting my face down there
until we work this out


not only do I want the foot
I want it RELAXED
not tucked up under her belly
nice try Sugarfoot

I want to pull it forward
and a little to the side
be careful of that
too much pulling to the side will injure a stifle
and straight back

much as a farrier would

I want to do all this with a rope
before I put my hand down there

I do not want to just "pick it up"

I want it nice

Having been kicked in the head several times now

I know - that statement explains so much about me

I want to be DANG SURE it's going to be ok

and we finally got there today



not without a few "moments" and
a half cow kick

lots of praise
lots of carrots
and tomorrow we do the other side

then we do this
EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
I step in that pen

until it's good and solid


you saw that she wore no halter

she is free to leave me at any time
and she did several times
but she came back

you don't need a halter and rope
to achieve this

in fact I prefer not to have one
just gets in my way

A change is coming

After my Internet went down
AGAIN
last night
I had a hissy fit

I decided to make some changes in this life

spend some more time ON horses
less time blogging
and more days getting out there
and traveling

we intend to do more barrel racing
and roping

so excuse me while my posts get sporadic
and we get some horses in shape

Since I've been rising early the past week
I decided to keep up with it today
and get some horses rode

you know
with a 5 year old child
that is easier said than done

first thing today she says
"I want to ride Olga"

well....

I let her
by herself
in the yard

Olga
is a super cute little mare
she'd be all that
if she wasn't pigeon toed

if she had straight legs... she could do it all
but she can't turn a barrel the way she is

however
she can chase cows
and she's mainly Wade's ranch roping horse
although recently she's been heeling in the arena

needless to say
she's a hothead
and a superlight touch
with both your hands and feet

I generally ride her with one finger on the reins

so there's Mercy

she's stolen Daddy's horse

she's got the one finger thing down too

she rode all around the yard
and then Grandma showed up

petting old swaybacked Mesquite

then Mercy realized I wasn't going to
let her ride out in the desert on Olga

so she wanted Reba
and I got on Olga bareback

Grandma got Monte

and we all headed out

3 generations

riding in the desert

my regular view

the child insists on being in the lead


ride along with us for 10 seconds

this Saguaro points to ?

and we wouldn't forget Sugarfoot

she really is getting used to things around here

The 6 a.m. to midnight shift

I don't even know where to begin

I'm SO tired

every day has been 6 a.m. to midnight
or later

I told you summer time was like that here!

here's a smidge of what I've been doing

I've been working full time days at the vet's
covering for co-workers that I owe
when they covered for me while I was sick

speaking of which
we're still not well here

and it's been interesting
lots of emergencies
horses with big open leg wounds
dogs with snakebites
a spectacularly large cat abscess
etc. etc.

not boring

there's also a big NBHA barrel race
happening in Vegas
and we watched some of the clients
run barrels live via webcast
in between patients and emergencies

*I don't have confirmation yet*
but I hear local lady Orla Mae
took the senior division
and smoked everyone
*wild applause*

I saw some darn good runs

anyway
I'm also on call
to pick up dead horses

yes
for my favorite local company
Trails End

I'm so fascinated by this business
it's such a niche that totally is needed
and it's a relatively low investment
and not hard physical work

if you don't mind dead animals

I found out recently it is not just horses
there are also cows and pigs to be removed

so I got a call end of work day yesterday
that not only was their main truck down
but now their back up truck is down
with a trailer
and horses to pick up

see down here it's so hot
you need to get to them quick
they cannot sit and decompose for days

so I headed out
Mercy at Grandma's
Wade building a barn
yes
he was busy too

I got to the truck and trailer
realized I needed a 2 and 5/16 ball hitch
I have a 2 inch ball on mine

theirs was Masterlocked on their truck
and no key

so we went and got a hitch
another guy moved the dead truck
I hooked up to the trailer and off we went

I got a crash course that night
I got to back this big ol' trailer
see how it all works
winches and all
drive all over the valley with it
drop it back in Morristown
then back to the dead truck

and at 11:30 last night I was very tensely
towing a big F250 with a chain
20 miles up the road

I didn't see the inside of my house
until 12:30 a.m.

it was a LONG day
and it wasn't even over
those horses had to be disposed of today

and I had to work at the vet's too
and more horses to pick up

I was back up at 6 a.m.

blah blah blah

life is just so busy
I wish I had 36 hours in a day

and my camera has decided to not focus
sometimes

like when I rescued this poor critter tonight
from Maggie

he's in the house under a heat lamp
with some quail eggs Wade brought home
and tomorrow I will climb on top of the tack room
and try to put him back

I hesitate to share this
but what the heck

when I found this bird the welder's kid was here
and he came running over
thinking it was hurt

he said
"We have to put it out of it's misery!
You want me to do it?
I'm really good at pulling the head off birds!!"


omg
color me stunned

he went on to say
"When we go dove hunting, I'm the retriever.
I get the birds and pull their heads off"

ok
I think that actually does happen
but WHOA!!

I was a little freaked out

but otherwise he was perfectly normal
so I told him no
we will put this bird back
tomorrow

kids
...............

meanwhile
this little barn is being worked on

they welded until 11 pm last night
and 10 pm tonight

the frame is done
now we have to put the tin roof on tomorrow
we wanted to work on it tonight
but we're both toast

behold

this is the face of TIRED
whupped

and while all that doesn't seem like so much
most people know that in between all this
there is laundry to do
floors to clean
poop to pick up
horses to ride
horses to shoe
good heavens I need to get to my own BAD
meals to cook
checkbooks to balance
did I make the truck payment?
what day is today?
hay and grain to pick up
grocery shopping
etc etc etc

I shall return
when we get some more stuff done!

I'm hopelessly out of focus

Perhaps it's time for a new camera

most everything I caught tonight
just came out fuzzy

but then again
I am a whirlwind at times...

Sugarfoot wonders

"Why the heck are you flashing things at me?"

the child - in perpetual motion

Wade fooling around on his heel horse

then he came over and swung the rope over
the round pen and Sugarfoot
which made her do this

we were both happily surprised
that she held her ground and held it together
but she didn't like it one bit

one last ride before full dark

A quick note

It's a good thing I type fast
at 11 pm it may not be accurate
but you get the idea

*enjoy the music here*
they finally got
"People Are Crazy"
and a better song could not be written

all has been super duper busy here
extra hours at work
Wade doing 12 hr days
the child home for the summer
multiple projects going on

I wanted to update on Sugarfoot
but I have no pictures
because I've simply been too busy
to even carry a camera

dinner gets served at 9 pm or later
every single night
and we're out cutting pipe
digging holes
and doing misc stuff
all when we get done with "work"

in my "spare" time I get in the round pen
with Sugarfoot

I really make the effort to at least
spend 5 minutes doing the "little stuff"

I'm still working on the back feet
and I can "grab" her leg with the
stick/string
and then touch the legs all the way down
without her leaving me
and with no halter
both sides

but

I have yet to put my hand down there

and

I keep going back over the beginner stuff
like tonight
when I fed her grain out of her bucket
held in my arms
and I moved to the off side

she refused at first to eat that way
and she insisted on me being on her right side
and I in turn insisted on being on the off side

6 full circles later
3 snorting and blowing away from me moments
much leaning away, licking and chewing
and she finally gave in and saw it my way

that grain is very tasty stuff

so we keep going back over things
we already know
to make sure she still knows

and we're still riding the top rails

and it's still a big deal
me being above her

there is a long way to go on that issue

I get to do a little bit each day
whatever issue I choose at that moment

and sometimes we just work on
being friendly

now that's getting better

tonight she actually walked up
to Mercy
and took carrots while I watched carefully

I trust them both enough at this point
to let this happen

Sugarfoot's manners are good
she's learned what space is all about
and she takes carrots gently
without biting your fingers off

meanwhile the old horse Mesquite
poked his head over the gate
begging pitifully

you know he got carrots too

so we continue on around here

doing it all and never quite getting it all done

more to come soon...