Sick and Tired

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Ever felt that way?

I haven't had the energy to blog, as I've been suffering from a terrible cough that has deprived me of sleep for 5 weeks.

I think I'm getting better after 3 trips to the doctor, chest Xray, oral steroids, and inhaled steroids (none of which worked). I'm being treated for allergies now, which may very well be the culprit. I started allergy meds yesterday and today I can go a whole 5 minutes without coughing, which is a HUGE improvement. I'm hoping to get a couple good nights sleep and have energy for the weekend because I have big plans.

Misty, Marley and I will be road tripping to attend a horsemanship clinic this weekend. I'm planning to ride Misty in the clinic. Marley is coming along as her travel companion and roommate.

Truck and trailer have been checked and are road ready. This will be our biggest adventure yet. Hopefully I will regain my strength by the weekend if the allergy meds continue to help and I get some much needed sleep.

Enjoy your equine friends and Misty, Marley and I will catch up on our posting next week.

Misty's Monday Muse

A mean & nasty horse fly bit my pony Marley on the face and made him bleed. If I'd been there I would have pounded that fly into the ground without first putting a point on its head.

Despite the vile attack, Marley is still the more noble creature.


"A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still."
--- Samuel Johnson

Not all horse flies are bad however. We dig the groovy hoof stompin' sound of The Horse Flies below.

Gettin' Hay...

....while the gettin' is good.

This year we were fortunate to get our hay fresh from the farmer's field. Last year we got skunked at the first cutting due to loss from rain damage to the farmer's stack. Then he limited the number we could buy at his second cutting because he had more clients than hay. But this was a good year and he let us have all we could take. So we made 2 trips out to the country to fetch hay.

The farmer and his hands were still baling and stacking when we arrived at the field. They were hustling to beat the weather.

We've had a lot of heavy afternoon Thunderstorms this Spring. The farmers wife told me the night before, while she was working the baler, she was praying that the rain would miss them. It poured buckets that evening and came within 5 miles of their field, but they were spared. Which meant we were able to pick up nice, dry bales the next day.

My husband secures the load on the trailer.

Back at the barn, the hay is unloaded and lifted to the loft.

We're still perfecting our form, but we've got it down pretty good now. We stair-step the bales on the truck & trailer and toss them up to the loft. When we get to the lower layers on the trailer, we use a hoist my husband rigged up. It's slow and steady, but gets the job done and everyone can catch their breath.

Ever watchful, Miss Misty supervises Miss K.


Hey Girlie, open my door and I'll taste...er...I'll help you with that hay bale.

It's a good feeling at the beginning of summer to know we can feed the horses through the winter.

Thank you to family and friends for all your hard work and help.

Note: We're very careful to store dry bales in the loft and we don't stack them tightly up there. We stack just 4 layers high and leave space between rows of bales to allow air flow. You want to be very cautious of combustion fire when storing hay in a loft.

Misty's Monday Muse - Monsters!

There were monsters in our neighborhood last Saturday evening, on the 4th of July!

MyLady accuses me of seeing invisible monsters sometimes, but these were real. Marley saw them too.

These fiery creatures kept rising from our neighbor's driveway, making loud crackling & hissing noises. They would grow large, then fly away in a big puff of smoke.

Marley and I were trying to eat our dinner inside the barn, but the monsters kept disturbing our dining pleasure. We had to keep leaving our meal to investigate the danger.

"What's going on Misty? Is it time to run?"

You know it's scary when it draws the gluttonous pony away from his food.

I kept a close eye on the monsters, in between bites of hay, to make sure they didn't come our way. After all, I'm a mare and I take my neighborhood watch duties very seriously.

Holiday Trail Ride

Independence Day
in the U.S.A.

This morning Marley and I hit the trail for a holiday ride. My husband and another couple walked the trail while I rode Marley along with them. Marley was relaxed and calm and willing to match his pace to that of the 2 legged walkers. We encountered horses, joggers, dogs, and mountain bikers; Marley took it all in stride. However, we did have some arguments at a couple of really large mud puddles, but we got through them.

It was a good ride considering it was only our 2nd trail ride together, and not in the company of other horses.

We've had a lot of rain lately.

Get a load of this huge mushroom next to my husband's foot.
(Click to enlarge.)

After our ride, I gave Marley a proper bath. This was the first real bath he has had since I purchased him 12 months ago. His previous owners told me he hates to get wet and isn't a good bather. Maybe they bathed him in cold water. I ran warm water out of our garage and he was a good boy for his bath.

All clean and he's ready to go out to pasture. I thought if I put his grazing muzzle on and send him toward the open pasture gate, he'd be too focused on the grass to think about rolling.

What a silly thought.

Approaching the pasture, he seizes his moment and down he goes.

Coated evenly in dirt, he arises.

Now rid of that clean pony feeling, he enters the pasture.

Horses will be horses.

Holiday clip art courtesy of Webweaver's Free Clipart