Marley was all charm and sweetness when we entered him in a parade, dressed in candies and lollipops. The family dressed to match and while I led Marley, Mr. OnceUpon and the kids passed out candy to children along the parade route. It was great family fun.
Pre-parade grooming & primping zone.
Sweet Pony
Lots of people stopped us as we were walking to the staging area, asking "What kind of horse is that?" and "Can my children pet your horse?" Marley was a charmer and his cute, round behind evoked a lot of giggles.
No caption necessary.
The only downside to being in a parade, is that you don't get to watch the parade.
Misty was too busy to post yesterday as promised. She ran out of steam before she could sit down to the computer. That seems to be happening a lot lately. So here is her Monday Muse on Tuesday.
My Summer Vacation by Misty the Percheron
This summer, I went on a road trip to attend a Kathleen Sullivan natural horsemanship clinic in Durango Colorado. Marley came along to keep me company. It was the first long haul we've made in the trailer with My Lady driving. Here I am moments before being loaded into the trailer in my new red shipping boots. They'll never be this clean again. I also had to wear this annoying fly mask so debris wouldn't get into my eyes during the trip with the windows open. Marley had new blue boots, but his weren't as stylin' as mine.
Even horses get new boots.
Breakfast service in the trailer was nice, but breakfast ran out long before we arrived at the ranch in Durango. It took us all day to get there because we had some trouble.
First, after driving for hours, My Lady overshot the exit from the Interstate. As she left the highway to turn around and go back to the missed exit, a highway patrol officer waved her to a stop and informed her that the tack door on the trailer was open. Goodness gracious...how long were we cruising on the Interstate with the tack door open? Fortunately nothing fell out of the trailer. We would have been mortified if we had caused motorists behind us to dodge feed buckets, saddles, a mounting block, a muck bucket, and a manure fork bouncing on the highway.
Next, as we were about to get back onto the Interstate (tack door doubly locked this time), My Lady realized the truck engine was too hot. So we sat on the side of the entrance ramp for an hour to let it cool. Then My Lady looked at the coolant reservoir and was concerned that it was empty so she called US Rider. They were wonderful and sent a nice fellow to our aid who added coolant to the radiator and into the coolant reservoir. It was a very hot day and we think it was "operator error" that caused the overheating. My Lady was driving the old truck too fast (going the speed limit with the A/C on). We still had the toughest part of the drive ahead of us - Laveda Pass and Wolf Creek Pass. We were advised to keep the RPMs around 2,000, turn the heater on to vent the engine, and the nice man with the coolant showed My Lady how to take the truck out of overdrive with just the touch of a button. My Lady felt really dumb. Remember, she's new to this horse hauling activity and doesn't know much about diesel trucks. She knows a lot more now - enough to fill a thimble.
As we started up the first pass, My Lady was nervous and watched the engine temperature and the RPMs very closely. She thought the engine was getting hot again, so we sat on the side of Laveda pass for awhile, just to be safe. We made it over both passes, but could only go 25 mph up Laveda. On Wolf Creek we had to drop down into 1st gear and could only go between 12 and 15 mph on the upside while other cars and trucks zoomed past us. We were jealous of their speed.
Downhill was easier, but had its own challenges, as you can imagine.
The mountain scenery was beautiful. My Lady says she would have enjoyed it if she hadn't been stressed to her wits end and worried about Marley and me because we refused to drink any water during the whole ordeal.
It was all down hill after those mountain passes...pun intended...and we finally arrived at the ranch. My Lady was dehydrated, exhausted, and had a sun burn on her left arm and the left side of her neck. She was a wreck.
Marley and I were shown to our lovely accommodations - a big pen with loafing shed, featuring a lovely view of the mountains, green fields, and a herd of grazing horses. We trotted around, kicked up our heels, had a nice long drink of water, then settled down for dinner. We felt right at home.
The ranch owners were very kind to My Lady, knowing she had just made her first long haul with horses and had encountered some trouble along the way. They parked the trailer for her and had her sit down and have some dinner and a tall glass of ice water before she left for her motel.
The clinic was great. In the morning we did ground work and in the afternoon we worked under saddle. Marley participated too. A beginner student without a horse worked with Marley. I'm happy to report that Marley was a pretty good boy. Oh, he did show her his ornery side and got away from her a few times on the lead line. But he took good care of her under saddle and she did a fine job with him. I was good too, and was especially graceful, for a draft horse, at turning a 360 degree circle, by moving my front end, then back end repeatedly, while ridden under saddle and in the confines of a square made of ground poles.
The trip home was much better. We still had to go slow over the passes and slower than everyone else on the highways, but we made it without incident this time, although the transmission temperature rose well into the yellow warning zone as we approached the summit of Wolf Creek. The truck is in the shop getting a radiator flush and a new thermostat. They found a small leak in the water pump which may have contributed to overheating. But the mechanic said it is not a good truck for hauling horses over mountains. The truck is a pre-PowerStroke F250 and not as hardy as the newer models. We're hoping for a new truck to haul us over the mountains. Until then, Mr. OnceUpon suggests we attend clinics in Kansas or Nebraska.
Take a rocky ride over Wolf Creek Pass with a real trucker.
P.S. We have another busy week planned. We're getting Marley ready for a special activity. Hopefully he'll be a good boy again and we'll have some fun pictures to share.
Today is my stepdaughter's 19th birthday. We took her shopping for a pair of cowgirl boots then out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.
We all left the western wear store with presents.
The girls got boots...
The boys got hats...
Everybody got cheesecake...
I'm a purist when it comes to cheesecake. I like it plain. Dad had dutch apple cheesecake, brother had Snickers bar cheesecake, and the birthday girl had chocolate chip cheesecake. We were all stuffed.
Birthday Girl Boots
OnceUpon's New Boots
P.S. Misty will be musing about last weekend's horsemanship clinic on Monday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I've loved horses all my life and owned several when I was younger. I showed in English Pleasure and Amateur Hunters in my 20s. Now in my 50s, following a long absence of horses, I've rekindled my passion. I have three equines at home - Misty, a Percheron mare, Lyra a mini horse and her daughter, Lola, a mini mule. We're an odd looking group, but we get along great.
