THE LAST YEAR OF NEWS

Clearly we have been busy. Too busy to keep up with a blog .

More has happened than I can remember but an overview from last May to this current June:

We sadly had to say good bye to our beautiful Loki - that was rough - he was only 2 years old, but he had something wrong with his brain. It came on suddenly and we made the decision to let him go.
2 years is a common time for congenital brain defects to show up in dogs. He is sorely missed.

MCH went to Michigan to work on a movie and while he was away I took in a foster GSD, who we named Leroy, and who managed to wiggle into our hearts in the span of 3 days. He was a dump over on Peoria Street, just a block over from our house. Tim came up with the name and he just never left. He is a righteous Coyote chaser and a fierce protector of the house and yard. He also provides Babe a nice respite from Riley. He looks like he might be part Kangaroo :)

Beamer is now Beau. His leg appears to have healed nicely and I can now trail ride him!

We have a new youngster on the ranch - a nice 6 year old gelding Quarterhorse named Catman - he is proving to be a nice little rope horse and he has also gone through Mounted Patrol Training and has been on TV!

My birthday came and went - and when it came it brought 2 Dwarf Nigerian Milking Goats. They are Does and their names are Fiona and Layla. Pictures don't do them justice - they are ridiculous.

I opened my own studio salon with another hairstylist ( who is seriously, tha bomb - ya'll )specializing in Organic color and a low emission environment. We use absolutely no Ammonia, no Formaldehyde, no Lye and no Ammonium Thioglycolate. We are also and art gallery.

We have a Rooster named John Shaft and we are expecting baby birds in about another week or so. The birds have been 100 percent switched over to non GMO feed and I have been approached about selling eggs :) We also got 4 new hens - Heritage French Black Copper Marans - the eggs are out of control and so is John Shaft - Shut Yo Mouth!

Tim has spent the majority of the year in Chicago working on a movie called Divergent which should be out next March. He also did some amazing work on a disaster film called Twista (I think) back in Michigan.

KC came back to us after spending time with some friends who were using her for Mounted Patrol and Rangers. We have decided to keep her home from now on and I'm going to be using her for Mounted Patrol , Sorting and Gymkhana. I might even do a little reining with her since my Sister In Law has gotten into it and I love hanging out with her.

The garden is shaping up - the pallets are impossible - so now they are used as a compost holder. The pallet gardens are only good for about 3 weeks - don't waste your time.My Bamboo wall was a bust - so now I am trying vines and some other things - nothing stinking grows in this yard - the ground is so bad. Slowly, we are amending the soil and turning the yard into something nice.

I also started using Essential Oil therapy on the animals and us humans too. Stay tuned for updates!

Happy Trails!

ITS A NEW DAY IN A NEW YEAR!

Well - 2011 went out with a whimper here at the Flying V . We barely made it past East Coast NYE.
All the better to start 2012 off with a roar.

We had some major happenings here at the ranch today.

Now that the back area with all the horses in it is basically done ( it will never be DONE done) we are starting to focus on the rest of the place. I don't believe that I have ever stated here that our house is a testament to the dangers of using Meth while doing construction. This place is a travesty. Every time we start a project , we unveil absolute madness that is sure to add months and dollars to our original plan.

That being said - MCH tore out the front deck today. The very one I have stepped through on one occasion and tripped on a new loose board on another occasion. Both times I somehow saved myself a faceplant. Just call me grace.

Who said Redwood won't rot

Before 

The demolition bandit

After

In the back I was busy testing  the limits of my newly healed, yet still misshapen and discolored, calf muscle.

I actually had a nice roundpen ride on the Onery Cuss , Poncho. Could have gone any which way, being he has been stuck in his stall and barely ridden for the last 6 months. He was an angel. Figures - when I decide to sell him  - he acts right with me. I have to use him for my FMP Quarterly training because Cisco has been off in the front for the last couple of weeks. Bruised sole I think. Sunday should be interesting.
He got a new haircut - I kind of like him all Mad Max - it suits him. He got a little feather extension today to.

Rocking the Mohawk with some Feathers

I got Dutch out to ride today too. Well - guess who is going on a diet with me? Lord - he is immense. He probably did the last bit of growing, but mostly its fat. I felt like a Munchkin on top of him. I managed about 10 laps before my calf started to speak to me. Lucky him.

Does this saddle make my ass look big?

Um, I'm pretty sure these stirrups are not flattering

Kick kick kick

I swear I'm using my legs, and yes I'm wearing sweats - so!

And last, but not least - I FINALLY got MCH to go for a walk with me after dinner. Had a nice little stroll around the park tonight.

What a great way to start off the New Year!
Oh and before I forget and it loses context, take a look at my neighbors Christmas decorations:

Just a little creepy

A Normal Person Would Have Started Physical Therapy By Now

Yes - truer words have never been spoken. That was said to me on my umpteenth visit to my home away from home : URGENT CARE , where I am on a first name basis with the girls at the front desk.

There is a sign outside that makes me laugh every time I see it - like it is directed at me specifically -

I make sure I only come in right after feeding.

After asking the doctor to define normal, I concurred and was taken straight away to the fabulously friendly Victor to set up all of my appointments.

Victor at Performax Physical Therapy - who is also a great masseuse  

Here is how the leg looked before my team of demons began the process of breaking up the contusion.

That is at 10 weeks. Can you make out the hoof mark?

Here is how it looked after the tiniest demon, Thea, got ahold of me:

Sweet HayZues - I did not sleep until the next session.

So - I have a village of people working on this leg - I have Victor - who makes sure I have enough BioFreeze to get me through the next cold war and books all of my appointments, I have Steve who is responsible for creating the program that sends my fingernails through the cushions, I have Thea  aka Tiny Demon , who has the strongest tiniest fingers in the world and can officially take the title of bringing me past my pain tolerance - which is ridiculously high.

Thea, my tiny demon - who is in fact - just the sweetest thing - which is why it is so surprising she can bring me to my knees!

 I bow to her and respectfully ask for someone else to torture my leg and then there are Jorge and Chad who take turns doing the physical therapy. I feel very special indeed. All I am missing is Rei - who for some reason has not been assigned to me - really I think I need everyone in the building.

Jorge, Steve, Chad and Rei 

Here is what I found out in Physical Therapy : I have a tear in my calf, it was not always there, but by wearing flip flops for the first 10 weeks I tore the muscle above the contusion . Yay me! The one time I felt good enough to ride a horse ? Yeah - I tore it some more. The incessant burning in my leg should have been a clue. Did I mention my ridiculously high pain tolerance?

So - If I'm lucky I might be back on a horse next week - for 10 minute rides. Keep your fingers crossed. One more thing - this place is the best Physical Therapy I have ever gotten. They don't advertise, ya'll. PerformaX Physical Therapy - 818-953-4457 - tell your Doctor you want to go here. I wish I would have known about them when my head met the ground a few years ago.

In other ranch news :

  MCH brought a new horse home yesterday - Beamer.

I spent the first half of today chilling in the ER because I got my hand caught in a dogs mouth whilst breaking up a dog fight. It's not that bad, just have not had a Tetanus shot in about 6 years - and peeps - little known fact - some of the worst Staph infections I have seen are from these little baby bites from dogs that people don't think are a big deal.  My hands are my livelihood.

And then the universe announced all was right with world and put a rainbow over the house. Or maybe Murphy ( as in Murphy's Law) moved down the road and this was the sign

Good times and Happy Trails!!

Hay-Hay-Hay - you say........

Here is my beautiful fantabulous new hay tucked up into it's cozy little bed - I could have cried when I came home to this

We figured out that I have 58 days worth of feed here - plus the trash that I WAS feeding for backup  - which gives me an extra 12 days of feed if I so desire to use it( I'm thinking that the old hay is kinda like Spaghettios or Spam - you eat it if you absolutely have to - in an emergency). By The way - have you ever noticed how similar sounding the second syllable is in Spaghettios to Ghetto? Just sayin'.

Here is the very exciting thing about my new hay - very little shake and the bales stay TOGETHER once you cut the twine. I can not say how close this is to a Religious experience - it has literally been years since I have experienced this. Look for yourself - I have no idea how to use Photoshop :

Seriously - this is Oat Hay. Ask yourself - when is the last time you cut a bale of Oat Hay open and it did not explode all over Hell and Creation? Obviously, I was so in awe I had to whip out my camera and take a photo of possibly the most inane of all inanimate objects.

So - after all this very scientific calculating and oohing an aahing over the GD hay - life goes back to normal. Until I wake up and realize that I left the fan on all GD night and I never took anyones mask off - here is my morning greeting ;

Can you not just hear them saying Good Morning Moron? UGH! Better yet - I am sooo distracted by my faux pas that apparently I forget to latch MPS stall gate. That would be the unflappable Pinto in the Lady Gaga Headgear you see pictured to the right. He was out and about on  a 1/ 2 acre of unsecured horse yard until 3 pm that day - because MCH was in the front of the house with the dogs watching History Channel and our guy who comes everyday without fail at 12pm got a part time job and showed up at 3pm.

Guess what? I now have 55 days of really great feed and mucho DG work to tend to.
AHHH Horses. If I did not love them to the ends of the Earth I might be supporting the black market in Europe. Ok ! Ok! Simmer down - it was a bad joke. I DO Not Support any of that  - no matter how mad I get. But - Bitches - I KNOW you feel me on this.

So one more photo of a horse calling me out on my lack of consideration for their comfort that ill fated morning in August:

See - he was clearly waiting for me to mess up -

Happy trails until next time!

What having a jacked up leg will do for you and other fun facts

8 weeks ago , Monday, my unflappable Mounted Patrol Steed( hereon in MPS),Cisco, got flapped. He's the one laying down. You can see how flappable he is - CLEARLY. It stands to reason that if you spend at least 1/8th of a ride speaking of horse related injuries, you just might have tempted the Fates. All I can say is thank the sweet 8 oz Baby J , that I got in a lovely 5 hour trail ride before it all came crashing to a very interesting end.
Let me say now that this whole shabang was due to the fact that I just had to - and I mean REALLY had to - check my smart ( ha) phone whilst deciding whether I would be crossing the street and going the longer way home( as agreed upon with My Cowboy Husband - MCH ) or ..... staying on the bridle path on the super busy street that doubles as the Indianapolis 500 Speedway 24/7.
I started off strong - getting off my horse before the Elementary School - which was very close to being let out - buses - parents - you know - super horse friendly folks and equipment. I also thought my kneecaps might actually begin to remove themselves from my body if I did not change position from seated to upright. Good Ol Cisco, was doing all the right things - which we have trained incessently for - he was at least 2 feet behind me maybe even 3 feet - head down, dragging his feet. We made it past the school, air brakes, adults running across the street , a loose banner on a fence, 15 screaming children running at the fence alerting me that I had a horse on the end of a lead rope - all good - he was just about sleep walking. I get to the next street - and then my epic fail - my knees hurt - should I go ahead and break my promise to not walk down the raceway or should I cross the street and do what my gut says is the right thing to do  - I think my screaming knees must have been pointed down the raceway while my torso and head were twisted towards the right way- at that moment I decided that I simply must check my text messages and at that same moment the Ginormous Black Schnauzer picked his moment to lunge at the fence forcing my MPS to go into survival mode - kick out and run like Hell - sadly for both of us I still had the lead rope and due to my dog work - I automatically planted and put my lead rope hand to my center of gravity . His head turns - and mid stride the front of his back hoof nails me right in my planted calf. OH MY GAWD - I have no words - except for whatever escaped my potty mouth at the exact moment of impact. I made it to the moment in life where I am truly grateful for my Russian side - big and strong like Ox.
Soooo - I now have the thought that he may have broken my leg, the bridle is on the ground under prancing hooves, my oh so important phone is still in my free hand ( really?)and I'm wondering if MCH is going to hear his phone because he was planning on doing dirt work with the Bobcat. The choice is now clear - thank you FATES - that I will be heading home via the Raceway. Mind you, Ginormous rude dog is absolutely rabid behind his fence, the trash truck is coming and I still have to either try to get up on my massive horse who is flapped quite badly by now, or put weight on the offending limb.  I man up and put weight on the leg, delighted that it is clearly not broken and he did not get me in the joint. All of this in probably a 10 second or less span -feeling like a month of Sundays. I hoof it ( ha ha) down the road, pleased with my progress - except that my MPS is very needy now and will not remember that he is supposed to be 3 feet or more behind me. I'm 4 houses away from home - and dontcha know - there is a loose Pit Bull who is dodging everything until she lays eyes on my horse - locked and loaded - could care less about the cars - people - just wants some horse flesh - yay...... I pull out my pepper spray... place myself in front of my jacked up horse - and a kind hearted pick up truck drives in front of her, giving me enough time to ..... wait for it........... JOGGGGG home.
Good times. We make it. I can barely think straight at this point. MCH takes my horse away from me and I go into the house and Elevate and Ice - which I have been doing for the last 8 weeks and am currently doing now.
It is much better - I got really lucky.
So here is what my leg has forced me to learn - in lieu of riding or doing ground work, I groom and do low impact things like clicker training and nightly rotation turn outs. Alfalfa - while never my feed of choice - is used as a treat or to supplement wretched Oat Hay. Ever handled a hot horse in clogs or flip flops? I do not recommend it.
Yesterday was my first day on horse back - I have been able to handle doing ground work in the round pen for the last week while wearing tennis shoes. Yesterday - I wore boots. Oh - I did wear boots about 3 weeks ago for my wedding reception and I danced too - I also was out of commission for the following week and went to Urgent Care. Nice.
What I learned however, is that I was making much too big movements when doing groundwork prior to this - lots of acting up in the round pen - my leg has forced me to slow down and really concentrate - hence - the worst offenders - are surprisingly docile and willing to work. My saddle caused me a great deal of pain in the calf yesterday - so I dropped my stirrups for comfort and was surprised by the fact that my MPS followed my cues willingly. Today I used my Barefoot Cheyenne - pretty much a really fancy bareback pad - switched out the endurance stirrups for a pair of cutting stirrups and I had one of the nicest round pen sessions on him in forever.
I have very high hopes for my onery cuss Poncho now. I was pretty sure it was me - and now I know for a fact it was me.
Til next time - Happy Trails