Tuesday 24 January 2012

When I first came to the US I had been around horses on and off most of my life but I had never been around stallions and foals. At my late husband's insistance I put many foals on the ground but it was a constant agravation to him that I would not let my babies go to just anyone. He used to say that it was easier to adopt a baby than buy a horse from me!!!! This is for very good reason. The horse industry has been on the decline for almost as long as I have been here and the risk of one of my horses ending up in a slaughter house was just too much for me to bear. This is part of the reason that I have 12 in my barn still. I worry and wonder about every single horse that I have parted with, it is overwhelming sometimes. Horse advocacy from a slaughter perspective and from the Mustang perspective have become a huge part of my life. I do not like what I am seeing and I am passionate about stopping both attrocities. Some of my friends may not see things from the same perspetive as I do and I would never hold that against them, and I hope they feel the same way, but I also hope that I can educate everyone who follows my blog or FB and hopefully show them why I feel the way I do. I used to be one of those "slaughter is a necessary evil" but I have changed my way of thinking in a big way. I wont go into it all here today but I intend to try to tell the story of how I changed my view at a later date.

Todays picture is of three of the babies that I bred in 2005, the two paints (spotted) are still in my barn and the filly in the center was sold to an employee of a friend of mine. I will be following up on her soon to see how she is doing and I hope she is still in the wonderful home that she was when I sold her.

Lori

Saturday 21 January 2012

A quickie for today, here is a pic taken this past summer with 5 of my brood in my "pasture" which is severely lacking in grass!!! From L-R : Wiggle (my 7 year old bottle baby) Gee (my 8 year old TB mare), Goldie (my beautiful 4 year old golden palomino and I mean awesome golden color when she is not so dirty), Kooter (19 year old momma of Goldie) and April (grand-daughter of Kooter 11 years old).

Bitterly cold today but sun shining and horses got out for a few hours. They had a ball and bucked and played after a few days cooped up in their stalls. It has been so muddy this year and we are heading for more mild weather after tomorrow. It has just been crazy.

Have a happy Sunday!!

Lori

A Tribute to My Friend Michelle Cowgill

This is one of my favorite photos of Michelle who passed away suddenly on 9 October 2011. She would have been 55 today and her passing has left a huge hole in my heart and my friends Judy and Susan. She is pictured here riding the love of her life, Dosie. This is the horse that gave her the confidence and courage to end a 25 year abusive marriage and start a new life for her and her daughter. She was just finding happiness after her divorce and losing her job when she was taken from us. Dosie loved her as much as we did. He was my breeding stallion for 8 years when I gave him to Michelle. He had never been "my" horse, he tolerated me and he only ever had eyes for Michelle and she felt the same way about him.

Michelle was an incredible woman and loved her children, grandkids and her horse unconditionally and totally. We didnt always see eye to eye but our friendship was solid and we always got past our differences which didn't happen often. She shared her hopes and dreams with me and I am just so saddened that she could not realize them.

I will miss you my friend. Her favorite song was Cowgirls Dont Cry which contains the lyrics "Ride Baby Ride" so that is what I wish for her, until we meet again.

Lori

Tuesday 17 January 2012

The wonder of nature. This was an ice crystal formation on my living rooom window a few days ago when I woke up. It had been incredibly cold and the windows are double glazed. A bit of condensation gets inbetween the panes of glass and when it is really cold these patterns form. It is about 12 - 18 inches high. I got some really awesome ones a few years ago with the sunrise outside http://prophotobylori.blogspot.com/2008/01/2nd-january-2007-2nd-post.html there are a few more which I posted that month if you care to delve into my older posts.

Well it was in the 50s this morning and by this evening had dropped to freezing. We had torrential rain last night and this morning and will be getting snow and sleet tonight and for the next few days, then back into the 50s by the weekend. It has been crazy and I and the horses are sick of the mud to say the least. Nothing worse than muddy clay!

Okay that is my lot for tonight.

Lori

Sunday 15 January 2012

A little swan family taken quite a few years ago. I got some really nice shots that day of them.

Spent the day (very cold) cleaning stalls. Put the horses out but as predicted because of the rough frozen ground they were not too crazy about giving me a show so I didnt get any shots. They did enjoy the sunshine even if it was around freezing all day, but were very glad to come back in to their nice clean stalls and their dinner. Hopefully the weather will be more conducive to photography soon. We are going to be fluctuating temp wise for the next 8 days and are expecting lots of mud to deal with once again. Ugh!!!

Lori

Saturday 14 January 2012

Caught this little family this past summer. It has been so cold the past few days just needed something warm to look at LOL. Hopefully will get the horses out tomorrow for the first time in 3 days and then it will be a stable cleaning marathon (12 stalls!!). Temps will be a bit above freezing which will feel like a heatwave. Maybe the horses will give me a show, although the ground is so rough from the muddy conditions which have now frozen, and normally they are pretty careful when they are walking over the uneven frozen ground. If not I wil try to get some new pictures.

Lori

Friday 13 January 2012

This is a favorite pic of mine, my bottle baby taken quite a few years back. Think she was 2 years old here. I call her Wiggle Monster but her name is DBD Indian Dreamaker
Wow I said we were gonna pay for our mild weather and we sure are, wind chills of -7F today!!! To think that 2 days ago I was walking around in a T-shirt! Frozen buckets, frozen stables (poop included), snow banks because we have 30 mph winds, frozen water troughs and frozen hoses!!! Yay you gotta love it LOL. Horses tucked in safe and sound today again, just dreading the clean up when I can get into the stables again. Consider, each horse produces about 40-60 lbs of poop a day and multiply that by 19 each day, something to look forward to!!

Lori

Thursday 12 January 2012

It has been a wild winter, very mild with pretty awesome weather up until today. Mud has been dreadful but toss up between the snow cold and mud hmmmm .... which one to choose LOL. At midday today we saw the temps start plummeting, has been in the 50sF for a while now and right now I think it is about 25 (well below freezing) blowing a gale and snowing!!! Quite a drop in the space of 24 hours. Our wind chill tonight is going to be 0F and out high tomorrow 21F!!!

Horses all tucked into their stables, becomes a real pain to keep 12 stalls clean and then 7 more at my friends' whose horses I care for too. Okay I will quit complaining!!

Todays pics were taken this past summer when I first put Herbie out with the rest of the herd. I had him gelded (ouch!!) and he could become a horse again instead of leading the solitary life of a stallion. This is my last foal that I will breed, he is 3 years old in June and as laid back as his daddy.

Celebrated my birthday yesterday, time flies!!

Lori

Tuesday 10th January 2012

I seem to have an affinity for attracting waifs and strays!! A few months ago I noticed a female cat at a neighbors property heavily pregnant. She then went on to obviously have her kittens and I saw her from time to time and about three weeks ago I saw one of her kittens with her, a gorgeous white kitten with cream ears, tail and paws!! Then nothing until she appeared in my barn a week ago with two kittens, an all ginger one (seen right below) and one with beautiful siamese markings. Since then there has been coming and going, different kittens appearing and disappearing and today I had these three in the barn along with the white with cream points, but that one disappeared again leaving just these 3. They are pretty scared of me right now but are getting better, such fun to watch them.

They love their green mice and like to "kill"them!!! This little calico has a bent ear, so cute.
Here is one of the original and the most friendly of the kittens, he is quite brave.
I have had as many as 12 cats in the barn and was down to the final 3 when this little family appeared, if there are in fact 5 kittens I will have to do fund raising to get them all fixed!!! My oldest is nearly 11 years old, he was born shortly after I came to the USA.

Well that is all for today.

Lori

9 January 2012 - Monday

A quiet day, weather is still really awesome, but will change on Wednesday night, dreading it LOL.

Not much else to report, today's pic is of me and my bottle baby Wiggle. This is the pic I use on Facebook as my profile pic but it is a favorite of mine.

Lori

8 January 2012 - Sunday

I know, it has been a while!! Life has had many many bumps over the past nearly 3 years since Larry passed. Most of it has been traumatic and stressful but I am hoping that I am on my way to recovery. I have many people to thank and to apologize to, people who have never given up on me despite my silence. I will be contacting them all in person soon.

So as a start here are a few pics taken today. I have hardly touched my camera in the past 3 years, it will be good to get back to it.

We have had an extremely mild winter so far this year, so much so that my flowering bushes are starting to bud and flower!! I know we are going to pay with some extremely cold weather soon, probably going to start on Wednesday judging from the weather forecasts , so I really hope it does not kill these bushes. The one above is my lilac bush and the one below a wild rose bush.
Of course to go with the mild weather, we have tonnes of mud to deal with. Clay is terrible to deal with when there is a lot of moisture. The horses are happy to be out in the sunshine but not too happy about having to plod through the mud to get in and out of the field.
Not a blade of grass in sight!!
The horses are all doing well. I am looking forward to starting this project again. Happy New Year to everyone, here's to a wonderful 2012!

Lori