Eat my dust, Mom!

Pony was pretty spunky last night! I think he's getting tired of me chasing him off, sometimes I have to hide behind a jump standard so he doesn't squash me. I know he wouldn't mean to, but I know that it "could" happen. So even though I provoke the behavior, I do have some safety per cautions:-) I think he enjoys our play times, but yesterday he ran around screaming his head off :-o


He's been begging me to let him grow his mane long, so I've let him, at least for a little while ;-)

Sometimes he can move so "poetically" across the ground and look so round, soft and balanced.





And then other times it's that short, choppy, dragg'n my toes, unbalanced look. He never can change direction and swap leads and get the back half, never, even when he was in work. We never made it far enough in our dressage to worry about swapping leads so I didn't dwell on it.

Here Less is "cutting" imaginary cows (he must have seen your post cdncwgrl!)

actually he's refusing this huge fence ahead of him

Limo does Ballet

Just because I put her in a "girly" outfit doesn't mean she's gonna act like one :-)

this was a combined effort routine...

Doggie Playtime...

Honey combs big, ya ya ya...she loves her HC and as you can see in the video she loves to shove it on everyone...

I love Limo's look of defeat...

My turkey baster idea was a flop...

I like to make the girls Kong treats that I can freeze to give them hours of enjoyment- actually they only last 30 minutes are so. When I leave for work I give them each one and by the time I get to work and check Limo Cam they both have finished with them or close to it. The frozen ones give them at least an extra 10 mins-15 mins.

I mix in plain yogurt, peanut-butter, some soaked kibble (EVO) and some dog treat dust (I always empty the crumbs into a little container to save for Kongs) . I have a can of tomato paste too to add to it.
I stop of up the little Kong hole with a Puperoni or something similar, they really need to invent an eatable plug to go with these Kongs....

So then came my bright idea so I thought. I would make it all up in a bowl and make it liquidity and pastey and then I would suck it out with a turkey baster and all it's contents would be transferred into the Kong. :-( It didn't work. It would only suck up a little bit at a time and then some of the kibble would get clogged in the hole. I even cut the tip of the t. baster off so the opening would be bigger and that didn't work either. I had to resort back to making it a bit thicker and just sliding it in with a butter knife.

So what other Kong mixtures can I make up for them to try?

Pony Playtime

Less can be pretty playful in the turnout. He prances around and tests to see if I'm going to chase him off:-) and he usually has a mouthful of grass while doing every bit of it. You can see at least one blade of grass in almost every shot, LOL. I want to teach him to rear and buck on command :-p not really. I keep sugar cubes in my left pocket and dog treats in my right.

here I'm teaching him to bunny hop.

but he wanted to do his impression of a fighting stallion instead...

he jumped some poles:-)

We're Back...

Much to Laura P.'s delight we have returned home and have Limo and the Nut back in our possession. I was surprised to hear such a good report on Lil Ms. Limo, apparently she was an angel:-o Laura said she'd even keep her! Limo was a good deer chaser and farm companion to Ken, our farm manager. Ken even let Limo ride in the seat next to him on the mule when he went to spread manure- she is a pretty good girl when she wants to be... but I was not at all shocked at how bad the Nut was. She cried and bit at the crate and kennel fencing the whole time. And to make matters ever worse for Laura, was P'Nut had to be leash walked because last Saturday she was running through the horse pasture, chasing the geese and flipped when she hit a ditch- I missed the action, but Laura said she tumbled head over feet...she got right up and ran back to us, then proceeded to jump in the lake and swim after the geese. So really I thought she was fine. But by the next day she was limping and a bit swollen in her ankle so Monday before we left I dropped P'nut off at the vet to get an X-ray. As the vet's office cat strolled in and hopped up on the desk, I told the receptionist that Peanut is NOT cat safe, and she would grab a cat in a heartbeat. Nut never saw the cat hop on the desk because she was starring too intently at the little kitty that was in a cage up for adoption...Again as I handed the Nut off I told her she is not cat safe... Laura picked P'nut up around 1pm. I think all of the vet staff was very relieved. Peanut wailed the whole time and even cut her eye because she had her face so pressed up against the cage trying to reach the office cats. Apparently there are 2 cats and despite my warnings she managed to grab both cats :-o Both cats are fine and I don't know the whole story, but I am miffed that they didn't listen to me and it happened twice! $220 and 2 grabbed cats later Peanut's leg was just bruised and a bit strained...nothing serious.

It's good to be home again and be with the "kids". Less has been extra sweet lately.

Wipe Out(s)

That is Matt standing out in the waves. I took this pic from our balcony, we stayed at a really nice condo in Panama City Beach called Aqua. We lucked out with the weather and got in a lot of beach time. We have a little red raft that we take out in the waves. I have a bad issue about touching the bottom of the ocean with my feets so even if I'm in 2 ft of water I want to be on that raft:-) I rode in some sweet waves, but I also had my share of wipe outs :-o I was riding this one wave in on the trusty red raft and the wave just dropped away and I fell forward and got the raft rope around my neck, Matt had to rescue me, but of course he was laughing at me :-x I have the hardest time getting up and out of the water before I get pounded by more waves:-/

So after a day of swimming Matt found this lil guy in his swimsuit... what the heck is it?? We found alot of them when we walked the beach. It's just a clear blob.

We didn't really get any good pics... we were lazy about bringing the camera with us everywhere this time. We ate a ton of seafood and I had my fair share of Margaritas of all flavors:-p

Withdrawal

So it's finally sunk in that I don't and won't be riding Lester anymore. Really sunk in. It's been a tough 2 weeks at work and not being able to ride him and release some stress was extra tough. Heck I only got to see him twice last week! But I stand by my decision, I know it's the right one.

It's weird how little pieces of the Lester "puzzle" have seemed to come together.

We've changed farriers yet again. But this time we are going with the flow and are going to use the barn's regular farrier. This will make life easier on everyone, but I will miss shoeing time with Ronnie a lot though, he is such a character and was our farrier for over 15 years (he used to shoe my mare too). He taught me so many new words like "faheater" and "shawr" :-) He never let me down and was always reachable. I'm going to really miss seeing him every month:-( I think Lester will too.

So having a new farrier shoe Lester this last time was telling. He was no better and no worse than if Ronnie had done him. The "issues" have never been his feet and the way he had to be shod, I think it's been in his back this whole time.

Less has always had this little white "bird dropping" looking spot on his back. You can see it in the pic below. You know how places of injury can grow back with white hair... it just kinda makes me wonder now.

They're even now

At least I hope. Tonight Matt found a "nick" and some missing hair on Limo's shoulder... The rough play can get out of hand sometimes and I'm having to referee more, course Limo always goes back in for more. Though Peanut did here's during play and last month Limo wasn't playing when she latched on to Peanut's nose...This past Saturday I saw the friend that had Peanut in her adoption kennel sometime before sending her up to SEGA for us to place. I asked her if she knew any Peanut stories. I'll preface this by saying I can see exactly why the trainer would say this: Peanut wasn't a favorite in her trainer's kennel. She was unruly with the other dogs, cage biter and wouldn't jump in a top crate- she had to live on the bottom level with the boys. After Peanut's racing career which was quite good even though it was a low end track the trainer recommended to the owner that Peanut not be placed in a home as a pet. But the owner insisted that Peanut get adopted out. When the trainer handed Peanut to my friend she apologized for sending her such a bad dog. The trainer's rule of thumb was if she wouldn't want the greyhound as a pet herself then she tried not to place them. I do agree with her, there are far too many good ones that have NO issues or problems that still get put to sleep all the time. While Peanut has seemingly fit into the pet life style, the next "bad" or "crazy" one that a trainer is forced to place might not have such a happy ending.