Need = Motivation

Marin spent some time with Julie Miller, tonight, practicing barrels, poles, keyhole, loping methods, and all sorts of other fun horsemanship skills. Audra did NOT... much to her dismay... weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth type of dismay! When we came back to pick Marin up from Julie's, Audra was able to ride Buck for a few minutes, but he was so ready to be done working that he kept running her to the arena gate... full gallop... no stirrups... six year old girl! I would have thought she'd be bawling her eyes out on run #1 (she waited until run #3), but all she said was, "Buck just wants to run!" This girl's a tough cookie! (next time I'll get pictures of her... she's a doll!) Marin is, no doubt, counting down the hours until the next opportunity to ride. I like to call that "motivation"... for completing school work... chores... just about anything I need her to do. Life is much simpler when the kids are in LOVE with a hobby. I just need to figure out how to help shift Gerrit's hobby from "girlfriend" to "horses"... hmmm.....

Photos of Baby Bottle Feeding

To Milk a Horse?!

I would have never even thought about the prospect of milking a horse, let alone a miniature one with miniscule teats, but that just goes to prove that life is FULL of things that I've never even thought of! Our newest addition to the Funny Farm, a little colt out of our mini mare, Bows, had a traumatic first day... and so did the owners!

We were thrilled to find that our concerns about a possibly complicated delivery, with this first time mother, were unfounded. Bows delivered her foal with no assistance (we didn't know she was even doing it) and proved to be a natural little mother. Unfortunately, her teats are small and the baby couldn't wrap his little tongue around them. It wasn't until midday that we realized that he wasn't getting latched on and getting the colostrum he so desperately needs to ward off infection. Baby horses get no immunity from placental transfer; only through passive transfer through colostrum. A foal who receives no immunoglobulins antibodies has a 75% chance of falling ill; one who receives partial antibodies still suffers a 50% chance.

Realizing the importance of this colostrum, I worked out a way to extract it from Bows, a process that she was not particularly fond of. The foal suckled off a bottle for a time, and then we tried bucket feeding, which seemed like the best way to go... until we tried it the next time 'round. I started bottle feeding the baby at about 4:00 p.m. and continued on every 15 to 40 minutes until 5:00 a.m. this morning. We threw a couple of bean bags down on the floor of the horse shelter and I settled in for a night of milking, feeding and keeping warm baby. Marin stayed the night with me and was able to sleep... lucky girl! It was windy and chilly and a bit on the uncomfortable side, but what else could we do? My discomfort through the night was a whole lot less than the discomfort we would feel upon finding our darling colt dead in the morning. It was worth it.

The rest of the story is coming in the next post...

It's a Boy!

At approximately eleven o'clock a.m., we were blessed with a little colt from our mare, Maggie! Of course, we missed the birth... again. Third time we've missed it, but we're just glad she never has any complications. This means that our other little mare should be due any day, now, since I bred them both in the same week. Let's hope Bows has the same success!

Our good friends, Annie and Ben, came over today with all of their cute kids. We roasted hot dogs and smores over the fire, ate watermelon, played with the animals, and just had a good time chatting. Dayton, Christian and Jesse went exploring down by the creek, while the others had fun with the kittens and playing on the trampoline. The first half of the day was rainy, but the last half was absolutely beautiful, as you can see from the pictures :)

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and time to visit the graves of our loved ones and spend time with our family down in Bountiful. Vanessa has been camping with a friend all weekend. We've sure missed her and are excited to see her beautiful face tomorrow when she finally gets home!

Let the Castration Begin!

How was that for an attention grabbing title for this blog posting? Today was the big day for Geoffrey, our "used to be" a stud, mini horse. The vet came out and gave him the old snip and squeeze... poor guy! Geoffrey, that is. The vet couldn't be called "poor" after the awesome income he made off of the van Uitert family and their animals this day. All seven horses received their shots and wormings, as well as a few exams for the mares who are due to deliver in the next few weeks. Geoffrey's castration (or gelding) was the most interesting event of the visit, though. I was surprised that the vet left the incisions completely open... no swabbing out or stitching up, or anything. It makes sense that he didn't want to stitch up any infection that, no doubt, crept in at this non-sterile location, but still, I thought he'd do SOMETHING for the open incisions. He simply sprayed the area with fly spray, which had to feel quite splendid on Geoffrey's recently deflated ego... NOT! We'll be training him and working him everyday for the next week or two to keep the swelling down and to keep him moving. He already seemed a little mellower, which we were not expecting. Then again, waking up to find excruciating pain in the nether regions might just have a mellowing effect on a guy... ya think?

The "Almost" Rattlesnake Round-up

Kevin's brother, Brad, and his darling children came up for a visit this afternoon. While Vanessa and Marin entertained the kids on the trampoline, Kevin and I took Brad on a tour of the thriving metropolis of Beaver Dam.

Our first stop was to a neighbor's house to show Brad their huge draft horse... one of the biggest horses I've ever seen. Next, we thought we'd show him Cutler Dam Power Station, the Bear River, and some of the beautiful countryside along the way. Halfway there, another neighbor waved us down and we pulled over and hopped out. Turns out, he had been trying to call us, because his goat doe was delivering her twins, the first of which was stuck with one leg and the head sticking out. Somehow, he thought we could be of assistance... his wife said, "Call Donna... I bet she'll know what to do." Prayer and instinct would have been my only solutions, having never delivered goat kids before. We stopped by just AFTER he pulled the first one out, but he was afraid he had broken it's neck and/or legs in the process. The poor little thing was pretty worn out, but didn't appear to have any broken body parts, seeing as it could still hold it's head up and was attempting to stand. It's sluggishness, however, brought it very limited attention from it's mother, so it may turn out to be a bummer kid, anyway. (Bummer means that the mother rejects it and it will be necessary to bottle feed and hand raise the kid until it is weaned.) I proceeded to check out the baby, testing it's legs for reflex responses, cleaning off a little of the snot-like, yellow mucous hanging all over it, and listening to it breathe to see if there was possibly some esophageal damage. All in all, I'd say he was in good shape for being pulled out with the intensity and strength that was required to do the job. I helped a neighbor, last year, deliver her two puppies, and the first didn't make it through the delivery. She died because we couldn't get her out fast enough, and when the doctor made it over to help, he ended up breaking the neck pulling her out. Very distressing. I fully understood the stress this fine neighbor had in delivering that first kid. Complications are no fun and we all hope we don't have any in delivering babies! Kevin and Brad were standing by while our neighbor's son tried to help the mama deliver kid #2, and were able to witness the whole process. I think Kevin was trying to distract the mother, and even joked that he offered her some ice chips to suck on during the delivery. Funny guy! Not a bad Beaver Dam country tour, by any means...

Onward and upward to Cutler Dam... We took the little dirt road that runs along the river and showed him where the scout camp is, the better fishing areas, and a neighbor's property (hundreds of acres) in the river bottoms. On our way back out, Kevin thought he ran over a snake. He stopped the truck and we jumped out to see. Much to our surprise, we missed it completely, and were able to check out this fairly good sized reptile crossing the road. My first thoughts were to pick it up and take it back for the kids to see, but upon closer inspection, the head looked too wide, and it's demeanor, too aggressive. Even though it had no rattler on the tip of it's tail, it did have a decidedly aggressive "coil up and strike" attitude, and I just couldn't be sure that it wasn't a venomous variety. It looked a lot like the bullsnakes and gopher snakes we have caught in the past, but I've never seen one so aggressive. This snake was a good two to three feet in length and about an inch and a half in diameter. If we minus the "rattle"... it was an "almost" Rattlesnake Round-up finale to our Beaver Dam tour. How exciting is that? I was a little disappointed, later this evening, to find that the pictures online really DID resemble just a gopher/bullsnake, and we probably would have been fine to grab it. However, when in doubt, stay a good distance out, right? Right... According to this online source, the gopher/bullsnakes can flatten out their heads and imitate a rattler to scare off predators. It worked :)

The posted pictures are of Max, Sadie and Audra on the trampoline, walking and riding on Banner, and a little interaction between Brad, Sadie and the goat kids. Check out Sadie's face with those goats! She's NOT a fan... However, her brother helped me milk Isabella, brush Banner and even walk him back to his corral. Way to go, Max! And thanks for coming up, Brad... it was great to see you all!

Saturday with the van Uiterts, Rapps and Madsens

Here are a few pictures that my sweet sister-in-law, Kelli, took from their visit with us last Saturday :)

Fear & Doubt rear their ugly heads...

As positive as yesterday's horse riding adventures were, the opposite may be said about today's. In fact, I questioned whether I should be fiddling with the horses anymore, at all. It's been five years since I broke my leg... FIVE YEARS! I can hardly believe it's been that long. Taking the last two years off of riding and doing the horse thing have not helped my mental state in the least. I wonder how I'd be feeling if our life HADN'T been interrupted by the move and the change in our horse owner lifestyle... just an off the cuff guess: we'd be broke and stressed out over money INSTEAD of horses (or perhaps in addition to...), so I'd better count my blessings!

Actually, I really DO need to express gratitude for the situation at hand. I'll explain that situation right now... Frosty, after being so good yesterday and toting my sweet husband around the arena, decided that he was NOT going to have a bridle on today, lest he have to work again and feel the pressure of 300 lbs bouncing around on his sturdy, but spoiled self. He threw his head up everytime we tried to put the bridle on, which is just a hackamore (no bit) and not at all painful or uncomfortable. He even pulled back on the hitching post, acting like he was going to rear up, in an effort to evade the bridle. Well, we thought we'd show him and just leave him tied up. We came back every so often to see if he was feeling more cooperative... which, of course, he wasn't. We even left the bridle alone and just tried to take his halter off to set him free, but just reaching up to undo the halter freaked him out and he reacted in the same way. I realize now that the whole, "You little stinker... you can just stay tied up" approach was really saying, "Keep flinging your head in the air and we'll leave you alone." What started out as a reaction to the hackamore bridle had now become a reaction to any contact with his halter or head... all within a thirty minute time period. Aackk!!! Kevin actually likes exercising his authority with a belligerent horse and tried for an additional twenty to thirty minutes to get the message across that this behavior was unacceptable. It was getting dark and I told Kev to just lead the stinker to the small corral and unsnap the rope from his halter; that tomorrow we would take him to the trainer and let HIM work this out for us. Essentially, Frosty won the match and we're just hoping we don't pay for that loss in the long run.

Now, to address my close living companions, Senor Fear and Senorita Doubts-a-lot... I realized, through this experience, that I have evolved from being a little bit apprehensive about mounting and dismounting, to basically an all around anxiety around my equine friends. It came together for me, tonight, that I pass off even leading Frosty or Blue around, to Kevin, Dayton, or Marin. Every time a horse has the slightest bit of attitude, I find myself shrinking in fear and passing them off for someone else to handle. Visions of every accident I've ever heard of occurring on horseback or even on the ground run through my mind. The enjoyment of watching my children ride is now laced with these fears and anxieties. I didn't realize, until this experience, the accumulative affect of my own doubts and insecurities and started to question how smart it was to even have horses anymore. However, after consulting with a good friend, who is very experienced in horsemanship, and talking to my sister, Carolyn, the dawning of enlightment settled on my being. This isn't really about a fear of horses, or anxiety for myself, my husband and our children; this is about unresolved issues within myself that are manifesting themselves in this particular scenario. If it hadn't been the horses, it could just have easily been something else that would have brought my attention to this psychological stumbling block. I was able to see, in a more complete way, how anxious and fearful I have been of EVERYTHING for months, if not for a few years. Trust in myself and those I come in contact with, be they human or equine, is painfully lacking.

What were, initially, pieces of a puzzle - isolated experiences of anxiety and self-doubt - are now put together and form a complete picture of the way I have been dealing with my stress and thought processes, for some time. I can more clearly see, now, how I "throw my head" when being "bridled" and am reluctant to make the effort required of me at certain moments. To submit my will to a greater authority has not always been my strong point, but thanks to Frosty and his eye opening behavior this evening, I will try to turn that weakness into a strength. This revelation of my lacking self-confidence and apparent insecurity and self-doubt will, hopefully, turn out to be a defining moment in my life, a stepping stone to a higher plateau of spiritual awareness, and a foundation for greater things to come. I DO know this for certain: I don't ever want to quit something because of fear. Should I choose not to have horses in the future, I want that decision to stem from a voluntary change in personal direction or inclination... not as validation of fearful thinking or lack of self-confidence. I have never been afraid to do groundwork with a horse, or even thought for a minute that I wasn't capable of handling them (other than working through that mount and dismount issue related to my accident) and the realization that I am struggling with that, at this time, is very unsettling. I must be vigilant and not let the adversarial thoughts of "I have no business dealing with horses," or "What kind of person have I become to be so weak?" enter my heart, as they have my head.

So, in other words... life just became more interesting! Thanks for reading...Ciao!

The Season's Very First Ride

This last week, we saddled up the Arab, Blue, a few times and led the younger kids around in the pasture. Today, however, we saddled up Frosty AND Blue and took them to the neighbor's arena to work them. The sixteen year old girl that lives there rode both of them first, and then Marin, Dayton and even KEVIN rode Frosty! He was great and only half-groaned when Kevin hopped on - what a good boy! (One might expect a heck of a groan when a rider the size of Kev hops on! He's the right size horse for my XL size husband and I was very proud of Kev for being fearless, unlike moi...) Blue was a little bit full of it, to start, but then had her head in the game and was a good girl. I STILL suffer from post-leg-breaking trauma and will have to ease myself back into the riding... maybe when I'm more confident that these horses know their place in the pecking order of our family.

I spent the day doing laundry and dishes, which seem to be reproducing all on their own. Of course, I know that they aren't, and that I simply have five kids. However, it really does seem like they multiply during the night.

I'll tell you what IS multiplying daily, though, and that is the weeds in my yard. These are not just your everyday broadleaf variety weeds... our weeds are sticker weeds and we must have a half million of them. In fact, in some areas of our property, there are more stickers than there is grass. Bummer... Time to spray the yard and hope for the best. If anyone is interested in cultivating stickers (bullthorns, too), just give me a buzz and we'll be sure to save you some for transplanting. They are a great deterrent to those neighbor kids who like to hang out in your yard and are motivation for your youngest kids to wear shoes.

Sticker weeds are just about as popular as mosquitoes, ticks, and poison ivy, all of which prompt the question from our kids of, "Why did Heavenly Father make _______, anyway?" and in the case of the mosquitoes, "Couldn't the birds and spiders just eat some other kind of bug that didn't bite and itch so bad?" Kevin usually says that he can think of no reason for their existence, except to be a pain in the rear, and I agree... at least with the pain in the rear part. My kids, no doubt, get sick of hearing me say that it's all explained in the scripture from 2 Nephi 2:11, "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." That's when I get the "whatever" look from most of my kids and a "good try" smile from Kevin. I'll try to keep that in mind for MYSELF the next time I have to pull a tick off my leg, slap that dang mosquito, or somehow extract the stickers from my shoelaces and hems of my pants. ;P

Swing Low Sweet Chariot

Take a looksy at my pregnant miniature horse mare, Bows... Holy Shmoly! The minis are all still toting around their winter bulk of fur, but still... she's HUGE! Her stomach is practically sweeping the ground! Poor thing... We've never bred her before, and seeing how large she is, I'm hoping she's going to be okay. Maybe she just LOOKS dramatically larger than the average pregnant horse because she's so tiny. This might be something similar to how my heighth of 5'9" spread my weight and proportion out just a tad bit more than my sweet 5'2" sister-in-law, Nancy. The baby has to fit somewhere, right? I just have more room to carry the load, and perhaps that's the same scenario with Bows. Maggie was bred on the same date, but she looks nowhere near the size. Time for the Doc to make a farm call and check out the girls!