The Horse (Dodge I think)

Here is my plan of attack:

1.) talk to the owner and see what I can work out with her. I can't move the horse for 1-2 months

2.) Joe likes her and wants to change the name... so that is something to think about

3.) Get a freaking farrier out there, she isn't lame yet but how long until she is..

4.) Get her stall cleaned out and try to get some shavings or straw over there for not only her but for those hooves

So that is my plan of attack. I gave her the bath of her life, bless her heart. I did not do her head or 100% of her legs because until I got to pick her hooves I was wary of how she would react. She was actually really easy going, she just ate the entire time we bathed her. I think that's why Joe likes her. I think she will be an bitch once she is back up to shape but for the moment she is got that f-you attitude. We had lots of respect talks. She's funny like that. She tried taking off on me once and got a prompt smack on the neck and a gruff talking to. She tried it once more and that time the same but I took away her food. She didn't do it again after that point.

I figured she would "dance" once we started the water and bathing. It didn't even phase her. I showed her the hose, started at her feet, and she could care less. She seemed to enjoy that bath soooo much. She smells funky now, kinda like horse and iodine but thats ok. She was SOFT once she got dried off. I'm really proud of myself.

I really really like her. I am going to try to get the owner to let me just take over and then move her in a month or two. I'm getting a second job to take care of her. How sad is that. I don't think the owner will care if I provide all the food, clean the stall, make sure she is groomed, pay for the farrier, and get a vet out there or me take her to one. The horse is almost out of hay so that is my first priority right now. She has plenty of hay pellets out in the shed so I'm good there. Need to get her ass wormed though! Hopefully today I can get to the feed store and pick some up.

She did step on me but there was no talks or discussion or smacking there. I'm pretty sure she is in pain on the back feet. Further neccesating my need to get a freaking farrier out there. Her two front feet were horrid. The smell that came from them was unreal. There was rocks, sticks, and manure just packed into her misshapen hooves. I know she had to feel somewhat better with them picked out. I avoided the frog though, I was afraid it was going to be sore so I didn't pick all that hard around it. I'll wait for the farrier.

Her backs were a little different. Once I started picking picking she wasn't as happy and kept trying to put her foot down. That is where she stepped on me. The one back leg I gave up on, too much of a fight. I got some picked but not quite like the other three. I know that is just going to make it worse but hopefully I can get the farrier out there next week. My trainer gave me the one she uses so I will try him first. Since her horses feet always look really good.

Then there is the stall..... I am not 100% sure how to tackle that. It's a dirt floor. I will have to ask the owner how she had done it in the past. I'm pretty sure when it was up and running the owner did an awesome job... not so much anymore. I'm more than happy to take over ;)

So here is my life coming up.

Stop lessons for the time being
Get a second job (already have one)
Look at boarding stables with pasture board for the summer
Begin to take over the care of this horse

I have dove into horses in a totally different way than I ever thought possible. I even fed her last night! She is just too freaking sweet. I feel alot of new posts about her in the future.

Love.

ack

Lost my help tonight. Tis ok, hopefully I can get Joe to go with me out there. I've at least gotta get a bath on her and then clean out the stall somewhat.

X-Posting

http://fuglyhorseoftheday.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-down-way-too-many-to-go.html

I know I have mentioned her blog on here several times. Above is a link to todays entry into her blog. Good lord it is sick sick sick. I just do not understand people sometimes. If I ever sent any animal off to training, be it my dog even, and I got a scummy feeling from the get-go, my animal is not going there. I don't want a trainer to be best friends with my animal, but the trainer needs to be able to train not beat into submission.

I question what his techniques even had to do with training. It sounds like he just ran the horses to death and beat the shit out of them because he could. Looks like daddy didn't love that guy enough so he needed to take it out on something that wouldn't take him to court. Sad Sad Sad.

Buck is not limping quite as bad today. I am going to clean and treat tonight after I get home from dealing with that horse I'm working on. I really did get a bad feeling from the lady I talked to yesterday and I don't think she took to me too kindly either. Asking to ride the mare when the mare is not in the condition to do anything? Really? I question if the lady will take proper care of the mare in this case. Or what she actually knows about horses. Not that I am the expert, I am not at all. But I have the common sense to know that riding is not an option till I can get some food in her, wormer in her, and her feet looking halfway decent.

That is not to say people don't ride horses like this all the time. I've seen the pics... I'm just a little nicer than others and have more brains in my head. People kill me.

That's all I have for today!

Fun weekend, Horse updates

Friday I went to the wedding I had talked about in Thursday's post. It was humbling. I at least now know how my guests are going to feel at a far away wedding. It does suck in that sense because your guests do have to travel so far to just see a freaking wedding. Then again it was a quaint chapel and a cute little reception hall. I hope it was everything they both wanted and I hope that they both stay happy for a long long time. Congrats to them both, I am past happy for them.

We went camping this weekend! Woke up Saturday and did a couple things in the morning and headed out Saturday afternoon around 1 or so. It was gorgeous! I have attached some pictures, courtesy of Josh, for your viewing enjoyment at the bottom of this whole post. I met a new "friend" of David's and am not sure if she liked us or was in culture shock. I have yet to figure that one out. I had to kill a baby rabbit this weekend as well, which I feel slightly bad about. Buck had found it god knows where and he wasn't hurting it. I think he thought it was a game. He would walk with it for a few feet and drop it, only to watch it run away so he could catch it again. Shadow though, badass that she is, decided to end the game and really hurt the poor thing. I had to put it out. :( Oh well, guess it was for the best.

Buck also somehow did a nice job in slicing a piece of his paw off somehow this weekend. He is limping pretty bad. I tried to get a rag and clean it out a little with soap and water but he screamed so bad that I quit. I filled it full of antibacterial and wrapped it up. I think he kept it on for an hour before he got it off. I'll have to clean it and reapply before I go to work in the morning. He should be able to heal from it, I really don't want to run to the vet for this, but we'll see. He is so dumb.

Tomorrow I go clean up the horse and try to feed her more food. Hopefully I can muck her stall out a little and put something down in the stall. My trainer thought she had found a lady to take her but I am wary of this lady. I mean the horse is not in riding shape and the first thing this lady asked me was if I had been on the horse. UMMMM NO. She then asked if she could come ride the horse. UMMMM NO. The lady sounded miffed at that? Why in the world would you try to ride a horse when I am telling you that it's not in good condition for life let alone riding. Geez. We'll see what happens.

And like promised, I will end this with farm pics.

NM, it won't upload them and I am feeling way too lazy to redo it. Tomorrow...

Oh the light

Getting closer. Have a new recruit that is going to help me with this horse. She is 99% positive if we can get this mare up to speed, then she can place her at her barn for a lesson horse. That is excitement like no other. That means this mare will have no worries and never go hungry. Lot's of little kids to groom her and love all over her. I hope to god we can get her health back up. I pray we can.

Monday we are going to go out there and start cleaning up. If I can get out there on Sunday I will but Monday is looking alot better. I am so happy! I can't wait to see what she looks like when she is tip top shape! EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Other than that, tonight I have a wedding to attend of a good friend. I hate weddings and I think I have made that clear here before. So blah. 30 minute ceremony, 45 minutes of waiting on the pictures to get done, chicken and beef buffet (seems the norm to serve that), a dance floor, tables, and a whole lot of people that don't know each other. I'm not calling out this wedding, but all weddings in general. Every bride, including me, strives to make their wedding "different". In reality, they're all the damn same. I always thought I would love weddings and when I got invited to my first one I was so excited. And then so let down. For some reason I just have never felt that magical moment in them and it just let me down.

I'm such a bitch. I think this is why I am striving for more of a family bbq than a wedding in what I'm doing. I know what I hate and I'm trying to avoid it while conforming to the "wedding" stigma that everyone has in their heads. Sigh. I don't know. I'm just rambling. I need to call my trainer and tell her that I won't be there tomorrow. Gotta get that done today.

How to become emotionally attached to something:

1.) Have something you have wanted since childhood dangled in front of you.

2.) Know you can change it for the better.

So my horse in a previous post is being helped out right now on many levels. I've called my trainer, an owner of a polo barn, and a lady in Indiana I know that rehabilitates horses. My trainer is calling people she knows that deal with the breed and it helps that this horse is registered. In the meantime my trainer has given me some advice on stuff to do now to this very sweet pretty mare to help her get back up to health. This is at the owners ok. I have talked to the son who is more than happy to have me help and I think he sounds a little upset and relieved all at the same time. I like the owner even, she is a really nice lady, in fact I'm smiling as I type this. I'm too nice of a person I think.

My list of stuff to get for this horse:

1 MTG for the skin issues
1 Tube of wormer for the next few weeks to clean her out
1 bale of good quality hay

I am also going to see if making her hay pellets into mash don't help her put some weight back on. I am going to give her a good bath and brushing and pick out her hooves. I'm also going to clean the stall out.

I'm obviously on a mission. I will help this mare. I will hold no grudges. And a secret goal of mine would be to see the joy on the owners face when her horse is back up to speed and having a purpose again. Who knows, in three months I'll have another job to afford the board for her....

Who loves their dog?

Oh that's right, I do.

BBQ Ribs

One way or another, some of the greatest memories of eating involve ribs. When they are just a little crispy underneath a layer of bbq sauce and falling off the bone tender, it makes me melt.

I still remember the first time I tried to cook them and the frustration it caused me. The first batch ever was spare ribs. I just threw them on the grill and let em go for a bit and pulled them off. I learned so much from that point on. My first mistake was the heat. It was way too hot. Second was the lack of aluminum foil and third was the lack of a good dry rub.

So, for all you rib lovers, here is my steps for ribs, two ways. Once for camping and one for at home.

Home Grilled BBQ Ribs

2-3 Racks of spareribs or baby back ribs
1 bowl of dry rub (recipe below)
Lots of foil
1 recipe bbq sauce

Rinse the ribs in cool water to remove the extra juices. Pat dry with a towel. Lay out enough foil to wrap the ribs in individual packets for each rack. Place ribs on these peices. Rub the dry rub on both sides of the ribs. (I never remove the thin white membrane from the bottom. I always feel it helps keep the ribs together once they can't on their own anymore) Wrap up into a packet and double wrap with another layer of foil.

Turn 1/2 of the grill on the lowest heat. This is tricky if you have a 3 burner grill, turn the middle burner on. You want the grill at 225-275F. No hotter. No cooler. If you have a two burner grill put the racks to the opposite side of the grill that the heat is on. Do not stack racks on top of one another if you can help it. I've done it, but there is alot of tending that needs to be done. If you have a 3 burner set up you can put one rack on the direct burner if needed. Otherwise keep them both on the outside.

Grill for 3-4 hours like this. Every now and again flipping the rotation of the ribs. Taking the outer ones and making them inners an so forth. If you had to stack take the top ones to the bottom and the bottom to the top; the closest to the heat farthest away. If you have the 3 burner set up make sure to take the rack in the direct heat to one of the outside edges.

After 3-4 hours remove the foil, turn all the burners on low and start saucing. This then makes the outside crispy and the inside is still juicy. It also chars them somewhat. I usually give them 20 minutes at this point. And viola! Ribs!

Camping Ribs:

I do use the dutch oven for these. Use 18-20 briquettes for each oven. Cut the ribs into 4 rib peices and line the oven with foil. Dry rub the ribs and place as many as can fit in the ovens. You will go through about 3-6 batches of briquettes so make sure you have enough for the long cooking time. After 4-6 hours the ribs should be falling off the bone. You can sauce and eat or roast over the fire for 20 minutes with the sauce to char the outside. Viola! Ribs!

My Dry Rub:

1 cup brown sugar
1 tabls garlic powder
2 tabls paprika
1 tabls cayenne
Good dash of salt
Lots of fresh ground pepper


My BBQ Sauce

1 can tomato ketchup
Good dashes of Worsh sauce
1 tabl vinegar or more to taste
1/2-1 cup of brown sugar
1 can of pineapple juice
Good dash of cayenne
1/2 teas cumin
1 -2 teas garlic powder
Good jig or two of bourbon or whiskey
Molasses


Note about the BBQ sauce: I really don't measure so those are off the top of my head. I just add and adjust till it tastes "right".

Wine

Just got the wine for the wedding. 2 cases of red, 2 cases of white, and a case and half of sparkling. We got a crackhead deal on the wine too. Thanks Mindy for showing us that liquor store with everything on sale!

Now all we need is beer. Beer, beer, beer. The wedding is coming together! 8 weeks till the wedding! Still need to get my dress fitted, but hell I'll wait till the first of June. It is the least complicated dress ever so it should take 5 seconds for a seasoned seamstress to fix up. We need to figure out if David has some microphones we can borrow. Now sure exactly anything else off the top of my head at the moment. I know I need to clean house and switch laundry! How much fun does that sound like!

Love :)

There are so many things I love.

Buck- I am going to dedicate a paragraph to my dog. Ha! I am a crazy dog lady, don't hate. He is my one and only true best friend in life. He will always be there, doesn't judge, and loves me because I have food in the morning. He's 90lbs of just plain cute. I will never get rid of him and he will always be my couch partner.

Joe- Not much to elaborate about on here. He always wants to try no matter how crazy I am. To any woman that thinks she won't be crazy, just wait. You will one day. You will entirely flip out. It's really ok. As women in general we have been known to do that. Joe puts up with it and still cuddles in the morning. Can't ask for much else.

Pancakes- yes, a food item made it to my list of loves. There is nothing better than waking up to pancakes. Lightly sweet cut with melted creamy butter. Covered in warm pure maple syrup and a cup of coffee. Le Sigh.

Horses- Holy patience teachers. You screw up and frustration city. I love these giant animals. I cannot wait to own one.

Coffee- I drink so much coffee. I am even somewhat of a snob. I like the little micro brews (in a sense) I buy whole bean and grind myself. That's how snobby I am. But its just so good! Don't hate.

There ya go. My top loves in life. Shadow is in there too... she makes goofey noises when she sleeps. :)


I ordered 80 cupcakes today. 1/3 chocolate, 1/3 vanilla, and 1/3 strawberry. I told the lady I wanted buttercream frosting and bright vivid colors on the frosting. I really don't care which colors she picks or if she airbrushes or colors the frosting. She said I am the easiest bride she has ever worked with. Yay! I really just want them to taste good and look pretty, I refuse to stress over the details of it. I know sh eis a trained professional so I feel fine with it.

I am trying to figure out centerpeices. I am going to lose my damn mind. I want plants. I do not want cut flowers. My whole cushy hippy side is coming out here. I'm torn between lavender plants or potted herbs. Absolutely torn. I love lavender and think big plants would look awesome but the cost is prohibitive. I am not willing to blow a large chunk of the budget on that when I could upgrade the wine or apply towards our bands. So potted herbs it may be.

I don't really ahve anything else to do. I order the bands at the end of this month. Joe and I need to get the music situated. But that's nothing really. We just need to get a big enough music list together and randomize. I get my hair done in May and me my stylist had talked back in Feb about it. I'm not worried about that either. She's been doing my hair for 4 years and it always looks amazing when she is done so she can have at it. (not to say that I go often enough to keep it amazing...)

I have 7 confirmed yes's for the wedding and I just sent the invites out last week! People are excited! Yay! Getting married.

Mornings

I woke up in such a good mood this morning! Joe's alarm goes off at 6:40... he snoozed it, rolled over, and cuddled with me. It is an amazing feeling to have him all snuggled up behind me, our legs intertwined, and him gently rubbing my side. I freaking love that shit. He's so cute when he wants to be.

Tonight is tax night. How much fun does that sound like? Oh thats right... none. I need to pay my taxes and then mail them off. Tomorrow I will print and mail. I don't have the energy to do so today. Lazy ya see?

Nothing else new on the home front. I really wish I could find the cord to my laptop! I miss it!

Horses are funny things..

I rode Chex today. I am past happy about it and much to his startled self, I gave him a big hug. We started out the ride with a small buck in which I sat it just fine, pulled him up, and went on. Then he began to hate a corner in the arena. I think part of it was my fault. I didn't snug in the stirrup leather and when I gave him a leg pressure, the leather rubbed him thus the first buck of the day.
Fixed that problem. Then my patterns started and every single time I came around a certain corner he would start to flip his head around and try to dart. Pull him up again, sooth talk him, gently nudge him forward, and continue.
Then we changed the pattern. I asked for a trot. For NO REASON, well that I could see, he started explosively bucking. I was giving him no real cue at the moment. No leg pressures, no reins, no seat, nothing. We just trotted around a corner and towards the dreaded side of the arena.
I sat four HARD bucks. I pulled the reins up and this caused his head to flip upwards and he reared up. I let the reins out which helped alot. I know the reason he reared up was pulling the reins, I was trying to pull him back together but he wasn't having it. When he went up I was sure we were going to flip over and he was going to land on me. Thats cool. Whatever. He went forward again and gave a mini buck and for whatever reason this knocked me out of the saddle. I desperately tried to hold on with my legs and sit back in the saddle. I ended up begining to fall off sideways. By this time my right leg was out of the stirrup and that leg was trying to do everything it could to keep me from falling off.
At this point my left leg was in the stirrup and was holding my weight at least but bailing wasn't a good option because that left me in trample range. Cool. My trainer had at this point grabbed the reins and whisper to me "thank god you didn't fall off and you did an awesome job staying on" . She then gruffly told Chex what was on her mind. She asked if I still wanted to ride, shit yeah I did. I let her work him out a little then I got right back on him to continue what I was doing before.
Lesson learned? Don't try to pull a horse up when bucking. I could have dealt with just the bucking, it was the displacement of his upward movement followed by a small buck. Of course, getting back on. :) I told her I can't wait to ride him next week :)

Two posts in one day!

Oh the joys!

So at work today I had a crapton of stuff to do. Got most of it done for the most part. I still have stuff to quote and people to follow up on, but I'm regaining footing. I noticed that my boss has grown 46 (I think ) apps YTD while last years TOTAL apps were 36. I am doing something right and am going to show him those numbers on Monday. Not as many as I hope to be doing but a hell of alot better than I thought. I need more selling direction though, something he would rather give me a book to read than show me. I need more than just reading something. Oh well, he wants to meet on Monday so that will be nice.

I really need to go camping again. I love it so much. I need to expand my camping gear to include wet naps. It is the most needed thing ever when camping with no running water. I need to add that to my list of things. I have basically everything else ever. I do believe my dutch ovens are hands down the BEST camping gear ever. You have to be car camping to use them because of the weight... but the best food ever made is out of them.

We always bake biscuits in them. Along with potatoes, egg casseroles, pancakes, ribs, and a favorite - peach cobbler. Basically anything you can bake, you can make in them. Though the pancakes were made on the upside down lid of them and place in another warm one. I really do hope that all the friends that have been camping with me keep the great memories of the food that I slaved over for them. ;)

On the brain

I have about 5 minutes to type before I go to work. So I don't know how detailed or long this is going to be. I plan on rambling on about nonsense for a bit. You can feel free to click away at any point now.

10 weeks! 10 effing weeks! I sent the invites out on Wends and YESTERDAY I got a call from my MIL stating that she recieved hers already. Good god postal system!!!! Oh well, everyone has just a hair under 8 weeks to get them back to me. I need them back by June 1st so the caterer knows the exact number. We handed em out at Joe's work yesterday and Floyd, bless his hippy heart, said he wouldn't miss it for the world.

Then all the other body guys started goin on about how great this is going to be, ragged on Joe a bit about how marriage sucks after about 5 years, and in general were happy for us. I didn't anticipate that kind of response from a bunch of body guys! I love that whole group though!

Eep! out of time. I'll type more later!

Wedding stuff again.....

I got the new dress today!!!! EEEEEEEEEE!!!! It's too effing cute! I need to call my taylor and see if he will alter it for me next month.

I also got porta potti's rented. Thank god.

I also got stamps to send the invites out tomorrow.

I still need: to clean the barn, get the sound system figured out, and make sure all my ducks are in a row with cupcakes. That's it. Otherwise the wedding is peiced together!

Weekends

Friday after work we met up with some friends for mexican. One of my favorite cheapy foods! Good times were had and I love just sitting around with friends telling stories and laughing. We then have movie times ready to go see 2 Fast 2 Furious and know that it is showing every 30 minutes. We all head back to my place for a drink and then to head out to the movies. One friend, bless his heart, had just a wee too much. Thus ending the plans to go out and further ingraining the need for a new couch. So we ended the night making sure he was ok, the rest of us drinking and then all passing out. I am kinda pissed about the couch thing, kinda, only because well... its my couch. Though I do understand shit happens. At least my couch is old as dirt.

Saturday turned out ok yet bad. I felt really bad because me and my trainer looked to have a miscommunication. I thought I told her I was going to be there, she thought I told her I wasn't. So she was suprised needless to say when I did show up. I felt really bad and still do. The lesson was "ok". The sweetheart of a horse that I wanted to ride has gone lame. She should be making a comeback just needs lost of stall rest among other things.

My poor trainer had a trail ride after my lesson with a lady that said she knew how to ride but not how to saddle. I always figured that came hand in hand with riding. There was a time I did not know how to saddle but had been on a horse. I still then, didn't know anything about riding. I'm happy I can saddle now on my own. People never cease to amaze me.

I then wanted to go home, lounge, and clean house. I got roped into going with the boys on a road trip. Two boys with ADD in one car for 5 hours is so mindbending. I can't believe the amount of crap that can be rattled from two boy's mouths.

Went to the machine gun shoot last night which was ok. The intial explosions are cool, the sound of machine guns is cool, watching things blow up is cool, but maybe I'm ADD myself. I get bored after about 10 minutes of it. Once everything was blown up I really did just get bored. Kinda sad. It was cool walking the booths though! There is alot of cool stuff that people keep.

We didn't get home from that till 11pm. So that was a taco hell run, eat, and then pass out. This morning I have woken up with what feels like my body revolting. I want to hit the asian food store up and try this recipe for pho that I have in my vietnamese cooking book. Everything I have made out of that book so far has been delicious so I think I may just take my hand at it. I need something refreshing like that instead of being all bogged down with the nasty from Friday and yesterday. And I can make it beef, which is what I want to eat anyway.

Excellent. Just as long as I can quit coughing and be able to breathe! That's really all I'm asking for.