Christmas Face Full of Dirt

Merry Christmas has come and gone.

Through December we didn't get to ride very much. But finally last weekend, we took the horses to the big park, only to find it was closed!

The only other place we could think to go was many miles away, so we hit the interstate and drove to Sarasota and Myakka State Park. 20 bucks to get the trailer and horses in, and it was already 3pm. They close at sunset.

No problem, we figured we'd ride for an hour .. or two.

As it turned out, we tacked up, and got about a mile down the trail..... and one of those Killer Armadillos must have followed us from DeSoto....

Jackie pulled a u turn, dumped Peggy. Bo turned to bolt and slammed on brakes to miss Peggy and pivoted, then pivoted again and there I went off.

So we both got up spitting dirt to see the horses galloping down the trail..

This is getting OLD.

Here's Lookin' at you, Kid

We bought this little pygmy goat buck at the Arcadia Friday night auction. He's, oh so cute, but once we got him home, we noticed he had an ulcer starting on his eye.

So we've been doctoring the eye every night all week. Unfortunately by the time we get home it's after dark, so we're out there with flashlights feeding, and chasing a goat to put salve in his eye.

He happened to be in the little goat house this particular night. JOY! So we stooped down and went inside to doctor him. We left the flashlight outside, with it's light shining in for us.

After a moment, we're in there holding the goat down, putting medicine in his eye and feeding him animal crackers when the light flickers.

We turn to look..... and there's Bo, this 16 hand horse all bent over with his head jammed in the doorway sideways, ears all pricked looking at us like "Whatcha doing in there?"

Ah, yes... more hysterical laughter. He got lots of cookies for that.

Though horses can be bad for the body (they will run you ragged and give you some noble bruises), they have to be good for the soul. We haven't had so many laughs in a long time.

Killer Armadillo

So we've had the horses (ok, horse and mule, get technical) since the end of July. And since getting our trailer in early September we've been riding at this 8000 acre park which is only about 10 miles away from the house.

It's absolutely incredible there. Florida wild land at it's finest.. and at it's wildest. They have every wild critter living wild there known to Florida wildlife including the puma and the bear. (for more information on Large Predators in Florida, I happen to have created a presentation for work at this link:

ANYWAY, so we've been riding in this beautiful wildland for a few months. We've seen deer, pigs, you name it just about.... no spooking or carrying on by the "boys". They've been fairly perfect equine gentleman.

And then a couple weeks ago, I forgot to pack my sister's bridle. No problem, she said and decided to ride Jackie with a halter. Oh, he was fine at first. Until he realized he didn't "really" have to go where she wanted him to. Then he was plowing through this and that, eating here and there, and totally not heeding her advice about what branch she'd fit under and such. next thing you know, he's gotten caught in vines and they drag Peg right off on her butt.

Some cuts and bruises but all was not lost. She remounted and we started down the trail again. Well, "something" ran across the path in front of us a few moments later. I wasn't paying attention at the moment, I was looking at the GPS when all of a sudden Bo turned INSIDE out and was bolting in the other direction after Jackie. I was scrambling to hold on (cause the ground was 16 hands down there and moving fast) and I saw my sister falling off in slow motion in front of me. Luckily all hooves missed her and I started trying to get Bo's head around and stop him (while not falling on my ass).

I finally got him stopped, and luckily Jackie decided to stop too. I jumped off and caught Jackie and started running back to my sister. Peg was getting up slow, spitting dirt. Apparently she had used her mouth like a shovel.

We decided it might be a good time to call it a day and walked the horses back to the trailer.

The next week (with a bridle!) went MUCH better and we had a pleasant ride with minimal whooshing at things on the trail. Then came THIS week.

I swear to God, we arrived with fire breathing dragons. The "Boys" gave us trouble mounting and started down the trail blowing and ready for trouble. We managed to have a pleasant ride even so, and started back about an hour before dark. That's when the Killer Armadillos came out.

You'd have thought Armadillos made a habit of eating horses. Both Jackie and Bo were nearly jumping in each other's laps at every rustle of palmettos. They seriously should have been embarrassed!

We managed to make it back alive anyway. We've decided we need a few more late afternoon trips so the "boys" get better aquainted with Killer Armadillos.

The hooftrimmer came this morning and Bo was a perfect gentleman for him. Jackie is getting better and stood fine for the front, but it took a while for the back hooves.

Afterward, we wormed them. Jackie took his wormer fine, but Bo decided there was no way I was sticking that paste tube in his mouth. Now I've done this twice before with NO resistance, not even an ear flick. But this time, he reared and backed and threw his big head around like a big monster. Peg tried to help by squirting while I held him, but I ended up wearing a few CC's of it on my shirt instead.

Finally, I just did some ground work with him to reassure him I was in charge, and then grabbed his big snoz in my hand and squeezed until he stopped tossing his head. Then I just squirted it in.

The Big Dumb ass.

My Horse Loves Twinkies

I know it's a stupid name for a Blog. But it's the truth. Both my horse and my sister's mule love twinkies with a passion. Just crinkle a wrapper within a mile radius and they're in your lap. It was one of the first things that my sister and I laughed hysterically about when we got them. Since we got Barbosa and Jackie, we have laughed many times. Probably more than we had in years.

In order to tell this story, we have to go back in time.

My sister, Peggy, had horses as long as I can remember, and I got my very first horse at 13. She was a pinto (they didn't call them Paints then) named Shasta. "She hasta have this, she hasta have that" Shasta was an older mare, much older than we even thought.

But she fueled my horse fever and even though her story ended sadly, I was hooked on the world of horses. Shasta had to be put to sleep with throat cancer : (

God I remember the long summer days spent on horseback. My first boyfriend had horses too, and we had a great group of horse friends. We'd go riding all day, every day, in the summer. It was absolutely fantastic. The best memories ever.

We had some wonderful horses in my teenage years. I got to show in Western Pleasure, Trail, and Equitation. I even ran some barrels and speed events. I trained my first yearling at 17 and by the time I was 19 I had broken and trained two horses.

Through high school I think horses kept me out of trouble. Of After high school, though, things began to change.

By that time I was in college and I just didn't have time to do all the things I needed to be doing. So I sold my remaning horses. Peggy held onto Pepper, the quarter horse mare that we had bought together and shown.

It wasn't long before I was terribly missing my horses again. I got married at 20 and later that year, I bought a Tennesee Walker gelding named Randy. He was a wonderful horse full of personality. When I was 23 I became pregnant with my first child and rode right up until I got toxemia at 7 months. After a few months of bedrest, my son was born and I found out it was going to be hard juggling a baby and horse when I couldn't keep my horse at the house. My sister took over most of the care and eventually I sold Randy to her.

My 20's passed into my 30's. I had three children and was divorced. Pepper and Randy passed away, both at ripe old ages. I wanted to instill the love of horses into my daughter. So I bought her an older gelding named Baron. Baron was a good old boy, calm and level headed. He was already in his 20's when we got him. She enjoyed him but was never as horse crazy as I had been.

It was nice to have a horse around again, even though I didn't ride him. I loved watching him graze and hearing him munch grass and hay. There's a peace in that I just can't describe.

I was in my 40's when Baron started having mini strokes and one Thanksgiving morning, he fell on a metal grating and we couldn't get him back up. He passed away that night.

Both my sister and I were horseless. But there were other things to worry about. My sister's husband, Larry, had cancer and the ranch mortgage was high... and I was still trying to deal with being divorced and raising my two youngest. It was a hard time.

And then we moved to Arcadia, a smaller property 50 miles away. At first it seemed a little crazy, living so far away from work. But life was easier there. Cheaper. My daughter, Valarie moved back to Sarasota so I just had Luc. And Larry enjoyed Arcadia. That was important to Peggy and there were no regrets to moving. When Larry passed away, my sister had the comfort of knowing he had been relaxed and happy.

So there we were. Peggy and I. With Luc being with his Dad's half the time, and me half the time, there were many days when it was just Peggy and I.

We kind of talked about getting horses again, later... maybe. Peg had always wanted a mule so we thought we'd investigate that.

We had been going to the auction in Arcadia to buy chickens and goats, and noticed there was a monthly horse and tack auction. One Saturday, we just up and decided to go, just to look and see what was there.

There were about five horses there as we walked around looking. It was raining, so they had the horses inside. Apparently they didn't usually do it that way. We walked around looking and my sister gasped. There was a mule there. Also, a very tall rangy sorrel had caught my eye immediately.

We had gone with no intention of actually purchasing anything that evening. The rain had kept many people away and hardly anyone bidded. The first horse up for auction was the big sorrel. He didn't sell. The owner wanted $400.00 and no one would come up to that. The horses afterward went for around $200.00. I actually felt tears in my eyes.

peggy looks at me and says. "Merry Christmas. Go buy that horse as a gift from me."

I was shocked, emotional, and even a little scared. I went over and no one had offered the price yet. So a deal was made. This tall, gangly, underweight horse was mine. I hadn't even ridden him.

Meanwhile Peggy bought her mule.

I think we were in a state of shock for a good week or so.

We got them home by paying someone to trailer them. And put them in the pasture.

And so began the adventure. Suddenly we were horse owners again. I think we had no idea just how much Barbosa and Jackie would fill our lives.