Happy Halloween!!

Balloon animal punkin! (jack o' lantern face courtesy of me mama)

Mario the FreeBird singin' mullet man, Bogey as a rooster and Bailey as a bumble bee

The one above cracks me up because Bogey really looks like a chicken!

BumbleBeans

Saddlerock

Hellewwww....

I think I've shared photos of Saddlerock Ranch before. It's a winery, boarding stable, movie set loc, exotic animal 'zoo', etc. The baby camel above was born there. We went there last night to trim and meet my friend/trimmer Jennifer. After trimming we went to Islands for dinner and drinks, and got some cute balloon animals. You're never too old for those, are you?

Stinking adorable and friendly baby camel being kissed by Mario!


Beautiful pale Red Tailed Hawk (as best we could tell). He/she is not part of the captive animals ... just happened to show up and alight on a hitching post right near where we were trimming. He was soooo beautiful and surveyed the area and situation for about 10 minutes before flying gracefully away. The reddish tail he had, out of the pic, is the only reason I am pretty sure he's a red tail... If anyone is really good with birds, I would love to know more. We see red tails nearly every day when trimming... very lucky.




Saddlerock and the moon...

Mostly About DG

This is one of the reasons I am not too much of a morning person. There are two cuddly pugs and one purring kitty in this photo, taken of my warm bed at about 6am on Monday before we left for San Luis Obispo

Below, a good-bye view of central CA hillsides from my first SLO stop on Monday. The transfer to Sarah as their new trimmer went well, and I managed to get out of it all with a minimum of emotional displays. ;-P One of my clients daughters is in the 4H and is going to nationals for a competition where her lecture topic is ... natural hoof care! I got to see her give the presentation that won her the trip to finals (a personal viewing) and on Monday I was able to help her make a clay model of a healthy hoof. It was so fun! She made an unhealthy one, which I have to admit looked pretty fun to make as well... for example she made a decent frog (center cushion for the hoof) and then squished it all together to make the typical sad, contracted frogs I see so often in horses who have been shod for long periods of time. That client promised to keep us posted on the results of the competition. I am sure she's going to do fantastic, I mean - that clay model alone was award worthy? ha She also made us homemade red raspberry jam as a parting gift. Isn't that sweet?

The DG has arrived! DG is decomposed granite - it does very well in our area for footing for horse corrals as it helps to drain and/or direct water very well without getting too soft or sloppy. Our plan was to have it spread in a ramp-like fashion out from the rail road ties/covered matted area into the corral, so that the area where the horses walk the most will remain nice and sanitary in the winter rains. The matted area isn't finished yet, but we should be able to get it all done on our next day off (Sunday), and there will surely be more photos of that as well!

Below: Mario re-directing DG off the matts while Alvaro moves and packs it with the tractor

Jordan playing in the sand box

Faith playing in the sand box

Beautiful bare hoof prints in the peach colored DG

The Tofu Cowboy Rides Again

As a vegetarian, barefooter, and sort of city-slicker-turned-ranch hand, Mario has earned the name "Tofu Cowboy" at our horse's boarding barn. Here he is today on Bucky, on a 3 hour ride in the hills at Aliso. The recent rains have made everything softly green, it is soooo pretty! I really hope we get another rain again soon to keep things going. Today's ride was really warm, all of the horses were quite sweaty since they have already started to grow their winter coats. Horse's coats grow in response to diminishing sunlight, so it has nothing really to do with cold (or lack of) at all. This can mean a very hot, uncomfortable horse in the fall in SoCal especially, where we often reach our warmest temps of the year. All of the horses on the ride got a nice cool shower afterwards. :)

Today's ride was also just what the doctor ordered -- very relaxing. I tried to just take it in... take deep breaths of the sweet, grass scented air, and enjoy the beautiful views of the thick marine layer fog rolling in at sea level... This coming week is very busy, but I think I've gotten back to a better place than before the "grumpus" blog entry. I am meeting another trimmer in San Luis Obispo tomorrow and will be passing along 10 horses to her. I have another 6 or 7 that I will also pass along in the next visit, and then I will no longer travel to that area in 2010. Even though it only represents 2 days of trimming every 6 weeks, they are very long days with 4 hours + of commute each day and a LOT of trims. I've already made up 1/2 that number in new clients in Ventura County... so it won't represent a financial hardship but should help ease my workload and wear and tear on the car. Plus I have to leave for those trips quite early in the AM. And no, I am not much of a morning person! ;-P

I got an extremely sweet and thoughtful email after my grumpus entry from someone I've "known" for probably 10 years now (via email only), and I just want to say thank you to her, from the bottom of my heart. YES I am doing a lot of living, you are right!!! Your note was so kind and I just really felt so much gratitude - not to mention a big grin across my face - after reading it. Thank you, Jean!!!!!!!!!!

Grumpus

That's my word for horses who stand with their ears back and a sour look on their face... and it's my word for ME, right now. Everything is sore and I am tired, burned out and bitter.

Paddock Plans

<--- Newcastle beer with a side of Advil

The work on the horse's paddock began today. We bought railroad ties and rubber mats, screws, washers, a crowbar and a cheap saw... then the real work began.

The horses took the entire event very seriously and thwarted my attempts to keep them away from the construction zone. I tied them to the back of the corral, each with a pile of hay. While I was back there, Mario backed the truck - hard - into the corral roof post and completely destroyed one of the wheel wells of our dualy truck. Epic fail!

After digesting that this had just happened, he proceeded to bust his ass digging, dumping, carting, kicking, shoveling, sweating and swearing the materials into place. We ran out of time to get it all done in one day, but at least got a good head start on winterizing the horses area. We are going to try to finish it tomorrow, and then the DG can be dumped (and that will also need shoveling, leveling and no doubt some swearing - to get it properly done).

The horses both untied themselves within minutes and made complete pests of themselves - trying to get at the bag of pellets in the back of the truck, chewing on the wood, walking over and through everything, trying to eat the paint off the already damaged Dodge, pooping in our workspace and trying to sneak out the gate while we were wheelbarrowing in and out of it. Total micromanagers!

October Sun

The day after the rain stopped, it was in the upper 80s and the last two days have been in the mid 90s! Yesterday on the way home from trimming in San Luis Obispo was absolutely gorgeous... 78 degrees, the salty ocean air, windows down, misty pastel beauty...

:)

October Rain

Windshield view at the ranch today

We are getting an unusual early storm. It came in last night, I woke up this morning to a lovely soft soaking rain... It was really nice to just lay there and watch it quietly dripping off of the trellis and leaves in the backyard.

We head out to trim 12 horses today but only ended up doing 6, as the remaining 6 didn't have adequate shelter to work under. We grabbed some lunch at about 2pm and went out to the ranch to see how our horses were faring. I'm going to have to make some changes to the current set up of their feed and supplements, because the way it is currently relies on the fact that there is no rain for months on end. So for now I will move some things around and the trailer tack room will become the new feed room for the next 6 months. The horses covered area was nice and dry and they were happy to get a lunchtime snack of hay while Mario dug trenches to help their paddock drain more easily. This rain came before we were able to fully prep their paddock but it's good that we know what needs to be done and where.

The pic below is our front window where we hung a purple spider web Halloween decoration. The spider is green. Not that it was really intended to be, but I think it's pretty. ;-)

Overlook Trail

blooming sage near the fountain

Heading back towards Aliso from Overlook (those are Jordan's cute ears)

Today I did a nice 3 + hour trail ride with a couple friends/clients. There were some steep and some meandering climbs with views that were awesome, and the weather was really nice - high 60s to about 70, but with a crisp off shore breeze. We rode up to what is called Overlook Trail and you can see out to the ocean and islands from there, and on a really clear day you can even see waves breaking on the shore in Ventura!

Once again I just want to say how incredibly blessed I feel to have such a nice horse. Jordan just could not have been better - he carried me up and down those hills without a complaint, a spook or bad step. He walked right by cows without more than giving them a good once-over. Love him!!! :->

My friend Sue, on Newt, to the left - picture taken after first steep climb looking back towards the ranch (the green towards the right of the pic are the orchards near the stables)

A Few New Things

After being introduced to pizza-at-home yumminess thanks to Steph & Nicks awesome pizza stone, Mario and I got one of our own. Mario has made several delicious creations! This one had mozarella, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, tomatoes and artichoke on it ... and it ROCKED! I washed it down with Wingnut zinfandel from World Market. (which I have learned to my surprise is not represented on the east coast - why??)

I ordered Mario is own Hoof Jack, and it arrived today. What I think it means is that he's really an official hoof trimmer. With 2 stands (and 2 rasps, and 2 nippers and 2 hoof picks and 2 aprons and 2 sets of knives... phew! collected over the months) we can now truly work side-by-side. Before, one would have to do something else while the other rolled, or rasped down clinches from shoes or whatever.

I got my very own big blue wheelbarrow. Wheelbarrel? (cause that is how I pronounce it!) For the last 6 months or so we've been using one of the crappy, rusty, small one wheeled barrows from the ranch. Said crappy dealies are located 1/2 way across the ranch from my horses and I have to replace them to be a good barn citizen of course. MY wheelbarrow (named Jackson) is bigger and has two wheels on the front so you can wheel one handed while the other opens the gate to the horse's corral, or holds the pitchfork while heading to the next poo pile. Ahh... it's the little things I tell ya.

This morning around 9 we took the dogs for a walk along the Ventura Promenade. It was a beautiful morning and everyone was out enjoying the day and even a bit of surf... It's always a great way to start a day off.

Afterwards Mario went golfing and I went to check out a friend/client's trainer. Even though my horses live at a cowboy ranch, I am still a dressage rider at heart, and I miss the partnership and yes, discipline, of dressage. My favorite trainer has moved to Santa Ynez and even though she gives lessons in Santa Barbara, it's still at least an hour each way travel time... Not to say I wouldn't do it again, because Julie is worth it, but I wanted to check out this other trainer giving a lesson and see how it went. The facility is a place I used to board years ago. After a 250,000 renovation, it's hardly recognizable!! Truly impressive, but they used adobe and fountains, all native plants and lots of landscaping, so it has this relaxing organic vibe to it... I brought Bailey along (Bogey and Dylan were too pooped from their morning walk) and we got to watch a nice lesson. Unfortunately the trainer was using a headset with the rider so I could barely hear anything that was said, which is definitely a draw back when

evaluating her training... so I pretty much just had to go by what I saw the horse and rider doing. All in all I thought it was worth scheduling a test lesson with the trainer and trailering Jordan over, we exchanged cards and I am supposed to be contacting her. Should be fun!

Later this afternoon I went and rode Jordan who was a super good boy. I feel so blessed to have him... even after 2 weeks off I just hopped on and away we went. He goes right to this relaxed swinging trot on the bit... He makes me look good. ;-) Miss Faith's time is coming, I want to get her really back under saddle this winter. She is not like Jordan, though - she wants solid consistency, and I just know I can't offer her that right now. But soon! Because I'm working on taking my life back a little with the trimming schedule. I am practicing saying, "no". GULP!

one of our horse's water tank koi fish

ugh - sorry everyone - I messed up the formatting on this post and don't have the patience to go back and fix it. Hope you can sort it out and still understand what's what!

The Swan ~ for Nancy

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross

Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings

Like the stretching light of the river?

And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?

~ Mary Oliver

in loving memory and in honor of Nancy Malarney
passed from this lifetime 5 years ago today
March 24, 1947 ~ October 2, 2004