A Polar Bear in my barn!

I was standing in my barn looking at a Polar Bear when it dawned on me there are no Polar Bears around here. And since that Polar Bear had been standing there with one foot up in the air for a very long time I concluded that it was not a real Polar Bear but a photographic image of a Polar Bear.

Should have had a sign beside it that said ‘This is not a real Polar Bear’. But I guess that would not have been true because it was real Polar Bear just not a real LIVE Polar Bear. Oh yes there is a difference. One will just wave at you all day and the other one probably would not.

So I was standing there looking at that picture of a Polar Bear and I got to wondering why there was a picture of a Polar Bear in my barn. I asked the House Mouse but she didn’t know why it was there only that the human girl had put it there.

If the fog ever lifts long enough for us to go outside and look around I think I will try to find her and ask her why she put a picture of a Polar Bear in my barn.

Cold Front

A cold front blew across a couple of days ago. It's winter time so it's naturally going to get colder since my half of the world is leaning away from the sun. Bet you didn't know a horse would know such a thing now did you? Well I do. I know it because I lean a little bit when it first happens. You have to look at me pretty close to see it but I am leaning just smallest amount. In the mornings I lean a little bit one way and then in the afternoon I lean a little bit the other way. I'm pretty much over that now that it is December. It will happen again in the Springtime if you remember you maybe can see me doing it.

When it starts getting cold is when Santa flies his sled pulled by reindeer all around the world in one night. My human man tries to do that too every year but in his truck. He and the girl human go to visit their relatives making a big circle just like Santa does but on a much smaller scale of course but in the same length of time. It's ok with me and my horse, The Pretty Boy Trouper, because they just leave one day and come back the next day. We don't even miss a meal.......not that anyone could tell huh.

Oh that reminds me.........Ho Ho Ho Merrrrry Christmas!!!!!!!!

My Pretty Boy is a 'minder'

My Pretty Boy is a 'minder' he does what he is told to do when he is told to do it pretty much all the time. Oh he has his moments but he just givens in too easy I think. If she tells him 'I'm not playing with you.' he will stop whatever it is he doing. Not me, No not me. I'm Precious. That means I'm special. If she tells me 'I'm not playing with you' I hear 'Do that about three more times then stop.' The most my horse the Pretty Boy does is snort.

Now his snorting can be very very serious but it is just a snort. And he has been known to throw his head up and down too but not often. I don't do that. That would make me dizzy I think. Not to mention he does it when he has a halter and rope on so he could get hurt if he's not careful banging himself with that rope hookup. No I don't throw my head. I have tried snorting like he does a couple of times but I'm not very good at it. And after the last time I don't think I will do it again.

The human girl came out to get me to take me into my big red barn so she could give me some medicine for my runny nose. She put a halter on me and hooked on a lead rope and that's when it happened before I even knew it was going to happen. I sneezed. It was good for me but not so good for my human girl who just happened to be standing in front of me telling me how pretty I looked with my halter on. She never said anything after I accidently sneezed on her. She just took hold of my rope and walked me to the barn then she gave me my medicine and took the rope off of me. I put him head down so she could take my halter off but she said no she was going to leave it on till after she had a shower with water this time. She didn't look very happy.

But back to my horse the Pretty Boy. He is having hoof issues the last couple of days. I don't know why since we were doing so well I thought but anyway his ankle swelled up and he had to soak in a bucket of warm epsom salt water. He didn't want to. She said he had to. But he wasn't sure about that. He let her put his foot in the bucket then he took it right out. She said 'you are going to put your foot in that bucket so you might as well do it now.' So he did. But he threw his head up and down to show he wasn't happy about it. She told him You stop that. You don't need to be doing that. That's enough of that. So he stopped doing it. And he just stood there. I stood beside him for awhile and then I walked away. He wanted to come with me but then he remember he had been told to stay where he was so he did because he's a 'minder'.

Pretty Boy go that way and my Pretty Boy will go that way. The little girl was riding him and wanted to ride him all by herself. Ok you ride him by yourself. I was walking behind them so I am the only that saw the human girl telling my Pretty Boy which way she wanted him to go my moving her hand.

Yes My Pretty Boy is a very good 'Minder'.

I thought I saw you seeing me

I thought I saw you seeing me but I might have been mistaken.

It was a beautiful fall morning, the leaves were falling like rain from the trees. Then a big gust of wind came which swirled a bunch of leaves round and round up into the air ever higher.

And that was when I thought I saw you standing there amongst those swirling leaves seeing me.

The sight of you brought such joy to my heart.

Oh to see you again. To touch you. To be able to feel your breath warm against my skin.

But it wasn't you. Not really you. Just a thought of you. That's all I have left. My thoughts of you and a dull ache in my heart that doesn't go away.

And there goes another animal...

I was standing out there just not doing anything because I can when I saw something I have not seen before. Right there walking across our pasture was an Hippopotomus. Yes. A Blue Hippopotomus with White spots. Of course I could hardly believe what I was seeing since as I said I have heard about Hippopotomus but have never seen one. But there one was. It had stopped to get a little of our hay to eat. I walked over to speak to the Hippopotomus in our pasture.

I don't know about all Hippopotomuss but this one spoke very clearly. He told me he was on his way to visit his sister and her family in the Land of Wayupnorth. I wonder how many animals have sisters that live Wayupnorth? He said his name and asked me what mine was. I told him that since I have never seen or talked to an Hippopotomus before I did not know if I was going to be able to say his name so he told me his friends called him PAWPAW. I told him my friends call me Pretty Boy.

He went on to tell me that he was from the Island of Animalopolis which when he told me where it was I now know that it is near to Squatamahahalala Land. But PAWPAW said he has never been to the Land of Squatmahahalala. He said that usually his sister and her family usually come to see him but this year they have a new baby Hippopotomus so he is going to visit them instead. It is his first trip up to the place called Wayupnorth. He said it will take him about four days to walk up there. His sister and her husband now have four Hippopotomus of their own since they just had that little one recently and it is very hard for a family that large to travel all that distance. When he gets there he hopes that he will get to stay maybe three months with them. Maybe, he said, he might find some work while he is there because that hurricane that came thru here also went through that part of the land with a lot of rain and wind. Why he says there was one man there that lost 10 acres of trees all just that one day. That is a lot of trees that PAWPAW might be able to help move for the man.

I had to ask him many questions since I didn't know if I would be seeing him again. I asked him if Hippopotomus could swim or if they had built a bridge so that is how he came to be able to get off the Island of Animalopolis and he said that yes Hippopotomus can swim but that they did have a bridge. But he said that bridge was damaged when the hurricane came on shore from out in the water so he swam over. It is not a long swim said PAWPAW and he pointed to my pond to show me about how much water he had to cross. It was only about three times as much as my pond is wide. And I asked him if he had any pictures of his sister and her family but he said no he had left all his pictures on the Island of Animalopolis

He went to take a nap. I hope to talk to him more after he has rested.

Another story by The Pretty Boy

Hi Everyone! I was just pretending to be standing in the shade where my favorite Pine tree used to be when a Giraffe stopped out there at the East gate. Been having that happen more often now that my Pine tree is gone and the top of the big ole Hickory tree is gone. Lot's of Giraffe's stopping to look and see what they can see. I know because I have seen it myself that my front pasture sure does look different. Did you ever notice it is sort of shaped like a bowl? I never did notice that before. I think the lowest place is where the Wildlife refuge used to be. Boy was that a disappointment. I thought for sure there was at least one bear living in that big pile of brush those humans made after that hurricane came thru here three years ago. But there was no bear in there. Just Bunny rabbits. Maybe there was a bear or some deer that lived in there at night. That could be it. And when they came home that night they were all standing around wondering where their house went. I don't know that for sure I'm just thinking out loud. I know it was funny watching that big ole human man become upset when his Daddy put that mouse snake into the back of his dump truck. We don't mind those snakes around here. I worry more about the mouse running around than the snake that would eat it. A little mouse or a big rat running in front of me could knock me off course and that could be bad if I am heading for my big red barn to get me some feed. The quicker I get to my barn the quicker I get to eat.

The house mouse says sometimes I have to take a breath and start a new paragraph so that's what I just did.

So now where was I anyway? Oh I was talking about going to my big red barn to get something to eat. No. I think what I was talking about to begin with was that Giraffe that was out there at the East Gate when I was pretending to stand in the shade of my used to be there Pine tree. Yes that is what I began to talk about that Giraffe. Giraffe's have very long necks so they can stand outside of the gate and see a lot of stuff. They have long legs too so you put long legs and a long neck on the same animal and you have an animal that can see things a long way off and they can reach stuff that I can't reach. I am a pretty big horse but not as big as a Giraffe.

Well I can't stand in here in the barn talking any more right now so I'll see you later..................Try to remember where I left off and I'll tell you more when I see you next time.

mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are biting me! They are biting me all over me. Not so much the last couple of days since the weather has been cooler but before then and a lot! The bites on my sides are the worst because they are easy for me to scratch on a tree. The human girl put some of my horse's, Pretty Boy, medicine on my one side for a couple of days. She uses hydrogen peroxide on him sometimes. Now she is putting antiseptic mouth wash on me because I have scratched a couple of my mosquito bites into sores. Oh yes they itch that bad. Well not really that bad but it is just easy to scratch them like I said before. She sprays me all over with fly spray after she treats individual spots on me and then sometimes later after that she sprays me down with the mouthwash. I don't even know what I smell like anymore but I know it's not a horse!

Speaking of not a horse. Am I the only one that saw that Ostrich the other day? That was one funny looking animal and I do not know what it was doing on the other side of my fence. I know those people over there and they do not have any big birds like that. They just have our road dog Pansy. Well I saw an ostrich over there the other day I know I did. It was walking away from my fence towards that fake deer they have standing out there behind their house for some reason I do not know. And why do they have that fake deer? Fake deers, ostrich's, elephants all seen in the last few weeks.

Maybe it is because the weather is changing. It will be winter soon or at least Fall. The leaves are falling off the trees but not because of cold weather. No they are falling off because it hasn't rained in a while now. It rained a lot that first hurricane but not so much that one called IKE. The wind IKE brought with it was too strong for the rain to hit the ground here it was hitting the ground way way over there instead. So the leaves are not turning pretty fall colors they are just turning brown and falling off the trees.

Speaking of trees..........That human girl put the twiggy part of the ends of the downed tree branches all around my nut tree. I didn't know why so I stood there beside her till she told me. She says that the whole top of that tree is still sort of attached up there at the top and it could and will fall one of these days. She says she doesn't want me to be standing under it enjoying the shade when that happens. OK fine I will find me a new favorite shade tree to stand under or maybe I will just stand right where I am till the shade comes to me. Yes that sounds like a plan. I will just stand here till the sun moves enough so that the shade from my favorite nut shade tree gets to me.

Elephant story

The Pretty Boy is going to try to tell a story about an Elephant that came visiting the other day..........

Ok. I will try to tell you what happened but I don't usually talk a lot so bear with me.

I was standing out in my pasture like I do sometimes and there came an Elephant. It was blue with white polka dots all over it. I have never seen an Elephant so I was surprised but I managed to say 'Hello'.

The Elephant said 'Hello to you!'. He talked a little different than I do but we could understand each other. I told him I was called Pretty Boy and asked him what he is called. He said his name was Maboochowa but that I could just call him Boo.

Boo the Elephant said he was just passing thru on his way to see his sister who lives North of here in Wayupnorth Land. He said it takes him about four days to get there from where he lives in the land of Animamawaawaa South of here. His sister and her family usually come to see him but she just recently had a baby Elephant so it is hard for the family to travel right now. Since there was recently a Hurricane in the land of Animamawaawaa Boo decided it was a good time to go visit his sister and her family. He said that she and her husband have four little Elephants now so he is an Uncle four times over.

Boo was looking at our pond the whole time we were talking and I asked him if he liked to go swimming and if he did he was welcome to swim in our pond. I told him that my horse, Precious, loves to go into the pond and splash. Boo said that yes he likes to swim and he likes to splash and would love to get into the water if I didn't mind since he had been walking a very long time. I called to my horse that we had a new friend that would like to go swimming in her pond and she was happy to have the company. You should have seen those two in the pond splishing and splashing and just having so much fun the House Mouse said she could hear them laughing clear inside the big red barn. I don't much like the splashing so I was just enjoying watching them play.

When they finished they both wanted to have dirt on them so they were big mud things and looked very different from the nice clean animals I had seen just moments before playing in the pond.

We all went into the big red barn to eat some hay and take a nap because swimming and playing in the water and watching them play in the water is very hard work.

Latest news from the Land of Squatamala

House Mouse here with news from the Land of Squatamala......The Grand Prince and Grand Princess are staying with their parents at the Queens winter home. The Land of Squatamahahalala was devistated by Hurricane Ike.

This is very sad news since on a recent visit to the land of Squatamala the Grand Prince was given wood by the Queen and had to about building up the whole area around the Palace in Squatamahahalala Land. He and his subjects had built buildings and roads and made improvements to existing buildings using the material the Queen had so graciously provided him with.

As they have been staying with the Queen since before the Hurricane hit they have not yet survaed the damage themselves but Sir Rodger's best friend who lives in the neighboring village of La Port says all is lost.

This will be a hardship for the people's of the Land of Squatamahahalala but knowing the Royal family it will be taken care of quickly and effienctly as soon as the Kings men say it is safe to travel back down there.

That is all I know at this time I will try to keep you updated. House Mouse signing off.........

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike came thru here September 13, 2008 as a tropical storm. It was very windy. Two of our favorite stand in the shade trees are ruined. The near 90 foot tall Pine tree is layed over on the ground it’s roots looking like a big plate of spaghetti falling off the table. The human girl says the good news is that the top of it fell right onto the wild life refuge so there will be less clean up. The storm also took the top off the beautiful old Black Walnut tree. Now that is going to be a real mess to clean up that’s for sure.

There are some Cedar trees that lost some branches and some of the very over grown Privet hedges broke in place. Oh and some Chinaberry Tree limbs are broken also. BIG branches broken off those Cedar and Chinaberry trees. The human girl was going to move some of them off our trail this morning. She got one of the Cedar tree branches moved out of the way but the Chinaberry tree branch was just too big for her. She said she needed a pole saw. My horse and I think she needs a crew of men with big machines.

The human man said that he is going to call another human man with the portable sawmill to come make him some lumber boards out of the pine tree and the black walnut tree parts then use the rest for firewood. Not the pine tree parts for firewood just the black walnut.

My horse, Pretty Boy, and I are going to miss the shade from that big Pine Tree. And it will be long while before the Black Walnut is better but at least it is still standing. This is the second storm that tried to take that tree out. The last storm a couple of years ago busted a big hunk of it off on the southeast side. This storm snapped the whole top of it and some on the northwest side. We don’t care what it looks like we are just happy it is standing out there in our front pasture.

No one got hurt and we are thankful for that.

The hurricane didn't get us

Writting this before the hurricane gets here for publishing after it does. If you don't hear from us for a few days don't you be worried. We will be fine. We are in a safe place. If the electricity goes out it could be three weeks before it gets back on so it may be real quiet for awhile. Just don't be scared of the quiet. Quiet is good. Gives a body time to rest and recouperate and regroup.

So don't you worry.......That hurricane didn't get us!!

Settle back and let me tell you a story

It was another quiet morning here on the farm. Getting ready for
hurricane Ike was all done. The human girl was in the big house we
were in our pasture when Randall pulled in. My Pretty Boy likes
Randall so he sort of went over to him. Then the human girl came out
and put a rope on him and started leading him. She didn't want him to
have to turn on his bad foot so she walked him out a ways and then
turned him. She was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time and
got the side of her foot stepped on. Since she had not taken the time
to put on proper work boots it was pretty much just horse hoof to
jeans contact down her ankle and foot. 'OH YOU ARE ON MY
FOOOOOOTTTTT!!!!' she pushed him off. You see us horses step on uneven
stuff all the time so we don't know it when we step on something we
shouldn't oughta be stepping on tell someone tells us. She took my
horse on over to where Randall was ready to work on his hooves and she
was saying some very colorful words while she was doing it to. A
little later she pulled her jeans leg up and looked to see what had
been done. 'Oh it's already turning purple!' she said. Randall looked
surprised 'It's turning purple?' To which she said 'Yes. What color
did you think it would turn after the horse stepped on it?!!!' He
laughed but it wasn't like a good belly hahaha laugh it was more like
a 'oh my' laugh.

So Randall got done doing my horse's hooves for him and said how nice
he looked then it was my turn. I don't wear a halter so the human girl
just put a rope around my neck. Randall was back there on my third to
last leg when I bit her. 'OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!!' Randall said 'Did she
bite you I heard her lips smack.' 'Well she tried to but I think she
might have been biting at a fly she wouldn't bite me.' the human girl
said. And then Randall sort of snorted and said 'No she was biting you
for sure. She wanted to sit down on me and I would let her so she bit
you since she couldn't reach me.' My human girl told me that was just
rude and I should do that anymore and I probably won't but I could so
I make no promises.

Then we both, me and my horse, had pretty hooves and the two humans
were standing talking. My horse got real happy for some reason and did
a happy dance even. We figure what ever Randall did to that bad foot
made it feel a whole lot better because he was one happy dancing
horse. The human girl said she might have enjoyed it more if she
hadn't been right in the dang middle of it when the danceing started.
But I know she was happy to see my horse feeling good. I laid my head
on Randall to Thank him for being so good to us and then he said he
had to go on down the road.

Now we have pretty feet and a hurricane is coming. Well isn't that special.

The Castle in the land of Squatamala

Do you remember me telling you about the Land of Squatamala and how the King of Squatamala was building the Queen of Squatamala a castle? Well there has been much work done on the Castle and surrounding land so much so that the Grand Prince and Grand Princess were given a tour by the Queen just this past weekend. The Grand Prince was given a gift by the Queen of some special blocks of wood she had gathered herself just for him. Of course he was thrilled with the gift and told the Queen so. The Grand Princess also recieved some special blocks of wood but being so grown up Grand Princess who knows how much the Grand Prince loves to build things the way his Grand TeTaw the King of Squatamala does she gave her blocks to him. (a note from the house mouse: whew that was a lot of words and I am not completely sure Precious meant for them to be all put into one sentence but she was so excited about remembering that she just spilled all those words out at one time so that is the way I typed them.)

Ever had one of those days....

Ever had one of those days when there's not a lot of sunshine but it's not real cloudy? And it's not hot but it's not really cool either? One of those days when there is just the right amount of a breeze and you can see the fall flowers starting to poke their heads out of the ground? Well that is the day we are having today.

Just a nice day for nothing to be happening. There is no traffic out on the oil top, no tractors running anywhere that we can hear. Just a quiet peaceful day.

A day for good things.

My horse, Pretty Boy, and I are thinking good thoughts all day today to keep the good energy flowing. Sometimes you have to do that. Sometimes you just have to.

Yesterday we had a lot of fun. It was a bright sunshiny day after it rained five inches in two hours that is. You know me I never miss playing in mudpuddles. My horse is very smart he knows not to follow me too close when it has rained because he could get splish splashed big time. In the afternoon yesterday I went down into our pond and stirred me up a bunch of mud since mine had gotten all washed off in that rain. Mud is like about the best thing ever except maybe for the splashing in the water that stirs up the mud that is. It really takes a lot of practice to know how much to splash the water before it sufficiently stirred up to leave a nice thick layer of mud all over me and this year I have gotten a lot of practice.

I've heard that another hurricane is headed for Texas. Last time we didn't even get any rain but we might this time. That would be really cool because my fall Flowers need a lot of water to make a really great showing. I know which ones smell the best too so I have been watching for them to pop up. Sometimes my horse and I do not watch where we are going and step on a flower but we don't get in trouble since we are not doing it on purpose. People and us Horse's are what's important not things. Things are nice but not as important.

Well I thought that human girl might be coming out here to give us some lunch but since she hasn't yet I guess I will go back out and play some more in the nice weather.

Now she broke two things

Our human girl is on a roll! Last week maybe week before last she broke her four wheeler machine and my Pretty Boy was happy about that you know. And today she was out mowing our front pasture. Not really sure she was mowing since she did that using the big blue tractor yesterday but she was out there chopping up the cut grass even if she wasn't actually mowing it. and then we heard something POP so we ran tail up away from that crazy machine with the human girl on it. It wasn't one of those back fire pops she makes it do sometimes which is just wrong but she always says she's sorry when she does that. This POP was not that kind of a pop and she didn't say she was sorry. She said some other words that I am not used to hearing said that loudly. Oh yes she did she turned off the mower blade thing and stood up on that machine. And then she said 'OH NO YOU DID NOT JUST DO THAT! YOU DID NOT JUST BREAK! I AM SO SERIOUS THAT YOU BETTER JUST BE KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' She meant it too but that machine was not listening to her. She started it back up and she pushed that mower lever to the engaged postion and nothing happened. And that is when she said those words she is not supposed to say way loud. She said
'WELL CRABAPPLES!!!!!!!!' Now me and my horse don't know what that means but we like apples. Only when she say it like that we know she is not talking about nice sweet apples like we like to eat so we moved on away down into the lower pasture thru the woods. She took her little golden tractor over to my big red barn and I could hear her telling the House Mouse that she had broken the machine and didn't know how to fix it and that she didn't know why it had broken. She said she thought it was a belt had come off because that happened once before when she was doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing. But NOOOOOOOOOO she said 'OH NO! That big shiny spring is broken on one end. I can not fix that. Man o man that's not good not good at all.'

I'm sure my human man can fix it no trouble if he just gets her a new spring is what I told the house mouse when she had gone back over to the big house mumbling stuff not suitable for horse's ears. My human man can fix stuff and if he can't he knows other humans that can fix it. This shouldn't be a problem. I will tell that to my human girl when she comes back out here to my big red barn later when she brings us some afternoon feed.

It will be ok. No sense crying about it now it's already broke.

I'll give her a hug and tell my horse to be special nice to her. We'll take care of her. That's what we do we take care of each other.

Time Passes

Time Passes quicker than you might think it is. One minute everything is beautiful the flowers are blooming and then they fade and are gone.

Flowers will come back. Our loved ones do not. Things get easier but they never really get better. I miss my horse Mousey ever as much today as I did the day he left the land. Every day I have a tear run down my face I miss him so much. I let the human girl think it is just sand got in my eye but when she wipes it away and hugs my neck I know she knows the truth.

No, things will never get better and on days like today I even wonder if they will get easier...............

Hurricane update

The update about the hurricane is that there isn't one. The human girl and the house mouse have been busy busy around here for two days getting ready for that hurricane that didn't happen. Better to be prepared is what the House Mouse told me. They have been moving stuff up off the ground inside my big red barn and making canals for rain water to run down. The human girl made two dams. One across the big barn door and one across the side door. She told us this morning that were holding.

Me and my horse, Pretty Boy, are wet but that's okay. The rain hasn't been too bad. Mostly just rain no storms near here. There is about a half a barrel of rain water out there. Pretty Boy keeps checking it to see if maybe it has food in it. He's not really hungry he just likes food.

You should have seen him get silly yesterday morning when the human girl called us up to my big red barn to eat. We were very far away when she whistle so she didn't wait around to see if we were coming but we saw her go in the door to the barn. We waited out front. I don't know why we waited out front because our feed never comes out that front door but with all the trenching and sand bagging and this and that that has been going on feed could have come out the front door I suppose. But anyway we waited out there. Of course she went out the right door to where our feed barrels are and then she had to come looking for us. Well my Pretty Boy thought he was going to take a short cut thru the cute little car parking area. I didn't follow him in there. I stood outside that area waiting to see what was going to happen. Sure enough here came the human girl.

'What are you doing in there? Why don't you go around to where I am? No you can't go that way turn around go out the way you came in? oh do I need to open this gate? I don't think so you will want me to do it all the time if I do. You just turn your self around and come into the pasture the right way. Go on now. PRECIOUS you show this boy how to get out of that pen please.' So I did show him how. I walked in a ways and then turned around and then I looked back at him. He finally understood that he was not going to get his way. We walked all the way around like was are supposed to do and there was the human girl very happy to see us and she had us some feed too!

Later I explained to my horse why we go around the fence the way we do
to get our feed. I told him if we go the way he wanted to go this morning then the human girl has to put our feed down and undo the gate and let us out and then close the gate and then get out feed with us trying to beat her to it. But if we go along that fence we are supposed to go along then by the time we get to our feed barrels she will have our feed already in them and all we have to do is eat. And another thing I told him, now that he is feeling better, is that we do not run at the human girl for our feed. Oh no. That is a bad idea. That girl will high tail it into the barn with our feed and hide if we run at her. Not a good idea to scare the person who is giving you your feed. So I told him you walk like a gentleman and what she says. He's a good horse so I think he understood. I don't think he really meant to go into that pen. He just got to feeling better and forgot where he was for minute. Then he could see her but he couldn't get to her so he got a little excited. It all worked out okay for all of us. The human girl calls that 'A good day' and then 'Thank you for not killing me.' she says as she leaves the area in one piece.

So here we are today the day of the big hurricane hitting and only just wet out here. It is going to be wet out here for at least five days I hear. But wet out here is better than that prediction of 5 to 10 inches of rain an hour that had that human girl and House Mouse digging ditches and making dams.

It's cool out here too. Not a hot and muggy rain. More like a 'Get the children and lets us PLAY in the rain day'

I'm done talking now. Just one reminder that if you think about and plan for it you don't have to worry about it.

Pretty Boy is getting better

Saturday August 23........I just ran in here for a minute to tell you that my horse's foot is a little better today and tomorrow it will be even better. Stinks to high heaven and that means the yucky stuff is draining out.
WAAAAHOOOOO! He feels much better today. Even ran a little bit when he thought that human girl was riding her four wheeler. She wasn't she was mowing but at first he didn't know because he was in our big red barn. Shoot out of there like a cannon when he heard her coming down the outside wall of our barn he did. It was pretty funny. Okay I'm done talking now. Too hot to be inside I have to go back out and find me a shade tree.....

Sunday morning UPDATE..........

Poor Pretty Boy is getting better. I knew he could do it with the human girls help. This morning his foot is not nearly as swollen as yesterday and he is putting weight on it when he is just standing YEA HIM! Tomorrow has the chance of being even better.

No matter what that is just the way it is every day. Tomorrow has the chance of being even better.

Just Ran in To Say

I just ran in here for a minute to tell you that my horse's foot is a
little better today and tomorrow it will be even better. Stinks to
high heaven and that means the yucky stuff is draining out.
WAAAAHOOOOO! He feels much better today. Even ran a little bit when he
thought that human girl was riding her four wheeler. She wasn't she
was mowing but at first he didn't know because he was in our big red
barn. Shot out of there like a cannon when he heard her coming down
the outside wall of our barn he did. It was pretty funny. Okay I'm
done talking now. Too hot to be inside I have to go back out and find
me a shade tree.....

My horse Pretty Boy

I am thinking about changing my horse's name to 'Poor Boy'. I probably won't but that is what I say to him a lot. His bad foot swelled up a little day before yesterday. The human girl soaked it in warm epsom salts that day and yesterday twice. This morning it is even worse not better. I feel so sad for him. He just keeps going like there is nothing wrong so I know he really isn't suffering but it just seems like it would have to hurt. He favors it just a little bit. Not like when he first came to live with me. No not like that. Just a little bit. This is about the third time since I got him that this has
happened.

When the human girl was out her this morning with his soaking bucket she was looking at the bottom of his foot and I heard her tell him that it sure was looking better down there. She told told him that under it there it was getting much better. That it was filling in real nice and strong. Oh well that's a good thing is what I was thinking because the other part of it is swollen! Couldn't she see that? Well I guess she could since she had brought the soaking bucket out and was putting his foot into it but still it seems odd that she would say it looks better. Maybe it was the part that she was looking at that is better. Oh that must be it. The bottom part, the part that comes in
contact with the ground is getting better. I wonder why the bottom and the top can't look better at the same time? Not for me to know I guess.

It may be a good thing that it has been raining ever since I said how dry it was out here in my pasture because that makes the ground soft for my Pretty Boy to walk on. I'm sure he will be better later today or maybe in the morning between now and then he has my heart and my prayers.

Be careful what you wish for........

......You might just get it. My pond is about full now. My horse, Pretty Boy, and I were standing on the side of it this morning discussing how nice and full of rain water it is. We didn't go into it. No there was no reason to get into the pond to get wet. We are already all wet from two or three days of rain. It rained at night too my horse tells me. It has for the most part been a wonderful beneficial rain. Gentle enough to soak in but enough to fill our pond pretty much.

My horse's hurt hoof is looking pretty good these days too. Looks to me like it is growing out nicely. That human girl does something different to it on different days. Sometimes he is a little contrary with her but she is very good at holding her ground. She tells him no no when he tries to take his foot away from her. This morning she told him 'If you will just be patient for a moment I will be done with you'. He held very still except for his mouth. He kept eating his feed. He is actually quite talented at eating standing on three legs. I am such a big girl I am not so sure I would be able to do that. I prefer to have someone brushing me when I am being made to stand on three legs. I supposed I could stand on three legs and eat at the same time but being as curious as I am I want to be able to see what some
human is doing without being distracted by eating. I wouldn't hurt anyone, not on purpose anyway, but I don't know if I could be as nice as my horse, the Pretty Boy, is. I suppose since he got injured maybe almost two years ago he is used to the humans doing things to him and is happy that it is just his hoof that is not completely healed. He can walk and trot and even run if he wants to and he can eat so what more could a horse want. He says he is just happy to be here. Maybe we should all try to keep that attitude. Maybe we should all Just be Happy to be Here.

Hooray for Hay

We are very happy that the human girl put us some hay in our big red barn! We stayed in here pretty much all night last night and haven't even gone out yet this morning. She already came out here and gave us some feed so we don't even have to go wake our dog up so she will start barking and wake the human girl up. Life is SWEET!

It started raining around four yesterday afternoon. Around three there was a mist in the air but it wasn't really a good rain till four. Been raining off and on since then. Only one time about eight o'clock last night was there any lightening. Yep. Just rain rain rain YEA YEA YEA! Going to rain all day today too just as soon as it decides it is going to.

The human girl said she was going to be in the big house playing her tv games today except that she had to get new batteries for her controllers and they have to charge for at least 13 and half hours. My horse, Pretty Boy, and I are wondering how long it is going to take her to remember she has two or three other games she could play while those batteries are charging.

This is pretty odd weather for the middle of August.

butterflies

Have I told you about Butterflies before? I love Butterflies and believe that they are Angels sent to comfort you if one were to land on you I would say you were being kissed by an Angel. Some people and also some other horse's may see them different but we are all entitled to our own opinions and that is a for sure fact. Butterflies fly free. They dance even when there is no wind to help them. They are just happy happy happy all the time.

Today I saw two of them doing a Waltz. Oh yes I am sure it was a Waltz just like Cinderella and her Prince were doing in that movie. They twirled high and low round and round they went and from here to there and back they were totally into doing their happy dance from beginning to end no matter what.

The human girl walked right through the middle of their dance floor before she knew they were putting on a show for us. When she saw what we were looking at she came to stand with my horse, Pretty Boy, and I to watch them finish their dance.

It was most beautiful. We don't know what it was about but it was quite complicated and must have taken them a very long time to practice it to be able to do it so well.

Maybe they were celebrating the cooler temperatures we seem to be having this week which are very appreciated for sure compared to those 100 degree days we have been having. And there was a little sprinkle of rain this morning that washed off most of my mud coat I have been wearing for two days. The human girl brushed me some but she said I had mud clean to my skin and she would have to give me a bath with a brush to get it all. I LOVE to have baths but she means that she is going to do that if it doesn't rain this weekend like the weatherman said it was going to. He said it was going to rain two to four inches. That should be enough to rinse me down and put some water in my pond so I can play in some good mushy mud come Monday. I can only hope.

Which is exactly what love does...................LOVE HOPES.....................

Little Frogs have moved into the little decorative birdhouse on the front porch. Oh how cute is that!

The Pretty Boy 'Trooper'

The Ground is dry.......

So I was standing out here thinking about how very hot and dry it is. I do not like it to be dry. I like to play in the water in the pond. But there isn’t a lot of it in there right now. If I had some pigs they would be able to be in there now playing in the mud. But I don’t have any pigs. We used to have some. They were little Pot Belly Pigs. First one big was big not little his name was ‘Iggy the Piggy’. Then we got some other ones that made other ones. Now that is something really cute to look at. Baby pigs. They look like baby elephants with no trunk. Cute cute cute. But pigs was not what I was standing out here thinking about. What I was standing out here thinking about is cracks in the ground because it is so dry.

Cracks so big a baby pig could fall in. No probably not that big. But if you were trying to play marbles you might have to play somewhere else. But anyway I was wondering how deep those cracks go. Are they just surface cracks? I have put my big head down as close as I could get my nose and tried to see down in there but it gets dark real quick when you are a giant horse standing over a little crack trying to see down into it and your big ole belly is blocking out the sunlight. Maybe the human girl could bring that spotlight out here and shine it down into one of those cracks so I could see how deep they go.

I think there is a whole other world down in there. That’s where all the moles and gophers and stuff live is down under the ground that I walk on. Oh and Grub worms and Cicadas and June bugs and crickets and grasshoppers and and and well I don't know what all lives underground but there is a lot of stuff I'm pretty sure. They probably have families and aunts and uncles and well you get the idea. There are probably stores too. Maybe not stores like the humans go to but areas where different families or groups store their stuff. I wonder if they share with each other or if everyone knows ‘that is not your stuff your stuff is over there’. Me and my horse know what is our stuff and what is not our stuff. I know that his feed barrel is the one on the North end of our big red barn and it is blue and he knows that white one out in our pasture is mine. Oh he will walk by and look in it but when it is feeding time he knows to go to his barrel not mine.

Looks like rain might make it here sometime between now and Christmas. We are very excited about that.

The human girl is out in the front pasture mowing. She said there are weeds out there. Not the thing to be cutting for hay anyway she says she says that is her front yard. Do you think she knows it’s sprinkling?

Might have new children to play with

Got word that we, my horse and I, might have some new children to play with soon. That would be nice because we have really missed Levi and little sister singing to us in the mornings.

We might get to see the Grandgirls of our friends who were up here visiting a few weeks ago. YES! They might be going to move up this way real close by. Like up the road around the corner and then up the road a bit more. That would be so great to have children come see us again. We just love playing with little children and giving them horsey back rides!

And these little Grandgirls I am talking about are just full of love. They jump out of the truck and hit the ground running to see us. So far the humans have been able to catch them before they get to us. But me and my horse, The Pretty Boy, are probably going to have to get used to those squeels and running leg hugs.

House Mouse was telling me that her friend recently got a horse for bigger Grandgirl to ride. It is dead broke which means no matter what she won't move till she is told to. I bet that Grandgirl is real excited today with it being Saturday she is probably right now at her Grandparents house looking at that new horse. Very exciting times going on in all this heat and dryness that's for sure.

Okay I'm going back out under the shade tree now. Talk to you later..........

Trooper aka Pretty Boy

August First

No measurable rain can be remembered for the whole month of July. Not totally true because some rain drops fell and you could measure in-between them. That is good news and bad news. The only part of it that is good news is that hay that got cut did not get rained on. The whole rest of it is bad news.

And I have just one more thing to say today..........

IT'S JUST TOO HOT FOR WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shade trees

Shade trees are wonderful things. Any tree pretty much is a wonderful thing. We can take 'Tickle Tongue' trees off that list but pretty much every other tree is a wonderful thing. 'Tickle Tongue' trees have thorns sticking out all over them. ALL over them. And they do not tickle anyone except the person that is not getting touched by one of them. But back to Shade trees. Right now here at the end of July there is a great need for shade trees. It is hot and it is dry out here in my world. Even my pond is getting dry. Not all the way dry just not a swimming hole anymore. So I stand under the Shade trees. I have to go out in the sun to graze of course but mostly I stand in the shade.

The water in the watering tank is nice. There is a hose that drips cool water into it and maybe only about four or five inches of water in the bottom of it so it stays pretty nice to drink. It's nice when the human girl gets the drip regulated so that it stay almost cool drink all the time. Summertime is a good time to have nice fresh water to drink. All year it is nice to have fresh water but in the summertime like right now to have it just coming out of the hose is really really great. Cool water is much more fun for me to stick my nose into and splash around than water that has been warmed by the sun.

Yesterday I got to have a sponge bath on my head. She said that it was too hot for her to getting me wet all over because I was all sweaty from playing but she used the big soft sponge and cleaned my face. I think we have about thirty more nights before it will start getting cool again and I don't even have a guess when it will rain again.

Probably I will get to play in the sprinkler before it rains again............

Late in July

Getting late in the summer now. No rain for several days but we have water in our tank and in the pond and still have green grass to graze on. Oh and Thank goodness for shade trees!! There may be some tropical weather going to develop in the Gulf of Mexico that will bring us some rain later in the week but we will just have to wait and see if that happens.

The human girl said she was going to give me a bath today. I love that a lot. She probably won't come out to do it till afternoon sometime but no matter I will enjoy it whenever she does it. She was raking some old hay in the barn the other day and I asked her to use that rake on me please. Boy does that feel good. It's a big leaf rake so it's like about twenty fingers rubbing me at the same time. My horse, Pretty Boy, is so much into that. He likes to just have a brush brush him. Not me. I don't care what you use as long as I am getting attention. hahaha I have been brushed with brushes, slickers, slicker blades, combs, grass rakes, leaf rakes, tree branches, and hay never found any of them to be disagreeable.

House Mouse says to tell you that the big ole black snake, Micheal, is doing just fine. He has gone to lower pasture to get out of the heat. He says he already looked and decided where he is going to spend the winter and for the House Mouse to tell us to eat slow so his hay bale will be the last one of the year. He is a pretty funny snake sure hope he finds enough to eat down there in the lower pasture.

House Mouse is safe from the snake

House Mouse here to say not to worry there will be no snake getting into the big red barn. I am going to be alright. Me and that snake the human girl saw the other day are friends. I wouldn't take a ride across the pond on his back but he is more interested in mice that run around getting into things and bothering the birds. And anyway I could be the only mouse in the house that can talk to him and let him know if the human man is coming. That human man walks very very fast so you have to be quick to get out of his way. And he usually isn't looking at what he steps on nope he is usually looking at where he is going not how he is going to get there so you best be on your toes when he is around.

There was a big ole rat that made the mistake of building a nest in the engine compartment of that old truck that got parked wrong and you should have seen that man evicting him from that truck. Well at first it was pretty funny because the human man opened up that hood and Micheal stood up on his back legs, yes Micheal that is the big rat's name, and looked at him. That big human man said 'OH GEEEPERS!' and took off for the big house to get the human girl we guessed. And that's why that day ended with the human girl flat on her back on the ground saying 'NO NO Leave me alone. I'll be fine. Don't touch ME!'

And there she stood

Saw the human girl coming out towards the barn and then she stopped where she was. Me and my horse didn't know why she stopped. There were some birds of all different kinds flying from one group of trees to another all agitated like. She stopped and looked at those birds flying all crazy and then she just stood there looking at the ground. We would have gone to see what she was looking at but we were standing closer to the feed station than she was and well I'm sure you can figure out that we were not going to be walking away from it when we wanted her to come it.

And she just stood there.........Then she started talking to the ground. My horse and I looked at each other wondering if we should go investigate but we decided to just stand where we were like she was standing where she was. She stood there and talked to the ground for what seemed like a long time but probably wasn't then she came on out to my barn.

She said she was standing there waiting for a snake to pass. She said it was a skinny snake but it was maybe five feet long. She calls it different things. She says Rat Snake, Bull Snake, Big Black Snake to name just a few of the things she calls it. She isn't afraid of them. Says they are good snakes. Says they will not hurt you but if you are not paying attention and walking slowly you might run across one and hurt yourself. HA HA

Sometimes if the human man finds the snake first he will kill it and the human girl doesn't like for him to do that but she does like to play with it after he does that. She hangs it on the fence different ways for different reasons. One way that I remember is that she hangs it belly side up to bring on the rain. And she fiddles with the dead snake a lot because they stretch so she has to keep adjusting it so it doesn't hang on the ground. She told the human man she saw it and he told her 'Don't you be playing with it! I mean it. Do not play with the snake.' I know she wouldn't play with it while it was busy living but that human man just isn't so sure about that.

Those big black snakes eat mice so that's why the human girl likes to have them around. She tells a story about how one time she lost her wheel barrow for more than week because of one of them. She had taken her wheelbarrow to get me some hay and one of them stuck it's head out and looked at her. She took off running and forgot about the wheelbarrow. After she quit running and came to my pasture she opened the gate and told me I was on my own. Oh that was when I had my other horse, Mousey, yes I remember now. Anyway she forgot she got scared away from her wheelbarrow since she wasn't going to that area because she let us out so we could get our own hay and it was almost two weeks before she remember where that wheel barrow was. You should have seen her walking all over the place looking for it but not going down there in the lower pasture even one time. That was pretty funny.

Oh looky! There that human girl is now she is going to hang clothes out on the clothes line so I have to go stand by the fence. I like to do that because my dog who is a chocolate lab will bark bark bark bark bark which I think is real funny.

Walked in circles

Our friends came to visit and they brought their twin GrandGirls. Those girls are just cute as little buttons. They fly out of their parents truck and head straight for our legs to give us hugs. Then they want to pet our faces. My horse, Pretty Boy, and I both gave them rides round and round. I had one pretty little twin riding me with two fists full of my mane hair so she was really riding! The other pretty little twin was riding the Pretty Boy holding just one hank of mane hair with both hands. I was very proud of my horse because at one point his rider got herself a little sideways, what I mean is she was sliding off the top of him, and he stopped. Yes he did. He felt her getting a little unseated and he stopped so her Daddy could straighten her back up. Now that is a good horse. My human man was very proud of me too because I was very very nice and walked very slowly. We went around and around and around and then I was done so I stopped under the trees where we started from. It was a lot of fun.

All the humans then went into my big red barn but they didn't let me and my horse go in with them. Nope. They closed the door. We waited for them to come back out. They did and then we made sure that all of them that went in there came out so no one got left behind. My human man then told me and my horse to follow him and he would give us a treat for being such very good horses.

We really had a wonderful weekend. The fireworks didn't even hardly bother us. My horse doesn't even care about fireworks he just cares about grazing so that made me be more calm than I thought I was going to be.

Well that's all for now except to tell you that since it is really and for sure Summer time out here it is really and for sure HOT!!!!!!!!!! I go swimming in my pond three or four times a day it is so hot.

July already?

l can't believe it is already July! The weather has been just so very nice. Cool mornings and not very hot in the afternoons with just enough rain. I'm sure that will change but we have been so enjoying it.

We got our worming medicine today. This afternoon actually. She didn't tell us that but we knew. She thinks she is pretty tricky giving us pelleted wormer that looks like our feed but is a little green in color but she is not fooling us.........well me at least. My horse, the Pretty Boy, doesn't care what he has just so he gets some and he doesn't even care when he gets it. Now that is truly a horse that has done without. Not me no not me. I have been living a blessed life since coming to live here at a very young age so sometimes I forget what it is like for my horse. If I want something I just raise a ruckus till I get it but my horse will just entertain himself and graze not caring if anyone comes to give him feed or not. He is a very good horse and I am lucky to have him that's for sure.

Speaking of me raising a ruckus to get my way you see my bang on the gate hoof! When the human girl came out this afternoon to trick us she saw it and brought my attention to what I gone and done. What I have gone and done is ruin my manicure....or would that be my pedicure yes probably my pedicure since it is my foot we are talking about. Chipped chipped and more chipped. The human girl told me that Randall was not going to be happy with me if I kept that up. Maybe I will stop tomorrow.........

Did someone say Cookies?

We were just out in the pasture munching on grass when we thought we heard someone say 'Would you like a cookie?' Surely they were not talking to us. We looked to the East and didn't see Terisa and she gives us fruit not cookies anyway. We looked North towards the blacktop but there was no one out there. And the cowboys were not out in the South cow pasture so where in the world did that voice come from? The only direction was towards the big house and that human girl doesn't make cookies. But there she was and she had something in her hands. My horse, the Pretty Boy, told me 'Don't go it's a trick.' But I thought I could smell something good so I went to see. My horse followed behind me just in case he was wrong and there were cookies. Hot diggity dog there WERE cookies and they were good! There wasn't even any charcoal part on them!! What a surprise that was. I followed her almost all the way back to the big house thinking maybe she forgot to give me more cookies but she said 'There are no more cookies. You can follow me if you want but there are no more cookies. No more cookies for you or for me. We all just got one cookie.' Alrighty then one cookie it is and we are thankful for that one cookie. Would like to have more but happy to have gotten that one and did I tell you that it wasn't even burned! I think she made them too cause they were not all hard like the ones the man brings from the store in March that look like Christmas Trees.

Cookies are wonderful.

Going to get my face washed

I have been told I will be getting my face washed later this afternoon. Looks to me like rain coming up from the Gulf so maybe not. Oh I know it needs washing and I like to be washed but I have just been soo wet for sooo long that I am sort of enjoying these last two days of dryness. I know I will have to have my face washed. I will let her put the halter on me. I will let her wash my face and then I will let her put fly spray on my face. She is nice about that. She sprays it onto her own hand and then smears it on my face instead of just spraying my face like some people do. I'm not sure it is real good for her to have fly spray on her hands but she washes pretty quickly after putting it on me so I guess she knows what she is doing or she is doing it anyway because she loves me is more like it.

Feeling much better today thank you

Yes I feel much better today than I did yesterday or the day before. It hasn't all been bad while I was sick I did have a good laugh yesterday evening at feeding time. Me and my horse, The Pretty Boy, were both in the barn to eat. The human girl put a short rope on my horse then picked up his bad foot to work on that hoof. Did you notice I said she 'put a short rope on my horse' ? Well that's all she did was put the short rope on him. When he finished his feed he was going to come over to my side and see what if anything I had left he might be able to push me out of the way and get. But he didn't make it to my side. Still holding his foot up in the air the human girl used the other hand to reach over and grab that short rope. She pulled his big ole head back to where he had no choice but to look directly at her. Then she said the most important words slowly, see she had already said HEY!, so now we were at the important part. Eye to eye, with his foot still in her hand she told him 'You pay attention to ME!'. That was all she said. She let go of his short rope and went back to work on his hoof. And he never moved a muscle or blinked an eye. He was paying attention to her. Finally she put his foot down and said she was done with him and he could go. But he stood there and watched her as she put up the short rope up and then hoof pick and then our feed cup. She went into the big red barn to do that and when she came back out he was still paying attention. She told him he was a good boy and that he could go. I had been standing there just outside the barn waiting to see what was going to happen next so I could hear what was being said. The human girl went back inside the barn and came out another door so we walked on over to the water tank. And there was that girl so my horse turned so he could pay attention to her.

She took the big drag harrow off of her 4X4 machine and hung it up on the wall. Then she got on her machine and started it up. Drove out into the pasture then backed it into our area of the big red barn but she puts it behind a gate so I can't play with it even though I like to. Then she came out and got in the cute little car and drove it out into our pasture then into the area where she just put that drag harrow. She went to close the south gate and my horse started toward her. She got the gate closed and told him to 'come on' so he did. And he got a big neck bear hug from her. Then she patted him on his shoulder and told him he was a good boy and he should go play now.

I think my horse, The Pretty Boy, might be the smartest horse I know.

Summer Cold

I have what the human girl says is a summer cold. She says I am disgusting that I should wipe my nose. How am I supposed to do that? I mean really! Does she see something on me that looks like it can wipe my nose? Oh sure I could sort of put my leg out in front of me a little and lean my head down and wipe my nose on my leg but now come on we all know what happens if you have head full of cold and you lean over. Well you might as well just lay down if you are going to do that because you will need to if do try it. My horse, the Pretty Boy, is trying to keep his distance from me. Not because he doesn't want to catch my cold but because I am blaming it on him. Twice maybe three times now we have been caught out in a rain shower and he has been able to slip into the carport inbetween the jeep and the truck leaving me no room to get in there. Alright fine I wouldn't fit in there even if I did get a head start on him but still he should stand out in the rain with me. That's like one of the things that friends do for each other. You get caught out in the rain well I'm going to stand out there with you. You go to jail I'll go with you........ok maybe not that. But you know what I mean. I thought me and my horse were buddies and there he was in out of the rain and there I was out in the rain.

Oh sure I could have gone any number of places and gotten in out of the rain but he was in that carport and me being the friend I am couldn't leave him in there. What if he got scared and needed me. Or when the rain was over and he came out he couldn't find me. No I couldn't leave him so I just stood out in the rain until I got a cold.

I'll be fine. Don't you worry about me. And it is pretty fun 'snorting' on the little human girl and making her squeal! I didn't say that was right I said it was pretty fun.

We thought it was a quiet day in the country....

But we were wrong. We were getting a drink of nice cool water and standing under a favorite shade tree talking about how quiet it is around here since the human babies across the road moved of the land. Oh yes! Did I not tell you about that? They moved to town last weekend. Not the closest town but a town two towns away that me and my horse have never even been to. No more babies singing to us in the morning or laughing out loud at the top of their lungs every day. Oh well. We have been told that they will still come see us.

So anyway we were just standing under that tree when the human girl came out of MY barn on her four wheel machine. Then coming from the other way was the human man on his big tractor.

Well let me tell you for sure that the peace and quiet of the country was not so quiet anymore.

Day before Father's Day

It is the day before Father's Day 2008. It rained all morning which was real nice. It was cool too. Not so much now but still pretty nice. I was all good and muddy before it started raining. I might be part pig since I love to roll in the mud the way I do. And some people say I do it to keep flies off of me but that just isn't so. Sure it does help with that but I have fly spray on me, or I do before I roll in the mud, so it's not like flies bother me. Nope. I just like to get muddy. The muddier the better I say! My horse, Pretty Boy, does not play in the mud like I do. I found me a place where there is a lot of loose dirt. I think it is where the Guinea Hens take their dirt baths. I get in my pond and play for a while then I get out and go roll in that fluffed up dirt those hens made me. Very nice of them to do that for me don't you think? They must have seen how much I love getting muddy.

It is after four o'clock in the afternoon and we have only gotten to have horse feed twice today. I guess that's okay but we were thinking we might want some more before the day is done.

Did I tell you that we had watermelon last week? OH YES!!! WATERMELLOONNNN!!! Terisa over the East fence gave it to us. She loves me. That is the first time she has given us watermelon. Mostly she just gives us apples and carrots. We LOVE WATERMELLLOOOOOONNN!!!!

The Pretty Boy aka. Trooper

Is that not the most beautiful thing you have seen in awhile or what!!

Frog inside ornamental bird house and another frog on top of it. Who'd a thunk.

I am Pretty Boy and I got in trouble

Hello my barn name is Pretty Boy and I have gotten into trouble. Oh yes. Nice horse that I am I got in big trouble this morning. You should have heard that little human girl. I am going to try very hard never to do that again. Here's what happened.......

It was a lovely morning. Perfect weather for grazing on tender young grass while waiting to get horse feed brought out to us. And then we saw her coming. She had the big white bucket. I know what that big white bucket is and I'm fine with it. Inside that big white bucket is warm epsom salts water for my foot to soak in. So she gets us our feed and puts it into our barrels for us. Then she gets my lead rope hooked onto my halter and sets the bucket on the ground in front of my bad foot. She picked my foot up, asking me real nicely, and put it into the bucket of water. I stood there eating while she rubbed my shoulder. Everything was fine until it wasn't fine anymore.

For some reason I decided I would step out of that bucket and go see what Precious had left in her barrel to eat. Only I didn't step cleanly out of the bucket. Oh noooo I didn't pick my big ole foot up high enough because I was looking over at her feed barrel and I knocked the bucket over.

'Bad horse! Why would you do that? I only just made that for you special and you go and knock it over!' That's what the human girl said to me as she sat that bucket back up. She looked in it and said 'Well I don't care how much is left in it you are going to put your foot right back in there mister and you aren't going to take it out until I say you can. I JUST made that for you special and you go and knock it over for pete's sake what were you thinking!' Of course she knew what I was thinking she knew I was thinking I'm going to go over there and see if can get me some extra feed but she had to say that anyway instead of exploding I guess.

So we stood there. Me with my foot in a bucket of warm epsom salt water that was only about an inch deep instead of a 12 inches deep and the human girl with her hand on my lead rope just in case I got stupid on her again. That's what she told me. She said 'Why'd you get all stupid like that?' We stood there so long that my horse, Precious, left the big red barn. And I still wasn't allowed to go look in her feed barrel. Oh I wanted to and I made a move to do just that but that little human girl said very quietly 'Do not move. Do not jerk your head or pull on this rope.' I hung my head down because I knew I was in trouble and not going to be going anywhere anytime soon.

When I hung my head down she was able to talk straight into my ear. Very very quietly she told me that she loved me and she was sorry if she had sounded mean but that she was very upset that I would step out of that bucket without being told I could. And knocking it over was just unacceptable. She told me quietly into my ear that we were not going to be standing there all day but that in just a little bit of time we were going to be walking out into the pasture and that I was going to follow along with her giving no trouble. And we did just that in a little while.

She told me 'Pick your foot up' and I did. She got the bucket and told me 'Come on.' We walked out of the big red barn into the horse pasture. I thought maybe we were going to go over where Precious was getting a drink of water but I was wrong. We walked straight ahead until she said 'Whoa' and I did. Then she put the bucket down, picked up my foot and put it back into that bucket that didn't have but an inch of water in the bottom of it. My head dropped because I knew there was no telling how long this was going to last. She rubbed on my forehead and said into my ear that I was a very good horse. She said I was very pretty and well mannered. She said she knew I didn't knock that bucket over on purpose. She was just talking and talking and talking to me. My horse, Precious, came over to see what was going on and when she got there she saw me still with my lead rope on and my foot still in that bucket and she put her head up to mine to tell me she understood. Then she went back over to stand by the water to wait.

It was not a long time after that that the girl took the lead rope off of my halter. I knew not to move. Then a few minutes later she picked my foot up out of the bucket and set it on the ground. She set the bucket off to the side. Still I didn't move. She hadn't said anything since before she took the lead rope off of my halter. She was just standing there in front of me looking at me. She backed up a few steps and then came back up to me. Then she stepped to the side and said 'You can go now. You have been a very good boy and I thank you.' She patted me gently as she walked away.

I didn't move. I wanted to make sure she wasn't tricking me. When she got back to the barn she said 'You can go now!' whew. That's exactly what I did. I will try hard in the future not to take my foot out of that bucket till she says it's time to take it out.

Hoof conditioner

The human girl asked me to follow her so I did. She went into my big red barn but didn't let me so I banged on the door with my big ole foot. She told me to 'hold on'. It is very hard for me to 'hold on'. I pretty much don't have a lot to hold on with. I can hold on with my teeth but that's about it for holding on. I can hold some still by putting my foot on it. And I can keep something from moving by moving my body around but 'hold on' is not one of my strong talents. So I banged on the door again. She came out with something in her hand I was pretty sure was going to be used on me but I didn't know where or what it was so I went right into reverse. She said for me to whoa so I did. She opened that can she had in her hand and I smelled it and decided I wanted no part of that. I turned to leave. She said WHOA! But I didn't. She grabbed hold of my mane since that's all I've got except maybe my tail for her to grab onto. Now sometimes she will just plant herself in front of me and push my chest but this time I was already turned away from her so she got a handful of my mane 'Whoa I said Whoa and that means STOP!' So I did. Then she pulled the thing that looked like a brush out of that can and leaned over. The girl should offer me an explanation of what she is fixing to do to me if she wants my cooperation right off the bat but she didn't so I stepped back.

Well actually I started to step back but she said NO so I stopped. She was still bent over when she said 'Just let me paint this on your hooves please.' Oh well that's ok with me. That stuff she paints on my hoofs doesn't bother me one bit. I don't even care if she does that. She can paint it on all four of them three times if she wants to. All she had to do was tell me what she was up to the silly human.

So anyway I got Hoof Conditioner painted on all four of my hooves and they looked real pretty. She told me she was done so I went to show my horse, The Pretty Boy, how nice my feet looked. I had to go a very long way because he had seen what was going on and expected to be next. He had nothing to worry about because he doesn't get that stuff put on his hooves him being 'special' and all. We are both pretty special. He soaks his foot in a bucket and I get to have my nails painted. Yep we are very special. Now I wonder where that human girl went to............

Such beautiful green grass

We have us some beautiful green grass to eat. Tender green grass and lot's of it too! This morning my horse had to get his foot soaked and the human girl wanted him to go where she had put down the bucket of warm epsom salts water but he didn't want to go. She told him it was only going to be for a few minutes and there was grass there he could eat. He still didn't want to go with her. She told me to 'come along'. He thought that was getting him off the hook so he put his head down to eat some more lovely grass. He was wrong. She told us both to 'Come along now' so he had to go. You should have seen how mad he was at being made to stand with his foot in that bucket of water just feet from the lush grass he had happily been munching on until she came out with her bright idea.

Horse's lay their ears back when they are mad. It is a good idea to take notice when we lay our ears back. The human girl looked at him and told him 'You just stand those ears back up. I know you are not happy but there is not reason to lay those ears down. That is not going to change anything.' She started rubbing him on his face right between his eyes right where he likes to be rubbed. He almost went to sleep but then he remembered he was mad and raised his head up so she could hardly reach him since he is so very big and she is not. Sometimes I don't know if that human girl is real smart or the opposite of that. She reached up and took the lead rope off of my horse's halter and hooked it onto her own jeans. Then she told him 'Now you can just stand there on your own and be mad but do not take your foot out of that bucket.'

Well I was standing about 15 feet away from all this because I saw him lay his ears back and I know that means he is mad and I didn't want to be anywhere near there. But after taking the lead rope off of him and telling him what she told him he just stood there. He had already tried to take his foot out of that bucket about ten times and he just quit. He just stood there and his ears were not laid down anymore. The human girl thanked him for being such a good boy and told him that now that he was behaving he could leave the area anytime he wanted to. He stood there about ten more minutes then took his foot out but he didn't walk off he just stood there. She told him it was ok if he wanted to walk away he could. So he did. He is an amazing horse and I am glad he is mine.

We didn't even notice......

We didn't even notice that we had been left alone there is so much nice tender green grass for us to eat and water in the pond. Oh sure the humans were only gone from night until morning but they were gone and we were fine. We can take care of ourselves a little bit. Horse's run wild out in the American West so it was nothing for us to be here by ourselves overnight. We didn't even care when they came home and waved at us. We just said hello back to them and went back to grazing. The human girl came out a little later and whistled us up but we didn't act like we cared much. Just sort of walked real slow sort of in her direction. But when she said 'Well fine be that way if you want' and started to walk away we high tailed it to her. Had to teach her a lesson we thought. We were wrong. She had made sure that we had food and water and the gates were locked before she left so she knew we would be ok getting our breakfast a little late.

The wind is blowing again or is that still?

Jumped flat footed into Summer

It was Winter then it was Springtime and now it is just flat out HOT! Very humid too. I'm starting to think maybe coating myself in that pond mud was such a good idea and when I went to the big house to tell the human girl I might have made a mistake she told me 'You get now. You go to the barn! It's too hot to play right now now shewww.' So I just popped in here to tell you that I will be down in the pond if anyone comes looking for me. My horse, the Pretty Boy, will only come into the shallow end but he is still very happy to be walking on all four feet!

Thank God for Ponds and little fishes! I don't know what that means exactly because well I'm a horse silly but I know it is a good thing. That is what the human girl said yesterday morning when my horse didn't kick her in her face. I was standing right there and saw it happen and it was not mostly his fault. That human girl was out here without her glasses on so she had her face way way down there where it should not have been. My horse pulled his foot up which she had in her hand and when he did her head came up and she said 'oh my'. Then she put his foot back into the bucket patted him on the neck looked at me and said "Thank God for Ponds and little fishes!"

Love to all and try to stay cool!

Having a wonderful time

My horse, the Pretty Boy and I are having much fun these days. Not much time to stop and chat in here in the barn with the house mouse. My horse is walking and running and just having the time of this life! He still does not have any shoes on and he lost a corner of that bad hoof but we think that is maybe the best thing that could have happened to him. Now he can walk normal and he is not in pain. His leg doesn't get sore anymore either. Now when he lays down to take a nap it is only because it is nap time not because he can't stand up any more and needs to rest. You should see him standing out there with all his weight on all his legs equally. Does a horse good to see such a purty sight. He is even enjoying going down into the pond some. He is not going all the way in the water just up to his knees so far but he is getting in there and he looks like he likes it.

We might be needing a bigger pond.

The human man left his jeep out in front of the big house. We do not know why. We have circled it and checked on it many times since he parked it there but it is just there nothing in it to eat or smell. Don't know why he didn't put it where it belongs but I guess he has his reasons.

Another Important holiday....

Memorial Day.

We remember the horse's who have gone to battle and not returned. Like those ones used Cinco de Mayo.

And then we grazed. We have been put on a diet it seems. Only a couple of scoops of feed a day. Must be a shortage of the stuff. House mouse says not that it is because we are so very very big. She says she heard the humans say that there is enough pretty green grass out there that they need to cut back on the feed they are feeding us. OK that's fine with me but I should have been told. If I had been told I wouldn't have stood out there waiting and waiting and waiting when I could have been eating and eating and eating. I won't do that again.....well not till tomorrow anyway. We are creatures of habit you know. You can't just stop doing something one day that we have always done and expect us to know that we aren't going to be doing it again like we did before. You see there are certain times of day that we expect to see that human girl come out here and when she doesn't we wonder if we don't know what time it is but that can't be it since we don't have watches. Or we think she forgot us so I make a lot of noise but then she doesn't come out or if she does she says 'Stop that!'. I think lots of things none of them being that she is going to not come give me feed every time I stomp my foot. But there you go that's exactly what has happened. Still May and we are on our Summer feeding schedule already. hurmph! Given the chance I think my horse would snort on her.

Donnie said that he has a horse that he would like for me to meet. He says maybe if the human girl says it's ok that I can go over to his place and visit with their horse's for a while. I like to go visiting. I have seen his horse's they are a little smaller than my Mousey and very light in color. Sort of a buckskin color. And they don't have any spots like my horse and not color painted on them like me but they seem nice enough. There used to be three of them but now there are only two because one of them has gone to live in the pasture two pastures over with a little horse his same size. The two that are left there at Donnie's are going to pull a wagon someday. They are practicing now. But I am getting a little far away from where this story was going aren't I. What I think is what the humans are thinking is that me and that little fellow over there might get married. They want to introduce us. If we got married maybe I would have another baby horse. My human girl loves that and so do I. For now it is just talk so I guess I shouldn't get too excited. And anyway if I went over there to that farm to get married who would keep my Pretty Boy company? Do you think the human girl would come out to the barn and sleep with him?

And here is what the Pretty Boy's hoof
looks like after Randall came and trimmed it.
Isn't it WONDERFUL!

Day Five of no shoes

That is a picture of the Pretty Boy's hoof before Randall came to trim it but after he lost his shoe.

We are going to call this day two with no shoes but it is really more like day five in real time. Only day two if start counting from when Randall was here and trimmed our hooves which was day before yesterday around 4pm CDT. So far my horse, The Pretty Boy, is doing fine. He is really able to walk much better and doesn't seem to be having any trouble. I am going to get the house mouse to post a picture of his hoof on the 20th after he lost his shoe and then another one of what it looked like yesterday morning. Yesterday morning? Oh yes that is correct. This is Day Two after the trimming. My how time flies. Now I am going to make house mouse go back and change everywhere where I had her type the word one and you will be able to figure out where the one's were because there will now be the word 'Two'. Ok working on adding pictures now.

When the boy and I came up to the barn to eat a while ago he had been down in the pond so he had mud on his feet. He used to never go down in the pond so he never had mud on his feet. Boys are supposed to like to play in the mud but his hoof being in the shape it was in really made it hard for him to get down in there and then get back up even though there is a ramp there at the shallow end where the land just falls slowly into the pond. I am so very happy he his hoof is healing so well and I know the human girl is too because she keeps coming out here and saying 'Just looking'.

I had flies all over my nose earlier so the human girl put some fly spray on me. Yesterday the human man put fly spray on me but he doesn't know how to put it on my face. I'm glad she did that for me because I do not like flies on me where my tail can't reach to swish them off and it sure can't reach clear up to my face!

This is a holiday weekend. The holiday is Memorial Day. We will keep in our memory those who have lost their lives defending our freedom and the ones who still fight on.

A note from the human girl

Randall came to do the horse's hooves this evening and he didn't put shoes on the Pretty Boy!!!!!!!!!! Last time he was here about 8 weeks ago he said as he always says 'I doubt he will ever be able to go without shoes.' Today he got to the back of the truck with the horse and just sat down. I thought something was wrong with him the way he was just sitting there. I walked up to him and asked him if he was ok and he said 'I'm just wondering if he is going to need a shoe put back on that what do you think?' !!!!! I told him that I didn't want to make that decision till I saw what it looked like after he trimmed it. Well after he trimmed it we decided to not put shoes on him. I am just going to keep an eye on it and see what happens. If it starts splitting or something I will call him to come back. That boy has been walking walking walking!!!!!!! It is so wonderful.

When he was trimming that hoof I was telling him how horrible the smell had gotten when I was soaking it and then there came the nasty smell again. I said 'That's it!!' Randall said that is the bad stuff coming out. Oh. I thought maybe I had given him hoof rot soaking it so much. hahahaha There is a bit of swelling so I am going to soak it the next three days then stop and see what happens. How cool is that that the ferrier who thought he would never be able to go without a shoe was surprised to see how I had gotten it to heal!!!

We are all very very happy campers right now! The Pretty Boy is walking without pain and without a limp. What a wonderful day for sure!!!

Is that you clicking?

For several days now we have hearing a clicking noise when we are walking around out here. Odd to hear a clicking noise when you are walking in a grassy pasture but there is was click click click. What could it be. Then the human girl said one day 'Are you clicking?' No it wasn't me clicking it was my horse The Pretty Boy. She looked at him and asked him nicely to hand her his leg which he did because he is learning he will not win with her. She did a little this and that then put his foot down. 'Yes that is you clicking Pretty Boy but you will be fine'. And then today it happened. No more clicking. His shoe fell off. We knew it was going to it was only a matter of time before it happened. It is not a horrible thing for this to happen like it used to be before his hoof got so much better. This time he is walking just fine. Yes Just Fine. You would not know he was hurt at all he is just walking smooth as I do. Randall should be here one of these days to check on all our hooves and give us our Spring trimming. In the mean time I think my horse is just going to enjoy going barefoot on all but one foot. HAHAHA! That's funny he has no shoes on three out of four hooves. Someone ought to take that last shoe off of him and let him feel the soft spring grass on his feet. Well sure we can feel it. Our hooves look very hard and they are very hard but we can still feel stuff just like you can fell stuff when you tap your fingernails on your hands. That's sort of like what our hooves are just big ole toenails.

We are getting fresh water in our drinking tank right now because the silly tree frogs or whatever kind of frogs those are laid eggs in our tank and it didn't take any time at all before there were a lot of little tadpoles swimming around in there. Pretty funny to watch them swim and I didn't mind them being in there at all but there is just some certain schedule that the human girl keeps about cleaning our tank out and today was the day. I think we should have let all the little tadpoles grow legs but then again it already is very noisy here with the frogs we have that already have four legs so I guess she did the right thing.

We eat less and less feed every week as the grass comes up thicker. Not because we don't want it but because we don't need it so much now as we did when we had nothing to graze on and just hay to eat.

OH! I forgot to tell you we saw a Coyote down at my old barn by the big tree in the cow pasture. He was a big coyote too. Don't know where he came from but he was heading South. Must have been a long journey he was on because he sat down under the big tree and took a rest before heading out again.

Getting close to my favorite time of day when we put the sun to bed for the night. The sky gets very pretty this time of day and everything just seems to sigh with happiness.