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.

I was grazing......

There I was a happy happy horse just walking around grazing on the beautiful tender young green grass when it started getting dark at the wrong time of the day or had I been asleep and dreaming about grazing? No it was getting darker but it wasn't because the sun was going down. And then the dark clouds spilled rain on me and my horse with hardly a warning drop falling first. We were over by the feed shed. There is a lean-to there at the end of it where the humans park the truck and the cool jeep. I do not know the reason why by one was parked where the other one usually is which made the other one parked where that one usually is and that meant there was only room for one of us to get under cover. My horse was closest so guess who that left standing out in the rain. Yes that is correct if you guessed it was me, Precious the beautiful Paint horse. I didn't mind just a whole lot at first because I like water even if it is falling on me instead of me standing in it playing. But this rain was getting thick. Does rain get thick? Yes it does. It got so thick I could hardly see my horse over there in the lean-to next to the jeep. The heavier that rain fell the more I backed up until I couldn't back up any more so there was nothing for me to do but hang my head and wait it out. See I couldn't back up anymore because I had backed all the way up into a clump of China Berry trees. Now those of you that don't know it China Berry trees are so thick with leaves that it is almost like standing under regular roof.....most of the time. This rain that was coming down even made it thru the China Berry tree leaves! I was very happy it didn't last very long and then I was over looking into my pond to see if it was deep enough to swim in yet. It wasn't but it was getting close to enough.

The house mouse told me that we got very lucky with that rain when I was telling my story about standing under the tree. House mouse told me that the rain clouds had zipped on past us and stopped over in Shreveport Louisiana where it stopped. They got more almost seven inches of rain in three hours over there. Boy howdy I think that much rain would make my pond deep enough for me to swim in for many days. I sure hope everyone over there in Shreveport Louisiana get dried out soon like I did.

I was just standing there thinking

I was just standing there by the water tank thinking and not being a bother when she came by me on her four wheeler. Now I have been trying to train my horse not to be afraid of her when she is on that four wheeler because although she sounds crazy and maybe even looks a little crazy she will not run into us. So when she came by and she was only a few feet from me and she had that drag harrow thing behind her and it hit the rocks which sent up such a noise that I flinched. I'm not much of a flincher. I'm not scared of nuthin' as a rule and I'm not saying I was scared of that drag harrow either it just startled me a little. My horse, the Pretty Boy, has been coming right along in his training but when I flinched that poor boy got spooked and jumped straight up in the air! Funniest thing I have seen in a few days that was. He went straight up in the air and straight down too. And he gave some serious thought to bolting, which means running away. But he didn't he held his ground. I hope that silly girl gives us some warning next time she is going to make a racket like that sneaking up on me and all.

The human man is not impressed with the progress the Pretty Boy has made in his training not to jump and run when things move around him. Nope he is not impressed at all. When he tries to leave the land sometimes my horse will be standing where he wants to drive and he isn't going to move because we taught him not to be afraid. The human man says a little fear is healthy. Says he just sometimes has to back up and drive around my horse. Sometimes he says he just drives right by him. I think that is pretty funny. I supposed we should explain to my horse that there are certain places that the truck drives that he should not pick for a nap.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day always starts at least a week before the actual day out here in the country. The children of the humans in the area come and spend several days enjoying the country before having to go back to their city folks. The grand children and great grand children are a joy for me and my horse, The Pretty Boy. Not because we give them horseback rides but just because they like to see us and we like being seen. They come by the fence to pet us and talk to us telling us how very big and very pretty we are. So of course we stay pretty much up in the top end of our horse pasture or out in the middle of the front pasture so they can see us real good and we can get over to the fence pretty fast if they want to see us up close. We have to get to the fence real fast if it is the great grand children because they are small enough to get through the fence and then the bigger humans get all excited about that. Me and my horse would not hurt a baby. We like small children and we hold very still when we see them coming. At first we didn't know it was ok and we might think we should run away but my horse told me that if we just hold real still nothing will happen to make anyone scared. He thinks he is a very smart horse. Sometimes he is. He was trained as a cutting horse you know so he knows some stuff that I don't know but I know stuff he doesn't know so it all evens out.

It is the quiet time of year

Right now is a very quiet time of year. Only an occasional tractor is heard running and that is not a bad sound to hear. Most of the time there is just nothing but maybe a baby bird to be heard. Me and my horse even try to chew quietly which is not hard to do since it is such young tender grass we are grazing on.

Oh we do hear the children across the road playing on their swing set and other toys laughing out loud at the top of their lungs it seems a lot more now that the weather is better. The boy has a whistle. Not a real whistle but a broken recorder. A recorder is a flute sort of musical instrument that children learn how to play when they are in school. He has three of them, all different colors, but he likes that red broken one the best it seems. Our human girl was whistling back at him the other day when he was being especially happy with his toy. We heard his Daddy say to him 'Did you hear that? Blow on it again I think someone answered your whistle.' We thought it was very funny so we, my horse and I, ran around kicking up our heels. The little boy would blow as loud as he could on his broken recorder and our human girl would just use her lips to whistle back loudly. We do not know if they knew it was her but it sure was fun to listen to them.

Oh I said a minute ago that our weather is better but what I mean is that is nicer when it is nice. A lot of the time the wind is blowing from one direction or another and today we are having some thunderstorms but nothing so bad yet. Last week we had some serious weather come thru but we did not get hurt and only a little bit scared. The bad weather doesn't last too long and then the sun comes out and that is wonderful. It is wonderful because it is like God is shining a spotlight on all the beautiful glimmering shimmering spring colors. One of my favorite trees to stand under in the summer time is the last one to get leaves on it each year and the color of those leaves are spectacular after a rain!!!!

Well I a going to go back out in the pasture and eat me some more grass now. See you when I see you!!!!!!!!!!

Today's lesson 'Go That Way'

May 3, 2008

Our lesson today is ‘Go that way’.

For some reason all of a sudden the human girl thinks we should go where she wants us to go without following her to get there. My horse, The Pretty Boy ‘Trouper’, can do that already. I think since he already does it then that means that I am going to be the one learning. This should be pretty easy for me to pick up since I follow my horse where he goes anyway. Oh she means I should follow right behind him not follow her and then go to where he went. Well this is going to be harder for me to do because I will be thinking she is going to go get something that I want but if I go where he is going I might not get whatever it is she is going to get. Yes this is going to be hard for me to do.

Also my Pretty Boy is learning how to stand still when he gets fly spray sprayed on him. I do that. I stand very still. I don’t even backup like I usually do because ‘HEY! My head is up here don’t you want to rub on it?’! Nope when I am getting fly spray sprayed on me I hold still so she can get me covered real good because fly’s bother me. He is getting very good at not walking away from her when she comes up to him with that fly spray bottle but as soon as she starts spraying him he wants to leave the area. He thinks he can turn his tail end towards her and she will shy away but she doesn’t scare easy so she just keeps walking right there beside him never letting him get all the way turned around. She tells him ‘You are not going to win’ and he doesn’t. One time she walked all over the pasture with him and when he finally stopped and she was able to get a hand on him she just patted him and told him he was a good boy then she walked away.

She does things like that to me too. I used to not come to her when she whistled for me so she would come to get me. She would say ‘Didn’t you hear me whistle for you?’ and I would pretend that I didn’t so she would just pat on me and lead me to where ever it was that she had been calling me from and then she would just walk away and leave me standing there never to know what I must have missed by not coming when I was called. Now when I hear her whistle I come look and then I run to where she is so I don’t miss out. My horse, the Pretty Boy, is starting to understand that whistle means shake a leg horse!

VIVA! el Cinco de Mayo!!!!

May 5, 2008

Cinco de Mayo loosely translates to The Fifth of May.


Today is Cinco de Mayo! I am not completely sure what this holiday is so the House Mouse is going to look on the internet and tell us, that would be me and my horse, what it is. All we know now is that the boy in the next town requested cheese and his sister wanted a flower. Seems sort of funny to us so we will wait to hear from the House Mouse as to why the human girl worked so hard around here today making everything look so nice. She even combed our hair and she put a blue halter on me. Blue!!!!!! I’m a girl horse but she put a blue halter on me. My horse thinks it might have something to do with the holiday.

OK here’s what the House Mouse found at a web site originating in San Marcos Texas who’s address is http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm She says to tell you that this is just part of what is on the web site that this is the part that makes Cinco de Mayo important to us horse’s. She also said that she is putting all this on here for us to read without getting permission from the people in San Marcos so if you go to their web site you give them a big ole Texas Thank YOU!…..

………………….(that means that there were words that came before this but house mouse isn’t going to type them)…….The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up should their capital fall to the enemy -- as European countries traditionally did.
Under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa, (and the cavalry under the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexico's president and dictator), the Mexicans awaited. Brightly dressed French Dragoons led the enemy columns. The Mexican Army was less stylish.
General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks. In response, the French did a most stupid thing; they sent their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen charged the Mexican defenders through sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through hundreds of head of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed only with machetes.
When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was being chased by Diaz' superb horsemen miles away. The Mexicans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying the confederate rebels for another year, allowing the United States to build the greatest army the world had ever seen. This grand army smashed the Confederates at Gettysburg just 14 months after the battle of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War.
Union forces were then rushed to the Texas/Mexican border under General Phil Sheridan, who made sure that the Mexicans got all the weapons and ammunition they needed to expel the French. American soldiers were discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the Mexican Army to fight the French. The American Legion of Honor marched in the Victory Parade in Mexico, City.
It might be a historical stretch to credit the survival of the United States to those brave 4,000 Mexicans who faced an army twice as large in 1862. But who knows?
In gratitude, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces. As recently as the Persian Gulf War, Mexicans flooded American consulates with phone calls, trying to join up and fight another war for America.
Mexicans, you see, never forget who their friends are, and neither do Americans. That's why Cinco de Mayo is such a party -- A party that celebrates freedom and liberty. There are two ideals which Mexicans and Americans have fought shoulder to shoulder to protect, ever since the 5th of May, 1862. VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!!
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Go That Way

May 3, 2008

Our lesson today is ‘Go that way’.

For some reason all of a sudden the human girl thinks we should go where she wants us to go without following her to get there. My horse, The Pretty Boy ‘Trouper’, can do that already. I think since he already does it then that means that I am going to be the one learning. This should be pretty easy for me to pick up since I follow my horse where he goes anyway. Oh she means I should follow right behind him not follow her and then go to where he went. Well this is going to be harder for me to do because I will be thinking she is going to go get something that I want but if I go where he is going I might not get whatever it is she is going to get. Yes this is going to be hard for me to do.

Also my Pretty Boy is learning how to stand still when he gets fly spray sprayed on him. I do that. I stand very still. I don’t even backup like I usually do because ‘HEY! My head is up here don’t you want to rub on it?’! Nope when I am getting fly spray sprayed on me I hold still so she can get me covered real good because fly’s bother me. He is getting very good at not walking away from her when she comes up to him with that fly spray bottle but as soon as she starts spraying him he wants to leave the area. He thinks he can turn his tail end towards her and she will shy away but she doesn’t scare easy so she just keeps walking right there beside him never letting him get all the way turned around. She tells him ‘You are not going to win’ and he doesn’t. One time she walked all over the pasture with him and when he finally stopped and she was able to get a hand on him she just patted him and told him he was a good boy then she walked away.

She does things like that to me too. I used to not come to her when she whistled for me so she would come to get me. She would say ‘Didn’t you hear me whistle for you?’ and I would pretend that I didn’t so she would just pat on me and lead me to where ever it was that she had been calling me from and then she would just walk away and leave me standing there never to know what I must have missed by not coming when I was called. Now when I hear her whistle I come look and then I run to where she is so I don’t miss out. My horse, the Pretty Boy, is starting to understand that whistle means shake a leg horse!

Spring Training as begun

May 2, 2008

I am going to start a new series today. I am going to tell you how that human girl is training my horse, the Pretty Boy. I would tell you how she trained me but she gave up on that years ago so now I just do what she asks me to do or I don’t. Most of the time I do what I am told when I am told so I don’t have to wear a halter. When Randal comes to put shoes on us he puts a halter on me and ties me to a tree so I don’t eat all the stuff in the back of his truck or pick stuff up and carry it off. He says he can’t keep an eye on me and work on my horse, the Pretty Boy, at the same time. He calls it ‘Horsey Day Car’. I don’t mind just standing there but I really like going thru all the stuff he has in the back of his truck so I guess it’s a good idea he ties me up.

Today’s lesson is called ‘Pick YOUR FOOT UP!’

Everyday, twice a day, the Pretty Boy gets his right front foot soaked in a five gallon bucket of warm Epsom salts. Some times there is not a problem. Sometimes there is a problem. One time he kicked the human girls leg off right at the knee and she had to put it back on before she could come feed me. I couldn’t get to her to help her because my horse was in the way so I just waited till she got her self put back together. (Her leg didn't really get knocked off. She just got kicked and it dislocated her leg at the knee just a little bit so she had to lay there an catch her breath and figure out if her leg was going to carry her. This can take awhile because she says you don't want to rush off because it is a long way to go so you have to make sure you can make it before setting out.) A couple of days ago he caught her right on her knee cap. So apparently today she decided that play time was over and we were going to get to see who was the boss once and for all or till next week.

The lesson started like this….’Pick your foot up and put it in the bucket’. He just stood there. She leaned a little farther over an grabbed his leg in a different place. ‘Pick your foot up and put it in the bucket’ . Still he just stood there. She moved the bucket. She moved the bucket again. ‘Pick your foot up and put it in the bucket’. Nope. She stood up, turned around and looked him square in his eye that is on that side of his head. You could tell he was looking at her and could hear what she was saying but just not being very nice. Anyway she stood up, turned around and told him very gently ‘You are going to let me pick your foot up and put it in that bucket and you are going to do it now.’ She sounded nice but serious. She turned back around, leaned over and grabbed hold of his leg ‘Pick up your foot’. Nothing. She stood up and turned to him again and said ‘You will not win.’ She turned around for a second time leaned over and right when she grabbed his leg to pick it up she leaned her shoulder into him nearly knocking him over. That leg came up alright no trouble. She put it into the bucket and told him. ‘And you will be leaving it there please.’ He snorted at her but he did not take his foot out of that bucket.

Score one for the human girl! Pretty Boy didn't know even after living here for one whole year that that human girl could do what she just did to him. Most of the time she is very nice to my Pretty Boy. Most of the time when she wants him to do something she just tells him "Come on it'll be fun!"