On my Way Out the Door...

..but just wanted to say thank you to Pedalpower for giving me this sweet award!

OMG - Are You Ready For a Laugh??

This is a chicken diaper. You can readily buy these and they cost $22.00. You even get a choice of fabric designs!

Inspiration

This picture made me Ohhhh and Ahhhhh - so I wanted to share it with you!One of my favorite things about it - and you have to look closely, is the word 'Snug' painted on it!

A Butlers Pantry

I want one of these if we ever build our home!

The Best Part of January...

..is Gardening! It is when I plan, buy and start seeds!

A friend sent me these heirloom tomato seeds that her Father improved.

Enlarge this picture and read the special story of how they came to be.

I bought a seed starter kit because I did not want to lose any of these plants.

It fascinates me to see something so tiny produce something so wonderful!

Here they are all snug and planted. I used the rest of the plugs to plant some flower seeds.

...And They're Off...

I have joined the race and finally started my traditional January diet!I got a slow start, but that was because we had so many left overs from Christmas in the refrigerator and freezer that I thought it was senseless to start with all of that in my face! I gained about 4 pounds over the holidays - but would not mind getting rid of 12!

How are you guys doing with your diets?

Update on Chrissy.

I was so happy to get home last evening to see my Chrissy girl...but she kind of looked like this! (minus the cute little boy part!)She is still not interested in food, and she shivered after we came inside from the 'potty break'. I wrapped her up in a blanket and put her in bed with me. She SNORED for over an hour! That made me :0)

Chrissy is Having Surgery Today

My beloved Chrissy has been so ill this last week and FINALLY was diagnosed with Pymetria, a severe infection of the uterus. After 2 misdiagnosis', the vet told me this was the strangest case of Pymetria he had ever seen since Chrissy's white blood cell count was normal. It should have been sky high especially with the amount of infection she has...so today she is getting spayed. I cannot get her until tomorrow though and I cannot wait to see her. I especially cannot wait to see her eat. Then MAYBE I will stop worrying!

Barn Lighting Renovations

These were our old barn lights. I HATED them! Sometimes they worked, sometimes not. They looked - well, just awful!

A long time ago I saw a picture of a barn up North. It was a very exquisite barn that was as elegant as it was functional and it had big iron light fixtures. Ever since then, I have wanted to do that in our barn.

...and today was the day. Here are our new barn lights!

Day or night, light or dark, every single time I go into the barn, I have to turn on the lights..just because I want to!..and for the horse savey - the barn ceiling is 12 feet tall. I only cross tie my horses either in their stall or in the wash stall. Both have rubber floor mats to prevent slipping.

Why am I Having a Bad Hair Day?

An update on our dog Chrissy:
...because I was up most of last night again with Chrissy. She now has a light pink milky discharge comeing from her backside. This scared me - so I called the vet at home. He assured me that this was a good sign...and may actually mean that she does not have Cushings. They are still going to run more tests on her today, but there is a possibility that she may have gotten a bad uterine infection, licked at it which in turn gave her an intestinal infection...... I don't care. I just want my girl well again!

Chrissy may have Cushings Disease

Since last Sunday her appetite was depressed and she started to drink an unusual amount of water. Thankfully - she was also passing all of that water...but we needed to find out why. My sweet husband spent his day off at the vets office with her last Tuesday and thankfully all of her blood tests came up fine....all major organs doing well...but they did find she had some blood and mucus in her stool. Sent her home with antibiotics and I was relieved...

Fast forward to last night... Both Don and I were up with Chrissy. She had drunk a gallon of water yesterday and we finally pulled the waterer away. ..since she still wanted for more! She cried 'as' she was having an accident because it would come on so fast, she did not have time to come and ask to go out.. :0( We started to just get up every 90 minutes to take her outside.

I called off of work and took her back to the vets office. We were there at 10am. After another visit, the vet wants us to take her back tomorrow for a full day test. They believe that she may have an adrenal tumor causing her adrenal glands to go haywire, with the symptoms being thirst and constant urination. He said it was a form of Cushings Disease.

That was the first time I had ever heard of Cushings in dogs. I am used to it with horses since 1 of my really old horses (32) had it in the later years of his life. The vet said the symptoms are different in horses and dogs although - the cause is basically the same.

It is treatable and in almost all of the cases without removing the tumor.

Tomorrow - they are going to inject her with a drug to see how she reacts to it after 8 hours. They will again draw blood and check her levels. If they are at a certain level, apparently that means she is positive for Cushings and we will start her meds...which is another story all on its own...

Today - my girl has spent a relaxing day with me ...well except for the many trips up and down the stairs for potty trips. She did have 1 accident. Doc told me to let her have all the water she wanted. She does not have an appetite though - even refusing the scrambled eggs I made for her.. :0(

Anyone else ever been through this?

A Little More Info. About the Next Post.

This horse has been completely vet checked. He had his teeth floated 6 months ago. He has seen an Equine Chiropractor and a Massage Therapist. He is not crazy either - just a bit stubborn!

For those who are not horse-savey...Horses, like people are either right or left "handed". Therefore, going in one direction is very easy. Going in the other is more difficult. Dominus has a difficult time going clockwise and resents me trying to work him on his weaker side. Progress is being made though. You see - only 2 weeks ago, he gave me all of this grief at the trot (clockwise). During the lesson photographed, he was minimally disobedient at the trot clockwise. As I said - we are making progress!!!

He is not in weighted shoes. His feet are not long. I was not asking for any extra leg motion, what you see is completely natural. I was not even asking for collection. All I wanted was for him to go F-O-R-W-A-R-D...not up, not back and certainly no double barrel kicking!

A Typical Lesson - for Dominus Anyway!

The first 45 minutes of my lessen went very well....it was just the last 15 that became very interesting!

First I warm him up by lunging.

I take him through all of his gaits on a long rope.

..and then I use a mounting block to get on him.

Now we start to walk.

Trot.

Trotting more.

Now trotting the other direction.

Dominus has really good natural motion and WILL be a great show horse one day!

Trotting figure 8's through the center of the ring.

..a little rear - typical when we are going to the right

Before we canter, my trainer Kelli Lowery has a little talk with Dominus.

Cantering to the left is good.

Getting ideas..

and we start to canter right ok...for now.

not happy about it though.

Jumping into the canter again..

Nice Trot!..but you are suppose to be cantering!!

Tail swishing is never a good thing.

Let the fight begin..

Ummm..

Buck..

Big Buck! Enlarge this picture for unbelievable details.

Behaving badly..

Positioning for the rear..

Going Up!

and up higher..

Coming down.

Can I get off nowwwww???

He is mad..

I am madder!

Up again..

..and again..

Flex Dammit! (This is something called the one rein stop and something we do everytime he rears up with me.)

1 more buck..

..and a rear.

Until he finally canters to the right 3 full size arena circles (very large) without incident. YEAH!!!