Winsdown Iron Ore... or as we called him Ivan

It is with great sadness that I tell you about a very special horse who is no longer with us. His registered name was Winsdown Iron Ore. Breed at Winsdown Farms by Louise Gilliland. We called him Ivan, although he has had many barn names starting with Ugly Spud! Although he came into this world as an ugly duckling, as you can see, he matured into a swan. He stood a giant 17 hh and he knew how big he was. Although he did not have a mean bone in his body, he could be as stubborn as a mule but he slowly mellowed out to become one of my life changing horses. Those barn names went from Ivan the Terrible, Ivan - Hooooo, Big Red and then to Baby Huey.

As I overcame my fear of Ivan, my confidence soared and my riding skills improved with the help of trainer Kelli Lowery. When we were at our best, everyone would stop at Kelli's to watch Ivan. He could trot WAY above level, and loved to show off at the barn, but not always at horse shows!..LOL

At the end of a show, I noticed that Ivan was favoring one of his front feet and the vet diagnosed founder. After a year long treatment with special shoes and limited turn out (Ivan HATED that), we got him sound again. I continued to ride him, but no longer took him to shows.

Ivan was a bit of a pasture bully too and the only horse I had who could put him in his place was an old nag mare named Lacy I adopted from a woman who had cancer.. she would and could put Ivan in his place and make him behave!

Many years ago, I came on rough times and made one of the hardest decisions in my life - to give Ivan away along with his pal Lacy. Many people wanted Ivan - but few were willing to take his best friend. One very special person rose to the top of the list though. Mona Lucas I will never be able to repay you for all you did for Ivan the last part of his life. I know you and your family dearly loved him as did I.

The picture is of Janie L. Hamilton riding him as I believe a 3 year old (maybe 4) and I saw the video.... HE SHOULD HAVE WON THAT CLASS HANDS DOWN!!!

Thank you God for giving me Ivan and thank you for all the wonderful people in is life who loved him as dearly as I.

Gracie's Surgery

Gracie is our 4-5 year old Corgi.  She was surrendered and we adopted her just before Don left work for a year to take his last Hepatitis C treatment.  They bonded instantly since he was with her all the time and she seemed to have separation anxiety.

Well about a month ago, Gracie started to act like her should was hurting.  We waited and sometimes it seemed to go away, but would soon return.  Long story short - after 2 visits to the vet and weeks of steroids, it was just getting worse and worse.  We were referred to Texas A&M Vet for further tests. 

As you know, animals do not understand the concept of "hyperchondriacism", so I can only imagine how much pain she was in, when she cried out and would not raise her head!  We suspected correctly - Gracie had a massive slipped disc.  A&M had the proper equipment to diagnosis it and did surgery right away. 

The cost was substancial - and the money came out of my house building budget - but Hey ... Gracie is a part of our family and if I have to wait a bit longer to get something for the house, well - Gracie will now be there with us to enjoy it!

Here she is - on her first day home.   She looks a bit like she jumped through a shredder!! 

She was too shy to look at the camera.

They shaved the back of her neck to do a spinal tap.

Unlike on humans, they went in to do the surgery from under her neck.

..and every one of her little legs has a shaved band around it - from IV's I suppose.

Gracie's recovery will be a long 6 weeks.  We have to carry her up and down the stairs and keep her from running.  She does not jump on and off the furniture - so that is thankfully not an issue!

 

Thank  you Lord that she is on her way to recovery!! 

That is One Ugly Chick!

Remember the 20 baby chicks we bought? They are all still alive and well! We moved them out to the hen house.

10 are Barred Rock hens and 10 are Columbian Rock hens.

As they started to grow, we noticed that one of the Columbian Rock hens was kind of ugly..

She was not only much smaller and slower growing..

..but also seemed to be almost void of feathers.

As she grew, she started to get a few feathers around her neck and a few on the tips of her wings. The rest of her body was either totally naked or had fuzzy fur like down. She still looks like she is wearing fuzzy bloomers.

In all other aspects, she seems perfectly healthy, but she cannot fly even high enough to get up on the perch...

..and Now There are 20 Again!

After 2 days we actually found the missing baby chick..ALIVE!! She apparently had jumped out of the deep sink probably onto the side of the sink and then right into the garbage can! I looked in there .. but obviously not good enough. Oh well.. glad to have her back safe and sound!

20 Baby Chicks..

...and then there were 19... and we really have no idea what happened to number 20.. We are guessing that it jumped out of the deep sink where we were keeping them and that maybe our dog had a 'chicken mcnugget'... but that is speculation..The remaining chicks have been moved to their next home.. a large dog crate in a horse stall with a warming light. We brought the year old hen into the stall as well so she can get used to the new baby chicks.

Baby Chicks...

..we have 20!10 are Barred Rock's and 10 are Columbian Rock's!

Out of last years hens and 1 rooster.. we currently have only 1 hen left.. :0(

Sick of Death!

I had not planned on posting this today.. but I need to vent. This year has been so difficult for us.. and I just got a bit more bad news..

As you know we lost my Father earlier this month.. and you know that I lost my dog Annie. Well last night yet another lamb was born dead. That makes 2 born dead and 1 that I had to have put down because of seizures only a few days after Dad's passing. That is a lot considering we only bred 5 ewes! Well this morning Don told me that hawks swooped down and carried away 4 of our hens.. 2 of them being my favorites. I know that the hens are just farm stock... but that caught me off guard and I am sitting here with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes...

Surely something wonderful is just right around the corner..

Sweet Annie...

died last night from complications of Degenerative Myelopathy. Normally it takes longer for the disease to attack the nerves that control the breathing.. but 2 days ago I noticed she was having trouble and we prepared ourselves..or so I thought. She fell asleep in my arms and then I laid her down in her bed right beside my bed. That is where she passed.

We bred Annie. She was the runt of a large litter and we had to bottle feed her. She was strong though and thrived. Her ears never went up and she had a cow lick going down her back.. but was without a doubt the happiest Corgi I had ever seen. She loved her job helping with the sheep and loved living on the farm. I had never even heard of DM until I had to deal with it personally. I will miss you Annie girl. You may not have been the most beautiful Corgi by the breed standards.. but to us, you were perfection.

Don and HIS Cat...

...the picture says it all!




















By the way; I named this cat Edward Scissor Hands for a very good reason..but he LOVES Don. I think he stands guard over him while he sleeps.

Annie - Update

We discovered that when Annie drags her back leg, it falls to the side. When she attempts to go forward in this cart, she runs over her back leg - which is why she cannot use it correctly. There is no attachment to hold her leg out of the way - so I returned it to the E-bay seller. They refunded my money, minus the shipping cost. I am pleased with the transaction. We are going to have a company called Eddie's Wheels make her a chair. They have many options as each chair is made specifically for each dog. Annie needs either a device to hold her leg out of the way, or have the wheels splayed out and wider so she will not run over her own foot.












Here is a picture of one of Eddie's Wheelchairs where the dogs bad leg is in a holder. I will keep you informed.

The web site is:
http://eddieswheels.com

Wheelchair Annie

Well - the wheelchair made it to my door...This is what it looked like right in the box....


















..and out...


















...here was our first try. Right after I put her in it....she backed up..and kept going until she was stuck in the weeds.


















..and the other Corgi's got bored and went to get a drink out of the horse trough...



















..I tried it on her several different ways and made adjustments here and there.. and she still would only either lay down or back up, so I had to change my tactics...offering a bone. Nope! She just laid down and stared at it.




















..so I upped the 'annie'.. get it 'annie' and Annie?? Yeah - NO.. still not working.



















..still trying everything and anything...but Annie was clearly NOT amused.

















If anyone has any ideas for me.. please speak up. I am seriously disappointed that this has not worked yet.

FIX IT GOD!!!!

Broken Husband... broken Dad.. and broken dog too... :0(

My poor little Annie. She has back issues and has started to drag her leg right after she gets up from laying down for a while. Once she gets going, she is fine, but it is obvious that she is getting worse..so yesterday I ordered her one of these:
It is a dog wheelchair and has many great reviews. Go check out this video:






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahS9-Oy2Iuk&feature=fvsr

They don't just make them for dogs though. They also make them for rabbits!..













..here is one for a cat..

















..and for Pony's..




















...and even Lamas!

Have I Told You That I LOVE Living in the Country?

We had a little visitor in the barn last night. You cannot tell by these pictures, but this is a baby. It as only about 8 inches long!

* * *Snow * * *

Soo - it snowed at the farm yesterday.. but it was dark by the time I got home. First I had to let KC out so he could go to the bathroom.

He was LESS than happy...probably saying to himself, "Why are my feet so wet and cold?"

"You expect me to go where to do my business?? Yeah - right."

"Oh crap - she IS serious!"

"It is a long way down there!"

"..and that cold white stuff is all over my grass."

"Burr - forget peeing on Mommy's car tires today!"

"Whoa - going up is harder than it was coming down!"

"Can I puleeese go back inside now?"

Meet Fancy

This in one of our 2 inside cats. Her name is Fancy and we adopted her from the pound right before we moved to the farm.

She spends most of her time with a younger calico cat named Edward Scissor Hands in our back room.

When I adopted Fancy from the pound - the guy who worked there thought I was crazy. He put on these long leather gloves, like the ones you would wear to pick up a burning log from a fire! He stuck his hands into her cage and turned his head away. She hissed at him as he told me that she was a really old cat.I am HIGHLY allergic to cats, especially if they scratch or bite me. I blow up like a balloon and get hives. I knew that I was suppose to adopt this cat though and contrary to my own normal actions, without protection, I took Fancy from the man's hands and cradled her into my arms. That was 8 years ago.

If you would like to read about my first horse show..

riding sidesaddle, go to the other blog. www.ridingaside.blogspot.com

Today's Riding Lesson..

I guess I have not shown you pictures of Oliver in sidesaddle. Isn't he adorable!

He has been so accommodating for me while I learn.

Oliver has more motion than this, but I am not able to get him to preform at his best yet. If he starts to move out, I lose my confidence and sometimes my balance and pull him back.

I have to have surgery in 2 weeks and because of a fast trip to see my daughter and her family, I will only be able to take one more lesson. I hope I heal very fast so I can continue my training.

Meet Heaven and Earth...AKA Oliver!

Hi! My name is Oliver.

I am exploring my new digs...

My tail stands straight up like this when I get excited..

..and I am very excited to get back to work as the fancy show horse that I am!<

Ohh..mean hateful broodmare...better stay away from her!..trots away singing, "I'm too sexy for those broads - too sexy for those broads...just too sexy!!