Meet Rufus

I promised pictures...

We rode for about two hours again tonight. It was sticky hot, or depending on who you talked to, sultry, muggy, humid, sweaty, damp.... You get the idea.

Post-ride - Sunny's the one eating

We ponied Rufus (the Red) down to the farm and back aagain via the back of the truck. He follows quite happily. T sits on the tailgate, and holds the leadrope, and I drive verrry slowly. It's less than a mile.
As soon as we passed the tree grove Rufus hollered and the whole herd came running to see what was up. As you can see, Sunny was terribly excited. Rufus wasn't much more so.

Since it was 88' in the shade, we mainly walked. The ponies were happy enough to do so. Thankfully the mosquitoes stayed away, as there was almost no breeze.

Anyway, it's late, so bedtime for me.

Friday Book Review:

Well, how's this for timely - this week's book review will actually happen on Friday!

In honor of the fact that I've actually gotten out for at least one ride, today's book is about the a western horse's life, the people, country, and critters that he encounters. I read it for the first time as a kid, and acquired an ex-library copy. I was happy to discover that the enjoyment I remembered hadn't waned just because I'd grown up a bit, and it's still just as much a pleasure to read it again today.

Smoky the Cow Horse by Will James

To my way of thinking there's something wrong, or missing, with any person who has't got a soft spot in their heart for an animal of some kind....

Truer words? I've certainly found the sentiment James expresses in the foreword to be accurate enough. And the course of the book as well, even if the events are fictional.

Born on the open way out west, Smoky, as he's dubbed first, lives the good life with all the other little colts, encountering plenty of adventure in the form of porcupines and coyotes and life in general. Of course, eventually every childhood comes to an end, and Smoky's rounded up and saddle broke.

If not all the methods used to break Smoky to saddle are quite as common today, it's still an education. And the progress of Smoky's life from then on goes to show how quickly things can, and do, change. Told most often from the horse's point of view, Smoky nevertheless remains a horse not a human in horsehide.

If the writing is plain and the grammar might have given a few of my English teachers fits, the story at the heart doesn't falter. In fact, written in strictly newscaster English, this wouldn't have been the same story at all.

Although there are bright moments, Smoky doesn't have an easy life of it, and even though there's a happy ending, it could easily enough have ended another way. In a world were horses were transportation, entertainment and livelihood, there was slim chance of a horse spending its last days peacefully grazing, fat and happy. Lucky for Smoky, fate (and the author) intervened on his behalf.

If you happen to run across a copy, the early hardcopy editions have both black and white and color illustrations by the author, and they're as much a treat as the story itself. James wrote a variety of books, some fiction, some not, and I highly reccommend trying one or two on for size if you haven't already.

A little rain...

Now that it's finally warmed up that means that all the nice cool rain we've been getting has turned into hot & humid. Complete with nasty pop-up thunderstorms which may or may not drop hail and/or turn into tornadoes. One nice thing about all the rain is that it's been consistent enough so far that we haven't had a big mosquito hatch. The water is staying too stirred up to get properly stagnant, I guess.

T rode the horse - the gelding that the neighbor thinks would be perfect for him - this weekend and had a great time. I didn't go along - company here & long hooves on Sunny. T ended up riding with a friend of ours who's a large animal vet, so while the gelding didn't get an official vet check, he did get a professional eye run over him, and apparently he passed.

It was beautifull all day, but of course it clouded up this evening.

T talked me into going for a ride tonight so I could see how the horse goes. He promised just walking, although we did end up trotting a bit. Sunny was good, the gelding was, too. He's very Arab-typey: cute little ears, dish face, wide nostrils, arched neck, short back, high set tail. He's very quiet on the trail. Handled ditches, deer, and strange horses with equanimity. Sunny snorted at him initially, but on being ignored didn't have any objections to walking along in the next track. We changed leaders, changed sides, crossed a couple ditches, lots of mud, and a wide section of plowed field as we meandered. We rode for almost two hours.

Ominous clouds to the south, but only a few raindrops falling on our heads, and at least it cooled things off.

I rode back with T to the neighbor's place - it's about a mile - and then he rode halfway back with me - we wanted to see how the gelding acted going "home" and then riding alone going back. He was NOT happy about leaving Sunny, and had a bit of a hissy fit wanting to come along with us, rather than going back home. T handled it.

T's really happy with him, and I didn't see anything major to find fault with. He's easy to handle, didn't fuss at leaving the neighbor's place or at arriving at a farm full of other horses. Tacked up easily. Stood quietly for T to get on and off a number of times in the course of our ride. We'll see, but I think we might just have found a horse.

Scary skies & wormer packs

Taking a break from laundry...

This was the sky last night as we reached Mitchell at about 6 p.m. You could see the sky lightening to the west, but the north and south were still black, black, black.
We drove out to check on the horses in case the hail had come through, although from the radio it sounded as if the hail hit a few miles further south.
The neighbor's horses - supremely unconcerned. Ours were fine, too - just too far back for a good pic.
As we drove back toward town... It was actually a full double bow by the time we got there.

So, on to something more horse-related.

Valley Vet has these great rotational wormer packs. They're a year's worth of wormer - 1 dose every two months, so six tubes. (The picture shows one with one Exodus missing, because I used it already.)

Very handy for a couple of reasons - it's more convenient to have them on right here, so I don't have to remember to pick them up when the horses are due. And the price is great, as well. One pack is $33.80. Two or more are only 31.90 - okay, so it's a savings of a measly $.90, but buying two qualifies you for free shipping, as well.

They have a premium pack (that's the one pictured) and a standard pack. The standard is the same rotation, just in generic versions. Pricing on the standard is $26.34 for one and $24.74 for two. You'd need to add $11.50 to your order of two of the standard packs to get free shipping, the cut-off being $60. But still....

Price out a year's worth of wormer - I couldn't do it locally for less than $38 a horse if I want to rotate as most vets recommend. And that's IF I'm lucky enough to find one or more wormers on sale.

Also good? Valley Vet's shipping is very fast, and their customer service is excellent.

Empty house

My sister is home safely, and the tornadoes missed Mitchell (and us) on our way back from Omaha. I have a camera full of pictures, and four days worth of visiting to remember.

The house is empty again. I have laundry to catch up on and the lawn looks like pasture after all the rain. And the sun is out. Must go do something productive!