Sunday, December 30, 2007

The last weekend of 2007


Travieso feeling good, stretching his legs a bit, loving life. One could never tell that just a few months ago he came so close to death. His scar is merely a cosmetic imperfection on his neck. Now barely visible under his coat.
He is a marvelous horse.








Madeira cuddling with Travieso. That only happens at certain time of the "month." Poor Travieso is all confused??? He cannot figure out why sometimes she is so loving and other times she kicks at him with flattened ears.
It's a female thing. He will get it in a few years.



Travieso was very interested in the baby though. He came galloping over when I brought the little one out.





And then, of course Madeira came slowly and calculatively, and chased him away from HER charge. She has adopted the role of a foster mother.

A good roll in the slobby mud does a body good!
Always remember to roll on both sides!













Look at my beautiful lady. She looks like she was molded out of clay.

A very relaxed and content Madeira with her little "mini-me" shadowing behind her.











Steal back to work. What a tough life. He is not lame anymore, but still weaning off the medication, on a special diet and now all he needs is a bit more exercise.

Steal's front hooves. If you look closely you can see the horizontal groove almost exactly in the middle of his hooves. From the coronet to the groove is the growth of his new hoof. Note the dramatic change in the degree of the hoof angle. This is the product of barefootedness and Good trimming after being in badly shod shoes, that stretched out his toes for so long. Laminitis is not caused by bad shoeing, but it definitely aids the illness. If the toes are too long and stretched out there will be separations of the lamina from the hoof wall. Then all you need is some endotoxins in the blood stream and BOOM... worst case scenario.

Baby was shy to come close when I was ON Madeira.











But she is a big girl now and it was time she came along on a "big horse" walk out on the trail.


Madeira was such a good helper.








There was so much to see on the trail.

Baby enjoyed it very much. She felt like an important big horse.










And of course we had a little snack on the way. Madeira really changes color in the winter, and it's not just the darker winter coat, she becomes a greyish mud brown.

Visiting Cruiser and Fire on the way back.












Raul cozying up the stall for my mud pony.
Now all I have to do is brush the dried up mud cakes off my lady's beautiful fur.





Momma bobbed her head into Madeira's stall to say Hi. She is happy in the pasture, made a lots of friends and ranks quite high in the herd.
But she comes to hang out and say hello to us and her baby all the time.








The dusk at the ranch is my favourite time. When all is quiet, most everyone else has gone home. The horses are peacefully munching their evening hay, birds asleep on the branches, and I just stand there lulled by the relaxing sound of the ocean in the background, taking in the last of the sun.

Check out the bottle of wine we had at aunt Kaija's holiday dinner. (I just had to take a picture of it.) It's "Madeira." So sweet, rich and red, almost liquor like strong. Madeira.











Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Wonderful couple of weeks have gone by. I missed a weekend at the ranch while I was visiting my favorite family in Bonsall, close to San Diego, for a long weekend. And if you would never believe that I could have fun without my horses, well, I had a fantastic time! I had a special spa treatment. We had coffee at the famous Hotel Del Coronado. We went to the beach, had Hot chocolate at the Pannikin (my favourite.) I got to watch Daniel at the art of fencing. And Just hang out with my favourite people in the world; Heather Daniel and Isabelle. Certainly I missed Madeira, but she is always in good hands when I'm away.


Well Back at the ranch this past weekend Madeira and Steal got their hooves trimmed, and Little Candy too received a special, complimentary trim from our trimmer.
Her hooves were curving up badly and I had been asking for the ranch shoer to trim her for the last two months, in vain.
Afterwards we all went for a walk, Candy in tow.




Virpi rode Steal on the way out just a little. He is doing well and can be ridden slow at walk for short distances now.





Beverly came along with Cruiser. His main agenda was to get as much of green grass on the way as possible.








On the back gate we met Irene walking Jet.
















And White Chocolate and Fire came to greet us over the pasture fence.











Afterwards we all hung out in the arena, including Baby.
Baby is such a big "horse" now. She wants to be part of the herd so badly, and she is so curious about the other horses. We can't of course leave them in without supervision, although baby is very respectful of her elders, and moves out of their way quicker than they can think. But as long as the humans are in charge, the horses won't have to challenge each other.






I did let Baby say Hi to Madeira. Madeira is so gentle and loving.









Steal in the other hand was jealous when his human was playing with the little rascal.












But the baby can Fly!
It's as is she's got wings...















Baby had to leave the arena before Tuff came in though.

But we let then socialize over the fence.