Finally we have had a significant ammount of rain.

 Here in Southern California we never know if it is going to be a drought year. Today was the first of a big rain storm since probably March of earlier this year. Last year we had the rain come in October. To us rain is like sun in wet climates. The pictures show my back garden. The horses with their warm and dry blankets on and me.

Knight back to his normal routine and self

Knight went out into turnout today with his playmate Pesky.You could tell that they had missed each other and had a great time together. Knight really needs this as does Pesky. They move around and exercise a lot together.

Dasha is coming along

Knight has been out of action because of his virus and so Dasha has been out several times riding by herself. Here is a video from today Doug went out on the Quad. We told Dasha you are the boss, and she is enjoying herself !!

Knight is getting better slowly

 His daddy Doug decided he should wear a blanket to keep him warmer at night. So he has inherited Karrots blanket, which fits him perfectly. We were told by his former owners that Knight ripped up blankets, so we did not know what we would find the next day, but all was well. In fact the blanket had not moved at all !! He also is getting horse vitamins now and hopefully he will stop coughing soon. All three horses got their feet trimmed today by Fernando. Pesky had to be trimmed at the hitching post after an attempt was made with him just standing near the cross ties. Doug is trying to train him to go up in the cross ties like Knight and Coco. I really miss going out on our two riding horses, but it is better to be safe than sorry. We are waiting until Knight is completely better. He also is not going out into turnout with Pesky because they play and gallop a lot.

High Winds and Knight has a cold

Two anxiety producing things have happened in the past week. Our horse Knight has an upper respiratory virus and a cough and can not be ridden or even allowed to exercise much until he is better. Very high winds caused our power to be turned off. This means no TV, lights, internet etc. After a day we managed to borrow a generator from a family member and saved the food we had in fridge and freezer. The power is now routinely turned off during high winds in our area because of the possibility of wild fires being started from downed lines etc. My husband Doug has already ordered a  generator and the fittings he needs to hook it up to natural gas. Both of us work from home so if the internet stays up we will be Ok for the next big winds. Knight is improving steadily and it takes about two weeks for what he has to get better.

Thanksgiving mantelpeice

I like to decorate a little bit for Thanksgiving and use what I have in my garden and my own creativity On the table is a flower arrangement and my mantelpiece decorated with variegated ivy and small gourds from out at the ranch where we keep the horses, plus some cut out felt leaves. No fire in the fireplace this year as it was very windy and the humidity was low meaning high wild fire danger. We do have a spark arrest er on our chimney but I felt it was still risky in case sparks landed in dry leaves. We had a great dinner with immediate family and one guest enjoying Keto food ( minimal carbohydrates)

Thanksgiving thoughts

 At Thanksgiving my thoughts turn to family, but this year my good thoughts are not good towards one family member. This is my twin sister. Many weeks or it could be months ago now while on Skype I got upset with her and raised my voice over an old issue that resurfaced. I had just had two fights with my husband. I was already in a vulnerable state. From this my twin then brought up every issue that she had with me from our first memories. Some of these issues I did not even know were issues. She was not interested in moving on and I had to say after trying to turn things around that I had had enough. I think she did what is called gas lighting. Where a person tries to convince the other that they have something  wrong with them. In this case she diagnosed me as having Asbergers. My philosophy in life is to live it as positively and with as much joy as can be. Hers seems to be to get as much revenge as she can and to be as negative as possible.There are a lot more details including how she dragged both my kids, my other sister and my husband into this.  Bye Bye Marion.

Dasha goes riding

 We are so fortunate to have one horse among our three who can be ridden by a novice rider. Today Coco took my step daughter in law to be Dasha out on a trail ride. With my husband Doug on the unflappable Knight. It was the first time for Dasha in an English saddle. I taught her how to do a flying dismount. 

I decided to repaint our rusty horse trailer. Mainly because it was becoming an eyesore. This is the 4th time that  I have done this on three different trailers. Before I did a tremendous amount of work. Removing rust, filling in holes and painting with automotive paint. I used a paint brush and thinner to apply the automotive paint . The end result was amazing.  The first trailer was the small brown one. Then the big brown and cream showing before Ipainted it. The last one is the white one. This last time I am applying flat house paint with a roller and not bothering with holes and rust removal. I learned that once rust is on metal you can not get rid

of it. So all your hard work is in vain. here are some pictures. The brown and cream colors were to match our tow vehicle at the time, a Suburban. The white trailer I repainted  for the first time many years ago. And now will be painting it for the last time. We plan to get another trailer in better condition after a while.

I started this painting a while ago and it is now finished. It is a scene from out at the ranch where we keep our horses. The beginning pictures of it are a few posts ago.

My Grand daughter had her First Birthday

 Audrey just turned one. She is standing and walking a few steps. I have not met her in person yet, ( because of the covid restrictions a 2 week quarantine for people visiting NY state)  just seen her a lot on Skype. Here she is in a traditional Korean dress with traditional Birthday food. He mom is Korean and her dad is my son. They live in a suburb of NYC. I live in California. So Audrey is one quarter English from me and one quarter American and one half Korean.

 We went out on our third trail ride today. New bit and new headstall. The bit is perfect Knight now has brakes !! My husband Doug aged 73 is riding him.

First Ride

Knight was great, Coco had to trot most of the way to keep up. This is good because she needs to be fitter and lose some weight. Knight was ridden in a ported kemberwicke ( kimblewick if you are English) with a curb chain. This was ineffective as husband Doug riding him had to pull him around in a circle a few times. but we did trot and canter for a few strides uphill. We saw the train twice fairly close which honked its horn and everything was new, but Knight was unmovable and enjoying himself. A bit with a bigger port that is a curb is on order. This is the kind of bit we use on Coco,

she loves it and has a very soft mouth in it. When we first rode her she was impossible to stop or slow in a snaffle.

Knight is settling in well

 Shown in turnout with our Morgan mare Coco (VJC Mystical Enchantress) We plan on riding them together for the first time next week. We want Knight to settle in and also we are waiting for a new bit for him. A bit with a curb strap. For some reason Knight has a very unresponsive mouth. I don't know if he was trained by having his mouth jerked and therefore has many fractures and callouses on his jaw bones. Or if he was never taught a one rein and then the other slow and stop. All I know is I do not want to be the one to teach him this. We were also told the Knight had major allergies to flies. That he need to wear a fly sheet, and fly boots, and that he kept ripping off his fly boots. None of this proved to be true.

Welcome Dark Knight

 We went to look at a horse for sale, an 8 year old black Morgan Horse gelding trained to drive and ride, 15.1 h h.  We bought him and he will be delivered to the ranch tonight. His full name is LC The Dark Knight.

King Karrot RIP

 We lost King Karrot on Thursday September 17th at about 2:30 pm. I was home and woke suddenly from my usual afternoon nap. my husband came to the door. He said he had just got a phone call from a fellow boarder at the ranch. Karrot was down. I drove over as calmly as I could, it takes about 15 minutes along a freeway and city streets, fortunately traffic was light. When I pulled up alongside Karrots pen I saw Hector standing by him. Hector is our cleaner and feeder. Karrot looked in dire straights. I won't go into further detail. I got a hose and sprayed cool water over Karrot as it was a very hot day and he was lying in the sun. I rinsed out his nose and mouth. He got up. He seemed OK for a moment but then went into a violent fit. I leaped over the railings so as not to get hurt. Karrot then fell. I knew that it was the end. He passed quietly within a few minutes. We will miss him, we had him for 13 years and he lived for 33 years. We have two other horses Coco and Pesky. Today we decided to look for another horse so that my husband and I can enjoy riding together again. Coco is our only rideable horse.

Sierra Gold Rush a horse of many colors

 A blogging friend Karen of Bakersfield Dressage put on about getting coat color genetic testing for her horse. Because her horses coat changes color from a dark bay to almost Buckskin every year as he sheds out his winter coat. I wanted to share with Karen  about my horse Sierra, and her coat changes from being age two to about age five. I put the original posting on Face Book.  I had Sierra from age two until she was 26. I trained her to be ridden, but she developed arthritic knees and had to be retired early.  I also researched her pedigree extensively. I paid to get her sire and dam registered as Appaloosa's and wrote letters to people to find out information. This was before the internet. So Sierra is a mix of the main horse breeds here in the USA. Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, Arabian and Appaloosa. She was a very nervous and high strung horse and because of that I decided not to breed her. She was also inbred being the result of the mistake breeding between her sire and dam.

Husband Doug and his ground Squirrel

It has taken about a month for Doug to get the Squirrel to trust him enough to do this.

All is good so far

 Pictured is King Karrot as a youngster

 I can't say Karrot has improved but he is not getting any worse. Bute helps keep him comfortable. He enjoys going into turnout and wither rubbing with his bestie Coco. I have added some high calorie performance horse feed to his diet, gradually of course. For the past few days we have been having very high temperatures here in S California. on average 101 F with 53 % humidity. Karrot got heat distress on the first day and was showered with cool water and a cold towel put over his back. He is a roarer so when he breathes out rapidly, as in heat stress it sounds very alarming almost like a donkey braying. The weather will cool off later this week. To tolerate the heat I have to wear a wet bandana and then take off my shirt and soak it in cold water and put it back on. We do have a big shade tree to sit under and the horses have what are called shaders to be under, and lots of cold water to splash their heads in.  Thankfully very hot weather like this happens for only a few days every year.

Karrot so far

Has not had any significant improvement from his acupuncture and laser treatments.  That's Ok I gave it a go and now have other ways to see if I can help him.  One is to feed him turmeric with black pepper added. He loves this and has eaten some twice now with just a bit of water added in his grain. He gets bute when he looks as if he is in pain. I am trying light massage in the hip area and Reiki healing there also. He fell down a few days ago and seems none the worse for it. So all in all I am happy that he is stable. Next is really tuning in to his weight loss. I am thinking that the senior feed he is eating that is formulated for Cushings and horses prone to laminitis is too low in carbs. I will be getting some regular feed for him at the next visit to the feed store. Plus more shavings to cushion him when he falls.

So far

 So far I am pleased to say Karrot has not fallen since July 28th. That is 10 days ago. That also means he has gone that long with out deep sleep. I am hoping so much that he is using the pad that I made for him to lean against and go into a deep sleep. I have seen him in the videos from the wild life camera leaning on it in conjunction with putting his nose down to the ground to balance himself. I am thinking that the longer he goes with out falling the more his leg will gain strength again.Then he will be able to get up with out too much struggle. I only have footage of him falling and not how he gets up again. On Tuesday Joan is coming again for the last acupuncture, laser and electro therapy. So far it has cost about $600. I really do not see any great improvement. I do give karrot bute when he seems to be in pain. Joan wants to try a new drug called Gabapentin a pain killer specifically for nerve damage. Here is a picture of King Karrot Morgan Horse age 33 from June.

What are horses for

My husband Doug has five grand children. This is Milo aged 7 and his first time around our horses at this age. "Keep your hand flat to feed Coco an apple" Grandpa says. Later Karrot got a bath and Milo had a great time, it was a hot day. Earlier Milo and his dad had been out with Grandpa Doug who rode Coco, and they had incredible fun on our quad bike, a first time there too.

A change of subject

All the horse are good ( especially Karrot) my step  grand daughter will be taking care of them for the day. and tomorrow we are going to the race track to test our race car at Willow Springs. The picture is of my step son Jody and my husband Doug adjusting the ride height on the race car.

Karrot may have fallen last night

Karrot was subdued when we got to the horses this morning. I saw a piece of shaving stuck to his knee, but no shavings in his mane or tail. I was eager to see the overnight footage from the wild life camera to see if he had fallen. But  the card from the camera was blank....what did I do. Could it be the cards I have are getting old because I have used them too much, or did I forget to turn the camera on. The I realized I had forgotten to turn the camera on again as we were half way home. We had my step daughter and  step grand daughter Lilly come by because she will be feeding the horses lunch this Friday when we go to the race track.( my husband is a race car driver) I was not grounded enough to remember to turn the camera on.
Otherwise Karrot was perky when let out to wander around and enjoyed a bath standing loose with Coco who we had just ridden, and was also having a bath. The picture shows me and Morgan Horse mare Coco now aged 21. (VJC Mystical Enchantress) out on the trail.

Karrot improving

Karrot showed quite a bit of improvement on Saturday. He was perky, and sound except for the usual slight dodderyness that he has.  I have not seen him today as we do not go out to see the horses on a Sunday. The photo shows him talking with my husband Doug. Click to biggify.

Horse Acupuncture for KIng Karrot

What an experience. Karrot had needles stuck all over his top line and head. He had laser therapy and electricity through the needles to stimulate his nerves and get his muscles relaxed ( I think ) He loved it and stood like a rock with his nose resting in my hair.  Joan the vet who did this, is amazing... whew it takes me a few days to get grounded again. So this morning Karrot definitely has a change, He is striding equally with both hind legs. Unless I give him bute ( a horse pain killer) he steps much shorter with one leg. However was this from the treatment, that is the trouble you see there is no absolute proof. So Joan is coming back on August the first for treatment #2. I have not got the bill yet. I almost forgot Karrot,  has some Chinese herbs to take also.

Karrot gets tuned into

Today a vet is coming out to see Karrot. She does acupuncture. I will be so interested to see what happens or not. Anyway it is worth a try.

Horse things

I am happy to see that I do have some actual readers of my blog here. So that encourages me to write more often. Usually one, maybe two have read it. Don't worry I do not know who has read it, unless that person leaves a comment. No one has left any comments for either of my blogs for a long time. I have blogged since 2012 on this one and more recently on my picture pedigree one. But that is Ok because this is like a diary to me but a public one.

It may be a little while until I continue work on my painting. I have been preoccupied in making my old King Karrot age 33, as comfortable as possible in his environment. Yesterday my husband and I made a special pad for him to lean against so that he can sleep. Karrot feels he is unable to lie down to sleep. He has a problem with one of his back legs. So his body goes into a deep sleep every week or so and he falls down to the ground. I set up a wild life camera so that I could see what was happening. It is a miracle that he is able to get up again and has not seriously hurt himself so far. Everyday I wonder if I am going to get THE phone call from the person who feeds the horses first thing in the morning. But I have done everything I can, and my philosophy is that in life each moment should be a good one.The photo shows me and Karrot about six years ago. Click to bigify. He is a Morgan Horse.

Sunday a free day

I have not had much chance to paint today. Sunday is a busy day for me as it is the one day we (my husband Doug and I) do not go out to our horses. So I skype my twin sister in the UK for a couple of hours. Usually mow the lawns. I needed to get up some tea I spilled in the back room carpet and read blogs and  I missed my nap ( I take a nap every day in the early pm) because I got tense again after issues with things with my twin. The lunch was late because my husband who usually makes it had customers come over one after the other. ( he has a shock absorber business) So maybe tommorow.

More painting

The beginning I just put the paint directly on the canvas the first day and got the basic colors on. That's Smokey the cat sitting on top of a saddle watching me.