Interesting

I wasn't able to make it to the Appy Club meeting the other night, had to work so I could get a check to pay for hay for my hungry horses.

I learned today that there is $1,000

MISSING

from the clubs checking account

and the treasurer is the person who is known here as CRAZY MOM.

No one else besides the president has access to the account or the check book.

The horse, Mac, is settling in. Yesterday he was DEAD LAME and his owner was considering putting him down. She pulled his shoes and left him in the soft stall with lots of bedding overnight. This morning hes doing much better and able to walk on his hooves fine but we were all scared.

Had trainer come check him out, shes doing us some HUGE favors like screen shotting EVERYTHING they post about us. She said its not something shes going to show us unless we NEED to see it because its all so mean.

Sad, A Week Later

R.I.P.

Katie Phillips

If everyone on earth were as happy and funny as Katie, the world would be a better place.

Last week Katie worked the 8pm-4am shift at Southworth dock. After she got off and was on her way home, she came across a car that had run out of gas. Katie drove to the gas station, got gas & was putting it into the car when she was struck & killed by another passing car. That car fled the scene.

A couple days later they found his car with evidence that matched what was left at the scene. He hasn't been back to the dock and he hasn't been back to work. But the cops know who it is and are looking for him.

Turns out he was a regular commuter, always took the 4:25am Fauntleroy to Southworth boat and worked in the shipyard. Its on video, his pulling up to the F dock in his older gold Impala, getting his ticket scanned by the ticket taker & him being on the boat & exiting the boat at SW at about 4:55am.

We were told Katie didn't suffer and for that I am grateful.

Wifi is 10

WildFire, aka Wifi, is 10 years old today so I'm sharing photo of her over the years.

This is her mom, Sunshower, 2 days before Wifi was born.

And this is early in the morning in 2008

Yearling

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

7 years old

8 years old

9 years old

10 years old

Barn Drama!

This is the girl at the latest local schooling show with Mack. The family was bitching about him having no 'A' system experience (which he does) but yet all they do is show him at schooling and WASET shows. Maybe some 4H.

Today I received this notice in my FaceBook messaging... 

I don't know if I've ever met Robin or Cassie but I've blocked them, along with the daughter, the CRAZY mom, the barn owner and one other little old lady from the club. 

And who in their right mind thinks a message via FB is going to be anything LEGAL??

The family NEVER owned him, they chose not to purchase him due to all his issues (which were ALL created by them) at a highly discounted amount. The owner was previously asking $10,000 and offered Mack to them for $3,000. If they follow through with this BS, they will pay more for the lawyer than they would have for the horse.

I called the president of our Appaloosa club and told her exactly why I'm not going to meetings for a while and she told me that CRAZY told her I had a beef with her & that's why I didn't go to the show. I told the FB members page that I was going to be working. Club President isn't happy about all of this and agrees with Meghan and me. I told her I WANT to continue to be VP of the club but I do not care to be harassed by that family. Speaking of harass, I suggested to the owner that she send a CEASE AND DESIST letter to them. 

Today Mack is looking better, a bit more chipper but he is still not 100% himself. I'm hoping his owner can get a horse urine drug test so we can see whats up. Look at Macks eyes in the photo, they are glazed. Pretty much looks drugged to me.

If happy horsey news:

Wifi is getting her beautiful white spring coat and she looks AMAZING right now. I'm going to groom her tomorrow and get some pretty photos. I also need to contact Gary to come do trims.

Joey is so happy to have Mack back, they have picked up right where they were before. Joey follows him around chewing on his tail. That's not going to be happening long, we might need to put something icky tasting on it. One solution is cayenne pepper & Vaseline  and another is a concentrated tail conditioner that's left in the tail, full strength. it will taste icky but won't hurt the tail. I know I have cayenne pepper & Vaseline but I'll see what I've got in the barn tomorrow and talk to owner more then. One suggestion I found online what that you should remove the tail chewer from the herd for a month and they would forget it but Mack is the ONLY horse he chews the tail of.

Rescuing Mack

This is

Mack,

he use to live at our old farm with us, for 3 years.

Big Appy gelding, so smart, a stinker, awesome to ride.

He was eating so his mouth looks wonky.

His owner is a very good friend of mine, she was with me when Wifi was born, I was with her when her colt, Maverick, was born & even though she built her own barn and moved away, we have kept in touch over the years.

A little back history on Mack...

He is 18 now and she got him as a yearling. He was used for 4-H, local shows and even shown 'A' system for a while. He was a driving horse, English, Western and a little Dressage.

In the barn he was a PLEASURE to have around. This is the first horse I was able to canter on after having been thrown from Joey and I still trust this horse more than Joey and that's saying a LOT.

He had no vices EXCEPT he taught me to feed him on command.

Last year Mack was leased out to a local family for the teen daughter to use for 4-H and WASET. They agreed to take lessons from Delicia for Dressage and wanted to show him A system. But they didn't follow through with that, they were only taking him to the WASET lessons (with a crappy trainer) and local schooling shows, no lessons with Delicia, no dressage.

In fact, they damaged Mack. At a show last month he reared up 5 times in Showmanship (because the girl was using a chain under his chin), supposedly he 'destroys' stalls, he will not load into the trailer, he has no manners and he bites. Hes got ulcers and his feet were RUINED by their shitty farrier and the new one put 3" pads on. WTF? His feet look better but they still look like shit.

His owner has been VERY worried about him & his behavior for a couple months and spoke to them about it, whereupon the mom, we'll just call her CRAZY on here, totally went batshit crazy and abusive to the owner. It was so bad that the owner left the appaloosa club she'd been in for years  because this family is in it now.

Owner decided that for her own sanity, she would sell Mack to the family and offered him to them for $5,000 when his previous value had been 10k. CRAZY went batshit again, said he had all these health problems, his feet are no good, hes a biter, he won't load. 

Um, wait a second, YOU caused this to happen. 

CRAZY was hand feeding him peppermints every day, like a bag a week. They weren't making him behave, they were just bad horsemen and the stable owner wasn't correcting their bad behavior.

This last week owner spoke with me several times, she couldn't decide what to do. I knew what she needed to do and told her that I wasn't going to try to talk her into selling to them and that if she wasn't sure about it then it wasn't the right thing to do at all. She would no longer talk to CRAZY at all and daughter was unresponsive plus being a minor the owner couldn't make any sort of deal with her.

So today I took my truck and trailer over to the boarding stable and got him. They knew it was going to be today but they didn't know when or that it was going to be me, they also didn't know the owner wouldn't be there as I told her to stay down the street in her own car. I took Karen because she won't put up with any BULLSHIT and she has a lot of experience with horses.

We pulled into the stable yard, I saw the daughter, I waved and smiled, then I pulled around the circle so I was heading out of the yard. The daughter came to me and asked if the owner was coming and I told her no, I had asked her to stay away. The daughter then called owner a Coward. I just turned and walked away, got the trailer ready. Stable owner came to ask me something, then she came back and said she couldn't let me take him, she didn't feel good about it so I showed her the copy of the hauling agreement. THANK GOD I thought ahead on that point.

Then the daughter brought Mack over, handed me the lead rope and started bitching at me. Once again I turned away and ignored her, taking Mack to the back of the trailer. Right then stable owner asked if they were bringing the tack over or if we were going to get it and Karen walked away. Mack walked into the trailer and was FINE. But I couldn't get the divider closed and he decided to not be FINE and he was LEAVING, banging his head on the way out. 

When Karen got back she got him in again and I closed the divider but he was leaving again before I could let Karen out so I just opened it and we let him go. Once again we got him into the trailer and this time we hooked the divider and Karen climbed out through the window. 

And then the theatrics started. The daughter was BAWLING big and loud over by the barn, all for attention. Karen and I just laughed.

The whole time we were at the farm was about 15 minutes.  I passed Macks owner as I was leaving, told her we would talk back at my house. When we got here Mack unloaded by jumping over the ramp and he wasn't paying particular attention to his owner but she immediately began to set him straight. Meanwhile I was telling her word for word of what had been said, which wasn't a lot. 

We tried to get him to walk into a stall and he wouldn't go in so he got a little reminder lesson on manners.  Then he walked right into the stall. He only whinnied for my horses once, then he settled down. That's when we noticed he wasn't RIGHT. He was drugged and over the course of the day we saw it wearing off. 

Since Mack had been at our previous farm, he knew Joey well so after an hour or so, we turned him out with Joey and Wifi. Joey was HAPPY to see him, snorting and squealing while Wifi was hesitant to approach him. She surprised me and stayed in the arena for a while just watching the boys. When she did approach, she kept the fence between them. 

By the end of the day they were all hanging out together but still wary of each other. I put Joey and Mack into Comfort Stalls and left Wifi in the arena where the boys could see her. 

Mack is 16.2hh and Joey 16hh but since they are built so differently it seems like Mack is a lot taller. You can see in the photo Mack in the stall and he can easily put his head over the divider. Joey can

too but its more difficult for him and Wifi cant get her head over it at all.

Obviously, Mack is staying here and he will be for about 6 weeks. His girl will come over and work with him but hes just going to be a horse and have some time off to recuperate. Hes going to be getting lessons in manners and to pay attention to the person who is working with him. If he tries to run over me hes going to get a lesson but it shouldn't take more than a couple times and if he bites me hes going to think I'm killing him for about 3 seconds.

Tomorrow I'll put all their hay up in the back pasture, way up on top, very spread out. Then I'll put Wifi into one of the temporary stalls in the arena, put Joey in with her and Mack in next. Lastly, I'll open the gate to the pasture so they can all go eat.

This Girl

This is the first time I've ridden her in about a year, since she somehow hurt her back last year; maybe she took a rumble/summersault.

I lunged her for about 7 minutes and rode for maybe 5 at an easy walk. If I was hurting her I needed to know it.

She needs to build up her muscles and lose some weight, look at that neck!

Here is her back

Withers

So hairy!

Wifi showing off her bling.

My trained let me know I had the bridle on incorrectly.

Fun Trip

Flew into Denver on March 5th

Spent time with my brother, sister in law, niece and nephew in law

Then Lan & I drove to Steamboat Springs

Along the way we stopped in this small town, Walden. I fell in love with the place, so cute.

At Steamboat, here is a list of the lift tickets for that day: 

Lan knows the director of the Steamboat Springs Ski School so his equipment rental and lift ticket were only $30. It was an incredible deal.

And he had a beautiful day to ski

We went out for Mexican that night, first time I'd seem a stuffed cow

Steamboat at night

This was pretty

Howelsen Hill Jumps

When we got up that morning it was 9* but warmed up quickly to 14* by the time I was out walking around town. The sunshine made a huge difference and it wasn't wet out so felt a lot warmer.

On Lans birthday we got up and headed out of town, south toward Gunnison. 

Went through gorgeous mountains with a foot of snow 

and dry, desert areas like this.

We met up with my other niece Andrea, and her son Soren in Hotchkiss for lunch. Soren is 6 years old and this was the 1st time we'd ever met. Hugging him felt so good and I fell instantly in love with this little man.

He must look like his dad because he doesn't look like our family.

We got to Gunnison & after dropping off our bags we headed up to Crested Butte Ski Resort. Found Lans friend, US Marshal Pete and we all had dinner together.

This is the BEST pizza in the history of the world.

Walked around the town for a while

And headed back to the Wanderlust Hostel in Gunnison. We had a private room but its beside the bathroom so we had to hear people going pee all night and there were 3 showers all before 6:30am. 

For what we paid (that's a story for another day) it was worth it.

Lan and I have been looking for another place to live, everywhere we go we check things out. Pete turned us on to this small town, Saguache, Colorado, Pronounced 'sə wäch'

Population 488 in 2016

We drove up & down all the streets, found a couple locals arguing.

Went to a realtors office & asked if we could see a couple properties, 2 were in town and one 12 miles out of town.

The two in town were just houses, one small with a small garage and a large shed, the other a 3 story Victorian build in 1870 and made into 5 apartments. It needed a lot of work and who knows what was underneath the vinyl siding but with a foundation of rock & mortar I wasn't too thrilled.

So we saw this house and we both like it, a lot. 

41 acres of scrub brush, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, off grid with propane and solar generator. It seemed to be all fenced with barbed wire and there was a gate at the dirt road.

That window up there, had this view:

Saguache means SAND DUNES in the Ute language and the Sand Dunes are in the distance, just before those mountains.

Saguache is the gateway to the San Juan Mountains, home to the Rio Grande National Forest and the La Garita Wilderness Area

Other views from the yard

This is the hill behind the house. I wish the house were up on top for 360* views.

There is no garage for Lan, no barn for my horses, no safe fencing to keep our dogs home. There are all sorts of wild animals.

Average temps

Population 

Plot map

satellite map

Anyway, we're thinking about moving there...