Loss

Joey

Layin Down The Law

April 15. 1996 ~ October 31, 2025

My best boy

 

Home Looks Great

Who doesn't like gravel?

OK, so lots of people don't.

It does look a lot nicer than tall grass growing up the side of the house and rotting the outside wood. 

No one likes rotten porch rail either

So its now repaired and painted with a fresh white coat

And the floor is clean and treated

Inside the house I took down Uncle Mels blanket and put my favorite horse picture up on the mantle, Its called 

Morning At Lumahai Beach by Kim Star

I need to vacuum the bricks and clean the fireplace

And the driveway is about 20% bigger now that Lan has cut the grass off the asphalt. We knew it was a bit bigger but in the 4.5 years we've lived here we never bothered to clear it off. Now its all spiffy.

Took this yesterday morning and sad that my phone didn't get the actual colors of this BEAUTIFUL sunrise. It was blue & gray and the cloud made it so we could look directly at the sun for a minute.

I'm going to miss this when we move.

Aw, here's Gussy. It had rained on him a bit and I had just spent and hour giving him a spa treatment. He just GLOWS with good health.

It was so good to have quiet time with him. He was nice and calm and enjoyed it. He didn't call out to the other horses and paid attention to me.

I haven't been able to spend much quality time with him with Soren here because he is so loud, he runs in the barn, screams, makes a ruckus. The other day he chased Gus out of the arena and made Gus slip on the concrete & hurt his legs. I was pretty fucking mad since I had JUST told him NO RUNNING in the barn. Sent the kid into the house screaming.

Gus has a muzzle he wears when hes out on the pasture but he got it off twice while in the back pasture so I've been leaving him in the barn in a run with a little grass in it. Tomorrow I'll leave the big horses in the middle pasture and hope no one does anything stupid.

I emptied the water trough in the front pasture yesterday and it had an inch of sludge in the bottom of it. Tomorrow I'll scrub it all out and refill it. Its so icky I don't know if the horses were even drinking out of it. There were two 6" gold fish in there a month ago, they were 4 years old but gone now. I'm sure that was local raccoons; little assholes.

Piggies

The horses are all fat, except Gus isn't, YET.

This is Joey, walking past the wood shed. It looks awful but its back there so its not in front of the house.

And WIFI, OMG! 

Mack is a huge horse so he carries his weight well.

And little Gussy, he still looks good.

In this photo he is chowing down on Wifi's alfalfa while she thinks shes getting the better deal with loose grass.

Hay, Up Here

Wifi, look up.

HI!

Hay, Mack, up here!!  Look up!

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.

Stable Comfort 10 Day Review

We started using the stalls with the Stable Comfort stall mats about 10 days ago and I want to do a short review.

What I've noticed the most and is super important to me is that Joey hasn't been stocked up in the mornings after being locked in the stall all night. We don't have outside runs ready yet so its just the stalls. I do not know if he's sleeping a lot or just standing around but I do know he's not making laps in it. So not stocking up is a SUPER DUPER PLUS. He has laid down a few times, I can tell by the shavings in his tail.

Wifi is the same as always in her stall.

What I do not like is that the pee goes wherever it wants and in both stalls that's right to where their hay bags hang. No one likes to eat hay that's been sitting in their pee. I'm thinking I might need to hang the hay nets on a different wall or have several spots so at least the floor can dry before using those spots again. I even switched the horses to each others stalls last night to see if it would make any difference but it didn't.

The only thing we did not do when installing was crown the concrete in the middle but it was poured before I ordered the mats. On flat floors with regular mats if Joey pees in the middle it stays in the middle.

Once we get the runs completed both horses will stop peeing in the stalls at all and it won't be an issue. I use plain pine shavings and should be getting some pellets to use instead but can't right now due to short pay checks (I love my job).

This morning Wifi didn't go out to the back pasture to eat when Joey went out, she stayed behind the arena and when I went out there she came back in and wanted lots of attention. I removed her blanket and groomed her, noticed her hair on one side looks nappy, wonder if its from having the blanket on at all??

It seems to fit well enough. I also noticed her withers seem fatter/wider.

Then a bit later Lan noticed her rubbing her butt on the fence, maybe because she's shedding so much? Or needs to be dewormed? If she's not feeling well I don't want to deworm her but I do have them on hand and they are due on March 1st. I'll wait until then and we're keeping an eye on her.

I've got enough hay nets that our house sitter won't have to worry about filling them while we're gone, it will just be remove the empty and hang a full one. We're not going to have Tina put the horses into the stalls, just leave them in the arena. One hay net on each side and they are set. I'll make sure the trough is full and then it should all be fine. Terry will check on them too.

Beginning Loft

The loft supports

About half of them are up

Today the remaining supports go up and floor begins.

And I have commissioned my first piece of artwork. I saw the painting of her own horse, it was the first art painting she had ever done, then I saw a fox the next day. So I asked her to paint a picture for me, offered her $100 and sent half a dozen images and gave her the choice. 

He's not finished but this brought tears to my eyes.

A dream come true.

And my Wifi, in the snow, (see the flake on her nose?) such a nice girl, love her so much.

Stable Comfort Stall Mats DONE

Horses will be sleeping in here VERY SHORTLY.

Stable Comfort mats are finished, all nicely trimmed. Boards on right will be divider supports, being installed this evening.

Weathers going to be in low 20's this week, these are done just in time.

Isn't it beautiful? I LOVE this barn.

Wish I Had Photos!!

The barn this morning looks

AMAZING!!

Too bad I have to work or I'd go out and take photos of the change overnight. 

The Stable Comfort stall mat is completely finished and looks to good, no, GREAT.

The aisle way was swept.

All the working tools, wood and debris from these last few months is cleared

And it's all bright and clean.  

Still a lot to do but I'm thrilled with what we have.

Stable Comfort Mats

The StableComfort stall mats are almost completely installed. 

We went to Habitat For Humanity and purchased just enough carpet padding to cover the entire floor.

Then we had to have 2 more people come over and help get the mat rolled out in the aisleway and rerolled in the length wise direction, so we were carrying a 27 foot long HEAVY limp noodle

instead of a 13 footer.

Hemmed & hawed, pushed & pulled, finally got it about right.

Then the sides started getting the black strips screwed in, this wall first. 

At  his point it still had a lot of wrinkles and we were thinking they would have to be there forever as the mat is too bulky and difficult to just move and stretch.

This is what the top mat looks like, almost a felt-carpet on the bottom/underneath.

And heavy duty rubber on the top.

Its about 1/4 inch thick all together.

Here is beside one of the outside doors. See the angle? it was too much, he had to remove some and loosen them to less of an angle.

This is the divider post, the second wall area we did

and we had to figure out how to go around the post. 

I was a bit freaked out about him cutting it but he just went ahead and it all turned out OK. 

This wasn't easy and took about an hour to get it just so. 

This is the almost finished post.

This is below two feed windows which will be open a lot with them standing there with their heads out, stamping their feet for food and attention.

Now that wall is all finished with the top row of screws but had to be redone at the lesser angle.

There is one of the end walls done, as soon as he got the second row of screws in the floor got smooth and most of the wrinkles are gone.

Doorway outside. He had installed the pressure treated board just for this purpose and it looks like its going to work OK for a while.

There is one more doorway to finish, then trim all the excess from above the black strips and then black caulking along the tops to seal them from having pee go down behind them.

Divider boards, water bucket hooks, feed bins and

then I can FINALLY use the stalls.