Before the accident, I did have a couple of great field trips, though. For my birthday, we went to the beach again! I brought Chance this time, and Lauren brought all 3 of her horses – she rode her oldest and ponied her youngest, and my mom came along and rode the nice quiet one. The weather was more typical to the Oregon coast, meaning gale force winds and COLD!!!! but luckily it did not rain until we were unsaddling the horses at the end of a nice long ride. I was very interested in the different reactions of Natty and Chance – Natty, ever the caretaker, stubbornly wanted to go back in the dunes but was otherwise perfect. Chance actually spooked and tried to run for his life at the worst possible moment – all turned out ok, but I barely stayed on and he almost trampled an innocent family on the ground. He is a big goober and was totally fine after that, doesn’t it figure!

My other field trip didn’t involve my own horses but was amazing nonetheless – Cavalia came to town. It was really amazing, so fun to watch, and soon I need to put my herd to work learning some of those acts.

Here on the homefront, the foals are in their way to being weanlings. Maggie is vacationing with friends for a month and really thriving, and Annie is still home but separated from Miss Bonny. The whole situation has been hardest on Bonny, poor baby.

Here are pictures since the last blog post.

Mom and Whiley

Riding on the beach with my mom

Back on the bay side, we were sheltered from the wind.

Back at home, the happy herd still has fallen apples to pick up, yum!

Uncle Chance teaches baby Bonny to pick apples from the tree

Moms and babies. These are some of the last pictures I have before weaning.

These are from yesterday – I walked around taking pictures of all the animals because the sun was out.

Dominique rooster

The weanlings

Nice job keeping the fenceline clear!

Some of the younger chickens exploring – I love those little golden birdies in the green grass

Here’s a mama hen with the chicks she hatched herself Thanksgiving Day. They are followed closely by my turkey hen who desperately wants babies and tries to steal them from the chickens.

Now there’s a relaxed horse!

The big horses’ pen is so muddy and slippery that I am trying to get them a little arena time each afternoon to cut loose on good footing. Of course, they usually do their laps on the mud outside the arena, but I try. Today a freezing fog rolled in, and it made for some neat pictures.

Chance steals the whip – this layup is not going to do him any good – boy needs a job!

Natty – beautiful even with mud on her face (I like to think we have that in common)

Maggie wasn’t feeling so great around the time of Lightning’s gelding, and the sweet boy stood watch over his mama while she rested.

In the middle of October, I took Natty on her second-ever field trip to Tryon Creek State Park. Chance was lame again, and I had promised to take Mom riding, so I took Natty instead. She’s a lot of work because she’s so green, but she’s perfectly calm and safe and generally does what she’s supposed to.

Natty’s first bridge crossing – she didn’t bat an eye!

Natty’s second bridge – she was much less certain of this one because it wasn’t solid and she could see the creek below, but she still crossed it fine.

We made it safely back to the trailer after Natty’s first trail ride!

This trail ride was he hardest work Natty has ever done in her life. My beautiful girl was tired!

Now for a few pictures from home. Annie looks like some small child took the scissors to her mane, poor girl.

Here are some shots of the foals playing:

Yesterday Natty and I went to the beach! It was Natty’s first time at the beach and my first time there with my horse.  She was awesome, as usual   Well, she wasn’t easy to steer on the beach and really wanted to go back over the dunes where there was grass and no ocean, but she was pretty darn good.

Natty’s first glimpse of the ocean

Down onto the beach we go

Natty’s none to sure about this lake – it smells funny and seems to contain a horse-eating monster that keeps rushing in her direction.

Thank you to Lauren for hauling us to the beach with her! That big black horse in the  background is a Clydesdale/Lipizzaner cross- fascinating horse.

Image was brave enough to go into the water

A bigger wave almost knocked her over! Look, she is wet all the way up o her mane.

I guess Natty wasn’t too stressed by the whole beach experience

After the beach, we checked out the trails on the other side of the dunes along the bay. This was more Natty’s speed, although she was very focused on the fishing boats on the bay

Here’s a detail shot of his reverse dapples and dorsal stripe:

Here’s one of the horses ready for their next adventure:

Here are pictures from a recent trail ride in a nearby state park. This is Peanut, a 2-year-old QH. Now that we have the bigger horse trailer, he can come with us on our adventures. He’s a good boy

Chance and I usually bring up the rear because Chance doesn’t have shoes and picks his way carefully along gravel paths.

I brought Chance’s lead rope along again because there was a Civil War reenactment happening in the park, and I wasn’t sure if he’d be bothered by artillery fire and horses running around and things of that nature. I should have known better – Chance wasn’t worried a bit!

I hear many horses are afraid of bridges, but none of ours mind this one in the slightest:

The trail makes a loop through the park and there is a grassy arena in a big field near the trailer parking area.

Chance has a fancier trot than I realized!

Look at that reach!

All of the horses who carried riders think they worked hard… Peanut isn’t tired, though.

We went to Gaming Night again last Monday, but I don’t have any pictures. Chance was awesome, and strangers were actually taking his picture, lol

Thursday we had probably the last after-work trail ride of the season. The weather was awesome. It’s getting dark earlier now, though, and we made our way back in the dark – and I do mean DARK! There’s one stretch that is a tunnel under overgrown trees and blackberries, and it was so dark I couldn’t even see Chance’s head. I just hunkered down as close as I could to his neck and trusted him to get me home, which he did. He’s such an awesome horse! He does have something to work on now, though – he kicked the horse behind him, the brat! It’s a good thing we usually bring up the rear.

Here are some detail shots of the ever-changing Lightning Bug.

Here’s Maggie for comparison:

Here is Maggie’s ear – you can see she’s more red and less grey:

Here’s Miss Bonny telling Lightning Bug to step back and let her have ALL the attention!

Notice how big Lightning Bug in this picture – he’s standing in front of Niki, the only full-draft in the herd, and she’s actually on the up-hill side of him. Yikes!

Here’s the herd helping me pick up fallen apples:

I just love this little guy’s pattern

Miss filly is too much an attention hog to make for good pictures

And last but not least, here are my beautiful fatties!

Getting direction and assignments before heading for the cows. You can see some of them on the far hill, and they were already mooing away and milling around a bit, but note Chance’s ears – he’s listening, but he’s standing quietly enough that I was able to take pictures.

Here we go!

Our job was to keep the cows from heading out into the middle of the pasture while those horses way ahead of us got up behind them and pushed them down the fence line. I chose this job mostly for the distance between us the cows, although at this point I’m not sure Chance had realized they were on our side of the fence.

We maintained a safe enough distance that it was actually a little difficult to get pictures with both us and cows in the frame.

Chance sure was focused on the job at hand (or the job others were doing halfway across the field, whichever way you want to look at it)

The herd is on the move now!

The second-hardest part was getting the cows to cross the dry creek bed

This bunch didn’t want to go

These next pictures kinda make it look like we moved in to help, although I sure don’t remember that!

They’re all across the creek bed! 20-20 hindsight tells me we should have moved up and held our line instead of pausing for a photo op here, but look how beautiful and relaxed my boy is!

Alright, we’re back on the job now.

Wait a minute here… they are stopping and some are turning around!

After all the chaos, about half the herd ran by us (well, I should say they ran through the hole left when Chance decided to get the heck out of the way!

Here we come for round 2

We got an easier job this time – just get behind them and keep them moving down the fence line.

This little guy did not want to go!

We brought up the rear.

We got them safely back across the creek bed and turned them over to the more experienced riders to get them into the pen.

Almost all in

Time to start sorting mama cows from their calves. This was done by hand on foot by some very brave women!

Finally all the cows and calves were separated, and it was time to herd the calves back out to a new pasture.

This part was easier – Chance had settled down quite a bit, and of course the cows were happy to be going away from the barn!

Finally it was time for the cows’ preg checks. Chance and Whiley were tucked away in the dead center of all the action – each and every cow had to move in a big circle around their pen, and there were gates opening and closing, cows rattling around in metal shoots, squeezes clanging, lots of metal and mooing and shouting. Chance isn’t sure where in the world he is all the sudden! Whiley doesn’t care where she is because there’s a little something to nibble. She’s the perfect companion for Chance on these outings because she is so laid back.

Now I think he’s reaching over the fence to sniff a passing cow

Surrounded by a sea of cows

The action is all on this side

The action isn’t so exciting – time for a snack

I was running the gates to let the pregnant cows back out to the pasture, so I got pretty busy at this point and had to put the camera away. What a great experience for my boy and a fun time for everyone except the cows!

Not sure what she was more interested in – the bright red chair or the people in the boats

Getting her feet wet

Are we having fun yet?

I knew it was just a matter of time…

Not again!

Sopping wet me back in the sopping wet saddle

My beautiful girl is ready to go back to shore

Frog Lake must be named for these little guys who are all over the shoreline

Our partners in crime – thanks for taking us along with you!

After the cows, we had a few quiet days at home with the rapidly growing foals. Miss Bonny had a bad laceration on her cheek, so she had about 20 sutures for awhile. She had complications and the wound abscessed several weeks later, but I think she’s on the mend now.  The laceration is right under where the noseband of her halter would sit, so we have had to do all treatments with little missy loose, and she has been a rockstar patient! She’s a really smart, sweet little filly. Anyway, that’s why you’ll see swelling in her cheek.

The chickens are really good at keeping down the flies.

I do believe I have the most beautiful, sweetest horse in the world, and I feel so lucky every time I look at him

He’s the smartest rascal in the barn, too!

Here’s another trail ride:

Here are some detail shots of the foals. Lightning still has a little bit of a dorsal stripe, and Bonny has the cutest little white curls above her hooves.

Here are some shots of the horses hard at work mowing and picking up apples.

We’re ready to come out and play now!

And last but not least, we have some new additions to the farm! Six little chicks hatched Monday.

Mom came out to ride today! I made her do almost all of the work herself, including going out to the field to catch her own horse and grooming him. I did saddle him for her since Chance is tall and Mom is small   I thought she’d have a hard time throwing that great big western saddle up on top of Chance’s back.

Finally they were off and running (well ok, walking)! Note Mom’s snazzy new helmet – safety first!

Chance is only a youngster and Mom hasn’t ridden much, so we just worked on steering and stopping mostly today. I think they had fun, though.

Chance was such a good boy for Mom. Other than me, he’s only had one other rider, and just for a few minutes, so this was almost a test to see how he’d listen. He did test a bit, but he was pretty darn good!

He clearly wasn’t too stressed about the new rider. Also, you can see where he’s getting a new big boy tooth in this picture

Big smile from Mom and a very relaxed horse – that’s what I like to see!

Well on our way to happy trails

The herd loves being able to spend their days in the pasture:

Where are the foals, you ask? In the goat shed, naturally! The horses have pretty much destroyed the shed, and I need to rebuild 2 walls from the framing out. Ugh.

So if the horses are in the shed, where are the goats? Stuck outside. I lost my sweet brown baby goat to coyotes, and I’m just heartbroken. The remaining goat, little Caroline, is lost without her sister. She sticks close to me when I’m home and hangs with the horses when I’m not. Poor baby goatie!

Not horse-related, but still cute – we had a barbeque, and one of the guests brought a 9-week-old puppy. Billy loved him! They had such a good time playing!

If you look closely at this action shot, you’ll see Billy has the puppy in a bear hug as they’re both rolling over

Chance and I went on our second trail ride this week, and he was awesome as usual. He did spook once at the remains of a campfire in the middle of the trail, but I think one spook is pretty acceptable in an inexperienced 3-year-old.

Here we are leading the way – ride a draft, they make your butt look smaller

Here we are circling the horse-eating monster that almost got us. We went by it a couple of times in each direction so he’d realize it wasn’t something to be afraid of.

Isn’t he beautiful? Sometimes I really see the Morgan in him

Here’s one with Billy dog in it, too

I never get tired of looking at this boy – he is so beautiful!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned lately – I absolutely love this horse! I couldn’t possibly be any happier with him

And now, updates on the little ragamuffins! They are shedding out like crazy and really look terribly mangy right now, but it’s fun watching for their adult colors to appear.

Methinks I’m going to have another roan on my hands

Chance checking to see if the apples are ripe yet:

“Can’t we please be friends?”

Here are some photos from our latest trailer training session – foals will load for apples

“There’s food in here!”

Natty was looking in at the foals while they were looking out at her

I’ve seen people struggle and fight to get horses loaded, and I am so glad I have the opportunity to start early and let the foals use their natural curiosity to learn that trailers aren’t scary. Here are videos of the learning process:

Here are a few pictures from Chance’s first trip to Gaming Night at Mount Hood Equestrian Center. It’s an open practice, and there were about 9 horses there in total. He did a great job in the strange arena with lots of horses running around. We went with his little friend Image, 20 years old and very experienced at this sort of thing. This is where he turned up lame though

Chance and Image – just a bit of a size difference

Here are some new shots of the foals. Lightning is looking pretty mangy these days!

Natty showing her boss are side

Here’s Natty’s first ride in a long, long time:

Some arena time with Chance

He’s just so nervous under saddle – whatever will I do with him? Oh no wait, I meant  however will I wake him up?

It’s not just us…

Here are more foal pictures from a few weeks back:

Bonny’s little face itches so much where she’s shedding out!

Bonny, you’re too close for pictures!

How many horses can squeeze into one picture? The mama mares are letting Chance closer to the babies now (although he does have several new bite marks), and one day recently I came home to find him babysitting while all 4 mares were on the other side of the pasture. It’s so neat to see the herd working together to raise the babies!

And finally, here are a couple of pictures from the all-girls horse camping trip this weekend. I had to take a borrowed horse, but it was still fun!

We rode until after sunset and were driving home in the dark. Luckily we were going really slowly because two loose horses ran out in the road right in front of us, and we had to stop truck and trailer in the middle of the road quite suddenly. We stopped and were able to catch the horses easily (thankfully they were haltered) and had lead ropes with us. However, we were in the middle of nowhere with only one house in sight, and nobody was home at that house. We couldn’t see any evidence of fenced pasture anywhere around, so we had nowhere to put these horses. We ended up calling the sheriff, and the poor thing who got the call (drew the short stick I believe) was a self-proclaimed city boy who asked if horses had tags like dogs and then asked if we already had horses in our trailer like he thought maybe we could just load them up and take them away somewhere. We ended up standing by the side of the road with the stray horses while the sheriff went door-to-door (by this time it was about 11 o’clock at night). He did finally find the owners about a mile away after other neighbors pointed him in their direction – apparently their horses get out all the time. They came in a car to get them and didn’t even bring lead ropes – talk about bad owners! Anyway, the good part of this story (other than horses NOT getting hit by cars on a dark country road) is that Chance had to stand patiently in the trailer for over 2 hours, which was really great practice for him. I am thrilled to say he was totally patient, and there wasn’t any kicking or pawing or anything.  He’s really growing up and turning into the awesome horse we all knew he would be!

Ok, here are the pictures finally! Pardon the blurry ones – these were all taken on horseback.

Plugging along like he’s been on a dude string for 20 years…

Note all the bee hives – Chance didn’t care a bit on the way out and only glanced twice on the way back in (but still no spook).

Chance leads the way! I took his lead rope with me (around my waist since I don’t have a nice saddle horn to hang it on) in case he or Billy gave me any trouble and I had to get off and walk them, but I didn’t need it at all.

Stopping for a photo opportunity

I love this picture. I know Chance is making a face, but that’s just the kind of goofball he is

Here are the pictures I took – more of these are blurry, but oh well.

Getting pretty dark deep in the forest

Back out into the light. Chance is such a good listener, it’s hard to get pictures of him when his ears are perked forward.

Riding off into the sunset