It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a.......

GREAT DANE!

Now I know why momma wouldn't let me have one when I was little! Those things are HUGE!

Rescued a Great Dane over the weekend.
R got a txt message Saturday PM from Friend......asking us to help them with their dog.
Long story short after a few phone calls to a rescue friend in Houston, she hooked me up with a Dane Rescue lady down in Rockport.
Early Sunday AM call to set thing in motion.

Ended up picking up Bones around 11:30 am, and driving to (almost) Rockport to meet Keesha.
Bones doesn't know a whole lot, doesn't have many manners. didn't want to load in the car, doesn't know how to walk on a leash. BUT, is a big uber goober sweetheart who for sure deserved a great chance at life and finding the right family for him. A BIG thank you to Mary in Houston, Keesha in Rockport and the Dane Rescue Group in San Antonio that have taken the time and resources to help this handsome fella. You are all greatly appreciated.

reFlective Friday - from Hunter In Training

Ok...haven't don't this before....is there method to the madness?

I LIKE.....that Casper is doing well at the trainer
I Don't LIKE.....that it's expensive and it's so far away

I LIKE.....that my BF is getting to spend time with her SO tonight
I Don't LIKE.......that I don't get to hang out with her tonight

I LIKE.........that my DH is going to college
I Don't LIKE......that it's REALLY messing up our schedule and such

I LIKE.......the fact that I only have 2 more hours of work left!
I Don't LIKE.....the fact that I have 2 more hours of work left!

I LIKE.........the fact that it's FRIDAY
I Don't LIKE.....the fact that weekends are only 2 days long and the work week is 5

I LIKE.....that a friend sent a saddle
I Don't LIKE....that it doesn't fit my horse

I LIKE.......that we are finally buying a house and not RENTING
I Don't LIKE....all the bills and such that come along with that!!!

I LIKE.......that things are looking up for taking CAS to a show in October
I Don't LIKE.....that we may not have the $$$ to do so

I LIKE......reading my blog, and others' blogs
I Don't LIKE....that not everyone is able to update on a regular basis...I'm nosey, I want to know what everyone is up to!

OK.....TAG.....Who's NEXT......
JacksonsGirl and Pony Girl
Have at it!! Have fun!!! :)

fRiDay FiLL iNs

1. He was a GOOD BOY! CAS WAS GOOD FOR MARY YESTERDAY.

2. Getting Fall Photos from my mom is what I look forward to most this time of year.

3. My best friend found out last night that 59 REALLY does go NORTH of VICTORIA after 6pm!

4. Yankees aren't as bad as Texans think, to be honest with you. =)

5. Appearances can be deceiving.....just because they look like million bucks doesn't mean they are worth it!

6. The last person I gave a hug to was Robert when I left for work this morning, normally it's Tucker but I was avoiding Chicken Breath!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to finding appropriate fabric in Victoria, tomorrow my plans include work and work and Sunday, I want to support Robert's study sessions while I make a blanket for a friend's new baby!

My Handsome MAN!

More CASPER photos

Truly a Wow moment!

Sent Mary at txt (I promise she doesn't mind me bugging her) to see if Dr H had called back....
Mary, who's not so good at Txting calls me on my cell (which I can't answer during work) and left a message (which I checked anyway).......................
Drum rollllllllllllllllllllllll pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

CASPER LOPED 3 OR 4 OR 5 laps TO THE LEFT.....MARY HAD TO STOP, and CHECK herself and say ooops....NEED TO STOP!!!!! WE ARE GOING LEFT! SHE SAID HE WAS AWESOME!!! CASPER....AWESOME....said by our trainer!! WOW! Smiles here, on CLOUD NINE!!

YAY!

Another short update......

Mary called last night for another short update.
Worked Cas yesterday....all bute from over last week/weekend out of his system.
She said he loped to the left a few times on the line, and 1 or 2 under saddle (can't remember if she said 1 or 2). she said it wasn't as nice as Sunday or Monday.....but it felt like more of a 'out of shape don't know where to put my feet when I go left' issue than a 'ok this hurts again lady don't make me do it' issue.
So, game plan?
Call Dr. H today.....get his take. May change supplement (AGAIN) or take him to chiripractor for a work up.....peding Dr. H conversation. Will post when I have more information.
:)

Short But Sweet Update

Talked to Mary about 8:30pm last night. Her little boy, Beau had been sick all day.....so Cas got the day off.
HOWEVER, Mary was happy to report she got the same, if not just a little bit more loping left on the correct lead on Monday! YAY! Progress, progress, progress. It's baby steps, but it's progress.
It's so much simpler to take a young horse that is a clean slate and train them. It's tough, tough, TOUGH to take an older horse that has been 'messed' up so to speak and re-train them the right way. So....I am trying to be VERY understanding through out this whole process!! :)
Kudos to Mary for all that she has accomplished so far!!! Retraining that old Stallion is NO easy task, but Mary seems to love him as much as we do and would love to get him in the show pen! :)

Thanks, Mary, for all you do!

Casper Photos

Isn't he a looker??

MY super handsome, awesomely shiny Casper!

Ohhhh what a Weekend Part 3

The weekend that just wouldn't end............

Wake up at 3am after going to bed at 1am......NOT A HAPPY CAMPER AM I.

Drive the 2.5 hours to San Marcos to see CASPER! I miss Casper. Stop in town at Wal-Mart to get Cas some carrots...he LOVE 'em!

Arrive just as Mary is pulling out of her driveway to go to the barn (barn is right next to house, but quite a haul).

Hugs to all, missed ya's and so on. Cas stays turned out in the indoor arena at night, which he loves! walked in, started talking and he came to investigate. I love him! First thing I notice, how shiny (even in the somewhat still dark arena) he looks....and then, how much more FIT he looks. He still has the same laid back demeanor, and was happy to take all the carrots I could shove his direction. Tony, the stable hand had gotten up early to feed him (Thank you Tony) so that Mary could ride after he ate. Robert gave his feet a quick trim, noted shoes are needed on the front for 2 cracks the developed in the past 9 weeks (he's about 3 weeks over due). But, trim first, ride, then shoes.
Mary tacks him up...he stands like the gentleman we know he is......I gooobie up with sunscreen, grab camera...Mary grabs sun glasses, and Cas and we head to the outdoor.

Not only is the a ride for us to see how far he's come, but a test of the meds he's been on since his trip to Dr. H last week. We went out to the arena with a plan.
Lunge - canter both directions
Ride - first to Right, then to left. If he lopes to left, 1/2 to 1 full time around and quit, done, end of story. End with him getting the RIGHT answer and stopping.
Sounds good to me.
Lunge - Trots to warm up....then canter to right...nails it, of course
Canter to left - 1st attempt, wrong lead all the way around
2nd attempt....NAILS it....starts correct, ends correct. Trot......ask again, Nails it!
OMG....maybe the meds helped.....maybe...

Mary hops on - keeping in mind he's on 4 days off....
he extends his trot ot VERY nice. For a big guy, he does have good movement.
Canter Right - big case of I don't wanna-itis ..... Mary pushes him on through. He balls his front end up, tucking his chin to his chest and powers around like a freight train....after about 20 seconds of that he relaxes into a more natural frame and says "ok, this is what you want, eh?"
Canter Left - ummmm NO, NO, NO, NO way he says....he balls up even tighter than to the right and just won't give it to Mary. Ok, stop, back up, re group! Mary extends his trot until he has no choice but to canter. It work! Correct lead, really balled up, but correct lead, and after about 30 seconds he relaxes, some. WHOA, stop....dismount, cheering from us, big rub on neck and pats from Mary. Cas is looking around like "what in the heck? All I did was canter...why the party??" Like, he really didn't know why, but was happy work was over.
Pleased...we were all very pleased with this.....
Plan of attack....keep plugging away at it this week and see what happens. Mary will call Dr. H today with update and get his thoughts....throw around possibility of another supplement, chiropractor....anything...
Un-tack, front shoes....hose off....
My tummy starts to rumble, grumble...and not the I'm hungry way...
Tell mary, "BRB, need ur potty"....
Get back to barn....try to hurry DH....
We make mad dash from Mary's with Mary kinda looking puzzled.....I needed potty again...stop at gas station for gas and potty. I am feeling REALLY bad. I get us to Luling, and ask DH to drive.....I sit in passenger seat, feeling terribly.
We have 2 more stops...one on way home, one on other side of home about 1 1/2 hrs....I'm not gonna make it...
Ask DH if he can do trip on other side of us by himself...he says "yes"
Make stop on way home...takes about 2 hrs....me sitting in car with ac on whole time....
Another hour to drive home...get home about 3..
I make one more mad dash to potty and "die in bed"....
Horses in trailer still...look ok, checked h20 before going on...all good....
Guy comes by around 6pm to check on them......leaves....
Comes back around 7:30.....my phone rings, it's him. I feel terrible and don't answer...Call Robert, tell him to call guy.
Robert calls me back....."Guy just said one of horses is dead..look outside"
WTF....I look outside, only see one horse standing in the trailer.....
OMG....."what happened??"
R says "I dunno, guy said he was there about an hour ago, and they were fine.....came by now, not fine. Dead mare has trauma to her face/head like maybe they got into it in the trailer, or maybe she hit her head. I'll be home in a bout an hour and we will deal with it."
"ok" was all I could say.
R gets home, we go out and take the living mare out of the trailer, move the trailer so he can get the bulldozer out, and as he's moving it guy shows up. He has his skid steer loader on a trailer hooked up to his truck. He was upset, but not mad at us. Not our fault. Although, how can you not feel bad about that huh?? Trying to do him a favor, trying to do the right thing and look what happens?
Guy goes down the road to drop off the skid steer, and I follow him to the gate with the mare. He said all that he could find wrong with the fence was that one of the hunters that comes on the property left a gate open. Go figure. We turn the mare loose, it's getting dark...almost pitch black. She knows the fence, knows the pasture....should be ok.
Walk back to the house...
My filly spends the entire night exchanging shrill whinnies back and forth with the mare......
I'm sure she misses her friend, and is lonely out in the pasture by herself....

Quite a weekend, huh?

I will post a few shots of Cas here, in a minute....

Ohhh What a WEEKEND! Part 2

SATURDAY
Started out with DH's alarm going off about 10 times before he got out of bed.....grrrr not a great way to start day, eh?

Got up, fed critters, headed out to J's to feed her critters (wave at J)

Took care of shoe's for one client (took forever). Headed to another client's house. Keeping in mind we had to be home by 5pm as had a friend coming over to bring their granddaughter for a horsie ride at 6pm.
R took too long at 2nd clients house, and was late heading back to the casa. Yikes. Had to call friend and say "come later, sorry"

Friend arrived with G'daughter who was very excited about getting to ride a horse! We got her horse ready, she rode for an hour and had a blast! As it was starting to get dark as we un tacked the horse, hosed him off and took him back to his paddock for dinner. Talked for a few and all headed out the driveway to go home.
I happened to glance up and give one more "good bye" wave, and something that looked out of place at the end of our driveway caught my eye. In the corner of the pasture where we'd just turned the horse into were 2 horses. "Strange" I thought, "only one horse lives there". I hollered at Robert and let him know there was a horse loose.
I headed to the end of the drive and found not ONE loose horse but TWO! Neither of which (blessing or curse?) belonged to us! So, I raced back to the house to get a bucket of grain and two halters to try and catch the loose critters before the ran through our fence, or cause one of our critters to run through the fence, or both.
Friend who's daughter had ridden thank goodness had enough "snap to' to realize that we would be needing help, and turned his headlights on and pointed them our way so we can see.
Got the horses to come to the bucket, but were very flighty, non person friendly critters who hauled ass the other way as soon as a hand came near the neck.
So, Moove over Monty Roberts....we coaxed and cooed and whispered in their ears WITH OUT the round pen! Heck, we were in the middle of the road for crying out loud.
So, after about 30 minutes we had the horses caught and we were headed to......WHERE IN THE HECK DO WE TAKE THEM???
We have a cattle trailer at our place, and it was empty. 3 calls to the sheriff's office had yet to yield officer, or horse owner. We couldn't very well stand around holding them all evening. DH hooked up trailer and, prepared for a loading fight we walked towards the trailer.
Click, click, tug, tug......and the sorrel mare jumped in the trailer with me....WOW. Didn't see that coming. I made quick exit, stage left, and Robert walked the other mare in the trailer. Took of leads and turned them loose.
Officer showed up about 20 mins later. Gave him description of the critters, and he went off to "knock on every door until he found the owner". YAY!
Gave the critters in our trailer water and a big wad of hay....yummy.....

By now, it's about 10pm. We are tired, exhausted, haven't eaten or drank anything since lunch time. I'm just this side of pissy, and Robert is right there with me.
About 30 mins later Officer comes back and said "I believe the owner is right behind me" I was thinking, let's hope so!
I hear him coming, before seeing him. Loud, noisy, tail pipe issues truck. Vroommmm!
Door slams....up walks/hobbles 40's ish guy wearing shorts and flip flops...... to a horse emergency? Ok, whatever fella.....
"Yep, those are mine. Well, my Uncles" Officer makes quiet exit, stage right as he has to go to other end of county on a cattle call (LOL).
We then listen to how the uncle of the guy that shows up to claim the horses lost his place, and he was letting him keep the horses at his place. They got out two days ago, and the day before that. they are mares, and are "coming in" we were told, and his neighbor across the busy highway that he lives on has a stud...they were there visiting him 3 days ago.
Ok, so, obviously the guy has fence issues...so, we offer "leave the horses here tonight, fix your fence in the morning and come get them".
Guy says "really, that'd be great, thanks".
Mentions that the sorrel mare has stitches in her head from a while back when she cut it. We get the flash light, point it upward and sure enough, stitches. and TICKS. OMG, both of their ears are full, forelock too. So, we make another offer "we have to be gone most of the day, if you come check on them and give water if needed (showed him where hose was) we will call when we are headed home and will help you get stitches out and deal with ticks)."
Guy was very happy about that, he's obviously not equine inclined!
So, it's now 11:15.....we are headed in to town for food......
Arrive home at 1am after talking to a friend Robert runs in to.
Keep in mind, we have to be up at 3AM to head to San Marcos to see CASPER!!
Sunday update is next....stay tuned!

Ohhh What a WEEKEND! Part 1

8/21/09
Friday, Friday, FRIDAY! YAY!
Work was, well, work! Duh!

Hubby started back to school, and his hours got cut at work. Spent latter part of week trying to figure out finances and pinching pennies was an understatement.

Robert was to head to friend/client's house to shoe 2 and trim 2, then to a buddies house to shoe one. Let's just say he was RUNNING very late. He was supposed to shoe/trim and get to town to get money in the bank so payments didn't start bouncing everywhere. I txt a 4pm, WHERE R U? I get a reply from C (friend who was with him) "on the way to c u". OK.....should have been at bank already and headed back to Edna, but ok!
Robert and C Arrive at 4:45........and get pounced on when Robert informs me that if it weren't for C he'd have gotten a ticket for speeding. OMG.. I was beyond aggravated! HE knows better. He's a youthful driver (under 25 and male) with one accident on his driving record already. We can't afford a ticket! Yikes! He got a ticket last year and took defensive driving to keep it off his record. So, I told him he'd better be kissin C's a** for keeping him from a ticket. *Side note, C is a police officer and knew the trooper that pulled them over*
So, I try to hustle them over to the bank so that there is money in the account so that I can get gas and go to J's house to help her with some stuff.
Tell Robert to call me when money is in bank so I can get gas. He said "ok, walking in to bank now" 30 mins later, still now call. I send txt, get reply....'oh yeah, been done a while'. Butt head! Now, I'm late and don't have time to run to TSC before going to J's and getting dog food cause we are out! Inform R that he'll just have to go do that! He get's all pissy.
Listen here, buddy....don't get pissy with me because you can't plan your day and mess up mine! GRRRRR.......
- Side note, C is very cute, very, very cute. The two ladies I work with literally had puddles of drool sitting on their desks when he left. Can't say that I blame them!

So, late getting to J's house. Late getting home. Sat down to figure out bills and stuff which made me even more pissed off. Went to bed hoping Saturday would be better.
In case it's not terribly obvious, punctuality is my biggest pet peeve...I hate being late!

fRiDaY FiLL iNs

1. I remember, I remember _Oh darn I forgot!__.

2. Dear _ R _ I want you to know _I saved you!! (that's all I'm saying) _.

3. Is that my _cell phone bill? Get out!???_

4. I'm trying to resist the temptation of _ beating my DH to death when he aggravates the crap outta me _.

5. I'm saving a _ bottle of MELP _ just for you!

6. If I made a birthday list _ sanity and normalcy _ would definitely be on it!!!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _ helping Jen _, tomorrow my plans include _ a busy, busy day _ and Sunday, I want to _ GO SEE CASPER _!

What your take on this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090820/sp_wl_afp/athleticsworld800wrsasemenya_20090820084907
This has been a topic of discussion in our office this afternoon.......
What do you all think ???

For HunterInTraining

YOU'VE BEEN MELPED!!

Kudos to the Dr

Kudos to Dr. Huffman and his crew. They were able to get Cas in to be seen.
He said "nothing really stands out. Flexed him to left and he's a little off, but nothing that should be giving you the problems you are having".

Now, we can look at this 2 ways.
1- YAY, nothing Major wrong with Cas
2 - now it just means we need to dig further and spend more money to figure out what the issue IS! yucky!

So, Cas is on his way back to Mary's and will be on some anti-inflammatory meds and see if that helps. If so, we will be taking him back to Dr. Huffman at the beginning of next month for some X-ray's and Teeth work. In other words...we will start digging!