Three's a crowd here... Tribute to Samson

You know they say that bad things always come in threes? Well, here that statement qualifies in the "three's a crowd" category. Since school started this year, My family has been to 3 funerals - my step-mom's, and Hubby's cousin and grandfather. The first 2 hit hard and all funerals were in the first semester of school. This semester the deaths seem to be confined to animals, but we have now had 2 important animals die. I wrote about our goats already (and have not had a chance to get pics yet). We've taken care of that.

First some background. Samson was MY dog. I have never before owned a dog that was mine. When one of our other dogs had died, my hubby got him for our family for Mother's Day 2 years ago. We rescued him from a shelter on his last day there. He was big, goofy, and sometimes annoying or stupid. His big head would get onto the counter after our leftovers. His big tail would knock drinks off side tables or whack in rhythm against the wall when he was waiting for dinner or happy. He enjoyed many nights outside (we usually keep our pups inside) due to his ignoring our calls or his love for skunks. I loved him. I took him with me whenever I went out of time.

His undoing (and the stupid in him) was that he LOVED to chase cars. I could not convince him to stop and he would ignore us when we called him back. When a car or truck drove by, his job was to make sure he ran truck off. He would run the entire distance of our property (about a half mile) to run off an intruder. He was proud that he scared off those crazy noisy beasts.

Last night, I had taken Samson outside with me to feed my horse and got distracted. I went back inside and then remembered that he was outside. I called him but he didn't come so I assumed that he was running in the pasture. I figured that he would be back soon and would hit the door to let him in. I didn't even hear the truck come down the road. It hit him on his head and there was nothing we could do for him. Within minutes, he was having a very hard time breathing and his right side of his head was swollen. By the time my husband had him in the back of the truck and toward the pasture, he had almost stopped breathing. Hubby had to take care of him and was hurting by the fact that his daughter and wife just lost their dog.

The worst part was that my daughter was the one to find him. She was heading out to feed her goats and he was right in front of the garage. This is the second dog we found like this.


I CAN'T WAIT to find a place that is far enough from roads that I can let my dogs run the property without worrying about cars hitting them. I hate having 38 acres and having to tie or fence my dogs up close to the house.

Hopefully this is the last post like this, and I am sorry to poor out my pity party all over the internet, but this is why I have this post. I want to chronicle the adventures, good and bad, of our life on a ranch. Maybe through this, I, and others, will be able to learn what not to do and what is good.

Thanks for reading.

Sad News

Remember that we have 2 goats. One female and one male. We were hoping to raise babies for my daughter to show at the county fair. So the goats hang out together with the horse and have been since around November. The horse has been with the female since April last year. We think that she was going to have her babies at the end of March. Unfortunately, when I got home yesterday, the female was not happy.

My daughter and I went out to feed all of the animals and Bryan (the male) came running to the feed pen. Koda kind of came up to the fence but didn't come close. That's unusual. But even more unusual is the fact that June (the female) did not come up at all. I could hear her hollering, but normally she's almost butting us and mostly climbing up on us to get to the food. I found her in the horse run-in shed laying down in the poo. I could not convince her to get up and saw that her front leg was cut. I sent my daughter after her dad and the truck and had him help me check her out. We started to pick her up and her belly was bleeding.

We took her a couple of miles down the road to a local vet. Now you have to understand that there's not a real vet office anywhere near our house. The vet has the basics you would need for small animal issues and vaccine shots. He looked at her on the back of the truck pronounced her ok said we can't do any stitches and gave her some penicillin. He said if she didn't improve, to bring her back in the morning.

Well, she didn't improve. We got home, washed her sores the best we could and wrapped them in VetRap. I was eating supper at 9:00. We went to bed at 10:15 and I checked on her first. She wasn't moving.

The poor girl didn't make it. Since she was pregnant, neither did the babies. And there went next year's county fair. Very sad.

We are gonna try to get another adult breeding female this year.

Weekend Warrior Rides again

Can you say "Weekend Warrior Rides" 3 times without mixing the W's and R's? I don't think I can. Anyway...

My horse life has been reduced to the Weekend Warrior lifestyle. I can only work with her on the weekends and not every day of the weekends every week. So I have committed to working with her on Sundays especially. Today, we had church. Then at 11 hubby had to do firefighter stuff (he left church early). No one was doing anything horsey at the church, so I went home and fixed lunch for me and the kid. Then I took a nap. After the nap, I got horsey motivated. We stayed at the house this time and hubby was back so I felt more comfortable. I brushed her and saddled her, longed for a few minutes then got on. We walked down the road and I decided I needed my phone so we turned around. I remembered what my horse trainer friend said: "On the way home, stop and back constantly." So I decided to try. Well, she wouldn't back up. He also said to put her in a shank snaffle so I said, "OK, wanna be a pest? I know how to fix this." I went home and got the shank snaffle out. I only road her around the yard after that because it's a lot softer than the road if I end up on the ground. She did back a LOT better though.

I just hate to go harder. I figure the softer the better, and she was only in a hackamore when I got her. I was riding her in a ring snaffle.

The Playday

The Mare was an angel. Ok maybe she had a small horn holding her halo but she was still a completely different horse than the last playday we went to. We are getting along so much better. I did not participate in the playday itself but did sit on the horse and make her stand still. She doesn't like doing that (that's where the horn was). I also worked her on opening and closing gates and trotting.

My husband's still broken so I didn't get any pictures. Maybe someone from the church will have some I can post.

Oooh the weekend

Weekends are when everything happens for me. I was notified this week by the pastor's wife that She really felt I needed to go to the Cowgirls of Faith weekend retreat. I had decided that I wasn't going to go. The retreat started on Friday, and I work until 4 and an hour from my house. By the time I got home and then headed out to East Texas, the Friday events would be over. I would only be able to attend the Saturday sessions. I did not think that it would be a wise use of my money to pay for a hotel room and the full registration, when I would only get Saturday. (I digress) So, the pastor's wife says that I should go. Then my hubby says I should go. Pastor's wife said that someone else thought I needed to go, so my room was paid and my ticket, along with my daughter's. AND, a friend would be coming past my house at 5:30ish anyway headed toward the retreat so I also had a ride. So I went. It was fun. And I'm not entirely sure that I am through learning from it yet. Still don't know what I'll tell the church tomorrow if called on to talk.

Speaking of tomorrow... Our church also has a playday. A playday has a lot of the rodeo type events, but without the pressure of the rodeo and no bulls. There will be all the timed events such as barrels and poles. There will also be goat type events and breakaway roping. I am taking my horse but will not ride in the events. I really need to socialize her. I'll have video and pictures soon.

I am sooooo tired now, though. I am going to bed!!

When does the confidence come? (Book warning)

I took Koda to church today. Ok I took her after church, and since our church is a cowboy church it's highly encouraged. Last time I took her there when there was stuff going on, she acted like a demon. The pastor's comment from the pulpit was that he's "seen some of our horses, and some of us need to spend more time praying on them." My husband starts laughing because Pastor must be talking about Koda and me. She was THAT bad.

Today, I loaded her up. I have to put a longe line on her and loop it just below her rump to force her into the trailer, but she seems to load better and with less trauma that way. We got there and I did a few longe circles with her - walk, trot, turn and stuff. There were lots of adults and older teenagers. Very few children - that's how I wanted it next time I took her up there. There were steer and dairy calves and lots of noise and people everywhere.

I walked her around the barrels then just walked around the arena on her. Wanting to expose her to as much as possible I tried to be close to the action (but not in it). I was outside the arena when they were running the steers from the back of the arena to the front. Two of the steer escaped. Someone hollered and I was trying to figure out what to do. I want to be able to help run cattle on her, but have no experience. I turned Koda to get her out of the way. I guess she was as excited as I was. I think she was trying to decide if she was supposed to chase or run (just like me). When I turned her and started to walk her away, she decided that meant she was supposed to run. I reined her in though.

Life went on and I had to feed the family, so I took everyone home, fed everyone, and left them all home except the horse. Then I went back to the church.

I actually cantered!!

I decided to chase one of the calves. She didn't whoa when I told her, but I just kept turning her until she slowed down and listened again. I wish I had the confidence and the knowledge to ride her and concentrate on moving the cattle without having to convince my horse what she's supposed to do.

I seriously need a riding buddy who knows what she is doing. Maybe, if I keep praying, when we move to our new ranch (in 2 or 3 years) there will be a built in riding buddy living beside me.

Meanwhile, I need to get my hubby's camera and camera finger working again. Need some photos for you to see.

The weekend update time

Puppy update:
I took Emma to the vet (remember? if not read the previous post). I had to take her before school and drop her off at a new (to me) vet before 8:00 in the morning. They were ready for her and all the girls gushed over how cute she is. I already had all the paperwork filled out and was able to just leave here there until I got off work. They called to let me know that she was ready around 11:30 and said that she was just sore. No broken or dislocated bones. She was given pain killers and a puppy package which includes a free dose of heartworm and flea treatment. She is now running around like a normal puppy. Peeing everywhere, chewing on everything, and annoying the fire out of my kid. :) She no longer has the worm belly. She looks great. Even the road rash is now gone.

Horse update:
Our horse pasture is out of grass. She's getting some hay every morning and a half scope of Purina Strategy. I leave for work in the morning after pulling off her blanket and throwing some hay in the feed tub. It's still dark. The sun comes up about 20 minutes into my drive. When I get home, the sun is going down. I have just enough time to get her blanket on her and give her some grain before I can't see. Needless to day, I don't get the chance to work with Koda during the week right now. I got her out today to groom and get her pedicure done. Luckily I had plenty of time before the farrier came, because she started acting like an idiot. I guess she be going through hormone issues right now. I had to run her in circles for about 30 minutes before she started to lower her head and listen to me. I brushed her down and was finishing her last hoof when the farrier arrived. Her toes look so pretty now. I took all the grass and dirt off her coat and out of her tail. She was per-ty. So, of course, the first thing she does is roll to put it all back.

I plan to take her to the church tomorrow to ride in the arena. Maybe I can work out her hormones before the church playday next week. Maybe her stupid demon streak will be exorcised before she gets there next Sunday.

Sorry, no pictures today.