Battle is Joined...

I girded myself for battle, preparing my body and my mind. I was looking forward to a nice, fierce fight, something to test my abilities and create within me the excitement of victory.

My opponent put on a nice threat display during our battle preparations, and my hopes were raised as I walked on to the testing ground.

Battle was joined, I pursued the advantage, pushing my opponent in every way that I knew.

Then I snorted in disgust as my opponent surrendered, without even putting up a token fight.




I am so disappointed in Monkey.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

To go off and have a life....

Let Sparky ride Monkey today, when I wasn't even around. Apparently Monkey took it into his peabrain to go rodeo for no apparent reason, and Sparky got dumped, pretty spectacularly, from all accounts.

Tomorrow, The Discussion. I didn't have time for a proper discussion today, so I'll go in tomorrow and see if he wants to pull that crap with me. If not, when Sparky heals up, he's already claimed his re-ride.

It's been a while since I've had to get Monkey to buck just to teach him that he can't do that, but if he's gonna pull crap like this, it's time to do it again. Hopefully I can catch one of the outdoor arenas empty, the trails are covered in piles of manure, and are completely useless to me.

Regardless, tomorrow I'll either be disappointed in Monkey.............

or we'll go rodeo and have a discussion.

Sitting at the Old Homestead...

Mamaw's birthday was yesterday, so I made the pilgrimage to the old homestead for her birthday dinner, and stayed the night, since I don't have class until eleven today and didn't particularly feel like driving home last night.

The kittens are mobile and making themselves known, they're starting to climb things and they're really getting into the whole cuddling and cute kitty thing. I don't have my camera but if ya'll beg real pretty I bet Farmmom and Farmdad would get some pics and send them to me so I can share the cuteness.

Hands are doing better... a little bit sore and stiff yet, and the actual owwies are... well... owwie.

On the bright side my foal is doing well now... he (I was mistaken, its a he, solid sorrel) was one of the best on the walk to the barn, and went in his stall without too much fight. He's also letting me pick up all four feet and tug on his tail. One downside to my newly easy foal is that he is noisy! He likes to whinny at all the others... especially when his head is right by my ear. Of course, he's so comfortable with me now that he just gives me the stink eye when I put my hand over his nostrils to make it slightly less noisy. He's also decided that his mouth is the proper vehicle for exploring his new friend, namely me. He's been sniffing and lipping at me a bit, but he's started to learn that biting isn't allowed now. He grabbed at my arm and got his nose smacked, so he moved on to trying to take the lead rope away from me.

I was rubbing on him, just petting and desensitizing him, and had the lead over my arm, when suddenly, the lead started going away, but the horse wasn't moving. I figured he was just turning his head, until it happened again. I looked over to see him with the lead held carefully in his mouth and an only slightly belated innocent expression in his eyes. Uh huh.

Later I had thrown the lead over his back and was leading him along with the slack (it's a ten foot lead, there's plenty) but the end of the lead was bumping his side, and he didn't like that. So, he reached back and grabbed the end of the lead and tugged, then let it go and continued following me, docile as could be. He'd pulled it just enough that the end swung down past his belly, rather than swinging against his side.

I just hope I can keep my bluff in on him, he's smart enough to figure it out when I don't want him to, if I screw up. But, he's better behaved now than some of them that were the best on the first day, now. Marilyn told me "You just had to convince him you were like a virus... you aren't going to give up and go away!"

Haven't I been proving my stubbornness all semester?

Wow

When Curad says their bandaids are extreme hold, they mean it!

I like these things!

Yes, I AM the Toughest Cookie

And don't you forget it!

Foal training started today. We didn't get to pick our foals, we had to draw for them. I drew one of the smaller ones, but then I'm probably the lightest in the class, so that didn't make much difference.

I was also one of the last to get my foal, which meant I had less time to work with her. I drew a little sorrel filly, dainty head, pretty brown eyes....

And completely fucking psycho, or she was for a bit. They didn't snub her long enough, and she freaked when she felt a tweak on the halter... my gloves didn't grip the rope and she got loose. So I took the gloves off. But, she got me off my feet and I whacked my head... blacked out for a second and she was gone.

Keep in mind that there are nineteen foals in the arena at this point, and five or six horses. All of the foals are whinnying and neighing, and a good chunk of them all came from the same place, so they're all buddy buddy, and when they're scared, they want to be with their friends. They also rear, kick jump up and down, and basically do anything they can think of to get away.

Now me, I thought I had it pretty good, my little filly let me touch her right off, smelled my hand, all that good stuff... but then some of the others started going nuts and she had to jump on the bandwagon. Every time they got her caught she'd stand calmly after a little fight and look around, I'd take her, and talk to her... she was listening to me. Then one of the others would freak and she'd start struggling.

Picture this. Nineteen foals of varying descriptions, eighteen students (one girl has two foals, because they got too many in) all in a medium sized arena. I'm at one side of the arena, talking to and petting my little filly, when our neighbor, a big stud colt, goes nuts, and backs into her.

She rears, turns from me, and I keep my feet for a while. Then she somehow got a strong yank on the lead and I was down. Didn't knock my head this time, though, so I kept the rope.

Of course, she's got momentum, and I don't weigh much, so she's headed off for never never land... and I can feel the wind from her hind feet right above my head... not good. So, I let the rope slip a little, as we swung into a graceful turn... I'm on my back, one arm over my head, one behind my back, both hands on the rope.

About this time I began to notice that my pants, loose enough to fit around my hips, but not normally loose enough to fall off... are beginning a southward migration, thanks to the growing beach inside them. I looked down long enough to realize that everyone was gonna know what color underwear I wore today, and then realized I had bigger problems, as I began to feel the beginnings of road rash on my ass.

The filly finally stopped, and I lay there a moment wondering if she was facing me, or if I was about to get kicked, before getting up, and snatching my pants back up.

It was then I remembered that I had an audience, because they all started cheering.

Apparently, people had been yelling for me to let go, and once she stopped, get up... I had no clue.

Apparently, everyone else in the class had decided to stop what they were doing and watch me get drug in a nearly complete circuit around the arena.

Apparently, according to Sparky, I had a big grin on my face when I went by him.

I got a lot of "Are you ok?" But I just looked at my filly and told her "That was fun! Let's do it again!"

I've been awarded the tough cookie award for the class.

But the filly... who will remain nameless because they won't let me call her "Bitch".... went back to her pen on the end of a lead rope, with me on the other end... and she was leading, not being drug, like some of the others.



Meanwhile, I had to hit Wal-Mart before I came home to get some peroxide and a jumbo sized tube of Neosporin Plus Pain Relief.

Scrapes on the knuckles of my right hand, a chunk out of the palm right at the base of my birdie finger on that hand. The ring finger of my left hand the nail got pulled part way off... not really bad, but bad enough to bleed like a stuck pig, and the pinky nail bled a little, but it just got the skin pulled away from the side of it.

Road.. or arena... rash isn't too bad, just a few places where sharp gravel got me. Back is soring up, neck too.

And my watch stopped. Damnit. I liked that watch.


I wonder if I'll get a plaque? Or maybe a trophy...

FINALLY!

Today has been a pretty long day. I went out to the barn at eight, and fought with Monkey for a while.. he decided he didn't want to go to the arena first thing, and we had to discuss this a bit. His stubbornness was finally defeated with the simple expedient of backing him all the way to the arena fence. He was so focused on the fact that he was facing the barn, where he would much rather be, that he didn't notice we were at the arena until his butt bumped the fence.

I swear, if he could have, he would have slapped his forehead and said "Doh!"

Then he wanted to act up in the arena, but we handled that. Once he was behaving fairly well (and blowing just a bit) we went to the indoor arena for a while, because it was freaking cold and I had forgotten my stocking cap in the car.

After that, we went down by the rodeo arena where Monkey got tied to the fence to stand, while I hooked up a trailer and helped S work with her horse on getting in her trailer. Can't really blame Diablo for not wanting to get in there, it's a tiny side by side two horse, stubby and not much head room. I tried loading Monkey in, I was going to load him and unload him a few times with Diablo watching, but Monkey refused. To the point that he actually pulled the rope out of my hands, walked around to the side of the trailer, and looked at me like I was crazy.

Then, Farmmom, Farmdad, and Mamaw showed up with some of the calves, which are being loaned to the program to train the cutting horses on, and we unloaded them. After that was accomplished, I still had to finish cleaning Monkey's stall, and Monkey was still tacked up, so I sent Farmmom off to ride him while I finished up getting his stall ready for him.

She came back with the world's biggest grin on her face, it made all the fights more than worth it. I'm just glad she finally got to ride her horse, we've been trying to get her on him for a while now and it just never worked out. Now she knows for herself the difference, and doesn't have to take my word on it.

Now if I can just get ahold of the former boss about riding out some of her three year olds and get some extra income coming in, I'll be a happy camper, and able to pick up some of the tack that I've been drooling after for a while.

The magic of Auntie Farmgirl

"Anything you don't want going in his mouth, you'd better put out of his reach before I put him down. He's gotten really bad about putting things in his mouth lately."

My sister in law and my brother were at the apartment dropping off my nephews for me to watch while they did some blisfully grabby-hands free, and "mommy can I have?" free grocery shopping. My sister in law was speaking of my youngest nephew, at one year old, who is just getting the hang of this whole walking thing.

"No worries, I'll keep an eye on him."

She gave me a mocking glance, and they took off for the car, cackling with glee all the way. (Don't bother lying about it the walls are thin, I could hear you!)

So, I turned on Balto for the oldest, and handed the rugrat my keys to play with. Auntie Farmgirl has much experience with kids that age, and I knew that the keys would keep him entertained for a good five minutes.

Of course, he's at the age where he has to look at everything, and pick it up, and inevitably, put it in his mouth. He's teething, and he's just started to walk good, that's the way it works.

The magic comes in when he started pushing buttons on the dvd player.

"Rugrat."

He studiously ignored me.

"Rugrat, look at me baby."

He looked, giving that chubby cheeked "I know I'm doing something I shouldn't but I'm cute so you should let me anyway" grin.

"No no, Rugrat. Don't touch." I patted his little hands and shook my head.

He pulled his hands back and held them to his mouth, giving me a "you awful abusive woman!" look.

"Oh bull puckey, you're fine, go play with your truck."

And Rugrat giggled and toddled off to find something else to get into.

But he didn't push buttons on the dvd player again the whole time he was here.

It's magic! Heh.