Animal Update!

Here's yet another summer animal update (if you remember, I did a few of those last summer).

Starting with Buddy. He was sick last week, but now he's fine. It took me a long time to get this picture of him because he kept moving or blinking right before I took the photo. I think my camera was blocking his view of Coale, who was watching behind me. He kept moving his head so he could glare at Coale, but he eventually got annoyed with me for blocking his view, so he just gave grumpy looks to the camera. So yeah, Buddy's good.

The brothers. They look identical in this picture. Well, not quite. Coale got whatever kitty flu bug Buddy had last week on Thursday. Coale recovered in a day and Nono hasn't shown any signs of it himself, so hopefully we won't have any more sick kitties for a while.

The horses are all okay. Last Wednesday, there was a fire at the stables, but no one (horses

or people) were hurt. But 4 acres were burned. Kona was very upset during the fire because it was so close to her pasture. The picture above is pretty recent. It was taken on Monday, or yesterday.  We round pinned Sedona and Kona at the same time. The Sedona was trying to bite Kona for most of it though. Wings moved away in January, and I still need to arrange a day to go visit her.

I haven't seen Teddy for a while now. I know Teddy has a new home with a student from his class (he was a class pet).  It was nice to have been able to pet-sit a class pet who could (and was willing enough too) play with our cats. Hey mom, can we get a hamster?

Two less animals

Unfortunately, I now have two less animal friends at the barn.

We haven't seen Motormouth since September. No one knows what happened to him. We are hoping he found a nice family and a warm house.

I found this old picture of Motormouth, it's now one of my favorites.

Wings went back to her owner on January 7th. She is no longer at our stables. I will still be able to visit her and I can't wait to see how she's doing at her new stables. Her owner even suggested we do a trail ride.

Wings learns what "cookie" means

 Wings the horse loves horse cookies. And now, she knows the English word for it.

 One time, she was standing at the top of the mare pasture, eating her breakfast hay.

Natalie: "Wings!"

Wings: (looks up, acknowledges I called her, goes back to eating).

Natalie: "Bucket!" *'buckets' are buckets filled with grain and usually a supplement or medication of some kind. Most horses love to eat their buckets. Wings likes her bucket*

Wings: (Turns around from her hay. Pays attention.)

Natalie: "Cookies!"

Wings: (leaves hay and speed walks down towards me.)

Another time she had just recovered from an injury to her leg and we wanted her to walk and trot around the arena to see if she was all the way better. Wings got really excited (she hadn't been exercised for a while before) and started cantering. We were worried she would hurt herself, but she wouldn't stop.

Natalie: "Wings!"

Wings: (Ignores)

Natalie: "Wings! Stop! WINGS!"

Wings: (Still ignores)

Natalie: "Cookies!!!"

Wings: (Slammes on the brakes, turns around, and walks toward me expectantly)

Last Day Before Camp!

Today was my last day at horse before going to to an overnight summer camp with my friends from school. Today's horse section of the day was crazy. I had to exercise them in the morning around the time the horses would get their buckets (grain) and Motormouth would get his food. I lunged Sedona and then Wings. I took Sedona back to her stall first, which was a big mistake. Wings thinks she has to be taken first, whether it's for her bucket, for exercise, or for hanging out in Sedona's stall. She was whinnying loudly and she got herself stressed out. She was pacing in front of the gate and she pooped. While I was taking Sedona back, I thought she was hurt she was being so loud and upset. After I got her back to the stall, I didn't have any buckets (or cat food) ready, so I had three hungry and impatient (and very loud) horses (and cat) waiting. Fortunately, after everybody got their food, everybody was happy, quiet, and non-moving while they ate so I could clean the stall with them out of the way.

Wings

Motormouth

Afterward, I had time to groom Sedona. I brushed out her mane.

Tomorrow, I leave for camp. I should probably finish packing, or eat lunch… But I won't be at a computer for at least 6 days. 

Buddy always gets so sad when he sees my suitcase or when I leave for camp or vacation.

After trip animal update

Jax came over to play at our house twice since we got back. He's a little bit bigger than before. It was hot outside the first time, and he wanted to run and play fetch the whole day. The second time he came, it was still hot (It's been really hot around here lately). So our solution (we did this both times he came over) was spraying him with a hose. He ran from it, he ran to it, he several doggy shakes, he wiped the water off his fur and on our pants, and he ate the water. After spraying him, his fur was cold and it felt so good when he rubbed it on our legs.

Buddy is as friendly as ever (and when we returned from our trip, a little more clingy then normal). After two weeks in Europe, I had almost forgotten how much more friendly and tolerant Buddy was than other cats. Yesterday, he sat on my stomach while I did a bridge.

The horses have lately been overall good. My horse instructor is out of town for the week, so I'm helping take care of the horses.

One of the other people that helps with the horses sometimes braided Sedona'a mane about a week ago. Later that week, we round pinned all of the horses (Sedona, Wings, and Kona) together. Wings trotted and cantered a little, but when Sedona wanted to zoom past, she would stop and turn sideways so she blocked Sedona's path. We took Wings to the center of the ring and worked the other two. Kona cantered a bit, but Sedona blasted of and went Zoom. She ran (which is faster than gallop) at top speed, snorting as she went.

Here's Kona wanting to eat Wings' grain. This is one of my favorite pictures. She's been doing pretty good. Last week, we gave Sedona and Kona their baths on one of the hottest days. Earlier this morning, I round pinned her and Sedona. She ran around at full speed with her tail up and snorting. Sedona was not running or being helpful in any way, so I moved her to the center and tried to work her again later.

Lately, Kona and Wings have been becoming friends. Here's a picture of them eating together. When we returned them to pasture together at the same time, they walked over to the water together, crossed necks and drank together. Wings pulled back on her lead rope one day and got most of her back out of place. Two chiropractors came (two different times, her back was that bad), and now, she's better. We're walking and trotting her a bit each day to work her back up to lessons.

Motormouth and Sedona both explain to us very loudly how hungry they are until we feed them. When Motormouth sees the car, he crosses the street so he can tell us how hungry he is before Sedona gets the chance. I tried to get an audio of him when he was hungry, to help explain why his name is Motormouth, but it didn't work.

Teddy isn't at our house anymore. He left before we went to Europe, but we'll defiantly watch him sometime over the school year.

Horse exercise

I took care of the horses on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday by myself while my horse instructor was on vacation.

Here's me exercising Wings on Saturday. I love her mane in this picture. I'm round pinning her which means chasing the horse around so they get exercise.

If you can see my hair in this picture, yes, I got a hair cut recently.

And even though this is a little late…

Happy Father's Day!!!

Busted!

The Crows

I got Wing's grain and soaked it in a bucket for her when I got to the stables. I left it on the table to soak for a while before she ate it (we do this because Wings is 20 and her teeth aren't as strong as a younger horse's). While I finished up the other chores, the crows found Wings' food. They were all perched around her bucket, eating it. At one point, one was even sitting in it. I shooed them off (not before getting a few pictures!), but they kept coming back. Finally, I put the bucket in the tack room.

Wings

When I went to the mare pasture to feed Kona and get Wings, Wings saw me and headed towards me immediately. Kona followed a bit behind. I took Kona out first to give her food. Wings was not happy that I took Kona out first.

Here's Wings waiting impatiently by the gate for me.

Here's Wings kicking the gate. They're not supposed to do that because it could damage the gate.

Teddy's Great Escape

When I got home, I finally remembered to clean Teddy's cage. I brought one of my sisters in the room with me so she could watch him while I cleaned. When we checked in his cage, Teddy was gone. We checked the whole playroom even though I had a pretty good idea of where he was. Hamsters like to find little dark concealed corners or holes, it makes them feel safe. Whenever I played with Teddy, he often dashed over towards our closet, so I thought if he got out, that would be the first place he would go. 

I was right. We dug through our old halloween costumes and dress up clothes and found him in the back corner of the closet. He chad been smart about his escape. He found an open bag of his food and dragged a bunch into his hidden corner. He must have been working most of the night to escape, burrow through all those clothes multiple times, and start stashing food.

This is how far he had gotten overnight. Smart hamster. His plan was pretty well thought through, he had a safe corner (It was more concealed by clothes so it was dark and smaller), the clothes served as a protection against cats (Fortunately, he was in a room we don't let the kitties in), us, and the air conditioner, and he had plenty of food stashed for when he needed it. He even made his corner pretty close to the open food bag. He only left out one small detail in his plan. He didn't have any water. When we put him in his cage, he went straight to his water and took a long drink. Hopefully he won't do it again.

After his long night adventure, Teddy was tired. When we put him in his clean cage, he snuggled up in the soft bedding and started to fall asleep. You can see how tired he is in this picture.


There were a lot of animals that got busted for doing bad things today. Maybe it's National Cause Trouble Day. If it is, do not tell the kitties. They could top all of the other trouble makers to day. Especially one kitty, Coale. Coale has eaten many lost hair rubber bands, even thread. He also ate part of our Christmas tree and has snuck into our attic. Buddy has walked outside (He's not allowed too), and often goes onto the kitchen counter which he is not allowed to do because of breakable stuff (clumsy kitty and vases don't mix) and puts snot on the windows. NoNo (AKA Noel), has eaten ribbon, thrown it up, and destroyed his kitty bed (by kneading it really hard).

Wings

The newest lesson horse.

Her name is Wings. She's from half-moon bay. She is nice to ride because she is so gentle. I rode her bareback for a while. The people taking care of her didn't give her the grain she needed each day and they didn't exercise her. Now she is not skinny because we have been feeding her the grain she needs. Since she's a lesson horse, the work she does helped her get stronger. She is here because her owner wanted her to get better care here, and because our old lesson horse, Masai died.

We miss you Masai!