Makenzie's 2nd Birthday

Makenzie Ruth turned 2 years old on Dec. 10th.

Pop and I, along with Jacob, Amber and cousin Caden, drove to Colorado on Friday. Makenzie’s birthday party was Sunday afternoon. We planned on staying all day and coming back home on Monday. I didn’t want to miss 1 minute of her celebration!

We left about 2 Friday afternoon. The weather at home was suppose to turn into a cold wind and bring night time temps into the minuses. We were about an hour from Cheyenne and started running into wind. The northwest wind was strong and our SUV was swaying. I’m glad the whole trip wasn’t like that. 7 ½ hours of that would be too much on the stomach. Once we headed south, we lost the wind.

We arrived Friday night. Makenzie was in bed but Sara told me to go in and give her a kiss good night. She stirred some, but stayed asleep as I gave her a goodnight kiss on her forehead.
The time change made us lose an hour, but that was ok. Caden was ready for bed, and so were the adults.

Saturday morning came too early. We were all awake before Makenzie.

Caden is an early riser and was happily playing. When she started talking in her bed, they told me to wait to make sure she was waking up. Yea, right! I was going to wait after not seeing her for 3 months. When she saw Caden, she said “Hi Caden!” in a quiet, little voice.

Makenzie was all giggles to play with Caden.

The sun was bright, and we thought it was going to be a nice day, until we walked outside. The wind was bone chilling. Temps weren’t as cold as home in Nebraska though.

Sara was home during the morning, but Jake had to work. This weekend was Jake’s company party. After he got home from work at noon, they had to do chores and leave by 3.

We spent Saturday morning helping Sara with last minute party preparations, which included baking the two, chocolate sheet cakes, and putting it together with a middle layer of strawberries. She decorated the cake with a My Little Pony picture, and I thought it was deliciously adorable.

We watched Makenzie and Caden play Saturday morning and afternoon. They put coats and shoes on to go outside with the guys, but they were soon back in. I think Grandpa thought the wind was going to blow them away!

We took out an Alphabet bus toy for both Makenzie and Caden that I found at the Take 2 clothing/toy consignment sale. We had to laugh when Pop was playing with Makenzie, and she turned and looked at Pop, help up her little finger, and said “Pop, stop!” That was really funny. Then she did it again, even though he had stopped singing.

Makenzie is all action.

Caden is quiet. Caden would go off a little and play by himself. Then they would sit and play in the same area for awhile, each doing their own thing.

Come bedtime, Makenzie loves the movie, Cars, and would say, “watch Cars, ok?” She sure does like to snuggle down under covers on the couch.

The party on Sunday had both little ones up too long without a long nap. With a few friends and older cousins, Makenzie had a grand time running around and playing with everyone.

She opened her gifts, and then everyone went outside to ride Pody.

Makenzie had gotten a baby stroller, and would not leave the stroller to ride. But eventually, she pushed her stroller into the outdoor arena and left it parked to pet the horse.

I held her on the horse to get her picture taken, even though I didn’t put her helmet on. She just wasn’t going to leave that baby stroller for very long.

Everyone went back inside for cake and ice cream.

We had a few minutes of down time with Sara, Jake and Makezie after everyone went home. Before we knew it, the weekend was over. We said goodbye this morning after kisses and hugs, promising to see Makezie soon for the holidays.

I miss Makenzie already. It’s going to be a long 3 weeks before I can see her again.

Keeping Horses Warm

(Photo from last winter)

Horses stay warm in the winter by eating lots of hay! Eating helps to keep the horse warm from the chewing and digesting of the hay. Horses are grazers, and should have hay in front of them at all times. Then they can graze when they want to. And then they usually get too fat over the winter.

Making sure the hay is a high quality forage will keep the horses from developing that “hay belly”. Large amounts of indigestible, tough, stemmy, hay lays in the large intestine of the hindgut, causing the intestine to stretch, giving the appearance of the hay belly. (But make sure the hay belly isn’t from worms, as commonly seen in young horses that have poor nutrition).

(Photo from last winter)

Keep the horses somewhere out of the wind. Most people think they need to keep horses in a barn or lean to. I don't have either of those for my larger group of horses. They have the tree line, even though there isn't much cover from rain and wind, now that the leaves are off. They also get behind the round bale. Most of the time, my horses stand side by side, with their butts to the wind. Most horses do ok outside, until it gets to be a cold rain. Older horses will need a winter blanket, as well as a horse that is by him/herself in a pen and is shivering.

Provide water that isn’t froze over! Horses won't drink freezing water, or as much water as they should. Keep the water thawed. Some people even cover their tanks and only leave a small opening for the horses to drink. My horses would probably destroy the cover, nibbing with it all the time! We have put a large piece of white foam insulation under the tank, cutting it the same size as the water tank. That lasted until the horses kept pawing at the edge of the tank, breaking up the styrofoam.



Provide salt, so they lick the block when they need to. I also feed a small amount of a granular mineral salt mix with their grain. Either way will make the horses thirsty, and drink more.
Grain is optional. I just starting graining everyone again, as I have young growing horses, mares in foal, and some working horses, even though they aren't working too hard right now. Grain does not provide the digestible heat that hay does though.

I give a high fat grain, as the high fat helps the horse to utilize the nutrients. I also grain with a product high in vitamins and minerals.

I don't use winter blankets, but if you do, make sure they are waterproof!

Check their hooves, and now may be the time to trim before winter hits harder. But I don't like a hoof too short, as they may bruise their sole on the frozen ground. Keep the hooves cleaned out from ice balls. Hooves won't grow as fast during the winter, as nutrition is going to keep the horse warm and not to coat shine and hoof growth.

Morning Hay

New round bales on a crisp, cool morning. It was only 16 degrees out this morning.

The early morning light coming between the trees,



A fresh round bale, with Goldie and Chick getting their place,

Shaggy,

Savannah,

Goldie,

Shaggy and Duster getting some hay on the ground, since the others wouldn't let them in,

Starlet and Duster, mother and son,

The look like each other, except the coloring,

Starlet definitely seeing something, must be looking at the cats, but I can't believe that she isn't at the round bale, eating the hay!

Finny Baby Pics

Finny, 1 month,

then he was orphaned. The mare died of colic at the breeders. Older mother, stress at breeding, young colt.

Finny grew into a little yearling,

my little guy grew into a 15.3 handsome fella.

7 years later, he was gone. But not without lots of memories.


I just love my smile in this photo!

Christmas Gift about Finny

My daughter, Sara, is putting together or making me something for Christmas. About Finny. She wanted this as a surprise, but she recently told me that Dad wasn’t getting her the info she needed. I told her that I was glad to know for 2 reasons. Opening a present like that without any prior knowledge would have been a shock. But more importantly, I wouldn’t want anyone to touch my book of Finny’s things. I’m sure you know what that means to me. She said she tried getting help from some of my trail riding friends, but they told her that only I have the cards and that there isn’t anything online. She had to tell me, and I’m so glad I did. I may need this month so that I can open the gift.

I don’t know what she is doing, but I had to scan and send her everything I had on Finny. The CTR judge’s cards. The Certificates for placing. I added maps of the places that I have ridden him. I added his number with some ribbons.

I handled that ok, as I recently finished his CTR book. I had to put the last day of CTR cards and certificates in it, then I was done. It only took me a year to do that, and I finished that this fall. But I can look at his cards and read the remarks about our obstacles now, without tearing up. I’m still sad, of what could have been, but glad to read the comments now.

Then, last night, she asked if I wanted to scan and send the cards and notes that people sent me. Oh, my heart was in my throat just thinking about it. I could hardly swallow. Seeing his cards were one thing, but re-reading what everyone wrote to me was another thing. I wasn’t sure I could read them. And how could you look at the cards and emails without seeing even some of the words. I wasn’t sure that I could handle that.

But today I got thinking about that. I had been wanting to go back to those dates and print off the emails that people sent me, to add to the package of sympathy cards. I felt that today was the day that I should do that, or it may not get done. Then as I was printing off the emails to add to his book, I forwarded them on to Sara, to add to her project. That way, I tackled 2 things at once. I don’t think I could have done this twice, on 2 different days. The cards are scanned and sent. The emails are copied off and forwarded on to her. I was just careful to not to read to many of the messages, or to read too much of any one message. Tears came a few times, and I had to walk away from the copier a few times, but the emails are printed off now. Then I made another file in my email area, just for Finny. And I moved everything about him from my inbox to his own file. When I want to look at them the next time, I don’t have to search back to that date in my inbox. I don’t need to be reminded of that date, even though I will never forget it.

My chest was heavy. My heart felt like it was beating too fast and too hard at times. My eyes ached, not from too many tears but from a tiredness that lies behind them. I don’t want to think about Finny anymore, or I’ll start crying….

Sara wants me to find pictures of when he was young, when he was orphaned at a month. When he was a little thing, so friendly yet so wild about things when he wanted to play. :-)))
He was a little thing, in body and in height. As a yearling, he would act up on the lunge line, even though I could almost pull him over, even during his 2nd and 3rd year. Then one day, during the fall when he was 3, he quit acting up and I rode him for 30 days. I rode him the next spring, of his 4th year for 30 days, then left him alone for summer. In the fall of that year, I started riding him to the field, and the rest is history…

It makes me smile to think of him as that little guy. And it makes me smile to think how much fun we had riding the fields during the fall of his 4th and 5th years. After those years, he was my trail horse. He was always with me. And he always will be.

This is a very thoughtful gift that Sara is working on, and I look forward to seeing it. I just may not be able to look at all of it, all at once. And if I cry, and I’m sure Sara will cry, too, I’m sure the tears will be happy tears.

Maybe it’s a good thing to be working on all of this and seeing it now. I may be prepared to see the gift at Christmas. I may not be as sad as I would have been. Working on getting the info to Sara has made me look at everything again, and every time I look at something of Finny’s, it gets easier. Maybe it will be easy to see Finny’s accomplishments and how he affected other’s lives.

Maybe I will be smiling…