Preschool Pony Rides

Once a year we do pony rides for a special needs preschool. Today was our 4th time doing it, and the first time we had spent a year collecting up stuffed horses, unicorns, donkeys, zebras, and anything else equine, so that each child could take home their very own pony - as well as several stick horses to leave in their classrooms. My friend Carol who got me into this in the first place, and worked so hard to gather enough ponies, unfortunately missed out for the first time, due to a family emergency. Thankfully she did round up 2 more helpers for me, one at the very last minute! And two of my new friends from the AZBCR website came along as well.
Patiently waiting... (and you can see the stick horses hanging on the brick wall behind them)

As for the red stuff, that was left-overs from a visit by Jamba Juice - ha! And my horses and donkey didn't even poop once outside the trailer :)

Volunteer Michelle and her mini mare Ginger, who was one of the first miniature horses we rescued back in 2003.

Volunteer Mel with my Foxy, who also came to us through the rescue.
If you look real close you will see that Mel has both arms casted! Good thing Foxy is such a well-behaved horse ;)

Volunteer Samantha with my Betty Jean, who gave a fine demonstration of why donkeys are so often called stubborn... although right here she is doing really well!
And volunteer Melanie with my Sunshine during her stint as the "spare", whose job is to be petted by the kids who are not currently riding.

(That's Michelle and Ginger again in the background)

And off to the right you can see Betty Jean...

The stuffed ponies were very well-received and the real ponies behaved very well, so a great day was had by all!

And look what we got at the end! Too cool...

More Ignorance Is Still Not Bliss!

MISTAKE: Do not assume that a fence alone is enough between the boys and the girls AND/OR do not assume that youth will preclude breeding.

A friend was going to Texas to purchase some miniature donkeys and told me about the website… I checked it out and fell in love with a young jennet. “Bonny” was my Christmas present, my first jennet, and I thought she was very unusual, as I had never seen solid donkey with a blaze (her mother was spotted).

Bonny was incredibly sweet and did very well on our visits to retirement centers in our area, and as part of the “petting zoo” we took along for pony ride occasions. No one could resist that beautiful face.
Here she is with Flash the spotted gelding before a parade
The following year we bought two more jennets (sisters) from the same Texas breeder, the older of which had been Bonny’s best buddy when she lived there. The three girls were inseparable and we were happy to have such sweet girls as the beginning of our miniature donkey breeding dream…

Bonny, Susie Q and Betty Lou
We were careful never to let the jack out with the jennets, due to their young ages and also to the fact that these particular jacks were our “mule daddies”, intended to breed with the miniature mares. The plan was to purchase a spotted jack someday when the jennets were old enough to breed. Due to space and fencing material availability, however, the boys and the girls were kept in adjoining pens… Not long after Bonny’s 2nd birthday, we went out to feed one night and were struck by her appearance… she either needed a serious diet, or we had a teenage mom on our hands. I quickly checked her udder and compared it to her best friend of the same age, and we knew a diet wouldn’t help. Somehow our little girl had gotten pregnant… We knew she was too young, but also knew that she was too far along to stop it from happening. So we researched teenage moms and tried to arm ourselves with as much knowledge as we could to help her through this.
As luck would have it, Lindsey was home sick from school the day the baby decided to be born, and called me at work to tell me the baby was coming, so I rushed home.


After two hours with no progress despite pushing and assistance from neighbors who had delivered calves before, Randy, Lindsey and I rushed her to the vet. I rode in the trailer with her hoping to prevent injury to either of them, but the foal’s front legs, which were sticking out, were icy cold - I knew it was already gone but we had to get it out to save Bonny. Unfortunately the baby was not only very large (and mom very small), but his head was also turned VERY wrong, so even though the front feet were in perfect position, she couldn’t push him out, even with help. The vet told us we could go sit in the waiting room, we didn’t have to stay and watch, it would be bad - but Bonny was too weak for them to give her anesthetic and I couldn’t leave her. We spent a total of 7 hours at the vet, me mostly on my elbows and knees at her head, talking to her non-stop and trying not to look at what was happening at the other end (fetotomy). At the worst point there were seven of us working together, four of us holding her while three people pulled the baby out. In the end I couldn’t keep from saying goodbye to the baby, a jack foal we gave the name “Boyd” (short for “boy donkey”) - even though he couldn’t feel it, I wanted him to have a loving touch and some tears to send him off. After what is undoubtedly the most horrible experience of my life, we took home a very torn up jennet… the vet said any horse, of any size, would have died, but she was a tough little girl and had hung on through her ordeal, and now only time would tell. Weeks and weeks of home care and worry and it seemed she was actually going to heal up and be ok… she’d probably never be able to have another foal, but we didn’t care, after what she had been through it seemed a miracle that our Bonny was ok. What we couldn’t see was, she was healing TOO well… suddenly one day she was having difficulty urinating and we rushed to the vet only to discover that the scar tissue had sealed over her urethra. Surgery was scheduled but she went downhill rapidly and did not survive long enough to have the surgery. I sat with her head in my lap while she slipped away, telling her it was ok for her to be with her baby… and when she was there, to take care Dandie for us too. Out of nowhere two tiny butterflies appeared, fluttering around her body, and she slipped away… after she stopped breathing I looked up to see them, along with a larger butterfly, flutter away. Could it be that Boyd and Dandie came to escort her over the rainbow bridge?

Based on the foaling date, she had gotten pregnant at only 14 months old – and the only way it could have happened was THROUGH THE FENCE. Needless to say, unless we are purposely breeding, the boys are now kept FAR AWAY from the girls…

A Different World

Just a quickie tonight. There's a song, actually it's one on my list for this blog, by a group called Nickelback, that I normally don't listen to, but my kids do, and I heard it on their ipods and consequently got it on mine, and from there to my Project Playlist song list. Here's what grabbed me about this song:

If everyone cared, and nobody cried
If everyone loved, and nobody lied
If everyone shared, and swallowed their pride
Would we see the day when nobody died?

Wow. Those are big IFs I know. But just imagine... what a different world this would be, IF.

A "Pupdate"

OK, well, an update on the pup. His eyes are open!

Yesterday he and Clementine were 3 weeks old.
He's starting to walk pretty good.
Love that white tip on his tail :)
His face markings are really coming in now.
Darci is so excited that he is almost ready to start playing with her...

Randy still won't commit to actually keeping him BUT - he did give the pup a name. We decided to save the first name for a bigger dog that we plan to get one down the road when Tank needs a relief man. So this one will be "Sherman", after Colonel Sherman Potter from M*A*S*H - he lived a long time, survived three wars and a lifetime of military service, he was a little guy, and he was a good guy. Here's hoping our Sherman will live up to that!

Meet Sunshine

Just a few months ago I had a gal wanting to trade two of my bigger mini mares for her smaller one. We had been trying to cut back for some time and not having any luck selling the last two. Randy agreed that trading two bigger appetites for one smaller one was at least progress, so we did the trade and Sunshine came to live with us.



Being so much smaller than my "original" girls, Sunshine can go along for indoor visits at the retirement homes and care centers as well, where the bigger girls had trouble maneuvering around the furniture and such. And now with Ozzie (black) and Holly (sorrel) and Sunshine, I can say I have a brunette, a redhead and a blonde!

She's a bit "stocky" but we are working on that!

The big palomino checking out the little one - or, Destiny says "hey, you are the same color as I am!"
She's already done one birthday party. Here she's anxious to get busy.
Under that red cowboy hat is one very happy cowgirl!

I have found over the years that you meet a lot of really nice people through the horses. The gal I got Sunshine from had not gotten her papers updated, and when I got to looking at things, apparently the man she had gotten Sunshine from hadn't either! Her registration was still in the name of her original breeder, Joan Solheim. With the help of some folks I know in the mini club, I got hold of Joan's phone number and called her to explain the situation. She said to bring the horse and paper over and she would try to help, and last weekend I had the opportunity to visit with Joan and get her papers straightened out.

I also got to meet Sunshine's sire, Sir Elegant. He is now 27 years old and such a sweet little old man...

Cheering Up Barb

Today I paid a visit to my friend Barb in Camp Verde. Barb is a recent widow and the week after the funeral she slipped on ice while feeding and badly sprained her ankle. Tough times call for a tough friend (hah! more like marshmellow as soon as I see her new pups) to come cheer you up!

Anyway upon arrival the first thing we had to do was check out the pups, now 5 weeks old. I am madly in love with Scooter, their daddy. He is a TINY little guy. I've known him since he wasn't much bigger than his babies. For some reason I did not get a good picture of him today.
This is him checking out his 3 sons.

Mama and her 3 boys. Yes all boys. Her first litter was a single pup and it was a boy too. Randy said I could have a pup if I got a girl. Figures...

Two of the pups cuddling.

This little guy says "Hey Mama! Whatcha eatin'???"

Munchkin the mama

A closeup of one pup. Aren't they just adorable... and my dear wonderful amazing friend Barb said in a year or so, when Darci is old enough, I can have some Scooter sperm :) - would the result of that be a Yorkhuahua? Or a Chi-kie?

Barb wanted to show how small they are so she got a couple of coffee mugs from the kitchen... Munchkin wasn't sure what to think of pups in cups...
Barb and one pup.

After playing with the pups we went to a great little local Mexican food restaurant for lunch. Burrito Verde is what I had, yum yum!!! I ate so much I didn't even need dinner tonight!

Then we went for a ride. Barb was grinning from ear to ear, she hasn't been able to ride much lately.

And this is me, riding Howard's mare Blaze. What a blast! This girl is a Tennessee Walker and she can MOVE - and while she is moving, I don't much, which is such a nice ride...

Barb offered to get a better picture of me and Blaze. Wow, what a horse. My Paint Mare is a big girl, but kinda lazy. Riding her is like sitting on a couch. Blaze, on the other hand, feels about like an electric chair... she is fired up and ready to roll!

About now Blaze was tired of posing for pictures and ready to get back to the business of riding.

Saw this patch on the way up this morning so on the way home, I watched for it and pulled over for a quick photo opp.

Spring has sprung!

Thanks Barb for letting me come up. It was a great day and we will do it again soon!!

New And Improved - ???

Can you relate to this? Randy says it's because they have to deal with the lowest level of intelligence likely to use the machine... but OMG my ATM is driving me CRAZY!

A while back they decided not to use envelopes any more for deposits. Instead they scan the checks and count the cash so you have ASSURANCE that your deposit is CORRECT. It even prints little copies of the check you deposit on your receipt... which means now the receipts are all different sizes depending on what you deposit, which makes a mess in my purse/briefcase/filing box. What was so wrong with envelopes that you put everything in and stuck it in the machine? I felt plenty of assurance depositing in envelopes...

Not long ago Randy got several bills from his bank and I then proceeded to try to deposit them in my bank. The machine refused to take one of the bills. The notice said "unable to accept your currency" with no reason why... AARRGGHH!! There is nothing wrong with this bill, IT JUST CAME FROM ANOTHER BANK!!! And Walmart took it just fine... If I had an envelope to put it in, this would not be a problem.

Several times I have gone to the ATM and it can't read the check. Or it's not taking checks at all right now. Or, if I by some miracle have cash to deposit, then it's not taking cash right now. And this is better than envelopes how???

Tonight I go to the ATM with 2 checks and a few $20 bills. I put in my card and my secret number. I get several choices and choose deposit.

Now that I have chosen deposit, I have several more choices - cash, or checks, or cash AND checks. So I choose both. I am told to put in my first check. I put in the first check. The machine says it can't read the amount, so I have to enter it. So I enter it. The machine then asks, is THIS the amount? Well, DUH, machine, I just put that in, so let me see, that would be YES! THIS IS THE AMOUNT! The machine says it is processing my check.

The machine then asks do I want to deposit another check. Yes. The machine says put in my second check. I put in the second check. The machine says it can't read that one either, so I have to enter the amount. I enter the amount. The machine then asks, is THIS the amount? Again DUH machine, that IS the amount that I JUST TYPED IN!!!! So YES!!! The machine says it is processing my check.

The machine then asks do I want to deposit another check. No, I do not. The machine then says it is processing my checks. Um, excuse me but DIDN'T YOU JUST DO THAT? With each one separately?

Then it asks me to put my cash into the special drawer for cash. The drawer shuts and the machine counts my cash and asks me if this total is correct. Yes it is. The machine says it is processing my cash. The machine then asks do I want to deposit MORE cash? Um, let me think - why would I not just put all my cash in the first time? Why in the world would I want to deposit more in a separate sequence of pushing buttons? Have I not already pushed every button you have at least twice if not more? Does this make sense to anyone??? No, machine, I already gave you the cash I want to deposit!

AARRGGHH! Randy is waiting, the car is running and we have probably used a couple of gallons of fuel by now, and several other people have arrived and are standing around waiting for the ATM. And it is so kindly now "processing" for the umpteenth time. I never thought I would say this but I MISS MY ATM ENVELOPES!!!

AARRGGHH!