Dr. Jones Steals Our Hearts

Last week Linda called to tell me of the latest ranch aquisition and I must admit I was quite skeptical at first. "A donkey? You got a donkey?" "Linda, why?" Apparently a neighbor had him and a couple others and thought Linda would be the perfect donkey parent. Since he was going to be given to her, Linda couldn't just say no thanks, she was kind of obligated to go and take a look. One look later and here he is! I am in love with him as well, so I know after seeing him I would not have been able to say no either!! He is a little loverboy, always in your pocket and wanting pets and love. Linda's son Matt named him Dr. Jones, so we aren't really sure the where, why or what of the name; I must ask him! My son Miles thinks it's a great name too! I call him Baby Jonesy or Jonesy because I feel that he is simply TOO cute (and also too young to be a Dr. of anything) to be called Dr. Jones. It's too formal!!! He is a miniature donkey so will only get to belly button height on us. Linda wants to teach him to carry kids, etc. under saddle and to use him as a pack donkey on trips. His training has already started and we have been leading him around by his bottom lip/chin. You cup your hand under the chin/lip and they are supposed to be able to be lead like you have them on a lead. So far, so good, he is getting it. He is a VERY smart little guy.
Dr. Jones. Yep. Very smart.


Me and Baby Jonesy


Linda and her new Dr.






Could he look any cuter???

I Am Down With O.P.P.!

OTHER PEOPLE'S PONIES!!!! I have been taking advantage of Jackson's healing process to ride two of my friend's horses, Ozzie and Shorty. Each so totally different and each teaching me more and more about myself and my riding. I look at pics and videos of us and go "DOH!", but it is a learning curve and I certainly hope that some things will come together with enough time spent in the saddle. Riding horses other than your own is a wonderful experience, I have found!!! What do you guys think of Jackson's healing? Time for a lesson this coming Wed. or what?


Enjoying some time on Shorty....





Learning on Ozzie...



Jackson's healing stitches...


Looking good!

The C Word.....

Yesterday. 8am. I was happily ensconced as my RN self in the newborn nursery at work giving a brand new little one a bath. It didn't look like it was going to be a particularly bad day at all, at most we were slated to get four deliveries over the next 10 hours. I was skatin'! We have been so busy lately, this was the reprieve I had been dreaming of with weekend pay differential to boot! Of course, this was not to be so. That would have been just TOO easy. My cell rang and it was my friend Linda who keeps Jackson at her ranch.

"Hey Mindy, I came out just now and found Jackson down in his pen and he has gone down five times since I've gotten him up, what do you want me to do?" Now remember. I stand in a fishbowl at work. In our admissions nursery there are wall to wall windows so family and friends can ohhh and ahhh over the latest addition. And here I am as the coordinator (manager) walks in with tears starting to pour down my face. As soon as she and my co-workers heard, they pretty much pushed me out the door with blessings (thanks SO much guys!) to go and be with my horse. By the time I decided to leave, (one half hour later) Linda had spoke with the vet who was doing a clinic over an hour away from her house, covering for another vet. Of course! He is a traveling vet, (no office) but of course it was the one day he was helping a colleague out! Normally he could be there really quickly as he is right down the road! Linda had decided to put Jacks in the trailer and wanted me to meet her at the office. I said "NO WAY." Here we have a horse going down approximately every ten minutes and a woman on her own who just had knee surgery. This sounded like a disaster waiting to happen, and I told her I would leave work RIGHT THEN and come out. Jackson had been up and was staying up for periods of time, but if we got to a point where he needed to be constantly hand walked, I could not ask my friend who had just had surgery to even attempt this. Also, if we transported to the vet, again, she shouldn't have been doing THAT alone either. Especially with the vet one hour away.

I left work at the hospital to head out on the forty-five gut wrenching minutes to Pipe Creek. And OF COURSE, my car was on empty! I stopped and threw something into the Beetle's tank--SO many thoughts about my horse ran through my head on that drive. So many wonderful memories that made tears run down my face at the prospect of losing him. More thoughts about how much money I had in my bank account for vet bills, and the sinking realization that I would never have enough to cover surgery. Berating myself for not having colic/life insurance on him anymore, or having him on the Preventi-care program that would cover the cost of surgery. You name it, I needed to get there and see for myself because I was little Miss Worst Case Scenario.

When I arrived at the ranch, I RAN back to the horse pens to find Linda, and Jackson was up! He went down ten times all together, (I saw NONE of it) and Linda said when she found him he was wedged upside down against the wall of his pen. Not panicking, just upside down with his feet up in the air--stuck.We have no idea how long he was there. She helped him get up which wasn't easy (he is now Mr. Superficial Scrape--last count he had seven superficial wounds) and he then kept pawing and going back down. No interest in the grain she had in hand for the morning feeding (BOY, that is telling right there!) and no interest in the fact that his buddies were being turned out. Bowel sounds were always present and not high and tinkly either.

By the time I got there, he was in distress only because his buddies had been turned out to pasture and he wanted to be with them. I went up to him in my scrubs and clogs (hmmm...need to clean those before I work again) and gave him the biggest hug ever. So I settled in to watch and wait. I did let him out into the fairly large paddock area, but he wasn't going out with his buddies anytime soon, no siree. I sat and talked to Linda while she worked in her garden, and about one hour after I got there he pooped. I was ecstatic! I ran down the paddock to make an inspection. Normal form, normal color. Shortly thereafter he peed. He was still quite distressed over his "jail time" and gave us QUITE a show of bucking and running around the paddock because he wanted to be with his buds. Whatever it was had to have passed because NO horse would play and run like that who felt even slightly under the weather! I took him a small amount of hay to see if he was interested. OH YES! He dove in with his usual gusto and enjoyed it thoroughly. He was not given grain at all that day, just in case. He got to go out into the pasture under close supervision late last evening for two hours.

So far, we have had no more issues, and I never saw any of it as it was actually happening. THANK GOD, honestly. I am so grateful to have a friend who will take care of him like he is her own. I have no idea if it was colic, (it was MILD if it was!)or if he got himself stuck upside down for a protracted period of time, and that did something, but I am thanking God that he is fine. NOTHING was changed food or treat wise, and the pasture is the same as always (cruddy, almost dead...RAIN, oh for some rain...)! I have heard that due to the worst drought and the highest temperatures since 1919 they are seeing a much higher incidence of colic here in South Texas.

I suppose I will never know.

A Horse By Any Other Color Is.....

Ozzie and I!









Allison, Ozzie and I

The horse with the beautiful bay color is named Ozzie! (I have always wanted a bay!!) She is my friend Lorri's horse and is also an AngloArab like Jackson, but of the mare-ish persuasion--perfect for the plan I have concocted which I will get to here in a bit.

Yesterday, with Jackson's wound looking better, but certainly not ready for a girth, I took a lesson with Allison on Ozzie. I have only ever ridden Oz for the equivalent of 10 minutes, but since Lorri has trained her to be quite the dressage horse, I wasn't worried. And I'm glad I took the opportunity to experience Ozzie! Don't get me wrong. I LOVE MY HORSE and I treasure every ride. But being able to ride an accomplished very well trained horse was sooooo nice. Obviously, when you are a pretty novice rider yourself riding your greenie horse, you are learning BASICS. And basics for TWO gets HARD! Which is fine, I don't mind. But it was really refreshing to be able to concentrate on ME and not be so worried about my horse. We worked on my issues and threw in some new things which will help so much with my riding. I even got PUNCHED! Yep! Allison came up to me while I was on Ozzie and punched me in the gut to demonstrate how tight my abs need to be. I may bruise... LOL! Picture the sweet (well not ALWAYS, at least during a lesson... :) 79 year old lady in the pics coming up and sucker punching you. Well, that worked anyhow! My abs turned to stone. Ok...semi stone, they need quite a bit of work! HEE HEE! Allison has so many cute (but not always cute while you are trying your VERY BEST..) expressions, one of them being, (in her haughty English accent, mind you)"RIDE YOUR HORSE!" I can't count how many times that has been yelled across the arena at me. One day I got, "Mindy, RIDE that damn horse for the love of God!" I love it! The annoying thing is, when I take lessons I give 150% so hearing that during the lessons does make me clench my teeth, (as it does everyone I know who takes lessons from her :) I SO want to shout back, "Well, what the HELL do you think I'm doing?" :) But, I must confess, I always give a bit more after that. I RIDE my horse!

The only thing that made me a little nuts while riding Oz was the fact that EVERY TIME I changed directions my diagonals were wrong!! I have NEVER had this issue on Jackson. I am always on the right diagonal! Not a hard fix since I've been doing that since I was young, but puzzling. The only thing I can think of is that Oz is so much smoother than Jackson that I just didn't feel the change like I do on him. Any ideas anyone? I am so perplexed by that one. And of course humbled...diagonals, wrong, WHAT??? HA! Always, always something!!! But diagonals? Sheesh!
My friend video-taped me yesterday, THAT should be interesting. I hate seeing how bad I can look, but video helps me improve so much, seeing what you look like is always a good thing, and obviously I then have a better picture in my mind of what really needs work. I'll just be adding to the list of course, but I bet I see a few improvements too! Fingers crossed anyway!

OK...NOW for my plan. Let me know what you guys think! I have found a sire for Ozzie. He is also an AngloArab and is...drum roll please.... Jackson's full-blooded brother, Bugsy! I have recently been in contact with Bugsy's owner and she does dressage with him and shows locally. She says he is very mellow and sweet. He also has a red rating with the American Warmblood society, which is an honor, considering he's not, a-hem, a Warmblood. But really. How cool would it be to have a family member of Jackson's in my little horsey circle? I have been in touch with Bugsy's owner and she said she would be up for it...now I have to work on Lorri. She has had lots of babies, started them and trained them..Ozzie being one of them. She also has Kite whom I think she may want to breed more than she does Oz...Kite is a Polish Warmblood/Arab cross. I love how much more filled out Bugsy is than Jackson, I think mainly due to the fact that Bugsy is a stallion. But the face is like looking into Jackson's....



Bugsy standing for the American Warmblood Society where he got a red rating...