Cripple Creek isn't the official name of the place, not yet anyway but it's looking like that is what I am going to call it. We built our house about 12 years ago and moved the horses in that same year. My family owns 79 acres, we staked a claim on about 15 to start. We picked a great hill to set the house on, the barn is at the base near the woodline. It is a six stall barn with bays for feed and hay. There is no tack room and electricity is minimal at this point. There are 2 paddocks, with a third temporary for Pistol to winter in and a large turn-out pasture.
Originally I had only one horse, Pistol. He is a 1984 model sorrel quarter horse that stands 15'2 and, in his younger days weighed in at just over 800lbs. We've been together since high school.
The second horse that we added to the menagerie was "The Old Black Horse", a solid black TWH that was well over 16 hands and built like a tank. He belonged to a friend of ours who had gone bankrupt so we bought him for a mere $264. We lost him at the ripe old age of 38 years.
Tombstone, better known as Blue was the next horse to join the family. He is a 2001 model flea bitten grey quarter horse. We thought he was a blue roan when we got him, that is what the seller had stated anyway and he had the right coloring. He was a dark grey, nearly black with white flecks in his body. His mane and tail were black as well. We were also told that papers existed. If they did, we never saw them and never obtained them. Blue is a 14.2 hunter pony.
The next year my son was born and the next Beauty came to join our family. She is a 1994 model bay quarter horse with the face of an Angel. Don't let that fool you though, she's a sneaky little witch that refuses to ride in a show arena.
She was bred to a black quarter horse and then in 2006 Riley was born. He is my bay quarter horse gelding. He is just over 16 hands and weighs in at around 1300lbs. He has the smallest feet in the barn. He was supposed to be the last horse I ever owned but his navicular has rendered him a yard ornament three months out of the year, a light trail riding horse a few months out of the year, and a local level show horse the rest of the time.
Somewhere in the middle of all that we purchased a darling little palomino pony. She was the prettiest little thing you ever laid eyes on. She was also crazy. She bucked and reared and bolted and should never have been sold as anything but a leadline horse. I quickly traded her for a walking horse. The gentleman that bought her had traveled to a mule show in TN. The horse was a few hundred lbs under weight and pregnant with a mule. He wanted the mule, not the horse. He offered the trade and I immediate agreed. No vet check, no need to ride the horse, anything would be better than that crazy pony. She ended up being the best deal anyone could have ever made. He got his mule baby and I ended up with an angel sent down from the hills of Tennessee! She is loyal and kind, trustworthy and patient.
That brings us to our final addition to the barn. Cloud. I purchased him on Veterans day. A foundation bred quarter horse. I have not measured him recently but I would guess he is nearing 15 hands.
As I mentioned just after the purchase of Blue, my son Max was born. When he was younger I was able to take weekly riding lessons, attend 3-5 day shows and spend hours in the saddle. He would play happily in the dirt with the dogs and enjoyed the camping trips but as he got older and more serious with his sports, my riding time has suffered. I don't have the time to do all the work myself anymore and my showing has nearly halted at this point. Baseball is our priority for now but that doesn't mean I can't have some fun with my horses too. I did halter break Cloud and started with many of the basics like tying and blanketing but he did spend 30 days at boot camp as a yearling, learning the ins and outs of lunging and ground manners. Then he spent 90 days at camp in the spring as a 2 year old getting the basics down. He'll spend another 90 days starting in April or March of this year and I'm hoping to even show him a few times this fall. Spring will be chalked full of baseball weekends but the fall should slow enough for me to get one or two shows in.
So this is the start of my journal. Originally Riley and Cloud each had separate stories and I think Blue may even have one out there as well but I thought it would be much cleaner and easier to put everything into one journal, that way I can cover any issues I'm having be it downed horses or downed fences!
Today's dilemma is Riley and his on-going abscess. He came down with it about 2 weeks ago. I pulled him out of the sloppy paddock and stalled him at night before turning him out in the round pen for the day. I was able to clean it, dry it, treat it and he was quickly becoming sound. He's turned out in the sloppy paddock again because I turned my round pen into a paddock for Pistol, it now gates off his stall and gives him room to roam. It's dry and level. Riley is forced to tromp through the ever pooling muck to get out to the dryer pastures, which means, he is forever caked in mud. My husband plans to scrape and rebuild the paddock grounds this week, hopefully he can fix our drainage issues and haul in enough loads of dirt that we can get things dry, otherwise Riley is going to have a miserable winter. I want to lock him in a stall each night but he is so stiff and sore when he spends the evenings locked up. Although, he's stiff and sore with the abscess that continues to build up. I may go to tractor supply this weekend and buy a box of portable posts (the ones you shove in the ground to run electric) and set up a fence in the back yard. I can fence off about 2 acres of dry land for him and can turn him out each day. That may be my only option.
Originally I had only one horse, Pistol. He is a 1984 model sorrel quarter horse that stands 15'2 and, in his younger days weighed in at just over 800lbs. We've been together since high school.
The second horse that we added to the menagerie was "The Old Black Horse", a solid black TWH that was well over 16 hands and built like a tank. He belonged to a friend of ours who had gone bankrupt so we bought him for a mere $264. We lost him at the ripe old age of 38 years.
Tombstone, better known as Blue was the next horse to join the family. He is a 2001 model flea bitten grey quarter horse. We thought he was a blue roan when we got him, that is what the seller had stated anyway and he had the right coloring. He was a dark grey, nearly black with white flecks in his body. His mane and tail were black as well. We were also told that papers existed. If they did, we never saw them and never obtained them. Blue is a 14.2 hunter pony.
The next year my son was born and the next Beauty came to join our family. She is a 1994 model bay quarter horse with the face of an Angel. Don't let that fool you though, she's a sneaky little witch that refuses to ride in a show arena.
She was bred to a black quarter horse and then in 2006 Riley was born. He is my bay quarter horse gelding. He is just over 16 hands and weighs in at around 1300lbs. He has the smallest feet in the barn. He was supposed to be the last horse I ever owned but his navicular has rendered him a yard ornament three months out of the year, a light trail riding horse a few months out of the year, and a local level show horse the rest of the time.
Somewhere in the middle of all that we purchased a darling little palomino pony. She was the prettiest little thing you ever laid eyes on. She was also crazy. She bucked and reared and bolted and should never have been sold as anything but a leadline horse. I quickly traded her for a walking horse. The gentleman that bought her had traveled to a mule show in TN. The horse was a few hundred lbs under weight and pregnant with a mule. He wanted the mule, not the horse. He offered the trade and I immediate agreed. No vet check, no need to ride the horse, anything would be better than that crazy pony. She ended up being the best deal anyone could have ever made. He got his mule baby and I ended up with an angel sent down from the hills of Tennessee! She is loyal and kind, trustworthy and patient.
That brings us to our final addition to the barn. Cloud. I purchased him on Veterans day. A foundation bred quarter horse. I have not measured him recently but I would guess he is nearing 15 hands.
As I mentioned just after the purchase of Blue, my son Max was born. When he was younger I was able to take weekly riding lessons, attend 3-5 day shows and spend hours in the saddle. He would play happily in the dirt with the dogs and enjoyed the camping trips but as he got older and more serious with his sports, my riding time has suffered. I don't have the time to do all the work myself anymore and my showing has nearly halted at this point. Baseball is our priority for now but that doesn't mean I can't have some fun with my horses too. I did halter break Cloud and started with many of the basics like tying and blanketing but he did spend 30 days at boot camp as a yearling, learning the ins and outs of lunging and ground manners. Then he spent 90 days at camp in the spring as a 2 year old getting the basics down. He'll spend another 90 days starting in April or March of this year and I'm hoping to even show him a few times this fall. Spring will be chalked full of baseball weekends but the fall should slow enough for me to get one or two shows in.
So this is the start of my journal. Originally Riley and Cloud each had separate stories and I think Blue may even have one out there as well but I thought it would be much cleaner and easier to put everything into one journal, that way I can cover any issues I'm having be it downed horses or downed fences!
Today's dilemma is Riley and his on-going abscess. He came down with it about 2 weeks ago. I pulled him out of the sloppy paddock and stalled him at night before turning him out in the round pen for the day. I was able to clean it, dry it, treat it and he was quickly becoming sound. He's turned out in the sloppy paddock again because I turned my round pen into a paddock for Pistol, it now gates off his stall and gives him room to roam. It's dry and level. Riley is forced to tromp through the ever pooling muck to get out to the dryer pastures, which means, he is forever caked in mud. My husband plans to scrape and rebuild the paddock grounds this week, hopefully he can fix our drainage issues and haul in enough loads of dirt that we can get things dry, otherwise Riley is going to have a miserable winter. I want to lock him in a stall each night but he is so stiff and sore when he spends the evenings locked up. Although, he's stiff and sore with the abscess that continues to build up. I may go to tractor supply this weekend and buy a box of portable posts (the ones you shove in the ground to run electric) and set up a fence in the back yard. I can fence off about 2 acres of dry land for him and can turn him out each day. That may be my only option.