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Lacey, Fabio and Me: The Neverending Story

165K views 2K replies 70 participants last post by  gunslinger 
#1 ·
This will probably predominantly focus on Lady because she basically knows zero things but Lacey will probably be mentioned so I figured she needed to be part of the title... :D


So, Lady is my foster horse from an organization called Sound Equine Options.
She's a ten year old (approximately, no one's checked her teeth yet) Arabian mare who was rescued about a month ago from pretty serious neglect (she's put on probably 100-150+lbs so far). She was literally living in someone's suburban backyard with her year old filly, a donkey, and a mini.
Her filly was signed over to the rescue as well and I think she's already found a new home, or at least she's being fostered by some people who want to adopt her eventually.

Lady was a bottle baby (orphaned at some point) but so far she's not showing any of the really bad orphan "traits". She doesn't have much of an idea about one's personal space but she's not terrible about it.
She's supposedly broke to ride but the owner she was removed from said that she (the owner) was the only one who could ride her... We're thinking that maybe a couple rides were snuck on to Miss Lady but that she isn't truly "broke".


I just got her yesterday so I figured that now would be a good time to start writing about her, start from the beginning, right? :D


So, basically my "job" is to get her trained up to actually being ridden. If I wanted to, I'm "allowed" to actually get on her eventually myself but I don't have to. Depending on how she progresses, I may start riding her myself but that really really depends.

Right now, our goals are: getting to know each other, leading well (she's under the impression that leading probably means she takes humans somewhere...), desensitizing to everything, being touched all over - she does not want her belly touched right now, saddling, blanketing, fly mask, I want to teach her to pony so she can come on trail rides with Lacey and I, etc.
Basically, I need to get her up to normal handled horse level.

So far I'm loving her attitude. She's very looky and not spooky - very curious about things that scare her. I've seen her get scared a few times but I have not seen her actually spook. She's also pretty spoiled - what she wants is apparently what she's used to getting. However, oh darn for her, I definitely have lots of experience with horses like that *peers accusingly at Lacey*.
She also loves to be touched so it's super easy to reward her for the right things (Lacey hates touching which always makes rewarding her more difficult).


Summary of today:

Day 1:
The goal was working on leading, I also tried a few sending exercises - turned out to be a terrible idea to try with a horse that doesn't know what "whoa" means. :lol:
It got a little scary when she decided to trot super fast around me, on the lead rope, while turning her head and shoulders in towards me -trying to intimidate me. I dumbly ended up backing away from her the first time she did that so she tried it a couple more times. Thankfully I was using my 14ft lead rope so I just started smacking in her the shoulder whenever she turned towards me. She decided that would be a good time to bolt but oh, guess what? I was prepared for that so it totally did not work. After that, she basically stopped and was like "oh, I'm dumb" so we went back to walking 2 steps, backing up one, etc etc.
Then, we finally got down to the shed - thank Jesus for Lacey, she was basically glued to my shoulder the whole time (except for when Lady was playing up) all like "Hey guys! I'm so kewl! Does not need lead rope=CHAMPION!" so she was being a great role model.
I tied Lacey up to one post and clipped Lady to a leadrope I had "installed" on the wall of the shed in such a way that if she pulled back, the lead would get looser (no one knew if she tied solid) but not set her free. She stood pretty well there and I groomed her shoulder (I haven't touched her all over yet so I wasn't sure how she'd be with more than that).

After both girls were groomed, I took Lady 15 feet away to work on some more leading. She was a little easier this time but still really didn't understand what I was getting at.
Then I "tied" her back up and took Lacey 15 ft away to work with her. And well, Lady decided that she was done being "stuck" so she started testing out how well she was tied. To make a long story short, Lacey was a gem and Lady ended up being tied solid which she still didn't like but she didn't pull back or anything so yay! She even got the lead rope over and behind her ears but didn't panic, just untangled herself. Smart!
After that, I took Lady off for another 5 minutes and touched her all over with the lunge whip. She was scared of the whip at first but then realized that it wasn't hurting her so she settled right down. Then, as we walked back to the shed, I practiced leading correctly with her some more and she showed that she was really catching on. She even backed herself up a step, before I even asked, right before we got to the shed!

Then I fed them and let them both go. I'm really pleased with how far we got in just a couple little sessions.
I gave Lady some raspberry leaves with hers, likeI do with Lacey. Hopefully that'll calm her current heat down a bit (she's super in heat, all squealy and it's probably not helping her be not bratty, lol).


Tomorrow, I think we're going to work more on leading, obviously more on standing tied, I'll probably do a little more with the lunge whip - to get her thinking, and I'm going to hopefully get her brushed all over. I'm a little nervous about picking up her feet but she did just get them done so the trimmer must have survived...probably I will too... :lol: I'll probably also show her about flysheets, just so I can start doing that to her everyday since I figure that'll be CRAZY for her. :lol:



And here's a picture of the girl that I took yesterday. She's come a long way since she was rescued but still has a bit of a way to go.






Thanks for reading! :D
 
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#859 · (Edited)
Guys, THIS:





I do not even know WHERE to start. No clue.

I guess with things I'm bad-freaking out about:
a) SO STRESSED about school. There are so many things I need to do, write, talk about...I'm dyingggggg.
b) Tomorrow I have my first session with a "counselor". Not looking forward to hearing about how crazy I am. But I figure that I'm trying to become the best possible me and I obviously have a lot of mental "stuff" going on and maybe it'd be good to try getting some outside help for once since I'm clearly not solving it alone.
But I'm really nervous. I'm afraid I'm going to get diagnosed with some "crazy person" disease. That sounds way harsher than I meant it, but you know?
Anyway, that's from 3:15-4:15. Nervousssss.


Things I'm REAL excited about:

1. YESTERDAY GMAN CAME OVER TO MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's never come over before. It lived up to every one of my hopes. I KNEW he would love it and I've been trying to get him to go over for agess because he would love it so muchbut he's generally been hard to motivate into coming over.
This time though, a mutual friend had a concert about 10 minutes from my house so I offered him dinner before the concert, and boom, he was there.
He LOVED it. :happydance:
The sunset was beautiful, we saw deer, ATTICUS LOVED HIM!!!! Gman was just awestruck at the whole thing. And it made me so happy.
I don't really know how to describe it but...I dunno, sometimes I feel "magic" in places and Gman is the only person I know that feels the magic too. Lacey's pasture has the magic and he got to feel it. It kind of feels like the earth is singing, or something...but not in a weird way. It's not disconcerting at all, but you feel like the land is "alive" more there than it is other places.
Anyway, he felt it and that brought me so much joy!!

2. I rode Lacey today! I was so freaking out about everything and the usual thing that calms me right down is a ride. So I took Lacey out and we had a grand time. I love her. :)
I'm SO glad I get to ride her for realies now!! She's [we're both, let's be honest] super out of shape, but we'll get some of that back. It'll be nice once we can get out more and really work on building ourselves back up.

3. I THINK NEW GUY ASKED ME OUT...AGAIN...???!! Last week he had mentioned that he's at my[our] college on Tuesdays and Thursdays, pretty much all day. So this week I, half-seriously/half-jokingly, told him that I kept an eye out for him last week on Tuesday/Thursday. He said "oh really?" Then said, really hesitatingly [like nervous hesitation], "we should....hang out one of those days..??"
This time, since I know him kinda, I was all "sure! I'm out at 2 on Thursday cuz I only have one class! We should do something after 2!"
To which he said "ok, Thursday after 2..."
Then he, out of nowhere, said "Seeya!" and booked it away.

...he doesn't have my number or any way of contacting me besides Facebook...
He'll figure it out. :lol: Poor guy. I'm really impressed with him though.

Does that sound like something friend-y or what is happening? Am I reading it correctly?

Also, I'm starting to feel incredibly nervous around him... Emily has a lil' crush, maybe. Oh geez.
He's growing on me.

Also^2, one of my neighbors came with me to church tonight and, as soon as I introduced her to NG, he asked "do you keep your horse at her house??" [haha, not the right neighbor. Nice try though, NG] I very vaguely remember telling him that Lacey was at my neighbor's house, while we talked last Sunday. But it wasn't any kind of big discussion point. He won serious points for remembering that! haha What a sweetie. :)

[and, if it wasn't obvious from these stories, he sat with me in church again. 3rd week in a row. BOOM.]


Anyway. That was the "quick" breakdown of the last 3 days.




:happydance: :happydance:
 
#860 ·
1. The sunset was beautiful, we saw deer, ATTICUS LOVED HIM!!!! Gman was just awestruck at the whole thing. And it made me so happy.
I don't really know how to describe it but...I dunno, sometimes I feel "magic" in places and Gman is the only person I know that feels the magic too. Lacey's pasture has the magic and he got to feel it. It kind of feels like the earth is singing, or something...but not in a weird way. It's not disconcerting at all, but you feel like the land is "alive" more there than it is other places.
Anyway, he felt it and that brought me so much joy!!

ok, you just gave me goosebumps!:lol:
 
#861 ·
Ok, well, counselor thing went "great". As in, no one gave me the address of it so I looked it up online only to find 2 conflicting addresses. Went to the first one, not the right place. Went to find the second one..and discovered that [according to my gps] no such address existed.

So I went home. And called them to say "lol, I tried, guys". Then they gave me the REAL address and I had to reschedule for April. Yaaaay. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Today is the worssssst.

And, on top of that, I got only about 6 hours of sleep last night because I was so wound up about aforementioned NG "stuff"... And sleep makes me optimistic. Therefore, all optimism about everything is gone and I just feel like a failure.

Booo today.
I'm going to try to be in bed, winding down for sleep, by 8pm tonight and hopefully that means I'll actually be asleep by 9:30 or 10.


In other news, have a picture of Hazel. :)

 
#864 ·
Haha thanks Caroline. :hug:

Jcraig! I love that you're posting so much. You're so funny and it makes me smile! :D


Nothing much to report..
I finallllly figured out how to get Hazel to eat "best" [she's really loving this new food...but only if it's dry] - I'm still soaking a tiny bit of alfalfa pellets/BP pellets/rice bran pellets for her because she seems to really like it when it's hot with boiling water. Anyway, if I give her about 1/2cup of the soaked mixture in one side of her pan and 3/4lb of the senior feed, she eats nearly all of it.
She's so weird. I can give her a full pound of dry senior feed alone, and she'll maybe eat half. Or give her a pound of the soaked stuff and she'll eat about half. Put them together, but don't mix them [mixing them is a huuuuuge no-no], and boom, she'll eat all of it.
What a sweet weirdo. :) But at least it's not too hard to deal with.

And she's actually putting on some weight!! Her backbone doesn't feel nearly as prominent. :D
We'll get you fat one of these days, Miss Hazel!

Annnnd time for lots of pictures!

Tuesday morning. Someoneeeee "stole" Lacey's blanket again and couldn't have been happier. <3



Tuesday's post-sunset sunset!



Yesterday's sunrise!

[I don't know if this happens everywhere but these sorts of cloud "things" are pretty typical and AWESOME in the PNW around this tine of year :D ]



Miss Hazel <3



Last night's drawing



This morning.

I'm not sure what Atti was thinking but, instead of sleeping 'inside' like he usually does, he was sleeping outside.



So I sat down next to him.



And he put his head on my lap.



And he was SO happy about it.

Then he fell fully asleep like this.

Cutest goat evvvvvver.
He's never done this before. It made my day!!!!!




:happydance: :happydance:
 
#865 ·
So strange that Hazel doesn't like her feed soaked. Isn't it normally the other way around? Atleast with my dog it is. I guess dogs and goats aren't the same. LOL. My dog (Chloe) absolutely has to have her food soaked with water. I don't know if its because she thinks the water is a special treat or if the food really does hurt her mouth without being softened. The world will never know. I'll put her food down (dry) and she will look at me like wth is this? Then I put just a sprinkle of water and she eats it. Like magic.

You can call me Julia btw...I think we've made it to that level now. lol. I think jcraig makes me sound like a man. and i'm not a man.

p.s. no YOU'RE Funny!
 
#869 ·
Haha, ok Julia! :) That's so cute about your dog!!
I think, for Hazel, it's probably not something she's really "used" to - most goat people seem to feed dry feed only so the idea of wet pellets is "weird."
My other theory is that perhaps goats are not so great at generalizing, like a dog or horse might be. Like a horse/dog can usually look at food in a different form that they're used to and be all "ok, whatever, I've eaten this before and it tasted good, so I'll eat it again even though it looks weird this time!"
But, for instance, Atti has no reason to be a picky eater..but he is. He hates soaked feed, loves hard pellets...but only alfalfa pellets. For a while he wasn't eating hardly any hard food - I'd give it to him and he'd immediately turn his nose up at it. Then I started adding in a little ACV to his feed because it helps him not get urinary tract stones when he's eating high protein diet [all the spring grass that's coming in]..and he immediately started eating his hard feed like he couldn't get enough of it. That was the only thing that changed, but suddenly his food is "the best ever" while it was "terrrrrible" before.
He'll eat his flax seeds from my hand...but put them in his food? PSH NO.

They aren't spoiled!!! :lol:

Amp23, you NEED a goat. :wink: Actually, I'm pretty sure Atti realizes that he can't be as annoying as he is sometimes, without being equally as cute. :lol:

Haha Zexious. :wink:

Actually though, nothing happened with NG. :( I didn't hear from him at all. Maybe he meant "any given Thursday"? We only really talked about it awkwardly in-passing...like right as we were walking out of church, and he seems like kind of a planner-type.
I don't even know. Either way, I'm not too worried about it. Just a little bummed, of course.
It's almost Finals and he's a graduate student=I'm swamped as an undergraduate, he might be dyinggg.
Anyway, I figure I'll see him on Sunday, we'll probably sit together, and I can probably bring it up all joke-y.
Playing it cooool, like freaking ICE, over here. :wink: :rofl:

In other news, Lacey had a new lesson kid today! She's a 4.5 year old girl with special needs [I made an exception to my "only over 5" rule - today was her trial and she did GREAT].
It was the cutest. Lacey was so extra careful with this little girl. I think she could tell that she was "extra special". Even the goats were more accommodating than usual.
At one point I looked away from the new lesson kid to see what lesson-kid's-sister and their mom were doing.
Lesson-kid's-sister [3 years old, also special needs - they were adopted together by these people about 4 months ago!!] had Hazel by the collar and they were walking around together. Hazel DWARFED this little child, but she was going with it anyway. <3
The mom, of course, was running after the both of them while telling the little girl to let Hazel "have some alone time". :rofl: It was adorableeee.

Anyway, they all had a blast. They'll be back next Friday.

Have some pictures from yesterday!

He's SO grown up now!! His 2nd birthday is in about 26 days...how time flies. Not that 6 month old, scared+sick, baby I brought home!



Miss "I WILL be opinionated for no reason, thankyouverymuch"



"Look at me! Aren't I CUTE?"



"No, Lacey, I am the CUTE ONE!"





:happydance: :happydance:
 
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#872 ·
lol at your captions for lacey & hazel. Wow, Atti looks so big in that picture compared to others. and how terrible that he gets urinary tract stones! is that the same as kidney stones in people?


zexious ...i agree, i was just thinking how great lacey looks in that plaid and then read your comment.


tiny, thanks for letting me be a woman LOL :-D
 
#874 ·
Haha that plaid blanket is the first one I ever bought her!! <3 <3 She's had it for......almost 5 years??! :shock: It's a little [a lot] worn around the edges but we like it. :)

Julia, no worries about Atti getting stones! He actually hasn't gotten any yet - I'm just taking preventative measures. Wethers [fixed male goats] are superrrrrr prone to them but the acid in ACV helps dissolve them, before they cause a problem. I think they're somewhat similar to kidney stones, only, if I remember correctly, they actually block the urethra. :shock: They're terrible!

Allyson, that was my favorite too!! I can't wait for them to come back tomorrow and for more adorable hijinks to occur! :D



Clearly, I'm aliveeeee.
Barely.
But I'm alive. :D

SO many things have occurred.
1. Sunday: saw NG. Things were awkward. I chickened out bout asking him why I hadn't seen him. He was being weird.
Well, ok, not weird...just asking me questions about my "real" life.
Basically I've so far done ok at keeping my "real" life - the animals, etc, pretty darn separate from my church life. Not in an "I'm ashamed"-way, but in a "I am more than 'just' a farm girl"-way. People know I have a horse and goats, but I try to avoid just discussing them to fill the silence, or whatever...you know?

Anyway, NG found out a few weeks ago that I have Lacey. Then I told him that I have goats too. THEN last week he found out I had a cat..
[quick story: that was super smooth - I had posted a picture of Booth on Facebook on Saturday, (this kid doesn't like/comment things on FB, for whatever reason) it got a ton of "likes" so I guess it showed up in his news feed, then on Sunday he said to me "did you post a picture of a cat?" (no "on FB" or anything, haha), I said "yes", he told me that he reallly liked it and that the cat looked real ferocious, then he starts telling me about how he loves cats and asking about what Booth's name is, etc]
...anyway, he started asking me about my cat's name, how I got him, then: am I "really good" with horses? Have I ever been to the Kentucky Derby? How did I get my horse? Has she ever raced? Etc.

After that we progressed to asking if I'm sure I'm ok with sitting with him each week, and, after I told him that I actually intentionally saved him a spot this week, did I REALLY save him a spot? Is it REALLY ok?

OH MY GOSH. Just STOP.

It was so awkward tooooo. I'm so confused about what's happening here.


In any case, on Saturday, the hosts (which we both are part of) are having some kind of "party" which we are both attending.
There may be a helicopter ride involved. I WANT A HELICOPTER RIDE!!
Anyway, I'll see him on Saturday and on Sunday. :shock:

On the other hand, this thing on Saturday is basically built around eating food....and I'm going to have to bring all my own food due to the whole gluten-death situation.
Around here, there's a hugeee stigma attached to GF [a lot of people seem to do it to be cool, or something, then they're real jerks about it] so I'm really nervous for this group of people to find that out about me.
It's one thing to, you know, tell someone when they ask...but a whole 'nother thing to be going to someone's house, see all the food they beautifully prepared for the group to share...then pull out your box of separate "safe" food.
And THEN, your hosts sees you and starts trying to make all kinds of accommodations for you when you'd be perfectly happy and safe-feeling just eating out of your box, with no special attention.
It makes me feel so embarrassed and bad.
I guess I'm just mostly nervous about what people will say. I've had people say things to my face like "OH. You're one of those. Seems like everyone is gluten free these days. Don't you love food??!"
And that's the worst. Especially when those words are coming out of the mouth of someone you looked up to.
Because yes, I LOVE food. I would give practically anything, within reason, to be able to eat out, to buy whatever food looks good, to not feel nervous whenever I try something new, to not worry about the plates or silverware I use at a friends house...but that's not the life I have.
And I like this life. I've never felt so healthy in my life. I'm glad I'm GF now instead of continuing to eat something I'm extremely allergic to...it's just hard.

In any case, at least NG and my other couple of friends on the hosting team already know and at least THEY won't make it a big deal.

And plus side, I'm taking GF Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting = one of my best recipes AND the one my friends always want me to make for them.
I may not be able to eat wheat, but I can still eat tasty stuff!!

2. Oh man, after that gluten "rant", I lost my train of everything...
One thing I was going to say was that I discovered Hazel's getting pressure sores on one of her back legs from all that fur she has D:
So I shaved that leg and have started medicating it=it already looks better.
I'm beginning to wonder if maybe, for this coming year, I should try shearing her once every 3 months instead of 6. The 6 is really for people who are going to use the mohair and since I'm not using hers...why should she suffer? Pressure sores can't be comfortable!!
So maybe I'll try it for the summer [shear her next week, then in June, then in August] then play it by ear. With that plan, she'd end up being shorn in Nov/Dec which I don't really like...but we'll see.

ANYWAY, here are lots of pictures.

Lacey on Monday=naptime!!





Then, Atticus saw pine shavings for the first time ever!
I thought I'd try a new Lacey-bedding thing [pine pellets under pine shavings]..it takes forever to clean which I don't really like, but Lacey sees to enjoy it!



Atti looooves pine shavings, as it turns out!
Here he is, napping, during Lacey's Monday massage.



Yesterday.
Again with the shavings. :lol:

And Lacey's food bucket. I don't think there's any commentary there, right? hahaha



This morning Hazel ate breakfast in bed.
It was her favorite. :)



Lacey was convinced that the pasture was under attack this morning.
Clearly she needed to engage her biggest, baddest, scariest, trot to scare the danger off!!
[the danger was a lawn chair that had blow down the hill. Obviously. hahahaha]



Then I lunged her this evening [get out some of that energy before the girls tomorrow!!].

She's SO muddddddy. haha





And, lastly, supervising me while I made her dinner. ;)



:happydance:

I hope you guys are well!!
 
#876 ·
So. Totally saw GFs post on your time line and laughed so hard. Y'all are like a dynamic duo of awesomeness and entertainment haha.

NG wise, in the ever-lasting wisdom of my mother. Guys. Just yeah. Haha (not helpful at all I know hahaha)

I obviously haven't dealt with something similar to your gluten free deal but I would just say, keep your head up, be confident and happy and lean on your friends for support if you need it. Don't make problems where there are none yet ;)


Atti=love that goat. Can't say it enough.

What if you did like 4 month rotations for Miss Hazel. If you did like March , June/July, and October you'd hit the hot months and she's still have some fluff for the colder months (nov-dec). Then again
...I don't live in Oregon so I don't really know the seasons there hahahahaha


Aaaaand Lacey. I hope I have half as much sass and awesomeness as she does when I'M an old lady lol
 
#877 ·
So, I know that what I am about to say is nothing at all like your gluten-free thing you have to deal with but it is kind of like it even though I say its not because some people think I'm just crazy and can't believe that I.just.don't.like.anything.

I am an extremeeeeeely picky eater. Like okay, a palate of a 3 year old. Vegetables? no thanks. Condiments? no thanks. Fish? no thanks. you mean you don't like potatoes or ketchup? NO I DON'T. and although I know that its not as extreme as your gluten free because of course if i did just so happen to eat a vegetable I wouldn't get sick, its embarassing like you said...when you go to someones house and they have prepared this phenomenal meal that looks and smells fantastic...but yet...I don't eat ANY of it. And oh, you want to try a new restaurant? ok well let me look at their menu first. Nope, can't go there...I won't like anything. I eat everything P L A I N. People look at me like what? you want a chicken sandwich with just chicken...and the bread?

so although maybe I don't TOTALLY get it...I do kinda sorta get it. Even if it does seem silly that I'm 25 years old and probably need to get over the fact that I don't like anything. Just eat it, right? UGH. **hugs**
 
#878 ·
Guys agonize over NG's too.....don't think for a minute they don't...

Back in the dinosaur days....I'd sit by the phone for hours trying to get the courage up to call a certain young lady.....

That fear of rejection goes both ways....just be yourself....if it's meant to be....it will....if it's not, there's nothing you can do to make it happen.

Your wonderful....so don't worry, some fellow's going to figure that out real soon and you won't be able to run him off with a baseball bat.... Will it be NG? Only time will tell.
 
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#879 · (Edited)
She says thank you, paintsrule!! :hug: She's really the best. I'm so blessed she's in my life!!

4 month rotations is a great idea, Christy! I was also thinking maybe trying to do three shearings...somehow, and see if that's better than 2 but easier than 4. Each shearing is basically a day long fiasco and "ain't nobody got time for 'dat!!!!!" :lol:
Also, I told Gman what you said about us being a dynamic duo and his response was "Are we the Stacey and Clinton [from "What Not to Wear"] of real LIFE?! Yes please."
I think he really liked that. :rofl:

That is so what it's like, Julia! The worssssst. I'm glad you "get it" even though it's not the same. Yours might actually be more frustrating for you though...I don't know! That would be tough. At least I can avoid what'll make me sick, I guess? Huh.
I hate feeling like a burden on people, but maybe this is a big ol' sign pointing to an area I need to grow in? Hmmm.

Thanks Gunslinger. :) You are so right [or, at least, I hope you're right? haha]. But really, thanks.



Haha, you guys, I wasn't going to post today since I was all "Boo! I don't have pictures to share!"...then I looked into it more and I have 5 pictures to share. :rofl:

First: Saturday went really great, actually!!
It was the sweetest thing - a few people actually brought gluten free food with me in mind! One girl even brought her intended dessert and made an entire DIFFERENT dessert just for me.
Talk about the sweetest thing EVER.

I, of course, brought safe food/dessert for myself so it was all good, but it was incredibly sweet of them to think of me.


Other news: the people whose house we went to were all super into guns...so we ended up shooting guns?
I had never shot a gun before. I STILL don't know what to think.
Everybody else shot these things that were flying up in the air but, cuz I was scared, I got to shoot at a box in a gravel pile. :lol:
BUT GUESS WHO SHOT THEIR GRAVEL-BOX???!
Never shot a gun before and I POUNDED that box.



Anyhoo, still pretty proud of myself for that one. haha

NG was hilarious about it - first he tried convincing me with words, then he tried pushing me over to the gun [clearly we are in middle school, instead of 23/24 years old], then he tried pleading. hahahahaha
HYSTERICAL.
Then he pretty much just ignored the whole situation.
After I was brave, he kept being all "great job" "wasn't it cool?" "Are you proud of yourself? You should be", etc.
Hilarious.

He was pretty good at shooting guns, just in case you were wondering. He knew stuff about them...not sure how I feel about that. haha Not that it's a bad thing to know about guns, but just...you know...sometimes guys who are into guns are also the kind who are all "shoot every deer/coyote/wild animal cuz it's FUN!" [I understand hunting on a REAL food basis, but not on a just-because basis]
And you know me, I'm all about my wild animals.

However, he didn't say anything like that at all and usually someone like that^ would. So I'm not tooo worried.

And here I am holding a gun. #annieoakley




Then, later, I was standing around and NG comes up to me with the opening line of "so I really like all your Facebook posts about kids and animals..."
Oh my gosh. This kid is literally the funniest. He's so awkward, but it's an awkwardness I totally understand. I'm exactly the same way pretty much all the time so it's just so funny. It's one of those things that I try to somewhat disguise in my life...but he just goes for it.
Watching NG operate is like watching Atticus try to walk on ice - bopping right out there...then realizing he's kind of stuck, and flailing his way back to "safety."

So that was real funny.

Things went mildly downhill on Sunday. But maybe not.

I went to church and, on the way to church, got a ticket for "not having a valid MAX fare." I forgot, like a dummy, my bus/MAX pass at home in one of my coats! THE FREAKING WORST.
So needless to say, by the time I got to church, I was a messss.

NG was right there when I walked in and asked how I was. I told him that things weren't so great but everything would be fine. Then another one of my friends came over and started asking how I was, told her "not great" and she starts probing to find out what the issue was.
At that point, I was working real hard not to cry.
NG realized that.
And he fled.
Absolutely fled.
He was right next to me one minute and as farrrrr away as possible the next.

But that was just what I needed to get those tears out of my eyes. It was THE FUNNIEST. He was so horrified.

He's clearly no Gman. :rofl:
But it was so hysterical.
NG looked like a cat that someone was trying to bathe.
Oh my word, I'm laughing so hard just remembering.

He didn't sit with me this week which was ok. He sat with me in the host-meeting before church anyway.

Then, after church, he was clearly looking for me which was real sweet.
Then he found me and said "I hope your week is amazing!"

Thennnn it got awkward.
I made those cupcakes for the party-thing...but didn't end up taking them because of other stuff.
So I brought some to church: one for that friend I mentioned earlier, one for a friend who's like my sister, and another for Gman. I didn't end up seeing Gman [technically he came up to give me a hug, but it was a hug+run situation] so I didn't give him his cupcake.
And I hate leaving church with cupcakes when I bring them because what's a batch of cupcakes if they haven't been shared?!!

Clearly, I said to NG, when I saw him after church, "want a cupcake? I brought one for a friend who I never saw..."
He said "No, you should eat it! You need it."
I said "I literally have 15 more at home. *gave him cupcake*"
He looked at it...
...and, in that moment, I realized that I should have probably bought more cupcake wrappers instead of using Valentine's Day themed, heart covered, wrappers...

Because we all know how smooth I am, I recovered with "I only had Valentines Day themed cupcake wrappers...it's nothing weird!!"

*headdesk*

HA. A+ for me.

Then I ran. So fast. Away.

Yesterday was a great day. hahahahaha

Poor NG. Hopefully he loves the cupcake and that makes up for my levels of awkward.
Or maybe he's doing the same thing with me that I'm doing with him - thinking I'm really funny and nice to be around because of how awkward I am... We can hope.



Anyway, in other news:

My coyote friend, Duke[ina], was hurt during that ice/snow storm we had a few weeks ago. She seemed to have broken a front leg or something since she's not weight bearing at alll on it.
I was really worried for her about that because not "having" a front leg really limits her hunting abilities. That was about a month ago and I've been really hoping she'll make it, but not keeping my hopes up too much.

Then this morning, when I went up to feed, she went hobbling through the pasture in front of me! Then she stopped to wait and a second coyote went loping through, joined up with her to watch me, then they ran off together!

This make me so happy!!!! Duke[ina] was looking really good too - hopefully this hubby of hers is helping her. I've never seen her in the company of another coyote so I'm hopeful that this new friend is there to help her.
What an absolutely heartwarmingly wonderful world.

To go with Duke[ina], I'm naming this guy "Dutch"...cuz every Duke needs a Dutchess...but "Duke" turned out to be a girl. And Duke[ina] and Duke is just confusing.
So Duke[ina] and Dutch it is. :D


Time for pictures!!

Mr. Atti



Hazel yawning.



"Look, I TOLD you not to take my picture. RUDE."



Then today.

"You seem to love this horse more than me..maybe I'll get more attention if I disguise myself as her??"



And a DOUBLE RAINBOW TONIGHT!!

What a wonderful thing.





:happydance:
I hope you guys are doing great!!
 
#882 ·
Then, later, I was standing around and NG comes up to me with the opening line of "so I really like all your Facebook posts about kids and animals..."

BEST THING I'VE EVER READ. love this 'relationship'.

P.S. check you out and your badassness (is that a word? no) shooting a gun! on my list of things to do...just haven't gotten that far yet...which I'm surprised since my Dad has hunted and had guns in the house my whole life.
 
#880 ·
Haha, I just love your posts so much :')

Firstly, NG sounds just hilarious. Awkward guys can be the best kind ;D

I must have missed Duke[ina] in previous posts... But I feel oddly attached already. You should try to get some photos of her and the lover boy. I really like coyotes.

And, of course, your beasties look just lovely, as usual! 8D
 
#883 · (Edited)
GUYS!!! LOOK what Lacey and I defeated today!!!!?

Namely, we CANTERED BAREBACK.

And bridle-less.....??
I've ridden her bridle-less once before and NEVER cantered bareback. But she was nailing everything I asked her to do today while we were walking around bridle-less, then I asked her to trot, and a canter step just kind of popped out.

Then we intentionally cantered. And it was the best!! SO comfy!

This is especially important because, thanks to the lesson horse I rode as a kid, I have been traditionally very scared to canter. It was only with Lacey that I became comfortable cantering at all [still would be uncomfy getting on a strange horse and cantering but...].
Then to do THIS??!

O. M. G.

I can't even hardly believe myself! Or us!

This horse is a GEM. A literal gem.

Here's a short clip:
[and yeah, I'm sure she's on the wrong lead or something but, at this point, I don't really care what she wants to do as long as we're upright. At 29, she can pick up whatever lead she feels like...plus I have no idea how to cue her for the right one - it's some kind of weird opposite of "normal" and I can never remember "correctly, so I just kiss and she does her thing. :lol:]



And here's the whole, long+boring, ride [made p-13/R rated by the fact that Hazel is in heat and Atti "needed to dominate her"...he's just mounting her..but don't watch this with kiddos around. haha]




:happydance: :happydance: :happydance:
 
#886 ·
I believe you, but but but.....

I need a saddle for the first time i mount a horse, as i don't know how he will react... And ye, wont get to canter with my horse for a while, as i usually ride for months at trot and walk before try canter with a young horse.

I did canter bareback a few times, once with a bridle on a lunge. And recently with teddy in the round pen and a rope halter on. Was fun, but not too much as it was too muddy.....

I am still thrilled with Emily's happiness!!
 
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