"Don't Cry for the Horses"

     As many of you know, we said goodbye to Ginger on Saturday morning. Friday afternoon around 3:30 pm she began lying down and looking uncomfortable. Her pain and discomfort increased through the afternoon, and the vet examined her around 6 pm. Ginger was then taken to the vet hospital for more comprehensive care for what appeared to be an ileal impaction. We left the hospital around 10 pm, with optimism for her recovery. At 3:30 am, the vet called to discuss surgery and euthanasia. Ginger's pain was not controlled by medication for longer than 20 minutes, and there were indications that sections of her intestine were dying. We made the difficult decision to euthanize Ginger, and stayed with her during her last moments. 

"Don't Cry for the Horses"

Brenda Riley-Seymore

Don't cry for the horses
That life has set free
A million white horses
Forever to be

Don't cry for the horses
Now in God's hands
As they dance and they prance
To a heavenly band

They were ours as a gift
But never to keep
As they close their eyes
Forever to sleep

Their spirits unbound
On silver wings they fly
A million white horses
Against the blue sky

Look up into heaven
You'll see them above
The horses we lost
The horses we loved

Manes and tails flowing
They Gallop through time
They were never yours
They were never mine

Don't cry for the horses
They will be back someday
When our time has come
They will show us the way

On silver wings they will lift us
To the warmth of the sun
When our life is over
And eternity has begun

We will jump the sun
And dance over the moon
A Ballet of horses and riders
on the winds
to a heavenly tune

Do you hear that soft nicker
Close to your ear?
Don't cry for the horses
Love the ones that are here

Don't cry for the horses
Lift up your sad eyes
Can't you see them
As they fly by?

A million white horses
Free from hunger and pain
Their spirits set free
Until we ride again

I can haz hay?????

Jellybean and I had some quality time together tonight.  We had treats and grain and hay! She even let me in her stall while she ate to pet and love on her.  We did have an ear pinning event but, it turns out horses get friendlier if you push them around a bit.  She finally accepted the inevitable and let me pet her. After she ate her grain I went and worked on our poor broken cavaletti.  The wood had split on one leg of each cavaletti so I had to splice the two together.  It worked out very nicely.  All told a good day at the barn.  I threw jellybean her two flakes of nice fresh cut hay and took some pictures.

Jellybean nomming her hay!  Happy pony.

And the new "old" cavaletti

Amanda is away and I get to take care of the Bean tonight

Amanda had to make a trip to Houston today.  This means that I get to have all the fun at the barn by myself.  Feeding, grooming, gossiping, and projecting. There are some cavaletti that need fixing and I am sure there is some sheath cleaning that I will be forced to endure.  Anyway, just thought I'd let y'all know that even when mom is away the fort is solidly held down.

First post as a contributor.

Hello all you horse crazy people out there!  I am Robert and it looks like I have been given permissions to contribute to Dusty Summer's diary.  I promise not to slide too far into the ridiculous... But I am after all a guy posting on a blog about his girlfriend's horse.

Just to ease in to it, here are some candid shots from earlier this week

Even Ginger takes self shots!

It was also bath day,  she dries in zebra patterns

And of course, me and the horse:

thanks for reading and, stay tuned for more wild horse antics.

Blog Changes!

     I have decided to make a few changes to the blog, in order to have more topics to post about and more accurately reflect my obsession with horses. Currently the blog focuses exclusively on Jellybean, but I will be expanding the topics I post about to include training articles I find interesting and also the exploits of Peanut Butter (who will henceforth be referred to as Ginger, since the name changing didn't ever stick). I will also be opening up the authorship, and allowing Robert to write a few entries about his opinions and training exercises. I hope that expanding will provide me more topics to write about and entertain the masses :)

#awkwardselfie

Jellybean as a flirt?!

     Jellybean was being naughty yesterday. First we had a talk after she was making eyes at the other horses across the fence [I'm looking at you Cash!]

photo credit: Jeannette Bayer

     Even after our talk, she would still make eyes through the fence at the other horses... Well yesterday I put all that behind me and decided to let Jellybean explore the cutting pen next to her paddock a little. There is currently a few breezy shrubs growing and a low spot currently filled with water, I thought these might be good opportunities for Jellybean to explore. However, she had other plans! There are several horses stalled along the arena, a yearling palomino that was recently gelded, a one eyed old gelding, and a stallion. Jellybean went strutting past each of the stalls, sniffing at the stallion and even flirting with the palamino! She pawed at the ground and tossed her head, teasing him for being in a stall! I am a tad ashamed that she was flaunting herself! During the entire incident, Peanut Butter was calling for Jellybean, because she was sooo far away... In any case, looks like Jellybean is ready for a more intense version of "the talk"

Paddock keeping

     Today was a work day at the barn (again). The paddock needed to be cleaned out since its the first weekend without rain in awhile. Robert scooped out the poop while the ponies looked on, confused. Jellybean was especially interested in why Robert needed to move her poop... She followed the fork from the initial site to the wheelbarrow, and then to the gate when Robert went to dump. The other cleaning point was the leftovers of the first round bale. The hay was pretty gross, the ponies stomped it into the mud and peed all over it... we tried to move it out, but most of it was already part of the ground... In any case, they get a new round bale this weekend and they can start munching again :)