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Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

Today's ride at Teller Farm Trail.

Matt just reported that our hot wire isn't working.. which explains why Buddy just leans over the fence willy nilly to say hello to us. :/

He escaped again today while Matt was trying to fix the fencing. I tied off some electric tape down at one end of the run and Matt was fixing the fence at the other. Buddy wants to be with Matt so slips under the tape and trots bee line to Matt. Matt sighs at the little bugger, then the neighboring llama aka Official Sheep Protector and Guardian comes over to demand respect for his authority.. makes various spitting sounds and Matt gets worried and hurries over to the other side of the fence. Isabella now cannot see Buddy and whinnies.. Buddy screams back and now is very worried he is in a new place and why come he cannot see his new friend anymore??

Matt finishes what he can with the fence and leads Buddy back to the pasture gate, spends 30 minutes trying to get him to go down a small hill that leads to the gate.

*sigh* Going to try and get home early today to get fencing fixed.

It was a circus getting Buddy home last night (mainly human error, but frustrating and tiring nonetheless).

First, when we trailered in we couldn't find a higher leveled area, so my trailer being a step up, he had to step up up up past his knees to get in.. he never got scared or freaked out, but just kind of planted his feet and sniffed around at best. We would put one of his feet up in the the trailer and he would just kind of collapse forward onto his knees on his belly and just lie there wondering what to do with the rest of his feet. (btw, found his birthday is 2/23/2006, so he isn't even 2 yet! Man, he's going to be tall :/ ) After a 1/2 hour and a big scramble, he finally got in and he wasn't too pleased.. pawing, banging around. Fortunately it was less than a 5 minute drive home. I did resign myself to walking him home at one point but with the commute traffic going through the farm roads at 50 mph and not knowing very well how he lead I was glad we got him in the trailer.

Once we got him home he turned around calmly in the trailer and hopped off. Next came the wooden bridge to get into the pasture. Didn't want to do that. We introduced him to Isabella, tried sticking his nose in her butt and walking over, but he didn't want any part of that bridge. Sooo... we walked the 1/2 mile around through the sheep field to the same gate. By this time it was dark and Buddy was listening to everything but me. We had a few discussions about not running over the human while walking on lead. Finally got to the pasture gate. I wasn't too worried about Isabella and Buddy getting along.. Isabella is a low low horse on the totem pole and Buddy being a baby and all. They actually got along just fine after Isabella squealed a bit (Buddy really didn't know what to do with that). They galloped to the other end of the run and Matt went inside to get dinner warmed up. I followed the horses with my flashlight. Bad idea.. Buddy spooked at the flashlight and ran through the gate into the sheep pasture. :( I stood there for about 10 minutes freaking out, trying to work out in my tired mind if they had a way to get into the street from that pasture. After I got my senses about me, I walked back to the house for Matt's help. He got dressed to help me retrieve the horses.

Retrieved both of them easily from the sheep pasture (thank goodness they are both so easy to catch). I haltered Isabella because I didn't want to deal with leading Buddy again and he followed along like a happy little clam (actually, he followed Matt in front of us). Took them both back home and put up a makeshift gate with electric tape until I can get the metal fence repaired later. *sigh* Long night. A few hours later I went out with a few carrots (NO FLASHLIGHT) and fed them.. they appeared to be happy and hanging out. Can't say I didn't have a few feelings of buyer's remorse.. :) But mainly frustration at myself.

This morning I look out and see one white horse. Buddy is no where to be seen, but Isabella is looking towards the sheep pasture. Buddy is pacing the sheep pasture fenceline and trying to get back over to Isabella.. I check the fencing, and there is really no way I can see how he escaped. Maybe he should be named Houdini. I catch him easily and walk him back to Isabella.. he is super tired and well mannered now :) Feed them both, but Isabella being a beta horse just keeps following him around, and Buddy is only interested in looking everywhere but his food. Ah well.

This morning the breeder who has Buddy's mom called and left a message.. said she is the nicest dispositioned horse she has ever had. Her kids crawl all over her and if Buddy has HALF as good of disposition as Kalik does, she wouldn't hesitate to recommend him. Ahhh.. there is hope. I just have to remind myself that when I first got Isabella the first month I seriously thought about sending her back, but she has turned out to be the most perfect horse I've ever had. Just gotta keep telling myself that.....

Eminent Habib, straight Egyptian 2006 grey gelding.





Matt and I went to see him last night and he was everything we heard about him. Super sweet, easy to work with, moves beautifully, wants to be in your lap but respects your space, not spooky, very mellow, curious, and very very cute....

He's 14.2 at age 2 so I'm afraid I'm going to have to teach him to stand very well next to stumps, picnic tables, ant hills, or anything else that will help me climb on once he's ready. He'll be a pasture potato for the next 2 years or so before he's sent off to work under saddle but he seems so easy to train.. I hope I don't ruin him! :)

I'm very excited.. hopefully the Colorado brand inspector will take a look at him today and we can bring him home this week! Matt and I drove all over the place on Sunday, trailer in tow looking at different horses.. and when I came home disappointed, I found an email from his breeder describing him and it turns out they live a 1/2 mile down the road! We visited him yesterday and he is wonderful.


More photos

Happy belated birthday to me!

I had a wonderful, perfect birthday day. I had the day off of work so we were free to do whatever we wanted.

Morning, fed the horse & dog and took a trip to the tack store to pick up some feed and chat with the owner (another endurance rider). Came home & Matt was still asleep.. checked email and found lots of nice birthday wishes. Matt finally woke up and we made plans to take the Celestial Seasonings tea tour & eat at their cafe.

The tour was a lot of fun, cafe not so much. I was expected a cute little napa type cafe, but little did I know cafe in this respect was short for 'cafeteria'. It was still nice though.. we ate from our plastic trays and cheap silverware with paintings of stars and sleepy bears all over the place.

Next we went to Costco.. spent a few minutes waiting for a prime parking spot right in front of Costco's doors, only be to shunted by a gnarly old man in his Subaru who whipped in right in front of us as we were turning into the space. Matt yelled at the guy (who blubbered that he would back out and leave) but Matt said don't bother and we glared at him whenever we'd see him in the aisles. Mid-day Costco shopping is interesting.. lots of very old people and young trophy stay at home moms and their screaming kids.

Next we picked up some yummy cupcakes (banana cheese cake and fudge) and came home. Hopped on Isabella for a nice ride around the pasture, read some more email birthday wishes, and hung out until we headed to Japango for some sushi & sake.

It's been almost 24 hours and I am still amazed and full from the vast amount of sushi we ate last night. The bill came out to almost $70.. and it was happy hour. That equals about 25 pounds of raw fish, folks. We gorged ourselves until spicy tuna was oozing out of our ears, then came home for a breezer, and topped it all off with my birthday cupcakes.

The night was topped off with Stardust which I LOOOOVED. All in all, a pretty damn good day. :)

Just for Lizette.. and the Jimmy Kimmel fans out there!