Fond old memories and new horizons

Cindy and me over 20 years ago. She didn't get docked for jumping this log because I leaned forward and grabbed the lead rope around her neck to make sure I stayed on; I'm using an english saddle so the control judge called it a cued jump. LOL, it was my first time trying distance riding and the 2 quart canteen I had bought and was carrying was coming loose from its strap and I was hugging it with my offside arm and I leaned forward and grabbed the rope cuz Cindy was cruising to catch the horse in front of her and I just knew she was going to jump that log so she could gain a bit of ground :)

I found out later that horses would often get points docked in NATRC for hopping instead of stepping over or across things --Cindy loved to jump and always jumped safely so tried AERC endurance instead and found that it was a much better fit for my personality. Cindy was not really an endurance horse, she didn't switch off and relax and eat at the vet checks. She was great in the 25 mile rides because she wouldn't run out of fuel that quick and she had awesome recoveries. I wonder if she is all racing in the rainbow meadows or is showing off her 'dance moves' too. Lord that mare could move in fantastic ways.



Here is Sadie at the trainers yesterday. I think she is going to be a fun endurance horse, I think she may prove a bit hardier than Shade and will probably be hard to distract from eating. Hopefully that is going to be really true and not part wishful thinking.

good grief --6 mice since 8:30 am

Its about 11:30 am now. This is with 4 traps. One trap got 2 more mice while I was getting the horses grained. Yes, I'm slow, especially slow lately mixing various medications in the grain, but I guess that is a prime eating spot. So today its a good thing I am not a photo blogger. One mouse had just got its leg caught :( I heard him squeak right after he was caught so he was not trapped and scared for long at all before I whacked him with a chunk of board and gave him the desired swift end. I moved that trap a bit so hopefully it won't get any more mice just by the leg.

Good old Walmart had the re-useable spring traps by Victor. I had looked at ACE hardware last week and they only had trap and toss models. That would not have been cost effective so I would have had to just set out poison instead.

Later I will put up a pic or 2 of Sadie. I visited at the trainers yesterday and got to see Sadie being worked. I posted pics to a board, doing my part to give it some nice topics and keep it going.

4 -no it was only 3 more mice with broken necks when I rode Grey. I just left them because I wanted to give Grey an adequan shot. Getting his joints lubed up for the west slope trip. Ole stalled 200 yards down the road so I turned around, tied him to his trap, and rode Grey a bit in the paddock.

I want to give Shade a monthly maintenance adequan shot also. She has not had any since her labor day weekend ride actually. Well she has been on sick leave and vacation also so I don't think she really missed it but I do want to keep her lubed up as well as I can. I'd love for her to get to 3000 miles which is a long shot since she only has 1400 now and is starting to have this arthritis but I really really want her to have 2 more good years before I start backing her way off and riding Sadie somewhat seriously. That would put Sadie just 6 years old so hopefully Shade will have a 3rd season where she is primary but I am riding Sadie on 2nd days of 2 day rides etc.

life goes on of course

I rode Grey Moun today. He was not as fresh as on sunday but seemed to feel pretty good. I shorted CJ on hay again. Yesterday I shorted everybody by not giving 2nd flakes of hay as I normally do. They all survived. I gave CJ more than 1/2 his usual so I'm sure he didn't suffer waiting for dad to hay this evening. Oh I am late posting here I think. CJ has a respiratory bug AND pigeon fever -aka dryland distemper. Flies spread it in places where the soil is pretty dry.

Had a Sadie report yesterday from the trainer. "SUPER SADIE!!! What a girl! She tacked with a big western saddle, lunged without a buck. Took to me banging the fenders on her sides good. Stood by the mounting block for me to stand above her and then lay on her back-good. Is taking her head side to side nicely. She also got a taste of wearing her molasses bit and some food for keeping it on.

Great day! You may come Saturday if you like. I am done with kids by 1pm."

I must remember to ensure that my camera has a memory card and maybe pack extra batteries for it. I think I will just drive my car down. With CJ being sick I don't want to be bringing in new germs. Well I'll decide for sure only on saturday.

Vaya con Dios, my fire breathing dragon

You are probably already challenging other horses to a race in the meadow across the rainbow bridge, knowing your love of seeing how hard you could run. I'll miss you even though you've been mostly on my back burner these last several years. You did a great job with Sadie as her weanling mentor, I believe you taught her to be almost as bold and brave as you were. She had brave genes from Szybki but she needed a role model cuz momma Shak was distrustful and timid. I have to scan the pic of you jumping the log on my/our first CTR. You look like a polished jumper, no one can tell from the pic that I am hugging the 2-qt round canteen whose strap was failing in my off arm and grabbing the lead around your neck just to make sure I stick with you as you zoom over the log cuz you wanted to hurry up and catch the horse in front and I figured it would be futile to fight you on that :)

great, more tears.

I could have done without mom offering to stay home from hunting and do chores if I am on the fence about putting Cindy down. I know she can't help being a clingy sentimental sap; but I made the decision, it was NOT easy but I do feel it is right. It is right for me because I don't feel like I am robbing the horse of precious days, I feel that I am ensuring she doesn't end up enduring any hours of agony. I have given quite a bit of bute and used lots of DMSO trying to make sure Cindy has good last days, because I'd hate to have a painful ending of life color her memory of life with me. I do believe animals have some memory of their life after they die.

ALSO, sister only had her breast biopsy today, not a week ago like originally planned and I had been wondering why I had not heard about any results yet. They took tissue from both breasts. Sis is sore and she and B are staying in Bismarck overnight; a wise decision, especially since weather is crappy up there. I haven't been sure how much I should worry. I had to have a biopsy years ago when I was in college and it was nothing so I've been thinking this will prove to be benign but it is not a sure thing. Darn it, N already had to deal with a Melanoma, and having lymph nodes removed from her neck as a precaution in case the cancer cells had spread, she should have good health now, but life doesn't go along making things fair.

Oh crap

there is a mini-review tomorrow morning. I did not register it was vet day when it was announced via email thursday. I am losing all kinds of brownie points lately, forgetting conflicting appointments and not notifying the bosses right away. Sadly I do not care much either.

CRAP AGAIN: "As part of Nov. 5 retreat evening entertainment... having a small performance/open mike program" Some co-workers are quite talented and most also understand playing something light and entertaining that is WELL WITHIN their talents. But it only takes being stuck having to politely listen to ONE that does not follow those principles to ruin a 1/2 hour or more not just their actual tortured 'recital' performance period for me. Plus I don't have ANY talent so I can't participate, just have to clap enthusiastically for the good ones and politely for any snot who is just imposing on everyone's time.

This is going to be a bad week

I thought I was at peace with having Cindy euthanized. Well I wouldn't say I am troubled about the decision but I am grieving. Part of this is coming out as extreme irritation with liberals, I never considered I might have the extra strain of thinking liberals are going to fall for Bennetts scare the women tactics --he has no reason to vote for him, all he has is to try to scare the women that Buck would outlaw 'the pill' and is a sexist. Righttttt, Bennett voted for the bill whose purpose is to ruin our health system so we end up with a NIH type nightmare like england where young women have to go through some snooty government clerk if they need birth control or an abortion and older women who need fertility treatments to conceive will have to convince some government agency that it should spend the extra $$ for that to happen but a pro-life conservative is going to magically be able to undo a decision from the supreme court?
What gets me is not that the Dem's are resorting to this but that it seems to be working. Am I so atypical? Are most women
completely ignorant of how the law works and what that effing health care reform monstrosity will mean if it is not repealed?

update:
** Rush did warn today that the MFM is going to push some hair pulling themes this week.
1) momentum is shifting to the dem(s)
2) the R's are going to cave & work with Barry so why bother voting this year
3) the R's are going to impeach Barry and pull the rug out from under SS, etc if they win -so if you fear the upheaval vote lib
4) Polling shows/showed the R's should pick up at least 52 house seats (1994 turnover level) or various analysts will be and have been saying turnover might be lots higher so even if you can take control of the house (39 seat pickup --need a few more for RINOs) and block Barry from any more legislation to destroy the country the R's should have been able to pick up more seats so the tea party is a failure &/or its hopeless for the tea party to try to reform the GOP and they have to go 3rd party --which would give Dems a few more years to sack and loot the country during transition.

I had been thinking the R's need to get to at least 50 in the senate so the D's don't change rules for fillibusters. But actually since the R's will take the house we will not need any R senate fillibusters and the D's certainly aren't going to make it harder for themselves to block conservative bills coming from the house. I don't think the R's will risk a 2012 shift back to D's and go 'nuclear option' on senate rules if THEY get over 50 seats and they could not get to 60 seats even if they flipped 100% of the D seats which was NOT ever going to happen; so I think we will have 2 years of blocking the marxists from passing more bills to kill the country but probably not able to undo much unless some of the dems in congress choose staying in office over toeing/towing the party line. --That COULD well happen if the tea party movement shows its strength over the next year or so.

The times are going to remain 'interesting, in the chinese curse way' for at least another 2 years. Probably for at least the next decade as conservatives wrestle with trying to cut government down to a sustainable size w/o scaring voters into a stampede to the false security + class envy the liberals will be pushing hard. Oh well, I think I shall try to get a barn/garage building put up in WY and work on making it possible to live there --wood stove, kerosene garage heater, ..... well set up for intermittent usage ........

Happier weekend stuff

I rode Razz saturday, the dogs were both PUSHING that they WOULD go along. So I went Pbbtttt and just rode in the paddock, Razz felt like he might be a bit ouchy last time I rode him out so staying in the soft paddock was good anyway. OMG I got the nicest jog from Razz. It made me understand how WP on a really good horse could actually be fun --minus all the dressing up, including the right amount of bling on the tack anyway.

This morning I took the dogs for a run with the car. Than this afternoon I rode Grey Moun 4 miles, Ole got to tag along, Mia was acting hyped up but she went and laid down well away from the gate so I didn't have to mess with tying her or putting her in the house or anything. Grey was full of beans. We cantered quite a bit and did a flat out gallup up the little sand hill. I think Grey is liking being completely retired from endurance but still needed for this trail-riding hunting trip. That sure works for me so I hope I'm reading him correctly.

I was chilled and had no ambition after riding Grey, but did get in a short short ride on Shade in the arena before I fed hay for the night. She had one cough, after cantering a bit but just that one time. I trotted and cantered the other direction to make sure she wasn't going to go into coughing fits and then asked her to back and played around with turning on the hind-end before quitting. I wasn't asking her to spin, but I got some nice feeling of moving her front end around the hind end while probably stepping in a small circle with her hind feet.

venting -lying dems and stupid people who believe lies

Doesn't help that my own mother is one of the swallowers of lies. I hate the marxists, they will lie, cheat, and steal to get into office so they can use the force of government coercion to get their way. But its the lying that is getting to me tonight, the dirty, hypocritical lying and the fact that so many gullible fools will swallow that BS.

Got my glasses fixed and it cured my headaches

Wednesday night I was playing around holding a hand over each eye and thought my cataract might have gotten worse as one side was really blurry, then when I went to brush my teeth before bed I noticed my glasses were really uneven, drooping on the left side. Ahh ha, I have varilux bifocal lenses so I was looking through the distance portion for close reading on the left eye and vice versa. I stopped at kaiser thursday morning and had them fix/adjust my glasses so they sit normally and no more tightness in the back of my head and neck developed. I may have been tipping my head to try to equalize the lenses + I suppose I also had brain strain of compensating for the left eye just seeing fuzz instead of normal vision.

I finally had an email from Sadie's trainer last night too. *I* still have not remembered to call her in the evenings nor just called earlier which she said if she didn't have signal or was busy with a horse she just returns calls. She is probably more of a phone person so I should get over my dislike of calling and giver her a check in call more often. She emailed again this morning. The 'kid' has a snotty nose but trainer didn't think it was serious. I told her I would fetch Sadie if she decided Sadie was contagious and it was a strain to keep her quarantined from the rest of the horses but I wasn't worried about Sadie having a little allergy type snot.

Sigh

I have been just craving some horse 'talk' lately. The forums I have somewhat followed for years are so very quiet lately and half the remaining posters on the one tend to drive me crazy.

I went back to COTH and lurked some and even posted 1x and I am reminded why I didn't use my login for 3 or 4 years. Very snobby and cliquey feel to it. I wasn't batted down and didn't have a primary post but just feels like a lot of holier than thou on the general (farm and off course) boards and as I remembered their endurance/trail riding section feels like a pretty tight knit group of east coasters. I haven't poked my nose in the dressage, hunting .... boards since I'm not doing those things.

I've been lurking on Texas horse enthusiasts occasionally. Not sure if there is more volume; but since I don't check it real often it feels like a bit more and I like most of what I read there. But I'm 2 states away, hardly makes any kind of sense to try to actually join and I might find if I did that they are not so warm and friendly with outsiders who want to join. As a lurker it feels like a friendly place with some (un?)common sense vs 'tree hugger' types who happen to have the horse bug.

I don't want to and will actively avoid joining groups and causes let alone the games on FB.

the endurance yahoo group --still too few topics and a small group of posters spouting off with 5-10 posts with their same tired opinions on recycled hot topics and 2-4 posts on random topics. I care less what xyz and fgh have to say. I haven't ventured to ridecamp but other than a bigger group of people so perhaps some newbies and more chances to learn something new in response to a question I wouldn't have asked I'm sure it has the same problems as the yahoo group.

Partly I have changed, 2008-2009 made me think about politics and my views on how societies and governments can work vs failing and now I have no patience for people who don't share my 'less is more' when it comes to government views. So where before I just thought, well if they are committed to horses, including learning good horsemanship so they can care for them I have quite a bit in common with them. Now if they think government should attempt to 'spread the wealth around' for any reason, whether personal avarice or thinking themselves elite and that the masses cant succeed w/o gub'mint help I strongly feel that they are basically simpletons and I don't want to waste my time 'with' them.

LOL!

I just saw this on CL --farm and garden section but still made me giggle

2 yr old free to a good home. - (CO.)
post was already deleted so I don't know what was being offered free .

personal whine session

UPDATE. about 2 hours later. The drugs have kicked in YAY.

I feel like I have a tension headache that is not instantly retreating after taking naproxen + my stomach is whining even after having some hot cereal. I live in the 21st century and I sweat some things I have little to no control over, but I am not aware of stressing about anything extra today and I hardly ever get tension headaches. Only sinus headaches and sometimes ' haven't had enough caffeine today' headaches and I know how to deal with them, and my stomach is usually pretty well cast iron unless I try to take ibuprofen on an empty stomach. I've never had to worry about eating with the naproxen stuff.

I don't like having physical symptoms of stress, especially when I don't know what it is that I need to ' let go and let god'. or even if I what I need to do is take some sort of action about a situation instead of just feeling like a leaf caught in a current. I just have lots of little stresses, no one big thing as far as I can tell.

OK I guess that is enough self pity rambling.

fill in --Sadie is at a trainers

oh yeah I was going to wait and copy/paste from the forum post I did about it. On the board that the IP nazi blocked my work IP# at so I cant do it until I get home. Well off to see if I have email from the trainer or I have to contact her to get news.

I hauled Sadie to a trainer saturday. I had never got around to hauling her anywhere so she got thrown into the deep end. Practiced loading a bit and fed her her feed one morning standing in the trailer then today I too Grey Moun along to model that the trailer is just another place to stand and eat hay and took her down the interstate about 1.5 hours to the trainer.

The only glitch is she did not want to back out of the trailer which she had been doing well in practice. Well I was using the stock trailer so no biggie I let her turn around and she was fine to come out then. I'm using an endurance rider that also does training. I had thought I might use trailpal's trainer K but when trailpal moved to DC I didn't want to send my 'baby' over 4 hours away. I have a good feeling that Sadie is in good hands. Grey got to stretch his legs and then go in the adjacent stall/run for a drink if wanted and he offered to stay too, much nicer digs than our sand hill with 3-sided shed.

A canter is the cure for every evil

I love that quote from Benjamin Disraeli almost as much as I love getting a canter on Shade. I can hardly wait to see if she can maintain clear lungs when I stop the tri-hist granules. Only went a couple miles, mostly walking but it felt GOOD. Ole was so happy to go that he barely minded the sand burrs which are still pretty thick. Mia wanted to come but she has the run of the place all night so I didn't feel bad making her stay home. She knows burrs are thick heading east so she always zooms west and forces me to ride that way if I let her 'join' me. Since she is so bull-headed and I have to go her direction and then turn around however quickly she decided she has had enough yada yada I have to be in a rare very accommodating mood to take her along when I'm riding anymore. I finished my last book of a trio of a fantasy series by Terry Goodkind I had bought. WooHoo now I have something I can send to my sailer through Soldiers Angels. OTOH, Blarghh I forgot to grab them today so I wont get anything out until tomorrow.

Destined to have responsibility for 4 horses?

I may be getting Lady (Paloma to her current owners) back. I really have no more desire to have a PasoFino now then I did when I bought her from my friends mom to resale. Hopefully she will find another home or the P's will be able to take her back. DAMN this recession. I hate the stupid liberals that have brought this about. HATE THEM.

I killed a mouse today

It was in my feed barrel -I have one that doesn't have a cover, a teeny little mouse. I tossed a lead rope in for it to just be able to run out but it wasn't leaving and I wanted to feed already and get to work after having farrier out so I started whacking at it with the knotted end of the heavy lead rope and once it was stunned or dead I scooped it out with the plastic scoop and then stomped its head to make sure it was not dying slowly. I really really need to get with it and set several traps in the feed room and get that population down, every time I'm in there I see and hear the mice running around. I don't mind a couple cleaning up the feed I spill but they are getting into the good feed and I am way over due to thin the #'s down. I kept hoping a bullsnake would move in this summer, we used to have one that hung around but I haven't seen one around there these last two years so I'll just have to trap and toss for my rodent control.

Another nudge that yes I was/am correct and it is time for Cindy to cross the rainbow bridge. I had L trim her front feet. Cindy was uncomfortable standing on the Left hind to have the left front foot trimmed. Right front was not bad, since she could just balance with the bad hock leg. If I weren't so stupid I would have given Cindy bute 1st thing this morning before L came but I didn't think to do it. I probably should have just skipped having her trimmed at all but I was thinking I didn't want to have extra stress on tendons since I think Cindy has DSDL -well not really the full blown stuff from a bit of quick internet reading but I think her tendons and ligaments have lost elasticity with age and will tear easily.

If it were just arthritis she is having enough good days with bute and is keeping weight on yada yada that I would just do a long term bute regimen like we did with Duke getting 1 bute tab 3x/week. But I've had a strong, foreboding in my gut that Cindy will suffer a nasty 'breakdown' tendon bow type injury this winter if I try to cling and keep her here; I've had regrets for waiting too long after just a bit of "oh is it really time yet" whining from the parents for a couple of pets and I wont go through that with Cindy. Especially when I don't trust the parents or someone doing chores to make a quick call if I was gone. Thats why I scheduled for end of october. I'll be gone on the hunting trip with dad and N for 10 days in early November.

skipped Shades tri-hist yesterday --coughing today

Yesterday it was raining so I just fed Shade and Grey Moun together and skipped the anti-histamine. I thought perhaps she was good to go without anymore since she was cough free on monday. I guess she needs to finish up the two weeks. Oh well its not like skipping a dose of antibiotics and letting the germs recharge, but with trying to settle reactive airways it probably would be better to keep them soothed all the time. I sure hope Shade will clear up and be ready to ride next season. Sometimes the no drugs of any kind rule in endurance sucks although I mostly agree with it. We are riding so many hours that slight side effects could lead to real problems even when the drug is not a performance enhancer or pain killer.

Rode Grey in the arena today. Ole and Mia both thought I should go down the road with them. Too bad, I am in zone of ignoring their whims to do just what I want with the horses for a while. Grey did well, he was getting bored, I was feeling things in my right hip so we didn't ride for long. I am still struggling a bit with Cindy, I feel like my friend D is the only one I know who really understands not waiting until the horse is completely miserable to euthanize but she does not understand being a wussy and having the vet do it with chemicals since she has more starch than me and has euthed her own horses. I hope I would cowboy up in an emergency, I think I would force myself but I can't do it just on possibility of cleaner death, there is the probability I would be shaking and would not shoot straight enough even though its point blank. Well its my personal decision and being able to get validation if I shared it would not be all that much comfort anyways.

Using the little arena

I tend to hate flat work and especially riding in small areas where I have to focus if doing any canter work. But since Shade and then Sadie seemed to get 'colds' in september about the time I had hoped to ship Sadie off to be started I did mess with her a bit myself. Mostly worked on trailer loading --she will go in the (stock) trailer now and backs out. Nice to have a horse that will back out of the trailer so I'm going to try to maintain that. I did put the surcingle on her a couple of times and put Shades sidepull on her and then longed her with the reins tied to the surcingle rings. I don't know if I'll try that with a bit or not.

Rode Grey Moun in the arena saturday and Shade this morning. Grey dropped his head SO nicely for me. I was using Shades little S hack on him. Hmmm I guess the curb action makes him round and drop his poll more readily. Too bad I never tried that when I was riding him more and struggling with trying to get him to round. It rained yesterday so no irritating dust but Shade did not cough ONCE when I rode her this morning. Happy dance.

Its been such a hassle to ride out lately. Ole wants to come but the sand burrs are so thick heading east. But I don't want to head west because I don't trust Ole to stay out of the neighborhood. So I think I may mainly do flat work rather than going down the road until the sand burrs die off for the winter.

I started tying Ole to a horse shoe from the game and he is getting the hang of dragging it to where he wants to be so its less likely that I will try to put up an overhead zip line for him.

OK God/Cindy thank you for confirming its time

Cindy was back to I'll wait by the hay feeder today so I gave her bute again. I may end up going 2-3 days on, 1 day off these next 2.5 weeks. Skipped thursday and she still seemed good on friday when she got dosed again but she is taking it easy again today. Seems off from what I expect, bute is fairly fast acting. It is not a real long time so I could maybe not skip any days but I don't want her to have a painful ulcer in her final days either. I hope Grey doesn't miss her too much. He has been more buddy with Shade due to them traveling together until I retired him and them being in the same paddock so I don't think he'll pine too hard. Shade will be pleased in about 1 week when I send Sadie off to training. She thinks the hungry youngster is pesty. But she'll appreciate Sadie more when Sadie starts sharing hauling my fat butt duties I think.

Nothing is ever easy

The blasted bute finally kicked in or something and Cindy seems to be feeling better the last couple days. But I'm not canceling the appointment to have her put down. I've had a knot in my gut about her having a slip on ice and ending up with a painful ruptured tendon and ignoring those gut feelings usually leads to regrets. Even if we have a mild winter I will not beat myself up (much) about sending her across the bridge still feeling good. Heck I was bumming through wednesday that I had already left it too long when she didn't want to move much even after getting the first few doses of bute. I think I'll let myself off the hook for doing any election volunteering. I want to spend some time letting Cindy graze in the yard, where there is a tiny bit of grass, work with Sadie a bit and should ride too.

Dad found the missing tri-hist.

It was left sitting on Dr Mikes truck bumper and bounced off into the road. Still 1/2 the container left and with settling it was probably no more than 2/3 full to start. Should be plenty for giving to Shade for 2 weeks.

I must start making a list of trailer stuff and general christmas.
Trailer. Electric jack, trailer floorboard (?) that I lost.
cupboard over driver side window.
charge controller/solar panel permanently mounted ? (not sure its worthwhile)
powerpoint plug in?
air mattress that is SUV sized or something.
The one in there bumps the valve release on the window and deflates too easy.

pickup --step for the box. --not replace super long running boards cuz they cost too much
and it has running boards, just needs something more to climb into the box being extended cab.


general: New curtain for bedroom, bedspread --maybe a horse theme one.

How can a quart plastic jar hide so well?

Dr Mike left me a container of tri-hist granules to give Shade. Except I couldn't find them when I went to feed her. I looked everywhere I could think of. I cannot fathom how a white plastic 'jar' of something could be so hard to find even in our mess. I even called the vet office that he must have left them in his truck. Well he looked and didn't find them so unless they were perched on the truck and fell onto the road as he pulled out they must be around our place somewhere, but its quite likely I'll just have to buy a replacement jar. Gaah I hate the way I mislay and lose things.

I also scheduled for Cindy to be euthed on Oct 27th. I think it will be a bit easier now that I scheduled it. Hope so anyway.

Dr Mike is coming tomorrow at 8:30

I hope he'll think I'm being over cautious with Shade and Sadie. I MUST schedule to put Cindy down as well and I'm pretty sure I want to do it before the end of October. I decided that burying her on my WY property was not going to be comforting enough to be worth asking her to balance in the trailer for 4 hours. She is resting her hock most of the time and 2 days of bute (3rd this am) has not changed this resting the hock and not being eager to move much that I can see. Plus *I* just would not get that much out of it anyway. I like to bury the dogs and cats but a good bit of the comfort comes from the labor of digging the hole and filling it in over them, arranging a back-hoe or whatever to get a horse sized hole would not have any comfort factor so since I am not on the property now to see the grave its not worth it on multiple levels. I am still too sentimental to even look into the big cat sanctuary. I have never asked if they even take horses euthed by bullet instead of the chemical method. Dr Mike has eased 4 horses over the rainbow bridge with no problems at our place so I am sticking with what I know, but I'm going to be tearing up a lot this next month.

Aack, more coughing this morning

Shade was coughing this morning. I will probably have Dr Mike come out for a peace of mind exam. I REALLY want to have at least one more season of lots of endurance rides with her. Dry, unlabored cough, so probably Shade just needs a couple months off which she was going to get anyway since I had to skip the Oct 2 ride on saturday and had figured it would be stupid to try to ram in one of the 2-3 day rides that are several hours haul from here in the next few weeks so I would focus on getting Sadie started, Grey legged up enough to handle the hunting trip, and taking care of Cindy -which I am struggling with.

This spring when she injured her fetlock I was grooming her a lot before Dr Mike could make it out in case the diagnosis was bad. Now the decision is mine and I have not been messing with her at all because I don't want to have her euthanized even though I feel I need to do it within the next couple of months. I put Cindy back on bute yesterday, she has been pretty sore on that hock. She would at minimum need to be on a bute regimen like Duke was for rest of her life but I still have the fear of more tendon injuries hanging overhead so I really think I need to cowboy up. Dang it was so much easier to make that call with Cinnamon. Cindy is still an easy keeper but it would be selfish of me to make her wait until she is as lame as Star was with Star's laminitis from the cushings. COWBOY up woman.

arghh!

My work had/has the DUMBEST survey imaginable. I took it anyway to make sure there was not a lurking comments section --which there wasn't and then tried to page back and it wont let me because its limited to one survey response per user. I hope I can pull it up from home, I really want to document it, NOW while I'm thinking about it and not later if/when they provide a link to the results.

I am feeling more and more like 90% of gub'mint funded science is just 'work'fare for geeks who weren't good enough to make it as engineers etc. We -my group(s) make small contributions to weather modeling/forecasting, the USAF is interested in the one groups outputs and I know some university forecasters (well at least 1) use my ground based results in forecasting but overall -- feels like there is a lot of workfare and just a bit of actual contributions that anyone might willingly pay for in a capitalist exchange. Sigh, I have got to explore some micro business ideas, I'm not ready to leave a good paying job with nothing lined up to replace that income but this feeling that I have workfare more than a real job that cropped up around the '08 elections is just not fading off and I don't think it will change much even if 'my' candidates win in November.

1. How old are you?

29 or younger

30 - 39

40 - 49

50 - 59

60 or older
2. What is your gender?

Male

Female
3. Do you think global warming is happening?

Extremely sure global warming is happening

Somewhat sure global warming is happening

Not at all sure global warming is happening

Don't know

Not at all sure global warming is not happening

Somewhat sure global warming is not happening

Extremely sure global warming is not happening
4. How worried are you about global warming?

Very worried

Somewhat worried

Not very worried

Not at all worried
5. I could easily change my mind about global warming?

Strongly agree

Somewhat agree

Somewhat disagree

Strongly disagree
6. Which comes closer to your own view?

Most scientists think global warming is happening

Most scientists think global warming is not happening

There is a lot of disagreement on whether global warming is happening between scientists

Don’t know enough to say
7. How much do you support or oppose the regulation of carbon dioxide?

Strongly support

Somewhat support

Somewhat oppose

Strongly oppose
8. How big of an effort should the United States make to reduce global warming?

A large-scale effort, even if it has large economic costs

A medium-scale effort, even if moderate economic costs

A small-scale effort, even if it has small economic costs

No effort
9. Do you think scientists should take strong advocacy positions on things like global warming?

Strongly support

Somewhat support

Somewhat oppose

Strongly oppose


So imaginary reader(s) Is this full of really badly worded questions or what. Ie. Do most scientists believe global warming is happening? NOTE they do not say human caused global warming (AGW)

Uh yeah pretty much, Some scientists believe its just rebound warming from the little ice age, some think there is a modest bit of human influence (not necessarily much of it from CO2) and then there are the ones who used CO2 to jigger the climate models to better match climate history AND add in all positive feedback from increased water evaporation from the oceans and OMG we are going to flood all the islands and other various hysteria. BUT there is no option to answer the question anywhere close to this truer fact version.

hypochondria yesterday

I feel fine today. Bay mares seem fine. Shade finished her 2nd week of antibiotics. I think I will call it good rather than giving a few more doses. She seems much better and I don't believe in giving antibiotics constantly. Plus I want to go (sans horse) to the close endurance ride tomorrow so it would be a pain to arrange Shade to be dosed by dad or squeeze it in early. Yes I can be a shallow brat at times. If I thought the horse needed medicine she would certainly get it but if I didn't have plans I would probably give antibiotics 1 or 2 more times 'just to make sure'.

I rode Grey today. We did some trotting and cantering and he is not coughing. Ole thinks the sand burrs are horrible just horrible. I do not remember him having such problems in the past. I'm almost thinking of getting him boots -wonder if he would wear them or would think it awful to have stuff on his feet?