And Now We Grieve

After discussing it with my vet again it was decided to let Sunny go so that he wouldn't be hurting any longer.
Now we will grieve but know that we gave him the best we could while we had him. He was about 25 and I had him for about 6 years. I think he had a good retirement as I am sure he had it rough before I got him.

Colic

My old gelding, Sunny, has been fighting bouts of colic off and on all week. Have been following advice of my son and my equine vet who don't hold out much hope but the old guy is still on his feet after 3 days. Never has gone down that I know of so I guess there is hope. Have been giving some banamine for pain and he will walk some. He has pooped some and eaten some bran mash a few times as well as drank some water a couple of times.
Considering his age and our money situation we don't think it would be fair to him or us to try to do any of the expensive treatments.
The old guy is tough he just might make it.

Quaking Aspens

I have had several comments about my aspen photos. Thanks to all. Yes, they can be called quaking aspens. All are aspens but the 'quaking' comes when the wind blows them and they look like they are quaking. The color of the leaves can differ from year to year depending on the rain, drought, snow, and how cold it gets how quickly. If there is a sudden, early hard freeze they might just turn brown and fall off. This year it does seem as if the colors are a bit more brilliant that the pass few years. And this can also vary from one small area to a different canyon or meadow on the same mountains. Makes for adventurous outings to find the best color.

Fall Aspens

We took a trip to the Jemez Mountains last week to see if any of the aspen trees leaves were turning that nice shade of yellow they turn in the fall. there were lots of beautiful trees. And there was one squirrel that wanted his photo taken. These squirrels are called Abert or tassle eared squirrles.

Aspen Meadows

Aspen Roads

More Aspen Leaves

Oak Thicket

We found a tiny scrub oak thicket with the leaves just turning. Several of the big limbs of the oak were laid over as if there had been heavy snow or wind damage at some time.

Sunrise Over the Sandias

Morning Stretch

Cassi doing her morning stretches. Notice her tail doing a weird twist.

Lizard in the Trash

My hubby was sitting out on the patio the other evening and heard a strange noise. He finally tracked it down to a rustling in the trash can. When he looked he saw a lizard in the sack that is in a plastic basket type trash container. Poor thing in their with hubby's stinky cigerate butts and ashes. After taking it's photo we released it into the garden. We have no idea how it got there. Did one of the cats put it there? Or did it manage to climb into the container? Seemed an odd thing for a lizard to be climbing if that is how it got there.

Bath Week

It has been bath week for the horses.

I can't do more than one horse a day. It takes about 2 hours from start to finish and by then I am totally exhosted even with hubby's help. We did Stormy the black pony the first day. Then Traveler the other pony. Yesterday it was the old gelding, Sunny, and today it was Nita, my quarter horse mare. Sometime during the week I also bathed my border collie, Tuffee who was in need of a bath the worse. She has a habit of rolling in horse poop when she knows I am not looking ever once in a while. Of course she and our other dog, Ziva were on hand to make sure we got the horses done right. Tuffee did her best to 'herd' the horses while I worked with them. Of course all the horses like their bath especially the horse cookies that are handed out while they get their baths.

Sunny

Sunny is our oldest horse. We think he is around 25 years. He would eat us out of house and home if we would let him. He thinks we should feed him 24 hours a day. And grumbles when we don't and when we do. We feed him what the vet says to feed him. He has a big belly but his backbone shows. Vet says we need to re-arrange his body. Says he needs more excersise to do that. But I find it hard to excersise me or the horses when it is as hot as it has been this summer. But we are going to start trying to do more. In the mean time Sunny thinks his retirement is going great. he is a sweet old horse, who loves to be petted, groomed and bathed. I bet he was one heck of a horse when he was young. I don't know anything about who had him or what his life was like then. He and my QH mare, Nita, are best friends.

Bonita

Bonita is my Quarter Horse mare. I gave her a bath today and did some round pen work with her to help get her dry. In a couple of the photos it looks like a light spot on her hip but it is just the way the camera caught the light. No spot there.

Ponies

My two ponies, Stormy and Traveler.

Stormy sticking his head through the gate begging for treats.

My border collie, Tuffee going round and around the pony, Stormy. It is Tuffee's version of herding.