Spoiled rotten little dog

No one can say she isn’t spoiled!

Some Pictures to catch up!!

Ok so first and most importantly…..Louie!! These are not the best, but it’s

all that I’ve got for right now.  I think I mentioned this, but I’m having computer issues – finally found the disc to wipe the hard drive and with EIGHT discs of pictures, I’m not too excited to go digging thru them to find all of my pics!!!  At least not tonight!!

These were all taken March 12 I think..it was either the 12th or 13th.

Now – a quick pic of ZM and Z from our ride at the wildlands – check out her blog for some more pics and story!

And last but not least, my 4 new kids!! 

This is Abby(L) and McGee(R) – We have an NCIS theme going here.

Top is Ziva, bottom Gibbs.  Ziva and Gibbs are Alpine/Boer and were born March 26.  Abby and McGee were born March 27 and are Nubian/Boer.

It’s like feeding time at the zoo I swear!!

Ken and Abby I think – she had a really hard first day, but is the most vigorous eater of the bunch now.  They look like little raptors when they get hungry!!!  I have a REALLY cute picture of Tosh, Gibbs and Keags but don’t want to post it without permission from her.

Now …..let’s see if I can do this, here is the attention hungry dog……can you tell that NO ONE ever pays any attention to her???

Playing catch up!

So Meg has given me hell for not sharing pictures of Louie - Poor Meg. She hasn't seen any pictures of him other than the OLD one that I took way back when I went to get Skippy!! BUT! I'm very sorry to say she's going to have to wait even longer!! Sometimes I hate the computer/digital age!! My computer has decided that NONE of my photo programs can be opened, half the time I can't get EITHER web browser to open (hence the two blogs today) - So I'm sorry to say, there are no pictures to share. I spent all day yesterday taking all of my pictures off this computer and putting them on discs (8 disks later - maybe that was part of the problem?? ha - nope still not fixed). SO! Here's the best I can do for an update without pics!!

Still haven't been on Lou again although I did buy a nice Zilco Halter/bridle and reins - can't wait to try it all out - I put it on him but haven't actually RIDDEN him yet!! Going to try today hopefully but the mud is making riding hard right now.

My bottle baby goats were born this week - Ziva and Gibbs were born on March 26, Abby and McGee were born March 27. I picked them up and brought them home the 27th! I am totally in love with the little critters!! Ziva and Gibbs are Boer/Alpine crosses and Abby and McGee are Boer/Nubian. I'm enjoying them but so aren't the kids. LOTS of pictures to come as soon as I fix this stupid computer!!

There's not much else going on - well, I did get one of "those" phone calls this morning. You know, the ones that generally start with "He's ok but...." - just to recap, I got 2 of those calls when I lived in Virginia - both from Judy telling me that my brother had been in a 4 wheeler accident and the second one was the scary one - he and a friend wrecked their dirt bikes and at the time of the phone call it was just known that one of them had a head injury. Luckily, both boys ended up fine, but it was scary. Then there was the call from his girlfriend a few years later "He's ok but...." He'd been in a fight in a bar in CA and had been beaten up pretty badly. He was unconcious when the EMT's arrived and they HAD thought that he was dead. He was in rough shape but alive and "ok". The last 2 calls have actually been from him himself. The first was last spring - very nonchalant "hey what're you doing?" type of conversation followed by "I was hoping you could take me to the ER" I was in Massachusettes at the time so I couldn't take him, but my dad took him. SO! This morning, I get a phone call from him - "Mom said to call and tell you that Ken is with Dad." "Ok....why?" "well, she's taking me to the ER I think I broke my ankle" - which of course was followed by a recap of the night - let's just say - my brother and his friends need chaperones!! Good grief. I told him he's grounded - and at almost 26 years old, he said "good I need to be"!!

So there - that's basically my life in a nut shell. As soon as I get my computer fixed I will post some pictures!!

First Real Ride & Trailer Loading

I am kind of late in posting this but there's been a lot going on around here!! I've only ridden Louie about three times since we got him home. Two of those times were just quick "hop on and let's see how it goes" rides - both went very well. Zephyrs Mom and I were talking about going to the beach and riding and also going up to the Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust to ride since it's so close and has great trails/roads. This planning though brought about a problem....Louie does NOT load well. He's not nervous, he's not scared, he's just plain obstinate and it takes a stand off to get him on the trailer - battle of the wills, who can hold out the longest.....which, by the way - is ME! LOL

So I asked ZM for some tips on the sending method she uses with Zephyr, wouldn't that be nice? I've NEVER had a horse that I could just point at the trailer and say "go" and have them get on all by themselves. Buck was good (for the most part) but even he had to be led in. So anyway, she gave me some tips and even invited me over to see her work with Z on my trailer and work with him some myself - which he was entirely too nice to me of course!! ZM invited me for dinner which was yummy, and we had a nice visit - between her work schedule and my kids/zoo around here, we really don't spend much time together unfortunately!!

I came home and set out the next morning to work with Louie the way ZM showed me.....it didnt' work. I don't know what I'm doing, he doesn't know what I'm asking - can you say FRUSTRATING!!?? So I sent an email to ZM and asked for her help, she was available the very next day and was more than happy to come help. She worked with him for 1 1/2 hours and he finally got on the trailer!! YAY!! He was going on fairly well as long as the divider was open. We learned a few things about him.....#1, he is very sensitive and over reactive - ie: he bit ZM she let him know that that was NOT acceptable however she was NOT mean or harsh about it and the way he reacted you would have thought she was trying to kill him! #2, he gets mad and almost braces himself for you to explode.

Before ZM left, we made plans to work with Louie on Saturday, maybe head to the wildlands for a ride afterwards and the beach for the following Monday! I got Louie on the trailer no issues on Saturday morning and headed to ZM's house. We unloaded him, and ZM asked me to show her how he was doing - he immediately got resistant and shut down on me. I went to grab my gloves and ZM started working with him. She had her trailer all set up so we could get him on that too - her's is a 2H slantload/step up - quite different from my 2H straightload/ramp! It didn't take too long and she had him on her trailer. As I'm writing this, I don't really remember all of the details but if you follow that first link, I know she posted more details.

After a bit, ZM asked if I was pretty confident that "eventually" he'd get on - my response was something like "yeah eventually". So we decided to go ahead and head to the Wildlands for a quick ride. I had a family dinner at 2pm so that gave us about 2 1/2 hours to get to the Wildlands, ride, get back to ZM's house and then for me to get home. Time enough for a nice easy ride......

We got all our stuff together and headed out. When we got there and got saddled up - my anxiety was thru the roof. I'm such a 'fraidy cat ALL the time now. So, we get all saddled and then it occurs to me....I didn't bring a bucket. HOW am I going to get on?? Louie doesn't stand well to be mounted, the saddle slips to the side if I'm not standing on something.....UGH! ZM got on using the gate so I figured I'd try...I couldn't get him close enough and then get him to STAND! ZM ended up getting off Z and trying to give me a boost using her leg....I'm not exagerating, I thought I was going to break her!! FINALLY, I got Lou next to the gate and ZM held him while I got on. It's moments like these that I am totally discouraged by SO many things, my horse choices, my weight issues, my coordination, my fear! Just to name a few!

So finally we were on our way! YAY! It was nice - the sun was out, no real wind. We walked mostly and then ZM asked if I was ok with a trot. Yep! So we trotted for a bit. Louie did NOT like being behind Z, he'd pin his ears and toss his head. He definitely was not the relaxed horse of our little rides at home. When he's in front, he's happy, being behind - he's grumpy. At some point, we were trotting along and he broke into a canter. We cantered a couple strides and I slowed him again to a trot. ZM and I talked and decided to try a planned canter (I hadn't gone faster than a trot with him so far) - we were cantering along and Louie bucked. MAJOR anxiety for me. I pulled him up, he is NOT hard to control even when being "naughty" which is good, ZM said she thought that he'd broke thru the packed snow and that it wasn't a real buck so we decided to try again. With the same results. We decided to try it with Louie behind ZM in case it was the sound of Z coming up behind him that was upsetting him. Again, the same results. So we need to work on that....we turned to go home and were going along nicely. Somewhere around half way back to the trailer, maybe a little more than half way ZM let Z stop to eat some snow. Louie started to put his head down like he wanted to eat some too so I let him have his head. BIG MISTAKE! All of a sudden, we were both on the ground. Apparently he was itchy!! LOL He got right back up but um, now what?? There was NO way I was going to be able to get back up there with NOTHING to stand on. So I walked a bit. ZM kept looking for places for me to get back on , but with the snow being deep in most spots and where there wasn't snow, there was squishy sucky mud. *sigh* I walked a good bit, and then finally ZM spotted the perfect spot! She ended up having to get off and hold Louie while I got on, but I got back up there and Z is a saint so she got back up with no problems. We got back to the gate, unsaddled and took them back to see if they wanted to roll - of course not! LOL ZM had to "argue" a bit about the trailer with Louie but he eventually got back on and we headed back. By this point, I was running late (big surprise). So we got back to ZM's, got Louie back on my trailer and all my stuff in my truck and I booked it for home. Was REALLY late for the family thing but they didn't really care about seeing ME anyway - just the kids and Vince! ;)

Tosh and Dan and Keags came over a bit later for dinner and we had a good night. I was so sore though that I fell over the fence, spilled my drink and was the joke of the night. :) I was sore for DAYS after - walking funny even, and Lou was sore too. Not sure at this point if it's saddle fit or just too much work for a green, out of shape horse/rider!!

Oh! The beach! Monday got rescheduled to Wednesday - and unfortunately, on Tuesday I came down hard and fast with a sore throat, chest congestion and sinus issues so I stayed home. Z and his mom went though and had a blast! I'm hoping to get to go on the next trip!!

Fear - Overcome it or let it overcome me....

I have been riding horses forever. Horses have NEVER scared me - got one that bucks like a bronc? Call Lysh. One that rears? Call Lysh. One that won't stop/steer? Call Lysh! Seriously, I USED to be a great rider. I loved a challenge, craved a challenge and seriously put myself in harms way more times than I can count. BEFORE I had kids. When we lived in North Carolina, a friend would go out to a local dealers farm almost daily and I started tagging along. I had a blast riding all of the different horses he had. There was one in particular, a little appy mare with the "classic" ratty mane and tail, she was black with roaning - and stocky as all hell. That mare would run thru every bit that they tried. Another friend of Nancy's loved the look of this mare, but the mare kept running off with her. I am not an out going, vocal person, but for some reason I spoke up and asked if I could try her out in the pasture. This poor little mare, she just didn't want people on her mouth. YANK and she'd run - DUH what would YOU do? So I got on her, asked her to walk and she started to trot off "blindly". Instead of panicking, I sat firm, dropped my hands and just played with the bit - give and take, one side then the other and within 15 minutes that little mare was so responsive we were having a blast in the field going around trees, stumps, other horses, calves - Nancy's friend was so impressed she asked what I'd done - I told her, she got on rode the mare all over and then bought her!!

Then we moved home and honestly I don't know when exactly it happened, but I became a basket case. When I met Sammii, she had Image. He was a cute appy gelding, but I learned quickly that he'd dance on his hind legs to try to get out of work. Sam never let him win though - we had a blast trail riding and then took him to a couple shows. He was ok for the most part, but at one show, he reared and drove the horn into Sam's chest. It hurt her so understandably she got off - course, he took that as "I won" and got worse. At the next show, I tried to take him in the ring, and we couldn't get near the gate, he reared, I'd keep at him and he'd try to duck in the barn. I absolutely was not going to let him win but at one point I was afraid he'd take my head off.....and STILL I didn't get down. He went so high once that I thought we were going over, honest to God had we not been so close to someone's brand new shiney truck I would have stepped off and pulled him over - I was THAT frustrated with him.

About a year later, a girl that Vince worked with called and asked if we'd be interested in a quarter horse gelding that a friend of hers was giving away. SURE! We'd go look at least. So we did, turns out the girl who owned the horse is the sister of one of my high school class mates and her husband used to be a police officer and knew Vince. I led Pete around, patted him etc etc and he was fine - a bit spoiled, he loved peppermints but he was a nice horse. We brought him home. One of our first rides, we headed off down the road, I don't have anywhere to ride that goes anywhere without riding on the road, Pete was fine in traffic, and fine when we crossed the bridge, we went a little further and then turned to come home. Just before the bridge, I could hear a car coming so we stopped and waited for it to pass. While we were standing there by the water I saw it....a beaver. Well, I saw it, it saw us, Pete saw it, Pete snorted, beaver dove, beaver slapped it's tail, Pete whirled, Lysh flew thru the air and landed chest first in the gravel - thankfully not on the tar!! I didn't immediately let go of the reins and got a MEGA rope burn over an very new and raw scar from my sliced finger that needed 6 stitches! Pete was in the middle of the road, I thought I heard a car, so my first thought was "GET THE HORSE" - I got up, gasping for air, and stumbled towards Pete - his eyes were HUGE and I swear he was saying "OMG what is this thing coming at me and where'd my person go" - I managed to convince him that I was not a man eating, gasping blob and caught him. I got him to the side of the road and assessed the damage to my hand which was burning like crazy. I had a blood blister over the end of my scar, my thumb and ring finger were rope burned to the point of open sores and I had gravel in my knee and my palm but I was intact otherwise. I walked home. Vince untacked Pete for me and then helped me wash up my hand. A few days later, I took him on a trail ride with friends and he was great, ok it was a fluke! Works for me. Until about 2 months later, I went to get on him, he half reared and I lost my balance and fell backwards onto my wrist. I tried to brush it off, but a few days later, my wrist wa pretty sore and I had a lump so I went to the Dr. The xrays showed a small fracture that had started healing already so she wrapped it and said "take it easy". Yep sure. That was on a Wednesday I think - Sunday I went to a horse show. Pete was fine in the pleasure classes, we went into Barrels, a nice easy lope and he exploded into a bucking fit. I pitched to the right, caught myself but then toppled left. DOH! I landed on my already sore wrist. Monday morning back to the Dr, where I'm told since I won't listen, she's referring me to an Ortho specialist and I'll have to have a cast. Damnit. That was it for me and Pete. His old owner really wanted him back, so back he went. He took a big chunk of my confidence with him.

Then came Bella - she was sweet, she had a buck to her but nothing I couldn't ride out. The night I ducked into the fence and was greeted with BOTH her hind feet directly to my right thigh and had to pick myself up off the ground THREE FEET from where I'd started - there went Bella and a whole other chunk of my confidence.

In the fall of 2006, I bought Doc. He was a bay tobiano APHA stallion. Advertised as breeding stallion ONLY because of a bucking problem. Huh. We'll see right? Well, I started riding him. Not so much as a buck, ear twitch nothing. I rode him down the road, we went on a couple small trails he was great. We took the winter off, and as soon as the ground was safe in April and we were going fantastically walk/trot. And then it happened. I decided to take a short cut and get on him in the driveway one day. It was windy. I didn't have the reins securely in my hand, when I stepped up, he moved off. Instead of stepping down, collecting myself and him - I swung my leg over....bumped his hip and I honestly don't know if he bucked, side stepped or stood on his head. Next thing I knew I was laying on the ground - I sat up and the world was spinning. I was facing the OPPOSITE direction, my arm hurt like hell, my head hurt and Doc was loose! Thankfully Vince was right there, unfortunately so was Kenneth. I yelled for Vince to get Doc, and Kenneth was at my side asking if I was ok. I touched my head and didn't see blood on my hand so figured I just needed a little time to collect my head....and then Ken said "mommy you're bleeding" to which I said, "no honey I'm not" and by that time Vince had put Doc away and was at my side - sure enough, my blonde hair was red. Damn. Vince got a towel for my head and tried to help me up - my head hurt so bad it was definitely NOT funny. We took Kenneth to Gram's, Vince called Casey and asked her to call the ER and give them a heads up (just as a side note - I've been there so often when she said "my sister in law fell off her horse and has a head injury" they knew who she was talking about!!) After a CT scan and xrays it was determined that I did in fact have a brain LOL, no broken bones thank goodness. They argued about whether or not I actually had a cut on my head, and the Dr actually tried to tell me that it was probably just a piece of gravel that had punctured my scalp - the nurse commenced to scrubbing the hell out of my head, and then went "oh dear" and left to get the Dr. I had a CUT big enough to need 10 staples!!! I left the ER with a script for pain pills (which I never did fill), instructions to take it VERY easy, the OK to take a quick shower to get the blood out of my hair and absolutely NO confidence left.

That fall, I lost Buck and a huge part of my heart. I brought home Tanner - supposedly a fantastic trail horse - he flipped himself over on me. Another chunk of confidence gone. By now I'm negative confidence points!!! Along came Beau. He was a FANTASTIC riding horse - I love him and had a blast on him - HOWEVER, safety is a big concern with 3 kids, friends, friends kids, etc etc etc and about the 5th time he literally came OVER his stall door and tried to bite someone I said "enough" and sold him at an incredible loss, but safety comes first.

Now I have a big problem. Do I throw in the towel and save a lot of money, but sacrifice my sanity and happiness? Or do I fight it out? I'm chosing to fight it out - for now at least.....we'll see how it turns out.

Megs Horsey Survey

I "stole" this survey from my best friend, Meaghan's blog - Rocky Mountain Yankee

1. How old were you when you first started riding? I started riding well before I could walk - probably 6-8 months - Grams got videos somewhere.

2. First horse ridden: Ginger - Grams nasty appaloosa mare.

3. First horse trotted on: Probably Star, I don't think Gram ever turned me loose on Ginger and she wasn't much for running around the pasture.

4. First horse cantered on: That would also probably be Star.

5. First Horse fallen off of: Sunday, Michelle Carlisle's horse. Right after we got Star, the neighborhood girls got together for a trail ride and Michelle was going to ride Star while I rode her totally reliable mare Sunday. Karen was supposed to hold Sunday while Michelle was getting ready, and she didn't. I head a death grip on the reins and was in an english saddle...Sundays head went down and I somersaulted down her neck and started crying saying I'd never get on her again. Michelle grabbed me from behind mom and said "OH yes you are!! Get back up there and stop crying" Lesson learned - Thank you Michelle! :)

6. Most recent horse fallen off of: Oh geez! Who HAVEN'T I fall off of would be a better question as of late! Look for a blog on that later actually - but hmm, I think Tanner was the last "official" fall a year ago when he threw a tantrum, reared and literally threw himself down on top of me.

7. Most terrifying fall: Flipping off Doc backwards onto the pavement directly on my head. :(

8. First horse jumped with: Star.

9. First horse who ran away with you: Star.

10. First horse that scared the crap out of you: This is a toughie - I was NEVER scared of anything until....Pete and that damned beaver and that's set a trend in motion turning me into a HUGE wimp!

11. First horse shown : Buck - we got 3rd in Bareback Equitation.

12. First horse to win a class with: Buck.

13. Do you/have you taken lessons: No but I should.

14. First horse you ever rode bareback: Star.

15. First horse trail ridden with: Star.

16. Current Barn name: My own :) Unofficially we are Five Star Farm.

17. Do you ride English or western?: Both

18. First Horse to place at a show with: Buck

19. Ever been to horse camp?: Yes, 4-H. It was a blast the first year, but the second was better because Meg got to come too!

20. Ever been to a riding clinic? No.

21. Ridden sidesaddle? Not with a real side saddle, however I have hooked my leg over the horn of my western saddle many times.

22. First horse leased: Piper

23. Last Horse Leased: Louie

24. Highest ribbon in a show: 1st

25. Ever been to an 'A' rated show?: No....well, been to? YES participated in, NO.

26. Ever competed in pony games/relay races?: Yes.

27. Ever fallen off at a show? Sadly, yes.

28. Do you ride Hunter/Jumpers?: Not anymore

29. Have you ever barrel raced? Yes - mostly playdays but I did attempt 1 NBHA show and made an ASS out of myself - have that on video too!

30. Ever done pole bending?: Again, only at local play days

31. Favorite gait: I love most gaits, lately mostly a walk though.

32. Ever cantered bareback?: Many times, growing up, the only time I rode in a saddle was to show in or when I was pretending to be a jockey LOL.

33. Have you ever done dressage?: Nope.

34. Have you ever evented?: No.

35. Have you ever mucked a stall?: Many a time.

36. Ever been bucked off?: Yeah, who hasn't?

37. Ever been on a horse that reared: Yes.

38. Horses or ponies. Probably horses, but I DO love ponies.

39. Do you wear a helmet? Hmmm, well, I'd love to say yes, all the time but to be honest, no not as much as I should although the general concensus is that had I had a helmet on the day I fell of Doc, I'd probably have broken my neck so it's a no win situation if you ask me.

40. What's the highest you've jumped: I think ONE time we may have pushed Angel to 3 1/2 feet but that was in my fearless days - now I prefer to not jump anything.

41. Have you ever ridden at night?: Yes, moonlit snowy nights are awesome!

42. Do you watch horsey television shows?: Every chance I get.

43. Have you ever been seriously hurt/injured from a fall? Yes, the worse was off Doc, 10 staples in my head, a concussion and dislocated elbow.

44. Most falls in one lesson: NA

45. Do you ride in an arena/ring?: When it suits me.

46. Have you ever been trampled by a horse? Yes I know I have, but to be honest, I can't think of which evil one it was.

47. Have you ever been bitten? Yes, Star left a big purple welt on my back once the *&#$!%.

48. Ever had your foot stepped on by a horse?: Yes, many times.

49: Favorite riding moment: There are so many, Im not sure I could pick just one, but one that sticks out in my mind, was one of the swimming episodes with Meg, and those people stopped to take pics - I just wish that we'd gotten copies or even pics of our own!!

50. Most fun horse you've ridden: I've had so many fun times on so many different horses, but Buck was always the best - hands down.

Whew! What a trip!!

A couple months ago, Sandy - Skippy's prior owner, emailed and asked if I would like to take Louie, Skippys almost 6 year old son on a free trial/lease as life changes for her are leaving her short on time to spend with the horses, and she's living 2 1/2 hours from the horses now as it is. I told her I needed to give it a little thought and talk to Vince about it. I had just gotten Buddy and just wasn't sure how Vince would feel about the whole thing. Now, in all honesty, I *think* I talked to Vince about it but I've pulled the "don't you remember??" crap with Vince so many times, that I honestly couldn't remember if I did but Meg and Tosh told me that I DID because we ALL were surprised that he was agreeable to it!! But STILL, I held off giving an answer until I had REALLY thought about it - I have to admit that although I loved having the babies last year, and I DO love the barn chores and my animals, I'm down to only 3 of my own - one of which is hopefully going to live with Meg and I have discovered how much more enjoyable a smaller number of horses is not to mention how much LESS feed/hay I go thru!! At this time last year, I had 7 horses I believe....that's a lot of hay!! Heck, just going from 6 to 4 has cut my hay bill noticably!!

Anyway! I finally told Sandy, YES! I want to take him on a 6 month free trial/lease and see what happens. Louie was born on Sandy's farm and Sandy loves this boy so this was a hard decision for her to make, but she really can only have one horse right now and her other horse is a 26 year old that she's had since he was born so she had to make a tough decision.

Everyone who knows me, knows that patience is NOT my strong point. I am not a patient person....not at all. So having to make the decision and then wait 2 weeks to go get him was killer to me. Throw in the whole horse trailer saga, the very un-cooperative Maine/New Hampshire weather and it's been a stressful couple weeks.

Vince got home at 4:30am Wednesday morning, and although he did know that I was going to get Louie, he wasn't happy about it. He says that I didn't talk to him about it before making the plans - now that goes back to the first paragraph LOL - So Wednesday we went and visited with Dad and we went and spent some time with Judy and Tosh at the daycare - well then there was some arguing over whether he was going with me or not, whether I was going at all etc etc. I pulled the horse trailer out of it's spot and one of the tires was flat.....this tire has a leak, only leaks when it's parked a certain way and has never leaked so it's TOTALLY flat before...is it an omen??

So Thursday morning, get up, kids off to school, run to Tru Value for a can of "fix a flat" - realize that DAMN it is FREEZING!! I started to put the stuff in the tire (just unscrewed the valve stem cover lol) and remember - you have to immediately drive after you put this stuff in, better wait until I'm ready to get in the truck and go - so find out from Vince if he's going, staying or ?? :) He was up and dressed or at least moving in that direction but was still barely speaking to me....great...should be a FUN trip 4 hours each direction huh??

He put the fix a flat in the tire while I filled a hay bag and threw the other horses some hay. Hopped in the truck and away we go!! I had wanted to leave at 7:30 but it was closer to 8:30 when we left. Stopped at Irvings to put air in the tire, which was an ordeal in and of itself!! The tire was SO low that it wasn't registering on the pressure gauge!! Each round of air was 3 minutes worth of air for 75 cents, it cost $3 to get completely situated with the air!! The trip down Rt 3 was bumpy but uneventful. We stopped at Toby's to get something to eat and sadly got into an argument so I went to the truck and left him to wait for his sandwich. The rest of the trip down Rt 3 was in relative silence. We hopped onto 95 in Augusta and things were going ok. I noticed that the truck seemed to be "floating" while we were behind a big truck....I was white knuckling it - and Vince was swearing about going to get horses in the winter and me doing things without talking to him first. When we went thru the first toll booth I got away from the big truck and the truck started handling fine so obviously it's the whole air/drag/blah blah blah - SO! Avoid following too closely to big trucks, A-OK by me!!

We were making good time, and got off 95 in Gray. Gas was getting low so I pulled into the first gas station - only to find that ALL pumps were out of service - dangit. So get back on the road and start looking for another gas station. Wasn't horribly hard to find one, but it WAS hard to get into. I pulled far enough into the lot so that we were out of the road and Vince hopped out to try to manuever the truck while I went in the store. I fixed the handle on the escape door, which is broken and I'm surprised I haven't lost it yet!! Walked past the spare tire (this is important LOL) and into the store. When I came out, I again walked past the spare tire and got in the truck...Vince just looked at me. "Oh sorry do you want me to drive still??" :) LOL He said I was "real slick" and that I just used the tight quarters at the gas pump as an excuse to make him drive!! NOT true!! But he drove the rest of the way YAY!

We were driving along, minding our business - me keeping my mouth shut because no matter what I said, the conversation kept turning back to "this is why I don't like to take the trailer anywhere in the winter"..."Honey aren't the trees pretty" "uh huh but the roads are awful this is why I don't like moving horses in the winter" LOL Anyway, we were on a particularly bumpy part of the road by Sebago Lake. The road itself isn't narrow, but there is fence on one side and big snow banks on the other side. We're bumping along and I happen to look in the side mirror just in time to see the spare tire go FLYING off the side of the trailer, bounce at the car behind us and disappear.....as calmly as possible I said "UM the spare tire just FLEW off the trailer" Oh great!! One more reason to add to the list of "why we do not move horses in the winter" LOL There was NO place for us to pull off immediately, so we had to wait until we got to a turn out on the side - we pulled over and were turning around when the car that had been behind us pulled up next to us. They were very nice and said that the tire didn't hit them or anyone else but it was on the OTHER side of the road in the snow!! Great! Thanks! So we went back but again, had to find a place to turn around and again head back south. We pulled off on the side with the 4ways on and I checked out the "HOW" of the situation, while Vince walked across the road and then literally had to wade thru the snow to get the tire. Have I mentioned how much I love my husband??

We again got on the road and were doing great until the handy dandy "TomTom" told us to take a right onto a road other than what google maps said but we all know how road signs can be!! So we went with it. The road was narrow, COVERED in holes, frost heaves, bumps...you name it, it was there!!! More ammunition for the "why we don't haul horses in the winter" campaign!! Literally 3mph was TOO fast!! *sigh*

FINALLY get to the end, and what's there?? Rt 25 which was the road that we were supposed to turn onto instead of the goat trail we'd just come across!! GOOD!! That means we don't have to go back that way!! YAY!! From there it was less than a mile and we turned up the farm drive. Long driveway thru the trees that opens up to white vinyl 3 rail fencing.....first thing out of my mouth was "Poor Lou, he's going to be in redneck hell compared to this place" :) We pulled up towards the barns and were greeted by a teary eyed Sandy.

We made small talk and she took me to reintroduce me to Louie. He's a lot bigger than his momma, but he is startlingly similar in looks!! They have the same facial marking one one side and the same Belly spot although Lou's is bigger - but overall Louie has more white too. He's very beefy too!! He's half arab and that made me think he would be more refined but if it's possible, he's refined and beefy!! So we talked about our agreement and signed papers and all that stuff and then Sandy loaded me up with his blankets, brushes, bridles - even his saddle!!! Then came the loading part. He walked right up to the trailer but wasn't about to get ON the stupid thing!! Sandy pulled while I "encouraged" from the back, that didn't work, so we switched places. Still no dice. Sandy went and got some grain, that got him up on the ramp but he put his head up and bonked his nose on the trailer ceiling so backed out again.

At one point, Sandy had the rope and ducked under the chest bar. Lou was half in the trailer and pulled back real quick and jerked Sandy's head into the metal chest bar. I thought for sure he'd knocked her out!!! It took her a minute but she got back up and we ended up giving Vince the lead rope!! He'd just said "I'm not the horse person" LOL Sandy got behind Lou with the lunge whip and just "wiggled" it at his hind feet and after a couple minutes he got right in the trailer and that was that!! He did get a little fidgety so we said our good byes, Sandy and I hugged and I promised we'd keep in touch, LOTS of pictures and an open door to welcome her anytime, and we were off. Once we got going, Lou settled right down. We had a VERY uneventful ride home!

When we got home, Vince and I talked about how to go about unloading Lou - didn't want him to go flying backwards out of the trailer, he needed to do it in a calm manner. He backed most of the way out calmly and when he started to speed up, a firm "whoa babe you're alright" was all it took and he stopped with his front feet on the ramp and was perfectly calm. We walked up and down the driveway to get his legs back under him. We got to the barn door and he planted his feet..didn't want to go in, but just giving him a second and he walked right on in, right into his stall and was perfectly happy!!

YAY!! He even let me stand on a stool in his stall to change the light bulb. He sniffed noses with his half brother and just seemed to settle in almost instantly!! Friday he got to go out alone and explore the boundaries. He walked into the electric wire once....and that once was all it took!! :) Today he got to go out with Buddy and although there was a small squabble at first, where Buddy thought he'd "show him" - he got his butt put in place and that was that. So I turned Rowdy out too and the brothers stick together! Whether they know they're brothers or not, they did hang together and Rowdy asserted himself with Buddy which he's never done before. The 3 boys are so at peace with each other now/already that there was no squabbling over who would be coming in first, they all just stood there - I grabbed Lou first, Vince grabbed Rowdy and Buddy just stood patiently (another first, he's usually pretty....er, um assertive!)

Lou has won Vince over....Vince is a non lover of arabs to begin with, but he and Lou made friends tonight and hopefully all continues to work well!! I'm excited for my first ride on him!!