Ride Catch Up!

Wow!  Ok so I’m sure that you guys are getting sick of my “ride updates” but it helps me to “get them on paper” so I can go over it all whenever I want to and try to keep track of what we’re doing well with and what needs work!!  Of course, that means that I have 5 decent rides to share and a clinic too!!  I promise to try not to be too boring and I won’t force them all into this one blog!!

The day after Louie and I did our solo ride at the Wildlands, a good friend of mine who has a young horse wanted to go – so we did!  We did quite a bit of trotting and cantering – basically staying on the main road that runs thru.  It was fun watching my friends young mare who’d never been on more than a short little loop trail.  She wasn’t spooky or twitchy about anything and seemed quite happy to be out and about.  Except for the dreaded little water falls that come down off the side of the mountain and make splashing noises in the ditches!!  And the road barriers – for some reason those piles of wood are always “scary”.  We survived and had a great time!  I don’t have any pictures to share, we were  having too much fun!!

The very next day, Meg and I got to explore some new trails!  It was a blast although we learned not to ask her Dad the trail conditions hahaha!  He said there was very little water, just a small stream…..uh huh.  We didn’t take into account the nearly 3 inches of rain that we’d gotten the weekend before!!  I hauled Zandy and Louie to her dads place in Frankfort and we left from his place going a ways down the road to start of the trail.  It was a gorgeous trail, a nice wide leaf covered trail.  We just walked since we were chatting about various things and it would be our last ride before Meg headed back to PA so we were just enjoying it.  When we came to our first “obstacle”.  The stream that was only supposed to be about a foot wide was closer to 3 feet wide and the water was running thru it – I’ve learned with Louie that still water, while he doesn’t WANT to he WILL step into it.  Running water though….. nope.  nu uh. no way!  At least not with me on his back.  So, since Zandy balked at the water too – the blond headed twit, I decided I’d just get off and make my way across and he’d follow – which he did.  Course he tried to hop on top of me but we survived and I got right back on easily.  So on we went.  When we happened upon another “Caution” sign….uh oh what now?  This one though was just for some big boulders that were sticking up out of the ground on the trail – we picked our way over/around and kept on truckin’!  And then it happened.  We came upon this 
mess here.  That water was BLACK and there was no way even if Louie didn’t have water issues was I going to head across it.  I did that once with my boy Buck when Sammii and I were on a trail ride and he “disappeared” from under me…..talk about scary!  But that’s a story for another time!!  You can see on the right side of this picture that the ATV’s have made a go around but that was just as wet.  If you look really closely there’s a “blue spot” in the middle of the top of the picture – that’s Meg.  She got off while I held Zandy and scouted a way to get around.  We still had to get muddy and sank some but we made it around.  Once we got around and were remounted, Meg noticed that Zandy had picked up an extra decoration on our excursion thru the brush.  That stick stayed in her browband for the majority of our ride!  She didn’t care.  So on again we went!  It was nice, kind of an overcast day and a little chilly but it was a nice day.  We started playing in the mud puddles, trying to get Louie to go THRU them instead of tip-toeing around the edges!  We were successful for the most part!!  He’s such a good boy – even if he is a tester!  And then, as we were riding along enjoying the trail and the leaves and visiting and just having a good time….we came to this.  It’s fairly hard to tell from this picture, but the banks on this side were fairly steep.  The water on the left side was shallow and you could see it had a nice gravel base BUT *gasp* the water was MOVING!!  Oh no!  Zandy of course, went right down the bank and up the other side like it was nothing.  Louie though.  Louie said “NO”.  He was NOT going to go down there with that scary running water!  No way!  Meg ended up ponying us across and after a scary moment where he started to spaz we came out the other side like it was nothing.  That scary moving water didn’t eat him after all!  The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful and the trip back was nice and easy too.  At this spot, he hesitated a minute and then walked right on thru like it was nothing.  We played the puddle game back thru too and when we got back to the boggy ATV trail we stayed on and just let the horses pick their footing thru the muddy part.  At the stream I stayed on too.  He stepped a toe in the water and then LEAPT over.  Jumping is not in our future but it got us over the water that day!! 

So there’s 2 rides down only 3 and a clinic to go!!  I’ll try to get those ones done later today –  I actually have to be productive this morning!!

2 Long Years Ago Today

 
Today is a very sad anniversary for me.  2 years ago today I lost my one true love, my soul mate, my best friend.  Buck came into my life on a cold December day in 1991 as a Christmas gift from my parents, and on a windy dreary November day 16 years later I laid my head on his neck and told him it was ok to let go.  The absolute hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

Buck saw me thru summer 4H camps, horse shows, MANY trail rides, swimming and eventually kids – we were inseparable for years and not a day goes by that my heart doesn’t ache with missing him.  I have finally been able to make it thru days, weeks and even months without crying for him.  I know this may sound silly to many people, but he was more than a horse.  He was just as important in my life as my children, my husband, parents, brother etc.  He was a family member.

Rest in peace my beautiful boy.  You will never be forgotten.

Solo Trip to the Wildlands

After my last ride with Meg in the Wildlands I was itching to ride some more!!  I had made plans to ride with a friend on 10/25/09 but at the last minute some stuff came up and I wasn’t able to make the trip to her house which is about an hour away.  I tried to find someone to ride with me but no one was available!  I was pretty bummed, but then decided to put my big girl boots on and take Louie to the Wildlands myself!  My dad telling me over and over to be careful did nothing for my jitters and when he asked when I’d be back “so we know when to start lookin’ for ya in the ditch” almost made me change my mind!  I love my dad and know he worries about me a lot since my fall but sometimes he lacks tact! 

Louie is really getting good about just hopping right onto the trailer and is standing like a pro instead of the “in, get jittery, back out” routine we had going on last spring, so he hopped right on the trailer and away we went. 

I’ve been leary about tying him because somewhere along the way I got it in my head that he pulls back.  I don’t know if, like everything else, now that he’s got a job he’s just content to stand most anywhere or if I had made up this pulling issue but he will stand quietly tied to the side of the trailer with no issues.  So I unloaded him, tied him to the side of the trailer and quickly ran a brush over him and then saddled him up.  My jitters started in – is this really a wise idea?  To ride up here all by myself – am I crazy? 

I walked him to the gate, took a deep breath and swung my leg over.  He was a little more “up” then I would have liked but away we went!  He was forward but not naughty in any way.  We went at a nice, brisk walk and a little trotting.  We followed the Hothole Pond Trail and got in a nice canter.  We’d gotten a bit of rain the day before and there was a puddle that stretched across the road.  I was afraid he was going to be a jerk about it but to my surprise (and delight!) he not only got his toes wet, he drank from the puddle!!  We continued on down the trail until we got to the pond – where the new rock was put in, the water was rushing out of the pond over the rock and Louie

wasn’t impressed!  He wasn’t naughty, he just didn’t want to get anywhere near that noise!  I did finally get him up to the pond and he took a drink and then we headed back the way we came.  Save the big fights for another day!

We did more trotting and cantering until we reached the puddle again and then I decided to tackle the “noooo I don’t wanna get my toes wet” thing we had going on!  It only took a couple minutes and he was standing fetlock deep in water and not objecting.  When we got to the end of the road, he started to fuss about going to the right which would take us away from the trailer.  I don’t want him to get into the habit of picking our direction – before long we wouldn’t be leaving the barn/trailer!  So I decided to force the issue.  There wasn’t too much fighting about it honestly!  When I insisted we were going on instead of heading home he decided I meant it and on we went.  We didn’t go far, just around the corner but far enough that I felt ok about turning him back towards the trailer. 

The day after our solo ride, we went riding with another friend and her horse who has basically no trail miles on her.  Both horses were wonderful and I can’t wait to ride with them again!!

I’m feeling very good about the direction Louie and I are heading in and we’re even starting to set some goals for next year!

Don’t Skip A Beat, Fear, and more riding!

Don’t Skip A Beat, AKA Louie is a very good boy.  A very gorgeous boy.  He is also the source of a lot of frustration for me.  I have touched on this before I’m pretty sure, but Louie came to me on a trial lease in March, and he is the half brother to my little brat Rowdy.  It was my understanding that Louie was a solid trail horse and that he’d had 6 months of Dressage training.  When I went to pick him up, little things came up like he doesn’t load easily in the horse trailer, his training wasn’t a steady 6 months it was more sporadic and the big one for me, he doesn’t stand to be mounted.  I could feel my anxiety right off going thru the roof but I wasn’t going to back out.  Me and my stubbornness. 

So our first few rides were good.  Louie is different then Buddy.  Buddy walks along head down, rarely snorts or spooks at anything Louie has a higher head carriage and gets snorty and excited at the drop of a hat.  We rode with Sharon at the wildlands and that went well although we were both exhausted when we were done.  My breaking point came when I took him on a ride over to the dam intending to make a loop. 

In retrospect, there were several factors this day that were working against us, Louie hadn’t been ridden in a few days, it was a crisp breezy day, we were using a different “bit” (I’d been riding him in a snaffle and had a hackamore on him this day) and there was a pinto eating rooster in the woods.  When that rooster crowed, Louie’s head came up and he started dancing and I got scared and started messing with his face and we started fighting and I got even more scared and ……do you see where this is going?  Well I did what I swore not to, I gave in and we headed back to the house.  Great, right?  Well, yeah except that we were on the road, in my very unfavorite place and there was a car coming and there were kids yelling and the leaves were blowing and someone was using a lawn mower and I completely self destructed.  I jumped off and Louie walked me home.  This all happened in May and I haven’t ridden Lou but a handful of times since. 

Louie is now mine, well, we’re awaiting the official transfer paperwork but it’s in the works.  About a month ago, I bought a side pull, I bought it to work with Rowdy but I decided to try it on Louie.  He is a completely different horse under saddle in that side pull.  We’ve ridden in my small ring a few times walk and trot and he’s had his moments, being the smart boy that he is, he figured out that when he has a tantrum I’ll get down so he’d work nicely for a couple laps and then have a tantrum only I stopped getting down and giving him his way.  I dug down deep I guess and found comfort in the safety of my ring and just kept at him and it seems to have worked. 

About a month ago I got him out and decided to trim his feet.  He was fantastic which I hate to admit it but it surprised me tremendously!!  After I successfully did all 4 feet I gave him a good grooming and then he and I went for a walk.  He was fantastic.

So with that in mind, I decided to get on him last week.  I saddled him up and climbed on and walked out into the back pasture.  He was snorty and spooky and I was a little nervous but I refused to give in.  I got him settled in one direction and then we went the opposite direction.  We got around that way once and about halfway around again it was tantrum time.  He sat on his haunches, launched himself into the air and then started towards the barn.  It took me a minute to get myself together and I turned him away from the house.  I got him bending and yielding his haunches and we did some figure eights and serpentines and he settled down and seemed pretty happy to be working.  We rode for about a half hour and then I headed out to the driveway to see if the kids were home from the neighbors yet, they weren’t so I headed back towards the field, I figured he’d have a fit but he didn’t he settled right back into work and we had a decent ride! 

On Tuesday Meg and I made plans to ride on Wednesday and since they are logging on one of the trails we can ride to from here we decided to head to the safety of the wildlands.  Tuesday evening I hitched up the trailer and then decided to see how Louie would be about loading on the trailer.  Given the issues from the past, I figured he’d be a brat about it – much to my surprise and delight, he sniffed the ramp and walked right on.  And there he stood quietly!!!  We very quietly backed off the trailer pausing a couple of times and then loaded up again.  We did this several times and then I put him up for the night!  YAY!  The divider has to be open but so what??  And really I think now he’d probably load with it “closed” but who cares honestly?  He walks right onto the trailer without hesitation now and that’s all I care about!! 

Wednesday was a BEAUTIFUL day!!  The sun was out and it was just gorgeous!!  Meg got here and we got the tack loaded and then grabbed the horses.  Louie again walked right onto the trailer and Zandy of course walked right on too – that mare is fantastic!!

When we got to the North Gate we parked and unloaded the horses.  Meg tied Z to the gate and I tied Louie to the trailer.  Now tying was another issue that I was having with Louie – when he first got here he’d pull when he was tied so I was pretty nervous about him being tied to the trailer and next to the road but he was perfectly fine!! 

We got tacked up and both of us mounted without incident.  Once I was in the saddle, I was a little nervous simply because riding him out of the safety of our ring.  We headed off at a nice brisk walk and were enjoying the colors and the the beautiful day.  We took Hothole Pond Trail and met a porcupine.  Those little creatures are adorable!!  He waddled off down the trail ahead of us and then off into the brush.  We got down to the water but Louie wouldn’t get his tootsies wet.  Zandy of course waded out as far as she could go and pawed and splashed and had a grand time! 

On our way back out of this trail we stopped for some pictures and then crossed back over the rocky part of the trail and decided “what the heck” and Meg urged me to canter!  Wahoo!  Louie has a HUGE stride and is very comfortable – however, he doesn’t have balance for corners yet and we’d get going at a canter and come to a curve in the road and Lou would keep on straight!  It was quite funny!!  We loped quite a bit of this trail on the way out and then headed towards the southgate again.  When we crossed the meadow where the life flight helicopter can land (yes I’m weird but those signs always make me smile – knowing that when I am on the ground and in need of emergency care they can get lifeflight in there!)  Anyway!  We took Great Meadow Trail – it was beautiful.  The coloration of the leaves along Great Pond Mountain was just gorgeous there was a distinct line across it where the ever greens up top met with the beautiful leaves/colors of the trees lower on the mountain.  We had a great time over all and I can’t wait to get Vince out there when he gets home!!  Meg will only be here for one more week and I’m not sure that we’ll get to ride again but the couple times we’ve been able to so far have been wonderful!  Louie is doing great and I really think that I’m moving past my fears. I have felt like a failure for being so scared since my fall but I’m realizing that a bit of fear is healthy, when we let fear overtake us, that is when there are problems. 

I don’t expect all wine and roses with Louie, we have a lot of work to do, but with the more time I’ve put into him lately, the better he’s gotten.  He’s stopped fighting/testing me at every turn and in general he and I are just getting along much better.  I’m very excited for what our future holds – I have big plans for this big goofy boy!!  Stay tuned!!

A Ride on the Wildside

At some point hopefully I will catch up on all that is going on around here.  I went back and read some of my older posts and realized that there was more that I wanted to add/say but I just never got there!!

So anyway – my best friend is here visiting from PA this month and it just so happened that the day after she got here, there was a benefit ride/run/walk/bike out at the Great Pond Mountain Land Trust.  My good friend Sharon was manning one of the aide stations and it promised to be a great day.  The trees were gorgeous shades of yellow and orange and although it was overcast, the temperature was mild and there was no breeze to start with!  The basic idea of the ride was a gate to gate ride which covers 8.8 miles.  There were 4 aide stations along the way and at the start each person was given a card, if you got 4 punches your card got put into a drawing at the end of the day.  Sharon also did a couple of raffles at her station – Meg nor I won anything but we had a blast!    There are plenty of side trails off the main road that goes thru the wildlands but we stuck to the main strip.  We met several other riders and there were A LOT of bikes and walkers as well.  Some of the bikes were not very considerate of the horses, whizzing past without saying anything.    The first bikes we encountered were at Sharon’s station, we were standing still and when I saw the bike I hopped off Buddy.  Given his traffic issue I figured he’d totally flip over bicycles.  Not so.  The goober couldn’t have cared less about those bikes.  Buddy was phenomenal, I guess I probably shouldn’t have expected anything less from him, he is by far the most level headed horse we have!  Meg rode Zandy and she proved yet again what a great girl she is!!  This was her first ride since she had the abscess and although she did seem a little ouchy trotting downhill she was completely sound on the flat and going uphill – I think the downhill ouchies had a lot to do with the actual “cut” where the abscess burst thru than anything else.  On the way out, Buddy had plenty of pep.  On our way back though, he was acting like I’d just ridden him 1000 miles non stop.  Nevermind the fact that we’ve gone out and ridden two and three times the distance/time that we’d spent riding on this day at least once a month all summer long.  It didn’t occur to me until the end of the ride that we have always come in from the South Gate so climbing the hill that was the mid point of this particular ride would have been the end of our “normal” rides so he was dragging his feet like crazy not wanting to go any further when we turned around.  Zandy knew that we were headed back to the trailer though and she kept leaving us behind!!  All in all it was a great day, it was nice to be riding with Meg again although I do wish that Sharon and Zephyr had been able to ride with us!!  We made it back to the trailer and the horses loaded right up and we headed home.  I did have a little difficulty walking for the next couple days – my hips have really been bothering me lately and I think because we did a good bit of trotting and even a little cantering my body was protesting!!

What I’ve been up to….

As usual, left to my own devices I manage to get myself into trouble!!  Nothing too serious this time so let me recap what’s happened since my last post!

We now have a boarder.  Snowflake came to us “temporarily” at the beginning of September.  There were some issues at the place she was at before and I was able to help out.  Snowflake had a gorgeous pinto foal earlier this summer, I got the pleasure of meeting her when she was about 2 months old.  Sadly, she injured herself seriously and had to be laid to rest.  This was understandably upsetting for Snowflake and the poor sad mommy was on the thin side when she got here.  Snowflake also has cancer in the skin around her eyes.  She’s ok but wears a fly mask to protect her eyes and has a couple spots that need to be removed.  She is such an easy mare to care for that having her here isn’t an issue and she’ll be staying with us indefinitely now.

Louie has been an awful pasture bully.  He was picking on Snowflake and then decided to pick on Zandy.  Zandy came in from the pasture pretty lame one Sunday afternoon.  She had a lump on her shoulder that was warm to the touch and she was VERY sore.  I put a call in to the vet and we decided a dose of banamine initially and then bute as needed and hot packs as many times a day as possible – if she wasn’t showing marked improvement within a few days we’d reevaluate.  2 days later she was almost falling over lame.  We decided to have Dr T out.  Dr Tanja came out on Wednesday and the best we could figure out was that she’d injured her shoulder – probably kicked or ran into the hay rack in her stall when she was being stupid a couple nights before.  Basically a wait and see approach, cold hosing for her left foot because Dr T was worried about that foot from taking up the slack from  her right side.  But just basically wait and see how things go – probably a long recovery but we were hoping for a full recovery.  A couple days later Zandy blew an abscess!!  WHAT?!  Yep, after all that apparently the bump on the shoulder was just coincidence.  Go figure huh? 

Louie’s owner has come to the decision that she can not keep him anymore and has asked me to keep him.  I’m very torn on this issue – I love Louie, but we aren’t the best match, I’m admittedly high strung and he is too and we feed into each other and cause a huge mess!!  I’m working on it – I think I may have a plan in the works but we’ll see!!

Buddy has GROWN!!  He now measures a level 14.3!!  HOW did that happen??  He has hardly grown since I got him and then BAM he shot up seemingly overnight!!  Last night while I was cleaning stalls I had to do a double take standing next to him his hip was at my shoulder – HUH?  So I went and got my handy dandy tape and measured – yes I know the tape isn’t as accurate as a stick but I don’t have one of those and I didn’t need either to tell me that he’s taller than he was when I bought him!

Now for the most exciting news.  Vince has a horse of his very own!!  A friend bred her Percheron mare to her QH stallion and in May 08 this “little” guy was born.  They are thinning their numbers and while I definitely wasn’t looking for another horse, this cross is one that Vince and I had talked about as a good compromise for him and the price was most definitely right.  He has always said he wanted a draft horse but our barn is short and there is just no way one of the giants that we’ve casually looked at in the past would have fit.  Vince has renamed him “Rocky” – he was “Blaze” with his former owners but that just didn’t fit him.  He has been here less than a week but is fast becoming a part of the family.  He is a LOT pushy at meal times – we’re working on it.  Vince only got a couple days with him before he had to go back to work but he spent some time with Rocky and although we agree he’s a project, he seems quite smitten with him.  The plan is to get Vince riding on Zandy and come next fall I’ll get both colts started under saddle.  Both of course will have ground work and have been saddled etc but I won’t get on either of them until next fall.  Both of them will also be gelded very soon.  Rocky string tests to 16 hands but right now he’s not much taller than Rowdy.  Where Rowdster is smooth and flowing in his gaits out across the pasture, Rocky has that “doop de doop de do” about him.  I’ll try to get some pictures up soon!

That’s it on the horse front, kids have settled into school, I’m using my quiet time during the day to make jewelry and I am hoping that I can get my butt in gear and get on a schedule to start working some of these lazy ponies on a regular basis!!

Stay tuned…..

Updates!

Wow!! Time has flown since the kids went back to school!!  I kind of fell into a slump and haven’t done much of anything for the last two or three weeks.  No riding to speak of and really barely any time with the horses period. 

I have so much to say I may break this up into a couple entries just so I don’t bore everyone!!
  Yes I know he should have a helmet and boots on but it was spur of the moment and I was RIGHT there.

Zandy will be first because she’s fresh in my mind!!  I think I briefly told you about her in a past blog, but just to recap – she’s a late teens QH “type”, about 15 hands, formerly was a camp horse and she’s FABULOUS with the kids in the ring.  She’s got plenty of get up and go for confident riders outside of the ring too, but you can see her eyes change when you step down and put a child on her.  She totally switches gears and her steps become very deliberate and she lowers her head and just takes care of her rider.  Really she does this for any rider – she does it for me too but she can also kick it in gear when asked – but she has to KNOW that you mean it.  Some might call that lazy, me?  I call it being a good, sure mount!!

Zan is reminding me how to ride again, and while we did have one incident that scared the hell out of me we overcame it just yesterday and I’m VERY happy with my decision to keep her.

The kids have been having an absolute blast with her.  Kenneth has been trotting her all by himself – talk about a heart attack for mommy!!  Yikes!! 

I have been having a blast with her in the ring and in the field but when it comes to leaving the yard, my anxiety kicks in like crazy and that makes her nervous.  We were doing ok until our “incident”.  I was excited to take her over to the loop by the Lodge – I haven’t had a horse that liked water since Buck died and I really just had this feeling that she would love to play in the water and that she’d be a great trail horse for me.  We got half way across the field and there was a kayak in the river.  I tensed up, I know I did but I kept talking to her and told her she was fine.  All of a sudden, we were spinning and she was snorting and I was FREAKING OUT!  I never grabbed at her mouth or anything, I never reacted badly – or I don’t think that I did. But once I got her stopped, I stepped down and we walked home.  Her snorting the whole way.  I decided that she wasn’t the horse for us.  After all, if she’s going to do that crap then I didn’t feel safe with the kids on her on a trail ride.  In the ring FINE nothing flaps her but there was no way I was going to put the kids on her for a trail ride……So for the last 3 weeks she’s been ridden maybe 2 or 3 times just in the ring and once in dad’s yard where I learned that she does kick ass roll backs and really likes to “play”.

Yesterday I decided I was going to try one more time to go ahead to the Lodge Loop.  We got to the end of the driveway and I was tense, she spun and snorted and I took a deep breath, smacked her and said walk on!  And we did!  We ended up going up the path instead of the road but so what?!  We were moving forward!  We went up around the barn and up past the garden and across the field.  My thought was that if I just did the little trails up behind dads I’d be happy.  We trotted up across the field and all over the trails out behind dads.  She is like a bull dozer!!  She plows thru trees and brush and anything else that gets in her way.

I noticed that the more her feet moved, the less snorty she got.  So we trotted quite a bit.  We came out by the pasture and I decided to “cowgirl up” and head across the field.  Zan didn’t want to but I insisted and when we got to the scary kayak spot she started to freeze up and get all “twitchy” so I pushed her forward and told her she was fine.  We got all the way across the field and went down towards the water – she was fine but the grass was slippery and she slid a little so we came back up the bank and crossed the road.  She didn’t want to cross over and started being foolish so I did the same thing I’d done in the field and on the trail – I pushed her faster!!  We started jogging and she forgot all about the scary ditch and on we went.  There was a Heron in the water, and I was silently praying that it wouldn’t take flight but it did (of course) and she stopped for a minute and watched him fly off.  We went down to the pump house – the water is really low and the rocks looked slippery so I was nervous about letting her in the water so we headed back to the road and I figured I’d see how she was at the boat launch.

When we got to the boat launch she charged right into the water YES!! Finally!! A horse that likes water!!  Wahooo!!!  We didn’t play too much because I had my cell phone in my pocket and I didn’t need for it to go swimming!!  We had a great time on the entire loop and even talked to a very nice lady who said she’s been dying to meet me as she used to have horses and loves to see me/us riding out near her!  When we got across to the lodge road, I decided to go ahead up the trail that has a stream crossing with a bad bridge so you have to go thru the water which means that I haven’t ridden this loop in a long while because no one would cross the water!! *sigh*

Anyway – she went right across the water, up the bank and plowed on thru back to the main trail!  I really didn’t even have to steer, she just goes on like a bloodhound on a trail!  We were almost to the other end of this part of the trail and came across a downed tree.  Silly mare was going to plow on thru it.  I tried to find a go around but there was no way to get around on the right, and the left was looking pretty bad too but I decided to use her “bulldozerness” to my advantage and go to the left.  We squeezed thru some trees and under some branches and we were thru!  We came out on the road and started towards home. At the same house where Buddy did his ditch diving last time we came across this little guy:

Still had his spots and was oh so very cute!!  He bounded up into the trees and just watched us go on our way.  Course, there were some “scary” chickens across the street that we had to look at but they trotted off and left us in peace.  We did have to scoot up a bank to get out of the way of some moron who was driving WAY too fast on this stretch of road and coming at us around a blind corner.  I don’t think he ever saw us, but I could hear him coming and could tell he was going fast – luckily we were at a spot that we could get out of the way.