Stella Day 3

Today started pretty great. Stella walked just fine with me from her paddock to the round pen. We walked around, then walked faster. We changed directions, made little circles, made figure 8s, and generally played about.

She followed me back out of the round pen and into her paddock like a pro. Back in the paddock I refilled her water trough since she had managed once again to empty it and make the surrounding ground a muddy mess. I held the hose up out of the water to see what she would do about the sound and the running water. What she did was give it the briefest glance as she stuck her head down to drink, then ignored it completely. She did manage to get her head under the hose, so it was then going over her neck. This only made her give me a slightly irritated look as I pulled up more length in the hose and slid it over her head. No startling, no jumping about, not even any head jerking with this strange thing rubbing over her neck and ears and head.
All in all, Still had a great morning.

The evening session did not go quite as well. Stella balked just a bit at the gate into the round pen, but I figured it was because there was something new in there and she needed a moment to size things up. On the way home from the morning session I had got Stella a Jolly Ball to play with in the round pen.  I had also brought a towel to get her used to having something flapped around, draped over her, rubbed on her, and such things.

Once in the round pen Stella needed approximately ten seconds to size up the Jolly Ball, approach it, and decide it was something to be pawed at and kicked around. She didn't get really playful with it, but she did spend a few minutes pawing at it and nosing it around the round pen.

 After Stella had played with her ball for a while she lost interest and came over to me. We proceeded to play a game of Come to Me (I don't actually know if the game has a name, I just made that up), where I she comes up to me, I scratch and love on her for a second or two, then I run off and she comes to me to get scratched and loved on again. She really, really likes getting scratched. Wherever, shoulders, butt, neck, back. Just scratch and she will be happy.

She is pretty good at coming up to me wherever I am in the pen unless she gets distracted by something outside, and even then it just distracts her for a moment then she returns her attention to me.

After a few minutes of this her attention turned to the towel on the fence, so I watched her explore it for a bit. She sniffed it all over and nosed at it, even sticking her head under it to sniff about.

Since she didn't spook at it, I decided to try touching her with it. Oh boy, she discovered yet another thing that could pet her! She let me rub that towel all over her, her back, her belly, her legs, her butt. She didn't care, but she did make her happy face with her lip going that it was petting her. Well, that went so well I put it over her back like a saddle blanket to see what she would do. What Stella did was act slightly unsure while I put it on, then turn and nose at it in a bit of confusion over why it was now just sitting on her and not petting her anymore.

When I ran to the other side of the round pen and called her, Stella looked at me for a second, then seemed to give a sort of equine shrug of "whatever, ok" and calmly walked over to me with the towel over her back. She didn't try to shake it off or pull it off even once.

I had Mom come in to hold Stella's head so I could pick her feet. I only did her front feet this time around. She wasn't too sure about me actually working on her feet rather than just holding them up for a second or two, but Mom held her steady and Stella didn't object very much to me picking out the largest of the rocks from her hooves.

That was an awful lot of work for one little filly on only her third day of being with people. We played a bit more Come to Me and kicked the Jolly Ball around a bit, then it was time to go back to her paddock.

She hooked up on her lead rope and followed me around for a few laps of the round pen, then out the gate just fine. When we got to the gate to her paddock, she balked. Feet planted firmly, she was not coming into that space. I backed her up and we took a few tight turns, then tried again. This time she reluctantly went through, but when I turned her around to be able to close the gate she refused to stop and just kept walking and went right back out of the paddock again.

That's when she really started to refuse. She refused to go into the paddock, and she refused to go back into the round pen. She wanted to go see the horses in the next pasture and was rather pissed that I wouldn't let her go over and say hi. We went quite a few rounds in tight circles outside her paddock gate and had a little pulling match before she finally decided to follow me into the paddock. Once inside I pet and scratched on her and let her know that coming into the paddock with me was what I had wanted her to do.

Every night after I take off her halter I hang out with her in the paddock for a few minutes, so she doesn't feel like getting put away means that she is immediately going to be abandoned. And absolutely nothing negative has happened to her in the paddock, I leave any new experiences that might pressure her to the round pen, so that it is a place she associates with playing and learning.

At this point I think she has done an awesome job learning the basics, and I think that I am well established as her best friend. In the coming days we need to reinforce the good behaviors that she has learned, and I need to get a bit more respect from her. It is great to be her best friend, but I also need to be her leader.

Stella's First Day's Progress

Today was Stella's first full day at home, and she is going to be a great horse. She is curious and intelligent and eager to please. She cleans up really nice, too!

and yes, she had plenty of hay in a perfectly nice hay tub, but the little bits scattered around the ground were apparently tastier.

I hadn't brushed her mane yet when I took this headshot, but look at that sweet face!

We had left Stella in the round pen over night, but I was hopeful that we could get her to lead over to a space across from the round pen that is a sort of outdoor paddock that is shaded all day by trees. Well, within an hour of working with her this morning I had brushed her all over and loved on her, then we set about learning to lead around the round pen.

I brought along a halter and lead rope that used to belong to my sweet Thoroughbred filly V when she was a baby. It fit Stella much better than the rope halter I tried on her yesterday.

Stella was rather resistant at first, and we just went around in tight circles as I leaned into her enough to get her feet to move. I had tried leading her forward, and she was having none of it. She planted her feet and refused to move. She didn't fight or try to back away, but she wasn't going forward either. After just a few circles of me leaning into her, she got easier to move. After a few more circles in the other direction, she took a few steps forward.

Once Stella got praised for her forward movement, she got leading figured out pretty quickly. The fact that her reward for success was hay waiting for her after each circuit or two seemed to encourage her greatly.

After Stella was relatively comfortable leading we decided to try to cross from the round pen to the paddock, since it was getting late into the morning and was heating up quickly. Mom used a spare fence panel as a barrier so Stella couldn't get out of our little area, and we opened both the paddock and the round pen doors.

Stella was unsure about being led out of the round pen, and we took a few more circuits leading around the pen, trying the door each time. On the third try, after thoroughly examining the doorway, Stella calmly walked through and into the larger yard.

Stella got a little dancy between the round pen and the paddock, and did not want to get close enough to mom and the spare fence panel to go into the gate we had opened in the paddock. Fortunately, there are two gates into the paddock and she wasn't dancing around so much that I couldn't hold her lead with one hand and open the gate with the other. Once the gate was open Stella followed me into the paddock with no hesitation. We closed the gates and I took off her halter to let her explore her new space.

We soon discovered that Stella likes water. Her water bucket (a low, wide, really hard to tip over sort) was empty when we got to the stable this morning, and I thought that maybe she had gotten bouncy overnight and tipped it somehow. I was wrong. Once Stella found the tub of water in her new space, she quickly began pawing and splashing in it. When she went around the paddock at a walk, exploring her space, she seemed to quite intentionally and purposefully splash down into that tub and went on as if nothing had happened. Oh well, we left her to play in her water and munch hay and settle into her new space.

We went back in the evening as the temperatures dropped a bit and worked with Stella for another hour or so. This time both mom and Raven came with me. Stella doesn't really seem to care who is coming to say hello outside her fence, she will stick her nose out to greet everyone.

This time I decided to see how far she would let me go in playing with her. The answer was really far! I pet Stella all over and never found anywhere from her ears to her tail that she even twitched about being touched. She let me drape myself over her back and scratch on both sides of her at once. She let me comb her mane and forelock, and even her tail.

Then I decided to really push my luck and try picking up her feet. With just a little jerking of her legs, Stella let me pick up both of her front feet and tap all over them with the hoof pick. She jerked her back feet a bit more, and I had to take a rather severe tone with her before she would stop (fairly gently) kicking a bit with her back right leg and let me hold her foot up. But in the end she let me pick up all four feet, and this was just her first day!

She also led up and down the paddock without issue, and even backed up for me repeatedly and for at least five steps each time.

All in all today was an outstanding success! Stella is going to be a wonderful mare and riding partner. She is an astoundingly willing and intelligent little filly.

Stella is Home!

After a great number of trials and tribulations, including canceled drivers, cancelled stables, hard to find rental stock trailers, and apparently impossible to find rental trucks that will let you tow and aren't moving trucks, My filly Stella is home! Her transport came in the form of a wonderful woman from a Facebook group that I joined to find local fellow horse lovers. She had a trailer and was willing to haul for me, hooray! (I'm not naming names because I forgot to ask her permission).

So, we made it down to Burns, OR Wednesday night with only one major headache along the way and stayed in a hotel so we could pick up Stella (4590) early the next morning around 7am. She's so little and perfect!

I opted to leave her tag on and not put a halter on her. She is just a baby, and I didn't think that I would have much trouble getting ahold of her. Besides, having a lead on her didn't mean that she would walk with me anyway, so why bother yet.

It was a long drive, made a bit longer because we took a few breaks (at our driver's recommendation, and a good idea) to let Stella rest in a stationary trailer, rather than having to be on the road and moving the whole time.

We got to the stable just before 5pm and got Stella unloaded into the round pen without an issue. After convincing her that the low bucket with water was not scary but in fact a good thing, and letting her eat and drink for about an hour, I finally went into the round pen with her.

This is not to say that I had not been just outside the round pen from the time we took her off the trailer. I had at first kept a respectful distance so she could have her space, but then I decided to see how close I could get without her being uncomfortable. The answer was that I could lean on the fence just above her hay and she didn't much care, and in fact initiated contact and interaction, sniffing and nosing at me. I responded by petting her nose, about which she didn't care, then her forehead, which took her approximately three strokes to get used to.

Once I was in the round pen with Stella I briefly attempted to work her, but we were both tired and she was already responsive to me, so we only went around the pen at a slow trot a few times before giving up and closing the distance.

With only a few sidesteps from her, we were soon to the point where she let me pet her head and neck, and scratch her shoulders and withers. Within two hours from unloading (so about one hour in the round pen with her) she let me untie (not cut, UNTIE!) her tag:

After that success, I decided to try putting on her halter and lead rope. This also went well, with her standing quite nicely while I fumbled about getting her halter tied properly (I bought a new rope halter just for her. It's too big, so tomorrow I will use one I have from horses past.). She wasn't really into the whole leading idea, but I did get a few steps out of her before she spooked when a fellow boarder turned his gelding out to play in the arena right beside the round pen. When Stella stopped trotting about (that was as active as she was in her "spook") she let me get the lead rope back and take her halter off. Then, since she was still standing there with me, I tried putting it back on. She let me do this three more times with no objections.

At that point I called it a night so we both could rest. I will be back out bright and early tomorrow morning to play with her again. Maybe tomorrow we can get her started on leading!

Mustang filly won!

I won the auction, I won my filly!!

Ok, so I was the only bidder on my filly, but I still won the auction on her. Hardly any of the yearling Mustangs that I was watching got above their $125 initial price. I can't tell if anyone bid on them or not, the BLM listing shows a lot of info like height of the horse and its location, where it was gathered, but not the number of bids on a it.

I paid within minutes of the auction closing, and now I'm waiting for the BLM to send me the final paperwork to sign. Once that is signed, returned, and approved I will be able to make an appointment to go pick her up. It will take two days, since it is over six hours from Pocatello to Hines. I found a local place to rent a small stock trailer that fits the BLM's requirements, but I lost my driver and his truck (I got the news just after I won the auction, in a "Congratulations! And oh by the way . . ." sort of way), so I am having to explore other options (read as: frantically searching for a truck and driver in my area).
My dad and stepmom have volunteered the use of their truck (Mom or I would drive), but they live on the coast in Washington, and it is not particularly nice for them to have to drive from the coast to Pocatello, ID to get the trailer, then to Hines, OR to pick up the filly, then back to Pocatello to deliver her to the stable. We have also looked at finding a trailer to rent somewhere near Burns, OR so they can pick it up right where the filly is, then we will drive it back to Poky, and they will take the trailer back on their way home. But that makes their trip mostly about getting my horse instead of visiting, which was what this trip was about before I got the crazy idea to bid on a horse at auction.

Simply put, I'm still working on the truck situation.

Do used car dealers ever rent out their cars/trucks?

Truck issues aside, I BOUGHT A HORSE today! This is the first horse that I have bought on my own (I have owned and/or worked with many horses, but never purchased one for myself until now).

I have never worked with a Mustang, but this is a very young Mustang. She is just about the age where any horse that was born at pasture is weaned and brought in to be worked and trained, so in many ways she is not much different than any other horse her age that was born and spent its first months out away from the barn and humans.

I have decided to name the filly Stella, the Midnight Star. She is billed as a Black and she has a big off-center star on her forehead. The name comes from the movie Silverado. I grew up on that movie, and I always admired and respected the strength of the character of Stella.

I hope the BLM sends me the final paperwork to sign so that I can make an appointment and pick my filly soon. Should I wait until after the fireworks on the 4th? Hmmm, maybe that would be best for her. I have 30 days to pick her up.

<<EEEEEE!!!!>> I BOUGHT A HORSE!!!

Mustang Dreams

I'm not sure if I'm going crazy or finally coming back to myself (I've had horses my entire life except for the last 4-5 years), but I am going to adopt a mustang. At least, I hope I'm going to adopt a mustang. The BLM Online Auction ends tomorrow at 4pm Mountain Time. Then, if I have the high bid, I will have won a mustang. So far I am the only bidder on 4590, a little black filly with a big white star. She still has quite a bit of her baby fur, so while she is billed as a yearling (over 1 year old but not yet 2) she is actually a weanling (old enough to be weaned from her mom, but not yet a year old). From the looks of her, she is the youngest horse in the auction. Right now she looks like a dark bay, but her muzzle is dark, not brown, so once she sheds out into her adult coat she may in fact be black. I don't care what color she is, as long as once the auction closes I can say that she is mine.

Well, at least, say that she will be mine pretty soon. I will have to pay for her as soon as the auction ends, then submit the final paperwork to agree that I will take good care of her and follow the BLM's rules. Once that is done and the BLM OKs it, I can make an appointment to pick her up. And then she will be mine. I have already been out to look at a stable and talked to the owner (who is really nice, by the way, and doesn't get weird and nervous about having a mustang in his stable). Once I have an appointment set to pick up the filly, I will tell him when I'm going to start boarding her. (I have kept him in the loop on the adoption proceedings as things have progressed; I fear he may be getting tired of receiving messages from me).

I'm pretty sure I have a driver and truck arranged, and we will be renting a small stock trailer. For an un-gentled mustang you have to have a stock trailer, since it doesn't know how to ride in a horse trailer yet. Of course, for a weanling, it doesn't know how to ride in anything yet, really. I've been looking for somebody with a truck AND trailer to give my pony a lift (compensated for time and gas, of course), but the trailer that goes along with the one and only driver I found is having electrical issues, so can't go on this run. Thus we will be renting a trailer. At least Isaac was cool enough to volunteer to do the driving (and would have used his trailer too, but it isn't quite working right). The filly is in Hines, Oregon, and I am in Pocatello, Idaho. It is about 6 and a half hours one way. Right now the plan is to drive to Hines one day, stay the night in Burns, OR (which is really close to Hines), then pick up the filly in the morning and drive back to Pocatello so she can get settled in before night.

So, I've got a truck and driver, I've got a stable lined up, and I'm going to rent a trailer. Now all I need is the horse! Fingers crossed!! I will know at 4pm Mountain Time on Tuesday (aka 6/26, aka TOMORROW!!!)

Post Office Lines and Reading Aloud

Raven, mom, and I went to the post office today to mail our Christmas presents. It was (as expected) a very long line. The woman in line behind us had three children, ranging from an infant still in its carrier to probably three and five, respectively. As happens with such young yet active boys and long waits, they got restless. Raven and I had gone to stand by the wall with most of the packages while mom stayed in line. The plan was that Raven and I would bring up the packages when mom got to the front of the line so that we and our packages were less in the way for other customers.

Well, mom noticed that the boys were beginning to act up and called me over to entertain them. I tried striking up a conversation, and that worked perfectly fine with the older boy, but the younger of the two was a bit shy. I don't know what made me think of it, but I remembered that I had a copy of The Hobbit in my bag, so the two boys and I went to a carpeted corner of the post office and sat down. I read aloud to them, and quite surprising to me, both boys stayed right near me and were well behaved while I read to them. They did get distracted (or so I thought at the time) but I was surprised when I had stopped reading because the boys were looking at cards and commenting on them, but when I stopped they both turned back around and asked me to keep reading them the story. They hadn't been distracted at all in fact, they just needed something physical to do while they were listening. I got them things to draw on and with to keep them in one place, and that settled their need for something physical to do quite nicely. The younger boy, who had been so shy when we were standing up talking, became open and friendly when I started reading aloud. I actually spent a good portion of the time reading with him in my lap off and on as he rolled and played about. We read through Bilbo meeting Gandalf before the boys' mom made it through the line and it was time for them to go.

It was a small thing, a passing interaction and I doubt either boy would recognize me if he were to see me tomorrow, but it was a wonderful moment for me. With all the electronic gadgets and gizmos that are out there for young kids these days, and the TV and internet saturation, as an English major I have found myself lamenting the loss of simply reading aloud to children. There was some idea in me that just reading to kids, without any bells and whistles to keep their attention, was not something they would want anymore. These two boys, complete strangers in a post office line, proved me wrong. They enjoyed being read to, and were listening and paying attention to the story. And they were interacting with me, watching my expressions and engaging with me as a storyteller.

The boys didn't know it, and their mom thought I was the one helping her out this morning, but today two little boys gave me a wonderful Christmas gift.

[Re]Discoveries

It has been a long time since I blogged last. Sorry. I wish I could say that I was too busy doing something important, but I can't. I should be as busy as humanly possible studying for my comprehensive exams, but I have found myself resentful of having to do schoolwork during the summer vacation (I know, PhD students have no vacations, only more time during the day to get work done since there are no classes to take up time. @#^@%! [fill in whatever expletive you deem appropriate]).

While I have been slacking somewhat on my reading (not entirely, I am still getting schoolwork done, just not as much as a full-time schedule of study would call for) I have been slowly rediscovering the world and its pleasures outside of schoolwork. Raven and I have started having "date nights" once a week, a time to go out together just for the fun of it and enjoy being married again. We've gone to the movies, played pool, gone out to dinner, you know, date night things. Being comfortably married and sharing each other's daily worries and frustrations, it is easy to forget that you can still have fun together and take pleasure in each other's company, and that you are still allowed to take time to love and enjoy your spouse [in more than 30-second increments] without any outside motive or purpose.

I have also rediscovered the kitchen and am actually starting to enjoy cooking and baking again. I have worked as a cook at several restaurants from Oregon to Montana to Virginia, but my experience with cooking and baking then was for the job, not for myself, my loved ones, and the simple joy of the act itself. I remember enjoying being in the kitchen before, but generally only for brief flings with large breaks between forays into the joy (rather than just the necessity) of cooking and baking. I have, however, had a longstanding desire to have a romance with using ingredients and crafting homemade food.

I found a pair of cast iron skillets in the things that were packed away from The Move while I was going though boxes in the garage. There is an 8-inch skillet and a 9-inch skillet (or thereabout, their bottom stamps are rather unreadable, so I am guessing that is what they say). No one who would have had such implements prior to The Move recognizes them, so I have claimed them for my own.
     Raven has lots of cast iron cookware that he emphatically tells me I can use, but somehow having these as my own has given me the permission to use them and play with them however I want. Not that I have any plans to abuse them, just the comfort of knowing that they are mine to ruin if I happen to do so on accident. So far my newfound pans have served wonderfully to make scrambled eggs, a stone-fruit cobbler, and a frittata.
     Not knowing the history of the two pans, the first thing I did was scrub both pans vigorously with lots of soap and hot water, then re-season them according to the instructions in one of my cast iron cookbooks. They have behaved beautifully and nothing has really stuck, and nothing at all has burned or failed. Fingers crossed that my success with these pans will continue.

Baking is teaching me greater patience than I have had to practice in the kitchen before without getting paid for it. I am learning  to bake breads that take days from start to finish: breads that rest overnight, pizza dough that should rest for two or three days to build flavor, sourdough breads that take multiple days from beginning the starter (which I have actually not yet begun) to feeding that starter to actually making the bread. In a work kitchen, there is always something else to do, something to make you forget about whatever you've made and are waiting on until it needs to be addressed again. In my home kitchen, I do not forget about the waiting, and I am trying to convince myself to look on it with anticipation rather than irritation at the delay. Part of this is telling myself (repeatedly) that it is not a delay, the wait is part of the process, and the result will be much the better for the time it takes.

Today I made two different pizza doughs with recipes from the blog Farm Fresh Feasts; one is for Buttermilk Crust Pizza and the other is for Roasted Garlic Herb Pizza Dough. Raven sent me a link to the buttermilk pizza dough to make for him while he was at work, and I enjoyed reading author Kirsten Madaus' post so much I poked around on her site and found the other recipe and ended up making both doughs (and of course following the blog). I already have a pizza stone, so in a day or two it will finally get a real homemade pizza baked on it (Raven might have made one or two, but the poor thing is only lightly used as yet).

I am terrible at remembering to take pictures for my blog. I am trying to work on that (Raven and my mom even got me a great camera so I could take awesome pictures!), but I forgot to take pictures of the pizza dough I made. I will post pictures of it before we build and bake the pizza though, I promise!