Pony Day

     I moved the horses back to my field today so tomorrow and Wednesday morning dad can mow the other field down and then Friday or Saturday I can move them back, I wanted to give the field a few days to pull back ahead of the two horses.  I put their fly masks on as well to keep the flies out of their eyes, I'm still toying with which brand of fly sheet I want to get.  Costs are definitely different but the Kensington's will match the fly masks (Still working on which color I want for Phoenix- mint green or Ice blue)  and I love the fit of them, plus the colors.  Or get the ones from Schneider's that are fully white with colored trim . . .Hmmm so many choices! 

 He finally looks good, other than the fluff.  He's shedding off very strangely as usual.  he's got thick fluff under his belly which is now coming off in clumps but his shoulders and hindquarters and upper legs look really good! 

     I LOVE the Kensington fly mask.  The salesman at Rolex in the Horseloverz 'tent' said to keep the receipt if the oversized/warmblood didn't fit then I could return it for a draft size but he said to go with the bridle size- I'm glad I did!  It fits great and I adore the coloring!  Now let's see if she keeps it on.

A few more challenges

Well a few things are starting to challenge me and I'm rising up to meet them.  It's been really wet, too wet to ride, but I'm still shedding the ponies off.  Phoenix is looking better and better.

 

 

So I have my two little tort does I got from Open Fields Farm and one of them has been doing great!  Took the dewormer in stride, but her little sister- the one I call Pipsqueak, has not.  She's still not really growing and now she has vents disease.  Not sure where it came from but anyone that she's had contact with has to be watched or treated.  It's treatable but I just wish I had caught it sooner.  I shall start treatments tomorrow. 

The Vents disease usually starts in the vent area- which is where I normally catch it, but I haven't been bothering with her much trying to help her get her legs back under her and grow.  But this time I didn't catch it and you can see it's all the way around her mouth as well.  Hopefully I can get her healed up and get her weight back up and get her to grow. 

 I separated Legacy's two babies into their own cages today, here's the girl wandering around her new cage.  She's Kylie's bunny.

 And the boy, he's not quite as happy to be alone. 

 And good news!  Keisha looks pregnant and these are Syd babies!  This is the last litter Syd was able to sire and hopefully she will raise them and she's not too old for it!  This will be her last litter and since she has served me so well for years, she'll stay here with me for retirement. 

She's due May 2nd.  Not soon enough though!  I am anxious to see them!

Disturbing

     Well I am disturbed, irritated whatever you want to put it as.  I went up to Rolex yesterday and, idiot that I was forgot to bring Katie and Kelly's numbers with me, so I texted Kari-Ann that I was 45 minutes out, I waited for a reply nothing-so I spent the whole afternoon  by myself.  Talking to some random people while waiting at the head of the lake for William Fox Pitt- waiting for him because I knew Kylie would love some pictures of him.   He retired before us, and the folks I was talking to(for no apparent reason, I asked them if I was in their way and they the same for me) had been following it on their phones and told me.  I sent a message to Kylie- I knew she wouldn't be upset but I was.  I had been waiting for it and low-and-behold I missed it.  I did watch and take pictures of the one girl taking a spill into the water. Not my best moment let me assure you. But I can say that I'm not happy at all with people now.  I was thrilled when Kari-Ann stopped by on her way down.  I had hoped that I actually did have some real good friends- but I just don't feel like I fit in with even them due to the minor argument I had with another of the forum girls, so this will end my run with them and slowly as I deem them possible, I'll be deleting them from Facebook and my life.  Guess I'll just have to re-vamp my life and keep only those that I want to in it.  I've already moved any of the girls, except Kylie, into a group just set for AFGAFH forum ladies.  A few of them I find personal friends and always will- a few have gotten under my skin just too much.  I finally get my health all lined out and then something else goes wrong, I get that straight only to have slogged on something else.  I need to get my act together and figure out what I'm going to do.  Either way  something will give and something will get dropped completely. 
     But to any extent.  A picture from Rolex, Head of the Lake, where the rider had come off-but was okay- and she's walking off to show she wasn't hurt.

Very happy update!

     I am very happy to one point of being everything is settling back down after the coyote incident.  Jason, Dad and I are going to be coyote hunting over the summer to decrease the population.  I'll be quite thrilled to get that all done with.  
     I'm also quite happy to say Phoenix looks AWESOME.  I can't wait to start exercising him and watching him put his weight back on.  Teeth and front shoes are next.

     Had to have a picture of Heidi this afternoon.  It's all after the rain so hence why Phoenix is muddy.  He's shedding off very well.  Shouldn't be too much longer until he's as shedded down as Heidi. 
     As for a good/bad update.  I dewormed Colby, Pip and Marie and Marie is doing great- Colby and Pip are struggling after the deworming.  Pip perked back up after two days of probiotics but Colby's still struggling.  Hopefully with some dandelion greens he can perk back up. Still a work in progress. 

Depressing update

      Well I had everything moving in the correct direction, apparently someone/thing has other plans.  I had the rabbits settling in and I was just starting to see the strength and weakness' that I was improving upon and I had a possum get in and kill 7 rabbits.  RIP: Syd, Rafik, Dalton, Leo, Rebecca, Rachel and Zoey.  That ended my Syd bloodlines, and I lost Dalton and Rachel's father's lines, and Zoey's two separate lines.  Zoey's I'm not as concerned about, I can buy back Rachel's brother if I really wanted to, or wait until Rachel's sister Eartha has kits and get a baby from that.  Not an issue but Syd's?  That's going to be VERY hard and rough to do.  I've got some feelers out to get something of his, tort wise, back.  Syd's mother Neena was the only child out of Kitty.  So with any hope I can find Dawn. I'm to a point where I'd trade Legacy for Dawn.  Legacy doesn't mean anything near what Neena's bloodline does to me.  Legacy's not even a broken orange/fawn like Blaze was. So any of my bunny peeps that actually read this, if you happen to have a Syd sister, or a tort offspring of Syd's I will trade a Holland lop doe-Legacy- for her or even Grace when she weans her litter off. 
     I borrowed some traps- live traps- and I caught a cat in it yesterday.  I highly doubt this little cat could have done the damage that was done in the barn, but the cat is no longer with us.  I shot it through the cage wire and discarded it, re-baited the trap and set them out again.  I will catch all these stupid strays and that possum for doing what it did to me.  Those 3 hit me the hardest and are still haunting me to this day. 
     As for horsie updates: Heidi is horribly terrified of the lawn mower.  It's a dangerous fear for her in the summer. She worked herself into a terrible sweat while dad was spot mowing the pasture to knock some of the tall stuff down last night. So I'm hopeful that with no mowing Wednesday or Thursday that I'll be able to get a good ride in on her.   Phoenix is looking VERY good now. I'll have to take and post some pictures.  He's still very hairy but that'll eventually pass and he'll be shed down nicely.
     I'm still on the job hunt market, I need something better than Nestle, something that doesn't drain me so much.  I need more time on work days for the animals. I wish at times that I could just win the lotto and pick up a lesser paying job that doesn't work me to death.  Time for work!

Good, bad, pending improvements!

     Well plenty of good and bad has gone the past couple of days.  Well Sunday was the KY Cup rabbit show.  The show was HORRIBLY run but a good showing for dutch none the less.  Took us forever to get our showing though. 
     First show under Ronn Mauck wasn't as beneficial.  Connie was 2nd of 4 Black sr does, Tigger was 5th of 6 black jr bucks, Raf was 3 of 4 blue sr bucks, Leo 4th of 4 sr blue bucks, Marcie was 2nd of 2 sr does, Natalie was 2nd of 6 Steel sr does (Second only to Anna), and Penelope was the only jr steel doe.  My aunt's poor little Nethie Marty had to get his ear tattooed first thing-which Catherine did for me- and then he disqualified off the table for being 3 pounds.  I need to learn more about Netherland Dwarfs so I know what a good buck is apparently necessary!  I thought he looked decent but apparently I'm wrong. 
     The second show was way more entertaining.  Jeremy Watmuff was a fast talking, cute looking judge from Michigan.  Our numbers were different in the second showConnie was 1st of 3 sr  black does and BOSV, Tigger was 4th of 5 jr black bucks, Raf was 1st of 4 sr blue bucks and BOSV, Leo was 4th of 4 sr blue bucks, Marcie was 1st of 2 sr blue does, Natalie was 1st of 6 steel sr does and BOV, Penelope was still 1st of 1 jr steel does and we never heard the call for the dwarfs second show so poor Marty just got to sit in the carrier.  Jeremy was fun, I had no issue understanding him, as he did talk fast and Tim and Carla were joking about him being a fast talker- must be a northern thing!
     I ended up swapping Tigger to Tim Wiley for a cute little black buck that carries tort and chocolate.- he's Lawrence.  I bought one of his nice tort does (still doesn't have a name) and a cute black doe that carries tort as well- I called her Terra.  So the pending improvements are these little jr's int he barn.  I'm really hopeful these guys can make the improvements I need to take my dutch up a little more in class, good enough to compete with I hadn't been feeling so great by the time I got home, I just put the bunnies-still in their carriers in the barn came in and went to sleep before dinner(Despite I was hungry by then I was more tired I guess!!)  Slept for 11 hours and felt GREAT today! 
     The today was the bad part!  I attempted to get a good ride in while it was gorgeous out.  Heidi decided to be a stubborn mare.  She kept getting spazzy and buddy sour, so I lunged her for a while and got back up again, we fought for a little bit, I made her walk a figure 8 around the x-pens- twice -and walk back out back(making Phoenix start hollering again as she was out of sight), Then stand and let me dismount, I un-tacked since she was seriously sweaty and we did just a little work on the ground and we'll try again tomorrow and if she's still batty then I'll find a way to send her to the Amish for some work.  It'll be obvious that she's outside my abilities by that point then!  Either way if I can't get a good ride in on her, I'll be taking Phoenix out for a good trail ride.  Gives him some time out and about walking to start building muscle.
     The disastrous ride left me feeling very deflated so I made a big x-pen out of the 2 x-pens.  Then I put Pip, Marie, Jeanie, Terra and the new tort doe out in the x-pen and just let them romp around and let me take pictures. 
     I shall end the post with some pictures of the buns out playing.  The Black is Terra, the tort without any stops is Jeanie, Pip and Marie are still kind of hard to tell apart on quick glance.  The biggest, well marked doe is the new doe who still needs a name.

The not so forgotten Past

These pictures are from May 2010- so basically 3 years ago, All I had was Jasmine and Phoenix.  It's not been until the past two years that Phoenix has started to come out of winter real bad so I do seriously think it has something to do with the teeth and dentist I have-rather had I won't use him again. 

 This face coming to meet me is soo deeply missed.

 

 

Phoenix used to come out of winter real well.  I really am curious between the hay (which has been different each winter) and his teeth I really am curious. 

Here's years coming up, the two above are 2010, Here's May 2011:

 

And May 2012:

 

So now I'm terribly curious(when I need to NOT be that curious) I definitely do miss having quarter horses, despite Phoenix isn't a QH and Tessa wasn't a QH (Appaloosa and Paint prospectively-but close enough!).  So I don't know if I'll move to boarding,  I might get another QH(or close thereof) to keep with Heidi.  I might talk to Michael about doing another cross with Blue to that QH stallion for another Tessa sibling baby- but this time I'll take it at weaning or at a year old and raise it here. 

Anyway, just an early morning thought process. 

Hopeful Improvements

     We've got some very hopeful improvements coming around.  I've got my local dealer for PenPals rabbit feed.  And the Rabbits are doing wonderful!  Colby should make his comeback to the show table in late May at the Frankfurt show.  But a little taste for what I've got making it's way to the show table in Frankfurt. 

     The little Leo & Rebecca daughter that I hung onto.  Leo's thrown some seriously nice babies. That's his only staying quality so far!  He needs time, so I'm trying to give him time to mature. 
     My little Tort girlies are also possibly heading towards the Frankfurt show!  I'll try to get some good pictures of them.  It's going to still be windy.
     I did manage to put a harness on Connie and take her with me to go get rabbit feed today.  She hasn't ever had to have a harness on so that was a difficult disaster. 

     So then I got home  and I took out the baby Hollands to play with since they're 3 weeks old, I started their training to sit up posed. 

Baby Bunnies play!

The horses have half eaten their round bale and Phoenix is really looking good.  Now to find a GOOD dentist for him and get his teeth REALLY done.

     The ponies are shedding down VERY nicely.  The storms that came through on Thursday had them wearing their halters, which Phoenix took off but Heidi at least kept hers on for me.  I'm waiting for Monday and Tuesday to go out riding- BOTH days!! 

 

What a week

     First part is work.  OMG I thought the first 2 or 3 days of this week would be bad, and BOY was I right, I just hadn't expected it to be THIS bad. Monday- we ran great, dropped early, was about to go out the door and "Oh we changed the schedule, you gotta make THIS prebatch instead now." Ended up staying late.  Tuesday- We had a changeover.  I've never done a changeover by myself before.  I knew what I had to do and THANKFULLY nothing went wrong for us-other than the waiting.  We had not even half a dough left in the dough hole and we stood there for hour and a half(Not even five minutes worth of mix in the screw as well) because processing decided to stop and do a safety meeting.  Though could have at least gotten all the dough and mix downstairs so we could have done our change-over.  Wednesday night- heaven help us, firs thing the valve to the water and oil line stuck open, even manually turning the water and oil off didn't stop it. Made a HUGE mess took a ton of down time cleaning that mess up.  Then we ran most of the rest of the night just fine.  11pm, the flour system quit- literally.  We couldn't get any flour so we stood there for 2 hours while they tried to fix it and eventually they gave up. Upon talking to a friend of mine  that works first shift line 8 packaging, they got sent home because 'it wouldn't be running anytime soon'.  So I HOPE they learned something about maintaining their equipment instead of doing something about it when it does break down. They won't of coarse cause there's no ONE in any kind of management job that has even the slightly sliver of a brain.
     On a wonderful good note- the grass does seem to still be growing despite it hasn't rained yet this week.  Severe storms are rolling through today and we've been informed by family that they are BAD.  Well good the ground does need water badly, and as soon as the horses finish off their round bale- which I am happy to say Phoenix is actually eating it-they'll be heading over to the big pasture for grass and I'll start dragging and seeding my field!  Phoenix still will pace the fence, he's being a butt head to Heidi over the their supper(which they'll soon not be getting, once they go out to the other pasture that'll be the end of their supper).  But he does go eat hay.  Hopefully he gets the idea and keeps eating hay.  I'll be haltering the two today again for the severe storms that are going to roll through just so they're tagged again as well.  I'm definitely going to look into getting Heidi micro-chipped in the coming year.
     Now just to survive this one last night for 5 days off and I'll be GOLDEN.  I'll have horse back riding, a bunny show and slightly cooler temperatures to play in!  

Stupid horse

     Well so much for Phoenix being the smart one.  They ate a good chunk out of the hay but this morning still Phoenix is pacing the fence, I explained TWICE to him that I had to go to work and they had to eat the hay.  So what does he do?  Pace the fence, push against the fence and hit the gate trying to get out.  UHG, makes me want to put up a SUPER hot wire about 10 inches from the fence so they couldn't get near the poor field wire.  The field wire's barely over a year old and it looks like shit.  Just very, very aggravated with them today.  I mean I know Bahloo did a number on the fence, as did Tessa before her, but now it's Phoenix.  STUPID old horse!  Well he's got the food, if he choses to starve himself to death he starves, I can't force him to eat the hay.  Just retarded old horse.  And here I thought he was the smart one of the two.
     Very strangely I was watching the Holland babies and the doe seems a bit too quiet, the little buck is starting to get more adventurous.  I'm worried, I had thought of keeping her, but now I'm not so sure.  I still love the little buck, these two shouldn't be hard to place into pet homes at all!  Both are still sweet and friendly. I'm kind of excited to see these two turn out. I haven't had a Holland Lop litter since their mother's litter. 
     I've also been playing with my dutchies and I think that Keisha's ready for retirement now. She's not really holding weight well and he killed her last litter.  She was bred one more time but I don't think she took.  So it's retirement time for her!  She's just under 4 years old so it feels like a good time, after all she's been through in her short life. 
     Rain, come on Rain!  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!  Please let it rain good all afternoon.  I can't afford to re-seed that pasture again because it's not raining and it kills all my seed.  That and I can't afford to keep buying hay, I've got so many bills that are backed up right now to get caught up that!  I'll have to put Phoenix down and move Heidi to pasture board somewhere if it doesn't rain!  I don't want to do that this early!!

Happy Days

     Today was a very happy day, I knew Phoenix wasn't eating anything, his weight has been steadily dropping.  I knew I had to find some hay that he WOULD eat.  I'm glad I finally did, well actually it was dad and Aunt Lisa that found it. I had assumed by the wind and the passing clouds that it would actually rain today- but we kept up the high gusting winds, so I got a SHIT ton of inside spring cleaning done today instead!  Got all my blankets washed, and MOST of them bagged for the summer.  I've kept 2 of my afghans, 1 quilt and my comforter still out.  I had window's open all day- fans blowing part of the day to cool off. 
     The whole week I had off was great, I didn't get as much riding in as I wanted to but it did give me a chance to pick and work through my rabbits- give me a game plan there!  I'm going to add 2 or 3 more rabbits total, and then build from my own stock from there.  1 tort buck, 1 or 2 tort does so long as they are all completely unrelated to each other. 

Well as for my babies, this one still needs a name, still working on it with her, she's a Becky x Leo baby.

And Jeanie looks really good!

And Marcie taking a nap after running around in the X-pen.  She looks very funny sleeping on her side. 

And here's the shots of the hay, and also where I shaved Heidi's beard off

     It'll be depressing going back to work, as I tried job searching and NOTHING came up.  That was the biggest blow for the week.  I'll keep trying, and keep searching as something's gotta give.  I plan to move Heidi to some kind of boarding situation in the fall for at least the winter.  After that I'm not completely sure what I'm going to do. 

     I've actually had thoughts of hauling Phoenix all the way to Boonesboro to get his teeth floated if they can do a good enough job.  I'm sure it'll be a HUGE help for him.  If they do a good enough job I'll have to eventually haul Heidi in to get her own done, plus get her wolf teeth taken out! 

     Heidi's in another growth spurt I think too, the Large horse stuff I have for her-doesn't fit anymore.  So I'll have to order a draft horse halter, custom made so it's not a wide strap and it's purple which is what I want!

Gorgeous Spring Finally here!

     It's a gorgeous spring now that spring has finally arrived.  I have my bedroom window open and everything!!  I haven't gotten time to get out and ride at all the past 2 days, been spending far too much time hand grazing the ponies since Phoenix will not eat the hay at all.  I'm at wits end with him.  He'd better hold himself lucky that I love him and the fact that I know this is his last year.  He won't live to see 30 as much as I'd love for him to do so, he won't.  I can't put him into another winter, not knowing what will happen, and knowing what happens every spring the past 3 years.  I can't get a real good dentist out to do his teeth so the vet does the best he can and we won't push back onto hay. 
     The only real good thing about moving Heidi to boarding is having the company to ride with plus not having to worry about the hay situation.  I won't have to bring in a crap load of hay for the winter, and stack it in the barn, just 30 - 40 bales for the rabbits and the bottle calves in the spring. That'll be it.  And thankfully the place I plan to board Heidi at does sell hay so I'll probably buy it off of him in the fall for them.  It's also part of the reason I'm doing a rabbit herd sell down. 
     My mini rex is going, I'm cutting back my dutch, so I've got more up for sale than I have plans to bring in. I've got several of the blue Dutch brood does that are going to get put up for sale and if all else fails they'll be butchered.  I'm very hopeful that Grace produces a NICE blue buck from Leo so I can keep that in his father's place.  Leo's actually quite annoying.  I cannot keep hay in with him because he digs it all out of his hay rack. I had to go ahead and buy that expensive hay from TSC since the bunnies don't want to eat the Montgomery's hay either!  It's such a pain when everything has other plans!! I guess I'll be using the rest of the Montgomery hay to bed the calves with.  Beats the heck out of buying shavings to put them on.  Oh well something's gotta give!
     I should be losing the Roark's field part way through the summer. He thinks I'll have a few more months so I'm figuring around Labor day to either put the ponies on hay or put Phoenix down and move Heidi to boarding.  Which is probably the more likely thing to do.  David said one of the guys looking at buying the place intends to run cattle on it- the field should be good for that!  I just got done seeding a majority of it.  I guess I'm glad I didn't re-fence the one end like I had planned on doing!  If the co-worker of his buys it, I can keep the ponies on the fields and they might even let me fence in the other side and use that as pasture land as well.  I probably won't use it as pasture land or pay to fence it in because Phoenix will be getting put down before winter- though it would keep him on pasture longer thus keeping him around.   Either way I'm watching the way it goes to see what happens.   It gives me a chance to work on an end game if I have to.  I know a majority of my end game, it's just playing it out.  Dad said he would put Phoenix down- his 41 Mag will do the job, but I know damn good and well that I won't be able to be out there for that.  I found standing there when the vet euthanized Jasmine wasn't bad, I was there when Starbuck was euthanized.  I was there with Sundown when Dad and the 41 Mag took care of her.  I probably could be there, I just have to give myself enough forewarning to rationalize everything.
     Either way, my field still needs to be dragged and seeded.  I'll have to get the drag tomorrow from my Aunt, since it's hers and we'll just be borrowing it.  I still have yet to buy the seed, but paychecks are still a little slim here. I'm trying to do too much on what little paycheck I do have.  Good news for the paycheck is there's a guy 12 miles-yes 12 MILES from our house that will order in the PenPals rabbit feed!  I have 3 bags coming in next week from him!  And I'll use that to figure out how fast I go through 50#'s and this way since he only order's once a month, I'll have to figure out exactly how much a month I'll need and by the time he needs to order it I'll have it figured out and order my monthly allotment when he orders.  It would be so awesome to keep my bunnies on the PenPals, everyone looks for their feed in the mornings, including Colby and Keisha! 
     I know this blog post is all over the place but my brain is also all over the place, I have a sinus infection that I'm fighting with right now because I don't have the heart to go back to the doc's yet.  I'm not ready to see one yet.  I didn't have a bad experience with the surgeon but I'm just not ready yet.  I've upped my Vitamin C and hoping that, that helps. I've taken enough decongestant that my sinus' have dried out and now I can pinpoint the base source.  I'm going to try taking Zyrtec D -currently I take plain Zyrtec.  If that doesn't work then I'll be finding an allergy specialist and getting something stronger for take care of this, I can't stand having sinus infections off and on. It's gotta be horses, rabbits or hay!  That's what I'm around 98% of the time!  The constant pressure and the smell are the dead giveaways! 
     Either way I'd better stop at some point.  I need to shower and eat dinner(Yes it's 10pm and it's dinner time!)

Bunny Cut time!

     Well it's come the time to start making adjustments start tweaking, culling and seeing where we want to head with the herd. I have fully decided to trim back on blacks and steels.  I've moved Anna already, she's in a good place with the Compton's to help improve their herd, and I did have her daughter here that I wanted to keep as so far it's one of the best babies that Raf has thrown.  Keisha's been on the knife's edge, which might have been why she killed that last litter of hers.  She could be telling me she's done and ready for retirement.  She will be retired here with me as she's done so much to keep everything together for me. I bred her for one last litter today to Syd.  I'm hoping by the switch in feed to PenPals,  It might help.  She got a lot perkier after the carrot this afternoon.  
     Sadly I did also breed my best tort doe as well today.  She's tormenting the crap out of the bucks near her.  So as much as I wanted to wait, I figured 95% of my does were all asking to be bred, and I did breed Keisha that I'll breed her as well this way I have a foster available if I need it.  I still have Colby and Dalton for the show in 2 weeks and a couple of other does. But I kinda got a bit annoyed with the rabbits today, a lot of them I can't even tell you who their parents were off the top of my head or when they were born or SOMETHING about them.   So I knew it was time to finally give in and decide what colors I want to work on.  Blues and Torts.  Syd, Connie, Penelope and Natalie will stay around as well as my pair of Chinchilla's but other than that now it was time to look and focus on my blues and see where to trim and where to leave to improve.  Becky and her dam didn't make the cut due to the non show-ablity of them.  Becky's dam's gotten too long in body and thus regulated for a brood doe and Becky is also a tad long in body, has a tied elbow and a color spot on the back of her neck.  She's an awesome brood doe but my buns need to be both Show and Brood animals.  Keisha's one of my exceptions due to her age(the other is Jeanie), the two blue's are not that old and can go to help another breeder.  Zoey didn't make the cut because she's a black, and while she hasn't hit the show table yet, she probably won't at all anyway, well maybe KY Cup.   
     When I chose to breed Rachel today, I actually chose to breed her to Dalton, despite they're half siblings.  Dalton's the smaller buck and I'd really like Rachel to get a good litter under her belt before I test her with a different buck.  I'm hoping to be able to pick up a pair or a full trio of outside lines.  I've already been talking to Dakotah Gould, Emily Mason and I still have to contact Kevin Hooper and Al Gerhart to see what they have for torts.  I'm hoping to see Tim Wiley at KY Cup and get one from him as well.  I've got a good solid little Tort base brood doe(the second except to my show and Brood requirements) from the Compton's.  Jeanie's a doll and EXTREMELY athletic.  I might have to start teaching some rabbit hopping, cause Jeanie would ROCK there! 
     As for the ponies, Phoenix and Heidi are not happy being back in my field from where I seeded the Roark's pasture on Sunday, but they're managing.  I hope tomorrow afternoon I can take up the old man and go out for a little ride, see if I can work my courage up to trot, maybe even Canter~I can SERIOUSLY dream!  Who knows I may feel comfortable enough with Phoenix to get a little canter and jog in.  He's been doing really good.  Myself, I've been tottering around unsure of what I'm doing.  I'm trying to figure out why my right knee, ankle and foot is getting super stiff and tight.  So I'm hoping It has something to do with my whole body in general.  I need to get control of my digestive tract and then my weight and move myself back where I need to go.  After having my sister here over the weekend it does make me wish I could just hide.  By the end of the weekend, I just hid in the barn 99% of the time, cause she's just irritating!!!  That's for another long post.  I think I've blown enough brain cells for one day!