Jinx (You owe me a coke)

Remember that game when we were kids?

Jinx is the Missouri Fox Trotter Mare we were trying. Mike decided that the "oopsie" was his fault, not the mare's, and that we should buy her. She came with the barn name "Angel". Well, I already have one of those so we needed a new name for her. We were initially calling her Fred, but I like Jinx better. I'll try to get pics later when it's not so hot and I can get her cleaned up.

Little Mr. Bullwinkle has taken to playing with the electric tape lately. I've been lazy and had the fence off. Tonight he was having WAY too much fun, so I flipped the switch. Because the tape was partially grounded, he didn't get much of a jolt. But he DID get enough for him to leave it alone! Little Stinker! He's not being bad, he's just bored with being locked up.

Last weekend, Mike and I spray weed killer on the pasture. It'll be Saturday before it's watered in enough to turn the horses back out. I've been turning the sprinklers on in the runs so the horses have at least a few minutes of relief from the heat. They all walk out and stand in the spray, except for Millie. She hides in the barn. Whtever will she do when it rains this fall? Silly girl!

Once the weather breaks, it'll be time for beauty parlor day for EVERYONE! They need clipped and bathed and brushed. Itj's just too HOT!

The Land of No Poop and Dirt Boogers

That's my place. Vermillion Acres

Yesterday, I decided that I HAD to do some cleaning. I had to just suck it up, sweat a little (or a lot) and pick up the manure. I figured that I could get at least one run done before I got too hot to go any further.

Umm... NO!

Mike came out and started at the one end of the barn with the 4-wheeler and the trailer. I started at the other with the wheel barrow. An hour and half later, we were done.

Done picking up poo and done sweating. We were over-heated, filthy, and dehydrated. So we sat on the porch to cool off. It was 97 in the shade.

Ah...refreshing!

We were going to fill the grandson's kiddie pool, but decided to just get in the shower to cool off. It was SO DANG HOT!!

Tonight, it's hotter. 102 in the shade right now. Glad the outside chores are done. Horses are fed or turned out, water tubs refilled, and Mike (aka Cooker Bitch) has made his wonderful homemade spaghetti sauce. Kali ran to the store for some fresh, soft french bread. I'm going to make a salad and have some of the yummy basalmic vinager that Barb gave me. (Yes..surprisingly, I have some left!)

It's supposed to be hotter this weekend. A LOT hotter! When it finally cools down to 85 degrees, I'll be chilled.

Mike Has A Boo-boo!

We are are trying a Missouri Fox Trotter Mare (Mo Fo) as a trail horse for Mike. We are going to pass on this mare. It has NOTHING to do with the horse and EVERYTHING to do with Mike. It's too dangerous for him. He had back surgery and his back still bothers him. In addition, he doesn't know how to "read" a horse for action/reaction, and he doesn't know what to do when something happens.

On July 16, we went out for a ride, and aside from the mare sticking her nose in the butt of the horse in front of her, she did NOTHING wrong. So then, when we get home, so some reason, Mike wanted to lope the mare in the arena. To be honest, he should NEVER lope any horse, EVER, unless a bear is after him and the horse. There's just no needs. But for some reason, known only to Mike, he wanted to lope the mare.

So I followed him to the arena on Angel and stood outside. The Mo Fo mare wanted to be done and kept cutting the circle, rather than staying on the rail. So Mike gave up and headed back toward the gate.

There were two barrels laying on their side in the arena, off the rail. The horse was going where Mike pointed her, which was right toward the barrel. She looked HARD at the skeery barrels, and instead of jumping over them, did a tiny little jump to the side. (You or I would have seen that she was "looking", and either changed direction, or stopped her to let her look at them) Mike was looking from me to the horse and back, and totally did not read what was happening. So he was pitched forward onto her shoulder, and caught the horn of the saddle in the belly.

Pics of the result here.

So (since Mike is SO SO SO beginner) he just hung there, rather than sitting back in the saddle. Well, you know where his heels were. The horse got a little jumpy, like she was going to buck, then Mike sat up, pulled the mare up, and got off. She did NOTHING wrong and it wasn't her fault!

Anyway, do you know of anyone who needs a VERY nice, well broke trail horse? Been in the mountains, crossed water, looks but isn't spooky. Smooth, BROKE, sweet, easy to catch, load, bathe, nice feet, BIG mare - owners says 15.2 but I think she's taller. $900

Fly Mask Rodeo

We've got flies. All of a sudden, we've got a TON of flies! In spite of the predators that we have been putting out all summer. Just all of a sudden, there are swarms on some of the horse's faces.

Millie, Honey, and Angel are the worst. They don't seem to bother the others for whatever reason.

Millie was a champ! To my knowledge, she's never had a fly mask on. She wanted to taste it. So I let her. After she spat it out, I put it on, adjusted it, no problem. Walked happily out the pasture saying "Neener neener" to the flies!

Honey wasn't really interested in the fly mask and walked off. I cornered her and she stood there quietly while I put it on and adjusted it.

Angel had flies on her face and around her eye. Poor baby. She watched me walk up with the fly mask. As soon as I tried to put it on, she sat down on her butt and scrambled away backward. I could NOT get close to her after that. She said (I heard her) "OH HELL NO!!!"

Ok FINE! Suffer!

Jazzy is gimpy today because of her trim. It's not that the farrier trimmed her too short. It's bacause she is "puss footed" and unless she has shoes on, she's tender for a while. She'll toughen up!

The other post will come...

Time for Pedicures!!

The farrier came out today. He just left a whole sweatier and richer than when he got here. $275 for 2 shoes, 3 trims, 1 half shoe.

Honey has a had a really bad verticle crack in one front foot, so I had him put shoes on the front until it grows out. She also looked a little thin to me (as opposed to the fat, waddling hippo she was this spring), so I turned her out to graze with The Kid (Bullwinkle).

Jazzy had done something rolling and her back and hips are out of whack. So until we can get a chiropractor over here, she's not being ridden. So I pulled her shoes. She's got pretty good feet anyway, so it won't hurt her to be barefoot.

Squirrel and Angel got their feet trimmed and re-shod. Squirrel is all healed from her attempted suicide, though the hair hasn't grown back yet.

Bullwinkle got trimmed up. He did really good until half way through the last foot. He did NOT want to finish. It took a few minutes to get him to settle, but my farrier is very patient and in the end, we got the foot done. Thank you Mary for all your hard work gentling this colt and getting him used to having his feet handled!




We suspect that the house behind us has sold. There are peoples over there today, and there were lights on in the house last night around 10:30. This is all new activity, so of course, we're curious about the "happenings."


Mike got home with 4 tons of hay while the farrier was working on the last horse. It's orchard grass hay with a little bit of alfalfa in it. I still need to get some straight alfalfa put for winter, but that will be a couple months down the road.

I have another blog coming about a Mosouri Fox Trotter mare that we are "test driving", and a picture, but I'll have to wait and sneak it onto the blog when Mike is gone. (He's sitting here in the room with me...) Anyway, the bottom line is, he doesn't have much horse sense, but that's ok. That'll come either later today, or tomorrow.

Barb - Hope everything is still going great with Maya. I think Mike is over his withdrawals. :O)

Candice - Hope you're having a good time with the girls!


It is stinking HOT here - supposed to be over 100 today! Guess I better get the hay unloaded before it gets any hotter!

Senseless Abuse

UPDATE

JUSTICE FOR DUALLY - WENDY
Donations for vet bills:
First National Bank South Dakota
Wendy Halweg-Dually's Benefit Account
210 N. Lawler
PO Box 1366
Mitchell SD 57301



Update - there are people putting together fund raising activities. I'll post the links when I receive them.

I will update this as more information becomes available. Please cross-post and share with other horse people.


Horse thieves soughtInvestigation continues after horse found injured
By David Montgomery
Capital journal staff
Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, Jul 08, 2009 - 12:23:43 am CDT
FORT PIERRE — When Wendy Halweg put her horse Dually in his stall after the Fourth of July Rodeo Saturday night, the pair had just turned in a strong third-place performance in the women’s barrel racing competition.

Early the next morning, Halweg found Dually missing from his stall. She searched the rodeo grounds frantically before calling the Stanley County Sheriff’s Department. A deputy soon found Dually — but in far worse condition than Halweg had left the horse.

“He had been pretty much terrorized or tortured,” Halweg said. “He was severely rope-burned and was missing shoes.”
Dually is now recuperating at a veterinary clinic, and Halweg said there is a good chance he will never compete in rodeos again.

Stanley County Sheriff Brad Rathbun said Tuesday an investigation into the incident is underway with several suspects.

“As soon as we can figure out what’s going on, then we’ll make an arrest,” Rathbun said. “We’re hoping to wrap it up here by the end of the week.”

Sindi Jandreau, director of the Badlands Circuit for the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association, said the incident has sent shock waves through the rodeo community.

“In our rodeo world, nobody bothers anybody’s horses. They’re like our kids,” Jandreau said. “You just don’t mess with them. It’s kind of a cowboy code.”

Halweg said she is shocked anyone could treat a horse as roughly as Dually was treated.

“For someone to terrorize a horse — and with the shape he was in not call a vet or call the sheriff — is amazing to me,” Halweg said. “I cannot believe that anyone would leave a horse how he was left.”

According to Rathbun, a sheriff’s deputy responded around 7:30 a.m. Sunday to an address on Two Rivers Street where a horse had damaged a vehicle. The horse had been tied up at a residence on Two Rivers Street, Rathbun said, and a deputy found someone on the horse. Shortly after arriving, Rathbun said, the deputy received Halweg’s report about Dually missing from his pen.

Rathbun declined to release additional information about the case, citing a pending investigation.

Jandreau said the experience must have been traumatic for a rodeo horse.

“They are so pampered. Most rodeo contestants take extremely good care of their animals. I’m sure he just couldn’t even imagine that someone would rope him and hit him or treat him like that,” Jandreau said. “Out here, it’s a ranching community. It just blows my mind that somebody would do that in South Dakota.”

The incident has changed Halweg’s plans. She was registered for four rodeos this weekend and is in 8th place to go to the circuit finals, Halweg said. But she said she is most concerned for Dually’s well-being.

“This is as if it’s my first-born child. It’s no different,” Halweg said. “He’s pretty phenomenal.”

Jandreau said she hopes justice is done.

“Hopefully it’ll come to an end and justice will be served,” Jandreau said. “It would make the rodeo world a lot happier. There’s people who would like to handle it their own way.”

Halweg urged people who have information about the incident to contact the authorities.

“If they will do that to a horse, what is next?” Halweg said. “I’m just hoping that they catch the guilty parties and that something’s done about it.”


And here's another report

Major abuse done to rodeo horse

Jul 09, 2009 - 04:05:11 CDT
By LAUREN DONOVAN
Bismarck Tribune
A barrel horse that won the recent Dickinson Roughrider Rodeo and took third at Killdeer's Fourth of July rodeo Saturday was stolen from a South Dakota rodeo grounds Sunday and abused, if not tortured.

The 12-year-old Dually remains under a veterinarian's care in South Dakota, where it was taken Sunday afternoon after its owner and the Stanley County (S.D.) sheriff were informed where it had been dropped off in a holding pen.

The horse was taken from a rodeo pen at Fort Pierre, S.D., sometime after 4:30 a.m. Sunday and discovered several hours later in a pen in town, said Sheriff Brad Rathbun.

Its owner, Wendy Halweg of Mitchell, S.D., said it isn't certain whether the prize-winning horse she says is "priceless," but valued at $75,000, will ever compete again.

Halweg competed at Killdeer and then drove to Fort Pierre for a rodeo. She said she was sleeping in a horse-trailer bunk not 50 feet away, when at least one person, and likely more, removed Dually from a secure pen.

The major abuse was to the horse's legs, which were severely rope-burned deep into the tissue and muscle, she said. The horse is wrapped in bandages and is being sedated.

Rathbun said the incident remains under investigation, and he hopes to make at least one arrest by the end of the week.

The sheriff said he doesn't know if the abuse was intentional, or the outcome of bad judgment.

He said the incident is being discussed on Internet blogs, making it difficult to separate what people really know, from what they read, as he conducts his investigation.

"It's (blogging) kind of gotten in the way," the sheriff said.

Halweg won't speculate about how her horse was so severely injured, though she expects to have her day in court.

Her friend and co-rodeo rider, Heidi Uecker of Hettinger, said what is known "is he was absolutely tortured."

Uecker said she believes after it was stolen from the pen, the horse was roped repeatedly and ridden with a wire cable around its neck. She said it was stretched with ropes to its neck and back legs, possibly between two pickups.

Uecker has started a benefit fund to help pay Dually's veterinarian bills at justicefordually@;gmail.com. The South Dakota Rodeo Association is offering a reward for information.

Besides the expense of driving 180 miles every day after work to see the horse, Halweg said she'll lose any rodeo income she might have earned this summer and a chance to defend her standings.

Right now, she's most concerned about a horse that's been hers all its life and one she trained to become a champion.

"I don't have any kids. I guess he's like my firstborn," she said.

She does hope for justice and consequences.

"This horse is innocent, and if they can do it to a horse, where does it go from here? If this is OK, what else is OK?" she said.

DANG HORSE!!!

It's a beautiful night, so I thought I'd go for a ride. "THOUGHT" being the key word here.

I pulled Squirrel out and tied her up. I was going to wipe some fly spray on her face, but tiny pieces of rags eat horses. She pulled back and came untied. She stood there looking at me and quietly let me wipe around her eyes and on her face. Stupid horse!

I still needed to brush her, so I looped the lead rope around the rail and stepped into the tack room.

Here's where the DANG HORSE part comes in:

I'd put my cigarettes and cell phone on top of the end post. When I stepped into the tack room, Squirrel stepped forward, checked the ground from any dropped cookies (cuz you know, there just might be a cookie down there), brought her head up too close to the end of the rail, which snugged her up. She pulled, which cause my cell phone and cigs to drop, which scared her. So she's now fighting being snugged up and the horse eating cigarettes, reared, lunged forward and dang near impaled herself on the 6 inch round post.

The top of the post hit her in the middle, front of her neck, neatly shaving it down to the skin and cutting a nice slice of skin off. The end of the rail shredded her chest, shaving one spot, slicing several other spots.

And of course, she skinned her the top of her hocks because she was sliding around in the gravel, and the outside of her knee was cut.

Then there's her nose and lip. Minor in comparison, but still bleeding.

I never even got her brushed! I spent the next half hour doctoring my poor stupid horse! THEN..to top everything off, my bottle of T-Zone Cream, which I LOVE for these kinds of boo-boos, sprouted legs and walked off. (That means I forgot where I put it)

Now it's too late to ride, even if I chose another horse, and to be honest, after this trauma, I don't even WANT to ride.

DANG HORSE!!!

You know it's hot when...

GEEZ!!! 80 degrees feels cool! Over the weekend, it was 102! It was SO HOT!!!

I turned the horses out and turned on the sprinklers. All the horses grazed under the sprinklers to stay cool. This morning, it was much cooler and the high so far today is 84 degrees!

My son brought his family over and my grandson, Asher, got to play in his new pool.

Larka, who is now Maya, went to live with Barb O. I think it's a great match. Barb has been saying wonderful things about her so far. Today was Maya's first day home alone, so we'll see how many shrubs are dug up. Barb? Anything to report?

The 4th of July was HOT, and though we could see the fireworks, they pretty much sucked. We live only a mile from the stadium, and they shoot fireworks off at the end of every home game. (They play minor league baseball up there) So the horses are used to the noise, etc. They stood at the barn and I swear I heard them say "Oooh! Aaah" All except Angel...she napped through it. Just another day on the farm for her.

Not much else is happening around here. It's just been too hot. I haven't picked up poop since the last time - a month ago or so. I might get ambitious tonight and ride one of my horses. And I might not.