dancinghorse | Perseids and Gila Monsters

Fabulous Perseid last night: the first clear night in some time, this being monsoons and often socked in with lightning, with the Milky Way pouring down the sky (I live in astronomer heaven, there are many in my little town) and the Swan on the zenith. I looked up and two large, very bright meteors leaped apart from one another and headed in opposite directions.

We may not see much tonight. I smell rain.

casacorona 17 miles SW of me is being relentlessly hammered. So far we've just had glancing blows, sprinkles and spits of rain but nothing serious.

This morning as I went out to run errands (had to pick up t*x packet at accountant's, wince flinch ouch ouch ouch), a baby gila monster headed across the road by the next property down. It was a lissome thing, maybe a third the size of an adult, and it stopped to glare at my car, but when the car didn't move, it trucked on off the road at top speed for a gila monster--the living image of Determination.

I think I should model my life on that little monster.

We are still roofless. Insurance procedure crawls along. I hope to have the barn put back together by September, please god. Pieces of it are coming down without the roof to support them, and the stalls are warping slowly but surely into odd shapes. The horses make do with part of a temporary shelter and the whole of another, and a few bits of roof. Luckily the netbud's new stallion who is coming here from California for a couple of weeks before being evaluated and shipped home to Oklahoma is not arriving the 20th as advertised, but will be leaving his birth farm on the 29th. The hauler is a QH breeder from up near Phoenix, and grew up in Vail--nice little bit of serendipity. I'll ask him about possibly bringing Tia down in November, if he seems as good as advertised.

At any rate, this young gentleman is no longer going to arrive in the middle of Cleanup Weekend, when a bunch of us tackle the debris of the past decade, haul off all the old dead fence panels and bits of wire and broken hay pallets and on and on, and make repairs and spiff up the place so Teacher Who Must Be Obeyed is not unduly embarrassed to be teaching strangers on Lipizzans in her clinic the day before the evaluations. (September 16th. If you're interested, check for details here and click on the Gala page. This is a great relief. I might even have a barn to put him in by the time he gets here.

He goes by the nickname of Daystar. I don't know if his breeder realizes what this really means. I do hope he doesn't live up to said meaning. Really.

And yes, we are wondering how Pooka will handle another stallion on the place. To date he's been the soul of courtesy to new arrivals; the only horse he truly hates is keed. But we haven't tested him with a 4yo stallion. And there will be a 3yo staying here evals weekend, and it's rather likely there will be an older, ex-Excalibur stallion here at least for the clinic. With luck Pooka's hardwiring will kick in and his hormones shut down and he'll be Perfect. We can hope.

Meanwhile, in true Perversity of the Universe fashion, his heretofore exemplary feet have gone crumple and he has a quarter crack the size of the Marianas Trench. He has had to have vet and shoer in conference, and serious repair$. With more to come and Curt the Wonder Shoer promises cosmetic acceptability plus full soundness on evaluation day. Which had better happen because he's the conformation demo pony. Naturally this would have to happen now.

I have to say, if he had to have an hour's worth of major work with vet and shoer all over him, at least he made his mama proud. The vet was astonished and deeply impressed. Not many stallions, he said, would stand that quietly for that long, including 20 solid minutes with his foot up being measured, dremeled (first power tool he ever had on his precious bod), and patched. All he did was turn his head occasionally to make sure he had all his mares in sight. When the dremeling started, he put his nose in my hand and sighed, being patient.

During this process, keed was being keed, i.e. cracking up the vet tech by shaking the big mesquite tree on the far side of the arena to knock down beans, which his mother then ate. That's my keed, clown to the bone.

I haven't been doing much riding, between major heat (July was the hottest month on record in Tucson) followed by major monsoons, and endless assorted duck-nibblage throughout. Lesson days have been about training the Girlz to walk and trot in hand for inspection, and training them to load on the trailer. This is ongoing. Camilla, who we thought would present the most problems--she can grow roots when confused--has turned out to be as easy as can be. She loves it. She's still not totally sure about those back feet on that high step-up, but she has the backing-out part down cold. Wonderful balance that mare has. Gaudia has the most challenging job because although she's actually taller than Camilla, she's just 2 and the step is awfully high for her. Ephiny is quite a bit taller so has a much easier time of it. Her thing is being Extremely Alpha and also being a Teenager. However she has a wonderful mind when it's not having adolescent-bitch-queen fits, and she makes a conscious decision to work with me, including staying calm when frightened. Which is an excellent mind for a horse to have.

Our next session is Monday, when our marathon runner, who is also Joni's longest-lasting student (I'm number two), comes to meet the Girlz and see if they can work together. We need speed and we need scope to show them off in hand, and she has it. Also, stamina, though they do set up a nice slipstream which you can ride as they go.

I have managed to put Pandora back under saddle, helped by biting the bullet and buying a new saddle that actually fits keed, Capria, and Pandora. My old one is a bit narrow in the channel for them. Keed always hated it. Capria always had an area of resistance in the middle of her back, which is now gone. And Pandora would squeal and take off, which she is no longer doing. She had chiro this week and is much looser as a result, got a very good report from the Feelgood Lady although she has a weird spinal reflex in the right hind, which collapses when flexed and only when flexed. No neurological problems, no movement problems. Just this strange thing. Chiro thinks it's a sign of old EPM--long since recovered from, but she has this odd little bit to remember it by.

Ember's neck is much better. She's out with the big herd and coping well, and yes, she is indeed pregnant. There were twins, but we're hoping she's absorbed one. We'll find out on the 23rd when she has her 45-day.

She's staying through the Gala--

lynnesite is our photographer and she and the baby's owner decided to make one trip rather than try to manage two. Yes, my barn does runneth over, need you ask? Ember is very easy to have around, so it's no problem to have her here.

We are also working on books. Yes. Really. In spite of everything. My formerly direct line of advance through a draft has turned into Celtic knotwork with the new one, which is interesting if rather frustrating when Ye Ed gets impatient because my dears, it is Late. Oh so Late. But it will be done. Really. Seriously. Soon.