The Horses: An Introduction

Yesterday I got to thinking, why don't I have more pictures of the horses? Well, aside from the fact that a wonderful photographer donates her services and we have lots of pictures around, I always have my hands full while I'm there! So after running to town to pick up a couple things, I came back and took some photos. I'd like to do a post on each horse, but here's a quick intro for all the horses currently up for adoption!

Sadie is a small gaited mare in her teens who's been here about a month. She had a few years off of work, but she's sound and we evaluated her under saddle on Sunday. I don't know much about her history except that she stopped being ridden after backing her way home on a trail ride. She tried to back into the gate multiple times during her test ride, but our wonderful young rider kept with her and eventually had her going on the rail at a variety of gaits...

This is Hope. She's been up front for three days now and seems very sweet, but a bit shy. This is not the best picture, but you can still see how underweight she is even after several weeks of proper feeding. I think she's been here about a month as well, but spent longer in quarintine thanks to some skin parasites. I don't know how old she is, I think late teens.

Meet Kahlua, the awesome paint mare is who I've been working with lately! She has a club foot but stays sound with proper shoeing and is learning to work calmly at the walk and trot in the arena. Some of the other riders think she's squirrely, but I think she's a smart little mare who will give you the run-around if she thinks she can get away with it! She'll be a fine trail horse for a calm, confident rider. She's only 7 or 8 and hasn'd been working under saddle very long.

This cute fellow is Badger. He and his penmate, Billy, are both very late 20s and have been living together for at least a decade. They came in together with a couple other horses who had been starved more than once on dude strings and are not up for adoption due to their repeated bad luck. They get used a lot for group demos like massage and basic horse health because they're calm and love having lots of people paying attention to them!

Princess is the fattest mini on the face of the planet. See my previous post on her if you're curious as to why...

Mattie is a nearly 3 year old registered Quarter Horse mare who was bought from the kill buyer at the last possible moment by a kindhearted woman who was there picking up a mule she'd bought at the auction. Mattie had strangles and was severely underweight, and this mule had apparently been standing over her and refused to leave without her! We initially thought she was a yearling, she was so tiny! After her long stay in quarintine, she's put on tons of weight and grown several inches! We're still learning a lot about her past...

Winston is a five year old, 17+ hand Quarter Horse gelding who has injuries in all four legs from a jumpping carrier that began at 3, way way way too early!

Romeo got his name from that heart-shaped spot on his shoulder. He's an Arab in his early 20s, mostly sound, likes going on the trail.

Winston and Romeo think they're so studly!

Bella has had pretty much every neurological disease possible, and thus has permanent nerve damage to her back legs. Lots of dedicated people have worked to get her sound and happy, and last month she was even able to hold up her own back feet for the farrier!

Honey's a black Thoroughbred mare with a long history of bad homes. Her hing legs are covered in scars and she came to use with abcesses in three of her hooves. I think she's been her over 6 months, and she's a different horse now that she can move around comfortably! She was such a great sport getting her feet soaked those first few weeks, it was hard to believe a horse that wary of people was letting us mess with her so much! I think both Bella and Honey are late teens.

Oh, Bailey! 42 years old, mostly blind, mostly deaf, completely spunky! She's SUCH a love!

I've talked about Isis before. She's 8, has terrible ringbone, and was beat nearly to death by a kill buyer. After a few years here, though, I'd say she's looking pretty damn good!

Codi was a barrel racer back in her prime, and at 33 she's still got plenty of spunk! She has cushings but is otherwise in pretty great shape for the shape that she's in! This is a terrible picture of her being disspointed that I wasn't bringing her anything delicious, but she has the cutest face and it always so excited to see people, she's one of my favorites!

The little hackney pony in the foreground is Jack, and Storm is the Morgan in the pen behind. Jack came in this fall with a big Saddlebred gelding, both nearly skeletal. His eyes were bugging out of his head and he cowered in the back of his shelter for weeks, but an equine eye specialist, dental care, and haycube/ beet pulp/ Triple Crown senior soup three times a day made all the difference in the world! He's very skittish about people, but we hear he was quite the looker as a parade horse in his prime! He's 26 years old.

Storm belonged to an older gentleman who owned him for all 20 years of his life. They went trail riding every single day, and we did our best to help him keep Storm but in the end we couldn't help him out enough to keep up with the rising cost of hay. He's a total love, and I do hope his old owner will make the difficult trip out here to visit him sooner or later!

Finally, we have Amigo. Aside from being a butthead around mares, this 18 year old quarter horse is a total champ! He had a long carrier as a reining horse before being used in lesson programs for begginer riders. He's sound, reliable on the trail, and takes care of his rider. I would love to see him go home with a little boy who will love the snot out of him! I mean, this is the sort of fallen-through-the-cracks wonderful horse that people wish they could find at a rescue! Now that he's in good weight, there's no reason for him to still be here!

The Nebraska Babies

I went over this morning to check out the weanlings, or as it turns out, yearlings that we took from the Nebraska mustang disaster.
(See also here).

They're surprisingly curious about people, and I think they both have sweet eyes.

They're clearly enjoying the perks of life at HPL: All-you-can-eat grass hay and a clean trough of water!

Cancer Conference, Titanium Wedding Bands, Gluttony?

First off, cancer conference rocked! It was a long stressful painful day after which I fell onto the couch with my cat and cried for a bit, but I feel like it was a great overall experience and I left feeling very motivated with my research goals. Also, learning the pathology of rhabdomyosarcoma was really neat because it's so hard to classify. There have been arguments about how to define each type since at least the 1950s, so there was a lot more to look at then just cell differentiation etc. I think it's pretty cool that the subendothelium pushing into the hollow organs creates bunching that looks like grapes- pretty weird for a tumor of this variety! Obviously I don't think cancer = awesome, but it is really interesting to me and I get excited about some really awful things as long as it's just as pathology, not as a person I can't help.

I got my pomegranate tree, but since it's snowing (again) it has to live inside for a bit. It's really beautiful, I hope it blooms this year! Big, orangey flowers :-)

A high-school teacher of mine once said, "Some people plan their meals days ahead. Can you believe that? That's gluttony!"
Any thoughts?

I am so lucky to not have totally fucked eating habits after being told every week for years that I was fat and needed to take ______ diet pill or eat this diet food to be a better person (thank you, riding coaches from Hell!), having a mother who compulsively eats junk food at night but eats healthier than anyone I know during the daytime, working at a place where I got shit for being a size 8, and living in a town where you could always find 8-10s because almost no one is bigger than a 6! I guess the saving grace for me is that the community focus was on health, not weight. Have you seen an ultra-marathon runner? NOT catwalk material! My idea of beauty is skiing all day and still having energy to go ice skating in the evening if you want to, indulging in good food when you're invited to, and belly laughing when you're inspired to.

That teacher's "lesson," though, really messed with my head. I mean, I do sometimes fall asleep planning tomorrow's dinner, so am I a glutton? Or does it just go along with reading Gourmet cover-to-cover, recipes included, the moment it arrives each month? Or does that just REALLY make me a glutton? I love good food, I eat healthier when I plan lovely meals full of fresh produce and good cuts of meat, but I also straight-up refuse to eat a lot of junk food. Twinkies, McD's, soda- all no-nos in my book. I guess I just don't understand what she meant, planning meals = gluttony when in my mind eating too much = gluttony.

Tonight, lemony shrimp and asparagus risotto and bananas foster. Yesterday, JB and I went to the farmer's market and bought local munchies: raw cow's milk cheese from Windsor dairy, goat brie from Haystack Mountain, arugla from one of the co-op organic farms, bread from Udi's bakery in Denver, a tomato from another local farm (that happens to have a greenhouse, I think they make a killing having tomatoes this early in the year!), corn tortillas, apricot strudel... made the world's best paninis with the brie and veggies :-) and I had the cow's milk cheese for breakfast. Uber-Yum!!!

4-20/ Columbine/ Romeo vs. Sliding-Glass Doors

Caitlin wrote about the Columbine shootings so I'll let that explain what I probably should feel.

Mr. Mewton has been inconsolable since his Juliet (the neighbor's outdoor kitty) stopped visiting him. She spent several days under the window or pawing at the sliding glass door while Mr. Mewton meowed softly in her direction. But, alas, his forbidden love is afraid of people and I have been gardening just outside the sliding glass door. She did come up and hiss loudly at me once, which I found pretty hilarious. Mr. Mewton, however, spent the rest of the wandering around the house crying and refusing to play with us.

I had chem lab this afternoon and got out around 5pm... WOW where there a shit ton of people wander through the dank haze that signifies 4-20 on campus! Someone somewhere must have been selling cotton candy because it was a popular acessory among the glazed-eyed "hippies." I stopped at the store for some goat cheese and bread and this nicely dressed man went up to the baker...
Baker: "Can I help you?"
Guy in Tie: "How am I? I'm cool, man. Thanks."
Baker: "Um,"
Guy: "Oh, do I want bread? Naw, man, no, but thanks anyways dude. Maybe I want bread..."
He wandered off towards the cookies, I went up and got my bread and started to walk away as Guy wandered back...
Guy "Hey man, do you guys have any, like, hard-crusted bread?"
Baker, "Yes, we do. (pointing to counter full of artisan breads) What kind would..."
Guy, "Oh, wait, no. I don't want any bread. That's totally chill though. Thanks man!"

So, when you see the number of pot-smokers who participated in Boulder's "holiday," don't think they're all just college-aged holigans!

Man, does Mr. Mewton smell bad! No wonder Juliet left him...

Step off onto that alien soil...

...let yourself be redefined

Linda-

There are no words. Your grandson was so blessed to have you and I know he'll always remember the love you shared, even if you have to leave so soon. Our week together changed my life, but you already knew that. I don't know how you managed to smile and laugh through all the pain and the unexpected pitfalls these last two years, but you've been an inspiration of wellness without health. living life to the fullest without ignoring the awful/hard bits.

Aileen called, we're both struggling to find words for where you are. I don't know if Junebug will call when you pass, but I don't think I'm ready for her to. I want her to be with her family, and your family, and find peace for herself before she lets us know. You were always so close, I can't imagine how hard this will be for her, finding strength without you. Closer than sisters, as Aileen said. You were both so lucky to have found a soulmate-friend in your times of need.

I love you. I have no doubts that the cure is coming, and your life has added fuel to my mission to be a part of that research. I dedicate every day to you, oh Warrior Women, Soul Sisters, retreat healers. Without you, I would not be the functional human being I am today. I owe my future to you all.

Anyone know ANYTHING about Rhabdomyosarcoma???

I finally finished my cell bio paper, Effects of A1-GPIbα Gain-of-Function Mutations on Platelet Interactions in Type-2B and Platelet-Type von Willebrand Disease, and after a day off yesterday to recover from strep throat I'm already behind on my next project, the pathology and diagnosis of Rhabdomosarcoma, a pediatric cancer so obscure we can't find it mentioned in any of the major cancer research books! Seriously, if you know ANYTHING about this disease, I will love you forever!

Man, I hate this point in the semester when everything is suddenly due! The strep did not make it any easier, but I'm excited that I'm still on my feet and working strong. This is, after all, the point last year where my brain stopped functioning, I ran into a wall, and the ER doctors got their annual opportunity to get all excited about rare blood diseases. I feel really good, I'm dropping weight steadily even on my stress diet of dougnuts, ice cream, curry, and carrot sticks (which I don't think really balances itself out, sadly) and I can't friggin' wait for the weekend, when I'll finally have a chance to play with the rescue ponies. Two weeks is WAY too long for Kalhua to go unworked, although it looks like she's been behaving well enough to get groomed on volunteer days so at least she's getting attention! I should also put Isis to work a bit; she can't go above the walk and she can't be ridden but she's incredably smart so... more groundwork, more trust issue work. And I said I'd help get Honey more comfortable being handled so she could get a massage. She's another sweetheart of a mare, Thoroughbred, who understandably doesn't believe that people are here to help. I'm glad that two new people are being evaluated to ride, because I can't be the only one who actually does it!

If anyone wants horsey time... I'd really like an excuse to pull out some of the older/ safer horses and love on them!!!

Alright, time for some calculus...