Model Patient (by Finneas)

Sunday December 2 2007

I am not particularly enjoying my confinement, nor do I quite understand it. So what if I have a big bandage on my back leg? I feel fine. And I look pretty macho and tough with it, and I am tough, after surviving my Big Accident and giving M a heart attack and all. As CEO of the herd, I don't see why I can't be out running with them and commanding them with a bandage on.

Meanwhile, my mare Quickie also cut her leg so she's temporarily in the Fat Pen with Dudley next door, which is nice, but that means Mac is running around with Diego and my other mare Princess, so I'm a little jealous. At least they got banned from running all the way up the canyon, and they don't wander so far away for so long, but I'm still not out there with them. If they hadn't run off and left me the other day while I was out riding, I wouldn't have gotten myself into trouble with the neighbor herd across the fence and I wouldn't be in this predicament!

Mac is getting a bit cheeky, flaunting his freedom with my Other Woman Princess, and I've noticed he's being somewhat obnoxious as a riding horse (not like me, oh no, I would never be like that!). I need to be out there to take him down a notch or two!

But M said I will be stuck in here for weeks! That prospect is rather unbelievable, and daunting.

So, since I'm stuck in this little pen for a while, I've decided to milk it for all it's worth.

If it's cold and I shiver, I manage to look miserable, so I get a blanket put on me (and extra hay, if I can look REALLY wretched). It is fine artistry to master looking wretched and yet masculine at the same time, but I am perfecting that skill.

I gaze longingly out of my pen to elicit sympathy, and I paw at my door, begging to be let out. M almost caves. But she won't let me out, so then I beg for a carrot, and manage to look cute doing it. I always get one.

I get my poop piles picked out of my pen twice a day (sometimes I even help M by holding the rake), and I get the straw pile that M put in there for me fluffed up.

At first, I was getting syringed in my mouth twice a day (TWO syringes, twice a day!), and I did NOT like it. I threw little tantrums, making it very difficult for M to do, and so I made her compromise with me. In the morning, she has to give me my medicines mixed with a bucket of oats, with sliced up carrots and apples (sliced in small bites), AND with a big dollop of molasses. Sometimes I turn my nose up at it, so she has to mix MORE molasses in it! It really doesn't taste that bad, I just want more molasses. In the afternoon, when I get my leg bandage changed, I allow her to give me the two oral syringes of medicine, but 1) they have to be mixed with applesauce, AND molasses, and 2) I get a bucket of oats afterwards.

She then works on my leg while I'm chowing down. At first I'm a little nervous because I think it's going to hurt, and it reminds me of being caught in the wire, and I start shaking - although that doesn't stop me from keeping my head in the bucket and hoovering up the oats. The only thing that really hurts is when she pulls the pad right off the big cut because it sticks to it a little bit. After that, I stop shaking and just keep on eating, because it doesn't hurt that much any more. I get many layers of wraps over my owie, and every day I get a different color, so I look pretty hot and manly. (M makes sure I don't wear pink.)

Now, a lot of people have sent their sympathies and get well wishes to me. Connie, the rider who (naturally) fell in love with me a month ago, writes and calls to check on me. In lieu of Connie not being here, I give M kisses, like Connie taught me. It makes M feel sorry for me, so then I get a carrot, dipped in molasses.

Frank, this famous Northwest endurance horse, told M to give me some peppermints from him. M went out and bought me a whole bucket of candy canes, but I didn't like them. So, instead, from Frank, I get a carrot (dipped in molasses) after every re-bandaging session.

So, if you're stuck in a sorry situation, my theory is, become a Model Patient. This means, if you can't run with 'em, exploit your sorry situation for all the sympathy and treaties you can get.

SadApple (by Finneas)

Wednesday November 28 2007

I'm not a CrabApple anymore.

My friends didn't come back all night, and I so I hung around the house and the hay bales and the Fat Pen with Dudley and Princess. If you don't count them, I was all alone.

I squealed at Dudley a few times this morning, then I went to eat some hay, then, still not knowing what to do without my friends, I went across the creek. Well. The mares next door were right across the fence, and, well you know me, always the Boss and wanting everybody to know it, I went up to the fence and was talking with the ladies, and I kicked at one of them, and next thing I know, the fence attacked me. It grabbed my hind leg and it wouldn't let go, and I panicked and I thrashed, and the dogs were running out and barking and the ladies next door were running around, and I ripped a hundred feet of wire off the fence and drug it running about 40 feet before it finally let me go.

Well, that was all scary, and then I was embarrassed because the ladies were still looking and snorting, and my leg hurt a bit, so I just walked on away from there, left that scary place behind me. I went to the hay bales and started eating a while, then all of a sudden, I wanted to lay down. My friends were still gone, I was feeling really sad and my leg was hurting now. I was just tired. So I went to lay down and bake in the sun, and maybe just die because nobody cared about me anymore.

Eventually I thought maybe I should get up and do something about my leg, so I sat up, but laying down felt better, so I laid back down. I was feeling really really sad and abandoned, when I looked up, and here came M! She was coming out to save me! Wait - she was coming out to take my picture like she often does. Well, I wasn't going to whine or whimper or anything, so I just kept sitting there having my picture taken. Then she got close to sit down beside me and pet me - and saw my leg.

She gasped "Finneas!!" and then I heard this pounding going on, like drums, but it wasn't drums, it was her heart pounding in her throat. She stroked my nose and said don't move, she'd be right back, and she left, ran to the car, jumped in it and drove away. She came back a little while later with Linda. I was still sitting there waiting like she said, and she and Linda came and looked at my leg.

They thought it looked pretty bad, and it sure hurt pretty bad by now. I got up to show them my leg wasn't going to fall off and I could still walk, but I had to walk really slow behind M to the pen. I felt so bad and sad I couldn't even hold my head up as I walked along.

I waited in the little pen for a few hours, holding my owie leg up. I had plenty of hay to eat, but I felt so sad I just hung out beside Fat Dudley and Princess with my head hanging. I sure didn't feel like any Big Kahuna anymore.

Finally a vet came and looked at my leg, and poked me in the neck with a sharp stick, which hurt, and then I got reeeeaaaaaaalllllll sleepy, and I don't remember what happened, but I heard in the distance M and the vet talking and I felt in the distance M stroking my neck. When I came to again, my back leg was all bandaged up and the vet was gone. My leg was all patriotic, red (from blood), white and blue from the bandages.

M left me tied up while she went back and forth fetching straw from the pasture to make me a nice soft bed. When I woke all the way up, M gave me some icky medicine which I didn't want and I didn't like, but she followed it with a carrot dipped in molasses, so I guess that was okay.

So now I'm stuck in this little pen by Fat Dudley for a month, and my two women are out running with the other two geldings, and I can't boss anybody around, but I don't really care because my leg hurts and I am sad.

Crabapple (by Finneas)

Tuesday November 27 2007

Well, now, SOMEbody's a Mr Cranky Pants.

That would be ME.

First of all, let's get something straight. I am the BOSS. The Kingpin, the Big Cheese, the Big Kahuna. Everybody knows it. Well, actually... when Rhett is not around, I'm the Boss. When he is around, sometimes I pretend I'm still the Boss, but he'll put me in my place if I flaunt it too much around him. That embarrasses me and then makes me crabby. But, Rhett is not around right now, is he? So guess who is THE Boss.

I make a lot of noise, as the Big Duke. When one of the other geldings gets too close to one of my mares, I squeal really loud like a stuck pig, with a high pitched voice. Sometimes I just squeal at anybody for no reason, just because I like to hear myself shriek in my piercing girlyman voice.

Diego thinks I'm a butthead. So what? I get all the women, I get the most and the best food, I hog the water trough even when I'm not drinking and when I'm not thirsty. I get carrots dipped in molasses. I lord my superiority over everybody, and that includes humans. I really scared my last owner. Well, actually... sometimes I'm put in my place if I flaunt my authority too much with humans here. I hate it when that happens. It makes me embarrassed which makes me crabby.

I hate it when I get asked by a human to do something I don't want to do. Or, worse, when I don't do something I'm asked, then I get TOLD to do something. Now, if it's my idea in the first place, well, it's okay I'm asked to do it, because I was going to do it anyway. If it wasn't my idea, and I have to do it, I get crabby and I swish my tail. Swish Swish SWISH!

Well. M fetched me the other day and I thought I was going to be given a bucket of oats, because I deserve one, but did I get a bucket of oats? No! I was put in the Fat Pen with Dudley as his BABYSITTER! THIS wasn't my idea, I'll tell you that much. Here I was, King of the Owyhee Castle, stuck in a pen with fat Dudley. What an insult! My 2 women and the 2 other geldings were out on the ranch, not only separated from me, but they walked away, completely ignoring me! They should have been hanging around with me and looking at me. I squealed and whinnied and hollered and bellowed, and I ran back and forth in the pen (while Dudley stood back watching me), trying to get their attention. They wouldn't even look my direction - it was like they totally forgot me, their King!

So I was stuck in this pen with Dudley for a couple of days. I was hungry, I wanted out, I wanted my women. I was crabby.

Finally, M comes to get me out of the Fat Pen. Now, do you think she'd go ahead and turn me out with my women to command the herd? No, she goes and puts a saddle on me, and takes me for a ride! If that wasn't enough to make me cranky, she took me out in a different direction than I was used to, totally away from the ranch, AND she wouldn't let me turn around, AND she wouldn't let me eat grass (I'd try to grab a bite then turn around back toward home), AND she made me stay on the trail! I tell you, I am going to have some sore tail muscles at the end of the day, for all the SWISHING I did non-stop for a whole two hours.

Well, actually... after half an hour, I kind of started to have a little fun. We got to this Blond Cow wash, and I wanted to go, so I cantered up it, and after a while M said I could slow down, but I was really into it, and I kept cantering, and cantering, all the way up it! When we finally did slow down, I stopped to eat some grass. It's really good and green out there, what the cows haven't found yet. I used to have this big problem where I couldn't stop and stand still out there, but now, sometimes when I'm going along, I'll stop and graze a while, or, I'll stop, turn my head back, and M gives me a carrot. M tells me I'm a GOOD BOY, and I like it when she says that. Sometimes I'm just a big marshmallow on the inside, but don't tell anybody that.

But wait - I digressed. We were talking about me being crabby. Right. So we get back to the ranch, and guess what - everybody was gone! (Except for Fat Dudley and Princess, MY woman who was now his new babysitter in the Fat Pen). Do you think that my herd would have waited for their commander to return? I had to do my sidestepping practice when I got back, and I was all cranky that my adulators were not there to watch me, and I got all flustered and started throwing my head up and swishing my tail, making a big production out of everything.

I got my post-exercise oats, like I deserved, and then I FINALLY got turned out - but now what was I going to do? Where was I going to go? I didn't know where everybody went. So I stood around and screamed and screamed, and waited, and ate at the hay pile, and screamed some more, and felt kind of sorry for myself.

When M came out later I was so lonely I followed her around, hoping she'd feel sorry for me and make my friends appear or give me another bucket of oats. What good is being the Big Bossman if nobody is around to be bossed? My friends didn't appear, but M gave me a hug and a carrot.

Dear Jose (By Diego)

Wednesday November 21 2007 Dear Jose, Please come home. It's dreadfully boring here without you. Everybody is drooping. Even Finneas, who's the total boss now. He's not even a butthead anymore to me. I tried getting the gang running around one day, but it just doesn't work without you Jose. I don't have the spark that fires everybody else off, and nobody else even tries. Nobody wants to play Tag You're It, or I'm Taller, or Jump the Sagebrush, or Superhorse, or Last One There Is A Rotten Bucket of Beet Pulp. I don't want to play either. You were our Bolt of Sunshine, and now it's just cloudy here. Water doesn't taste very good and hay just tastes like straw. Everything is all out of whack. Quickie, Finny's girlfriend, ran off with Mac the other day, and when I say 'ran off,' I mean they just bumbled off, because there isn't anybody running around here. Finny didn't even care. He saw them wandering off, and he just kept eating like me at the hay bales, and then it was just me and Finny, and we didn't really care, we just kept eating, for lack of anything more fun to do. Quickie and Mac were gone all night and most all the next day, and then they came wandering back. Finny didn't even walk up to Quickie, he walked up to Mac, and I thought he was going to beat Mac up for running (walking) off with his woman, but, what did he do but start grooming Mac! They groomed each other for 15 minutes while Quickie stood off by herself. Since I was depressed I didn't feel like going up and hanging out with Quickie to keep her company, or joining in the grooming session. Then we all just stood around and moped. Things are just all mixed up! Jose you weren't here to watch me wear the Big Boy saddle for the first time and lunge around the round pen with it. The other horses weren't even watching, they were just moping. But M said it's Thanksgiving and I should think of what I'm thankful for. So, I'm thankful um... that I am slim and cute and not buffalo fat like Dudley. Come home soon Jose. Love Diego

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Where's My Buddy (by Diego)

Saturday November 17 2007

There were 6 of us running the canyon, (not counting 2 in the Pen), and now there are 4 (not counting 2 in the pen). Rhett and Jose got on a horse trailer yesterday and left, but I thought they'd be back by now.

Jose goes for lots of trailer rides and he always comes back later in the day and tells me all about his riding adventures. Except this time he got in the Big Trailer, like I rode in on a looong trip from Arizona up here to a new place in Owyhee, and he still hasn't come back yet. I wonder if Jose went on a loooong trip to a new place.

I keep looking everywhere for Jose, because he was so much fun. He was always the one to get everybody running from way up the canyon in the mornings, he'd get a bug up his butt and just take off running for the house and the hay bales a mile away, and we'd take off after him, snorting and bucking and farting on the way, blowing smoke out our noses.

I spent the afternoon walking around everywhere, checking to make sure Jose's not in the big front pen, or up on the hill in the corner, or hiding in the creek, or stuffed away in the small Pen with big fat Dudley.

And speaking of big fat Dudley - He thinks he's so important, being hand-fed in a special Pen and all, like he's the King of Malaysia with a Queen or something, but he's in there because he's fat and on a diet. Good thing, otherwise he'd eat all our hay and there wouldn't be anything left for the rest of us. He was bragging about getting to stay in the special Pen with a woman - which is nothing to brag about, because it's his mother and she's just babysitting him! And he's six! I told him he was in The Pen, as in Penitentsary, like Jail, like he better be Penitenting for his eating sins, because he is FAT.

He didn't like that. We were nose to nose squealing over the fence, and he called me a Little Fart, and I asked him where he got his Big Buffalo Jeans from (M heard from Carol that Dudley had Buffalo Genes) and we squealed at each other like we were going to tear each other apart. Good thing the fence was between us. I mean, Dudley could squash me if he just sat on me, but he'd have to catch me first.

That's why I was kind of hanging around Dudley, to tease him for lack of anybody else to pester, but he's no substitute for Jose. I wonder when Jose will get back. Nobody else will watch me play my games with M, which today included wearing my bonnet and saddle, (which M tried to put on my butt, before she figured out it fits best on my back), wearing my necklace, and watching ropes swing by my head, and spinning on my front end and hind end.

And nobody else is interested in running and play fighting with me like Jose. It's boring. I hope he comes back soon.

Thunder Found

Thursday November 15 2007

Regina and 3 others went out today... and found him! Her note:

"Hi Guys, I, Maggi, Raymond (from Holland), and Rocky just got back from Wilson creek and have a extra horse. Thunder is found. Mr Good (the BLM guy who spotted him Monday) called me back this morning to retell me where he saw the horse. We loaded up and rode out to where he saw the horse last week and there he was. Mr Good also drove back out there today to see if he could see him again and I visited with him, so he is really a nice guy and was also worried about the horse. By the way if you stand on the cattle guard at the head of Stewart Gulch and look up the gulch heading South East he was up Stewart gulch, not on the west side of hard-trigger. So yea the horse is found, he has some deep cinch rubs from the saddle, but that is all and was he ever glad to see another horse. I put some gall salve on the rubs to soften them up."

So happily ends the saga of Thunder, the missing horse (for 6 days). A lot of people chipped in to help search for him: on horseback, on ATVs, on foot, by truck, and a pilot was lined up for a flyover in good weather. It was the natural thing to do - look for a lost horse whose injured owner (she's home, doing okay by the way) couldn't do so. We could all picture our own horse lost out there!

There's a lot of relieved Idaho and Oregon endurance riders breathing a big sigh of relief tonight! (and a few from other states, and countries, who were sending good Search vibes :)

So Close To Thunder

Monday November 12 2007

The cold wind was blowin' a gale under dark skies as we pulled into the Wilson Creek Trail parking lot to start Monday's search for Thunder. In fact, Karen S and Pat (who came again from almost 2 hours away) and I debated the wisdom of riding out on spooky Arabs on a day like today. (I had really hoped Karen S would call early this morning and say, "There's dozens of people out searching today, we won't be needed" - no such luck.)

When Al (Karen B's ex-husband) pulled in with his 2 horses (one to ride, one to pony) and started unloading them right away, there was no question he was going out. So we unloaded too. I did wish I'd left on that second layer over my tights, but I zipped up all my layers, put a bandana over my head and ears under my helmet, and put my heavy gloves on.

We were really back to square one in the Thunder search: where to look? Again, we could go off one direction, and he could be in the opposite. Today, with the weather, the kind that made our horses all want to keep their butts pointed to the wind, we knew we wouldn't find Thunder up high, or on an exposed plateau. So, we decided to start out doing the same loop we did on Saturday, around through canyons, a bit sheltered from the wind, to the water trough, an area Thunder knew.

We all went in the same general direction, with Al and his 2 horses weaving off around little side hills. There were some old tracks visible on some of the trails, but they were all shod hooves (Thunder is barefoot). Nothing at the water trough, either. Now where? It's just kind demoralizing - he could be anywhere. We still had a vague feeling (a guess really) Thunder had headed south by his internal compass toward home, or westward, downhill as Josette had suggested, into that vast area Carol and I had discovered where the open gates were. We started heading that general direction, out of the hills.

We split up again, paralleling down two canyons, and as we girls came to a stop at a road waiting for Al, we saw him stopped on a hill, talking on his phone. We wondered why he'd be calling us, when he could see us, and then Karen realized she had a message, and I checked my phone - I had a message! Had to be from Carol - couldn't be a coincidence!!

We fought to hear our messages over the wind and bad reception - what I got was Carol - now the Command Center - saying the sheriff called: some hunter FOUND THE HORSE, in Hardtrigger Canyon and Stewart Gulch, resaddled him, and turned him loose, and he went trotting down the road - what!? The wind was howling, it was cold, and reception was bad, I couldn't clearly hear the whole message, and we were obviously missing some information, but we all had the same message, and we had a lead! And it had happened recently - what, an hour ago? Carol would try to reach the hunter by phone and get back to us.

Karen knew exactly where the spot was, so we took off in that direction on a road, at a good endurance horse clip, suddenly not so cold and hopeless. We got to the top of a cold windy saddle, and Karen said there were two ways to get to this canyon intersection. Al headed one way, and we 3 girls went the other, planning to meet down-canyon at the spot.

We trotted along, keeping eyes peeled, yelling and whistling for Thunder. Cell reception was sketchy. We came to the Hardtrigger Canyon and Stewart Gulch junction, and sure enough - barefoot hoof prints! Lots of them. It looked like Thunder had spent a good deal of time in this intersection of canyons - and we had had no plans to go looking this far in this direction.

No sign of Al anywhere, but we turned our attention to finding Thunder. We were able to follow his fresh tracks a little ways (the guy had said the horse was trotting "toward Clark Road" - which wasn't an absolute direction from where we were), and then we lost them. In fact we saw several of his tracks from today or last night, and older tracks, going back and forth at places, so we weren't sure which were the freshest ones. We continued along one road headed vaguely toward Clark Road, but saw no more tracks in this direction.

Now what? Now where? Carol's calls would drop out, but we heard that Jeanne and Susan had gone to Clark Road, down below near the highway, and were coming up in this direction. But we still weren't sure Thunder had come this way. I thought that since Thunder had obviously spent some time in Hardtrigger Canyon, and he'd been seen there last, we should go back that way. And what about Al? Now we had to consider we might have to search for Al, too, because he didn't know this area.

We turned around, still looking and calling for Thunder. No sign of Al at Hardtrigger. It was now 2 PM, the clouds heavier, the wind stronger, and looking like rain or snow or ice coming soon. We decided to head up Hardtrigger Canyon, the way Al should have come out, and make our way back to the trailers - away from Thunder. Neither Thunder nor Al and his 2 horses had come up this way, so who knew where Al ended up. At least we'd seen definite signs of Thunder (and he had been seen, and touched), but now we had to hope we wouldn't be searching for Al too. (His cell would have worked on a high spot, but if you don't know where you are, you don't know how to say where you are...)

We took a high road to get reception to call Carol to check in (no new news from her end, and we reported what we'd seen), where the weather had taken a turn for the worse - unless you're a polar bear. The butt cold wind was a good 15 mph, and the clouds were spitting stinging ice balls. I had stayed fairly warm all day but for my hands and my face. When my face gets cold I can't talk, so I just hunkered down in my zipped up collars and kept my mouth shut and we kept moving along. The horses didn't care for the ice balls stinging them in the face any more than we did, but they all did admirably well. Five minutes before we got back to the trailers, (Al was there, hooray!), it had started raining/sleeting steadily, and with a strong wind still blowing, I was starting to get pretty cold. I awkwardly peeled off Mac's bridle because my fingers didn't work right. We helped everybody load their horses, then hopped in our warm trucks and headed out.

So the good news is, Thunder was seen, and he must be okay. His saddle was still on (and now it's readjusted and tightened!), and he might still have had on a halter, though he lost his bosel. We think the hunter had no way to tie him up and that's why Thunder trotted off. There's plenty of grass up there for him, and after Saturday night's rain, he probably had puddles to sip from. He is approachable, and I bet he would be happy to see a human with a grain bucket. Since he's been in that sheltered canyon area a bit (and encountered a human) he will probably be there again.

On our way home, we got another message that the hunter had seen Thunder AGAIN, up on a ridge, same area. He flagged the intersection for us. Josette then drove out there and headed out that way on a horse. Josette's husband planned to go out there tomorrow morning, driving in to the Hardtrigger Canyon spot, and hiking around with halter and lead rope. Carol's trying to get a few people to ride in that way tomorrow also.

He's so close. Keep those fingers crossed.