Wild Horses

January 9, 2022

Hello everyone,

Well, we had a pretty exciting week this week. The boss was away for a few days starting on Monday and Erin had to race to the airport before she flew out to get something to her unexpectedly before her flight took off...let's just say that she had to go over the speed limit(75mph) to get there in time! That kind of set the tone for the week and it rapidly went downhill from there. Erin's week kind of flattened out after the initial craziness and she was just more exhausted than usual and also happier than usual to make it to the weekend. I spent a week doing countless little jobs around the site and figuring out how to beat up my body a little more each day. I broke my finger on Monday(maybe - I think), just by resting both of my hands on the floor, fingertips down like a sprinter in the blocks. Then, on Tuesday, I had to move all the hay around in the barn for the umpteenth time so that the solar power guy could get into the corner of it and run some wires up to the roof from some conduit that we had run there back in the summer...nothing major here, just woke up the next day and felt like I had thrown both of my shoulders out. Then, Wednesday brought an unexpected visit to the ranch of a farrier that actually works on wild horses, as we've been having continuous problems with Freedom, the larger of our two white horses. That process required my help(which I wasn't aware was needed) and I had a very exciting two hours that saw me ending up being kicked twice. That was a first for me...I've never been kicked by a horse until that moment. Thursday, actually went by without a hitch, but then I did cut my finger pretty good on Friday, reaching down into some metal HVAC units that were very sharp and jagged on the inside. So, like Erin, I staggered to the finish line on Friday and turned down my buddy, Valentin's, invitation to go hiking over the weekend and our plans of running into Las Vegas to do a little shopping never materialized either, as we've mainly been catching up on some old John Wayne movies, now that we added an old Western channel to our programming!

As for the farrier experience, that was pretty amazing. I had to run out to the gate to let him in only to see a tiny, little sedan waiting there, instead of a large pickup like I was expecting. The only thing that tipped me off to the kind of character that was about to pop out of the car was his bumper sticker that said, "F*CK IT, LET'S RODEO!" So, out pops Emerson, a lean and experienced Navajo, probably in his 50s, and clearly at ease around horses, yet with the ring master's voice and presentation. He said that he learned all of his horse skills and horse sense from his mother and he spends all of his time doing anything horse-related: training; rodeoing; doing farrier work; hauling horses; etc. We quickly set to work on trying to get a halter and rope on Freedom. At some point, before she ended up on this ranch, but after her time in the wild, she was attacked by a mountain lion and ever since I've been here has had a cracked front, right hoof that also has needed a good cleaning underneath. Emerson had brought his son's car(and his son) since he had to come from so far and didn't have his truck with every last farrier's tool and bit of horse tack, but just the essentials. I had to run back and forth to our depot numerous times to retrieve first a rope, then a halter and finally a lasso. I was unsuccessful with finding a lasso or lariat, but til I came back to tell Emerson, he had already put the rope and halter on her, sans lasso, and as I came trotting through the pasture it just looked like he was all but roping a calf the way he was throwing her around! Now, the fun part started, and I had to learn how to hold a wild horse in place with just a rope and halter while a crazy farrier very nimbly kept taking whacks at her hoof until he had it where he wanted it. We did her other front foot a little, too, and then just cut her loose and let her blood pressure go back down. It was like nothing that I've ever experienced and I quickly went from flailing around, dodging flying hooves, to holding the rope super tight, feet firmly placed, with my elbow jammed into the corner of her mouth, so that she'd sit as still as we could get her while he quickly worked. I learned innumerable tips that day from Emerson and left the experience loving what I'm doing out here even more! I think that I was less sore from being kicked(although I did limp for the rest of the week), than I was from trying to keep a raging, wild horse on the end of a lead for a couple of hours!

So, not too many new pictures this week, and, unfortunately, we didn't get any shots of me and Emerson working on the horses. Both the boss and Erin, though, have already RSVPed for six weeks from now when he returns to do her back hooves. So, without a lot of shots, I took the time to noodle around with some photos, coming up with a whole lot of art pieces. First, a favorite, old shot of Erin in Portugal that I rediscovered about a year ago. Then, the dogs out sniffing around with Cheyenne this week, and then stopping behind the new house to sniff each other and make sure that they still knew who everybody was...it's a dog thing, for those of you without them. Next, a blanket pattern that I made out of a shot of Felipe, our chestnut stallion, mainly revealing his nose. Then, a shot of the mesa's silhouette that ended up looking like something in a cave. Then, four different shots that I turned into mosaics: a patio detail; a selfie; Rosie; and the church in San Jose. Next, two shots that I tried to add a ghostly, old haunted house kind of feel to: first, a selfie showing maximum beard; then, a hazy, filmy shot of a tree with cold solar rays shining through. Then, a shot of the girls out with Cheyenne again(Rui often starts with us but heads back home before we're done). Lastly, four shots from the jobsite, showing: Valentin's progress on the patio; two shots of the new boxes that I had to make to replace old HVAC covers, before and after; and, then, the garage that I had to clean thoroughly, before removing the old Ram Board and then reapplying new boards before the insulation guys showed up. What a week! And, in a flash, now our weekend is gone, too! Why isn't it five days off, two on?

See you soon.