My owner is always  thinking about better ways to do things, making less work for everyone. So they finally invested in some Quads around here to move their latest acquisition , a hay sleigh, wahoo,  modern technology.

On a good day when it is not piled too high, they can pull it with 2 quads, 

But when it is piled high, they gotta work together and pull it with all four quads, and when it gets really heavy or they hit a pile of frozen poo they gotta use all quads, quadruped and quadrumanous!

Oh does that make it an octo-ped!?

Gotta munch my hay and think on that.

We had a photo shoot at the stables to get new photos of all the horses. After grooming, tacking and riding, we all needed a bit of a laugh.

and this is what happens when Beautiful Barni is in the arena with a bunch of his fans. we can’t decide who looks the best.. you decide!

2 of these things are kinda the same.

I had a laugh the other night during my nightly routine of bringing in the thoroughbreds.

I open the gate and all 4 thoroughbreds will walk quietly and stately to their stalls, ( well almost to their own stalls).  But this night we had an intruder, can you spot the one that isn’t the same?

I apologize for the poor quality of photo as it was on my cell phone, at a walk, in the dark , over rough ground , when it was raining!!! up hill too!

Have a good day!

For family, even the goofy ones

For the view from my window, even in winter

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I got my first horse when I was 15. He was a  dapple grey appaloosa that went by the name of Domino, I don’t recall his age. We paid $300 for him. I bought him from a little place on Highway 9 called Flying G, they had a tiny barn and about 15 acres of pasture  on the riverside of Main St, just before Lockport.

I don’t remember how but we had lined up a place for him to stay, it was a big huge abandoned dairy barn on the corner of Leila Ave. and Pipeline Rd. I think they may have had string for the pasture and not much else.

The day I bought the horse , I borrowed the saddle and rode him , alone, from Lockport to Leila Ave. It took a few hours, and I didn’t have a whole lot of control. I crossed Highway 9, my horse spooked at something and ran through a yard at  McPhillips Rd. , right through the clothes line, which luckily broke.  I got yelled at for riding through the middle of  a newly sprouted grain field, funnily enough I remember it , it was the one at Highway 8 and Miller Rd, I drive by it all the time. I must have rode down the side of highway 8, but we made it to his new home  in one piece.

I don’t know what they fed him , I think it was called chaff, and was bits and pieces of straw and not much else, but they did have a pasture. I rode the heck out of that horse. I lived on Scotia St  and Leila Ave, so could take my bike the 3 or so miles to see him. I rode him down Leila, before Garden City shopping center was there, down to my house on Scotia, of course after dark. I still think about those lawns we rode over, I am sure when they cut their grass they probably wondered were the heck the hoof prints came from. I rode him up to a party in Tyndall park once . I rode him to my friends house on McPhillips across from the Northgate shopping center, double. He dumped us on the side of the road, in the grass, and a huge semi was just about to pass and he blew his horn, memory is vague on which came first, but it was only about 3 feet from the road.

My parents then rented another horse, the same summer. Her name was Ginger, big sorrel quarter horse mare, from Art Butler. So then I didn’t have to ride double. I remember standing on the side of the stall fighting with her to get her bridle on. My horse experience to that point was trailing riding at Bar NK on Pipleine, until they closed down. Then at Sunshine Ranch on Saskatchewan Ave., that was just occasionally  because it was a long drive. So I knew NOTHING!

What a great learning experience it was, luckily I survived and so did the horses.

Unfortunately at the end of summer my parents said no more. I sold Domino to Art Butler and returned Ginger. I do recall Domino got in one last buck when I rode him over to Art’s place, he dumped me in the grass as we went past a place that had a pony in the yard, he wanted to stay there I guess.

Ginger

Domino

Poor McTavish is settled down in his bed

Vision of kicking me dance through his head.

All bundled and coddled, eating his gruel

But how do you placate a pissed-off Mule?

When we were in Denver at the western and English tack market, I purchased some medications for my poor McT. Carole worked hard on him while I was gone, but to no avail. There was no improvement in his condition.

So, despite the -30 degree temperature last night, I closed up the barn doors and let the 15 hot bodies in there warm up the place and bathed poor McT’s head again. I shampood and rinsed his head and neck, then applied two different medications. We shall see if either of them works.

Well-horse ointment. McT is thrilled.

On his left side I used Well-Horse, a blend of antibacterial resins harvested from certain trees of the Amazon Rain Forest (no trees were harmed in the harvesting process–so it says on the brochure).

Scrub, scrub, scrub...

On his right side I used this bar of Yellow Wonder Soap (I can’t find the label or information on at this moment. I have to search through all the stuff we have from the Denver market.)

I will keep you all posted!

Things were very ghoslty in the paddock last night. The northern lights were floating across the sky and this ghostly beast was sighted at the gate:

Ooo, scarrrrey!

Poor McT  has a skin affliction–all the hair is rubbed off and his skin is feeling very irritated.

Many things have been tried, dettol and betadine baths, pine-tar salve, MTG… Next will be baby ointment.

So don’t be shocked by the sight of him as he does look a fright.

It is funny how well sand sticks to all the ointment after a lovely roll in the arena…

Oh what a beautiful morning!!

Oh what a beautiful day!!

All the little birdies are singing away!

You have to look closely: they are on top of the logs!

All the pretty ponies munching their hay!

Munch, munch, munch...

As the snow falls around them–

I got nothing more to say!!

   Who has time for musing when

   your ears are froze!?

   Who has times for musing

   when you got ice balls in your toes!?

   Who has time for musing

   when they put crazy things on your head !?

Well I do–McTavish–’cause I am standing around forgotten–oh sure, they trim my toes and stick that vile paste in my mouth, brush me once in a while, feed me that yummy hay–but when are they going to RIDE me?!!!

Oh no, they are too busy riding those red mares (although they are cute) than to pay attention to me.

Or they ride those spotted things–Taco and Chief, and they even rode my cousin–that ass, Gordi.

Hello people come out and ride me–or if you have a horse–when have YOU ridden last!?

I live with a million dollar horse.

His name is Charli, just Charli, no registered fancy shmancy name, just Charli.

He is, to put it politely, a grumpy old poop. He hangs with my brother Happy.

He is old, 23 or so, they (my people–Cec and Megan) haven’t told him he is retired but that’s the word on the barn floor.

Charli is a chestnut standardbred just a regular old horse, so why is he worth a million dollars you ask?

‘Cause he is the whole reason we are here, on this 160 acre piece of Manitoba prairie.

Charli was acquired by Cec in April, 1999. He then was ridden across the Canadian Prairies in what was called “The March West,” a re-enactment of the original Royal Canadian Mounted Police march of 1873 that brought law to the Canadian West.

He was the only horse that made it the whole way in 1999, 63 days and 1500 kilometers with just one day off.

Anyway, when he got back to Manitoba, Cec, his passenger on the journey, decided that it would be cheaper to buy a little piece of land and keep him and his buddies, Buttercup  and BUT WHY( may they rest in peace)  at home than board them at some place.

Hence, $1 million dollars later, give or take a few thousand, St Andrews Stables was born!

And here we are 47 horses, 2 mules, 2 donkeys, 7 cats, 3 pesky dogs and 2 families living together on this awesome chunk of land with the nice barn I used to sleep in ( that is another story), the sandy arena I love to roll in and the best part- the yellow skid steer that brings me my hay!!

Thanks Charli, I will let you bite my skinny white ass anytime!!

Charli and Cec (and Megan and Eddie)