Yep. Honest. It really took longer to comb the mass of goatheads out of Snip's mane than it did to put the bit in his mouth. It took someplace on ten minutes, accompanied by some spinning, to get the metal in his mouth. I tell you, holding onto his ear like that really helps me stay with him. :D I just hope it isn't humanly possible to rip a horse's ear off...(because I would...)

All told, Snippy behaved pretty well today. I not only rode him, but I got a head count on the cows. Total 46 head (44 cows, 2 bulls).  I think there are 14 calves....there will be more on the ground soon.

I rode back on the leased land some. It's kind of weird, but I almost get the creeps back there. I don't quite understand it. Maybe it's partly because I know if Snip spooked and took off before I could get him under control--or bail out, I could get seriously ripped up by the trees. Anyway, it's just interesting.

This morning I ran into Byran's and got a roll of hay for my poor, poor little herd. They need some fattening up. Serious fattening up. I probably ought to get that little crooked mouthed calf off Snowflake. She's tiny still, but Snowflake doesn't need the extra drain on her. I have to make it a priority to feed them every day. Perhaps I ought to stick a note on my forehead...

I'm kind of hungry....so I think I'll go set the table...and then bug Savannah as to whether or not supper is done!

See ya!

Of course, everything that happens is ordained by God, so it's all providential timing. Sometimes though, it's just more obvious. Take this evening for instance. I had just fed Snip and on my way back to the house, I looked up and saw something black in the grass in the pasture. At first I thought it might be a cat, but that wasn't really a serious notion. Other than a crow (which I had just heard) I concluded it was either trash or a calf. About the same time I settled on that, this 'little bit' as Mr. Ricky would call it, got to its feet and started to wobble toward its mammy.

I continued to go toward the fence as I was going to see if I could get a gender ID on it (I didn't--it can be so hard to tell when they are newborn). As I went I heard the floater valve in the water trough hissing. For some reason I glanced that way. Then I looked again. Clearly, some of the jostling the cows do around the water trough had knocked it crooked. Water was pouring over the side as fast as the valve could pump it in. (Or faster.)

Being my own self, without hesitation, I plowed out there. I hopped over the puddle around the trough to a little space where I could actually land. I tried pulling the still nearly full trough. "Stupid. Of course you can't move it!" Hmmmm.....

Standing on my little 'dry' spot, I janked my boots and socks off, tossing them across the puddle (good shot that...the boots landed one on top of the other!) and hauled my jeans up to my knees so I could wade around in the mid-calf deep water. Over the next several minutes I tried various means of shifting the trough. At one point, I was standing on the edge with it tipped as far down as I could pawing the water out between my feet. I'm surprised I didn't get much wetter than I did with that operation. I found an old soda can in there, wedged in the 4 to 6 inch deep mud, as well as some other interesting trash I could have cut myself on. I ended up scooping many, many handfuls of mud out and throwing it, "Splash!" into the surrounding area.

After a while, I hollered at Savannah, who was on her way to the house after watering the garden, to please come and help me. I had managed to shift the thing ever so little, but I needed some help. So she came out and waded in after making some comment about, "This is how you get parasites." Gee, thanks a lot, sis! :D

She had the smart idea (okay so I had the idea, but I wasn't smart enough to carry it out) to bail out the trough. She went and picked up the coffee can I carry Snip's feed in and brought it out to me. I bailed the trough most of the way out and scooped out more mud. Then, the two of us moved the trough...I stuffed some more wood under the lower end and took the stick out of the floater valve (I'd jamed one in to keep the floater up so the water would quit running).

Job done, I collected by boots and socks, went to the hose and sprayed the exess mud off me. Walking back to the house, in a put on, bow-legged kind of walk, ending each step with something of kick (an attempt to lose some of the extra water), Savannah told me I looked fashionable--two tone pants! Ya...so what... :D

Anyway, because a calf was born today, I saw that the trough was spilling over...so I could fix it. God's providence is awesome...and sometimes humorous.

Remember me mentioning about a cow closed up in the pens yesterday? Well...once we talked to Daddy and Mama about it, the idea formulated itself that maybe someone was in the process of rustling said cow. Hmmm....not a very pleasant idea. (And yes, cows still do get rustled...just not like you see in the old Westerns.) Anyway, by the time I went to bed last night, I kind of had the heebee-jeebee's--that is, until I zonked out.

I spent most of my day at the computer (again!) and managed to get the AfterEffects compositions rendered and placed. Only the audio work remains. I'm tickled pink!

About 4-ish I headed out (Savannah and Granddaddy had gone to a doctor's appointment and weren't home yet) to take a peek at the pens and open the west gate. From there I meandered down the run towards the back 40. Half-way down, for some reason I decided to check and see if my .22 revolver was loaded. (It normally is.) I felt like kicking myself when I flipped open the cyclinder to find six empty holes staring back at me. Thing is, I didn't reload it last time I shot it because I was going to clean it the next day--but I never did get to that. (I think part of the reason is because the piece you put the patch through is broken--cheap plastic!) Anyway, so there I was tromping around with an empty gun. Not much good for self-defense of any sort unless you're close enough to use it as a bludgeon.

I kept going regardless and wandered back onto the leased land. As I moved along I got to sniffing...there was that repulsive, yet sweet smell I've learned to recognize right off the bat as something dead. Looking off to my right, I caught sight of a mound I didn't remember being there. I went over to investigate and sure enough, it was a dead cow. She was one of the few with horns. I was kind of surprised that it was that particular cow. I didn't think she was in that bad of shape. It's my opinion that she probably just laid down and didn't get back up. I also got to wondering if that panther I saw last Saturday had anything to do with it--at least the eating part. Savannah suggested later that maybe the cow was down and the panther finished her off. I don't know; what I do know is that we lost another cow. That makes two this year.

I fixed a small piece of the electric fence on my way back from looking at the gate leading from the orange grove to the 'back 4o'. There is absolutely no lock on that. So...anyone wanting to sneak on to Granddaddy's land would have no problem whatsoever doing so.

I returned to the house via the runway and attempted to count the cows. I counted them I don't know how many times and most often came up with 43. That's bulls and cows, not counting calves or that heifer I was going to wean. However, I'm not going to put that down as a solid number until I get a better on-horse-back count. That's my job for Monday.

Speaking of horses, I went out this morning at around 8:45 (pretty normal) to feed Snip. I was fixing to do my usual whistling, when I heard a noise. Looking up, I saw that rascal horse of mine in the yard. He was standing by the pumps. He had apparently JUMPED the fence! Brat child...Anyhow, I hope the expirence was uncomfortable enough that he will not repeat it. (He got cut up some.) If I catch him in the act, I'm going to whomp him good. I had my breakfast sitting there getting cold when I peeked out at him and saw him nibbling that the fence. I charged out there and gave him a nose to nose scolding. After I went in, he walked away from the fence. I think he knew I was mad at him--but I couldn't tell you how much of my tirade he understood. He isn't stupid, but neither is he logical.

See, I have a total uninteresting life, don't I? ;)

I'll start at the beginning of the day (minus all the dishes and such like). I buried my nose in the computer screen this morning building AfterEffects compositions like a pro. (Heh!)

I had half a dozen done before lunch. More importantly, I learned how to use Photoshop a little better! I cropped two flags out of the pictures from Ocklawaha and shrunk them up and a made a lower third out of them. (If you don't know, a lower third is the title bar thingy you see in documentaries, for instance. You know, the bar that says "So-in-so, author of such-in-such". :D) I had to go back and add that into the compositions I had already made. I plowed through and I think I have all the ones I want. I figured out that I'm going to have to mess with the color of the text...but I'll take care of that tomorrow. I also have to do quite a bit of work with the audio. I have to raise the volume level on the main audio track--I'll have to go back into Soundbooth to do that. I'm going to see about removing some wind noise from another audio track (Commander G's speech) in Premiere Pro. One of my contacts on Google+ gave me some tips on how to do that...Google+ is kind of cool like that. Need help? Just post that you do and someone might just show up and help you! :)

At some point after lunch, while I was busy working on AE compositions with WCPE playing in my ears, the two ladies from Granddaddy's church who stop by fairly regularly, dropped in. The one asked if we'd play a bit for them so Savannah played a couple things on the piano, I hauled out the cello, and then gave a piece on my guitar (one of my new favorites--Riding a Raid). That was all the more musical I was today. (Not counting the singing I did while doing dishes and riding Snip.)

Moving on, around 3:30ish, I went out to ride Snip. As usual, it took a few minutes to land the bit between Snip's roving lips and between his teeth. Once that was done, the rascal was calm as a cucumber. I brushed him and combed the mass of goat-heads and other stickery things out of his mane. While working on his forelock, he started nibbling on the front of my shirt. I think he was eating the goat-heads stuck on it, but all the same I shoved him off several times--I didn't really want to get nipped.

I saddled him up and hopped on. Then off we went! At a walk. ;) I did trot him and even slow loped him later on after we'd been going for a bit. I didn't get any hint of a buck out of him today, for which I was glad. He did get rather impatient to get moving while I sat on his back and peeled myself an orange I picked off one of the old trees in the pasture. It wasn't 100% 'ready' but it sure tasted good anyway! I ate it on the move. I was tired of having to get on to Snip about his pawing.

Other intersting things of the afternoon...he spooked a little bit as we sat next to the hanger. This very tall weed was rubbing against the hanger making noise and that startled him. I made him walk back that way a bit--training thing, you know. (The same reason I whirl

For some strange reason (providence), I decided to go up the trap to the pens. I am SO glad I did. There was a cow shut in there! How she got shut up I don't know. I had left that east gate open after working cows last time...with the chain hanging on the north fence (where it gets closed). Anyway, that gate was chained shut. There is no possible way, even had the wind been honking, for that chain to wrap itself around the gate and hook itself. Someone had to have shut that cow in there. I know it wasn't me or Savannah, and it certainly wasn't Granddaddy! I dismounted from Snip, rather worried about this cow. She poked her nose out to me and I briefly scratched her nose. It was damp and she didn't seem to be in distress (fortunately). Her eyes were normal (this is one of the more docile/friendly of Granddaddy's herd) and the only thing I noticed negative about her was that she seemed rather sunken about the hips. (Could partially have been the angle she was standing at.) Anyway, I got the gate open and chained it that way. The cow went out and immediately started eating not to far away from Snip (who by the way I had tied to the fence--as soon as I started to turn away he went to start nibbling at the reins...stinker.) She stayed in the run until after we'd left then went to join her 'people' on the south side of the pasture. I don't know if she got anything to drink or not, but I do know that she hadn't had any water in the pens. So....if I find another cow closed into the pens, I'm going to be one furious girl. I was pretty irritated as it was--I wonder, was this some brat kid's idea of a practical joke? Just think, if I hadn't decided to go riding today and on a wild hair go all the way up the run to the pens, that poor cow might have died from thirst!

I finished my ride...nobody got hurt and Snip behaved himself like a gentleman almost the whole time. When we came in it was time for supper--for both of us. As I was coming in, I looked back and that crazy animal had his foot in the sink that serves as his feed bowl....

Minus the myserious cow episode, I had a really good, fairly productive day. How was yours?

I had the brilliant idea to trim my horse's hooves this afternoon. I asked Savannah to help by holding Snip's head, so she did. We got started around 4:00. It was at least 5:30 by the time we got finished.

I started with the 'trouble' foot (the right front). Ho-hum....how do I make this hour and a half of horse hoof wrastling interesting? Anyway, the funny and not so funny parts were interspersed throughout that time and they included the following: Savannah got her feet eaten by fire ants (ouch!), Snip removed the hoof-pick from my back pocket at one point (he's going to chip his teeth if he doesn't stop nipping on metal!), and I took a head-long, semi-backwards tumble at one point. Savannah was afraid I had gotten kicked as I rolled out from under the horse with my spurred heels waving in the wind. No, I hadn't gotten kicked--he'd just moved and I lost my balance and he moved some more and so I couldn't catch myself on his barrel-shaped hide. I told her, "Oh, you'd a known if I got kicked! I'd a hollered." She responded, "That's right, you're not Katherine." (I guess she and Katie tend to not yelp as soon as I do because the hurt takes their breath away differently.)

The fall didn't hurt. It did hurt though when I went to give Snip a good solid whack on the cheek for being a jerk. I hauled off and swung with all my might...I hit him alright. But he might as well as hit me. The side of my hand smashed right into his cheek bone. I don't remember if I yelled about that, but I danced around in a circle because it hurt so bad. Then I went right back to work. The swelling is going out of it now, and it doesn't hurt quite as bad as it did when I finally got done with Snip's feet and took my gloves off and let myself think about it. Savannah asked me if I broke it, but I don't think so...it didn't throb like the other bones I've broken. (In other words, I think if I had broken it that I wouldn't have been able to finish the job.)

That stinker was busy the whole time trying to nibble on us...and I don't know how many times we had to turn him around. I somehow managed not to get my feet stomped on. Snip was so ornery; I never actually got mad at him, but I gave him the no-nonesense voice several times. He also behaved himself somewhat better a couple times after I grabbed him by the nose and dug my fingers into his nasal cavaity...he thought about that.

This whole process would be easier if I had a set of nippers that I could conviently handle one-handed. The ones I have I can use one-handed, but it isn't easy. Probably wouldn't hurt to sharpen them either...

The result of the afternoon's struggle...four not-so-well trimmed horses hooves, two feet covered with ant bites, one stiff back, and one sore hand. Ah...life is so fun! (And that is only partially facetious. :})

Yes, I was at it again today. I am really, really trying to get this SCV video finished.

This morning I finished getting all the clips in the timeline, in the order I wanted them. I started in on the transitions and got a couple in before I ran into a strange, interesting problem that I have no idea how it occured. I had a section of audio that was repeated! Anyway, I chopped that out and so far I have been unable to determine how screwy it made the rest of the timeline. It did mess up one clip (which I have ended up simply removing). This particular clip was a HUGE pain the first time around I remember. (I haven't gotten much further...)

I was not going to lose my temper (what good does it do?), but I got so frustrated that I had to go have it out with myself out-of-doors. I know I startled at least one cow when I shouted something about that chunk of footage to no one in particular. So much for facing the dreaded syncing session with a good attitude.

All told though, the video doesn't look so dismally horrid to me today as it did yesterday. Yesterday I was ready to pitch the whole project in the trash; today I see that it will work even though the audio isn't anything worth beans.

Lessons learned from this SCV project (in no particular order): 1) I never, ever, ever, want to have to sync again. I hate it with a passion. (Not such a good attitude to face it with--rather like my life-long distaste for mathematics.) 2) I'm not very patient. (I already knew that!) 3) My temper needs work. (I knew that, too.) 4) I still think as a director I will be fine--so long as I am actually directing. I don't want to do any more projects where I'm not in charge. (That may sound bossy or huffy, but I'm looking at this from a practial standpoint--I was not in charge of this and how much grief has it caused me? It hasn't been worth it even if I get paid for it--which I don't want to be.) 5) I can pan with my chin fairly smoothly. :D

I imagine there might be others that I can't think of right now. Anyway, I didn't mind the filming part and if I hadn't had to deal with this horrid sync problem I probably wouldn't have minded the editing (even with the wind noise). It was actually editing that got me hooked in the first place! (I edited a play for some good friends of ours.) I'm looking forward to being done with this project and returning my attention to my Cow Cavalry project. I have HOURS of footage to sort through--stuff I haven't even put on the computer yet because I don't have room thanks to the SCV footage. (MAMA! I NEED ANOTHER EXTERNAL HARD-DRIVE FOR CHRISTMAS!! I still have room on the Seagate, but I don't know how long that will last. Oh, and Daddy, I HAVE been able to work off an external hard-drive...I just can't play a project off the external drive...)

There you have it...my confession of the 'filmmaking furies'.  Transcribing interviews is tame tedium compared to audio/video syncing...

I didn't have the time to write yesterday...because I really DID have a busy day.  I forget exactly where it started, but early on I was attempting to pin the hem of Savannah's ball dress up. She got light headed and nausous standing on the chair, so I didn't get finished. I had gotten about three quarters of it pinned up so she was able to finish pinning it later once she got to feeling better.

I went out to put the runway fence back up in a couple places and ended up having to run a bull calf back into the trap. The biggest black one. I also saw what I believe was a panther! It was running across the 'back 40'...definitely wasn't a dog and it was too big for a bobcat...and it had a long tail.

Then I made lunch--let's see we had chicken, squash, and green beans. That's exactly the same thing we had for supper too--only Savannah had put the Navy beans on sometime in the afternoon, so we had them too. I'm glad Savannah had warmed supper up because I wasn't available to do it.

Sometime in the afternoon I went down to check the mail and whistled to Snip. He came over to the fence (I think he is starting to get the idea that when I whistle it means "come here") and then we both headed back up the drive-way. It's kind of funny, I'll trot with him a little bit then he'll run off and leave me, stop and look back at me like, "Well, are you coming?"

I tossed the mail (sale ads basically) on the washer, hopped back into the garage and snatched up my lead rope, lounging rope (which is FULL of goat-heads--blah!), and whip. By now, Snip was standing there staring at his feed bucket (sink)--at 2:00 in the afternoon!! "No way I'm going to feed you this early in the day!" 

I got the lounge rope tied on his halter and drug him out. (Actually, he came out very easily.) We started to work and he started to crow hop (I just learned that term--it's very appropriate). Part of the reason was because he had a horse fly on him and part of it was just that he was being frisky. I'm glad to say that he has not tried to run off on me the few times I've lounged him recently.

Once I was done lounging him, I brushed that mass of goat-heads out of his forelock (and got few down the front of my shirt in the process. Then I put him away and ignored his sop-eyed request for his supper. :)

Around 3:30 or so, the W brother's showed up to help me work the cows. Tommy was the gate man, and Ricky and I each drove our respective trucks. Ricky didn't feel the greatest (not that he complained or anything), because he'd just had a tooth pulled. I learned (the hard way, like usual) how to push cows better with a pick-up. I usually am on foot or in the back of the truck just hollering.

Once we got the animal's in the pens, we--well, mostly Tommy and Ricky--just separated most of the cows and calves; without putting them in the hopper. Then we parted out the big calves from the little calves. We had seven total...only six went to market (four bulls and two heifers); I kept the white heifer and will be weaning her. Right now she is out in the pens. I have to go feed her and Snip here momentarily.

I rode into the market with Ricky and Tommy...there were a few funny incidents on the way there: 1) on one turn, it looked very much to me (in the back seat) that Ricky was going to bump a car sitting at the light...I instinctively grabbed a hold of the back of Tommy's seat. Ricky looked behind him with a grin, "Did you think I was going to hit him?" On the way home, when we turned onto a different road, he made an illusion to that incident...
2) We saw a dog slung out of someone's golf cart. It really was funny. I don't remember what Tommy said, but it made it funnier--then when I mentioned that, "My cousin did that to me once. I threatened to beat him up if I did it again..." (I was kidding him really...we were both laughing like crazy things), we kept right on laughing.
3) The two red bull calves were comfortably sparring with each other as we roared down the road in Ricky's awesome Dodge diesel truck.

Once we got to market, Ricky had me talk to the man; so I learned that part of the deal too. I told him who the calves belonged to and how many we had. He handed me the pink slip with our selling number on it--#13. Sometime later today I'll have to take Granddaddy and go pick-up our check.

When I got home, I ran and fed the horse; poked food down myself and dashed through the shower. Then we girls headed off for the SCV meeting. To cut things short, I'll just say that we're now offically part of the Order of the Confederate Rose--which will meet at the same time and place as the SCV... :D (Each OCR chapter must be affiliated with an SCV camp.)

Now--I HAVE to go. See ya, later!

I have supper going in the kitchen...I wish that ol' HP laptop worked; that way I could cook, type, and watch 'Emergency!' all at once. :)

After getting the soup started this morning, I headed for town...first stop Beall's. I got some nice socks and some Christmas presents--it is getting to be that time of year you know.

From there I popped over to Bryan's. "I'd like to get a roll of hay; you think it will go in the back of my pick-up?" "Sure." And it did. They picked the hay up with a fork-lift and set it in the back of the truck. The suspension got visibly lower.... I got in the truck, then decided to strap the roll down. I'm actually glad I did because I felt safer like that. So I crawled around like a very non-limble creature and strapped it down.

I took the hay down the back-roads for the most part (I normally go down the non-main-highways anyway) and soon arrived at our place. Abe was in the east pasture and he watched me very carefully as I unlocked the gate. I pulled into the west side of the pasture, cut the netting off the hay, and rolled it off the back of the truck. That took a small amount of grunting; after all, that roll of hay weighs over twice as much as me. I attempted to push it over so it wasn't sitting on a rounded side, but just ended up snorting at my own foolishness. I was actually out of the pasture before Abe and his horns showed up.

I ransaked the honey house for trims that Savannah might find useful and then left--going BACK to town--this time to Smith's. I walk in there, lean on the counter, and told the lady I wanted 4 bags of pellets. "Oh, 20 or 14%." Oh boy. "I don't know what Daddy usually gets." This is where it gets funny. The owner's son, busy taking care of somebody else, with his back towards us says the following: "She gets 14."

I just laughed...then I laughed some more when I told the lady whose account to put it on and she basically said, "Duh! I should have know that....I can see the family resemblence now that you say that." I often have people know who I am because they know Granddaddy...it can be quite funny sometimes.

Then I had the following exchange with Drummer-dude out in the back while he loaded my pellets. "Wow. That's a big cat!" "Yeah, it is..." "I thought my uncle had a big cat, but that one is bigger!" "You been to Fenton's?" "Uh, no." "Well, in the shop they have this big orange cat with feet this size [holding his fingers up to describe a two-inch diameter cat's paw]." "Wow...Thanks!" (For loading the pellets.)

I came home for lunch....the rest of my day between then and trapping the cows is rather insignificant. I took pellets to our place after lunch and feed a few to my cows...I couldn't NOT after they had seen them and started being all excited.

Savannah and I trapped the cows for tomorrow's work. I shut all the gates after trolling out a bag of pellets. We have three cows outside of the trap, but since we're doing nothing but parting calves out tomorrow, it isn't a big deal. At the gate into the woods, I jumped out of the back of the truck and fell down. I had landed kind of funny on my right foot and so the whole leg just turned under me. It didn't hurt at all and was actually kind of funny.

Now, I'd better get that food on the table and Granddaddy fed!

I was standing there at the counter this morning, both hands full of collard green stems. Out of the blue, there was a very loud knocking at the door. I nearly jumped out of my skin! (Honestly, it must have been five to ten minutes before my heart rate went back to normal.)

I stepped backwards to peer out of the kitchen and through the laundry room/mud room into the garage. Standing there, with a smile on his face, was Butch! At first glance I thought it was Granddaddy, but I knew it couldn't be because he was in the bathroom. Besides, he wouldn't knock. :D

With my hands still full of greens stems, I hurried to the door and let cousin Butch in. He was kind of surprised to see me (and Savannah) here because he thought we were at another reenactment this weekend (that's NEXT weekend). Granddaddy knew Butch was coming (and in fact had told him to wear blue today--so they were color-coordinated!!), but he had forgotten to tell us.

Anyway, while the other three folks talked, I finished making lunch. It was pretty good even if I do say so myself. Greens, cooked in a skillet with bacon and onion, carrots and broccoli, and chicken. (The chicken was left over from last night.) Normally, Butch takes everyone out to lunch, but I guess since I was already making food, he decided to bypass that route. :)

After lunch we went shooting. Granddaddy hauled his old .45 out and fired a couple rounds. (We were shooting towards the mulberry tree since it's next to impossible to shoot the 'normal' place because Snip comes and stands down range!) I emptied the cyclinder of my .38 a couple times; likewise with the .22. Butch let me shoot his .44 revolver. I only fired it twice because the grip was so big that I couldn't hold it well and when it kicked back it bashed my palm uncomfortably. (I had a strong hold on it too!) Of course, I did my best shooting with my .22 rifle. We didn't shoot overly long, but enough to dirty the guns. I have to clean them yet.

Once Butch left I used up another 20 gallons of spray on the weeds in the pasture. I could have gotten another couple hours of work in, but when I came back up to the house to get more spray, I also popped in for a snack. I sat down and lost any energy I had. So I decided I would quit for the day.

I think I'm supposed to make supper tonight too...Savannah is busy with making ball dresses. Her's is gray and mine is blue. I think she is going to be absolutely gorgeous!

Of what?

The return to working Snip! Yesterday and today I took about 30-40 minutes with the rascal. Since it was closing in on 5 o'clock the stinker was of course almost pouty--if a horse can pout. Anyway, I haven't done anything serious (or stupid), but have just walked with him, talked to him, petted him, scolded him, praised him, and did some very rudimentary training things. Recap of the first few months if you will. He remembers stuff pretty well. I need to get my 'buggy whip' and pull the long rope out of the garage and get back into lounging him. I have tried to sort of get him going on the lead rope, but it's too close. He kicked slightly a couple of times today (last time I really lounged him I came really close to getting my head kicked in) and he reared up a bit too. When he does that I give him a good solid jerk on the rope and sternly get onto him. Once he relaxes I pet him and tell him he's a good boy. :)

I plan on lounging him for a day or two before I get back on him. I think I'll attempt to get our place mowed tomorrow (since it needs it much worse than here...and I may have to wait to get a belt for the mower).

Snip has gotten stronger and I've lost some of my confidence so I plan on being VERY, VERY careful. I don't want any more broken bones. Pretty soon I'm going have to get a bucket to stand on to even get my foot in the stirrup because he's grown so much. In other words, while I look forward to getting back on my horse and riding, I'm also a little leery...I've lost some of the muscle strength in my legs (probably), so I think I will just mostly walk for the first couple days, then work up speed. I don't need to be bucked first day back on. :)

On a related note, I got a new (leather) headstall for Snip today as well as a nice set of long leather reins. They'll make a nice quirt. :D Anyway, now my tack is all leather...something I prefer the look of.

But enough ramblings about horses...