Horse Book Tag

I was book tagged by Jessie !



Here are the rules:

1. Grab the nearest HORSE book.
2. Open the book to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next two to five sentences.
5. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one. Pick the Closest.
6. Tag five people to do the same.

The book I chose is "Flying Changes" by Sara Gruen









I have not read this book yet and just happened to come by it at the store. Keep in mind this book is the sequal to Riding Lessons.


On to page 56:


"I was trying to reach the horse rescue," she says.


I shut my eyes with relief and make the sign of the cross, even though my Ctholicism is definitely of the lapsed variety. "Then you've succeeded. This is the Day Break Horse Sanctuary."

"In that case you should say so."

My eyes spring open in surprise. "The phone line is also for a residence. Is there something I can do for you?"

"I have to get rid of my horse."

"Uh, okay," I say, frowning. That's a mighty strange way of putting it. So strange, in fact, that it puts me on alert. "Let me get some information from you. Hang on while I find a pen." I yank the handle of Dan's junk drawer, which sticks shut because of the multiple layers of paint. I scramble through the Banamine granules, expired coupons, hoof picks, and assorted other junk until I find a pen and Post-it notes. "Okay, I'm ready. What's your name and number? I'll have the owner call you when he gets back."


"What do you mean? When's he getting back?"

"In a couple of days. He's up in Canada getting a load of horses."

"I can't wait that long."

"Well, I'm sorry , but that's when he's coming back. I can get the ball rolling, though. Do you have a fax number where I can send the surrender papers? Or do you want to pick them up?"


"I'm selling him, not surrendering him."

I put the pen down on the pad. "You realize this is a rescue center, yes?"

"Yes."

"We don't buy horses."

"What about them PMU mares? You buy them , don't you?"

"Well, yes," I say, frowning. "But that's only so they wont go to slaughter."

"That's why I figured you'd buy Squire. The dealer I talked to said he'd give me $350.00 for him."


"Which dealer?" I say with a sinking feeling.


"Jack Harrison."


"He's a killer buyer!"

"Well, exactly. That's why I thought you'd want first shot," she says matter of factly.

OK sorry I cheated I did part of page 56, 57, and 58 and of course it is more than five sentences! It sounds pretty good- though I would really like to see that woman get kicked in the head by the horse she's so desperate to get rid of...

As to the tag I would love to pick five people but I can't keep track of who has done this tag yet so I will also leave it as an open tag. If you have not done this tag yet and you are reading this then consider yourself officially tagged!!! : )

Weekend Escapades 11/2

We had some beautiful weather last weekend and we decided to bring the horses into the field for some grazing and to see how they do with the new fence. The fence is made up of three strands and wooden fence posts. Two of the strands are a rope like material and the third is a metal wire. The fence is electric (the first time we have ever had electric fencing) but we did not turn it on while the horses were in the pen. This is the first time that the babies have not been in a paneled pen. To say I was nervous is an understatement.

Mom lead Tabasco while I lead Shoshoni and we walked around the perimeter of the field (what a walk!) . The babies could care less about the fence all they wanted to do was graze. Shoni stepped on me a couple of times while we were walking because she was gawking to the right and can't walk straight when she does that. Tabasco was being a brat pulling his head down to graze and at one point decided to kick up his heals a little while being lead and he almost kicked Mom. I need to figure out a way to work on him one on one with his manners.

Mom and I finally lead them all the way around and stopped at the beginning. "Ready to let them off the lead? On the count of three. One. Two. Three." We unhook the ropes and... nothing happens. They just drop their heads and start grazing.

They didn't wander too far away from each other and at one point both of them were trying to eat the grass on the other side of the fence... the grass is always greener I guess!

Mom and I were on the other side of the fence checking out these weird looking weeds (I think they are called milk weeds) and we started picking some of the grass over there. Shoni heard it being pulled and decided she would gladly come over to eat it.

While Shoni was hanging out with us Tabasco had wandered off a little ways grazing. Shoni looked up and noticed that he was very far from her and that she needed to fix that and trotted over to him.

At some point when no one was looking and the camera was put away Tabasco got a good sized tree branch caught in his tail. My good boy did not panic he just calmly walked away trying to dislodge it from his tail. He had an annoyed look on his face but he remained calm. Dad came over and held onto Tabasco's halter while Mom and I detangled the branch out of his tail. I was glad that it had been Tabasco's tail to get snared and not Shoni's I don't know how she would handle something like that yet.

Later in the afternoon we were getting hungry so mom and I went into the house to make something to eat while dad stayed outside to work on the horse shelter. Not even five minutes after we had gone in the house the cell phone rings. It was dad informing us that Shoni just jumped the fence. We ran outside to go catch her and saw Shoni already back in the pen with Tabasco. Turns out she felt lonely and decided to jump the fence into the pen that dad was in (and about give him a heart attack) so he was able to grab her halter and lead her back to the other pen. We decided that was enough fun with the babies for one day so we put them back in their pens. Shoni promptly went to her corner to take her nap after all of that excitement.

Does anyone have any experience with jumping horses? How do you keep them in their pens since they are trained to jump? Any thoughts/suggestions would be most appreciated!!! :)

After we finished lunch we haltered the big horses and led them over to the field for a romp. They had already been lead around the field on Saturday (while I was at work) so we just closed the gate behind them and they happily grazed. They stayed pretty close to each other most of the time.

As they were grazing Sweetie decided to stay in one spot along the fence line and let the other two wander to the middle of the field then she let out a little happy squeal and ran back over to rejoin the group.

Convinced mom to let me take some photos of her and her pretty Sweetie girl. Shhh don't tell her I posted them on SPIDERSWEB!

Nothing else really exciting took place... only a couple of rollie pollies and then a mini sprint with all three of them trotting around. Then Sundance was off by his lonesome and I snapped some shots of him with the lake/swamp area in the back I just love the colors in those photos!