As I bombarded my mother with horses for sale at the slightest hint she might be looking so she is doing to me. It is really quite cruel of her.

I love looking for ponies for the small child. Recently I have added to my requirements. Dead quiet and well broke are still tops but if we could find that in a sweet well bred Morgan mare that would be very nice. Since I have decided to halfheartedly offer Nevel at stud it has crossed my mind that it might be nice to breed him just once. He is coming so nicely and kid broke seems like proven enough for me in a mare.

Now I keep getting emails containing links to mares that sound like they fit this description exactly.

This one sounds great, probably every thing I’m looking for. The picture turns me off though:

What a great all-around beginner mare, and well papered to boot!!! She is well broke and would make a great kids horse. Showy has tonnes of trail miles, has been used on the ranch to move cattle, and has been used to drive horses. She trailer’s, ties, is great with her feet, and is easy to catch.

Her sire was a proven show stallion, that could cut, pull and be roped off of like nobody’s business. He was a phenomenal foundation sire that contributed greatly to the Morgan breed, and that breeding stands out in this mare! Showy’s dam was also a great producer, and was an all-around performer in the show ring and out, passing on her intelligence to her offspring…

Showy would be the ultimate horse for someone just starting out!

http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-679484

This shows up in my tabs as Angel mare needs….. that’s hard to ignore. Not enough training I think and again with the picture:

12 yr old Morgan Mare is up for sale to a �forever� home only. She is half Standard Morgan & half Lippett with excellent bloodlines.

She is very sweet and likes to �move�. She has been under 6 months of training in western/hunt seat using Dressage principals.She is located in Macomb County.She needs an experienced rider who can be gentle yet firm with her. She has been ridden indoors and on trails. In fact she won 1st place in her division in the WHAM judged trail ride this fall.

Asking Price: $1,100.00 includes teeth done. Offers entertained.

http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-701003

This is the one I want, yes it was the picture that did it:

This lovely mare would make a great family horse for use on the trail, showing walk/trot or training level dressage. She’s super sweet and does well with kids. She’s very tolerant, but is a forward mover and does best with a relaxed rider.

http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-673294

If only, so many if only’s.

At least that’s how I hear the saying goes. Easter was early this year but we got them planted. We are not usually so prompt. My farmer husband got the plot worked.

He says I can say worked safely, with out sounding stupid. I am not allowed to say plowed, apparently things are seldom plowed. The other day my father-in-law was chiseling a corn field. They often disc things, I think, but my knowledge of farming and farm implements is pretty much nil. So on the theory that it is best to keep my mouth shut and not confirm my idiocy I shall stick with working ground.

He says if he can call a horse brown I can say plowed. I told him no.

Anyway.

After working the garden plot my (I could say anal but I wont) careful meticulous husband measured out the rows in exact two and one half foot intervals. He than measured and dug the holes for the potatoes with a post hole digger. We also got the onions and peas planted. I did that is, they were not measured neatly.

This year we are (he is) moving the plot further south than last year. He alternates it regularly to give the ground a chance to rest. There is just enough ground at the bottom of the garden to squeeze my pumpkins in. Just enough of the best most fertile soil, the nutrients tend to wash down hill. My millions of pumpkins ought to be huge.

We are hoping to get the tomatoes set out in the green house next weekend. They are rapidly out growing there current space. Spring is nearly here!

It has been quite a while since I got around to this last, since then things have been a little busy. The Goblin Child got sick for her first time, just a cold fortunately. Every thing with her is a little scary though. The doctors have spent her entire life telling us how fragile she is. She has gotten a VERY expensive shot every month for the last five months to protect her little preemie lungs from RSV. What is that exactly? I don’t know, but I do know it’s a respiratory sickness that goes around the school regularly not bothering older healthy children. The last one is done though, hooray! She is over that now with nothing worse than a cough and runny nose.

We then hauled our delicate sickly child to Omaha to see my Grandmother, mom, brother, sister-in-law and their boy Sabbath and my husbands aunt. That sounds like a lot of people already but we thought we would risk it with her and hope she didn’t catch anything. To our surprise it turned into an impromptu family reunion. We got to see every family member I have. All those who live in Nebraska at least. As always there is never enough time to visit and we had to come home, that whole work thing always gets in the way.

The Goblin Child seems to have come through it with out any difficulty I however thought I was going to die. It hit me as we were leaving Omaha. That means that for the five hundred mile drive home, eight hours minimum, through the sand hills and with a slightly cranky baby in the back seat we got to stop, along side the highway (that sand hills part that means not a town in sight) so I could (how do I put this delicately? Hmm, guess I don’t) spew my guts on the side of the road. Such fun.

Goblin child hasn’t caught it yet but my poor beleaguered husband did. This whole weekend he has been mostly dead. It’s amazing how weak this thing leaves you. He seems to be on the road to recovery and I can’t decide if he was fortunate to get it over the weekend and not have to miss any work or if that’s the other way around?

One fine spring day we took a walk out to see the horses. We brought along a bucket of grain because horses always need treats. They were glad to see us and for the first time The Goblin Child seemed to notice them.

She thought they were very interesting. They thought maybe she was food.

I am hoping to have her thoroughly desensitized to them so she will be ready to ride come summer. I can’t wait until we get her a pony of her own. Every time we go to Bomgaars I take her to look at halters. She hasn’t decided on a favorite color yet, she thinks they all taste good.

I have started having fantisies of a little Morgan mare. Mid teens and dead quiet. She could be shared between The Goblin Child and my not a horses person husband and I could Breed her to Nev. I keep telling my self that’s the last thing I need.

Of course I haven’t found the perfect mare either.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I was worried because it didn’t seem like I had any stories to tell about the Goblin Child. Every thing I had to say was about gardening or horses. I thought it must confirm, not that there was ever really any doubt, that I was a bad mother.

Now everything I have to say is about her. That doesn’t suddenly make me a good mother but it makes me feel better about it. She and I have been playing outside in the beautiful weather and that has made me worry about her being out in the sun.

so….

Today it is snowing so no playing outside. For us at least. My gardener husband decided to plow, or something, the garden.

I don’t believe that’s overkill.

I asked he says he chiseled the garden, not over kill at all.

Between a sick child and a busy schedule, I haven’t been able to, seriously, work Nev for a while. Ever since the weather got nice I believe. I have sat inside or in town longing to be out working a horse or riding one. Today I finally got a good lesson in.

I brought him in and threw my saddle on. He, of course, had no problem with it. He needs to start getting used to my saddle, it is the one I will be riding him in. I longed him a little working on voice commands. Then we moved to my horse playground to play over the obstacles, then to a very steep bank to make sure he was used to the feel of the saddle from every position before he experiences it with me on his back. I am the queen of over preparedness.

It is driving me crazy not to be able to get on. Between the small child and always working husband and a lack of a place to do so I shall simply have to practice patience.  Oh yes, there is also the complete lack of abdominal muscles after the c-section last fall. I keep meaning to exercise but something always seems to come up just then.

I hate waiting.

Happy Birthday!

You haven’t said that you don’t want any fuss made, and because I don’t ever want any fuss made over my birthday, I assume maybe others don’t either. However, I am going to make a fuss over your birthday. At your young age, I think it’s probably appropriate yet. Someday when you get older like me, you will see that the less that’s said about growing another year older, the better! No matter how old you get, you will be the perfect age. That spark of life that keeps me feeling much younger than I am.

So what’s the fuss going to be? Nothing too over the top. You and Elly coming to town for lunch on your birthday…it’s always so nice to see you both during my lunch break. That evening, we will make a toast “to us” with the sparkling cider and then sip it as we watch a movie. On Friday, we will travel to Alliance for Elly’s doctor appointment and possibly find a birthday present for you…if not there, then I’m sure in Chadron… 😉 Then that evening, we will go to the steakhouse in town for a nice steak meal…just the two of us.

I love you!

We are hoping that our young Goblin Child will share our love of gardening. So far she seems interested. It may be a little soon to tell. I am anticipating summer and hoping that I will be able to set her in the garden to play in the dirt while I weed and such. We theorize that good clean dirt with a few bugs thrown in for protein builds a healthy constitution.

One warm early March day I brought her along as I dabbled a little in the flowerbed. The Daffodils are well on their way Hyacinth are coming and the chickens are eating off the Crocuses. I hoped to weed and little Goblin Child of course had to help.

We grow the most beautiful purple carrots. We have very nice orange ones to, but there’s just something about the purple carrots. They are dark, brilliantly jewel toned. We dug some of both colors the other day. They are storing nicely in the ground of the green house. I added some to the stew and decided to try making baby food with the others.

It seemed like such a good idea.

Think how pretty purple baby food would be. I could make two batches. The other could be boring orange. So I chopped and boiled the purple carrots until they were soft and pureed them. As my hand began to turn purple I remembered how badly they stained. This baby food so purple it is near black suddenly didn’t seem like a very good thing. I began to think  of how she eats with food smeared from top to bottom, covering clothes, hair even eyeballs. I imagined a purple baby.

I finished the baby food anyway. I’m no quitter. A purple baby wouldn’t be all bad, it’s a pretty color.