9/27/05: Hurricane Rita Aftermath

The last minute turn of the Hurricane left our ranch unscathed. We returned to Rosharon on Sunday and made the trip in 5 hours. All animals survived this ordeal and are now seasoned travelers! I will be attempting to locate, reclaim, and transport all horses that were left in Fort Bend County back to our ranch over the next few days. Things could have been much worse.

9/21/05: Time to Evacuate

While my primary inclination is to stay and weather the storm, I can't stay for this one. With Rita already a category 3 hurricane, with two days until landfall, and with most computer models predicting the path to be dead on with Brazoria County, I've made the decision to leave. Heather and I both stayed home from work today and loaded up horses - moving them to a 300 acre pasture in Fort Bend county (a non coastal county) where they will have an easier time of weathering the storm. After securing livestock, we turned our attention to the house and ranch and boarded up windows and put away anything that could become a missile in 150+ MPH winds. We chained down boats, cleared off our deck, prepared for flooding, and parked all of our vehicles under the new arena cover. With storm preparations complete, we loaded the F350 and horse trailer with extra fuel and animals that we were taking with us. This included 3 horses, 7 goats, 2 dogs, and 3 cats. We managed to leave for Nacogdoches at 11:30 PM on Wednesday evening. We were hoping that driving at night would alleviate the discomfort that our animals might feel by traveling in the Texas heat. We also believed that the traffic would be reduced by traveling at night. We were wrong. We had no idea that the normally 4 hour trip to Nacogdoches would end up taking 33 hours. Friday morning at 9:30AM we arrived at our destination meeting up with our family and friends. Thanks to everyone who helped us get out of Rosharon and who provided us (and our animals) accommodations in Nacogdoches.

9/12/05: Marshall Payne Memorial Trail Ride

Heather and I trailered June Bug and Tazz over to an area by Old Ocean off of Highway 35. Dale, Wayne, and Eric met us there with their horses and we quickly brushed down and saddled up. Soon thereafter, the Saturday trail ride began and I couldn't help but to notice how many people chose to not bring along rain gear. Everyone fell into a single/double file line and continued up an old two lane road - soon thereafter came the first casualty of the day. A woman riding too close to the horse in front of her had her horse kicked. The horse she was riding reared up and threw her off, slicing her wrist with the shoe on it's hoof as she fell. The cut was deep and she was bleeding profusely. A pickup truck appeared quickly to whisk her off to the hospital.

Sometime around lunchtime the dark clouds began to roll in. We stopped for lunch which was also the midway point in the trail ride. The wind soon picked up and I threw on my rain gear- Dale, Wayne, and Eric did the same. Heather had decided to load Tazz up into the trailer and ride back to camp rather than brave the wind and rain - she would certainly be more comfortable than I was to be. As I continued my ride back to camp, the rain increased. The sky opened up and the ride slowed some. I was dry which was good - many were not. Some people were shivering and I was amazed at their lack of preparedness. At this point in the ride I witnessed several cases of pure idacy.Two notable occurrences were 1) people riding at a full run on wet road pavement (and with shoes on their horse!) and 2) one person attempting to jump into the back of a covered wagon while holding their reins. The horse spooked, went up into the air, the person tried to pull them down (making the horse go higher), and the horse flipped over backwards on hard pavement. An absolutely horrible and reprehensible display of stupidity.

After approximately 8 hours of trail ride, we make it back to camp and discover that Heather had forgotten my car keys when she departed for camp and had waited in the horse trailer with Tazz for my return for roughly 4 hours.

9/8/05: Updated Horse Training Log - Marshall Payne Memorial Trail Ride on Saturday

On September 10 Heather and I will be participating in the Marshall Payne Memorial Trail Ride. It is about a fifteen mile day ride and will be Heather's first. She will be riding San Peppy Perfection and I will be riding June Bug. Many other friends will be going as well. Send me an email if you want to join us. (I should be receiving via UPS the gel-filled saddle seat pad for Heather today! My instincts tell me that this is a must for spousal participation.)

9/6/05: Sunbon Peppy Euthanized

Friday, September 2, I made the hard decision to euthanize Sunbon Peppy. I had been planning all week to take her to the veterinarian since she was in obvious pain and could hardly stand or walk. She did improve throughout the week that we had her - probably from having us regularly soak her feet in epsom salt, the bute, and closer attention to diet. Despite her progress, the x-rays taken by the vet were dismal. Apparently her condition had existed for quite some time and not only did she have Coffin bone rotation in both front feet - but the tips of the bone had broken off and were reabsorbed by her hooves. Those bone fragments were still dissolving in her hoof tissue. After speaking to several vets at the facility about cutting tendons in the front legs to release coffin bone pressure, and examining the prognosis after such a procedure, I realized that I really had no choice in what to do. It was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made.

9/1/05: Sunbon Peppy

We bought June Bug in 2003 and we bought her full sister last month. The breeder of these two horses recently informed us that he was retiring and moving out of the area -and- asked if we would we like to have the 20 year old dam (June Bug and Maple's mother), Sunbon Peppy. It should be mentioned that for one reason or another, Sunbon Peppy is not in good shape (and has in fact foundered) - will require extreme care, and has a four-month-old colt by her side. We jumped at the chance to bring them into our herd and brought them to our ranch the night of August 26th. More detail on what foundering is (and what has happened to Sunbon Peppy) can be found at this founder and laminitis page. While she is improving, presently her prognosis does not look good and we are in the process of consulting with our veterinarian to evaluate all options and choose the one that is best for her. Her 4-month colt (pictured by her side) has been taken off of her as to not bring her down anymore than she already is.