It's so big!

I had a great weekend with Sunny. Our horse neighbors brought over a child's saddle yesterday while I was out picking grapes. I went and brought Sunny out from the field, and they commented on how much better he looks in just merely a week. I am of course very proud of myself and my son. The Horse neighbor showed me what the emergency stop was all about. You could see the Sunny was confused. The female horse neighbor commented that he has a lot of good training in him, and the spinning is normal, but could also be part of the barrel racing training. As soon as Sunny stopped spinning the male horse neighbor let him relax, then started up again on the other side. I guess horses don't seem to retain info from one side of their brain to the other.

Then it was my turn. I lead him around the yard, attempting the stop, but he would back up, not spin. Soon however he would stop.He did spin on the left side, but only twice, soon he was stopping. I did well enough that when I stooped him the last time to remove the saddle he didn't fidget, of course that might be do to another's training rather then mine. But hey, I get to be proud of something.

My 6 year old was up on Sunny on Saturday. Sunny was really into the clovers out in the yard, and the neighbor across the way (that now live in my backyard) who has many years of horse background told me to hand the lead over to my son. Sunny should just graze. But as soon as Sunny realized that I no longer had the lead, he went back to the gate that lead to the field. He pushed the gate open and my son's leg bounced several times off the wooden post. He was hurt and crying, but no blood or anything broken. He learned to pick up his leg if something like that happens again. We don't think Sunny can really feel him up there. He weighs almost the same as the saddle we were given. My middle son's spirits are not dampened, he wants to get back up and try again.

Some of you might remember talking about Hooter. He was my best friend 15 years ago, one day he disappeared, then showed back up in my life as my husband's friend last year. I hadn't forgotten about how great of a friend he really is. When I called him that day the dogs went nuts, he made phone calls of his own. He found me some Nubian's for $15 a piece. I asked what was wrong with them, as Nubian's seem to go for around $500 here. He said nothing, they are kids and too many people in that area have them. So it looks like we will be going on another road trip adventure soon.

Have I mentioned that I love my cows lately? No? Well, I love my cows. Uma the calf is starting to ween. Unfortunately I didn't notice this until Mama's balloon teat got too big for me to tug on. Since Uma had been nursing on it, and the stream s little and the teat is big, we have been allowing Uma to take care of it. I had my husband go out last night and attempt to milk it down for me. No go. Now Mama won't go into the stanchion when he is around. Instead of me getting a gallon of milk last night I only got 2 quarts. My husband wants to build a sturdy gate to keep her in the stanchion long enough to get that teat milked down. (it has been tested for mastitis, no worries, its all good)