More Brillo photos!


'Why is she always pointing that thing at me?'

When I pulled Brillo's blanket off this morning since it was warm and sunny, I couldn't believe how good he looked after not seeing his body in a day and a half! It was like his spine and hip bones disappeared overnight so I had to go out and take some more photos to compare what just three weeks of good food and care can do for a malnourished horse.


Three weeks ago.


This morning.


Three weeks ago.


This morning.

Robin, your foster horse is doing great!

The Sunday Brillo Update!


Coming up for breakfast.

Even though you can't see it, Brillo is continuing to gain weight steadily and get stronger by the day. Since I knew it was supposed to snow last night, he got to wear his brand new fleecy maroon blanket liner under his green turnout rug. He was toasty warm this morning when I went out to feed.


I figured I better get a photo of his new blanket before it got dirty.

On Saturday our barefoot trimmer came out and took Brillo's shoes off and gave him his first trim. His right front foot is clubbed and a real mess that is going to be a long, slow rehab for him. I'm including one photo that will make sense to people who know about horses' hooves and what a natural hoof should look like. This is a long, long way from natural but hopefully, the mountain will work its magic on Brillo's feet too.



Brillo is continuing to be a sweetheart and was very good about the trimming even though some of it was uncomfortable for him. He has new boots ordered and as soon as they come in and he feels more comfortable, he gets to go out with the Wild Boys.

And then there were none.



For several weeks I've been trying to find the time to write about Umber's changing relationship with the herd; but with caring for a new rescue horse and getting everything caught up before Mike returned to work in Mexico, it just hasn't happened.

Of course I have been reading about sheep and one of the things I learned is that cold weather triggers breeding behaviors in order to get those spring lambs who have the best chance of surviving. I was told by a neighbor who raised a breed of sheep similar to churros that Umber would likely become more aggressive during that time and it turns out she was right.

The first indication happened a couple of weeks ago when Umber decided to challenge Corazon. Yes, kind, calm Corazon whose greatest desire as a leader is to have peace in the herd. It happened at feeding time and it was pretty dramatic with Umber charging and butting Corazon from behind, running him around his feeding pen and keeping him away from his food.

Mike and I had to step in and keep Umber driven away from not only Corazon's feeder but Brillo's as well. Finally when the horses finished eating, things settled back down and Umber seemed to have accepted that behavior wouldn't be allowed by us so we went to bring out the hay cart.

I wasn't able to see what happened next but Mike did and told me about it. As the horses gathered around the cart, once again Umber charged Corazon and this time hit him square in the chest. For whatever reason, Corazon had finally had enough and spun and gave Umber two double back kicks in the side, spun again and bit him multiple times while driving him up the slope and that seemed to finally be the end of it.

Unfortunately it wasn't the end of it as Umber continued to mildly harass the herd. It was never the serious head butting again though and we were just watching to see what happened next. In some ways it was actually good because he kept Corazon in particular moving around and often the mild chasing turned into a full blown game of play for the horses. A neighbor commented that Corazon looked like he had lost weight and we were even starting to refer to Umber as our Sheep-ercise Equine Fitness Program.

Then on Wednesday evening as I was feeding while Mike finished packing, Umber decided to challenge the wrong horse. Being a reservation mustang, I'm sure Mio lived around sheep and he has never shared the infatuation that each of the other horses went through with Umber. As I was putting their bucket feed out, I could see that Umber was not letting Mio pass him on one of the upper trails to come in to eat. Normally, Mio is one of the first to be waiting by his feeder so I knew there were problems and stood watching to see if I needed to help.

Mio finally moved up into the rocks and circled around Umber, coming down onto the trail past him and starting in. This seemed to make Umber really angry and he charged and butted Mio from behind causing Mio to let out a warning kick, catching Umber in the shoulder and knocking him back. Umber seemed to be seriously mad then and he charged Mio again at full speed. At the same time, Mio fired with a full force defensive kick. Ram charging at top speed, horse kicking with full strength, both forces meeting at ram's skull.

Umber instantly dropped and seemed to go into a seizure. By the time I got Mio settled with his bucket and could run up the slope, Umber was on his feet but staggering in circles and with his head twisted back to the left. Even in that state he wouldn't let me near him and tried to run each time I got close. I thought it would be best to give him room to see if he would recover with some space and quiet.

He did seem to recover his balance slowly but we couldn't get closer than around ten feet. I could see that he was bleeding from his nose and mouth and Mike said his left eye seemed to be drooping. We watched him as he slowly worked his way up the slope, occasionally staggering and turning in circles, until he finally went under the fence and up into the mountain away from the herd for the first time since the ewes were killed.

It's been almost two days now and there has been no sign of him so I am certain he suffered a fractured skull and some instinct sent him away from the herd to die. There is an abundance of bears in the woods now in these last days before they den for the winter and I don't feel comfortable going up to look for him by myself. Mike said when he gets back home we will go up together to see if we can find his body. If he is dead, his body will provide a feast for large and small predators alike, from coyotes to foxes and even birds. Somehow that seems right and proper as an end and I'm glad I saw how it all happened. Umber was simply being what he was, a ram at breeding season, and Mio was only defending himself.

The herd response has been quite interesting and surprising. Mio has very suddenly been elevated in the herd with even Griton giving him attention and offering play. Previously, Griton at best ignored Mio so this is very unusual behavior for him. But the biggest surprise was how the entire herd broke into extended play as soon as Umber disappeared up the mountain. You could almost hear them singing 'Ding dong the ram is gone...the wicked, wicked ram is gone.' Given how clear they have made their relief, even if by some miracle Umber comes back, the herd has spoken and I will return him to his previous owner.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!



Have you noticed that, at least for me, when life is going well I'm too busy to write much in my blog? It's kind of a barometer of my life in a way with the ups and downs of posts. Except for the fact that Mike left for Mexico early this morning and will miss both Thanksgiving at home as well as Christmas, life is pretty darned good these days.

I have to smile to myself when people express concern over my being alone for the holidays, the concern needs to be felt for Mike who has to live in extremely stressful conditions away from home. I am here, on this mountain with all of our animals around me which is hardly alone. He is surrounded by people but completely by himself so the concern really belongs to him.

We have weathered some huge crisis this last year and come out the other side better than ever before. Life is good these days. Life is very, very good and I wish you all the same sense of joy and peace that I feel sitting here at Star's Rest in the early morning on this day of giving thanks.

PS - I am also giving thanks that all I have to cook today is a pie. Thanks Carolyn!!!

The Sunday Brillo Update!


Dusty and dirty from a recent roll in the sand, but a very happy horse becoming more healthy every day.

Brillo has settled into eating more like a normal horse so his rapid weight gain has slowed as well. Right now he is rebuilding muscle tissue and we've increased his proteins and fats to help him to do that. What we are really seeing now is an increase in energy, strength and high spirits. On Saturday we were working with two of the boys down in the arena when wild horse play broke out. Not only did Brillo participate as well as he could stuck in the orchard, he beautifully cantered over some brush piles in perfect hunter form. He's coming along really, really well!


Sweetly peaceful and happy with his world.

Next Saturday he will have his shoes removed and as soon as he feels comfortable with his bare feet, he can go out with the herd. I thought it would take longer, but other than protecting his feet, he is quite sure he is ready.

A 'Me' update.


This is my new baby Chocolate Rose that is spending the winter being drug in and out of the workshop along with the other babies. Isn't she stunning? And what a delicious fragrance!

Life is so busy this time of year. The days are short and the daily workload increases with nights in the teens and twenties, plus two additional hoofed animals to care for. Also, it seems like there is something scheduled for every day of the week lately. Then there are the holidays rapidly approaching...

Still, I feel blessed and very, very happy. Passing that one year marker was a bigger deal than I realized until I actually passed it. I know it doesn't change anything really, the stats are still the same, yet it makes a difference anyway. Maybe it's just because I can look back at this time last year when I was getting the news that they had found cancer cells in one lymph node, putting me at 'advanced melanoma' and at high risk for recurrence. Now I'm here, one year NED, surgeries behind me, oncology appointments and scans moved farther apart, finally feeling good again.

I'm still tired at the end of a long day of travel or people interaction, but it no longer takes me the entire next day to recover. I can go into town and do the shopping and not need to take a nap as soon as I get back home. I'm actually enjoying seeing people again as well instead of feeling too tired to interact.

Most of all, I just feel good.I know some of it is because I finally have a medication protocol that is keeping nerve pain and sensation almost unnoticeable. That means I rest better and my body isn't in a constant flight state from misfiring nerves. The chronic back pain and sciatica I've dealt with since I was in my twenties has been helped by this as well so I'm moving better too.

Getting Black Horse Design back up and running has been slower than we hoped with orders taking much longer to finish and ship than expected. But the feedback coming in has been wonderful! Marjory is obviously doing a great job on the finishing and she will eventually figure out a process that will let her work faster and more efficiently. Right now I think she is being extremely careful to put out a good product and with a fulltime day job, that takes time. When the happy emails started coming in, I was able to start letting go of that knot in my stomach and actually believe it's all going to work out there too.

I know that I'm not and never will be considered 'healed', but I feel like I am. It's more a healing of my spirit that I'm experiencing. Life totally turned upside down in this last year with both physical and emotional upheavals and it seems that so far, we have survived them. Everything changed and yet everything somehow remained the same. Strange. Life on the surface isn't much different...we go about the daily chores, make plans, try to move forward. On the inside though, we have been through quite a transformation and even though it was painful and frightening, it has been a very good transformation.

Mike will be heading back to Mexico on Thanksgiving day and won't be back home again until December 30th. That means this year he will have missed his birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas at home. That's just the way it is in his business though and through the years we've gotten used to having holidays at odd times when he's actually home. Since he will be leaving on Thanksgiving, we will be having a mini-Thanksgiving with the folks we are creating the new center with. At least he will be getting a little bit of community to carry with him as he goes back to work.

Brillo is continuing to thrive to the point that he bucked in his pen yesterday morning as the Wild Boys ran and played. Then in the evening when I happened to go out and he thought maybe I might feed him, he came trotting up the slope of the orchard in a gorgeous, long floating stride. I can't wait to see how he moves in another month!

Sunday Brillo update!


By about Wednesday, Brillo had finally filled up enough to take a break from non-stop eating and enjoy nap time with the other guys across the fence. He also started getting down and taking good scratchy rolls with great big shakes after he got up. This tells me his joints and body are starting to feel good! Rolling and shaking is one way horses have to get their spines and joints back into alignment.


We were supposed to have a snowstorm last night that ended up missing us so Brillo started wearing the canvas turnout rug that we got for Mio this last spring. With no body fat yet, he'll need some help when the temperatures are low.


Look at how much better he is looking in just one week of eating two and a half times what a normal horse his size would be eating!


When he got here, Brillo's back legs were so swollen you could barely see a difference from his hoof to halfway up his canon bones. Look how great they are now! We started putting his hay at the bottom of the slope in the orchard and his water is at the top which insures he goes up and down multiple times a day. This is keeping that fluid out of his legs and is helping to rebuild muscle.


He's even getting a round belly!


And still, one of the sweetest faces around.


And not to leave some of the other guys out, look at how round and wooly Mio is this winter. He's making sure he's never cold again!


But my favorite winter coat will always be Griton's. This is where his curly coated genetics shows through with lovely marcel waves down his spine and across his rump.