Columbines and diets.

Last year we had a columbine show up under a pine tree near the house. There are no others in the area and I think we are normally a bit too dry here for them. I have nurtured and protected this plant and this year we have another one coming up less than a foot from the original. They are lovely soft flowers and I hope they continue to spread and thrive.

No, I'm not going on a diet, Corazon is. There is a problem now recognized in some horses that is called Insulin Resistance, or IR. It is similar to human diabetes and the treatment is much the same - avoid complex carbohydrates and sugars. As you can imagine, this isn't an easy process with a horse since they are vegetarians and most of what they eat is carbohydrates, especially grain products.

As this condition becomes increasingly better understood, we find that even grass can be a culprit since in spring and winter most grasses are very high in sugars and what is called non-soluble carbohydrates (NSCs). I won't go into the complete metabolic cycle of blood glucose levels and the effect on the gut, production of toxins, and ultimately crippling laminitis because it is all explained so beautifully at the Safergrass website for anyone who would like the details. What is important to know is this condition, which can also known as Equine Metabolic Syndrome, can be reversed.

It isn't known for sure why, but some breeds are more prone to this problem than others and our mustangs in particular are susceptible. In their case it is probably due to evolution. If a wild horse cannot survive on poor or little forage, he does not survive at all. When you bring that same horse into a domestic environment where he has all he can eat of rich food and no longer has to travel many miles per day to find forage and water, he becomes just like a sedentary human who lives on junk food.

When we brought Corazon home from the BLM a little over two years ago, he was a completely wild and unhandled horse. He was well fleshed and healthy as his descending from horses living in a hostile, wild environment would make necessary. A year later Corazon had become gentled and civilized but was already showing the effects of a constant source of good food and the lack of a need to travel long distances in harsh conditions to get it. His neck was becoming cresty with fat deposits and he had fat deposits at the base of his tail - two significant symptoms.


Now a little more than two years since we brought him home, Corazon is rapidly heading towards obesity. This last week we decided to treat him as if he is an IR or EMS horse and he is now on a diet. He eats separately from the others and receives supplements intended to help his body balance his blood glucose levels. Most importantly, we are doing our best to eliminate non-soluble carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates from his diet completely. Much like a human with diabetes, this will be for the rest of his life; but hopefully by taking these steps Corazon will have a very long and healthy life and soon he will not look like the fat horse he has become in the photo below.

There might be spring.

The two and a half inches of rain we received a week ago went a long way towards getting grass and some flowers growing. Not much has germinated, mostly tiny little things but still pretty. This week we have had a lot of gray days and wind but no additional moisture. At least four wild fires started by dry lightning are burning around the state, all fortunately fairly well controlled. We keep hearing from the weather guys that a dry winter here often means a wet spring but I don't count on anything they say.

The pines are starting branch growth and new cones. Soon we will be finding the squirrel stripped husks of tender pine cones lying on the ground under all of the trees...pine tree birth control we call it. With all of the pine saplings that come up, I have to wonder if we could walk through here without a helpful colony of gray squirrels keeping things in check.

The horses are down to their shiny summer coats and I no longer have wads of hair blowing around each time I brush them. The flies were really starting to hatch after the rain last week and our fly traps and fly predators arrived just in time to get them under control which makes life much easier on the horses.

Griton had a very serious accident just as I was leaving for Utah on May 3rd which you can read about at the Paddock Paradise & Mustang Mountain journal. He will recover completely but the sad fracture at the Preakness for the race horse, Barbaro, poignantly brought home how different things could have gone for Griton. Our boy was lucky though and only has some new hoof to grow out. He might look a bit bored here; but he is back to annoying everyone he possibly can.

Growing older and growing up.

When I was in my twenties I dated a San Francisco man who told me he had been attracted to my 'cowboy eyes' because they made him think I saw far horizons he couldn't see. Of course he was referring to early crows feet from years of riding horses in the bright sunlight. I thought it was sweet and it definitely inspired me to start using sunscreen and to wear a hat and sunglasses when I rode.

I had this romantic image of myself back then, of being tall and lean, cantering my big black horse along California equestrian trails with my long blonde hair blowing in the breeze of my horse's creation.

Now more than twenty years later I'm no longer lean, I have age spots along with the crows feet and my hair is no longer blonde. But I have a real life. I do work that I both love and hate but love usually wins out. I live in a beautiful place that is also challenging and physically demanding but the beauty is more than either of those issues. I have wonderful animals who enrich my life and constantly entertain me. And most important, I have a husband who loves who I am, not what I look like, and who charms me to the core of my being by yelling 'I love you!' from the bottom gate as he drives off to places far away.


So I wouldn't give up one extra pound, lose one wrinkle, or change one strand of grey hair to go back to being that lean, sad and lonely young woman, cantering her big black horse along California equestrian trails.

A happy woman...

Parts of New Mexico were recently declared a drought emergency so farmers could receive federal assistance. Bears have been coming in from the wilderness areas looking for food and yesterday morning I heard an elk bugle which means they are coming in looking for water and forage too since we almost never see them this low.


I've been mentally composing an entry on how hard this drought has effected us all, especially emotionally. It's difficult for me to think about the impact on wildlife forced to come into the civilized areas due to lack of water and food. It never goes well for them. On their own they would find what they need to survive, or not. With us humans in the way they wind up like the black bear struck and killed by a car near Albuquerque, or the cub tranquilized and removed from a backyard tree in Santa Fe. My selfish consolation has been that one particular weekend neighbor who is pathologically afraid of bears probably won't be around much this summer with his loud dogs and heavy equipment still running late into the night.

A crew has been putting in fiber optic cable along the rural highway below us. This should be a good thing since the old phone lines here go out every time the wind blows, which is often. Yet we have all been made angry by the crews ignoring the extreme fire bans and their continued smoking along tinder dry and windy roadsides. Mike recently stopped and spoke to the crew chief about it and several hours later when we came home, the same guys were smoking again and tried to conceal their cigarettes when they recognized our truck. This time Mike called the phone company operations manager who said he had received numerous complaints and if the the contracting company didn't clean it up, they would be pulled off the job.

Yesterday we received a reprieve...more than two inches of rain here in our little part of New Mexico. I was so happy I wanted to go out and dance in it! I told Mike I was an easy woman to please, just give me a couple of inches of rain over diamonds anytime. I went out in the middle of thunder and lightening to take arty photos through a wet camera lens. I'm sure the horses thought I had gone crazy but I couldn't resist the dark silhouette of Corazon in the rain.

Oh it was glorious! I could hardly stay still inside the yurt and kept going from window to window to see water running down the mountainside in small rivulets. It was a restless night with dogs and cats wanting out and in and back out again. And the power went out sometime in the late hours which meant Mike getting up to turn off the insistent beeps of the UPS for the computers. But through it all there was the gentle sound of rain on the roof to soothe us back to sleep. And this morning there were lazy clouds sitting on top of the mountains waiting for the sun to come up and burn them away.

The sleeping loft.

Amazingly, Mike and I are both home at the same time. I'm still feeling really tired and a bit like someone beat me with a board after getting ready for and vending at the Utah event by myself. Mike has been feeling pretty much the same degree of tired after a two week intensive school for directional drillers. But it's great to be here together without a huge time deadline hanging over us for a change.

With a window of time between Mike returning to work and me burying myself getting ready for another show, we are trying to get some projects done. A few months ago Mike started building the sleeping loft for the yurt but it was put on hold when we made our fall trip to the east coast and tried to keep up with orders through Christmas.

It's necessary to get the sleeping loft completed in order to move on to building the permanent bathroom which will be framed in below the loft, and to make space to move the woodstove into the space where our bed is now. Our artist/sculptor friend, Sarah Snavely will be designing the tile base the woodstove will stand on. I have hopes Sarah will also be designing our kitchen counters when we are able to move on to that project.

Mike spent a big part of this afternoon sanding the vigas smooth that will form the stairs up to the loft. The vigas are formed from local pine logs and come complete with knots, splits and sometimes even wood boring bugs. Once sanded smooth and stained though, they make a beautiful part of the interior structure.

Mike was so covered with sawdust from the sanding we had to brush him off with a broom and leave some of his clothes outside.

Can you see me?

How about now?

I was really happy to see this little horned lizard back this spring. Last time I saw him his body was no bigger than a quarter and he/she certainly grew during the winter sleep time. This little critter lives under some rocks near the yurt and fills up on a regular diet of wood ants and flies. We really appreciate the assistance with the flies.

Oh...the absurdity of it all!

So I'm back from Utah and besides being a successful trip, the pups had amazing fun. As our friend Gaye said, put a funny hat or clothes on a greyhound and they quickly figure out they have become the center of attention. Ellie discovered if she walked up and poked someone with her horns, especially from the rear, she got lots of laughs and pets.

Our friend Kelly came from Houston with her two brindle boys, Josh and Andy dressed up as Texas Rangers.

Did that cowboy just kiss that cow???

Tammy also came from Houston with her two boys.

These folks came as two peas...

...with their own pod!

Carmen Miranda made an appearance.

And two Swiss Misses.

There was a dignified old bandito,

and Mardi Paws revelers!

This group was ready for any kind of weather...

This hound was ready to show his speed a different way.

And oh...what can we say about a poodle wannabe?

Is that a cow???

Are you sure about this?

Oh the embarrassment...don't you know I was once a racing greyhound? My lineage tracing back to the royal hounds of the pharaohs?

Well...when it comes to cute...I'm the cutest!