News and Events - the place for horsey
gossip!
March 26, 2010
Check out the newest additions to the family Pedro
and Mohita. They are a pair of LaMancha goats. Pedro
is the darker of the two and they are about 3.5
years old. We bought them along with the horse
corrals and storage containers at the new ranch
we're going to be moving too. They were already on
the property and up for sale so thought what the
hell! :)
Pedro and Mohita
October 4, 2009
We hauled a friends horses to a local horse show in
Lakeside so
her and one of her students could participate. It
was the first show for Max (the big black horse) and
he did quite well. We had a pick nick lunch with
several friends of our friend and celebrated BethAnne's birthday. It was a pretty cool day. I
learned a lot about the whole show environment. It
pretty neat just being the horse chauffer and
babysitter. We got to sit around and do a whole lot
of nothing most of the day.
September 20, 2009
We had a wonderful time at the Poway Rodeo Trail
ride. BethAnne rode Sugar and I rode Blue. We did
one of the medium trails due to arriving later then
normal. Both horses did wonderful and I got some
great pictures. So far we've ridden in this ride 3
years in a row and I have yet to ride the same horse
twice! Each year I've ridden a different horse. We
had a great lunch after words and won 3 gift
certificates worth $25 each in the raffle. Be sure
to visit the trails page to see all of this years
photos.
September 12, 2009
We had a great time at the Saddle Up For St. Jude
benefit ride at Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve.
Lovely, Rainy and Cody did great and behaved
beautifully! Our staging area was out behind the old
ranch house that is the ranger station. We parked in
a large empty field and got everyone ready to go.
The ride wasn't guided and since we know the canyon
so well from our many rides there we simply went our
own way. We crossed the creek several times and
stopped a couple of times to let the horses play in
the water or get a drink if they wished. Rainy had a
blast splashing water everywhere each time we
stopped at one of the 3 crossings we used.
Why: To benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
When: September 12, 2009, 9am to 4pm
Where: Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve,
(Mercy Rd & Black Mountain Rd.)
Come ride in the beautiful Los Penasquitos Canyon
Preserve, meet new friends, enjoy some great food
and music to benefit a worthy cause. ALL
donations are tax deductible and will benefit St.
Jude's Children’s Hospital; St Jude’s will provide
some great participant prizes.
Here's what you can win!
All participants
who raise $20 or more receive a Saddle Up for
St. Jude lapel pin.
Participants raising $35 or more
add a Saddle Up for St. Jude T-shirt.
Participants raising $75 or more
add a Saddle Up for St. Jude hat.
Participants raising $150 or more
add a Saddle Up for St. Jude pommel bag.
Prizes are cumulative.
Enjoy a $3.00 lunch
$3.00 parking per vehicle
PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED
CALL NOW
as we are limited to only 100 registered riders*
Five free raffle tickets to the first 25
registrants.
We
will have raffle tickets for sale for additional
prizes
Call TODAY to get your sponsorship forms.
Hosted by Risen Son Ranch
Call Lori Alexander
Saddle Up For St. Jude
2009 San Diego Coordinator
Phone 619-443-2742
Email:
flame85@cox.net
August 7, 2009
Well I finally finished another round of updates to the site. I've
reorganized the directory structure and shorted up the navigation menu on the
left of all the pages. All the horses now have a photo page instead of the old
galleries which were a pain to update and add photos too. I've cleaned up a lot
of the code (though there is still quite a bit of work left there) and did a lot
of renaming of a large portion of the pictures (which also created more coding).
I hope you all enjoy the site. Drop me a line some time and let me know what you
think of it.
David
July 22, 2009
Wow! I finally finished a huge amount of the changes and upgrades I wanted to
make to the site. Check out all the pages because I worked on just about all of
them. The major changes though were to the Trails
page. I added a new page for each of the places we ride so now you can see more
photos other then the single one that used to be on the Trails page under each
location. I'm still working on replacing the galleries so some of the horse
pages have new photo pages while others still have the old galleries. I'll
eventually get those replaced too so be sure to check back often!
July 20, 2009
Had another great ride with Anne and Kellie. They met us at the ranch and we
took Blue, Lovely, Pearl and Sugar out on a trail ride on the trails around the
ranch. Check out the photos Anne and I took.
Click here to see photos!
July 19, 2009
Took Pearl and Rainy to Border Field park today and rode the beach. Not a bad
place but it is not going to be one of my preferred places to ride. The beach
has great sand and is nice and straight for cantering and galloping but it's
rather boring. You can't stage close to the beach and have to ride in about a
mile or better to get there. The trail is practically straight from the staging
area to the beach so nothing to really keep the horses from getting bored before
they get to the good stuff. The waves can also be a real challenge. Even rock
steady Pearl wasn't too sure of them for a large part of the time we were
actually on the beach. We'll go back a few times taking each of the horses to
get them exposed to the difference but after that we'll probalby only go if
invited by some friends.
Overall it was a fairly good day and the horses got a much needed bath when
we got home.
July 18, 2009
Martina brought Jake and her best friends niece (from Switzerland) to the
ranch and we went out on a really nice 2 hour trail ride. It was really funny
Sugar was the only mare in the group and the geldings were sure feeling their
oats! Blue got all excited and started bucking and jumping when I asked for a
canter! He was so fun!! Cody did some bunny hoping and Jake was just beside
himself! I think Sugar was they only level headed one in the group! I told
BethAnne she should have ridden Blue and I should have ridding Sugar that way
all the girls would have been on geldings and Sugar and I would be the odd ones
out. :)
July 16, 2009
Took Blue, Cody and Pearl to Fiesta Island with a couple of new friends so
they could do a horse back ride on the beach. We all had a great time and after
the ride had a really nice picnic dinner while the horses ate their treats. I
was very proud of Cody for his first time at the beach. He had some minor issues
but overall he did wonderful.
Check out the photos on the Fiesta Island page.
Kellie On Blue, Me on Cody |
Me on Cody, Anne on Pearl |
Me on Cody |
| Photos courtesy of Anne West and Kellie Straw |
May 26, 2009
Memorial day has come and gone. We spent the day doing some building to make
this summer a little easier to tolerate. We built a shade cover on the side of
the tack shed so we have a place to get in out of the sun.
It ain't perfect but it'll do the job. We'll probably add a deck this winter to next spring depending on when we can save up enough for the lumber.
We're also going to try and level out the ground in the next few weeks where the
chair and table are currently sitting as there's a pretty big bump there and we
have to use rocks and stuff to keep them level now. It'll be pretty nice once
we've got it all done. We bought everything we needed at Home Depot. We started
with anchoring a 2"x6"x12' to the side of the tack shed then measured out to
where we wanted the pole and then dug a couple of holes to put the 4"x4"x12'
poles in. Initially I was going to drop the poles down 2' but the ground was too
hard to dig in so BethAnne went back to Home Depot and picked up a couple of
cinder blocks and we used those combined with the shallow holes we did manage to
dig and put the poles in them, filled with dirt and called it good. We then
added a 2"x6"x12' across the poles and then added the 2"x6"x10'. We finished off
with a 6'x20' roll of green sun screen cut in half to 2 6'x10' sections and
stapled it to boards. The poles aren't exactly plumb but the roof is pretty
level. We goofed a little on the location for the holes and one pole is about an
inch too far out while the other is about two inches out. I figure for what it's
planned for as long as it's sturdy and stays standing during the Santa Ana winds
we'll be happy.April 27, 2009
Well the herd has been established! Since we lost Splashy things have been
kind of off kilter with the rest of the horses so we decided to put them all
together to see what developed. It was amazing to watch and very educational!
Sugar turned out to be the head mare (as expected) and Rainy is her second in
command (not expected). Once Sugar established her dominance the mares hung out
together and her and Rainy kept the geldings out on the perimeter. Pearl was
pretty much allowed to do what ever she wanted but either Rainy or Sugar or both
were always by Lovely's side protecting her. The ponies turned out to be their
own separate herd which is fine. Sugar would occasionally wander over to
wherever Pearl was and check on her and would also chase the geldings away from
her if they got too close. At times if Sugar was busy disciplining one of the
other horses and a ruckus broke out else where she would call to Rainy and Rainy
would then go deal with the horse causing problems. It was really cool watching
them work together. We were concerned that Sugar and Rainy would fight for
dominance but that's didn't happen. We are very happy with the way it turned
out.
Here are some pictures of the event (click to see full size):
March 19, 2009
Today at around 5pm we euthanized Splashy. She had been suffering for a
couple of weeks with an unknown illness or disorder that was causing her to not
want to eat, not walk around and not get enough sleep. The decision was not an
easy one but we know it was in her best interest. We got lucky as she was having
one of her good days today so went down in peace rather then pain. It was a very
sad day for all of us. She had several friends who loved her on hand to say
their good buys so she got a lot of love and attention while waiting for the vet
to arrive.
Her pictures will always remain on this site as a memorial to her and I will
add more as I find the time. Splashy was a huge part of our family and she will
be dearly missed. Rest In Peace Splashy Doll. We will always miss you baby girl!
November 4, 2008
A sad day has come. Due to financial changes and the declining economy we are
forced to trim the herd. This means I need to find a home for Splashy and
possibly even Pearl. We're working on a deal with a close friend to lease Blue
with a possible option for her to buy him if she wants. Starting the 1st of the
new year the money that was being used to pay board on two of the stalls will no
longer be available forcing us to make these changes. I am not looking forward
to the day I have to take Splashy and leave her with someone else. I'll be
listing her on several sites as word of mouth to friends and family for the last
few weeks has not turned up any positive results so I'll now have to look
outside that circle for a good home for her.
On a happier note, Lovely is turning into quite the trail horse. A couple of
weekends ago her and I went with some friends up to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park
for what turned out to be about a 4 hour or so trail ride. Then the next day
Lovely, myself, BethAnne and Sugar met another friend and her horse at Los
Penasquitos canyon and rode the length of the canyon and back for about a 5 hour
or so trail ride. Lovely did great on both rides and made me very proud of her.
June 29, 2008
Another day at the beach (Fiesta Island) this time with Lovely and Sugar.
They did great! Lovely actually cantered on the beach and walked out into the
water up to her chest. We also had some friends along on this ride as well
(beach rides are great with a group). There were a lot more horses at the beach
today compared to Fathers Day but not as many other distractions. Lovely's
turning out to be a great horse. Next time we're going to try and get a large
group (6 or more horses) together for the ride.
June 15, 2008 (Fathers
Day)
We took Lovely and Rainy to Fiesta Island today and had a great time. Both
horses did very well for their first time at the beach with all different things
such as kites, Jet-Ski's, Bikes and what not. Lovely didn't like the water much
but she did ok. Rainy was a complete surprise, she stayed pretty calm the whole
time. Some friends (Lovely's previous owner and her daughter) came along with us and it was a great day.
June 8, 2008
Today we had a professional photo shoot done of the horses by Joe Rivera of
Mobile Pet Photography. You
can see some of the images on the photo shoot
page. It was a lot of fun and even the horses enjoyed it. Joe did a great job
and got some really awesome pictures of the horses. He took over 200 pictures
and we had him print 8 of the best head shots to frame and hang on the wall.
We've put some of the others up on the photo shoot page so you can see the
quality of Joe's work.
May 12, 2008
Well we found a good job for Annie! She's great at pulling a cart we bought
from one of the other boarders. She really seems to do well at it except for
stopping. She just keeps going and going. :) It's quite fun too! We spent a good
part of the day driving Annie around the ranch.
As always click on the images for larger view.
May 4, 2008
We finally got around to trying the ponies with a cart and harness we
purchased from one of the other boarders at the ranch. Belle didn't like it to
well so we'll probably have to work with her a little more but Annie took right
to it and did great! We rode around the ranch a couple of times with her and she
was wonderful. I need to put some air in the carts tires and once that's done
we'll get some pictures and video to add to the site.
March 23, 2008
Lorin (Splashy's previous owner) came down today to visit Splashy and took
her into the arena for a light work out.
It was a good day for both.
Click on the pictures to see them full size.
Video - Splashy and Lorin
December 2007 Well it's almost Christmas and the weather is getting chilly for southern California. We've been hitting the upper 30's at night and high 50's to low 60's during the day. We had a couple of pretty good rainstorms and the ranch is a muddy mess. The horses stalls are mud pits and of course the horses are covered in mud. I'm hoping for some decent weather soon so I can clean them up a bit though the mud does help them stay warmer.
Lovey injured her back left foot the day after we bought her and was down from riding for over a month. She's fully recovered but due to the weather I haven't had a chance to take her out riding.
Pearl is showing signs of possibly having a problem with one of her legs so we haven't ridden her much either while Lovely was down. As soon as we can get caught up from the vet bills I'm going to have the vet take a good look at her. I hope it's nothing serious.
Splashy was sick for several months and on anti-biotics. We never did really figure out what was wrong with her but she's doing just fine now and completely off the medications. She very much like her old self finally. BethAnne and I took her out with Rainy the other day and let them run in the big arena. It was so funny watching that little Quarter horse try to out race her. They wore themselves out pretty good.
Over all it's been a hectic year but we made it through. We have some absolutely wonderful horses and I wouldn't trade any of them for the world. Posted 12/11/07 by David
More new additions!
We've added another horse very similar to Pearl. Her name is Lovely,
she's a 7 year old dun Quarter horse from a similar pedigree as Pearl.
She's a great trail horse though she needs a lot more experience on the
trails as she still gets a little nervous and spooks at times. She has the same build as Pearl and is quite fast. Be sure to check out her page.
We've also added a couple of Welsh ponies. They are Annie whose 10 years old and Belle whose 9 years old. They are chestnut colored and stand just over 13 hands each. Be sure to check out their page.
Wild Fires! Yes we had to evacuate the horses for a week because of the fires in San Diego county. It wasn't an easy task but we all managed to get through it. Splashy managed to have a relapse from a respitory problem we were treating her for and had to be on antibiotics for an extended time but shes fine now.
Everyone made it back safely though it was quite an adventure.
Oh Happy Day!
As of Saturday November 26, 2006 Pearl and Splashy are now in their new homes at Rolling Hills Stables in Poway, CA and seem to be adjusting well. Splashy gave us quite a bit of trouble getting in the trailer then managed to hurt herself just before we got to the new home. The trip itself was pretty uneventful and Pearl and Splashy made the 2 hour trip without us having to stop and deal with any issues. They seemed to get along quite well. About five miles from their new home Splashy started kicking and going nuts but we didn't stop since we were so close to the ranch. We all honestly thought she was just tired of the ride and wanted out and the traffic lights weren't helping much. As it turned out when we did unload them we found blood on Pearls side of the divider bar. A thourough inspection of Pearl showed no damage or wounds which had us at a bit of a loss. BethAnne then noticed something on Splashy and we took a closer look. Sure enough we found the wound. It appears that somehow Splashy managed to get her right rear leg over the bar and apparently panicked. She kicked and bucked so much she cut herself as well as put a few dents in our friends trailer. We a couple of wounds on the inside of her leg as well as one on the outside, she also had a couple of fresh scrapes on the left side of her forehead. Seems she not only kicked but banged her head around some too. We cleaned her up and but some betadine and bluecoat on the wounds and gave her a very small amount of Phenylbutazone (bute) to help with the pain and keep the swelling down. Other then that little episode everything went well.
I spent the day Sunday with the horses making sure they're adjusting and getting plenty of attention. I took Splashy out first thing in the morning and she seemed to be doing well. I turned her out in the large arena and she immediately took off at an easy trot and did some exploring before she laid down and rolled. I figured she's doing well so after about 20 minutes put her back into her new stall. Both of their stalls are about twice as big as the ones they had at San Dimas.
After letting Splashy play I did some work on Pearls stall to get rid of some wire fencing that was part way around her stall and not anchored very well. Then I took Pearl out to let her play and Splashy went nuts. She started nieghing and making all kinds of ruckus. Apparently she got quite used to be next too Pearl in the trailer and didn't like the idea of being alone now. She continued this for quite some time and was still acting up when Pearl and I headed out on our trail ride. We spent about two hours out on the trail and though a little nervous at first Pearl did just fine. I think shes adjusting to her new home quite well.
Late Sunday afternoon BethAnne and I took Pearl and Blue out on a short ride and Splashy went nuts again although not near as bad as she did that morning. I think with a little time she'll calm down though I expect she'll still make some noise from now on when I take Pearl out on rides.
All in all it was as good weekend though a busy one. The horses are doing well and seem to be quite happy with their new homes.
Sad news
Well Stormy is no longer a part of our family. He was taken back by his original owner and will not be moving to our new home with us. He will be greatly missed.
Moving day!
Well dad tells us we're all going to be moving to a new home soon. Seems him and BethAnne are getting along very well and he's going to be moving all of us down to the San Diego area. He said we're moving to the same ranch that Sugar, Rainy and Blue are at and that our stalls are going to be bigger. COOL! We can't wait to meet them.
More to follow once we get moved.
New additions!
Well we have some new additions to the family. Everyone welcome BethAnne, Eddie, Sugar, Rainy Day and Blue Cloud to the family.
BethAnne is Dad's new girlfriend and Eddie is her son.
Sugar is a 5 year old red roan Quarter horse, Rainy is a 4 yr red roan Quarter horse and Blue is a 4 year old grey dapple Quarter horse. They are BethAnne's babies.
BethAnne and Eddie
Sugar, Rainy and Blue
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