I saw this posted on another site but thought everyone here would like it!

Hope you all enjoy this. 
How Many Horses Does It Take To Change A Light Bulb? 

*Thoroughbred: Who ME?? Do WHAT?? I’m scared of light bulbs! I’m outta here! 
*Arabian: I changed it an hour ago. C’mon you guys -catch up! 
*Quarter Horse: Put all the bulbs in a pen and tell me which one you want. 
*Standardbred: Oh for Pet’s Sake, give me the darn bulb and let’s be done with it. 
*Shetland: Give it to me. I’ll kill it and we won’t have to worry about it anymore. 
*Friesian: I would, but I can’t see where I’m going from behind all this forelock. 
*Belgian: Put the Shetland on my back, maybe he can reach it then. 
*Warmblood: Is this the 2nd Level Instruction Packet in English? Doesn’t anyone realize that I was sold for $75k as a yearling, but only because my hocks are bad, otherwise I would be worth $100k? I am NOT changing light bulbs. Make the TB get back here and do it. 
*Morgan: Me! Me! Me! Pleeease let me! I wanna do it! I’m gonna do it! I know how, really I do! Just watch! I’ll rewire the barn after, too. 
*Appaloosa: Ya’ll are a bunch of losers. We don’t need to change the light bulb, I ain’t scared of the dark. And someone make that darn Morgan stop jumping up and down before I double barrel him. 
*Haflinger: That thing I ate was a light bulb? 
*Mustang: Light bulb? Let’s go on a trail ride, instead. And camp. Out in the open like REAL horses. 
*Lipizzaner: Hah, amateurs. I will change the light bulb. Not only that, but I will do it while standing on my hind legs and balancing it on my nose, after which I will perform seven flying lead changes in a row and a capriole. Can you do that? Huh? Huh? Didn’t think so. 
*Miniature: I bet you think I can’t do it just cause I’m so small. You know what that is? It’s sizeism! 
*Akhal Teke: I will only change it if it’s my owner’s light bulb and no one else has ever touched it. 
*Andalusian: I will delegate the changing of the light bulb to my personal groom after he finishes shampooing my mane and cleaning my saddle, but only on the condition that it is changed for a soft blue or green bulb, which reflects better off my coat while I exhibit my astonishing gaits. 
*Cleveland Bay: I’m busy. Make the whipper-in and the hounds do it. 
*Saddlebred; My ears are up already, please, please get the light bulb away from me! I’m ready to show, really, I promise I’ll win! 
*Paint: Put all the light bulbs in a pen, tell me which one you want, and my owner will bet you twenty bucks I can get it before the Quarter Horse. 
*POA: I’m not changing it. I’m the one who kicked the old one and broke it in the first place, remember? Now, excuse me, I have a grain room to break into. 
*Grade Horse: Guys? Um, guys? I hope you don’t mind, but I went ahead and changed it while you were all arguing. 

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I am posting a picture of my filly Star.  I finally had a camera close by when she got into her strange sleeping position.(See Castaways! in the forum).

If you go to my gallery, you can see Star in that favorite sleeping position.  She loves to sleep partially under the fence panel.  Often she digs out the area, plops herself down and rolls her head under.  I find her like this a few times a week.  This week I am lucky because she hasn't gotten cast all the way in the panel.  On those days, she waits for me to come and roll her back over.  She loves the attention and seems to do it intentionally.  In the picture she seems to be saying, "Look what I can do..."

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Well, Last night I ran the irrigation for my property as well as the neighbor's property.  This process is one of the things that keeps our wonderful community together.  When we run water, there are a series of irrigation ports and gates that you need to open in order for the water to flow.  This time of the year, water is very important for our parched pastures, and even though the horses need to stay in their paddocks until the water is absorbed, they love the fresh new growth that comes.

Now if you forget about your water, you flood another neighbor out.  One year a new neighbor who chose not to get to know the community decided not to get their water because their time came in the middle of the night.  That water flooded out my neighbor to the north and submerged their swimming pool with muddy water.  Needless to say, the pool pump was clogged up and it was quite a mess.  Well, after having to pay for pool repairs, the new neighbors had to repair their nonexistent relationship with the community.  Now they have become great neighbors and we all work together to help each other out if you can't be around to turn on the water.

The funny thing about our irrigation is that it almost always rains when we get our water!  Last night, we got a doozy of a monsoon storm.  Monsoon storms are typical for Arizona for this time of the year.  They are most beautiful to watch, but can be very damaging.  They bring brief desert showers, dust storms and quite a bit of lightning and thunder. We received 2.5 inches of water from last night's storm and it is expected to rain all weekend.  Doesn't sound like much, but since the desert normally gets 7 inches a year, we got a third of our water last night!  The rain that drained off the house alone, filled a fourth of our property with the new drainage system we put in.  Now we know it works!

The storm last night blew out some of the electrical transformers, so needless to say we lost power for a while.  Since I am an optimist, I didn't think it was too bad since the storm lowered the 107 temp to 72 degrees!  (Get out your winter coats Arizona people!)  Even Colorancher would have tolorated last night's balmy temperatures! Then, at 11pm, people went to check on each other.  What a great neighborhood we live in!  

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Star is now approaching her year and a half mark.  She is so much fun to work with and likes to interact with people. (Her only issue is at feeding time...I am working on that !)

Anyway, I know it will be a while until I start breaking her to ride, but I just can't help but wonder what that will be like.  You see, Star is very athletic and with her being half Arab, she can have lots of energy!  At sunset is her most active time.  She loves to run, stop, jump strait up into the air, spin, chase the dogs and is so much fun to watch.  Now, the other night as my husband and I walked the dogs on the bridlepath by our back pasture fence, Star came trotting up whipping her head all around.  We fed her some of the long grass on the bridle path that she can't reach, then continued to throw the ball for the dogs on our walk.  As the dogs chased the ball, so did Star, spinning and bucking and making laps around the pasture.  Mind you, it is 100 degrees even at sunset this time of year in Phoenix!  

My husband looked at me and said, "And you are going to get up on that, someday...Crazy ride!"

I guess so!  I'll be sure to hand on tight when that day comes!

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Jazzmine’s Day 6-1-08

Jazzmine woke me up at her usual time of 5 am so she could go out to go to the bathroom.  Little did she know that I was on to her hunting instincts as she would hunt baby birds and gophers on our property.  When she was finished she barked at the door so I could make her and the other dogs their breakfast.

After breakfast, all of the dogs were ready for their morning walk.  Jazzmine had grown weaker and weaker over the past few weeks, but still would make our walks.  Every morning and every night, we walk all of the dogs down the bridle paths surrounding our neighborhood. After the walk, Jazz took her nap in the comfort of the air conditioned barn.

At around lunchtime, a worker came to pick up some trash from the house remodel. I didn’t know, but he left the front gate open.  Meanwhile I was in the house cleaning up after the drywall mess getting it ready to paint.  Looking out the window I saw an older golden retriever happily making her way down the street.  It was Jazzmine!  I ran out to get her and she gave me the “squinty look” that she makes when she thinks she’s in trouble.  “You’re not in trouble,” I assured her as we walked home.  The other dogs looked irritated when they thought she had gotten another walk!  Jazzmine just wagged her tail!

That night, after dinner, we walked the irrigation port route and turned on the irrigation ports to water the property.  All of the dogs came to help.  They love the walk to the port locations, then they love to stand in the cool water as it rushes out of the ports onto the property.  After the water was set and running, we all went back in the barn.

As we settled in for the night, Jazz came to me for a pat on the head, lay down by my feet and died….I am soo sad.

All weekend my husband and I recollected all the wonderful 16 ½ years Jazzmine gave us. She went strong right up to the end.   

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I am getting ready to go on a weekend trip and while I am very excited to go, I am also worried about Leaving my Babies!I have really great neighbors who have all offered to watch the dogs and the horses and my betta fish "Fred.I am going to prebag the food for all of the animals, and schedule everyone to rotate in. to feed.  

My husband might not go since he wants to make sure the "big house" work is done.  I keep telling myself that it is just for the weekend.  Last year we went on vacation for 2 weeks (I was a basket case!).  We had a house sitter last summer!  I wish I could take them all with me!  

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Well, most of you who know me know that I have been living in the horse barn while my husband and I have been building our dreamhouse!  Last night, we cleaned up and put away the carpentry tools!  We are getting ready to hand off the nasty work to a subcontractor!  This week we will have a guy come insulate and then in the next week there will be another guy to do the drywall.  

We were hoping to be moved back in the first week of June, but I think it will be closer to July now.

Building a house together is tough stuff.  As I look back, the hardest thing for me was framing and sheeting the shell of the house.  I can't tell you how many times I smashed my finger!

I learned how to put together a waste plumbing system and a water system in the house.  The hardest part of that was digging the trenches!(remember that poop goes downhill!)  I vowed that after the plumbing was done, I wouldn't dig anymore EXCEPT to garden!  I thought the  PVC glue smelled bad, and the blue goo got all over everything!  NO LEAKS!  

The other thing that I learned was the electrical and low voltage wiring system.  An electrician friend showed me how to pull wire, make "daisy chaines" and make up the switches and recepticles!  That was hard work too!

Now in the upcoming months, I am looking forward  to the "fun" stuff like painting, and tiling. 

I know that houses never get finished.  But I am looking forward to living "normally" in my dreamhouse soon!

Maybe I can even start to ride  more than once a week again!

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Sometimes in life you get so busy and focused with tasks that you forget to live life itself.  It took an old friend to remind me of this.

Jazzmine is my 16+ year old golden retriever.  We got her on a road trip outside of Syndney, Nebraska in a speck of a place called Lodgepole.  We then traveled through Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and then returned to our home then, Taos, New Mexico.

The other dogs didn’t mind Jazzmine and were happy to have her as part of the dog family.  They were our kids at the time.  We took her and the other dogs everywhere and she even made it up to the highest point in New Mexico on Wheeler Peak.

There are many stories to be told about Jazz.  I could probably write a book on the adventures I had with her and, maybe I will someday!  But, Jazzmine always embraced life with a kind and happy attitude.

We now live in a different state in a big busy city, have a teenage daughter, 3 other dogs, 2 horses, have moved from 3 different houses, and Jazz still wakes up everyday with her doggy smile  wanting to make you happy, THEN wanting her walk, and  then breakfast.

Last week, we awoke in the night and found Jazzmine in distress.  She was disoriented , had an accident on herself and couldn’t move her back end.  My husband and I were very sad.  We sat with her, rubbing her white face and lumpy old body hoping to settle her laboring breathing down.  We reflected on all of the unconditional love this dog gave us as well as all of the adventures she had accompanied us with.   We then were facing the task of what to do for her.  Putting your best friend down is never an easy thing and can reduce the manliest man to tears (if he is a real man!)  We finally settled Jazz down to where she was sleeping comfortably again and then we decided to go back to sleep too.  We were dreading the day to come. The  day that we would put our dear old friend to sleep.

The next morning, the strangest thing happened.  Jazzmine got up with her happy dog smile, wanted her breakfast, then walk as if nothing ever occurred in the night!  I have to say I was very relieved as I grabbed the ball and proceeded to take the dogs for a walk.

She has been fine for an old dog since.

I do know that the day will come when I do have to help my dear old friend to doggy heaven, but that day is not right now.  Jazzmine reminded me that I need to slow down with my busy life, tell all my loved ones that I love them, and not to forget the little things in life that are my purpose of life.  I need to not take every day for granted, live each day to its fullest, and stop every once in a while to enjoy life.

I hope that everyone who reads this blog will take a moment out of their busy life and tell someone they love them, give their old dog (or new one ) and extra pat, and give their horse an extra carrot today!

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This is a tribute to my neighbor's horse "Barney".

When we first moved here 5 years ago, our neighbor 2 doors down had this beautiful white arabian horse.  We walked down to see it and it hung its head over the fence and my daughter hugged it tightly, stroking its soft mane and ears.  I was amazed at how gentle this horse was and since I hadn't met the horse or the folks who lived there, I thought I'd see if this was a mare or gelding.  As I looked underneath I realized that I was wrong and this splendent white Arabian was actually a stallion.  I quickly told my daughter to let go and that he was a stallion and that stallions are always unpredictable (I had been bitten by a stallion once!)

As I got to know the neighbors, I found out a lot about this stallion they called Barney.  I thought it was a silly name for a stallion, but it kind of suited him.  They also told me that Barney was 30 years old!  He looked great.  Good conformation, did not walk with a limp, but she said she had to supplement with "senior food" since his teeth were not great!  I complimented them on what great manners he had and how gentle he was with my daughter.  They told me he had always been that gentle and if he wasn't, they would have gotten rid of him.  They also told me he had been ridden competitively in distance events, lots of trail rides, and used for an occasional breeding for some distance horses.  I later found out that he was a son out of one of the most well known Arabian Stallions, Bay Abi+ and Barney's real name is Barn Abi.  They had another beautiful chestnut Arabian mare who has a daughter of his.  Her name is Honey Bee. She too is very sweet and gentle.

Recently, they had to put Barney Down.  He was 35 and had a couple of bad weeks, They had a hard time getting him up every day and decided it was time.  That was no easy decision, and when I was talking with them, I found out that they had Barney all of this 35 years!  

Owning a horse or any animal is a lifelong commitment.  With Barney that was an understatement!  But I know that in turn, he gave my neighbors, their family, and us other folks who met him a lifetime of Love back.

Run Free in Horsey Heaven, Barney!

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