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Category Archives: horse

A Visit to Horse’n Around Rescue

08 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by ninagarden in Arizona, cowgirl, horse, horses, ranch, Tucson, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

horses, ranch, Summer

In May, I went to Tucson, and my dad, my niece and I went on a day trip to Horse’n Around horse rescue in Hereford, Arizona. I saw some great horses here, and it is a truly beautiful location — right next to the border with Mexico. In the background of this picture below, you can see the fence. It’s that black line on the horizon. It looks like a train track.

It’s also on the photo behind this giant donkey in retirement from the Grand Canyon.

We were there about three hours and saw all 48 horses. They had some great horses and some sad stories to tell. Like this gorgeous guy below who broke his knee in a team roping competition.


You can’t tell now, but if you ride him about an hour he begins to favor it. He is in a mountain pasture where he has to climb around a little and they hope it rehabilitates him.

Here are two mares I wanted to adopt. The first photo is of horse I keep thinking about– Desert Rose, the appaloosa. The second photo below is a mare named Kaluha that I learned was already adopted this since my May visit — she will be a great horse for someone! Dad liked her because she reminded him of a horse he had a long time ago. He is feeding her in the picture below Rose.

They were from a seizure of more than 40 starving horses at an old dude ranch– so sad.

I may go back and ride Rose soon! She is stuck in my mind, and I keep thinking about her. I love her color and her markings. I love the idea of helping her out. She was so thin when they got her.  Now she has filled out and grown up. She looks like a cowgirl’s horse…

If you are looking to adopt a horse, please consider going to Horse’n Around Rescue Ranch. When you adopt a horse, you pay a fee (basically you buy the horse) and you get 10 hours of riding instruction with your new companion before you can take her/him home. When I brought my horse Bayito to San Diego, I learned that it isn’t very expensive to trailer a horse to Southern California so if you are looking, you might consider one from Horse’n Around.

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Happy Easter Weekend Photos

28 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by ninagarden in Australian shepherd, cabbage, California native plants, chickens, dog, horse, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

cows, Easter, flowers, horses

It was a fun Easter weekend with the kids, a happy dog, horses, calves & cows, chickens, Easter bunny, eggs and lots of flowers & veggies in the garden. Enjoy!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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Pictures of the Ranch

03 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by ninagarden in Arizona, cowboy, horse, ranch, Uncategorized

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Tags

horse, ranch

When I was back in Tucson a couple of weekends ago, I found these pictures of our old ranch near Wilcox (the O-bar-O).  I thought I’d share so I could see these pictures and not forget.

This must have been a rainy year because the grass looks good and the stream is running.

byoungobaro--o-o4o-o5o-ostream

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Cotillion Cowgirl

06 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by ninagarden in Arizona, cowgirl, horse, ranch, Tucson, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Agua Linda, farm, horses, ranch, Tucson

I inherited some of my Aunt’s photos a few months ago, and looking through them, I was inspired by this fact — my aunt, who was always glamorous and social, who wore beautiful clothes and surrounded herself with beautiful and glamorous things, was also, a cowgirl.

For the first time, as I looked through the numerous photos of her in ballgowns, costumes, tutus, pearls and neat 60s sheaths, I also saw her riding a horse. A horse!

She grew up on the Agua Linda farm south of Tucson and had ranch in her blood. The “farm” was more about feeding cattle than raising crops, and while my grandpa had sold the old ranch headquarters, he still had the Aros Ranch for a while. I never thought of my aunt as a ranch girl so when I found all the photos of her on horseback, I was surprised. I never saw her on a horse, or near one, for that matter.

But in this old plastic bag of photos that I collected from my brother’s dining room table after he retrieved the remains of her estate, I found a few hints of the cowgirl my aunt once was.

Most of the photos, of course, display her understated glamour — many show dinners with my grandma and grandpa, lady’s lunches and social gatherings.

As a stewardess for American Airlines in the 60s, she had her hair styled by Vidal Sassoon, wore her uniform with pride and lived, no doubt, the high flying life of an elite flight attendant jet-setting around the world. Just look at her expression! Don’t you want to know what she is thinking?

auntninaflightattend

Before she left home, she wore quite a few ball gowns. Here (see girl on right) decked in satin shoulder-length gloves, her hair golden and shimmering as any movie star, she posed for photos at parties I can only imagine.

auntninacotillion

But here she is on my Grandfather’s  horse Tom Thumb, Nov. 1958 in Prescott. The faded inscription on the back says something about “camp on Plum Creek” and “just before sold” is written below  in purple pen. I can’t even believe she’s wearing jeans and look at her belt buckle! (That saddle looks oddly familiar. I wonder if that’s the one I use today.)

cowgilrauntnina

Standing in her white satin cotillion gown, pearls at her neck and bow encircling her tiny waist, she looks pensive. I love how the  black tree enhances her white gown and flowers. The picture is inscribed Dec. 1963, and I wonder where she is heading after this photo shoot? Did she have to drive 60 miles to town or was she already at her destination? (I called my mother and she told me that my aunt was probably heading to the Tucson Symphony Cotillion.)

auntninacotillion2

In the photo below, she smiles at the camera while riding a “big red horse,” as I like to call them–where? I do not know but it looks like somewhere near Tucson. Tamarask and eucalyptus trees rise to the monsoonal clouds.

cowgirlnina

Then years later,  in her red slicker and equally red nail polish, she grips the reins on a winter day. I know that signet ring on her pinkie — I hope one of my nieces have it.

latercowgirlnina

In her 50s and 60s she moved away from Tucson to live with her husband on a homestead in a log cabin in Mule Creek, New Mexico. She had acreage, fought brush fires, and hung wreaths on all the gates along the highway at Christmas time. She seemed to love that life just as much as her Jr. League days. Whenever she went back to Tucson, she let you know how much she despised the traffic. She was content with her country life.

She said, “you go back to what you know.”

When she passed away, way too soon from breast cancer, my sister and I drove to New Mexico and cleaned out her closets. While she had adapted her wardrobe to her rural life, she still had many of her clothes from her old self: lace, satin, and many brocade shawls. The main thing that struck me was how many outfits she had hanging in her two walls of closets. Probably five hundred different outfits were neatly arranged on tiered hangers — each hanger held two or three different outfits: pants and a shirt with a matching shawl. She had more shoes than we knew what to do with–many of them mail ordered and still in plastic wrappers–unworn.

Something of the old cotillion girl hid there in her closet waiting for the next ranch potluck, or maybe, an invitation to a fancy gala in an exotic location.

We can only wonder what possessed her to keep all those clothes.

*********

Here I am as a baby in her arms. I am her namesake and I am proud to have been her niece.

 

meandauntnina

Here’s two other photos that I wanted to share–in the first, she’s in some kind of costume that she no doubt invented and she’s holding a cat ( also in costume) and the other is of her and her favorite dog. I’m not sure here it was taken –maybe along the banks of the Santa Cruz.

auntninaandcatdressup
autN&dog

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Day of the Cowgirl

27 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by ninagarden in cowboy, cowgirl, horse, ranch

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Tags

Bayito, cows, Flagstaff, horse, Memorial Day, Memorial Day weekend, ranch

My sister called me the other day and told me about the National Day of the Cowboy celebration coming up on July 25, 2015. She wanted me to come to Flagstaff and Prescott and write about. That sounds great, but I am going to Flagstaff later in the summer so I can’t go in July, too.

A few days later, I sent her this picture of me cutting calves last Saturday with my horse on my friend’s ranch.

cowgirl

I sent my sister that photo and told her that last Saturday was National Day of the Cowgirl! (It was for me, anyway!)

My horse Bayito looks really good. He lost all his shaggy winter hair and I could move the cinch in a notch. Did he loose a little of his hefty girth or did all that hair just make him fatter? (He is a fat horse, I won’t deny it.)

He loves to chase after the cows and make them behave. See how his ears are pinned bacK? He is very serious. Those calves had better not misbehave around Bayito.

Here he is on the round up taking a break for a photo. He really just wants to eat grass.

Mayroundup corrected

I’m wearing that Carhartt flannel shirt in May on Memorial Day weekend because it was 48 degrees in the mountains last Saturday. Yes, in the mountains outside of San Diego! It was freezing (and drizzling). My sister just gave me that shirt last week and I thought I would not wear it until next December — well, I was wrong!

(Also, to my newphew, do not make fun of my helmet.)

Our kids were so cold they sat in the car and waited. I told them to watch when the cows we rounded up came through the gate. I remember round ups from growing up and hundreds of cows and calves moving in a great dusty herd down the road toward the barns. I forgot that we were only rounding up about 40 cows and cavles. I don’t know if the girls even noticed the cows coming in! However, they were very taken in by a new born calf on spindly legs. Some things never change!

 

 

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Chickens, Kale, Sugar Snap Peas, Fairy Garden, Horse Report and Late Valentine

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by ninagarden in chicken, fairy garden, horse, kale, snap peas, Valentine

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chickens, fairy garden, horse, kale, snap peas

It’s been a busy six weeks for us at home, in the garden,  and in the great outdoors. The heat wave brought  the nasturtiums, the apple blossoms and sweet peas.  Out in the mountains, the spring-like weather produced a great crop of ticks. Yuck!

My veggie garden is growing well, and the peas are sending up their tendrils across my net that was only meant to protect them from the birds while they were seedlings. Too late for me to take the net off. That is their trellis now.

My daughters have been fighting over garden space, each claiming the other has “the best” spot. I am strategically using this battle to help me accomplish things in the very short amount of time that we have. My oldest daughter, who got the “best” spot, weeded an unused corner of the yard and turned an empty planter into a beautiful vegetable garden. She probably planted everything too close together but that’s how you learn. (See picture below.)

My youngest, who is nearly nine, was so mad that I gave away the premium garden bed (which isn’t true), that she volunteered to pull all the old lettuce that was going to seed out of another raised bed so she could claim it as her own. Brilliant! I then gave her seeds, and now I have two more vegetable gardens planted!

January was rose pruning and I’ve posted so many rose pruning photos over the years that I won’t bore you. It is always a huge job but I managed to get it done in two weekends. I’m into speedy gardening right now with the horse, volleyball, dance, carpooling kids around and all the other things we have going on.

With Bayito (my horse), I have had a fast lesson in the ticks of Southern California, de-wormer and herbal insect control. I bought so much natural bug repellent–marigold spray, essential oils, Skin-So-Soft and other stuff, that I bet my horse is the best smelling mammal in Campo, California! I am really into doTerra essential oils right now and the Terra Shield insect repellent smells good and appears to be working. We can all use it.

The days are spring-like but we need rain. I also need some new cowboy boots!

Here are some of the shots of the new gardens, the old fairy garden, the apple tree and our chickens, who started laying again. Hooray! Scroll to the end for a late Valentine’s Day gift from the garden.

Below are photos of my snap peas:

IMG_3577

Apple blossoms:

IMG_3570

One of my veggie beds–I never seem to eat the lettuce fast enough:

IMG_3576-0

New vegetables my youngest daughter planted:

IMG_3575

Old garden that the nine-year-old doesn’t think is good enough–she hates the Borage growing all over her fairy garden but she doesn’t want me to remove it:

IMG_3569

Here is my late Valentine to you — French radishes from my garden and French wine! What a great combo! Sorry it’s a few days late…

radish wineandradish

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Christmas Dreams Do Come True

01 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by ninagarden in horse, New Year's resolution, ranch

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Arizona, Christmas, horse, new year's resolution

Every Christmas since I was a little girl I dreamed Santa would bring me a horse.

Even as an adult I glanced into the back yard Christmas morning hoping my husband, who is known in my book as being generous and wonderfully over the top, would figure out how to give me a horse.

And if you read my blogs from this year, you will know that I went to a colt sale in Arizona where my husband was sure I bought a colt. (I did not, althought I wanted to.)

That said, I knew it was impossible, impractical and not something my husband would ever really do…not really in my realm of possibilities with all the other responsibilities we have.

For whatever cosmic reason, at the end of November,  my dad decided to give me his horse Bayito…

You might say, wow, why does your dad have a horse? If you read my blog, you will know that he is a third generation rancher and farmer. Since we sold the ranch 15 or so years ago, his horse has lived on a neighboring ranch where he was used by a friendly cowboy to round-up cattle.

It might be one of those serendipitous events or some kind of chain reaction that I can’t explain. Or maybe it was this blog and writing about it!

(And also, it was my friend Audrey who decided to get a horse for her kids).

My dad is  friends with Audrey’s dad who is also a rancher, here in California and suddenly, there was a place for the horse and two families to ride him. And my dad trusts them with his horse, probably more than he trusts me with his horse.

So one cold day in December, my horse arrived from Arizona. The horse hauler picked him up on the ranch near Douglas, Arizona where my dad was waiting to say goodbye.

It was sort of bittersweet, I’m sure, to let go of the one thing left of our ranch and our cattle raising days. Bayito did not want to leave. After an hour of trying to get him in the trailer, with ropes and apples and other encouragments, he heaved a sigh and walked in to begin the journey to his new life here in California.

Here is “Bayito,” loosely translated, I think that means Brownie in English. His registered American Quarter Horse name is Tru Tru Holey Sox!

/home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/51b/9390764/files/2015/01/img_1347.jpg

2014-12-13 11.45.34

I am very happy and my only New Year’s resolution is to take care of and ride Bayito!

So if you are dreaming of owning a horse, it can happen one day, even in an unexpected way. Keep dreaming and maybe one day your dream will come true.

Happy New Year!

Thanks, Dad!

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Babbitt Times Review

14 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by ninagarden in Arizona, cowboy, Flagstaff, high-desert, horse, horses, ranch, Uncategorized

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Tags

Flagstaff, horses

Thanks so much to The Babbitt Times Review for mentioning my blog in its latest issue! Stay tuned for some exciting news in the horse department!

IMG_3034.JPG

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Horse Christmas: Colt Sale Part 2

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by ninagarden in Arizona, auction, colts, cowboy, Flagstaff, horse, horses

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Arizona, aution, colts, Flagstaff, horses

2014-07-12 11.27.19

The auction started at 11 a.m. with a few speeches. And I was too distracted to take notes but I remember the ranch manager spoke and then his wife, who read a poem about appreciating your life and making the best of things. I think one of the owners spoke too and thanked everyone for coming to the event that they looked forward to all year.

The auctioneer was brought in from out-of-town. He explained he wasn’t one of those fast talking auctioneer. He was a bit more like Santa Claus sharing the wealth of this horse Christmas. He told a story about his old dog, who had died, and some wisdom he had acquired from his vet about good dogs and good horses making your life better, which brought me to tears because I thought of my dog who died the summer before.

I think the saying was, “He was a good dog, and you gave him a good life, but he made your life even better.”

And you could say the same about a good horse.

So with those unexpected heart-warming introductions, the auction began.

Bidding opened at $750 per horse. That was the minimum bid. The first filly was from a stallion named Proudgun. It was bay. I think it went for $750. This would have been a good family horse.

The horses kept coming — 31 in total: Sorrel filly #1, bay filly #2 and so on. Each colt wore a little number on its side and that’s how they were auctioned off. They were ordered by the sire –so for example, 1-5 were from Proudgun and 6-12 were from High Dollar Snazzy, etc.

2014-07-12 11.24.08

See the number?

The colts were corralled in a pen with its other half-sisters and brothers. One at a time, the cowboys would single out the colt with the next number and its mama, separate them from the herd, and push the pair through the holding pen into the makeshift corral offset by mere ropes, where we sat in the bleachers in front of them.

1-2-3-4-5 and so on. The nervous mare and her baby would enter and pace from one edge of the little semi-circle to the other. The owners and managers stood behind the horses and the auctioneer in front. When the bids were high enough, the managers would open the gate and let the mama and baby re-enter the waiting herd on the other side of the fence.

As the auction continued, the horses got more and more expensive, I’m assuming from the fame of the stallion. Up and up until around $5,000. They talked about a $6,000 sale last year that had gone to an owner in Mexico.

As the colors seemed to influence the price, the buckskins and palominos went for more than the pretty bays.

Palominos

Palominos

It is a gamble to buy a colt. How will it turn out, how do you know what color, what temperament, what traits will carry over from the stud?

That day I learned that the most desirable physical traits in a Quarter Horse are a big butt, “clean, upfront neck” and a horse that “sits up high on its legs.” It’s hard to describe what “sits high on its legs” means, but instantly recognizable when you look at a colt and compare it to another. Sitting up high is how a colt holds itself together, or maybe the length and strength of its legs. You would not look at a colt that sits up high and think “spindly.” You would think “athletic.”

Since I had a hard time imaging the colts grown up, I looked at the mares and picked my imaginary horse. A black mare, then another, caught my eye; then a shimmering buckskin like I’d never seen—as gold as it was silver, as silver as it was gold. It’s colt from Ikes Bar Drifter was a tawny gold grey – hard to predict from the three buckskin colts which one would end up like this beautiful mare, shimmering as it moved gracefully around the pen with its little horse at its side.

2014-07-12 11.55.23

It was a long hour-and-half for the kids and the heat increased as the sun moved overhead—we drank all our water and everyone was hungry. But the bidding increased and the prices went high and the excitement that started the sale did not dissipate as everyone wondered who would go to $6,000. It was hard to tell who was buying what, but someone from Kentucky (or named Kentucky) bought a few; my fashionable friend with the earrings-to-die-for bought herself a few; a girl with a peach bandana was a lucky owner of a beautiful bay and many more went to cowboys and cattlemen.

“We like to let our horses to learn to be horses,” the ranch owner explained, “so you don’t have to pick up your colt until next March. We over-winter them for you.” Only the deposit of $250 on sales up to $2,000 or $500 on sales over $2,000 was due that day, making it incredibly…tempting.

What if I got myself a black filly? $500 and I could pick it up next March. That would give me enough time to figure out a lot of things.

A lot of things. Maybe I could have a horse Christmas– Horse Christmas in July. Next July.

Maybe that’s what I’ll do.

Rainbow we saw that evening!

Rainbow we saw that evening!

 

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