OPEN HOUSE TOMORROW

John & I are running around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to get ready.  Well actually right now he's running around, & I'm goofing off on the computer.......!!!  All that organizing gives me a "low back pain", so I am taking a well earned break...!!!  

I think everything is falling into place, so we should be ready by tomorrow morning.  Did find out a couple of the volunteers aren't going to make it, so the rest of you guys are going to probably be pretty busy.  If anyone in the area would like to come out for a few hours, I'm sure we could use you.  If it gets busy, I'll probably recruit from visitors that I know.......!!! LOL

Of course we aren't the only attraction going on.  The Cascabel Community Fair, (for 20 some years it was a Christmas fair, till "PC" raised it's ugly head)   will be jamming out with music, food, lots of booths with homemade one of a kind treasures.  It's about 12 miles north of us & is well worth the effort to go see what's going on.

I'd like to go, but I would imagine I'll be busy.................!!! LOL  At least I hope so. 

 

 Moogee hasn't figured this move out yet, thank goodness

Well, I think Boaz & his partner in crime BlackJack are trying for a world record for losing fly masks.  It's become a daily occurrence for Boaz to come in without a mask.  John has spent a LOT of time looking for them.  I even went out this morning looking, hoping a different way of searching might turn at least one of them up............NOPE 

A nice couple that came to visit this summer, obviously thought some of the masks needed replacing, & sent 5 brand spanking new ones.  Two of the ones Boaz lost are those, & I refuse to put another new one on him.  This morning I went thru the masks I have laying on the sewing machine awaiting repairs from a hard summer & picked out the one easiest to fix.  Now it's out there too, & I guess I'll dig out another one tonight to put on him tomorrow.  I could get in touch with Renee at Colorful Equine, but if I can get thru this year with what I have, I'll order a supply of masks in the spring for next year. 

It wouldn't be so bad, but he is one that really needs a fly mask, because of habronema damage below his eyes.  When he comes in without a mask, his eyes are all watery.  You'd think by almost December the flies would be gone, especially after a couple of nights earlier this month of 19 degrees.  But there are still plenty of them flying around.

The weather this week-end for the Open House is suppose to be sunny & in the 70's.  Last year it was cold & miserable, so Mae said she would bring hot apple cider this year.  I called her & told her as warm as it was going to be, hot cider probably wouldn't be as appreciated as it would have been last year.  

This afternoon John FINALLY got the concrete poured for the rubbermaid water trough to sit on.   Lysa & I have been after him for a year, & he kept saying he'd get to it.  I think we'd given up or maybe he was just waiting for us to quit harping about it.  When we went out for chores tonight, someone had gouged a couple of divets out of it.  Donkeys don't miss anything & if it can be messed up or even better, totally destroyed, that's what will happen.

I'm having a hard time adjusting my feed.  Jack ate over half of the mush I mixed up each feeding.  So far I'm mixing up too much every time, so I put what's left in the refrigerator till the next feeding.   I don't want to not have enough, but at the rate I'm going that's not going to be a problem.

Rusty seems lost, he just stands around usually around the pen area.  Boaz didn't have a shelter in his pen, so we moved Daisy to Jack's pen, down by her girlfriends, Frijolita & Tula.  John took the corral panels down between Daisy & Boaz, so now not only does he have a shelter, he also has the largest pen.  I hope we can find Rusty a mule buddy. 

IT DOESN'T GET ANY EASIER.......!!

When John went out this morning, Jack had crossed over the Rainbow Bridge.  John had checked on  him around 3am.  He was laying down, sitting up on his breastbone, got up & came to John.  That in itself was unusual behavior for him, interaction with people was always on his terms. 

Without a necropsy we'll never know for sure what happened, but I feel it was something that had been going on for awhile.  He was as usual until yesterday afternoon, so whatever it was, hadn't been a burden to him, which is good.  

When Jack first came here with John

In April of 2004 Jack's owner called & said if we didn't take him he would shoot him, because Jack had recently gone blind in one eye & was too spooky.  I think even then he didn't hear well, which was probably part of the spooky part, especially if you came up on his blind side.  That never changed, you come up on his blind side without yelling, & there were going to be fireworks, hopefully away & not towards you. 

We called him "WooWoo" Jack, that's the sound he made when he was anxiously waiting for his mush.  And if you forgot & headed towards the 4 pens below him without feeding him first, he really let you know it.  

Over the years he mellowed although he was always a mule because of being used as a tool, rather than being treated as a team member, probably all of his life.  He was born on a ranch May 5, 1982 & I doubt that he ever established a relationship with anyone.  But he learned to mug people that came out on tours for treats.  We always warned them that he would "slime" their hand because of lacking many teeth.  He was always chewing a quid of hay or weeds, & would work it down to the front of his mouth, & delicately "hack" it out, so he could accept their offer.  We'd tell them the story & they all would stand to watch him work it out & spit & most were more than willing to get "slimed"

I hope in some way we helped to make his retirement years good.  He roamed the property with his buddy Rusty the white mule, & could do just what he wanted to do.  I hope it was enough.

Now Rusty doesn't have a buddy, he doesn't care for the donkeys & they don't want to be around him.  Who knows maybe a little mini horse or mule will need a new buddy soon. 

Managed to get the bird & it's accompanying goodies cooked & ready at the same time......!!!!  It's been so long since I "did" Thanksgiving, I wasn't sure I could get it done.  I actually had some down time in the morning, which was a surprise.

This is a picture I took of Laura, Olivia, John, Boaz & a little bit of BlackJack in the background, as they were getting ready to leave.  They were here for 3 days & really were a lot of help.  Olivia wants to be a vet, & from what I saw she will be a good one.  

Speaking of Boaz, I got a call this afternoon from a neighbor to tell me one of the donkeys was out & about down by her place.  I went out & told John Boaz was out.............!!!!  Didn't even have to think about who it was......Ha!  John said this morning Boaz came in "flying low" & braying from Burroland & ran in his pen, like he was late.  Now we think he was probably out & ran to catch up.

Anyway we went out with the golf cart, & there he was in the wash headed for the San Pedro River bed, hesitate to call it a river, since it very rarely has water in it.  I jumped out to try to head him off, & told John to take off towards home & I'd run him down the road, towards the gate, that John was going to open.  

I started down the wash, & when I got close to him, he jumped up the bank, which wasn't an easy jump.  As he was scrambling up the bank, & I got closer to him, he lunged up the bank & took off like someone had set his tail on fire.  Usually when a donkey is running they run along with their head turned to one side, bopping along at a pretty good speed.  He had his head down & running as fast as I've ever seen one run.  I tried to run up the bank to keep up with him, which wasn't a real brilliant idea, I fell in the process.  Of course he was still "picking them up & putting them down".  When I got to the road, John was still there, & said Boaz leaped past him, ran over to our fence & went thru like it wasn't even there.  Hmmm, last time he got out which hasn't been too long ago, John went down to that area & fixed where he thought the problem was.  Obviously not.........!!!!  But in the process Boaz showed John exactly where the fence had dragged the post on the bank, down into the wash, which made the existing fence about 18 inches high.  Didn't even slow him down.......but John shut off Burroland for the night & has plans for fixing the problem tomorrow.  Why do I think that Boaz is going to end up showing John every weakness in his perimeter fence......!!!! LOL

While we were down there we noticed Jack the mule laying down in the wash.  It looked like he was just rolling.  But tonight when he came in, he was acting like he was in pain, John came in & said he thought Jack was colicing.  He has gut sounds, but has his tail out away from his body & acts like he trying to pass gas.  He is so hard to work with, although I did manage to get Colic Relief down him.

This is later & no change in Jack, I can't really say he is acting like colic, but without a vet it's beyond my knowledge to know what else it could be.  He seems to be in pain & is actually letting us work with him, which is unusual for him.  I even gave him a shot of banamine.  We quit giving him vaccinations years ago, because he would just explode if the needle touched him.  He didn't even move when I gave him the shot.  Banamine is a good pain, inflammatory medication & is often given for colic.  As usual if anything is going to happen, it will happen on a week-end or holiday.  Although we now have a mobile vet, she lives about 50 miles away..........SIGH  The clinic up at Gilbert always has students or interns working with them & they live just across the road from the clinic in a house.  Don't know if the clinic owns it or not, but it's certainly convenient.

 My idea of heaven would be a local clinic with at least 3 vets in the office, that lived close to the clinic.  They could take turns being on call, so there would be 24/7 coverage.  Unfortunately I don't think there would ever be enough business in this area to justify such a clinic.   

Took a picture of Jenny's foot this morning.  I know to most people it looks really icky, but it actually is looking pretty good, well except for the proud flesh.  The sugar/ betadine poultice  seems to be drying out the drainage.  I hope it continues to improve.

 This morning John had his first cataract removed.  I guess I was so thrilled with mine, he decided to try it.  He already says things are much brighter, that's what I first noticed too.  

Our son, grandson, & great grandson will coming out from Tucson for Thanksgiving this year.  I have "squirmed" out of fixing dinner for years, but guess it finally caught up with me.....!!! LOL  Hope I can remember what to do.  Actually it isn't the "what to do", it's getting it to come out "on time".  I use to do this for large groups when John was in the Air Force, but I've gotten out of the habit..........!!!   Mother wouldn't want to go out to eat, so it started out I was going to cook for the 3 of us.  But you know how those things go.  We are even adding Laura & Olivia her daughter, that are here this week volunteering.  Olivia wants to be a vet in a few years, & they like to go to different rescues & sanctuaries away from home to volunteer.  They are really good help, I hope I can find enough to keep them busy.....!!!  

Yesterday I went to town & brought home sacks of feed in the pick-up.  We hauled in the groceries, came in the house, & promptly forgot about the feed.  Looked out a few minutes later & there was a "herd" surrounding the bed of the pick-up, although Rusty the mule was about the only one tall enough to actually "partake" of the goodies.  John went out, tried to run them off, & moved the pick-up to the container where we store feed.  It's up by the garage & guess what he found up there?  Let me give you a hint...........he had also forgotten to close the garage door, where we store the garbage bags to take to the landfill.  The ones that hadn't found the hay pellets in the truck, had found the open door that led to those fascinating  plastic bags that must have smelled good.  John said they had scattered garbage from the container all the way past the hay barn.  I wondered why it took him so long to move the pick-up & unload 3 bags of feed......!!!   He was busy, chasing donkeys & cleaning up garbage....!!

 When we went out to feed Friday night Boaz didn't show up.............hmmmm..........!!!  Boaz has a "nose for news", when it comes to finding a weak spot in the perimeter fence, so we figured he was on a walk about as the Aussies say.

John headed for the wash, which is the usual place if someone gets out, because it's impossible to actually "fence" across the wash effectively.  No tracks & no Boaz.  I went back in the feed room to mix feed & John ranged out further.  It was getting dark,  & since we didn't know how long he'd been out, no telling where he was.

I got the feed mixed, John hadn't come back, so I jumped in the golf cart to go out & see if I could see him from the road.  As I got out to open the gate, here Boaz came trotting down the road.  I opened the gate, he came in & started running & braying, guess he figured out he was missing dinner, ran in his pen, turned around & brayed at me like, "where's my treat"?

John finally showed up & said he never did see Boaz, so we have no idea where he was, & John hasn't been able to find where he got out.

Something killed our last guinea Friday night, just ate the head, which I think is the M.O. of a skunk.  She was "mature" & slept on the ground rather than roosting up high.  We always shut her & the 2 remaining old hens up every night, but whatever it was, pulled the chicken wire & staples loose to get in.  John redid the wire & staples, so I hope it doesn't get in again.  Unfortunately if there is a weak spot in the wire, skunks or raccoons will find it.  One of the hens sleeps in the nesting box, the other one goes up real high on a ledge.  The one on the ledge is probably pretty safe, but the other one, is pretty vulnerable.

Still doctoring Jenny's foot, I think sometimes we go 1 step forward & 2 steps backwards, but she's still interested in going out & doing her thing.  Yesterday I cut off as much of the proud flesh as I was comfortable doing.  John asked if he could help, but he has a weak stomach, when it comes to blood, & with proud flesh there is a massive amount of blood for the amount of cutting you do.

When Dr. Nancy cut the proud flesh off Boaz's knee, she of course cut every little bit she could find off.........but.........she also used a dehorning iron to cauterize it.  That goes way beyond my "pay" grade......!!!   I'm not going there.......!!!   (G)

So I took off what I was comfortable doing, finally had to put a pressure bandage on it to stop the bleeding & left it on.  I'm suppose to soak her this morning, so I'll see what it looks like when I unwrap it.  Dr. Megan says she can deal with the proud flesh later, but we need to get the internal oozing under control.

 I agree, but in the meantime, I REALLY dislike proud flesh.

Thanks Claire & Quilla

(& Gus' chubby little side)

You think these two aren't enjoying their "quality" time with Claire?  Here... they are just one of the herd.  At Claire's house, they "RULE"........!!!!   LOL 

Last night old crippled Pepper was at it again.  He's figured out if he tries to "woo" Cheyenne he might have a chance.  She's only 32 inches tall, so all it takes is  walking over the top of her & go for it......!!!  John wanted to take pictures, but I told him we don't want to embarrass him, as if Pepper ever could be embarrassed.....!!!  He's going into this winter (19 degrees a couple of mornings this week) with a little meat on his bones, & stepping out pretty good on his poor old broken hip & bad knee.  So hopefully I won't have to blanket him, which he hates, because he has to stay in the pens at night.  Otherwise I have no idea where the blanket would end up in the brush.  He's only getting down occasionally.  John's getting good at rolling him over without having to use the ropes.  Pepper just lays there & doesn't try to fight, so John stands between his front & rear legs, (you'll notice I didn't say Tish rolls him this way, I have better sense) grabs all 4 legs & rolls him to his left side, & he usually pops right up.  I have told John, although Pepper doesn't fight & all that, standing between his legs like that isn't a "REAL" good idea, but so far he's gotten away with it.  

The other day John was very upset with Daisy, she stepped on his foot & wouldn't pick it up.  DUH...!!!  I asked John why he didn't throw all his weight into her shoulder to off balance her?  John is great with the animals..........BUT......I really believe it is much easier to work with large animals if you were raised with large animals.  He grew up with 3 very long lived pets, a dog, cat & parakeet, while I ran the gamut, you name it, I probably had it.  I might add opossums do NOT make good pets, raccoons are great fun, but destructive & crows are worse than a 2 year old child. 

I don't want to jinx Jenny, but her foot seems to be doing better, since we've been soaking every other day in epsom salts & betadine, & keeping it wrapped in a diaper with a sugardine poultice.  She's also still getting metronidazole, rectally twice a day.  I swear she walks slower & more crippled when she knows we're watching her.  She's being real good about everything, & I make sure there is a steady supply of animal crackers.......!!! LOL

 

Vincent Van Gogh, painting

Steve a volunteer is coming out tomorrow to trim some of the trees.  A few days ago John asked me to go around & mark which limbs I want gone, so I used bright colored plastic tape to make them.  You can probably see where this story is going.  We're on poo watch to see if we can figure out who has developed a taste for plastic tape.  John thinks it's either Ruthie or the minis, Cheyenne in particular.  It's bright pink, so should be easy to find.  Guess I'll take Steve around & "show" him where to trim.  LOL

When I took the diaper off Jenny's foot this morning after 2 days, it was pretty wet.  Dr. Voss said to soak every 2 days & I thought leaving the diaper on would be OK.  I can't tell if the moisture is what the epsom salts & betadine is drawing out of the hoof, or build up from the foot being wrapped.  It was never that damp when we were re-wrapping every 5-6 days, so hopefully it is the poultice doing it's job.  

Talked to Dr. Megan & we decided that I'll see what it looks like in the morning & if it's still too damp, I'll start changing the diaper twice a day.  I'm about out of the metronidazole, & the vet has to order it, guess they don't keep a lot of it on hand.  We're just about out of options at this time.  Dr. Voss told Dr. Megan that the only thing left would be another resection.  I doubt that her foot would take it, & if there is infection in her foot, she doesn't have much coffin bone left for them to remove.  So I really hope this works. 

It was 20 degrees here this morning.  We covered my tomato plants in the courtyard with a sheet, but a sheet was no match for 20 degrees.  It's a shame there is lots of green tomatoes on the pathetic looking plants.  I'll pull them out & prepare for next year I guess.

Gus & Quilla are lucky to be in the Phoenix area I think.  This morning at 6:11am the thermometer outside the bedroom registered a balmy 24 degrees.....!!! It projects on the ceiling above the bed & now that I can see without my glasses I can find out these little tidbits of information without asking or putting on my glasses..........!!!  YUCK.......I think sometimes ignorance is bliss, who wants to get out of bed when it's that cold.  

Of course it starts warming as soon as the sun comes up, so by the time we were done with chores we started shedding clothes.  

Heard from Chantilly's new Mom.  They let Lily out of her pen the next morning & Marsha said there were no fireworks, no snarky faces, not even a pinned ear, so that's really good.  

I didn't realize they hadn't seen Chantilly's face, she had on a fly mask when they come to visit, & had her mask on when we delivered her.  Marsha said she's got a beautiful face & she does, very delicate with big brown eyes.  

The black & white blob standing by the goat pen is Levi.  Levi would like to get in the pen with the girl goats, but that's not going to happen right now, so he is in with the horses & donkeys in about a 3 acre pen.  Not that he goes anywhere except right by the "girl" pen, trying to figure out how to get in it.  From my point of view he needs "brain" surgery, but I think Marsha wants some little goats eventually. 

Marsha told us that he likes to go up to the horses & Lily & rub his horns on their legs & sometimes gets his horns around their legs, which gets everyone's attention.  

I guess he tried it on Chantilly, she spun around & sent him rolling about 2 or 3 rolls.  Thad just happened to be watching.  So far not only has he not tried it on Chantilly again, he's leaving the others alone too, so Marsha thinks maybe it was a good thing.  I'm sure Levi didn't think so......!!!! LOL

Yesterday morning Jenny was 3 legged lame on her bad foot, & would not eat her hay.  Not eating the hay was easy, she's been on SMZ antibiotics for weeks, & I guess they finally got to her stomach.  Need to get the good bugs back in her digestive system.  Patti had me use Florastor a few months ago when Jenny didn't like the antibiotics I was giving her, & she was eating within 24 hours, so I tried it again.

Dr. Megan called Dr. Voss in Gilbert to see if he had any brilliant ideas on her foot.  His best guess was perhaps another abscess trying to pop.  Dr. Megan had been hesitant about soaking because Jenny's hoof is not that sturdy because of the open area.  But Dr. Voss said to soak in epsom salts & betadine for 1/2 hour every other day.  After soaking he wants the open area packed with a Sugardine poultice. 

I planned on soaking her foot when she came in last night for supper.........BUT......when John went out to do round-up, she was below the house & not interested in moving or even taking a treat.  We went ahead & fed everyone else, of course by then it was dark.  So I loaded up my soaking "toys", & thrashed thru the brush to where she thought she was hid.  Mixed up some sugar & betadine to a dry paste, plastered it on & wrapped with brown gauze.  She still wasn't interested in moving or eating when we came in to go to bed. 

This morning John set the alarm (YUCK) because we were taking Gus & Quilla up to Claire's for the winter.  I dreaded John going out to do round-up, because I figured Jenny was still where we left her last night.  When I went out, she was already in her pen, & John said he looked over towards Burroland & here she came with Ruthie, & Pepper leading the parade.  She was walking pretty normal for her, slow & steady.  She was also ready for her breakfast.

It tried to rain last night, didn't do a very good job, just barely dampened the ground.  I figured it had probably ruined my gauze bandage, but it was still on.  I decided to not mess with it, Dr. Voss said to leave it on between soakings, which will be tomorrow.  I'm anxious to see what it looks like in the morning. 

We hurried with chores, the 2 boys almost hopped in the trailer, guess they figured we were going to do something fun & away we went. 

Claire & David were happy to see them, & the boys were more than happy to get out of the trailer after over a 3 hour ride.  I think they knew where they were, they sure acted like it. 

 David, Gus & John

 Quilla, Gus, Doc, & Thunder's head

The boys coming to say good-bye

Got home after 7pm to a bunch of grumpy donkeys.  They really expect to be fed on schedule & don't seem to understand being fed late at all......!!!!  Couldn't find Pepper at first & John was afraid he was down someplace & we wouldn't be able to find him in the dark.  But finally, he came waltzing in, at his own speed, thank goodness.  If my hair wasn't already grey, this old buzzard would make it so.  Between him & Jenny, I am becoming quite a worry wart.  LOL

OPEN HOUSE, SAT & SUN, DECEMBER 1 - 2

We will be participating in the Cascabel Community Fair (use to be the Cascabel Christmas Fair) again this year, I think it is the 6th year for us. 

We usually have quite a few people that have never touched a donkey before, which is really fun, especially the kids. 

We need volunteers to show people around & tell them about the donkeys.  So if you are in this part of the country, SE Arizona & would like to come out & help with the Open House, let me know.  We have good friends that usually come out to help & it seems like the only time I get to see them is during the Open House..........you know who you are......!!!!  (G) 

Saturday we went down to Tubac to an art festival.  A few weeks ago Leigh Morrison came out to take pictures of the donkeys to paint for the festival.  When we drove past where she was set up outside her studio painting, one of the first things we saw was Cisco on display, along with a lot of her other paintings.  How exciting is that...........!!!!!!  

We parked & came back to visit & look at all the paintings.  She took this painting of Frijolita out of the display & gave it to me.  As anyone that has been in my house knows, I'm about to run out of wall space, but managed to find a prominent place for it. 

I took her head shots pictures of some of the donkeys, didn't really know if she would be able to use them or not, but she thought they were great, & said to watch her web-site in the coming weeks.  

Today Dr. Megan came out to look at Jenny's foot.  She agreed that it isn't doing as well as it was last time she was here.  Too soft & mushy, where the abscess was, & has tracked up into the coronary band.  She says we need to figure out some way to dry it out.  I have been using Wonder Dust, which I don't like, it definitely isn't very drying.  She recommended Kopertox or Thrush XX by Farnam, which you paint on with a brush.  So we'll try that & see if it helps.  She wasn't too worried about the proud flesh.  The Wonder Dust has controlled it, but not got rid of it.

After the Vet left, we loaded Chantilly in the trailer & took off to deliver her to her new home.  Got there & they already had Lily in her small pen, so Chantilly could get use to the "lay of the land", so to speak without having Lily in her face.  They are going to keep Lily in over night & let her out in the morning.  The 2 horses just looked at her like, "Ye gads, there's another one".  Chantilly has been around horses before, so she just looked at them, went over, touched noses with one & went on about her business of checking everything out.

 Checking out the new place

 Guess what they are watching?

Comfortable enough to take time out for a dust bath

Poor Lily in her pen missing all the fun

Lily actually acted like she was afraid of Chantilly.  She looked at her & then tried to run around in the little pen, about 12' x 20'.  Chantilly basically just ignored her, so I don't think there will be any fireworks when they get together tomorrow morning.  

Win or lose, I'm REALLY glad the election is OVER......!!!! 

Courtney got here last night & did some trimming.  With Gus she just took a little bit off all over the bottom, didn't try to lower the heels or shorten the toes.  If he likes them the way they are, so be it.........!!!  He's walking just fine this morning, she was worried that anything she did might upset his walking.  

She agrees, Jenny's rear foot looks horrible.  She is still on antibiotics, & the x-rays taken a few weeks back, looked decent & didn't show any infection anywhere.  But since then she's blown an abscess on the front on her hoof about half way down.  The area just keeps getting more cracked & now is up into the coronet band with an open slit about 2 inches long.  

I have a call into the local vet clinic to see if Dr. Megan can come out again & evaluate the situation.

The good news is, Courtney thought her front feet looked good.  She's wearing boots all the time on the fronts, & it seems to be making her more comfortable, so she walks around more, which helps to improve the circulation in her feet, we hope.  

Heard from Honcho & Simmons new Mom.  She said they are doing just great, & are really entertaining.   Cindy seems to appreciate Honcho's overbearing personality, which is wonderful.  Not everyone would think he was "cute", when he pulls some of the stunts he is capable of pulling.  She says now that it's cooling off, she wants to start clicker training, at least with Honcho.  He knows the basics & is a big show-off, so they should have a lot of fun. 

Can I keep him?

We're waiting for Courtney to show up to trim Gus & Jenny & it's after 6pm.  I don't know when she sleeps, & I'm pretty sure she never has time to wonder what she could be doing, because she is caught up with nothing to do............!!!! LOL

Jenny's foot is falling apart, I'm hoping that trimming it shorter will help take pressure off the hoof wall.  It has so many cracks in the hoof you can watch it squirm when she walks.  But walk she does, she hasn't given up & we won't either unless we have to.  She's still on antibiotics & there is a little drainage from the cracks.  The drainage is clear, which I hope is a good thing. 

Pepper got down on his right side this afternoon for the first time in weeks.  John flipped him over on his left side & after a couple of minutes he popped up & took off.  He doesn't fight us anymore when we try to flip him, which really makes it a lot easier.  John was getting ready to leave for town, when I found him thank goodness.  I haven't tried to flip him by myself, not sure I can, don't want to try.  

We will be taking Chantilly to her new home next Tuesday.  We did a home study yesterday & it should be a good home, although Lilly her new best friend is quite precocious.  She's a little bit "in your face".  Chantilly is rather shy, so I hope Lilly isn't too much for her.  They'll have about 3 acres of desert brush to roam, with 2 mares.  Lilly had been real close to Sonny an old horse they had to put down a couple of weeks ago & she has been odd man out with the mares, they won't let her into the "inner" circle.  Lilly was running the fence chasing the dogs on the other side for fun when we were there.  Maybe Chantilly will have a calming effect on her..........!!!!!  LOL