Sunny Skies With Some Gloom

Friday, September 25, 2009

Our beautiful dog has died.
She was 15.
I have not felt much like blogging or doing anything. I miss her very much.
She died of old age, after a rich and merry dog life.







I have tried to see Lilly a few nights after work, but already by the time I get there it is too dark. Rats. I do not like riding in the dark. There is a wooded area right near the ring and Lilly gets very spooky as we ride by it. Brandon took some pictures but they were all pitch black. Go figure!
But today the weather was gorgeous and I was able to get myself to the barn by 10am!

This is what greeted me in the pature! A couple of nosies! That's Pokey and Banjo. Bill took CC and Banjo to a gymkhana a few weeks ago. They did well. And it also inspired Bill to set up a little practice gymkhana in the ring....



Well, this picture doesn't detail much, but you can see that three barrels are set up, and some poles. Last Saturday (when I forgot the camera) I did get Lilly spinning around the barrels a few times. She was pretty good! I noticed Lilly is much less cranky in the ring when other horses are down there with her which was the case on Saturday. I guess I will have to repeatedly corral Bill and Christine into the ring with their horses in the future. Might be good practice for gymkhana.


Here is one patriotic brumby! I wanted Lilly to stand by the flag because it was pretty windy today and the flag was blowing all over. It didn't phase her at all. Does that eye look wild and buggy to you? No, she was very calm.

My state-of-the-art Kodak EasyShare C813 camera gave me some real trouble today! I was trying to take this picture of Lilly (below) and it refused to turn on. I thought for sure it was the batteries and changed them three times. Lazy little camera! I am aghast at this camera's bad behavior.


Here is my brumby before we headed out on the trail today. I took it to show you that this tack situation drives me crazy. I do not like how not one thing matches. Pink and red do not even look good together. Some of you may find this concern to be very frivolous. I agree. This proves that I can be quite the frivolitor. There, I made up a word. The point is that I just want my paint mare to look goooood when we go out.



Leaves are starting to fall! My brumby wanted to crunch through them on the way to the trail.
Twice on the trail I called my horse by my dog's name.
We took a short trail to get started, and then crossed the pasture into the new trail Bill cleared, the one Christine and I call Trollwood. Well, some trolls must have been hard at work plotting disaster because as soon as we got in there, Lilly began to freak out. She began to Freeeeakkk. Ouuuuuut. She bolted and then stopped and then bolted again. I was yelling WHOA, LILLY!! WHOOOOOA!! You are OKAY!! WHOOOOAAAAA!!!!!! and trying to one rein stop her. I seriously thought some little troll was stuck to her. Then I had the horrible thought she was being stung by a thousand hornets because I could feel her back feet were in a panic. She also kept spinning her head around to her back legs. This did make the one rein stop a little easier, but it was very scary!
Then I caught sight of the trouble. It was a long wire (not barbed thank goodness), one say that might be a line of old electric fence. It was brown and rusty, hidden under leaves for the most part, and about 20 feet long, a remnant of Trollwood's previous life as a cow pasture. Somehow that wire, which must have been just laying on the ground, had wrapped itself around one of Lilly's back legs. How that happened I will never know.
When Lilly finally stopped moving but when her eye was still all rolly and buggy, I told her I was going to get off of her. THE POOR DEAR. She was trying to be so good and must have been very frightened. She did another mini freak out when I started to pick up the wire. So I started to sing Debby Boone to her, not because Debby Boone is my hero but because (and this is embarrassing) You Light Up My Life was the very first song that popped into my head. Honeysuckle Faire has written in her blog that if you sing to your horse, she will remain calm. I wrapped up the wire, sang You Give Me Hope, To Carry On, You Light Up my Day, and put the incident behind us.

Here is the trollish wire, which I bundled up into this tangle.


Here are Lilly's pink boots that I must remember to put on her for trail rides because sometimes we walk through prickly bushes.


Do you see where my brumby goes when I am on her back? Right into some branches!! Around this point I am sorry to say that Debby Boone was still in my head and my brumby was probably getting sick of hearing me singing it. I myself was getting sick of it. I also became horrified at the thought that my cell phone had autodialed in my pocket and now my own version of You Light Up My Life was now on Bill's answering machine at home. I could just hear his wife saying Why is Colleen leaving you ballads on voicemail? Meanwhile it is bear season here and I could here gunshots! And I worried that Sally might get shot! Because to an idiot, she might look like a black bear!
Let's just say I was happy we made it back!


I quickly realized Lilly had lost a shoe on the trail!


Those little marks are from the wire in Trollwood!! My poor brumby!!! I put a bunch of SWAT on them.
Back at my own house, the animals were out enjoying the weather:


There's Monkey by her little house,



and that troublesome Bijoux rolling in the leaves,



and the lovely Lollipop (aka The Gee).
Happy Trails, my cyberfriends!


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very sorry for the loss of your dog - we lost our wonderful Golden Retriever, Sunny, last year and I still miss him. Glad the wire incident didn't turn out any worse - wire is very scary!

juliette said...

Sorry beyond words about your sweet good girl. Thinking good thoughts from all of us here. Extra hugs and kisses for/from Monkey, Bijoux, Lollipop and Lilly will help a little hopefully.
Poor Lilly in the wire. I hope her legs heal up quickly. Your Debby Boone selection cracks me up! Lilly does light up your life!

Pony Girl said...

I love this post. You crack me up. Besides hearing about your darling dog...I am sorry for your loss. You know, 15 is a long happy life for a big dog, I bet she was spoiled rotten and you gave her a happy journey! It's tough though, they are part of the family! I'll be thinking of you this week.
That wire is scary. I hate riding off-trail in unknown areas. I am terrified of downed barbed wire, holes, glass, or metal stuff. It can happen! I am glad it was not barbed and your Brumby stopped for you to untangle her from the Troll! What a good girl.
I get what you mean about matching. I am pretty thrift, but managed to get matching stuff. It's not frivolous, it's normal.
It is getting dark so early now...I hate it. Soon, I will only see My Boy on the weekends, unless I'm on vacation, until spring. Rats.

Paint Girl said...

I am soooo sorry for the loss of your beloved dog!! I know how hard it is! I lost my 2 older dogs a couple years ago. One of old age and the other one blew out his knee. It is so tough!! I'll be thinking of you!
Sorry to hear that Lilly got tangled in wire! That is scary! Brandy would totally freak like Lilly, actually most horses would!
You need a pink saddle pad! To match Lilly's boots and halter! I am a total match freak! My halters match my saddle pads, everything has to match! I just need to find a color for my new baby!

Sandra said...

Oh Sculleigh, I am so sorry to hear about Picky Tittles:( Brett, Ruthie and I are so very sad. We know she had a good life with you and Brandon and she is resting somewhere lovely with her dear friends. xoxo, Sandra

SprinklerBandit said...

I'm so sorry about your dog--it's hard to lose a good old friend.

I definitely sympathize with the mismatched tack dilemma. I want mine to all match, but it's so darn expensive... oh well. Some day, we'll look polished.

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