I had to have help too to get my sig up and working. I ran across Tasji's thread last night about Photobucket or I'd still be lost. You know I'm pooter illiterate.

Not sure where I'll land for sure. Probably check in with both forums. There's things I don't like about the formats on either one. Don't know why they had to go and screw up the old format. It worked better for me than the new formats. All things done in the name of progress or improvement are not always better. grumble

LadyMccue, off the wall, but did I ever update you on Crybaby my cat (the one with what we thought was nasal adenocarcinoma and had symptoms like your kitty somewhat)? We had her x-rayed, and the vet doesn't think she has any form of cancer at all. He did 2 surgeries on her and explored that huge mass on her face/nose, and found nothing but blood clots and fatty tissue, he has no idea idea WHAT in the world it is, but a new antibiodics seems to be making her a lot better, and lessened her face swelling.

Just thought I would let ya know, since we had discussed both our cats before and their mystery sicknesses. How is yours doing?

Mom, yesterday I took a few minutes and checked out Destrier's website. He looks great... and I noticed his price has gone up. Hopefully things will work out for her soon. I know that if her trainer were on this end of the country I'd be tempted to send Toby to her for a month or two.... it looks like they're doing a really good job with him.

I'll have to go back and take another look at Destrier's trainers' site, as I'd meant to anyways to give me ideas on 'sacking out' Ms. Boots. I've been keeping her mind busy on "stuff" while those pesky/scary english irons are bumping her girth and sides, lol! It's working, as at least she's not petrified of them anymore.

Every time I ask her to give to pressure on her near side, (only when she's saddled), she gets all hyped up. Untacked it's a breeze. I keep telling her that I cannot possibly pull her head around, stab my foot into the near stirrup and vault aboard her, as I'm just too darned old to, but she's only just beginning to believe me. That'll be another big accomplishment, when we finally get 'there'.

What's funny about that (to me :-)) is that I cannot possibly mount from the ground anyway (too arthritic, too heavy & will pull the saddle off balance), of course she doesn't "know" that but behaves like I'm the mounting monster, lol. Yet, she WILL stand quietly at the mounting step stool for me to mount. Past experiences coming back to haunt us, lol. I just want to get her past as many of her "ALERT!" glitches as I can before starting to ride her again. Certain things, motions, touches, just 'startle' the heck out of her, waking her up. I like her best in her usual laid back mode. :-)

It may be taking more time than sending her out to a trainer, but I'd rather try the CA stuff and establish a working relationship with her if I can. Besides, finding a good trainer is not easy, sigh.

As for Toby, got a rope halter? A lunge line that you can knot at 14'? A driving whip you can attach a cord to? Now that you have the CA book, read chapter 5 and start working Toby with chapter 6. Skip the round pen, as you've already have an established relationship with him. Also, I won't be round penning Ms. Boots again anytime soon. I think my oval penning session actually worked against my 'bonding' with her.

No one thing works with every horse, so don't let the lack of a round pen to hold you back. Once you start the sensitizing/desensitizing exercises, you'll both feel better! Really! He'll be happy that you are back in charge, again. At least Gilligan was! And I don't perceive Toby to be any more pushy than Gilligan ever got. :-D

If you're worried about the tight turns & small circles, you're not doing many of them at any one time and CA does suggest support boots. I did those exercises with Boots, so we both would learn them, but I don't do them regularly. She knows them and I know I can use them to re-establish control if I need too (kind of having it in my back pocket, ready to pull out and use when needed).

Go forth and ClintonAndersonize Toby, lol! ;-)

All the company is gone and my house is quiet again! Hubby had a great time on his canoe trip and we had 8 people in our house on Friday night. Everyone left early Saturday morning.

I spent all day yesterday putting in four plants that I bought from the "old country". LOL A nursery where we went to the family reunion had 50% off sales and I bought an "Artemesia", a "Platycodon balloon flower", an "Arizona Sun blanket flower", and "Sedum". That's just from memory and I don't remember if the names are all correct.

Anyway, I dug all the rock out of a small area by my front steps, mixed some decomposed manure and sand and dumped in there, put in the plants, and put the rock back. I got a great tan doing it too!!! I have attached a picture and the link is up by my user name.

My niece, Chelsea, and I had a great time riding the horses around on Fri. night. I put a new pic in my sig. I let her ride Jack the whole time and I was so proud of both him and her. He was very well behaved and she did very well on him.

Edited to add: My sig is not working right now...I'll go try to fix...okay done

50% off plants sale.....note to self: must not run to plant stores..... self control is good for my soul...... LOL! Some of my favorite plants came from the 50% off sales (of course, some of my deadest plants also came from the 50% off sales, LOL!). Your planting looks great and it's a nice reminder of your visit with your newfound relatives.

I love your sig photo! Jack's noseband and blanket look soooo good together!

We're back to uncoordinated color scheme, as Boots's saddle also fits Gilligan better than anything else has, but I use his thicker no-slip pad, which is white, not black like everything else (of course the thin black pad fits her better!). Typical me, totally not pulled together, lol! I did wither tracings on both of them and was surprised at how similar they were (except past the withers, Boots' goes W-I-D-E and Gilligan's stays narrow). Two flat backed, short backed horses and the Kates synthetic, close contact, endurance style Aussie fits them both really well. Good thing the synthetic stock saddle we bought her in January, fits Bud beautifully!

Glad it went so well with Jack and and your niece, Chelsea! She looks so comfortable and happy on him.

Also glad that your DH's trip went so well for him and he got the 'away' time he needed. Hope his Mom's health remains stable.

We're facing another week of hot and humid, but it sure beats tons of snow! Although, when we bought the generator, we assumed we would be using it during the winter and ice storm weather power failures. Hah! We needed it the other night when we lost electricity for a few hours (local blackout due to heavy use). It kept the lights, freezer and refrig. running, thankfully!

Oh! And I'm grinning bigtime again, because the last time I worked Ms. Boots, she calmly WALKED off, the first time I sent her 'off'. Up until then, she had always picked up her fast/frantic trot, eventually settling. Whoo-hoo! Another tiny step for horsekind. :-) We are really approaching the point where I can start traditional lunging, establishing a verbal 'walk, trot, canter, whoa', all done in a calm, routine manner. :-) She has today off as I woke up in total klutz mode (not pretty!) and she woke up in season ('slightly' distracted). LOL!

Good idea not to work with her when you are both "off". I know I've made that decision from time to time before. I'm glad she is coming along. The more you work with her, the faster it will go, as I'm sure you know. Eventually she'll realize that you are not trying to cause her any harm.

Jack was really good with Chelsea, but due to Java being sore lately, he also hasn't been worked lately. I rode him along with Chelsea just at a walk and when I tried to walk him in a different direction than Jack, he had a small hissy fit, including a little buck. It's a conundrum when you can't really work him a lot, but he's losing respect. I got him back in shape in pretty short order and felt safe sending my nephew out on him.

I absolutely love that picture of Chelsea on Jack, but am bummed that the tip of Jack's nose got cut off. I'd like to have that photo printed and framed for my house.

I didn't even notice that about Jack's nose. The essence of the picture is all there (perfectly), tip or no tip. It's a beautiful shot!

I'm busy trying to get a pic of that huge fly. It seemed to be buzzing around our porch with another one, then it began landing on on cedar facia board and dipping/curling it's abdomen to touch the board, as it moved along it. Depositing eggs, maybe??!! It doesn't look particualrly menacing from below (so far the only angle I've been able to photgraph) and I haven't been able to pick up the little tan dots on it's black wings. That, of course, is if I even have the right large fly, lol! It's large enough, more than 1-1/2" wide, same long, as it landed on the 1-1/2" side of the board, overhanging that width.

Right now DH is trying to swat it with a modified badminton raquet. It flies like a ...fly, so not much luck, so far! 'Though it keeps coming back, so it's determination would lead me to think it is indeed laying eggs... Yuch!

Photos later. s-c-a-r-e-y photos buwhahahaha

BTW, although I've marked this thread as a favorite, there have been no emails sent/received as yet. I've read that others are experiencing the same. So if any of us miss a post to us, it's certainly understandable. :-) And did everyone see that over on the other forum, on Monday, the Off the Wall threads will be moved to the general folder and ........??? It's in a post labeled "merge". We'll see.

OK, if this is the huge horsefly that has been feeding on our guys croups, I did get some photos of it. Big "IF", especially after my misidentifying the cicada shell, but I'm still trying to identify this fly.



The "closeup from below photo" is approximately the actual size of it: when it's wings are folded back in the 'moth' shape it's about 2" across wingtip to wingtip. See why I'm not crazy about swattting it with my hand? LOL!

Edited, third time: The link I tried didn't work so I ended up with 4 photos in a following post.

Apparently the fly took offense at my trying to swat it. I (finally) came up with the brilliant idea to use the hornet spray foam that I use to 'down' the carpenter bees when they get too possessive of our porch. I like the way the foam brings them down to earth (stomp).

As I got ready to spray "it" (waiting for it to land on the facia), it turned around and flew directly at me, allowing me to spray it some but not enough to bring it down. (Darn right I ducked and ran) It, however, has not been back.

BTW, the regular horseflies (not just the stable flies or deerflies) have been bugging Boots all day so it has been easy to compare them and this thing is different with it's moth like shaping, and bigger enough that I do NOT want to squash it with my hand (and it gives me the creeps just thinking about squashing it....)

Back to google some more flying insect sites. Our modem was giving us fits, then I remembered that with the power outage, it probably just needed rebooting.

It says I have to log in to view your photos.

I totally forgot to tell you that we have these flies now!!!! Our first sighting was on Friday afternoon while we were at the lake. They were chasing my niece and as she was running down the beach towards us, they looked like B52 Bombers following behind! They are fast, too, because my brother tried to swat one and it kept getting away. I am afraid to swat them with my hand, as I am afraid it will go C-R-U-N-C-H. Yuck!!! LOL I also saw one this morning hovering around Java, but it didn't land. I'll have to carry a rolled up newspaper now...I'm afraid the flies are stronger than I am. LOL

<It says I have to log in to view the photos> Rats, I'll have to upload them here, so much for trying to use a "sub-album' at photobucket.

Yikes, you DO have them, then. I'm serious that they are a 'newer' variety of horsefly or deerfly, as they(resemble a deerfly, but are bigger than a regular horsefly.

And I have not found anything like them on any of the flies or flying insects sites. Yet! :-) At least they don't seem to be an African fly, either!

Thanks for letting me know as the link worked for me, lol! (of course it would)

Went back and added I thought a link and voila the cartoon came up, go figure. Let me try with the photos:

About actual size if this works.







It's abdomen is curled upward onto the board in the third photo.

Sorry, I did try to link only so everyone wouldn't have to wait for these to load. Fortunately, this isn't in the general folder.

I took out my sig, does that count? :-l edited for clarity (really!)

I sprained my foot a few weeks ago and haven't worked with Toby at all since then but he's been wonderful . I think it's partly due to my husband spending so much time helping out that when Toby sees me he sees "friend" and does exactly what his friend wants... no challenges, steps back when I move my hand.... it's been great. Of course I may be jinxing the whole thing....

Youngest daughter said she's going to start riding him for me to get him in shape for fall rides. I haven't been on at all with first one thing then another. She's been working with Kansas alot lately and he's looking great but I think she wants to do more hard riding and with his age she feels she's pushing Kansas more than she should.

Oh my!! Those are nasty looking critters... nothing like that here. At least that I've seen. I'm not sure I'd still be here if we had those.....

On the down side we have had ALOT of s.... s.... sn..... creepy long slithery things!! One today when feeding the goats, one yesterday doing something else..... this really isn't a good thing. I may have to give up horses, goats, chickens etc and move to an Alaskan city... no s... s.... sn.... there are there???

Ok, who came in and gave the Conference and Tolerance threads the low ratings? I'm going to the bottom of the page and rating them a 5 to get them back to the appropriate standing.... wonder if it was done to the BS thread as well?