goofball animals

Goofy Shyloh short stories: 

One day I was talking to someone and petting their horse in the cross ties. We heard a strange noise and turned around. Shy was on her knees, with her butt still in the air, neck stretched halfway across Ryleigh's stall, trying to crawl under her stall guard to get a single piece of hay! It was one of the funniest sights ever and I what I would not give to have gotten a photo of that! I told the chiro and the farrier that story and they both said no wonder she had problems! My horse is a contortionist!

Then, the other day, I was walking Shy down the aisle. Sometimes when I do this, I let Shy sniff and check everything out as we walk. She is so curious! She came upon one of those plastic totes. It was filled with hay replacer pellets for the new horse, Maverick, an underweight and scarred up rescue Standardbred (possibly) . I let Shy fiddle with the tote. She pushed it around with her nose, then figured out how to open it. I just stood next to her watching. Shy sniffed inside, stopped and looked around (I think she knew she was not "supposed" to be in the box), then dove her head inside. The tote moved and Shy jumped in the air and stepped back. But curiosity got the best of her and she went immediately back. Then stepped back, but not as far this time. This happened about six times, each time the reaction (which was completely caused by her actions) was less and less, until she was finally just flinching a little. And I think it was not because she was scared of the tote, but because she knew it was not hers to have. Can that be possible? If not, I'd still like to think so. Anyway, it was rather funny to watch the whole interaction!

I have also caught Shy stretching like a dog, with her butt in the air and her head and front feet down. This horse can make me laugh as easily as she can frustrate the daylights out of me!

As for the dogs. . .

My husband got a phone call from the neighbors saying that we were blaring music  in the house. They could hear it in their house! And we were both at work. It appears that one of the dogs (I am guessing Cooper since he likes to lay on remotes, phones, the computer mouse) decided to nap on the couch, stepped on the receiver remote to turn on the radio, then continued to lay on the volume button until it went as high as it could go. Mike said he could hear the music through the neighbor's phone!

Wasn't me!!

He asked his sister to go to our house to turn the music off. She said she could hear the music from the car! And when she went inside, both Cooper and Maggie were hiding in the furthest room from the source. Oops. . .no more just throwing remotes on the couch for us! 

Didn't do it!!

What goofy things do your animals do?

hobby horse blog hop #19

Here are the rules:

Answer one or all of the prompts. Link back to Living a Dream's post. Visit other blogs. And don't forget to ask a question of everyone else!

1. How did your horse (dog, cat, other pet) get his or her name? 

It seemed that Shyloh took forever to get her name. She originally came with the name Pumpkin, but that did not suit her. I wanted a name that really fit her personality or had to do with her Austrian origins. Eventually, after having no name for a while, I had a name. It seemed like fate. I had spend the weekend at my dad's house mulling over names. When I got to the barn, I was getting ready to announce the new name and a bunch of people at the barn said I should name her Shyloh. I said that was the name I picked over the weekend! And it stuck. Although she can be pretty sassy, she still is shy around new people. Cooper and Maggie got their names by agonizing over hours of discussion with my husband until we finally agreed on something.

2. What names for horses, dogs or cats (chickens, guinea pigs..... and so forth) do you think are especially cute or clever?

I actually think Pippin and Doc are so cute! And I do love Lord of the Rings. I have a friend who has a mini named Pancake and that mini had a baby with they names Butter.

3. Tell us about your first pet.

Cooper is my first pet as an adult. We got him from an animal shelter. He is the sweetest most loving dog. He is really easy going and we can do just about anything with him. 

Cooper

Maggie

My question: What is the most unusual pet you ever had?

painfully numb. . .

. . .is my butt. And lower back. So I am sitting on a bag of frozen peas (don't worry, I won't serve them for dinner) as I type in severe rear end distress. 

Yes, I fell of of Shyloh today. Yes, it hurt, a lot. Yes, I may have thought I broke my pelvis at one point. Yes, I may or may not have shed a tear from the agony. But it was a strange hurt. It seems like my skin is numb, but under the skin was racked with pain. Weird. 

Here is what happened. We were working on whoa. Shy has a pretty good whoa, but I wanted to practice to make it solid. She was doing great and stopping when asked. But she was making it well known that she wanted to go back to her stall. She kept turning in the direction of the arena doors and fighting me. This is not new. . .I think she is stall sour! And all she wants is hay. It is the top priority in her mind and that needs to be changed when we are working.

Because she was so distracted, I was getting ready to get off of her. But I wanted to do it on my terms. All I wanted was for her to turn away from the doors, walk a few steps, and whoa. I wanted to dismount while she was facing away from the doors. As we were walking and getting ready to make the turn away from the arena doors, as Shy was fighting me to continue facing the arena doors, something happened and off she went. I am still not clear what that something was. . .

Now, I know where we were in the arena, and I know where I landed. It seriously was not that far. But while I was hanging on to Shy for dear life, then fell, and skidded, it seemed like a mile! I am pretty sure I let out some resemblance of a scream. I landed squarely on my left butt cheek. It was a good thing I didn't have far to fall!

Shy turned back around and stopped. She stood frozen. As I was writhing in pain, she stood still. A few boarders that were there came into the arena to see what was going on and saw me down. One of them got Shy, who stood for her to approach, and took her to her stall. I remained on the ground. This was probably the most pain I have ever felt. 

I was probably on the ground for 15 minutes before I was able to get up. When I did, I went to Shy's stall. She seemed afraid and worried. She knew she made a mistake, but the best thing I could do to correct it was physically impossible. I wanted to hop back on, just for a moment.  But I could barely even lift my leg so forget mounting a horse. And I just knew that sitting on my left side was not going to be pleasant at all.

That car ride home was THE most painful drive I have ever made. By the time I got to the end of the barn driveway, I wanted to turn around and ask someone to drive me home. When I got home, it took about 10 minutes to get out of the car!

For the remainder of the weekend, I am going to sit half crooked on my bag of frozen peas that are soothing my swollen butt. 

Enjoy some photos of my awesome dogs that I can't fall off of, since I did not get any photos today at the barn.

Sweet Maggie Pie and her pig

Playing their favorite game, Tug o War

Cooper on a rock

best place on earth

I spent the weekend in Traverse City with Mike and the dogs. It was the best weekend ever! We had a blast! We went for my birthday and our 5th anniversary. 

On the way up to Traverse City. . .it was a five hour drive. It was Maggie's (the black dog) first vacation. Cooper is an old pro at going places. They love car rides, however, after a while, Maggie started to look worried. . .she had never been in the car THAT long!

The hand-carved Welcome Bear at Moomer's, the best ice cream ever!

The Stone Cottage that we stayed in! It was so cute! Perfect for us! It had a little kitchen, a claw foot tub, and a loft for sleeping. No TV, no computer, and spotty cell phone service. . .perfectly relaxing!

The patio area. The stars were so clear and beautiful at night from this patio! The Big Dipper looked amazing!

The wood stove. It kept the cottage warm and toasty. . .sometimes very warm and toasty. Mike was the burn master, starting the fire, keeping it going, and getting the wood.

A view of the land from the patio. Twenty nine acres of awesomeness! And there were some trails cut out for hiking. Of course, we checked these out with the dogs!

 A little bridge over a creek. 

Running up a hill! Most of the property was hillside. The trees and colors of the leaves were amazing to see!

Made it to the top! The dogs had so much fun running around. Me and Mike got our work out for the day! But after that long car ride, it was needed. We all slept good the first night!

Maggie's first vacation did not start off so well. She tried to escape back to our car, she was scared of the loft area in the cabin, and she tore off her back nail, past the quick. Mike did emergency surgery on her toe and we bandaged it up. She later realized that the loft was okay and that we would not leave her at the cabin.

Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes! Such a pretty sight! We love this place! There is nothing prettier than standing on top of the dunes and looking over Lake Michigan!

We hiked all over the dunes with the dogs. They loved it! Sand is incredibly hard to walk through and has a sneaky way of making it through socks and shoes.

They were too excited to sit still for a picture! We are on top of a dune here! So many new smells and sights for Maggie and Cooper.

 A little lake that we found that opens to Lake Michigan. So pretty!

Cooper and Maggie went for a swim. Maggie likes to retrieve sticks and Cooper just likes to wade. The water was so clear and peaceful. We were the only people out there, so the dogs got to run free.

Deer hoof prints in the sand coming from the water. And some paw prints from the dogs. 

 Mike said that if he was on Man vs. Wild this would be his home base.

Scenic drive through the woods.

We stayed just north of this sign! How cool!

Time to head home. 

Maggie's vacation ended up much better than it started and Cooper takes pretty much everything in stride. We all had a great time. The weather was beautiful. We spent all day Saturday walking outside and discovering new places that we have never seen before. We went to downtown Traverse City and bought all kinds of cherry things from our favorite store. Traverse City is the Cherry Capitol of the World! If only Shyloh could have fit into the truck. . .

catching up

I did not go to see Shyloh today, and while I did miss her, I also got to do some things I rarely get to do.

Today, I took the dogs for a walk at Lake Erie Metropark with my friend Anna and her dog, Nina. We used to go almost every weekend last summer. And if we weren't walking the dogs or taking them swimming, we were kayaking or riding our bikes. I miss those bike rides and kayak trips, but the weather this summer was either way too hot or rainy.

Nina, Cooper, Maggie :)

I ate dinner with family and it was delicious! I also hung out with some family that I've been neglecting. Mike went on a tubing trip and I just got done talking to him on the phone. I am so happy that I did not go! He said the water was freezing and being cold is my least favorite activity! Before dinner, I took Felecia to see the movie The Change-Up. 

If you are not into boobs, I would not recommend this movie. Because it showed A LOT of boobs. And, it was really not that funny. I never once busted out laughing. So, I really would not recommend this movie anyway, even if you were into boobs. 

My plans for the rest of the night are to chill and relax, hang out with the dogs, and maybe get some ice cream. . . definitely get some ice cream. The real decision is Cold Stone or Dairy Queen. . . hmmm. . . .