Update

Hey guys, so I am excited to announce to you that we have 12 chicks right now! 14 hatched and 16 pipped!! One that hatched was very weak and never made it out of the incubator, and one sadly died at 2 days old in the brooder and we had two eggs pip and die. Right now there is still one chick in the incubator. It hatched and seemed okay, but never got up and standing… so after a week me babying it, we are starting to make progress it can stand with some assistance which is better than a week ago when it couldn’t even move its leg at all! Up until two days ago I had to force feed the poor little guy. He wouldn’t eat on his own so I had to pry the poor things beak open and set food in his mouth and then he would sometimes eat it and sometimes spit it out.  He still is force watered (to an extent) I dip his beak in the water and then he drinks it. I will try to upload pictures later.

So not if you guys care (or your bored) I have something a little more on the non animal side that's just me talking about life. I feel so bad for my little brother right now, because he forgot something (like young teens happen to do some times) my dad said some things that were really mean, like how my brother and I are ungrateful, how the only time I come over to visit or talk to him is if I want money or need something from him, how my little brother is apparently a failure and many more things which just hurt…. I feel more for my brother because he has lived with my dad for the past year so he is much closer than I am with him. I have always guarded myself from my dad after he re-married just because his wife is sometimes not the greatest person but I just delt with it and I tried to make an effort to see him and do things with him. I went kayaking with him multiple times this summer, I stop by his house and go in so I can say hi if I ever get over his way, I drop the kids off from time to time (they are open enrolled in our school district so they live a ways away and we drive them home) and say hi, I drive to go watch him play his dart tournaments and play darts with him (even when I was on crutches I did that), I go to the races with him from time to time, so it's not like I don’t make an effort to go do things. What made me really frustrated is when it was said that I only use him for money and when I need things. Ever since I have been able to drive he has only helped me pay for gas 3 times and one time he threw a huge hissy fit and stormed out of the house, I recently asked for a upgrade on my phone because my contract has been up for a couple weeks now and the phone I have now glitches and shuts off along with being very old and outdated. I never ask for anything else as far as money or gifts… I didn’t know what I wanted for my birthday so I never really asked for much. So he just gave me some cash, not that I am mad about it, but he gave me what he thought appropriate, I never asked him for money. The only thing I suggested was $50 so I could by an athletic pass so I could go to school sporting events. It's just been a kinda bum year… one of my friends that I used to be really close with seems to not really want to be around me this year…. Over the summer I had a lot of plans and times but we never really got to see each other because something else would come up and that made me sad, and now that school has started they are always doing other things… they don’t really reply to my messages anymore or when I am talking to them they start to go off and talk to other people and do other things and I feel ignored…. I just don’t know how much longer the “friendship” will last if things continue…. I will try my hardest but sometimes it’s just better to let people go, it may feel like a small loss at time but sometimes (this coming from experience) that's the thing that truly lets you be the best version of you and it sets you free….

Livestream hatching!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pure-horse?utm_campaign=www.facebook.com&utm_source=ustre.am%2F18HUD&utm_medium=social&utm_content=20160907175120

Losses and Gains

Hey guys so this is senior year and it started off great and then it divebombed. I will spare some details, but long story short is one of our dogs attacked the ehiickens. He severly maimed two beyone hope of recovery, one had its neck ripped to shreads so I had to put her down myself. I searched because all but two of the other chickens wer emissing. I found anohter girl who I also had to put down. Her intestines were hanging out of her ripped open chest/stomach. After that I brought out the bag of treats and started shaking it. I quickly found 2 girls who were Houdini and Wieser. I will admit Wieser (the chicken one) is my little baby I had cried pretty hard when I had to put the ohter two girls out of their misery, but when I saw that wieser was okay I fell to the ground shaking and sobbing she came right up to me and I grabbed her and cuddled her and cried and cried…. We put her and Houdini back in the pen and then I kept walking around and trying to find the others… 2 more girls showed up in the yard and we put them away… I was really worried that Gabe the rooster was fataly injured or that he was dead already because his real long tail feathers were all over the yard… We all kept looking and looking and all of a sudden I hear Gabe running out from the trees and the corn field and I screamed that Gabe was okay and started crying all over again... and then we were still missing one more girl Dixie… we looked and looked and looked some more… checking under pine trees… trucks…. In the tops of trees…. In the grass…. And finaly in a spot we had all walked by a couple of times, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and there was Dixie… she had hidden herself in some tall grass right next to our house…. I started crying again as I picked her up…. She was in really rough shape… and I honestly comtemplated putting her down too…. But her internal organs were still on the inside and the back of her neck was missing skin, but everything else was still intact… upon further evaluation we decided to try to save her. We brought her inside and put her in a small dog kennel and covered it so it was dark and hopefully it would help her with shock… I gave her a half hour to just sit and then I went in and offered water and she drank! That was a sign to me that she wanted to keep on fighting and that she wanted to live. So after I gave her more water and took some pictures of her injuries… we made a run to bombgars we got an antibiotic for her that goes in water and they drink, and we also got some vetrycin…. So fast forward to today, it has been a week from the accident and she is still doing good. She is eating and drinking normally and her wounds are slowly healing, but slow is better than nothing at all!

So we have heard about the losses and now is time for the gains…

I have been looking around for awhile to try to find a hen that is generally broody….. And well I got 2 more hens now! Their names are Shanequia and Liberty…. Shanequia is a black Austorlorp, and Liberty is an Americana…. Shanequia lays brown eggs identical to the rhode island reds while Liberty will (once she starts laying again shes adjusting to her new home) lay blue eggs.

Next up is the other three new girls I got Wednesday… they are 3 Rhode Island Red girls their names are Alice, Emmy, and Zasha….. They have only been here for 2 days and everyone is getting along nicely…

And finally another exciting gain… 2 weeks ago (2 weeks tomorrow)  I put 39 eggs in the incubator and quite a few of them are showing development! At least 22 are showing development and I will be happy if at least one hatches! I hope all the ones that show development will hatch. I will go ahead and post some pictures and videos later tonight for you guys!

Yay! AMAZING DAY!!!!

So I am supper excited to let you guys know today has been a super good day! I found out that thankfully my foot is NOT broke!! So we came home cleaned the chicken coop and then we got Romeo out to ride him at home for the first time! He did AMAZING! His canter is VERY smooth and Alex cantered on his own for the first time tonight, and Vironica even cantered him and vironica hasn't cantered much at all before its been about 2 years sense she has cantered because Jack becomes very unpredictable while cantering he likes to slam on the breaks or try to bolt, so she finally cantered and I hope that maybe Romeo can help her build some confidence when it comes to cantering. The most AMAZING part of the night was when my mom came out and got on a horse for the first time in over 16 years.... I will tell you about a conversation my mom and I had awhile back and she said she would never get on any of our horses because she has seen them spook or buck and everything else that they have done, and she does have a point the horses have done that and no horse is 100% safe but she also experienced me blacking out when I fell of Chuck all those years ago, and that sticks with her, that because of Chuck I could have died... and I don't blame her one bit for not getting on a horse, but she did get on Romeo... and I cried, I cried with pure joy that my mom got on a horse with her anxiety and everything she got on, even though she was shaking and scared she got on and she rode...  I hope she will continue to ride with us Romeo is such a good horse and he will be great for her to re-gain her confidence. She started with a short ride and Romeo did amazing for her and I couldn't be more happy with him. I will be sure to upload the videos of Vironica and I riding Romeo, sadly I didn't get one of Alex and here is a picture of my mom riding Romeo for you. I can't even put into words how amazing it is to see her on a horse and smiling....

Good Job Olympic Officials!

Two riders have been disqualified in the first round of equestrian Olympics. Nicola Philippaerts was disqualified for excessive use of her spurs after her horse refused a fence twice. She was an individual rider from Belgium. The other rider who rides for the Netherlands, Jur Vireling was disqualified from the individual events after drawing blood by whiping his horse with his crop. He will however compete in the Team Jumping event. Here is the rule they were disqualified with...

Article 242.3.1 of the FEI Jumping Rules reads: Horses bleeding on the flank(s), in the mouth or nose or marks indicating excessive use of spurs or of the whip anywhere on the Horse (in minor cases of blood in the mouth, such as where a Horse appears to have bitten its tongue or lip, Officials may authorize the rinsing or wiping of the mouth and allow the Athlete to continue; any further evidence of blood in the mouth will result in Disqualification.)


So good job to the Olympic officials to keeping true to the rules and pulling these riders out and punishing them. No one should be able to get away with whipping or spurring a horse to the point of bleeding even if you are an Olympic rider....

Park Adventures (Horse Stories Series)

So as some of you know (if you know me personally) my grandmas farm is across the road/bridge from a campground, so during the summer months when I was younger I would ride over to the park from time to time... and if my friends were there we could hang out or they could even hop on and ride behind me... this was back when the DNR didn't get mad about horses being in the campground at all... now they are pretty strict about it. It was always fun for me to tell people about my horse and let them pet Lilly, one time I even brought my friend Jessica back across to the farm for us to hang out and we even have some pictures... One of the coolest sounds in the world is hearing the horses hooves echo as they cross the bridge... it is VERY loud... I remember being fearless back then and now I get nervous crossing that same bridge because the railings are only about 2 feet high and if a car were to blow by then it could go very baddly... we always listen very carefully for any cars possibly comming down the road before we cross.... but those adventures over to the park were always lots of fun. 

Horse Stories...

Hey guys, so I thought I would just try to keep you entertained and give readers things to read, so I am going to start just telling you some of my crazy horse stories... riding for almost 18 years gets you quite a few of them...  If I do a very short story I may include a couple of them, just to have a decent amount of content ;) It is hard to pick one so I will just keep writing for you guys so I hope you enjoy!

So this is a little graphic for some people but still a very true story and one that is a once in a life time happening....

Flash back to little me who got a horse for their birthday! Super exciting! I was the happiest little girl alive! I went down to the farm to find a 3 year old mare with the name Lilly... I had just gotten the horse of my dreams... and she was a horse that would teach me many lessons and this is a pretty important one, horses can and will get hurt and can and will hurt each-other.... Lilly was let into the lot by the barn with Candy... Candy was a 30+ year old mare at the time, so she was definatly older... Lilly however was not so calm and nice... in the mess of the whole thing Lilly kicked Candy in a very bad spot. This very bad spot was into her vulva.... and Lilly's hoof tore into Candy's vulva.... They were imediatly seperated and Candy was bleeding a lot... the vet wasn't called as we used cold water and cloths to help stop the bleeding... I remember being pretty scared and seeing that much blood was scary to little kid me... Candy ended up being just fine in the end, and they were seperated by a gate for some time after that until they got to know eachother better.... lesson learned, but I don't think that it will ever happen to me again, just bad luck that that was where her hoof went... Here are pictures of Candy (Right) and Lilly (Left) for you guys.