LUNALOR at Crazy C Ranch

Lunalor with Red up in the round pen.

Lunalor showing off for her groom

Lunalor is learning all about the saddle. She is ready. Daryl is ready. He sent his best crew of four wranglers over to the farm to pick her up in the newer horse trailer. They were prepared. Each had their best shank, strongest rope, leather leads, a call into the vet in case they needed a transquilizer, and a case of beer. They were ready to spend a few hours on the project.

Chris caught her in the pasture using his favorite trick. Sit down and when she comes over to see him grab her halter. He led her over to the wranglers, they were ready for a battle. They led her into the trailer, tied her, shut the door, hopped into the truck and took her to Crazy C Ranch.

No one believed that her wonderful disposition would transfer to a trailer ride. Her first ride in the horse trailer. No problem. She was ready. She stepped gingerly out of the trailer and her new groom led her to her new stall.

It only took her a few days to learn about the wash rack, the walking wheel and how to con her new groom out of extra hay.

Her easy going manner convinced Daryl that she was going to be the perfect horse for saddling up in the round pen first time around.

July 20,2010

Ok Daryl is in great shape and rides every day and he works daily with all of the horses in his care. But he is 57 and way past the prime age for breaking horses. But this little filly was so tempting so gentle so well-mannered. Daryl couldn't resist. One more for the gipper.

He lead her around the round pen a few times, threw on the blanket then the saddle. She was doing great no problem she trotted along so agile, so confident so easy with the whole concept.

Daryl could not resist temptation he hopped in the saddle.

Lunalor took him for a ride around the pen for about 10 minutes. She bucked. Daryl flew up as high as the 12 foot fencing and landed flat on his back in the deep sand of the round pen.

The other wranglers were watching in awe. They ran into the pen sure their boss had taken his last ride into the great spread in the sky. All four were screaming Miss Beth (his wife) Miss Beth, Miss Beth as they took the reins of the filly, picked up Daryl and then realized he wasn’t even bruised or shaken.

When Miss Beth arrived they were dusting him off and laughing.

“ This sand used to be softer” Daryl joked. “ Bring her over here, I have to get back on, she has to know she can’t get away with this.”

Daryl is a born cowboy.

He jumped back into the saddle and continued the training ride.

Later that day he was retelling the story, reinacting the entire tale, and in demonstrating his masterful fall bumped his head on the floor. Nice little swollen bump erupted.

July 21, 2010

Today he let the wranglers take her for a ride in the mud.

Chris is the guest writer for Horsey Stories.

The horse biz is full of ups and downs. Right now we are experiencing a major down.I am so fed up with throwing away money that I am giving all the horses that I own away. So this should be a time of great happiness; not quite my wonderful neighbor whom I have allowed to use my barn in exchange for feeding and letting my horses out ( I pay for the feed and own the land where they are being let out.)

Our neighbor has decided that five years ago because I said he could use a stall in my barn. He has decided that this meant that he can use my barn in perpetuity. And not only one stall any stall I'm not using ( preferably one I have cleaned.) Right now he has 7 horses in my barn.

The other day he came over and tried to bully my mom into signing a document which would say that I only had rights to MY Barn if the other horses that were in the stalls were mine. Now I know what your saying where would someone come off trying to do this? Well Mr. Terry Romero is a thief ( this is not liable he has gone to jail for grand theft: felony) He is not a nice person. He just assumed I would roll over an allow him to steal my land and buildings.

Expect the story will be continued...

Hurricane Rita Horsey story #54

Subject: horsey stories #54

Gehrig won by a nostril. He was very proud of himself. He loved his peppermints.
RIta the hurricane threatened our RV site with flooding therefore we packed up our RV and left. Electricity is essential to the equipment Steve needs to breath comfortably. Our travels around the USA have introduced us to various casinos and their RV parks. We have learned their secret: Generators. They turn them on when traditional electric sources turn off. Therefore we hightailed it to the Indian Casino in Marksville, Louisiana. We road out the storm.
Casino's also have excellent gourmet restaurants with white table cloths. Therefore thusly an opportunity to celebrate September, two wins by our horses and our 45th ANNIVERSARY. Steve had $230 from his winning ticket at the races and insisted after dinner that he had enough energy to play a few slot machines. I said OK but you have to quit when you double your money. I pushed the cash out button on his machine when it hit $500 and Steve reluctantly followed me to the exit. Just as we came to the door, the lights flickered and in unison the players moaned OOOh. Seconds later the generator kicked on and everyone return to their machines. We continued to the hotel area of the casino to pick up our car. No lights there. The bellmen had flashlights and were attempting to rescue people from the elevators. We learned another secret. The Casino generator works instantly, all others require maintenance personnel.
We called Sam after Rita passed. All of the horses were safe and in the stables in Carencro. Last week he hired a driver. Bob is one of our friends who lost his job in New Orleans. Smart move considering how many horses Sam had to shuffle.
Hurricane Rita flooded the small town Vinton on the Texas Louisiana boarder. The Louisiana race track, Delta Downs is there and scheduled to open mid-Oct. We think the damage there will be minimal more later...

Horsey Stories #162

Dixie Blaze will be # 8 in the 1st race at Evangeline Down Thursday May 13 at about 5:30 pm Please cheer as loud as you can. She has a chance. Her jockey loves her and so does everyone else she is a charming horse.

She's a Bandit will be in the 9th race at Evangeline Downs on May 14 at about 9:00. We call her Baby Bandit. She has already won her first race. After claiming her last year her new owners had no luck at all getting her to run. Judy said that the Evangeline track was not very kind to the muscles of the horses. Her owners signed her back over to Chris, and he took her off the track for 6 months He let her stay on the farm and run with the mares for a while to see if he could get her healthy enough to return to the races. Terry has been working with her as well.

Saturday: Royal Snow returned to the races and came in 4th. A tiny sign that farm therapy is helping.

If I haven't sent this to you before, here is the link to the Disney movie trailer for Secretariat. It does not contain the scene where I was an extra. I thought it was interesting that they took the story from Penny Cheney's point of view. The book by William Nack is really the story of the horse and I couldn't figure out how they would make a Disney film from the book. Maybe I've never seen horse racing as a gender biased sport, but then I didn't really pay attention until 1996.

Terry's Foal

We didn't have a foal this year so I had to take pictures of Terry's

Horsey stories #160

Photo: Spreading the News with Chris

Dixie Blaze is #2 in the 3rd race at Evangeline Downs at about 7:00 on Thursday April 29th.

Chris hopes she has figured out the concept of racing. Terry hopes she enjoys running. Kaye hopes she is in the money and we all hope she wins.

Breeding has its detail challenges.

Spreading the News just started her cycle so Chris and Terry loaded her up and took her to Dr. Barrone for her culture test to be sure she is ready to become a mama. She also had her Cogins test which is required when she goes to visit a handsome stallion. When she came back I made Chris walk her around for the camera. She whinnied her messages to the other mares in the field as loud as she could and the proceeded to gobble up huge bites of grass while Chris brushed her coat and I snapped a dozen photos. This is her second year without a foal so hopefully she is anxious to be a mama and ready for breeding. We will take her to the stallion as soon as her tests are read.

Acadia is alive with Spring festivals. Saturday we went to the Etouffe festival in Arnaudville. Took home our crawfish etouffe box lunch and finished the generous portions late Sunday. Sunday we went to Lafayette to the Festival International in Lafayette and I giggled myself silly at the Circus Punk Marching Band from Chicago. We set up 2 camp chairs under a tree and in perfect alignment with a cool breeze. We took turns on the chairs and enjoyed the music. The Irish band "Lunasa' was fabulous. Chris liked the Zydeco band and my friend Suzanne liked the Salsa band.

Buzzing Bayou

Buzz is 18 months old in this picture