Joey and Jessica's Journal

08/12/2017

Wow it has been a while since I've posted. We've been busy with projects and getting ready for winter. Here are a few pictures of Jess and Joey. Poor Jess came up terribly lame tonight. We suspect an abscess since she has no visible injuries or swelling that we can detect. More to come on that. Joey and Danny have become the best of buddies. They live with two other geldings but eat, sleep and play together. Joey and our friend Nick had a great visit back in September. Joey has managed to maintain his fan favorite status with everyone who visits.

11/04/2017

Sleepy morning...

10/04/2017

Joey and Jessica's Journal

10/04/2017

Joey and Jessica's Journal's cover photo

10/04/2017

Profile Pictures

10/04/2017

Spring has finally sprung and I got to work with Jessica and Joey a bit today. First order of business was getting a gnarly witches knot out of Jess' mane. We made a deal... If she would stand quietly for me, she could steal hay out of one of the stored bales (of course it had to taste better than the hay that was sitting in front of her in the hay bag!!!). She did great and then we had a short, but productive session in the round pen to get back to work after a long winter. Meanwhile, Joey hung out with his best friend Trixy the Donkey...

23/03/2017

We got great kudos from our vet yesterday. We took advantage of an annual maintenance package from our vet which included a dental, base vaccinations and a f***l exam. After 8 f***l exams our little ranchette has been declared parasite free!!! I guess all that mucking and regular deworming pays off!

22/03/2017

One more photo from today... that big brown slug-muffin on the right is Lady Jessica recovering from her day of dental torture 😜

22/03/2017

Sleepy Joe... Today was a busy day carting 7 of our horses to the vet for dentals, shots and sheath cleanings for the boys. I was only able to get photos of these two boys since I was flying solo. Every one was great except for Ms. Trixy who didn't want to get out of the trailer (bad donkey!!!). Jessica was very good for the vet.

05/02/2017

We took a FB break for a while. Jess and Joey informed me that they wanted nothing to do with politics and the election and that they needed more carrots and Mrs. Pastures cookies in their life. But we're back. It's in the 30's and snowing here in Ellensburg, Washington and Russ and I spent the day with the horses getting their trims with the farrier and then being wormed. We even had a special treat waiting for us after the last horse was trimmed.

18/07/2016

Hi Dad!!

Joey and Danny Boy playing after the rain.

13/07/2016

Not sure what happened - I fix a typo and my photos disappeared! Here they are again...

13/07/2016

The last two months I have seen some lovely changes in Miss Jessica. She now comes running over to me whenever I am outside by the pastures. When I am cleaning, she follows me and the tractor where ever we go. Last Friday, all of the horses had their feet trimmed and for the first time, there was no need for us to hold her, there was no tail swishing or fidgeting. Jess was just relaxed and at ease while our fantastic farrier trimmed her up. I've not wanted to pressure her or rush her into anything since we've introduced her to so many changes over the last year. She's telling me now that she wants to engage and do more. I am so excited!!!

Everyone loves Joey! For Joey, life is always a bowl of cherries. He is the baby in the pasture, the life of the party and he is still the clown of the herd. We had a lot of family and friends to the house in July and Joey is the hands down favorite of all the equine kids. His fans ranged in age from 4 to 54. I think we may have found a very good trainer for him to start doing some work with... Will keep you posted!

23/05/2016

Sorry there are no pictures to go with this post, I was on a diesel mower for about 5 hours today that takes two hands to operate... But boy was it fun and extremely entertaining to blow yummy green grass inside the pasture to the horses. When I came along the fence-line with the mower, I could tell that Joey knew what comes from this orange machine but that he was also a bit wary of this noisy contraption. After a few seconds he was chasing me and then he went bucking off into oblivion. I confess that it took me five hours because I probably spent an hour re-mowing the clippings in one direction so that the horses could have snack. Jess made a big show of running off nearly every time I came by with the mower but she was the first one back to the fence to get her share. Next time I will have Russ handy to take some pictures of the antics.

15/04/2016

Happy "6th" Birthday Metro Jessica!! She got to graze for a while, had some peppermint cookies and we removed her bandages. She is healing up beautifully from her little mishap with the corral.

08/04/2016

We were back to the vet yesterday for a recheck on Jessica's leg and a booster shot for Joey. Both horses waited for the vet together outside on a beautiful day. It was 78 degrees.

Jess got a great report from the doc. We change her dressing every day. She is healing up nicely from her mishap last week here at the vet's office when she got her leg caught in the gate pictured here.

Jess and Reina are both on antibiotics for 10 days. It's a powder we mix with molasses, applesauce and a little bit of what we call horsey-crack, LMF Performance. There is not a drop left in either mare's bowl when they are done.

Even though Joey and Jessica are not pastured together anymore, Jess still enjoy's Joey's company and she is very sweet to him.

31/03/2016

March is Equine Dental Month at our local vet's office. This week we managed to get nine dentals done. Joey had his done last month due to some remaining baby teeth fragments left in his mouth.

Today we took Jessica in for hers along with herd-mates Samara and Blue Dog. Joey came along for the ride to have an inspection done.

Poor Jess got herself stuck in between the corral gate and post and her front leg was pinned in a very narrow opening. It's hard to imagine how she actually got wedged in there but she did. Gravity and her weight kept her there. Luckily we heard her immediately and being the smart cookie she is she knew not to move. We were able to get her free but she came away with a tough cut. The vet took a good look and cleaned it out and bandaged her up. She has been an awesome patient.

We absolutely love these two horses. Now that it's spring we've started on our round pen and it should be done within a week or two. Can't wait to really start to work with them again now that our long winter is over.

26/02/2016

Sorry - this is the photo where Joey's checking out the neighborhood :-)

26/02/2016

I'm thinking that Joey is feeling a little better... 18 lovely ladies moved in next door last week and he thinks that's pretty cool. He's checking them out while they get a drink of water. Three of them are Haflingers...

26/02/2016

Big day for Little Joe... He is home and has his face buried in a pile of hay. He is losing his baby teeth but had some broken pieces left in his gums and he had his remaining wolf tooth taken out. He also had some sharp points. All in all a lot going on in that little mouth of his. He's waking up from his dental and will hopefully be comfortable for the day after a dose of bute...

Jess is wondering what all the fuss was about and why she didn't get to go for a ride with Joe... Don't worry Jess - you get your turn next month with the vet for your dental :-)

27/01/2016

Joey's stinky, runny sinus infection appears to be all gone! Yay!!

10/01/2016

Poor Joey has an infection in his right nasal passage... Unfortunately he has had some pretty significant trauma on that side of his face and that is his blind side so it's tough to tell if it looks normal. He's breathing out of that side okay but wow is it stinky!!! Ten days of antibiotics mixed with a little grain and some apple sauce is just what the doctor ordered.

The vet was loaded today with emergencies so Russ and Joe put on some miles around the round pen at the vet to keep warm and pass the time.

He was an excellent patient! Love this little guy!

31/12/2015

A day with farrier Geri... Jessica's last abscess scar has finally grown out...

08/12/2015

Lucky horses

Nice article about the great work that the team at KyEHC does everyday. They did an amazing job with Joey and Jessica and we are lucky to have found them.

http://www.kentuckyliving.com/kentucky-equine-humane-center/

If you were a horse needing a home, you’d want to be at the Kentucky Equine Humane Center. It’s ironic—in fact, disgraceful—that the state known as the Horse Capital of the World has so many…

01/12/2015

Brrr... It has been very cold here. Low teens every morning. Jess and Joey are showing off their new duds. I think Jess was a supermodel in a past life.

04/11/2015

Photos by Andy Robb

20/10/2015

Taken this afternoon - I think they like it... It started losing air so we have to get it fixed but we may have a couple of equine soccer players here :-)

26/09/2015

For those of you who thought I might have been kidding with my earler post....

25/09/2015

This is Joey - except he is short and he puts his chin on my shoulder!!!

05/09/2015

Today was a very busy day here in Ellensburg! We had three trims by the farrier and three sets of hand forged new shoes. Joey was so spent from his trim he needed an intense grooming session with his partner in crime/adopt-a-mom, Gypsy. I wish I got a picture about 10 seconds earlier as it was very fun to watch. Actually he was great for the farrier. Jessica, not so much. She was very testy this morning. Even after a good workout on the lunge line.

The other exciting news today is that we made our first ever trip to the opening day of the Ellensburg Rodeo! It was a great time and wow there was some amazing riding to watch! Check it out - http://ellensburgrodeo.com. We bought tickets for all four days so we are going to be itching to ride come Monday afternoon! The weather is turning chilly here and the horses are all frisky. Joey and Blue Dog were tearing around the pasture yesterday. It was fun to watch. Happy trails until next time!

26/08/2015

Lots of fun stuff going on around here in our new place. We found a fantastic family owned local saddle shop only about 10 minutes up the road, Don's Leather Shop. They make saddles and all kinds of leather goods but they also sell used saddles. We found one that I fell in love with for Jessica. We took her over yesterday to try it on her but it didn't fit. Andy at Don's Leather brought another consignment saddle for us to try and it fit her well. We're going to try it out over the weekend!

Here are some pictures of our progress putting up the stainless steel siding on our first of four shelters over the weekend. Once we got in the groove it started going fairly quickly but alas, progress will have to wait until next weekend 'cuz we have to work for a living, sigh... Hooper supervised and guarded the shelter. Okay maybe he used it for the shade so he could nap :-). The old guy just loves his naps and takes them practically anywhere, as long as its in the shade.

22/08/2015

Jess and Joey are so spooky!!!!! NOT :-)

All kidding aside, I think if they could climb up in the tractor with me and sit on my lap they would. These were taken tonight during our mucking duty.

20/08/2015

I completely missed the great photo opportunity of Joey, Blue Dog, Gypsy and Samara lined up at the fence curiously staring at our beautiful new neighbors. I did capture a photo of these longhorns coming up the driveway though...