Never a dull moment on the ol rancho......

These pictures are from yesterday on the way to the farmer's market. We like to take our time and drive over the mountain sometimes. This is about halfway over and if you look real close you can see the herd of wild horses that live on our side. They are almost right in the center and to the left a bit. There used to be seven horses but this day I only counted..........

EIGHT!!! Can you see the new little one? They sure are being born late this year. Generally they are all born brown/grulla looking and then they darken as they get older.

This is the herd on the Tehachapi side of the mountains. They are all spread out on the big meadow. I am pretty sure the saddle you see in the background is somewhere close to where we came over the hill.

Here is a closer up shot. What a life for a horse huh?! It is all private land and managed privately just in case anyone was wondering. No, you cannot just drive in there!

I thought these pictures were perfect since with this cold weather our horses out on pasture are acting so darn frisky. We have a fence around the main house and hay barn, corrals area. Mainly so the cows can't eat the hay but also so the mares on pasture can't get near Cody, our stallion. I started my day out hearing him screaming in the distance. I am just getting over a cold and was sleeping so good darn it!!! So I drag my but out of bed and grab a sweat shirt since it was FREEZING and head down to the corrals. Sure enough all six of the horses that are supposed to be turned out are in the corral area. Just to give you an idea of who I am talking about as this story progresses I better introduce you to the renegade horses. First there is my mustang mare that I have had forever (I think she is 20 years old now), Cheyenne. Second is Charley, Jeremy's sorrel gelding he used to ride alot and now Paul rides. Third (in no particular order) is Cat, one of my favorite mares because she is so solid and sensible. Fourth is her daughter, Poco, another of my favorites, she is just like her momma. Fifth is Min, a really well trained horse also that Jeremy uses alot. And finally a long yearling filly named Itchy. Jeremy's pride and joy. Everybody always sees her first because of her color. We are pretty sure she will turn grey but she looks like a blue roan. All of these horses are valued members of the family as well as 4 out of 6 are some of our best trained animals. Back to my story! I get them all caught up and put back where they belong and run back to the house to make coffee and warm up. Paul gets up and feeds shortly and all is happy. Around lunch time I head out to put a resume in at the cement plant in Neenach and ARGH!!! Just outside our front gate and standing on Tejon property is Min, Charlie, Poco and Itchy. Or course I am all cleaned up and trying to look presentable cause I could really use this job, we had heard they were looking for someone in the office. So I try and call Jeremy and he doesn't answer the phone. Double ARGH! I found a hay twine one of the kids had drug into my car and tromped thru the sagebrush and catch my sweet little doe eyed Poco. I kid you not, they were all looking at me like "what are you doing here?"

I uneventfully lead Poco back in and the rest followed. Closed the gate and went on about my destination.

I was excited to come home and make a couple of recipes I found on a fellow bloggers site. They were homemade flour tortillas, empanadas and cast iron skillet biscuits. I think I gave myself carpal tunnel kneading and kneading! I s l a v e d away on our dinner. Told the guys they had better eat real slow because of how long it took to prepare it! As I am cooking and washing the endless dishes the water goes out. So I go out to ask Paul if he had water on, "no" ARGH!!!!

He went down to check it out and the horses had broken down the gate and were in the corral area AGAIN! They like the grass by the main water valve and had broken it and all the water was running out.

We all peacefully ate our dinner and were sitting around watching Whale Wars when the phone rings. Our neighbor on the mountain was on his way to his cabin and there are six horses romping along with the cows way where they shouldn't have been. Now the way our property is set up is we are in a canyon with a ridge on the east and the west side. Normally the horses don't climb the hill to the east because it is too steep. Not to mention there is plenty of feed down below. So we all jump up and grab jackets and head outside. Sure enough it is our horses. We hadn't ruled out the fact that someone had set some horses out and they were someone else's. Although we are so far out chances are they wouldn't find us.

We drove up to the top of the property and threw some hay off the polaris thinking they would come down when they saw us throw hay............nope! That would be too easy! They are running and playing like they have been standing in corrals all their lives. Buttheads. So Jeremy and Paul climb the hill on foot to go and catch them. Thankfully that went pretty smooth and we locked them up in the arena until tomorrow when they will all loose their freedom for awhile. Since there are no training horses here we have plenty of empty corrals and they will each get one! I am sick of worrying about them and if they can't stay out of trouble that is what they get!

I will sleep easy tonight knowing the huligans are contained!

Thanks Tony for calling!