She’s Doing Fine

 

No. This isn’t a post about Apache. But here’s a photo of her taken this morning. Can you see her through the blizzard?

No. This post is about another special horse (and another critter, too. More on that later)……….

It’s been a year since Baby Doll went to go live with her new owners.

You can read my heartfelt tribute, see her doting owners, and the last moments we spent together, by visiting this link:

Letting Go Of The Rope

Not more than a week has gone by, this past year, that I’ve not thought of my first horse. Sometimes I’m just remembering her scent, some of her endearing mannerisms, the good rides she gave me, or her beauty and spirit. Sometimes I remember the not so great things, too.

I wonder if her memory will fade someday?

I don’t think so.

Baby Doll will always have a special place in my heart.

At least I know that she is happy and doing well. Her new owners, who live in Eastern New Mexico, in Portales, adore her. They take good care of her, ride her often, and treat her like the princess she knows she is. The following photos were sent to me by her owners, so please excuse the photo quality. 

Baby Doll has some good neighbors and very nice living quarters.

 

She is ridden a lot, by her Dad, T. He takes her out on the trails, with his wife and her mare, and, during the summer, he works on a cattle ranch and takes Baby Doll with him, giving her a job herding cattle. I’m sure she loves it.  

 She might even get more love and attention from T, than she got from me.

 

I sure hope T’s wife, B, doesn’t mind sharing her husband with the other girl in his life.

I still miss her sometimes, but I know she is enjoying her new life and is doing just fine.

~~~~~~~~~~~

On the same note, but a different species of animal, I’ve been wondering how my two sheep, Blanca and Svetlana, that I sold last May, are doing. You can read about that day by visiting this link:

Farewell Ba Ba's

And you can check out a very endearing, funny story that their new owners sent to me last summer:

Blanca and The Llama

 

Last week I received an email inviting me to attend some interesting classes taught by traditional Navajo Pueblo Indians on processing churro wool and mutton. So I forwarded it to Blanca’s and Svetlana’s new owners, because they are focused on the history of Navajo sheep and preserving the Navajo heritage. Of course, I was also hoping for an update on my two very sweet and special ewes.

That evening, I received an email back thanking me for the information along with a few photos and some exciting news about Blanca.   

That’s right! She’s a Mama!

She gave birth to a little female lamb on Dec. 6th. This was not only Blanca’s first lamb, but also the first lamb born to her new owners and their flock. They decided to name her T’aala, which is Navajo for first!

Is that not the most wonderful news?! Receiving the news right before Christmas, was like being given a very special surprise gift! Really made me happy. 

I was told that Blanca is a wonderful Mama and takes very good care of her pretty little baby. T’aala inherited her lovely and unique butterscotch markings from her Daddy, a 4-horned Navajo Churro Ram. He must be very handsome, because she’s beautiful and quite exotic looking!

They are hoping to find Svetlana her own handsome ram someday, but in the US, Karakul sheep are very rare. They did have Svetlana out with the Navajo Churro ram this summer, because Karakuls and Churros are both coarse wool sheep. But her owners don’t believe she was bred because the ram had too much difficulty maneuvering around her tail…….the trademark fatty tail of the Karakul sheep, which is where the sheep store fat to survive in the desert when food is scarce (think camel hump). 

I did a post about my sweet Svetlana and Karakul sheep, as well as my friendly Blanca and Navajo Churros, the day we brought both of them home, when they were still adorable little lambs. You can see photos of them, including Svetlana’s fat tail, by visiting this link:

Welcome Blanca and Svetlana

 

It’s a great feeling knowing your re-homed animals are being taken good care of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The snow is still falling hard here with wind gusts up to 55 mph. The weather folks said we should expect between 6-8”of the white stuff. I canceled a Dr. appt. I had this morning in Albuquerque, but I’m not sure they believed me that we had gotten about 3” of snow yesterday and we had a storm raging today. Albuquerque is only 20 minutes west of us, but while they are around 4,000’ elevation, we’re above 7,000’ elevation. Big difference when it comes to weather.

(The birds are well-fed and watered, with bird seed and leftover cornbread, and look pretty chipper, despite the blowing snow and freezing temperatures)

I really don’t like to drive in blizzard conditions with thickly falling snow that is blowing sideways, so I canceled about 2 hours before the appointment.

The receptionist was very nice, but she did give me a little speech about remembering to give a 24 hour notice. Well sometimes that’s just not possible, especially in regards to weather in New Mexico. It can change hourly and a common saying here is, “Don’t like the weather? Wait 15 minutes and it will change”

Then you get people from out of state who aren’t used to snow or the peculiarities of New Mexico and the elevation differences.

Reminds me of a story….

Ranchman John was in a Home Depot last winter buying some new snow shovels, and a know-it-all type, new transplant from California (It’s easy to tell, trust me), snickered at the snow shovels in my man’s arms, and told my hubby, “Well, those are a waste of money. You won’t need them here”.

I guess he doesn’t know that, in New Mexico, you can head up to the mountains to go skiing in the morning and head back down for a round of golf in the afternoon. And if you live in the mountains, you will need snow shovels.

Ironically, just about an hour ago, Ranchman John called me from his job in Albuquerque and said that they’re only getting a little rain, with some snow flurries in the foothills.

He called me a second time to tell me the sun was shining. And wouldn’t you know it, just 15 minutes later the sun was shining up here, too. But at the same time the snow was blowing!

Of course, the sun quickly vanished as the clouds, heavy with snow, commenced with their duty of making sure everything is covered in fluffy white.