Santa Fe Renegade a Morgan Stallion owned by Eitan Beth Halachmy Photo taken 5/8/11
Tag Archives: nature
Black and White Sunday: Black Beauty
Hot Day at Sundog
This gallery contains 67 photos.
Anyone who has visited Sundog Ranch knows why we might want a large body of water near by. Not just to keep humans cool… What else it there to do besides try to keep cool on a hot summer day? … Continue reading
Weekly Photo Challenge: Masterpiece
“Desert Masterpiece”
High Black Rock Desert, Nevada 3/2012
After at least a hour of “patience” I was able to get a close enough for a few shots of this magnificent paint stallion. He was letting me know loud and clear not to get too close to his mares and foals.
Wordless Wednesday: Crossing the Great Divide
Some how this did not get posted yesterday. Better late than never
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From the Tony Stromberg Workshop at Absaroka Ranch, Dubois, Wyoming. 6/13
Black and White Sunday: Wild Night
Out of the Archives: Cute and Cuter
I love my grown up Sasha….the baby of the Sundogs. But now since we’ve decided 5 dogs are ENOUGH dogs I get a little sentimental about the puppy years. So I have to share what I’m talking about. 
Around 8 weeks old. She’s a retriever through and through.
How about that confirmation. I mean body.
In the mornings sitting on the front stairs looking for crawling things was a favorite activity….and still is.
Learning how to swim at a young age is required at Sundog Ranch. Sasha is around 10 weeks here. She started her swimming career in the puppy pen.
It can get a little intimidating competing with the big Sundogs.
So drying off and watching is good.
Summers are hot at Sundog so staying near the water is imperative.
“In fact if sitting in water does not cool you down fast enough lie down in it.”
In case you wondered Sasha is allowed in the house.
Even on the couch
Now do you see what I mean about missing puppy time?
Adios Amigo’s
Black and White Sunday
I have decided to start what I call EASY blogging every other day or so. Wish I could be more specific. It’s just that blogging can be time consuming. At least for me it is. I have so many stories to tell and SO MANY photo’s to choose from. On top of that I am a SLOW writer or blogger or what ever you want to call me. In this day and age you need to make a quick easy connection with who ever it out there almost everyday. Otherwise you are forgotten. Sad reality huh?
So far I’m doing Weekly Photo Challenge, Wordless Wednesday and now I’m joining Black and White Sunday. I think that will be it. Longer quirky posts about Sundog Ranch and our travels will fill the gaps…….hopefully. Here goes my first post for B&W Sunday.
“Pretty by the Pool”
As usual Yolo is front and center. Maisie and Mr Lassen in the background. If you know anything about the Sundogs you will know Yolo likes to be front and center in almost every photograph he is in. Seriously, I DO NOT plan it this way. Immediately when we start posing he gets right in there in front. I’m convinced he knows what he is doing. I think he wants to be seen and to be famous some day. We’ll keep trying Holy Moly Man.
Horse Camp: On the Fly
I love it when my birthday, June 8th, falls on a Saturday. On June 8th, about 2 weeks ago, the scheduled temps in Chico, Ca. were around 108 degrees. At Sundog, up in the foothills, the temp might ONLY be 103 degrees (how do I make a degree sign on a computer?) So I asked Rockin’ Roy…if we could do one of my favorite things. Camping in the cooler mountains and not just regular camping, horse camping, even better. You see, I have my Appaloosa gelding named “GQ” trained so good right now I can just about let anyone hop on his back for a ride and that means Rockin’ Roy gets to ride him. Lucky Roy. I can hop on my newest ride Chiron. Chiron is pictured above after loading into the big tin can trying to sniff the big black thing in his face and asking “where the you know what are we going now?”
I tell Chiron “you are going on a trip with your buddy and staying right next to each other all day and night ” He does not care about anything else. Like the fact we are going to a place called Skillman Campground about 2 hours drive from here where it might be 10 degrees cooler. 
The feeling of driving away with the horse trailer and camping gear is just about as good as it gets. Only one problem. No Sundogs are aboard. The campground we are going to requires dogs on a leash and some of the trails go too close to highways. Taking a Sundog or two would be way to complicated and even dangerous. Besides, it is good for us to have vacations away from each other once in a while. Just like Rockin’ Roy and me go our separate ways quite often…I mean once in awhile. AND it is not like the poor Sundogs are deprived. They are staying home lounging by the pool being spoiled by some lucky Sundog sitters. 
See, here they are. Minus one.
“On the fly” to me means spontaneous, not fly fishing. Non tent living quarters pictured above is part of the “on the fly” theme. Spontaneous is fun and makes me feel young again but it has some drawbacks since neither Rockin’ Roy and I are all that organized.
Like…..I had to immediately wash all the camping supplies due to ample amounts of wood rat droppings in the camping stuff bin. Of course it was not MY fault because I did not pack the truck. The person who packs the truck with STUFF is supposed to check the STUFF since this was the first trip of the year….. but I did the dishes anyway. Doing the dishes when you are camping is like playing house when you were a kid. Plus the scenery is nice. I was a bit embarrassed to put up this photo of me doing the dishes but I wanted you to see our “on the fly” set up. Please don’t laugh at our camping gear, we keep the thrift stores in business.
What a nice fire huh? I built this fire while being left alone for an hour. Left alone because someone (who me?) forgot to put everything we needed in the cooler. Like coffee and cream which is a must for waking up on my birthday morning. And another someone (not me) forgot to bring along the lantern, another must have camping item. Making a fire with dry wood is a piece of cake. In fact with this fire who needs a lantern? GQ and Chiron are into their busy bags. The best part about horse camping is sleeping near and looking at your horses all the time. It’s like we are living together. I think I will title this photo “Life is Good”.
“Life is Good” came to an end when in the morning I had to clean the stalls. Lots of horse poop is a fact of life having horses, unless you have a poop picker upper. Which most of us don’t. But the duty is not so bad since we are in the cool mountain air and the flies are at bay.
While cleaning the stalls the horses had to be tied up to a hitching post. A wood hitching post is an old fashion invention. Why they make them out of wood I’ll never know. Standing still while tied is a horses job. As you can see in this photo Chiron is not exactly doing his job well. He is starting the annoying habit of pawing at the ground due to boredom I quess. GQ watches me wondering why Chiron gets all the attention all the while misbehaving.
The pawing kept him busy for a while. I tried not to make much of it.
He built up some pretty nice soft soil there around him to stand on. Maybe that was what is was all about?
GQ decides to go introverted at the hitching post.
It is all he can do to deal with the situation. Being tied to the hitching post with Chiron is about as bad as it gets.
Eyes closed, head down, nose to post. “Maybe nobody will notice me”.
Secret whiskers on alert.
Time to wake up goober nose.
Chiron feels he has to help GQ wake up by sniffing around and tickling GQ’s belly. GQ is enormously tolerant of Chiron in this way.
“Mom come and get me now “!
Chiron on the other hand has other ideas.
As you can see a wood hitching post has its disadvantages. Notice how nice and straight Chiron’s teeth are? No I DON’T brush them daily. Also notice the orange drips on the hitching post?
Habanero sauce, which usually works to discourage wood consummation. Chiron did NOT do all this damage to the hitching post. The many horses that visited here before did it. Chiron was just doing his part.
After a bit of Habanero sauce Chiron quickly lowered his head under the hitching post as if to say…..”I think I’ll just hang my head low and be a good boy like GQ”
“Or maybe not” As you can see this horse has some pent-up energy. Lucky me I get to ride him today, my birthday.
Speaking of birthdays look what I got! What more could a cowgirl want? No not the Corona…..a new tool. Besides a couple of knives it’s got wire cutters and a bottle opener. Even though it was only late morning we were camping and it was my birthday so off popped the cap on the Corona Light which is like drinking water almost. It is good to loosen up a bit before a ride
Being an experienced trail horse GQ goes back to snoozing while Roy has to check the map one more time. He knows all about conserving his energy before he has to work.
The warm mountain sun is starting to get high meaning we are REALLY late getting started for our ride today. Do you think GQ cares?
Absolutely NOT!
But the time comes to ride. I tack up the horses because Rockin’ Roy is allergic to them. 
Doesn’t GQ look fabulous in his new headstall?
Chiron finally calms down knowing he is going to get to move his feet soon. Saddlebag not needed today. 
Whoa Roy! Heels down, shorten that inside reign, lower those hands, elbows in. GQ wonders “who is this on my back and why is my usual human standing on the ground in front of me?”
At this point my trail camera bit the dust and it was time to get on with the ride. Chiron was calling me to hurry up and get on. No more blogging time just riding time. Rockin Roy and I had a glorious ride through the forest. We even had lunch at a cafe along the trail. The weather stayed below 95 degree’s I think. GQ and Chiron were perfect mounts and the rest of the weekend went of without a hitch….ha ha no pun intended.
Adios Amigo’s…until next time.
Mountain Dogs: “The Precious”
This is actually “Part Two” of Mountain Dogs: At It Again But I had to name this post “The Precious”. Because anybody that has a retriever or any dog that likes to retrieve you know what I mean.
When we go to Tahoe the Sundogs become “Mountain Dogs” Close by the condo cabin we have the Truckee River or “The Lake” We did not take “The Precious” to the river because it may end up downstream if somebody does not do their job to recover it. And we don’t want to litter the river beds with “The Precious”
So today we take “The Precious” to the lake.
But first we started out by having Rockin’ Roy get the dogs focused on “The Precious” on the lawn. Notice who are the best students. Lassen the noncompetitive one has other things to investigate.
Sasha’s focus is unbeatable.
At two years old she’s in her prime. Sorry Yolo.
After the warm up it’s time to head down to the pier. As you can see someone got a little too warmed up and is already cooling off at the shore. Normally at the condo cabin we have to have the mountain dogs leashed up in the common areas and the pier. But since it is off season and no one is around the COAST IS CLEAR!
We HAVE to make sure we bring plenty of bags (for you know what) and the leashes out on the big long pier. Because sometimes guests come walking out and want more peace and solitude than the Mountain Dogs are willing to offer. 
Human rules don’t apply to the Mountain Dogs.
Even though Sasha’s in top form these days Yolo will not give up on owning the “The Precious”. Lassen on the other hand has other things to investigate.
You see, Yolo is addicted to “The Precious”. His addiction gets a little annoying at times and we have to put “The Precious away”. Right now Roy is trying to teach Yolo a little patience.
Yolo tries to maintain his cool.
“Will you PLEASE throw that thing for me!”
“Finally he is lifting his arm a little”.
“I thought it would never happen. And look….. all five Mountain Dogs are competing with me now. Darn”
Their off!
Miss perfect beats Yolo again by two body lengths at least. 
Watch out for Sasha. MONSTER MOUTH.
ESCAPE ROUTE PLEASE!!
Amazingly Sasha makes it back to Rocking Roy with “The Precious”. 
Did you ever wonder if “The Precious” ever goes over the edge? Well it does. As you can see Yolo still has his eye on “The Precious” but I have to be truthful and admit, it took quite sometime for him to put two and two together and figure out how to get to it.
He finally figured to go over to and then down the stairs that lead into the human swimming section which is where “The Precious” fell. He looked and looked at the water and at me. “Where is The Precious?”
Sasha was looking for “The Precious” too.
Finally they both were on track and getting near “The Precious”.
When suddenly Sasha gave up and turned back. I think she just wanted to give her big brother a chance. But in reality Yolo is “still the man” He kept his eye on the ball (I mean “The Precious”) and did not give up for anything. I guess his “Precious” addiction is good thing…….sometimes.
Sasha not being quite as addicted the “The Precious” said “I gotta get back to dry land”.
While Lassen is off investigating again. Not giving a hoot about “The Precious”
Until next post.
Adios Amigo’s!
The Sun Dog Drift 