By Patty Wilber
After two days of standing over near Penny and not moving much following the Great Bareback Pad Debacle, Nugget regained his composure. He started moving around his big pen, investigating things again. He even reached his nose out to both Jessica and Jim once or twice. He didn’t let them actually make prolonged contact, but he expressed interest. He LOOKED, but didn’t fall apart when I led him to his pen, and we saw a buck just a few yards away!
By Patty Wilber
Nugget, one of the feral boys, is going home.
He has been here about six weeks and has gone from unhandled, almost to the point where I was thinking about when he’d be ready to get on.
By Patty Wilber
Back in 2021, I asked Heidi if she wanted to borrow Lucy so I could buy just one more baby. She said yes and took Lucy the next year.
I wanted to get that youngster from Heather McLevin at Thunderstuck Ranch with the goal of showing her as a 5-year-old at the Appaloosa National and World Shows. I was a little late to the buying game. Heather only had three weanlings left, so I enlisted my bestie, Judith, to help me evaluate, and we decided on Suffragette* CD. I want to thank everyone who passed up this little no-white bay! I got a gem.
By Patty Wilber
The Pecos Chapter of the Back Country Horsemen hauled water up Bosque Trail for a crew to do work on the Crest Trail in the Manzanos.
WE DID NOT DRIVE TRAILERS TO THE BOSQUE TRAIL TRAILHEAD. The road is decent from the turn off in Tajique to a little past the Cerro Blanco Trailhead, and then it becomes what looks like a fun challenge for off-roaders. There is some evidence that the Forest Service will be working on it in the future, but for now, I’d call it nearly impassable for trailers. There is also a sharp hairpin turn that is tough for larger trailers.
By Patty Wilber
When I get horses in that have not been handled much, or have not had clear expectations, it seems like there is often a point where I despair and wonder if they will ever decide to come around. Usually, the turnaround is just a few days, but the feral boys are taking a bit longer!
By Patty Wilber
Just finishing our stay at Bryce Valley Ranch RV and Horse Park in Cannonville, Utah, with the Shuerts, Kingsburys, Mary Ann Ende and her sister Carol. Thank you, Tammy E. for all the trip tips!!!
By Patty Wilber
Screwworm has recently been detected in Texas and New Mexico. It is a nasty little fly that lays eggs on open wounds (even super tiny wounds and in noses and ears…eww.). The eggs hatch, and the maggots eat the living flesh. It infects all mammals, but has been especially devastating to the cattle industry in the past.
By Patty Wilber
We have what I have been calling “foxtail”, but when I started to learn more about foxtails, it seems we don’t have traditional foxtail in the genus Setaria, but instead have a foxtail barley in the genus Hordeum. Mine is an annual, cool-season grass, so I think it is Hordeum pusillum, (= little barley). It is a native, but it is also weedy and has those nasty awns.
By Patty Wilber
We had a very mild winter, and plants that normally freeze and die, did not. We ended up with a bumper crop of foxtail (and orchard grass), but that’s another story.
I let the horses graze on the green foxtail (for an hour at a time) and that may have pushed our 29-year-old, Cometa, over into a laminitis flare. He tested positive for pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) = Cushings, and also for Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS).
By Patty Wilber
Modified from the 2025 Gette and LP blog post.
The LP gene occurs in Appaloosa horses as well as a number of other breeds. LP stands for “leopard”. The name of the LP gene is a bit of a misnomer because a “leopard” horse is white all over, with spots, and occurs when a horse has one LP and one PATN gene.
