Christmas in February -or- Winter in the High Desert

Stardate 02/22-24/08

Took my wife on a little road trip to Bend, OR just to see this horse. While there we got our seafood fix, our Adrenaline Rush, and headed home. This made a most pleasant weekend outing.

We were quite excited about getting out of town Friday by noon, heading for the high desert of Central Oregon, and hoping to have a chance to be with/visit "Rusty" before dark. Everything was packed and ready to go, when it turned into 1:30 before Kittee got out of court trials. We knew we were not going to make it to Bend before dark, so it was time to slow down and just enjoy the trip.

All of the search and finding (of Adrenaline Rush) begin two years ago as Travis Webster and I were training Derby to trailer load; that's another story I won't go into here. But for 2 years I have been studying Rusty, not for purchase but for stud service.

Anyway, back to Friday's trip... it was a most pleasant afternoon ride, skies mostly clear, temperatures quite mild. The day's weather forecast was for rain, and snow developing by nightfall, but we were getting all sunshine, little breeze as we passed the new wind turbine farm south of Biggs.

We were well south of Shaniko, before we saw clouds developing. By the time we got to Madras it was dark, raining with a mix of snow. It's still February.

Heading on into Bend, we were planning dinner at McGrath's Fish House. Again we found this to be a treat for dinner that borders on being sinful. I think I have now shown Kittee the rewards of stopping at a McGrath's Fish House whenever we get near one. After dinner we checked into the no frills roadhouse inn, for a shower, a beer, a movie, and a night's rest before heading out to pick up Rusty.

Now it has probably been 50 years or so since I had a night like this. This night reminded me much of the excitement of Xmas eve of my youth... awake half the night, just waiting for daybreak, the treat of the morning to come. We are getting our Arabian stallion this day for Xmas, birthdays, Goldie, and Misty.

Saturday, after a restless night's rest for both Kittee and I, we awoke by morning's light, got up, had our coffee, muffins, sweet rolls and headed out to defrost and wipe the snow off of "Blue". All the other vehicles in the parking lot were covered with snow, but "Blue" was only lightly dusted. "Blue" fired up pretty easily this morning without using the engine glow plugs more than one cycle, and we were off to get our Rusty. It was a beautiful morning in Bend with a light dusting of fresh snow everywhere, very light Saturday a.m. traffic, and the sun was breaking through the partly cloudy sky on this fresh new day.

Having been out to the Double J Ranch to meet Rusty last November, we had our directions and it as easy to find, even through the increasingly deeper snowfall as we approached the ranch. Before we got to the Double J Ranch we did have to go into 4x4 drive as the fresh snow was about 5" deep, and very few vehicles had traveled the back roads this early Saturday a.m. Pulling into the Double J Ranch it was a beautiful winter's landscape with bright sunshine on everything.


After greetings with Jean and David, at the ranch house we proceeded out to greet Rusty at his stallion keep. Kittee was biting at the bit to put her hands on him, get him into the round pen and begin communing for the day. Rusty was in a blanket for the snowy night so after taking it off, David brought out the curry brush and knocked off some of his loose winter coat.
Kittee worked Rusty in the round pen for maybe 15-20 minutes. He was warm under the blanket but she wanted to take any edge off of his nerves before loading him in the trailer for the long ride home.









Again, like last November we found Rusty full of vim and vigor, but so easy to pet, and to be around.














After knocking a little edge off his energy level, we brought him around to the trailer, brushed him off a bit more and travel booted, blanketed him for loading in the trailer and going home.

The ride home was again quite pleasant, with plenty of sunshine, and mild temperature all the way back to Milton-Freewater. Again the new wind turbines were shining bright in the mid-day sun, coming up the Mighty Columbia River we found beautiful views, with most of the river's /lakes being smooth as a mirror.


Arriving home we found our weather to be beautiful, and a great day to off load Rusty. While Kittee took his boots and blanket off, I went out and began to feed the rest of the herd and close them out of the adjacent pasture to Rusty. Getting back to the trailer Kittee and I both continued to brush and comb Rusty to remove a lot of loose fur and de-tangle his mane. He takes handling and grooming very well.

After giving him a through work over with brushes, and fingertips we put him out to pasture. That was probably quite a different experience for him, as he has been living in a stallion keep for awhile.

In the pasture he ran and ran, and begin connecting with the goats in the next pasture.

Rachael, from across the street came over and welcomed Rusty to the neighborhood. The Woodhall's with horses came by, Shana and Sinwaan came back from their ride up Cashe Hollow Road and Rusty went out to the front fence line and greeted all.

The rest of the herd was feeding behind the barn so very little interaction between Rusty and them took place. He did give quite a few stallion bugle blows trying to get their attention, but everyone was focused on their feed.

There was a few times that Rusty did stop running after he sweated up, stood around for awhile and found a few bite to eat. We knew this was a all new experience for him, and we just gave him space and time to enjoy.
Kittee and I stayed out with him the rest of the afternoon, as clouds began to come across the southwest sky, and be wind began to blow. The wind had quite a chill, felt like and began to look like the weather from Central OR was heading in our direction. Got a call later in the evening from Shana saying that Sunday's forecast was for 50% chance of rain. Whelp, guest that will knock out our chance to get out and ride for the day.

Sunday, Kittee and I slept in a little longer than usual before having our first cup of coffee. Yesterday made quite a trip, with a lack of sleep from the night before.
After a cup of coffee, Kittee went out to feed horses as I prepared our breakfast of biscuits, gravy, eggs, and more coffee. A pretty good way to start the day that's cool and wet outside. It wasn't raining when we got up, but it had been raining overnight and Rusty did fine weathering through his first night in Northeast Oregon.
After breakfast, and the horses' a.m. feed, Kittee went out and brought Nugget into the pasture adjacent to Rusty. That didn't go so well, as Nugget often times can act studdy, and Rusty is full blown stallion, so Kittee put Nugget back with the rest of the herd.
Then she brought out ole steady Derby, who has been mellowing more and more in the past six months as he has now called McKuster Ranch his home for over three years. Derby and Rusty, acted like gentlemen as they greeted each other over the fence line, and there we fed them and gave them a chance to get use to each other. Rusty did a little dancing around on his side of the fence, while Derby just ate his rations on his side of the fence as the goats were coming and going to grab bites of hay. The horses did touch noses at one point and just then Rusty's chest touched the top strand of electric braid which gave them both a shocking how-do-you-do. But all in all this meeting was quite uneventful. We feel this will be a good sign, as we do plan to turn Rusty out to pasture very often, and we hope for him to have a grazing pasture mate to share time and space with, not a mare.

Speaking of mates & mares for Rusty to get aquainted with... this afternoon Rusty got to meet Misty over the fence,

and Goldie from a distance.

Rusty is a bit winter thin so we are hoping to get him shaped up asap, and have a formal introduction between he, Goldie and Misty this spring.



This we must do in May and June so that Misty has her foal set before we start training and preparing for the trail ride heading into Minam River Lodge planned for August.

We have now had Rusty at McKuster Ranch for almost 24 hours. All is going well. We feel that we have found the Arabian stallion that we were looking for... a good mind, gentle disposition, should be strong for endurance riding, and relieves us from the idea of having to handle a stallion that rips, snorts, and strikes at the hand and head of the one that feeds him.
We have seen and read about those guys. YIKES!!! Not at McKuster Ranch.

Beginning spring of 2008 Adrenaline Rush will be
standing stallion at McKuster Ranch.
See Rusty's web page for details.
~~Happy Trails~~

a day in the life at the ranch -- Dale