Scooter and Wiki have a newly formed rivalry for my Mom's attention!

January 26, 2025 Spending The Afternoon at The Horse Ranch With a Brush in One Hand and a Treat in The Other.

January 26, 2025•11 min read

My Mom was with the horses today.

It was bitter cold here in Lake Tahoe and just as cold in Gardnerville where they are. Gardnerville is West of where we are, and through some mountain passes.

I went with my Mom so I can attest to the beauty as we traveled along.

Snow was dusting all the trees and they were beautiful.The sun was not shining through the clouds, so it was not as bright as midday usually is.

Here are two photos from the drive over the hill.

My Mom forgot about the cold once she started to engage with all the horses.

Scooter, the last of my Mom's initial Senior horses, allowed my Mom to brush him and low and behold, so did Wiki, who now lives with Scooter.

That made my Mom so happy.

Here they are. Don't know if you can tell, but it was flurrying.

Wiki, my Mom loves getting to know him

Scootery Dootery, he holds my Mom's heart

Oh, and there was an actual Blue Heron (or so we think) right next to Scooter and Wiki's paddock!

See photo right here:

Our ranch Blue Heron!

Oh, and Glenn, Kristen's father, saw this eagle on his way to the ranch! Awesome! It's so beautiful that my Mom had to add it to the top of this post! His photo was taken right after this post was written. Clear blue skies!

Photo by Glenn Roberson

My Mom could tell that now Wiki and Scooter will be vying for her attention. My Mom is careful to stay out of their way when they seem to be nudging each other to get to the front of the line, so to speak.

It's fun to watch but my Mom has to be real careful because these big boys would be too focused on themselves (she thinks) to notice that my Mom might get hurt in a scuffle.

Both boys have physical troubles.

Scooter's got his age working against him. He's probably 34 now, which is 95.5 in human years! And Wiki has that disorder of his back hooves (DSLD) Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Disease) it's kind of a heel hyperextension which is very painful.

So, just how much competing they can do is questionable.These two bros seem to be getting along pretty well and now maybe they are in a competition for my Mom's undivided attention. I hope they can remain pals.

Mija (please read about her in past blogs here) once actually kicked Scooter (my Mom heard the KLONK....ouch) to get him to go away as my Mom was grooming her!

She was serious about her attention and my Mom was happy to give it to her!

Mija was as gentle as can be and had a severely arthritic left knee. Mija let my Mom massage the area above and below that knee.

My Mom is convinced that Mija knew my Mom was trying to relieve her pain.

Liam and Faralli (also in previous blogs), were very happy to get treats from my Mom! Their paddock is right next to Scooter and Wiki.

My Mom then drove up to the upper barn area to see Chief, Balthazar and River, baby Echo is still away at yearling camp!

Chief is kind of "iffy" about grooming but he did allow my Mom to brush him.His coat is luxurious! I think he's an American Paint horse. He has white, black and I think brown patterns on his coat.

My Mom will have to get some photos of him. She gets wrapped up in grooming and a lot of times forgets to photograph them. I think Chief is a lesson horse. He's very mild-mannered. Chief is my Mom's newest addition to the grooming group (she's back to 3 again). After Mija and Max passed, Wiki and Chief moved into their positions.

So now it's Scooter, Wiki and Chief.

There's a little horse named Steel who may join this group. My Mom hasn't been formally introduced but apparently he's a Senior too. He's ripe for some extra care from my Mom.

Steel might be a Shetland pony actually. His coat is white and long so I'm sure my Mom will have her work cut out for her. He's not very tall, sure hope he's friendly.

Bathazar is a huge beauty who lives next to Chief. My Mom doesn't know much about him other than his owner hasn't been around for a long time.

He's still cared for as a boarder but that's way different from an owner coming regularly to groom, walk or ride their hose on the regular. He's thrilled to receive treats from my Mom. Perhaps I mentioned that last time my Mom saw him she was confused because he's now in River's old spot.

My Mom doesn't usually give treats to horses without the owners' permission, so my Mom thinking he was River (apologizes to River) was giving him treats!

The horse next to Balthazar is Cowboy. My Mom met his owner last week.

She's a retired Colonel! Wow! Anyway, Cowboy was GIVEN to her by a man whose wife owned Cowboy. The woman passed away and the husband had no interest in the horse and asked the Colonel if she'd like him.

End of story! Yes!

On the other side of Chief is a lovely kind of white horse who definitely has an attentive owner (we think) because his or her tail is braided and has a ribbon! Wow!

No treats for that horse because of the "rule": get the owner's permission because you never know, maybe they have diet restrictions.

However, that sweet horse let my Mom touch his or her face and muzzle for a very sweet long time. She or he was as gentle as can be and loved the attention.

Next my Mom went to see River who now has the run of her area.

Last week River was not allowed into her "extra" area for some reason (I forget why) but this week she was.

My Mom thinks that River was doing just fine.

Remember my Mom thought River was downtrodden and stressing about Echo going to the yearling "camp"?

Well this week, when my Mom tried to "tune-in" to how she was doing (remember animal communication?)

River seemed just fine.

We hope that's really true!

Next stop was to say Hi to Linda and her beautiful horse Harmony. They're doing just fine. I have included Harmony's photo previously.

My Mom stopped to send some love vibes towards Daniel the former racehorse who I think is recovering, with Kristen's good care. He may have been rescued by Kristen, not sure.

Well, then my Mom went back to the lower barn and gave Scooter, Wiki, Liam and Faralli more Barn Bites' cookies and then went to check on Vincento and Silver (2 other of Kristen's horses).

My Mom is not sure if Vincento had his hooves done or not.

My Mom had offered to pay for a farrier visit since Vincent's front hooves seemed cracked. That's a disaster waiting to happen for a horse.

She'll check with Kristen. But, Vincento was pleases as punch to get some carrots from my Mom.

Silver, who is around the corner form Vincento was VERY happy to have carrots, so were Sophia's 3 horses, Percy, Faith and Julirio.

Sophia was my Mom's initial riding instructor, until my Mom realized she wanted to stand beside horses not sit on them.

All 3 of Sophia's horses are so beautifully cared for by Sophia.

Yearling Whitfield, owned by Lindsey, is growing like a weed.

He was born wild (not sure if that's how you say it) but he is certainly acclimating to non-wild life here at the ranch.

Lindsey takes real good care of him, he is a real darling.

That about wrapped up my Mom's visit.

On the way home, my Mom stopped at Great Basin's butcher shop to buy some Park Ranch burgers and steak .

Do you remember the blog about Park Ranch, the local Nevada ranch with true pasture-raised cattle?