Isham and Liz Isham Cory

I am especially excited about a model I recently bought online - Buffalo Bill's Isham!  (Pronounced EYE-shum.) It's a lovely vintage mold, mint in box, and has beautiful shading. Those are nice things, but not the real reasons I hunted down an Isham. 

The truth is, it's because of who this model is named for. One of my dearest hobby friends is Liz Isham Cory. Her relative was a friend of Buffalo Bill Cody and he named his favorite horse after him. 

Liz was the first collector editor of Breyer's Just About Horses (it had been edited by an advertising agency with some help from Anne Bentley first). She has been in the hobby since the very early 1970s, and was studying journalism at the University of Iowa. Peter Stone, who knew Liz from model horse shows, asked her to put together a publication that could be sent to the many hobbyists who were bombarding Breyer for information on collecting and showing. (Guilty!!) Just About Horses was written in her dorm room on campus.

Liz and me at a recent Great Lakes Congress show.

Buffalo Bill on his horse Isham at his Wyoming TE Ranch, ca. 1914. Source unknown. Google Images.

Since Liz is a dear friend, I just had to acquire an Isham for my collection. And she is going to sign the box the next time we get together.

Rain Rot

It's spring, Abby is shedding, and it's time to get out the shedding blade and a brush and get to work. (It also means that you come home absolutely covered in horsehair!)

As I was brushing Abby, I noticed that some of the hair was lifting up in places on her withers and back and coming out in patches. You can see one of the patchy places on her withers in this photo. 

Here it is after being brushed - all that hair lifted off down to bare skin.

 Normal shed out hair should look like this - not patches, just lots of fuzz.

I could see more bare skin rather than her summer coat in several areas, so I took some photos, went home, and did some sleuthing online. I was pretty sure it was just rain rot, but I wanted to be sure I did not have ringworm or, even worse, mange to deal with.

I sent the photos to Tim and asked him to take a look at her when he went out to the barn later that day. I'd also checked the other horses and I think that Hokey might have some rain rot, too.

 Rain rot is common and not serious, but you do need to keep an eye on it. I've got a scrim sheet that I can put on Abby to protect her skin from the sun if need be, and I will check and make sure her hair is growing back and that the rain rot is not worsening.

This is the first time since I got her eight years ago that I have had any kind of health issue with her, and luckily it is not a serious one. She'll be fine.

Social Distancing Secret Santa

I have been participating in a Facebook Social Distancing Secret Santa the past couple of weeks. To participate, you filled out a Google doc about your preferences and sent it to the group moderator.  By doing so, you also agreed to send someone else a gift worth $20 or less by May 1. The group host then sent you someone's name, their preference sheet and address, and the game was on!

Yesterday I got a battered box in the mail with the return address of someone I did not know. 

I figured out pretty quickly that it was from my Secret Santa, and I was hoping desperately that whatever was inside was not damaged. 

There was a card inside and I opened that first to learn that my Secret Santa was Neecy Jabour. Wow, she made my gift! (And how ironic the she mentioned my favorite drink which just happened to be pictured in the photo above.)

What a nice drink cup! Fortunately it was not damaged despite the mauling of the box. Later when I thanked Neecy online, she told me that she had tried to find a photo of a horse that looks like Abby to put on my new cup. I love that and think that it does bear a resemblance to my horse.

I mailed my gift yesterday, but I don't want to post any pictures yet as my recipient may be a blog reader. Something that I made for her will tip her off that her Secret Santa is me. But, I did make something else that I can share here.

Her own horseshoe pandemic mask! Since Cristine Holt sent me several packages of elastic in the mail, I can make them again. 

Craig took my recipient's box to the USPS yesterday and she should receive it by the end of the week. I'll post pictures here when it arrives. 

Abby's Twin

Second post of the day.

Did you know that Abby has a twin?  And I don't mean Amy, her doppelgänger. Abby's twin only has two legs instead of four.

Eight years ago today as I was hauling Abby back to West Lafayette from Indiana Horse Rescue, I got a call from Beach Son Kyle. His wife Ashley was in labor and later that morning sweet little Corinne was born. Corinne turns eight today, and when she was little she called Abby "my tins hoss." (Twin horse.)

Happy Birthday, Corinne!

Happy Anniversary, Abby!

Eight years ago today, I was hauling Abby home from Indiana Horse Rescue. She had ended up there in August, 2011 after having been rescued with nineteen other horses (two of whom had to be put down) from a horrific situation in Beech Grove, a suburb of Indianapolis.

I had no intention of owning a horse again, but when Leslie asked me to help her find one for herself, I was happy to go horse shopping. I should have known...

Abby at Indiana Horse Rescue the day I first met her.

Abby is the mirror image of my first (and beloved) horse, Amy. When I spied her out in the rescue's pastures, I burst into tears at the resemblance. The fact that she sought me out and wanted to be with me when I visited her a week later sealed the deal. April 27, 2012 I brought her to her forever home.

 Happy anniversary, sweet girl! I am so glad that you came into my life.

 Here is the article that appeared in the Indianapolis news.

Horse rescue group not confident rescued horses will survive

A horse rescue group caring for 18 horses removed from an Indianapolis home on the south side is trying to rehabilitate all of the horses, but the rehabilitation is proving difficult.

By Ann Keil

Fox59

8:01 a.m. EDT, August 9, 2011

Indianapolis— A horse rescue group caring for 18 horses removed from an Indianapolis home on the southside is trying to rehabilitate all of the horses, but the rehabilitation is proving difficult. Nineteen horses, two dogs and a cat were removed from the home last Wednesday.

Volunteers with the group, Indiana Horse Rescue, said the neglect was not short-term. They claim several of the horses are severly underweight.

"It's an obvious sign of neglect," said Melanie Masunas, assitant manager of a Frankfort horse farm managed by Indiana Horse Rescue.

Officials with Indianapolis Care and Control also claim the animals were being neglected.

All but four of the healthier horses were taken to a 27-acre farm in Frankfort operated by Indiana Horse Rescue. The staff is currently preparing to haul the four horses being cared for by animal control to their farm.

On Friday, the homeowner would only explain himself on camera if his face was not shown. He could not explain why some of the horses were underweight. He also said he and his wife were not neglecting the horses or the other animals.

Still, the staff at Indiana Horse Rescue has said some of the horses are fighting for their lives, mostly because they are severely underweight.

Masunas also said the majority of the horses have overgrown hooves. One horse was already euthanized because of a painful hoof condition.

"Her hooves were twisted. It has been neglect, not just for a week, it was a long time," Masunas said.

Animal control officials said there was little water on the homeowner's property, and some stalls had three to four feet of feces inside. They took pictures that they plan to use in court.

Also a topic of concern, one horse is blind and, according to animal control officials, was not living in a safe environment. 

"I don't know how you shut yourself off to that and convince yourself you're doing right," said Masunas.

There are some healthier horses in the bunch that will be available for adoption after the homeowner appears in court on Tuesday, but the current focus for the non-profit is rehabilitating the horses, which does not come cheap.

"The cost of grain, the cost of hay, and the cost of vet care. It adds up," said Masunas.

Those interested in making a monetary donation, hay or other resources including volunteer hours are encouraged to contact Indiana Horse Rescue online. 

Cowboy Lukie

Cowboy Lukie is a happy go lucky sort of guy. He does everything with a smile and rarely gets upset or cries. He wanders through the day having fun with anything that comes his way, and when that day includes a barn visit, all the better.

 Lukie loves the barn, and not just because there are horses. The new barn is full of interesting and delightful things to play with.

Such as Tim's "broken" mower. At least, that's what Lukie assumed when we wouldn't turn it on for him. 

He loves to try out the child sized benches in the lounge. (Like us, Tim and Loni have a big family and a passel of grandchildren so there are things at the barn just for them.)

After Goldilocksing this bench between the doors to Tim's office and the bathroom, 

Lukie asked who the man in the photo was. I don't know; I presume it is just there for decoration, but at least one other photo in the lounge is of Tim's family members, so I will have to ask.

 Grabbing the broom from the pot bellied stove that heats the lounge, Cowboy Lukie did some "cleaning."

 I plan to do some of that when the weather is a little warmer, but right now the lounge is very chilly. There are some space heaters to keep the bathroom pipes from freezing, but they're too small to warm up the entire room.

Of course, Cowboy Lukie had to have his turn on Hokey in the round pen with Aunt Lisa assisting before he went home.

You can tell that this little cowboy had a good time visiting the barn by that smile on his face. 

Mine matched.

Pony Pal Mila Goes to Jail

Kids some times make incorrect connections as they try to figure something out, and the results can be hilarious. Earlier this week on a beautiful sunny day, Pony Pal Mila met me out at the barn where she did just that.

 Mila and Cowboy Lukie could not wait to get to the horses. (Neither could their Grammy.)

With help from Aunt Lisa, Mila hopped onto Hokey and went for a little ride.

A visit to the tack room in the new barn to try out a saddle or two is always a must.

As is clambering up into one of Tim's carriages or wagons and pretending that you are going for a ride. 

See those black bars to the left of Pony Pal Mila? Here's a better look at that vehicle:

It's an antique paddy wagon that Tim restored. In this picture from a few months ago, the kids are in the driver's seat, but sometimes they like to go back into the jail portion and be "put in jail." 

So, is it any surprise that, when Mila looked across the indoor arena at the stalls,  she put two and two together and came up with seventeen?

She asked me, "Grammy? What are those jails for?"

Oh, my! I had to contain my laughter as I didn't want to hurt her feelings. And, considering that she'd just been looking at the paddy wagon, it was a reasonable connection. There are metal bars on the stall doors just as there are on the paddy wagon.

We walked over to the other side of the barn so that I could show Mila the stalls and explain that they were where the horses stayed if they were sick or needed to be indoors for some reason.

After playing with the longe whip (Aunt Lisa had been showing the kids how to make the end pop and snap) and running up and down the aisles of the barn for a while, it was time to head back home.

Despite mistaking stalls for jails (as well as vowing that she still likes unicorns better), this girl sure has started down the path of being horsey. 

I hope it becomes a lifelong passion for her, too.

I'm Ba-ack!

This will be a quick catch-up post and then regular blog posts will be starting back up tomorrow. (I have plenty to share.) 

Finally! Our internet issues have been solved. We were puzzled when our neighbors' internet all came back online but ours didn't. Finally our service provider sent two techs out and they discovered that a cable into our home had been severed. Their official write up said, "Outdoor cable showed evidence of multiple animal bites." 

What on earth? We do have coyotes and deer that run through our yards, but I cannot imagine them chewing on our cables. (Mynocks, perhaps? Haha!)

Speaking of Star Wars, I got an unusual FaceTime call yesterday from Mountain Mama Jessica. She put T-Rex on the phone and he said, "Grammy, I have some questions about Star Wars and guinea pigs." 

 Alrighty then! Two very diverse topics but I was game. 

T-Rex (his name is Titan Rex Kailana and he goes by T-Rex) started shooting questions like, "What is the name of the alien in the cantina who looks like a devil?" (A Devaronian also known as a snot vampire. I didn't tell him that part as it is really gross.) "How old was Leia in episodes 4, 5, and 6?" (She was young, maybe early twenties, and how can you remember the episode numbers like that at your age?) "How did Queen Amidala die?" (She died because Anakin broke her heart.) 

The questions continued on and on and I was glad I could remember most of my Star Wars trivia. I have been a huge Star Wars fan since the first movie came out and have several tubs of early Star Wars items. (My favorites are the 1977 Burger King glasses.) 

The current Mark Hamill Fan Club newsletter. Yes, I am a member and have been for decades.

We never really got to those guinea pig questions. 

Coming back online meant I had a lot of catching up to do in various aspects of my life, from hobby happenings to volunteer efforts and then to the education researcher part of my life. I was pleased and excited to get this notice from Research Gate, a site where research from across the globe is posted. 

A paper that I had written with Dr. Michalinos Zembylas has been cited in 250 different research papers! 

I worked with him at the University of Illinois and we collaborated on two research projects, The Emotional Labor of Teaching which was published in Teacher and Teacher Education, and Teaching Science to Students with Learning Disabilities - Subverting the Myths of Labeling that was published in Research in Science Education.

I love to write, be it a hobby history, a pollinator project with Tim and Purdue, or research papers on education. Writing is a true passion. Finding out that research that I had done was useful to other researchers made my day. (I knew it had been cited quite a bit but I did not realize just how much until Research Gate posted the milestone.) I just can't quit smiling about that bit of news.

I might not have had internet, but I could still go to the barn! Midweek we had a beautiful spring day and I met Pony Pal Mila, Cowboy Lukie, and Ian there. We tried to social distance, but this still happened.

Ian, Hokey, and me. You can't keep a Grammy from her grands. (Or her horses.)

This happened, too. (I realized after we had finished that I had TOTALLY forgotten to put helmets on the grands.)

While I was offline I also got a couple of new additions to my collection and there were some other horsey happenings that I will write about in upcoming blog entries. In the meantime, I am really happy to be back.

If you are interested in education here are two more research papers that I co-authored. 

• Isenbarger, L., & Baroody, A. (2001) Fostering the mathematical power of children with behavioral difficulties: The Case of Carter. Teaching Children Mathematics. 8, 468-471.
  
  
• Isenbarger, L. & Willis, A. I. (2006) An intersection of theory and practice: Accepting the Language a Child Brings into the Classroom. Language Arts, 84, 125-135.

Off the Grid

Just a quick post to let you know that I'm still here and okay. I was ill (who knows how I caught something despite being home all the time!) but the real issue is that our internet has been out for a couple of days. Someone digging cut an underground cable and put our part of town off the internet grid.  I'll be writing again ASAP.

Ya gotta love parking lot Wifi... Haha!

Pandemic Sewing

(This is a non-horsey post.)

I am staying at home during the pandemic as asked by Indiana's governor. But even though I am retired and home quite a bit already, I have felt restless. I like to sew, I like to serve, and so what better way to do something worthwhile than to sew masks?

I looked at several online patterns and tutorials before selecting the pattern I liked best.

I have lots and lots of fabric on hand, both in the form of scraps from other projects as well as fabrics that I have bought because I liked them and knew that I could find something to make with them. (Every sewist does that, and we pile up tubs and tubs of fabrics!)

 Small prints work best for the masks and I have plenty of that in the fabrics I use to sew quiet books.

Other past sewing projects have included Christmas stockings, pillowcases, tablecloths, and pony pouches. Leftover fabrics from those work well.

 The adult masks aren't hard to make, but the children's masks are so tiny and more difficult. This set is for Mountain Mama Jessica and her family in Utah.

Since people around the world are sewing masks, too, there is a real shortage of 1/4 inch elastic, and I have had to get creative since I ran out of my supply yesterday.

I had some colorful rolled elastic and tried that in the masks for Pony Pals Julie and Kate and Cowpoke Susie in Nashville.

Their mama is getting this fabric (one of my favorite fabrics ever!) and I am still working on Music City Son Cole's plain black one. He gets my last two pieces of elastic.

 Teacher Daughter Lisa asked for orange fabric, and Craig requested argyle.

I need a mask, too, and I will choose something horsey, of course.

I love all three of these and have enough to make pony pouches, tablecloths, and aprons out of them, but I think I can spare an 8 x 14 inch rectangle to make my own mask.

Now I wait on more 1/4 inch elastic. Everywhere in town is sold out as are the online sewing places I shop. Amazon has it, but it comes from China and there is a two week to one month wait to get it here. I'll either have to use the rolled elastic for myself or keep digging and see if I can find another source.

In the meantime, it has felt good to use my sewing skills to help out my family. And if I am able to get more elastic, I'd like to make some for the two local hospitals as well.

Dad's Slides: Purdue Horsemanship Camp

Even after Bobbie Sue and I aged out of Girl Scouts, we still had another opportunity to attend camp with horses. In June of 1973, we went to Purdue University's Horsemanship Camp near Seymour, Indiana.

The camp was actually held at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Brownstown which butted right up to the Jackson-Washington State Forest.

This meant that we stayed in the woods and had lots of trails for hiking during our downtime. This is the cabin where the girls at the camp stayed.

 Our 4-H leader, Jerry Synaesal, hauled Cee and Starbuck, Bobbie's horse, to camp for us - Brownstown is in the southern part of Indiana and only about twenty five miles from Louisville.

 Me, Jerry, Starbuck, Bobbie, and my sister, Jenny.

 The horses were stabled in the fairground's livestock barns.

Me with Cee, Bobbie, and Starbuck letting the horses stretch their legs after the three hour drive south.

 Another view of the barns at the fairgrounds.

It was a wonderful week spent learning about horse care and improving our riding. This was a terrific opportunity for me since most of what I knew was from reading books and then trial and error experience with Amy, Nick, Pokey, Cee, and Flame. I will ever be grateful to Jerry Synaesal and his 4-H club for the way it started me on the path of becoming the horsewoman I wanted to be. 

There were a lot of other 4-H teens from around the state in attendance, and both English and Western disciplines were represented. We were instructed in horse care, conformation, how to show in halter and performance, and so many other aspects of horse ownership.

The 1973 Class of Purdue Horsemanship Camp graduates. I've put a blue arrow pointing to me, and Bobbie Sue is to the right of me in the blue shirt.

At the end of the week, a horse show was held so that we could show what we had learned. I was so excited to win two third place ribbons in large classes against kids who'd grown up with horses and had far more experience than me.

 In fact, those wins meant so much to me that the ribbons hang in my horse room to this day.

I was especially excited about the ribbon for horsemanship - I had felt so far behind the other campers and that win showed me that, despite my lack of lessons and experience, I could catch up with more experienced kids and that I could ride well. 

I left camp with far more confidence in my abilities to care for my horses and feeling, for the first time in my life, like I was a horsewoman.