Category Archives: Horses

Progression

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Mariah-dark,lean,young at the canter with Lauren in the saddle. July 14, 2008

Mariah-light, robust, mature at the canter with Caroline in the irons. July 27, 2012

Progress comes slowly, invisibly sometimes.  When you are waiting for it and watching the signs you do not see it.  But turn your head and it has been there all along inching its way toward change.

Progress has been difficult to measure for me, in terms of my home (so many obstacles), my horses, my family and in so many ways, my life.  I want to do right and try but seem to fall back as much as I step forward.  Looking for writing inspiration tonight I reviewed my pictures.  I have always loved to shoot pictures.  I remember in college walking down the main part of the campus looking at the Colorado sun shining through the trees.  I looked at my friend and said, “wouldn’t that be a great picture?”  She looked surprised and said, “I never met anyone who thought in pictures before.”

It was quite a compliment to me.  Like I had just had someone compliment me on learning a second language.  So, yes I have thought in pictures and tonight these two pictures tell a story of a dark, lean filly who has grown up to be a beautiful, white mare.  Her owner now would tell you she still needs so much progress.  There is still so much she needs to learn.  It is true but I (we) must be mindful to not miss what we have accomplished in view of what we have yet to do.

There will always be more to learn.  More to see, more to do.  But I will try to step back and turn my head so I can look again at what I had seen before and view the progress that I have made.

As we head into finals season, may all the riders look back at how far they have come to reach their dreams.  They may not touch their dreams, maybe not this year, maybe not ever.  But each rider that has come this far, be it Zone finals, regional or national finals reflect just a moment, on a year ago, three years ago or maybe even five.  If they need a reminder of how far they have come-well, I probably have plenty of pictures that I could show them.

Two Weeks and Counting

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Mickey and Lauren both showing the athleticism and team work needed to succeed.

Lauren and Mickey went to Dev’s today for another lesson.  It was the follow up to last week’s lesson and we will have one more next Thursday.  Dev’s parents Terry and Don were there.  Both top riders and competitors in their own right, they are a great support system for the Devereaux Sport Horse riders. 

Don was surprised at how Mickey looked.  Usually a true bay (a brown horse with black mane and tail-as you can see in the picture above), Mickey is growing his winter coat and looks almost black.  Both Don and Terry thought Mickey looked healthy and happy to be back jumping.

Two weeks from today, the Britannia Farm Fall “A” Show will get underway in Katy, Texas.  Mickey and Lauren are officially entered.  We will start off with a few lower height classes: .90 meters (2’11”)  and .95 meters (3’1″) and see how he does.  Lauren will move Mickey into the Eq Center on Wednesday and then show the subsequent days.  It is like an entire village of horses, trainers, riders and their support systems take over the center.    The plan will be to see how Mickey tolerates each round, each day and if he is physically able to keep competing as the fences go up, the courses get tougher and fatigue gathers. While well rested, he is clearly not in his optimum physical shape. 

If we do reasonably well, in that he is jumping well, pretty competitive in his times and not doing stupid things like refusing fences, then we will feel pretty good headed to Zone finals on November 10th. 

Inadvertantly, we may have done a good thing by giving Mickey a couple of months off.   Some horses get ring sour, wear out their legs by overuse and/or just do not want to jump.  The horse under Lauren today at Dev’s was rested, healthy, eager and excited about jumping.  He may just carry those attributes into the ring with him for finals.  And if he is ready for his come back and able to keep the cough at bay, Lauren and Mickey may be real contenders this year.

We are certainly in a better spot than we had anticipated and are thankful. It was terrific to hear the excitement in Lauren’s voice today as she told me about her lesson.  We will wait and see.

Impressive Results are In

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Via Email today-

HYPP results for Irish Midnight(HYP103031):

N/N – Normal – Does not possess the disease-causing HYPP gene

Yippee, yippee, yeah, yeah!!!  Amazing news-Mickey does not carry the positive gene for the HYPP disease.

He is still coughing and we are still working to fix him but this is one more thing that can be ruled OUT!

My heart was pounding as I opened the email.  Thanks be to God! We are going to get this horse back in the ring-I just know we are!!

The Mighty Quinn

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The Mighty Quinn, barn name Cupid, registered name Country Brother was a huge, 17 hand thoroughbred born in 1989. Cupid died last night with a badly fractured leg.  He was a huge horse with what horse people call heart. And that was huge as well.  He ran successfully for many years on the track.  For those of you who have watched Secretariat (and if you haven’t watched it do so!), Secretariat was sired by Bold Ruler.  Bold Ruler was Cupid’s great grandsire.  He gave Cupid his size and his heart.  Cupid was Breeder’s Cup Nominated-a top honor for thoroughbreds. 

Cupid retired to become a top jumper.   Dr. Lynn Criner owned Cupid and I bought him from her in 2005.  He was the biggest horse investment I had ever made.  At the time, we didn’t think that Mickey, being only 15 hands would be big enough to carry Lauren up through the ranks of big fences.  Dianne Gallatin, dear friend and Lauren’s trainer at the time, went with me to see Cupid the first day.  Dr. Criner had told us he was a big, handsome bay thoroughbred but nothing prepared us for our first look at the mighty Cupid!  He was simply the most spectacular horse I had ever seen, at least in person.

Young Lauren holding Cupid with her friend Rachel looking reverently on!

Little Rachel’s face says it all.  He was so big!  Dr. Criner had shown him successfully in jumpers throughout the country.  They were quite a pair.

Dr. Criner is a vet and a hunter/jumper rider and we knew Cupid would be a great horse for us.  The idea was for Chelsie, Dianne’s daughter to ride Cupid first and then Lauren to move up from Mickey.  Chelsie had some great rides on Cupid. And while we enjoyed owning him and riding him,  Lauren never wanted to leave Mickey. 

Kim on Cupid

We sold Cupid on to our friend Kim and she had several successful show seasons with him until motherhood forced her to find another home for him. 

He was then purchased by another  barn friend, Denise who provided a great home and life for him. As her sister said today, Cupid liked her daughter Meg, but he loved Denise. 

Denise on the far right with Cupid and all their friends.

Cupid charmed so many of us.  He was the first horse I wanted to show off whenever someone new came to the barn.  Standing next to him made you feel small.  But he was so sweet we could all hang out in his stall and never worry about him being difficult or mean.  He was a big in all the important ways. 

There were a lot of people with tears in their eyes last night when we all started hearing the news of his death.  I know it was a horrible day for Denise.  I count Cupid as the horse that changed me from a quarter horse/paint horse person to one who respected OTTBs and all they had to offer.  Cupid, we love you and know you will run in the green pastures of heaven forever. 

Dr. Criner and Cupid navigating a huge fence.

And as the song once said, “you’ll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn”!

Mickey-What we know now

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The morning sun shining on Mickey as we wait for the vet.

Mickey is improved!  His scope was markedly better than the previous one in July.  The swelling has been reduced in the airway.  The inflammation was also significantly better.  He did not seem to have any lower airway, lung or other respiratory issues (i.e a chronic pneumonia).  I believe the management of the allergens (removal of as many things as possible, change of feed, change of environment) has counted for some of the improvement.  The pythium is gone (adios-farewell) and with it, it’s symptoms have gone. 

Is Mickey still coughing?  The answer is still yes.  But we have another factor that may be playing a part.  Mickey’s pedigree includes the great but tragic Quarter Horse, Impressive.  Impressive was an Oklahoma bred (as was Mickey) World Champion Halter Horse.

World Champ Impressive-responsible for Mickey being sick?

Impressive was a much sought after stallion.  Everyone wanted to reproduce the traits that had made him successful.  Unfortunately, as more and more descendents came of age, so did a disease attributed to the great stallion.  A genetic mutation that has been implicated in the rare but burgeoning – and sometimes fatal – muscular disorder known as hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP). This particular defect is a dominant condition, meaning that at least half of the affected horses’ offspring will be affected as well. In the words of one prominent Quarter Horse trainer, this discovery was “one of the most devastating things that has ever hit the horse industry.”

I knew all about HYPP as a quarter horse owner, all my mares were tested to be sure they did not carry this disease.  I knew from Mickey’s pedigree that he was “Impressive-bred”.  Many people did.  We joked that Impressive’s less than stellar personality was a lot like Mickey’s.  But until I posted a recent picture of Mickey, after he has gained almost two hundred pounds and joked again about how he was channeling his inner “Impressive” did anyone think about Impressive-Mickey and HYPP.  No vet would have looked at Mickey (who traditionally has looked like a small thoroughbred not a bulky halter horse) and thought wow, he looks like Impressive. But Dr. Criner picked up the link.  So, Mickey is being tested.  He may carry one of the genes, both of the positive genes or none at all.  It is possible he has the heterozygous gene (the one gene).  In horses that carry only one gene, the HYPP may be dormant, sometimes not appearing until late in life.  But the stress of illness, can bring the gene to forefront.  It can cause paralysis and maybe causing the collapse we are seeing in his airway.  It may be what has caused his droopy lip all these years and the twitching we see from time to time.

We will wait for a confirmation.  We will start to build Mickey up on his work schedule.  Lauren and I wanted to show him Thursday (just over the low jumps-we were ready to go) but Dr. Hildreth said no.  If he is HYPP positive, we hope we can manage it with diet and medications. We are scheduling with Texas A&M Vet school, a dynamic endoscope that is done while Mickey is worked.  We should be able to do this in the next couple of weeks. We will be looking for a dorsal displacement of the soft palate.   If we find this, there is a surgery which is quite successful to fix it.  If nothing else, I see this little paint horse making quite a vet write-up one day.  A cough, with a history of a serious lung infection,  allergies,  a pythium diagnosis, to perhaps a HYPP diagnosis, to a potential surgery.  Don’t care about all that, I just want my Mickey back.

I am pretty sure Lauren had Mickey saddled up this afternoon.  We will see how he tolerates the work. In the meantime, we will make a run for finals.  We might just do it.

The Wait is On-Mickey Returns to the Vet

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Still praying for Mickey and Lauren returning to the ring. Still…

Tomorrow we pull out bright and early, to take Mickey for his return laryngoscope.  I don’t expect any real change, but would like to be surprised. Based upon his cough, I do not expect to be.  Dr. Criner also suggested the testing of another disease that could be causing these same problems so we won’t have all the answers tomorrow.

I sent about 25 strands of Mickey’s tail with the hair follicle overnight mail to the University of California.  They will be testing for a genetically inherited disease.  While not good news, if Mickey is positive for this, it will give us something to work with and perhaps get Mickey back in the show ring.  I will update tomorrow with results from the scope and later in the week as the genetic testing is concluded.

I took Mickey for a ride yesterday.  It was overcast and pretty dismal.  Lauren was at the boyfriend’s.  But it lifted my spirits to just be out on the back of this horse.  Feather and Mimi tried to follow along with us.  They got caught at the first fence and it took some work for them to figure out to go back to the barn and around to the pasture.  When they did, Feather came blasting out to find Mickey, full throttle.  I did not realize the mare had so much speed.  The poor little pony, Mimi,  was chugging faithfully along behind, not beginning to keep up but churning her short legs as fast as she could.  As Mickey and I disappeared from sight, the two girls ran back to the barn to see if he had magically appeared there.  When we came around the bend again, out to the back pasture they raced.  We played this fun game two or three times.  We would walk along the hay road and the girls would race to the barn and back.  Probably if we play the game again, I should put some splint boots on the girls to support their legs with the running.  Mickey just did some trotting and cantering but the girls got full cardio-vascular workouts.  I don’t understand why it takes Lauren so long to work the horses.  I managed to work all three of them, pretty hard in 45 minutes. 

I got Mick back to the barn, hosed down the girls, prepared their dinners and headed in a happier person.  Oh, what about Mr. Kid, you ask, well he just stood at the barn and watched the silly girls running up and down pasture.  He thought it was pretty dumb.

In mom news-I got her to let me call Jim yesterday.  They talked to each other for the first time since she left Denver at the end of August. Neither one could hear very well and were talking over each other but mom’s face lit up when Jim told her he loved her and missed her.  Hopefully, this will be a start of them talking to each other again.  It did my heart good to see her smile.

Coming Home-Feather and Ally

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With a certain amount of trepidation, Lauren and I took off with the trailer on Saturday for the 60 mile drive to retrieve Feather.  Neither of us said it, but I think we were both nervous that Sarah with her mystical powers could get Feather to do things that we, mere mortals could not. 

Feather looked good waiting for us in her stall.  Her white nose was sunburned because Sarah had managed to actually clip her muzzle and the sun had burned her freshly shaved skin.  I caught her and Lauren greeting each other. 

Saying hello again.

She seemed a little nervous but then she has had three homes in four years and probably didn’t know what to make of her current situation.                  Sarah demonstrated how she was approaching her to clip and fly spray her.  Then we headed to the trailer.  I know I was apprehensive.  What if we had come all this way and she wouldn’t go home with us?  Lauren and I didn’t discuss it but I could see the uneasiness pass across her face.Our trailer is shaped differently than Sarah’s with less room to load in the back.  It is also darker inside and less open.  Sarah walked Feather to the trailer and Feather backed off.  Sarah just picked up the whip and Feather immediately loaded behind her.  She had even taught her a neat trick that was reminiscent of dog training when you are teaching them to stay.  Sarah left Feather standing in the front slant, untied, leadrope over her neck, facing the horse as she backed away to close the slant compartment.  Sarah held Feather in a “stay” position even doing the “anhumpf” noise to keep her attention on staying.  Feather stayed and we closed the slant.  Sarah then unloaded her and it was Lauren’s turn.

Lauren told me later that she was afraid the mare would not load for her and we would all be embarrassed.  Sarah told her to just be quiet and confident.  Lauren took the leadrope in her hand and off they went.  First try into the trailer.  Lauren did the little stay trick, closed the slant, walked around, tied the trailer tie and it was time to go home.

With tears in my eyes, I thanked Sarah.  When we got home, Feather quietly backed out of the trailer.  Our other horses were in the back pasture and had not seen Feather yet.  We fly sprayed her (while she stood quietly) and let her go.  Head up and tail streaming beautifully out behind her she ran to see her old mates.  Many times during the afternoon, I would glance out to the pasture to see Mickey and she grooming each other (standing next to one another rubbing the other’s back) or her and Leo quietly grazing in the sun.

Lauren has loaded the mare successfully four times since Saturday.  Quietly, confidently, Lauren has become the leader of this horse. It seems stupid to be so overjoyed about this feat, but it is nice when patience and kindness are the answer to a problem. 

Later, Saturday Ally called to see if she, Jo and Kendyll could come spend the night.  It was Luke’s birthday weekend and he was off to see his friends.  We had a nice evening, watching a movie, me watching Kendyll, just visiting and relaxing.  We all went to bed early.  I know Kendyll was up a few times in the night but all in all she did very well for her first trip to Granny’s house.We made the decision that we would all go to Colorado in a couple of weeks to help with my mom’s move and celebrate the kid’s birthdays.  I think Amber was really pleased to hear we were all coming, especially Lauren (who usually gets stuck horse-sitting) and new baby Kendyll.

Sunday morning Ally had to get home to get their dogs out so she and Kendyll got going early.  Jordyn woke up Aunt Lauren asking her if she could stay to ride and if Lauren would drive her home later.  Amazingly Lauren agreed. Jordyn started out riding Mickey who was more than happy to just follow Feather around the arena.  Seems he had missed the pretty little mare, too.  Lauren jumped Feather over a couple of small jumps and Feather responded by jumping them in perfect form like they were four-foot high.

Afterwards, Lauren worked Leo while Jordyn got to walk out the hot and tired Feather.  Pretty impressive four-year old horse being trustworthy enough to let go with a little four-year old rider. I am happy that Feather is home and doing so remarkably well.  It is like a miracle to see the transformation in this horse. I am happy to  have Ally want to come home and spend the night with us with her dear children.  And baby Kendyll, what a beauty-what a treasure-what a joy!

P.S. Mickey goes from a laryngoscope tomorrow for the cough that has never gotten better and seems to be getting progressively worse.  If you are the kind to pray for animals-please do so!

Rich Fellers-Irish Sport Horse Flexible

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According to Wikipedia

The Irish Sport Horse (ISH) (US: Irish Draught Sports Horse), also known as the Irish Hunter, is mainly the result of a cross between the Irish Draught and the Thoroughbred. It has been given recognition as a separate breed. It is commonly bred from parents who are also Irish Sport Horses, in addition to being bred from the definitive parent breeds.

The Irish Sport Horse is traditionally used for all purposes, from transportation to riding, and working the land. However, it is becoming increasingly popular as a competition riding horse. Its natural athletic ability and exceptional jumping talents means that it excels in the show jumping arena, as well as competing at the highest levels of eventing. The horse is globally renowned for being one of the best fox hunting mounts, and the Irish Sport Horse studbook regularly tops the rankings for eventing[1].

I want you all to know this because in just six days the Olympic games will come to us from London.  The top seeded horse in jumping is an Irish Sport Horse, named Flexible, ridden by Rich Fellers.  Fellers said he saw this horse in Ireland as a six-year old with an amazing amount of jump and knew he would be something special.  Fellers and Flexible are not the usual US champs.  I did not know their names at this time last year.  But they have earned their spot on the US Team through hard work and winning, arguably,  the top jumping contest in the world outside the Olympics, the FEI Rolex World Cup.  Here is a link to that amazing ride- 

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usefnetwork.com%2Ffeatured%2Fcoverage.aspx%3Furlkey%3D2012Jumping%26channel%3DRlcGJiMzq8raMIAfyWxtEQDqfRynZTwg%26video%3DprNTZsNDq41mCZIPKnWl5MsyTIfN8zVe&h=zAQEIBCMdAQFD1vQvJsmtH96Sb_4vTxklExYsM35NUhnfEA

Go to the bottom right and look for Rich Fellers-Rolex.  It is breathtaking.  If you have never watched this before, the fastest horse wins.  But you have to be careful and quick and there are times in this video when Flexible just barely skates over the fences.  The whole medal ceremony is pretty amazing too-makes you proud to be an American especially since it has been 25 long years since the US has won the World Cup! 

Add to this little Cinderella story, that Flexible will be one of the oldest horses (16 years old) and one of the smallest (just 16 hands) to compete at this year’s Olympics and it just adds to tale of the Irish Sport Horse.  Fellers, when interviewed, said they did not do a lot special things for this horse, fed him Purnia Omelene 200, did a lot of flat work and jumped some as it got close to competition time. 

Fellers is facing his first Olympics at age 52.  Certainly, a daunting and dangerous sport, to jump obstacles over five feet high with incredible speed, certainly more a young person’s sport than someone who is 52.  Our other US riders, two women and one man, are going to be right there with Fellers running for the Gold Medals.  I wish well to all of them.  But I got to tell you my heart is with this little Irish Sport Horse and this handsome man as they head to the Olympic show ring.  I will keep you posted.

Horseshoes

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 In the midst of the hottest day of the year so far, for south Texas, our farrier (horse shoer) came to put on Feather’s first shoes.  I cannot imagine being a farrier.  My back would give out five minutes into the first client and I would be retired.

Roland has been my farrier since I moved to this little town.  My old farrier refused to make the 100-mile round trip drive to my new home so we went begging for Roland to add us to his client list.  Roland had done some of my horses over the years in Sugar Land and always done a good job.  He had some other clients in the area so he took on my group of horses.  He has been such a regular fixture in our lives that Jordyn calls him, “Uncle Roland”.  She has a book about horses and always points out the picture of Uncle Roland where they show the horses getting their new shoes.  Roland is a good man and good farrier.

Horses need their feet trimmed about every six weeks, depending on how fast they grow and other environmental factors like heat, wet or drought. When Roland got there last night, Mickey and Leo had a full set of shoes on-meaning one on all four feet.  Sometimes, if horses have good feet they go barefoot or just wear front shoes.  Kid and Feather were barefoot but it was time for Feather to get her first pair of shoes.  Kid has already had his last.

I knew Lauren wouldn’t be much help holding the horses with her sore fingers.  I did not know how well Feather would take to the idea of nailing a metal shoe to her foot (and no, it doesn’t hurt, but it does make noise and is a little scary).

We spent four hours in the heat last night.  Roland working slowly, taking his time, doing a good job.  We did Mickey first.  He just takes this as a routine thing.  Feather was next.  With the giant fan going, the anvil, the tools and heat, she was a little skeptical. But she got through the first hoof after Lauren went and got the box of treats.  Lauren continued to feed her treats as I held her leadrope until the treats ran out somewhere before the last shoe.  Probably not great to have fed her so many treats, but after being a little squeamish on the first hoof, she was fine thereafter and stood like a champ to receive her new shoes.

At almost 9:00 pm, Roland pulled out of the drive. He said he had been at his first client at dawn. Talk about hard work, this is it. We had shared stories of days on the ranch, hand injuries to riders, talk of our friends from various other barns and updates on who had a new horse and how it was going.  It was a long night, a hot night, and a rite of passage for Feather.  Now, that she has her big-girl shoes on, I hope she gets in the trailer and goes to the dance.  She is scheduled to go to trainer-Dev’s on Thursday. 

P.S.  Harry Potter, the evil cat, is alive and well and not rotting under my house in theTexas heat. Damn-it!

Feather-Loading and Other Disasters

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I decided to follow-up first thing Sunday morning with the Feather loading into the trailer issue.  Thought I would read this great article in Practical Horseman, go apply the knowledge to my horse and all would be great.

I can confirm that Feather did not read the article and it did not go well. It is the hot of murderous crime sprees, it is the hot of people dying, it is the hot of deepTexas summers.  It was over 100 degrees yesterday without a cloud in sight.  That did nothing to help our trailer issues.

Honestly, I think she loaded twice yesterday but I may be delusional from the heat or the 500 attempts we made.   In the early morning, I took Kid over.  I tied him on the trailer.  I thought his presence would give Feather confidence.  She didn’t care.  I put poor Kid in the trailer so she would have company when she loaded.  I think she loaded one time then.  I backed her out.  She did not go back in. The article said to load her and take her out and let her re-load immediately.  Feather didn’t want to do the re-load immediately part. 

Ally came down with Jordyn.  We saddled up Kid (he was getting picked for everything on this hot Sunday).  Jordyn showed her mother and skeptical Aunt Lauren that she could, in fact, mount the horse herself.  I made Ally take the picture with Jo with baby Kendyll hanging in between. I am sure she will appreciate this picture in a year when she is back to old self. 

Jordyn was hanging in the tackroom. Ally had gone in to get out of the heat.  Lauren and I thought we would quickly load Feather, get Jo and get inside.  I explained the article (walk them up, back them off , walk them up, load them up) and Lauren took Feather toward the trailer.  I was behind Feather urging her forward.  Feather got to the door of the trailer and suddenly and with great power backed off.  Number one rule I learned as a child watching a wrangler work with a young horse was NEVER wrap the leadrope around your fingers or wrist.  I watched his wrist snap in a horrible break.  Lauren knows that but got caught off guard.  Feather backed off, the rope tightened, her hand got slammed into the metal and the most God-awful peal of agony came from deep in her throat.  The neighbor’s heads came up.  They may have even, for a short period of time, thought of actually stepping on my property to see if they could make the sound stop.  Ally heard it in the house.  It was not pretty.  I immediately knew what she had done, I just didn’t know how bad it was.

The article clearly says wear gloves.  Lauren didn’t have gloves on either, compounding the injury.  After she quit wailing and was merely doing that jagged crying thing, I looked at the damage.  Three fingers were immediately bruised and swollen.  The ring finger had a funny look to it (you can tell I spent years in the medical profession).  I tried to take Feather quietly up to the trailer and I held her while she stood.  Then I released Kid and her to pasture to work with later.

In the cool of the house, we debated emergency room strategy.  While our local clinic has good doctors, is owned by Memorial Hermann and where I used to work, the reputation of the local hospital is not stellar.  When I broke my pelvis they told me to go home and take Advil.  That didn’t work out well.  We decided to wrap it and wait until the clinic would be open today.

Before dinner when we thought hunger might be a motivating factor, we decided to try Feather again.  I had wrapped Lauren’s fingers and placed them in an oven mitt.  It was a green holiday one.  Figured it was like wearing gloves.  All I am going to say about this segment of the Feather trailer loading was it didn’t work.  It was well over 100 degrees.  Lauren was hurt.  I was tired and achy.  Feather was determined not to go in the trailer.  I need a horse that will load easily and if I traumatize her now, it will never be forgotten.  I swear this is Leo’s fault from riding with her to Caroline’s and acting nuts.

This morning while I was at work, Lauren got to the clinic, got X-Rayed and had dislocated fingers.  Wow, I bet that is why they hurt so much.  I felt really guilty for not taking her to the hospital.  The doctor just slammed them back in place and sent her home.

As a special greeting, our most hated cat Harry Potter (a Tom who terrorizes all living things and we cannot touch) was chasing a snake across the back yard.  Lauren quickly assessed her snake facts, “red and yellow kill a fellow”, and went for her shot gun.  She blew the snake in half using one hand.  Apparently, Harry Potter had been bit by snake as he was lying on the front porch with a hugely swollen leg.  I suggested to Lauren that she shoot him as well but her hand, her conscience and spirit couldn’t take anymore.

I think it is highly likely Harry Potter is now under my house rotting in the Texas heat.