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The H-Bar Animals
Nugget is the skinniest member of the Little H-bar menagerie.
We got him from the Marin Humane Society in January 2004, at the
age of five months. He is part border collie and part blue heeler.
Unfortunately, this means
that he tries to bite the horses' tails, which they don't like
at all. He is very sweet and very full of energy. |
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Nugget |
| Mr. Ed is a registered paint, who is Hannah's son. I
found him on the internet by sending e-mail to the American
Paint Horse Association Registry His father is a champion working
cow horse named Tommy's Doc Bar. Mr. Ed is twenty-one years old
and is my riding horse. He is not really paint-colored, as he
only has a small patch of white near his right front leg. This
makes him a "Breeding Stock Paint". But he is not doing any
breeding either, as he is a gelding! He loves cows, however,
and knows much more about them than I do! |
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Mr. Ed |
Blazar is a Morgan-Quarter horse cross. He is now 14 years old. We found him through an ad in the
Press Democrat that said he was "young, strong, willing
and handsome!" The ad didn't lie - he is turning into a
great trail horse, even though he is a very wide-bodied ride.
Blazar is the boss of our horse herd, and although he is not very nice
to the other horses, he is very affectionate with people. I call him my
"sweetheart" as he has a black heart shaped spot on the tip of his nose.
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Blazar |
| Jackson is our newest horse. He is an Appendix quarter horse and is
ten years old. After doing an Internet search for the perfect new
horse, we found him less than 2 miles away at the Bonelli's. He seems
very calm and is much better trained than our other horses, as his
former owner KC used him to carry the flag in the color guard, and he
has also done team penning and western pleasure competitions. We will
only be riding him on the trails so I hope he is not too disappointed! |
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Jackson
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| This is our most beautiful cat, Tracy. Tracy was rescued
by our friend Lauren Novatne, who was teaching in the city of
Tracy at the time (although she and the cat were both living
in Stockton.) He is a neutered 11 year old, purebred Siamese
cat, with blue eyes. He is very affectionate and has adjusted
well to ranch life. He is often seen hunting in the fields next
door by the vineyard. |
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Tracy |
| This is Smoky, who has been eating in our garage since 2001. He was abandoned by the former neighbors, when they moved away. After two years as a feral cat, he showed up to eat one day by the fence, where I was putting food for Dragon, while walking Clancy. Smoky developed hyperthyroid and colon motility problems in 2009, so he is on a lot of medicine these days. However we can usually get him to eat all his meds in his food. |
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Smoky |
| Sherbert Carlson is really our neighbors' cat. The Carlsons call him "Big Kitty" but we named him Sherbert because he is orange. We know it should really be Sherbet, but Sherbert suits him better. He sometimes tries to eat in our garage and often sleeps in the barn on the hay. |
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Sherbert |
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Oreo was named for the cookie, as she was black on both ends and white in the middle. Lena (my massage therapist) found her starving, after being hit by a car in January 2006. We fixed her broken jaw, got her spayed and she became the sweetest kitty in the world. She spent most of her four years sitting on my lap, never biting or scratching and loving to have her tummy rubbed. In March 2010, she suddenly fell severely ill, and was diagnosed with multi-centric lymphoma. She lived for only three more weeks, dying on March 26 and breaking my heart.
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Oreo |
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Patches was abandoned by the former neighbors along with Smoky, but it took her an extra year to get up the nerve to come over to eat. She started living at the Little H-bar in 2002, and was fed in the garage with Smoky. She spent most of the day hanging out by Garrett's tool bench or sitting in her heated kitty bowl. Patches had a tumor over her eye which was removed in December 2009. All seemed to go well but then she suddenly died on February 4, 2010. |
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Patches |
| Gizzy was the last survivor of the four original barn cats who came with
the ranch. In the beginning, she was rather shy and used to eat on top
of the tack room. She then developed a recurring thyroid condition which
made her meow alot. We tried surgery in 2003, but the tumor came back so
in 2007 we used radioactive Iodine-131 which worked well for a while. In
2008, she had to move into the house as her kidneys began failing and
she was rather arthritic. She finally died in January 2009, at
approximately 18 years of age. She was a very sweet kitty.
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Gizzy |
This is Beau, who died suddenly on May 24, 2008 at the age of sixteen.
He was my husband Garrett's main riding horse, and they logged over 8400
trail miles together. Beau was happy and healthy until the moment of his
death, and was seen grazing happily only 10 minutes earlier. We had gone
camping with him at Samuel P. Taylor Park two weeks previously, and he
was as strong and as smooth as always. Beau lived with us from the time
he was 3.5 years old, and was bred by our good friend Joanie Bondoc,
from Novato's Canyon Oaks Farm. He was our very big and sweet boy and is
greatly missed.
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Beau |
This is Hannah, who was my very first horse. She died peacefully on
Christmas eve 2007, at the age of 32.5 years. She had seen quite a
few trails in her time and was the best first horse any green rider
could have ever had. After logging over 5000 trail miles with me, and training Beau and Ziggy to be good trail horses, Hannah was
retired at the age of 24. She lived out her life comfortably at the
Little H-bar Ranch, giving occasional rides to visiting children. Mr.
Ed is one of her many offspring, and shares her sweet and forgiving
disposition.
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Hannah |
| This is Binky, who was the queen of the Little H-Bar Ranch. Binky was supposed to be a barn cat,
but she had other ideas. Binky bossed everyone around, including Nugget and the horses. Here, she's just enjoying
the afternoon lounging around on our back deck in the shade. She was rescued by a friend of J. Robert Dobbson's.
Binky was a real party animal and loved to follow everyone around. Once, she even went horse-camping with us, as a
stowaway in our trailer! Binky died in September 2005, of chronic renal failure. She was only
about eight years old, and lived at the ranch for most of her life. |
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Binky
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This is my husband Garrett's first horse, Ziggy. Ziggy
died at the age of 13, on September 18, 2003 after he broke
his leg in a pasture accident. Please visit his
memorial site.
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In loving memory of Ziggy |
Clancy was a border collie mix who lived at the Little
H-bar Ranch until 12/3/2003. She died at age 12 of a recurrence
of canine osteosarcoma after 13 months as a three-legged dog.
She was a great ranch dog!
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Clancy |
Amby lived at the Little H-bar ranch from July 2002 to
January 2004. She was very sick when she first showed up in
the barn during NASA Educator Ambassador week (after which she
was named.) She had a happy life living in the barn until she
died of terminal kidney disease at a very old age.
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Amby |
Dragon died in September, 2004. He was one of the original
barn cats that came with the ranch in 1997. He was blind in
one eye, and lived over the tack room. As he got older, I
could pet him when I fed him, but I could never catch him
to take him to the vet. |
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Dragon
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