Happy with his shade structure

His owner could not have finished that shade structure at a more opportune time.  He spends practically all day under it and that makes me happy.

What does not make me happy is that he has no water in his barrel...yet wont drink the water I have for him in the "stealth set-up" :-(  

I change it out for him every other day but the only one that benefits is the purple sage bush who gets the discarded liquid gold.

These past couple of days Walter has not been himself.  He seems sad and not very active.  Yesterday when I went to check up on him, he was laying down taking a nap and that always scares me to death because horses sleep standing up!

Claire is gone

This evening when I went to feed and water her, found she was no longer there.  Her dirty ice chest, the two five gallon buckets and the cardboard box where I fed her her pellets were gone as well.

Drove further down the Vega and saw a couple sitting in a stream and they kind of resembled the couple I saw watering her the other day...but where was their car?  Did they take her to a more dense area to graze?

Decided to drive by her owner's house but there was no Claire.  Even made two turns around her house but she was no where in sight.

It was already late and I was in dad's old car that has one headlight out...so did not want to chance getting stopped and being issued a ticket...will look for her tomorrow.

Claire

If you read my main blog, you probably already know about Claire...a poor mare that has been in a patch of land since April 18, 2013.  She has been left grazing here since then and now there is hardly anymore to graze on.  She is thin, dirty and hungry.  She has an old ice chest that half of the time is empty or if it is full...it is filthy!

One of my blog readers...Dave,  from Living Out Here fame http://livingouthere.blogspot.com/2013/04/update-horse-walks-into-bar.html   suggested I contact Wings and Reins a horse rescue organization http://wingsandreins.com/

The lady that heads the organization was very helpful and gave me some good advice.  She also told me  what I already knew...not to expect much from the Sheriff's Department specially in a county without an animal abuse agent or county shelter for this poor mare to be taken to.

Have made two calls to the Sheriff's Department and to date...as has previously been the case with Walter...nothing has been done.  I will NOT be calling them anymore!  Have learned that if you want something done, it is best to do it yourself or at least, that is the case in Val Verde County, Texas.

These pictures are from earlier this evening when I went to feed and water her.

Why the big rock?  We were expecting severe storms
tonight and the winds were fierce.  I did not want her
box with pellets to blow away.

Hardly no water in her ice chest and what was there is filthy!

This 5 gallon bucket is used to get water out of the creek.  I used it
to give her some clean water...this is before I filled it up.

View from a heavily transited road...in particular by Border Patrol agents 24/7 as this is the only way in or out of Vega Verde, a sub-division along the Rio Grande known for its drug and illegal alien activity.  It is also patrolled by the Sheriff's Department...yet no one seems to notice Claire.

In all fairness unless you took the time to get off your vehicle, look at her ice chest or happened to notice her physical deterioration over the past month...I suppose you could assume she is alright.  Yet,  if I could notice it and I do not drive by here every day...how could others miss it?

Handsome in his saddle

Went to check up on Walter around eleven or so and was surprised someone had given him hay.  The water level on his barrel was way down but I did not worry since he still had a full bucket on his "stealth set-up".

I was looking out the kitchen window when I saw his owner backing in his truck next to the corral.  Watched for a while and then decided I would go sit outside.  That is when I noticed that his owner was directing whoever was driving so they could hitch up to Walter's trailer.

Was surprise to say the least when it became apparent that the one driving was the kid...had no idea he could drive but I seriously doubt he is sixteen or for that matter has a driving permit.  But what the heck...I really do not care as long as he doesn't run into me!

Walter was going nuts...running from one side of his corral to the other...I had observed that he does this anytime they hook up his trailer.  Apparently he did not want to go wherever they were taking him.  I was glad I decided to sit outside because both the father and the kid saw me.

They think we don't pay attention to what is going on...BUT WE DO...like when they were building Walter's shade structure and they both came into our property and were rifling through some stuff we have on that lot to complete his structure.  It would have been nice if they had asked first and not trespassed on private property or taken stuff that was not theirs...even though it was to benefit Walter.

Saw them taking out a bunch of junk from his horse trailer.  I firmly believe they would have probably dumped some of that in our lot had I not been outside watching them.  In the past I have picked up old horse shoes and junk that only they could have tossed over.

I thought it odd that after they dumped all this junk they did not put Walter in the trailer but rather his owner walked him up to the house and the kid drove the truck to their driveway.  It was around 4:30 p.m.

Mother and I decided to drive to the Duck Pond around 8:10 p.m. to feed and water Claire (the poor mare) when we saw Walter's trailer heading back home and he saw us too!  He had a saddle on him and I would have loved  to have been able to take his picture!  So that was the reason why he walked him up to the house where obviously they keep his saddle.  I was glad for Walter as he is mostly a prisoner in that poop laden corral.

After I got back from feeding Claire I went to visit him and saw that he was fed and watered well this evening.  Good thing because I fed his dinner to that poor mare :-(

Late night feedings

Last night when I went to feed him, it became apparent that his owners now do "late evening feedings" by that I mean after 9:00 p.m.  Was glad to see he had a full barrel of water as well as a ration of hay.

Just like the night before he came running at the sight of his pink container and chowed down on them and then went back to eating the food in his corral.

I am on weekend mode and by that my regular readers know it means that I let his owners feed and water him and I only make an appearance if the occasion merits it.

His owners were gone all day so I went to feed him around 9:00 p.m. not knowing what time they would be back or if they would even bother.  Just as he was done, their truck entered their driveway.  I stuck around giving them time to enter their house but I think there is the possibility that I was seen fleeing with the pink container!

Came back later but apparently they either figured I fed him or they just decided he could wait until tomorrow.

A Soggy Corral

Yesterday I used the cheap "medium duty" garden hose that I had hanging on a tree limb and put it to better use by connecting it to the other two hoses I have in order to reach Walter's new stealth watering hole.  Just in one day it already had roaches, bees and other insects floating in it.  I dumped the water on the sage bush and cleaned it out.  Imagine how gross his water barrel is and yet no one cleans it.

Last night we had wind, lighting, thunder and the always welcomed rain.  At the height of the storm I grabbed my binoculars and to my chagrin...Walter was not under his new shade structure...but in the middle of his corral getting wet!  Mother said, "perhaps he felt he needed a bath"....(me rolling my eyes)

As I mentioned on my main blog I had a heck of a headache, took some medication and did not wake up till 4:00 p.m. a little later I went to check-up on him and this is what I found...no water, no food, a soggy mess!
 

The only positive was he still had water in his stealth bucket.

How unusual...he was fed breakfast and dinner!

I usually put out the trash by 7:00 a.m. but today I did not get that chore done until 8:00 a.m.  Went to check up on him and was glad he was eating the last of his hay...which means they actually fed him this morning.

Checked his new stealth bucket and he had drank half of it which pleased me.  Unfortunately I was occupied most of the day with car issues.  When I got back from my second trip to the auto parts store I went to see him.  By now it was 9:00 p.m. and he had not been fed...no surprise as he was fed this morning.

Once more I got tied up and by the time I walked back with his pellets at 9:50 p.m. someone had fed him and he was chowing down.  However, make no mistake little Walter is no fool...seeing I had food, he stopped eating and came running to eat out of his pink container...jajajaja :D

My Stealth Set-up

How can I get Walter to drink water without me having to lug one gallon jugs to the fence line only to have him turn me down?  The heat has already set in...sometimes my back feels good sometimes it does not.  I really do not want his owners to see I am watering him or they will become lazier and even more irresponsible than they already are.

They either fed him late this morning or he was not hungry as when I went to check up on him he still had a little hay left but as usual hardly any water in his barrel...even then he would not drink any of the cool fresh water I brought him.

Here he is ignoring me!

I decided to set up the only big bucket I have on top of my plastic chair and put it in a location where you can not see it from the street or where it would be in the way when I feed him.  I know having a red bucket is not exactly being stealth but unless they go into the corral and then come to the fence it is not visible and if it is...maybe it will shame them into filling up his barrel...though I sincerely doubt it.

That house in the background is an abandoned house
so no one can see it from there.

A clean bucket with plenty of water

Here you are looking at it from another part of the property that I do not usually walk by as there are a lot of cactus, ants, mesquite trees and thorny bushes but today I got tired of carrying one gallon jugs and got the garden hose as close as I could get it to his corral.

This is the view from the little path I take to go to his corral and that is also visible from the street...see you can hardly see my new set-up :-)

You can't see the red bucket from this angle
thanks to the purple sage bush.

Here you see Mr. Walter caving in and finally taking a drink!

Walter can be stubborn!

I went to see him at 9:00 a.m. if he had been fed this morning...he had eaten all evidence of it.  Bears mentioning that they did not feed him last night either.  Fed him and hard as I tried...he once again refuses to drink water...he just wants more food!

It got to 98 with a heat index of 100 and I really wanted him to be hydrated but little Walter can be stubborn at times :-(

This afternoon I kept a close eye on his corral but the kid was nowhere to be seen and he did not get fed tonight either.  I did not get a chance to go feed him until 10:10 p.m.  While I was walking to his corral I saw two cars with the lights on parked in the church parking lot and thought it was odd.  Turns out they were Sheriff Constable's.  They saw me carrying his pink container but I do not think they saw me feeding him because that area is too dark and one of the horse trailers blocks me.

When Walter finished I went to bring back two gallons of water and they were still there.  Not that it matters just threw that in for the record and for accuracy.

Eating his own feces!

Yesterday everything was going peachy, new shade structure, a full water barrel, hay and pellets.  Today NO FOOD!

My regular readers know that come the weekend I step aside and let his owners take care of him...though it really pains me because I know how worthless they are.  Today they once again proved it.  Even though I do not go to his corral...I do keep an eye out for him with my binoculars.  No one fed him and I already knew what he was up to :-(

 I am sorry for the gruesome photos but I am still hopeful that one day they will serve as evidence against his heartless owners.

 

I could not standby and let him continue to eat his own feces so I went and got the last of his pellets.  I was mad...I did not even care if his owner's saw me....grrrrrrrrrrrr!

I have had a blinding headache for the past three days and have not been able to go buy him another 50 lb bag of horse pellets...that is also the reason why I have not gone to see that poor mare I featured on my main blog...I did not have any food to offer her :-(

He just gobbled up his pellets!

Turns out his poor excuse for owners were not even home.  Last time I checked on him was 9:35 p.m. and they had not arrived yet.  Do they really believe that now that he has a half-ass shade structure...that keeps him from being hungry and thirsty?  Come on Val Verde County Sheriff's Department...do something!!!

He has shade!

This afternoon I saw someone walking on our fence and realized it was the kid.  Grabbed my binoculars and could see that the father was finally taking down that plastic crap that needed to have gone bye-bye a long time ago.

I zoomed in as much as my cheapo camera would allow.

He had his pick-up truck by the corral and had Walter's trailer hitched to it and that is where he had some old metal tin?  Heck I have no idea what it is called.  I had offered him some before and was going to go offer it to him again but my mother convinced me it was best to mind my own business...as always she was right.

The father was the one working...the kid pretty much just watched him.  Late this afternoon I went to have a look and was going to pull my camera when I saw the father who was wearing green and pretty much blended with the landscape next to the corral...so no pictures tonight of the new shade structure.

Finally a full water barrel!

The weather report warned that today was going to be a scorcher of a day.  Went to check up on him early this morning but once again his owner's pick up was in the driveway.  Not that I care but doesn't he ever go to work?

Returned later even though the truck was still there...was glad to see he had been fed.

Even more surprising than that was that he actually filled his water barrel to the brim...so much so that water spilt out on the ground.

 Guess he thought the morning feeding was enough to tie him over as he did not feed him tonight...it is OK...that is why I am here.

Where did he go today?

Went to put out the trash at 7:00 a.m. looked toward his owner's driveway and saw he was home this time in a white truck!  Thought he left yesterday?  After the rains last night wanted to check up on him but apparently he had not been fed yet.  With his owner there went back home.

Around 10:15 a.m. went to see if his owner was gone and since his truck was no longer there made my way to the corral.  I could not see him but I figured he was probably taking a nap even though with Pacquio's loud barking who could sleep?

No Walter or horse trailer

Was hoping this sharp plastic thing had blown last night!

Nope...he was not there and his horse trailer was gone.  Have no idea where his owner took him.  However Pacquiao was going nuts...then I noticed there was a rooster beside him crowing...had never seen him before kind of reminded me of Carl of TFL.  I guess his owner tied him up to the Taco Trailer and if you recall from the party they had...he went nuts because they had locked him up in Walter's trailer...jajajajaja :D

Tried to zoom in as much as I could

Kept an eye out for him as I was busy and it was hot...got to 97 degrees this afternoon.  He must have gotten home after 5:00 p.m. wonder where he was for eight hours?  Made my way to the corral where I spotted him leaning his head way down in his water barrel....when will these people learn to turn on a darn water hose?  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Kept on hearing a dog barking but not as loud as Pacquiao and then saw it was Baby Pacquiao in his crate.  Could this have been why his dad was barking this morning to keep the rooster away from his offspring?

Baby Pacquiao is in the crate by the mesquite tree

Cloudy Day

It has been cloudy all day so I could not see whether or not his water barrel was full.  Offered him some water but of course he did not want any.  It looked like he had been fed late as it was around 11:30 a.m. and he still had hay.  That means his owner fed him before heading out of town.

The wind blew pretty good most of the day out of the SW with gusts to 34 mph and that helped keep the pesky horse flies at bay.

I had a feeling the kid was not going to feed Walter tonight and I was not wrong.  Just as I finished around 9:20 p.m. or so the lighting began followed by much needed rain.  Again we need the rain but I felt sorry for him as he has no shelter.

I have to remind myself that the donkeys and the longhorn herd in Terlingua do not have shade either.  Then again they are free to roam and are not locked up in a filthy corral.

Monday Night Update

While the rains we got were very much needed...on the down side I felt sorry for Walter because he has no shelter whatsoever from the elements.  Getting wet and the temperatures going down to the low 60's can not be good for him.  Remember he still has a runny nose and has had for months.

The father was here all weekend and as of this writing is still here.  I kept my word and did not go see him even though I really wanted to.

This afternoon when I went to open the gate he called out to me but I could see his owners truck on the driveway.  As I drove by his house he was looking at me :-(

I just went to check up on him with my little flashlight and he just got fed as his owners had company this afternoon.  Hopefully they filled up his water barrel.

Since when does the kid take pictures of Walter?

Late yesterday afternoon I was on the south part of the property (where his corral is) watering the trees when I noticed that Walter started going crazy and running from one side of the corral to the other...WTH?

Before long I saw he was all worked up because the kid was bringing him his pellets and then he threw a brick of hay and placed it where he should...not where that sharp plastic thing is still hanging down because father and son are too lazy to remove it....grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Then he did something out of the blue...he took out his cell phone (or what appeared like a cell phone from where I was standing) and started taking pictures of Walter!  Lol...what the hell for?  To put on his Facebook page and brag about how well he takes care of his horse?  (Me rolling my eyes)

Too bad I know nothing about Facebook or for that matter what his last name is.  I would certainly be interested in knowing what tales he weaves to his unsuspecting friends.

Temper Tantrum

Yesterday and today Walter has thrown a temper tantrum.  As I have mentioned before...I always offer him water before I feed him because 8 out of 10 times he prefers food over water...even if his barrel happens to be empty as has been the case on both days.

I pleaded with him to please drink more water as it was hot and he has no shade.  I guess he was frustrated and just wanted to be fed and for me to take the green tub away from his face.  Guess what he did?  He put his lower face in the tub swirled it around and then tried to splash me!  Actually he didn't try...he did splash me!

No water

No pellets

Today he tried to pull the same number on me but he got a good scolding!  Came back 3 hours later and he saw the error in his ways as that kid had not bothered to feed or water him.  He drank 5 gallons without a whimper.

Noticed he had downed his barrel so the kid could see it was empty.

His pellet ice chest was empty as well and it was already 8:12 p.m.

The mother and kids came home around 8:30 p.m. and he was finally fed.  His barrel also seemed to have been filled but being night I did not have the benefit of the sun to know for sure.

Pacquio...the proud Papa!

After being fed twice yesterday...I pretty much knew Walter was not going to be fed this morning.  I went to check up on him since no one was home.  On my way to the corral noticed one of the stray cats was keeping a close eye on me.  I named him Waldo because he is all over the place.

I was having my morning conversation with Walter when out of the blue Pacquio leaped up on the fence and scared me half to death!  I had not seen he was inside the corral.  Lucky for me he no longer wants to attack me since the day Walter shared the water I brought for him with him.  Just then I heard a whimper and when I leaned to look into the corral this is what I saw...

Baby Pacquio

He or she is the spitting image of him and he takes good care of his offspring except for the small fact that he is already teaching him to eat Walter's poop :-(

This family needs another dog...like I need a hole in my head!

This would have been a good picture of the three of them
but it was out of focus :(

Would you believe the darn kid did not feed him tonight either?  I was watering the yard and keeping an eye on the corral.  I fed him at 9:00 p.m. and he was famished!

Twice in one day!

Did not see his owners feeding him this morning but did not go outside to make sure either.  At around 11:15 a.m. I saw someone in the corral and later went to check.  Was glad to see they had given him some of the "prop hay"...I could also see that his barrel had water.

Late this afternoon I went to pay him a visit and I think the father and kid saw me...I did not care as I did not have food or water with me.  About thirty minutes later I saw Walter eating...I will be darn...they actually fed him twice in one day!

No Change

Have not written a new post since everything is pretty much the same.  Wednesday morning (May 1st) I went to open the gate at 7:00 a.m.  I do not know if they ever made it home last night or not...if they did they were gone to work and school.

I did find that someone had filled his water barrel and fed him both his pellets and hay.  Remember I had given the kid credit for placing his hay away from that sharp plastic thing hanging on his corral?  Well I spoke too soon because it appears he was fed by someone else.  I am thinking the cousin or a friend of the family. I say this because this morning his brick of hay was safely away from that plastic and this afternoon when the kid fed him he just threw the brick of hay where he usually does.

Thursday the winds were bad and that plastic thing kept on rattling.  There is a grove of mesquite trees that I have to pass through to get to his corral and I did not want to chance it and get hit on the head.  I made my way around another part of the lot and found him laying down taking cover from the wind and using the cinder block fence as a wind break.

Friday I went to open the gate and when I looked toward his owners house I saw the figure of two men talking on the driveway so I could not go check up on him.  Just before we left for Mexico I went to take him some water but he declined.  We got back late and I did not get to see him till almost 10:00 p.m.  Fed him and had to plead with him to drink water...he only had half a gallon...at least that told me he had water in his barrel.

Since this is the weekend I try to stay away but I do look out the kitchen window to see what he is up to.  I never saw him being fed so when I went to close the gate this evening I walked over there and noticed that his owners were not home.  They must of left early because their porch light was not turned on.  Fed him his pellets which he gobbled up so I gave him an extra portion to tie him over until tomorrow and again offered him water but he did not want any :(