My delicate state

There seems to be a setback in Tex's training. Just as I had been on his back around three times, I found out that I'm going to have a baby! My husband knows my stubborn will, and his only request was that I not attempt to ride my young horse in my delicate condition. So, I have obliged (but only since he asked nicely). But as soon as the baby is born (it's due June 22 2010) and I heal for my 6 weeks (which I'm hoping to condense into four weeks), I'm planning to hop back up there, sitting tall in the saddle, continuing to be myself and achieve my goals, helping my little cutting horse become the best ranch versatility horse in the world. Hopefully someone will hold the baby, at least for the first 10 rides......

To flex or not to flex......

During the beginning stages of ground work with my "cutest little gelding in the whole world," I have been puzzled as to whether or not teach him to flex. Flexing is the action of the horse bringing his head around to touch his side without moving his feet- much like us turning our heads without moving our bodies. I've heard and seen two schools of thought. Many trainers teach that flexing is absolutely necessary, but I have not heard them explain a good application for the future. Other trainers disagree, not wanting the horse to ever move his head without the feet following in motion. My choice was the latter, to NOT teach Tex to flex (ha, that rhymes). I taught Tex that when I pull his rein to the side, his feet always move at the same time.

However, when I mounted the little guy for the first time last week and attempted to turn him, he braced against the bosal (a piece of equipment that goes around the horse's nose with reins attached, the predecessor to the bit). It was quite difficult to turn him from the saddle! Husband said that once you mount your horse, everything starts over again with his training. But the difficulty with turning made me think twice about my flexing training decision. I do want to be able to turn him with very little effort, and I want his nose to turn and then his body to follow. Additionally, husband informed me that a well-trained cutting horse (which is one of the things I hope to make Tex) needs to be able to walk forward or backward WHILE flexing its neck to watch the cow.

For further research, I found a video videos on YouTube to see the effect of flexing on a young cutting horse. Check it out, and notice how the trainer is continually turning the horse's head sideways WHILE the horse moves straight back or forward.

I have since decided that teaching Tex to flex could actually be in my best interest for the disciplines (cutting, working cow horse, penning, ranch horse versatility) that I want him to excel in. I will be teaching flexing from the ground for the next few lessons, and then work on it while sitting still in the saddle. TM

Moving- again

We moved Aug. 30th to a larger house on the same property. It's a beautiful house with no spiders, unlike the deer camp, which had some of the largest spiders I've ever seen. This second move will hopefully be our last in a LONG time

Tex had a break in training during the move, but I worked him today for the first time in around 3 weeks. I haltered him, groomed him, cleaned out all four feet, walked him out to the open area in my yard, and stuck out my right arm with a kiss, asking him to walk. He started in the walk, picked up the trot, and suddenly kicked up his rear and bucked a small buck or two while traveling around me. After finishing his first hissyfit, he maintained a fast lope until I pulled his head toward the inside, saying "easy, easy." He did slow down, but then threw another fit. At this point I realized that I hadn't brought my homemade lungeing whip, which was not a smart decision. Instead, I kept the long lead a little shorter, giving him around 6 or 7 feet of length while I kept 3 or 4 in my hand to wave at his hip. During the second and third hissyfits he aimed his inside hip at me, threatening with his body language to kick my face in. 6 feet of lead line could have allowed him enough room for his back foot to reach me. The foot never came up, but he got the message across, and it worked. I got scared and overreacted, feeling very angry. I stopped him, backed him aggressively, and tied him up for the rest of the afternoon, a bit discouraged, wondering if I can actually accomplish this goal of breaking a horse from start to finish.

My hope is that his attitude was due to his resting period, and that tomorrow will be a better day.

This picture is one I took in mid-August. Tex's weight is ideal for his height in my opinion. He is currently eating 4 pounds of Purina Junior feed and 2 pounds of rice bran, twice a day. TM

Tex's surgery- a scary moment

Tex is officially hernia-less and fixed! His surgery with Dr. Beauchamp (pronounced Beecham) was on Wednesday, July 22nd. Dr. Beauchamp gracefully allowed me to watch and even help a little with the surgery. I was in charge of holding the anesthesia drip, checking Tex's blink response, and adjusting the anesthesia as the Dr. told me to. The hernia hole in the abdomen was, by my best estimate, 2 inches wide and 3 inches long. The vet cut the skin, pushed the bulging intestines into the hole, trimmed the tissue along the hole's surrounding muscle, pulled the two sides together, and stitched them up. He first stitched the muscle, and then the skin. Tex has a total of around 15 stitches on the inside, and 15 on the outside. Then he was castrated, but I'll spare the details of that one for the sake of any guys reading the blog. He then woke up, stood up, staggered a bit, whinnied for Taz (who was nowhere near) and began eating grass. I was able to bring him home within 1.5 hours of the surgery.

My cute little horse felt bad the first night and moped alone in a shady spot in his pasture, away from his best friend Taz. He didn't seem interested in his food, which included a pain killing powder and an antibiotic, so we moved him to another pen. We left his food out for him to munch on as he felt better. The next morning, he had eaten every bit of his food and was walking about, seeming to feel much better.

Around the 5th day, I looked once more at his wound area to check up on him, and to my dismay, his belly area and private areas were quite swollen! My concern reached the point that the next morning, I highly expected my poor horse to be dead. Sure enough, at 5:30 am, in the bare twilight, I peeked out the front door, shone the flashlight, and saw the large hunk laying on the ground. While throwing my boots on and walking toward the area, I began to prepare myself by saying to myself "He's dead. He's dead." When I walked close to the grullo-colored hunk on the ground, it raised its head and looked at me as if to say "What are YOU doing up so early?" I petted him for a while, very relieved that my self-preparations were in vain. He later got up, ate his breakfast, and was a happy horse. In a phone conversation, the vet said I needed to exercise him more to ward off any swelling. Since that day, Tex has been lunged every evening for between 15 and 30 minutes, and the swelling is no more.

Here's a picture of Tex after his surgery, in the middle pen, meeting his friend Sparkle nose to nose for the first time. They had seen each other across fence rows, but never been able to touch. TM

The near past, present, and future for Tex

Past: Tex has, shamefully, been on an unofficial training vacation for the past few weeks due to backed-up photography work and heat. Hopefully once things level out with photography computer work, Tex and I can do some lungeing refreshers a few days in a row.

I have changed Tex's feed, due to a recommendation from a friend and from the feed store owner, to Purina Junior instead of Nutrena Youth. Mrs. Cindy at the feed store in Jackson swears that I'll see a difference by using the Purina, and she also guilted me into feeding him twice a day again. Of course, that's what feed store owners are supposed to do to pay their bills, but I do know that it's beneficial to feed twice or even three feedings a day instead of one large one. Taz, husband's gelding, has also realized that Tex's $17.00 per bag feed tastes better than his $8.00 per bag feed. This morning after their feeding I looked out the window only to see Taz, a full-grown, healthy gelding, eating poor, malnourished Tex's junior feed. And I thought they were friends..... It looks like Taz will have to endure being tied up during feeding time to teach him not to be a bully with feed.

Great news- Tex's registration papers are in my files with my name and a picture of himself on them!! This was a huge step for me. I was so excited to see my name on those papers!

Tex is growing still, but it's harder for me to tell when he's growing because I feed him twice a day. It's like my orchid growing in the kitchen window- the leaf is growing, but I don't know when. I just come home and glance at it, and it's larger than the day before. Tex is very similar.

In the very near future, possibly even next week, Tex will have his hernia repair and neutering surgery at Dr. Beacham's office

As for now, it's late. Much to do tomorrow!

Tex's first saddling (with me, anyway)

I've been lunging Tex as often as possible, usually once or twice a week. After the 15 minute lunging session, I usually take and work with him doing other ground work, such as teaching him to lead correctly, teaching him to back, and to give to pressure from the halter. One day, I introduced the saddle blanket to him, and it was no big deal at all. So, last week, I decided to try the wal-mart bag and the saddle. Everything went tremendously well, so well that i believe he's done this before. Tex only sniffed the saddle and then stood quietly. The girl I got him from had definitely put a saddle on him before, but possibly only once (please correct me if I'm wrong on this!). I love my horse's response to scary things. He looks, snorts, and faces the scary object. I truly believe that this will help us in future trail obstacles and competitions, and it's the kind of attitude that I would look for in a horse to buy.
My plan for the next several lessons is to "keep on keeping on." I need to solidify his lungeing skills. I want him to start the lunge at a walk, then at my request (two kisses) bring it up to a trot, and then with three kisses, a lope. We have not done a REQUESTED lope yet, but he has gotten excited and loped during lungeing before. After he learns speed control while lungeing, I plan to work on directional changes while he's moving, instead of stopping before changing directions. Then, after ground work, I plan to continue introducing scary objects, swinging ropes over his head, putting the saddle on his back, and teaching him to lead and give to the halter pressure. To recap (more for my own clarity) the grand total will be 15-20 minutes of lunging followed by 15-20 minutes of pressure and desensitizing work. Just to clarify, I have decided not to ride Tex until I feel as though his leg bones have grown and filled out. They are still quite delicate, and although I'm smaller than most people, I would not feel safe riding him at this time for the purposes of his future and long-term well-being. TM

He does look so nice under my western saddle! It makes me dream of team pennings, ranch horse competitions, and working cattle.

PS I got his official AQHA papers with MY name on them in the mail today!!!

Home is where your horse is...

I have a sign in my house that says "Home is where your horse is." Well, it certainly feels that way in Louisiana. It's such a delight to be able to look out my kitchen or living room window and check to see what Tex and Taz are doing. I drive past them on my way down the driveway, and they're the first thing I see when I get back home at the end of the day.
Having Tex nearby is a constant reminder to go and work him when I get home. He's been in the round pen once and on the lunge line twice within the past 10 days, and I plan to do the lunge line again tomorrow. My goal is to do three days in a row, at least 20 minutes per lesson.

He gave me a little trouble on the lunge line the first time in this location last Wednesday. He and Taz have apparently become close buddies, and when I moved him out of sight of Taz and began lungeing, Tex was more of a nervous wreck than I've ever seen him before, but definitely not the worst horse I've ever seen. Tex was giving me two problems. First, he wouldn't just walk on the lunge line, like he does when we're close to Tex. He wanted to fast trot mixed with lope, and I instead wanted him to walk calmly. Second, while moving to the right in a circle around me, he would (on the side closest to the barn) stop, turn, and go the other direction, without a cue to do so, pulling me toward the barn with each wheeling turn. I didn't have my lunge whip, it was SO hot and humid, and I got a bit frustrated. So, I stopped where I was, led him back to the horse trailer, and worked with other easier things. We ended on a good note that day (which is important for every lesson).

Tex's Heritage

In April, soon after acquiring Tex and studying his pedigree at www.allbreedpedigree.com, I had a phone conversation with Tex's breeder and afterward mailed him a disposable camera and self-addressed stamped envelope for him to photograph Tex's parents and full brothers/sisters. The pictures have arrived! The bay is his dam (mom) and the dark pictures are the sire (dad). The pictures of the sire are difficult to interpret, and if anyone ever makes a trip to Gainsville, TX, I'd love to get some more pictures of the stud.

I'm no expert on horse conformation, but here are the traits I've observed from the pictures. The dam and sire both look short, which means Tex really may not have much more to grow. The full brother/sister (it's hard to tell with the picture- we'll assume it's a sister) looks EXTREMELY similar to Tex in nearly every way. I like the way she's crouching in this picture when she moves. I'm happy with the dam and sire's rear ends, but think that their chests could use some more muscle. The dam's front feet look like they point outward a bit, which would explain where Tex obtained those genes. Neither the dam nor sire appear to have a very thick mane. The stud seems to be pretty squared in all four feet, which I like. He doesn't look like a dun in these pictures, but he could be a red dun. Overall, without seeing the actual horses, or professional pictures, it's really hard to tell what these horses truly look like. Plus, I believe the mare is bred, which makes her look a bit more swaybacked. I'd love any further input on the conformation of these two horses, as well as the full "sister."

Great questions that I need to answer

The following questions are the result of some questions that a friend listed on her blog about her 2 year old. Although I'm in a bit of a different situation due to Tex's size and health situation (being a 2 year-old in a 1 year old body due to malnutrition), these are all questions that I will have to consider in the near future as he continues to grow.

When should I begin trying to sit on Tex's back? I have already put a leg over him while sitting on the fence, but nothing more. I'm thinking that I'll wait until he reaches around 700 pounds before actually sitting on him. What is the percentage of a horse's body weight that they can safely carry?

Tex's size is a major hold back in his training "under saddle." Most people begin riding horses at 2 years old, but I knew when I took Tex that riding him would not be something we could do for a while. I think that he MAY be big enough to ride within the next 6 months to a year. However, I consider it a blessing in disguise that he cannot be ridden yet- it forces me to not skip the training steps on the ground that he so greatly needs. I have created quite a long list of things to teach Tex before he is ready to ride, things that will carry over into his riding career and long into his life to make him a pleasant horse for everyone. These include picking up feet, accepting scary things, lunging at a walk, trot, and lope, changing speeds as per my verbal commands, sending (I point and he walks in the direction I point), loading in the trailer, crossing water, and moving his body in response to my body language, to name a few. Luckily, mentally, Tex is a strong 2 year old, willing to learn, and able to have a longer attention span than a 1 year old, which means we can do longer lessons.

The friend's blog said that horses will continue to grow until they are 6 years old. I don't expect Tex to grow to his full genetic potential, which should be small anyway. The breeder told me that Tex's dam (mother) is only around 13.5 hands tall, which is a very small horse! On the other hand, he is already showing that he's going to be quite a stocky horse. Only time will tell!

This picture was sent to me today. My mother-in-law took it last night during Tex's evening feeding. I believe he is starting to look more and more like a 2 year old. Notice that his hips are getting taller than his shoulders in this picture. I will join Tex in Louisiana in TWO days!

Daisy and Tex meet for the first time

Daisy is husband's brother's dog that my in-laws dog sit on a regular basis. She looks bad in this picture, but it's so typical of Tex's personality! He's always so observant of other animals around him. I hope this carries over into his cow cutting future career. I miss him a lot and can't wait to see him in 5 days!

In Louisiana!

Here's a picture that my gracious mother-in-law took of Tex and Taz in Louisiana! This is my friend Kelly who came out to meet Tex.

Finally, some decent pics of myself with Tex

These were taken last Thursday, the 21st. Tex often "cuts" the cat out of his stall. I don't know for sure if that's what he's doing in this picture, or if he's just walking backwards funny. The cat's name is Killer.

Today Tex and Taz arrived safely in Louisiana. Apparently Taz has a scratch on his knee. I'm excited that where we're keeping them at husbands' parents' place has a round pen.

We've been working on backing lately, and he is picking up on things so quickly. You can see in one of these pictures that I'm asking him to back, and he's actually picking up his feet to do it. He did NOT do that before!

Tex's hot wheels

Husband has been working hard to fix up some new wheels for Tex and Taz. Seriously, this has been a lot of long nights in the working, with the help of our friend Kole. This trailer needed lots of work, but husband finally finished last night after metal work, tons of sanding, two coats of primer, and two coats of paint. Now we're ready to go to lots of events in Louisiana. TM

Tex, minus the winter hair

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I took these picures last Sunday. What a striking difference from when Tex arrived at my house. He's now 13 hands tall! My friend Kristy helped me move Tex around in his new pen during feeding time. There is food in the trough, but I've been trying to teach Tex not to be aggressive with food. I put the food in his bin (or trough, depending on if he's in the stall or out), and then I use my elbow and body language to keep him out of the feed. I only back away and let him eat when he puts his head down and is calm. I've also been TRYING somewhat of a clicker training, after reading an article in John Lyons' Perfect Horse magazine. The article was written by an animal behaviorist who has trained many exotic animals. She described that "clicker" training is simply using some sort of audio signal to "bridge" between the desired behavior and the reward. Instead of using an actual plastic clicker, I use the word "good", quickly and short, in the same voice tone. Horses have an approximate 3 second time interval in which to receive a reward. That's not always enough time. I'm guessing the "bridge" is what helps the horse understand that he did the right thing within the 3 seconds, and the reward (petting, or getting to eat his food) comes soon after the 3 seconds.

For an example, when I'm teaching Tex to be nice when fed, my desired behavior is for him to stand quietly. I put the feed in the trough, and as SOON as he stands quietly, I say "GOOD" one time and back away, allowing him to access the feed. Desired behavior = GOOD = REWARD (food).

Clicker training isn't popular in the cowboy world from what I can tell, but since I've never done this before, and haven't seen it done much, I'm willing to try anything that seems sensible to me. If it doesn't work, I'll quit and try something different. So far, my theories have been proven right- Tex seems to be learning quickly. On top of that, while working with Jade, our 8 month old border collie puppy, the "good" seems to "click" with her, too :)


One of these pictures is of Taz, husband's goofy-sometimes-uncoordinated-unpredictably-spooky-horse.








The last picture is of some of the horses that husband and I have taken care of during our time at the camp. We know each one's name, personality, habits, and pecking order. I will miss them, but it will be nice to only have 2 horses to care for instead of 26!

Tex is moving to Louisiana

Tex is moving to Louisiana this Saturday, 8 days before I'm moving there too. He will live in husband's parents' green pastures with LOTS of grass, and I plan to see him very often. I will be living about 10 miles away, but in the town of Jackson, LA, there is little to no traffic to worry about.

Tex's surgery was scheduled for today, but since he's going to be making the 8 hour trip with husband's brother on Saturday, I decided to cancel the surgery. I can't imagine that it would be very good for the stitches to bounce around that much on the trip. I'm sad that I have to go 8 whole days without seeing him, but I know that he'll be SOOO happy to have all that green grass, and possibly some new friends. He'll be traveling with Taz, husband's 1/2 paint, 1/4 arabian, 1/4 quarter horse (if you use your math skills, you'll figure out that those numbers total only ONE horse!). Since Tex is traveling, Monday I loaded and unloaded him into the stock trailer several times to make sure he wouldn't make a fuss about it. He did wonderfully, but doesn't know how to back yet- on the ground or in the trailer. So, I took him out of the trailer and tried the Craig Cameron method of teaching him to back- tapping his front feet with the stick until he backed. However, it was late and I was impatient, so it wasn't our most productive lesson. When I'm feeling impatient, tired, hungry, or especially a combination of all three, I've learned that it's best not to try to train!

The move details have been a bit overwhelming lately- I'm actually moving 21 days ahead of schedule, which makes for a very short time to pack! TM

Pedigree

Last week's gain

To the best of my measuring ability, I've determined that Tex gained 18 pounds between the last week in April and May 5th. I've started a chart on the barn dry erase board to measure his growth.
I was out of town all last week and was in a rush to get packed for Louisiana, but husband took some pictures of Tex for me. I wanted to show his shape from the top. That's where his the growth seems to be most obvious.
The move to Louisiana has me a bit crunched for time, so his loss-of-manlihood and hernia surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday, May 20th, by the famous Dr. Kyle in Burnet, TX.
These are the pictures from last Sunday, May 10th. Since we returned yesterday, he's shed almost ALL of his winter hair!!! Those pictures will come next.

Weight gain monitoring pics- last week in April, 2009

I took these pictures on the same day as the hobble pictures, Tuesday afternoon.

The other day I was in our tack room picking up my saddle when I glanced up on the shelf and saw TWO weight tapes! Boy was I excited. I thought I was going to have to buy one. Turns out, the feed store gave them to husband for being such a good customer (since we don't have any grass, we feed a LOT of grain at the camp). The only thing is, there are two different equations to use to calculate weight- For non-horsey people, the girth measurement is the circumference around the horse's body, just behind his front legs and over the withers (the bump behind their neck). A horse's height is also measured as the distance from the ground to the withers.
The two different formulas were:
1. For ADULT horses, girth x girth x body length / 330
2. For YEARLINGS, girth x girth x body length / 301

Tex's girth width was 53.5, and his body length was 53 (doing the best we could to measure it). When I did the calculations for adult horses, he came out to weigh 460 pounds. I didn't like that number at all, so I decided to try the yearling formula. Using the yearling formula, his weight came out to 504 pounds. That sounds much better, so I've decided to stick with that, just to keep my hopes up! Grow, Tex, grow!

Tex is shedding his winter coat more every day, and he's going to be a beautiful color when it's all gone! I think his rear and backbone muscles (I don't know the technical terms) are filling out.

After I went home that night, I caught my new baby chicks doing something funny! TM

Hobble Trained!

The place where we have our horses in central Texas has almost no grass in the corral. We simply don't have the cross-fencing needed to establish pasture, and on top of that, rain comes in short spurts or not at all in the past few years. I knew that Tex needed grass to put on weight- he prefers it over hay, and sometimes will skip his grain to gaze longingly over the fence wishing for the grass that grows in the "people space" around the barn. That's what made me decide to hobble train him. It would allow him the freedom to graze in the people space without me having to worry too much about him running off.




Hobbles are a leg-restraining device that does not hurt the horse at all. Once a horse learns to accept hobbles around his/her legs, the horse can walk, but not trot or run.




One thing I'm learning throughout this training process is that I don't have to spend the money to get the "Official AQHA Sponsored Equipment Whatevers." I did a quick internet search about making your own hobbles to find out that I could make a pair with an old piece of cotton rope. We just happened to have one! It looked easy to twist and make the hobbles in the pictures online, but when I started trying it myself, it wasn't quite that easy. I decided (for now) to tie them the best I could and not worry about being perfect.




Tex learned to accept hobbles in about 2 total hours, split between two weeks. I started by letting him graze with his rope hanging down. He seemed to not mind at all when he stepped on his lead rope, as long as he could still eat. The next day, I used the old cotton rope to wrap around one leg at a time and pick up his feet with it. Not only did it teach him not to fight the rope around his feet, but it also helped with his feet-picking-up behavior. The next time I worked with him, I began to tie the two feet together. He freaked out one time, came close to falling, but then realized, "There is grass to be eaten- why worry about these feet restraint thingies? Who cares-I'm hungry." I supervised that first tying day. Yesterday was the 2nd tying day, and he seemed to remember that it was no big deal. You can see in one of these pictures that he's walking, having his foot restrained by the hobbles, and there is no effect in his behavior.



After watching him for a little while, relaxing in the grass (with Jade, our border collie/blue heeler) while he grazed, I decided to leave him somewhat unattended while I went to fix some supper. It was a very happy success for me and for Tex. TM

This week's pictures

This week's pics were taken on Thursday. I hope to give you guys at least DECENT pictures to look at. I wanted to show everyone all of his zebra stripes! I believe with 90% certainty that Tex is truly a grullo, as his papers state. I found a website, www.grullablue.com, that describes characteristics of a grullo horse. According to that site, Tex's dark face, black/brown legs, darker tips of the ears, and dorsal stripe from head to tail all make him qualify in the grullo category. On top of that, grullos often have zebra stripes on the back, shoulders, neck, and legs. These are the stripes I've found on him, even before he's shed out very well. The pic of his hind legs isn't very good, but you can see the subtle striping. The ears are my very favorite! I have a feeling I'll enjoy looking at those from behind when riding him in the future!






Also, this is his weekly picture to gauge growth. I am seeing a little bit of difference on his ribs in person, I think, but that is hard to tell in the pictures. Just like wearing white can make certain body parts look larger (my bottom half could resemble a lollipop in white jeans), the brightly exposed pictures before covered up many evils on his ribs by making him look bigger than he is. The darker pictures below are a more representative of his true body condition.

Talking with the vet

I called our vet, Dr. Kyle, on Friday to discuss Tex's nutritional needs, when to castrate, what to do about the hernia, and what to expect. I have the utmost respect for veterinarians. Dr. Kyle advised me that to maintain a horse, you must feed them 3% of their body weight in total pounds of feed, which includes hay, grass, and grain. While growing, horses need 4% of their body weight in total pounds of feed. Also, he said that protein is more important than fat at this time, and he suggested (as a friend did) to put him on some sort of equine junior or youth feed. I'm currently making that switch slowly from his high-fat pellets, which is what we feed all of the other horses that we take care of.
One of the first things Dr. Kyle said is to BE PATIENT. Well, I'm willing. I'm looking forward to moving (we're moving back to the great state of Louisiana in June) because there is actually grass in Louisiana, versus this central Texas drought-bound area. We have a LITTLE grass, but no fencing around it. I think that Tex will do very well when he finally has access to unlimited pasture grazing.
Dr. Kyle also mentioned that testosterone DOES have an affect on growth, so we need to leave Tex as a stud for as long as we can. I can keep him separated for a while, but he must be cut before the move. The vet and I agreed to wait 30 days and re-evaluate the horse's body condition. Apparently anesthesia needs a decent body condition, or could harm the horse. I'd like to learn more about the details of that.
No, he may not reach his full genetic potential for height - He's strongly King bred, and King was 14.3 hands, so I may have a 14 or so hand horse. That's fine with me, because I'm a shorty myself!
After the phone conversation, I felt relieved about my decision to take Tex, and felt even more hopeful for the future. TM