THIS IS A STORY OF SERENDIPITY

I walked into the pony pen to check on Pepper. He was lying down but got up when he heard my voice. He was bearing some weight on the lame foot by the time I got over to him. He walked off and seemed a little better. He wasn’t dragging the toe like he was two days ago and there seems to be a little flex in the joint. I observed him for a few minutes and decided I wouldn’t call the vet. Today is the day the vet is in Portales area and it costs less on a farm call.

I had started my truck to warm up since I was heading to town. As I was climbing in realized I had the good cane with me. Also, I coughed just a little and thought I really needed cough drops to take with me. This meant unlocking the house to go in and take care of these two items. Neither was drastic and I didn’t really ‘need’ to do it. But, I chose to.

As I came out my door, a white truck turned in with a man driving. As he got out of the truck he held up a bottle and said he was close and decided to run the Xterra by here rather than leaving it in town at our drop off. It was Ryan, Doc’s new vet. Since he was here I asked if he had just a few minutes to look at Pepper. He said yes. I gave him the health information from the last two days as we went to the pen.

Now, I want you to visualize just how prepared we were for this undertaking. We had neither halter nor means to catch and hold him while Ryan checked him out. And the only help he had was me – an old lady with cane.

We actually were able to make it work even though Pepper had other thoughts about the situation. As he cleaned the foot and found nothing he realized that Pepper was sensitive to pressure on the frog. He retrieved his hoof testers from the truck and found a tender spot. He dug it out and opened an abscess. He told me to pack it with Betadine and sugar and wrap for 24 hours.

Later in the day when I had both Tiffany and Jas here to help, they worked together, one holding the foot and the other cleaning, packing and wrapping. He actually seemed to walk a little better immediately although you could tell by the leg lift the hoof felt very different.

Yes, horse ‘band aids’ are like those of people – all colors.

Week later update: His foot is back to normal.

HAVE YOU HUGGED YOUR HORSE LATELY?

I LOVE THE NEW MEXICO SKY

TAKE MY PICTURE

The wind was blowing out of the North with really heavy gusts. When I went up to do the nooners (special feed and medicine handouts) I took the camera. All the mares and geldings in their pens were tails to the wind. I got out the camera and took a picture with the intent of posting it to answer the question people continue to ask about the horses keeping warm in the cold weather. Answer to wind – turn your tail and wait it out.

As soon as I shut the camera off and put the lens cap on Patches came running out of the hay pen looking around as if she were upset. She headed for the space along the fence between Mattie and Golly, found her spot, and stopped. I got the message “Okay, I’m ready, take the picture”. So, I took another one. If you look closely, you will see Patches in the upper left of the top picture and in the middle along the fence in the bottom.

The two pictures were taken within a minute of each other.           

'NOTHING' IS BETTER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE according to Goober

MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS

A NEW JOB

As the school rolls on realistically the time comes that I have to pull an old trusty horse out of service – this summer it was Drafty. By then they have such an impressive resume that when I look into my herd I don’t have a horse that can take their place. So, I begin to check out talents, and attitudes to see who needs to try what next – just like the students.

   This year I have noticed a change in Target to indicate that he is maybe maturing and just might be willing to try some different rider energies. I am always cautious when I introduce autistic and other – what I think of as broken energy – to the horses.

   Target was recently introduced to Tourette’s energy. Inside the barn during tack up he was somewhat uncomfortable with it. However, when we went to the arena, my rider did what he needed to and Target calmed down and they had a really good ride.

   When we returned to the barn, Target was in a relaxed mood and untack went without incident.  

DAILY LAUGH

They are always good for a laugh.

SELF STUDY

Smudge was born here and has been very hit and miss as far as breaking/training. She has a very hot temper and gets mad quickly. We are in the ‘work on Smudge mode’ again. A volunteer has been working with her on her lunch hour to correct a problem with ‘body blocking’ that she does. She will move herself to push you out of her way and you can get hurt in the process. Meg is making progress with her on that.

   On this particular day, I decided to work on tying her up and letting her stand for a bit. In the past within about 3 minutes she is stressing, fidgeting and getting mad. On this day she surprised me and stood for 30 minutes with three 15 second demonstrations of impatience. She didn’t get mad. A lot of the time she looked like she was processing information and thinking about her situation. She never did cock a back foot and totally relax to the ‘whatever’ point but to me she looked comfortable.

  Notice the lead line across the top of her neck. When she raised her head and it tightened, she took her time and moved it off her neck rather than fighting it.

   

When I Say I’m Under Water It Kinda Looks Like This

About 4:00 am I wakened to the sound of thunder and flashes of lightening. With Dan’s current work schedule this is the time he feeds the horses. All of a sudden I heard the door slam and Dan came into the house. I heard rummaging in his room and he finally went out again. When I asked him tonight about it, when he went to the barn it wasn’t raining. He just got started and it was like buckets being poured on him. So – to the house for dry clothes and slicker.

Later, when I got up I noticed a bit of slicker caught in the front door. When I opened it the rest of it was between screen and solid door. I thought he had tried putting the slicker on the screen to let it start drying out.

NOT. Since it was still raining he thought he would wear the slicker to his car and stay dry for work. As he went out the door the corner caught as he was closing it. His keys to the house were in his car and I was in bed and wouldn’t hear him. So – shed the slicker and run through the rain to the car.

The rescued slicker drying.

After I got up and looked outside, I knew I would need these. Where were they? At the barn of course.

And getting to the barn looked something like this.

Mission accomplished and so glad to have them.

IOne view of the arena.

Another view of the arena.

The last rain we had Dan worked on making somedrain pathways in the pens. The gelding pen was draining - it was just really full.

Last time Drafty and Sadie both were totally under water at this location. More drain working.

At the end of the day it doesn't look much better.

Dan just finished up digging another drain in the gelding pen.

Dan decided to see if he could get some of the water to drain from the barn road.

But - all the green and growing is sure pretty.

So - when I let students know I ma under water and have to cancel the lesson, this is why.

FRIENDS ENJOYING ....

Friends Butch and Augie enjoying a warm winter day.

FIRE BREATHING DRAGON sort of

I was taking pictures and realized it was really cold as I looked through the view finder. I wasn't sure that horse breath would show up but it does. Check out my short video here -  Fire Breathing Dragon

JUST BLOWIN IN THE WIND

When the wind is from the west and you throw hay over the east fence ......

THOROUGH INVESTIGATION WITH NO ANSWER

As soon as I got to the barn after my helper arrived, she asked me if Drafty was hurt. I told her no and asked why. She had gone to start water and it looked like there was a lot of blood on the fence in his pen.

I came into the pen and this is what I found.... There was a lot of it over a rather large area.

The next stop was to check out Drafty. I began at his head and when I reached the other end this is what I saw....

We caught him and took him into the barn to check out the wound and put medicine on it. The gash appears to be about 2 inches long and it is about an inch deep inside. I trimmed some of the hair, rinsed it out and put medicine in. Drafty stood as if nothing was wrong so apparently it didn't hurt too much. After treatment it looked like this.

When we took him back to the pen, we backed him up to see if we could figure out how it happened. When you see the wound at a little distance it doesn't look so gross.

"CSI" Tiffany trying to figure it out. To get the rub marks as high as they are he had to lift his rear end. My guess is that he was kicking at Sadie, the horse in the  next pen and somehow came down or into the cable holder on the fence just right to sustain the injury. If horses could talk ....

NAP TIME

People ask if horses lie down. Not only do they lie down but I find them in different positions. To me, Midnight doesn't look all that comfortable here.

Cow Girl Up - A Really Cold Day

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



NRG - Change of Attitude



 Who belongs to whom? Slinky (dog) to Butch (horse) or Butch to Slinky?



This is what happens when you try to take a portrait photo of a horse. Definitely, up close and personal.

REMINDER – A HORSE IS A HORSE

When I brought Lil to the pen gate to go out, her head went up, eyes went wide, body went tense and she produced ‘roller snorts’. When I looked around, the only thing I could see that changed was a puddle in Teefa’s pen and that was definitely what caught her eye.

Of course, to go out the gate meant we had to go closer to it. I made sure I did my job correctly going through the gate so as not to become ‘road kill’ when she spooked at it – and spook she did. We worked about 90 seconds on the scary thing then she decided it wouldn’t bite. She was fine from that point on.

This incident brought back memories of a similar situation in which I didn’t listen to the horse and do what I should have for them (not any I have today). The end result on that was the horse knocked me down and out.

This is just a reminder that all of us dealing with horse need to remember ‘Given the right circumstances, any horse will act like a horse’. We are the ones that have to insure our own safety.

I took the picture just as soon as I tied Lil up so we can ‘see through her eyes’ how it looked. We had lots of shadows (always do this time of day) and reflections from the water (new to this location).