Entertainment

How to keep a stall bound horse entertained. Cut some holes in a milk jug, fill with goodies, hang in stall!

Earlier in the day, she flung it so hard she launched grain and cookies out of her stall and clear across the aisle!

Caution:  Beware of Cody and her milk jug.  Projectiles in the form of grain or cookies may come flying out of stall at any time!

Blanket Washing

Today was blanket washing day.  Cody decided to help.

"Ok mom, I'll hold it down!  You scrub!"

Thanks Cody girl!  Lady decided to stay out of the way.  A little cold to be getting wet.  But blankets are washed.....well, rinsed and spot scrubbed, way too cold and insanely windy to do much more than that today.  Someday I'll actually do this during the summer instead of waiting till it's fall and cold.  But now I can get the ripped ones sewn up, and finish getting them rewaterproffed for winter. 

Cody's Turn

While Lady's had kind of a crazy summer with sunburn and sweet itch, Cody's hasn't been much better either. Things have been pretty up and down with her knee. I'm not entirely sure how successful I would call her knee surgery. She's definitely not rideable sound, and at this point, I have my doubts that she ever will be. But I'm at least hoping for pasture sound, which she seems to be lately, though I'm worried how things will be once cold weather begins to set in, will she be too uncomfortable to make it through winter? I don't know.

At MSU after surgery in December

But this summer she's had her ups and downs. Thankfully more ups as far as lameness than downs. She was hand walking 30 or 40 minutes 3 or 4 days a week ponying out on the trails with Lady and I without much trouble. Once she got warmed up, she seemed to move along pretty well. But Mother Nature kind of spoiled that with a long stretch of 90+ degrees with 100+ heat index. I didn't want to move much in that, let alone make my horses go for a walk in the hot sun. So cool hose downs and maybe a short walk were pretty much the name of the game. Lately, the skeeters will carry you away if you stray too far from the barn.  But even without all the walking, Cody seemed to do ok on her knee. She had a weird week at one point where she was really sore, then seemed to bounce back from it.

A couple weeks ago she came galloping and bucking full speed all the way across the pasture trying to escape one of those B-52 Bomber flies. The last time she pulled a galloping stunt like that this spring, she was three legged lame for days, it took her a week to get back to where she had been as far as lameness. She was so worried about the fly attacking her and trying to get away from it, I wasn't sure if she remembered the gate was coming up fast, let alone be able to stop in time, I'm just picturing the wreck about to happen. This is Cody after all, and "disaster" seems to be her middle name. And sure enough, her head pops up, her ears fly forward, and that look of "Oh sh*t!" crosses her face as she realizes with the fence on one side and Lady galloping along on the other side, there's no where to go but straight into the gate. Somehow she managed to execute a sliding stop that would have been the envy of any reining horse and brought new meaning to the term "draggin' ass", and only bumped her nose on the gate. And sure enough, she was three legged lame from her antics (but she did get away from that fly and managed not to crash). Oh Cody. But thankfully she seemed to walk it off after a few steps, and an hour later, was pretty much back to her "normal" level of lameness. So that there is progress. Small victories.

She is due for x-rays again. The last ones were back in April I believe. But instead of having my regular vet do the x-rays again, I decided to take her back to MSU to see the surgeon this time. Since Cody seems to be the first successful failure of this surgery, I really wanted Dr. Caron to see her again and get his thoughts, what went wrong, has the joint healed like it should have, see if maybe there's something more than just the knee adding to her lameness, what more can I do for her to try to keep her as comfortable as possible to be a retired pasture pet, especially with cold weather a few months away. Thankfully I do have options still to try, such as daily bute or a different devil's claw and yucca supplement, joint injections to the other two joints in that knee, Adequan or Legend injections, maybe one of the magnetic/ceramic knee wraps, she'd probably benefit from seeing a chiropractor.

So she was supposed to go in to MSU on Tuesday this week, I couldn't wait to see new x-rays and see what Dr. Caron thought. Especially since last week, she started getting really lame again. Good thing she's going to MSU on Tuesday. It kept getting worse, by Saturday she was three legged lame, it took her forever to walk across the pasture to come in for dinner. I cleaned out her foot, and that seemed fine, no rocks or anything stuck in there. I couldn't find any heat or swelling in her knee, but she wanted no part of walking on it. I was just sick and heart broken, her knee was giving out, just like Wayne's did. I went home in tears. Sunday she was marginally better, at least walking on it, but still horribly lame.

But when I went to pick up her foot to clean it out, I discovered a tiny weeping sore at the front of her foot on the coronet band! She blew out an abscess! No wonder she'd been so lame lately! I feel awful, and feel like an idiot, I never even thought to check for an abscess (yes, I clean and handle her feet daily, but I always have gloves on about 90% of the time that I'm handling my horses since a few years ago my body decided it was allergic to horse dander, so I totally missed the heat in her foot)! I just assumed it was her knee getting worse. But I have never been so happy in my life to have a horse with an abscess. An abscess is far more treatable than a knee giving out. And after a good cleaning and soaking, sure enough, there was the tiny pinhead sized black hole in her whiteline on the bottom of her foot where everything started. Poor girl!

This is the first abscess I've had to deal with on one of my own horses. So I called my farrier, because I know he's really good with abscesses, there are some vets that call him to come and dig out abscesses for them. Since it had already blown out the coronet band, he probably didn't need to come dig this one out, at this point it should drain itself pretty well, so soak it twice a day to help draw everything out and call him in 2 days with a progress report, or sooner if it starts building heat again or she goes dead lame again and he'll come right down. And blow out an abscess she did. What started out as a tiny hole in her coronet band about as big around as the end of my little finger turned into about an inch and a half weeping sore by Monday night. Ouch!

But so far so good soaking twice a day. At least it's not oozing any more, still pretty angry looking, but not draining. And she's walking better, but still a little ouchy, but I'm not sure if it's because of the foot, or the knee, or both, with the knee problem added in the mix, it's hard to tell. And thankfully in a better mood the last few days, Monday night while crouching down to work on that foot, I felt the careful warning scrape of teeth across the top of my ballcap letting me know how she felt about the situation, along with several dirty looks. Yesterday the heat was finally gone in her hoof wall, but still some heat right at the coronet band, so my farrier said soak her a couple more days till the heat was gone there too to make sure we get rid of any infection. I also took pictures of it and emailed them to him. He said it looked like your typical abscess and looked to be starting to heal fine, just keep an eye on it and keep him posted.  Tonight the heat in the coronet band was finally gone.

So it's been a long week. Every morning has pretty much gone something like this (and repeated every evening):

• 5:30 am - crawl out of bed
• 5:45 am - stumble to truck, hot water and breakfast in hand
• 5:47 am - eat breakfast on way to barn
• 5:52 am - arrive at barn
• 5:53 am - sweet barn kitty demands to be fed
• 5:54 am - furkids demand to be fed, Cody's pawing, Lady's weaving
• 5:55 am - both nickering at me "Feed the starving ponies!"
• 5:56 am - breakfast shortly, hold your horses!
• 6:00 am - one foot soaking

Needless to say, I am thoroughly exhausted after this week, and about to go fall in bed for the night!
 
As for the MSU knee checkup, well, we rescheduled. There's no point in taking her in for a knee checkup if she's lame on that foot from an abscess. So we'll get her foot healed up, and then hopefully we can get a better idea of where she's at with her knee, or if there's something else in the foot that's adding to the problem. 

So the MSU trip will be in two weeks. And the furkids and I will keep trudging our way through this crazy summer.

Happy barn kitty!

Holy Sunburn

It's been a crazy summer to say the least.......

Silly Lady and her freckles.

I do love "chrome" on my horses, especially a blaze. Wayne had the text book perfect shaped blaze down his face. Lady's freckles in her blaze are just cute. And while Cody's blaze is more narrow and subtle, it's still perfectly pretty. But Cody definitely has one distinct advantage in the blaze department.....her blaze ends before it reaches that soft delicate peach fuzz nose, and the only white she has there is a tiny little diamond snip.

My poor sweet Lady and her nice big blaze. She usually gets a mild sunburn on her pink little muzzle every year (as did Wayne, though he at least had the advantage of massive forelock to help protect his face), but normally some sunscreen gets Lady through it till she "gets her tan on" and then she's fine till the fall when the "photo sensitivity sunburn" due to whatever it is she decides to eat every fall sometimes happens. But anywho, mild summer sunburn......not so this year. She fried. And I mean fried! Even with using 90 SPF sunscreen twice a day the minute she started looking a little pink on the nose. And of course I couldn't find a long nose fly mask to try to shade more of her face anywhere around town, so had to order one, which meant waiting a few days for it to arrive, and no matter how much I poured the sunscreen to her, she continued to fry.

Collar and almost healed up face!

Within a matter of days 3/4 of Lady's pretty blaze was burnt, peeling, angry red, weeping, and even the dark skin on either side of her blaze was showing signs of an angry red burn! She spent a couple days in the barn in Cody's stall just to get her out of the sun. I didn't even bother trying to put a halter on her head, just looped it around her neck, and finally gave up on the halter all together when I finally found a horse collar, which she's been wearing ever since, thankfully she's an angel about leading and tying.

Since stalling her every day wasn't an option since she's pasture board, I waited on pins and needles for that new long nose fly mask to arrive, praying that would help shade her face, but it took forever to get here, holiday weekend and all that good stuff. So in the meantime, I went in search of zinc oxide, since the highest SPF sunscreen I could find wasn't doing a bit of good. I finally found two big bottles of zinc oxide sunscreen, and Lady ended up with lifeguard nose or the bald face paint look twice a day.....which she promptly tried to wipe off on her knees the minute I got out of distance to stop her. Thankfully if I could get her to leave it alone long enough to dry a little bit, most of it would stay stuck through her attempts to wipe it off, but we had a lot of white knees and legs in addition to white face. I guess she was going for the full bald face paint look with high white socks? Occasionally Cody had white stripes on her butt, as did the Richie waterer. But the zinc oxide definitely help turn the tide in the war against the sunburn, protecting her enough to at least keep her from burning more, and let her skin slowly begin to heal.

Bunny ears!!!

Finally that new long nose fly mask arrived, complete with pink ears and her name embroidered on the front. It was perfect, shaded her entire face, right down to that normally soft pink skin right between her nostrils that was currently angry red and peeling. Finally shade for her face, and no more lifeguard nose.....she was such a good sport, but you could tell she was really getting tired of having stuff rubbed on her face. Day one with the new fly mask went great, you could already see the difference in her burn!

Day two, not so good, she rubbed it off, went all day without it, and got fried. Ok, two can play this game little girl, say hello to your friend zinc oxide! War paint slathered on, then fly mask! Double protection, so when she took the fly mask off, at least she still had something protecting her from the sun. And an extra bottle of zinc oxide sitting out in the barn, so other boarders could have fun with face painting if she managed to rub off both the fly mask and the war paint while I was at work. Of course, Mother Nature didn't help much either, sneak attack thunderstorms that soaked her new mask to the point that it had to spend a day or two in the barn to dry out, then more rain to wash the war paint off her face while her fly mask was drying, and then hot hot sun.

Oh Lady girl, you're so naughty!

Thankfully the fly mask stayed on more often than not, though she likes the one ear out look, and seems to think the forelock hole is supposed to be an ear hole, but we finally won the war against the sunburn. Her skin is finally healed up, except for the occasional scratch now and then from trying to rub that mask off on something, and her hair is slowly growing back. Still no halter though, that skin is a little too delicate yet with only peach fuzz protecting it. But that was definitely the most bizarre sunburn I have ever had to deal with. And I felt just awful, because you could tell Lady was miserable. I'm not even sure what caused it, I know some weeds can make them photosensitive, but honestly, there's not much in their pasture and they were on the same hay and grain diet they've been on forever now, so who knows. But at least this time I know how to fight it should sunburn rear it's ugly head again. Long nose fly mask and zinc oxide seem to be my two best weapons....I'm ok with owning a part time bald face paint or war pony, and the "lifeguard nose" is just funny.

Salted pony anyone?

Course, then we went straight from sunburn to sweet itch when good ole Ma Nature decided to crank up the heat for an extended period of time, going from low 80s to high 90s. Poor Lady sweats easy to begin with, so she was just wringing wet during the day, some evenings she was so covered in salt it looked like it had snowed all over her. And while her mane isn't nearly as long and thick as Wayne's was, apparently it was long enough and thick enough to cause her to sweat enough under there to create the perfect storm for sweet itch on the underside of her mane.

And itch she did! I pulled in the driveway one evening after work to find Lady girl out by the shelter going to town itching her mane for all she was worth on the corner of the shelter. And when I brought her in the barn, she was itching like a mad woman on anything within her reach; post, stall, door, stairs, cross tie, me, Cody (that one did not go over well). She'd rubbed out half the underside of her mane and her scalp was a scabby, scaly, weeping mess. I guess this is where Cody's pitiful Thoroughbred mane is a blessing.

So, braided Lady's mane to the opposite side for ventilation to get some air flow under there and slathered on the MTG. That didn't help much. She was still pretty itchy. And it made one heck of a mess down both sides of her neck. Time for a betadine shampoo. Did you know MTG will waterproof your horse? Seriously, even after three shampooings, the water just beaded up and ran right off her neck and mane like she'd been waxed or camp dried. Why can't fly spray stick like that? But at any rate, betadine shampooed and braided to the opposite side again, and still pretty itchy and not healing much.

Crooked, but still covered!

Then I remembered the mysterious yellow ointment in the plain white jar who's label only says "Scratches" that Dr. Irving gave me last year when I couldn't get rid of the scratches on Cody's legs. I have no idea what's in it, the jar literally only says "Scratches" on a taped on paper label. Looks like furazone, but he assured me there was none of that in there, and rambled off a few names of things that I don't even remember now, but it's a concoction of some kind that the MSU vet clinic apparently came up with, and whatever it is, boy does it work, it cleared up Cody's scratches in no time flat last year, and did the same thing for Lady's sweet itch, by the next day, her scalp was nearly itch free! And the skin on her neck where she'd rubbed some of her hair thin while scratching out her mane was turning pink with sunburn......yes, here we go with the sunburn again......

Apparently skin that has spent 17 years under the dark side of a mane doesn't like full time sun exposure. Oops, my bad, braids out, sorry girl. And of course, even though her mane was only braided to the opposite side for a few days, it decided to stay there. Skin's a little pinker and looking a little flaky peely. My poor horse! So back in braids to retrain her mane back to where it belonged. At least the braids gave her a little shade, and after a couple flaky peely days, her skin was back to normal, her scalp was healing up, her mane trained back to where it was supposed to be, and acclimation to the insane heat and humidity makes for a less sweaty pony under there, so hopefully no more sweet itch.....or sunburn!

Super models!

How come yours has a long nose and mine doesn't?

Beware of Soapy Tails!

The other day I was washing Lady and Cody's tails, and of course they're swatting flies and leaving soap suds and conditioner here and there on their legs and coats and me in the process.  And it brought back a funny story about Wayne......

I took Wayne to a CMHA show up at the fairgrounds, and had him in the wash rack getting him all squeaky clean for the show the next day.  And with that long thick flaxen mane and tail of his and those flaxen feathers on his feet, it took a few shampooings and some elbow grease to get him show ready.  So there I am standing behind him, scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing and his entire tail in a full soapy lather, and one of those ginormous pontiac horse flies lands right on top of his butt!  You know, those giant one inch bombers that the horses go bananas about?

Wayne's tail went flying back and forth just as fast as it could go trying to swat that thing, and his back feet were doing the "get it off, get it off, get it off" dance!  When it was all said and done, and the fly was finally dead, he was covered in soap, I was covered in soap (and spitting out soap), everybody around us got a little soap, and my glasses were stuck in his tail.

Beware of soapy tails during fly season!

I sure do miss my little man......

Wayne babysitting a friends yearling colt, Summer 2003

Fall off the earth?

Did I fall off the earth?  No, just haven't had much positive or fun to report lately.  I started this blog to share the fun I have with my horses, past and present, but it seems like things have spiraled toward the negative all too often lately, and a blog that's all negative is just depressing.  And the past still hurts sometimes.  I miss my Wayne something awful still.

But how are the girls doing?  So so.....  (if you want to skip to the fun stuff, head down to the pictures at the bottom, otherwise welcome to my horse life)

Cody's knee surgery has been anything but successful so far.  We hit the 3 month mark on March 2nd and she's still dead lame.  We've past the 3 1/2 month mark, and last Saturday she refused to put any weight on it.  She's a little better now, but still not as good as she was, and even then she was anything but sound. 

The vet came out Feb 1st and x-rayed her knee and sent them to the surgeon at MSU.  He said the x-rays looked good, but behind schedule as far as healing.  So we decided to give her till mid April or so and re-x-ray and re-evaluate, and see where we're at, see if it looks like things are healing or not.  Dr. Caron says he's never had one of these surgeries not work, but I'm worried sick Cody's going to be the first and I'm going to end up losing her too. 

But I'm trying to keep my spirits up.  She's had a lot of things going against her over these 3 1/2 months, that's for sure.  This ridiculous weather, insane mud, rough frozen ground, deep snow, ice, ice, and more mud and snow, lack of sufficient bedding to pad the front of her stall, among other things.  She's also the oldest horse he's ever done this surgery on, going on 17 this year.  And then there's Cody's momentary lapses of reason from time to time.  I had to quit hand walking her in the indoor arena, because every time we did she wanted to roll first thing, then would explode in a bucking fit as she got up and could hardly walk after that, so hand walking has to be done on the driveway....when it's not insane mud or sheer ice.  And I hear she was trying to canter in her pasture the other day.

So we're taking things day by day and we'll see what happens.  Working on getting her weaned out of standing wraps right now, and hopefully out of a knee wrap soon.  Trying to keep my chin up, but I worry.  My luck seems to be in the toilet lately.  Having just lost Wayne those few months ago, I'll be all the more heartbroken if I lose her too, and questioning my place in the horse world.  How can something I love so much just go so completely wrong over the past year.

Lady, she's doing ok.  She started having some lameness issues in December (on top of some sudden major diarrhea issues that seems to have been encysted small strongyles and sand related, resulting in Panacur Power Pacs and Sand Clear for both the girls), so I gave her several weeks off, then slowly started working her on the lunge line, mostly at the walk with a little bit of trot to try to get her back into shape, but even doing that a few days a week and her lameness came back.  Not real noticeable, but something just wasn't right.  So I certainly didn't want to ride her.  I haven't been on the back of a horse in three months.  I think this is the longest I have ever gone without riding since I first bought Wayne back in 2002.  A little depressing.

But I did get very lucky, since the vet student that used to board with us (and who's wife used to use Lady for riding lessons one day a week), got Lady into MSU for me for the musculoskeletal rotation he was on.  That was pretty exciting!  Lady went up to MSU for the day, and Jesse and the rest of the students in his group went over her from head to toe.  Basically a full lameness exam.  Flexion tests, movement on straight lines and circles on hard and soft surfaces, nerve blocks to pin point painful spots, and about 50 x-rays of her knees, hocks, and front feet, and consultation with the two vets overseeing the students.  And since it was a learning experience for the students, I didn't have to pay a dime for any of it!!! 

What did we learn?  She has some pretty good arthritis in her left knee that was causing the lameness I was seeing.  So I'm now three for three on screwed up left knees.  At least Lady's most likely isn't from getting kicked in the knee like Wayne and Cody, it's probably just wear and tear, but still, what are the odds?  Apparently I have no luck when it comes to knees.  Makes me scared to even think about ever own another horse someday, at least not while I'm still having to board anyway.

So when our vet came out a couple weeks ago to do vaccines, we injected Lady's knee to see if that would make her a little more comfortable.  It seems to have helped, but then I haven't done much with her lately, either haven't had the time with doctoring Cody, or this rotten weather has left me unenthused about doing much of anything.  I did work her on the lunge line for a bit on Sunday, but that didn't go as well as I would have liked.  My intention was just to walk and a little trot, but Lady had her barrel horse brain on and was a complete dork ripping around at the canter and cross canter, head tossing and galloping a couple times for a good 10 minutes before she finally settled down to her normal self.  She looked and was moving great!!!  But was very sore the next day.  Maybe this weekend I'll get her back out and try again.

Thankfully her hock arthritis doesn't look any worse now than it did from the x-rays taken a year ago of her hocks.  For now, I skipped injecting her hocks, since last summer she did pretty good on them, and if old man winter would just GO AWAY, I think that would be a big help too.  But we'll see.  She'll be 17 this year too, and from the history we've been able to piece together of her life before I got her, she seems to have been used pretty hard at a young age, so I guess it's to be expected. 

But hopefully I can at least keep Lady trail sound.  And pray that I can get Cody healed up and sound again.  These last 5 months have been really tough.....

So to keep this from being a completely depressing blog entry, some pictures of what the girls have been up to lately......

Cody gets some love tonight from sweet Miles (be sure to check him out at Miles On Miles):

Thoroughbred Kisses

Lady finally got some shipping boots of her very own, instead of always having to wear Wayne's pony shipping boots, which really were way too small for her!  And she got to try them out on her trip to MSU!



Cody is determined there is grass under that snow somewhere if she just digs far enough!

The girls discover the new mirrors in the indoor arena!  Lady was a little puzzled....then curious.....then didn't really care, she took it in true Lady form.  She's so darn cute!

Hey, that looks like me?!?!

Who's that pretty Lady?

Cody was a bit more dramatic.  Typical of Cody.  She did the stop dead and whip the head around with a bug eyed stare, then had to go check herself out.

Whoa, who the heck is that?!?!?!

Mirror mirror on the wall.....

Room with a view?

A little post I had written on my lunch hour at work back in November.  I had intended to post it after I got home from the barn that night, but that was the night I discovered Wayne's knee was giving out, and I knew I had to put him down.  So I was far too upset to even think about posting.  I found it while cleaning out my email today, so thought that I would share.  I still miss that little bugger........

Room with a view?

Unfortunately, no, Wayne's stall doesn't have a window to the outside world. The only stalls with windows are the ones across the aisle from him, and the windows are a little too high up for him to see out anyway.


Airs above the ground?

Not that that would stop him from looking out it, if his behavior in the past is any indication! The window in his stall when we boarded at Scheid's was too high for him to look out, but that didn't matter. If the window's too high, just stand up to look out it! I can't count the number of times he'd hear something outside, and go check his window, which gave him a nice view of the pasture. It was a pretty comical sight to see Wayne standing on his hind legs, front legs tucked and resting against the wall for balance, while he peered out the window to keep tabs on things. Of course, I never had a camera handy when I needed it.

But I guess when you're short, you find ways to make up for it. A little too smart for his own good at times. When he was stuck inside because somebody was turned out in the pasture at Scheid's that he couldn't be out with, it wasn't uncommon for him to stand straight up and pop his head up over the top of the wall to try to see what was going on in the pasture from time to time. Or, since they had open front stalls, he'd stand up on his hind legs, rest his tucked front legs against the top of the stall front, and hang his head out into the aisle to try to get a better look outside. Use the window to check one side of the pasture, hang out into the aisle to check the other side of the pasture. That one used to freak people out, because they always thought he was trying to jump out of his stall! Freaked me out the first few times too, till I figured out he was just having a look outside, then going back about his business.


Two step anyone?



I should have made him a trick pony. He can do a pretty nice Levade, just not on cue. Not only is he good at standing up, but he used to be good at kneeling down too. I haven't seen him do it much in the past 3 or 4 years, I think because of his bad knee, but in the past it wasn't uncommon to see him kneeling all the way down on his knees and reaching his head as far under the fence as possible to eat, because the grass is always greener on the other side! When his previous owner still had him and kept him in a tie stall, Wayne discovered the hole in the front of his stall under his manger by the floor, and we often caught him kneeling down and reaching through that hole to help himself to the hay on the other side. There was never any chaff laying on the floor in front of his stall. It was always licked clean in a nice little semi circle around that hole!

So probably a good thing he doesn't have a window in his stall right now! Just the hay door in the bars so he can hang his head out in the aisle to see what's going on.

I didn't do anything.....

What Legend Is Your Horse?

I found this website in one of my horse magazines, and had to check it out!

What Legend Is Your Horse?

Wayne:

Lady:

Cody:

Lady, Where Is Your Brain Today?

Lady definitely had a not so typical Lady kind of day yesterday. Yes, even the most quiet steady eddie has one of those days from time to time. Thankfully for Lady, they are usually few and far between, maybe one or two a year, but yesterday was definitely one of them. Not really sure why, but I think she checked her brain at the arena door and picked it up on the way out.

Saddled her up yesterday and headed to the indoor arena with both of my girls. I usually take Cody with us and tie her up along the wall while I work Lady. Good tying and patience practice for Cody, she used to be a bad puller and a very impatient horse when tied, usually standing there digging to China the whole time. She's gotten MUCH better over the years, but still, might as well kill two birds with one stone and train both girls at the same time. It usually draws some odd questions or comments from newer boarders that aren't used to me doing this. I mean, why on earth would you tie your lame unridable just had knee surgery horse up in the arena while you ride the sound one? I usually just shrug and say "Moral support for Lady."


Fall 2010

But anywho, we made it to the indoor arena and tied Cody in her usual spot, then walked over to close the monster heavy overhead door that usually requires my entire 125 pounds hanging off it to eventually get it pulled down. Lady's bug eyed stare and steps backward as I wrestled with the overhead door should have been my first indication that she'd checked her brain at the door. Score a point for my mecate reins, Lady was able to take a couple steps back to a "safe distance" and I still had plenty of lead line draped over my arm in case she did decide to take off so I could continue wrestling with the door, which was particularly stubborn yesterday.

Door finally closed, I discovered someone had left a jump set up kind of close to the wall. No biggie, but I decided to move it so I could work on the rail without having to squeeze between jump and wall and risk getting my knees banged into something every time I went by. So lead line draped over my arm, I set the rails down on the ground. Lady took a step back. I picked up one of the jump standards to carry it out of the way, and Lady freaked. Big snort, eyes wide, flying backwards several steps. Another point for the mecate reins, Lady retreated to a safe distance and I still had ahold of her and the jump standard. And it's obvious now that Lady is definitely having one of those really rare off days, because I can't count the number of times I have picked up and/or dragged those jump standards around to move them out of the way with her lead line just draped over my arm or shoulder because they require two hands to move, and Lady following along behind me like a half asleep puppy dog. And while she did follow along behind me, it was at a very bug eyed distance, making full use of that 12 foot of mecate lead line, no half asleep puppy dog yesterday!

One standard moved, and we go get the second one, and same reaction when I picked it up. Ok, I should probably desensitize her to it at this point, but those standards are way too blasted heavy to stand there picking them up over and over to desensitize my horse, and I realize Lady is just having one of those rare off days, she'll most likely be over it and be back to her old self next time I have to do this, like she normally does when she has a bad day, but if she's not, I'll worry about it then rather than throwing my back out lifting these heavy things when it probably won't even phase her on any other day. Pick your battles.


Winter 2006

So standards moved, and we headed back to move the rails, which I decided to leave down as ground poles along the wall for her to walk and trot over. I picked one pole up to move it where I want it, and Lady spooks. I picked the other pole up and moved it, and Lady spooks. This could be an interesting ride. I walked Lady up to one of the poles and she's watching it wearily, and as soon as her front feet get about a foot away from it, her eyes go wide, and she's rocked back on her haunches and shifting lightly on her front feet, standing there like a cutting horse waiting for a cow to move. Ok Lady, now this is getting a bit silly. Eventually she reaches down to sniff it, snorting at it loudly, and when her snorting blew dirt on it, she went flying backwards again. OMG, it made a noise!!! Well, good thing I didn't get out the tarp to work with like I had considered doing, that would have really blown her mind!

Ok, time to pull out the Clinton Anderson groundwork and get her using the thinking side of her brain! And score another point for the mecate reins, I don't need to go get a lunge line out of the barn, because I already have a 12 foot one in my hand! So we work on lunging for respect and the sending exercise over the ground poles. At first she was stopping wide eyed in front of the pole every time, then jumping over it, then she'd finally keep going, but would still jump over it, eventually she was finally tip toeing over them, making sure to lift her feet extra high.

Eventually she pretty well clamed down about the ground poles, thinking rather than reacting, but I noticed she looked a little foot sore on her front feet. Lady's feet grow like wild fire between trimmings, even in the winter, so my farrier always has to trim her a little on the short side when he does her feet to prevent her from getting just way too long and out of balance between trimmings, and when she doesn't have shoes on in the winter, she can be a little tender footed for a couple days if I don't use her easy boots. She did just get her feet trimmed on Thursday, and I thought she would be ok without her boots, but apparently I was wrong, and her easy boots were down in the barn. Score yet another point for the mecate reins, because there is a certain way you can loop and tie them so that they become a neck rope that won't pull on the bit if the horse pulls back, and enables you to safely tie your horse with a bridle on. So mecate rigged up for tying, I tied Lady to the wall next to Cody and headed off to the barn to get her easy boots, grumbling the whole way because, in my opinion, easy boots are anything but easy to put on, but I haven't found any other boots that work on her feet without rubbing her raw.

As I returned to the arena with "easy" boots in hand and the tools required to up them on with (hoof pick and nylon strap), I started talking to let the girls know I'm coming, because Cody tends to spook if the people door suddenly flies open unexpectedly. Well, this time it was Lady who did the spook in place and bug eyed stare when the door opened, while Cody merely shifted her head to look then went back to her nap, one back foot still cocked. Maybe Cody's holding Lady's brain for her today?

Ten minutes and a few curse words later, and Lady was finally sporting her easy boot epics on her front feet and looking more comfortable as she moved. But in the time it had taken to retrieve her boots and put them on, and get on her back, the ground poles had apparently grown teeth again. Seriously, Lady?!? Score still another point for the mecate reins as back down to the ground I go, unlooping the lead line from the saddle horn, and back to the groundwork we went.

Summer 2004

Eventually I got back on her, and had a decent short little ride, though she was still a little extra attentive of those ground poles every time we went over them, but she kept her theatrics in check. Even still, I didn't do too much with her in the saddle. Mainly some flexing, some collecting at the walk and trot, some backing (as long as we weren't backing too close in the direction of those evil ground poles, then her feet got a little glued to the ground), and trotted some of the clover leaf pattern. But her brain obviously wasn't there yesterday, so wasn't much point in doing too much with her, she'd already worked quite a bit on the ground, and I do have to be careful of the arthritis in her hocks, she's not a spring chicken anymore.

So again standing at a bug eyed distance as I rolled my eyes at her and wrestled and grunted to open the overhead door, we collected Cody and headed for the barn. And I guess she found her brain again upon exiting the arena, because she was back to her old self in the barn, standing there half asleep, back leg cocked as I unsaddled, took off her polos and put her blanket back on. So I guess it was just one of those odd days for Lady. I hope so anyway, since she has a riding lesson to give tonight!

Oh Lady, you're such a silly girl sometimes!

Where's Lady?

Over the past few months my mares have been up in the front pasture by the barn owners house, the furthest possible pasture you can get from the barn. And since the barn and indoor and outdoor arenas sit well back from the house, it's a bit of a hike up there to go get the girls to bring them down to the barn to feed them and do whatever else I need/want to do that night, and then another hike back up to the pasture to put the girls back out and return their halters to the barn. Ok, call me lazy, but the worse the weather gets, the more I hate that hike up to the front pasture. Believe me, it's no fun in the pouring rain, mud, whipping wind, snow, and I've been dreading making that trip every day this winter, through snow and ice and unplowed/half plowed snow drifted driveway. And it's not like I'm one of those boarders who only comes out to see their horse once a week or less, I'm there every day, because I live two miles down the road and I grain my horses and give them their supplements myself every day, so it's a two round trips daily trek that was getting more and more annoying the worse the weather got. At least Cody is in the barn now and individual turnout near the barn because of her knee surgery, but Lady is still up in the front pasture, and the other day I couldn't feel my fingers and my face was hurting by the time I made it back to the barn with Lady, and that was wearing plenty of layers, snow suit, and carhart.

Yesterday my husband and I went down to the barn in the morning to check on Lady, because it had been pouring rain all night, and the lead mare in that pasture doesn't share the shelter with anyone, so I knew Lady had been standing out in the rain all night, and I had a feeling her winter blanket was most likely soaked. And sure enough her blanket was soaked and she was wet and shivering. So we dried her off and put her in her other winter turnout blanket and headed back home, we'd be back later in the evening to feed them. And since bad weather was rolling in, we decided to save ourselves at least one trip up and back to the pasture, and put Lady's halter in the truck so we already had it with us when we came back later.

Lady - 2007

 Rain turned to snow and after dinner we struck out into the blizzard to go check on Lady (Cody stayed in yesterday so her knee wrap stayed dry) and get the girls fed. It was definitely one of those high winds, whipping and drifting snow, ice underneath, white out, can't see much of anything, 4WD kind of nights. So we pull in the driveway and my husband jumps out with Lady's halter as I drop him off at the front pasture, and I proceed to drive down to the barn. He'll go get Lady out of the pasture and bring her down to the barn, while I get their grain ready.


So I get their grain all ready to go, and still no husband and Lady. I'm beginning to wonder what's taking so long, since my horses usually meet you at the gate and Lady knows my truck. But still no husband and Lady. It's then that the barn owner tells me she just moved all the horses around before I got there, and Lady is now over in the pasture on the other side of the driveway and the herd of geldings now have access to the front pasture. Great, so my poor husband is up there in the dark in the snow trying to find Lady and she's not even in that pasture anymore! And I can just picture him going "Where the heck is Lady and where did all these extra horses come from?"

I called his cell phone, he had left it at home. I decide to walk up there, but the blast of wind and snow in the face as soon as I walked out of the barn had me jumping back in the truck and driving back up to the front pasture. As I get there, my husband is leading a horse out of the gate, and as I get out of my truck and the flood light up there finally turns on, I hear him say "You're not Lady!" and he puts the horse back in the pasture. Nope, that's not Lady, that's Waylon!

The poor guy had been up there looking for Lady, and since it was dark and blowing snow, he was looking for the big white blaze with a blanket, because when we were there in the morning, the big white blaze without a blanket was Cheyenne and the big white blaze with a blanket was Lady. So he found the big white blaze with a blanket, put a halter on it, headed for the gate, and realized he had the wrong horse.

Lady, Cheyenne, and Cody - 2009

Well, at least he realized he had the wrong horse before he made it all the way to the barn. Which did almost happen last winter, when he went out into the dark pasture to get Lady, and realized when he got halfway to the barn that he had Cheyenne instead of Lady. But then it's not to hard to mix those two up, they're similar in build, size, and color, they both have a big white blaze, and when Cheyenne wears a blanket in the winter, they both have purple blankets, so in the dark, they do look an awful lot alike, even I've had to do a double take sometimes, along with Cheyenne's owners. And while Waylon is actually black, in a dark pasture, he's similar in size, build, and blaze as Lady and Cheyenne.

So I guess the moral of the story is, if you find a big white blaze in the pasture in the dark, check their feet and count the socks to see who you've got. Four white feet is Cheyenne, two white feet is Waylon, and no white feet is Lady!

Of course, once he got in the right pasture, he found Lady without much trouble, but actually catching her was another story. With so many horses having been moved around all at once in a snow storm, they were all riled up! But eventually he got her caught and we finally got her in the barn. So much for saving on time out in the elements!

So last night at the barn was an adventure, but we survived, and I'm so glad the mares got moved to that other pasture now that winter is here full force! The gate to that pasture is much closer to the barn. And the shelter in that pasture is bigger and so much safer than the shelter in the front pasture, so hopefully Lady (and eventually Cody too) will have shelter this winter, since it will be a little harder for Cheyenne to hog the whole thing to herself. And they managed to share that shelter last year, so hopefully they'll share it ok again this year!

Shavings and Wool Coolers Don't Mix!

Haven't heard from the vet yet, so still no x-ray results.  Hopefully tomorrow or Monday.

Thankfully the water was turned back on this afternoon (and Richie waterers all install, yes, I don't have scrub water tanks for the pastures my horses are in anymore, but that's another story), and so Wayne got a mini bath.  Mainly just washed his legs down good, and did a quick scrub of belly, flanks, and shoulders.  Not warm enough to do a full bath, though that would have been nice.  He stinks.  I'll have to towel the rest of him down tomorrow.  I definitely prefer dirt floor stalls since they drain so much better than these cement floor stalls with rubber mats that don't drain at all.  Another note for the "someday when I get my own place" list of things that work better than others!

But anywho, bundled him up in his wool cooler after his bath, and towel dried his legs as best I could, then put him in his stall to let him dry some more, before I could rebandage his legs.  He dug into his haycubes for a while, while my husband and I fed the girls and hung a tie ring in the rafters of his stall to hang one of those lickit stall toys from.  Then he decided to lay down for a 15 minutes break.......still wearing his wool cooler.  Oh no! 

Holy shavings stuck to cooler when he got up!  Little bugger, but he's so darn cute, you just can't be mad at him for it.  Cody rolled in shavings one time with that wool cooler on, and it took me forever to get all the shavings off it.  Discovered that a rubber curry comb worked pretty well to remove shavings from wool, so didn't take too long to get all the shavings off of him.  At least he didn't roll like Cody did, so it was only shavings on one side instead of both.

Got to try out my new no bow wraps that came in the mail yesterday.  All the no bows I've ordered or bought around town have been hardly worth the price, they're all just paper thin and wrinkle easy while trying to wrap them, in the end I think my quilts have more padding and wrinkle less.  But I decided to try the no bows from Big Dee since I had to order some other stuff from there, and I have to say, their no bow wraps ROCK!  Thicker than the quilts and much thicker than the other no bows I have, but thinner than the pillow wraps, perfect thickness for plenty of padding under standing wraps and no wrinkles while wrapping!  I will definitely be ordering more at some point.  So if you need good no bows, check out Big Dee Tack!

Hmmmmm......beginning to think this blog should be called "Wayne's World".  Poor Lady and Cody!

Pig Pen

Brought Cody in from the pasture tonight, and she was pretty much head to toe caked on mud.  Oh yeah, when Cody does mud, she cakes it on REAL good! 

Kate, one of the boarders at the barn that lives in the apartment there and does riding lessons, had just got done with one of her lessons, and the two little girls had just finished up untacking and brushing out Lady and Kate's horse Cheyenne when they noticed a very mud covered Cody. 

They were like aren't you going to brush her out?  I'm looking at Cody going...ah....no.  I'm not touching her!  Maybe tomorrow after some of the mud falls off.  Yes, bad horse mom I know, but I'm also allergic to horses (yeah, fun, and I own three of them, never used to be until a couple years ago), so brushing that mud mess would have me paying for it for a couple days.  No thanks, Cody can stay muddy!

So they wanted to brush her!  You don't want to brush her, believe me!  It's not fun!  But for two horse sick little girls, a filthy Cody was no big deal.  So their mom's said yes, and they went to work.  It was all they could do to reach the top of her back and rump, she's a little tall for them, but they didn't care.  They curried and curried and curried, and there stood Cody with the most comical look on her face, a little girl on each side brushing up a storm, and this cloud of dust rolling around the three of them that made me think of Pig Pen from the Peanuts!  But she was nice and clean when they got done!!




The girls with Lady (left) and Cheyenne (right) at one of the fun shows at the barn this year.