Ride n roll

Took a town ride the other day; one of my friends has her horse on a town acreage and I wanted to show her a ride she could do in town that takes you up to the radio tower hill where you can overlook the whole beautiful valley. 

It sure was another nice day for riding. 

Gussie was a pain to load again; she does try my patience! And once again she loaded perfectly for the trip home. 

Moondance is turning into a real sweetheart. When he sees me coming he moseys over to where I am- and I mean mosey! This is what a "mosey" looks like:

Nonchalantly strolling up, head swinging from side to side, not a care in the world! 

However this evening I took him out to go for a walk, and I noticed this:

What now! Has the wonder year started before he is even 5 months old?  I inspected and found that he lost some hide up on the inside of his thigh and scuffed his other  leg too. So I did a little CSI work...\

and it looks like Moondance rolled right next to the fence and hooked his legs through the second from the bottom wire. Which by the way, is hooked to the hotwire.... . Pulled out one staple which I haven't found yet. This wire is neither high tensile nor barbed, so the damage is minimal, just some hair and a bit of hide missing.  

This is what the fence looks like after I fixed it; Now Moondance, don't be rolling there any more!

He stood really well for hosing it down .

I tightened the wire and replaced the staple. I think he will be a little wary of it in the future- this is him as I was working on the fence:

He's no worse for the wear, although I do think he may be a little stiff tomorrow.

Riding day 43

Blow you old Blue Norther

The wind was picking up last night around dark; at 5 am it woke me up because the tin on our roof was lifting and banging, pretty sure there will be some screws loose! Everything seemed ok though as I looked outside. But I didn't look well enough. There are 2 willow trees behind out house. Well there were; now there is 1.

I used to hang my hammock between those 2 trees and enjoy the shade from their canopy and the view of the mountains on a hot summer afternoon.  Sigh.

But that wasn't the worst of it. See that trailer behind the tree? Our neighbour lives there and he has a good view of the horse pens; he called and told us the horse shelter was down. Of course I panicked thinking I was going to have  injured horses so I rushed down there and was so relieved to see all 3 of them walk to me with not a scratch on them. They were calm too. 

The shelter on the other hand, is a goner.

I could see hoof marks on what used to be the roof, and horsey nose squiggles; Drifter had to inspect!

Totally flattened! (Can I say yay?) Now I will finally get a real shelter instead of a makeshift one! Ted may have someone who will take the remnants of this one to build a pig barn.

For now, I have moved them into the foaling area where they can have shelter and enough room until we can get this mess cleaned up. 

A little excitement and schooling Rio

One of my side jobs is dog-sitting, and we have an old Cocker Spaniel with us for a few days. I had him tied out in the yard when Shayla brought Rio out today. We thought Rio had spotted old BillyRay, and she was tying Rio at the hitching rail when he spooked- went up and over the hitching rail and landed on his side after sort of jumping over it; since the rope was only wrapped and not tied he had a bit of slack but his head was under the rail facing the opposite direction that he had been in.... and then he tried to get up and ended up crawling under the rail. I didn't think he could- but he did! He stopped when I hollered Whoa! What happened is that the old dog was lying still when Rio walked past him, and when he was at the rail, the dog, now behind Rio, got up and moved and totally startled Rio. There was no harm done, just a little bit of hair missing on a front leg that scraped the rail as Rio was going up, and it took about a half hour for his emotions to come back to his normal quiet self. I put some StressAway oil and some Rutavala oil in his nostrils which helped to calm him down.

So, the best thing to work on today was his mind. Some sacking out with the flag, and the lariat, and dragging the rope, working on crossing the tarp, and then backing over the tarp and the poles that hold it down, sidepassing over the tarp, and pretty soon he was ready for another bareback session. This time we worked on having him line up properly with the mounting block. It took a few tries, but he was getting the hang of it.

He did some nice trot work both ways, and then we called it a day. It's always good when a day starts out with a wreck and finishes on a good note. 

While we were working Rio, Beamer and Nitro were having match races up and down the fenceline in their turn out pastures- I didn't get photos, but Dave (Nitro's owner) did, I'll have to see if I can get some from him. I didn't get to see who was winning the races either- I'll find out tomorrow. 

Owwy

There is one problem with taking the horses out to pasture before daylight- you don't get a good look at them. I found an owwy on Beamer this afternoon after work- one of the reasons I didn't notice it  this morning when I put his halter on is that he always yawns just as I go to slip the noseband over. I did take some photos of him in the fog this morning, and downloaded them this afternoon before heading out to do chores. I was wondering what the heck as I looked through the photos of him going full tilt boogie:

Do you see it?

Warning- wound photo below.

Anyway, when I brought him in, this is what I found:

One tetanus shot later, and a vet appointment for tomorrow afternoon. We'll have to cut the big flap on the bottom off as it was much too late to try stitching.I cleaned it out as much as I could and put some Purification oil on it to hold until the vet can clean him up tomorrow. I fear this will alter his lovely profile a little.
Edited to add: After searching his pen for the culprit, the only thing I could find is a broken root with a sharp edge  right where he rolls. You know how they like to smoosh their face in the dust when they are rolling? Yeah.  I took my splitting maul to it and bust it into smithereens.

Grrrr!

Well I'm about fit to be tied.

What do I have to do, bubble wrap this horse?????? This is Rio's third wreck. Fortunately the wounds aren't deep. Not sure what sent him through the fence, but I suspect horseflies and a rotten fencepost.

The Wonder Year Begins

Tuesday afternoon, I brought Beamer in with the plan of saddling him up, and ponying Rio, since the two boys get along so well. However, the best laid plans- you guessed it- Murphy stepped in. There oughta be a law against Murphy. Rio didn't come up to me in the pasture like he usually does, and when I got to him I could see why. He had a nasty gash right below his hock, and it had obviously just happened:

The only culprit I could find when I walked the pasture was a large nailhead that I had overlooked; the kind where when you can't get the nail in all the way you bend the nail up. Either that, or he managed to get his leg in the barbwire somehow (have I ever mentioned how much I hate barbwire?) The wound has a deep puncture type centre and ripped skin above the puncture. I washed it out, and put Schreiners on it and wrapped it, but had to take the wrap off about three hours later as there was some swelling. However, by then the bleeding had stopped. Rio proved that he is very much his father's son; he was really wussy about putting weight on that leg, even when I put his feed out he wasn't sure he could walk the three steps to the pail! I also went and got him a tetanus shot, and my friend Terri came and held him for me, as this was his very first shot- but he was a very good boy and didn't even flinch. He is much better today, but I'm giving him stall rest for a few days until the swelling goes away. If you check out the link to Schreiners, be sure to read the testimonials.

After all that drama, I did manage to get in a ride on Beamer- it was fun, and we galloped straight at the setting sun, as it disappeared behind the mountain.

The weather has turned colder and there is 4 inches of snow in the forecast, but I bet it doesn't hit that hard here. I leave you with the last pansy, still bravely blooming as of yesterday.

2 Bads = some good

First- my bad. I am a creature of routine, and when I change my routine, I really have to think about what I'm doing. Every morning, I take the mares out of their pen, leaving the gate open, and put them in their pasture. Then I go get Beamer, and lead him through the open gate through to his pasture, and close both gates behind me. Then I open Rio's gate and let him into the now empty mare pen. Since we have so much mud over the last week, I decided instead of taking Beamer through the mare pen to his pasture, I'd use a different route and gate that kept me and him out of the mud. Then I let Rio into the mare pen, and went to work. And.... you guessed it, I left the mare pen gate open. So when I came home 3 hours later, Rio was happily munching grass next to the mares- but not in with them. They had obviously been ripping around, judging by the sliding stop skid marks in their pasture next to where Rio was. So, I just put him in with them. He didn't try to nurse, so he is truly weaned now, and Belle is dried up. So, I can now put Rio back in with the mares, during the day, but he goes in his own pen at night. I was thinking that morning that it was time to turn him back in with them, funny how things work out.

Kicking up his heels and flagging that yellow tail!

His winter coat is coming in darker.

He's getting really big too. I'll measure him soon.

Helpful Reba, bringing Rio in.

Speaking of Reba, here's the other bad. Sammi has started showing more dominance and aggression in the dog pack. It started at play with the ball- she is now actively going after the ball and taking it away from the other dogs. And when I let them off the porch and they run out and grip each other like border collies do, she has started getting pretty rough. The other day when I came home from work, and they had all been on the porch together, Reba had a couple of nasty wounds right by her eye. Now, another thing collies do to show dominance is to bite right over the muzzle of another dog. Since I know Tess wouldn't do this to Reba, it had to have been Sammi, testing her place in the pack. 

Warning- graphic photo below.

The one on her lower eyelid isn't too bad, but the one in front of her eye went right to the bone and bled for a long time. So now I separate them. Reba gets the porch, and I put Tess and Sammi in the Canine Hilton, and sometimes Sammi by herself. The good part is, that I finally got off my butt and booked Sammi in for evaluation on sheep- putting her to work will give her a focus and channel all that energy. She most likely will be going up for sale, as there is no way I can have sheep at the moment, and I hate to waste a good dog. We'll see how her evaluation goes, she may be more suited for cattle. The last week of the month is when I take her.

Ted update

Just a quick note to say that when we went to the hospital today to get Ted's bandage changed, the Doctor took one look and declared it infected- the end result of which is, they took the stitches out so it could drain and he will be in the hospital until Monday on IV antibiotics.
My Sunday Stills is preset to post, and I'll get back to you all on Monday.

Oh- and Merle was a big hit at the hospital! (Imagine that!)

You just never know....

I had a box of cherries given to me today, and I was all set to can them; I had the hot water bath going, and the light sugar syrup on the stove, and was pricking the cherries with a pin as I'm canning them with the stones in..... when Ted came in the house, and I asked him how things were going. He said "not too good, I almost cut my finger off"- well, I about got whiplash turning around to look at him. Sure enough, he had a bloody rag wrapped around his hand. I looked at the wound, and told him we were going to Emergency to get him some stitches. He had been using a zip cut (a type of grinding disc that fits on an angle grinder, for cutting through metal) and it exploded on him. His left index finger had two long cuts, from knuckle to knuckle. When Ted stood up to head for the car, he collapsed. Out of it. He came to, and tried to walk again, and went unconscious. I called 911 and had the ambulance come down; he was passed out for 7 or 8 minutes, and wasn't really with it for over half an hour.

That's a long time to be out of it. He was so grey, it scared me. You might think it's a lot of fuss over a cut, but it's all the other things that go on in a body that you just don't know about, that might be serious. Like the heart. He did get an ECG, we'll find out more tomorrow.

Didn't think I'd be following an ambulance with my sweetheart in it today...

I must say that the paramedics and the doctor, nurses, and staff at the Creston Hospital were very good, quick and efficient.

11 stitches, one shot in the rump for antibiotics, some pain meds and 3 hours later we were home. 

Safety, safety, safety. Could this have been prevented? Zip cut blades are known to sometimes explode; we know one young man who lost a testicle from this very same thing. Wearing leather gloves, and safety goggles should just be common sense when using a grinder, but I don't know many guys who use them. Listen up guys, you're not invincible, and accidents happen. Operate as safely as possible!

Birds, brat, Beamer and boomers

There is a huge flock of cowbirds here; hundreds and hundreds of them. And one little Kestrel can send them wheeling and hiding. It's quite something to watch; the big flock comes and lands in the trees surrounding our yard, and the Kestrel comes in and skims past the trees, and puts them all to flight. This morning they headed for the fenceline, and then back to the trees.

They are a noisy bunch, but it's not a bad sound, kinda pretty actually.

A certain little boy horse was a baaaaaad boy today. He didn't want to lead this morning, and pitched a little fit, for which he got a twack on the butt- well, he jerked away from me (I found out just how weak my shoulders are; dang arthritis!) and headed straight for the pen where his mama and Gussie are. Actually, the little brat went right through the electric fence and proceeded to drag it down and wrap it around a tree. Sigh. 

Fortunately, Ted was here to help block the mares and I caught them and turned them out in the big mare pasture until I could get their fence fixed. Then I took his nibs over and at least he decided to lead; he got his usual grain and grooming session. Tonight he was as good as gold, I think he finally has it figured out that this leading and tying business isn't so bad when it means having some good stuff to eat. 

I just got a new rain sheet for Beamer, and no sooner had I tried it on him than the temperature dropped and a big ole thunderstorm came a rockin' and a rollin' in, so I left it on him for the night.

He does love his blankets! The storm hit hard, and there was some lovely light so there is silly me dodging about the yard trying for a photo, at the same time trying to cook steaks on the BBQ and watch the season premier of Swamp People. Yep, I'm the queen of multi-tasking!

Velvet update, and doctoring Gussie

Got an email from Kristy, Velvet's new owner, and she sent some really nice photos of Velvet with her new best friend.

Pretty pair of mares! Hopefully, we will get lots of stories as they grow up together. Thanks, Kristy!

Rode Beamer today, and had a really nice ride- which was nice because when I rode him a few days ago he was a little argumentative. My plan was to saddle Gussie next, and pony Rio again. I could see Gussie at the gate , really bothered by face flies, so figured -perfect- won't have to go get her- but as soon as I got up to her I could see that she had a very fresh cut on the inside of the knee on her right front.

Warning- graphic photo coming up.


It had obviously happened within 5 minutes of me seeing it, and I have no idea how she could injure herself in a pasture that looks like this:

The fence is barbwire, with an electric fence a foot or more inside it to keep them away from the wire:

I walked all around the fenceline and could find nothing.  Aside from the cut, she has two scuff marks on the outside of the leg:

One above the knee, and one on the fetlock joint. Here is what the cut looks like:

There is some swelling and heat along the cannon bone and as you can see, she doesn't want to put a lot of weight on it. I cold hosed her, gave her a tetanus shot, and put a bandage on with Dynamite Wound Balm supplemented by some Young Living oils. When I first saw it, I thought maybe she was rolling to get away from the flies, and clipped herself with either a hind foot, or her other front leg when she was getting up. But that doesn't really explain the scuffs on the outside of the leg. And if she had managed to get her leg through the barbwire, it still doesn't explain the scuffs. It's a mystery to me. At any rate, I'll be doctoring her twice a day and I won't be riding her for a while, so I'll come up with other things for Rio to do other than ponying. And Chickory will get more time too.
Speaking of Chickory, any bets that Gussie's bandage will still be on by morning?

Edited to add:

Decided to give Gussie a shot of long acting penicillin. The cut itself is just the skin, but there is a lot of trauma to the leg. It's evening now, and she still favors the leg so I built her a corral panel stall under the shelter (thunderstorms going on) because I don't want the other horses pestering her if she manages to lie down- probably won't, as she doesn't really like to bend that leg. But I gave her some nice deep straw. The bandage only lasted a couple of hours then slid down; pretty hard to wrap a knee. Since it isn't a deep cut, I'll just leave it unwrapped. Early tomorrow before I go to work, I'll cold hose it again, and leave her in the stall for the day. Poor girl! I hate to see my horses hurting.

Hooligans

Yesterday I kept the horses in their pen because of the heavy rain; this morning for turn-out they were having a blast, Belle even kicked up her heels as she galloped along.

Rio was keeping right up with them- I took some video but it didn't turn out so well.
The tree buds are opening now,

and my Bleeding Heart bush has some flower buds forming too. I noticed the Magnolia trees in town have their flowers almost open too, I'll try to get a shot of them if we get some sunshine.
Just when things seem to be going well, of course, something has to happen- warning, graphic photo below.
When I brought the mares in, Chickory had a gash on her neck that spelled barb wire to me- now, I have my electric fence a foot or more inside the fence line to keep them off the barb wire, but they must have been "horsin' around" for this to happen:

It looks worse than it is, it's just the skin that is cut, not the flesh. I 'm not going to get it stitched; I'm treating it by putting egg white all over it. Egg white is a natural antibiotic and seals the wound like dermaplast does.I've had pretty good success using egg white on open wounds. Tomorrow before I turn the girls out I'll take my electric fence tester and check to make sure the fence is working properly.
On Friday, the Barefoot Hoof care provider that did Velvet and Gussie is coming to do the rest of my horses. I had called my regular farrier as I believe in loyalty but he hasn't returned my calls, so Scott is getting all my business now. He and some others have formed the Canadian Barefoot Horse Association and are working on getting training programs in place. I'm happy that now I know my horses are going to be done the way I want them. In all fairness, Matthew was doing a good job, just needed a little more knowledge.
Here's another website Scott told me about: The Soul of a Horse. I've just started to explore it- looks interesting.

Not a good start

Well, there is a way of thinking, that if things start out bad, they can only get better. In that case, this should be a heck of a good year. First of all, our financial situation, that requires me to sell Velvet, is still not good- I really do need to get her sold. Then, Sunday morning I went out to do my morning chores, only to find a new lake in the mare pen- and it's well below freezing! The culprit-

this is on old auto waterer that is defunct, and the leak that sprung up underneath it is deep in the ground..... the frozen ground..... which means that it can't be fixed till spring...... which means that we had to shut off the main water feed to all the stand pipes that service the horse pens.....which means that I now have to deal with 200 feet of hose, which I have to run through the bathroom window and down the hall to hook up to the water tap for the washer.....for the next 4 months.......sigh.....

And since all troubles happen in threes, that same day I managed to leave a frying pan on the burner, with the heat turned on high..... then went out to do chores...... which means I came back in the house to thick smoke and the smoke alarm just screaming- at least I know it works! It took quite a while to disperse all the smoke, air out the house, and use up a can of Febreze trying to get the place to smell bearable. The next day I washed all the walls and washed curtains and towels and anything that smelled smoky. Aaarrrrgh!
Soooo, one of my favorite sayings is, rock bottom is just a place to turn around.

AWOL

Just a quick post on my computer at work; our computer at home crashed, and I haven't been able to visit your blogs- which makes my kinda cranky- just want you to know that I'll catch up with you all as soon as possible! Happy New Year everyone!

Bad Velvet, and a saddle update

Note to self- always give the horses a once-over even if you think nothing is wrong. When I put the mares out this morning, I barely glanced at them. But when I brought them in this evening, I noticed right away that Velvet had a swelling on her neck right behind her jaw, and a bump on her knee.

It looks like she got her head stuck in something and pulled back, banging her knee in the process. There is heat in both places, so I hosed the swellings, dried her as best I could, applied peppermint oil for its anti-inflammatory and analgesic qualities, wished I had some DMSO, and put a blanket on her for the night (cold freezing night!) Well, I guess it was a horse eating blanket at first, but then it was horses eating blanket!

It was thoroughly investigated by Chickory, and she gave it the taste test too.

I wonder if there will be anything left of it by morning? It's a really tough cordura blanket that has survived many horses, so I hope so.

We went to Brian's Saddle Shop on Saturday so Ted could install a stock waterer for them, and I got to see the start of my saddle. The ground seat is under way, and the horn cap is installed. Brian was working on the tooling on the cap. There will be rawhide trim on the horn cap and the cantle.

I played around with the stamps that Brian will be using on it- so please forgive the sloppy job on this sample I made- Brian does it so much better! But it gives you an idea of what the pattern will be. It's the Association basket stamp and a pitchfork border.

Tomorrow I've got some fun Beamer photos for you- if blogger cooperates!

Sunny Sunday drive

What to do on a sunny Sunday? Go for a Sunday drive! After Mass I loaded up the dogs and went for a drive along the eastern shore of Kootenay Lake. I didn't go too far as I"m battling a chest cold so I don't have a lot of energy. The dogs were full of energy though! I found a spot to park and took the dogs down to the water, accompanied by a few thousand mosquitoes. It was swat, throw stick, swat, throw stick, etc. but after 10 minutes I'd had enough, and we headed back.

I grew up on the other end of this lake and have many fond memories of summers spent swimming, and soaking up the sunshine on the beach. If I had driven a little farther I could have found a nice sandy beach, but at least there were no other people here.

I also found the spot where the oil tanker truck that I mentioned in this post crashed and burned. He went over some pretty high cement barriers, down a very steep embankment that has train tracks below it. Burned some nice trees too.