Gratefulness

I had a bunch of miscellaneous thoughts this week as I made my daily barn trips. Tonight I realized that they could all be grouped under the heading "gratefulness":

To Dude and Bestie for always giving me a nicker when I arrive, and for providing warm fuzzy necks to lean against and ground me after a rough day.

To Amanda, who is riding Bestie for me while my knee is messed up. I had a chance (finally!) to watch her on Bestie this week and it was an awesome sight. Looks like we got a little Western pleasure pony on our hands ... who woulda thought?

To the barn folk today for watching the skies and getting the horses out for a few hours and back in before the weather turned positively yucky. As I told them, I was positively stressed because I got stuck at work late, so I drove to the barn in a steadily increasing state of horse mom guilt, weighing my desperate need to regain mental health at yoga with the fact that the horses would have been cooped up and need to be walked. Miracle! They'd gone out. Guilt gone, replaced by supreme gratefulness to barn friends.

Back in the saddle, kind of

So I hit the 8 week mark after my knee injury two days ago. Well, actually it was the eight week mark after I reinjured my knee by twisting it in a garden divot exactly one week after the initial injury on July 16. The orthopedist had said to take it easy for about 8 weeks. And I have been good - only in the last week have I gotten out and walked for exercise on local roads; prior to that it had been all "safe" indoor cycling and walking on a track after the pain and stiffness had diminished.

My knee has really been feeling pretty good, so today I thought, "What the heck. I'm gonna get on Dude." More than anything I was worried about swinging my right leg up and over the saddle. Part of the fall-out from limping for four weeks was a resulting tightness in my right hip flexor; I still can't sit cross legged and have both knees pointing out evenly. There's just not much flexibility in my right hip.

I knew Dude would be good - you can count on him to behave even when no one has been on his back for a month (or longer). I got him lined up next to the mounting block, swung my right leg over, and my hip felt fine. Whew. I only walked him around for about 5 minutes, because I could feel the stretch in my right knee - that in-the-saddle position is one the knee hasn't been in in a l-o-n-g time. So I didn't want to push my luck, and I will see how it feels tomorrow. Those few minutes in the saddle felt really nice. :)

It's been a muddy week

Dude loves to roll - absolutely positively loves to roll. In the winter when I walk him in the indoor arena, at times he barely gets his big butt through the door before he drops and rolls. Right now he's up in a paddock that almost always has a wet spot down the middle of it, so of course that's the spot he picks.

On Tuesday night this past week I got to the barn late after a meeting, so it was probably about 7:45 when I walked into the barn to be greeted by a large mud ball with legs. He had mud everywhere ... on his tail, on the backs of his ears, and everywhere in between. It was on thick. He must've had a really good roll that day.

By the time I got done cleaning him up, I felt like my right arm was about to fall off. I was reminded of Charlie Brown's friend Pig Pen, the one with the dust clouds floating about him. That's the way it looked in the barn aisle around Dude, and I took the photos after the first pass on his left side. A couple of curries on each side, then the dust settled, and there was a lovely Quarter Horse-sized oval of dirt on the aisle mat. I think I've been through this process at least three times this week, although that night was definitely the worst.

Neighbors

These guys recently became residents of the field across the road from the barn, where the sugarhouse is. They are Highland cattle. I love them; they just have the cutest faces and those horns are totally amazing. When we went to the fair a couple weeks ago, there was one getting groomed for showing. The owner had what looked like a leaf blower and he was blowing out the cow's coat, which was positively luxurious, as the cow stood there placidly looking around. Quite the scene. Tonight I felt a little bad taking their picture, because I think they came to the gate because they got all hopeful that it was feeding time.

They arrived on the scene maybe a month ago, when there were a bunch of horses that were temporarily in the same field. These were a group of horses that were unaffiliated with our barn. In fact, they were tough-guy horses, big drafts for the most part, and they stayed out 24/7 eating the scrub, unlike the prince and princess ponies in the barn who get brought in and out every day, and get treats, and grain and hay on a regular schedule. I wish I had taken their picture. They were so big and muscular that I imagined them staring across the road at the barn horses in their paddocks and thinking, "Pansies. We could so kick their butts."

But back to the Highland cattle. One night there was a bad storm, and the furry cows disappeared. They had broken through the fence in a corner of the field, and barn owner Larry finally tracked them down at a neighbors' place. The tough horses left one day, so the Highlands have the big field to themselves. I'm happy they're back. Just something cool and cute to check out on my daily barn trips.

Fly prevention

Our barn uses fly predators, and this was my first whole summer there, so I really couldn't comment on whether the fly predators were as effective this year as in previous years. All I know is that suddenly this week, the flies seem to be all over in the barn, with lots of tail swishing and leg stomping going on with Dude and Bestie. So when I read this story about how pennies in a bag of water can deter flies, I was like, hmmmmmm. Actually, my first reaction was "What???? How can that possibly work???" But, if it does work, it only costs pennies! www.botanicalanimal.com