A beautiful by-product of a stormy day

A quick trip to the barn this afternoon just to clean Dude and Bestie up. It had been raining off and on all day, so I knew they'd be muddy. As I was leaving the barn to head home, a beautiful rainbow across the way caught my eye. At first it was really low against the trees and just barely over the sugarhouse ...




Then it seemed to disappear for a bit, but reappeared over the hill ...

Hooves and their issues

It's been a tough spring for the horses' feet. After the snow melted, there was a stretch of time in April when the horses went out onto the muddy pastures. Then the weather pattern shifted into endless rain in May that turned the fields to swamps and came down heavy enough to merit the horses being in for days at a time. While in, they alternated between standing on dirty shavings and standing on clean shavings. Sort of a wet/dry cycle for their feet. And once the rain stopped, they started going back out again, but the fields were still pretty wet.

As a result, Bestie's normally beautiful feet seem to have gotten kind of soft and prone to having chunks along the edge getting pried upward by rocks, and eventually chipping off. That's what happened to the spot in the photo above; it was a like a piece about an inch and a half long bent upwards, then eventually broke off. Her feet are about the ugliest I've ever seen them around the edges. Luckily she still has good frogs. I'm thinking about putting shoes on her front feet for the summer, both to protect the edges and because the rocks on the paths to the paddocks are hard on her soles, as are any rocks that are on the road when we ride.

Dude's feet aren't too bad around the edges, but his frogs are close to nonexistent, especially in the back, where he doesn't have shoes on. It's like they've gotten spongey from the wet ground and have just peeled away. Pretty yucky. I'm not sure what else to do other than try to keep them cleaned out and keep his stall as clean as possible.

Fingers crossed that we return to a dryer weather pattern that helps the ponies get their good feet back soon.

Chatting with Dude

One of the treasures unearthed as my daughter has been cleaning her room were the notes from a psychic's visit to the barn to talk with the horses. The notes were taken by by the psychic's sister, who spent hours sitting beside her in the tack room as a procession of people anxious for insights into their horses' thinking came and went.

I'm going to type the notes exactly as they are written on the folded up page of legal paper that Katie found. Even though the punctuation is sporadic and the notes are choppy, it's pretty easy to tell which comments are observations by the psychic and which comments she was passing along to us as made by Dude. I'll just preface this by saying that there was no conversation about Dude between us and the psychic before she talked with him. All we told her was his name. The conversation occurred in March 2005, many months after Dude had suffered a significant hip injury and was confined to his stall with exercise limited to handwalking. The psychic began each session with a rundown of the aches and pains the horse communicated to her.

Dude: Physical discomforts - Right side of mouth all the way in the back. Left hind from ankle down. Right front bottom of hoof.

Personality: "Charlie Sheen."
Dude says he is everybody's. Getting some sadness - "I'm not doing my job." He feels like he let you down. I used to be important!
Show me his person: Showing you bigger than he is - You are in control. You can count on him.

He is a little ticked off. "I used to go out." You don't come often enough. Doesn't like his neighbor. A lot of complaining - told him why he is in his stall.

He has a really nice jog - keeps his head down.

What does he say about Katie?
You have a nice back. Your left foot tends to drift back. You have good hands. He likes going counterclockwise. Katie wants to lean to the left.

He is a bit heavy on the forehand.
Doublebeating.
Transition from trot is not good.
He is good.

What does he like to do best?
Eat.
Where was he happiest?
Showing himself at age 2-3.

He would be a great mayor/greeter. A little depressed.

Reading the notes, years after this session, I can still remember how blown away we were by the comments on his perceived lack of importance, and depression, given what had been happening with his injury. Katie and I both got teary eyed about it. The whole period after he hurt his hip was a long haul ... no turnout, cranky horse cooped up, teenager trying to get to the barn every day and hand walk him and graze him, not knowing if he'd come back from the injury.

I also remember that we were both a bit perplexed by the "Charlie Sheen" description (even more so now!). The session was fascinating, as were the others that we ended up sitting in on and listening to. My favorite line from our session? "You can count on me." He's a good boy. And Katie is definitely "his" girl.