Bits and pieces

Time for a bunch of random items.

I just realized I never posted these photos of our beautiful tree in the tack room and the horses' stockings. Every horse in the barn had a stocking; super cute. Christmas already seems ages ago. I still have their candy canes; maybe I'll break them up in a bran mash.

My winter resolution is to do a bran mash for them each week until late March when the weather warms. New Year's Day was mash #1. It was enthusiastically received. :)

My other resolution is to work with Dude on core exercises. We started tonight with carrot stretches. I'm using the book Activate Your Horse's Core, which comes with a DVD - very useful to see the exercises demonstrated.

Dude lost a shoe in the snow this week. I'm debating whether to leave him shoeless for the winter as he's still rehabbing and I won't be riding him. He's only got front shoes. Farrier Scott will check him out on Tuesday and we'll see what he thinks.

Do you sweat or smile when the barn shows up on caller ID?

I guess that, for me, the answer to that question depends on what's been happening lately at the barn. Has there been a run of horsey incidents? Sweat. Everything seemingly going well? Smile. With Dude, for instance, he's been rehabbing from his hip injury, and as I've had recent reports from observant boarders that he's been running in the field, I expected the worse when I got a call from barn owner Julie yesterday. Particularly as the plan was to send him out with a buddy after 4 months on solo turnout. Sweat.

But the call yesterday was to report that they had decided to switch things up, and rather than turn Dude out with a horse who had just arrived, and who he had been visiting with over the fence for a couple days, his new arrangement would be with TC and Skye, two of the most "whatever" geldings in the barn. They're not runners or blanket rippers, they're more like Dude, eat-and-stand-around-ers. So that was good news. I stopped sweating, and went back to smiling.

Today's project: blanket repair

We just had a great series of days with sun and temperatures in the 40s/50s, but the forecast for today is for steadily dropping temperatures - what better day to do a blanket repair? Actually, it's kind of a cozy project as I've got it spread over my lap while I stitch, slight aroma of equine wafting about the living room. I'm holding the top layer up with one hand while I sew with the other so I don't go through all of the layers and hit my jeans, which *has* happened before. :)

We just got back from a few days away visiting family for Thanksgiving, and I wasn't organized/prepared to convert from turnouts to blankets after our return yesterday. Consequently, Bestie is out today in her other  blanket, but no turnout because I forgot to bring the bigger one to the barn and the one she was wearing is a wee bit snug over a blanket. So I'm sewing away as I fully expect the one she has on today is going to be a mess and I'll need to swap out. I absolutely love this one: a) the tartan plaid looks so cute on her, and b) we bought it used from friends and it still looks new - after 8-plus years. It's made by Saratoga Horseworks, whose blankets when new honestly are out of my budget, but they do seem to be constructed to last. Quality is long remembered after price is forgotten, as our dear friend Jim J. loves to say (but would NEVER EVER EVER apply to anything having to do with horses!).

Dude the cat whisperer

Suddenly the barn kitties have started hanging out in Dude's stall in the evenings. A couple nights ago it was the black cat, and even when I shooed him out, he kept coming back into the stall. That was odd because normally they're fairly skittish. Last night two of the gray and white cats approached his door while he had his stall guard up and -photo opp but I didn't have the camera- he reached his nose down to them, so cute. This kitty tonight kept trading corners, first the right then the left side of the stall, all the while staring at the wall intently. Does Dude have a mouse family living in his wall? Maybe it's not his cat whispering powers or magnetic personality that are drawing the kitties in.

Bestie, hangin' at the gate

Barn friend Michelle is back in town for a bit, called in as back-up while our barn owners enjoy a vacation. Michelle was taking lessons at the barn when I first moved Dude and Bestie there. She is bubbly and talkative and a lot of fun. She now lives in Hawaii, and when she comes back to town she brings tons of goodies - so far we've enjoyed coffee covered macadamia nuts, macadamia caramel clusters, guava cookies, wasabi peas, macadamia caramel popcorn ... a different wonderful treat magically appears on the tack room table each day! Michelle seems to really enjoy the horses and their personalities, and snapped this pic of Bestie during the work day; I'm not sure if Bestie was at the gate to keep tabs on the comings and goings or because it was turn-in time. She does sorta have that "Hellooooo, The Princess wants to come in" look.

Dude gets rechecked

Yesterday Dr. Kim of Animal Health Options came back to town to make her rounds and she rechecked Dude. I trotted him out for her and although he was still off on the right rear she felt he was definitely moving better and he looked pretty good. She also used her thermal camera to look at all the same areas she checked the first time, and while there was still heat in his right hind, it wasn't nearly as bad as when she was first out. There was also some heat showing in his left hind from compensation.

Following the original plan, Dude still has another month on solo turnout, and then I guess we'll check him again. Kim said she'd recommend some herbs if it seemed like he was going to go out with his buddies and mess around; something to take the edge off, presumably. She also recommended that I do some core work with him to strengthen him for when he does go out and return to work, for stabilization and better management of his body. He's long backed and heavy and not the most agile of horses, so core work I'm sure would be beneficial (maybe Dude and I both can go on a program!). The book she recommended is "Activate your horse's core" by Narelle Stubbs and Hilary Clayton. I like the fact that it's a book/dvd set and there are a few good reviews on Amazon, but with a $54 price tag I'm going to have put that purchase off for a couple weeks.

He was chiropracted ... with much unnecessary drama just because he is a big baby. As with shots, he basically reacts to the vet's approach and then relaxes when he's actually being treated.

I had taken Dude off bute a  bit over a week ago because he seemed to be getting cranky with me when I curried his stomach, and I thought he might be bothered by the bute. He's been on a dose every other day since July, so it's been a long course. Now he's just on the  Horsetech OptiMSM and Glanzen GL (lite), vitamin E, Equilite's probiotics, and rice bran.

Fingers crossed that he continues to make progress.

Rain rain go away

We've had a stretch of wet weather. The horses lost one day of turnout last week, but it's been raining so much over the last couple days that the fields are a mess and they'll be staying in tomorrow. Last night I arrived to find mud caked horses. I love how they look at me, filthy yet all perky, like "What?"

Dude is usually just muddy on one side since he doesn't roll from side to side and rarely drops twice to hit both sides. Bestie, on the other hand ...

This is what was left on the barn aisle floor after I groomed them tonight - a nice grey dust circle and bunches of mud and gravel from their hooves. Nice dark circle in the middle where they were standing and blocking the flying dust!