December at the barn

I took this photo of the barn holiday decorations a few weeks ago and am just getting around to posting it. The decorations made the front entryway to the barn look very festive.

Each horse had a little stocking on the tree in the tack room with a candy cane tucked inside. So nice!

We experienced some crazy weather in December. Rain, sleet, snow ... and a combination of all three on the weekend prior to Christmas, followed by a deep freeze that made the paddocks into skating rinks. The horses were in for a week. They got turned out in the indoor arena if owners were unable to make it out. I would turn out Dude and Bestie in the evening when I got there if no one else was using the indoor. Luckily, most people seem to enjoy riding in the new indoor, so the old one was often vacant and perfect for a little roll and romp.







One late afternoon I happened to be there at the barn when the front right half of the roof shed its load of snow and ice. That's the front end of my car in the photo; luckily no damage. Even more exciting, when the roof shed, I had Dude on the crossties in the aisle. It was like an avalanche when it came down - the barn shook. All the horses started whinnying, and Dude was tap dancing and snorting while on the crossties but didn't freak out or break loose. Amazing. What a good boy.







Just before New Year's barn owner Larry took turnout matters into his own hands and drove the tractor out into each paddock and made endless loops, totally pulverizing the ice. It made me nervous to hear they were planning on turning the horses out, so I went out with a flashlight prior to heading home that night and took a look. The tractor circles had basically crushed the crusty snow and ice and the footing was like the consistency of sand. So the horses have been out for two days now; partial days, actually, because the temps are in the single digits. Dude and Bestie have a Baker sheet as their bottom layer, then an insulated blanket, and then their turnout sheets. On Friday it's likely they won't go out at all because it's not supposed to climb above zero. Gotta love Vermont winters.

Art in the barn

I thought I had written before about the amazing talent of fellow barn boarder Bev, who used Dude as the inspiration for one of her horse paintings. But I looked back and couldn't find that I had. Anyhow, recently, she's applied her considerable skills to the painting of stall signs in the barn. I'm not sure how it started, but she's done a number of signs by now, including the signs for Damien and Jubilee below. All the signs are really bright and cheery, and tie in to the horse's name or something about them (not sure about Damien's; haven't gotten that story yet!).

The stall signs are a nice tradition at Maple Valley. From the day the barn opened, barn owner Julie has painted a sign for each horse. For me, the signs are part of the barn's welcoming atmosphere, regardless of which artiste created them!

Last week at the barn

Tuesday while I was at work I got a call on my cell phone from barn manager Caitlin. A call from the barn always gives my heart rate a little jump; it's not like they call to say what a great day Dude and Bestie are having. Apparently a weather front started to come through right as they began bringing horses in, with a sudden drop in temperature and quite a bit of wind, which totally set some of the horses off. One of those was Bestie, who according to Caitlin, was racing around her field bucking and carrying on with her pasture mate Sadie. Until she fell. Which Caitlin saw. She said Bestie got back up and seemed to walk off normally, if a bit dispiritedly, like "Geez, that was a dumb thing to do."

I walked Bestie that night and she seemed ok, maybe a bit stiff on her left rear leg, which is the side she fell on. Wednesday the horses didn't go out due to the weather and when I arrived after work and looked at her, she had stocked up a little bit but no more than she does normally when in. We ended up giving her bute through Thursday night and I rubbed her down with liniment Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

As luck would have it, former barn manager Emma visited this weekend with her acupuncture needles and I asked her if she would mind checking Bestie over. She didn't detect any soreness that was out of the ordinary and treated Bestie in a variety of spots that Emma described as good for "old ladies." So that's how Bestie became the equine pin cushion below.

Bestie was really good about the whole thing; pretty relaxed. In the photo below you can see one needle near her girth area. She's sort of giving me the look because Emma had tried to connect a little electrical impulse wire to a couple of the needles for a bit extra "oomph" (medical term), and Bestie did not like the feel of the draped wire AT ALL. So Emma didn't pursue that and just let her relax with the needles. She did get pretty snoozy.

Earlier in the week Dude had limboed under his stall guard and taken off down the aisle toward freedom - the side door. I totally panicked because there is still construction going on for the new arena, and it was dark, and if any horse could wander into a construction area, it would be Dude. But luckily, someone had already shut the end door, so by the time I grabbed a bucket with a bit of grain and raced to the end of the barn with his halter, Dude was standing with his  nose pressed against the closed door trying to figure out plan B. Plan B ended up not being too exciting - letting me put his halter on him and lead him back to his stall, where he resumed eating his hay. That happened on the second night of rubbing liniment on Bestie, so maybe Dude felt he had to do something really amazing to get my attention. I guess he's pretty flexible for a 20 year old! Note to self: watch him with the stall guard. We've been down this path before, and he keeps a wide enough spread between limbos - months - to lull me into thinking he's not ever going to do it again.

Dude gets a job

Still giving my knee time off, so no riding time. Gina at the barn came to me with a proposal: she has a new student, brand new, and she was wondering if she could use either Dude or Bestie in her lesson. After thinking about it, and chatting about it in the aisle with editorial commentary from barn manager Caitlin about Bestie's tendency to let loose her inner Arabian, we decided to go with Dude. :)

Wednesday night we saddled Dude up and Gina took him out to the arena to test him. She put him on the lunge line and flicked the whip a couple times to see what he'd do. He barely blinked an eye. Then she got on and rode him around a little bit, while making funny will-this-spook-him movements like hanging off to one side, and waving her arms, and throwing a leg over his withers. No reaction. So he passed the test. I was so proud.

Last night was the night for lesson #1. I didn't go to the barn because of yoga. Pretty much as soon as I got up today, I started wondering how the lesson had gone. I restrained myself until about noon then texted Gina.

Me: Hey Gina, it's Karen. How was Dude last night? Good experience for your student?
Gina: They were sooo great together!! I think he enjoyed it too. Thank you!

Yay! Another proud mother moment! My kid behaved!

And I bet he did enjoy it too. Dude is sort of a crusty character at times, but he has always been happiest when he's in a program, and he's always good with kids. Gina is great at making a fuss over the horses, and I'm sure he likes that. The lesson and another weekly session with Gina will keep him moving and help him start to get back in shape, and that I'll be able to then jump on when my knee heals. Win-win for all.

Shiny ponies

In an earlier post I wrote about switching over Dude and Bestie to a new supplement - staying with HorseTech but going with Reitsport Senior to provide them with a bit more "juice" as they age. Bestie has been on the Reitsport Senior since mid June (full dose by the end of June); Dude has been on a full dose for 2-3 weeks now. This picture isn't that great (dark barn aisle, black horse, inept photographer), but it's clear how shiny her coat is. Someone commented on her beautiful coat a few days ago as I was grooming her, which led me to step back and really look at her. Her cold weather coat has started to come in, so she's gotten darker than she is in the summer, and she IS shiny. Super shiny. I noticed the same thing with Dude, too, this week. He's turned a richer more coppery color, and his coat has a nice sheen to it. Nothing else has really changed with their diet, so I'm happy to credit the Reitsport. :) 

We're doing lots of quality grooming time as I hurt my knee a week ago in hockey. I was going for the puck with someone and ended up doing the splits ... but on my knees. "Pop" - I felt the same sensation as I did 3 years ago during another spectacular fall that landed me with a torn MCL. I'm icing and ibuprofening and it's feeling better than the first go-round, BUT I can't ride. Just the thought of swinging my leg over a horse makes my knee ache. So that's a bummer. I had just gotten back to riding Dude and felt like I was settling into the ol' two horse schedule. Bestie's a scrub grazer so this time of year I spend a lot of quality time picking the burdocks out of her tail. Every day I put conditioner in her tail in hopes that the burdocks won't adhere. It doesn't seem to be working...

A perfect fall afternoon

I rode Bestie yesterday, and decided just to graze Dude when I got to the barn today. After a gray morning, the sun had come out, and the afternoon was really pretty. Dude was totally intent on steadily consuming as much grass as possible along the pathway to the outdoor ring, which gave me an opportunity to take a few photos while holding the lead rope tucked under my arm.

The line of rain clouds was pretty defined as the front moved through.

The hills beyond the hay field were lit up in the afternoon sun ... the leaves are starting to turn.

This shot is of the hills across the road. The white tape is the edge of our pastures; the field beyond is just scrub. Then there's the road, and the field that Larry hays, then the treeline. A couple weeks ago a hot air balloon that was touring landed in that hay field.

Looking back toward the barn. A new indoor arena is getting constructed right in front of the old one. One arena will be for lessons only. Funny, Dude was in between me and the construction and the curve of his back is just visible in the bottom corners of the photo.

New farrier

A few months ago, in a sort of convoluted way, I found out that farrier Scott had bought a farm in Tennessee and it seemed as though his plan was to move down there. Permanently. He said that he was going to keep traveling up to Vermont to shoe his clients, and he did, for a couple of appointments. I told him I'd stick with him as long as that remained the plan, but if the plan changed, to let me know and to please suggest a farrier that he thought might be a good fit for Dude and Bestie. I pretty much expected that the end was coming, because after all, who buys a farm in TENNESSEE and commutes to VERMONT??

So one day, he came to trim them, and I unfortunately could not make that appointment, and I arrived at the barn to find his bill with another farrier's name and phone number written on it. And that was the end. I don't even remember when we started with Scott - it's been that long. He's a fun guy and very nice and I certainly wish him the best.

However ... I was completely stressed out about finding a new farrier. I didn't know the farrier Scott recommended, and neither did anyone else I shared his name with, except for someone who thought they had heard that a friend of theirs didn't like him. So I started asking around, to see who was happy and whether their farrier might be a good match, all the while keeping one eye on the calendar and the next trim date. Some were just too busy, some were too expensive, some specialized in things that I don't think Dude and Bestie need. 

I decided to try Justin, who had left his card on the board at the barn. He's new as a farrier, and has been in training with his dad Jim, who comes to the barn to do barn owner Julie's horse. I was also familiar with Jim because he used to come to Meadow Run to shoe a couple horses there.

We're now into our second cycle with Justin. At the first trim, Bestie, Miss Textbook Hooves, was a non-event - a quick trim, no issues, feet in good shape. Dude, on the other hand ... well, no surprise that his feet were cause for consternation. He's always been in a perpetual state of mild to medium thrushiness, and his frogs are u-g-l-y. Justin, in consultation with his dad, trimmed Dude right up. In fact, he took a lot off. I was pretty worried about the amount trimmed, but they kept hoof testing him, and he was fine. His feet afterwards were beautiful, probably the best I've ever seen them. So good, I took a photo to send to Katie as documentation of the fact that, oh my gosh, Dude Has Frogs. Not textbook, but way better than usual.

The problems developed a few days later. Dude has to walk along a gravel path to get to his turnout field, and he got ouchy. I had the vet x-ray him to be sure that it was sole soreness and nothing more serious. It was good timing for the x-rays as he hadn't been looked at in a while. Diagnosis: thin soles. Luckily Julie and Larry at the barn were flexible, and switched Dude and his friends to a field where they don't have to walk on the gravel path.

And I got him sneakers. They're pretty cool, a fairly substantial rubbery bottom with a bootie made of heavy duty nylon and velcro. I don't think they'd hold up to day-to-day turnout, but he wears them when I hand graze him and when I ride him, which is when the gravel path is unavoidable. They are easy to get on and off, much easier than some of the other boots I looked at. 

The game plan is to see how he goes over this second cycle and if he is still footsore, I'll put front shoes back on him. I really can't expect him to get special treatment forever in terms of fields, and I'm not expecting the whole boot thing to be a long term solution. He's got another month until trim #3, and we'll just see how it goes...