Still not dead yet, and trying to get back into the swing of blogging regularly again. Winter is doing its usual thing of having around like a most unwelcome guest and making everyone sick with cabin fever. We would like to be able to go outside without feeling like we're going to die, if that's not to much to ask. Please, and thank you.
Still, life continues apace. I'm still spending my days at Grown Up Job and spending a couple nights a week and weekends with Royal, trying to get us back up to speed. Mostly just through walking. Most winters I'm able to do stuff with Royal at least a couple of times a month to keep us in the swing of things, but not this year. The last time we really did anything was in December, so both of us are out of practice. He's in his usual mode of "What? There's dirt? And grass? Under the snow? Ya don't say." that he gets in every spring, so a lot of the walks have been about keeping him focused and sane. He's getting better, although our last walk had him spooking at the shed we've walked past hundreds of times. So, steps forward and backward, every time.
Despite the harsh winter, all the horses have maintained their weight nicely. They were going through hay like crazy (So happy we have the big hay nets!) but have come though to MudSeason looking pretty good.
Although the shedding process sometimes makes him look like he has a skin fungus.
So, not much to report on. Hopefully we'll finally be able to saddle up this weekend and continue prepping for the summer. Right now EHV-1 has made its way to our region and shows all over are being cancelled. The first show I have planned is Carriage House, which isn't until the end of May, but who knows. The Horse Expo is in 3 weeks, and they're on lockdown as far requiring all horses to have a clean bill of health prior to coming onto the grounds, but that's not a guarantee. A horse can be completely fine on Monday morning and near death on Tuesday night. If there's an outbreak at the Expo, all bets are off. I'm watching the news, and hoping nothing bad happens between now and then.
So, after a super fantastic bout of sunniness and warm weather, just in time for the Horse Expo, wherein everyone was walking around outside and enjoying themselves, what happened?
It snowed.
And got really cold (flirting with freezing) and windy and wet.
Sigh.
Notice the heavyweight blanket. This was on May 1st.
We did get a nice ride in before it got cold again. I let Royal trot a ways down the road before we cantered up and down a side road. He seemed happy to get out and stretch his legs a bit. He didn't even snort too hard at the Sheep of Death and the Demon Llama, who were gamboling around in the sun. I think everyone's ready for summer; I know I am. I've been trying to get his at least halfway presentable, starting with his mane and tail. The tail is fairly straightforward. I've so far just been spraying it with detangler and letting it be, and so far it's starting to look fuller. I've also been v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y pulling his mane using the Lynn Palm method, which he doesn't seem to mind at all. The trick is to take very few hair, as in half of what you think the minimum should be. So far it's going well, although I may end up using some thinning shears eventually.
Today it was nice and warm again, so I tried to take Royal out to the Big Field to see how the footing is there. But the creek that runs between the pastures and the Big Field was pretty deep and surrounded by slippery long grass, so Royal understandably wanted nothing to do with it, and we went for a nice walk instead. He didn't even spook at the garbage cans. Progress!
I sometimes over-schedule myself and regret it. Such was the last few weeks. Luckily the weather went cuckoo-bananas, so I didn't have to feel bad about not do much with Royal. We had ridiculous amounts of wet, sloppy, slushy, mushy snow/rain/sleet for a while and no one was happy. Even the horses would suddenly make nasty faces for no reason. They'd just be standing and all of sudden wrinkle their noses and pin their ears, and then go back to normal, all without anyone moving or doing anything. Everyone was just crabby.
So, obviously not a lot of playing or riding for Royal and me. We managed to get a few walks in, wherein I decided I was tired of Royal making bug eyes at the garbage cans every time we went past them. I politely pointed out to him that he has walked past them over a hundred times, and he is still alive to tell about the tale. So, now every time he gets snorty walking past them, I ask him to squeeze back and forth until he can touch them, and then he has to touch them at least 10 times without getting all bug eyed. So far, it seems to be working. He might get a little worried as we approach them, but then recognizes them, decides he would rather not bother with them, and walks calmly past.
He also got a nice gash on his left hind not too long ago. It must have happened not too long before I got there, as it seemed pretty fresh. So I cleaned it, dressed it, and wrapped in neon green Vetrap.
Notice all the snow. That was on April 15th.
He wasn't particularly happy, but it looked a lot better a couple days later.
So, we waited for the snow to go away. And waited. And waited some more.
And starting this weekend, Happy Summer!
No seriously. It went from snowing and cold at the beginning of the week to sunny and absolutely gorgeous this weekend. Apparently, we skipped spring and summer started just in time for the MN Horse Expo. Sweet. I was walking around the Fairgrounds all morning Saturday in just a t-shirt and jeans with my iced tea, all comfortable and happy-like. I got to see over my dream trailer ([Homer Simpson voice]Mmm, Hawk two horse straight load bumper pull with a ramp and a dressing room *drools*[/Homer Simpson voice]), try all sorts of food, stock up on Royal's joint supplement, and just have a good time. I was sort of disappointed in the demos and the lack of super fancy, over-the-top living quarter trailers, but the Expo is always fun.
So, yeah. Not much for a while, but now that the weather should stay (mostly) sane and I'm not trying to exhaust myself with my schedule, we should have lots of time to back on track and prepping for Carriage House! Bring on the nice days and fun times.
I realize I haven't been blogging much lately, mostly because I've been working evenings and that's when I prefer to blog. I've still had some time to play with Royal, although the weather is going crazier than usual. We had a brief reprieve with above-freezing temperatures... and it snowed yesterday.
Seriously? Will this winter EVER be over? I'm tired of suiting up with long johns, wool socks, and tons of upper layers just to be outside for more than a few minutes. Don't get me wrong, everything's been melting nicely and steadily, but slowly. There's lots of puddles everywhere, but quite a few still have ice at the bottom, so no wading. We did have some puddles in the road that were ice free that were wade-able, until Royal hears a loud noise, forgets he's in a puddle, suddenly remembers that he's wading in a puddle, and freezes until he remembers that his hooves still work underwater.
"Don't really know where to go from here."
Although he still tried to climb through the big snow banks while we still had them.
Mostly we've been hand walking, which ended up being a good idea when the ice started cracking. Royal is big on context. A person moving a barrel or a tarp is no big deal, but if they move by themselves, obviously a big horse-eating monster is the culprit. Obviously. So he proceeds to lose his mind and forget that he and I are on the same planet. The best way to get him back to Earth varies with the situation, but after a couple sessions, the best plan ended up encouraging him to circle at the fastest possible trot on the road away from the ice, and Squeeze Game close to the ice. Circling let him use up his adrenaline, and Squeeze kept him from getting too emotional near the ice..
We did get a ride in, and he powered away from home, until we got to the end of the property line, where he spooked at an empty soda bottle and wanted to go home. I kept his brain occupied with Partial Disengagement and back-ups. I think he's got as much spring fever as I do. And the never-ending winter is definitely not helping, even though he looks all handsome when he's windblown.
Supposedly it's going to warm up after this weekend, and we can hopefully continue our excursions, including going to the park down the road. But first spring needs to get here and stick around until summer arrives.
March is always depressing around here, even more so this year. Last year it was in the 70s and 80s around this time, and this year it seems amazing and miraculous when it gets above freezing for a few brief hours. We keep telling ourselves that it'll be nice and warm soon, but it's hard to believe it when it stays could and snowy. But the signs that winter may eventually pack up and leave are there, such as:
1. You get to practice your ice skating skillz (or lack there of). When we have a period of slightly above freezing temperatures, lots of puddles form and turn into mini ice rinks when the temperatures inevitably go below freezing again. This only happens in areas that have been plowed. A lot of snow is still here, and the piles of plowed snow are still pretty big.
There's also a lot of snow in the pastures, almost knee deep everywhere. It'll take a while for all that to melt, that's for sure.
2. The sun is out! A lot. Since the pastures are too deep to ride in, Royal and I have been taking walks on the road and it is very, erm, bright out there, what with the sun reflecting off all the snow and ice.
I haz sunglasses?
Hopefully the snow will start acting like a vampire and retreat to its coffin soon. It was mostly gone from the road yesterday, but the sooner it's gone from everywhere, the better.
3. Your horse starts molting. I swear Royal has lost enough hair to build 1000 bird nests, although a fair amount ends up all over my clothes. Every piece of fabric I own will take on a slight red hue for the next month or so. Such is life.
4. The horses start laying down a lot. I'm not exactly sure why this is. But it seems like they lay down more in the months of March and April than they do the rest of the year. My sister snapped this cute pic of Royal and Gabby cuddling with Royal laying his head on Gabby's back. All together now: Aaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
I'm trying to alleviate my cabin fever by think of this year's shows. Complicating matters is the fact that the trailer still needs to have its lights fixed, and the truck may or may not need new brakes and/or tires. Spring Otter Creek is out: just won't be possible for me to get any meaningful preparation, especially with how long winter is hanging around. The Pipe Opener is also out. I really wish it were a possibility, but it's still just too early. So, right now I'm planning for our first outing to be Carriage House at the end of May. Hopefully I'll be able to get everything fixed and we'll actually have decent enough weather to practice. We'll make our plans from there depending on how everything goes.
First the snow has to go. Then we can have some fun.
I'm still recovering (I hope) from the Plague, albeit infuriatingly slowly. I even lost my voice for a few days. It didn't get to this point,
But it was close.
Obviously I haven't done much with Royal lately, due to feeling like death warmed over. But last Saturday, he and Coco pony went to the vet to get their teeth done. Mother Nature was feeling particularly grumpy and sent us a snowstorm of light, fluffy snow the day before, which caused me to get stuck in the driveway and it took me and my sister two hours to get my car out.
The next day, we got Royal and Coco all loaded up without a problem and down the office 2-3 miles away (So convenient, I love it!). I had warned the vet ahead of time that Royal has a history of being able to hold his liquor well. He's always been the equivalent of the skinny guy who can drink all the big burly bikers under the table. He seemed a little antsy at first, but Coco handled the whole thing with his usual aplomb and Royal (thankfully) followed his lead. Coco went first, and he had a case of Old Horse Mouth. Dr. K thought he was about 30, and he's starting to lose his teeth. One even fell out during the procedure. He also had a wave, a couple hooks and sharp points, which was surprising to us. He didn't seem to have any problems eating or keeping weight on until the cold snap, so we didn't think he had any issues. Dr. K worked her magic, and while he still doesn't have the greatest mouth, he should have a lot less trouble now.
Next it was Royal's turn.
"I'll just make myself invisible."
First we had to get some photos for his Coggins and then we decided to try the normal amount of sedation, as he's stood around so well for Coco's. And whadda know, 1 cc of dorm and 2cc's of Ace and he was in LaLa Land. That has never happened. Ever. He's always had double to start with and frequently needed more, just to get him to the point where he seemed safe to work on. Nope, not this time. We theorized that it was probably because of the environment. At the old barn, everyone had their teeth 'n sheath done on the same day, which meant that horse were going in and out and here and there and whinnying and carrying on, and it was always tenuously controlled chaos. Here, it was just him and Coco (who was snoring for quite a while) in a completely non-changing environment. So, nothing to get upset about, and by the time the power tools were busted out, he was too out of it to care.
His mouth was relatively good. He had some points, a slight wave, and a small hook in the back, but otherwise looked fine. He got a little bothered when Dr. K worked on his premolars, but his
only reaction was to raise his head and lean back a bit. Other than that, no issues.
Seriously. I've never seen him like this. He was so sleepy that the vet cleaned his sheath in the stocks, and has still a little unsteady afterwards. I even had to walk him around the clinic driveway to get him awake enough to travel home. We got home safely... and the rig got stuck in the snow by the driveway. The thing about fluffy snow that when it packs, it packs hard and slippery and offers no traction. So after much effort, where there was an SUV hooked up to the back of the trailer trying to pull it and the truck out of the fluff, we got the rig out, but the trailer ended up having to stay on the side of the driveway for the night. It got moved the next day back to it's usually spot where it will stay until winter leaves and take its snow with it.
After their adventure, Royal and Coco seem a lot better, especially Coco. Now we know we'll have to watch him like a hawk for any weight loss or eating issues, but he's doing pretty well for an old guy. Royal still dribbles his grain a bit, but not as much. I haven't tried a bit at all, but it'll be interesting to see if he feels different.
I still can't get over how sleepy he got. Environment is huge with these sensitive horses.
"Sometimes, when I have had less exercise than usual, I have felt
so full of life and spring that when John has taken me out to exercise I
really could not keep quiet; do what I would, it seemed as if I must
jump, or dance, or prance, and many a good shake I know I must have
given him, especially at the first; but he was always good and patient.
"Steady, steady, my boy," he would say; "wait a bit, and we will have a
good swing, and soon get the tickle out of your feet." Then as soon as
we were out of the village, he would give me a few miles at a spanking
trot, and then bring me back as fresh as before, only clear of the
fidgets, as he called them. Spirited horses, when not enough exercised, are often called skittish, when it is only play;
and some grooms will punish them, but our John did not; he knew it was
only high spirits."
-Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
The Cold Week took its toll on everyone. The horses were cranky and crabby, as was everyone else. I discovered a nifty way to unfreeze the spigot: it took some trial and error, but I balanced it between the spigot and a pipe with the nozzle pointing at the spigot. Left it there for a couple of minutes, and when I came back, no spigot-sicle!
Obviously I didn't do much with Royal. Neither of us a particularly fond of cold, and it can be dangerous to do to much physical activity in freezing cold. It did fluctuate from negatives to single digits to teens. I couldn't feel much of a difference, to be honest. Once it gets past a certain point (mid-teens for me), it's just cold. Maybe I could feel the difference from 0 to -50, but not to the extent I could feel the difference between 0 to 50.
The first day I could do anything with Royal was Saturday, but on Friday he got the "tickle-in-the-feet" syndrome, and could not eat his grain normally. He'd take a bite, then spook at the hay bales, a bird, a horse-eating-invisible-squirrel, anything. Moving him around a bit helped, but not enough. So Saturday, we went out to the front to let him boogie for a bit and burn off some energy.
It helped. We played a bit with the figure-8 and hopping over some trees. He ate his grain like a normal horse and was no longer worried about the horse-eating-invisible-squirrel. He looks fabulous, weight wise. His ribs are still somewhat visible when he does a big theatrical sigh, but otherwise he looks great.
Coco the pony had some trouble, though. The cold was not kind to him, he's starting to have some teeth troubles, and he doesn't like to fight for a spot at the hay bales. There's plenty of space around the hay, but since everyone was so crabby, he just didn't eat enough and dropped quite a bit of weight. So now he has his own little paddock (which I can't upload pictures of, for some reason) with as much hay as he wants and a bit of SeniorGlo every day. He and Royal will visit the Tooth Fairy soon, so hopefully we'll get the tooth situation straightened out. So far, he's been pretty happy. He's been eating his hay well, and knows when it's grain time and practically bounces up and down when he sees it coming. He's on the mend.
It's been fairly warm the past few day. We got some snow on Sunday, which I hoped would provide a nice cushion over the glare ice. Unfortunately, it didn't and the back paddock and big field were as slippery as ever, but the front is still nice. We carved out a little ring close which is mostly ice free. I'm getting a little more particular about posture and not letting him bounce around shaped like a llama. He's getting batter about it, but old habits are hard to break.
Today we went for a walk on the road. As usual, we try to make it to the Sheep of Death farm, and at first it went well. However, as we approached the Sheep of Death, he lost his mind over the nondescript light gray barn and equally nondescript light gray mailbox in front of it. He just completely shut down and refused to move in any way, snorting and blowing at the barn he walked past all summer and fall long without incident. Why? I don't know. Maybe the gray looked weird against the snow. Maybe he saw something in the woods beyond the barn. Maybe Satan and his demons were having a rave in there. Whatever the reason, I ended up having to get off and play with him on the ground, trying to help him rediscover his brain. We eventually got past the Sheep of Death (he was fine with them, by the way), and after I got back on, slowly inched our way back and forth towards the Demonic Barn. There was a lot of circling and pooping and chewing on the bit and frenetic stretching, and I'm sure the sheep and their people thought we were absolutely nuts, but after about a half an hour, I got him to walk semi-calmly past the Demonic Barn, if a little quickly. We made it home without further incident, and I let him mosey around the front ring to clear his mind. There was a lot of sighing and snorting.
I'll try to get us back to the Evil Area soon, but it's going really cold again, with a few days in the single and negative digits again. So, it may be a while. We have to survive the next cold snap and dream of warmer days in the future. Soon, but not soon enough for me.
Times like these are when I start to question my sanity. When I start wondering why anyone settled in this place, and chose to stay here. Why I'm staying here.
Last week was a challenge. Days of above-freezing temps led to lots of
snow melting, and eventually the temperatures dipped below freezing.
Which meant glare ice everywhere. The "arena" Royal and I had tracked
out? The lower half is pretty solid ice, with the top part not being
much better. We got a bit of snow, which helped slightly, but you don't
have to go too far before hitting ice. The road is slightly better, but we still have the same problem as before: close to home is fine, but you run into more glare ice as you go up the hill. The good news is that the front field is a bit higher, so not a lot of ice there, and the parts that are ice are easily avoidable. Royal and I played a bit up there on Saturday.
We can create a pretty good track from walk/trot stuff that has reasonable traction. I prefer to use that area for jumping normally, but the snow has made it a nice flatwork area. Which we will hopefully be able to use eventually, because on Sunday, it got cold. Like bone-crunching cold.
The projected highs have either been in the single positive digits or the negative. Combine that with lots of wind and I'm ready to pack it in and move south. Or west. Anywhere but here.
And it doesn't help when things go wrong. Yesterday it never got out of the negatives, but I went up to see Royal anyway and wanted to give him and the other horses lots of Pity Cookies to help keep their spirits up. Imagine my shock when I go to give Royal his grain in the morning (when it was -8 without factoring in wind chill) and see both gate hooks (the fences are two lines of electrical wire/rope) lying on the ground. The top one was still attached to the line, which was completely slack as far as I could see down the line, and the bottom line was no longer attached to the hook. Which was not good. At all. We do have problems with the lines stretching in the wind, but sometimes it looks like a wild animal hit the line, got shocked, panicked, and broke through. I'm not sure what broke the top line, but it must have happened overnight, and I'm guessing one of the horses saw the top line was down and stepped on the bottom and broke it. Luckily all five were in the paddock when I arrived and looked okay.
I had brought Royal's food with me and hoped I could just let him eat while I fixed the fence. I restrung and tightened what I could of the top line, but Coco wanted to come with, so he stepped under it and followed us. I had to grab my spare 12 foot and put him back, but Gabby decided to join the fun and she got out too. So I chased her back in (and Coco away from the gate), retied the bottom line, and put that back in place. I then started tramping around the fence line to see where the break was. It was pretty far down, but it broke hard, taking a lot of the insulator hooks with it (which makes me think it was a wild animal, because those had been holding the line fine). I had to keep going to find the other half of the break, and bring it back, wrapping it around some of the insulators. I eventually made it back and retied the line with a quadruple knot just to be safe. Now, I had unplugged the fence so I could handle it, and Coco figured that out. I looked back at the horses just in time to see him squeeze between the lines to get to Royal's grain. I ran across the field yelling "COCO! NO! BAD PONY!" which was a stupid thing to do, considering how icy it was. Coco managed to get a mouthful or two before going back through the lines. Royal decided to follow him and broke through the top line, separating it from the hook. So I had to retie the line to the hook, plug the fence back in, get Royal, bring him back to his grain, and baby-sit him until he finished. And then I had to do the task I had originally planned on do, which was chipping off the ice layer a few inches above the water that is formed by rapidly heating and cooling air that passes above the heater. By the end of it, I was cold and coughing up a storm from breathing all the cold air, so no one got any Pity Cookies then.
After warming up inside the house, I went back out to recheck the water, and saw that I hadn't replugged the fence all the way. The same cord is also connected to the heater, so it wasn't operating at full capacity and a thin layer of ice had formed on the water. I plugged everything in fully, broke up the ice, and when back inside because I was coughing so much. I came out again later, finally gave everyone the Pity Cookies, and chucked all the ice chunks out so the heater wouldn't have to work so hard to warm up the water. That seemed to help a lot when I checked it one last time before I left, because it had reached a nice temperature then.
Coco say he's sorry about the whole escaping thing, and he would really like a cookie.
I'm moving on as best I can for now. I'm not entirely sure if I'll try applying for vet school again this year or not. There's a very teeny-tiny chance that Wisconsin could come through for me, but I highly doubt it. In the meantime, I'm making plans for the coming year and trying to get back to normal.
It's been a nice week, weather wise. Mid-to-high thirties all week, so Royal and I have been out doing stuff.
Playing and riding in the snow has been good for him, I think. Instead of schlepping around like he normally wants to do, he has to pick up his feet and start using some different muscles than he's used to. I've tried to be very careful in how we're going about this; given that he had so much time off, I'm trying to slowly increase our time spent in the snow, other than when he decides to go running around on his own time. So far we're up to about 15 minutes walking and 5 minutes trotting at a time. We've also gone for walks on the dirt road, which is exciting and hair-raising. The road close to the house is fine, but turns into glare ice when we start to go up the hill, so we have to stick really close to the side and occasionally go tramping through the snow in the shoulder. I imagine that's what a passage feels like.
But Royal would often act cold on our rides, so I went down to Dover Saddlery on Tuesday and got a light blue quarter sheet. It was a hit with the cats.
Royal also seemed to like it too, after I go it all figured out. At first it was really moving around, and being blown around by the wind, but the best configuration appears to be having it between my legs and the saddle (holding the front in place) and having the tail cord under the tail (holding the back in place).
Sorry about the crappy quality. One day I will have a cell phone that takes good video.
Anyway, he apparently felt so good about the sheet that he turned into Philosopher Royal. Philosopher Royal likes to stop and stare into the distance for no reason, but is happy to be gently nudged on again. Except for the time he took off briefly, but he was easy to stop and we resumed our walk.
Now of course, it's cold again, so I may not be able to do stuff with Royal for a while until it warms up later in the week. 2+ months to go until spring.
Last weekend's snowstorm left 16 inches of snow on the ground when all was said and done. Which brought up a series of Winter Problems. Such as:
1. Shoveling a path to the trailer
2. Shoveling a path to the water tank
3. Shoveling a path to the water spigot.
4. Making sure the water heater is working
5. Making sure the horses have their blankets on and they are dry underneath
Etc.
I made the mistake of wearing my winter paddock boots the day after the storm and got some very soaked jeans for my foolishness. Now it's tall winter boots or bust. I also have upgraded to some very nice winter gloves and so far they've been worth the expense, because it was very cold for a couple of days.
Monday
Tuesday. That's a minus sign in front of the 2
Between the weather and my work schedule, I didn't play with Royal much. I'm not sure how well my light will work in the snow and I was too cold to find out. Of course it got warmer mid-week so a good portion of the snow melted, so it might work then. The other option is to plow a little ring in the back paddock and use a headlamp at night. Or dig out the trailer and trailer to an indoor arena for an hour or so. The winter is young and we have plenty of time to figure things out.
Meanwhile Royal continues to do pretty well. He and the rest of the herd have figured out the big haynets and eat from them without much fuss. Occasionally there's a bit of ear-pinning and face-making, but usually there's peace. And Operation Reverse Weight Watchers is very successful! Tonight I couldn't see and could barely feel Royal's ribs, and his topline is slowly filling in. I would say we've got around 50 lbs. to go before he's at his ideal winter weight and then we can start backing off the Cool Calories a bit and just see how he does on the Senior Glo. Or, keep the Cool Calories and switch him to a grain with fewer calories but more vitamins and minerals. At this point I'm reluctant to change anything too drastically, but all our hard work is paying off.
He still likes his blanket. Everytime I take it off to groom him/check for rubs, he looks at me like "Stop that. Put it back." The horse wants what he wants.
And, for no reason, here's an Animaniacs Christmas song, Enjoy!
