• Thursday - 1 February - Roo's new blankie
• Friday - 2 February - Riding Zinnet
• Saturday - 3 February - Third Gate > China Wall > Browns Bar > High Trail
• Sunday - 4 February - Driver's Flat > White Oak Flat > Driver's Flat
• Tuesday - 6 February - Zini and Roo Visit the Vet
• Wednesday - 7 February - The Importance of Rest
• Friday - 9 February - Zini's Got New Shoes
• Saturday/Sunday 10/11 February - Sick as a Dog
• Monday/Tuesday 12/13 February - Still Sick as a Dog
• Wednesday 14 February - Getting Better 
• Thursday 15 February - Let 'em Rip/SASO cancelled
• Friday 16 February - Roo's Blankie
• Saturday 17 February - Zini's Shoe Back on/Trip Around Cronin
• Sunday 18 February - Trailer Heater
• Tuesday 20 February - Ridin' Out Back
• Friday/Saturday 23/24 February - AERC Convention
• Tuesday 27 February - Snow!

Back to January 2007 • Forward to March 2007

Thursday - 1 February
Roo’s New Blankie

Roo's new blankie finally arrived. It's a little big for him (I ordered a 74" and should probably could have gone with a 72", but I wanted to be sure it wouldn't be tight on him).

Jack particularly seems to like it, as you can see from this picture where he's being towed along by his teeth by Roo. <sigh>

It's nice and slippery on the inside, so his shoulders and leg should grow back now.

Friday - 2 February
Riding Zinnet

> So how did it go? 

I'm really not sure. :)

She is in raging heat again (second time since Christmas - so much for "spring heat"), so we had to stop 57 times to squirt and try to look attractive to the gelding who was with us (who had no clue, but thought she was quite interesting).

I hand-walked her out to the pig troughs or whatever those things are at the first main intersection, then got on and rode her up the gradual hill. She was *really* pokey and I had to continually encourage her. At the first V-bend (maybe half a mile?) we trotted to catch up with the others after I took my sweater off and she seemed like she was hopping on her LF. Not encouraging.

Carried on up the hill, hopping every time she jog-trotted. I'm thinking "oh crap, I might as well turn around now".

At the next V-bend (where if you turn left, you go out to the connector trail and past the wannabe-shooting range), we continued on the main trail and started down the gradual downhill. I trotted her to catch up with Ann to ask her to watch what she was doing. She trotted down that gradual hill completely sound. Hmm.

Got on the flat part and I asked her to trot and she hopped a couple of times, but trotted sound (albeit swerving all over the trail because she didn't want to be in front and wanted to trot on the grassy sides (she's barefoot) and go into the grass to squirt some more.

Then we started down the next gradual downhill (by now we're nearly at the viewing platform) and I asked her to trot really slowly and she was pogo-ing on that foot. Ann went "Ohmigosh". She pogo-ed for a bit more (Ann described it as her hopping on her toe), then evened out and felt a little lumpy, but much better.

I figured she was off on the uphills, but whatever was bothering her didn't hurt so much on the downhills. Got off and hand-walked her down to the river, sound. Tailed her up a hill, pretty sound. Tailed her to the movie-set, very sound and running off without me. Got back on her and rode her all the way back to the trailhead, uphill, totally sound, *at a trot*. I wasn't pushing her and she was forward and comfortable and sound feeling, trotting along next to Abi. I just measured it - the total trail was 4.25 miles - of which I hand-walked 1.2 - and that last section that she trotted totally sound - 1.4 miles. Can a gimpy horse trot that far?

We were nearly back at that pig trough intersection, so stopped to wait for Jess and Laura and let them graze. When they turned up, we sat around for ten mins or so, yakking - plenty of time for adrenaline to wear off and for her to stiffen up - then carried on along the dirt road, still totally sound.

Met two other riders coming off the other trail, which was most exciting (allegedly) and she gaited a little. Sound. Got off and hand-walked her down the last little stretch of hill to the gate. Sound.

<shrug>

So I think I know precisely nothing about how sound she is. She went from Grade 9 lame, to totally sound in the course of the 4.25 miles.

I'm going to take her in on Tuesday anyway - maybe it's a bone chip or something that only bothers her sometimes?

* * *

I tried to cram those 0-size Epics onto Zini's little feet. No such luck <grrrrr>. She's pretty long right now (due for trimming on Friday) and I just couldn't get them on, so we went barefoot. I *might* have been able to get one of them on her shorter foot, but it's so tight in the back that I can't tell if the strap is going up over the heel, since I can't get a finger in behind the gaiter to check. And the gaiter couldn't come up high enough (which makes me suspect the strap wasn't coming up, so the foot wasn't all the way down in the boot). When she's trimmed up next weekend, I'll try again to see if I can get them to work. If I could use them the gaiters would probably stretch enough that I could use them.

Afterwards, I compared the new 0s to the old 0s and they definitely made the new size shorter in the foot, front to back.

Laura, the lady we were riding with, had a pair of 1 Epics, so I put those on Zini. They seemed a bit too roomy - but she'd cut the back strap out, so if it had been there, it might have snugged them up a bit. Plus she had the cables on their loosest setting. 

Saturday - 3 February
Third Gate > China Wall > Browns Bar > High Trail (15.5 miles)

pft took the truck to the Bay Area to fetch a new car trailer (and the green 914 that happened to be on it), so Dionne came over to fetch me, which was kind of her.

Had a nice ride with Dionne, Ann (riding Mecca) - yak, yak, yak - doing the loop. We didn't go super-fast, but did trot a fair amount. I slathered Roo's loin in a combination of ShowSheen, Body Glide and Baby Powder. Not clear if it did anything, but he didn't appear to get a chemical burn from the combination of ingredients. Left his boots off, since it was squishy and the boots are fairly bald. His shoes stayed on.

It feels like summer out there.

Sunday - 4 February
Driver's Flat > White Oak Flat > Driver's Flat (11.5 miles)

Dionne and I did slow climbing training this morning - we hand-walked down most of the way to Francisco's and then rode up to White Oak Flat, did the loop up there, and then hand-walked them about half-way back down that side. It was beautifully warm and the pones were well sweated up by the time we got back up to the top.

Looking upriver. We're just below Francisco's	Looking downriver, on the way back up Driver's Flat Road.
Looking across to Driver's Flat Road on the far side of the canyon...
Roo was quite fascinated by the water flowing off the edge of the bridge into the creek below.	Chili has done 30+ miles in the last three days and was starting to look a little footsore. She had a good time today, though. Here she's lying in the cool water at the ford by Francisco's.
	...I wonder why Virtue's tail is that colour...?
We were nearly at the top when who should we meet coming down the hill, but Marcia Smith and Tom Johnson - and Tom was riding Sandy, Roo's mum! <grin>	Unfortunately, we weren't able to get really good pics of them next to each other, but they are pretty similar looking.
Judging by their reaction I don't think they recognised each other - they sniffed noses and she pinned her ears...

Tuesday - 6 February
Zini and Roo Visit the Vet

Zini, Roo and I took our trip to the vets this morning.

We started with Zini. I walked her out, she was lame; trotted her out, she was lamer :( (at least she wasn't miraculously sound).

Larry Goss put the hoof testers on her and she reacted slightly on both front feet - more on the left than the right. He also said he could feel a digital pulse in both front feet, but mostly on the left. He felt her tendons, her knees, her joints, etc and decided to block the back of her left foot, which would numb the navicular, where the deep flexor comes into the foot and all that back-of-foot area.

That's where the trouble started. Zini didn't want the (in her eyes) "enormous elephant-needle" plunged into her leg and would rather fall over than have that done. Never mind that the needle he was using is the smallest one he has and the one he uses on *parakeets* - *she* wasn't going to tolerate it.

So she leapt around and wiggled, and flapped her leg, and wriggled and generally made it very difficult to get the needle in, let alone get a syringe attached and the lidocaine in.

He couldn't even poke the back of her foot to see if she was numb without her flailing around. I had to stand holding my hands over her eyes, so she couldn't see him about to prod her. That was an interesting exercise in seeing exactly what a horse can see. To begin with, I only covered the eye on that side, but then realised she could still see him by turning her head slightly and looking between her front legs, even though her head was up high, so I had to blinker both eyes.

Finally he was satisfied that the lidocaine had gone in and she was numb. I walked her out, she was lame; trotted her out, she was even lamer.

Hmmm. Not the back of the foot then.

Opted to block the fetlock a bit higher up. More struggles, more leaping about, blood flying everywhere because he'd gotten the parakeet needle in, but couldn't get the syringe attached because she was being so difficult. She reared, she hopped around on three legs, she flailed, she floundered, blood flew, I threatened her, I held her head, but she was determined that he wasn't going to do it.

Finally he went and got his twitch and even that was a struggle to get on - and did precisely nothing. She had about 15 seconds of quiet, droopy time before resuming her struggles. <grrr>

The parakeet needle flew out and she stomped on it so hard it vanished completely - I still have no idea where it went.

Finally the twitch fell off and she was a bit quieter and he was eventually satisfied that he'd managed to get enough anesthetic in each side. We gave her a few minutes and tested to see if she was numb. She hopped and flailed, so we ended up getting a towel and wrapping it around her face so she couldn't see the vet prodding her to see if she was numb. Finally we decided she was and I walked her out, she was lame; trotted her out, she was even lamer still.

<sigh>

So he prodded her all over again. Felt her muscles, felt her elbow, her knees, her tendons, poked and prodded all over and said it was a total mystery and he had no idea.

We weren't going to have any luck continuing to try and block her, since she was being so difficult - the next block up apparently required four injections, and that obviously wasn't going to happen - and although he said initially his money was going to be that she had a mild case of pedal osteitis (sore coffin bone), now he didn't think so - he suspected it was something higher up. If it had been something anywhere from the fetlock down, the blocking should have numbed her up enough that she should have improved somewhat, but instead, she appeared lamer. <sigh>

The only thing we could come up with was that maybe during her flailing, she'd tweaked something - he suspected maybe her elbow, but really couldn't say. He said she was really an oddity and he'd really like to know what was going on.

Given what he had to work with, the plan we came up with was to give her 2 g bute for 3 days, then 1 g bute for 3 days, Ted's coming on Friday to trim the non-Roo horses, so I'm going to get him to put pads and shoes on her. Then see what's she's like in a week and half.

If she's still off, he suggested taking her to UC Davis because they can do x-rays and ultrasounds and can sedate her to block her as necessary (which they'll have to do for the x-rays and ultrasounds anyway). I told him I think I'll take her to Dr Gardner again if that becomes necessary (I don't trust UC Davis to not just take my money so they can practice with their toys, while Dr Gardner uses his toys to confirm the diagnosis he sees with his eyes).

Trouble is, now the winter weather is coming back, so it's going to be harder to go over the mountains to go to Gardnerville in Nevada to see him. Maybe he's coming over to CA soon? Maybe I could take her up the weekend I go to the convention?

* * *

On to Roo's teeth. I thought they needed floating because he's such a messy eater and tends to drop food everywhere. But Larry Goss stuck his hands in Roo's mouth and felt around and said that no, his teeth look and feel fine, so he's just a messy eater. Fine.

* * *

So I basically spent a bunch of money discovering nothing. :)))
Horses... <roll eyes>

Wednesday - 7 February
The Importance of Rest

From the "new100milers" list:

Patti:

Dawn Carrie:

So with the above in mind, this is today's  whirlwind- its- bound- to- change- because- one- of- us- will- have- a- leg- fall- off schedule:

• Shine & Shine 2/17 (then 4 weeks to)
• Rides of March 3/17 (then 5 weeks to)
• High Desert 4/21  (then 6 weeks to)
• NV Moonshine Night Ride 6/2  (then 4 weeks to)
• NASTR 75  6/30
•  (or 6 weeks to) Swanton Open NATRC 7/14, 7/15

then rest and fun and maybe camping weekends until:

• Swanton 100, 8/25?

then to finish off the year:

(the caveat being that Roo and I continue to be fit and well and cope with such a schedule. If something's not right, then we'll back off completely...)

Friday - 9 February
Zini's Got New Shoes

Farrier Ted came today, trimmed Provo and Jacket and put shoes with pads on Zini, and put stuff that looks a lot like the berry-flavoured cream cheese under her pads.

She's got three more days of bute to go, then I expect her to be totally sound. Yes.

(I couldn't trot her out to see if the pads had instantly cured her, since it's pouring with rain here).

Saturday/Sunday 10/11 February
Sick as a Dog

After being smug that I'd missed out on the sickness affecting everyone at work, I woke up on Saturday with a scratchy throat that degenerated into chills and aches and a temperature of 101°. So I've spent the weekend asleep or wishing I was someone else. So much for riding down Driver's Flat with Dionne.

Monday/Tuesday 12/13 February
Still Sick as a Dog

Wednesday 14 February
Getting Better

Temperature kinda back to normal. Still feel weebly and pathetic, but at least I don't feel like I'm coughing glass shards (that's an incentive to lie very still, I can assure you).

pft's still fluctuating between 101 and 102°.

Thursday 15 February
Let 'em Rip/SASO Cancelled :(

Went to work today (not a great idea, but I lived) and came home early. Decided to let the pones out to frolic for a while - Zini, Roo, and Jack were the lucky three, while Provo missed out by being in the wrong place. They played at galloping up and down the driveway around the back, bucking and leaping and having a fine old time. During this excitement, Zini unfortunately lost one of her brand spiffy new shoes+pads, but at least it was on the "good" foot. Trotted her out anyway, to see how she looked and she still looks wrong on that left-front. So much for buting. That said, she could easily have re-injured it from running around, so she won't be doing any of that any time soon.

I looked for the shoe for a while and was annoyed that I couldn't find it, but Friday morning went out and found it after I'd fed them - nicely intact with all the nails straight and true - so I've asked Farrier Ted to come and put it back on.

Oh, and I found the pink squishy stuff that went under the pad - it was still very rubbery and weird (and stinky). I left it out as a curiosity, but it has disappeared now - I'm thinking maybe Chili ate it <euww>.

After I put Zini and Roo away (actually, Roo put himself away), Jack and I had a little respect session, involving him noticing I exist and paying attention - backing away from me and standing. He learns so quickly.

Our endurance season is off to a good start - I'd called this morning to cancel my entry (I knew within ten minutes of being in the car this morning that I could barely drive, let alone pack the trailer, drive several hundred miles, and then ride 50 miles. As it turned out, the Park Service cancelled the Shine and Shine Only ride anyway, so I didn't miss anything.

Friday 16 February
Roo's Blankie

Roo's blankie is holding up relatively well except for where the lining already separated along the seam. If I ever take it off him, this should be easy enough to fix. This morning he had trashed one of the elastic leg straps - they were old ones I found in the basement. It was supposed to come with detachable leg straps, but they must have forgotten to put them in. I called just now and they are sending me a set.

Saturday 17 February
Zini's Shoe Back on/Trip Around Cronin

Farrier Ted came and nailed Zini's shoe back on. One of the nails went in wrong and quicked her - first time that's ever happened. She seemed OK as soon as he pulled the errant nail out again.

Met Ann n' Jess, Dionne and her sister, Michelle, and took a leisurely loop around Cronin, almost all walking (couldn't manage much more than that since I was coughing so badly). Ten miles in about 3 hours (with 50 minutes of loitering). Blitzing, we were. <g>

Just as well SASO was cancelled - there's no way I could have ridden 50 miles (and been conscious at the end). T'was a bummer.

Sunday 18 February
Trailer Heater

Bought all the fixin's to attach the heater in the trailer, but alas that was about as far as I got - pft and I are still sicky as sicky things and not exactly dynamic. I cut back all the dead lavender that didn't enjoy the freeze last month, and Ann n' Jess came over and cut down the pine trees along the side drive next to the garage and then we burned a big bonfire.

Our driveway is completely trashed from the rain last weekend - Nevada City got 5.5", Blue Canyon got 9", so I'm guessing we were somewhere in between the two. Much of the gravel is now down by the gate and there's an 8" furrow running the entire length. <sigh>

Tuesday 20 February
Ridin' Out Back

Inspired by watching YouTube mini-videos of dressage horses (it only takes a few hours to download 6:34 mins on a 26.4 kb connection), and getting home early from work (because of needing to pick the Baja up from getting its new tyres), I decided to take Roo out back for some schooling. 

We worked on standing still and dropping our head. With the aid of clicker and treats, he did really well for the first 20 minutes or so - even though he was very leery of the remains of Sunday's burn pile - but then disintegrated into hopping about and being unable to stand even remotely still. 

Note to self: only do half an hour of schooling at a time.

Friday/Saturday 23/24 February
AERC Convention

Had a fun time at the Convention over the weekend. We travelled up Thursday afternoon and only got caught in minor chain controls - nothing terribly exciting, just a little slow. And we'd taken the precaution of putting new snow tyres on the Baja on Wednesday, since the old tyres were more low profile and better for summer activities. Car did great, with nary a worry.

Managed to just about do everything and see everything I'd intended - with the exception of getting side-tracked talking to people on Friday and missing two talks that I'd intended to go to (moi?). 

Talks:

Saturday morning, first thing, I watched a talk with the dressage instructor for the Rojeks - Robin Groves - lots of simple exercises involving poles and cones, and accelerating your horse along the long side of the arena, then bringing him back to a slow trot on the short side and repeat - after about ten times, the horse won't be nearly so excited and lose their heads. She said this really helps teach them to "turn on the fire" and then bring them back again (interesting idea, and actually made perfect sense when she described it). She said that after about the tenth time, the horse will be practically doing sliding stops on a loose rein when it gets to the end of the long/fast side.

Followed by Becky Hart on "how to do competitive 100s at International level" (just what I need <g>). It was actually a good talk - thoughts on keeping positive and turning bad stuff into good (if you get stuck in the slow line at the supermarket, take advantage of it and use the few minutes to relax and rest; when Rio went to Holland for WEG, they screwed up his PnR and he was 1 beat over what he was supposed to be, so she got a 30 minute penalty hold (ack). She turned it into a positive by saying "oh well, he'll get extra chance to eat... not that he did..."). She talked about risk taking (galloping up a granite rock in Sweden when she missed a turn because she knew Rio could), versus being prepared - she played a clip of Valerie winning the WEG on Cash in Holland - galloping down the pavement in the last half mile into the finish, down some curbs, over some traffic islands, onto a grass verge, down another curb, over a couple of roads, and then into a grassy stadium. She said that Valerie had put EZ boots on and pre-ridden that section to figure out where she could run, where she'd need to slow down, etc. 

As she was galloping along, for some reason, there was some guy jogging along right in the way - goodness knows why they hadn't cleared the course to the finish. Valerie's yelling "get out of the way! get out of the way". Becky said that Valerie said she was so "on the edge" that she knew she couldn't move Cash over one inch, for fear of him slipping and falling, so she just had to sit there, keeping as still and balanced as she could and hoping the jogger heard her.

Then I listened to an "experts panel" (didn't learn much, except that John Crandell is a very intense, serious man, and I'm not surprised he won Nat. Ch'ship, OD and Tevis); followed by Angie's talk (where I nearly wet my pants from laughing - I have to get her to send me the photos that made me laugh so much), and then Erin McChesney's talk.

I guess what I got out of Erin's talk was that, even if you don't have time to ride during the week, you should still try and lunge them for 20 mins, or putz around the neighbourhood for 2-3 miles, or do a bit in the arena, or at least chase them around with a plastic bag - just something - it doesn't have to be intense, just to get them moving during the week.

Angie:

Angie is as funny in person as she is in writing.

She also had a really nice video compilation they'd put together with her and Kaboot's 3000 miles together - have to ask her to send me a copy.

Skito:

I talked to Skito Tom about Roo's loin rub and what to do. He said that I probably had too much padding in there, so he's going to make me a pad with like 1/2" inserts, 1/2" shim along the spine, 1/4" felt underneath, all in "Barefoot Cheyenne" saddle shape, with 100% wool on the bottom. I ordered a blue one (going with blue and yellow on Roo, I've decided... blue and green jewel colours - he looks really nice in his blue halter with his deep green blankie.)

Tights:

New Tights from Evelyn

Then I went to see Evelyn and bought 3 pair tights: dark green cotton (normal, borin' ol' tights)  cobalt blue ones in some odd wicking type fabric  tealy-bluey-greeny patterned lycra ones (got the lycra against my better judgement - just have to beat Roo to make him not spook when I'm wearing them <g>). They are something I'd never chose normally, but they looked fun.

The lady who was selling them is Lori Baker who bought Steve Elliot’s business from him. She's up by Spokane. Nice lady. Interestingly, she's stopping selling Freeforms because she likes the Sensations better.

She had a dressage trail, an english trail, and a hybrid (which is the tall pommel one I'm interested in). I absolutely adore the hybrid. It's the most comfy saddle I've ever sat in. I could have sat there all day on it (good sign, eh? :)

It comes with bolster thingies that you can pad the underside of the seat with (it's like the Barefoot with a saddle, and then a removable seat piece that goes over the top). Once Lori put those in, it was even better. Gah, I loved it. 

Best of all was the moveable stirrups and I was interested to see just how far back I wanted to put them compared to where they had been positioned as a “normal location for normal riders”. 

So she's either going to send me a demo, or I'm going to try out Karen Sullivan's hybrid if she ever comes to Cronin to ride - just to make sure that there's nothing funky about the saddle when you actually ride a horse in it. But I've basically picked my leather choices and what extra rings, etc, I want on it, so that'll be ready to be ordered as soon as I'm sure. The wait list is about 4 weeks. Wooo!

(the new Skito pad should fit the Sensation as well, since their footprint is very similar).

EZ Boots:

I was hoping to get a pair of new-style upside-down buckled EZ boots, but it turns out they aren't going to come out until March-ish, although they had some there to look at.

The upsidedown buckle is very streamlined and the cable routes quite differently than the old versions. It's much easier to figure out how to make them looser or tighter, instead of having to remember which special inside / outside / around direction they have to go. I liked it and it will be quite hard for them to pop open by accident since they sort of recess into a slot in the rubber.

One of my size 0 boots has a broken cable and I wanted it replaced, but they didn't have any sparesies there. It turns out that they have changed the material the normal buckle is made of. The guy told me that one of the reasons the cables tend to fray or break is because the buckle is made of aluminum and the groove on the buckle where the cable goes has a sharp edge to it and it cuts the cable. 

The new buckles are made of cast metal (kind of shiny) and the edge of grooves where the cable goes is rounded. I liked the new buckle a lot - esp. as I hate it when the cables fray and I stab myself in the finger with them. 

They have also come out with some new treads on the bottoms. There are three sorts:

• the old normal one with lots of small ridges 

• the newer "barefoot" style, which has more bulk under the hoof part, but not much "tread". 

• a mud n' snow tyre - this one has deep, pointy almost caulks on it. The guy said they will wear quicker if you use them on harder surfaces, but they work really well when it gets slippery. I think they would work much better, being so aggressive in the tread.

They also have three kinds of "comfort pad" to go in the bottoms of the boots - in soft, medium and hard foams. The soft one has a frog support in it.

They had tiny "pony boots", which I think would be already too small for Jack, up to Size 7, which looked like dinner plates :)

KC was there with Chief in a pen, demonstrating putting on boots. Chief looked horribly bored and she said that he was leery of the audience, since he'd been zapped several times from static.

She showed me the bares and how to adjust and put them on. You'd definitely need a horse with nice roundy feet and no flares on their hooves (or you'd have to rasp them regularly to keep them perfectly smoothed).

Tevis Bits:

Crysta (who I'm going to ride Rides of March with) won the Tevis entry raffle! She was ecstatic.

WSTF has a few new Tevis-y videos, including one of Canadian rider Myna Cryderman where she has a helmet cam going up Cougar Rock. Fun! I'd like to get ahold of that video.

Home Again:

The drive home was as uneventful as the way up - chain controls, but no-one driving stupid, so just taking it really slow. It took exactly 3 hours to get home. The pones all looked pleased to see me after my three-day absence, except for Roo who was very leery and careful to keep away from me :(  Chili was very excited to see me.

Tuesday 27 February
Snow!

Well, I did intend to ride Roo today, but was thwarted.
What is the point of having  a convertible, I ask you?
Ann asked me why I kept  Roo blanketed... this is why:
Zini n' Roo n' me stuffed in the stall.	Poor Roo was all shivery and sad,  so I added a fleecy blanket  under his sheet.
It's still snowing out there, as of 9 pm, but will probably melt off pretty quick in the morning. News about the Swanton ride - it has been cancelled, but now Connie Creech tells me that this may be the last year for Virginia City 100, so we might have to do that instead, that being the other one that I really wanted to do, so need to do it before it goes away :( So the new pretend schedule is: Rides of March 3/17 (then 5 weeks to) High Desert 4/21  (then 6 weeks to) NV Moonshine Night Ride 6/2  (then 4 weeks to) NASTR 75  6/30 (then 6 weeks to) Eastern High Sierra Classic, 8/11 (then 5 weeks to) Virginia City 9/15 then to finish off the year: High Desert 10/20, 10/21 DVE? This morning, while inspecting a new warm scrape on Provo's back leg (“just don't look at it”), I suddenly remembered that I meant to check his two bobbles (having gotten out of the habit of obsessively checking them every three days, I haven't checked them for *months*). This is what it looked like back in June. Now it's slightly less bulgy, maybe a little longer and harder than it was. It had a scab on it, so I don't know if it abscessed or if he just scraped it. Very odd. The small one is barely noticeable now - almost like a wart.  <tee hee> this is what  colour he was back in May - compare to the orange photo. Jack is apparently very bored today and being a PITB - I was just watching him out of the front window. He keeps going up to Roo and biting him on the bottom and then racing away bucking before Roo can react :)