March 2008

Thursday 6 March
Bat in Bed

The other night I was lying in bed reading when I saw a shadow go past. I didn't really think anything of it -  assuming it was a large moth. And then it went by a second time and I realised it was a bat - in the bedroom. Hmmm.

It flew into Chili's room and finally landed on the lampshade which I was able to unscrew and hold out the window so the little guy could escape.

He looked like a tiny, furry pig and was looking around all over, but didn't startle when I removed his hiding place. What was most amazing was when he flew, it was totally silent - you heard absolutely nothing.

Friday 7 March
Trims for the "i" Horses

Farrier Ted didn't show up at 8 am as expected - something to do with the fact that he wasn't actually supposed to be here until 3 pm, which is when he did show up.

In order not to have to chase Hopi around the paddock when Ted arrived, I locked him in a stall first thing and fed him in there. Wandered off for a minute to attend to something else and turned round and there's Hopi, standing outside the barn grazing.<sigh>

Farrier Ted put shoes back on Roo ready for next weekend's Rides of March 50, and then he trimmed the "i" horses - Zini, Hopi and Jacki(t).

Jackit managed to be a gumby the whole time he was being trimmed, so I was frantically stuffing LMF in the front end as quickly as I could to try and keep him still. We'd worked on standing still, but somehow it doesn't seem to translate to real life <sigh>.

While I was waiting for Ted in the morning, I repaired all my broken EZ boots with the fixins that I got at the Convention. The EasyCare man showed me how and it didn't look difficult - for him. Instead, I spent a morning in frustration, trying to push frayed wires into tiny spaces they didn't fit into. If I'd had wire cutter that actually cut it might have been a different story. However, inspired by reading about a woman who used to be a runway model in Europe and is now running the Iditarod and whose sled was totally mangled and she had to fix it without outside help, I persevered and finally got the stupid things fixed.

Poor Mousie - When I went to feed in the evening, I found her hobbling on three legs. So much for "bringing her home to keep her safe". Truly, she must be the most accident-prone horse ever.

This time it looks like someone ran her past something sharp and she's sliced her leg open just below the hock. If she was a "using horse" I would have totally freaked because I can poke my finger in the hole and see and feel tendons in there. But Mouse is Mouse, and long ago I came to accept that that's how she is and just deal with it.

It took about five minutes to hobble from one end of the paddock to an isolation ward where she could rest without being "helped" by the others. I hosed the hole and packed it with neosporin, covered it with a non-stick dressing and wrapped with vet wrap and left her munching hay.

Saturday 8 March
Hopi Gets His First Taste of the Tevis Trail

Hopi was originally going to be a 100 mile horse for Dianna Chapek of Oroville, but when she realised how much of a project he was going to be, looked around at all her other projects and realised he wasn't something she needed to be doing, she passed him on.

Dianna was coming down to this area to pick up a horse, I figured she'd like to see how Hopi was doing so we agreed to meet at Auburn Overlook for a mosey down to No Hands Bridge and back - and since it's his future job, it was high time he got introduced to the Tevis trail.

He was trimmed yesterday all ready for his new pair of Size 2 Epics. Not having ever had a horse with feet that big before, although I had a fine selection of "0s" and "1s" and even an "00", I didn't have any "2s", so he'd never had a boot on before. Hah. I put the first one on and he immediately reared in an effort to escape from it. Hmm.. This could be interesting. I managed to get the second one on with no further histrionics but opted to hand-walk him out.

We managed to get about 50 feet from the trailer before getting stuck on the first obstacle - he was determined not to go down into the rut caused by the eroded trail and clambered up the bank instead. Mucho treading on his own feet and slithering around while we got him sorted out and finally had to get Leslie and Eagle to go down ahead of us to prove it could be done.

I hand-walked him about the first mile and half (lots of drop offs and I wasn't sure what he was going to do), but when he seemed relatively sensible, I got on. He was fine unless we met [omigosh] people on the trail, at which point he got very worried and would try to scuttle past them as quick as he could, going as wide as possible - which is what worried me: there's not much space to go wide on some of those trails.

He did good with the creek crossings, the drop down to the waterfall (got a little on top of Eagle, but not too bad), rocks and meeting other horses on the trail. On the way back he did try to make a detour off trail up the side of the bank, resulting in nearly falling over sideways, but it would have been a non-event, since I could have just stepped off at that point. I'm hoping he learnt a little from his futzing around - he certainly felt much more confident and less tentative on the way home.

He didn't manage to drink at all, but did get to eat lush green grass and roll in it after our ride (only to come home and roll in the dirt in the barn aisle - oh well). And managed to demolish the rail fence at the Overlook rubbing on it - to be fair it was completely rotten and held together with bits of pathetic wire, but all the same.

All in all, I was very pleased with him (and the EZ boots turned out to be a non-event - after his initial overreaction to them, it was as though he wasn't wearing them, even through some squishy, sucky mud).

Oh, and when we got home - giveaway: the automatic waterer in the Bobsey Twins' paddock was once again misplaced and spewing water everywhere. Previously we'd blamed this event on Hopi (Hopi being Hopi), but I was becoming suspicious after I managed to shot this brief, but incriminating bit of video last week:

Since Uno was the only inhabitant of the paddock this afternoon when the event occurred, that does sort of give it away no matter how much Patrick tries to deny it.

Mouse got some Bute in her breakfast this morning because she was really stocked up and still not bearing weight on that leg at all. By late this afternoon she looked a little better - was occasionally putting the foot flat on the ground. I decided to unwrap her to check on the damage and make sure the vet wrap wasn't too tight. We gimped the 15' to the Hosing Tree and watered the offending limb. Although it seems tender to the touch, she was OK with me hosing it - but that could have had something to do with the bag of hay that Patrick got for her. <g> Once I'd rinsed it off, it looked a lot better - it's very clean and although oozing a bit, doesn't seem to be gaping quite as badly as yesterday. Time will tell.

This is the "before" shot. After I finished hosing it, it actually looked a lot better.

Sunday 9 March
Roo's First Real Training Ride Since DVE

Leslie and I took Brandi-Apple and Roo and did 22 miles today - the furthest Brandi-Apple had *ever* gone and she looked really good at the end - unlike Roo, who Leslie gave a B for impulsion when I trotted him out - he really couldn't be bothered <g>.

Leslie:
Roo looked fine, he was just "been there done that lets go home
and eat at the end of our ride, not trot in a stupid circle!" 

Brandy with her new clip job (which Leslie meant to touch up,
but dropped her clippers and they burst into a million pieces)

But we had a good ride and Roo was sound at the end and eager to trot and canter in the last couple of miles, so I'm happy.

I whacked my head on a tree really hard (was busy yakking to Leslie behind me and not paying attention to the trail ahead).

Monday 10 March
Mouse Update, Roo's Selenium

I hosed Mouse's leg this morning and got a better look at the inside of the hole. I'm assuming what I can see in there is a tendon and unfortunately it does look like she's scraped down the side of it and it's not quite as it should be. It's not severed, but I'm thinking maybe cut vertically and perhaps sliced off the bone? Really hard to tell. :(

She's still on three legs, but will bear weight on the leg grudgingly if you walk her. And she'll come out and hobble around on her own if you open her stall door.

Her pulse has back to normal (it was around 60 bpm on Saturday morning which was worrying) and she seems cheerful enough - eating well, shrieking at me in the morning, very alert, etc.

This morning I let her and Roo out while I was feeding. I pulled the dressing off to let it air a little (the dressing was a bit stinky, which worried me, but the wound looks clean enough and doesn't seem infected - I've been packing it with neosporin).

Roo grazed by her side for a bit and then found her poorly leg and started to lick it. In the end, I stopped him just because I was worried that he's catch cooties from it, but it reminded me of a dog. Very strange.

Roo just before our ride on Sunday -
looking rather pudgy (yay!)

Mouse has now been moved to a stall in the barn, Roo's in the "isolation paddock" so that I can feed him up (not that he seems to need it :-)  ) ready for next weekend.

I'm bummed by the weather report - 50% chance of snow? I don't mind cold while I'm riding, but really don't want to deal with ice over Donner Summit (I've had my quota of trunk n' trailer crunches for the next few years).

Selenium - Oh - Roo's selenium results came in this morning. I still need to call the vet, but from what I gather from the message on the answerphone, he's at 2.0. Hmmm. Not  low, but not as high as I'd like either. Need to ponder on that a little more. I think that makes him "normal" for a normal horse but a little low for an endurance horse?

Tuesday 11 March
Mouse's Injury, Uno

Well, Mouse and I are never going to do Tevis. And she's never going to play piano. :(

Turns out that "tendon" I was looking at was actually her cannon bone and she's basically chipped a chunk off it and done goodness knows what to all the tendons that sit behind it.

Vet Larry Goss reckoned she probably got kicked (which makes a bit more sense) and that's what whacked the bone off. He also saw a bulge behind it that may or may not be messed up tendons. He said it was a shame, since she's so nice.

Hey ho. Like I say, she'll never play piano.

He is hopeful that we can at least have her be comfy again and be a happy pasture potato. He said we could do all sorts of things to find out for sure what's going on in there - x-rays, u-sounds, etc, but as I said to him: she's broken - but I don't need to spend a huge amount of money finding out exactly *how* she's broken.

She's pretty happy - has lots of hay and goodies, so doesn't seem too bothered. 

She's now on antibiotics (15 pills, twice a day for ten days), he gave me some glop to put in the wound (seems like it's a goo-version of betadine) and said the wound should close up within ten days or so. In the meantime, cover it, wrap it, and wait and see.

The only worry was if the bone chip isn't properly attached any more and doesn't have blood flow, so it'll become a "foreign body" (only he had a fancy name for it - something like succubus... not that, but like that) and so the wound will heal, then go nasty again, etc.

pft says he thinks the weather will be so bad this weekend that I better *not* go to RoM (what with leaving him to grind up 15 pills twice a day and hose and glop and wrap, etc). :))

So to celebrate this news, since we were already at Cool, pft and I took Zini and Uno out for a quick trail ride and left Mouse at the trailer to sleep off her sedative.

We were nearly a whole mile out when Uno took offense to the idea that Zini and him weren't going in the same direction (we'd cut across a meadow to avoid a steep downhill and were switch-backing back and forth a bit), so decided to have a hissy, plunge, then do a U-turn. Needless to say, I fell off and he went galloping across the meadow <sigh>. I was so disgusted, I wouldn't even let pft chase him. Sure enough, he stopped when he got up to the top of the hill and was totally relaxed again.

I don't think he's ever going to play piano either.

In fact, I think I'm going to advertise him in Bay Area Equestrian as soon as I get back from RoM. :(

I'm bummed about it, since he's such a nice horse otherwise - feels so solid and comfy and is pleasant to be around - is a real sweetie Teddy-Bear type horse.

But it's clear pft isn't going to ride him, so it seems pointless to continue. <sigh>

I just have this sinking feeling that if we sell Uno, Hopi won't work out for whatever reason and I'll be down to one good horse and Jackit... :(

Ugh poor Mousie...that sounds really gruesome and painful :(

She didn't seem too worried until he was trying to wobble her leg to make sure there was no other breakage - despite being sedated, she still nearly fell over - I felt so bad.

And I felt really bad getting her out of the trailer - she forgot the poorly leg and tried to support her weight on it and it collapsed out from under her and she nearly fell because both back legs buckled. :(

When we got home, I stopped the trailer up on the hill so that the back of the trailer was level with the ground, so she only had to step out 2". Much better.

She's happy as a clam again, now, sequestered in her housie with a full hay bag.

Sunday 16 March
Rides of March

It was snowing a tiny bit when Katie and I arrived on Friday afternoon, but nothing major - just a small amount of gritty snow - a snow flurry - and the usual NV wind. Roo was extremely cheerful for his trot-out, to say the least. We went to bed and during the night I heard it snow again for a short while. Nothing major though - and told Katie about it in the morning. She opened the door and quickly slammed it again and we both burst out laughing - 4" of snow had fallen overnight  without us even knowing. The pones were covered in snow and their blankies were frozen into horse-shapes with icicles dangling off  the bottoms. RM Tami Rougeau came round early banging on doors telling us there'd be a 30 minute delay to the start while Jodi Harms went out and rode the first loop to knock the snow off the ribbons. The short version of the ride report: I fell off on the first loop. Crysta fell off on the second loop. And Katie was bad and didn't do her duty and didn't fall off, even though we wanted her to jump the coops the hunt uses over the fences. She didn't even try. It turned out to be beautiful riding. We were well bundled up (I was wearing seven layers) so weren't ever really cold, although the weather kept switching from bright sunshine to snow and back. There were times when it was bright sunshine *and* snowing at the same time which was a bit strange. Lots of unzipping and rezipping minutes later going on. Sinatra, Shrimp and Roo paced really nicely together. We left their rump rugs on almost the entire time, since it stayed so cold. As for us riders, we were bundled up with  hoods and wraps so that only our eyes poked out. Despite the snow (which was the dry, fluffy kind) the footing was about perfect and not at all slippery - sand underneath, but nice and firm for the most part. The horses were super-cheerful from the brisk weather, so there was a fair amount of unexpected horse + rider separation. Falling in snow isn't so bad, though. Ask me how I know this... <sigh> As we set out on the last loop - going along the ridge at ~6000' - the worst weather hit. It was like being up on Everest - blowing snow, howling wind. The pones alternately tucked their heads between their knees or tried to sidepass along. I did discover that when it's sleeting into his eyes, Roo doesn't spook because his head's practically between his knees. And I also discovered that those big helmet brims work great to block sleet and snow, you just can't see much of the trail. We had such a good time. The scenery in its fluffy white clothes was just gorgeous - big sky views, beautiful snowy canyons with cloud hats on the mountains. The hardest part was trying to keep the horses hydrated. Their water was frozen all the time. All of the water I had with me in the trailer froze. I ended up heating people-water on the stove and making damp, warm mashes. If they didn't gobble them up, they froze into useless clumps within 30 minutes or so. My trailer heater stayed on full the entire night, both nights and didn't exactly make the inside of the housie toasty, but it certainly kept the frozen-ness off. More hot water bottles needed. As it turned out, despite bright sunshine, it was 25°F when we finally pulled out of camp at 10 am Sunday morning (we were in no hurry, waiting for the Pass to de-ice and were completely last - there were only the portapotties left), so who knows how cold it was overnight. No wonder my little heater wasn't keeping up very well... A bit of a culture shock considering it was 70°F when we were riding last weekend. But it was really fun. Many thanks to Tami and Jodi and all their helpers for a great weekend and a great trail. Well worth braving the weather for.

Within seconds of attaching Shrimp to the new Spring Tie I'd gotten mounted on the opposite side of my trailer, he'd turned on the lights.

Apart from duct-tape (which worked fine but just meant that we couldn't use the lights at all) I wonder where I can get some sort of cover or recessed light-switch to retrofit it?

Video

Photo Slideshow

Monday 17 March
Mouse Update

Mouse seems to be feeling better - so much so that she trotted away from me this evening. I'd let her out to graze quietly while I was mucking her stall and when I went to catch her to dose her up she trotted off (she really isn't keen on her medicine). OK, so she trotted dead lame - but she trotted. And she's putting that foot flat on the ground most of the time now.

The wound is starting to fill in and looks gross, but I'm hopeful that she hasn't damaged those tendons too badly, if at all.

Friday 21 March
Roo and Mouse Go on an Escapade

I just got back from chasing Mouse and Roo about the neighbourhood.

Since Mouse has a broken leg, she won't go far, right? Wrong.

They were supposed to be grazing quietly while I mucked out Mouse's stall. But when I went to fetch them, they took off down the hill and kept going - galloping on the pavement and having a fine time.

Finally I got Roo grabbed, after chasing them for about ten minutes - the whole time them going "tee hee" and running off every time I got tantalizingly close - <grrrrr>.

Mouse looked a little sore by the time I got her back home again.

At least today is the last day to give her her 15 x tablets twice a day.

Saturday 22 March
Uno Ad, Mouse Update

We spent this afternoon taking Uno-photos and video and finally got some good shots. For such an attractive horse, he's really not very photogenic - looks funky (and fat... ok, so he *is* fat) in about 90% of the pics I took. 

Uno's Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjUPVhPXobU

Frustratingly, because I'm attached through Wildblue this evening, Endurance.net won't talk to me, so I can't upload his ad. <grrr>

Mouse's escapade with Roo the other night really didn't do her any good. Serves her right.

She was recovering nicely before that, but is now very, very sore and basically on three legs again. I'm hoping she just put herself back to square one and another ten days of TLC will put her back to where she was, but who knows. Watching her eating this morning she was kind of parked on the good back leg. Not good at all. :(  

On the plus side, the wound is filling in nicely, but is still very swollen and seems to be sorer now than before - she's very fidgety when I'm doctoring it each day. We're done with the 30 antibiotic pills a day, but I'm still giving her 1 g of bute twice a day. Wonder what that's doing to her insides... :-(

Sunday 23 March
Visiting the Buckskin in Lake Co.

Well, we went to see the buckskin today and he is a very lovely boy. pft's in love.

He's young, but seemingly not stupid. He has an *amazing* walk - I couldn't keep up with it walking my very fastest.

"Trail Obstacle"

We rode about five miles on some pretty steep and varied terrain and he took it all in his stride - crossing water (he drinks well), pushing through brush, going over a wooden bridge (a little hesitant, but worked through it), up embankments, separating, etc. pft was nice and relaxed on him, which was good to see.

Karen says she's willing to let us have him on trial for a while, so that should be really good. Fingers crossed that we can find Uno a home soon.

A "stout" boy

He's 16 hh, but doesn't seem *huge* funnily enough. He tends to keep his head fairly low and level, so doesn't seem like he's looming above you.

He has tall withers, a very deep heart girth and short sturdy legs (sturdy being an understatement - I almost feel embarrassed claiming Uno has "bone" when I look at this guy). All that makes him sound stocky and squat - but he's not that either - he doesn't move like a big horse - he's quite elegant and poised.

He moves beautifully... and his walk (walks? he seems to have several gears at the walk) is to die for <insanely jealous>:

Does he gait or trot mostly?

He trots (BIG TROT) which is too high/full of action to be useful, but as Karen put it, he's wired to gait - he does a foxtrot and a running walk type thing. He's not super consistent with it, but I'm sure we could get him there without too much trouble. He's so malleable - he was just waiting to be told what to do and wanting to repeat it.

  Will it be hard to ride together or would he go along nicely with Roo n Hopi's gaits you think?

I have no idea. I suspect his gears will be totally different - i.e. he'll walk too fast for Roo, but gait a little too slow for Roo's "action trot". If I can get Roo to do his "100-mile trot" it'll probably work.

Hopi should be better matched, although I'm pretty sure he'll out-walk Hopi without too much problem.

Tuesday 25 March
Re. Uno.

I had a phone call this morning from a lady in the Bay Area who really liked how Uno looked and is interested in coming to see him, but isn't sure when since she has her sister visiting  right now, so doesn't want to "overdo the horse stuff" :)  So hopefully she'll come back and set up a date.

I rode both Uno and Hopi at home in my "arena". Uno was a complete angel and never put a foot wrong. Hopi, OTOH, was leaping about in a bad manner and I had to get off in the end because I was feeling unsafe. Perhaps I should keep Uno? (A friend suggested that maybe Uno paid Hopi to do that? <grin> )

Wednesday 26 March
Becoming a Real American

Today I got "oathed" as a real american, so now have to start tawkin' funny and instinctively knowing the rules of baseball and how to cook sweet potatoes at TG and other real american stuff.

Me and 1830 of my closest friends attended an intimate ceremony at Sacramento Auditorium this morning, involving standing in line for 9 blocks. In all it took 5 hours, 4:45 of which was spent in line, the other 15 mins being oathed by a nice judge man. Oh and I got a special personalized letter from my friend George Bush welcoming me to the country.

Thursday 27 March
RoM Results

Results for the following rides have just been posted online:

Rides of March, AHA Reg 7 on Mar 15 2008

Saturday 29 March
Water Trough

The other night I thought "Hmm, I should check the Bobsey Twins' water to make sure they have enough" (had to take the automatic waterer off, because Uno kept taking it off for us).

I look at the trough and see a bare, empty space.

No trough.

They'd removed the entire thing and it was off down the hill - I had to go and fetch it and that sucker's heavy. But it's a good toy, apparently.

Sunday 30 March
Horse Angst

So I'm sitting on the fence - there are two choices of rides on 19th April that are more or less the same distance away that I could do.

Do I go and do one day at High Desert in NV:

Pros:

• I already have the Coggins for Roo
• I like the people
• I want to do all three Rides so I can get the blankie
• I've never done that ride

Cons:

• DnD aren't riding yet, and another year they will be and I could ride with them 
  (so long as Dennis isn't riding Bailey <grin>)
• If it snows like last year, I'm screwed

Or do I go down and do two days at Buck Meadows:

Pros:

• Leslie's going
• I get two-days for the price of one diesel-trip
• Roo could use two-days in a row trotting if we're aiming for Patriot 100 in May

Cons:

• It wasn't the most interesting trail, but not unpleasant
• I have to pay one extra entry (but I've saved on diesel, right?)
• I've already done this ride once
• Roo's legs could fall off from two-days in a row

Yesterday morning, my "great idea" was to choose Buck Meadows and take Hopi along as well, to practice camping and hang out with Leslie's non-used-horse- of-the-day. I can take him without fear of not having a Coggins for him, since Buck Meadows is down by Yosemite.

However, during the night I had this terrible dream that his legs wore down to nubs above the fetlocks, so he was only 14:1 hh. And he was tied to the trailer on the off-side, so I couldn't see him, so I couldn't tell that his blankie had slipped off and hobbled his back legs and he was all freaked out. The vet came out, but didn't seem to be able to grasp the situation (the fact Hopi was missing feet and fetlocks), and suggested that I could probably still jump him (?) and that probably his stumps would turn into calluses that he could still walk on...

In the meantime, Christoph Schork rode Roo in the 50, but for some reason stopped before the last loop and I was trying to figure out how fast he'd ridden Roo, and seeing as I had two hours left, could I take him and finish the ride by flying around a 15 mile loop in that time? [no]...

D'you think maybe I'm suffering from horse-angst at the moment?

My main aim this weekend was to sleep-sleep-sleep. I'd gotten pretty run down from the events of the last couple of weeks and just needed lots and lots of sleep. I'm just about caught up, so my goal today is to stay awake until bedtime (no naps for this girl), so hopefully I'll be back to normal by tomorrow.