January 2009

January is nearly over, and I haven't written squat (and most particularly have only written two days of my DVE story) - better get busy.

Interesting things that happened in January:

My jaw has gone funky and I can't open my mouth half the time. Finally called the jaw doctor (as recommended by the dentist) and he can't see me until March. In the meantime, I have to perform jaw-gymnastics to get my mouth open and hope that I don't need to yawn - that hurts.
Patrick had a colonoscopy which was quite interesting. Well. Interesting for me, not so much for him. They found a couple of polyps, but apparently nothing too exciting. He came home with instructions to eat more fiber and less fat. Got it. I'm sure that'll happen. Not.
Hopi and I had some in depth discussions about how his feet would be trimmed no matter how much he didn't want it done. No more Mr Nice Guy - Hopi ran around a lot on the end of the lunge line and got very sweaty and his feet got rasped. Funnily enough, the tougher I am on him, the more settled and calmer he has become. Even when he ran off, trailing 25' of lunge behind him, he wasn't terribly alarmed.
Patrick did a whirlwind trip to Eugene, OR to swap a motorcycle and some car parts for a Bug-Eye Sprite, circa 1961. To do this, he put new tyres on the car trailer (aka "hay trailer"), which means the tyres don't bulge exciting when I put 24 bales on it. This is good.
Patrick, Ann and I took Fergus, Abi and Uno to Meadowbrook for a sunny afternoon's riding. The horses did sweat greatly (the temps were in the high 60s) and Uno did good (i.e. he didn't dump me). Fergus thinks spring has arrived and has completed shed out. Not surprising, given that we had two weeks of this glorious weather.
Since all he ever did was stand in his shelter and poop, Fergus is now living in the "workers paddock" (with Roo, Hopi and Uno) (as opposed to the non-workers paddock - Provo, Mouse, Zini and Jackit). This has meant some shifting of herd dynamics and, except for the day where he tried to double-barrel someone and got his back legs caught in the gate, ripping it off the hinges and scraping all the fur off from hocks to pasterns, it seems to be going well. Roo is still king, followed by Fergus, followed by Hopi, followed by Uno. All know their place and don't seem to be pushing the boundaries. Best of all, the continuous pooping-in-shelters has dwindled, so I don't feel like I'm clearing up after an elephant any more.
The babby chooks are doing good and are finally starting to integrate into the main flock.
The seabright hen finally started to lay and has produced two eggs - about time! (slacker)
The number "5" key on my laptop is buggered.
Dremelling Chili's toenails is actually doing the trick - after two sessions they are starting to look less raptor-like and more like dog-nails. And I've only made one bleed a tiny bit, which is better than quicking the nail and having her run around bleeding like a stuck-pig all over the house..

Chili trying pretend I can't see her,
fearing another dremel-session

Friday 23 January - Farrier Ted 'svisits

Mucho work was in evidence, so I persuaded Patrick to hold horses this afternoon when Farrier Ted came. It was pouring with rain so they retired to the end stall in the barn (the aisle is full of hay-trailer stacked with Teff). Mouse got a trim and Roo's shoes got pulled off again. Patrick reports that Ted wanted to know why Roo had concrete in his feet - turns out I forgot to pull out the Hoof-It after Death Valley back at Christmas. Oops. Wonder how stinky they were? Have to measure his feet and see what size EZ Boot Gloves might fit.

Tuesday 27 January - Sunshiney Day

In the spirit of cerebral plasticity, Ann has lent me her guitar to start to learn and see if it's something I want to do. Last night we tuned it - or at least tried to. I discovered two things:

If you try to tune the guitar while cooking supper, you will burn it (supper that is, not the guitar)
Guitars weren't designed for people with my size hands apparently

Today I played a chord. Tomorrow, the world.

The dismal rain has abated and we're back to bright sunshine - just as well for my sinking morale. At least Sophie's quilt progressed greatly over the squishy weekend. Two more corners to finish up and it'll be time to sandwich it.

Saturday 30 - Trim, Trim, Trim...

Today was blitz-trim day and I used my new tie-up rail in the driveway for the first time.

First Uno, even though it seems like only days ago since his last trim but looking at the calendar it has actually been four weeks and he grows lots of foot. His feet look so flat, I despair of making them how I want them to look. They just have to be trimmed how they want to be trimmed and try to keep his toes under control. He's such a good boy for trimming, though, he makes me smile.

Next I lured Provo and Jackit out the mud pit with a bucket of goodies and worked on Provo's 12 week (oops) curly toes while Jackit gallivanted about. Provo had predictably grown practically no heel but his toes were out of control. It was strange working with him - there was a time he was the horse I knew best of all of them, we had such a close relationship but nowadays I just throw hay and give him a quick scritch. He is still the quirkiest of all our horses, but we know each other so well, nothing has really changed. Provo has been with us for 12 years.

Jackit, OTOH, is like trying to trim a wriggling toddler. He was very good for the first front foot, reasonably good for the first back foot, but when we got to the second back foot he started to fidget. I'm guessing my stand is way too tall for his back feet and it isn't comfy, so he started to fuss and then would walk off every time I tried to pick up the back foot. The end result was tying him about 6" long and lots of shouting. Finally, after we both calmed down and I gave up with the stand, we got the job done. His tiny pony feet grow alarmingly upright, but again, that seems to be just "how they are". The main trouble is his feet are so tiny I tend to miss and rasp my knuckles by mistake.

Finally, it was Zini's turn. While she stayed tied, Provo and Jackit did gallop-bys in close proximity, which was a little alarming, but Zini was a good girl and stood quietly while I tried to tidy her feet. She doesn't grow a lot of foot, except for toe that breaks very easily, so her feet nearly always look awful, especially in the spring.

Watching Jackit doing his thing is very impressive - he looks like a tiny arab: tail up over his back, trotting big floaty trot as he races past on Provo's butt. He's going to be so much fun, if I can ever get brave enough to start riding him.

By the time Zini's trim rolled around, I made the mistake of popping indoors to phone Patrick who was delivering a car to the Bay Area. That short break meant that when I returned to Zini's feet, my back was seized up solid. Apparently four trims in one afternoon is one too many.

Trailer: before I started, I scraped the dead paint and rust off the nose of the trailer. Where the fibreglass roof joins the metal of the walls, the sealant had expanded and contracted and evidently cracked the paint and let the wet in. Not big patches, but something I didn't want to let grow any further.

See, you can hard spot the no-longer-rusty-now-primered parts...

On to February