Wednesday started with a trip to the vet to get Leo his new Coggins blood test,  a strangles vaccine and a West Nile vaccine.  Might not have done that and spent $100 if I had known how the day would end.

Then Lauren and I did a quick video of Feather loading so Dev would know the procedure to work on while we were gone.  Then we bathed her, loaded her, her feed, and necessary belongings for ten days at Dev’s.  We made the two-hundred mile round trip in pretty good time.  It was gratifying that when we got to the new barn, Feather just went in a stall, started eating hay and settled in.  I was proud of her.  I wish I had a mini-cam to watch her progress over the next two weeks.  I know she will do well.

On the way home, I got a call from the people interested in Leo.  We agreed they could come see him.  When we got home, we bathed him and brushed him so he would look nice.  Keith and Kandice seemed to like the big gelding.  Lauren rode him.  They agreed to take him.  We loaded him in their stock trailer and we cried our eyes out as he rode away.  He should have been perfect, with his lineage and size.  I feel like I let the big guy down sending him away.  I do think they will give him a good home with lots of pasture, love and a pond.  Still, it broke my heart to see him leave. As I told Lauren the hardest decisions are often the best.  Still…

Later we bathed Mickey and led him back to the barn.  He seemed to look at us and say,” Hey, you bathed Feather and Leo and they are gone.  You are making the wrong decision, if you are sending me away and keeping Kid”.  We assured Mick and Kid that they were not going anywhere-at least not if we could help it.

We left for Denver yesterday.  Today I spent packing my mother’s things and watching all the people that love her start to say goodbye.  From her dear hair dresser to the favorite waitress at their favorite restaurant, people love her and will miss her.  Even though she is mad at Jim, she will miss these lunches with a glass of wine and he with his Blue Moon beer.  Dear God, what am I doing taking her away?

Finally, our wonderful friend Caroline took her seven-year old mare to the specialty vet in Waller today.  This little mare was honestly ridiculously untrained when Caroline got her.  I remember their first show with tall Caroline riding the small mare so she could train her for her daughter.  The mare did not jump well.  She was not nice to deal with-she pushed the other horses all over the pasture and never let anyone have any peace.  Caroline and then Arianna got her going, though, turning her into a fine jumper.  Even at seven years of age, placing well enough to have held some top year-end spots in the schooling associations.  Arianna started in the Greater Houston jumpers and did well.  Winning more often than not.  But Arianna got thrown from the mare a few too many times and did not want to ride her anymore.  So, Caroline stepped back on the mare and kept their points going, looking to secure a another top spot this year.

The vet was working with them to help Cheyenne with horrible allergies that made her dependent on shots and long days stall bound when the allergy level was too high.  Caroline suspected something might be wrong with Cheyenne’s back.  They were referred to the specialists and I know Caroline dreaded what they would learn.

Well, the news was bad.  Another one of those, the hard decision is the best one to make.  And now Cheyenne, just seven years old is gone.  Caroline, I think identified some with the mare that was so difficult.  The harder it was to be her friend, the harder Caroline tried.  And the more pieces her heart is torn into tonight and the more she grieves for the little mare.

So, for Leo and Cheyenne, who went two different places these last two days, neither is less lost to the hopes and dreams we had for them.

I know that owning and loving an animal is, for me allowing that animal to take a piece of my heart.  It hurts so much to lose them.  Especially, when they are like Cheyenne, young and beautiful and free spirited.  God, take Cheyenne to your green pastures and let her run and jump without pain and without worry.  Thank you for the time we had with her.

Representing the US are Rich Fellers riding Flexible and McLain Ward on Antares F in the individual jumping portion of the Olympics tomorrow.  I have my fingers and toes crossed for a big finish from these two American competitors.  I am hoping Rich and Flexible have the ride of their life and McLain coming back from a shattered kneecap earlier this year is obviously strong and determined to win for the US as well.  Bring it home, guys!

Rich Fellers and Flexible-2012 Olympics

It is a crazy, hectic time in my life.  Yesterday, Roland-the farrier- was due to return to get new shoes on Feather before her trip to Dev’s for training.  This trip to Dev’s was scheduled to coincide with Lauren and I going to Denver to start the packing process with my mom.  It will mean one less horse at home as Richard steps in as our puppy-kitty-horse sitter. 

For the first time in Feather’s short life, she got shod on all four feet.  It is time for her to start some serious showing, trailering and jumping and we want to support her with good feet.  She handled it pretty well.  Although she would occasionally attempt to collapse as Roland held up one hoof.  It was a pretty neat trick.  One I had not seen her do before. She would simply folds her legs under her and start to collapse to the ground.  Fortunately, she never made it down.  Afterwards, with her new shoes finally on, she laid down in her stall and just took a break.  It is hard to be a show horse-even one in training.

Dinner, new shoes, time for a rest.

And another first for us, after nine years of owning Mickey, we removed his back shoes as he will be on a limited work schedule for the next six weeks.  We probably could have taken off his front shoes as well but I was (am) still hopeful that he might be doing some work in the next six weeks and want to error on the positive side. He was not feeling as well last night.  He was more lethargic and coughing. His coughing drew our attention several times as Roland worked through his band of horses needing attention.

Kid continued his tradition of no shoes (barefoot) as fits his retirement status.  Then we came to Leo.  Roland asked Lauren what she was doing with him.  She said was still keeping him “legged-up” (another term from my daddy’s days) but since we are not putting him in the trailer with Feather (not taking a chance on freaking her out) and he cannot jump the big jumps (so not taking Mickey’s place) he was just kind of hanging out.  I said I would give him away to a good home and in the next instant everything changed.  Roland looked at both of us-stopped his shoeing and asked if we were serious.  I said-yes to the right home-I would give him away.

Roland said he had a guy in a nearby town that had just lost his horse and was looking for another.  Moments later I was talking to Keith on the phone about the possibility of Leo being their new horse.  They are out-of-town right now but will come see him tomorrow or when we get back from Denver.  Roland said Keith kept his horses barefoot and we went back and forth about if we should remove his shoes or not.  Finally, we compromised with front shoes only-in case it didn’t work out, we could still show Leo.

After Roland left I sent some Leo pictures to Keith and his wife.  I hope he is what they are looking for-which is a horse that pretty much hangs out in the pasture and gets ridden occasionally around the property.  Leo is an OTTB and I hope he is quiet enough for this man.  He is pretty good at the walk and trot but at the canter, he is a  big horse and can move quickly.  Roland described Leo as gentle-and I wouldn’t go that far but we will let them come see him and decide on their own.

I was reminded of nine years ago when I tried to convince Sarah and her mother that I would be a good home (mother) for Kid (or Twister as they called him then).  At the time I was seriously overweight and did not inspire a lot of confidence in someone looking to place a high-spirited barrel horse.  But that worked out okay and perhaps this will as well.

Today after seeing some pictures of Leo, they seem excited.  I asked if they had a pond.  They do!  They won’t have to worry about riding Leo in the summer because he will not come out of the pond.  I don’t know if this will work but if Leo could find a loving, lifetime home, especially near-by, it would be a wonderful event.

Gee, if Leo moves to a new home, it would leave a stall open and maybe Snowboy could come home.  Roland picked up quickly on that and said, “you know Dev is locking the door on that pony”.  So, maybe not yet, but soon, maybe, Jordyn will get her ‘Snowney the White Pony’ back home.

It was a busy weekend for us.  Starting off with the visit from friends Saturday morning we moved right on to a vet visit for Feather.  Lauren was against taking Feather to the vet.  She made a strong point in that she had to deal with Feather while I looked on, have to agree, it is easier to be me. 

We had Jordyn in the truck, the truck running and we were both stressed before we got Feather to the trailer.  And Feather no doubt picked up on our stress.  She wasn’t going in the trailer.  It got a little ugly-Lauren yelling at me, me yelling back, wasn’t a good time.  It came to the point where regardless of if we made it to the vet, we were going to be outside in the sun until this mare loaded.  I told Lauren to hang on.  I went to get her gloves and treats.  We started over (we all took a deep breath) and Feather walked in the trailer by herself.

We knew Feather would have to go in the exam room and into the stocks once we got to the vet and neither of us anticipated this would go too well. As far as I know she has never been in an air conditioned building. Fortunately, I had discussed this with the vet (Feather being a little loco) and she was on-hand to take Feather from the start.  First, she took her to the wash rack and got her cooled down and calm.  Then with Dr. Hildreth behind and Lauren guiding her, Feather took a couple of attempts but pretty quickly was in the stocks. 

The doctor did a fetal sonogram and Feather is not pregnant.  Dr. Hildreth said a lot of little girls wanted to be horse vets and this particular procedure changed a lot of their minds.  Not to go into detail but there is a lot of poop involved.  Jordyn insisted I hold her so she could see the poop come out of the horse.  She thought it was really cool.

After we finished we were there also to get Mickey’s medication.  I was given instructions and we gave Mick the first dose last night.  We will follow up with  a dose in seven days, then at 21 days.  Mickey seemed to tolerate the drug well and was not showing any side-effects at all by this morning.  Hopefully, he will be a trooper and get through this well. 

Also, thanks to my dear friends that have stepped up with offers of horses for Lauren to ride to finals as we wait for Mickey’s prognosis.  I think we will continue to keep our eye on finals with Mick and if we don’t make it, we will try again another year.  Your offers meant so much!

Yesterday, Blake, Lauren, Luke, Ally, Jordyn, baby Kendyll and I moved the big furniture into the nursing home.  It is going to look so nice.  Her mattress and box spring should be there today.  We all went to Sunday dinner as a family-something we do not do enough of and ran into our friends the Davangs.  So great to have them see the new baby, trade horse stories and fellowship.

Blake, Jordyn, Ally (with baby Kendyll) Luke and Lauren

I will get mom’s new address and phone number out soon.  Thanks, as always, for riding along!

Little Zie on Feather looking at her daddy with joy

My friend came to the farm today with her husband and daughter.  We have talked about this outing for some time but conflicts from one side or the other kept arising.  And honestly, just because I think this whole ‘ride horses’ thing is fun doesn’t mean others want to get out and spend time with hot, dirty horses in the Texas heat.

We didn’t know what Micenzie would think.  She is a little girl with some big opinions.  She seems to like things or hate them.  When she first arrived, Jordyn was all ready.  She had her helmet, shorts, half-chaps and paddock boots on.  Perfect summer riding attire.  Zie had borrowed an old pair of Jo’s paddock boots and was going to use Jo’s first helmet.  It was blazing hot, even at 8:00 am.  Feather was already drenched in sweat.  Zie was not interested in touching the horses or brushing them even when Jordyn gave her the favorite pink brush to use.  Nor was the child impressed when I showed her how Feather liked to eat treats. 

But we saddled Mickey and Feather in little saddles and headed to the arena.  We had Jo get on first-hoping to set an example for Zie.  I spent some long moments last night deciding which child would ride which horse.  As ridiculous as it sounds, with Mickey being off the work schedule and ‘feeling his oats’ as my daddy used to say, I thought it would be better for Jo to ride him and put Zie on the inexperienced, somewhat unpredictable four-year old mare.  I figured if Mickey decided to do something stupid, Jo would have a chance of staying on him.

We didn’t really give Zie much time to contemplate if she was going to ride or not.  I had her daddy lift her up to the saddle, told her to hold on and off we went.  She never looked back.  I led her around the ring a few times while her folks were snapping pictures and taking videos.  Jordyn wanted Mickey to go over the low jumps (he just walks over them but she calls it jumping).  So of course, Micenzie did the same.  After a few rounds in the sunny ring, I gave the leadrope over to her parents and they alternated leading the little one on the grey mare around the arena.

Obviously all went well.  I was poised for a little two-year old tantrum when we needed to stop riding so we had a couple of trial separations of Feather and Zie that she did not willing participate in.  The first time we got her off to see the cat.  All she wanted to do was to get back on.  With tears in her big eyes, I easily relented and she was back on Feather again. 

Micenzie and her mom had come to one of Lauren’s horse shows a few months back when Lauren had been showing Leo.  Leo is a sweet guy and Zie had been quite enamoured with him.  But I remember her mom telling me that she had cried so hard leaving the Equestrian Center (I want my Lee-Lee-she kept saying) that she had soaked her car seat.  I did not want to re-enact that.

Zie’s dad had gone to their car and come back with a bag of small apples for the horses.  I knew Mickey would be all over that.  I let go of Mickey and Jordyn and Mickey high-tailed it around the arena following Michael and his bag of apples.  Mickey was actually inhaling the apples almost whole.  Occasionally he would bite off a piece and make the apple last for two bites but most times, he simply chewed the apple up.  I think Zie was pretty delighted with the whole Feather eating the apples from her mom and dad.

I actually don’t remember how it was decided that it was time to get off but Zie did so willingly.  In fact, her mom, Cayla and I had rush over because she was getting out of the saddle on her own.

Later inside, Jo and Zie played with the dogs.  Zie took all the dogs in stride, from the Doberman to Puppy Girl.  She hugged them equally, and hard.  Jordyn played her favorite video of Lauren jumping a horse with a song from the Eli Young Band called “Always the Love Songs” playing in the background.  They are a Houston band and talk about a “place just off 249”.  Little Zie came to Lauren and said “249!  249!”.  I guess she wanted to watch it again.

Good day at granny’s farm.  The joy of children is one of the most wonderful gifts I could have been given today.  I warned Cayla though, that she was in trouble.  This little girl would want to come back and the horse bug would hit hard.  Oh, well!

Mickey (with Kena) in the early morning light allergic to much that surrounds him

An early morning call provided the information Lauren and I had been waiting for in regards to Mickey’s recent laryngoscope.  First, his test results on the Pythium fungus came back borderline which along with his symptoms are suggestive enough to go ahead and treat him.  We will go get the shot on Saturday, do shots again on day seven, day 21 and another scope on day 45.  Dr. Hildreth is hoping he is one of the horses that responds well to this therapy.  I quizzed her about what his prognosis is and how long he would be out of training.  Like anything else, it will be a little bit of a wait and see game.  Certainly for the first 7-14 days he will be able to do some long walks around the property and maybe some slow trotting.  After that we will see how his respiratory recovery is once we ask for any increased work. 

His ability to do any work beyond a trot will be a factor of how well his airways can cope with need to work harder.  Right now when we ask him to work harder, his airways cannot cope and the coughing starts.  Apparently, this is seen frequently in young race horses when asked to increase the distance they are running.  They cannot take the added strain of working harder to keep up the increased need to breathe harder (or I could be explaining this totally wrong). 

Hopefully, he will do well with the medicine, we will have a period of time off and then we can get him back in training. That would be wonderful. Worse case, the swelling and inflammation of airway continues and he will not be a horse that can race around a course to do jumpers.  That would be horrible-but he has served us well, if it is time for retirement- we will cope.

Additionally we had run an allergy panel to see if allergies might be an issue.  Mickey was tested for 82 specific allergens in six categories including Grasses, Weeds, Trees, Molds, Foods and Other.  As a child with serious allergies many of these are very familiar to me.  I was allergic to oak trees in Illinois-quite a problem but thought I would overcome it when I moved to Colorado (few oak trees) but found out I was horribly allergic to sage brush.  I learned allergies tend to beget allergies.  And so it is with Mickey.  Of the 82 tested, he was borderline or positive to 29 of them-over 35%.  Wow!  Many are linked to the seasons, like ragweed, goldenrod and many molds which are always worse during the wet, damp times of the year.  But a couple of these are really out there-Mickey is positive for Walnuts (he would be that kid at daycare that would force all the others to not have nuts in their birthday cupcakes), he is allergic to Linden trees (not sure I know what that is) and cockleburs.  Puppy Girl finds cockleburs every time we go for a walk.

He has some sensitivity to corn (I am trying to find out if it is an ingredient in his feed), alfalfa (which has been substantiated by placing alfalfa in front of him and watching him cough) and bahia grass (often in hay).

Lauren and I will be challenged to remove as many of these from his direct contact as possible (I thought with my allergy issues, I might one day have to deal with this with my child but never with my horse).  Whatever we can do will help Mickey breathe easier and get him back to being a top athlete.  Can I eradicate all the dandelions from Mickey’s airspace?  Not a chance. But I can keep my pastures mowed, my weeds sprayed and his bedding dust-free. I am guessing that alfalfa may be off the menu at my barn.  Feather, Kid and Leo will object to that as will Mickey.  That will be like taking chocolate from a kid.  Mickey loves his alfalfa.

We will start treatment.  I suspect I will be nominated to become Mickey’s walker.  There is only one problem with this plan so far.  As the days have passed that Mickey has not been worked, he has gotten more and more spunky.  While I may able to get him only to walk, controlling him in the pasture will fall to Mickey and how he feels.  The treatment itself may take away some of the edge that Mickey is feeling-we understand it may have some side-effects.  Hopefully, we can support what Mickey needs and he supports it as well.

I hope (a big word today) that I am writing you in a couple of months to tell you we think we can make a run at Zone 7 finals.  Zone 7 finals are scheduled for the first part of November.  Finals in Zone 7 are for qualified riders from six states and our hopes (that word again) were to make top ten this year.

I hope that Lauren and Mickey are headed through the entry gate for a clear round when finals come.  But we will have some other hurdles to leap before we can get there this year.