About Exechorseluver

A writer and horse lover (animal lover) at heart. With a few year's exception, I have mostly worked outside the animal field. I am pretty good at what I do. But at the end of day, I want to be with the horses, cuddle with the dogs and sit quietly as the sun goes down with a cat on my lap. Spending time with my family and especially my grandchildren is number one for me. My little farm gives me a perfect life.

Surprises

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Exechorseluver

Mom’s overflowing laundry basket.

Ever since we brought my mom to live here in Wharton, an on-going problem has been her laundry. If you have ever met my mother (or any of her sisters when they were around) you know she loves clothes. She has always been concerned about how she looks, if everything coordinates, if she has her lipstick on and if it is the right outfit for event.

One of the big perks of her new place was that it has two closets. I can tell you both closets are full to the brim. I am even a little concerned that the rod in the first closet may snap due to the weight of her clothes. Now, some of the things like those with more complicated zippers and buttons, she does not wear anymore. She also favors pink. She has a great green warm-up suit with matching shirt that would look wonderful on her and I think she has worn it once. It is not pink.

When she has down time in her room, her favorite activity is to play with her clothes. Lunch needs a different outfit than breakfast. When I get there in the afternoon, often she has been resting. If I am lucky I can get her back in the outfit she wore to lunch.

Lauren and I (we are not proud) have been known to go through her laundry basket and take out things that are not dirty and re-hang them. I mean really, how dirty can she get inside a facility all day? Sometimes she has sweaters on for mere moments and in the laundry basket they go.

So, in the beginning I kept asking the lady at the front desk when her laundry would be done. She always said soon-the next day-soon. But it never happened. Once a week, at least, Lauren and I gathered up the laundry, her hangers and took everything home to be washed. Most weekends that was an additional three loads of wash-seriously! One little tiny person who did not step outside on most weeks generated three loads of wash. Unbelievable. Plus, we would need to re-hang everything and return it all to the nursing home each week. We would hang whole outfits together on one hanger in hopes that she wouldn’t try on multiple things to get dressed. It has made me nuts! It isn’t just the work, but the anticipation of the laundry basket filling up. Each day I would watch the pile grow higher and higher. I started out taking home on Saturdays, then Fridays, then Thursdays as it was always full. And you would never know if there was some “surprise” in the sheets or towels. The whole “surprise” factor pretty much assured that Lauren was not helping with the wash.

Monday while mom was getting ready for dinner, I found a sheet of paper left over the weekend by the cleaning supervisor. It had a list of the residents and what day their laundry day was. Mom’s name was on the list of “no laundry services”. Wow, that clears up why she never got her laundry done. I went to talk to the manager. Apparently, when we first enrolled mom in the center, I had wanted her to have baths six days a week. The standard was for three. Mom likes to be clean (thank God!) so we went with the bonus six days of bathing. Somehow, in the complicated point system that determines what you pay each month, the extra bathing meant no laundry. Oh, my goodness, we need to fix that!

So, yes, I sold my mother’s bathing rights (two days of bathing for weekly laundry service). She will still have five baths a week and we will pray that is enough. Lauren did mention when we were discussing this that if the bathing was the issue, I could just start doing her baths each day. I have to say that I will stick with the laundry given that choice!

This all sounds stupid but this should give me back a few hours a week and I am overjoyed at not picking through her laundry basket each week. I found a great surprise in the notice left in her room and now I will find no more surprises in her laundry. It is the little things!

Not a bloody good day!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Exechorseluver

I have three daughters and all three of them had bloody bad days today. And my mother, well, don’t get me started on her.

According to Wikipedia-Bloody is the adjectival form of blood. It is commonly used as an expletive attributive (intensifier) in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth and ex-Commonwealth countries.

Well, we may be in a non-Commonwealth country (maybe, technically we are an ex-Commonwealth country-you know the whole split from England thing), but the phrase was appropriate today, figuratively and literally.

Jordyn, at age five, had permanent teeth appear behind her baby front teeth. They had to be pulled this morning. Due to a delay in the timing of the anesthetic or maybe just because it hurt, Jordyn cried long after she got home from the dentist. I have been assured that there was a great of blood involved in this first example of my daughters’ bloody day.

I called Ally to beg for help (although she was standing over Jordyn and dentist at the time) when I received a call from Lauren telling me she was stranded on the side of the highway. Lauren and Feather had been headed to trainer Dev’s for their first lesson in over 60 days. But it wasn’t to be. Lauren had a trailer tire blow out on the highway causing the truck to rock hard to left. When Lauren finally got the trailer safely off the road, she found Feather’s white face covered in blood. To say she was panicked and overwhelmed when she called me was an understatement. We have no one to call here to help. I knew Luke was at work and Blake was at school.

I tried a tire store that suggested she drive it on up there. Then Lauren called me back to tell me some nice man had pulled over to help her. Mommas out there, if you are raising your sons to help stranded women with horse trailers, I applaud you! Then I called Dr. Criner to see if she might be in the vicinity to give Feather a look over to decide if we should head home or to the vet clinic. Luck was on our side when she told me she was about 10 miles away.

Just about the time, Dr. Criner arrived the guy had finished with the tire. I even had Lauren borrow some cash from DC to give to the young man (full service vet care). I will pay her back soon! Dr. Criner wanted to get Feather out of the trailer to examine her but I reminded her we were dealing with Feather who might never get back in the trailer after this so she settled on examining her through the trailer window. She determined Feather had cut her ear, it did not need stitches, but had produced a lot of blood.

By this time, Lauren was ready to head home and I think Jo had finally quit crying over her teeth and was settled in to watch a movie. Amber had been calling me off and on but I am doing training at work and was trying to focus on it, and had not picked up the calls. Turns out Amber endured a minor surgical procedure that also produced a lot of bleeding. She had gone in for a consultation and it had been decided to just “do it now”. This is my nurse practitioner daughter who is usually on the doing not the receiving end of health care. She didn’t like it a bit.

What a time! My head is still reeling. When I got to my mom’s she was distraught over news of Jim’s fourth marriage and just couldn’t believe he could have married two women after her (of course, he hadn’t but that took some explaining and repetition to get her to believe).

I am now going straight to bed. I have not had a bloody good day but so far I have encountered no actual blood. It does not seem like a day to take any chances!

p.s. When I got my used 2002 trailer they said it had new tires on it. They looked fine and had good tread. One blew a year ago but both of my son-in-laws were on hand to help. The tire store said today that the three remaining tires had dry rot and could have blown out at any time. I replaced all the tires. I am grateful that except for a little stress and a lot of superficial blood all are fine. I am grateful that the tires did not blow out on the trips to or from College Station with Bruno.

Bruno-Post Operative Day 31

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Exechorseluver

Apparently, the supplements we are using for Bruno’s hooves are working on his coat. Pretty Boy!

I guess it is just a time of milestones. I published my 200th post the other day. That was a big milestone for me-and I guess some of you are still reading along so that is great as well.

Bruno went in for surgery to cure an infection in his front hoof one month ago yesterday. Although my vet, Lynn Criner, DVM., thought the infection went to the coffin bone, none of the vets consulted agreed. But when Dr. Chad Marsh got into the hoof, the infection did in fact spread into the bone. That required more cutting and more down time for Bruno. I said from the beginning that I was good at growing hoof (I have a special mixture of biotin that makes hooves grow and coats shine) so I felt like if we could get the infection out, we could succeed at growing new, strong hoof in its place.

A quick look through my posts of the last month will tell the story of Bruno’s recovery so far. To summarize:

He spent nine days at TAMU.
He has been confined to his stall for 31 days except for a few brief moments when he escaped, rolled and ran.
He has been quiet and reserved for his long confinement except for the one night his buddy Kid took a walk-about and he almost went nuts trying to find him.
Lauren has changed his bandage ten times using miles of gauze and tape.
We have cleaned his stall a minimum of four times a day since he came home using pounds and pounds of shavings.

Above- the crack in the hoof when we first got him-prior to his diagnosis with an infection in the coffin bone. All anyone could tell me was this crack would not go away. (Nov. 29, 2012)

Shortly after surgery when they were able to get a shoe on him. Still big gap between the shoe and any hoof.

Okay, this is not pretty but look how much the new hoof has grown down and how the new flesh is filling in. It was probably an inch or so from his hairline above and now (look for the white hairs of his leg) it has probably grown an inch plus filling in the old crack. Lots of work left but WOW! (Jan. 20, 2013)

About a week after surgery, you can see daylight through the bottom of his foot. (Dec. 31, 2012)

Sorry for the shaky photo but what is clear is that the hoof is growing and filling in. No more daylight to be seen.

We go back to A&M on January 28th. I am pretty sure that Dr. Marsh will be happy with Bruno’s progress. The best news is we are now 31 days closer to Bruno returning to the ring!

Feather’s One Year Anniversary

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Exechorseluver

Friends of ours, the McMaster’s had an amazing horse, Prince, from a Texas Irish Sport Horse stallion, Flagmount’s Freedom. Melissa took that horse and increased his value by tenfold. Part of it, was that the Flag horses can really jump and have amazing temperaments. I heard that the McMaster’s had a young Flag mare in Florida that had some issues but was in my price range. I talked to Lauren to see if she wanted to spend her money to buy this horse sight unseen. Prince was enough for me to know that we had a good chance to own an incredible horse if we took a chance on her. No part of the journey from Florida to Texas was easy-broken down trucks and numerous delays. But once we saw Feather, we knew she needed to grow up some, gain some weight and learn to trust us. You will remember major issues with this horse and trailer loading. And issues because she was just plain scared. But it has been a year now. I was surprised and pleased by a post on Facebook by my daughter, Lauren. It is shown below along with some special pictures commemorating Feather’s first year at Six Meadow Farm.

Lauren Davis on Facebook–About this time last year I got news that there was a Flag baby for sale. My mom was SO excited because we knew what a great horse Prince was and thought if Feather was half the horse he is we would have gotten a deal. So I talked with Dee and got my savings out of the bank to buy my first ever “warm blood”. Dee then told me that she thought every horse had someone they were meant to be with, and …boy was she right. I could not be more thankful for the opportunity to bring this mare along and could not have found a horse that challenges me daily in the best of ways. Feather has brought back my love for riding because with her there is no pressure and with every mile stone or achievement we grow closer. This year has been a bumpy road but I would do it all over again, looking forward to a wonderful 2013 season with my Flag baby and many thanks to Dee, Melissa, and my mom because without them I would have never met this amazing horse.

Before she left Florida, young and dark grey with lots of dapples. She had yet to grow into her head which appeared oversized for her body.

One of their first rides. Feather was slow and cautious. Not what we had expected. Most young horses are hyper and little nutty.

Good jumpers learn to “bend” so you can easily adjust them through and around a jump course. It starts with the young horse and Feather was an eager learner.

I have enjoyed riding her as well. She is sensible beyond her years and has carried the our toddler friend, Miss Z, who worships her along with Jordyn for many safe rides.

A year later Feather, aka Flagmount's Irish Freedom, is a show horse. What all she will do in her career is pure speculation at this point. But she and Lauren have come a long way in this first year. We cannot wait to start the 2013 season.

A year later Feather, show name- Flagmount’s Irish Freedom, is a show horse. What all she will do in her career is pure speculation at this point. But she and Lauren have come a long way in this first year. We cannot wait to start the 2013 season.

What a blessing she has been. I love seeing her siblings (half and full) looking just like her and doing so well in the Eventing world. What a beauty she has become!

I rarely take big chances. Buying a horse and shipping it to Texas from Florida was an unheard of adventure for me. At some point, you just have to say, if not now then when? And put yourself out there to succeed or fail but at least give it your best shot. I will never regret my immediate yes to Dee on that day a year ago when this journey started. Like Lauren, I have no big expectations, but I am still hoping for some nice surprises! Happy anniversary to Feather and Lauren. Could be the best money she will ever spend.

Sun Break

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Exechorseluver

Beautiful sunset as the weather finally breaks over the farm.

Lauren worked hard today. It was the first day in ages when it was not rainy, cold and miserable. I think the break in the weather is just inspirational to wanting to get chores done and things swept clean. After weeks of mud, rain-soaked fields and days in their stalls, it was great to just send the horses out to play. They ran, stomped, bucked and played. Bruno, of course, only got to watch from his stall but I think he was happy to get the blankets off his back, feel the sun on his face and roll in clean shavings.

Lauren cleaned out tired stalls and refreshed the bedding. Then when the horses came in, everyone had their whiskers, ears and bridle paths trimmed. I was actually shocked to see Feather had gone along with the ear trimming. There was a time (pre-Sarah training) when just turning the clippers on in Feather’s stall led to a totally freaked out horse. She has learned a lot.

Feather got ridden today as well. Again, for the first time in weeks. Lauren said she was working well and no worse for the time off. It will be time to start showing for the 2013 season soon and we must get her on some regular work patterns.

Pony Mimi got her hair done today. She looked precious with her ears clipped and pretty face peeking over the stall when I got home tonight.

Bruno got trimmed up as well and I have not seen him with his face clipped and show ready. What a handsome guy! Of course, he is not going to a show but we wanted him to feel like he was part of the show team.

Even Mr. Kid’s chestnut coat was gleaming in the evening sun tonight. Spending time sequestered with Bruno has given Kid time to eat more and rest more. He will have his 31st birthday soon and deserves a little peace. He doesn’t have to be ever vigilant that one of the other horses is going to kick him or chase him.

I hope the sun is here to stay for at least a few days. It sure was a nice change.

Rain, Rain go away

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Exechorseluver

Our last nice day was December 22nd. We spent that day riding with friends and enjoying the great south Texas weather. The holidays and rain followed. Then last week more and more rain fell. We have had rain each day since the deluge last Tuesday. I still have standing water in my yard and arena. Thankfully, Bruno has not needed to be out of his stall. He is scheduled to go back to Texas A&M on January 28th. Right now, I could not get him in the trailer to go there.

All horse training has stopped. Hopefully, when the sun shines once again we can take up where we left off. Probably, we will take some steps backward before moving on.

In the meantime, it is cold and wet. Last night, with the furnace going full blast we could not push past 63 degrees in the house. My little house is not built to withstand the cold.

And no more talk about the Texans (at least not until next year). They just were not good enough to continue on.

When I visited my mom yesterday she tearfully sat me down. She told me she had come to a difficult decision. After a lot of contemplation, she decided it was time to move to Texas with me. I wish I knew if I should just go along with her and say, yes momma, that is a good idea or if I should tell her she is already there. I look at her and see so much of myself in her. I wonder if I will find myself confused, lonely and seemingly abandoned in a nursing home in my future. I guarantee she never thought she would end up there.

I know brighter days are ahead. There is a sun icon on our weather channel report for the next ten days. Maybe some new warmth headed our way.

In the meantime, we should all take a nap like Puppy Girl.

oh, Puppy Girl!

Too dumb to own horses? And other tales-a Bruno Story

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Exechorseluver

As the ground was starting to dry out, I made my way home from the nursing home last night. I was thinking about the weekend ahead (another Texans play-off game) and also that I was tired from all of our trials with the flood but sure that the worst was past us and things were looking up.

Lauren was off with the boyfriend and Friday night was stretching out ahead of me. I pass the barn before I get to the drive-way to the house and always look over to check on the horses. The first thing I noticed was that Bruno was dancing around his stall and I could see even from the road he was sweating so much that he was lathered. Then I saw that his baby-sitter, Mr. Kid, was standing in front of the other barn, in front of the pony, Mimi’s stall. I knew Bruno would be frantic without Kid (and he was).

I raced in the house, not changing out of my work clothes, stopping long enough to don my muck boots and flew out to the barn. Kid greeted me at the gate. I grabbed a fistful of his mane, dragged him across the barn and through the open gate back to Bruno. While this certainly was a good plan and one that should have never needed to be enacted if Lauren had shut the gate between the two corrals, Bruno was so agitated and over the edge that Kid’s arrival back in stable yard did little to calm his nerves.

Horses are herd animals. They want to be part of a herd. In the wild it is extremely difficult to cull a horse out of the herd. They will break down gates, jump high fences and go to extreme lengths to remain with their herd. When Kid left to go visit his old herd mates, Bruno was in the worst of situations. A co-dependent horse without his best buddy, without any buddy.

I called Lauren and begged her to come home now. I am sure she thought I was over-reacting. In Bruno’s frenzy to get to Kid he had destroyed his stall. We had placed 4 foot by 6 foot mats in sections to cover his entire stall. Then he had shavings on top of the mats. This had worked effectively for the last 30 days. As Bruno spun, reared and ran around his stall he caught the edges of mats and the entire stall was trashed. Mats had been pushed four feet up the walls, others were sideways on top of one another. But worse, the bandage on Bruno’s hurt foot was filthy. The tape dressing that covered the bottom of his hoof had been worn off and his shoe was exposed. Both of his back legs were bleeding.

Not a good sight. His leg is white. The bandage should be white. But it wasn't.

Not a good sight. His leg should be white. The bandage should be white. His surgical shoe is visible on the bottom and should be covered.

I got a little feed (which was probably a stupid idea because he was so hot) but I thought he might focus on it and Kid and start to settle down. Then I got really smart. We had been sent home from Texas A&M with a tranquilizer drug. Bruno has done so well we have not needed it once. But now I was assembling the syringe and drawing the drug from the vial. It was definitely time to get Bruno calmed down. I tied Bruno in his stall and waited for the drug to start working. I was also waiting for Lauren to get home. Of course, it was doing this misty, nasty rain that just made the whole thing more unpleasant. Still in my work clothes, which were now covered in horse lather and sweat, I started to strip out the shavings from the stall so we could get to the mats and re-arrange them.

Lauren showed up a few moments later. By then I had moved Bruno (with a stud chain) to Kid’s stall so we could get working on re-doing his bandage and re-doing his stall. I could have done it without Lauren but was glad I didn’t have to. The re-bandaging was difficult as Bruno, in spite of the drugs, was still moving and turning. I was holding his head and Lauren his hoof but it was a rough time to get the old, nasty bandage off and the new one put on him. I have to say again, though, his hoof looks good! It is like you can see the growth each time we re-bandage it.

Together Lauren and I dragged, pushed and pulled the big mats back in place and got fresh shavings. Bruno was dry now, his sweat soaked body was starting to get chilled in the damp, cool air. Lauren placed a clean blanket on him. We got fresh water in his buckets which he had collided against and emptied onto the walkway. We got dinner made for Kid and Bruno.

Lauren walked Bruno back to his stall and he was limping hard on his sore foot. She administered some anti-inflammatory medicine to ward off the pain that would be coming.

So, twice in a week each of us had left a gate open that caused serious trouble for this brave horse. Between us, we are out to his stall to feed, water and clean at least six times a day. The bad weather does not encourage one to hang out at the barn. We are always running, always a little stressed, always a little behind. It begs the question above-are we just too dumb to care for this horse? It certainly feels that way. One of daddy’s favorite sayings, “we are our own worst enemy.”

Well, Bruno made it through another one of our crazy, stupid mistakes. We are trying to mentally slow down and not cut corners. Double checking each gate and door before we leave the barn area. Another one of my dad’s sayings was “if you have to ask yourself if the gate is closed, it isn’t.”

Today we made our bi-annual pilgrimage to South Texas Tack in Brenham. If you need supplements, supplies, or gear this is the place. We got Bruno new shavings, more tape for his hoof, bandage scissors and lots of hoof supplement.

Sneaky, excited to support the Texans with her great shirt!

$BrownDog in her Texan shirt. Note-both of these are action shots because the dogs were so excited to have their new shirts!$

BrownDog in her Texan shirt. Note-both of these are action shots because the dogs were so excited to have their new shirts!

Tomorrow the Texans will face a tough away game against New England, but with my dogs and family outfitted in Texan attire, we should provide the boost they need. Bruno needs a giant Texan’s jersey. Lauren and I will repeat last week’s visit to the nursing home with wine and appetizers. Mom had a great time then and the Texans won-might as well keep the tradition going!

Bruno to Dry Ground-A Bruno Story

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Exechorseluver

Lauren as we headed to the barn to assess the water level in the stalls.

I didn’t think it was possible but now I know that even in the middle of the winter, without a tropical storm or a hurricane in sight, mother nature can drop six inches of rain on you in south Texas in just a quick afternoon.

Lauren called and said we had been hit hard and the rain was still coming. I headed home knowing I was driving my low to the ground Volkswagen directly into the line of storms. I didn’t feel like there was much of a choice. As bad as being home in the storm was, being home alone is much worse. Situations arise fast and it is overwhelming and bleak. I wanted to be home to be with Lauren as we rode out the storm.

About 60 miles from work, I hit the Wharton County line. I saw the crop rows filled with water. I saw houses and trucks surrounded by water. I prayed I would not hit a deep patch of water with my car and I was lucky not to do so. My mind wound anxiously around what we would do with Bruno. How would we get him out to the trailer without getting his hoof wet, ruining his surgery and the subsequent recovery days we had already endured? Like your tongue over a chipped tooth, I went over and over the situation without any apparent solution. Okay, I was freaking out!

As I made the final turn for home, I saw houses isolated like islands amid the storm waters. I saw cars with water up to the wheel wells. I kept driving. My little house was surrounded by water. Typically even in the worst floods we have had our driveway stays above water. The flood waters had crested the drive.

I just couldn’t believe the water that had fallen. I know, I know, I had been told, six inches of rain. Six inches of rain is crazy. It lapped around the base of my house. There was a current in my front yard. The trailer (seen in pictures yesterday on an island of green) was now in the water which was quickly approaching the trailer floor.

A trailer standing in water is difficult for a horse to load into, even with four good feet.

I was out of ideas and afraid as we headed to the barn (which just as a point of clarification, is not a barn but a giant run-in shed with stalls). Our evacuation plan was to cover Bruno’s hoof with the nifty duct tape boot the staff at Texas A&M had taught us to make. Then we would double bag the leg in heavy-duty trash bags over the duct tape boot to keep the hoof dry. No doubt in moderately muddy, slightly wet conditions this would have been a successful plan. When you can go fly-fishing next to the trailer door, loading a horse while trying to keep his feet dry is impossible. And those of you that know horses, know that no matter how well this horse normally loads, he may completely object to “water loading”.

As we got to the barn, I was pleased and surprised to see the dampness stopped just a foot or so from the stalls. Every stall was dry but the outside stall belonging to Kid had taken some airborne water (it had rained into his stall) but the floor was still mostly dry. The flood waters had not reached the stalls.

More rain fell this afternoon but finally some weak winter sun edged its way over the horizon around dusk. More rain is predicted for tonight, but I think we have seen the worst of it.

Each time we make it through one more trial on this farm, we come up with another new plan to make things better. We now will try extending the shed’s roof line out about ten feet and add more of the rock sand that has proven effective in thwarting the water’s advance.

I am thinking that the arena may be rideable again in March or so (I am sort of kidding about this but not sure). We are okay with that. While we want to work Mimi and Feather the clock is not ticking and we will accomplish what we can, when we can. This evening Lauren changed out Bruno’s bandage again. The new hoof and flesh look healthy, pink and vital. Wow, this is not easy but we are making it. No one ever said it would be.

From the corner of Kid’s and Bruno’s stalls looking out to the arena and hay-field beyond where so many of you have driven in to pick up hay.

Please send us some prayers and wishes for sunny days ahead. God bless you and thank you to the many of you that called, texted and messaged your support. It helped us make it through.

And Some More Rain

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Exechorseluver

No riding in this arena for a while.

I couldn’t believe it when I saw the forecast. For Wharton, it was forecasted that we would receive up to six inches of rain between this morning and tomorrow night. Who gets six inches of rain? Maybe with a hurricane or a tropical storm but in January? Again, maybe six inches of snow but not of rain, not of water. Of course, this unlikely weather event comes along with the doctor’s order that Bruno cannot get his hoof wet.

We got through today. Maybe two to three inches of rain fell on the farm. More is forecasted for tonight and tomorrow. I remember when my friend Gaylyn told me that this winter was going to be wet. We made changes to the barn, the walkways, and the arena. We were going to see if my project improvement plans were really worthwhile.

I texted Lauren late this afternoon. I was 70 miles away-I hadn’t seen what it looked like “in the country”. She said we had been hit pretty hard. The trailer was sitting on an island, surrounded by water. Then I asked if Bruno’s stall was dry. (We had an evacuation plan where we would cover his leg in plastic and move him to Gaylyn’s barn if the water got too high.) I waited anxiously for her reply, scared that I hadn’t been able to keep Bruno’s leg dry.

Lauren replied, “Bruno’s stall is dry. They are all dry.”

I gave a sigh of relief and headed for home.

Bruno Stages an Escape!-A Bruno Story

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Exechorseluver

Safely back in his stall-but covered in mud!

Dawn came up on day 15 of rain and overcast skies. After an early breakfast feeding, Lauren and I huddled in the house until 9 am or so when the temperatures edged past 45 degrees. The horses (all of them, not just Bruno) had been in their stalls for over 36 hours as we waited for the rain to end.

We hauled three wheelbarrows of dirty shavings and manure out of the stalls. Then we started to dress and re-wrap Bruno’s hoof. We ran out his dressing, (we can get more at the vet tomorrow), had to sweep a clean spot to dress his hoof, had to bring him some alfalfa to distract him while we worked, had to get fresh water and clean his buckets, the point is we were in and out of his stall million times. We finally got his hoof re-done and headed to the house-chores complete!

I sat down at the computer to start my blog about watching the Texans game with my mom yesterday. She had so much fun. I glanced out the window as the site was coming up and saw a large black horse rolling in the mud. It took a second, I looked to see where Kid was (he was the only horse out) and he was standing watching Bruno roll. I looked at Lauren and screamed “Oh my God, Bruno is out loose in the mud!”

Bruno has not been out of his stall since he left for TAMU 20 days ago. He is not under any circumstances to get his hoof wet. It has rained for most of the last two weeks. There is standing water and mud everywhere. Lauren and I scrambled out of the house at a run, crashing through the dog gate, sliding into our boots, grabbing our coats and heading toward the barn. Screaming instructions at one another, “Get the first halter!”, “Grab some alfalfa!” After completing his glorious roll in the mud, Bruno had moved onto pounding the ground behind the barn, running and bucking, happy to be free. (I would like to point out that his new hoof was holding up pretty well and he was not showing big signs of lameness.) The other horses in the barn were reacting to his rampage by racing in their stalls. Lauren got past the fence to his stall area first. I arrived at the gate just as Bruno came blazing in, sliding to a stop in the deep mud in front of the gate.

Lauren tried to get Mimi’s little halter around the broad neck of the giant Bruno, all the time yelling at me, “it’s too small, it’s too small!” Of course, this all had to be my fault, I had to have been the one that did not fasten his gate correctly (and it probably was). I grabbed the wrong halter as well.

Bruno was wound up, thrilled with his escape, romp through the mud and decidedly uncaring about his bandaged foot being wet and muddy. He was trembling with excitement and blowing hard from his nose. Kid had chosen this moment to mosey on into Bruno’s stall and was content to just stand by Bruno’s feed bowl. I hurried to get Kid out to make way for Bruno to come back in.

Lauren continued to yell at me. Finally, securing the little halter around the narrowest part of Bruno’s neck, Lauren was trying to impress the big gelding that it was time to get back in his stall. It was like the Keystone Cops try to wrangle a horse. We really need a barn cam ready to record our idiotic exploits as they occur. Hundred and something pound Lauren convinced thirteen hundred and something pound Bruno to go into the stall. Then we started to assess the damage.

Bruno’s filthy back legs!

Thankfully we had just re-bandaged the hoof and we had been out of our normal elastikon bandage. We had substituted a heavier weight, waterproof tape and covered Bruno’s hoof in it. When we got the muddy bandage off, water had not seeped through to the hoof. We re-bandaged it, took off Bruno’s blanket that was now covered in mud, brushed him down and re-blanketed him with an old stable blanket that barely fit him. Lauren gave him some anti-inflammatory meds for when his little romp starts to feel like a bad idea.

We double checked the gate chain before we left this time. We counted our blessings that I had seen him when I did before he had time to really soak the hoof.

Newly bandaged and clothed in a clean blanket.

And on my original idea for today’s blog, Lauren and I went to Nanny’s with wine in sippy cups, various appetizers and watched the first half of the Texans play-off game. Mom said it was the best day she had in a long time. I don’t know if it was our company or the wine, but it almost seemed like old times, cheering on the winning team. For a little while we could forget that anything was unusual about drinking “forbidden” wine from children’s sippy cups in a nursing home in Texas.

Exechorseluver

The life and times of modern day horse woman

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