Things are busy here on the farm - as usual! Sparkie the wonder pony is having some trouble. He seems to be suffering from Napoleon syndrome!!! He thinks he's the biggest, baddest, toughest horse on the property! Unfortunately, he's wrong, and the other horses will only put up with his posturing for so long. He went after Dolly a couple of weeks ago - she backed away, but he just would not leave her in peace so she finally said "ENOUGH" and let him have it. As you've probably guessed, with a 14 hand, rather old pony against a 16 hand, middle aged Clydesdale, things did not go well for Sparkie. He's fine now, but that's after a Sunday evening emergency vet call (thanks so much for the vet bill Sparkie!), antibiotics, pain meds, and wrapping/re-wrapping his hind legs for a couple of weeks. The left hind bothered the most, he wouldn't put any weight on it until it was wrapped. The wound was not deep, but it was right over the tendon and the swelling put pressure on the tendon and made it very sore. The wound on the right hind was actually worse. I thought it might need stitches, but the vet decided she wanted to leave it open to drain so she bandaged it with absorbent padding. The wound actually went all the way to the bone! Carla helped me change his bandages every couple of days and the vet re-checked him after a week and said he was doing great. The bandages are off now, but you can see from the photo what they looked like. The other photo above is Sparkie looking innocent and sweet - ha!

Carla and I had our last ride out for the year. We took Jazz and Scotty. We didn't go far because it was the last day of rifle season here - NOT a good day to be in the woods! The day after our ride Chad (the farrier) came and pulled the shoes from Dolly, Jazz, and Scotty. They were the last to have shoes. Scooby still has front shoes because he can't really go without them. Maybe if we get snow to cushion his feet, he can be barefoot for a while. The pic above is Jazz and Scotty being best buddies. Below is Scooby in the snow.

Speaking of snow..... We had our first real snow of the season. (Below is Autumn, Ziegy and Cami getting snowed on.) Unfortunately, it then turned to sleet and so we ended up with an icy mess. The driveway was ice (I sanded it but it's still icy), and the paddocks are very slippery. I've been keeping Deja and Scooby out back, not letting them out with the big group because I don't want the other horses chasing Deja on the ice, and I don't want Scooby chasing everyone else! The horses are all very bored. There is no grass, they can't run around without slipping, and they aren't being ridden or worked. I don't really want snow, but a good base of 6" - 10" would really help a lot. The weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate. It's super cold right now, below zero last night and tonight, wind chills below zero all day today. Then on Wednesday it's supposed to be high 40's and rain, then turn cold again so we'll have more ice! Not good!

Fortunately, in between weather systems, the hay guys were able to make a delivery. They brought 2 full loads to refill the loft, about 470 bales. I'm hoping they'll be able to fill it again in January - keep your fingers crossed for us!

Blackberry

1983? - 2008

Blackberry choked again yesterday. Heather was here for 2 hours in the morning. She tubed her and tried to flush out what was blocking, but it didn't work. She left me with a couple of shots to give her during the afternoon to see if they would get the blockage moving but again, it didn't work. Heather came back in the evening and spent 3 more hours working on her, scoping, tubing, giving her IV fluids, and we still had no luck. We gave her the night to see if she could clear it on her own and she couldn't. In fact she was much worse this morning.
Heather came and put her peacefully to sleep this morning. Kate and Jim were here and Jim buried her up in the back field with Sundance, Ceres, Puck, and Misty. She was with us for too short a time, but she had a huge impact on a lot of people. We all, especially her buddy Sparkie, will miss her.

Conversation at the Barn...

Tapper: Hey everybody, mom’s really busy getting ready for winter so I need to write a new post for the blog. Anyone got any news to put on?

Scooby: You wrote it last time, it’s my turn this time!

T: Your feet are too big for typing, you can’t do it.

Sparkie: I’ll do it, I’m the most interesting horse here anyway so I’ll just write about me!

T: Let’s take a vote, who do you all think should write the blog?

Jazz: I’m eating, I don’t care.

Scotty: I can help! I can help! I can do it, I can - I can - I can….. What’s a blog?

T: ZIEGY - NO!!!!!! You can’t pick up the computer and throw it around! It’s NOT a toy!!!!!

Ziegy: Well, what fun is it then?

T: Is that everyone? Do we have all the votes?

Sparkie: What about BB, she’ll vote for me!

Blackberry: please just leave me alone, I’m scared of blogs.

Rosy: What about me???

Horses: You’re a dog, not a horse!

Rosy: Yea, but I spend a lot of time in the barn and I’ve watched mom write the blog lots of times, I think I could do a good job.

Petrucchio: Goats are people too!

T: Sigh….. I thought this would be easy……

To be continued…….

November....

It's been a busy month so far. The farrier and the vet have both been here. Chad came and pulled Ziegy's and Tapper's shoes for the winter (as well as trimming the others). Jazz and Scotty are the only rideable horses now. Dolly still has shoes, but she's having other issues, more about that later... Chad and Tim came back another day to work with Scooby. Scooby has had a few issues. His sole has dropped again - why? who knows? Chad and Tim took 2 thick plastic pads and cut them into rim pads to make space between the sole and shoe. They then filled in the space with that pour in pad cushy stuff. Scooby is definitely feeling and moving better now which is all that matters. Scooby is 24 - 25 years old now. All I want to do is keep him comfortable for as long as possible.

Heather came out and did teeth floats on Maggie, Autumn, Dolly and Starlight and shots on most of the others. Starlight also needed her wolf teeth pulled. The really good news is that Blackberry is NOT PREGNANT!!! We thought she might be because before she came here she was out with Sparkie and a little mini stallion so I just wanted to know for sure one way or the other. At her age a pregnancy would have been risky so I'm very glad she's not!

Heather's assistant Kelly brought me a horseshoe flower. She enjoys blacksmithing (says she like to hammer out her frustration!) and makes flowers and other things. I gave her a bunch of old shoes this summer and she used Scooby's shoe for the center.

We are not sure what's going on with Dolly. She has not had a great summer. She's had a cough and runny nose which we thought might be allergies, but allergy meds didn't really help much. She has been off her feed, eating sometimes and not eating other times. She has been very quick to get out of breath and the last time we took her out - a short ride, at a walk, on a VERY cool day - she was huffing and puffing and sweating a lot. Heather couldn't find anything wrong on physical exam, so she took some blood to send off for testing. I'll let you know what happens.

Carla has had issues with a few horsey equipment malfunctions. We were about half way through a 2.5 hour ride with Jazz and Scotty and her rein fell off her bridle! She got off and tied it back on (the screw had fallen out and we didn't have another screw with us) and we contined on our way. We got about 3/4 of the way home and her other rein fell off!!!! What are the odds of that? Fortunately there was a lead rope in Scotty's pack and she was able to tie it together with the reins and ride him the rest of the way home. We are thinking it must be sabotage since both came off on the same ride. Carla has her own ideas of the guilty one, personally I think one of the garden gnomes did it!

Jim was here to help me get the site ready for the new run-in shed. He brought his loader so he could level a place with gravel and it really didn't take him long. We had to take down some fencing and all the gates that divided the barn yard into feeding stations. That system worked great this summer but would not have worked in the winter. It would have been too hard to keep the barn yard plowed with all that stuff in the way. The new shed is small, 8' x 10'. Ziegy eats in it morning and evening before going back out. Jazz and Scotty have no special place to eat now so I feed in shifts and they borrow stalls from Maggie and Autumn before going back out. It takes a little longer to do things in shifts but there is really no other way to feed everyone right now. Jim was also kind enough to repair our bench by putting a new top on it - Thank You!

Sadie has had a tough week. Tuesday evening she was in a lot of pain, panting, shaking, keeping her tail tucked between her legs, and not acting like her normal self. As time went on I noticed she was sitting with her legs out to one side or the other, again, not normal. Then she started being very wobbly behind while walking and crossed her hind feet and occasionally fell over. After 2 visits to the vet (one Wednesday and one Thursday) the diagnosis wasn't really good. It was obviously a problem with her spine, best case scenerio it is just a swollen disc putting pressure on her nerves. Worst case - a spinal tumor. She was given IV meds at the vets, and I am giving her three different meds here at home. The meds have definitely helped, she's walking more normally and is not in pain like she was. The question is what will happen when she goes off the meds? She's 15 years old (not a spring chicken), so the goal is to keep her comfortable but surgery is not an option for her. I will keep you posted on how things go for her.

Autumn leaves.....

First of all, before I forget again, Thank You - Thank You to everyone who helped out last month when I was hurt!!! I am very lucky to have you all in my life!

The days are getting shorter, and the nights are getting COLD! We've been riding a little later in the day to give the temperature a chance to warm up. The fall colors have been gorgeous this year and walking the horses through the fallen leaves is wonderful. It's been really funny watching how the horses deal with fall. Ziegy and Scotty saw the leaves fall and they thought the sky was falling! Then Ziegy was bombarded with falling acorns, and Tapper and Dolly had to deal with falling butternuts! Yikes!

Blackberry gave me a scare last week. She choked on a wad of hay (she doesn't have many teeth so can't chew it well). I waited about 45 minutes to see if she'd clear it, but it was getting worse so I called the vet. My vet was away so I talked with Dr. Lamb (who was on call for her). He's nice, but he lives really far away and it takes him a long time to get here. He asked me to walk her slowly for 30 minutes and see if that helped. I did that, and rubbed her throat and neck. By the time Dr. Lamb called back she had cleared the blockage. We discussed what to do because I felt she had aspirated so he prescribed antibiotics (which I picked up at Heather's) and bute (horsey aspirin) to relieve swelling. I soaked her food - hay and grain - for a week or so to make it easier for her to eat and she's doing well now.

Fall, Rides, and Horsey Stuff

Fall is here! The trees are turning color, the day and nights are getting cooler, the apples and pumpkins are abundant, and the bugs are going away! We've been riding as much as possible. Kate and I took Tapper and Jazzy on a very long ride a few weeks ago. We went up through Dutton, to Stagecoach Rd (not really a road, a trail), then turned off onto the trail to Lower Bartonsville. I really like that trail and it's a lot better now that Jim has been working on it. He and Barb own some of the property the trail runs through. We met Jim near the bottom - surprise! He has put a gate across the road to keep out vandals, but he left space for us to get the horses around, Thanks!!! From there we turned left on Lower Bartonsville Rd and followed it to rte. 103. Of course, first we had to meet the tourist train, the horses were very good with that, and cross a covered bridge. They would NOT go across, so Kate got off and led Tapper across and Jazzy followed her. Then we scooted across 103 and rode up it for a short time. We saw all kinds of cars, trucks, tractor trailers, and motorcycles and the horses did great! We then scooted back across 103 to Willam's River Rd (a dirt road). There we had to cross another covered bridge, this time Jazz went across with a little encouragement and Tapper followed him! Williams River Rd ends at Brockway Mills Rd by the gorge, so we went left up the road to get to the other end of Stagecoach Rd, followed that back to Dutton, and then home - 5 hours!!! We were (horses and people) really tired, but it was fun!!! Kate has been borrowing her brother's GPS unit and mapping all the trails we ride. It will be great to see it when it's finished.

Tracy has been doing a lot of round pen work with Starlight, and taking lessons from Kate. Starlight is being a bit of a brat and giving Tracy a hard time, but they are working on it and making progress. She took a break from Starlight at one point and hopped on Dolly for a few minutes!

We've seen a couple of bears in our trail riding (as you can see in the photos).....

The horses are having fun just being horses..... I know Tootsie's not a horse, but she still gets her picture on the blog!

What Happened to August?????