Fall Update

Hi Everyone,

I know.....  about time I posted again.  This is just going to be a short post to fill you in on the good news and bad news.  I'll try to post again soon with photos.  

So, on to the good news first... 

Ivan was sold at the beginning of the summer to a wonderful new home where he is loved to pieces!!!  His new owner is named Carla - no NOT our Carla - and she has been riding for 50 years.  She's been a dressage instructor/trainer, and has done just about every other kind of riding you can think of so she definitely knows what she's doing.  She figures Ivan will be the last horse she buys and she wanted the perfect horse so she looked at many before she found our boy and fell in love.  She loves how smart he is and she loves that he makes her laugh - hooray!!!

It's been a rainy summer so we haven't ridden as much as usual.  My cousin Mary has visited twice, once by herself and once with her grand-daughter Caylie.  They managed to visit while it wasn't raining and they both had several chances to ride.  Mary rode Becca, and Caylie rode Becca and Jazz and did really well with both of them (except that Jazz lost his shoe and pad during our trail ride - drat!)  They are taking riding lessons in Maine (where they live) and have just found a new instructor who hopefully will be perfect for them both!

Kate and the kids came a few times to ride but with the weather, and everyone's schedules, they weren't able to come every week like they have in the past.  At least both kids got a chance to ride, Sam graduated from Becca to Scotty (in the ring), and Eve moved from Dolly to Becca.  Both kids did really well.  Kate came a few times without the kids to ride with us.  We are hoping she'll get up here at least once more this fall to ride.

Now the bad news...

Ketu has come up lame so he's on a few months rest (not stall rest, just not riding).  Heather took several x-rays of his right hock and stifle and nothing showed up which means it's not a bone issue.  So he either pulled a tendon, ligament, muscle, or has some other sort of soft tissue injury that hopefully will heal with some rest time.  He also just blew out a huge abscess on his right front.  Blew out both heel bulbs.  Carla had his shoes pulled and he has the fall off.  That means Becca will get ridden a lot more this fall which is good for her - though she's not too sure about that.

Now the really bad news...

Tapper is not doing well at all.  She just hurts all the time.  We put front shoes and degree pads on and that has helped some with her front feet, but she has arthritis in her back, her hocks, and pretty much everywhere in between.  She's getting 2 grams of bute a day and it doesn't seem to be doing much.  I'll probably need to increase the bute even more, but then of course you get the side effects from that.  What it boils down to is that she'll be put down this fall.  I'm not sure exactly when, it mostly depends on her and how comfortable I can keep her.  I've been giving her a choice to stay in a stall run or go out with the girls during the day and 4 out of the last 5 days she has chosen to stay in.  She's been a huge part of the farm for 20 years and it's going to be really hard to let her go.

Dolly is also having issues.  She has arthritis, plus her respiratory problems, plus her ever sinking back, so Carla has decided to put her down at the same time as Tapper.  Dolly has been here for 7 years and has been much loved by many kids and adults.  She's provided us with some laughs and stories we'll tell for years to come.  She and Tapper both will leave big holes in our hearts.

That's it for now.  I'll let you know how things go.

 

So, what's been happening on the farm you ask?  Well, it's been another crazy winter.  Just to give you an idea, let me recap the last few days.  We'll start with Wednesday night.  It rained...  a lot...  all night.  So Thursday morning when I went to the barn I definitely needed my Stabilicers!  Tapper and Becca had all they could do to come in for breakfast.  I wasn't sure they were going to make it without falling but after some very harrowing moments they both made it in safely.  Of course, with the paddocks all ice, nobody could go out that day.  I managed to spread some manure on the worst spots and hoped it would warm enough to melt some of the ice.  6 of the horses had light blankets or sheets on, and they were all soaked.  The horses were dry underneath, but the outsides of the blankets were saturated and the insides were all damp - so they had to come off.  They were so wet and heavy they felt like they weighed at least 30 pounds each!  I hung them all to dry,  told the horses I was sorry they couldn't go out but to get over it, and set it up so Tapper and Becca could roam around the barnyard, right in front of the barns and in the hall of the smaller barn (everyone else has a run in stall so they could get out a little).  Oh, and did I mention it had rained a lot???  So of course, I had water in the washroom and the tack room.  I had to spread bedding in the tack room to soak it all up.  AND...  the outlet for Tapper's stall needs to be replaced so I had to run an extension cord for her water bucket - sigh...

The winds on Thursday and Thursday night were incredible, and the temperature dropped all day so I had to find blankets for at least Tapper and Dolly overnight.  I brought a few down from the house and managed to find sheets that fit the 2 of them.  Everyone else did without Thursday night, but they all had shelter from the wind so they were ok.  I had to flip all the hanging blankets inside-out so the inside would dry (the outsides dryed during the day Thursday). 

By Friday, the paddocks were still icy but not as bad, and the horses were able to go back out , carefully.  They all went slowly and picked their way around the ice - except for Ketu who decided to just run as fast as he could to get to the hay bags and since luckily he still has his winter shoes he did ok...  I ran some errands after moving the tree that fell across the driveway - high winds, remember?  Oh, and I had to wait a few minutes on Middle Rd. because the town crew was just finishing up clearing the tree that fell across that road.  Friday night everbody got their (now dry) blankets back on and Saturday was thankfully pretty uneventful - if cold - except for 2 things.  First was Ivan, who had managed to take down one line of his fence for the 3rd time this week!  He doesn't break anything, just somehow manages to get it off the insulator.  I changed it this time when I fixed it so hopefully that's the last time.  The 2nd thing was that Jazz and Scotty managed to get one of their small hay bags off the wall and outside on the ground.  After eating all the hay, SOMEBODY peed on it!!!  Yuck!

It's now Sunday morning, and I'll be heading to the barn in a few minutes.   I'll write some more when I come back inside...

Well Brrrrr!!!  It was zero degrees this morning, same as yesterday morning.  It's been colder, I think the lowest so far this year was -17.  Anyway, more news below.  Stay warm!

(By the way, the above pics are all from the last 2 days.  I love the one of Starlight and Dolly making witchy ears at each other...)

 

 

 

Cami:   As most of you know, Cami made it to New Orleans and was reunited with Kathi.  Kathi let her settle in for a while, but now she has her jumping again and she's doing great!  Hopefully she'll get some new pics to me soon.  This one is from just after Cami arrived at her new home.

 Shady/Wrenn:  So, remember how I told you that Shady was being a lesson horse?  Well, that actually didn't work so well because she was a little too much horse for the beginners to handle.  So her owner sold her - to one of her students who absolutely LOVES her!!!!!!!  M. is a high school student who has been riding and competing for many years.  She has renamed Shady - she's now called Wrenn.  She did some eventing this summer and Wrenn did really well in both cross country and stadium jumping portions as you can see in the pics (doesn't she look amazing???).  She needs more work on the dressage portion of the event but considering this was her first summer showing like this she did pretty well.  She also gets in lots of trail rides and fun, like swimming with her owner in the photo.  M. hops on her bareback sometimes and lies back and reads a book while just hanging out.   Wrenn couldn't have a more perfect home and I'm thrilled for her!!!

 

Recognize the handsome guy on the right?????
It's Roo!  This picture is from summer 2012.  He's doing great, still with Elaine in PA (of course). If you want to see more of him, Elaine has made a video from last summer.  The link below will hopefully get you there. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elainetweedy/8435662153/



 This coming Friday (Feb. 8th) is Rosy's birthday!!!  She turns 8 this year.  Hard to believe she was once such a tiny little puppy...  And yes, she had a pink nose with black spots and as she grew, the spots filled in and her nose is all black now.