Drew’s stay in the equine ICU was not his idea of a good time. He was in a weird smelling place, though at least he had a buddy there. And oh, the indignity, they made him wear a muzzle that prevented him from eating the shavings on the floor. What’s a hungry boy to do?
I didn’t take pictures of his sad state, so here’s the lobby of the place.
The caregivers did great. His lungs look a bit worse, so he has to cone back next week. Glad it’s only 40 minutes away.
Here’s where he stayed. It’s a separate ICU and treatment building.
Drew was happy to get out of there. I was not surprised at the bill, but yow. We went home with stomach coating stuff in pill form that he is supposed to take 8 of, three times a day. He also has medication to keep him calm and antibiotics. I have to feed him probiotics, too. That I already had. Argh. This will be a learning curve!
At least we had a nice sunset, though it might have been caused by all the awful fires.
We got him home late, but I gave him some goopy food that he loved. He has to be in his pen for a week. He will not like that. Poor Droodles.
Pour me.
This morning was challenging. I tried to crush his pills in the food processor but I apparently don’t know how to work it. The blender worked, though, so I made it up and took it to his muddy pen.
Ta da.
My main learning is that I need to put a halter on him to hold his head, and that a helper would sure be useful. Too bad there isn’t one! I ended up sorta getting him to lick it off my hand. He’s so sweet. Sigh. I have to give that stuff, then feed an hour later. Moral: glad I work from home.
I’d prefer food. Even soupy food.
I’m sure I’ll get better at all this. And the sun is out after another stormy night. Rain is good!
While I wait to be sure Drew is okay (morning report was he was holding his own), let’s just enjoy the beginning of the BEST time of year here in Texas: wildflower season.
Nothing, nothing, smells and looks so good around here! Bluebonnets!
Yes, our bluebonnets are starting to shine. Ours aren’t as great as some places, like between here and Bryan, but they please us. They make the ranch look all snazzy.
Every time I go outside, it seems like some new blossoms have popped up. Here’s my perennial favorite, blue-eyed grass.
Everything is so blue
I’d been wondering when the pink evening primrose was going to show up. I’d seen some yellow in Rockdale.
Here I am!
Anita had asked me if the freeze had killed our native mustang grapevines. I went out to check and was delighted to see hundreds of grape flower clusters. They look to me like LOTS of future grapes. Aren’t they pretty?
Grapes of the future.
These beauties all remind me that while timing may vary, the spring will always come, bringing at least a little hope our way. sure, more storms and wind are on the way, but it’s okay.
Vetch is what I was looking for when I found the snapping turtle. Cut-leaf evening primrose at my old office Spiderwort at the old office, by Kathleen. A kind of chickweedMock vervain My tiny bluets, going strong
When people are hard on you, turn to the beauty around you. It works for me! Nature isn’t always kind or perfect, like us folks, but it endured. So will I. Now to wait until time to fetch my loyal equine buddy to rejoin his herd.
Sometimes being the guardian of a companion animal is scary as heck. One minute you’re admiring how healthy your animal is and the next minute you’re hoping they aren’t dying.
How healthy this horse looks! No more ribs sticking out.
Right after I took this picture, something startled him or he took too big of a mouthful and he started coughing. That got me concerned. I tried to get him to drink some water, which was hard because the hose was behind some stuff. I mentally berated myself for feeding him where there was no water available and for not wetting his food enough.
Breathe and enjoy the sunset reflected on the Tahoe on our way home.
Then his food started coming out of his nose. I was trying to figure out what it was he had, and all I could say was he was SICK! I texted Tarrin and asked if it could be choke, once I remembered the name of it, and she said to get him to the vet.
I called the Texas Equine vets, thrilled they have emergency service. Lee got me there really fast. I’m so grateful for his support and patience after I was crying and worried. But we got Drew there in time!
Thanks, Mom and Lee. The wet area is from his ultrasound.
The vets and assistant were great. So was Drew. He walked into the treatment room like he always does it. He stood quietly for all the treatments, which looked pretty icky. He was sedated, of course, which relaxed him.
See, I’m relaxed.
Lee had never seen some of the procedures, so he got quite an education. When they put the twitch on Drew’s nose he was surprised! Drew was fine with it. He was very good when they ultrasounded his lungs. He didn’t seem to have aspirated much, if any, good. That’s good, since pneumonia is a common consequence of choke.
Before any gross stuff came out.
And the procedure for clearing the blockage was fascinating but messy. They pumped water up a tube, which came out along with stuck food. The good news is that I got him there quickly, so the stuff was fresh.
Going in.
It seemed to take forever to get the blockage cleared. The tube went farther and farther down. Horses have very long esophaguses. Drew was a real trooper.
After they were sure he was clear, they put in some oil to test that things are going through. We decided to leave him there overnight in case he colics, which is another possible consequence of choke. I sure wish horses could barf. That would have solved the problem.
More sunset to recover with.
I was so worried. Drew looked miserable with all that stuff coming out of him. At least I figured out what it was and that it was serious. The vets said sometimes people wait a long time before bringing the horse in, which can be bad. I’m sure grateful for the kind and competent staff at the facility. I love this little guy so much and just want him healthy and happy.
Kathleen was telling me that when Mabel choked last year, it was on similar food. And Tarrin said she’s had horses get into cattle cubes recently. Luckily they cleared theirs. I guess this isn’t as uncommon as I thought. But wow, there went what had been a great day so far!
Lee and I enjoyed our sunset coming home, though. And I’m feeling better after the support of my horsey friends and neighbors. Y’all rock.
Today I was a fluttering, unfocused mess all morning. I dropped things. I didn’t plan things well and had to deal with the consequences. My stomach was all upset. Yuck. Anxiety said howdy to me.
We both needed some time in the woods.
But, even as I continually annoyed my spouse and horses, I continued on and made it to Apache and Drew’s training sessions this morning. It was just what we all needed.
Keep my head straight.
The minute I started concentrating on the lessons, I was fine. Putting my mind in one task, helping the horses and me become better partners, I could focus. Apache and I practiced side passing and I started working on getting him to trot or jump over obstacles. He is a walker.
But the best part was the trail “experiment” Tarrin did to figure out why Apache gets more anxious coming back than heading out. Is it not being able to see other horses? Or what?
Basically, I had a blast going on the trails and didn’t care about anything but the beauty and being with Apache and Tarrin away from stress. But we did figure out how to keep him calmer and settle down when he started to feel anxious. And how to turn right a lot and use my left leg. All good. I was proud of how nothing that happened made me scared.
I’m testing and testing because I know I have an audience. I want the other young horses to learn my tricks!
With Drew, I got good lessons in keeping him out of my space and not letting him use me as a lever or something. I got lots of good info on that, which will make us both happier.
Ok. I’ll be good.
I got good input on how to get him trotting with me on the lead line. I got tired, but we got better. Maybe the next show we will be better!
By the way, Peeper can now crow. He’s a man chicken now.
Drew didn’t want to load into the trailer, and I think it was my fault for not realizing his trailer tie was too short and he could get to the hay I’d worked so hard to get for him. I fixed it, and my penance is all the poop I have to scrape out of Tillie the Trailer now.
Pretty!
This is the first Saturday in a long time that I’ve had any time at home, so I took advantage of the chance to see the new calf in the herd our family cares for and to meet Sully, the beauty who belongs to Trixie and we hope will have a foal for Sara next year.
Tilling
It was also good to visit my son and “offspring-in-love” at the cabin, where they are making a garden! Good for them. All this walking and seeing animals has finally gotten me feeling grounded. Time to shovel some poop.
I had a little extra horse time today, so I decided to groom Dusty, the Buckskin Buddy that Kathleen rode the most. He’d been looking lonely. Plus they are all shedding.
Look at me go!
We groomed a long time. He is much lighter now, and his mane and tail are all shiny. He is even growing some forelock back in after it was just a nub for a while. I could tell he enjoy it.
See, I have a mane!
Just for fun, we went on a walk and into the round pen. He immediately picked up a nice trot and kept going until I asked him to stop. Then he went the other way, also just fine.
Thanks, Suna!
To my surprise, when I encouraged him, he picked up an easy canter, not the uncontrolled one I sometimes get from Drew. It was fun to watch him looking so good and enjoying himself. I think he likes his current rations.
After I put him away, Drew came out to play. His mane is so pretty. More important, so is his behavior. His jumps looked great, and he stopped when I stopped, then trotted when I jogged. Yep. He’s great at home. Even sidepassed both ways.
Mmm. Grass.
When we were done practicing things, we went for a nice, relaxing walk around the property. I let him have a grazing break near the arroyo and just enjoyed his shiny hair above his hooves. The walk back was just great. We had a great time.
I’m glad I’m not a horse. Zzzz.
Apache was thrilled not to have to go trotting in circles again today, so we were all happy!
Flower love. Did you know our florist grows flowers for other florists? No wonder these seem so fresh.
In spring news, the swallows are back, swooping around. And I’ve never seen or heard so many cardinals. So pretty.
Chirp
And to end the day, here are some pretty flowers Dusty and his friends sent yesterday, just to brighten your evening or day.
Flower arrangement fun. Enjoy whatever is on the side of your road.
Today we went to our first live horse show. All of us lived. We each have things to work on, but hey, that’s the idea! I enjoyed putting on my fancy, if unflattering, outfit and showing off Drew’s cuteness.
Cowgirl and friend.
Sara and I enjoyed taking out Tillie the Trailer out for her first spin. It went great. The facility was gorgeous. There was a beautiful covered arena and actual bathrooms.
Drew and I did two tests, functionality and trail. He did well on the first, though I messed up some. On the second one, he would not trot. That messed up our score, but it was good to not keep pressuring him.
Here we are not trotting to pick up the jug.
He was sweet, though, and was not phased by all the new sights, sounds, and people. He seemed to be having fun. How about that? He liked the fancy stall I rented for him lot, too. Mostly he liked all the food.
Mmmm.
Sara and Aragorn did really well, too, and won their group. There were some ups and downs, but I was impressed with their performance. And Sara looked really good!
Looking good!
I learned a lot from the other competitors, too. Some of the folks from last week were also there today. I found them smart and brave, especially the ones who put their horses’ needs first.
Saragorn in the beautiful arena.
I’m fine with how we did, though I know we could have done better. But now we have an idea of what we need to work on. I sort of feel silly having a bunch of ribbons even though I’m the only one in my category at the moment.
Oh, geez.
But, hey, I did well. I could have chickened out and not gone, because it was cold. Or I could have messed up so much I’d have disqualified! So, I won. And so did Drew.
We are lucky to have had the opportunity. Tarrin and her family sure worked hard on the show. And the host was very kind.
They got banners. But they were ready to go home and not cooperating!
I have to say my favorite part of the whole day was spending time with Drew, watching the others, and bonding. It feels so good to be with his sweet spirit. I think I’ll do another show at some point.
It does feel like we have a clue when we are in such a nice spot.
By the way, I never won a ribbon for anything before. Probably that’s because of never entering contests. You gotta enter to win. Ha.
You’d think I’d be good at this by now, but I still have trouble getting the horses to eat their own special foods. I solved the problem with the four horses that aren’t mine by giving them all the same thing, one scoop of senior pellets, salt (or garlic+salt when I’m not out), and a supplement with magnesium. They still argue over it, but usually settle down.
Maybe I could mesmerize them with one of my sunflowers.
The other three are hilarious. Each thinks the other’s food is the best. Each of the horses wants Fiona’s plain diet horse food.
If I pretend to be invisible maybe I can eat.
Apache and Fiona want Drew’s alfalfa, oily stuff, special pellets, and salt. Drew is dying to eat Apache’s food, which doesn’t have enough calories for him. Sigh.
Mmm, dregs of Apache food.
I’d been wrangling the horses into separate spaces every day, but Fiona kept butting in on the expensive supplements. I really needed to have separate spaces for each of them.
I had to chase that darn donkey away from these delicious fattening Drew leftovers.
Wait, don’t I have four pens to put them in? Nope. Someone, who is a horse, managed to break one of the gates between the pens at the hinges in November. There are more important priorities right now than pen repair!
Hey, I have hands. And it’s International Women’s Day. I should do it myself. So, Suna the handy ranch woman handled it herself.
It’s a gate
I stood that gate up and went to get some wire. Of course, the black horse immediately knocked it down, because Fiona and her food were there. But I prevailed. I wired the heck out of that gate. I hope. And I was cared not to leave wire sticking out.
Out of horse pictures, so here are the flowers Lee got me. I was surprised they had sunflowers at the store!
Now the three equines get to eat their own food, with minimal squabbling. I hope, again. Because the horses kick each other when food is involved and Drew has ANOTHER unattractive chunk out of his hide. Real horses. That’s what they do.
Drew is a young horse, so he has his moments. He can be pushy and disinclined to pay attention. And he’s had a couple of challenges with his health and scary trucks. But, this morning he had his turn to give me a birthday present.
Show time!
We went over to Sara’s new dressage arena area again today. The first two times we went to practice at her location were not too great. I did a few things to help out this time.
First, we walked through the pasture rather than over by the cabin. That way, even if a loud truck went right by him it would be further away. I also made sure to warm him up in the round pen with a lot of cantering before we headed over.
He still doesn’t like the tree corridor but did better today. Apache also always disliked that area, even before the trees. I think the electric poles bother them.
After the scary trees came green grass!
It was time to do the second part of our Working Horse Central Spring Virtual Show. It was really windy as usual, but my hat blowing off in our practice pattern didn’t phase him. We did our Functionality test in one try. It had its flaws, but he didn’t run me off the course or refuse to walk like he did last time, and he trotted most of the time he was supposed to trot. He backed up crooked, though. Still, we did it!
Sara and Aragorn did great, too. It sure is nice having her Peavo to video us.
When we got done and I was getting out of my fancy boots, Sara tried an experiment of ponying Drew behind Aragorn. It went pretty well! Once I clicked to tell Drew to move, he followed. They even went through some obstacles.
They look so cute.
The idea is that Sara could ride over here and then I could ride Apache and she could pony Drew so we could all three practice. I think we would need a hitching post or something for the inactive horse, but it could work
I did a video!
She is going to do stuff with Sully, the beautiful mare she’s borrowing to have her colt. So that would be another horse friend to hang out with.
Now I plan to rest a bit and have a belated birthday meal this evening with my patient husband. A fine weekend!
So…this afternoon, Lee said he’d help me get some hay with the new trailer (I keep calling her Tillie). That gave him a chance to try out pulling it with his Tahoe. He got all the towing settings engaged, and I got to bond with Vlassic. I miss rides with him.
Friends. I know it’s kind to let him stay with Lee’s brother, who needs a companion, but I miss Vlassic.
The getting of hay went just fine. It was just in time, as my horses had just finished the last two bales. I wish I’d gotten pictures of Drew when the trailer showed up. He came right up, greeted Lee, then got all interested in Tillie. There’s a horse who isn’t afraid of a trailer, especially one with hay in it.
We went to leave the pasture and that’s when things went awry. Lee could not get between the shipping container and the stuff next to the fence.
Not shown: obstacles
Lee was not about to give up. He went and fetched the tractor and started moving stuff. It still wasn’t enough.
The obstacles.
He kept inching forward in the car, then moving more stuff. It was pretty funny watching him try to move some heavy poles and awkward lengths of fencing. Here are the stages.
A big bunch of stuff On the way outThe biggest obstacle goesI moved a lot of fencingThings kept falling offThat last pesky poleClearing the way
I did help by moving some stuff I could carry. And still, poor Lee had to manually move some fencing. But he did it! Tillie and the Tahoe made it out. We were able to load all the trash from the container so it can go away! That’s a big step towards the tack room getting set up and the container holding hay.
Ta da! Space!
The shipping container behind the horse pens is now at work holding renovation leftover, so everything is in its place.
Thanks for the hay
And finally, there was still time to get in my first ride on Apache since he got home. It went pretty well, and the few times he tested me, I coped fine. We went all over the field and did some trotting around. Whew.
We made it.
We even got to sit outside this evening and just chat. Sure, there are challenges and concerns, but by gosh we can move those obstacles, too. At least in our little world. Let’s hope those of us facing much larger challenges in the world can move their obstacles, too.
It was a good Sunday, but it did feature a lot of lifting and toting. That’s because Lee and I moved everything from the new horse trailer to the red shipping container. There was also a lot of disgusting stuff in the container that had to be removed. Much of it was mouse droppings from when it had gotten left open in its previous location. Sigh.
In progress.
But before that we went to get Apache after his two weeks of training. I hate being late, but Lee forgot we were going and then we were out of gas…but we made it. We brought Drew, who also was disinclined to go anywhere. But we had to look at his foot with the sarcoid on it.
Gotta clean that mud off
He was all muddy, so Tarrin washed his leg so we could see how much the tumor had grown. After he got clean, we were pleasantly surprised.
Can you see the mass? Me either.
It turns out what we saw yesterday was mud with blood on it. Tarrin says she’s pretty sure it’s smaller, not larger. What a relief! It will be a lot easier to treat at that size.
Treatment applied.
I’ll have to put some stuff that’s sort of like glue on it every four days for a few months, but this treatment has been effective for lots of horses. And I don’t have to go to the vet, since it’s a small sarcoid. I’m sure glad I didn’t have to deal with this alone!
Now I can relax with my little friend.
As for Apache, he apparently was a real good fellow all week, even with the bad weather. Plus he got to stay in a stall. Cushy! I got right on him and off we went. He did everything I asked out in the pasture, even trotting. I now feel equally fine walking and trotting. What an improvement!
Take us home!
I enjoyed looking at birds all the way home. Even from the car I got a couple of pictures. I missed a harrier and a bluebird, but these guys were fine.
Red-tailed hawk. Turkey vultures.
It’s good we got a break, because we then spent 3 hours on the trailer-to-container move. This involved many dust and dropping particles.
I’m tired. Proof we did wear masks. It’s so handy we always have masks around. Perhaps I have too many colors.
There was a little oopsie when Lee picked up a pallet of concrete by piercing one of the bags of concrete he was moving rather than the pallet. But, we did it. So many heavy objects, most of which will get moved to the tack room once it’s set up.
Before All clean-ishFilled back up. Concrete is heavy. So are horse supplies.
I gotta say we will be styling once we can use the trailer with the Tahoe. So coordinated. All a coincidence, of course.
So lucky the trailer is black!
There’s a lot to look forward to. I’m glad I have help and a team to keep things fun and safe.
I can’t wait to go for a ride on Apache! And next week we are going to a clinic. We haven’t done that in so long. right now, though, my back really hurts and the hot tub beckons. That thing is a godsend.
The Hermits' Rest 