Horse stuff

[AllieBaba]

Yesterday I packed 4 bags of feed out to the barn (50-80 lbs..I think they're 50 lbs these days. They used to be 80), rasped off my mare's toes (about 1/8 of an inch, not a raging success, she needs about an inch taken off), and treated my kid's mare for thrush (she gets thrush because she has huge thick walled feet that are very deep....as soon as the ground gets damp, dirt packs up in there and she ends up with thrush, which is essentially a yeast infection. You have to pick out the feet and then treat them thoroughly with a bleach solution, 2 x a day, which means you're hunched over for about 1/2 hour holding up a horse's foot). Then the kids rode their horse...again lots of lifting and packing (and their mare kicked at me when I bonked her back hocks with a big feed bin I was dragging around at feed time, luckily I was close enough to her she didn't connect, though I got her tail in my face. She did kick the container, though. Valuable tip here...either be so far away from a horse (that's at least the equivilent of the horse's body from nose to tail, further if they have long legs and they're committed kickers) or be so close they can't get their legs up high enough to do much damage, at least not above your knees. I always keep one arm on the rump and my head as close to their butts as I can and preferrably a shoulder against their butts when walk behind them and it saved my ass yesterday)...

The day before I rode my own mare, which means packing around the saddle and various and assorted other stuff, lifting and adjusting it on the back, riding, then un-tacking and putting everything away.

Anyway, short story long, my back flipping hurts today. A friend is making me a stand so I can rasp my Arab's hooves a little more comfortably and effectively, but I'm a hurtin unit today.

Oh, and the best part of the story...I have to take the kids to a concert today and sit in the MOST UNCOMFORTABLE seating ever created to listen to a concert in which my own kids aren't even performing. But we're just so infrequently treated to something like this in this neck of the woods, I don't have the heart not to take them. They hear music in church, and it is sometimes quite nice, but it's not the same as hearing a professional symphony (though I'm not sure it's really a symphony, I can't remember what it is) perform.

My daughter starts piano on Monday, and they're also taking choir, violin and guitar this year so much as I want to, I just can't get out of it.

Perhaps they have a stretcher I can make use of.

It's times like this I wish I didn't gobble down all my vicodin when it's prescribed, instead of saving some back.

 

[strollingbones]

vicidin doesnt do a thing for me...i am one of them non vic people...always lots of work when you keep livestock...daily work...cant be ignored...i would love to have horses...husband hates horses...he would rather walk than ride a horse....

 

[AllieBaba]

Not me. I'd die before I'll walk a horse, if I can get on its back and have a way to control it. And that includes when I'm bucked off and have separated ribs at the beginning of a ride. I finish the ride, dammit, on the horse I started on. Then I gimp around for months and piss and moan.

Horse shoer is FINALLY coming out to trim the hooves this Friday. Thanks a lot, asshole, I called him 3 weeks ago, he's supposed to have us on an 8-week rotation but never does. So I'll call him at 8 weeks, he says, "It hasn't been 8 weeks yet, has it?" and when I say yes, and I need shoes before snow flies, he says "It's almost that time already..." and then finally makes it to my place 3 weeks later, after snow HAS flown.

I'm getting shoes put on the Arab, she has soft feet and my son will be here this week, and we're riding on Saturday. The weather is cold, windy, sleety, crappy, but I imagine we can get at least an hour or two in there.

Don't know what I'll wear to keep from freezing...the Carthart hooded barn coat I bought myself as a Christmas present (after Christmas, when they went on sale, woo hoo) last year, after ruining my beautiful dress trench feeding horses in all sorts of weather, is 200 miles away, at my mom's house. Handy, that.

But I'll be on horseback, at least for a while, on Saturday, with my lovely boy. Haven't decided if I'll let him ride the Arab or not. She's my baby. I think I can let him ride her in the corral or the arena, but I'm going to say I'm too heavy for the other horse. I'm not, but the saddle comes down on her withers pretty close, and I think I can make that excuse fly if I really work it. He'll like her once he's on her anyway, she's great fun to ride, and I don't have to worry about her spooking. My mare is a little spooky and I don't want him yanking her mouth.