Fun and Games

E., R. and I played Horse-opoly tonight. It was great fun with lots of laughter and good-natured competition.





Both E. and I were surprised that R. could do all the math that is required so quickly. She's proving to be a real math whiz - or at least good at adding up money!

Mud season has arrived

We are not quite at the "suck your boots off" stage of mud season but it's getting close! It was a rainy afternoon which made it dark at the barn by 4:15. Consequently, I decided to not take Curly's boot off - with my luck I wouldn't be able to get it back on so tightly and it would then come off in the next day. So I left good-enough alone and we mucked stalls instead.

I think Curly must be feeling a bit better today because he hadn't pooped in his stall - usually a sign that he's comfortable enough to walk outside to do his business. I've been using the "Where did Curly poop?" barometer to assess his pain level a lot lately. Go ahead, laugh, but when the patient can't actually tell you where it hurts and how much, you use anything you can to figure this stuff out! I noticed early on that he only seemed to poop in his stall right after (or right before we discovered) an injury.

Q, on the other hand, regularly poops in his stall, which is why we mucked out today. I hate to see the poor guy surrounded by all the yuck. You'd think they'd think it was yucky too and change their habits....

E. and I want to train Curly to poop into a wheelbarrow. :-) I'm not betting that we'll ever accomplish that, though!

Lost boots

E. and I went out to the barn at 3:00 yesterday to trailer Q to the fairgrounds for a 4:00 lesson and discovered that Curly had lost his boot. I'm sure he was quite happy to be in a more natural state but the extra dirt and muck couldn't have been good for his back hoof.

After the riding lesson we came back and attempted to clean it out....in the dark. The sun sets early these days and the night sky was pretty much in place by 5:00. E. begged a bucket of warm water from the barn manager's house - the well water from the outside spigot is freezing! - and we got to work. I'm not sure how clean we got the wound, but the boot was back on by 6:00 and Curly was grumpy again.

We plan to go out again this afternoon to re-clean the hoof and muck stalls....

Oh no......

Just a quick entry this morning before we start our day in earnest....

The farrier was out yesterday to trim both horses hooves. Q is doing fine of course. Curly, on the other hand, is another story. Not only is the one hoof still looking pretty bad from the abscess, but now his other hind hoof is showing some sensitivity. He was favoring it all day, which made trimming really difficult. The farrier could feel some warmth in the hoof but we were unable to determine what is causing the problem. So it's a "wait and see" situation.

The farrier also suggested a home-made poultice of sugar and iodine solution for the abscess to help draw out any remaining infection. We'll try that in a few days. With the shorter days we never make it out to the barn after work/school before the sun sets. Mucking a stall in the dark is quite a challenge!

The medicine boot we got for Curly is working - sort-of. It is still a bit big on his foot and he easily turns it. It's kinda funny to see him walking with it turned sideways; it looks like his whole hoof is turned in. But it is keeping his hoof cleaner, and that is the goal right now.