After this weekend, the fantasy of owning a large equine facility with rolling, green pastures, big numbers of beautiful, long-legged horses and miles of white fencing has now been delegated to my "anti-bucket" list!
Our barn owners, Cathy and Larry, needed to attend a wedding in Bend this Saturday and asked if Em and I would be willing to do barn chores Friday evening through Sunday morning. Of course I said yes - they have done so much for us these past years that I was/am happy to reciprocate in any way at all.
I'll be brief and just say it took 2 hours to get the horses into their stalls Friday and we were quite happy that only 3 escaped during transfer from field to stall. I also only confused the identities of 2 of them (thank goodness they know more about where they are supposed to go than I do!). Turnout the next morning didn't go too much faster - 1.5 hours. But by Sunday morning, we had that down to a respectable 45 minutes. :)
And we were doing just the bare minimum that keeps the barn running! No mowing, no irrigating, no prepping of arenas....just moving horses and feeding grains and meds.
I was tired by Sunday.
Had to call the vet out on Sunday for Zoe. She had some eye goop on Saturday, so I cleaned her up, put on her fly mask and sent her out to the field. On Sunday morning it was tons worse - all yellow and crusty. Yuck! A couple of other boarders independently told me that I really should call the vet (even though it was Sunday and would cost a ton more!)...so I did. I was really hoping Dr. Adams would say, "Oh, this can wait 'till Monday." but no such luck. Everyone told me horror stories of what it could be...but thankfully, it turns out that she doesn't have anything too terrible. Just conjunctivitis. So 5 days of eye ointment and all should be good.
Monte is dealing with that same bug bites on his back issue that he had last summer. I think it is commonly referred to as "sweet itch," not that there's anything sweet about it at all. I've been applying MTG, which seems to help but we don't dare put a saddle on him right now. He has also rubbed out a good quarter of his mane. We put him in a stall during the day for a couple of weeks to help with sunburn and he discovered that if he reached under one of the bars he could pull a bunch of hay off the bales stacked there. He looks really pathetic right now with part of his mane missing, pink, peely patches on his shoulders and dirt everywhere.
I was sad that he is currently un-rideable as my friend Kate came out to meet him this weekend and thinks she might like to try riding him. Yeah! She spent time grooming Monte and then learned how we round pen him for exercise. I then saddled up Zoe and Kate spent some time with her in the arena. Hopefully, Monte will be ready to go in a week or two, and we can then ride together. :)
I've had a few more calls for Monte but as usual, it's for children who are too young and small to handle his spirit. The last person said she was looking for a calm horse. I replied that Monte was "gentle, but has the high energy of an Arab." Seriously people, don't you read the ad that says "for experienced riders" ?!?
Summer is winding down and I'll be sad to see my week-day barn time dwindle with the daylight. Looking back, I wish I had taken more advantage of the lazy days I had and ridden Zoe a bit more, but I'm happy that I did get to spend a fair amount of time with her. And truthfully, I love riding during the crisp days of fall oh so much more!
