New Farrier

I took Friday off of work for our first new farrier appointment.  Thursday I almost had a heart attack as he texted and asked to reschedule (OMG no! It's a 3 hour drive, rescheduling is not good) for 5pm Friday instead of the morning.  Whew!  That would work just fine.  So while Daniel napped on Friday I met the farrier down at the boy's paddock.  His usual vehicle was in the shop so he was running a barebones operation.  I grabbed Haji first since his feet looked the worse.  Though over the few weeks he's been in Canby he's worn down the flares so they weren't as bad as they used to be.  I was surprised at how pushy he was!  What happened to our calm therapy horse?  Guess the old man needs some more ground work in his retirement to keep him nice and polite.

So all three boys had their feet done.  Cody needed his shoes reset but he apparently hadn't grown too much toe as the farrier didn't need to do any trimming, just some rasping after he reset the shoes.  Not the same shoes as before and he didn't shape them quite as intricately as our old farrier but I think they look okay.  This new farrier was really fast.  Granted the boys had worn their feet down pretty well so I'm sure that helped.  I think his work was a little less "pretty" than I'm used to but I think it'll work just fine.

We scheduled the next visit for 7 weeks out since 6 weeks + some pavement might be too quick.  The good news is that the farrier said he'd be just fine with fetching horses himself and trimming with me not being there (which is good since he'll be back on a Thursday).  He said he has a few clients he hasn't even met before.  Apparently this is fairly normal in these smaller farm towns.  He's a roper and teaches roping so I think he can handle the old men just fine.  I could always see if A could go down and help but just in case he can't it's nice to know this guy is okay with handling it on his own.  Works best for him I'm sure because he can show up whenever he can make it since he drives 90 minutes to get there.

So as you'll see in the one photo, Haji has some wounds on his legs.  I first noticed them on Friday, not sure when they showed up, seemed fairly fresh at that point.  Since they are so symmetrical and he re-opened them a few times over the weekend, I don't think he's falling down.  I think a wound from falling would be more uneven and less likely to recur several times.  Some research on the interwebs leads me to think he's just scraping them up by laying down.  Bedsores of sorts.  Since he's underweight and notoriously reacts poorly to bug bites, he probably has thinner skin than most.  So I smothered him in Swat all weekend to help keep the flies off.  Maybe Haji needs some legwarmers or knee pads.

The boys seem to have gotten their routine down pretty quickly.  After I feed in the morning they go and line up at the gate to the side yard.  We've only let them out there one weekend before but they were ready to go again.  Probably this next trip out we'll fence in a bit more (ran out of wire last time) and electrify the whole side yard so they can be turned out there more than just on the weekends if A wants.  The grass in the main yard is getting eaten down so it's nice to have another option for them to graze.

Since the boys like to chase Haji away from his food they usually get locked in the yard while Haji stays in the paddock to eat.  They do not approve of this arrangement.  But Haji has to eat so much more food and takes longer and needs to finish his food so that's how it'll have to go at least until they decide to leave him alone (yeah right).

Overall though, all 3 boys are getting along well.  The neighbors said they enjoy watching them.  They said at first Haji was kind of odd man out but every day they would get to be closer and closer friends.  Last weekend every time I went to see them they were all standing near each other and Haji was happily grazing.  Granted I didn't see him real often at his temporary home but when I was there it seemed like he stood pretty far off from the other horses or didn't graze as much.

And he's definitely gaining weight.  Slowly (which is good) but it's coming.  We're still trying to figure out the best way to get him to gain without having to feed him a billion pounds of food.  I might get a bag of beet pulp this week just to see if we mix it with feed if he'll eat it, he wasn't thrilled with beet pulp last time so I dunno (and it's kind of a pain since it needs to be soaked in water).  Who knows.  We're feeding about 12lbs of Nutrena Senior grain and MVP Pro-Weight supplement right now but I'm trying to get the farm store in town to carry Triple Crown Senior which has more fat and fiber.

So yeah, while it's hard to be so far away and be able to manage everything, I think things are going okay in our little long-distance horse-keeping adventure.

Booker Report (get it?)

So last we left Booker he had done a number on his leg and we were out cleaning and treating it nearly every day.  The up side of all this was 1. Booker eats antibiotic powder on top his feed with no issues (other than pushing you over to get into a stall to eat) 2. Booker learned to stand tied while being treated 3. Booker learned to tolerate fly spray 4. Booker has started to learn to tolerate the hose.  So I guess there's a silver lining.

So it was looking like maybe we were getting some proud flesh so we had consulted several sources to decide what to do.  We spent a few days scrubbing it.  And now I think we're trying Wonderdust (as I was out of Underwoods).  So the above photo was the proud flesh.  The below photo is after scrubbing it for two days.

It kind of looks like the proud flesh is better in this photo.  So who knows.  Hopefully the Wonderdust eats some of the proud flesh and we don't have to have it debrided.  We really don't want to have to wrap this and want to continue treating it as an open wound.

Otherwise the guy is doing well.  Not lame at all, oh wait, he threw a shoe last week.  So right after we decided to get back to work he changed the plans on that.  Farrier isn't due out for a week yet.  Luckily I found the shoe in the pasture Friday.  Luckily it was too danged hot last week to matter.

Hopefully things will settle down a bit and we'll get back to working on some "walk" on the lunge and some bending.

Here was our list of goals:

1. standing for fly spray
2. lunging at speeds other than a trot
3. standing still with a rider... he seems to stand still when you are on the ground next to him.  And stands pretty good for mounting.... but geez, once you are on, he just wants to walk!
4.  more trailering practice so a second person isn't needed to stand behind him with a whip

And I'm adding 5. bending

The boy's new home

Was finally back to the farm this weekend.  I think it had been two weeks since I had seen the boys. But they are doing well.  Looks like Cody and Axel might have dropped a tiny bit of weight, I'm going to blame it on the heat from last week.  Cuz they are getting a tiny bit of grain right now that they weren't before and they have plenty of grass.  So who knows.  It's not drastic but after two weeks of not seeing them they looked a tiny bit ribby.  At this point they look fit, if they lost more then I'd be concerned.  Axel could stand to bit on the lean side with his arthritis, the last thing he needs is extra weight.

Haji is looking a little better.  Slowly but surely I guess.  The hubby thought he seemed peppier, more energy.  It's a little tough keeping Cody and Axel from chasing him off from his grain but it sounds like A, Cody and Axel's previous owner who is feeding for me, is making frequent trips to visit them and feed them. Sounds like he is actually making more frequent visits than the two feedings, so I guess he's enjoying having them around again.  All the horses nicker like mad when someone comes up, it's pretty funny.  We fenced off more of the yard for them to graze on weekends when we're around and so we don't have to mow as much :) At this rate the whole property will be fenced in.

Saturday I went out to get the new fence ready and feed and stuff while Daniel was napping.  And I ended up saddling up Cody.  He was very unhappy that I tied him up to tack and he was away from his buddies.  I did a couple circles on the lead and then got on and he was much better.  We rode around the "pasture" for a while, I figured better to stay in the fence line and feel him out.  Trotted a bit and then tried to explore some of their paths through the grove but Cody was not terribly willing to go away from his friends.  Decided he was calm enough so we went outside of the fence and rode around in the unfenced part of the yard.  Even cantered a bunch and he was calm and not spazzy.  I then pushed him a bit further and we walked down to the stop sign, still our property but out of sight of the other horses.  He was slow as he usually is leaving but nothing more than that.  Maybe I'll ride down to the farm next time.  Or maybe I'll get A to get on Axel and we'll go around somewhere.

Friday is new farrier day, so that'll be interesting and kind of nerve racking.  Will he show up?  Will he be good?  Will the boys behave?  Etc etc.

Leave it to a horse

A few days after having left the horses at their new home I went out to do some ground work with Booker.  Now that my guys are too far away to ride during the week I'll be "leasing" Booker.  After chasing him around the pasture for 10-15 minutes, I finally caught him and noticed this:

Of course, first day out and he's got himself a big old chunk of skin missing from this leg. Since his leg was messed up I went right to the tree to tie him and get the hose.  He stood fine that whole time.  Drug the hose out there and took off the sprayer thinking that'd be too scary and just the regular water coming out of the hose would be better. But he didn't like it anyway and started to pull back.  I put the hose down and he stopped pulling for a second but then started again until he broke the halter and took off.

He ran around to the drive way and then down to the gate to the pasture. When he saw me coming of course he took off again.  I went around the other way and he went back down to the gate. He tried to get into the trees but it must have been too thick.  I was able to get to the gate and open it while he went and stood a bit off.  I was then able to herd him back into the pasture which is where I think he wanted to be anyways.

I needed to get the remaining pieces of rope off him so I decided he didn't get out of work that easy and got the regular halter.  This time I was able to catch him easily.  Maybe because he had that rope on his neck still?  I took him to the hose just to see if it was the hose or being tied that was his issue.  He didn't even want the hose on his front feet so we worked at that for a while.  He was better being held but still would pull back so we had a few times where I made him back up all over the place at high speeds.  Didn't really "fix" anything though.

Took him into the arena, shut the barn door just in case and got a bucket of water.  He stood better for that (not tied) but when the water would hit the wound he'd walk/run away, probably didn't feel good.  Even with getting some water on it I wasn't getting it clean enough.

I decided to work on something so I got the fly spray and we worked on that.  Still with the pulling back so we did some more backing and I made a lot of "shhhing" noises to imitate the spray.  Finally he just stopped and let me spray him. Not sure if he gave up, or if I won or what?  But I gave him lots of praise and sprayed a bit before I lost my chance.

So it's looking like Mr. Booker needs some lessons in not pulling back, fly spray, hose, needles, and who knows what else.

I ended up calling the vet to come out that night.  I couldn't get it clean enough and we figured the flap of skin would need to be trimmed off.  So I armed the vet with the warning that Booker did not do well with needles last time (granted those were needles in his feet - I don't blame him).  He was able to get the needle in with little trouble and Booker was drooling soon enough.  Thank goodness he doped up easily ;)

The vet cleaned it up and gave him some Novocaine and trimmed off the skin and also gave him some morphine.  And as long as the guy was feeling good we also floated his teeth, saved a call charge and drugs since he was ready to go.  So the vet said clean every day, spray with Aluspray, and give him antibiotics.  Could be 4-6 weeks that we'd have to keep up the cleaning and spraying.

The day after I went out and the barn owner helped me clean him up. We weren't sure how he'd do un-drugged and we didn't want to tie him so it was a two man job.  I held him and she cleaned him up with a bucket of water and a rag.  And he did really well. I had to shank him a few times with the halter but other than that he stood really well.  He even stood for the Aluspray and some fly spray.  To top it off, he ate his meds in some grain.  Was thinking we'd have to make a paste out of it and put it in a syringe.

So Nancy has handled subsequent cleanings and he's doing really well with it and we think it's healing nicely as you can see from the photos.  And I think he's getting the added bonus of learning to not pull back, at least with this situation.  She's been working on flyspray as well.  Still haven't tackled the tying issue but that's a bit more tricky.

He's a little pushy going into the barn right now, he looks forward to his grain/meds.  But that should go away when his meds are done in a couple days.  Of course it might be harder to get him in to clean his leg with no treats ;)  And we're loving the Aluspray.  Something we're definitely going to have around the barn for cuts and scrapes and things.  It sticks really well and keeps the bugs out.

Another New Chapter

Well the horses have moved!  A couple weeks ago I loaded up the trailer with most of my horse stuff from the tack room and then on Friday we put the horses in the trailer and said good bye. I can't say that I didn't tear up a bit walking the boys out of their pasture for the last time.

Both boys loaded like champs. Rediscovered that Axel likes to paw while in the trailer. But other than that it was an uneventful 3+ hours on the road for home.  Took the boys out of the trailer and showed the around their new home.  The first few days they were confined to the barn yard while we were still running wire for the rest of the "pasture."  There was quite a bit of waist high grass in the barn yard so we hoped they would help that out a bit.  When we'd drive by later we couldn't even see the horses the grass was so tall.

The boys seemed to think the grass was just fine.  They found a spot where the lane starts that they could stand and catch a really nice breeze and they discovered a spot where the bugs were at a minimum near the water tank.  The line to the automatic waterer leaks so we had to put in a water tank with a float instead but it's pretty easy to fill, just turn on the pump for the well and let it run while you are feeding.  The float stops the water so it doesn't overflow and you can just turn off the pump when you leave.

On Saturday afternoon I decided it was time to drive down and get Haji and bring him home as well.  And my husband let me drive the truck and trailer down and back by myself.  Guess he's decided I'm an okay driver after all (as long as I don't have to park backwards).  So I successfully made it down to Luverne to get the old man. He seemed pretty excited to see what the trailer was all about.  Though he balked a little walking up to it, he did finally jump right in.  After I closed the divider he realized he might be leaving and had a few parting words to say to his buddies.  They ended up running down the pasture next to us as we drove down the driveway.  For some horses that sure gave Haji a hard time they didn't want to see him go.

Haji and I made it back to town unscathed and in one piece.  The boys ran him around a little bit when he first got off the trailer but after that they all calmed down and went to work on the long grass.

On Sunday we finished the fencing and turned the horses out in the rest of the yard.  Cody and Axel ran around a bit but Haji was a lot more reserved.  So far as I know, they haven't spent too much time exploring the place.  They have about 5 acres, some wooded, some yard, and some longer grass.  When I stopped on the 4th of July Cody and Axel were in the yard by the garden and Haji was in the barn yard.

They've already gone through all the feed I had bought so I had to call in and get more.  Guess I'm going to have to buy in a little more bulk if I'm not going to be out there every weekend to check on things.  Kind of an added complication of being so far away from the horses but we'll have to make do.  Cody and Axel's old owner has been feeding and making sure Haji gets his 10+ pounds of wet feed so I'm hoping he'll start fattening up soon.  I'd really like the horse chores to be as easy as possible but right now Haji is at least 100 lbs under weight so he needs to eat as much as possible.

My next complication will be getting a farrier out hopefully on the weekend while I'm there to trim everyone and shoe Cody.  Hopefully we can pull shoes this fall and he'll be barefoot for the winter and do well and not need shoes in the spring.  Maybe I can learn to trim and save some hassle in that department.   I wonder if there's a weekend crash course in hoof trimming?

This blog is going to quickly turn in to "long distance horse keeping."