Author: Amanda

blog roundup

Weekly Blog Roundup

Amanda1 Comment

Here are a few fun posts from the horse blogging world.

Good in a Crisis from Zen and the Art of Baby Horse Management
Really, really good overview of how to be the best you can be in scary, dangerous situations.

Pick Your Rolex Fantasy Team from Eventing Nation
I have long hoped someone would bring fantasy sports to eventing – and it doesn’t hurt that you can win a DuBarry outfit, too!

Review of Three Budget Friendly Breeches from Sprinkler Bandit
Right in my wheelhouse. I haven’t ever spent more than $50 on a pair of breeches.

NTW Sunrise Ridge from The Reeling
This is sooooooooooo cool. I am going to do combined driving in my next life.

Baltimore’s Arabbers from Fraidy Cat Eventing
This is just cool – I had no idea!

Zipper’s Story from The Maggie Memoirs
So much love.

poetry month

In honor of poetry month: Robert Frost and a Morgan colt

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Thanks to stupid privacy restrictions, I could not embed this video, but if you want a Friday break, click on the link above to see the poet Robert Frost with a lovely gangly-legged chestnut Morgan colt, about a minute and a half in to a 2:30 video. Frost had a summer home in Ripton, Vermont, literally two houses down from where I lived some years ago right after college, during that long first winter I owned Tristan. (Because, Vermont.)
Watching it put me in mind of one of my favorite Frost poems, “The Runaway.”
ONCE when the snow of the year was beginning to fall,
We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, “Whose colt?”
A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,
The other curled at his breast. He dipped his head
And snorted to us. And then we saw him bolt.         5
We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,
And we saw him, or thought we saw him, dim and gray,
Like a shadow across instead of behind the flakes.
The little fellow’s afraid of the falling snow.
He never saw it before. It isn’t play         10
With the little fellow at all. He’s running away.
He wouldn’t believe when his mother told him, ‘Sakes,
It’s only weather.’ He thought she didn’t know!
So this is something he has to bear alone
And now he comes again with a clatter of stone,         15
He mounts the wall again with whited eyes
Dilated nostrils, and tail held straight up straight.
He shudders his coat as if to throw off flies.
“Whoever it is that leaves him out so late,
When all other creatures have gone to stall and bin,         20
Ought to be told to come and take him in.”
abscess · adventures with the vet

Frying pan, meet fire

Amanda8 Comments

So, as I mentioned yesterday, the barn manager let me know that Tris came in from turnout with his RF fetlock swollen again and quite lame.

Last night at midnight, after getting back from my 15 hour workday with a program in another part of the state, I checked on him.

RF was swollen and hot from fetlock to knee. No definition to the tendon sheath. Three-legged lame.

Fuck. Everything.

I paced, and checked it again, and paced some more, and finally left the barn. I couldn’t cold hose, since it was still going to be below freezing overnight and the hoses wouldn’t run. I didn’t have ice, and it was midnight – I couldn’t get any. I thought briefly about liniment, but that felt like flicking drops at a fire, and I didn’t have any Sore No More – only Absorbine, which I kind of hate.

While I was driving home, I formed a plan that I carried out this morning. After about 5.5 hours of sleep, I returned to the barn. I stopped for iced coffee and a bag of ice on the way, and when I got to the barn filled a gallon bag with ice, added a little water, and wrapped it on to his leg with a snug polo wrap.

He was turning up his nose at his grain – he really hates his new bute – but chowing down his hay and happy and cheerful otherwise. I was struck by how much his leg looked like it did back when he had his first abscess. You know, the one that started the year of misery and vet bills and surgery and rehab.

On the one hand, of all the personal nightmares I do not want to revisit, that one is pretty high on the list.

On the other hand: if it isn’t an abscess, there is something very, very wrong going on in his fetlock. That has all sorts of possibilities that I don’t want to think about right now.

The silver lining is that I am so maxed out on stress with the house and work that while I am worried and upset and stressed about this, I am not quite freaking out. Yet.

Barn manager, who I am nominating for sainthood as soon as I can figure out the paperwork, is negotiating with the vet right now for an appointment today or tomorrow for Tris as well as another horse in the barn. She’ll pull and periodically re-ice through the day today, and I left it up to her discretion whether to put him in standing wraps otherwise.

Onward, I guess. I just wish I knew where.

adventures with the vet

Aaaaaand here we go again

Amanda2 Comments

By what black magic do horses know that you have just – just, as in, within the last 24 hours – finally achieved your modest, short-term goal for their emergency fund?

Tristan’s fetlock is blown up again and he’s lame on it. Lameness vet will be out by the end of the week. He’s on stall rest + bute until further notice.

SO CLOSE.

house plans

How to sell me homeowner’s insurance…

Amanda4 Comments

…first, can I say how much buying a house sucks? Like, a lot? Like, A WHOLE HELL OF A LOT JESUS CHRIST I HATE IT? Here, have a hoop. Here, have another hoop. Whoops, we moved this one while you weren’t looking. Now hurry up and wait some more. Now as quickly as possible I need your signature on these 15 pieces of paper, why yes, piece #12 signs your life and firstborn away to three different possible people if you look crosseyed at a turtle on a Wednesday, ignore that, just sign it, NOW!

Anyway.

While Tris is chilling and getting over his gimpiness, I am trying to get the last of the house stuff done so we can stay on time for closing. This week, that means finalizing homeowner’s insurance, which means, because I am me, reading 8 million articles to figure out exactly what this stuff all is and what it means and how to compare rates and what I really need.

So I chatted with a representative yesterday afternoon, and she took my vehicle information to pull quotes for that as well to see if combining them gets us a discount.

So I said: 2011 Honda CR-V, and then 1991 Chevy 2500…and she paused and said, “You have horses, don’t you?”

The whole rest of the phone call was a split between oh yeah we should actually talk business…and hearing about her horses and the trail riding in her part of the state.

She has a Morgan/Haflinger cross! I can’t even.

Oh, and so far she gave us the best rate, too, but while that’s a good practical reason, my gut says “imagine actually liking your insurance agent and getting to talk horses when you have to deal with her?” and that is a small consolation in this whole convoluted process.

Uncategorized

Same old, same old

Amanda3 Comments

Really not much going on in my life. Yesterday, I made banana bread, did the dishes, packed several boxes, took Arya to the dog park, researched homeowner’s insurance, made an appointment with an electrician, opened windows for airing out, watched the new Game of Thrones, planned meals for the week, and so on.

What I did not do: ride my horse.

sigh.

I stopped by the barn, and checked on him in his paddock. Swelling is down to more or less normal. It’s not terribly unusual for him to have slightly puffy fetlocks, so what I check for is evenness. His RF felt exactly the same as his LF. That was after his first 24 hours without bute, so I’ll take it.

Both fetlocks felt equally warm, because he has black legs and he was standing in the sun. No difference between them, though, which I’ll take as good.

He looked and sounded even at the walk.

I brought him in to the indoor and jogged him briefly. Juuuuuuuust a teensy bit hesitant spinning left on a tight circle. A little bit more spinning right, putting more torque on that RF.

Then he took off like a lunatic, hit the end of his lead rope, and farted in my general direction. We discussed his poor life choices, and when we walked back out to the pasture, he was a bit painful on that RF.

sigh.

I do still firmly believe that he just tweaked it doing an Old Horse thing. He would’ve been much more acute if it were anything truly serious, and he wouldn’t be recovering so quickly.

Regardless, now is not the time to push. If he were headed to Rolex, or even a local show, there would be things I can do, but none of them will work better than rest and time.

I will go today, because it’s my day off and it will be the warmest day of 2015 so far, even into the 60s. I’ll scrub winter fur off of him and evaluate that fetlock again, but I probably won’t jog him out. It’s been 5 days, so he’s earned himself a longer respite between checks. I’ll jog him again at the end of the week and we’ll see.

sigh.

In the meantime, I’m going to try to write up some movie and book reviewing so I still have interesting things to talk about that aren’t my own lame horse.

can i go back to bed now?

Except I don’t even know what this is karma for…

Amanda9 Comments

Thing the first:

Got a call from the barn manager yesterday while I was on a work conference call. Tristan went out for turnout, rolled, and stood up lame on his RF. Mild swelling in the fetlock, a teensy bit up into the tendon sheath, no heat except the barn manager thought she might have felt a bit of heat at the coronet band. They iced and buted. I worked until 11pm.

I’m back at work this morning and waiting for an update. I’ll cold hose tonight.

Fingers crossed he just tweaked something.

Thing the second:

APRIL NINTH.
APRIL FUCKING NINTH.
FOUR FUCKING INCHES.
Please respect my pain and do not post any pictures of yourself doing the following: wearing t-shirts, riding your horses outside, bareheaded, wearing cute sandals, or with any green in the background.
seriously.
fuck everything.

can i go back to bed now?

Radio Silence

Amanda5 Comments

I wish I could blog about all the awesome horse stuff I’m doing, but honestly, this week I’m working literally every moment that I am not asleep in my bed.

I assume my horse is still alive, as I got a vet bill for his second round of spring shots. Also, no one has called me to tell me otherwise.

In the meantime, I would like a caffeine IV and the promise of something, anything, going right.

Since neither of those things are possible, I would maybe also like a day off. I have high hopes for Sunday. Don’t let me down, Sunday.

*flop*

barefoot · diy

Genius moment: An easier way to apply Durasole

Amanda7 Comments

I don’t want to take too much credit, but it’s just possible I’m a genius.

Raise your hand if you’re always too lazy to wear gloves while applying Durasole.

I am as guilty as the next person, and then I had a brainstorm. See, about two years ago, a vet gave me a formalin + iodine mixture to apply to Tristan’s feet. I followed instructions for a few days, but hated the stuff, so I tossed it and just stuck to Durasole, and everyone was happier.

When Tristan went barefoot, I pulled that out again for a day or two and confirmed I hated it, but realized that its application was genius. It was contained in a small jar, and the cap had a brush stuck to it. Unscrew the cap, apply the stuff, no muss, no fuss.

I started hunting around for what might be a similarly useful tool with which to apply Durasole, and I hit on this: Big Horn Glue Bottle With Brush Applicator. I ordered it, crossed my fingers, and last week it arrived.

I squirted the last of my current bottle of Durasole in it, and crossed my fingers.
IT WORKS SO WELL.
Holy crap.
All you have to do is give the bottle the very lightest of squeezes to get it started, and then just paint the brush onto the bottom of the foot. It comes out nicely, but doesn’t explode at all – just the right amount comes out. It takes just a few seconds to do the bottom of the foot, and the long brush means you can stick it right down into the frog crevices.
The cap fits on snugly, and I haven’t had a single escaped drop yet. The inside of the bottle is sort of slippery, so all the Durasole pools right at the bottom, not along the insides like it does in its own bottle. 
The bottle holds 8oz, so two bottles of Durasole, and it minimizes the amount of wasted liquid to a truly astonishing degree. It lets out just the right amount and then it all drains back into the bottle.
You do have to be a little careful putting the cap back on but so far that’s honestly the only drawback.
So, if you use Durasole, BUY THIS NOW: Big Horn Glue Bottle with Brush Applicator