Bye for now

Until exams are over.

The most stressful thing about university? Yep, exams (okay, for me anyways). There is no way to describe how awful they can be. I'm that person who can study for hours and hours and then still manage to mess up on the simplest of things due to nerves. Luckily my exam schedule worked out really well, all of them are spaced out nicely over the entire period. As I don't have to worry about moving somewhere else for the summer, this is ideal for me. Time to study each one separately without another looming over my head.
Then it is off to work, trying to scrape enough money together to make it through the next school year and fund my *expensive* hobby (hence why showing is limited).
Hopefully I will soon have some horsey things to talk about. Looking out my window right now it is snowing and -3C.
Traveller is snug in his Wug, and I'm hanging out with Roger.

Renal physiology anyone? Roger just tends to have a blank look on his face...he must find it boring. 

Just some pictures

I still don't have much to talk about horse wise, but I did buy a new lens for my camera today and spent some time trying to learn how to work it-- there is so much to learn!

Doesn't he look happy...

Gopher tracks

Yes, stand UNDER the horse..

What do you want?!

She kept flying away before I could get close

Spring water

Robin's mean spring, right?

Shopping Spree!

Oh my wallet does not like me!

BUT, when there is a sale at a tack store, as a horseperson it is my responsibility to take advantage of it…well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Yes, Greenhawk had a lovely sale this weekend with lots of bargains to be had.

Grey Breeches (Elation (Greenhawk) Brand)—Check

Only $40! And they are my favourite breeches ever... fit great, comfy, and last forever)

Shipping Boots—Check

Traveller ripped his old ones pretty good last year, and for $25, why not?

New Gloves—Check

I really like the SSG Breast Cancer ones for schooling- they are a nice thin leather that wears really well.

A Horse Head Cookie Cutter—Check

Pretty cool! I even made some…but they got eaten before I remembered to take a picture

A Chambon—Check

I will get to this in a later post, but it is something I want to play around with a bit and see how he goes. I have used them on other horses had good results…of course only used in moderation and with proper adjustment.

Wormer—Check

$5 off, still more expensive than when we buy it in Montana, but not bad..

Vet Wrap—Check

Unfortunately I seem to go through tons of this stuff!

Empty wallet-- Check

I'm Feelin' Itchy

For a couple of reasons. 

Well, we are still waiting for spring to arrive, but there is hope in the forecast +13°C on Wedensday?! Lets hope so, there is a lot of snow to melt! I have been pretty tempted to trailer up to an indoor (only 10min away) but I honestly just don’t have the time with school- 1 hour to get organized and get there, 1 hour to ride or whatever, but the kicker is having to blow-dry him so he doesn’t freeze that night! So, I will continue to wait patiently (me, patiently? HA!) and dream about some saddle time!

We did have a little ‘excitement’ last week though, but not the good kind. I had gone to feed Traveller and he was fine, but on of the other horses decided to come up and see what we were doing. I hadn’t seen this horse for about a week and as he got closer I noticed something was wrong with his face…There were bloody/scabby patches where the hair was coming out and under his chin was all ripped-up and weepy—but it wasn’t bite marks, definitely not. Uh oh. Closer examination also revealed similar patches on his body.

I quickly called his owners who came and, when they saw him, called the vet.

Well, it turns out that it was lice! Yep, I probably should have realized that, but I just wasn’t thinking. The vet said all the damage was basically due to self-mutilation—him scratching and kicking at himself to try and relieve the itching. She gave him a shot of steroids and left us with some in a powder form to help him out.

Thankfully, horse lice are specific to them and humans/dogs can’t get it (as the owner said, “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day!”) but, because he had it, all the other horses most likely do too—crap.

So, we wormed them with an ivermectin and will do so again on Monday (10 days later) and they also got a good dousing of powder, which will happen again on Tuesday (10 days later). The only one that didn’t look ridiculous covered in white powder was Traveller, he just looked nice and clean!

The sucking louse- what our boys have (there is also a chewing
variety). Doesn't he look friendly?

An update, some goals, etc.

That's not melting anytime soon!

 Well, once again I am being a horrible blogger, BUT, in my defense, there hasn’t been all that much to talk about!

The calendar might say that it is March 7^th, and the gophers have started to emerge—both sure signs of looming spring, but the weather has other ideas. Today was a balmy -9°C for a high (I woke up to -22°C), with the last few weeks being much like this, but even worse. We have had ‘highs’ as low as -28, so Mr. Traveller has been a big red monster, bundled up tight in his mighty Rambo. 

My trusty helper

The good news is that the forecast seems to be improving slightly…we may even make it to the positive side this week *fingers crossed*.

Okay, enough whining.

I thought, as I am trapped inside dreaming about spring, that this would be a good time to talk about my goals for this season.

1)   SOUNDNESS

Although his tendon seems to be doing quite well, unfortunately, this will be a battle for the rest of his life. Tendon injuries SUCK. Oh well, there isn’t anything I can do about it; now it is all about proper care and management. What might this be? Well, just to quickly touch on it:

Conditioning- and lots of it. Nothing too hard and nothing too fast, slow and steady, gradual and slowly building, etc etc. I will also be vigilant about footing and if it is too deep or heavy, take a pass for that day.

After work care: I have a liniment that I have found to be quite effective, whether it is the liniment itself or the effects of me rubbing it in…it works anyways.

Also, any hints of heat or swelling will call for cold-hosing, something that Mr. IHateWater has actually come to like… weird. This will also mean that I need to take a step back and re-evaluate what we are doing- lets hope that doesn’t happen!

Feed: Still working on this one, I’ll get back to it later. My goal is to provide him with all the necessary nutrients to support a healthy system. He generally needs help maintaining weight so some sort of a complete feed will be in order, along with a joint supplement. At the moment we are trying out this one: http://www.basic-nutrition.com/sub_product.php?id=32, I liked the ingredients so I went ahead and bought the little container so we could see if a) he will eat it, and b) if it works.

2)   CONDITIONING (continued)

2 years off has done nothing good for his topline/hindquarter/any muscles. Once again, slow and steady, long and low, lunging, lateral work, etc.

Topline muscles? What are those?

I am not going to list any other specifics because everything else will depend on how sound he stays and how his conditioning comes along. Yes, I do see us doing some jumping- probably not until June or so, but showing is most likely out of the question. Possibly a schooling show or two, but nothing major. I would also like to repaint all of my jumps and possibly build some fill, maybe a wall or rolltop...but once again, we’ll see. 

Anyways, here are some pictures of Trav from today. I will apologize upfront, I took them with my phone so the quality isn't great (along with all the other pictures in this post)!

Mmm

Anymore in the bucket?

Too tired....

to put together a coherent and at least partially-worth-reading post at the moment.

We are still nicely under a heavy snowfall warning, oh yay, like we really need more of the crappy cold white stuff.

BUT, we did finally bite the bullet and buy a little tractor of our own. After a lot of research and shopping around we found a little BobCat, with just 40 hours on it, for quite a good price. Maybe I'll go into details in a later post, but for now, here it is:

No more begging and borrowing equipment to dig ourselves out, we have kitty power!

Goodbye to an old friend, my first love, my Bob

On Tuesday my poor boy coliced. He came running up and was all excited for his food like normal, but about 2 hours later my mom saw him laying down and knew that something was wrong. She instantly called the vet out and then called me and said to get home-those calls are not nice to get. I did make it while the vet was still there, she said that his heart rate and respiration were normal and that she could feel material in his intestine but it was not hard. So she gave him banamine, something else I don't remember, and tubed him- emptying out his stomach which was quite full of sour smelling fluid- a bad sign- nothing was moving. 

At this point he seemed fairly comfortable so we decided to give it a chance to improve as thevet was cautiously optimistic that we caught it in time and with the drugs he would be able to pass it. The vet did bring up the possibility of bringing himto the clinic incase of surgery, but at his age of 31 we felt that surgery was not an option- even if he made it, he did not deserve that pain- and that he would be happier at home in familiar surroundings with his buddies close by. The vet left at about 6…

 Every hour we came out and checked on him, he seemed to stay about the same, not better, but not worse either. He generally just stood there, you could tell when the pain got worse because he would pace, but he would calm down with pets and love. At about midnight it was my turn to go check him and he was down. I walked up andhe lifted his head and just looked at me, so I gave him a hug and kiss and knew it was time, he wasn’t going to come out of it this time, and I just could not let him suffer further. I called my mom over, who called the vet, and we just stood with him, petting him, talking to him, and comforting him in anyway we could. The vet made it out in about 20 minutes and we said our final goodbyes. I couldn’t watch as he went down, Traveller was standing by the fence so I just hugged him.

 It was the hardest and most painful day of my life thus far. I just can’t believe that he won’t be standing at the fence screaming at our house because he wants his senior food, or that we won’t be following me like a dog nickering and talking. It was a wonderful 11 years, he was my first horse who taught me everything, put up with my mistakes, and essentially prepared me for the likes of Traveller.

 I’m crying again at this point so I will stop. I’m just glad he is not in pain anymore, he lived a good life and was very comfortable and happy, and the end came quickly without too much suffering. 

1980-2011