A New Look

I'm trying out a new look for the blog. The old one was okay, but it seemed like a lot of blogs that I read these days were using that template, so I decided to try something new. I played around a bit with the colors, and I think I like the look so far. I may design a header for it as a future project.

Rainy days of Spring

It's raining for the second day in a row. It was windy and cold yesterday, as well as wet, so I kept everybody in. Today isn't was bad, the rain is intermittent and the wind isn't as strong, so I let the youngsters out and kept the old ones in. I let Never out, and I hope I don't regret it. He was inside for a little over a week and his leg seems better (he's not limping and he's putting weight on it), but you would think by his behavior that it had been years! Trotting here, trotting there, arched neck at the mares in the next pasture, he had to check everything out. He's cute, but what a goofball!

I've been working a lot on the computer lately, mostly because it's so icky outside. I've updated some stuff on my Duchess Hill Photography website, and I'm getting pictures ready for the Duchess Hill Farm website. I've made a new animated advertisement for my Cafe Press site, and I'm working on designing a new print and internet advertising campaign. I'm also going to be adding a link to my photography blog, and I'm going to try my take on the '365 days of photos' project. We'll see how that works.

I'm still planning to attend the Rolex Kentucky 3 day event. I've got the room reserved, the tickets paid for, meet-and-greets with internet friends in the works, and a farm sitter booked. Barring incident, everything is a go.

Warming weather + ice and mud = injured gelding

Spring is almost here! It's been in the sixties for most of the week, and while the frost hasn't completely let go, the ice is mostly gone and has been replaced with slick greasy mud. While this transition was going on, the horses got rather spunky, and needless to say, there's a rather unhappy gelding resting his leg in the barn.

I got home on Saturday after spending the day at a hop grower's informational seminar. I fed hay and water, then went to let everyone in for supper. The first one in is Never, and he's favoring his right front leg. I check him out, looking for heat and swelling, and find that it's mostly in his upper foreleg and shoulder. He also has mud on his face, neck and a bit on his side. My best guess is that he took a tight turn while goofing off and fell, bruising his leg and shoulder. I've had him on stall rest ever since, and he's not very happy about it.

I went to the vet yesterday to pick up Dormosedan for Rho (so we can trim his feet without getting anyone getting hurt) and picked up something stronger than aspirin for Never. The vet agreed that it was probably a bone bruise and that I was treating it the best way possible. Even if it was a hairline fracture, there's not a lot to do for it but lots of stall rest and pain killers. The powdered Bute didn't cost that much, about $35 for about 50 doses, but the Dormosedan was a lot more than I remember: $67 for one 1.5 cc dose!

Never's swelling seems to be going down a little, though he's still favoring the leg somewhat. Hopefully, he'll be ready to got out again soon, so he can roll in the mud with the rest of the herd. It'll be nice when the pasture is divided, though, to make it easier to separate the rowdy ones from the ones that need more rest.

The Name Your Dream Assignment contest

A fellow photographer let me know about this, and so I've entered a couple of ideas for projects I've always wanted to do. You're only allowed 3 ideas, so I chose the ones that would help others out the most. If anybody feels these are worthy ideas, please vote and pass the word!



Thanks everybody!