Bad day

While yesterday wasn't the worst day ever, it did rank pretty high on the list of days where hardly anything went right.

First, Ken's paycheck didn't come for the second week in a row, so I had to borrow money from a neighbor so I could run to Greenwood to pay my electric bill. After that I went to Marshfield, and on the way the muffler fell off the truck. *sigh* I went to Menards to pick up boards for fence, as lumber was on sale, and couldn't find any good 10 foot lengths so I decided to skip it for now.

I'm on my way to a pretty lovely headache by this point, but I had one more stop to make before I went home. The mall parking lot was crowded for a change, and when I went in I found out why. There was a home improvement 'show' going on, as well as a furniture disbursal sale. I went to Radio Shack to pick up an accessory for my new cell phone and had to wait 20 minutes for their computers to work again. The only good part of the trip to the mall was the 'petting zoo', a small gathering of cages and tubs that contained bunnies, kitties, and brightly colored chicks and ducklings.

Yep, someone decided that green, pink, blue and orange infant poultry was cool. I think they used food coloring, so it didn't hurt them, but it was sort of disturbing, kinda like Peeps come to life.

I finally get home at 4pm, and by now my head is really starting to ache. I turn Never out in the pen, make something to eat, take an Aleve, and try to get some work done. That's about when Ken shows up with his entourage in tow. Now, I like his girlfriend Mia (I think she deserves better, but it's her choice), but her 2 yr old son Cooper is a little hellion that she has trouble reining in. I take Ken to trim some hooves, and all the while Cooper is having fun shrieking at the horses and running around like a maniac with Mia yelling at him to behave.

Ken finishes up and goes to play with Cooper on the swings while Mia and I chat for a bit. They leave after a while, and I decide to take Never for a walk. He's been good, following at a touch and trusting that I won't take him someplace bad.

We walked toward the back of the property, then up to the apple tree. We did a couple of wide circles, then walked down to the pond. All was going well until we startled a pair of ducks, and then all hell broke loose. Never blew up and tried to head for home. I had a tenuous grip on the lead, as the ducks had startled me too, but I held on until I tripped and my glasses flew off my face. Never bolted for the barn, and I was on my hands and knees in a hayfield looking for my glasses. I gave up after a couple of minutes and hiked back to see where my scared gelding ended up. When I got into the yard I yelled for my sister, then saw Never hanging out by the mare pasture gate, quivering and snorting at his lead rope and trying to crawl through the gate. I caught him and quieted him down, then took him to his stall and gave him hay and treats laced with Rescue Remedy. That was when I took stock of my own injuries. No bruises or bumps, but I did lose a full layer of skin off of two fingertips due to rope burn.

My sister doctored my wounds, then we went to look for my glasses. The phrase 'needle in a haystack' come to mind, but trust me, 'glasses in a hayfield' is a much more difficult task, especially when you need them to see any sort of detail. Surprisingly, though, after about a half an hour of crawling around on my hands and knees I found them!

So today is another day, and everything seems a little better. My fingertips are sore, which makes it hard to type, but Never is leading well and doesn't seem to have any injuries from his run. I put him in the pen again, and went to make my own breakfast. While I'm filling a pot with water, I look out the window and see him trot around then stand at attention, looking at something. Then he takes off around the pen, full of snort and blow, then stands alert again. It took me a few minutes before I realized what he was looking at. I had pulled the Halloween yard 'balloons' and other stuff out of the shed so I could organize, and the breeze was moving the brim of a witches hat, which I guess is the scariest thing ever for a 4 yr old Arabian gelding. I put them away, and he calmed down a little.

So now I'm going to go change the dressing on my wounds, and then work on a couple of ideas that I've had. Later this afternoon I'm going to take Never for another walk, but I think I'll go scare the ducks off the pond first!

Making progress

We've finally gotten to the point where both Willow and Alex will pick up their front feet with no problem. The issue now is keeping them up. Alex is better about it, he stands and doesn't hop around but he does like to try and pull his foot away while Ken is working. He's still iffy about relaxing and letting Ken hold his hind feet, but he did well enough the other day that we got them trimmed. Now he has four lovely trimmed feet!

Willow is another story. Like her son, she picks up her feet like a pro. She just doesn't like to keep them up and will dance and hop around until she's up against a wall. Then she demands a treat and and sniffs Ken - back and forth - until Ken puts her foot down. The good news though is that both fronts are trimmed and balanced and can now grow out properly and the toe crack is healing nicely. We're still working on getting her to pick up her hind feet, but we're getting closer.

We haven't been working much with Never because he's been really anxious about his feet, and tense and anxious in general. I think part of the reason is because he wants to get out and play after being in all night, so maybe I'll start doing some work with him in the evening. I can't wait for the snow and ice to melt so I can get him working in the round pen and work off some of his energy. He still thinks a little like a stallion, no mating urges but he still flirts, but I'm hoping that will fade with time and focused work.

We've hit a lovely heat wave, 30's and 40's with a little rain. I figure most of the snow will be gone by the end of the week. YAY!

I haven't updated my photo business site yet, but the farm site is up and running! Check out the Duchess Hill Farm website here. There are no pics yet and I'm not sure about the color scheme (the green is a little bright for my tastes) but there are lots of links on the links page and the most of the individual horse pages have links to their pedigrees. It should only take a day to get pics up and arranged. Hopefully I can kick myself in the butt and do it this weekend.