And Life Goes On

So much has happened since my last post, I'll try to sum it up as best I can.

Sparky (Diadem Sparklette) passed away in December. She was 30.

I attended the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) convention in February for the 9th time, and it keeps getting better every year.

On the Ides of March (March 15th) at around 3pm, my barn caught fire and burned to the ground. It was a warm, beautiful day so all the horses were outside, the cats were by the house, and the chickens were in the back yard scratching for bugs.  But I lost all my saddles, most of my bridles, training equipment, grooming and farrier tools, and so much more. My insurance paid for a small portion of the personal property, but it will pay for a pretty decent new barn. I'm going to miss my old barn, though.

Spring is starting to really kick in now. The lilacs are starting to bloom, the lawn is growing like crazy, the birds are singing during the day and the peepers are peeping at night. I can't wait to get started on building the barn and renovating the house. I've been trying to get stuff sorted, packed and stored, but it's a pretty big job and taking longer than I thought. Soon though, the house will be empty and ready to gut. That will be a very fun day :)

Here and gone again

I've been running all around here and creation for the past few weeks. Between doctor visits, ultrasounds, meetings, hanging out with new friends, Mothers Day, and such, I haven't been home long enough to gather my thoughts, much less spend any amount of quality time with my horses.

This week I'm home long enough to pack and bake and then leave for Anime Central, fondly known as ACen. I've been to Cons before, but it's been a while, so I'm a little nervous. Plus, I'm actually working there, taking pics for promotion and profit (mostly promotion, I'm not really getting paid). Hopefully soon after ACen I'll be able to sit down with the doc and find out what's wrong with me. At least the labs and Pap came back negative.

Weight as of Monday was 181.4. Not a major weight loss, but it's still something.

Signs of Spring

Mother Nature has been kind to us for the past week. Beautiful sunny days, blue skies, mild temps in the upper 30's with the promise of warmer weather next week (mid 40's yay!).

The horses are enjoying it as much, if not more, than I am. They're racing, bucking, wandering more of the pasture, stretching out to bask in the sun, and shedding like there's no tomorrow.

In fact, one of my indicators that Spring is coming is when I walk out to the pasture in a brown barn jacket, and come back to the house wearing a multi-color fur coat. It can happen just by brushing up next to them, suddenly you're covered head to toe in horse hair. It will get worse once I break out the rubber curry, as everyone will be lining up and chasing others off to get scratched. There are times I wish I had kids, or at least horse crazy neighbor kids, willing to help with all the grooming and barn cleaning, as it can be so hard to keep up some days.

Catching up

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd summarize they past few months, and try to post more regularly in the future.

Never had been easier to handle since he got home from the trainer. He leads without being pushy, he picks up his feet without a fight, and I can brush him all over without him being touchy. He's pretty dominant out in the pasture, but I can't really do much until the thaw comes and I can put up new paddocks.

Alex is growing like a weed! At a few months shy of two years he's about as tall as his dam, though a little butt high at the moment. He's such a sweetheart, and leads and stands for the farrier with no problems. I've got his Pinto and Half-Arab registration papers ready to go, I've just been holding off until he's gelded (which should be soon).

Willow's Pinto registration application will be mailed this week, hopefully there won't be a problem with the two choices of name I came up with.

Hope had a pasture incident the other day that had her bleeding profusely from a cut just above her coronet band. When I first saw it her hoof was bright red and I thought she had cut her heel bulb through to the coronet band. I washed and wrapped it and gave her a little Bute and kept her on stall rest for a couple of days. After I unwrapped it, I saw it wasn't as bad as I thought, but I wrapped it again for protection and turned her out. That night, I removed the bandage and let the wound air out. She's doing well, a little sore but healing well. I'm hoping I'll be able to send her out for training this year, along with Faith and Willow.

The older horses are doing well, Sparky especially. She's doing so much better than last year, you wouldn't believe that it was the same horse! She's put weight back on, is more aligned in the hips, isn't laying down all the time, and has a zest for life that was missing last winter though to July.

Jul is 37 this year, and is bright and cheerful and has good teeth. Gem is 31, and doesn't have good teeth like his dam, but eats well anyway and acts like he's a teenager. Tassel is also 31, and seems to be feeling her years, but has a bit of spunk every once in a while. Heather is 30 and energetic, I'm hoping to lose some weight and head off to do some light trail riding with her.

Bahim is 26 this year, and has his issues, mostly with his teeth. He choked in October, and freaked me out. The vet came out and tubed him, and there was so much senior feed that came out. She then floated his teeth, and stated he has no real grinding surface anymore, they're plate smooth, so I have to really watch out for choke. He refuses to eat softened pellets, so he gets Purina Senior which seems to crumble better in his mouth. I have his feed pan close to the ground as well, and that seems to have helped.

Rho is in good weight, though he still needs to be sedated to trim his feet. I just don't know what happened, he used to be really good about it.

Fiesta the Wonder Hinny is doing well, plump and sassy. His hooves have been under control for a while not, no more long feet and rocking back on his heels. It took a while to get to this point, and I'm glad we finally did. He also stands for trims with almost no fussing!

All the others are fine, plump and fluffy and content to eat hay and play tag in the pasture. Hopefully I'll keep up with blogging this year, so my posts aren't always so long!

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!

Holiday wish list

I've got a wish list at Amazon.com, but there are some things that Amazon just doesn't have a listing for. Here is a list of things that I would dearly love but I don't expect to get, in no particular order:

-20 bags of shavings a month for a year (or even 6 months)
-a pallet of Nutrena Senior horse feed a month for 6 months
-more T posts and fencing materials
-a new roof for the barn
-someone I trust around horses to help around the farm (cleaning stalls, planting trees, putting up fence...)
-a $3000 gift certificate for vet care
-unlimited access to Clavamox or Zithromax, Tobramyacin drops, and Frontline Plus or Revolution
-a boyfriend for my sister/roommate (a veterinarian-architect-millionaire philanthropist would be awesome)
-a grant or loan to get my farm/rescue started (details here, here and here)
-a divorce
-my life back on track

I've not listed anything about a boyfriend or dating or anything like that for me, because I've pretty much given up. I just can't seem to find anyone that I find interesting enough to date, and anyway, once I get divorced I'm never getting married again. I really shouldn't have made it legal the first time. Oh well, live and learn I guess.