Winter ramblings ...

It's April and it's winter. My mind reminds me that this cold spring balances the warm start of winter. Does the planet really work that way?

Meanwhile, the high needs farm activities had subsided. Had subsided. That changed Tuesday evening when I found Sofia 3-legged lame. Bummer! I brought her inside where I could see, and found a nail in her foot, embedded at the edge of her frog in the collateral groove. Right hind, outside edge of frog. It took pliers and the help of my strong husband to pull it out. Sofia did not wince for that, but has winced at weight bearing time ever since. I'm doing all the right things from getting the vet involved, soaking the foot, feeding Sofia antibiotics, taking her temp, letting her move as much as she wants (suddenly I'm grateful for the snow -- so much better than the mud for a situation like this)... The vet did want to cut up the puncture site and pare it out, leaving a drainage hole. I said 'no thank you' and we discussed my 'whys'. Once he looked at the hoof, he realized he couldn't tell where to pare anyway so it was a moot point.

Honestly? The one thing I could have done differently was to call a vet equipped with mobile x-ray machine to come take pictures before we removed the nail. I did not want to wait that long. I didn't even know how long "that long" would be, but I didn't want to wait.

So far so good, meaning she's starting to bear a teensy bit of weight on that foot, is eating well, temp still within normal, and minimal stocking up has just started in the ankle. She goes out and rolls and lies down. She won't lie down in the stall.

Let's see, sick turkey, bottle baby lamb, injured ewe, and now Sofia. A varied bunch of stall uses!

It takes a lot of time to tend to a sick animal. I cried a lot that first night, feeling frightened that she'll never fully recover, and mad at myself for being a lousy horse keeper, unable to prevent this, and feeling bad that she was in pain and helpless to do anything about it. So many of our man made contributions to this earth are hazardous to animals!

So, I've not been riding. The weather has been miserably cold, windy, snowy. The arena was just getting dry and ground losing all the frost when winter was resurrected. Bleh.

Well, I should not say I've not been riding. I rode today. A little mare for sale who may become part of the herd at High Horses Therapeutic Riding Program. We'll see. She was 80% great, 16% very workable/teachable, and 4% potential real problem. For a horse, those are pretty good ratios!

Communicating online has become a challenge. I generally read and write to several Yahoo lists each day. For some unknown reason, what I send out does not get to its destination. So I am writing much less. Even here I've been writing much less.

Gosh, I have traveled though, and will do some more. I went to Maine to teach and visit. That was fun and satisfying. Soon I'm heading for Ohio for a few days of horse related activity. RNB and I have been dancing and that is reliably fun.

Keeping two horses stalled is work! As soon as RNB comes home, I'll reassemble the wheelbarrow with its repaired tire and clean stalls. Woo-eee!