A New Year

Well, the first of the year brought RAIN, and 50's and the snow melted (Yea!!!).....for 2 days. Then the snow and cold came back. Once again, the road to the barn was filled up, and wheelbarrowing grain and sawdust was the game. This time, however, hubby snowblowed not only the house drive, but the extended drive and out to the barn. How nice!!!! You could actually walk out there!!

And then it snowed again, and it filled again, and he had to blow it out again.
Winter is just not fun in NorthEast Ohio when you've got animals. I'm beginning to think we need to build a barn to house enough sawdust for winter!!

Although "D" (Melody) likes it. Oh, yeah.....snow outside....get out the door.....and ROLL. Never mind the fact that 4 more much bigger horses are on their way out the door, too.....NOOOOOOOO. That snow is just too inviting, and down she goes. At least Star and Bill wait until the ruckus settles before dropping and rolling.

For the most part, it's quiet time in the barn. D and K are growing (at 6 months and coming 3 yo it's expected). In fact K is now bigger than what WAS to be her partner this year, Queen. If she continues on, she may even get taller than Star, and that could be troublesome. After all, the next partner for a MARE team would be Jill......and that just won't work. Although Bill would be fine. But I'd rather not subject Bill to any more work than is necessary. He's 15, this year, and although he has done very well on the Adequan injections, I'm sure there's some damage in his joints.

But weather (and sunlight) is the issue. I really don't like having to shut up the barn to keep the snow out....since it cuts down on ventilation and light. But with the snow coming in from the EAST instead of the West this year, it tends to get into the feed room.....and that's one problem we don't need. We had that last year, where some feed apparently got wet, and actually molded!! We were not aware that it had gotten wet, and started feeding it, when I actually saw it. Not good. But found in time, and no one got sick.

But it does stay dark until almost 8am. Although it has been lighter until after 5pm, it still is a long spell of "dark" for the horses.

But it hasn't stopped heat cycles. Star's in hers right now, so I expect Queen will show up with a day or so. Even Jill (who tends to be either dormant or a "silent heat-er") has been obvious. Of course it's during the coldest times. Go figure. But even K has been cycling along this winter. Maybe it will be an over-all warmer winter.....but we sure could use a break from the snow!!

Maybe I shouldn't say that.....it's freezing rain right now...and that's worse than snow. At least snow stays on top of the hair and can get brushed off when they come in.....freezing rain seems to penetrate to the skin and stays wet much longer. I really don't like my animals being wet when the temperature threatens to drop!!

What can I say.....my creatures are spoiled (rotten).

Beginning 2011

Spring has joined us for a few days.....in the 50's, and the snow is melting.
Which makes mud.
Which makes everything filthy and slippery.
Including what the horses are walking on.

I'm not sure which is worse.....the cold and snow.....or mud.

Mud clings to everything, especially horse's feet and legs. Mud's more slippery than snow making slips and strains easier. Or it will hang onto one foot while the rest go sliding. It clings to the pasterns and legs, allowing for "scratches" and other nasty skin problems. Guess you could say I'm not a big fan of mud.

2010 was, in many ways, not such a good year. But, in other ways, good things DID happen. Horses we sold went to happy homes....and I always like that.

Lilly did not break (bummer).
Athena twisted a gut (devastating bummer).

And we've been treating Star for a fat leg.

Star was not bought to be a halter horse....she was bought because she can MOVE!
She has an old injury on her left hind leg, which looks like a wire cut but no one is really sure what cut her. It was not treated early enough, and so her hock always looks "fat". On Christmas Eve, our friend Caren was kind enough to feed the horses for us so we could make a trip into Michigan to see Roy's family. SHE is the one who noticed that her leg looked fat. She called us to let us know. Naturally, we checked her when we got home, but, it really didn't look much worse than normal.

Ho, ho, ho.

I worked Christmas and the day after, and hubby told me her leg was not looking good, she was not a happy camper and did not go to demolish her grain.

Rule No. 1 at our place.....if the horse won't eat.....CALL THE VET.

Temperature check was 102. Time for SMZ's and Bute.

Monday, he went to work and I came home. When I checked on Star, I was stunned.
IT WAS A TREE TRUNK! Vet came out that afternoon....well really close to noon. (I have GREAT vets and he snuck me in before going on the rest of the afternoon's calls.)

Temp down.....leg down (I had let her out earlier and she had been bouncing around in the snow).

But I learned something. After he checked her over, and finding nothing specific (we had checked her over for any new wounds, naturally), he said he felt it was due to the old injury. He said that sometimes the lymphatic system can get "clogged" at the old injury site, and things will back up. There does not seem to be a rhyme or reason for it, it just will. He gave her a shot of Banamine to help drop the swelling, and we've been continuing on with the Bute and SMZ's....antibiotic is a "just in case we missed something" thing.

She's pretty much back to her normal self, although the leg is still a bit puffy.
She doesn't like taking the dose of SMZ (Carrots help that) and she really is not a fan of powdered Bute in her grain. That kind of surprises me, because the powdered Bute has a taste of apples in it, while the tablets taste like....well, chewing aspirin.

But it's a New Year....with New Hopes.
Here's to it.