Category Archives: Mama Tess

TIME TO BUILD AN ARK!: IS IT RAINING WHERE YOU ARE?

Yes, I live in California so many of you are probably scoffing now when I ask about the weather…

Most of the country is frozen.

Not here. In Northern CA, we are liquid.

…See what happens when all the people pray for rain?

We get it!

Yup, it is raining. It hasn’t stopped for a few days.

My barn is ready to float away.

MY BARN FLOODS

I love my barn.

But, the person that built it didn’t consider considerable rain.

All the possible reservoirs and tributaries on the property flow exactly and directly to the barn.

The barn is like a water magnet.

Ugh.

It didn’t bother me too much in previous years, but now that MT is in the barn – AND that the pony pasture also floods and I feel better if the elder ponies are in the barn on awful nights – I really need the barn to be dry.

So, we’ve tried a French Drain, we’ve dug swales, we’ve installed a pump… Hubby even rented a bobcat this summer and he dug drains and put in a truckload of rock.

Yup. We’ve tried to tame Mother Nature. And we thought we had.

But today when I came home, the water was creeping into the barn.

ARRRRGH!

Mama Tess was in there and I had planned on bringing in the ponies/Norma.

This is the front corner of the barn – the water is about to rise over the dam. I couldn’t figure out how to fix this…

SO, I SPENT 3 HOURS…

Digging.

I’m guessing that many of you can relate…

I put on my best water-engineer hat and tried to persuade Mother Nature to flow out towards the pasture instead of the barn.

The back of the barn was easier for me. I could see where the water wanted to flow… and I could see how I should reroute the water (or encourage the water) to go in a different direction.

I dug and dug and kicked and slid and used my muck boot… anything to create a new path.

But, the front of the barn… I was lost how to engineer that part.

I felt like a little, waterlogged monkey as I contemplated a way to release the water. I ended up scratching my head and throwing up my hands.

Instead of engineering something miraculous (tongue firmly placed in cheek), I opened a fresh bag of shavings and dumped it at the entrance of the barn – I hope a pile of shavings is good enough until Hubby can fix it all tomorrow.

My handiwork…

I worked my way down the hill to create a path for the water to flow.

DRENCHED

Lots of times I’ve used the term “drenched”.

“Gee, I got drenched out there.”

“Be careful or you’ll get drenched.”

You know what I mean?

I sometimes casually used that term “drenched”; throwing it around willy nilly.

Well, today I actually learned the true meaning of drenched.

I’ll never misuse it again.

(I went through 3 sets of clothes while I was trying to reroute the monsoon. My coat weighed about 40lbs.)

I was able to get teh flow to run off into the pasture instead of the back of the barn.

AFTER I WAS DONE, WE HAD A MINI ROUNDUP!

Not only is the barn in the wrong place… The pony pasture’s shelter is backwards.

Instead of having its back to the rain so that the animals could be toasty dry inside, it is reversed to it catches all the rain and creates a huge, nasty shelter puddle for them to wade through.

The two Shetlands (Slick and Dodger) and Norma live there. Usually, it only rains torrentially a couple of times a year. But during those times, I cannot leave them out there, especially now that they are advanced in age… so, I bring them into the barn. They know the drill.

Here is a quick video of me rounding them up very ungracefully.

Click image to watch a short video of my mini roundup … Norma is in front. The ponies are together behind her.

The best part about this video is Mama Tess’ face when she realized that the ponies were going to be her overnight guests! Ha!

Mama Tess shows her distaste of sharing her barn with the ponies!

Bella is our February Bucket Fund Foal! Click image to read her story!

Click for the Mama Tess Surgery, Limb Profusion and Hospital stay Fund!

Your purchase with Riding Warehouse through this link helps the Bucket Fund!

HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth... if you like this, please pass it around!

THE QUEEN IS BACK IN HER PALACE: MAMA TESS CAME HOME FROM SURGERY!

MAMA TESS is back home!

Yes, I drove in the rain with my precious cargo of egg d’equine. I swear, I was driving about 35mph the whole way. I wanted her to be as comfortable as possible – especially after she whacked her knee while getting in. (She had refused to load. Once she made up her mind, she blasted in and whacked her knee. Perfect.)

Anyway, the main thing is that SHE IS WALKING REALLY WELL – even with a whacked knee!

That infected coffin bone must have been hurting quite a bit because the difference between then and now is remarkable.

She still has many weeks of healing from surgery and then months of hoof healing, but she is much, much better.

SHORT VIDEO OF TESS WALKING – REALLY WELL!! NO MEDS AT ALL!

Click image to watch a short video of her walking out of the hospital and towards the trailer! I am holding my phone and her lead rope, so it is a bit wonky.

NO INFECTION ON MY WATCH!

Now that she is home, I cannot let her exposed coffin bone become infected.

Oy. Scary thought.

I wish the responsibility wasn’t mine. I feel so vulnerable about it.

But, I know that once I am familiar with the daily foot treatments and wrap, I will feel better about it all. Everyone at the hospital was very nonchalant (although very sterile) about the new infection prevention wash and wrap.

…It always looks easy when someone else is doing it…

Tonight was my first ‘treatment and wrap’ alone and I was calmly terrified.

I was too engrossed in the process to take any photos of the massive hole in her toe and the exposed bone – which is too bad because her foot is very interesting.

I will take pics eventually, when I’m better at the whole washnwrap thing.

Of course, the Doctors wouldn’t have released her to me if they thought I couldn’t do the new wash and wrap.

Still, I feel an awesome responsibility. Especially because right now, she is doing very well.

Gawd just hurry up, will you?! (She was very patient with me during my first new infection prevention wash and wrap tonight. But at the end, I took some photos and she was DONE.)

This is her hoof with the new treatment plate attached – so the sole is protected but I can still treat the bone through the massive hole at her toe. You can also see the two holes on the top of her hoof wall from the maggots. Those holes communicate with the hole at her toe.

This is the end product. She has a brand new equine slipper. The other one finally wore through.

I HAD TO LOCK HER IN A STALL!

I actually had to lock her in a stall to feed tonight. She was so mobile, she kept getting in my way and demanding treats or hay or anything other than what she was given.

Finally, after klunking her head a few times because she was always behind whatever door I had just walked through, I locked her up in her stall.

It was amazing the difference in her this evening. She was bold, bossy and BACK!

Speaking of bossy, here is a video of her refusing to get into the trailer. Yup. I don’t know why she was refusing… she loves the trailer. She especially wanted to GO HOME. So, I have no idea why she balked. But, she did.

Some of you might relate to this… ;)

Click image to watch a video of Tess refusing to go into the trailer… Oy. Happens to us all.

Bella, a sweet, orphaned baby mini donk got frostbite and lost her rear leg… but she is a fighter and ready for her prosthetic. Read about Bella here!