First, I wanted to show you the Equi-Spa receipts to the Bucket Fund!  EquiSpa said they would donate 10% of their September sales to the Bucket Fund and so far, so good!

10% OF ALL SALES OF EQUI-SPA will go towards the September Bucket Fund!

Sweet and kind Equi-Spa was very moved by these starved Josephine 5… and she offered to give 10% of ALL SEPTEMBER SALES to these horses!  So, if you need or want any of these lovely, gentle yet powerful essential oil products, please buy now!  Thank you!

These are my favorite products, and why… 10% of all sales in Sept. benefit the Bucket Fund!

1.  THE BALM:  I use it on everything!   It totally healed up Bodhi’s horrendous side slice two years ago.  No stitches would hold yet the wound healed beautifully.  I use it on my hands, my cuts, hubby’s burns, sunburns – everything.  This is nature’s skin healer.  Click here.
2. SHEATH AND UDDER CLEANER:  LOVE THIS!  I used it on Mama Tess all the time.  It is gentle, cleans really well and you don’t have to worry about rinsing it off.  It is emollient and wonderful.  She loves it.  MT nickers when she smells it!  Click here!
3. PEPPERMINT PROTECTION SPRAY:  A great, fresh, clean, safe flyspray.  Click here.
4. NOT SO SWEET ITCH:  Ohhhhh, Beautiful Girls loves this stuff!  She is plagued by gnats and noseeums.  This gel (or spray) totally protects her sensitive areas.  She loves it!  The girl stands rock solid as I apply it.  She wants it all over!  Click here
5. FAIRY TALES:  Lovely, not oily… easy to brush through the hair and leaves it fresh and not gooey.  For me, I adore the fragrance!  It smells like something you’d get at a fancy Aveda salon!  Also, their tales are full and glorious.  Not clumpy and wet looking.  Click here.
6. LAVENDER CLEANSING SPRAY:  I use this inside of Norma’s grazing muzzle.  It puts her in a trance, I swear!  I also put it on MT  when we have our spa days.  This is a calming scent and the horses respond to it.  Click here.

   MANY MANY MORE PRODUCTS click here!

   MAMA TESS UPDATE

I haven’t updated in a while because MT has had maggots in her feet – doing their good work… She needed friendly excavation to rid her feet of irritating necrotic tissue.

You see, as I’ve learned over the past 2.5 years (yes, it has been THAT long…), most horses don’t have the will or opportunity to live past terminal founder, not much is known about the process…

Our last lesson was that she does indeed have nerves and pain in her feet.  We learned this because they abraded her feet too much while trying to remove the necrotic tissue.  The vets thought she couldn’t feel it so why not dig as deeply as possible.  Well, the good was that she could feel it – she did have nerves and bloodflow.  But, the bad news was that she could feel it.

So, maggots from now on.

Ugh, poor girl, right?

Except, she just takes it all in stride.  If she is having a bad day, she shows me her foot (whichever one is hurting) and I make sure to check her wrap and give her pain meds.  But honestly, she never has the bad days she did when she was suffering the initial founder.  Now, her days are mostly pretty good – for a somewhat crippled, older mare.

I say that about myself, actually.  She and I relate.

I think she accepts her limp, and has moved on from any upset over it.  It just IS.  Most of the time, if she has an open gate and plenty of food, she’s happy.

HOSPICE?  OR ASSISTED LIVING?

A friend once told me that I’m giving Tess hospice.  It was very kind of her – relieving me of the guilt I had about keeping her going.  Was that what I was doing?  Just keeping her going?

I thought about that… and I guess it is likely that the founder will eventually be her demise except I don’t feel that her death is imminent or anything close to that.  .

More it feels like she’s a crippled friend who needs a little help daily.  So, it is like Assisted Living.  She can get around fine, and can eat fine, but she just needs help making her bed, bathing and tending to her wounds.

DAILY ROUTINE

Tess is now 25 and a half years old.  Her feet aren’t in great health, but her mind and heart are strong.

When I wake up in the morning and go out to feed, I never know where I will find her – or the remnants of her schnannygans from the night before.  Tess is most active at night, probably because of the hot summer weather.  I can sleuth her manure trail and know where she went, who she visited.  MT strolls around cautiously, plants herself for moonlight naps and then returns to her fluffy nest for breakfast.

Usually, she stands where she wants me to put her meals.  This morning, she wanted to eat out of her trough next to the barn horses.

At lunch today, she wanted to eat in the cool barn.

Tonight, she followed me to the feed room and wanted to be fed by the door as she watched me prepare all the meals.

AT NIGHT

I always try to go down to the barn and tuck her in – just to make sure she has everything she needs (and to make sure I didn’t leave any water running – I hate when I do that!).

Tonight, I went down to the barn and she was napping.  Of course, if I am in the barn, she feels there might be an opportunity to mooch a treat off of me, so she rose.

I gave her new, fresh shavings, which she LOVES, and that made her remember how sleepy she was, yawn, and go right back down to continue her slumber.

I WISH I COULD SAY SHE WAS HEALED…

I wish I could say she was healed, but I no longer think this is possible.  I don’t think she will ever be 100% of what she was before.  I think she is a mare who beat a 99% death sentence, and will forever have a hitch in her giddyup.

But, she doesn’t care.  To her, it was a win.  She’s still here…

Good times and bum times, I’ve seen them all
And, my dear, I’m still here
Plush velvet sometimes
Sometimes just pretzels and beer, but I’m here

Black sable one day, next day it goes into hock, but I’m here
Top billing Monday, Tuesday, you’re touring in stock, but I’m here
First you’re another sloe-eyed vamp
Then someone’s mother, then you’re camp
Then you career from career to career
I’m almost through my memoirs, and I’m here

I’ve gotten through, “Hey, lady, aren’t you whoozis?
Wow, what a looker you were”
Or better yet, “Sorry, I thought you were whoozis
Whatever happened to her?”

(Read more: Stephen Sondheim – “I’m Still Here (From “”Follies””)” Lyrics | MetroLyrics )

She’s here!