Today has turned out to be an update day…

Actually, today is a freezing-cold day inside the house.  Do you ever have those days?  The house is colder inside than it is outside?  I am so bundled up today that I scared the Fed Ex guy.  He was in shorts when he came to the door and I looked like Nanook of the North.  Hubby told me that I look like a muppet.  I’m not sure what he meant by that but I think it had to do with my fuzzy red scarf.

Anyway, today is update day!

 

FINN AND HIS SOCKS

So after my disastrous ride last week (linked here), I needed to take Finn out again by ourselves.  Of course, he was perfect.  Well, not p-e-r-f-e-c-t but pretty close.  I mean, he still had his ‘are you sure we should go on that trail’ moments as well as his ‘I’m invincible horse’ spasms.  But all in all, a pretty good day!

However, today, it wasn’t all about the ride.  I was supposed to be demoing Cavallo socks.  Actually, their technical name is The Cavallo Wrap.  But, they work like socks inside Cavallo boots – or any boot, I’d imagine.

I wanted to get socks for him because in my  mind, socks would make wearing boots more comfortable for a horse.  To me, the socks would keep little trail dirt items from falling inside the boots and irritating his skin or hooves.  I also think they would help keep the boots from rubbing against his skin.  Dunno, just seemed logical to me.  So, we had a pair to try.

During the ride, all was fine.  Finn never slipped or fussed.  He was happy.  And, as I’ve said before, he goes downhill with much more confidence in boots.  So, that’s all good.

But, when we got back to the trailer, he was stomping his feet.

Unusual.

When I took off the boots he was still stomping.  I took off the socks and he stopped.

I think they bugged him.  I don’t know if they were hot or too tight or what… So, I immediately rode him without the socks but with the boots (he was fine – not stomping) and I also have to ride with the sock/boot combo again to see if he stomps again.

Hmmmm.

On a happier and somewhat embarrassing note…

I EMBARRASSED POOR FINN…

As we were coming back to the trailer (Finn in his socks and boot and me in my mismatched riding apparel), we came across a horse and rider out of a fairytale romance book.

I swear.

I looked up and there was this beautiful, sleek black Fresian mare carrying a very handsome prince man in tall black boots and perfect equestrian attire.  They were prancing in the parking lot in the way that only Fresians can.  Gorgeous picture.

I wanted to hide.  Finn wanted to hide.  Instead, I took off his tack and threw on a matching and clean jacket.

So embarrassing.

As I emerged from my trailer, Fairytale Duo was also untacked and walking around to cooling off.  I asked if I could take a photo of his lovely mare and the rider said yes as he ducked behind her.  Here they are.

 

UPDATE ON KNOCK-KNEED SEPTEMBER BUCKET FUND BABY, HOPE!

I checked in on Hope (Hope’s story here) and they say that one leg is healing really well and is almost straight!  The other is coming around more slowly which is to be expected.

The great news is that she is running and bucking!!  This is a first!  Her sores are almost all gone and she can lay down and stand without having to flop and fight.  The folks from Alder Hill say that she runs up to them every morning!

This is from the Alder Hill Farm FB page:

Our lil filly is doing great after her surgery a few weeks ago! She is running, bucking and kicking every morning at grain time!

Hope will probably have one or two more surgeries before she is good to go.  But these changes so far are remarkable! She is truly a happier little filly!

 

UPDATE ON AUTUMN

Autumn is doing better! (Her story is linked here.)  Autumn is our Bucket Fund filly for November.  She had a very rough start to life, born and orphaned in an auction yard, left alone for 18 hours without food… but finally rescued by Hope For Horses.

Here is the report from Jenny, her human mom at Hope for Horses:

I have some great pictures from this afternoon that you can put up on Monday (or sooner if you like). Autumn has had two good days in a row!  She still is fighting diarrhea; we’re thinking she may have an allergy to the milk replacement so are switching her to half goat’s milk with an eye toward transitioning her off formula altogether.  She has a slightly elevated white cell count which indicates there’s some sort of low grade infection working, but she was in high spirits when we visited this afternoon.  

 

They were feeding when we arrived, and had turned her into the full stall and she actually nickered at us as we approached her door.  So cool!  She scampered around a bit while we were in her stall, kicking up her heels for the first time in her little life.  I would say that developmentally she’s about where a four-seven day foal would be (she’ll be two weeks old tomorrow).  So we are cautiously optimistic at this point. 

 

(We are hoping to find a Nurse Mare however) Nursing mares at this time of year are hard to come by, but two people have come forward.  One we have already had to reject after talking with her vet cause it’s a young mare that’s already a bit hard to handle.  The other mare is very experienced, having had 11 foals.  She’s a Trakehner which means she will be ginormous next to Autumn.  The challenge there is that her baby is self-weaning as we speak, so her milk is starting to dry up.  

 

Another thought is to contact a PMU farm in Canada to see if they have any possibilities.  We’re scrambling a bit to make it happen.  Worst case we will pair her with one of the older, very stable mares in our barn and continue pan feeding her on goat’s milk.

I will keep you all posted!  If you’d like to donate to Autumn’s ICU expenses, click here.  Thank you!

 

 HERE IS AN ADORABLE VIDEO OF AUTUMN AND JENNY

Click this link or the image to go to the video.

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

 

 

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.