What's Up Wednesday

It's been a weird week around here... I'm gonna start with all the animal rescues first. (Rest assured, no animals were injured, and knock on wood, did not involve the horses... at least so far.) So Monday morning Artie (you all remember Artie, my adorable pug/corgi cross) is all excited about something in the phlox. And then I hear whatever it is squeaking and I think for a moment Pia must have left a toy outside. Until I see what it is, and it is indeed, NOT a toy. It's a baby bunny! A whole nest full actually. So I make Artie come, but he has a bunny in his mouth. I tell him to leave it, which he does thank goodness. I throw him inside, grab some latex gloves, and go back out to check on the little bun-bun. Fortunately, it seems ok. No skin broken, and it's breathing looks regular, if perhaps a bit fast. I placed him back by the nest, and by lunchtime he had crawled back in with his siblings. Needless to say, Artie is only going out on a leash for right now! Fortunately, bunnies only stay in the nest a few weeks, so hopefully he can free range again soon. Sorry buddy. But nobody likes a bunny killer on the loose.

They both look a little guilty if you ask me...

My next attempted rescue was less successful, involved several more people, and finally was only realized when the owner returned. But let's back up... I was feeling a bit tired and unmotivated after work yesterday, and all I really wanted to do was ride my pony, and get Rio turned out for a bit. Ah the best laid plans...
So as I'm swinging a leg over Miss Shiny, my phone starts vibrating. Ugh. I really planned to ignore it since mostly only telemarketers and scammers call me. But I saw that it was my weekend helper, so I felt I should answer. Something could be wrong. She was farm sitting across the street from me, and the ducks had gotten out of the yard. Poop. Ok. So I got off my pony, pulled her tack off and threw her back in her stall. Fully expecting to be back in a few minutes to get back on.
Well, I'm no duck wrangler friends. It did not take a few minutes, it took the whole evening, and we never got them back! But I keep getting ahead of myself. What happened was, the ducks had waddled themselves down the driveway, then down the road a few feet, before deciding to head back toward home. Problem was, they were now on the other side of a fairly fast moving creek.

There were six adults and 3 babies. The babies definitely wouldn't make it across. So we found some lumber to try and make a bridge.... We lost one very large 4x4 to the current. Oops. Bear in mind, I'm dressed to ride. Thankfully just in my cheapo Regals but still... Not ideal footwear for trying to walk on slippery creek rocks. It wasn't super deep right here by the ducks in the photo, but very rocky, and very slippery. I wasn't real keen on going in there. Further upstream it was calmer, but much deeper. Probably thigh high. And sandier. But effing cold. Also important to note, it is heavy brush and trees where the ducks are so it's not easy to get to them. We wound up with two of us in the woods behind them trying to drive them forward, one in the creek to help direct them, and one on the other side to catch any that might try to cross.
Unfortunately, we couldn't convince them. Eventually we were losing daylight. And one of us lost a shoe (not me) to the rapids in the creek.

My neighbor, owner of these adventurous ducks and also a friend of mine, was away for the night, but she wound up coming home with her dog. It took the dog like two seconds to force the ducks across the stream. She and her husband grabbed up the baby ducks and carried them around safely. So really, all we needed was the dog. Ha. Alls well that ends well there, but I was really bummed to miss riding. Shiny had a lazy bareback meander on Sunday

and we were rained out on Monday. So she's had quite a few vacation days. Will be interesting to see what she's like tonight. Hopefully not too sassy!

And there was a third of sorts... This one was Friday though. My friend that rents the apartment next to the barn has a wonderful foster dog. He is a boxer named Rook and he's been nothing but a love. He does bark sometimes when home alone, but like, he's a dog right?
Well. Apparently he's been feeling some separation anxiety, but just hasn't really shown it. Until Friday. He somehow managed to get out of his wire crate. From there, he made his way over to the window, which was open just a bit (and screened!) and jumped himself right out. You guys. It's TWO STORIES.

 Of course no one was home. We were all at work. It was probably around ten thirty in the morning as it was after my helper had finished in the barn and left. Fortunately, my neighbor across the street was home. (Not the duck neighbor, I live on a corner so have two different across the street neighbors.) Rook went right to her, probably knowing there were other awesome dogs over there to play with. Thank goodness she's a dog person! She was out doing yard work anyway, so she tied him on a really long leash (like a lunge line really), gave him water, and kept him company until I got home for lunch. I texted my friend who was shocked! I assured her he seemed ok, and locked him back up in his crate. AND shut the window. She immediately informed the rescue in charge of him, and then scheduled a vet appointment for later that day to have him checked out. He had a little bit of a sore shoulder, but was otherwise just fine. Thank GOODNESS. But here's where it gets fun...
You all know my neighbor next door? The one who loves to spook my horses? Yeah that guy. Well he is NOT a dog person. In fact, not only is he not a dog guy, but he's also a nutjob. Which I mean, kinda one in the same probably... (No offense if you don't like dogs, but like, who doesn't like dogs?) A few years back, my neighbor (the one with the ducks!) had her car vandalized. It was SPRAY PAINTED with the words "Stop Barkin". Yes. SPRAY PAINTED. Because her dog, the one that guards the ducks, had been barking. Likely at a predator threatening said duckies. While we don't have absolute proof, the entire neighborhood is certain it was that guy. Said horse spooking nut job.
Anyway, I was standing in the driveway Friday evening chatting with my friend and her boyfriend about the events of the day and how the dog was doing after his vet visit. And nutjob pulls in. He SLOWLY gets out of his car, and SLOWLY makes his way over to our little circle. But not like a direct path, he was walking sort of past us, then toward us. It was VERY odd. So I called out and asked how I could help him. Because honestly, what the fuck? You pull into my driveway and don't say anything? So creepy. So he's clearly pissed off. And he goes, so I heard about what happened today. And goes on and on about how dangerous that was and the dog could have been hurt. Like we were all somehow negligent and like he actually cares about the dog. Then he starts in about the dog barking. And how he gets ALL the other dogs in the neighborhood barking. And I was pretty much like too bad so sad, go home now jerk. So I'm just waiting for him to vandalize my house. I'm also not 100% sure he didn't poison Jamp, but I don't want to be a lunatic so I'm trying to keep that hypothesis to myself. But my vets both did mention that kidney failure really isn't that common in horses. But is a common side effect of rat poison. Just saying... Needless to say, I'm working on getting cameras installed all over my property. I really wish this guy would sell his place and move. I could probably convince my dad to buy it. Which would be awesome. I'd knock his house down and build some grass turnouts.

Anyway... back to the weekend! It was FULL of ponies, just the way it should be! I had a bunch of horses to braid on Friday, so I wound up giving the horses the evening off. Instead, I ate dinner and hung with the pugs for a bit before heading out to work. I had two over at the horse show, which was at the barn where I grew up riding. They were very sweet horses, both grays!

Both stood nicely, and I got them done fairly quickly. I always have this irrational fear when braiding for a new barn that I'll braid the wrong horse. But these guys made it easy on me:

Seriously, if you ever need your horse braided, this is the best sign. And no confusion about tails either. Loved it!
Then I had one at a farm just down the road from me. I've braided him a bunch of times, and he's the sweetest guy! Handsome too. Also gray. Gray horse Friday!

And then I finally went home to sleep! It was late, around 1:30 am. Yawn.
Saturday I slept in a little, till 8:30. And then headed out to run a couple of errands and ride Eros. Stepmom was around this weekend so she did Fefe both days. Worked well for me, because I had a lot to fit into the weekend! Eros was perfect as usual, though we just flatted.
After Eros, I went back home to play with the ponies there. Shiny was great! She's starting to accept her new life with me, and I think realizes I'm not asking all that much of her. We still have lots of work to do, but we're having a lot of fun! Rio enjoyed a turnout in the ring after I rode Shiny. He's so happy to have a bigger space again. Though he did come galloping full throttle at Shiny and me while we were grazing. She saw him coming, spun around and double barrel kicked towards him... Guess she knows how to take care of herself! It was like a nonevent though. Firstly because there was a fence and many feet between them. But Rio gave up the antics and she went back to grazing like nothing ever happened. Horses are ridiculous aren't they?

 

Also, I think she should model.

Despite the little non-altercation out grazing, I think Rio and Shiny are pretty happy with each other.

I'm really glad that's worked out!
Saturday evening I celebrated a friend's 40th birthday at a cute restaurant near my work. It's all outdoors and everything is cooked over a fire pit. The seats are all tree stumps. Super cute! I should have snapped some photos... but I didn't. Sorry. You can see it here though:
http://theplaceguilford.com/
And after celebrating, I had one pony to braid near my house. He had a LOT of mane, but I did the best I could.

He was a little angel which I appreciated because it took me a full hour to get him done.

Sunday I had a lesson on Eros in the afternoon. We're still working on finding the right bit, but I think I've made some gains. I had tried him in a leather covered segunda which was nice, but maybe a little too much bit. So this time I tried the broken port. I'm usually not a fan of ports (nor segunda bits for that matter) but I'm willing to try whatever. And after reading Jen from Cob Jockey's post about her pony's big tongue and him liking the ported bit, I thought hey, maybe Eros has a big tongue? He doesn't like a lot of leverage when I jump, so the two ring bit hasn't worked. Regular snaffles, and even french link bits aren't enough. He leans and gets strung out in all of them. The broken port was nice, but not quite enough to get him back quickly after the fences. I'm still hunting, but I found a few interesting bits on ebay to try. We'll find the right one eventually.
And I'm sure you're all dying for a Pammon update! The wire finally cleared on Tuesday, and now I'm just trying to get him a ride up here. Waiting to hear back from a couple shippers. Ugh, the torture! If only I had found him a month ago, there would be tons of trucks heading north. I'm all about the bad timing though. That's just how I roll.

I really wasn't sure why I was feeling so stressed out lately, which I posted about yesterday in Truthful Tuesday. But now that I've written about all the stuff that went on in the last seven days, I guess it kind of makes sense. Let's hope things calm down so I can get on with enjoying my horses!
Did you all have a good week? Any shows or lessons of note? Have you had any similar animal (or neighbor) dramatics?