What's Up Wednesday

 

I say this every fall, but this time of year is always kind of unfocused with the horses. Al and Eros are a little extra spooky with the longer shadows and for some reason near constant wind. (Thank goodness for Shiny and her sensible mare brain!) With the tack sale last week, I kept the rides short, partially to give me more time to get stuff done but also because the attention spans of the equine were pretty short too. Despite the lack of real focus, and not doing much jumping right now, we're still getting our daily rides in and enjoying the foliage.

I had switched Al to powdered Omeprazole about a week ago, and unfortunately, he's behaving like he was before I put him back on Misoprostol again. So I don't think that's working for him. I'm going to reach out to the vet tomorrow and see if I'm dosing wrong (it says one scoop for maintenance which is what I'm feeding, but maybe that's for a smaller horse? I dunno!). Or maybe I just need to switch back to the more expensive option. Horses man! It's never easy! 

Shiny's been good at least. She doesn't love when it's super windy this time of year, but she's much better at dealing with things she doesn't like than the boys are. Her kiddo has been coming pretty regularly, so they're having lots of fun jumping around and doing kid/pony stuff. Saturday we're going to dress them up for Halloween since kiddo heads back to Florida before actual Halloween. I'm going to dress up Eros as Eeyore. It should be adorable. 

Eros is feeling pretty good lately. So good in fact that he's been extra destructive. 

That used to be my three step mounting block. RIP. I ordered a new three step block, this time a plastic one to hopefully stand up to Eros' hulk smashing feet a little better. The new one arrived and I thought, that box looks too small... Sure enough, they sent the wrong one. So now my new new one will arrive like two days before we move for the winter... Lol. Always the way, isn't it? We're making due with the little two stepper, but honestly, it's a CLIMB! I'm only 5'2" and the boys are both 16.3. But after all the climbing into and out of the bed of my truck this weekend, I'm getting pretty good at climbing. 

In other news, the wildlife around here has been something! Saturday while I was cleaning stalls, all of a sudden I hear Eros out in the ring having an absolute fit about something. Before I could even get out there to see what was happening, Al had joined in from the run out paddock. So I get out there and hear an absolute ruckus coming from the little tree line between my house and the neighbor's. It was a TURKEY! A huge turkey. It came barreling out of the trees straight at me! So I did the same thing as Al and ran away. Hahaha! The turkey also did not want to be in this situation and it flew out over my gate and left. There used to be a rafter of turkeys that lived in the area and we saw them often, but I haven't seen a single one in several years. Guess they're still around though! 

But turkeys aren't the only animal showing up where they're not expected... Monday I went to get in the shower only to find a mouse sleeping in there. Sigh. So I went and got my mouse catching vase (not my first rodeo with the mice in the shower), caught the little guy and brought him outside. Guess it's time to load up the mouse traps again. 

Sunday was the tack sale as I've been babbling on and on about. I had tried to get my previous weekend helper to work Sunday so I could just deal with the sale on Sunday, but she was traveling this past weekend. I also asked our weekday helper, but he wasn't able to either. So I was up at 4am so the horses could have some turnout time and I could get the stalls done before the sale. Only trouble was that it's dark out here until almost seven right now. Rather than getting everyone out at once in different spaces, I just opted to give everyone some time in the ring one at a time. (Mine don't play nicely so they can't go out together. My vet bill allotment does not have room for that nonsense with these hooligans.) I figured I'd put Shiny out first because as long as she has food, she doesn't care what's going on around her. Also, there ARE lights for the ring, so it's not like it's pitch black out there. They are motion lights though so the horses do have to move a little to keep them on. 

So Shiny went out first. She was perfectly content with her hay net. So content in fact that I had to walk out there every so often to turn the lights back on. What was funny to me though, was that Al was very upset about Shiny being outside in the dark. He kept looking out the window at her and then nickering to her. He was not happy about it. 

Once I brought Shiny in he settled back down. I figured I'd put Eros out second, since Al was probably not going to enjoy being out in the dark. Eros was not thrilled out there either. He barely ate any of the hay I had out for him and mostly just stared out toward the back of the ring. Al was not at all concerned about E being outside. Kind of funny. I guess Al just really loves his pony. E was very happy this torturous turnout session was pretty short.

 

By the time Al got his turn it was light out. He still had feelings about being out there since his friends were all inside. Totally uncool to abandon him outside like that. All by himself. The poor thing. Everyone was back inside and chores were done by 8 am. I started loading up the truck and texted to see how early we could set up. The sale was supposed to start at 10 and I definitely had two loads of stuff to get over there. 

This wasn't quite all of it. 

So I ran over with the first load of stuff and got semi set up. I knew I was going to be gone for lunch time feeding, so I gave them half their lunch before I left with the second load and also let Rita out. The sale was set to end at 2, so I figured they could have the other half of their lunch when I got back. I'm sure they were annoyed by this, but it worked out fine. 

It was actually a pretty fun day. My little area was buzzing all day long, and I got to see so many people I haven't seen in awhile and also met some new horse people from the area. Only one person from my old barn stopped by which I guess isn't surprising, but I was hoping to see some friends from there. The sale was on the same road, about a half mile away from there. Still, I did see lots of great friends and made new connections, so what more do you need? Overall, I came home with almost a grand, so definitely made up for the missed income earlier in the week. And also, I only had ONE truck load of stuff for the return trip. So I'll call that a win. 

Rita's been a big help with all the sale prep, though I think she thought it was boring and stupid.

We spent several late nights out in the barn last week. Not her favorite. She would have preferred to be burrowed under a blanket in the living room. But it was nice to have company! I made sure to pay her back with a nice walk around the cul-de-sac up the road from our house. 

We often meet new doggo friends when we take this route. And it's awfully pretty this time of year. My property actually backs up to this street. Some day I want to try and develop some of that part to either have more turnout, or maybe put an indoor back there. It's a bit of an incline there though, so the site work will probably be pretty costly. It's on the wishlist not the to do list. 

Anyway, that's the lowdown on the past couple of weeks here. This week and next we're getting ready for our move! I have a few things packed up, and am waiting for my new blanket tags to get all that stuff labeled and packed up. I also need to make some iron-on labels for our wraps and our new tack box. I got one of the Stanley rolling trunks because the new barn's trunk room is upstairs, and I'm not schlepping a big wooden box up a flight of stairs. Nope! I also got a new rolling tool box thing for a first aid kit. I plan to use it year round, not just at the new winter barn. It has wheels so is easy to move around, and lots of compartments. 

It's my new favorite thing. If I ever get around to showing again, it will also be easy to take with us for that. So now I won't need to have multiple first aid kits all over. Win-win!

So that's it from here! Hope you all have had a good couple of weeks. I'm going to catch up on all of your blogs soon!