What's Up Wednesday

 

Phew. These weeks, I'm telling you! I met with the surgeon on Monday and just need a very small procedure that will only limit me for a couple of weeks. And honestly, it doesn't even limit me that much other than picking things up over ten lbs. They said I could ride and exercise and whatever else pretty much the next day. I haven't scheduled just yet since I won't be able to clean stalls though. I need to square away my worker situation first. But now that I know it's not a very big deal, I can actually get to work on finding a new worker. I put an ad out on Facebook yesterday and had a better response than last time. I included my local community groups in addition to the local horsey groups, and that seems to have been the big difference. There is one lady who was interested in last time that is coming to interview on Tuesday. I also spoke with a gentleman who is very interested but is out of state for a couple of weeks. So this is promising! Of course, I've learned not to get my hopes up, and not to get too excited since so far everything has blown up on me. But fingers crossed we're on the road to better days! I was really worried about moving Al while he's recovering so I'm relieved that I likely don't need to do that. 

As for the horses... I had grand plans last week of getting Eros and Shiny back on a more regular exercise schedule. I've been getting on them regularly, but the workload has been... light. Of course, I forgot that I had scheduled shots and teeth so that derailed my plan a little. They ended up having Wednesday off since everyone was asleep for most of the daylight hours. Even Al as he needed sedation to get his staples out. Thursday we had easy rides since I could tell they were feeling it a little from their vaccines. Then rain Friday so off again... We had some nice weekend rides, but again, they were of the lighter intensity version. I'm still trying to figure out my timing with the shorter days. Maybe this will be our week! Though I think another rainy Friday ahead. Seems to be the weather pattern we're in these days.

But let's talk about Al for a bit. My vet appointment Wednesday brought some new information to me about what happened with Al's colic. Guys. It's actually a pretty big deal that this didn't kill him. I had understood that he was close to his stomach rupturing, but what I didn't understand was that him refluxing out of his nose as he was is not normal for horses. (I mean none of this was normal, obviously, but you know what I mean.) The fact that he was refluxing out of his nose is what kept him from rupturing until doc tubed him. So thank goodness that was happening. But in most horses, that can't happen. As we all know, the esophagus in a horse is a one way street. The sphincter between the stomach and esophagus is really tight, but Al's tummy was so full that it was forcing the reflux out his nose. Thank goodness he's never been a normal boy! 

But that was only the first reason he's lucky to be here. Next is the location of the blockage. His was just barely out of the stomach, which is why he was still passing so much manure. Why this is especially dangerous is two-fold. First, even when the horse is opened up on the operating table, that area is not visible to the surgeon. Our vet had to actually feel it with her fingers, and then had to hope she could manipulate it further down the small intestine. Because if she couldn't do that, he would not have survived. They cannot resect the intestine so close to the stomach. Thankfully, she was able to. Not only that, but she massaged that thing through 75 feed of small intestine. Amazing. 

So yeah. Al is one lucky boy. We still don't know exactly why this happened or what the obstruction was comprised of. It's possible he ate something he shouldn't have. I am wondering if he night have eaten some vet wrap. I use it to wrap the sides of the handles on his water buckets, and he had removed it in a near time frame to when this happened. I didn't find it in the stall. But when I saw that the vet wrap was missing, it was the day after my worker had done stalls, so I just figured she had picked it up. Now I wonder if he ate it. I'll never know though. I'm kind of hoping that was the thing as it would mean it was a fluke one off situation. But anyway, I'm just so glad he's still here and doing so well. He's really handling things well so far. Unless it's particularly windy, he's behaving nicely for his walks and grazing. Not wild in his little turnout. Hopefully that continues! He graduates to the slightly bigger turnout on Saturday, so we'll see how that goes. 

That's about it from here. I'm hoping to be back to more boring content going forward! How was your weekend? Do anything fun with your horses?

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is that I've been ordering way too much Door Dash lately. I've been treating myself to breakfast on chore days a fair amount. I should probably cut back on that. But like, after the last several weeks I feel like a yummy breakfast isn't unreasonable. 

Anyone else? How do you treat yourself when life gets a little hard?

Thursday's Threads: Shiny Edition

 

Outfit Day! Shiny is our model today, and the reason I'm so late is posting is because I needed to take photos of her outfit today. But then I forgot. Fortunately, her outfit today is a pretty common one so I have some photos from the archive that are mostly accurate. 

The only real difference between this outfit and our actual one this week is the half pad. This one is the Stephens one, but she has her own Mattes one now. 

Bridle: Pinnacle
Browband: Boy O'Boy Bridleworks

I think she looks so pretty with the wide noseband. 

Saddle: Butet
Half Pad: Stephens

Baby Pad: Ogilvy

My favorite color combo! Not to get political... But I really hope something will be done about the ridiculous tariffs with Canada soon. These baby pads have doubled in price since the tariffs started.

That's what Shiny had on, and here's what I was wearing:

That's right, it's my Shiny outfit! 

Helmet: One K 

Brown sweater calls for a brown helmet, obviously!

Sweater: Westerly Designs

Apparently it is very difficult to photograph well... My bad. Her blaze is pretty perfectly depicted here, but I realize now I did not do it justice. You'll have to trust me I guess!

Belt: Dapple Bay

I'm not normally a big fan of the elastic belts, but I do really like these. They were on sale this summer, buy one get one half price, so I have a couple of them. 

Breeches: Tailored Sportsman

These are the color fig, and in the poor lighting to my laundry room during the wee hours of the morning, I thought they were a closer match to the trim on this sweater. But in fact, not at all. Oops. 

Boots: Horka

I actually love how these match with the breeches. At least some part of this outfit works correctly! Haha!

That's it for today! Al's turn next week. He'll model one of our new blankets or maybe a cooler. We'll see what the weather does. 

What's Up Wednesday

 

I have good news! (And some less good, but we'll start with the good.) I do not have the Big C. Which is a HUGE relief. The less good news is that what they did find in there makes me now high risk, and surgery is recommended. I have a consult Monday to determine what that means. Still good news though that's for sure.

My other news is that my "worker" informed she will be leaving by the end of the year, or when I find someone new. Which is not a surprise at all. She sent me a text over the weekend telling me (not asking) that she had made other plans for one of her work days and which day did I want her to make it up. So I answered that question and then requested that she make an effort to stick to our schedule moving forward. She didn't like that at all, mouthed off to me, and then informed me the next day that she would "be leaving". I said, oh you mean you're quitting? Cause I just couldn't keep my mouth totally shut. It's exhausting. So here we are. I'm waiting for after my consult to figure things out. If I'm going to have a fairly large surgery needed, then I will find a place to board for a few months. If it's something simple, then I'll get aggressive at finding help. Either way, I will definitely need some help here while I recover. I realize my medical issues are not this girl's problem, but it really blows my mind that she doesn't even consider what I might be going through. All of the above happened while I was still waiting on results. Whatever. I'll figure it out.

I do feel like things are complicated by Al's recovery. My set up here is pretty ideal for him while he's on turnout restrictions. I have a place he's allowed out even while on strict stall rest. And then I also have a small paddock perfect for his next step up. I can't guarantee a boarding place will have that for him. He is allowed back to regular turnout on Dec 14th, so maybe I just wait a little bit until then. I'm not sure. I also don't want him to move right when he's progressing to regular turnout, have him be wildly excited about the move and injure himself. But that's why trazodone exists I guess. Still. The timing with all of this is tricky.

Anyway, all that out of the way. The horses are doing well over here this week. Al gets to go outside in his little walkout while the other two have their morning time outdoors. 

Once everyone comes in, I feed lunch, do outside clean up, and then Al gets his first hand walk and graze of the day. Then I ride the other two, and then walk and graze Al again. He is only allowed 5-10 minutes for his walks, but he can graze for as long as I want. So we usually spend about 20-25 minutes between the two each time. So far he's keeping a good head about the whole thing. Thankfully!

I've been able to ride the other two most days here as the weather has been cooperating for the most part. I think Friday will be our first rain day in awhile. Just because of life lately, the rides have been pretty short and unproductive. But you know? The horses are happy, and I'm getting in the saddle. What more do we really need?

We have the vet coming today for fall shots. Eros and Shiny are also getting dentals. Al had his teeth done at the hospital, but instead of that he's getting his staples out from his incision, so that's pretty exciting! I imagine he'll feel a lot more comfortable with those out of there. I probably won't ride today. Doc was delayed by an emergency, so by the time everyone wakes up from the dentals it will be close to sunset. (It's so early now!) I don't think Al needs sedation today though, so he can have some extra grazing time. 

That's about it from here this week. Mostly good news! How are things with all of you? I've once again fallen behind on blog reading, but I can probably catch up Friday. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Alright so this confession goes back to when Al was still at the hospital. As you may expect I was kind of in a fog for a few days there. I drove the hour and twenty minutes each way to see him every day that he was there. One of the days, and I do not recall which one, I saw a post on Facebook that a pedestrian had been hit by a car on a road I had JUST been on. From what the post said, it actually could have happened while I was driving through that area. Guys. I was so stressed out that day, that I actually feared I had hit this poor woman and didn't know it. I worried about it all night. Now, I do imagine I would know if I hit a person. And I would also imagine there would be damage to my car (there is not). Yet I still had this worry. Thankfully, the next morning our local news reported on it and said the driver had stayed at the scene. So it must have happened mere moments after I drove through there, but it wasn't me! Thank goodness. No idea if the lady is okay or not, there weren't any more updates. Hopefully she's alright though. Still, I'm relieved I didn't do it. 

Thursday's Threads

 

Outfit day! I was perhaps mildly distracted yesterday for outfit photos, so I have to borrow some old ones for Eros' outfit. Thankfully he went with something he's worn before. Here's what he had on:

Okay, well it's ALMOST what he had on. He did have a different bridle this week, and no wraps. But close enough!

Bridle: Pinnacle

Browband: Boy O.Boy Bridleworks

This is the correct bridle for this week's outfit! 

Saddle: Butet

Saddle Pad: Ogilvy
Half Pad: Mattes

We went with the tan pad today because it matched nicely with my sweater.

So here is what I had on for this week:

Barn colors, but even more personalized!

Helmet: One K Avance CCS MIPS

Went with the green sparkle today. Really can't go wrong with that choice.

Sweater: Westerly Digital Designs

This brand which is unfortunately on hiatus right now, uses a photo of your horse to create the silhouette on the sweaters. If you're thinking that doesn't quite look like Eros, you're not wrong. But the reason is half my fault. The company sends proofs to be approved before they put your sweater into production. And I took a quick look and said to move forward. Only I didn't notice until the sweaters arrived that this is actually Al's star, not Eros'. But I mean, it's not that far off. Close enough if you ask me! My mom gifted these sweaters to me, so I have Shiny and Al still left to share. Al won't have tack on anytime in the near future for outfit day, but we got lots of new blankets this year, so maybe he'll model one of those when it's his sweater's turn. 

Belt: Lucky Brand

My new Lucky Brand belt matched my sweater so nicely! I'm very glad I splurged on it a few weeks ago. 

Breeches: RJ Classics

I like RJ breeches. Not as much as the old Tailoreds, but close. 

Boots: Mountain Horse

You guys haven't seen these in AGES because truthfully I kind of forgot I had them. Oops. I LOVE these boots. I've had them for a long time, but don't wear them all that much. Not for any particular reason. So glad I rediscovered them!

That's it for outfit day this week. And also, just wanted to let you all know that my procedure went well this morning and now I just have to wait for results which will take 3-5 business days. 

What's Up Wednesday

 

Holy moly guys. What a week, huh? I made the drive every day to visit with Al. An hour and a half each way. So I would do chores at home, go see Al, then come home and ride. Long days. But it was nice to be able to see him each day. I didn't feel like my reports exactly matched the horse in front of me, so having my own eyes on him and being able to ask questions was nice. Like they kept telling me how comfortable he was, but when I saw him, he was clearly cramping in his tummy. Did they not see, or it's just expected so didn't think to tell me? Not sure, but it was nice to be able to see it and ask about it in person. 

I don't have a ton to write about today because I honestly don't remember that much of the last week. I think it's because every day was identical pretty much. Eros and Shiny have been doing pretty well. I think Shiny is due for some maintenance because she kicks out at every canter transition. But I also don't think it's really worth doing the maintenance with winter coming so soon. I'm curious too if some of that is because we haven't been working very hard nor very consistently and with the colder weather... Probably all of those things are making any discomfort more apparent for her. I'm going to try really hard to get her and Eros on a more consistent work schedule and see what we get. Should be easier now since I have one less to ride. 

Al is on stall rest for a month, then small paddock turnout for another month, then regular turnout the third month. And in that month, as long as the incision plays nice, we can start tack walking. Right now he is allowed as many hand walks as I want to give him for 5-10 minutes, and unlimited hand grazing. He's also able to go outside in his little covered walkout because it's just a little bigger than a stall. He was SO happy to get out there today! He's not allowed to be silly though. If he starts any nonsense he has to come in. But I do think the incision is still a little tender feeling because I see him being careful about how he walks. Which is kind of a good thing. Nice to see him being smart and not reactive. Fingers crossed he stays that way for awhile!

In other news, the nightmare that was getting the fence fixed has concluded. I'm not thrilled with the outcome, but I am glad it's finished. The long story short of it is that I hired my landscaper to do the job because he said it was something he's done before. But he clearly had not, and had absolutely no idea how to do it. NONE. And was not receptive to advice. I can't tell you how many times they had to redo things. And there was one Sunday where I didn't get to ride my horses because I realized that they had left screws all over the ground AND sticking out here, there, and everywhere on the fence posts. I spent three hours removing all of that. I was PISSED because we had already had a conversation about that. Sigh. Anyway, there were many conversations that went unheard. The fence is somehow lower than it used to be, but still plenty high, so whatever I guess. Maybe in ten years I'll have to replace it again anyway, right? 

My big test is tomorrow, so I'll be glad to have that over with. I won't hear any results for 4-5 days so I still won't know anything, but at least I'll be one step closer. Once I have those results I can figure out what I'll need here at the farm. I haven't been hunting that hard for additional help because it may be that I need to board while I take care of myself, ya know? Hopefully that's not the case, so once I know I can get back on the hunt for more barn help. I'd hate to hire someone then be like just kidding, don't need you anymore! 

That's about it from here. I'm hoping things will settle into a routine here soon and then I'll have more interesting things to talk about. Or maybe it will be super boring, but honesty, wouldn't that be nice too?