06.26.07
Posted in Horse Stuff, Daily Journal at 2:10 pm by Kerri
I had Orie put down this morning. I went out there to check on her, and it looks like a leg was back on the foal. The foal’s head and one leg were sticking out, and it was cold, dead. She was exhausted, and it looks like she had flailed around quite a bit. I couldn’t pull it. When the vet got here he said she was becoming toxic. Since I had planned to put her down for her arthritis after this foal, there seemed to be no point in her suffering any longer. Still really hard to do.
I knew she was going to foal today, cuz she was waxing last night. I wish I’d checked on her, but I thought a 20 yr old mare could get the job done by now.
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05.23.07
Posted in Daily Journal at 9:18 am by Kerri
Rain, Rain
Go Away,
Come Again
Another Day
I can finally see the sky today, after 2 and a half full days of rain. I have no idea how much, because our rain gauge is broken, but everything is sopping wet. The wind is blowing now, to dry things out again. The hole in our back yard has about a foot of muddy water.
I’ve been working a lot, haven’t been writing much. BUT, I hope to have this Memorial Day weekend completely off.
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05.21.07
Posted in Daily Journal at 2:16 pm by Kerri
It’s raining again. I haven’t checked the rain gauge, but it’s pretty muddy outside. We got dumped on yesterday, and it’s been raining off and on again today.
Orie is starting to bag up (really this time), so I expect her to foal in about 2 weeks.
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05.20.07
Posted in Ian Chronicles, Daily Journal at 9:17 am by Kerri
Click on photos to see larger version
Yesterday I went to the Montana Draft Horse and Mule Association Spring Gathering. It was TOO MUCH FUN! I wanted Ian to be around all those draft horses, because he was very offended by a horse with chain end traces and a forecart last year. The event was held at Donna Reimer’s Pioneer Mule Ranch in Roy, MT.
The first event was the log pull, so I took Ian over to watch. The weather was cool, damp and windy, so several of the horses were a bit frisky. At first Ian thought those horses making so much noise were going to eat him, but he only spun around to keep an eye on them. I even put him in a position where the team and the log would circle us. (They had metal eveners that made lots of noise too.) When they started the log pull, I positioned him as near to the start/finish as I could, without being in the way. This way they would be coming towards us making all that noise and snapping their knees. After several runs, he actually started to get bored, so I went and harnessed him up. We did the log pull twice. Ian did awesome, me, not so good. We killed several cones, but had a great time.
Lunch was a wonderful spread of meats and cheeses plus many salads and desserts. I was going to stick strictly to my diet, but someone brought rhubarb pie - yum! I also had to have one tiny piece of Scott’s Famous Brownies. Kelli and Russ got there right about the time that lunch was winding down.
After lunch was the obstacle course. We got to watch the teams go and help with the judging for a while, and then we went. Kelli was my passenger, with Shelby. The first obstacle was a cone encircled by a chalk line. The requirement was to circle the cone to the right, always keeping your right hind wheel within the chalk line. It was a test of how well your team/horse comes over and a test of the drivers skill. Ian did really well, except that he hadn’t had to go a full circle in a long time, and he thought that was a bit excessive. The second obstacle was a reclining lawn chair, with a dead body in it. The dead body was created by Scott Koetting by stuffing and old pair of overalls with sleeping bags and towels, with rubber boots for the feet and a balaclava for the head. You had to pull your horse or team into a circle marked with chalk near the dead body and stay there while your passenger got out and loaded the body into the carriage. Ian thought the body was rather scary, but still listened to me enough that I could get him in the circle. We got the body and moved on.
After we’d collected the
body, on the way to the
dock.The next obstacle was the dock, where you need to back your carriage into a partially constructed run-in shed, next to a table. The idea was to leave the dead body on the slab (the table). There were used-car flags flapping on the top edge of the shed. We haven’t really got the hang of backing with the 4 wheel carriage yet. There was lots of pilot error, and Ian got frustrated with all the turn, back, whoa, turn, etc. Several times he just kept backing once he got started. We gave up without really finishing that obstacle.
Starting to attempt to dock,
before Ian was frustrated.
Next was the creek crossing. Ian juked left then right, then decided he’d have to do it, and tip-toed into the water. I was so happy with him. He’d been across that creek last year, but it was quite a fight.
The creek crossing - Good boy!
Next we wound along on the edge of a hay field to the county road. There is an actual bridge on the county road, but they used cones to make it narrower. We trotted right across. Ian has been across that bridge before but the cones made it more scary. You could feel him slow down and raise his head to appraise the situation, and then he decided it was ok, and put his head down and accelerated. Good boy! The last obstacle was 3 cones that you had to slalom through, making sure that your inside wheels went through the small circles of chalk. This was really easy for us, because it was set up for teams pulling a large wagon.
The slalom.
We were so happy when we were done, that we did the course again, backwards. They’d picked up all the cones, but we still had fun.
I was really happy with Ian. He came a long way yesterday. When we were hooking up for the obstacle course, a team came trotting by not 20 feet away, with chains and stuff clanking, and the wagon making odd booming noises. He hardly turned an ear.
I thought we were done for the day, so I unhooked and unharnessed Ian, and gave him his goody. I was done before I realized that everyone was getting ready to go out on a pleasure drive. I thought Ian had done very well for me, and I didn’t want to make him do more that day. So, Kelli, Russ and I went to get supper. When we got back it was just starting to rain, and the crew was back from the pleasure drive, so I loaded Ian up and went home.
It was a great day!
You can see more photos at Spring Gathering.
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05.17.07
Posted in Ian Chronicles, Daily Journal at 7:55 am by Kerri
I’m done doctoring Victor. It’s a relief to be done. Orie doesn’t act like she ever wants to foal, except she’s so big. It was wishful thinking to say her bag was coming on. Since Dacotah was about a month behind schedule, I’m thinking Orie will be too. In some ways, I really hope she is still going to foal, it’d be nice to have a pal for Victor, and I wouldn’t have to put her down til the fall. In other ways, I think it would be good to put her down right away, she’s in so much pain.
We tried to bend the hames last night to better fit Ian’s neck, and it didn’t work. There’s a hole in the hames right about where I need them bent (from the terrets I took out), and Scott was afraid to reef on them too much for fear they’d break at the hole. So, I adjusted the hames straps to make the top wider and the bottom tighter. I thought I had tried this in the past, without success, but maybe not. Anyway, my only worry is that the hames will pop off of the collar, but I think if I really make it tight at the bottom, we’ll be fine. Now, hopefully, the collar will spread at the top and he’ll be more comfortable.
After I got the harness adjusted, I ground drove him. I wanted to put him to and go for a short drive, but I was running out of daylight, and he was acting kinda spooky. Once we started, though, he was good as gold, with a forward walk (yay!) and turning well. He acted like I’d been doing it all winter. I’ll drive him today and see how everything works. I need to get a little driving in on him, so we can go to the Montana Draft Horse & Mule Association’s Spring Gathering this weekend. I want him to get used to the big hitches with their chains jiggling and everything. They are also going on a pleasure drive that I hope to go on, too.
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05.15.07
Posted in Daily Journal at 9:22 am by Kerri
Adelaide brought me a nice fat gopher this morning! So nice of her. Then she ate him, well, most of him. There are a couple of choice bits left on the concrete pad that I hope Perth will eat, or the birds.
Yesterday was a bad day. I had to go to the chiro, dentist and eye doctor. Chiro went good, the dentist not so good. I have a cavity, so I get to go back next week. Then, at the eye doctor’s, it took 2 hours for my appointment. Not because I was waiting in the lobby either, I got right in. We go to him because he’s a opthalmologist, which Scott needs for the diabetes and I need for retinal tears, but he’s SO DANG SLOW! He can’t talk and chew gum at the same time, and he tells stories. I’m fighting a sinus infection, so about halfway through I got a sinus headache, and by the time I left it was trying to turn into a migraine. I took some ibuprofen right away, and was able to drive home. My DH had supper ready, bless his soul, so I ate and then went and laid down for a while. When Scott got me up to doctor Victor I was better, but still fragile. The good news is I definitely do not have cataracts, like my twin sister did.
Today isn’t too bad, still feel a bit fragile.
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05.14.07
Posted in Daily Journal at 9:54 am by Kerri
We have 2 holes in our yard. One was from a water leak, the main line coming into our house. The black plastic pipe was split, Scott thinks it happened when they installed it, or it was a defect in the pipe, and it finally let loose. So, our nice neighbor Russell Bradley came over and dug it up with his backhoe. When he filled it back in, there wasn’t enough dirt for the hole.
The other hole is at the back of the house, where Les is going to put in a window in the basement. He brought his new toy, a skidsteer with backhoe attachment, last week to dig the whole. The windows aren’t in yet, afaik.
We loaned our tractor to Dane, and we need it back to fix our holes. Assuming the windows ever come in!
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Posted in Daily Journal at 9:50 am by Kerri
This morning Victor was wonderful to doctor. He was laying down, and didn’t even get up when I went over to him. So, I put the halter on him, and gave him his molasses/SMZ mixture while he was laying down. I’m glad I got the right combination figured out. I was hoping to find a solution to keep him from getting sour on people.
I’ll try to get some pics soon.
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05.13.07
Posted in Daily Journal at 7:13 pm by Kerri
I had to work today (yesterday too). But the keeping sync program (the on that makes the old system - 1032 - and the new system - Compass - keep the data in-sync) seems to be working very well, and I’m pleased. I really had to stay on track this past week to get it done, and I’ve been working almost every night, too. Hopefully everything’s happy-happy, and I can stop working nights. To use up some of the comp time I’ve been accruing, I’m going to take super long lunches and ride Ian. I haven’t been able to ride lately, because when I have time, it’s raining and/or lightning (don’t do lightning).
This morning I could hardly catch Victor to give him his antibiotics. He wasn’t nasty about it, but he just continued to walk away from me, all the way to the run-in shed. Dacotah came running after, all worried that he was so far away. I was able to get him cornered in the run-in shed, and then led him all the way back down to the gate where his syringe was. He’s getting better at leading. It helped that Dacotah was leading both of us, wanting to get back to her barley pellets. This time I used a smaller syringe, 12cc, and no water, just smz’s and molasses. I crushed the smz’s with my mortar and pestle. The only problem was, the larger pieces got caught in the small opening in the syringe, so I had to cut a larger opening with my pocket knife and then it worked great. He didn’t seem as offended by the thicker mixture. I think maybe the water mixture was squirting him in the back of the throat, and that’s what he was offended by. Tonight he was pretty easy to catch - I hope that’s a trend. Of course, I had backup (Scott) and tomorrow morning I won’t.
Dacotah’s done with penicillin and still seems to be fine. (knock wood) I think Orie’s bag is coming on a bit.
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