Another Week Before Us

So since the weather on Friday and Saturday was a bit dreary and more conducive to staying indoors (and Friday and today I had off from work), I had the chance to do a lot of thinking and research this weekend. I am redoing my horse's diet due to some research I am doing. Part of that research includes reading this book, The Horse Nutrition Handbook - Melyni Worth PH.D. Been learning some stuff although some of the info reminds me of high school and some of the classes that I didn't totally get. :) It is a good book and I feel like I am walking away informed. Also really enjoyed Joe Camp's books and website: http://thesoulofahorse.com/


Along with doing a lot of thinking and research as far as my horses, I have been doing a lot of digging in God's Word :) It has been good digging and along with that, right now I am reading this book, Brokenness, Surrender, Holiness - Nancy Leigh Demoss. I just started it, but feel like I am going to walk away with a lot of good insight and even seeing things I need to and want to change. This is what I have been challenged with in my devotions: Building for Eternity. I have been reading thru 1 Corinthians and really enjoying it so far.


I love how God just has a way of using even the things we consider inconvenient or "bad" for his honor and glory. In some ways having off from work was a blessing in disguise because I came down with a nasty chest cough and head cold last week. So I was able to spend the weekend in a chair, covered in blankets, drinking lots of tea, and reading :) So even though I haven't been able to really work with my horses due to not feeling well and the cold I am hoping to get some time to do that this week.


I feel like I walked away from this weekend blessed by the extra time spent in God's Word as well as just being able to get away, in some ways, from everything. I am feeling better and hoping to face the rest of the work week feeling much better :) May God bless you as you face the rest of the week!

Lunging Freedom

 

Today I worked with Freedom again. He did really well. Usually I longe him both ways, asking for turns as well as transitions :) Today we just worked a lot on his stopping and turning since he has been having some trouble with that. I am hoping to work with him on some other things later this week. Daisy came in, favoring her right hind leg, the same one that had an abscess in not too long back. Thinking its another abscess but not sure. I couldn't find anything else wrong so that is what I am leaning towards. We shall see how she is tomorrow. Groomed both horses, loved on them, and gave them grain. We shall see if I get to work with the horses tomorrow because I am going riding with Sharon!

Thursday and Friday

Yesterday and today Rose Mary and I went riding. Both days she rode Magic and I rode Daisy. Since she was riding Magic with my natural ride saddle I rode Daisy with the snaffle bit and bareback. Yesterday Daisy did ok...on the way back she was being a bit nuts and not wanting to slow down and listen when I asked her. So I worked her a bit on stopping and backing up. If she didn't listen nicely I made her do a turn on the hindquarters or forequarters. Once I worked with her a bit she did better. Then today I didn't have to work with her as much. She was still being a bit of a nut case but by the end of the ride I had her going nicely. I am thankful that I have been able to ride more.

I haven't gotten to work with Freedom again this week yet but hoping I can tomorrow but we shall see. Both him and Daisy are doing well. I didn't get a photo of Daisy's wound but it is healing up nicely of which I am thankful. I haven't been bandaging it anymore but just been putting a dressing on it every day.

Long Time, No Post

I look a bit crazy in this picture because I was trying to get the horses' attention :D

 

Well another week has gone by and so much has happened. I got a new job but I don't start that till September 3rd. I will be a nanny for a family in Lancaster City. Really excited about it because the hours are nice, it isn't to far away, and I will still get to do something I enjoy..working with children. This week I actually got to ride.

 

Tuesday evening about 6 of my friends came up and we went for a ride. They trailered their horses up here and I rode Daisy. I was so pleased with how Daisy did because I rode her in the snaffle and this was the first time I had ridden her in a snaffle bit with more people than just another horse. I was so pleased. We even cantered a bit and Daisy did ok with that but I was still quite happy. Wednesday I didn't ride but Thursday I did. I rode Daisy by myself again with the snaffle, this time bareback (I had ridden her Tuesday evening with the natural ride saddle). After I got back with Daisy I still had some daylight so I worked with Freedom in the roundpen. He did really good. He was turning on a dime when asked, stopping and starting, and he followed quite nicely for me too. He is definitely getting better at things the more I work with him. So looking forward to riding him :)

 

I didn't get to work with the horses any other day this week but I am hoping to ride a nice amount this week but we shall see if anything pops up that I am not planning for. Monday evening and Wednesday evening I have things going so I probably won't get riding in but the other evenings I should be able too.

 

Daisy's wound seems to be healing. Quite pleased with that! Here is a picture from what it looked like the other week. I had promised I would post this picture but hadn't gotten it done. Been so busy doing so many things that blogging has been pushed to the back burner. When I don't blog I do miss it. Funny how that works.

 

Daisy's wound

 

the puppy that I am bottle feeding

 

Finally here is a picture of the puppy that I talked about last week. He is so cute and getting bigger :) I have more pictures I want to post over on my photography blog but I will have to do that later. Hope you all had a great weekend! And I will try to blog more faithfully :)

Update

Daisy is doing well...I do have some pictures of her wound and such but didn't post them yet because I haven't made/found the time. I hope to do that sometime this week. I have been busy keeping the wound clean and changing the dressing morning and evening. It is looking really good and looks like it might be on the mend. I had planned to ride her last evening but I ended up taking care of one of my sister, Rose Mary's, puppies. He wasn't drinking so we were bottle feeding it every hour or so Friday night. Today for the first time we put it back with its mom for more than just letting it eat :) I believe it will be able to be back with its mom full time again soon. I might ride tonight but depends on if I am in the mood to do anything when I got to the horses tonight. Freedom is doing good. Haven't really messed with him much but I am hoping that this week I can really work with him and Daisy. Now that she is on the mend, I want to get into really working my horses. It feels like this summer flew by. First in June I was gone most of it, July I was home but Daisy had her abscess and now her wound so that took up a good portion of July. Hopefully in August :D I guess we shall see. I will try to post pictures tomorrow and actually have something worth writing about. Enjoy your weekend!

Just an Update

Daisy and Freedom

 

Tonight since I couldn't ride Daisy and I was feeling a bit tired, I took lots of pictures :) I took pictures of the horses, flowers, a cat, and lots of random things. I was feeling the itch to photograph something again. Some days I feel quite inspired and other days not so much. Not sure what the difference is but anyway. So I got some pictures of Daisy all bandaged up but those pictures won't come till later. I want to get some of her wound tomorrow if possible and thru out the week I probably will be posting more pictures of the horses that I took this evening.

 

My friend came this afternoon and brought me some supplies. We bandaged up Daisy, put some things on her swollen shoulder to help with the swelling, gave her some things for the pain and then put her back out in the meadow. Some people probably would stall her but I think keeping her moving is good for keeping her swollen areas from tightening up as well as getting fluid in those areas. So I will be doing more doctoring :) Gotta love the things horses throw at you. I will try to get more pictures of Daisy up tomorrow!

If Its Not One Thing, Its Another

 

This week I planned to ride again since Daisy is back to normal after her abscess deal. Well wouldn't you know...she comes in with a nice wound that needs doctoring, as well as a swollen right forearm, and a swollen area on the left shoulder. Also some scratches on the right side of her. Called my friend, who has the most experience as far as doctoring, and she told me what to do. She is coming up this afternoon and bringing me some supplies to treat everything. Not sure at all what happened really. Daisy was by herself right behind the barn in that paddock, as well as had access to the arena which is right beside the back meadow. Somehow and for reasons I am not sure I totally understand, she jumped the fence. She had some lumps that looked like hives but were different so we were thinking bees might have stung her causing her to jump the fence....checked for stingers and such and nothing in there. So really not sure, we ran thru all kinds of possibilities but none of them but the bee stings really made sense to me. But it looks like I won't be riding for a bit. Just thankful that her abscess is taken care of. Will keep you posted on Daisy's progress :) Also will try to get some pictures too ;)

An Abscess, Some Training, and a Duct Tape Bootie

Freedom

Shadow

 

So I had a different week than I planned :) For one it was just very warm. Each day it was at least 90 + degrees which of course made riding or anything else out of the question. Tuesday evening Daisy came in lame on back right hoof. She hadn't been lame the evening before and it was a very noticeable lameness. Right away by the symptoms she was showing it seemed very much like an abscess. I did quite a bit of research on how I wanted to treat it. I knew some people call the vet/farrier out to test for the abscess and then some people dig for it and others don't. Well I opted to test for it and then let it burst on its own. I bought some Animalintex pads from Ace Hardware. Here is a link: http://www.smartpakequine.com/animalintex-614p.aspx. I heard they are great at drawing out abscesses. I decided it was worth trying it to see if it works, having read so many good reviews. I also had gotten ichthammol drawing salve having heard some people used that as well.

 

First I rinsed Daisy's hoof off with cold water and dried it. While I was hosing off Daisy's hoof, I made the Animalintex pad wet with as hot water as I could stand, squeezed the excess water out of the pad, and applied it to Daisy's hoof. The first three times (Wednesday morning and evening, and Thursday morning) I applied the poultice, then wrapped it with vet wrap. I didn't think to do it any differently. Well then on Thursday evening Alyson was at the barn and she saw me struggling a bit with the vet wrap and poultice and she suggested using a diaper (which she had) and putting that over the hoof to hold the poultice in place, then instead of wrapping with vet wrap (which isn't as durable as most of you fellow horse people know) wrapping the diaper with duct tape. We did that and it worked like a charm. All the times the poultice had stayed on before but now her hoof didn't cut thru at the one place. Friday I didn't change the poultice twice due to how late in the day I got to the barn. But when I did change it there was drainage on the poultice pad and a little drain hole that hadn't been there before. I was so happy to see that. Daisy was also walking so much better.  I had been told by a few people that if you soak the hoof in Epson salt that helps draw it out. So Friday I had done that as well. I was so proud of Daisy because I made the water nice and warm and put the Epson salt in the water and then stuck her hoof in the water. No fuss or anything. She kept her hoof in the water the entire time all except for lifting it out once. I was pleased because I had never done something like that with her before.

 

This morning (Saturday), there was a bit more drainage but not near the extent there was Friday afternoon. Also when I changed the poultice this morning I just cleaned the hoof with warm water (had run out of Epson salt :D) and then rewrapped it with the poultice and diaper but with the duct tape I did it slightly different. I had read on the Horse and Man blog, which I get in my email inbox, that there is an easy way to wrap the hoof with duct tape. I did it the way I thought I had remembered which was about 5 or six long pieces of duct tape side by side one way and then the same amount the other way, and in the way making a bootie. Well it worked, although I had to tape around the top to make sure it stayed on. I had planned before I headed to the barn to read up on how to make the bootie but then I didn't get the chance to. Well once I got home I reread it and I saw what I had done that I should have done differently :) Here is the link if you would ever need to make a duct tape bootie: http://horseandman.com/handy-tips/duct-tape-booties-and-quick-and-easy-to-fit-ice-packs/.  I plan to change everything tonight again but probably not make a wet poultice like I have for the last few days. We shall see. Although tonight we will make the duct tape bootie the way it was mean to be made ;) And that was my week with Daisy :) So glad to see her feeling better again.

 

Not sure what Freedom thought of this week with it being so warm and me not doing much with him but Thursday evening it was cooler so I decided to work with him for a bit. I roundpenned him again. He is so getting the hang of it. I love how quickly he picks up on what I want him to do and if he does something wrong you can almost see him think: Oh so that is what I am supposed to do. After he did everything exactly how I wanted him to, which was not very long at all, he came and followed me. I hosed him off afterwards which he really enjoyed.

 

So I am hoping next week is cooler and Daisy is back to normal so that I can get back into the groove of working with the horses and riding again. Feels like its been a while. Been living a hectic schedule or so it feels like anyway. Have a wonderful weekend. Stay cool!

Working with Freedom

This evening I worked with Freedom. I brought him in from the meadow and then lunged him a bit in the roundpen. I didn't do it long but long enough for him to get better at stopping, turning and facing me, and then going the other way. I was pleased with how he did especially with the distractions he had with the other horses being right there. Then when I asked him to stop and I turned he came to me. I took him in the barn, gave him his grain. I sprayed him with flyspray and then came home. Daisy went back to the barn tonight so she isn't here at the farm anymore. Her face is much improved.

You should be able to see the improvement here. It is still red but there is no swelling or fluid there :) All closed up! They are calling for thunderstorms here so Daisy is tucked into her stall for the night and Freedom has a run in shed to go in to :)

A New Baby Named Shadow, Daisy's Hives, and Giving Everyone Baths

Daisy in the meadow before I noticed her spot on her face and her hives

 

Sorry I haven't written since Saturday. Had quite the eventful Sunday and Monday. Well Saturday I had gone up to Daisy and Freedom and fed them their grain and loved on them a bit but didn't ride or really work with either horse.

 New baby born Sunday....her name is Shadow at least for now :)

 

Sunday I went to church and after church and lunch I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I thought of riding Daisy but a friend had sent me a picture of her new filly that had been born that morning. So I text her and asked her what she was up to and she said waiting till you come..hehe. She knew I wanted to come see the filly. So I headed down there and we just played with the baby, petting her and taking lots of pictures ;) She is a filly out of a registered paint mare and a registered appaloosa stud. She is the cutest thing ever!! She was a bit thin but my friend called me Monday and told me she filled out quite a bit in the last day. Well I left her place around 3 and headed right up to my horses. I had just gotten my 50mm 1.4 lens on Saturday so I had used that to take pictures of the filly and then when I got to the horses I went out to take pictures of my horses with that lens. I was shooting pictures of Daisy, Harley, and Prince. As I was shooting I got closer to Daisy and then I was like what in the world do you have on your face? It looked like she had gotten it went somehow. The closer I got I saw that her face had like open sores on it and she had hives. I brought her in from the meadow and called Alyson. She said she would come down. While I waited I cleaned Daisy's face up and put her in a stall and gave her water. Alyson came down and was like it might have been an allergic reaction from the buttercups with Daisy having hives and her sore on her face. It is hard to explain what it looks like and all but the second picture below can give you a better idea.

Daisy in the stall...I spent Sunday evening watching her till she got a shot of dexamethasone

This picture gives a better idea what her face looked like...it is like that on the other side as well as under her jaw. It was red, raw, and had a clear fluid that looked like it came out of her face.

 

Well I just watched Daisy Sunday evening to make sure her hives don't get worse. I called a friend of mine and she recommended giving a dex shot, which I did. After I gave Daisy the shot I went home to bed, came up again at four in the morning and the hives were gone but her face still looked nasty. Went home and then came up at 7 on Monday morning. Her face looked horrible still and didn't look any better, if not worse, than the evening before. So I went home and did some work and did some extensive research on skin conditions. Well the sore didn't seem like anything that I could find so I called my friend again and she came and looked at Daisy. She said it looked like gnats did the damage. We gave her a shot of banamine and then I gave her bute in her feed along with some antibiotics pills so she doesn't get an infection with having the open sore. I also went and got some baby oil to put on her ears to get rid of the gnats (or whatever are) in her ears. I did the same for Freedom so I don't have the same issue with him.

 

Today (Tuesday) I brought Daisy down to the farm here, till Friday since I need to give her her medicine twice a day and so I can keep an eye on her. She is doing quite well and her face looks like it is healing up nicely! So pleased with that!

 

I went up to the barn this evening to give Freedom a bath :) He looks so clean and smells so nice! I put baby oil on his ears again tonight and put fly spray on him. Then I came down home and gave Daisy a bath too. Both horses look great. :) So that has been my weekend! We shall see how this week goes. No riding for Miss Daisy but I will be working with Freedom hopefully.