Saturday, October 31, 2009

Horses and the Best Laid Plans

Comanche: Snippy, with Gab riding, and Comanche coming around the corner with attitude:
These are pictures from summer, not this morning, LOL. It was too chilly this morning for shorts and short sleeves!

But it is a gloriously sunny day today. This morning when I went outside to look for the horses, it was chilly, around 40*F, but not uncomfortable with a jacket. Snippy foundered recently because he gorged himself in early spring on corn in a deer feeder over the mountain next to ours. It was luck that he didn't die right then from colic, but he seemed to be fine.

I waited, knowing how long it takes for incidents like that to show up in their hooves. Right on schedule, about six months later, he foundered. Bad separation in one hoof, and two more started not far behind. Only one hoof was spared. Three out of four were in bad shape; at least he had one good leg to stand on. It was beginning to look like he'd need surgical work from a vet, so I got busy digging herbs.

Between hoof soaks with my herbal germ-killing and cell proliferating formula, taking him off grass and rocky ground, and a good high copper hoof vitamin, he is now almost completely mended. It is almost a miracle that he went from so lame to running over rocks in a little more than one month.

Yesterday, he figured he was good to go and busted out of his stall, taking off for the field on the other side of the creek with his cohort, Comanche. The boys and I think he and Comanche had been planning this bust for a little while. By the light of the moon it was easy to find them, but Snippy had no intention of returning so soon to his confinement. He ran like there was no tomorrow, skimming over rocks and uneven ground as if he were born to the terrain (in actuality, he was born in S. Louisiana where a person has to BUY rocks if they want them, imported from places like here). So I left them out last night.

This morning, they both came running to a bucket shaken with a little feed and again, he acted like there were no rocks in his path. I think he is mended. Called Gab, who stayed the night with a friend and told her that the horse is ready to ride.

Today is a day for re-organizing, cleaning, and getting my plans together for the next phase of cabinets and painting. My bedroom needs to be painted still, and I need to pack up the rest of my things from the old house so we can finish the demolition. There's a lot to do, but I can't get anything accomplished without a plan, so that's the order of the day. Tomorrow I want to work on expanding the winter pen for Snippy. I'll keep him penned during the winter so they won't run away over to the hunting clubs again, looking for deer feeders.

1 comment:

NitWit1 said...

Hope your best laid plans for today work out!

Happy trails....