If this does not make you smile, nothing will

It is no secret that Bocephus and Charlie love each other, but these photos prove it. Right after I mowed the yard for the first time a couple of weeks ago, I caught these two snuggled up under the big tree in the front yard.
Look at all that love. I swear, they were nose to nose all sleepy like.
And as soon as they saw me with the camera, they split apart a little. I think they may be ashamed of their love, for real.
Does that look like humiliation to you? Note his nekkid side--he is shedding, which requires rubbing up on the front porch. He rubs that hair out first, and eventually he will be totally nude.

I wonder what Charlie will think of that

Vixen was suicidal--graphic photos

I guess after our trail ride ten days ago and her trailer training of last week, Vixen thought she was better off dead than going camping this last weekend. I cannot imagine why, I really cannot. She was doing so good!

Thursday morning, just after we found baby boy Taz in the pasture, Menno found this situation on Vixen. From a distance, he thought she had just cut herself. Boy howdy did she cut herself. It looked like she had tried to slit her throat. Right through muscle, she even shaved some bone off, and when she turned her head to the right, you could see down her neck column.

It was not cute.

Of course, my main doc was on his way to Texas A & M to demonstrate some of his cool inventions at the vet school, so he could not come. My next call found that vet sick in the bed, and his wife/partner in surgery. She switched things around though and got out there by lunch time, thank God.

These photos cannot possibly really show how bad the injury was. It was about 8 inches long, and several inches deep, just along her jawline on the left side. She was in a very small pen and we never did find any evidence of how she did it.


By the time I got there, reconstruction had already began. First the muscle was tucked back inside where it came from. You cannot get good perspective from this photo, but Jo had her fingers in the hole up to her third knuckle--the whole finger. A layer of meat was sewn over the muscle to keep it put.


Several layers of stitches were put in.
To facilitate the copious drainage that would occur as it healed, a drain was sewn into place between the first and second layer--I think that is where it was.
The drain was designed to hold open a space for drainage to continue as it healed--I took it out Tuesday nite. It just had a few stitches holding it in, and I snipped snipped and slid it out. It came right out just like it was supposed to. I hosed it down--she was not a big fan of that at all, as you can imagine, and I sprayed it up good with scarlet oil.
This is the final version. Inches of skin were shaved down, I think there are three layers of stitches there. She was a hairs breath of kitting her facial nerve and her jugular vein, in different places. She was super super lucky.
It took some pretty heavy drugs to keep her quiet through all the stitching, but she never acted like she really hurt much. I guess there are not a lot of nerves in that area. It did not bleed anywhere near as much as I would have thought either.

Today is day 7 of the injury. She is 2/3 of the way through one antibiotic and 3/5 through the other. To get one of them in her, I have to put it in her grain, and it is making her fat. The other is such a load of liquid to inject into her, she is starting to dread seeing me coming, even if it does mean food. The prognosis is that the sutured area should be healed within ten days. Dr Miles thinks it is likely to blow open instead of healing clean, but that is okay as it will insure it heals from the inside out that way.

She may have avoided one camping trip, but it sounds like she will be back in business by Memorial Day. Next time she decides to kill herself, she needs to have better timing. As soon as I get a chance, I will post about her first day in the Shawnee. What a trip she was

Breeding developments

So far so good!

We had our first preg- check yesterday morning--Diablo. She is now 21 days in foal to TR Dual Rey. YAYAYAYAYAY! I am so excited for this. Meanwhile, Diablo's son Young N High, who lives in Canada, became the father of his second child, out of Playboys Rondeevous, who is Melody's daughter and also lives in Canada. Big day in Diablo-world. For some reason, when we were ultrasounding her, she was shivering all over the whole time---then I realized it was only about 40 degrees and we were all shivering. This weather is weird.

Also yesterday, we checked up on Haida Girl and Cash, and oddly both had exactly the same 49 follicle, starting to lose shape, which means it is getting ready to let loose of the egg. I ordered some Kit Dual semen for HG and some Peppy Plays for Cash for Cash, and hoped they would hold on until this morning.

Off I went at 7:30 this morning, praying HG would not give me any trouble about getting in the trailer, but leaving her son at home. I should not have worried about her--she was perfect. I was very pleased with her.

We made it to the vet on time, and our first hangup was a missing can of semen. The shipping stallion station had failed to have the can held at the Fed Ex warehouse, so it was jaunting all over southern Illinois in a delivery truck. Usually that means it can be hours before it gets where we need it and it can mess up a whole. Fortunately, Fed Ex was on the ball and got it to the office in record time. It was there by 9:15.

The Kit Dual semen was good stuff---not all the way warm when we checked it, but still pretty active stuff. HG had a 51 follicle, so now we hold our breath that all these good circumstances result in a conception.

The Peppy Plays for Cash semen was excellent as always. Those little fellers were practically jumping off the microscope slide. Cash was down to a 46 follicle, but that is okay--it had changed shape so much that ovulation had to be imminent. Cross your fingers on that one too.

And on top of all that, I get to take the rest of the week off from the vet--I don't have to go back until Monday morning to see if Squeak is ready to be bred.

Meanwhile, Aries is getting pretty close to foaling. She has been waxed up for a while, but is not tonight. It could be any time. I sure hope it is by Thursday morning, since I have to leave town that late afternoon for work, etc, and won't be back until Saturday evening.

I love foaling season, but it sure is a lot more fun when it is not raining non-stop like it has been lately. Tomorrow is supposed to clear up and get close to 80 degrees--now that is prime baby watching weather.

Gypsy had a boy!

Early Thursday morning, I found this handsome little feller in the pasture. I was trying to jinx her into foaling before I left town to go camping, so I left her out by herself almost. It worked!








Think he looks like daddy He sure got his markings--you can see all that white from a mile away. Baby boy has two hind white socks though--the blaze sure is similar



Now lets hope he can show like daddy. You can see these pics and more at his site peptotaz.com

I'm CURED!

Hallelujah!

Finally, we got this dumb Mifi working, so I am back online.

Lots of interesting things have happened when it was not working--we went camping, Gypsy had a foal, Vixen tried to commit suicide....all kinds of stuff has happened here.

But since I am back dealing with the vet in a few short hours, I don't have it in me to get into it yet

Hopefully, tomorrow things will slow down

Technology fail

Barry fixed my foal cam.  Unfortunately, right before he did it, my Verizon internet USB thingy gave up the ghost.  He got me a new Verizon hotspot device and spent all day on the phone with Verizon trying to make it work yesterday.  The verdict is that my new device is just jacked up.

 

They are overnighting me one.

 

I have been kaput since Saturday nite and have so much to tell--but cannot do it.  I am trying this post via email frmo my phone--which is really really hard to do since the keyboard is so little, and I cannot use pics--but lets just see if it works.

 

--
Home of Slydun Haida
Strawn Equine Appraisals
www.strawnequine.net
http://strawnequine.blogspot.com/

Whose big idea was this anyway?

Today, I had to fill in for my boss at a court reporter's conference, talking about how appeals work, etc. Has anyone ever noticed that court reporters as a whole are really attractive people? Kind of like airline attendants. Its a little intimidating really.

I never really understood what the focus was supposed to be. I am guessing it was so people could laugh at me.

Off we went, Rita and I, and since she is really the boss of me, she had to talk more. She was really good. I was the comedic relief. We were described as kind of like Lucy and Ethel, but really more like Lucy and Lucy. That is about right really. We knew we were in trouble when we got put up on a dais with freaking microphones. ugh, just thinking about it makes me cringe. There were a few reporters we knew in there, but 95% of them we did not know--thank God. It could have been much worse.

You would think we would be good at this. Rita hates oral argument, and I am not a fan, but honestly, we are both very good at that. You sort of learn to fake it through, since you know the framework so well--but it does not necessarily translate to another situation like this. We were both super nervous

So we had to talk for an hour and fifteen minutes. Do you have any idea how long that is? Pretty damn long. I tried to stay shut up for as long as possible, since everyone knows I cannot go more than two minutes without cussing. I think I may have hit a personal record. I will not say that I made it all the way through, but it was likely the least profanity filled discussion I have participated in since I was about 10. That is pretty good, I think.

What I want to know though is who thought this was a good idea?

In other news, of which there is much, this week has been filled with much drama. One being that I am evidently being eaten alive by what may or may not be brown recluse spiders. No one can swear to that, but it has made the last few days interesting, and added about 8 pills a day to my standard intake. Since it is time to take some more of them, and I am kind of enjoying them, I will save that story for later, and let these pills do their job. I am so going to bed

Baby Wonky Legs gets new shoes

Is that the most handsome young man you have seen all day or what? He is just perfect--- if you don't see his front legs!
He sure looks little to me, to be getting all this attention. But he is getting it anyway.
Wednesday nite, this showed up to try fix up short stuff's legs. We put Dalric medial extension shoes on him, to try to straighten up his leg. This is part three of our attack on baby wonky legs, and we are hoping it will help us avoid surgery.
After cleaning and roughing up his hooves, baby wonky legs tried on these cool glue on Dalric shoes.
The cuff part of the shoe is flexible, so it can be fit exactly to him. The farrier marked the spot that fit him perfectly
And then it was time to apply the shoes, with a special glue. The black part on the bottom was temporary, but made him look like he was wearing high heels. Those parts were taken off this morning
The whole shebang was wrapped in electrical tape to hold things as still as possible until the glue set.
By this morning, after the tape was removed, this was what one shoe looked like. This is actually the leg that is barely out of whack.
I need a straight on picture, but this gives you an idea of how wonky the right leg is.
Because he was sedated some to get the work done, baby boy was worn out after wards. By the time I got done doing all the other work, he was passed out cold in the hay. I heard him snoring right away and he was sleeping so hard, I got to cuddle with him for a while without him getting made at me.

Tonight I spoke to the stallion owner to let him know what was going on--this is absolutely not a genetic thing, but I thought he might have some ideas from all his years of breeding. He calmed me down so much, so that I am no longer that worried about it. He says to confine him, as we have mostly been doing, and give it 60 days and I will likely be shocked at the results. If he needs the periosteal stripping at that time, it is no big deal and will fix him up good as new.

That makes me feel better--I needed someone to tie it all together for me. Cross your fingers that all this works for baby wonky legs and that he gets another name

I remember this feeling

From when we used to breed a lot more mares---I am so worn out, I can hardly type. And I have to stay awake three more hours.

My day started at 6:30 am, when I went to the vet. It is almost like Groundhogs Day around here. Cash is not developing, but Squeak is rushing herself to ovulation--which is not how it needed to be today. This requires another early morning tomorrow, and potentially flying her semen here.

Cash goes back Monday for further check and stays on regumate until then.

I worked all day, got a lot done too. Odd that, but I was really on a roll. I needed a day like that.

At lunch, I ran home and took Sly to the farm for his inaugural breeding of the year. He was understandable excited, but behaved himself. That made me very proud of him. I absolutely love that horse.

After work, the fancy farrier came to put Dalric Cuffs on baby boy to help straighten his legs. That was really interesting, and if I ever get a break I will down load the pics and post them.

While he was there, Sly's famous girlfriend arrived. She is ready to ovulate and had an excellent breeding. It was fun to hang out with her people and get her all arranged and settled into her stall where she will stay until we confirm ovulation. She gets an oxytocin shot at midnight.

I am worn slap out.

I cannot believe we used to do this for months on end--I am barely into it and beat already.

And Gypsy still shows no sign of foaling.....I bet she waits until I am finally catching up on my sleep. Thunderstorms are called for on Friday, so maybe then.

Update: Mom found guilty

Mom guilty in 3-year-old's death

BY SCOTT FITZGERALD, The Southern |

MARION - Twenty-year-old Karrae Starr is looking at serving from 20 to 60 years in state prison after a Williamson County jury found her guilty but mentally ill of first-degree murder in the death of her 3-year-old daughter, Bianca, nearly two years ago.

Jurors deliberated for nearly two hours Tuesday after hearing closing arguments from State's Attorney Charles Garnati and public defender Larry Broeking.

"It was a very emotional case for the situation involved. I think the jury's verdict was appropriate. She was definitely guilty of first-degree murder," Garnati said after the verdict was delivered.

Judge Phillip Palmer, who presided, set sentencing for 9:30 a.m. May 25.

Garnati said no probation will be involved in the sentencing. Starr's mental illness finding doesn't reduce the sentence, but it will allow her a difference in state prison confinement as she will get more help, he said.

"Obviously this lady has mental problems," Garnati said.

Daniel Kay of the state's attorney general's office in Carbondale assisted Garnati with the case.

During closing arguments, Garnati and Broeking reviewed their interpretations of witnesses and evidence presented in the case, which included emergency calls to the 911 operator from Karrae Starr at Ten Oaks Apartment in Carterville on the night of Sept. 27, 2008, after she suffocated the child by covering her mouth and nose with her hand, ultimately causing the child's death by asphyxiation. The child was in bed at the time.

Also testifying on behalf of the defense was Dr. Daniel Cuneo, a clinical psychologist from the St. Louis area who said Starr was legally sane at the time of the killing, but was mentally ill. He based his testimony on psychological evaluations ordered by the court. Cuneo testified that he diagnosed Starr as having a borderline personality disorder.

+++++

I wrote about this case a long time ago, when it first happened. And I guess by continuing to do it, I am likely bouncing myself from representing her on appeal. Good thing we have a bunch of good attorneys who can handle it.

If you were not around when it happened, my connection to this case is a weird one. The sister of this girl lived at the farm in a rental property several years ago. They share a mother. I do not know if I ever met this girl, but I liked the girls that lived at the farm. Not a one of them ever had a chance to do right though. Its heartbreaking.

The Dr. Cuneo mentioned in the article shows up in almost every case in this part of the state. For him to find a mental defect that can benefit a defendant is unheard of. That suggests this poor girl's problems are severe--and having a child at 15 sure is not ideal. I guess it should not surprise me that a kid in this circumstance could crack and do something awful. Its just a damn shame.

Two more lives down the toilet

Gratuitious baby pics

He looks like he is wearing baby shit colored lipstick. Which is not out of the question, but it is Rejuvenaide, a supplement that is supposed to help his legs. Cross your fingers it helps.

The rest of these are just funny playing pics. Hard to have a bad day when you have this to watch to distract you--not much cuter than a baby learning how to control those legs.

Two of a kind

Does anyone else see the resemblance between these two?

Gypsy is due Friday. So far I see no action other than general discomfort, and it is beautiful outside, so that is where she is. Maybe she will trick me--but nowhere better to foal than a big open pasture, so if she does she does. No big deal.

In other news, I took Squeak and Cash to the vet this morning, ostensibly to confirm they both need to be bred. Neither did. Typical. I go back Wednesday.

That is going to be a very long day, as Sly is having a very distinguished guest on Wednesday evening. I am not saying who yet, as I do not want to jinx anything, but suffice it to say that it is a HUGE honor for him. He is very excited. Oh who am I kidding. If a herd of jackass girls came to visit, he would be thrilled---he is first and foremost a man. They are not known for their ability to distinguish these things.

Also maybe Wednesday nite, if not earlier, the baby boy is having a specialist farrier come tend to his squirrelly legs. I am doing anything and everything possible to avoid surgical intervention, but I have no idea if it will work. Certainly, the opinions on what to do with a wonky legged foal are all over the place, and each opinion is persuasive when I hear it. It is overwhelming, especially since so many of the opinions are diametrically opposed to each other. One way or the other, we will get this little feller lined out. We are lucky to have so many really experienced professionals to help us along.

What else? Surely there is something to tell.

Guess not!

Baby boy week #2

These pics were taken on day 9, the day of the great jailbreak when every horse on the property lost their mind and tried to steal baby boy from HG. He of course thought it was the best thing that ever happened.

Since then, short stuff has been on lock down, which I just hate. Friday, we blocked off the aisleway of his line of stalls, and let him and mama have the run of that---no where near as swell as being outside, but at least he has a 50 foot long run to play in. The first thing he did was jump over an 800 pound square bale.


I do not know what it is about this kid, but I just love him. He has so much personality in that little body--he makes the funniest faces, and he is really a pleasure to be around. He is now on Rejuvenaide, an oral supplement that may straighten up his legs some, and even though it looks like baby shit, and tastes not a lot better, he takes it like a big boy every day, and seems to like it. He has had it three times, and so far it is still a two man arrangement to catch him and get the syringe in his mouth. Every day he gets easier to work with though--he has never been bad, he is just a wiggly little monkey sometimes--and I hope to be able to do it by myself soon. I bet I can in a few more days. I am so proud of Haida Girl too, who has really adjusted to motherhood, and is good at it--but has decided he needs his own bucket of feed, and should not eat out of hers. That is not a good situation, and we need to work on it.

By the end of the weekend, we hope to have a small outdoor pen built for him--small enough to restrict his exercise, but out in the sun and fresh air, and big enough to be able to kick up his heels.

Animals I angered this week

Now maybe I am just not up on my goose behavior, but I had no idea that a goose could make this hissing sound that I got from this goose this week. For some reason, these geese wanted me to move along, right on off their property and they hissed and spit at me like I had stolen their babies.
Really, have you ever seen such an angry bird?
But at least the geese only screamed at me. On another day, the baby of this goat bit me. Bit me right on my finger, which swelled up and throbbed for the rest of the day. We were having a perfectly lovely chat about how cute baby was, and the next thing you know, that goat busted out some secret hidden teeth and bit the shit right out of my finger.

That did not even seem fair to me.

That is all I've got for tonight---Jenna and I had a late nite out singing kareoke and acting a fool last nite, then I had the farrier here to trim all day, so I am whipped.

The insanity will continue for generations to come

Just when I think my world is so weird that nothing can surprise me or catch me off guard, I heard a funny tonight.

My brother-in-law Edward is in Turkey for a few days for meetings.

that is not the funny part.

The funny part is that Gabi thinks he is IN a turkey.

Even stranger, I have not heard that she finds it odd at all that her daddy should be in a turkey.

There is no hope for this family, with thinking patterns like that

Good timing, followed by one Paigeaster after another

This morning went great---til about 11 am. I was up super early, picked up Menno to work on my fence (yay yay yay!) by 7:30, loaded Diablo, got gas, and still managed to make my 9:15 a.m. appointment at Doc M's.

I do not know who is more shocked that I keep showing up on time, or even early--me or him. He says this proves I can do it, I say I have done all I can do and it will likely be downhill from here.

We had several hurdles to get over today--were we able to stop Diablo from ovulating too early, would the semen be good, etc. It went perfectly. She was just getting ready to ovulate, the semen was excellent, at about 75% motility, with 65 % or so progressive. Good stuff. Now it is as up to nature as any of this stuff gets.

I had to go to McKinney's to get special stuff for Haida Girl and baby, to help straighten up those legs. They sold it to me, only to discover they did not actually have what they sold me. They substituted something that I could buy two miles from my house. That is so not how it was supposed to go, but whatcha gonna do. I will find another supplier.

Then I ran to Rural King to get some more fence stuff for Menno. Got it done, and headed home. About 15 miles from my house, I blew a trailer tire. Did I not tell you that I ALSO did that on Friday, when I took D to the vet to confirm she needed semen (but she did not)? The vet is an hour from me, so this stuff is not easy, but if you leave it to me, I will manage to make it harder by doing things like blowing up tires. Last week, it costly me about $150. Not so much today--$256. That includes a new tire each time, neither of which is fit for a trailer, so still have to be replaced.

That whole mess wasted a good portion of the day. I was so glad my stupid Blackberry actually worked, since it mostly does not work, so I was able to call the interstate helper people, and work to tell them it did not look good for my attendance, since I was spending the day at a rest area on the interstate.

Finally, that got done, and I got back to town--I drove straight to the tire place, where I ordered a new set to be installed at great cost this week. I also learned that all my complaining about the tires being only two years old was for naught, since evidently they are 6 years old. That was embarrassing.

I dealt with the fence builder Menno, came home and tried to get my life in order, since it seemed pointless to go to work for a couple of hours. I was afraid I would get someone executed if I went, since most of what I touched fell apart all day.

Tonight, I had a massive disaster with Haida Girl's turnout. I put her in the sand pit with baby boy--I left Squiggy in there because she was being a pain in the ass, and I did not feel like wasting time catching her. This was a huge mistake. She accidentally considered looking at baby boy, and there was much running and foolishness, then the next thing I knew, baby boy had escaped. He must have shot right between two fence boards, and he was on the lam.

You can imagine what HG thought of this. I ran to open gates (which are tied shut by bailing twice, since we do not use them), before she busted through boards to save him. By the time I got her out, Radar had stolen the baby. He wants more than anything to be someone's mother, and cannot comprehend how dangerous this attitude is. There was a full on rampage, and before I knew what had happened, baby boy was through yet another fence, this one made of hotwire and electric rope.

Thank God, Madison showed up about then, although it was certainly not an easy procedure. HG was hysterical, but baby boy was having the time of his life. Gyro was one of only three horses in the field he escaped into--about a 25 acre pasture--and she thought he was a great addition to her merry little band. Baby boy went along with the plan and there was running and bleating and great celebration going on. I would have given anything for a video camera.

Mad had the dangerous part of catching HG in the stampede, and getting her through to the pasture, but ultimately had to let her go to avoid getting hurt. It still took HG a while to get her baby back, since he was perfectly content with Gyro. He was run into a T-post once, damn near through fence again, and all around caused a train wreck that was hard to watch.

Fast forward two hours, and we had emptied every horse out of that pasture, and HG still was not having it--she would not let us catch her, she did not want anyone near her baby and all I could think of was that the fence was probably shorting out and there was going to be more horses in the wrong place and I would probably have to shoot myself.

What a nite. I ran an errand, and when I got back, Madison had done the impossible--she had the happy little family caught. I could have kissed her.

Instead, I let her have the first ride of the Season. She rode Gyro, who was acting a fruit, I got on Vixen who was equally batty, and we rode about a half hour. My nerves were in no shape for it though, and Vixen being goosey was not helping--I do not know if it was the wind, or what, but it was NOT fun. We did it though, and that is what matters.

What a long day. I am just now making dinner at 9:30. I have a smashed finger, a bruised and swollen hand from slamming it into something, and bruises I do not know where they came from.

All in all, a regular day in my world. I am almost excited for the big storm that will give me a day off from farm marathons, and let me get back to work, where I am at least less likely to be injured. Not a lot less likely, but less likely all the same.

Vixen came home

This is the formerly skinny Foxy-----one day about four years ago, she had a meeting with Sly:

And somehow, the result was this:
Vixen looks so much like Sly, its weird. I swear when she left, she was a pretty girl, but I did not think there was a huge resemblance. But now look!She has the shape of his head for sure. Good thing too as her mother, Foxy, was not blessed in that area at all.

When Vixen went away last fall, she was a typical two-year-old Slybaby. Not big, but right at 14 hands. Slybabies tend to grow more their three and four year old years than any other time. She was ridden for a while, but has not been ridden since November. Neither we or Bobby, her trainer, could get it together well enough to transfer her back home until Saturday nite, and when he unloaded her in a parking lot to give her to me, I was floored at how much she had grown up. She is not a baby any more.
Yesterday, I got all brave, despite her five month layoff since her last ride, and the extreme wind we had going on yesterday, and hopped right on for her first ride. She did great. We even had to take up the baby headstall that we use on most of the young ones, which is hard to believe considering some of the tiny heads around here. After adjusting it up by poking some more holes in it, she was even better--at first she had fidgeted with the bit some, but the readjustment made things better. She was very relaxed, even though I kept sending her around a whole trailer load of new hay in the driveway, and she did not give me a bit of trouble. All in all, a great first start for us-- and I look for things to get better all the time.
We measured her when we brought her home, and she is a little over 14'1". She is getting her teeth done soon, and I will ride her this spring. She is ready for a new home, so send those buyers on! She sure is bred right, since Foxy is a daughter of Doc Wilson, out of a daughter of Freckles Playboy, so Vixen should be able to work a cow pretty well. She just needs a chance to learn it.

In other news, I am up bright and early tomorrow to take Diablo to the vet to receive her TR Dual Rey swimmers. I am very excited, and crossing my fingers that she was able to keep from ovulating for twelve more hours.