New lens!

Yay, my new lens came! I flat wore out my 70-300mm lens--it lost its reliability when it came to focusing at the long end of the zoom. I finally sucked up the justification to order a new one, and I busted it out today.

I guess I did not realize just how bad my old one had gotten until I saw the shots I took tonight--especially in aperture priority. I have some practicing to do!

But I did have two photo sessions with two of my young ladies
Little Miss Riot had a request, so she was one of the chosen ones. This week she has had some first--first bath (as a grown up), first, fly spray--after an initial bout of concern, she took both in stride. She is very quietly pretty, I think. Radar is her full brother, and sometimes when you look at her, they look just alike--her mane is not as blond this year as it was last year, but I suspect it will come back. They have similar faces too. She will make someone a great horse.

Tango was the other model tonight. The most significant thing about this is that Madison and Tango have never gotten along. Some time this week though, the whole world turned upside down, and now they are best buds. It is very strange. I don't know if it is because I got on to Madison about how horses can tell if you are scared of them, and she should try to man up around Tango, or what. She sure seems comfortable now though.
I think Tango is darling. I cannot wait to see her grow up. She sure has the genetics to be one hell of an athlete, and two of the best temperaments you could ever want are combined in her. Not much phases her either. Squeak is her mother, and those are some big shoes to fill, but I think Tango might be able to do it.

In other news, re-construction at the farm has picked up the pace again. It is amazing what it does for my attitude to get there after work and see that progress has been made. So I am in a great mood tonite. Eric, my new handyman, fixed the tractor whose PTO was getting fussy, and re-did some fence that needed changed. He has started mapping out the next projects, and man, are they long overdue. It feels good to be able to have these things done now, without Barry and I fighting about it. Since he is gone, he cannot do it, and the last thing he wants to do when he gets home is construction. And I want to spend time with him, not spend the whole time bitching at him. yeah yeah, I know, that is what I do, but still--I am trying!

Also, someone convinced me what I need to do more than anything in the world is roast me some vegetables like squash and zucchini--two things I have never eaten in my life. The zucchini, carrots and baby portobellos were good--pass on the squash, for sure. How bout me, eating some veges. Tomorrow I have to show the Beast my list of everything I have eaten since Sunday. If he complains, I will be shocked, as I have done really well. He will complain about blueberries, but that is too bad. I am still eating tonight though, as I have yet to break 1000 cals, and I know I have to get over that hurdle or I won't lose anyway.

What a weird life this has become.

Is it Ground Hog's Day?

I swear, this early evening is turning out a lot like Wednesday----LeaAnn called to tell me we had a horse down. WTF is going on around here? I almost never have colic issues---less than 5 times with all these horses after all these years.

This time it was a baby--Miss Riot. LeaAnn noticed that she did not bother to get up from her nap to come to dinner, so she went out to see what her deal was. When she did get up, with some prodding, she was wobbly on her feet. She did mosey over and start to eat but ultimately laid back down again. Madison was there to help her, and LeaAnn's dad came to help, but they could not get her in the barn.

LeaAnn called me and I flew home, and we tried to hustle her in the barn--I pushed her from behind, and could get her to walk awhile, but we had to go through some muck, and when it got hard, she wold just sit right down on her butt. It was awful, the poor kid does not feel good.

I finally went in and got the Banamine, talked to Kevin on the phone about jinxing myself by telling him how I never have had many colics (assuming that was what this was), and got her shot up with a healthy dose. We let her rest some more and then sharted shoving again. She went along with this for a while, but then got MAD-- reared up, kicked out and lurched forward. I was actually kind of glad to see that much fight in her--it suggested she was not as weak as she first appeared.

Thank goodness LeaAnn had already stripped and rebedded stalls for me, so there was a nice place to put baby girl. One less thing to worry about. Kevin suggested pouring some soy oil over Strategy and see if we could get it in her, and if she did not want to eat, to use it as a drech and get it in her so we could avoid tubing her--she is after all, just a baby. She did eat some, slowly, but she did eat. Now she needs to drink some.


She also has at least three quarter sized round spots that are naked--on her butt and side. It must be a fungus, but I could scrape down to naked skin and the skin looks fine, just completely bald. One more thing to deal with when we get through this current episode.

As usual, I could not find the stupid thermometer, so I left Madison in charge and went to Walgreen's to get a new one. By the time I got home, Riot was wound for sound--it took a few minutes to get her captured and her temp taken 101.3, so no worries there I guess.

Back to the waiting game, just like we did with Rock the other night. Nothing to do but monitor her I guess---I am assuming she has a little colic and hope that the banamine will get her through it. Either that, or she wanted to get out of the wind and into a soft fluffy resting place.

Poor Kevin is going to get afraid to sit down for dinner, since I have interrupted him every nite this week, I think!

Why do some mares give so much

of themselves to their foals that they have nothing left for themselves? Lucky does that, so its a struggle to keep weight on her when she nurses. One I am losing, although not at the rate I normally do. I considered pulling Riot off of her with the first wave of weaning this weekend, but Barry convinced me to wait a couple of weeks.

Riot is in such good shape, so fit from just playing with Grandpa--she does not have other foals to play with and never has. That is part of the reason that I want to wean her, so she can be with other foals and learn that social structure. I guess it can wait a few more weeks though, so she can soak up more of whatever Lucky has to offer her.

I sure do like this baby girl.

Speaking of quick change artists

Every single time I look at baby Riot, she has turned into someone else. She does not even look like a baby to me. Now she has so much of her daddy's cocky look to her, along with his curved ears, but she has her mother's wisdom in her eyes. She also shows a great resemblance in the way she moves to her brother Radar. She is effortless and graceful and loves an audience--the show she puts on when company arrives is not to be missed.

Now if she could jsut accept that Grandpa is not her mother, she would be almost perfect! That little quirk just adds to her personality, though.

Another day, another vet visit

Man, am I ready for breeding season to be over! I always get like this when it is getting hot. And when it is time to pay last month's bill-- $736. Oy, for no emergencies.

Today should have been my last preg checks, but stinking Fuzzy was being a pain, and I got tired of tracking her. I just took Diablo and first thing Kevin says is that she is obviously way in foal, like eight months. I think he is making fun of my mare! She is about 23 days, and although he thought he felt twins AGAIN, it was just a different thing altogether.

Fuzzy will go in the morning.

Meanwhile, Riot is looking pretty good, so I turned her and mama out for the day---Grandpa sure was glad to see her!

A Strawn Fourth of July

It rained off and of all afternoon when we should have been in the pool, but you won't hear me complaining about rain! We need it, even if it meant not much fence building got done. So we doctored Riot, went to the movies, doctored Riot again, and tried to take a family nap. That is rarely successful, as the dogs are the only ones getting any sleep, as usual, as they had me pinned in the bed like a cocoon. Notice how possessive Thor is when Simba tries to lay beside his mama. It is nice to have a little free time to spend with them, instead of rushing around all the time.

Meanwhile, Riot is holding her own. She actually sucked the Pepto out of the tube again this afternoon, and her temp has not gone above 99.5 in over a day. She does not want the grass hay I gave them, so is snacking on the good stuff-if alfalfa is the thing that gets her to eat, then alfalfa it will be. She is starting to nurse again as well. She even pooped something that is approaching cow patty status, which is a HUGE improvement over where she was. Keep your fingers crossed that she is on her way to full recovery, so she can go back out on pasture with Grandpa who is bellowing and bawling for her outside

I should have known--Beware, Nastiness in Post

Good thing there was something redeeming about yesterday with Big Fat Rock, as it all went downhill last nite. I knew baby Riot had the upset tummy (at least from the looks of her butt), but she looked all right otherwise, so I did not mess with her til last nite. I brought her in then, and man oh man, "upset" is putting it mildly. See Exhibit A: dirty hiney to the left.

I realize this is a little graphic, but hey we are horse people- we talk about things in public that most people would never say out loud. I am just warning you here. If you are eating, this is not the Blog for you today.

After spending the evening with her for a few hours, I think we need to design a foal shits contest. We could give awards for color, and the most unique of qualities, atc, but the category Riot would win is the "shitting for distance" contest.

I had almost convinced myself that she had gotten through her bout of upset tummy because her hiney was all dry--there was no indication that she was still iill. But bow howdy- was she--her hiney was dry because she was shooting it so far, it did not get on her. I have never seen such a thing in my life. It would have been funny if it was not so disgusting, and so sad.

Exhibit B: Riot before illness was discovered
This is hardly my first round with upset tummies, and I am quite the old pro by now--I dragged out my stash of Bio Sponge that my friend Stace the vet tech got me onto last year, and dosed her up. Then a little banamine for the fever I assumed she had, but that I could not confirm, as the logisitics of the rectal thermometer and her condition...well suffice it to say, that was not do-able. A little antibiotics to knock out whatever bug she had picked up--then, as always, I started second guessing myself, and got on the horn with the vet. I can advise with confidence all day long until I am in the middle of a mess (ha ha, I made a funny), then I worry that I have forgotten something, etc. Good thing I have the best vet in the world.

He tells me the same thing he always does, which is that I know what I am doing, and keep doing it but lay off the abx for the moment, and get her temp. I knew that was coming. So I tried that again, and finally got it....right at 100 degrees, but by then the banamine had kicked in, so who knows if she had a fever or not before she got that. More Pepto---there is nothing like giving a baby Pepto every couple of hours. I don't know who gets more pink, me or her. She does not seem to mind the taste of it, but it is fun to spit some of it on me, I guess.

It was her lack of nursing that concerned me the most, but I think she is back on it today. Lucky is not dripping, and Barry thought he caught her at it this morning. Her temp was 99 at 8 am , and 98.5 at 1 pm. She has to be confused, as she is normally out with Grandpa and her mama, and Granny the visitor, and she hangs out with Grandpa most of the day--and now she is separated from him. She does not know that he is standing in his pasture close to the fence waiting for her to come out, looking all depressed that he has lost his baby.

I swear, if it is not one thing, it is the other!