Hug your horses often -RIP Duke

Sad end of our weekend at the Lazy H:
After doing some painting most of sunday afternoon I took a break and rode Grey. It was wonderful, he is so good with his leads using the LJ bareback pad. Then I was feeding everybody and when I got to the back paddocks where Duke and AJ live Duke was laying down and there was a circle of disturbed sand around him. So I told mom and dad since Duke is their horse. Got Duke haltered and up and he was obviously in distress, breathing hard etc so called Dr Mike. He was able to come out in 45 minutes, we walked Duke some, let him lie down some as he wanted but didn't let him roll till Dr Mike got here -- I felt we might be putting Duke down as we waited. That is the most distress I've ever seen a horse experiencing. Well when Dr Mike sedated Duke and did a rectal he could feel a twisted bowel and it was obviously very tender for Duke having the rectal done. He thinks Duke might have had a tumor that strangled the colon since the colic developed so quickly. Duke continued breathing hard after the exam and only 30 minutes after getting the pain killer so there was no question about the decision to put Duke down right then.

Duke started as my brothers horse . I had bought a QH stud colt when I was in HS, that we let breed E's appy cross mare before we had the colt gelded that fall. When E went off to college and was not into horses anymore and mom wanted to get into jumping she took some initial lessons on a school horse and then used Duke until she wanted to move to higher jumps than Duke could manage so mom bought AJ, and Duke went to mom's instructor on a care lease and was a school horse until he was 22 but mom and dad took him on the annual hunting trip every year and he was a solid packhorse and seemed to enjoy the change of scenery although he loffed teaching kiddos to jump. The picture is of Duke in retirement taken about 18 months ago. Duke was 25 this spring and except for getting just a bit fussy about stemmier hay which I had chalked up just to aging teeth had been doing real well, he was in a good weight and had taken to running and bucking when he thought I was tardy with breakfast. So a bit of shock losing him; but in a way its easier than watching a horse gradually decline and trying to decide when the quality of life has gotten too low and its time to say goodbye.

afternoon blahs today

Morning was good though. The chiro didn't show to work on Shade so I rode her and the dogs got a walk. Dad had to drive down and fetch Ole -he had run off, but the ride was fun and the vitamin H was good. Nice sunny morning.

But my weenie P/R efforts aren't getting anywhere. So much for helping charities I like get money from promotions. Work was ok, and then the email about my aunt Julie was not bad news but drove home how ill she is.

Cloths Lined but How Does One penalize

A haystack? LOL, As I was trying to fill in some of the face where the darned stack load had tumbled I was wondering if I needed a helmet more for this than riding. Well a helmet wouldn't have made any difference. I had decided I was not going to get the last bale onto to row I was trying to fill back in but was not quite successful at quitting before a mishap. I slipped and fell as I was setting the bale down, catching my chin on a hay bale setting against an adjacent stack. I hate stack machine stacks but its my own darn fault that this one came down. I had noticed it was looking wonky the morning before 30% of the stack came down but I did not tell dad he needed to get another pole on the stack. I don't know that I would even be capable of wedging a pole in to correct a wonky stack myself but I could have tried. Oh well, funky bruises is part of the horse owning territory for me.

Help out a good animal rescue -vote daily

I have a friend in VA who runs a small dog cat and horse rescue and also does military pet fosters as needed. She is participating in an on-line contest trying to raise funds for spay/neutering in her area.
fill in Lost Fantasy Stables and Animal Rescue Inc. and select VA for the state.
the site recalls last vote for folks so you only have to type that once. You have to id an animal to confirm your vote
theanimalrescuesite.com

Sarah runs her rescue on a shoestring, working a regular job to pay rent and general expenses for her family and personal critters; being the top vote getter for VA and winning the $1000 would have a real impact for her. So if you read this blog please consider adding this appeal to your own blog or any social network sites you use. With some networking help we may be able to do some good in the midst of these crazy times.

Thanks for adding to the votes.

Waxy Wally joined my ride weekend

Wally wonders if I'm really sure I can drive this big rig.


Got the coffee pot out, now we know we can handle things.

Wally had to hang out by himself friday morning as I could barely manage getting Shade vetted and tacked up to ride by 7 am.


Shade was fine at the 13 mile point which was only a pulse down to 60 bpm and trot for the vet than ride the 12 mile loop. At the 25 mile vet check the vet noticed she was a little off, she thought right front. She didn't hold my card to look at her again after the 1 hour hold was up, I trusted I would be able to tell if Shade was off as long as we went out alone so Shade wouldn't be pulled along by other horses. I walked out about 1/2 mile and Shade was most definitely very off when I asked for a trot so that was the end of her ride. We headed back to the basecamp to announce we were pulling and turn in our vet card. M checked Shade out and found she had a cramp in her right hind leg. The relief at having a temporary problem cheered me greatly. After I took Shade back to the trailer and untacked her and turned her in with Grey Moun to just relax and munch hay I hung out with the timer and did some pulse checks the rest of the ride on friday. Wally and camera were left in the trailer, I took this pic saturday.

I ate at the ride dinner and then was heating water to soak up the horses grain and beet pulp quicker. The days were sunny and nice but it got cold quickly in the evenings and the water buckets had ice on them each morning. Wally was annoyed that all the cooking was for the horses till I dragged out a beer ;)


Saturday morning with the blankets still on. I contributed to Shade having the cramp by not blanketing quickly enough thursday evening. She and Grey were eating and didn't look cold so I waited till just before I went to bed and she was shivering when I came with the blankets. Now I know for next time that she is stoic about cold as well as other things.

Saturday I helped them do a little pulsing at the first check and then I rode Grey Moun. I paid the fun ride entry fee but rode only the 10 mile loop instead of the 13 mile loop, I just wanted a good checkout of his leg with a quicker finish so I could rest and drive home that day; the fund ride entry fee was a bargain lameness eval after his scary cut on his hock 7 weeks ago + one bandage slip where the gauze was really pulling on the top of his hock when I went to remove the bandage - I was worried I might have a bit of bandage bow effect from that. But my 'old man' is sound as a dollar. He acted like a baby whinnying for Shade half the loop and pulling and pulling on me --he'll wear Shades S-hack rather than a sidepull next time he might be excited. He had worked up a sweat so I let him hang out with Shade and relax and roll before we went to see the vet. They will show any little lameness thing better when all the adrenalin has left their system.
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My favorite ride manager rode her geldings first 50 at Kenlyn last weekend and we rode together some. I had held Shade back at one point and rode with another horse that had more similar gaits. Susan's gelding has a HUGE trot which was too fast for Shade. When she heard I'd had to pull she worried a bit but I told her she trains in terrain more like the Sangre ride at home so CJ would probably be fine. Unfortunately her gut feeling was correct, he stumbled going down a hill and couldn't recover in the sagebrush and fell. He has a big bruise on his shoulder and she got a heck of a twisted ankle. She had aluminum endurance stirrups and the one at that side got squished flat together. Good thing she had pulled her foot out of the stirrup as the horse was falling judging by the look of the stirrup.