Water pump went out wed evening. Should be fixed today

So September is still on my least favorite month list, but this missing pump has not been too bad.   Dad borrowed one of Paul's tote water tanks and got water thursday and topped off horse tanks and brought some in house for essential washing and flushing.   We could not find paperwork for company that installed it or remember their name and called a different company yesterday --who never called back or anything.   Not sure why they were unwilling to come out and fix anyway,  not like it was a warranty issue since its 11 years old but this morning he called again and asked them who else in that town installed cisterns and got the right company called and they sent someone right out.   Without the part they needed when they found the problem control box with juice going in but not coming out, but sounded like the repair person was confident he could get the part in town and get things running today.

I am loving my new horse.   Seller named him Tanzaknight;  tanzanite is a gem and he is a pretty good gem for being a high energy 4 year old.   I have no idea what happened that she suddenly decided not to have horses anymore this summer,  but her loss is my gain.   I have a really nice horse with better breeding then I was shopping for + 3 months training vs just 30 days to get started that I would likely have had done.   She has reasonable peace of mind that I am a good home and that I really wanted him since I paid her more than she was asking in her last ad because I wanted her to hold him for me for a couple weeks before I could pick him up.

  I'm trying not to obsess on why she went from having bought a nicely bred weanling 4 years ago  and then had him trained early this spring to selling the horse property; giving/free leasing all her older horses to a friend who just didn't want a young arab with having young kids riding; and selling horse trailer and stuff too.   She didn't volunteer why the sudden change to being horseless and I didn't pry after my hint statement of "sorry you are having to part with Tanza" did not loosen her tongue at all.   

Tomorrow I think I will ride Sadie down the road.   If I go early or it stays cooler, Ole may come with me,  he was pestering me today before I went out and saddled Tanza, although he was a good dog and didn't try to pester the horse or run off while I rode T in Grey and Shade's pen while they had their feed outside the pen.  

September is almost over, thank God

Well it has not been all horrible,  but my cousin died at the start of the month, she was not super young but only 66 is still pretty young these days and she will be greatly missed.  I had not even known just how special she was to so many folks in her church and family although dad, sis and I  always appreciated her,  she was a nice lady always very welcoming and warm and intelligent, good conversationist.   We never lived very close together geographically and she was allergic to horses so we never spent a lot of time together.  

Then Sadie had the colic bout and VS scare which I did get word today she is cleared, never had VS!  YAY!   Today Lady had what I think must have been a gas colic.   I was all set to just wait and see with her but I noticed her respirations were pretty high when I was doing accu-pressure along her midline and then she went and laid down, still panting so I got askeered and called the vet right away.  

It was just a gas colic and she was back up and looking mildly for food by the time Dr Scott got there in just 1/2 an hour.    Darned little princess making me be a drama llama with the vet.   She just got a dose of electrolyte paste and a bit of banimine paste (which I think she spit some out) and kept eating hay pretty good afterwards.    Dr Scott thinks my new guy can probably 'go'.

  Unsaid was that he probably doesn't think Sadie can go all that well.  Which I experienced this summer.   She is a sweetie and she can do the distance riding at a low level but probably only at a fairly low level ever.   Which is OK if Tanza doesn't have an oh shit injury or illness,  I can afford to feed them both and there are enough ride days to keep two horses occupied if they are both sound next year.  

Shade's knee arthritis is continuing.  That knee is getting visibly swollen.   Sigh,  I'm afraid Sadie may be in the same situation before she is 20.  She has very similar conformation fault in her front legs.  Maybe she'll have a few more good years than Shade if we don't hit holes and summersault and/or I end up doing less total miles on her but I do not know that riding makes the joint fail any faster, it might be helpful by strengthening the muscles and ligaments, anyway its what I do and I guess I'd rather have 10 years of having ridden Sadie and enjoyed trails with her and be bummed if she gets a bad knee in her teens then have her stand around and be sound till over 20 but all she ever did was stand around eating and getting bored.  

idle musing on why 'society is doomed'

There is a short stack of Physics Today magazines under the Kuerig coffee brewer at work so I've been glancing through the article headlines lately.

One might think that Physics Today has lots of physics and Astrophysics material and would only cover those topics but nope.   There is an article on how E. Coli expresses itself.   --ok maybe that can be physics and not just biology.    Carbon in the soil?  Really this is physics?    Modeling Crime Hot Spots.   Seriously  you are not calling yourself Mathematica Journal or Statistics Today; how in the wide wide world of sports does modeling crime pertain to Physics?    Call me an old FUDDY DUDDY (dam autocorrect for making me put that in all caps)  but writing a model to describe  crime is not physics and unless they change the name to Physics and Statistic Methods Today such an article just does not belong.   When even the physicists are churning out papers and articles on AGW and social science crap trying to curry favor with the drones who hand out that sweet sweet grant money from uncle Sugar, it feels like a bad portent.

Still alive

Went to Sturgis SD for a ride.   Another 1 for 2 weekend.   I should not have entered the 2nd day.  Although Sadie's hind leg(s) that was pull source at HJ 2 weeks prior to this one was fine.  She was a little off after the first loop of second day on her right front foot.   The one she bent the shoe on.  Farrier did come out and fix it,  I don't know if the stepping on it had any relation to the mild soreness or if its just that Sadie doesn't have a lot of bone and is going to need extra legging up for endurance.

So I was thinking I'd have to enter her just 1 day at the ride near NEMO the last weekend of September but now I will not be going up there at all.   Sadie was colicky yesterday.  Much better today but she doesn't need to take another longish trailer trip in just two more weeks.   The Dakota trip was hard on her.  She was good in Sturgis other than the leg which was minor and a RO/L pull rather than mandatory pull.   No doubt the vet was correct that she should not go out again as all the rock on the 2nd loop would likely have made a serious problem out of the minor strain or whatever.

But my cousin passed away so we ran up to Bowman ND with the horses Sunday night, then up to Minot to that funeral and a 10 hour drive home Wed. and that was with no getting out of the trailer cuz I didn't trust Sadie and Razz to load back up good or be sane to unload in the dark if I took too long to get home.   Thursday Sadie seemed fine but the cold front that made her a uncomfortable in ND on Monday/Tuesday came through here and she was just not right Friday.

And Sadie might have VS;  hopefully not as it will be a major wrench in dad's hunting trip if we end up with a horse quarantine but what will be will be.   She had a couple raw spots on her gums, but no new VS symptoms today so hopefully she just rubbed her gums a bit eating something odd.

I have a new gelding.  The one in WY I've been posting about.   I was supposed to haul him home today but postponed to tomorrow because of Sadie.   I wanted to push it back a week or more if Sadie does have VS but the seller wouldn't do it.  I suppose I could try to find a boarding situation for him but since Sadie does not seem to be having active VS I think I'll just take him home and hope for the best with only isolating him from direct contact.   I don't think we had a freeze and got rid of the flies here.

My headache -- tension in neck and up the muscles in back of head is finally yielding to the ibuprofen so time for me to feed the horses. 

p.s.  Definitely still have flies.   Ugh.   I think once I get Tanza home I will have less tension, especially if Sadie is VS clear.   I should call sis in ND,  possibly her horses were exposed, Sadie might have had it then,  or might have picked it up in Sturgis although with an infected farm just over a mile away its likely to have been brought to our place by flies.   No symptoms until the friday colic and I asked and Dr Mike said its 7-10 days from picking it up to having symptoms. 

Argghhh, #$%farriers

Sadie did travel well with her EDSS or whatever trim and shoe job but he couldn't be bothered to fire up a forge and cut off excess heel sticking out and now she stepped on the outside branch and bent the shoe and loosened clinches.    I am so pissed after paying pretty big $$ for two trims and one was barely a bit of rasping and just a half set of shoes that I may not stick as a customer even if he makes it right before we leave for SD on Thursday.    For certain it is try someone else if he doesn't come through on the customer service and fix it instead of blaming the horse for having flat feet and saying his schedule is full.

No bloody wonder so many people have gone to DIY trimming and hoof boots.  They are a PITA but at least you know the job will be done right if you take the time to do it right rather than being at the mercy of the farrier's whim on the day they come out.