Hap

I didn’t completely manage to forget that Hap had injured himself during the convention, but I did manage not to worry about it too much. I suppose that is a tribute both to R, my horse sitter, and D, my trainer. Nevertheless, I was feeling a little tense this afternoon. Part of it was just typical Worldcon overload, but part of it was worry about Hap.

Continue reading Hap

It’s Always Something

I arrived in Denver about 5:00 pm last night. The Convention Center is very large, and has very hard floors. I was able to pick up my registration, and relax and unpack in our room before heading to dinner.

I received a call from my critter sitter on the way to the restaurant. She had a question about dosage on one of Lody’s medications. We were almost through dinner when I got another call: she had taken Hap away from the other horses, he had a melt-down, and scraped one leg pretty badly. (My sitter used to lease Hap, and I had told her she could ride him if she had someone with her. She was just checking to see what he would be like in the round pen, a perfectly reasonable thing to do. I would have expected worry, but not total hysteria.)

After some conferring back and forth with my trainer, we agreed I did not need to make the 75 minute drive. My trainer drove to our place, helped my sitter clean up the leg, wrap it, and give Hap bute. We decided we would see how sore he was in the morning before deciding whether to call the vet. According to my trainer, she wouldn’t call the vet if it were her horse.

My sitter says Hap is doing well this morning, and my trainer will be going back over to change the wrap later today. It is pretty clear that my trainer is a wonderful person, and that I am going to owe her big time after this weekend.

August Lesson

It has been sufficiently hot that I went to the barn to ride Lily in a lesson at 9:00 am this morning. Lily was okay with being taken away from her breakfast after only half an hour. Even at 9:00 am, it was hot.

I’ve become stronger and riding in a lesson is no longer quite so arduous as it was two months ago. This is a good thing for me, but probably not so good for my trainer, since I now have enough energy to ride and whine at the same time. Before, I barely had enough breath to ride, let alone whine. I spent an embarrassing amount of time collapsed over Lily’s withers gasping. Now I loudly announce “I’m dieing here!” and I still have to keep trotting around the arena for another lap or two.

The past few lessons have included lots of rapid-fire transitions and turns. This is to keep Lily alert and me from over-thinking what I am doing. Lily loves it: she would have made one hell of a cutting horse if she had been a hand or so shorter. (I love watching lots of different types of equine athletics, but for pure enjoyment, watching a good cutting horse is at the top of the list.) I’m working hard to keep up with my horse: though sometimes it feels as though I am being asked to do calculus when I haven’t even done algebra recently.

After the ride we did the customary cool Lily out, let Lily roll in the arena, spray Elaine down, give Lily the extra meal she gets when she works, then spray Lily down. By the time we got to the “spray Lily down” segment I was dry from the heat and lack of humidity.

The “at least it’s a dry heat” doesn’t always work as well as one hopes.

The Case of the Empy Stock Tank

Last Thursday, as I was driving home from work, Jack called to say that the horses had broken the plug in the bottom of the stock tank, and it was dry when he went out to feed. He cobbled together a temporary solution, and I stopped at a friends and picked up an unused stock tank at a friend’s place on the way home. I set it up the next morning, then swapped it out with out swap tank with its new plug the following day. I placed the spare stock to the side where I would remember to return it.

Each night we would go out and find the empty stock tank. My friend had warned me hers might have small holes, and I started to worry that ours had a small leak as well, which occurred when the horses broke the plug. These are sturdily build Rubbermaid 70 gallon stock tanks, and it is not reasonable to think three horses would drink sixty gallons of water in one day, even the hot dry ones that we’ve been having. Even the tray on the ground that I fill with water so suicidal varmints aren’t tempted to drown in the stock tank was dry.

So yesterday morning, having once more gone out and found an empty stock tank, I set up both stock tanks and filled them to the brim. When I went out last night, one was down about half, and the other was down about one third. This would be about sixty gallons of water. As a rule of thumb, a horse will normally drink about ten gallons a day. Hap, who loves to play in water, dipping his head and splashing water on his chest and legs, is probably emptying most of one tank, which is why we have been running dry. I’ve rarely kept him here in the summer with two other horses, which is why I haven’t run into the problem in the past. Two stock tanks were too much for even Hap to empty in one day.

I feel like Nancy Drew.

Lily Communicates

Lily was very good during our lesson today. After our lesson, we were alone in the arena so I pulled off her tack so she could roll. It was very warm by then so I held her while my trainer hosed her down and suggested that I take Lily back to the arena so she would have somewhere to roll again. Lily followed me out and I took the halter off in the place she rolled before and stepped away from her. She lowered her head and looked at the ground and then deliberately swung behind me and stopped in what would be the “heel” position for a dog. It seemed quite obvious she was saying no thanks to the roll and that she was ready to go back to her paddock.. I didn’t bother to put the halter back on her and she followed me through the barn and to her paddock.