Beautiful Day

It's a beautiful day!  On Thursday and Friday we had what feels like the first rain in years.  Last night, in between showers, and on our first day in a week that wasn't sweltering, I worked the dogs.  Joe and Reba took turns putting their skills to the test against the sheep. My lovely little Joey is growing in leaps and bounds and was a superstar!  I'm so proud of how far he's come!  Reba was a wonderful listener who gave me lots of try.  

This morning, Tessa, Reba, Joey and I went for a run down the road.  Here's a picture of Joe (I've taken to calling him Joey.) taking a drink after playing in the field from the automatic waterer.

On Tuesday, Roxy came in from the field lame.  I pulled her into a smaller pen and gave her bute for a couple of days.  After which she was "off" but not fully lame so she rejoined her horsey buddies in the bigger pen.  Today, I had tied her up (I like to tie up my young horses as I feel it teaches them patience.) and worked with the three horses leaving her tied.  I noticed she was "toeing" the ground - meaning she wasn't putting full weight on her foot.  Feeling it I thought it was carrying some heat.  Hopefully it's only an abscess.  I'm treating it as though it is by putting an Epsom salt poultice on  her foot.  

I mixed 1/2 cup Epsom with 1 cup oats (porridge) and added enough boiling water to create a thick mix.  (The water will cool by the time it actually makes it on to the foot and you want it hot.)  Next, I cleaned out her hoof, poured the mixture into a diaper and placed it with the mixture on the bottom of her foot.  To hold it in place I Vet Wrap the hoof and to keep her from wearing through I place Duct Tape on the bottom parts of the bandage.  I'm very careful to not wrap where the leg is as to not cut off her circulation.  I'll leave this on for 24 hours before changing it.  If it is an abscess it'll pull the pus out (hopefully) the bottom of the hoof providing relief.  And if it's not, it'll just feel good.  Because it needs to stay dry she's in a small pen in a shed where I'll keep her until I know what's going on with her.  If all else fails, the vet is coming out next Saturday to treat Whiskey so I can always have her take a look too.

Here's a picture of Roxy chowing down on hay with her wrapped foot.

Speaking of tied up, Izzy had her first tying up lesson today and was awesome.  She walked, hit the end of the rope and gave to the pressure.  No freak outs or shenanigans.  The worst thing she did was towards the end of the session she was pawing a bit.

Here's a picture of her tied to the post (the biggest one I've got - just in case!)

Whiskey has been off for a very long time, so I thought I'd start getting her into riding mode by saddling her.  While Whiskey is normally a super horse I was a wee bit apprehensive as to how she'd take being saddled.  Of course she was fine, it was more my nerves than anything.  We didn't do anything.  I just saddled her and left her tied up saddled while I worked with the other horses.

Here's a picture of her standing patiently.

Earlier in the summer I had purchased a yearling sized show halter for Roxy and Izzy.  While it's a bit large on them right now I've included a picture of Roxy modeling it.

It was a beautiful day.  I've been working ridiculous hours and today I went out, enjoyed the sunshine, and spent the day working with my animals.  How can a girl go wrong with that?  Gotta love it!