Andie, July 8, 2008
As you can see, she needs a little weight.
As you can see, she needs a little weight.
I've accomplished a lot today, and I've definitely taken a very large step towards my goal (getting Andie and BJ in shape). Today I started cleaning out the tack shed, which is located in the paddock above the arena (which is pretty much just a large, flat, rocky pasture that's trying to grow grass). It's divided into two sections, on the left it's a run-in shelter for the horses, and on the right, it's enclosed with 2x4s and a gate. That's where we store the hay (on palettes), grain (in a metal trash can), and other non-leather equipment (halters, lead ropes, etc). My dad, who owns a small production business called North Woods Productions, recently moved out of commercial space back into his original office which is located on our property. The building is much smaller than the space he was formerly in, so a large desk that used to be in the main lobby area is now being stored in the shed, along with a couple cabinets and a hutch that used to go over his desk (it won't fit anymore since the "shop," as we call it, has a slanted ceiling). There are also two pitch forks and an array of shovels, hoes, and axes stored temporarily in the shed along with a busted up pony cart that BJ broke in his one and only driving "episode/accident." He IS trained to drive, which was immediately apparent when I bought a harness and did some ground driving with him last year or so, but the cart, which my parents and I drove a LONG way up to Seabeck to get for him, was home made and made incorrectly. I'm pretty sure it was too small for him also. The tools are in the horse shed because we recently replaced the four-strand electric fence with actual horse fencing because the ponies tend to be mischievious and find ways to escape. It looks very nice. :)
So basically, there's a lot of junk in the shelter that really shouldn't be there, but we don't have another place to put stuff (I have no clue how we managed before it was built). Anyway, I brought a wheelbarrow down and started scooping up all the loose hay and hauling it out into the woods. I gave a little bit to our two LaMancha goats, Goatee and Buttons, but as I started getting to the bottom where I could see the tarp, I realized the hay below the surface was really mildewy/moldy. It's pretty disgusting. The very bottom layer is completely black. I'm mad at myself that I didn't start cleaning it out earlier! At least the weather is still warm and working outside isn't bad at all.
I also gathered up all the baling twine, which had been accumulating for at least a year or two, hanging on nails on the beams in the shelter. I'm not sure why we decided it'd be a good idea to save all that twine. Heh. There were all sorts of bugs crawling in them, which really grossed me out after a minute or two trying to unhook the twine from the nail. I gathered them up and put them in a black garbage bag along with a broken bucket and all the garbage from taking care of Andie's wound (I'll explain that thoroughly later on). I tried my best to get things tidied up, but really, there's not a whole lot I can do without getting my dad or older brother to help me move some of the heavy junk out of there. Since the pony cart is broken, I think I'm going to tell James (aforementioned older brother) that he can cut it up and use it for whatever he wants-- most likely another airsoft bunker, aka pill-box. It's just been sitting in the shelter, with one shaft completely busted off as well as one of it's wheels (the axel actually snapped) since BJ freaked out and broke it. It's just a piece of junk taking up space, although whoever made it did put a lot of care and effort into it, I can tell. They just didn't really know what they were doing.
Anyway, so after I did my best cleaning up what I could in the shelter, I gave Andie a bath! Her skin and coat really aren't in that bad of shape. She just had a good later of dirt and dry skin built up, which wasn't tough to get rid of at all. She would NOT stand still, though! It was definitely worth it, though. She looks much better than she did even just a few days ago. I washed and conditioned her tail THOROUGHLY for the first time in a while, and I have to tell you that a brushed out tail is much, MUCH easier to get completely clean than a tangled one. In the past, I've always tried to get her tail detangled after washing it, and I wasn't nearly as successful as I was today. After her bath, I trimmed her mane so it was even(which was completely rubbed out except for a few chunks that were still a "year long") and cut a bridle path. I have to say, Andie looks pretty dang cute with a mohawk. This is the second summer she's had one, due to her allergies to flies. I might start calling her Sarge now. Haha. I also evened out the stubble on her tail so it doesn't look so dang aweful.
After her tail dried for the most part, I french braided it where it was long enough to braid towards the end of her dock all the way down and trimmed the ends so her tail is straight on the bottom. Since I had the hose in the paddock already, I decided to wash a couple brushes I found buried in some loose hay in the pony cart along with a hot pink lead that Andie got muddy during her bath.
Earlier I mentioned that Andie had a wound, so now I'll explain that. Sometime during July (I forget when exactly), Andie and BJ escaped and went on an adventure down the road one evening while my parents and I were out for dinner. We got a call shortly after we got home from one of our neighbors, saying our horses were out. Dad and I jumped in the car and drove down the road and found Andie and Beej being held by an older couple. After thanking them and chatting a little about the situation, my dad took both horses and had me drive the car behind with the flashers on so they could see where they were walking, and so anyone driving could also see them. It was then that I noticed Andie had a horrible gash on her left hind leg and a few other minor scrapes on two of her other legs. Luckily I had bought a few rolls of vet wrap because Andie had been limping and I suspected she might have had an abcess (we had the vet out and it turned out that her feet were just a little too flat and she was uncomfortable because of it) and figured it might be good to have some vet wrap just in case I needed to wrap her foot. So I treated it as best I could in the dark and put some polo wraps on over the vet wrap to make sure it stayed secure and she didn't bump her injuries around too much.
I called the vet the next day, and he wasn't available for at least a week. We could have spent a few hundred dollars for an emergency farm call (which wouldn't include any kind of treatment), but I decided that I'd take my changes and see if we could get her healed up on our own. I'm glad we didn't have the vet out, because several experienced horse people have told me that due to the location of the wound, it probably wouldn't have been able to be sutured, or the stitches would/could have been ripped out. It developed some proud flesh, but we were able to get it completely removed with some special wound spray. Every day I clean the wound and spray it with cleaner and healer spray, place a non-stick gauze pad over the wound (also known as "Telfa"), and wrap it securely with vet wrap (I like the cool colors :D). So the garbage from changing the dressing (I use gloves also because it tends to get messy and I don't really appreciate fragrant bluuud and guts on my fingers) had been accumulating also, which I was keeping in a bucket. I finally got around to emptying it today.
So that concludes mynovel blog post for today! You may be wondering why I haven't been talking about Beej much or caring for him as much as Andie. I'll address that topic in my next blog post, which will hopefully be tomorrow. I'll try to get some recent pictures posted so you can see how much today's hard work really has paid off.
So basically, there's a lot of junk in the shelter that really shouldn't be there, but we don't have another place to put stuff (I have no clue how we managed before it was built). Anyway, I brought a wheelbarrow down and started scooping up all the loose hay and hauling it out into the woods. I gave a little bit to our two LaMancha goats, Goatee and Buttons, but as I started getting to the bottom where I could see the tarp, I realized the hay below the surface was really mildewy/moldy. It's pretty disgusting. The very bottom layer is completely black. I'm mad at myself that I didn't start cleaning it out earlier! At least the weather is still warm and working outside isn't bad at all.
I also gathered up all the baling twine, which had been accumulating for at least a year or two, hanging on nails on the beams in the shelter. I'm not sure why we decided it'd be a good idea to save all that twine. Heh. There were all sorts of bugs crawling in them, which really grossed me out after a minute or two trying to unhook the twine from the nail. I gathered them up and put them in a black garbage bag along with a broken bucket and all the garbage from taking care of Andie's wound (I'll explain that thoroughly later on). I tried my best to get things tidied up, but really, there's not a whole lot I can do without getting my dad or older brother to help me move some of the heavy junk out of there. Since the pony cart is broken, I think I'm going to tell James (aforementioned older brother) that he can cut it up and use it for whatever he wants-- most likely another airsoft bunker, aka pill-box. It's just been sitting in the shelter, with one shaft completely busted off as well as one of it's wheels (the axel actually snapped) since BJ freaked out and broke it. It's just a piece of junk taking up space, although whoever made it did put a lot of care and effort into it, I can tell. They just didn't really know what they were doing.
Anyway, so after I did my best cleaning up what I could in the shelter, I gave Andie a bath! Her skin and coat really aren't in that bad of shape. She just had a good later of dirt and dry skin built up, which wasn't tough to get rid of at all. She would NOT stand still, though! It was definitely worth it, though. She looks much better than she did even just a few days ago. I washed and conditioned her tail THOROUGHLY for the first time in a while, and I have to tell you that a brushed out tail is much, MUCH easier to get completely clean than a tangled one. In the past, I've always tried to get her tail detangled after washing it, and I wasn't nearly as successful as I was today. After her bath, I trimmed her mane so it was even(which was completely rubbed out except for a few chunks that were still a "year long") and cut a bridle path. I have to say, Andie looks pretty dang cute with a mohawk. This is the second summer she's had one, due to her allergies to flies. I might start calling her Sarge now. Haha. I also evened out the stubble on her tail so it doesn't look so dang aweful.
After her tail dried for the most part, I french braided it where it was long enough to braid towards the end of her dock all the way down and trimmed the ends so her tail is straight on the bottom. Since I had the hose in the paddock already, I decided to wash a couple brushes I found buried in some loose hay in the pony cart along with a hot pink lead that Andie got muddy during her bath.
Earlier I mentioned that Andie had a wound, so now I'll explain that. Sometime during July (I forget when exactly), Andie and BJ escaped and went on an adventure down the road one evening while my parents and I were out for dinner. We got a call shortly after we got home from one of our neighbors, saying our horses were out. Dad and I jumped in the car and drove down the road and found Andie and Beej being held by an older couple. After thanking them and chatting a little about the situation, my dad took both horses and had me drive the car behind with the flashers on so they could see where they were walking, and so anyone driving could also see them. It was then that I noticed Andie had a horrible gash on her left hind leg and a few other minor scrapes on two of her other legs. Luckily I had bought a few rolls of vet wrap because Andie had been limping and I suspected she might have had an abcess (we had the vet out and it turned out that her feet were just a little too flat and she was uncomfortable because of it) and figured it might be good to have some vet wrap just in case I needed to wrap her foot. So I treated it as best I could in the dark and put some polo wraps on over the vet wrap to make sure it stayed secure and she didn't bump her injuries around too much.
Andie's wound, July 8, 2008
I called the vet the next day, and he wasn't available for at least a week. We could have spent a few hundred dollars for an emergency farm call (which wouldn't include any kind of treatment), but I decided that I'd take my changes and see if we could get her healed up on our own. I'm glad we didn't have the vet out, because several experienced horse people have told me that due to the location of the wound, it probably wouldn't have been able to be sutured, or the stitches would/could have been ripped out. It developed some proud flesh, but we were able to get it completely removed with some special wound spray. Every day I clean the wound and spray it with cleaner and healer spray, place a non-stick gauze pad over the wound (also known as "Telfa"), and wrap it securely with vet wrap (I like the cool colors :D). So the garbage from changing the dressing (I use gloves also because it tends to get messy and I don't really appreciate fragrant bluuud and guts on my fingers) had been accumulating also, which I was keeping in a bucket. I finally got around to emptying it today.
So that concludes my
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