Fly Masks

Natty and Chance have both had goopey, runny eyes recently, so I got them fly masks today. In their usual style, they acted like they’d worn the masks every day of their lives. And velcro? They don’t care about that either. I think they’ll be much happier with these on. And haven’t they learned to pose prettily?

Chance was rubbing his on stuff – Natty, the panels, his leg…

It didn’t stay shiny clean and new for long

Here’s Natty post-bath… good thing I’m bathing for the training and cooling off benefits and not to get a clean horse!

And here’s the video of how she got this way:

Tiny New Friend

Natty and Chance made a new friend. This little pony is visiting for a few days because there is going to be some kind of kids’ camp this week. She’s little enough that her back doesn’t even come up to the big horses’ bellies, but Chance is still the submissive baby. It’s pretty cute to see them all check each other out through the fence.

Here’s a little video of them – not much action, but still kinda sweet.

New Pictures

First a quick update – my offer on the property pictured below was accepted! Next up inspection – cross your fingers it passes!

Got some new pictures of Chancey Chameleon today. First, what do you think of this bump on his leg? It’s not hot, doesn’t really seem to hurt him, he’s not lame, it’s been there for about a week with no change in size. Opinions?

Now on to color-changing sleepy big old baby horse:

I was happily loving on my big girl when I felt a gentle nudge. Turns out it was a big bay butt backing into me demanding more attention! Chance has a habit of slowly and carefully backing up to me and then pushing me if I don’t start to rub on him some more. Spoiled rotten sweet boy! I think he would probably unnerve someone who doesn’t know him and realize he is a lover, not a kicker.

Property Hunting Again

Well, here we go again… how great is this place?

Busy Day

I had the vet and farrier out today, and I always like to give them a run for their money… so today I had them do teeth, sheath, microchip, and feet. We started with Natty’s teeth. She’s 9 years old now, and they had never been done. I got to look inside her mouth before they started and see the sharp points, hooks, and scarring on the inside of her cheeks. Poor girl – now I’m sorry I put this off so long (althouth I really think she needed to get used to being handled before she would have tolerated it so well). She did a wonderful job, and all her teeth were polished right up in short order. The only slight problem we had was that she started to back up as far as she could at the beginning, so they gave her a little of a drug that makes horses move forward for some odd reason. It didn’t make her move forward, but it did stop her from backing up. Good enough to get the job done! She was so good that we got done in no time at all and had 45 minutes before the farrier was expected. We still had Chance’s microchip on the schedule, but that was a 2 second job. She did it soooo much faster than the vet who did my dog’s! I was amazed! So then we still had 45 minutes left… so I asked her to check Chance’s sheath. He had some crud in there, but never having had a gelding before, I didn’t know how much was too much. He did need to be done, so they took care of that as well. He wasn’t horrible, but he was trying to kick despite being drugged. Oh well. Nobody got hurt at least. Last but not least, we got all the hooves trimmed. This is no small task – their feet are really dry and hard like rock right now, so they are difficult to trim under the best of circumstances. Add Natty’s struggles to that, and it’s tough. Bless my farrier for showing up for our appointments! After all that, I left to go look at another property – loved it! Anybody know of any grants to restore historic barns?

Here are today’s pictures – floating teeth ain’t what it used to be!

Putting the speculum in her mouth before lifting her head onto the chin rest, which is on a nice pulley so they can raise and lower it easily:

In this one, she is turning the handle to crank open Natty’s mouth.

Head up and getting right to work.

Inside the big girl’s mouth.

Power tools make quick work of things. I think this one was the “PowerFloat” and had a little paddle-shaped file on the end.

Big girl feels a little funny… but we won’t have to do it again for a really long time, I promise!

Sleepy girl – our sweet vet tech braided her forelock and mane while we were waiting for her to fall asleep.

Little Pipsqueak checking out the table full of supplies to see if he can help with anything. Little does he know, she is getting ready to clean his sheath in this picture…

This one is to show that Chance is getting a buckskin stripe down his cheek now too.

Bath Day

Natty and Chance had their first hose baths today. They did very well. I have tried to hose their legs before and never had much luck, so I tried something new today. I took a bucket of lukewarm water and sponged them off, then I turned the hose on very low pressure and held it in the palm of my hand. I rubbed the horses with my hand with the hose in it, so they just felt the rubbing but were still getting wet. It worked pretty well. Natty sure is a filthy dirty girl after 9 years without a bath! Of course, she rolled in the dirt immediately after, but oh well. At least I think they were a little cooler for the afternoon.

Here are some new pictures:

New video of the big girl rolling after her bath – for some reason, this isn’t showing up. Try the following link at youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/jamiemcneill#play/all/uploads-all/0/IUtjnGSdWto