Monday, March 28, 2011

Things are looking up, a sound(er) donkey?!?

Had a good weekend, got a lot accomplished.  Armed with printed xrays, the farrier was out on Saturday and worked his magic.  I am truly impressed in the difference, Daisy now actually seems comfortable and I would rank her as a 2 to a 3 on the lamness scale instead of a 3 to a 4.  Even this morning, without getting bute last night, she was fairly sound and I would rate her a 2.  She even looks like she has "normal" hooves, he was able to shape them to look like hooves instead of the horrors that they were.  Am hoping to get pictures of her feet tonight, was just too busy this weekend to pull out the camera.  I am impressed and hope you would be too.

The App is doing better, the farrier agrees it looks like he pulled a muscle probably in his lumbar area.  We are doing some leg stretches and there is already good improvement in his movement.  When I went out to feed yesterday it was really cold and the App was doing a full body shiver in his stall so I threw his blanket on.  When light walking wasn't stopping his shivering I threw him in the indoor and had him trot around a bit and he looked pretty sound.  I withheld bute this AM and am going to check him tonight to see if he is still off, here's to hoping he can be ridden on Wednesday!

Had a good trail ride on the TWH yesterday.  It was pretty dang cold but I worked on two point and we even cantered a bit to keep warm.  I LOVE the fact I can canter him without fighting like I have to do with the App.  Every time I get frustrated over the fact I can't do what I want thanks to Sinatra's "extra" gaits he reminds me of his awesome qualities and I get determined to find a way to make him work with what I want to do.  Most people would have sold him and gotten something they knew could do what they want, I am taking something and remodeling him to try to do what I want.  It's a good thing he has such a great personality, if he was stubborn like the App I probably would have given up too. 

So on a fun/sad note, there is a tack shop in my area that is closing so the owner can retire.  I am really disappointed because they really helped me make contacts here and there isn't another tack shop in the immediate area.  This tack shop was heavily involved in the community and even held "pro nights" which is where an equine professional of any kind could come and give a presentation to help anyone learn more about them.  Farriers, vets, chiros, hydro-therapy, they've had them all.  Pretty sad they are closing but they have everything 40-50% off so I went to say goodbye and see what they had left on Sunday.  I was able to find a pair of boots that FIT and DH didn't squabble over their price!  They are Mountain Horse with zippers and the calf is big enough that I am pretty sure I won't bust out the zipper.  I am so excited, finding boots that fit my small feet but ginormous calves and even more ginormous instep is virtually impossible so the fact they had a pair (a single pair, in the entire store of over 150 pairs of boots) AND they were 50% off made my day.  Also able to get some bucket hangers, bull snaps, hanging saddle racks and other fun hardware all on sale.  I now have my tack room 95% complete and it is actually organized.  Once I find a spot for my winter blankets I can call my room complete! 


Pics of the donkey to come shortly.  Waiting for April because as soon as April hits it is supposed to get up to 50 degrees again!  Waking up to single digits when the normal low is supposed to be in the 30's sucks.  Come on spring, push winter out of the way!

1 comment:

  1. Ugh yeah I would cry if our weather was still that bad. I hope it warms up for you soon. Dealing with winter in the spring sucks.

    I can't wait to see the new donkey feet! I'm glad she's feeling better. :)

    Glad you had a good ride on Sinatra and that the App is looking better. Sad about the tack sale but yay on the boots and hardware! I love those kind of sales. :)

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