Brain Surgery

Today was the fateful life changing day for the boys.  This morning was their, ahem, little surgery.  Since getting them gelded makes such a difference in their attitude, it can often be called brain surgery.   Neither of these colts was behaving poorly.  Life is so much easier though if we don’t have to deal with testosterone induced garbage.  Besides, while these are both nice horses, neither is stallion quality.  And, frankly, one stud colt around here is enough.  That said, even Jr’s nuts are on the line.  I just can’t get the guy to agree to it.

Before… this is at the vet’s.  There is a small round corral set up with nice soft dirt.

Also before.  Now to me the bay colt seems a lot bigger.  He’s heavier boned, heavier muscled and taller.  His weight was estimated to be about 750 pounds.  Slick was a smidge over 700 pounds.  They seem big for their age, yet still small.  Considering that they should both weigh about 1,100 pounds when they’re full grown.  Both of them have just gotten past, and will probably shortly return to, an awkward growthy stage.  So, even though they are dirty and really need brushed, I’m not embarrassed to show what they look like.

I did not take pictures during or after their procedure.  First off, those of you who have seen it, probably don’t care to look at it again.  Those of you who haven’t seen it, well you’re probably better off that way.

So what goes with getting castrated?  Getting teeth pulled!  Usually when they are down already for the gelding process the vet will check if they have wolf teeth.  Both the boys did, so they got those extracted too.  The poor things, they both got up with a look of “Hey, hey did you get the number of that bus that just ran me over.”  Both of them seem to be just fine.  A tad sore, but they’ll live.

Now I have two yearling geldings.  Instead of two yearling colts.  Life is better.

Background… wolf teeth are small, potentially sharpish teeth that have no real purpose for the horse.  The sharpishness is typically seen in the roots of these teeth.  Their incisors tear grass while their premolars and molars grind everything up.  The wolf teeth lay right up against the upper pre-molars.  (Usually.)  They really aren’t a problem, except when we start riding.  Some horses will take issue if the bit sets up against those wolf teeth, which can lead to all sorts of misbehaviors.  It doesn’t seem to matter whether someone mishandles the bridle or not when wolf teeth are present.  The smaller ones in particular (different horses will have different size of wolf teeth) seem to be more bothersome.  Those smaller ones seem to have the sharper roots, almost like having a splinter in your gums.

Enough about castrations and tooth extractions.

To leave you all with happy thoughts, here are some pictures of the yearlings crashed out on the remnants of their round bale a few days ago.

Oh and you guys all need to thank me for refraining from bad jokes and puns re: Wednesday/Hump Day and these colts getting gelded.  You’re welcome.

Beware the Ides of March…

I have to know if anyone else has had a less than fantastic day.  Is it because it’s the Ides of March?  Is it because Mercury is going Retrograde?  Is it because I just have to have at least one weird/off day once in a while?  Is it because it’s a Thursday, which like Arthur Dent I struggle to get the hang of?

A year ago to the date the bay colt was born.  His was a rough delivery and I was very relieved when he stood and four hours later finally nursed.  Meanwhile, his momma retained her placenta then developed an infection that took serious veterinary care to get under control.  (Read: major drain on pocket book.)

So, today is his official First Birthday.  Happy Birthday little bay boy!  Actually, he is almost as big as Sierra right now.

This morning I went out to get Sierra and saw a yellow nose peeking out of the fence on the pasture next to hers.

In the back is Ka'ala (the bay boy's momma), then the filly, Ginger and Cricket.

Ok.  The filly got through the fence between her pasture and the big girl’s pasture.  Without a mark on her.  Thankfully.  While she seemed just fine with being in there with the big girls, she didn’t argue about getting out of there.  When she had gotten in with Ki and Shilo, she seemed to hold her own, this didn’t look any different.  I suspect in a year or two she will be the Queen ‘B’ out in the field.

Obviously, there has been an issue with the fence for the pen where the yearlings are supposed to be.  Sunday the boys started walking through it.  Really, it was just the bay colt.  Slick was behaving himself.  I no sooner put the bay colt back into his correct pasture than he was back in with the big girls.  So, I moved both colts into a smaller pen that I knew was carrying a charge.  I left the filly where she was figuring she wouldn’t test the fence.  And I was right, for a few days.  Now, she is in the small pen with the boys.  Tomorrow we get to restring all the wire for their pasture.  Hopefully that will fix wherever it is shorting out at.

This morning I took Sierra to see a chiropractor.  What I have been doing for her doesn’t seem to be addressing her issue at the lope, so I needed another opinion.  He couldn’t find anything really out of place with her.  She was tight in her back, again.  His suggestion is to have the vets look at her if she gets sore again.  That appointment will be the 26th.

When I got back with her, about 10:30, I noticed Dixie was laying down.  Dixie is the momma to Slick, Kanak, Ki and Shilo.  All the other mares she hangs with were still eating.  Not a good thing.  I had noticed she was laying down when I pulled the filly out of their pasture and hadn’t thought a whole lot of it.  The mares will snooze in the mornings some days.  But, ignoring food in favor of laying down is a bad thing.

So I did a really bad job parking the trailer.  Went in the house and drew up a dose of Banamine.  Walked out and caught her, tapped a vein and got the drugs in.  Then I put her in the one and only stall on this place.  She was dehydrated at first, she seems to have drank enough water to come through that now.  She’s still in the stall tonight.  She seems to be comfortable, but has only pooped once since I put her in there.  She does have some gut noises.  I gave her a little bit of hay.  I have no idea why she was dehydrated.  The other mares all seem fine.  They had plenty of water.  It would really help if she could talk and tell me all about her belly ache.

To top off the whole day, the guy said this morning he had an earache.  Tonight he asked me to look at it, to see if there was a bite or something.  He has one angry red swollen ear.  No bite that I can see, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.  We both agree that the best course of action is to just cut the thing off.  Maybe not…

Also, it’s rainy and windy here.

Grass and pot. I don’t see them as interchangeable words.

Let me start by saying that someone had a bad day today.  Not me, the guy who’s house I live at.  He needed to change out a fuel filter on his truck.  It’s a fancy truck that tells you when it wants it’s diapers changed, or something.  Big baby.

I had left in the morning to go do body work (on peoples).  When I got back I noticed the truck was gone.  I figured he had got the new filter on and taken it for a test run to be sure it was working right.  If that isn’t a normal thing to do after replacing a filter, don’t yell at me.  I am not mechanically inclined.  I’m really proud of myself when I figure out where to check the oil in any vehicle.

So as I’m getting out of the car to go inside I’m hearing an alarm go off.  It’s really quiet out here.  Quiet enough you can here the flapping of wings long before the bird flies overhead.  At first I think an alarm is going off somewhere away from here and the sound just is carrying.  Then I start walking to the house and notice it gets louder, as I walk around to the back door it fades a bit, then gets really loud as I go to open the door.

Meanwhile as I’m walking to the back of the house, I can smell smoke.  Yes smoke.  Yesterday there was some trash burned in the burn barrel, I’m hoping I’m just catching lingering smells of that.  No such luck.  As I open the back door smoke is coming out of the house.

Let me back up and tell you that a few steps before I opened the door I decided I’m pretty sure the smoke alarm is going off.  I racked my brains to figure out what could be causing said smoke.  There is not normally anything that should be causing this.

Now, I realize that opening the door when the indications of a fire were pretty high was more than a bit stupid of me.  I was checking around for obvious signs of a blaze.  I didn’t see any flames licking up from the roof.  No heat was coming at me from behind the door.

So I open it and go in.  Smoke and all.  As I am looking around I see my good pot on the stove with the flame (gas stove) under it, apparently on high.  Smoke is billowing out from under the lid.  Apparently he had started to reheat some leftover ham and beans, but got distracted.  He had called a friend to help with the filter change and gone over to his place.  Something about wrenches not being the right size to deal with the filter.  (I learned that piece a little later on.)

Meanwhile, I’m going through the house opening all the windows and leaving the doors wide open.  There are two cats that hang out here (there is a third, but he’s shy).  They are not indoor cats though.  These are barn cats.  Except one is convinced she needs to be a house cat.  Please, thank you, why don’t you have a litter box in here?  She was very happy to get to wander through the house without getting tossed out on her kiester.

The smoke alarm continued to go off and I had to step outside after opening each window because the smoke is so thick.  Once the house is all opened up with a few fans going I just hang outside with the cats and my dog.  Luckily, it’s a nice day.  Sunny, mid-40s, no wind.  After a while I go back in and get the pot off the stove.  Once outside I took the lid off.  Charred almost beyond recognition is the ham.  The beans are still pretty clearly bean shaped.  It really looks like charcoal though.  Used bean charcoal.

I decided to give him a call.  “Where’re ya, whatcha doin’?”  He replied that he was at a friends working on the truck.  (This is when I learned of the wrenches not being the right size or whatever.)  They got the filter changed but now were having a problem with the truck not starting.  Truthfully, I can’t remember what I said next.  I’d like to remember that it was “So, were you trying to burn the house down?”  or  “If you hate me that much just tell me to leave.”  or  “Have you lost your freaking mind!!!!”  Instead I think I just calmly informed him that he forgot to turn the stove off and now the house was airing out and it was going to stink for a while.  And I need to get a new pot for making soups and stews.

Which brings me to the (for me) funniest part of my day.  Mostly because I hadn’t ever though about the name of where I live in this way.  I live in a community called Grass Valley.  I volunteered to build a web site to help with answering questions for new members of the community as well as help keep all of us informed of what’s happening.  In starting my research today, I ran a quick domain name search for grassvalley.  It turns out the domain I think would work is available as are a few suitable alternatives.  Then I scrolled down and saw some Premium Domains available, they included medical-marijuana.org.  What?  Huh?  What has that got to do wit… oohhhhhhhh.  I had forgotten the grass/pot/marijuana connection.  Even though I used to be married to a pot head, it was never my thing.  I (obviously) didn’t adopt the culture associated with grass/pot/marijuana.  That and I can still be a tad naive.  Wonder what I’ll get if I google “new pot”?

Anyone else have an eventful day?  Or just another day out west?

Update:  Here’s a picture of what’s not for dinner…