The Busy Season…

Trying to get ready for Christmas and still try to fit in the barn is definitely a challenge when you’re a single parent!

By the end of the day you’re tired and then you have to go out and sit there.  It’s also a fair bit of walking!

Anyway, the weather has been good for us, exceptionally good, which is excellent since I, unfortunately, need new tires but can’t afford them!

Last week my daughter was included in a text message that all night feeders have to clean all the stalls if they’re dirty, that a horse isn’t to be put into a dirty stall.  That she does what she can.  Of course it comes on a Wednesday.

I have a bad back.  I can’t tolerate the constant and unchanging position of cleaning out stalls.  My daughter, from all her falls, has bunged up her shoulder to the point that cleaning stalls is painful too.  It was originally two stalls, now it’s six, IF they haven’t been done ahead of time.

So today, with it being Christmas holidays, we’re going out for 1:00 as my daughter has a make-up lesson to teach.  While she teaches, I’m going to slowly work on the stalls taking breaks to sit down.  When the lesson is done, the two of us can work on the remaining stalls.  We can bring in hay, fill water buckets and then she can ride.   When her ride is over, we’ll feed grain, hopefully starting at 4:30.  Even though it might be a bit early for some people’s liking, I’d like to have the horses in between 5:30-6 and be on the road home.

Can’t have the best of both worlds and I’m not going to sit around to wait for the “right” time for horses to come in.

On the other hand, I really hope that someone has gone down and cleaned out at least four of the stalls already!!

It’s definitely time for my daughter to get a job and start paying the $60/month that we “make” doing chores.  $15/week isn’t much considering this sudden increase in work!

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!  We’ll see you on the other side!

Ah, Mud Fever…

Another joy of owning a horse!!  Moisture gets under the hair, mostly on the legs, it gets trapped in there and it starts to create sores.

Mud Fever is a fungal infection.  It creates these sores that scab over.  The treatment is to pick the scabs off.  Some people just put Zinc cream on to keep any more moisture out but, I being in the medical profession, decided to go one step further–an anti-fungal cream!  Why not?

The other issue is that it should be done at least three times a week–we’re only out at the barn twice a week, so, here, on my extra day off for Thanksgiving (Canadian), I will be heading out to the barn in order to treat our dear, poor, pony who has once again managed to get this horrible infection.

Oh the joys.  I guess it beats having to have a vet out constantly to look after it for which we are grateful.

In a few weeks my little team of two will be showing, at “home”.  It has definitely been quite the challenge since I now work 6 days a week!  I’m trying to rearrange things so I can have that day off but it’s more difficult than it looks apparently!

If you’re looking to own a horse, ask about its history with fungal infections.   As I said, there are far worse things for your horse to have, but this, it’s a pain in the butt for you and a pain in the leg(s) for your horse!