Past Easter

I know, I'm late, sue me. My kids had a ball this Easter with their presents from Mr. Bunny himself. Although they didn't get much candy, I think the cards and toys made up for it!

Surgical Assistant

I think this is my week. Seriously. In one week, we've had 2 colic scares, and 1 that required stitches. One of the older horses named Bud backed himself into a little itty bitty piece of sheet metal and sliced his back flank open. He cut a swatch about 6 inches long and 2 inches deep. Sliced right through the muscle. Ironically there was hardly any blood at all. It wasn't until the vet shaved the area (he's a hairy guy!) That we actually saw how bad the slice was. It took 5 of us (including the vet) to hold the guy still so she could resew the muscle and sew the flap closed. She did leave a handy, dandy little piece of rubber tubing in though so it could drain properly! *yuck!*

Colic Scare

For those not familiar with the term, colic is a fancy name for stomach ache in horses. And yesterday when I went to go teach my lessons a horse at the barn (her name is Fancy!) was suffering from it. Colic has many symptoms, laziness, droopy eye, gas, not eating, not pooping, bloated belly, and laying down and rolling. If a horse is in so much pain that he rolls or is constantly down on his side, it's not a good thing. Also a horse with colic can turn from 'okay' to 'fatal' in a span of 5 minutes. As I sat there holding the horses head with a rope that was wrapped around my buttocks (to support the weight of the head) I had so many horrible senarios running through my mind. I did not want to tell the 5 year old owner of this horse that her beloved Fancy might die. I also did not want to see the horse die. After 1-1/2 hours and a mouthful of banamine, Fancy finally shook herself up, walked around, and made one more day at the barn a memory.

Peter Campbell Come On Down

This is the second year that I attended the Peter Campbell clinic! I love his clinics so much. He has so much to offer, and he's hilarious! He makes the wittiest comments in that Canadian accent of his and I have to say I can actually see where he's going with his training. I took a few pictures of the past few days (1 more day to go still) to show you a progress of events.

Here's Chris taking a break from all the crazy cow action!

Here's me trying to see how um 'straight' I can make Zena hold her neck. (Bad Picture!)

Here's Guy and his horse Moon. I love that little horse. He was so cute!

Here's a 'between the scenes' shot of the cow action. You see, really far away in the upper left-hand corner is a little brown dog spec. That's actually a cow, and we're suppose to make it run up and down the wall to the right of the picture. That's the theory anyway!!!

A Horse is a Horse.....

My friend Megan came to visit ALL the way from Illinois! What can I say, we went out dancing (um... okay people watching), then we went to the barn, then the barn the next day, then the barn the next day, then yes again the barn, and finally the barn. On Thursday there was rest. Just Kidding, we had to drive to Olympia to drop off my two mares for the clinic that started on Friday. I had a blast, I hope she did to, we had to drive her to the airport Friday night to catch a midnight airplane ride! I can't wait until she comes out again!

Whirlwind weekend

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I spent my time being professionally chauffered (sp) around from Puyallup to Pouslbo, Puyallup to Cle Elum, and then from Puyallup to Darington to Poulsbo and then back home. The goal was to find a horse for my lesson student Nathalie. We looked at about 5 horses, trying to find the best one that would suit their temperment. I saw some very nice ones with good attitudes, nice ones with bad attitudes, bad ones with worse attitudes, and some that were way to young but in horrible condition! :( It was sad. They ended up buying a little filly that was almost 3. She's a darling and looks to be a great horse!!!

And another great note!!! Chris finally passed his kidney stone!!! Whew!

Kidney Stone Part Deux

Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, the dreaded kidney stone is back! At least this affliction is not for me.... it's for my husband. The last stone appeared about 4 years ago and was roughly 2mm in diameter. This time it's like 2mm x 3mm; a little bigger. After a 6 hour scare (he went to the ER while I went to work) he was discharged from the hospital and told that it would pass in 24 to 48 hours. Let's see how he handles it this time!!!

10 horses + 6 inexperienced riders = trouble

Greg took about 7 people on a trail ride yesterday. I watched them leave as I was teaching a lesson at the time and walking my lesson student down the trail. As soon as I got to the barn, a fellow young boarder named Megan showed up and I persuaded her to go on a trail ride with me. Both Megan and I are fairly experienced with horses, having comfortably ridden all gaits in and out of the arena. We loped and trotted until we caught up to the other group. When we found them, 4 of them were heading back. Greg was upset as he knew they weren't ready for this grand adventure. They were all leading their horses, and another woman was holding 2, her horse and her daughters horse. Evidently the horse she was riding stepped on her after it spooked on the ground and gave her a sizeable bruise. While standing there, another woman had her horse take off and shoot up the road with her on it's back. I was commissioned to hold Greg's horse as he raced after her to get her to stop her horse. When they left we continued on up the trail eager to catch up to the other 4 that were still left. They had never trail ridden by themselves. When we did catch up to them, they were walking (leading by hand) the horses down the trail. When they saw us trotting up (on horseback) they quickly mounted back on their horses.

Needless to say, duty kept me watching over the riders all the way back home. Zena was literally foaming from me holding her back from running after we caught up with the other group. In her eagerness to run, on the way back, Megan and I galloped the horses down the trail to let them expend some energy. The ride took 2 hours (normally 1 hour 10 minutes). We found out that 4 of their horses spooked at something or other along the trail, scaring the riders and making the ride not so fun after all. Ahhhh, green riders and their horses, gotta love them.

My new haircut

Well, I had over 12 inches (I think 14!) cut off! So to celebrate I had Brennon take a picture!! I think it brings out my goofy side! haha! :)

Betta Babies

Buttercup and Prince Humperdink had babies!!!! Alright, so the story is a little ahead of itself. A month ago, I bought two bettas; 1 male and 1 female. My husband, ever the old movie buff named them after 'The Princess Bride'. I work from home on Tuesdays, but my co-worker Michelle discovered that they had babies!!! She immediately wisked Buttercup and Prince Humperdink into another coworkers tank and made sure the babies wouldn't be eating material. They are so tiny! I tried to take pictures, but seriously, they are like barely over 1/16" long. I counted 20 before I gave up hope. But, I hear the baby survival rate isn't really that good in home tanks, so well see. Attached are a couple of pictures.