Yesterday, my dear ol dad dropped me off at Sunnybrook. Lisa and Troy were there working on the trailer, so I helped a bit. We're having so much trouble with the light system on the trailer - we have a camper/trailer so lights are super important when we're on the road. As of last night, the brake and turn signal lights were working, and the strip lights on the left side of the trailer were working. The lights on the wheel well bumpers were working, too... but the strip lights on the right side of the trailer refuse to work. We even have one of our four turn signal lights about to go out and stop working. So I believe Troy is going to purchase some new lights and wiring today and attempt to get everything up and running. Don't worry, it'll get done - Troy is known as 'Super Troy' and he can do anything. ;)
So, after Lisa enthusiastically showed me her latest Rural King purchase, - involving jumping up and down and squealing - we tried out the new water bucket hangers for outside of the trailer. They work perfectly! Yay!
Next, it was time for me to lunge Missy girl. I went and got Missy and took her inside. I brushed her and examined her hooves and legs for any injury. I put some medicine on a puncture wound on her knee (ran into a piece of bad fencing or wire?) and made sure she still had all four shoes on. I checked her ears for anything that could be stuck in there (I'm very anal about things in horse's ears, especially in the winter when they have fuzz in their ears as well *shudder*). She passed all of my tests, so I did a few stretches with her back legs to loosen her up a little bit. Missy has mild arthritis in one of her legs, but she works out of it and I just wanted to loosen her up to help her along with that.
I grabbed some treats, stuck them in my pocket, and then headed out. On our way to the field, I grabbed a lunge line and lunge whip from the back of the trailer. Right now, most of our every day equipment is in the trailer for the show tomorrow (!!!!!!!!!!!).
When we got into the field, I let Missy graze a little while I untangled the lunge line. As soon as that was done, I gave her a little line and had her do a small circle around me. She walked and trotted like this a bit and I was quite pleased with the results - she was bending and watching herself, with her head lowered and licking her lips. Then, I experimented on having her canter on a bigger and smaller circle. I found that the bigger the circle, the faster she wanted to go. Also, the bigger the circle, the lazier she was at the walk and trot. On a small circle, I could get Missy to walk with 'purpose', or 'march'. On a large circle, she was lazy; she dragged her feet, paid almost no attention to my lunge whip, and didn't give a crap about my body language or verbal cues.
Anyways, it was a pretty nice day; we ended our lunge session on the good note of a nice, positive walk and a good, slow canter. I gave her two treats and let her go. Once I'd returned the whip and lunge line to the back of the trailer, I went out to visit Lucy. While I was petting her and telling her what a beautiful pony she is, I noticed that their 300 gal water tank is almost empty. So I dragged the hose from Missy's tank to Grinder, Lucy, and Misty's tank (Grinder, Misty, and Lucy are in the front lot, and Missy is in the lot away from the road out front).
The farrier was out yesterday, and gave Lucy a trim. She doesn't look much different; but Lisa and Asia have concocted a marvelous plan. See, Freebie is headed off to training for the track soon, and Outlaw is going to training to be a pony horse, so K.D. will be all by herself in her pasture, which is much closer to the barn than Lucy's current pasture. So, we're going to keep Lucy with K.D. in K.D.'s pasture for the winter, so that Lisa can bring Lucy in for a foot trim or file whenever she needs it. I think this is just the plan we need to get Lucy literally back on her feet and able to trot and canter again. I haven't seen Lucy trot once since the day I found out she was dead lame. =( But there's hope! And that's what counts.
I went back into the barn and turned on the water, and then dragged a wheel barrow and pitchfork out to the trailer and cleaned out all the old poop in there. I even got brave and knocked down a wasp's nest... Which was either dead or abandoned. Ah, so much for having a victory over my chronic fear of things that sting. No, I'm not allergic - but a couple years ago, yellow jackets attacked me and stung me all over my face, and two got me on the same spot at the same time on my nose. It hurt! And now I have a really bad fear. But, I'm working through it. ;)
It was getting dark, and Troy said he was ready to leave. So, we had to get the feed together. OH EM GEE, you should see this awesome little mover thinggy that Uncle D bought for us to use for hay and bags of grain. It makes things so much more convenient! We loaded 7 bags of grain and one bag of chicken feed onto it and wheeled it from Lisa's truck to the chicken coop. While Lisa and Troy were getting the feed situation sorted out, I decided to visit the chickens and close them inside the coop for the night; we've had a phenomenon of dead chickens around here - a total of 12 so far. Uncle D installed a door on the chicken coop so that we can shut the predators out and the chickens in at night. I looked up and saw four chickens staring down at me, and I shreaked, running backwards and running into the nesting boxes, which had a group of two chickens in one box! I was freaked out and tried to open the door of the coop... only to realize it'd latched shut and locked! Troy was the only one there at the point (Lisa went to get hay) and he laughed and reluctantly let me out.
After that little episode of insanity, we got a muck bucket, hay, and grain to put into the trailer for the show tomorrow (!!!!!!!!!!!). We only took 1/3 a bale of hay and 1/2 a bag of grain, but Missy's also got the hay in her hay bag so she'll be fine. We made sure everything was in order and took a bale of hay and 1/2 a bag of grain out to the ponies. The Kids (Lucy, Misty and Grinder) got a scoop of grain each and 2/3 a bale of hay, and the old gal (Missy) got 1/3 a bale and a scoop and a half of grain. She wouldn't get so much feed if we weren't trying to pack her with weight and calories; right now, she's burning calories, and eventually she'll be burning calories she doesn't have when we run barrels. =/
We drove away from the barn, laughing our heads off at the Kids and Missy... It was a lovely day, full of fun and excitement.
Go show your pony some horsey love! <3
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