Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Goin' to a Schoolin' Show

I woke up at 4:30 AM on Saturday. NO ONE should wake up that early on a weekend! I waited in bed until 5:30 before crawling out and quietly closing the bedroom door for my poor Furry Husband who was mumbling – “Wha? Where are you going?”

There was too much to do to lay in bed! New babies to attend to, the runt to check on, Sonata, the new mama to look after, a horse show that I hadn’t cleaned my tack for and my mare, Sera, still needed the rest of her mane pulled! Besides, I stopped Friday on my way home to get a truck load of sand for our old horse, Brandon. He has Cushing’s Disease, high ringbone and low ringbone and the sand will give him a soft place to stand and lie down when his joints and feet hurt. The horses have been pulled in from the pasture and are locked in their pens so the grass in the pasture can grow. Their pens are hard packed clay soil and it’s probably a lot like standing all day on a hard, tile floor.

Anyway, I can’t hook up our goose-neck trailer to the truck when there is a load of sand in the bed. We need to unload it.

Also, it’s a nice day and we can’t keep the goat kids in their stock tanks forever, they need to build their strength by moving around, running and playing. Legal Mumbo Jumbo aka Mario, our buck, is currently living in the baby pen because he hurt himself. He has small horn scurs – little partial horns that returned after he was disbudded as a kid (more on that later).


This picture is from Fiasco farm and it shows a horn scur - a partial horn growth

Well the little fella hooked his scur on a fence post and pulled back – POP! Ripped the scur ¾ of the way off and it’s being held on be the skin in front. Now it stands upright vs. laying flat against his head and it is very painful! He is (or was) covered in blood. Horns have a blood supply so if damage occurs, it’s usually extremely bloody tho’ not necessarily serious. Think about how if you get a cut on your scalp – lots of blood but usually not life threatening.

Well Mario is used to sticking his head through the fence to visit with the ladies as well as eating from his hanging feeder. Now that his scur is partially ripped and is so painful, he might stick his head through the fence and not be able to pull it back out because it hurts too much. I don’t want him stuck in the fence, afraid to pull his head back through, stressed, with no food or water so we moved him to the baby pen where the fence squares are too small for any goat to fit their head or body through. I called our goat vet and she thinks the horn will break off on it’s own vs. her coming out to remove the rest of it.

We have this other pen – a chain link dog kennel that we used for our chickens. Since we don’t have chickens any more, we could put the kids in there but it needs to be cleared out a little first. AND I forgot that I need to clean my trainer’s horse barn before the day is over!

Do you see what I mean? I just could NOT linger in bed past 5:30 AM!

Furry Husband couldn’t sleep with me scurrying around the house so he got up shortly after I did and we started in on our To Do List. We actually got most everything taken care of in time for me to load Sera in the trailer and head down the road.

Babies playing in their new pen - they love climbing on anything and everything which is why we have a cinder block platform for them to tackle.
GULP! I forgot that I haven’t been further than a couple miles for a year and now I’m on the INTERSTATE with a truck and trailer ---- ALONE! I stayed in the right hand lane and arrived at Bey Breeze Farm without incident. Both Sera and I were completely relieved. I unloaded her, groomed her, finished pulling her mane, tacked her up, changed into my show clothes and had 30 minutes to warm her up before my first ride.

Many of Rex’s students and fellow barn cleaners were down at the warm-up and show rings so it was a very relaxing and fun time! The weather was nice – 50’s with sunshine. You couldn’t have asked for a better day! Sera seemed relaxed and comfortable in her warm-up and she continued to be confident and relaxed in her Dressage tests. We really enjoyed ourselves and I know we did well. We weren’t perfect – who is? However, we got out, did our best and were both very happy. Furry Husband even stopped by to catch my first ride. He had to get to a wine tasting in Berthoud so he couldn’t stay for the second ride. It was a great surprise to see my Schweetie Pateetie standing on the sidelines cheering me one. I am one lucky girl!

We won both classes with a 68% for First Level Test 1 and a 69% for First Level Test 3. NICE Dressage scores. I brought home two blue ribbons and two coffee mugs filled with chocolates! Our year off to train and ride in clinics for improvement really paid off. The work wasn’t a struggle and we were both confident in our effort. It was a wonderful day and I have a wonderful mare. I love my beautiful mare, Sera!

Sera and I headed home. I turned her out and began evening chores. Furry Husband got home soon after and we were both starving! We made plans to run into town for a hamburger at Beauregards in Wellington when I remembered I still had stalls to clean for Rexanne! My WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL Furry Husband said he’d help me knock it out after dinner. We were both home and in bed by 10:30. What a busy but fun day - I slept like a rock!

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