Good Scout

I can't say much - bad headache. But I saddled scout with the thin new saddle blanket and it solved the saddle rolling problem I had last time. He's pretty handsome.

I didn't ride long because he's got a great big splint bone lump on his right front. Darn it.

Today I went to the WSU Vet School Spring Conference and it was fun and informative but I have a pretty nasty migraine now. :(  I got to be one of the first group of vet techs ever to train on the surgical simulator there. I didn't think you could learn much without a real animal to observe, but with all the extra monitors they have you barely need to see the animal and I actually learned a lot. I also got to sit in on some equine stuff.  Wish they had more to offer & I could have chosen equine over small animal, but I was there as a small animal tech and my boss was footing the bill, so I stuck with small animal for the most part.

Oh yeah, yesterday was the one year anniversary of our accident. Meh.

New Digs

Evening Escape

From my armchair in the living room I have a view of the black walnut trees behind the house, on up to the pasture on the hill. During the springtime I enjoy watching my horses graze there periodically, silhouetted against the sky.

Yesterday as I was eating dinner I was casually interested in watching Duncan act very concerned about something farther up the hill. Juniper wasn't worried, she was just trying to ignore him and graze, so I wasn't going to go look. But he really wanted to get Juniper involved in his worry, and he kept herding her toward the fence and not giving her much option about where to go. This is one strand of electric tape about waist height on me. So she finally got fed up and ducked under.

This is where she found out that the grass isn't really greener on the other side, but it is much longer. She wasn't hard to approach, in fact she seemed happy to have company in unknown territory, but when I reached around to put the halter on she said, "Nope." She's pretty quick on her feet!

And this is where we both learned that donkeys can learn pretty quickly to "hook on" just like horses do, even without a round pen, with the same sort of "round pen" work against the curve of a fence. Donkey caught, friendliness ensued, grazing allowed, then back to where she belonged.

Where I discovered that Duncan was having a very bad hair day:

Let's pretend

Can we just pretend farrier day never happened? And can we just not talk about how I got the truck stuck in the mud with the trailer attached and it stayed there for like 2 weeks? And just move on? Oh, and let's also forget about the dead mouse in my car's heating system and the other minor repairs it needs. And the disgusting weather, my health issues, and allergy season starting. What else? Everything else. ALL the things that are making me cranky.

Let's move on to sunshine and happiness and dry land. And more hoof handling training for my bad donkey. *Deep breath*

We Have Test Results

Juniper's pregnancy test results are back and they look pretty conclusive.

We're going to have a baby! 

I was surprised at how disappointed I was to get positive results. I'm going to worry about both of them until that baby is solidly established in this world and they're both healthy and well.

The baby daddy was a jack, supposedly a mammoth, who I believe must have been dark brown or black. All of his babies that I saw were dark, but then all of the mamas were dark too. He was gelded after he got loose with all the girls too many times and unfortunately the vet didn't know that donkeys can't be gelded exactly like horses so he died afterward.

All of my foaling knowledge is 9 years old with Scout and mostly forgotten.  So it's time to start studying again. I ordered a couple books last night and I've got a video lined up to watch, another book to read, and I'm sure I'll be thoroughly terrified by the time I'm done with it all. Of course you hear about all the bad outcomes and not so much about the good. Most babies come into the world with no problems at all.

I wonder if I can build a temporary foaling stall right outside my bedroom window. :)

I have other big news too! Juniper lost her first baby tooth!

She's now officially 2 1/2 years old. I've decided her birthday is October 1st. 

A Very Merry Unbirthday to Her!

(She is always too close for a good picture)

Palouse Falls

Just Stuff

Juniper lost a bunch of hair around her pasterns and the other horses got a bit pink above their heel bulbs, so I treated them all like they have scratches and moved Juniper and Duncan to higher ground. They had some seriously gross mud to go through to get to their barn and water, so now they're on the hill where it's mostly dry.

There was some fancy prancing and a bit of snarkiness over the fence at first.

And now my photos are out of order. Last night everyone got groomed and we all practiced our manners for the farrier, who is coming next weekend (thank goodness).

In the morning I took the worst picture ever of Duncan:

Juniper had just kicked him and he was yawning in a pain response. In all fairness, he started it by biting her and trying to move her. She's the boss of their little herd and she nailed him pretty good. They usually get along really well, but he overstepped his bounds. She didn't feel any remorse at all.

We tried to hike to a grove of huge cedar trees yesterday. It started out pretty nice, just muddy.

The blizzard conditions later caused one of us to want to turn back. And secretly, I didn't mind too much. We'll go when it's nicer.