Closing Out 2009 (Week 12-13)

Despite a lot of holiday craziness (and my fiance being in and out of the doctor's office), I love making time to visit Badger. :) There's something nicely Zen about being out in the quiet of the ranch, even if it feels like the majority of my time there is spent shoveling stalls.

Saturday (post-Christmas) I bolted from the house to go work with him, and that was the first day I experienced giving him his bute myself since he was a bit creaky from the cold. I also had gotten a pretty green halter with brass on sale ($10, I think it was only marked down because one of the grommets was missing, and it's not on a hole that I would have put the buckle on anyhow), so now his halter and lead rope match! Not that he cares, I'm sure...the old blue one, already worn in, is softer. Maybe I can smash it around some more to break it in better.

Tuesday was supposed to be my next visiting day, but that didn't happen. And then Wednesday similarly failed to launch. After two days of planning and then failing to actually go to the ranch, I was determined to make it one more time before the new year rolled around. I think Badger notices when I'm gone longer than the norm, now. Or maybe he just gets bored! When I got there today, it was a surprise to see that Badger (who normally isn't very demonstrative when I arrive, I think maybe because me showing up = work) spotted me and leaned over to nudge the gate with his lip before I'd raised my hand to open the latch. Between the warmer weather and my lateness, he seemed more than ready to get out and stretch his legs...no need for bute today!

For a change, instead of grooming him before turnout, I only removed his blanket and took him directly to the open area...since it had rained a little he was completely caked with dirt anyhow, so knowing he always rolls immediately after taking off the halter I figured that could wait and I could groom him afterwards and get some NICE pictures. Just as expected, he flopped in the dirt so fast I couldn't even get the camera out, but I did finally catch him running on video! (A very nice New Year's present to me.)



Today was definitely a much more energetic day than the Christmas visit had been. It was also oddly hot...no jacket required.

New pics for this update:

Sadly the best side photo I got from today, he's making a face. XD Oh well.

If I'm counting right, this Saturday marks the end of his 13th week at Bit-O-Heaven. :) It's hard to believe that he's only been "my horse" since Sunday, October 4th. I feel like he's made so much progress in such a short amount of time (and other people can see it too), it's impossible NOT to want to keep helping him progress even more.

Best wishes for the new year to everyone out there. :)

Week #11 - the farrier comes

Today seemed to be a somewhat better day as far as the weather...it was pretty warm, and the pens were a little more dry than before. Some horses are still having to be shuffled around because of the flooding, though.

Today was Badger's first visit with the farrier, which was definitely a different event for both him and me! It's good that he was well-behaved as always, and aside from a bit of awkwardness with his hind right leg (he likes holding that one up REALLY HIGH, for some reason) everything went nicely. I really liked his handling of the horses, and he was very nice to let me observe and ask some questions. After all, this was my first time having my horse be trimmed too!

Badger's feet sure look nice now that the front toes aren't so long and squared off, and the backs are angled better. I'm hoping with a few more trims he'll be great! I mean, he's pretty peppy as it is, but it's nice that his feet will finally be getting the regular care they should have been getting. Also, who knew his hooves were actually light-colored? Once the wet season is over I'm going to try actually washing them down and scrubbing them off so I can see what they really look like. It's a bit pointless to do it right now, though, with all the mud piles everywhere.

More photos from today:

Right after his feet were trimmed, I put Badger in the round pen. (We'd gone over to the turnout, but it's still pretty flooded, so no-go.) I wish we'd had a bigger area, as he was pretty perky in there:



Overall a good day. :) Now if things would dry up a little...

Weeks #9-10

Well, I'm incredibly behind on posting! Gah. What's really important, though, is Badger. :) I really enjoy going out to the ranch just so spend time with him, although a big majority of the time out there now is prying shovelfuls of goopy, matted gunk off the ground. Thanks, rainy season. =_=

Thursday I put him in the round pen for the first time...more on this later.

Sunday was my first "owner's meeting" where Tracy basically goes over the rules, any updates we need to know, etc. I also got to meet some of the other owners whom I hadn't met before! ...I'm still having trouble with it all though, and I'm sure they're still going to be "Tio's owner" or "The girl who owns Rocky" for quite a while. Arrgh. I'm awful with names...but I already know I'm very visual, so I guess I should get used to it. At least it helps me figure out which horse is which.

Sunday was also the day after what was apparently a torrential downpour. I don't know what it is about California and rain, but really, it seems like even the ground has no idea what to do with water when it shows up. Two full wheelbarrows of stinky pudding-like muck later, I had to give up...I'm not a lightweight but I could barely get enough leverage to push them out of the stall, through the mud, and around to the back to dump them out. My boots nearly suction-cupped themselves off my feet.

It was so muddy, in fact, that Badger was covered head-to-hoof in dried mud, and the only reason any of his body was clean was because of the blanket he was wearing. Needless to say, the *blanket* was so covered in mud it didn't look plaid anymore. He was lucky though, as several of the other horses' stalls were completely waterlogged, without a dry spot to stand in. When I arrived that day it was a bit of a visual surprise.

It's amusing yet disconcerting that Badger's preferred method of walking with me is with his nose almost directly in the small of my back, as if I must lead the way. Still, watching some of the others work with their horses, he's got both a sharpness and manners that some lack. He doesn't need a raised voice to stop from even a brisk trot. Most of the time I don't have to touch him or the halter to get him to back up a step or two. It made me laugh aloud when I put him in his stall and took his bridle off at the end of the day...even after I took it off, he was leaning over and poking the gate with his lip, as if he wanted to be out longer.

Sunday was, for obvious reasons, not a photo op day...so here are photos from last week instead.

  

I've started taking photos of his back from the mounting block too, mostly since I'm happy to see his spine bumps disappearing. Standing on the ground, I totally forgot about the white dot on his butt since...well, 16 hands is a couple inches taller than I am. :p

The Three Blankets (Weeks #7-8)

Before I left for my trip, I decided to visit Badger one more time, and take his blanket with me as well. Now that the weather was finally (abruptly?) getting colder, Tracy suggested it was about time for the winter wear to come out of storage for the rest of the horses too. So, off to the ranch, miscellaneous straps and D-rings in tow. Still never quite figured out where all of those things connected.

After the usual day of care and fussing, I took out Badger's blanket, unfurled it, and draped it over his back. He seemed fine, but somehow, something didn't...look quite right.

I stepped back and burst out laughing. The blanket didn't even come close to covering his rear end. There was no way the straps would buckle around the front of his neck and chest. ...What the heck?! My brain raced. Did we somehow end up with the wrong blanket when we picked Badger up? (Couldn't be, he was the only horse there...that was the only blanket there...) Had I shrunk it when I washed it? (But the drier wasn't on a high temp, and it didn't have the irregular rippling I would have expected since the straps are a different material from the blanket itself...) Had someone else somehow shrunk it? Was it just the wrong size from a long time ago?

There was nothing to be done...so off it came, and on went a big, rather dusty blanket from the ranch's few extras. If anything it seemed a little oversized, as the neck opening kept sliding down around Badger's withers. Still, he seemed happy enough with it all, so I left him with that one (the peculiarly undersized one left to warm another smaller horse at the ranch) and headed off to my plane ride across the Pacific.

When I got back, the recent trade I'd set up had gone great. I'd arranged to trade one of my Breyer model horses with a gal in Ohio for a classy blanket and a nice new lead rope. Keeping my fingers crossed that I'd measured correctly, I took the new blanket out to the ranch as soon as I'd gotten home.

As most things have been turning out with Badger, it was just the right piece of equipment at the right time. The new blanket not only fits him to a T, but it also matches the blue of his halter quite nicely. The new lead rope is great too, a dark green cotton which was exactly what I'd been thinking of buying since the original red one was strangely unbendable, and made it quite hard to tie a good knot. Badger had been starting to figure out that if he jerked his head around, the red rope would start to come loose...so thankfully this one has put a stop to that.

I'm very grateful to Ann in Ohio for agreeing to the trade, since not only did it get Badger a blanket that fits (as well as making him look quite handsome), but this also ensures that other horses at the ranch can use the blankets that will better fit them. Sure, California doesn't get *quite* as cold as the great white North, but Bakersfield has been known to get down into the freezing temps, and since a lot of the horses are in their 20s, it's a nice thing in the middle of winter to have a snuggly blanket. :)

So without further ado:

...Too small!

...Too big!

Ahhh...juuuust right. ^_^