Horse owners know specific little flashes of pleasure when they accomplish the following before a spell of wet weather:

1) the farrier comes and all the horses are trimmed (and shod, if they're shod, but at least trimmed.)
2) the vet comes and all vet work needed in the near future on all the horses is done
3) the barn is full of good, non-moldy hay ( Read more... )

There's a new snippet up at the Paksworld blog.

I mean to put one up on my birthday in each of the blogs but things got busy and I missed one.

The plumber's here now and has just pointed out that the fumes from the gas hot water heater weren't going out the vent to the roof because the pipe was disarticulated (that was R's term; the plumber said " ( Read more... )

Something is going on with those two, and I'm not sure just what it is.  Up through Friday, it seemed like it was just that Mac was being less submissive to Illusion, but Illusion was still Boss.  Mac was walking and trotting sound (seen doing so on Friday afternoon.)

Yesterday it rained all day off and on, and they were confined in the barn and ( Read more... )

Mac started walking sound almost as soon as he got his "booties" on with the extra-soft inserts.  He was supposed to be in confinement for a month, with the booties on, and as time passed and the weather cooled, he became more active and less cooperative--he's a Quarter Horse, but he's a QH with racing TB bloodlines as well (Three Bars, Depth ( Read more... )

Mac is now wearing his booties...or, to be more formal about it, his "Soft-Ride Equine Comfort Boots."

The hardest part about the change-out was getting the adhesive bandages off his hooves.  The foam pads the vet used had been flattened and had very little cushion left, though I suppose the amount of bandaging crossing the bottom of the foot ( Read more... )

This morning I went out and Mac had deftly removed the bandages and the foam pad on his left front.  Since the left front is also sore, this meant he spent part of the night with more weight on his right fore, the worse one, and of course this made him stiff.  And sore.  More sore.

We found the discarded pad and its wrappings,  I brought out all my ( Read more... )

Of most interest to horse people, probably.  First, the first shot I got when he stopped trotting--full weight on the right fore, the worse front leg (note bandages have loose ends.)


( Read more... )

Mac got home a little over an hour ago.   He was energetic, clearly happy and excited to be home, even (idiot horse) trotted around his pen.  He wanted Illusion to come say hello, but Illusion took his own sweet time about coming into the barn, which gave me time to go in and get the camera.    "Hey--it's me--remember?"


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I got to the clinic just as the vet called my cellphone (would've been there five minutes before without some delays on the road...)   He had just gotten the X-rays developed, so the timing was about perfect.

And the good news is--no rotation on the near fore and such minimal rotation on the off fore that he thinks the coffin bone and laminae are ( Read more... )

Mac is on his way to the equine clinic for X-rays and whatever other diagnostic tests they feel necessary after looking at the X-rays.

I will be headed up there shortly.

It's a foggy morning and there's road construction on one road, and heavy school bus traffic on the other...I'm going to wait until school's started before taking off, as I also ( Read more... )