Aching Everywhere...
The main plan for today was to trim PoohBear and Dirk's hooves; they have been in dire need of trimming for sometime now, but various things have continuously conspired against me to prevent the job from being done: Extreme Cold, Having my back go out, and others. Today however, the weather was warm(ish) and my back was feeling a lot better.
I started with PoohBear because his hooves were in the worst condition; I'm ashamed to admit it, but they have never been as bad as this. Whether he was just too sore to put up a struggle, or if he realized I was helping him and making him feel better, he didn't put up a fuss as he so often does. It took about two hours to get his hooves back to normal, though admittedly there were many pauses along the way as one or the other (or both) of us needed a break. Unlike when I trimmed Bonnie's hooves, the difference with PoohBear was immediately noticeable. Instead of shuffling along in obvious hurt, he was prancing and trotting around right away. It's wonderful to see him rebound so quickly.
I had just started trimming Dirk's hooves when I got a call from Barb at the bowling alley. Barb is the person who is (we all hope) buying the bowling alley from us; in the meantime she's "managing" it for us as the bank gets all their paperwork in order. Barb was in a panic because water was coming back into the back of the bowling alley as fast as the sump-pump could pump it out! That's because the town never clears the snow from the back lanes, and there's a low-spot right by the alley. We hadn't had problem the last couple of winters, but today's high temperatures were creating rapid melting and flooding all over town! I told Barb that I was right in the middle of trimming Dirk's hooves and I couldn't come until I was done. I could hear the disbelief in her voice, as well as the panic, so I called her back a minute or so later to let her know that Trixstir and The Kidling were on their way over to help, and I'd join them as quickly as I could.
I finished a rough job on Dirk's fore-hooves, and had to leave it at that for now. They were much better than they were prior, but will still need to be finished properly. His hinds, though overgrown, were not as bad and can wait another day or so. I washed my hands as much as I could to try to get the "horsey aroma" off them, as well as quickly changing my now-dirty sweater for a clean shirt. When I got to the bowling alley, they had already managed to chip a small channel through the ice to help drain the water away. I took the heavy iron pike from Trixstir and did what I could to chip away at the ice to broaden the channel. We eventually got it flowing freely enough that we felt it was safe to call it an evening. I apologized to Barb for my seeming indifference to her plight at the time, and she understood how I couldn't just leave in the middle of the job. Calling her back to let her know help was on the way definitely improved the situation, and we were able to chuckle about it afterwards.
Now, of course, I am feeling the effects of today's labours: That iron pike is very heavy, and smashing it into the ice repeatedly jars the wrists and hands terribly, so there is much hurting there. Trimming the horses' hooves also puts great strain on the wrists from working the knives and nippers, and being bent over for long periods of time is agony on the back. My knees also seemed to take a beating, partially from kneeling next to the horses, but I also felt stabs of pain in them while wielding the pike against the ice. All I know for sure is that I'm sore all over, and I can only hope a night's rest will help.
Also forgot to mention that our neighbour brought us another hay-bale a couple weeks ago, and we opened it last weekend. Although its alfalfa, it's really poor quality - lots of stems and obviously late cut. This in itself is not so bad since it means the horses are very unlikely to founder on it given its poor nutritional value, but it's creating a huge amount of waste because they won't eat the rough stems. I found a couple of mouldy patches in it as well, and have thrown those parts out. This is one of many reasons I dislike the large round bales: it can look fine on the outside, but be rotten inside. With small square bales there isn't so much waste if part of it goes bad, and it's much easier to control portion sizes. I'm hoping this year we can get our antiquated machinery working and cut our own hay again. In the meantime, I'm thankful for our neighbour's help, even if some of the bales are less than perfect.
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