Day 4 7/25/15
We were late again this morning (late night having Pioneer Day firework fun) but this time eva was not so difficult to wake up(or maybe she was I just now remembered I sent Josh down to do it cause I was too tired). When we got there however I was pleased to see so many trailers hulling off horses for their shows and parades. So many empty stalls!!! We would be done in no time and we had a busy Saturday I was so thrilled!! This feeling didn't last long however as the owner came up and informed me to still feed and water the empty stalls so they can have some food and water when they return. What?! Even though I also helped the riders fill hanging nets of food to hang in their trailers and feed their horses?! I bit my tongue.
I have since learned that the black and white horse that has been down quite a bit is named Oreo. She was laying down when we got there and now her neighbor was too. The owner informed me laying down isn't bad it's the not able to get up part that's not good. I was so happy to see Oreo get up to eat when eva took her her breakfast. She seems to be doing better even though they never figured out what was going on.
Though I remembered my pocket knife (even though all the bales were already cut) I failed to remember to wear a bandana. I figured that would look less strange than the medical masks I have left over from my sons nicu days. And here I thought all these years bandanas around the neck were just a weird cowboy fashion statement. Now I know the truth- it's to prevent alfalfa buggers! If only we could clear our noses as easily as horses. The list is now growing of needs- bandana, unfashionable jeans that stay up and don't touch the ground, and boots that keep the hay out of your socks and repel dirty water.
On the way out I noticed a horse inside the barn that didn't have a place to put hay. I left and texted about her. Evidently the horse but it's tongue and a part of it had to be removed so she was in there recovering. I had to go back later in the day to feed her just putting the hay on the ground for her. When we went back I was showered dressed for shopping and everyone was with us. I bragged to my husband "do you want to see your women at work?" I would put the hay in the wheel barrel and eva would go feed her. My husband kept saying 'but won't you get dirty?' It's just one horse honey its not going to get that dirty.I should have bit my tongue humbled myself listened and just got the work done so we could go shop for carpet like planned. I admit I was showing off too much and not being careful. I was so excited that I actually got a whole flake of hay to stay together on my pitchfork and lift it up and over that I didn't think about what happens upon impact. It came down and an atom bomb of alfalfa appeared. I sheltered my face and turned my head but it was too late. Green flakes were now in my hair, down my shirt front and back. They clung to my skin and already were making me itch. What was I thinking!? Of course my husband enjoyed the rest of my show cleaning out my shirt so it wasn't all a loss I guess.
Eva had her first riding lesson on Thursday and was in heaven. She has talked about it ever since! She got to brush the horse put all the equipment on walk, trot, turn, and all sorts of fun things. Everyone kept warning her how sore she would be but she must be tougher than we give her credit for cause she didn't complain. Right after she said "my legs feel funny. Like there's a magnet between them." Whatever that means. The horse she rode was named Nikki. It was a white almost albino looking horse who was well trained but in my opinion a bit ugly. I was worried what she would think of it but I bit my tongue. To her it was beautiful. Nikki was patient with eva even if she did try to park eva at the tack room and be done. Her coach yelled out "your horse is tryng to de saddle you eva what do you think about that?" Eva just turned her around and gave her a little kick and clicked her tongue and they were off again. I was surprised at how quickly she took to it. Today eva was excited to find Nikki again and take care of her. Asking will she ride Nikki every time and could she brush her and finding features on her she hasn't noticed on Thursday. A bond was forming. Again when the last three horses needed watering she asked if she could go talk to the horses. I see a tradition forming. It's itchy hard work but Its all worth it.
So what's an afraid of horses mother from the city to do with her horse obsessed daughter? Get a job feeding and watering 46 horses of course. Every Sat. morning we wake before the sun and have crazy adventures in horse care.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Saturday, July 18, 2015
The struggle and the mold.
Day 3 July 18
We have a babysitting swap going on with the neighbors who also have 5 kids similar ages. Last night was our turn. the kids had a blast and we enjoyed talking to the parents afterwards. Howver it meant for late bedtimes which made the struggle this morning at 5:30 quite fierce. I pushed the snooze button twice and considered waking Josh to go the three flights of stairs down to eva to wake her up- but I'm not that mean. After several rounds of :I pull the covers off she pulls them back on and grunts I started with the repetitive nudging. When her words began coming out more understandable (im too tired! I don't want to) I began the reasoning. "Horses still need to eat" and lots of "they're counting on us" type of things. I would leave and get pants on come back and find her covered and sleep again. Finally I used the big guns :"I'm leaving in 5 minutes and if I'm the only one going im keeping the $25 I earn today for myself!" We left the house in 10 minutes and remembered our pocket knife!!
We met someone new today- the owners husband. Not much contact just trying to get me to move my car so he could get the tractor and me trying to explain that's not my car. No I don't know who's it is. No I havnt seen anyone here yet it was just here when I got here. No I don't want to sit here and talk more with you cause we got here 20 minutes later than usual.
We tried a new system today that seemed to go a lot faster. I filled two wheel barrels and went and watered while eva emptied the barrels into their troughs. Her comment: "horses still aren't very patient!" I agree. I decided to feed the salivating inpatient one first today. Which made a dark brown stallion really mad and he kicked the ground and the fence and strained his neck to get food as I passed. I still made him wait his turn.
The black and white horse was down again today. She did not look good. She was pawing the ground with the sides of her front hooves and her breathing was sometimes quick and other times slow and shallow looking. The golden horse next to it (Eva's favorite) would bite her legs to make her sit up. Her trough was still full her water was growing cobwebs. The owner said they've run so many tests but still don't know what's going on. A new vet comes on Tuesday. The owner of the horse was being notified to administer more medication in case she was in pain. So sad.
Shortly after reporting the horse down I noticed something different in a flake of hay I put in my barrel. When I opened it up the inside was covered in mold and the straw was black not green or yellow. I threw it out and kept my eyes open for more. This is evidently our month to deal with mold. Our own home has been having issues with mold in the vinyl flooring due to a recent flood in our laundry room. We are now dealing with renovation and remodeling which is kinda fun I guess. But how funny that I would have to deal with mold here this same week as well!:) lessons learned : mold happens just throw it out, clean it up and take care of it.
Sleepy eyed eva was a bit grumpy. A few times I heard a "why did you make it so full? It's too heavy!" Or a "this is hard im tired". I'm very glad the riding lessons start this week. We have worked enough for her to afford the equestrian riding helmet! She still did all the work required of her and im happy to report that even though we were 20 minutes late and had every single horse in the stalls today we only finished 10 minutes later than we had last week! With the last 4 horses needing to be watered I told her I would finish up and suggested she go just spend time with the horses. Get to know them find which one she would pick to ride if she could. She loved it. She knew just where to stroke their smooth neck. A horse appreciated her touch while he ate.
Lessons learned today- go to bed on time to avoid the struggle! Look for mold and take care of it! I think im starting to get a headache now and if it weren't for the baseball t-ball games and tickets to a play I bought for a girls day out I would of course be sleeping! But headache and all it still is worth it!
We have a babysitting swap going on with the neighbors who also have 5 kids similar ages. Last night was our turn. the kids had a blast and we enjoyed talking to the parents afterwards. Howver it meant for late bedtimes which made the struggle this morning at 5:30 quite fierce. I pushed the snooze button twice and considered waking Josh to go the three flights of stairs down to eva to wake her up- but I'm not that mean. After several rounds of :I pull the covers off she pulls them back on and grunts I started with the repetitive nudging. When her words began coming out more understandable (im too tired! I don't want to) I began the reasoning. "Horses still need to eat" and lots of "they're counting on us" type of things. I would leave and get pants on come back and find her covered and sleep again. Finally I used the big guns :"I'm leaving in 5 minutes and if I'm the only one going im keeping the $25 I earn today for myself!" We left the house in 10 minutes and remembered our pocket knife!!
We met someone new today- the owners husband. Not much contact just trying to get me to move my car so he could get the tractor and me trying to explain that's not my car. No I don't know who's it is. No I havnt seen anyone here yet it was just here when I got here. No I don't want to sit here and talk more with you cause we got here 20 minutes later than usual.
We tried a new system today that seemed to go a lot faster. I filled two wheel barrels and went and watered while eva emptied the barrels into their troughs. Her comment: "horses still aren't very patient!" I agree. I decided to feed the salivating inpatient one first today. Which made a dark brown stallion really mad and he kicked the ground and the fence and strained his neck to get food as I passed. I still made him wait his turn.
The black and white horse was down again today. She did not look good. She was pawing the ground with the sides of her front hooves and her breathing was sometimes quick and other times slow and shallow looking. The golden horse next to it (Eva's favorite) would bite her legs to make her sit up. Her trough was still full her water was growing cobwebs. The owner said they've run so many tests but still don't know what's going on. A new vet comes on Tuesday. The owner of the horse was being notified to administer more medication in case she was in pain. So sad.
Shortly after reporting the horse down I noticed something different in a flake of hay I put in my barrel. When I opened it up the inside was covered in mold and the straw was black not green or yellow. I threw it out and kept my eyes open for more. This is evidently our month to deal with mold. Our own home has been having issues with mold in the vinyl flooring due to a recent flood in our laundry room. We are now dealing with renovation and remodeling which is kinda fun I guess. But how funny that I would have to deal with mold here this same week as well!:) lessons learned : mold happens just throw it out, clean it up and take care of it.
Sleepy eyed eva was a bit grumpy. A few times I heard a "why did you make it so full? It's too heavy!" Or a "this is hard im tired". I'm very glad the riding lessons start this week. We have worked enough for her to afford the equestrian riding helmet! She still did all the work required of her and im happy to report that even though we were 20 minutes late and had every single horse in the stalls today we only finished 10 minutes later than we had last week! With the last 4 horses needing to be watered I told her I would finish up and suggested she go just spend time with the horses. Get to know them find which one she would pick to ride if she could. She loved it. She knew just where to stroke their smooth neck. A horse appreciated her touch while he ate.
Lessons learned today- go to bed on time to avoid the struggle! Look for mold and take care of it! I think im starting to get a headache now and if it weren't for the baseball t-ball games and tickets to a play I bought for a girls day out I would of course be sleeping! But headache and all it still is worth it!
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Lime green with tassels- setting the stage and creating dreams
Day 2 July 11th
Today was supposed to be our first day of caring for all horses but several were taken out for horse shows and parades. Even with some missing though it took us 2 and a half hours to finish.
I forgot my pocket knife so we had to try and cut the ropes on the hay with my car keys which took quite a while. I coughed and sneezed my way through several stalls.
We met some people today as they came and got their horses. A teenage girl talked with eva today as she put her horse back in the stall after washing his muddy legs. She told eva she was 10 when she started working here just like eva was. She left saying shed be back to get her horse for the parade.
Certain buckets of water looked disgusting so I emptied them before I filled them. I dumped one the wrong way and got covered in disgusting green straw water. I almost threw up maybe 5 times. 2 minutes after filling those horses water they were filled with straw again. I watched these silly horses dipping their hay before they ate!
The black and white horse that was down last week seems to be doing better. The owner told me they never did figure out what was wrong with her but we are now feeding her low calorie grass. Which I forgot and my daughter had to remind me on my second shovel of hay. We emptied it and refilled it with the right stuff.
The very last horse was stomping her feet and foaming at the mouth. The foam was covering the gate and ground. I called the owner and she laughed and said the horse just starts salivating when it sees the food coming. This horse was very impatient. I had to let her eat out of one wheel barrel while I filled her trough with the other.
A certain white horse did not want to move or stop eating for me to fill his water that was on the other side of him. I pushed I shoved all as whimpy as before. I tried aiming under the horses belly but got too nervous when the horse looked down on me and and nudged me with its nose. I found a nice spot to aim under his neck but everyonce in a while as he put his head down to eat the water would hit him and spray in my face. Most horses hated being sprayed with water. This one completely did not care.
As we were finishing up the teenager came back to pick up her horse. This time she was dressed up in flashy lime green boots lime green Jeans with studs buckles and a green shirt with tassels. My daughter stood there staring in awe and admiration. This teenager talked to my daughter again before we both left. Somehow I feel like I still got blisters through my leather gloves. But I'm grateful for the examples of good young girls and friends she is making here. It is all worth it!
Today was supposed to be our first day of caring for all horses but several were taken out for horse shows and parades. Even with some missing though it took us 2 and a half hours to finish.
I forgot my pocket knife so we had to try and cut the ropes on the hay with my car keys which took quite a while. I coughed and sneezed my way through several stalls.
We met some people today as they came and got their horses. A teenage girl talked with eva today as she put her horse back in the stall after washing his muddy legs. She told eva she was 10 when she started working here just like eva was. She left saying shed be back to get her horse for the parade.
Certain buckets of water looked disgusting so I emptied them before I filled them. I dumped one the wrong way and got covered in disgusting green straw water. I almost threw up maybe 5 times. 2 minutes after filling those horses water they were filled with straw again. I watched these silly horses dipping their hay before they ate!
The black and white horse that was down last week seems to be doing better. The owner told me they never did figure out what was wrong with her but we are now feeding her low calorie grass. Which I forgot and my daughter had to remind me on my second shovel of hay. We emptied it and refilled it with the right stuff.
The very last horse was stomping her feet and foaming at the mouth. The foam was covering the gate and ground. I called the owner and she laughed and said the horse just starts salivating when it sees the food coming. This horse was very impatient. I had to let her eat out of one wheel barrel while I filled her trough with the other.
A certain white horse did not want to move or stop eating for me to fill his water that was on the other side of him. I pushed I shoved all as whimpy as before. I tried aiming under the horses belly but got too nervous when the horse looked down on me and and nudged me with its nose. I found a nice spot to aim under his neck but everyonce in a while as he put his head down to eat the water would hit him and spray in my face. Most horses hated being sprayed with water. This one completely did not care.
As we were finishing up the teenager came back to pick up her horse. This time she was dressed up in flashy lime green boots lime green Jeans with studs buckles and a green shirt with tassels. My daughter stood there staring in awe and admiration. This teenager talked to my daughter again before we both left. Somehow I feel like I still got blisters through my leather gloves. But I'm grateful for the examples of good young girls and friends she is making here. It is all worth it!
Day 1 July 4th a horse down
Day 1 July 4th
We had limited time because we wanted to attend the forth of July parade. We heard that someone was coming after us though so we didn't really need to feed all the horses just do what we could. It took us an hour to feed and water 10 horses.
I wore an exercise shirt of mine with a wide neckline and really regretted it! While heaving straw over a tall fence it ahowered down on me filling in all the gaps between and around the inside of my shirt and underwear. It felt so awful I couldn't wait to get out of there and remove the scratchy grass.
Eva was in her element. She talked To each horse so sweetly and patted their necks and rubbed their foreheads. She was so comfortable while I couldn't stop eyeing their giant feet afraid I would get a broken foot if one of them stepped on me. "And if they don't move when you try to feed them just shove them." The woman who owns it had told us. I think the horses could tell my whimpy shoves came with a dash of nervousness cause they never would move out of my way.
We were told to let her know if a horse was ever down. I told eva to go check. She came back and said that one was laying down. A black and white female horse was laying down but head was up and she didn't look too bad. I thought I'd keep an eye on her. When we finished up I went back to check on her and she was completely on her side. The horses on either side of her had their heads over the fence looking down at her with worried whinnies. A large horse down the line made one large whinny and the black and white horse tried to get up. Her hind legs made it up but in the front she couldn't get off her knees. After a few more attempts she finally fell back on her side and landed hard into the fence. My texts messages were not getting through so I called the owner. Waking her up this 4th of July she said she would have someone come look at her.
Abd then we were done. I never was so excited for a shower. I sneezed alfalfa boogers for hours after but to hear my daughter excitedly tell her family all about it I knew it was worth it.
We had limited time because we wanted to attend the forth of July parade. We heard that someone was coming after us though so we didn't really need to feed all the horses just do what we could. It took us an hour to feed and water 10 horses.
I wore an exercise shirt of mine with a wide neckline and really regretted it! While heaving straw over a tall fence it ahowered down on me filling in all the gaps between and around the inside of my shirt and underwear. It felt so awful I couldn't wait to get out of there and remove the scratchy grass.
Eva was in her element. She talked To each horse so sweetly and patted their necks and rubbed their foreheads. She was so comfortable while I couldn't stop eyeing their giant feet afraid I would get a broken foot if one of them stepped on me. "And if they don't move when you try to feed them just shove them." The woman who owns it had told us. I think the horses could tell my whimpy shoves came with a dash of nervousness cause they never would move out of my way.
We were told to let her know if a horse was ever down. I told eva to go check. She came back and said that one was laying down. A black and white female horse was laying down but head was up and she didn't look too bad. I thought I'd keep an eye on her. When we finished up I went back to check on her and she was completely on her side. The horses on either side of her had their heads over the fence looking down at her with worried whinnies. A large horse down the line made one large whinny and the black and white horse tried to get up. Her hind legs made it up but in the front she couldn't get off her knees. After a few more attempts she finally fell back on her side and landed hard into the fence. My texts messages were not getting through so I called the owner. Waking her up this 4th of July she said she would have someone come look at her.
Abd then we were done. I never was so excited for a shower. I sneezed alfalfa boogers for hours after but to hear my daughter excitedly tell her family all about it I knew it was worth it.
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