Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful to have both my girls in my life and a wonderful new barn to keep them warm and dry in. I am thankful for my Mom who has made it all happen. I am thankful Gypsy is not lame right now and is doing pretty alright. I am thankful for my other half, who helps out with the girls when he can. I am thankful for all that I have and even things that I don't have.

Gypsy is thankful for carrots, apples and peppermints. She is also thankful for epsoms salts, vet wrap and duck tape and my never ending love for her and all my work to keep her sound.

Doodles is thankful that I brought her home last February and that she is living here and did not end up on a truck to Canada and then on some french man's dinner table. She is also thankful for carrots and peppermints and any food that is put in front of her.



And in case you were wondering, no, we do not have any snow here in Maine yet. Those are pics from last year, on Doodles first day home.

For Denali

This week my heart and thoughts go out to Denali's Mom, She's going through one of the hardest things a horse owner could ever have to go through. Denali's blog is one of the first horse type blogs that I had ever read and of course I have since gotten hooked on many others and then even decided to start my own. I don't know Denali or her Mom outside the blogging world, but my heart breaks for them just the same. Denali, may you run free through fields of green with the sun on your back.

Winter is coming!

The back of the barn fell down! Well, we knocked it down before it fell down. The back part of the barn was knocked down yesterday and now the cleanup begins. It's the part that will become the run in shed attached to the barn. The old part was unstable and most likely wouldn't have lasted the winter and the weight of the snow so we had it knocked down safely

I keep tyring to take pictures of the barn and of the girls but my camera won't cooperate and then when I do get pictures, my computer doesn't want to import them. It's lame. I need a new SD card I think. Anyways, Gypsy's abscess has subsided for now. I swear, epsoms salts, betadine, vet wrap and duck tape are staples around here. The barn building boys have showed back up after a long absence. I'm happy to have things rolling again. It won't be long now before we have snow on the ground and I need as much done as possible before that happens. I still need to move the horse trailer in front of the barn but until some of the wood gets used up and moved, I have no room for it over there. I don't want to leave it where it is since I will have to plow it in over there and I really don't want to plow the trailer in if I don't have to. I'd like to have it ready it case I need it.

I haven't done much with the horses, I've been busy with work and learning that zero dark thirty comes along really fast now. Gotta love Maine winters! We may get our first snow on saterday so some things need to be taken care of before then. I'm hoping we'll only get a dusting and it will melt off within a day. I'm soooo not ready for snow yet! I really need to get back into working with the girls soon. I want to go to a few shows this spring and summer and also do some SCA stuff, but I need to get some more training in on them before then. I really need to take the nice days that we have and use them but it's just been so hard to get anything done. When I was a kid, I used to ride everyday, no matter what. Now as an semi responsible adult, I can't seem to do that. I seem to spend more time at work or fixing and cleaning things here at the farm rather then riding. Like I said before, it gets dark waaayyy too early now. I wish I had the motivation that I had when I was younger.

Really? Again with the hoof abscess?

Gypsy has ANOTHER hoof abscess. She was 3 legged lame this morning. I figured since I had to go to work and I was running late, I'd leave her in the pasture until I got home to take care of her. Bad Idea. The poor girl was in so much pain she was laying in the mud all day. Since we had a lot of rain the other day the paddock is really muddy and she had no where to lay other then in it. I feel like such an ass. She was caked in mud. I was able to get her into the barn and clean her up a little and soak her hoof. She's all tucked into her stall now. Doodles was so worried, when I opened Doodles stall door to feed her she walked across the aisle to check on Gypsy. I had to shoo her back into her place. Tonight the girls will have to stay inside where it's dry and in the morning I'll hand walk Gypsy for a bit and then decide if she should go out or not.

Epsom salts, vet wrap and duck tape are my friends......again.