Gotcha Day #2

Yesterday was 2 years since I bought Daniel!! So, the day before his second "Gotcha Day" (a friend with rescued pets celebrates Gotcha Day, since you don't know birthdays with rescues) I had Hoppy come over for a bodywork session on him! She commented that he really looks GREAT, and said that it must be the hills at Tory Hill. As the name implies, Tory Hill has lots of rolling (some steeply) hills. I've noticed that Daniel is much more fit, but I see him almost every day. I don't notice the changes as much as Hoppy, who sees him every couple of months.

Hoppy's done bodywork on him at the old Legacy (in Churchville, MD) where Daniel lived for years, has seen the new Legacy (in Hampstead) where he lived for a few months, and has been to Tory Hill many times. She has worked on several of the horses there, so she knows how this farm's turn out keeps them nice and fit. This is the second time she's worked on him at Tory Hill.

Hoppy said that the difference is really noticeable, especially in his rear, rear legs and back. She said his rear is very well muscled and round. She said his front and shoulders are better, but his rear is amazingly better! She and Jill attributed it all to the HILLS they have in their pastures. What we curse when we have to climb them in knee deep snow, is wonderful for our horses' health. Hoppy said that she's thinks my 21-ish year old horse looks better than he did almost three years ago when she first worked on him.
She suggested that I look at pictures from when Daniel lived in Churchville (that farm was FLAT as a pancake) and compare them to now. So, I found pics that are similar in angle and body position, and am putting two up. The one with me and the kids standing with Daniel was taken in October 2008 in Churchville, MD. The one with just Daniel was taken in August 2009, 3 months after I moved Daniel to Tory Hill. I'm sure the difference is even more noticeable now, but I don't have a similarly posed pic to compare to (and if I can ever figure a way to bypass the damned enterprise encryption on my Blackberry, I've got GREAT video of him trotting around the indoor.

Even in these small pics, I can see the difference she's talking about in the roundness of his rear. I think back to this time last year, when I was stressing about moving him from Hampstead (105 miles away) to PA... I agonized over where to move him. Looking bad, I think it's all worked out. I miss my Legacy friends, but, hopefully when Spring rolls around, and my new truck arrives, I can invest in a trailer and haul down to Fair Hill to meet up with them all!!! :-) And yes, Sara, I'll pick up Dawn and Sunny on my way!!!

Power, water and phone back!

Margaux called me yesterday and told me that power, water and phone were back for Mr. and Mrs. W!!!! So, I went this morning after meeting a friend at Ruby's for breakfast (YUM!)

The stalls were pretty much done when I arrived, but the walk from the house to the barn was hard-packed snow and ice! I know Mrs W is almost twice my age, and she's in way better shape than I am, but still! She won't let anyone do anything for her! UGH!

So, one of her students and I didn't even ask her (she would have told us not to do it), and just took shovels and an ice chipper, and went to work on her walkway. We got it down to concrete in about 90% of the steps and walk. The other 10% was ICE that even the ice breaker wasn't getting through. So, I checked with her to see what she wanted me to use on the ice so she wouldn't fall on her way to/from the barn.

While I was checking in she was at the indoor, so I brought Daniel in, took his sheet off him, picked his hooves, brushed him, detangled his mane, and Sue got him trotting around the indoor. I took some video, but thanks to the damned enterprise security encryption on the Blackberry, I can't upload it. Apparently, I should have emailed it to myself, or posted it to Facebook or something, but I can't save it and do it all later. BOO! After the old boy trotted a bit, I put his sheet back on him and turned him back out with his buddies.

Anyway, Mrs. W had rock salt in the barn and I threw some along the whole walk from the house, in case it thaws and re-freezes. I put extra on the ice that I just couldn't get broken up. I brought some wood from their woodpile and moved it closer to the house for her too. I popped my head to the window and gave Mr. W a wave before I headed for home. Tomorrow, I ride!!! :-) And maybe get some video and not screw it up!!!

Blizzards of 2010

We finally dug out from our second blizzard in a week (work - U of PA - closed for 2 days - they haven't closed for snow since 2003!) yesterday and headed out to check on Daniel, the other horses and the Willcoxes.

Roads were fine until we got about 1/8 mile from the driveway... there was a tree partially blocking the road. Big mistake having Mom along because she damned near had a stroke when I drove under it (which is why I need a Tahoe, not this stupid Mercedes ML350) freaking out that I was going to get scratches on it. Of course, where the tree was down just happened to be where the snow plows STOPPED, so I had to pop it in off-road mode to get the rest of the way (Wish I had that 4WD Tahoe with a rear locker, that I have on order, now!!!)

When I got to the barn, all the stalls had 2 half buckets of water, extra hay and had been stripped and bedded with new straw. I got there at that time to help Jill with watering and feeding. When she came into the barn, she told me that they had no power, water or phone. They had water down at the indoor arena (the water in the geldings' field is just outside the indoor, so the horses had water. She was melting ice and snow on the wood-burning stove in the house. UGH! I helped her feed, we topped off the water buckets in the stalls, and we brought the horses in for the night.



I asked if she'd reported the outages... she said she was sure someone had, but their phone was out. I asked about her cell phone. SHe said the battery died. I suggested she charge it in the car; to which she replied that was too much work. ugh.... I asked her if I could bring wood into the house for them, but she said they already had plenty of wood. I offered to go to the store for her, but she said she had plenty of food. I asked about a generator, and she said she didn't want to keep running the generator, because she was afraid she'd run out of fuel when she really needed it (this conversation reminded me of my Grandmother - when my mother and aunt bought her a new raincoat, and she wouldn't wear it in the rain because she didn't want to get it wet.) I insisted that she take an unopened gallon of water I kept in the barn (for emergencies) to the house. I love her and Mr. Willcox, but UGH!! Stubborn and won't let you help them!

When we were leaving, instead of letting my mom have another near-stroke, I took the long way home, and there was a downed tree partially blocking the road in that direction too! Once again, the snow plows stopped at that point, so there was about a 1/2 mile section of Ivy Mills Road that wasn't plowed. This way wasn't blocked quite as bad, so my mom complained, but didn't have a near-stroke.

When I got home, I called the electric company and reported the outage. Just in case it was really localized (her son and daughter-in-law are next door, and their power, water, phone were out, too)

Margaux's supposed to go check on them this afternoon. Based on what she tells me, I'll head over there either tonight after work, of first thing in the morning...

Come on SPRING!!!! All of this snow has been, as my former co-worker Marc always used to say, ri-god-damned-diculous!!!!!!

Slightly OT...

I ordered a new truck! The $%^ing Mercedes that my parents bought me is going buh-bye!!!! It was a lovely gift - for someone else... it's not me. I LOVED my 2000 Tahoe, so after trying the Expedition, Armada and Sequoia, I ordered a 2010 Tahoe! Funny thing is, when I was describing what I wanted in a car to the Mercedes dealer (it was my escape strategy, but my mom foiled it), it was really what I wanted in a Tahoe.

I made sure I ordered the HD trailering package so I can maybe get a trailer for Daniel at some point... and after this sloppy winter, I got a locking rear differential (of course I got 4WD!)

So, with a little luck, I'll have new wheels in late April/early May!

Hoof progression

One of the things that scared me the most when I moved Daniel was hoof care. I know the saying "no hoof, no horse" and he has a lot of hoof! But, when I found out that all the horses were barefoot, and the other boarders used a barefoot trimmer named Dawn Willoughby; Sara and Richard's DAWN! I was quite relieved! I always liked her when I spoke to her at the old Legacy, and I just had a feeling this would be really good for Daniel.

Here are what his hooves looked like before Dawn took over. When I first started taking lessons on Daniel about 3 years ago, his hooves were "trimmed" every eight weeks by the barn farrier. This continued while I leased him. When I bought him nearly two years ago (even though no one at the barn but Leeandra and Lisa1 knew it!) I asked Leeandra if we could do every six weeks, because I thought he was tripping on all of that flare.

When we moved to Hampstead, and the barn farrier didn't travel that far. A woman named Coreen was doing a few of the other horses every four weeks, so I moved Daniel into her hands, thinking that four weeks had to be better than every six weeks. This is what his hooves looked like (flared out frog feet) when he started getting four week trims (My god! All of that blasted FLARE! UGH!)...

After a few months of trims every four weeks, we moved to Tory Hill. So, since in May '09, Dawn has been teaching me to trim him myself. She has had me doing weekly trims since mid-May. I took this pick in September '09, to show the progression to "normal" hooves, thanks to weekly trims and Dawn's great care...


At Dawn's last visit, she told me to stop trimming every week, and go every two or three. She said if I MUST do something (one of my fellow boarders told me I have a hoof fetish!) to simply sand the rough edges with a sanding block she left for me.... I have been on a mission, with Dawn's help, to get rid of all of that flare he had, and try to get rid of that blasted crack in his LF!!! Now look - a year after going from 6 to 4 week trims, and 6 months after going from 4 weeks to weekly (thank you, Dawn!)... there's still the *tiniest* hint of a crack, but, at the risk of jinxing us, it's almost gone! I think after another trim or two and it will be (fingers crossed)!


Dawn and I had a discussion about his hoof defect (you can't see it too well, but there is concavity in the wall), and I realize that foot may NEVER be *correct*, but , DAMN! I can't believe how much better it looks since this time last year!!!