Happy Holidays!

Well, I was going to share pictures, but apparently Blogger has decided today that I don't get to upload photos, because "server rejected," and all the suggestions for how to fix this issue are crap like "clear your cache" and "change browsers." And while I have my own webspace and could theoretically upload and link, I'm annoyed, so it can fuck right the fuck off and y'all don't get pictures today.

Happy holidays, everyone - whatever holiday you prefer to celebrate.

We've had a few adventures in horse ownership, including Baby's First Choke Episode (hooray...) and the realization that Dragon at 9 months old has probably a foot of height on Justice at 15 months (help, send ladders).  Cessa is so pudgy, she looks pregnant - again - and the vet thinks she probably has some metabolic issues that are gonna mean dry lot in the spring; I'm looking into getting her one of those big balls you fill with hay to keep her entertained.  And our pittie mutt managed to cut his foot on... something (our best guesses are "a broken brick," "a stick," and "thin air").

But my source of great hilarity for the last few days has been Christmas.

Now... I'm an isolated pocket of horsey in my family and in spouse's family.  Like... it's me, and then my mom had a cousin who was into horses, of whom I was fantastically jealous as a teenager (She got to pick between a car and a horse at 16!  So jealous.).  That's it.  That's all of us.  So I generally expect that I'm not gonna get horse stuff for gifts, and if I do, it's going to be somewhere on the spectrum between "bless your heart and the heart of the person responsible for this monstrosity, because apparently only one of the two of you has seen a horse in this lifetime" and "generic horse gift, cool, it's cute," with the odd foray into the land of "oh thank god, you just bought something off my Amazon list and I know you have no idea what it is, but thank you."

My husband did great this year - he got me an LED breastcollar, which I am delighted about because it's blue and it lights up ("Are you ever going to be riding at night?"  "Probably not, but it lights up.").

Aaand then there's my mother.  My mother, for whom I have to color-code my horses because she can't tell the brown horse with the tiny star and big fat snip from the brown horse with the huge-ass star, tiny snip, and big white rear socks.  Past years have included such gifts as:

• A very fancy European ceramic piece... with a donkey on it.  I think.
  
• That horse yoga calendar.
  
• The framed poster of a unicorn that has been nicknamed after a certain little blue pill because while the horse itself is lovely, if a bit overly large-eyed, the horn is... it's sad, y'all.  It's pointing down when it should be pointing up.  And kind of off to one side.  And... yeah.  It's bad and I feel bad making fun of it, but it's so bad that's all I can do.
• Along a similar note, the mossy unicorn framed poster.  It's not really mossy, but that's the best way I've found to describe what appears to be what happens when Lisa Frank tries to do a properly heraldic unicorn and quits after drawing the unicorn, so someone else comes along, takes some mushrooms, and tries to put in an overgrown jungle background - only they were tripping balls and could only find blue and green paints.
• That horse yoga calendar, again.
  
• A pretty generic grooming kit.
• I think every Breyers holiday ornament from 1997 until 2015?
• Another iteration of that horse yoga calendar.
  
• A corrugated metal thing with some... horses?... painted on it.
• A fourth horse yoga calendar.
• A number of random horse statues in various levels of misshapen, including that one rearing horse statue that you see the same horse in different sizes and materials at every freaking truck stop and tourist trap.

So, I mean... my bar is low.  Particularly after this year included a brief discussion about the My Little Ponies on the list (look, they're re-releasing them and there are ones I always wanted, ok) and particularly because although I've provided a horse-specific wishlist, my mother has a tendency to look at your wishlist and then promptly either forget about it or come up with something she (and no one else) views as equivalent.

The bar was evidently not low enough. 

My horsey presents this year included:

• That same freaking horse yoga calendar (I don't think she realizes it's the same photos with different background colors every year...)
• A little horsey first aid kit, which is cute and probably will do great when a human stabs themselves, but is unlikely to be of much use for an actual injured horse just by the quantity of items provided alone
  
• An entire box of vet wrap

Yes, that's right.  A box of vet wrap.  In blue.

That I did not ask for.

Twelve rolls of blue vet wrap.

I think, based on some things she said, that she thought she was buying polo wraps.  She talked about not being sure what width to get, and about being able to wrap my horse's ankles and make them look cute.

Only... she bought... vet wrap.

I just.  I keep thinking about this and laughing, because what else do you do?  She won't get why it's not correct; she might even get kind of offended that I don't like it.  And there's... there's really no tactful way to say, "You do realize you actually bought me a box of bandages, right, Mom?"

I swear to god, I'm gonna be giggling about this for months.

Still hanging in there

Things continue to be pretty quiet here; between the virus and the wacky weather (ah, yes, fall in Texas, where Mother Nature is either drunk or on a roller coaster), I get out every other week or so to check on the beasties.

Cessa has put weight back on in the pasture; literally everyone in the pasture is fat right now, but the vet thinks it's likely she's got a mild metabolic issue going on.  So spring will be dry lot time, much as I'm sure she's going to love that...

But sometimes she's the cuddliest

Dispatches from trainer-land say that Dragon's doing just fine in baby boot camp, and has learned such exciting things as leading, standing tied, standing tied at the trailer, hanging out in the trailer, etc.

Yesterday was baby's first face wound. Also baby's first fly mask. She is clearly enthusiastic. (I cannot stop giggling at the look on her face...)

Trainer also says that my giant-ass baby is continuing to get taller.  Like... at 8 months old, I have photo proof that she's as tall as a QH/Cream Draft cross.  She is doing a pretty good job of filling a stock trailer, too.

Why are you so big already? Slow down!

So... uh.  Anybody know where to find a good four-step mounting block?  Or... I dunno... ladders suitable for mounting from?

School Photos

Am I allowed to call them school photos when I go up to the barn specifically to take pictures of my baby horse before she goes away to the trainer for 2 months of baby boot camp (aka "please make sure this baby is a Good Citizen and has all the groundwork skills she's gonna need as an adult" training)?

Third time wearing a halter, maybe? She is too big for weanling halters and too small for yearling halters.  (She is six months old, help. lol)

Cannot get over how adult she looks.  Aside from the silly baby mane, that is.

Not impressed with a) being haltered and b) being dewormed.

In other news, Cessa impressed the vet.

With how much weight she'd put back on.

In a pasture that's mostly weeds.

*facepalm*

At least she comes when called...?

Things are otherwise pretty quiet here.  I go up every few weeks and poke at the ponies and my barn friends.  Then I come home and continue my regimen of "not going very many places, because plague."

At least the dog is happy we're home?  And hey, he managed not to damage his face in August, which means he's now gone... one out of three Augusts we've had him without requiring an emergency vet visit...

The summer and the Great Escape

I am about to start week seven of hell at work, and we've been running 75-100 degree temperatures with humidity at over 60% for days.  As of today 40 coronavirus deaths in our county, 2500+ cases, 150 of them new.  I feel like I should be more energetic about going to the barn, but... uh.  Not when it's this miserable and at least one of the BOs has health issues that put her at high risk.

I did go up yesterday, though, because of this mare...

One of us is more impressed than the other...

"I am not a number - I am a free horse!"

I was buried in the middle of crap at work and suddenly get a series of texts.

So minor heart attack at the barn today. I come to feed and Cessa is NOT in the barn. But she was earlier and no one moved her.

Uh oh.

I have to go back to the camera to find out when she actually got out. But I'm looking around trying to find her panicking and see her in the alleyway down to the pasture ...okay no problem. Except Rook is with her!! HOW THE FUCK

Rook is one of the stallions.  Who should be inside a 6' fence.  Oops.

So they are just walking the alleyway munching grass.  She's not cycling for him so not overly worried about that part. But more of a... now to see how did Rook got out. Lol


Yep.  She learned how to lift the latch on the new stall-fronts and escaped. *facepalm*  Good news is, she went for the herd instead of trying to escape the property and was pretty easy to catch.  And we got it all on stall video, so we know exactly what she did and how to stop it happening again.

As for the stallion... we know he can't jump that high, but we think he found a low spot in the fence and just kind of... shimmied over, possibly with a face-plant at the end.  You know, as you do when you're a draft stallion...

Also good news: the medication regimen, ration balancer and shit hay (Dr. B's orders!), and spending her time either in the arena or in the barn has turned Cessa from a hippo to an actual horse, if still not exactly a racing-trim one.  She's hated it - she's super food-oriented, and all reports are that she's been just an absolute ear-pinning bitch at feeding time - but it's worked. We're tapering off the meds now, with an eye towards sending her back out to the pasture soon - just, y'know, not this soon.

...Also, I cut off her mane while I was there.  How the hell she had elflocks after a month and a half in the barn or arena, I do not know, but she was a sweaty mess underneath all that hair.  It wasn't a pretty job, but it was too gross to go fetch a halter when she got fidgety, so I just called it good at that point.  I'll probably tidy it up later, when it's not so godawful out.

As for miss Dragon:

Yes?

She has finally, finally slowed down growing a bit.  I mean, I'm 5'6"-ish and if I throw an arm over her butt, my elbow's slightly higher than my shoulder now - but the last time I saw her, a month ago, she was only just slightly shorter and not a lot shorter. 

She is also fiercely independent, has a surprisingly long and lush tail and a very adult head, loves people, and is just generally the best.  :)  She'll be going to baby boot camp in the fall with the other babies - the trainer that worked with Cessa and a lot of the other horses at the barn will take 'em and make sure that basic manners are fully installed - and she might get entered in a video draft horse show while she's there.  In which case I will have video of her trotting in-hand that doesn't involve me trying to run along with a trotting horse, which I'm excited about. (I am not a runner, unless you are looking for the slowest-motion jog ever, and that was before I gained a lot of weight...)

There is no level of melanin in another human being's skin that makes that human being less.

Donate. Protest. Do what you can.

Two months old

Y'all, she's only two months old.

Pic courtesy of the BOs. Yes, that brown butt is Dragon...

How.  The hell.  Is she that freaking tall at 2 months old?  Her daddy isn't a giant, and none of her grandparents were either!

Someone please tell my baby horse that her first year on Earth is not a race to see how quickly she can be taller than her mother.  I'm gonna need a damned ladder to get on, if she keeps this up!

Making it official

I finally picked a name!

Her official registered name will be Freya's Needle.

Which... I know it sounds like it has nothing to do with Dragon, but there was a long and winding mental road to get there. lol The initial suggestion from the BOs was "Dungeons and Dragonflies," and while that didn't quite work for me, I kind of ran with the dragonfly part.  (I have all kinds of suggestions related to dragonflies, if anyone needs any!)

But nothing was really sticking.  In desperation, I started googling things like "nicknames for dragonflies" and "gods associated with dragonflies."  Which is how I found two things:

• The Norse goddess Freya is sometimes associated with dragonflies. She is also a goddess associated with war, along with fertility, beauty, and witchcraft.
• Some areas of the UK refer to dragonflies as "the devil's darning needles."

Her sire is Auraxium War.  Her dam is Oubliette d'Acier - depending on translation, "steel dungeon" or "forgetfulness of steel" or "strength through forgetfulness."

And needles are steel, at least modern ones.

I was sitting there after reading that stuff and just kind of hit on "Freya's Needle" as an idea, and it just... didn't go away.  So we're keeping it, and we're keeping Dragon as a barn name.

She is, as you can see, very impressed.

In other news, Cessa has already managed to lose one of her grazing muzzles so thoroughly that three of us searching the two pastures where it could be can't find it (which was today, and I hurt, and that's all I'm saying about that).  We're basically gonna have to let the mower find it if it's in the north pasture, because if it's there, it's buried deep in the grass or in some hollow we can't see because of the grass.  It could also be in the pond in the main pasture.  Who knows...

But it's okay.  Vet's going to have us try some thyroid medication, and Cessa has to stay in the arena, getting a little hay and just enough ration balancer to take her meds until she does start losing weight.  (She's got a little bit of grass to chew on as well, since the arena has grass, but it's short and the vet said it's OK.)

...I may still have some Tile stickers coming from Amazon so that I can GPS tag the damned muzzles, though. lol

And in local health news, our dumbass governor has opened up the state "partially" and half the damned population is out acting like it's Spring Break.  Second Quarantine is gonna be even worse than First Quarantine was, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a Thing.  Ugh.

Mid(ish)-month, and what a month it's been

Seriously, y'all. It's been a month.  Shelter in place orders aside... after the AC issue (did you know that if you have central air with an air intake under the unit, if the hole's too big, the unit can eventually fall in?), we had a defective GFI outlet in the house die spectacularly (you know it's "good" when the tech asks to take the outlet with him to show newbie electricians), the microwave died Monday night...

In barn news, Justice's momma had to be put down due to complications with foaling (her foal survives and he's thriving so far).

Always had trouble telling her and Cessa apart at distance in the pasture - two brown horses with minimal markings! Love, Justice's mom, was the one with the longer legs and the traveling white dot.

And at least three members of the (very) extended barn community have either lost a parent (one of them to COVID) or have a deathly ill parent in the hospital.

It is, on top of everything else, exhausting.  I feel exceptionally stupid right now, just because the brain is opting out of things more complicated than "watch a YouTube video" or "play a silly video game."

On the other hand, I persuaded my husband to go with me to the barn so he could meet the new baby, so I have more pics!

Sort of an outtake, but it makes me laugh. "Oh, I can't groom you? OK, I'll groom me!"

He made a friend. :)

Artsy.

Baby girl and her cousin (Dragon's mom and other girl's dad are full siblings)

Also, funny thing... I never thought actually picking a name would be the hard part!  I have a whole list of ideas - favorites right now include "Dungeons and Dragonflies," "Snapdragon," "Freya's Needle," and "Clockwork Dragonfly" - and I can't pick one!

Necessary delivery

After some deliberation - and realizing that our "stay at home, but let's not call it that" order (*sigh* Really, guys? Really?) got extended to the end of the month - I ran up to the barn this morning while my BOs were still asleep and dropped off the grazing muzzle, because laminitis risks are bad.  While I was there, I picked up Cessa's blanket.

And maybe stole a few over-fence cuddles with the mareface herself...

Someone was up for snuggling.

And also for sniffing my breath very seriously, for some reason.

...And maybe creeped on Dragon a bit from outside the fence.

I do love it when I catch mom and baby on the same stride...

You know.  Since I was there and all, and a) not interacting with humans and b) not getting into a situation where humans would need to interact with me.  And then I came right the hell back home, away from potential virus vectors (like everyone else).

Dragon is growing so fast!  She's only two and a half weeks old, and I swear she looks older.  Word back on the genetic testing is that she's got LP, too, so she'll be a color-changer like Justice was... just darker.

And another one

I've mentioned before that my BOs are awesome, right?  Because they're awesome and send me pictures of my new baby horse.  And videos.  :)

Baby Dragon says hi

Tiny dispatches from the barn

Yesterday was first turnout day for the two new babies at the barn.  Very sad I missed it, but BOs took some cell phone video for me.

Look at the legs on her!

Sorry, momma - I couldn't get a good baby stride, a good momma stride, AND something not completely blurry/pixelated in the same frame!

Resurfacing

Hello!  It's been a while.

The world is on fire.  Or on plague.  Whichever you want to call it.

And my AC is currently non-functional in the middle of an 80 degree heatwave, and the county goes fully locked down as of midnight tomorrow night.  (Because of course our charming governor hasn't the balls to make that call yet...)

So we're all doing about as well as could be expected.

However, there is one small piece of brightness in the universe.  One born 3/18.

Better pictures will have to wait for quarantine to end, but can I introduce you to a Dragon?

I know she's soft and fluffy, but I promise you, that's a Dragon.  Or maybe a Dragonfly, but her barn name will be Dragon.  Formal name is pending me making up my mind...


Her IgG was in the tank, so she got a little plasma treatment (hence the bandage), but she's getting the stylish wrap off today and is doing perfect now.  And will hopefully get to go out into a paddock soon, as I'm told she's that special brand of spitfire that happens when a new baby has been cooped up waaaay too long and is about to start climbing the walls.