The Horse Life

Carrie asked me to help give Nibs a bath again. 

Only Shane managed to slip and fall into the pond. Really, it was only up to his ankles, but the water is dyed and treated. A horse got deathly ill drinking it according to Carrie. She was upset and made Shane take off his socks, shoes, and wash his hands.

I wasn't as upset, but I didn't mind the fine. Shane can dance on rocks and climb trees and have a ball doing so, but if he's not careful he'll have consequences. If not by gravity, by us it looks.

It was what happened after that got me heated.

I forget why Shane was in the car as Carrie brought Nibs up, but I asked him to hang out a second. I shut the car door to not be too interesting as Nibs walked by.

Nibs doesn't like bathing. She's afraid of the water. "I don't think she realizes it's the same as the water she drinks!" Carrie said.

I asked Shane to hang out in the car for a second, so I could help Mom.

Shane laid on the horn. I jumped. Thankfully, the horse did not.

I was pissed.

The rule of the barn is: Calm.

You don't want to startle large animals that are far stronger than a person. Nibs is a yearling and there's not much you can force her to do with brute strength even if you tried. She's docile, but if she were to bolt? Not good. Carrie's already been to the emergency room twice from horses scaring since I've married her.

I yanked Shane back from the front seat and told him to "Sit! Down!"

"There was a fly on the steering wheel!" Shane exclaimed.

I was hearing none of it.

Then plan had been for Shane to play Pokemon on his DS while we washed Nibs. He got to sit in time out knowing I was furious instead. There's a house attached to the barn, so hopefully no one was napping.

I don't have any pictures of the wash up, but it went well enough. Nibs mostly behaved and Shane showed the appropriate level of remorse.

Nibs started her stress eating and moving when Carrie stalled her to get her to dry under a fan.

It's amazing to me both how much horses learn in a year and how certain things are hard to learn. Such as, Nib's aversion to water that's not in a water bucket. It's water. It helps prevent her from itching and all sorts of other things, but she's convinced the water from a shower nozzle is different.

Shane was off electronics the rest of our time at the barns, but I think he learned his lesson. It's good for him to get out, explore, and see what Mommy is up to when she does her horse routines.

Our next stop was to visit Armour at Jenny's.

Carrie's been treating the rain scald on Armour.

She washes him with chlorohexidine or something like that, clears out scabs, and gives him his antibiotics.

It's working. Those were the before pictures. Here are the afters:

There are lots of bald spots from where the hair has fallen out, but Armour is doing a lot better.

He's happy to see Carrie and to do their stretching routine to earn treats.

Shane and I spotted a dear close by on a trail we were walking around to entertain ourselves.

Like me, Shane likes to explore.

We got back just in time to see Carrie cleaning up the stall. Armour's tail went up and I said, "Looks like he's about to poop over everything you cleaned!"

Well, Carrie caught the poop in her rake.

Then she said, "This is the perfect, clean poop symbol! It's fresh! We should take it to Blue Ridge Equine to get him checked for worms!"

She said it with such eagerness, I knew where we were going next. It wasn't home!

Shane said goodbye to a barn cat and we were on our way.

We went straight to Blue Ridge Equine as advertised. Shane was off of electronics, but we got to listen to some more Fellowship of the Ring in the car! We're almost done with the Tom Bombadill chapters (which you won't know about if you only saw the movie).

We didn't drop the samples and run. Carrie wanted to wait for a doctor to get back from a call while she was there to discuss Armour and his progress. Shane did a good job of going with the flow, entertaining himself, and staying out of trouble.

We got back home something like four hours after we initially set out. Maybe it was longer. We took turns showering and cleaning off and had a quiet rest of the day. I took Shane to TKD, but otherwise it was TV, games, and enjoying the AC!