Armour Update

Armour has had multiple veterinary appointments lately and the verdict is "Pasture sound only. No riding."

Carrie's made the decision that enough is enough. There's only so much time, money, and energy she's willing to pour into a horse that's unrideable.

If we had our own land, we could keep him in a pasture as a companion horse for little to no cost. We don't have that.

We prayed for a clear decision and we got it. Carrie's working on finding him another home.

UPDATE: Armour has another home now. I don't know all the details, but Carrie is okay with it which means I'm okay with it.

Barn-Sitting

Jenny went out of town for the weekend and asked Carrie to barn-sit. Carrie was happy to oblige.

Nibs and Armour are pasture mates now. Carrie moved Nibs to Jenny's barn last Wednesday, so Carrie can see both her ponies in a single commute!

We handed Shane his DS when we showed up Saturday morning. "Play in the car while we move the horses," Carried said. He was happy to comply.

I handled Nibs, while Carrie led Armour and "Fred" (That's not his name, but Carrie says he's a Fred, so she calls him Fred! Who am I to argue?).

Once the three were in stalls and fed, Carrie and I went to feed the seven horses who stay out during the day. Carrie did all this with me along to chronicle. She dropped feed in eight buckets, so that the horses could shuffle and shift between them. "I don't get it, but the feed always tastes better in the next bucket!" She said.

Shane played with the dogs and then parked in the air conditioning while Carrie and I worked on the other chores.

I sneezed plenty. The barn is allergy central to me.....and no matter where I go cats seem to find me.

We made two trips every day: Morning and evening. I saw a big wolf spider hanging out with the dogs. Lots of horses equals lots of flies. Lots of flies equals spiders.

Shane got to muck out his first stall Saturday night. "Pretend it's a giant litter box and you've got the idea!"

"What if cats were the size of horses?" Shane asked.

Shane got in some trouble one day. He's not good about reacting and stopping on the first command. If anything, he wants to tell you why what he's doing is right and keep doing it. That doesn't work with Mommy when you're walking up to the pile of horse shit in sandals.

So I figured it was best to keep him out of sight or engaged with a task when in sight.

Shane shoveled bedding for me on Sunday.

Unfortunately, I had to dump it all out after he ran around the corner. We needed the wheelbarrow to shovel out the poop before we could drop fresh bedding in the stalls. Shane was none the wiser and I thanked him for being helpful.

Shane really did a decent job of entertaining himself. Shane played some DS, read books, played with the dogs, or watched the cats. There were no new scars or doctor trips earned.

Carrie got a big surprise when we were leaving one day. Shane pointed out a cat. "He's in hunting mode," Carrie said."

"What's he hunt?" Shane asked.

"Moles, mice," Carrie replied.

"Like the dead mouse I threw in the woods earlier!" Shane exclaimed.

I lost it. I cracked up. Carrie's eyes bugged out and I laughed even more.

You know Shane took a shower when we got home that time!

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!

Outside Day 2

No indoors for me. We returned to the barn to finish up the "Honey-Do" round pen.

I hope that it will keep Carrie occupied with her filly while Shane and I do some traveling.

Carrie's thoughts aligned with mine. She used a cooking trick when the glue wouldn't open: She hit it.

Worked like a charm.

We set up an assembly line and blitzed through the final fourteen panels.

Shane.....Shane sat on a phone. Carrie didn't want to deal with distractions. I get it, but I also don't like sit down, shut up, and zone out (Not that I haven't used it before). It's harder on us when Shane is asking 5,000 different things to do and trying to run off, but he's got to learn how to entertain himself appropriately to make it through life!

It did make the job a hundred times easier. It was probably the right call even if I don't want to admit it.

We got the round pen up, oval, and eventually round. Carrie used some jumps to brace it.

That's when I took the phone from Shane. He sprinted off to the duck ponds within seconds. Wait....what's that spec over on the far field?

It was a dog. Arlo. And he was watching Shane.

Arlo trotted over. He jumped in the water while Shane tried to look down the drain to the waterfall.

Carrie worked to get her pony time in while I played lifeguard.

Nibs momentarily balked when Carrie led her to the round pen, but she went in easy enough.

Nibs could knock the whole thing over with a solid kick, but horses are part chicken. Looked like the training was going well.

Shane was my main focus. I had to tell him three times to stop trying to throw the big waterfall rocks into the ponds. He'd wander off and try to do it from a different angle to hide it from me. The third time his butt ended up in time out.

I get the allure, but these rocks were clearly brought in and used to build up the waterfall. I wouldn't care elsewhere (If anything, I'd join in).

Shane loves nature. He wanted to chase ducks, but got to feed them instead. Which he really liked hopping up to scare them a few steps back. Then he laughed as their appetites overruled their caution and they charged back in.

The dogs made for sturdier playmates.

Here were animals Shane could chase without getting yelled at.

The dogs even liked it.

We made a bonus barn stop at Jenny's. The gravel pile is much diminished.

The owners still aren't upkeeping their property at all. The front fence lines are a wreck. That has to hurt Jenny's ability to attract boarders and business. All of the horses are in a back field, but the only way to see it is to walk past the mess, through a trail in the woods, and into a clearing.

Carrie dealt with the horse stuff. Shane ran to climb a pine tree. I stay nearby for safety, but don't usually partake. If anything, I try to act as inconspicuous as possible so Shane will play naturally.

Not that it works. He knows I'm there. Maybe I should hop in more, but I'm afraid I'd deplete my entire store of energy for the day keeping up with him. I'd be in bed by 2 PM!. The who'd keep Shane busy? I feel like I'm running a marathon when watching him: I have to pace myself to make it to the finish!

Shane was happy to run around Jenny's barn again. He's got some good memories here.

Carrie gave Armour some care and love. She worries about Shane in general, but around horses? 

Which was good that she didn't see this developing. My philosophy is to let Shane try stuff and discover why it's a bad idea on his own.

He'll remember picking the slivers out of his socks more than the "I wouldn't do that," I uttered.

And I can laugh about it, too. Shane will probably think it's funny when he's older.

Jenny finished riding and came up while Shane and Carrie were petting a barn cat. They talked some shop, but I was at my limit. It was time to go home.

Guess who knocked? I'd love for Shane to get fully engrossed in a quiet indoor activity at some point, but it hasn't been in the cards! Carrie was on back-to-back business calls and Nova was sleeping, so it's not like I could bring the kids inside.

We ended up out from for a couple of hours. I did my best to be boring, so that the kids would play with each other. Raheem's obvious that he wants me to pop up and play basketball/entertain. I'm a burned out old man on summer break and they need to practice being friends, so I wasn't having it. Rah will sometimes throw a ball to me regardless of whether I'm looking or not when Shane stops everything to stare at a bug. Sometimes I throw it back. Sometimes I toss it the other way.

I forced Shane to go with me to the library after dinner. I wanted to pick up a book on CD for the trip. You'd have thought I asked Shane to clean out the cat's pot barehanded. I insisted we'd go. Shane insisted we should wait as long as possible before going and then do the deed as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Rah desperately wanted to go. I was tired and didn't want to clean out the whole car for a quick drive by, so I told him "Not this time."

Shane wanted to run to the library when we got out of the car. Then he told me, "I don't want to check anything out," as we walked in.

Then, he sat and read a book for 10 minutes.

Typical Shane. We stayed for half an hour. I started to feel guilty about not bringing Raheem because it was a "short trip", so I told Shane it was time to go. \

I was ready for electronics by the end of the night. So was Carrie. She'd been working while we were outside save for a 'break' to get a cortisone shot in her knee.

I wrote a lot and took a lot of pictures. No wonder I'm tired!