Friday, April 10, 2015

sickie spa day

It's looking more and more likely that we won't have any new flu cases at our farm - yay! The sickies officially get turned out tomorrow - exactly 7 days after all the healthy horses got vaccinated for flu/rhino (giving them enough time for the booster to kick in). Then just one more week of quarantine and we should be all clear. Hurray!

'ooh yea that's the spot' - woody

In the meantime, our 9 patients have been stuck inside in their wooly coats with practically no real handling, while the weather is finally reflecting Spring's sudden (and lovely) arrival. These poor guys were getting so used to only being poked and prodded and getting their temperatures taken... we felt kinda bad. 

So the other day while I cleaned all the stalls another barn mate went down the line with her shedding comb to give some much needed TLC. 


shedding comb ftw

The horses LOVED it - even Isabel, who usually doesn't really seem to enjoy hands-on attention, was all about it. The lesson ponies were perhaps the most grateful, as it's possible that they never really get properly groomed by students, poor things! 

Pretty much without exception, each horse moved off its hay and stood like a statue for the grooming (except when N stopped - then they got all up on her like, 'um 'scuse me, but MOAR please!'). It was pretty sweet :)


that lip tho!

We'll be so happy to put this quarantine behind us too. Even beyond selfish reasons, this has just been so much WORK. No healthy horses were allowed inside the barn - meaning feeding times suddenly became much more complicated. All the healthy horses (21 of them) were fed outside, rather than just getting tossed into their stalls for dinner.


But of course they're all moderately food aggressive so supervision was necessary... meaning we had to hold each individual horse to feed it.... And some of them are soooooooo slowwwwwww omg. Ask me to do any physically demanding chores and it's all good. Ask me to stand around and hold a horse while it eats dinner? I'm dying on my feet of exhaustion and boredom. 


seriously, i'm yawning just looking at this

So again, starting tomorrow the barn mgmt routine should return to normal, with hopefully a quick 7 day countdown to resuming riding again.... can't come soon enough! 

26 comments:

  1. Glad you're getting closer to riding and things getting back to normal! :)

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  2. Oh I hate waiting on horses to finish eating, too! Pig is THE SLOWEST. :)

    You must be so happy for things to go back to normal!

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    1. omg soooo slow. i think it's a tb thing, honestly haha

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  3. Hahaha my Trainer was complaining last night about some of the slow eaters. Apparently there is one horse at our barn who takes like 30 minutes! Fiction is also super slow :(

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    1. yea we've got a couple who seem to get close to 30min... which is made even more comical when the little ones like isabel practically inhale their food

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  4. So glad the end is near! I know how much work quarantine can be....no one wants to have to go through that!

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    1. seriously! the end is definitely near, in the best way possible

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  5. Those sweet shedding ponies! They must've loved all that lovin :)

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    1. it was really pretty adorable. i had made the mistake of scratching and brushing them a bit whenever i went in to take temperatures, and they were all so starved for attention that they were practically pinning me to the wall for more scritches lol

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  6. yay for things progressing right along! and what a nice thing to do to groom them. it sounds like they all appreciated the extra attention! :)

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    1. the poor things are all so resigned to their fate of being forever stalled... will be curious to see their reactions to being free again tomorrow lol

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  7. Excited for the "Big Q" to end!

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  8. Whoop whoop for normalcy!

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  9. Yay, the end is in sight! I used to work at a barn where the horses got their breakfast out in the field - same story with the grain. When I drive by I still can't help but mentally sigh at the one super slow horse, I frequently see him out there finishing his breakfast hay well after noon - thank goodness they finally gave him his own paddock at least :)

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    1. it really is exhausting haha- esp when they're in such a rush to come and eat in the first place... definitely looking forward to individual stalls again!

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  10. Awh I love handfeeding! Unless I"d rather be eating myself haha

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    1. it can definitely be nice quiet time to share with your horse... but it gets old after two or three slow pokes, esp when there are 21 who need to eat!

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  11. So glad more aren't getting sick! I know you're over all this.

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    1. haha seriously!! i gotta keep reminding myself that it could have been way worse... but i'll be happy if we never have to go through this again lol

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  12. I am so behind on all the goings on ! I hope this passes soon, but how lucky are those horses to have such loving care-takers. Watching a horse eat can be boring..maybe a good book or two will help :p

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    1. part of me thinks the horses were grateful for the extra attention, the other part of me thinks they'd rather just be let out to be free haha...

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