Thursday – April 22, 2021

Some days don’t go smoothly, and today was one of those. It was Earth Day, which should have been a delightful day! Stars were maybe out of alignment. Nothing drastic, and not much to blog about.

For starters, it was another very cold night. It was even colder than Tuesday night, and this second freeze seemed to wreak more havoc on plants. Soon enough, though, the frost melted and it turned into a really gorgeous day. I planned to take some wildflower pictures, but didn’t get to that.

• 

• 

• 

I actually took these two bird pictures while outside on the back porch. Some of the birds are getting used to me.

• 

• 

Rebecca came to help with the gardens. Roscoe supervised.

• 

While Rebecca was weeding near the paddocks, the horses came up and were extremely spooked. I think they saw her hair, and thought it was a return of the Guinea hen! Bart was so terrified, I couldn’t even get a picture. Oisin’s picture chopped off his chin. Third one’s a charm, and Stone’s picture was a good one. Extreme attention makes for a cool portrait, though is never much fun when on the horse’s back! It often presages a spin and bolt.

• 

• 

• 

Then Rebecca told me that her horse, Mascotti, has had a very bad week. Last Thursday he got cast. That doesn’t sound so bad, unless you are a horse person, and then you know it can be a disaster. He is a 28 year old horse, and he got stuck lying down in the barn. Rebecca managed to get him freed after a long ordeal, which included having to saw part of the barn out of the way. He was quite exhausted and scraped up, but with care and attention, he seemed to be fine for a few days. But now, he is very lame on his left hind leg. Chances are, it is unrelated to last Thursday, and is probably an abscess.

Since Rebecca doesn’t have hoof testers, I decided to go over to her house and see if I could help find an abscess. Really, there is nothing more satisfying. Against Rebecca’s protests (she never wants to impose, though she is always doing things for other people), I followed her home to take a look. Mascotti is a lovely horse, a tolerant gentleman, but he did not react to hoof testers, which was a shame. Rebecca soaked his foot, and we wrapped it with an epsom salt poultice, and will now hope for resolution. It certainly presents like a hoof abscess.

• 

I did get some bird pictures at Rebecca’s house – her lovely chickens, providers of delicious eggs for us, and one of her more traditional colored Guinea hens, darker than Joanne’s stray that visited us recently.

• 

• 

• 

With all the bending over, my back has become problematic. It is so frustrating getting old and creaky! I came home, finished chores, scribbled (metaphorically) these few lines, and now intend to take a long, hot bath – epsom salts for me, too. Better day tomorrow (and with any luck an abscess will open for Mascotti).

Stay safe, stay well. Peace (and pus, we hope).