smellshorsey

Sick by a Nose

We're having problems with horse noses around here. Rather, with Buddy's nose. First off, his nose is sick. And secondly, his nose is extremely adept at sorting out medicine from food. I love this photo, but it is not mine. I found it here. You don't want to see Buddy's nose right now.

Buddy has pneumonia! He's on Banamine for three days to decrease the inflammation and help the antibiotic get where it needs to go. The antibiotic, Tucoprim, is a powder the consistency of flour. He'll be on it for ten days.

How can there be such a thing as sand colic when horses can sort pellets from dust? Buddy gets pelleted food, and he's able to sort the pellets out and leave the Tucoprim in a big pile. How can those lips be so agile?

Fortunately, I am slightly smarter than he is. I went out this morning and bought a bag of very sticky sweet feed. Mix the Tucoprim dust with that, and there's no sorting it out. Buddy made it all gone.

Horse camp is next week. I guess Lily will be taking Lucy, who will enjoy it whether or not Lily does.

We're hoping to see improvement in Buddy in the next few days. He's not bad BAD, but he's bad enough. No fever, but noisy lungs, discharge and coughing. So much for being healthy as a horse.

The Proposition

This photo was taken in 2006 when Lily borrowed a school pony, Tudor, to ride in an event because Buddy kept bucking her off. Tudor was great and they had a wonderful ride and a great time. Too bad their dressage circles were, um, not very circular. Tudor was a good boy and did much to build her confidence. Since Buddy was doing a lot of bucking, I regretted that I hadn't found Tudor before the riding school did. I was one week too late.

If I had found this horse before we got Buddy, I would have bought him. He's a cute little QH-type kid's horse who's just perfect. He is fun and willing, and the riding school bought him a week before I called the man who was offering him for sale. Tudor was the one who got away.

Buddy is fancier and bigger. And Buddy is absolutely wonderful (now), though he will still buck. But I still have a soft spot for Tudor. I've tried to figure out ways to get him. And now he's available.

Here's the problem -- and the proposition. A while back Tudor went to summer camp and discovered that if he bucked, the little kids fell off and he was rid of that problem. So they put more little kids on him, and he bucked them off, too. So they put big kids on him. Guess what. Splat! Yes, indeed, he learned to buck the big kids off, the experienced kids, you get the picture. So the head of the riding school worked with him and restored him to respectability. An older, more experienced student then leased him and absolutely loves him.

But he's bucked her off twice. The second time, she broke her ankle. So now he needs a new home, though she still comes out to pet him, groom him, love him and wants to start leasing him again. The riding school owner is over Tudor and looking to find him a new career, new owner, new whatever.

The riding school owner, knowing how much we like Tudor, called with a proposition. We can have Tudor and work past this little difficulty. Lily is older now and very much experienced with a horse that bucks. When Tudor is back to the sweet self we all remember and love, we can sell him and get whatever we can for him, minus a small sum to go back to the riding school owner. Actually, it's not all that small of a sum. If we can't sell him, she'll take him back.

Paul immediately said, "no" because he is a wise man who knows that horses like to eat. Lily immediately said, "yes" because she's been looking for an opportunity like this.  I immediately said, "Hmmm."

There are lots of reasons why this might be a great idea. We like the horse. It would feel good to rehabilitate him and help him go to a suitable home.  Lily is trying to save money for a fancy warmblood (Buddy is half QH -- doesn't that make him a warmblood?). I like a project. I like Tudor. I like the riding school owner.

I called Jane today to run it past her. Jane doesn't have a crystal ball, but she does have a better sense of, well, better sense.

There are a lot of reasons that it might work. But between the depressed price of horses, the danger of bodily harm to Lily and the unlikelihood of us being able to make a permanent change in his behavior, I don't think I'll be able to say yes.

I'm sure Lily could ride him and get him where he didn't buck her off. But I'm not sure that he wouldn't buck off the next person. We don't need him, couldn't keep him, would have to sell him. I'm not sure we could find the right buyer.

And we're already very fond of this little horse. This might just be heartbreak on a stick.

Back from Vacation

There's something wrong with this picture, which I took from our balcony at Grand Case Beach Club on the French side of St. Martin. Click to enlarge. Maybe then you'll see the problem.

Still don't get it? Well, you're not a 13-year-old girl on vacation. The problem with this picture is that there is no horse in it.

Lily was in paradise for a week -- and kept longing for Buddy.

Shut Down by Lightning

Lightning will strike twice and I'm here to prove it. I haven't been posting or visiting lately because I haven't had Internet access. The first time it struck and knocked out my modem. We have cable Internet, so I had to wait for the repair guy to come out this way. That took a few days. The modem was partially damaged but he connected me a different way and I was back online.

Then, on July Fourth, God put on a tremendous fireworks show with a great blessing of rain and enough lightning to power the U.S. if only we could capture and control that energy. This time the lightning struck us more than once and knocked out our telephone, Internet and cable TV. It took days and days to get a repair, and it's not quite right yet (so I get to wait for the repairman all day Friday). It fried the cable connections down by the street as well as the one leading into our house. We heard it when it hit. Yee ha! That'll get your attention.

But I'm back. And as I type this, I see another storm coming. Our Thunder Hound, who is afraid of lightning, has already stood on his hind legs to look in the window to tell us, "Let me in!" And he's in, probably trembling by my daughter's feet downstairs.

The grass is green and life feels good. One of my hay suppliers has already had a first cutting (which he saves for cows). Soon, surely I'll be getting 2008 hay. When it rains every day the grass grows -- but the farmers can't cut. As long as the grass is growing I'll sit here happy.

And my tadpoles are getting really big. No legs yet. They look like little black shiny whales.

So I'm back -- for now.

Tadpoles and Mosquito Larvae

There's a giant puddle around our watering trough. That's good news because it means that we've had rain. But that's also bad news because that means I'm raising my very own home-grown and hungry mosquitoes. There are squiggly larvae everywhere.

So, I went to the pest control section of my handy-dandy feed store, which sells everything from farm fashions (really nice stuff!) to mailboxes to plumbing and electrical supplies, and checked out my choices. They had exactly the right thing. A little doughnut-shaped thing you drop into standing water and it kills the mosquitoes. But what about my horses and birds? Does it hurt them? I couldn't figure out the answer to that question, so I didn't buy the stuff.

I decided to instead dig a trench and drain the pond/puddle. All went well and I had the water running out until I realized that the mosquito larvae weren't the only things in there -- there were also a zillion little black tadpoles. Yikes!

Hmmm. Frogs good. Mosquitoes bad. It's a life or death situation. Both die. Or both live.

The tadpoles were quite small, but I decided that they will grow (I hope) and just might feed on mosquito larvae. So I chose life.

I filled my trench in and added some water to the puddle.

I feel like a crazy person. My garden is overgrown, I haven't planted some plants that sit wilting in pots, and I'm here cultivating a tadpole/mosquito puddle. Not to mention the paying work that I could be doing, or the meal I could be cooking for a neighbor home from the hospital.

Next I'll be putting a net over my tadpole/mosquito puddle to keep the birds from eating my tadpoles, and then the horses will get tangled up in the netting and I'll have to drive them to the University of Georgia for costly horse repairs.

I guess I'll skip the netting, will look the other way when the birds visit, and I'll just keep watering my tadpoles. Congratulations will be in order when they've all turned into frogs.

I love summer.

Man Jumps off Horse and Drowns

I'm a worrier, and of all the things I worry about with horses, drowning has not been on my list. A man jumped off of a horse and drowned yesterday. Here's the sad but strange story from The State:

MAN DROWNS AFTER JUMP FROM HORSE

MYRTLE BEACH -- A 24-year-old Conway man who trained racehorses drowned after he jumped off a horse and into a pond, according to a preliminary autopsy.

Jonathan Durant, who worked at Nobles stable on Rogers Road, died at 10:24 a.m. Monday after the horse he was riding stepped into a pond on the property, said Horry County Deputy Coroner Tony Hendrick. He said Tuesday that Durant may have panicked once he was in the water after he jumped from the horse.

It's unclear why Durant jumped into the water, whether he could swim or why he could not get out of the pond, which was about eight to 10 feet deep, officials said.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at Conway Medical Center.

"There's nothing suspicious about it. It was accidental," Hendrick said.

"I just am not sure why he was unable to get out of the water."

Officials are waiting for toxicology results, which will take up to 12 weeks, Hendrick said.

Durant trained and rode horses for the Nobles Stables, owned by Bonnie and Leneau Nobles, according to his older brother Corey Durant.

"I couldn't believe that it was him. I went to the hospital. I saw him on the table, looking out of it. And I couldn't take it anymore, I had to leave. It seems like a dream to me," Corey Durant said.

"All he would say was he loved when he galloped and the speed to the finish line," Corey Durant said.

"We always stuck by each other. He was always pushing me to be stronger. I've been through a lot of trouble. He always came to me and said 'chill out' and 'do better.' He was almost a big brother, more than I was to him," said Corey Durant, 28.

Corey Durant will have to celebrate his birthday on Friday without his younger brother. The two had plans to go to the beach.

His mother, Virginia Durant Washington, said Jonathan Durant loved horses as a child, and that he started riding seriously after he graduated from high school.

"Ever since he was small he wanted to be a jockey. He said, 'Mama, I love to ride horses,'" she said.

Jonathan Durant's second cousin Denise Santoro shared his passion for horses. She used to compete in jumping horses over hurdles and dressage.

"He was so excited to tell me, 'Cuz, cuz, I'm a jock,'" she said. "We all have to die. At least he died doing what he loved."

-- The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News