What a day...

On Thursday we had the vet out to do Strangles vaccines. Most of the horse's were good about it, with the exception of Rocket who knew what was coming and wanted no part of it! Just as we were finishing up, Natalie mentioned her feet were cold...and then I realized mine were too....I never have cold feet in the barn with that nice heated floor, so I checked the boiler, and sure enough, it wasn't working. AHHHHH! Rob tried to talk me through getting it back on line, but nothing worked, so we called Double G Mechanical out to work on it...but they couldn't get it going right away either.

So Rob has me all worried the barn is going to freeze up and pipes and toilets would be bursting, so I carefully put blankets in front of the doors to block all potential drafts...but still lost sleep. The concern was unwarranted; when I got in the barn this morning it was still 12 degrees...apparently the horses do a good job of keeping the barn warm and Rob did a great job in building it! That is one of the very nice things about in floor heating. It heats the cement mass in the floor and walls and takes a long time to cool off.

As well as the boiler not working, poor Lily's head was swelling up like a cartoon horse. Still happy enough, but looked like a horse a 5 year old would draw, so called the vet and her owner, and got her looked at at the same time as Double G was out trying again to get the boiler working and as I taught an "intro" lesson to a new potential student. Chaos! Thankfully Natalie was out in the afternoon to help me! Poor Lily looks to be allergic to something, so please don't feed her any treats or hay until we are sure of the cause. We think/hope it is a weed or something in the latest load of hay that Miss California Girl just hasn't been exposed to yet.

After the vet, repair men, and students all went home the barn seemed oddly quiet and I felt exhausted. Fortunately Pony was a very well behaved little dressage horse as she was my last ride of the day and I don't think I had the energy to deal with any silliness. For a 13.3 hand pony, she doesn't feel small under me in the least! She is taking well to dressage too, and is starting to learn all the lateral work.

After a rush trip into town to get hay cubes for Lily, I came home to spend a quiet evening in the house being harassed by neglected cats. Today marked Rolo's first attempt at playing. I have tried playing with him before, but he just looks at me oddly. Sadly his choice for his first toy was Ginger's tail...seriously, that dog deserves a medal for her patience with that cat! Right now he is complaining we are not all tucked into bed yet.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Karen