#barn manager challenges

Today started well, with the farrier out bright and early to shoe horses, and I was ready almost 30 minutes ahead for once.

My assistant took one of the horses out for some in-hand walking as part of a new conditioning program, while I held the last couple of horses for shoes. She then called me from the arena saying that the mare was having a neurological event that in the moment appeared to be a seizure.The mare stumbled several times before falling against the fence and passing out for about 1 minute, with some tremors. She was able to get herself up, after my assistant carefully removed the halter at my instruction. (note that this part occured while I was still holding a horse for the farrier)

I called our vet clinic and consulted the on-call vet, who was not worried as she had no fever, and was reasonably aware and had gotten herself up and moving. The only sign of anything unusual other than the prior event was that even at rest with her head held at normal awareness you could see a leaping pulse along the jugular on both sides of the neck up to about halfway. (normally this is only visible in the bottom 1/4 where the neck meets the chest, I learned when the vet arrived later in the afternoon)

We placed the mare in one of my smaller riding arenas that was soft and clear of equipment along with some hay and water for turnout under observation for the rest of the day. I went into my house for lunch for about an hour.

I came out to find that during my lunch the mare had passed away, with minimal signs of a struggle. I am guessing that she had passed within the last 20 minutes prior to my arrival. The vet came out for an exam and determined that it was Congestive Heart Failure, of which the only signs may be a passing out event and the leaping pulse. There was literally nothing that could have been done unless she was already open on an operation table when the initial event occured. This mare had been healthy, sound, and in fabulous condition prior to this happening. I was grateful that my assistant was not injured, nor was the mare in a riding session. She was out in our arenas both times, probably the softest surfaces and safest areas that anything could have occured due to the good footing and pvc fences.

Ponies, Ponies Everywhere! Getting the herd ready for summer camp, which mean bringing in new horses and ponies! I am super excited, as this also will include my new horse, Copper! Ella, as seen in my bio pic, is still Queen of the Barn, but has fully retired from everything other than being the Empress of the yard ;) All told we will have 6, yes SIX new horses in our herd this year.

It was a big angry male who was not inclined to either scuttle away from my menacing broom nor play dead. Instead he growled and would bite it when I brandished it at him.

My record, with help, was 5 in one set, a mama with 4 juveniles, that were relocated together.

It was not easy!

My personal car picked up a screw in a front tire that I discovered as the air pressure tanked while leaving forcing me to take one of the company trucks instead. Took a minute to get swapped and get the truck running as I accidentally locked the steering wheel when I levered myself in #shortgirlproblems. (At least it was a work trip anyway, so I could use the truck)

Got the kittens to their appointment by 8am just in time 😅, returned home, made an appointment with the dealership. Good News the tire was holding the air I put into it all least!

Y'all, I spent 6 fricken hours at the dealership to get a single tire!!!

1. Checked in just before my appointment at 10:30am. I first waited 3 hours for them to inspect and check with the parts department

2. Then they tell me they looked up the wrong size

3. Then both the tire I need and the full spare kit are out of stock. I am fine if I have to pick up the spare at a later time, but I need a tire

4. They had a different brand in the right size, fine. Oops it's $65 more, great, I just need a tire don't care if it matches as long as it's equivalent to what's on there now

- at this point it's around 2:00pm, I call my coworkers to see if someone else can pickup the kittens as I have to leave by 3:15 to get there on time and I hadn't gotten a final cost estimate yet nor had the repair started.

5. Wait another hour or two. Apparently they had to go get a tire from somewhere.

6 finally get my car back at 4:30pm. My service manager had had to fight for them to go get the tire in the first place, but she did get both the tire and the spare discounted $100-$150 each for the excessive time I had to wait.

They had other plans.

2 behaved went into the open paddock as they were supposed to and then once their friends vanished returned to the barn. Also acceptable behavior.

The OTHER SIX went galavanting through the woods to our neighbor, who is luckily a great guy and up his long-ass gravel driveway to munch on his yard. Meanwhile im praying they don't go through the open road gate or continue to bushwhack down the street, as I trek up hoping I'm not going to get shot or taken out by a dog. His dogs are chill enough when they visit my property but you never know how they act on home turf...

Luckily I get them turned around, some of the other property staff show up to help and we wrangle them back to the barn and halter and walk them back over.

Needless to say I think I owe my full-time coworkers a drink or two.

Pic is of one of the ringleader mares, Carlie, from earlier in the year, her counterpart not pictured is a black Tennessee Walker named Nola. Carlie is my most likely to go galavanting if given the chance.

TW: Death of animal

Today was a hard day, I had the honor and duty to help lay to rest two horses that have been mainstays in the program I manage, one was actually at the barn longer than me, which is a number that is rapidly dwindling. It was a blessed day though, as both horses were calm before, just enjoying the lush meadow grass in the back field that we use until it was time, both calm and relaxed, and they both went down quietly, almost gently. Even later in the day, as I checked on the rest of their herd group, while one or two horses were occasionally looking for their missing friends, they were still all calm, no panicked calls, no stressed running. I knew taking on this position that this would be one of the tasks I faced each year, and this year has been the hardest, as I have either laid to rest, or lost to age or injury five horses, but other than one that I lost to colic, none were truly unexpected. I grieve for all the ones I lose, but today I also was shown the small joy in relief as I set them free from their struggles against time and age. For these two boys, I made the choice as their aging bodies started to fail them. They still loved attention, and the adoration of the kids, but could no longer handle even the pony rides for our smallest riders, and at the ages of 29 and 28 having served us for around 15 and 10 years each it was their due to cross the rainbow on a sunny morning, when the sky was clear with a gentle breeze, love to the end, and the taste of peppermint and fresh grass on their tongues.

You will be missed my boys, and are forever in my heart.

Rest in Peace: Bask Olim (Oli) and Ready to Rhumba (Rhumba)