I'm Fuming!!

Quoata with my niece Olivia, 2007.

How to begin this rant...

Lets start with my scheduling Horse Girls ultra sound.  

What a fiasco.  The long and the short of it is that there is a new office person, and she and I were not able to communicate.  I though I had made an appointment with Dr. Peters on Friday, she thought I'd made one with him on Thursday.

Jamison, 2008.

So on Thursday I got a phone call asking if everything was OK and if I would be there soon....well actually it was a message, that I promptly returned, and ended up with an appointment on Friday with the New Vet.
At the new hospital...they have closed the Post Falls Office...which didn't impress me.  I loved the Post Falls Office.  I knew how long it took me from my front door to their front door...Have I ever mentioned that I L.O.V.E. routine and familiarity?
Well I do!!  (0:

Lucy, 2008.

So I was able to get to the new hospital easily enough and get there 10 minutes before my appointment...  This made me very happy.  I hate to be late.  I like to be a wee bit early.

 Tony, 2009.

Pulling into the new hospital, I was NOT impressed with the parking lot or the location of the office to the hospital.  You had to get out of your rig to go in and check in...  Which you may think is no big whoop, but there is a sign that says you can't go any farther without checking in.  And to do this, you have to literally stop in the middle of the lot and no one can get by you until you're checked in.  Luckily I was parked and unloaded when the OTHER two trailers came in.  I did not see if one of them had to stop in the street to wait for the other to finish checking in or not...
The parking lot was huge once you got past the bottle neck.  The outside stalls were nice and large.  The exam room was nice and very large.  An MRI machine was parked outside, and the exam room had a huge roll up garage door.  That way they could take the MRI in and our of this area.  They had huge indoor stalls.  and all kinds of new stuff all over the place.
Wahoo!

Scarlet and Missy, 2009.

I honestly cannot remember the New Vets name.  She is little blonde and well...she stinks.  Not literally, but definitely figuratively!!
As I loaded Horse Girl into the stocks, I tried to fill in the New Vet in on all we've been through... But the New Vet cut me off twice when I was trying to give her some back story, because well, I suppose she knows everything about everything...  The New Vet turned the screen to herself, asked me to hold her head and hunted for my foal.  She announced that she found an ovary.  Then said, guess I need to clean her out more, because I cannot see the other ovary.  So more scooping...more looking, NO SHOWING... Once she announces that she has found the second ovary I ask her if there is any fluid visible.  She said no. Thank God.  No fluid.  I saved my breath on why I wanted to know.

Calamity, 2008.

Then the New Vet asked me if I was going to re-breed.  And I told her that I probably would.  She said, so you want to short cycle her.  In my head I'm thinking, "REALLY??  It's the middle of September, who breeds in September???"
 I tell her I was talking about NEXT year.  She said something to the effect that she was wondering about me...  I just laughed and told her I wonder about myself some days too.
She told me to load up and head to the office so that I could take care of my bill, she'd send it over momentarily.

Breeze, 2011.

So out I went.  As we headed out, I looked at the other customers that were there.  Both had trailers and were standing by horses that were in the outdoor pens.  I guessed they were there for a pick up and waiting on the New Vet.

Remi, 2012.
Got to the office and waited.  Waited, waited, and waited some more.  I was sitting there actually thinking that I wished I'd had my cell phone with me so I had something to do while I was waiting for them to get there stuff together.  Funny how your cell phone can become such a crutch...
Anywhoo in struts the vet and she says, so what did you say your horses name was.  Horse I said, it's so bland its easy to forget.
She smiles and says oh, no I think it's clever.
O.K. then, clever.

Fiona, 2012.

One of the office staff asks if I am going to try again next year.  I said, yes, no, maybe.  I really don't know right now.  Then the vet says wow you've got a lot of horses.  I asked her what?  She says I'm looking at your files and you've got a lot of horses, so maybe not having one more isn't such a bad thing.
Well O.K. then.  I really didn't know what to say.
 What I wanted to do was jump across the desk and give her an a$$ whooping.  Who cares how many horses I have??
My retort was pretty weak...
I just said, I don't have all of them now.  Some are my sister's, a few were my old landlords, one is dead now, I've sold a few...  All I've got at my house is three.
She just stared at me and so did everyone else.
Wonder what my face looked like.
I was and am still MAD.  And sad... I wanted Horse Girl to be preggo... And to have a vet insult me, like I'm some sort of hoarder or something...

Midori and Bender, 2006.

GRRRrrrrr....

Chix, 2012.

After Horse Girls false negative on the culture that probably prevented her pregnancy at this vets office... Mindy's bad experience with them (that I haven't mentioned), the fact that the ultra sound cost me $76.00, and this New Vets stupid comment, I'm not sure if I'm gonna use these guys any more.  After 10 years -/+, I'm just not sure...

Sally, 2012.

Hopefully I won't have to think about it until spring.  When I'm less upset about everything...

Mave, 20009.

And for the record, I've had quite a few horses through that vets office.  But for the record, it's not really that  MANY horses!  (0:
I'm going to list them for fun....

Horse Girl, 2012.

Quoata- My old mare...we put her down in 2007 at the age of 23.
Midori- My little one eyed mare, out on a care lease for the last 7 years.
Kope- Now my mom's horse.
Dolly- The landlords horse that he sent to slaughter.
Mave- Dolly's baby.  Living at the landlords.
Libby- Landlords buddies mare I rode for a summer.
Jamison- Libby's baby, living at the landlords.
Scarlet- Landlords mule.
Missy- Landlords mule.
Tony- Landlords horse.
Sally- Mindy's horse.
Horse Girl- Our spotted donkey!  (0:
Daylee- Kope's full sister. Sold her to some nice people.  I still get updates, I'd buy her back if they ever got tired of her and wanted to get rid of her!
Easy- Horse Girls son.  Same sire as Fiona, one year younger.  Starting to make a pretty good heading horse.
Bender- Midori's son, sired by a grandson of Frenchman's Guy.
Creed- Midori's son, sired by Horse Girls sire.  I used to drive by him everyday, but haven't seen him since last fall...  I have considered stopping by and see if they sold him.
Hennessy- Landlord's stud colt.  Full sibling to Mave.  Sire to Horse Girl's twins that we lost...accidental breeding...careless landlord...what a load of drama...
Breeze- Mindy's good barrel horse.
Chix- Mindy's half sister to Breeze that she sold.
Lucy- Crazy mare Mindy bought, I rode for a summer.  Then we re-homed to a kid in Wyoming.
Fiona- My baby!  (0:
Calamity- Fiona and Easy's sibling by the same sire.  Sold to Las Vegas...
Jack-Jack- Chad's Hee-Haw.
Patron- My Hee-Haw.
Tari- You all know Tari!!
Speedy- Tari's colt... You all know Speedy!!
Princess- Same owner as Libby.  I tried to buy her as a three year old.  Guy wanted 10K for her. (For nor good reason...he's a doctor, well retired now...but there was no way she was worth that...)  She was also a granddaughter of Doc Tari.  Same as our Tari.  Only this Tari is a paint horse.  I can't remember all of her paint lines, but I loved that mare!

Daylee, 2006.

And that is all I can remember right now.  There could be more, but there is definitely not less!  (0:

Quoata, 2006.

For My Husband! LOL!!

You Could Buy One Cheaper...The End Of The 2012 Breeding Season

Well, lets see just where I left off...

Oh, yes.  Horse Girl had been released to be bred, had refused the stallion and had been hauled back to the vets clinic and had already ovulated, giving us only a 50/50 chance at conception.  So the vet opted NOT to breed her.  To save me some money. Thank you Dr. Jon!!  So we short cycled her and off to Terry's house she went.  And she stayed there until a couple of days before she should be ovulating.  Then back to the vets office for ultra sound to watch her egg folicale develop and for the prime time to cover her.  They opted to collect the first day, live cover the next day, and then breed her again via AI on the third day.  Then back to Terry's for the next 15 days.  On the date of her actual appointment for the preg check, the vet had an emergency and had to reschedule.  So she was ultra sounded a 3 days later.

AND...the ultra sound showed fluid AGAIN!  What in the world??  The vet did a culture and found no infection.  Terry called and said that there was a folical developing and that it appeared as though it would be mature right before I got there to pick her up.  Did I want her to cover her ONE last time as a last hurrah?  The vet had given her a wee bit of pentocian (I think this is the drug he gave her...if it wasn't then it was oxytocian.) to cause a slight contraction of the euturous, just enough to try and "squeeze" out the fluid if I chose to try and cover her one last time. 

I told Terry I was really bad at throwing in the towel and if the mare would accept the stallion, lets give it one more try.  Terry said she was glad I said yes, because she really has a hard time quitting as well.

On August 17th I drove to Mindy's house, the first "leg" of my journey to pick Horse Girl up.  Terry was able to cover her the afternoon of the 17th!  (0:  (Chad had to bale on me and I needed a co-pilot.  So I drove to Mindy's to pick her up...then went South...It was a LONG drive...)  Terry was able to cover Horse Girl again on Friday morning!  Oh, happy happy, joy joy!!  Mindy and I left her house in the wee hours of the morning and drove just outside of Sprague River Oregon to meet Terry and pick up Horse Girl.
So we our last date of cover as August 18, 2012.  A month later than I had wanted but, but hey we still had a shot at a baby!!
So far nothing had gone as planned!  Why am I shocked?  I'm not, if it wasn't for bad luck, this mare wouldn't have any luck at all.
Tari was/is still at Mindy's so Horse Girl had a familiar face to chat with all night and settled right in and had a nice little rest before we drove back to Spirit Lake.

My round trip on this little trip was 1842.5 miles in 3 days.  (Driving to Mindy's added over 800 miles...) I have no asperations of repeating that again any time soon...  Unless Mindy needs me to, then I would.  But for myself, nope.  Not going to do it!!  If Horse Girl didn't take I promised her, myself, my husband, and my sister I will ship cooled semen!!

Direct costs, everything...including my vets ultrasound costs, stud fee, fuel, toll bridge to leave Olympic Peninsula, and every other receipt I have collected: $2631.98
Fuel is a very large portion of the actual costs, as you can imagine.  Average cost of diesel on the trip to pick up Horse Girl was $4.45 per gallon.  The second major cost on this adventure was vet costs.

Indirect costs didn't really go up much..just a meal, drinks and some snacks: $478.37

Total out of pocket: $3109.37
(OUCH!!)
And what did the vet see when she (this is a whole 'nuther blog post) ultra sounded my horse?

NOTHING!

)0:

On the sad poor me note, there was no baby.  But on the bright side of that, there wasn't any fluid in the uterus.  I will be calling my regular vet to speak with him this week and discuss what happened with Horse Girl this breeding season.  I will ask him to call Dr. Jon and talk to him, to see if collectively they think that the infection she had to begin with just put us behind the eight ball on getting her bred.
I called Terry to let her know our diagnosis...and she was just as bummed as I was.  She also fed me a little bit of info I either missed or didn't get.  The infection in Horse Girls uterus was a staph infection... Makes me think that her tissue just wasn't healthy enough to allow an egg to implant...  But what do I know?  I'm just an arm chair quarterback.  (0:

So my friend, who started this little blog series, was right.  Goodness I could have bought a few REALLY nice horses in this wee bit down market..  Could have bought two years worth of hay....  Could have, should have, would have....

Better luck next breeding season to me!  (0:

Hmmm.....

Cleaning Off My Lolly Pop...

Because about two and a half weeks ago I threw the damn thing in the dirt...

That's when I realized that summer was over and I had fallen pretty short on my horse/riding goals for the summer....and that I was still far too fluffy for my liking....I guess that falls into my summer horse goals, but not directly horse related....but related non the less.  Which then in turn is related to why I should throw my sucker in the dirt...  (0:

I started out pretty good.  Riding 4-5 days a week.  Working on Fiona's start that she got from Brian and working on legging up Remi for "our" barrel runs that we were going to make this year.  

Finding at long last a saddle/pad combo that worked for Remi...and then everything kind of went sideways.  (All except the fluffy part....I never really got that "work" rolling at all....)

Remi had (what we guessed) was a stone bruise.  That laid us up for about two weeks.  That doesn't seem like much time off, but it was an interruption to my mojo that I  really didn't over come.

Fiona has been off on the hind...her "good" hind, for about two weeks, and kept throwing a hind...her "bad" hind shoe until we decided to just go with fronts only... Jake said he guesses it was something she was doing while playing...  She actually plays a lot.  Wild child that she is!  Then she got a poke on the left front that got infected and swelled up from ankle to elbow.
Then I pulled her out for a new set of shoes the first of August and she was lame on the right front.  Yet another poke this one right over the tendon.  Another two weeks of limping.  I wonder if I need to invest in some bubble wrap for her?

Somewhere in all of this it got grossly hot. ( This was during and after my little jaunt on swing shift...)  Working in an non-air conditioned shop with equipment that produces heat makes my work environment 10-15 degrees hotter inside than outside.  I was coming home exhausted and was barely able to get the dogs ran and horses fed...  Or so I felt and it seemed.  I just had nothing to give as far as riding... I was done in.  Ice water and air conditioning was all I could think about as I pulled into the driveway!

During all of that we were trying to get Horse Girl bred too...  And things we not going well.  So at the end of August/first of September, I really had my self a little pity party.  As I was reminiscing to Mindy about my woe's it occurred to me that plenty of good stuff happened too.  And I could either dwell on what I didn't get done OR be happy with what I did get done.  I had a lot of "good things" happen too.

Fiona has came a long way, and although I still don't know if she can hold up to real riding, Brian liked her...  And he does know stuff!  (0:  Fiona also had started complaining when I rode her the same way too many times in a row.  She was actually happy if I shook things up.  Even if that was riding through the trees along the road vs riding on the road.  We trotted circles around mud puddles and used them to trot figure 8's and she actually enjoyed it.  So now I know she is smart!  Only a smart horse would protest the same routes!  (0:

Remi and I have actually bonded and she has started a pretty good bond with Chad.  Her breath holding is diminishing and her personality is busting through...and she is so enjoyable!
Her saddle and pad fit it now good!  And although we didn't make it to a race this year, we are now speaking the same language and NEXT YEAR, we are going to do it!

Twin Willows Farm or the BRC let me help at their barrel races they hosted this year.  And I loved it!  I had no idea what it took to put a race on, and know that there is still more that I don't know.  But I learned a lot.  We had 40-50 racers in the open on each of the four days (two separate weekends) and everyone was nice, friendly, and accommodating.  It was a great experience to be on Team Twin Willows if only for a couple of weekends!!

I also got to spend lots of time with the worlds cutest little boy!  (0:
Got to spend time with my good friend Pat and her family.  Her daughter is Miss Rodeo Idaho.  Caitlin Thornton.  She will be competing for Miss Rodeo America this year in Vegas!

Our appointment to see if Horse Girl took on her last hurrah is next week...Friday at 4:30 p.m.  After that appointment I will finish up my You Can Buy One Cheaper with the results of her ultra sound...and fill you in on all the ups and downs...and of course money spent.  Through all of this crazy fertility stuff, I met and befriended some really great people.  People who you can trade animal stories with for hours...
I'm not going to lie, I'd love to have a Si Dude baby next summer, but if it's not in the cards for 2013, we will try and figure out something for 2014.  These people are wonderful to work with.  They REALLY go out of their way to do right by you and your mare.... And Terry actually sent me a text about a week after Horse Girl left and told me she missed her goofy antics and personality.  I was so very happy to know that she truly did like my mare and enjoyed having her around.

So Seven has licked all of the big chunks off of my sucker, I've given it a quick swill in the water trough and popped the thing back in my mouth!  (0:

I'll try and squeeze a few rides in on my girls as they start to hair up and make BIG plans for next year's riding season!!

09-11-01

Yet Another FYI

My Very Own Charlotte

As odd as it may sound...  I was so happy to see this large spider in my barn.  I don't want it on me, but just love the way she looks....  I just wish she caught more of those stupid flies and maybe some of the black gnats we got this spring!  (0:

Hope she doesn't creep anyone out!

 

All I Need to Know in Life I Learned From My Horse

All I Need to Know in Life I Learned From My Horse

1. When in doubt, run far, far away.

2. You can never have too many treats.

3. Passing gas in public is nothing to be ashamed of.

4. New shoes are an absolute necessity every 6 weeks.

5. Ignore cues. They're just a prompt to do more work.

6. Everyone loves a good, wet, slobbery kiss.

7. Never run when you can jog. Never jog when you can walk. And never walk when you can stand still.

8. Heaven is eating for at least 10 hours a day... and then sleeping the rest.

10. Eat plenty of roughage.

11. Great legs and a nice rear will get you anywhere. Big, brown eyes help too.

12. When you want your way, stomp hard on the nearest foot.

13. In times of crisis, take a poop.

14. Act dumb when faced with a task you don't want to do.

15. Follow the herd. That way, you can't be singled out to take the blame.

16. A swift kick in the butt will get anyone's attention.

17. Love those who love you back, especially if they have something good to eat. 

My Excuse For Being Absent Lately...