Going From Below Normal To Above Normal Temps...

Good Gravy mother nature is really off her menopausal rocker right now...

As I was sitting in my air conditioned house at 7:00 a.m. this morning cruising FaceBook for the latest and greatest gossip...I mean knowledge to glean from it, my friend and trainer Mike posted.  Just an interesting little story to go along with the importance of watching your "stock" for signs of distress or change of behavior when the weather changes!

Thanks again Mike for your flare for writing and your knowledge!!  (0:

Getting warm out there. 96 yesterday, by the end of the day I could not talk myself into firing up my forge and shoeing that horse I need to get shod. Maybe, today.

But, this heat sure makes you think about salt/mineral blocks. One of my Belgians is very sensitive  To the point of being delicate. I've been noticing some strange behavior. Came close to consulting with a vegetarian. No distress, no temp, just droopy and a little gaunted. Some strange urination habits had me most concerned, had a leaky peeper. Had me worried though.

Was scratching my head on the topic one night, and it hit me like a ton of bricks, Selenium. GD if it ain't Selenium. I've had a plain white salt lick out, and the Northwest is Selenium deficient! GD! I was kind of pissed at myself. I had been feeding a separate mineral supplement in oats, but changed concentrates a couple months ago, and didn't put a mineral block out.

Well, I put out a selenium block and in two days Tiny was back to his old self. Whew....

I remember some years ago when I lived down the valley a few miles from some Amish folk. They were really nice people(and, Mrs. Bournetreager could bake a pie you wouldn't believe! I know, I was at their bake sale every Saturday like clock work), but they didn't take such good care of their stock. Which surprised me.

About once or twice a summer their horse herd, about 65 head, would get out and run down the valley. I was camped at a pasture with my 11 and my dog. I woke up one night to Thunder! But, no lightning? I peeked out my bed roll cover sheet and spied horses fighting over my extra salt licks I had piled up near the pump house. By the time I got up, dressed, and fired up my pickup, they had devoured two whole blocks. Only some smaller chunks lay on the ground. They were starved for salt!

I hopped in the pickup and got in behind the herd, drove them over the bridge, onto the highway, down to the Bournetreagers (about 6 miles), and into Mr. B's yard at 2 in the morning. Boy, did I love waking everybody up with 65 head of horses in the yard!

But, I always remember the way those horses attacked the salt and were desperate for it. It's so important, and not just Na-Cl, but trace minerals too!

Thankfully, I got to the bottom of my draft horse's lethargy and leaky peeper.

I'm Boring!!

I have given up riding all together now... Remi is wondering what in the worlds going on.  I am guessing that in her entire life she has NEVER had it so easy as she has since she moved in here.  With this year being the easiest of all.  I'm not sure she is totally happy with it either...

So I had that light bulb moment, and thought I'd see if Mindy would take her for the summer and ride her.  We talked about it briefly and then this happened to my sister....

Not too sure how this is going to show up...  But this (above) is Mindy's right foot.  

A week ago this last Wednesday, Mindy was at a barrel race and her horse went down on the backside of the third barrel.  Although my sister came off and tried to roll out of the way, The Bomber struggled to get up and ended up "following" Mindy as she tried to get away.

The breaking of her toes (yes all of them were broken, with the big toe being the worst) occurred when The Bomber used Mindy's foot to push off on while getting up. 

Look at the sweet face...  Its not her fault!  (0:

So now Mindy finds herself out for the rest of the summer.  She has had another visit with the Orthopedic Surgeon in 3 weeks.  They "set" her big toe and set her on some crutches to go home on until the swelling goes down.  She has a lot of tendon and ligament damage as well as a bunch of busted toes.  Thus giving her so much swelling that they couldn't really make any decisions on what to do until the swelling has subsided.

With my sister out of commission, Remi will get her shoes pulled and be done with any kind of riding until early fall...  Looks like Breeze Bomb will also be just chilling until early fall as well.

I'll keep you updated!  (0:

Once I finished my work week I loaded up Kage and headed over to give my sister a hand for a couple of days, until my dad, who is waiting on a job to start, could get over to help for a while.  

All of Mindy's close friends are headed on vacation at the same time... Beginning last week and running through the end of this month...  So she is stranded for the most part while Fred is at work.  With her right foot disabled, NO driving.  )0:

I didn't do a lot.  Just horse care, visiting, a little cooking, and a little bit of childcare.  With a kid like Wyatt really it's fun!!

Here are a few examples of our fun!

Getting spiders off of April's stall.

Cruising on his motor cycle.

And the trampoline!!

Watching Kage dig.

Helping Kage dig.

And supervising the old dogs "cool down".  I told Wyatt Kage was tired.  He looks at me and says, "Yeah, it looks like he ran out of gas."  Funny kid!!

As my little stay-cation was winding down, we were sitting on the back porch watching April (the worlds best little horse) graze and noticed a red car at the end of Mindy's drive way.

We watched it for about 10 minutes and then here comes a cop car.  Then another, and another.  Finally there were 5, and the red car.  So we grabbed the binoculars and watched for another 30 minutes or so.  Nothing of note was happening, so we went inside to make salsa and grab some drinks.  

We found some horses to look at on line and then sent Wyatt out to look and see if the cops were still there.

Sure enough they were.

Where all the "fun" is going on....

So we finished the salsa, looked at more horses (that neither one of us can currently ride ) drank more ice water, and sent our little spy out one more time.  Yes, he says, they are still there.  This odd little saga has now been playing out for an hour and a half.

All of our "ideas" as to what was going on are now spent and we are tired of concocting more, so Mindy calls the sheriff's dept. to find out what's up.

Apparently there is an armed suspect loose in the 3000 block of Mindy's road (she is 2900 block) and they are telling everyone to stay in their homes and turning back people who don't live on said road.  Would have been nice to know that earlier...  We decide that maybe should get the .44 in an easily accessible (for people 5 ft 5 and over) place and make sure we had shells nearby for it.

After we had done that...we decided that we were probably pretty damn safe with the now 4 sheriff's deputies and 2 city cops and 4 boarder patrol all parked at the end of the drive way and decided to carry on as if there was nothing going on.

When Fred came home, he spoke with someone at the top of the driveway, and found out the situation had finally resolved itself and they were getting ready to pull out and leave us in peace.

Not that we were THAT disturbed by what was going on, but you know what I mean.  (0:

As I was telling my story to Chad, he says to me, "There is never a dull moment with you and your sister, even with both of you semi out of commission..."

Yes dear...

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