Could It Be.... Winter is Over???

I sure as heck hope that winter is indeed over! The above photo was taken in December of the creek that runs through the Second Chance Event Team property. Even though this photo was taken at the beginning of winter... it was that way off and on (more on!) pretty much through the entire winter. It was VERY cold for a native Californian. Keeping horses in the snow, ice, and mud has been quite an adventure. I was tempted to do as the neighbors did and just toss them out and throw them a big bale of hay.


Fortunately, for my horses, my conscience would not permit me to feel okay about sending them out in the cold. Instead we built them a nice barn where they spent their evenings luxuriating in their warm stalls with their soft shavings to lay down on. They had a housekeeper (me) cleaning their stalls once a day if they went outside for the daytime, or twice a day if it was too nasty to turn them out. They had a food fairy (me) feeding them three times a day to keep them occupied with something besides tearing down the barn, or chewing on trees. They had a wardrobe consultant and dresser (me) who made sure they were layered appropriately for the cold outside and that on wet days they had a waterproof blanket on. They had a groomer and hairstylist (me) who made sure they were not so laden with clay mud that they were carrying over 100lbs of it, and who made sure tails were braided and in socks so that the mud did not stick the hairs together like a big baseball bat that they could knock themselves and eachother around with. All in all, I would say the equine members of the Second Chance Event Team had life pretty good this winter.







I on the other hand... hated it. This very sad looking tree from our front yard echoed my feelings each morning I ventured outside. Even though I did get to ride at Stonewall in the indoor arena.. it was still a very harsh winter for me. Okay, okay, those of you in FARGO are snickering at the Princess... but I just don't even want to get out of the house in the winter here.



My new friends and neighbors have told me that this is NOT normal and has been a very harsh winter. I sure do hope they are right. We ended the winter with over two feet of total snowfall, lots of ice storms taking out the power, days with windchill below zero, and many days in the single digits, teens, and low 20s. That is too cold for this CA Girl.


But.... Spring is beginning! This area is just gorgeous in Spring, Summer, and Fall. The grass stays a lush green (unlike my former homes in CA and ID in Summer and Fall), and there are huge trees providing shade and the wonderful rustling when the breeze blows through them. I am sure by the end of April, I will remember why I really love this area and the memory of my frozen fingers and toes, and of chopping ice in horse waterers will be fading and it will all seem very worth it.




I have been promising better photos of the barn for some time and this morning decided (after I cleaned the barn!) to take some photos of it and include some inside photos.



This is a photo of the stall fronts. There are three stalls with sliding doors.

This is a photo of the aisleway and hay storage area. The door leads into the tackroom.




This is a single stall front. The top 1/2 of the dutch door leading to the outside is open, but can be closed up when weather is bad... or the occupant of the stall is pawing the door!




This is the inside of the tackroom. I still have a lot of organizing to do as you can see.

This is a view of inside the horse stall. I had planned on attached corner mangers for feed... but the budget did not permit this winter and I will add them later. For now the horses are content with a plebian black feed tub and water buckets.

An overview of the outside of the barn with the dutch doors open. As you can see there is no green grass or leaves on the trees yet, but with the lovely weather we are having it won't be long now.

Arena Building

My main project recently is the design and construction of an all weather outdoor riding arena and also some landscaping and measures to make horsekeeping in winter a lot more convenient.

I have settled on a contractor to do all of the arena and landscape work, and I have researched the materials for the arena in depth. What I have come up with is that first the area to be used as the arena needs to have about four inches of topsoil and organic material removed from it. Then we will need approximately 500 tons.. YES TONS of lime screenings spread evenly 6" deeep over the prepared surface. The lime will harded like concrete once compacted and weathered (known as "curing") for a while. The hardness of the base is necessary to keep the horses from churning up the arena into a big mud and sand pit. The surface will have a 1% -2% slope to it for drainage of water. On top of the lime base will be approximately 300 tons of medium grain quartz sand to provide cushioning for the horses while they are working. The said is washed and dust free. Quartz is very hard so it will take a while for horses to crush it into dust as they are worked on the surface. The arena will be bordered on the downhill side by 1/2 buried railroad ties to prevent the migration of the lime base and the washing away of the sand.

Well, that's the scoop for now. I hope Spring is bringing the best out in you too!

P~

Update on Bailey

Bailey had a bone biopsy done on his jaw mass. It is definitely "reactive bone" (which means bone that appears normal, but due to its inappropriate size and positioning is basically reacting to something else). Bone cancer is notoriously hard to diagnose. Cancer cells can be deep inside the bone mass and the body reacts by layering normal bone over the cancerous middle, thus creating the mass.

Anyway, since a fracture is not likely given the x-ray showed nothing of that sort, and it is definitely not a soft tissue problem like an abscess, and an issue with teeth has been ruled out. It is most likely cancer. It is not reassuring to have to diagnose something by ruling other things out, but it appears that this may be what has to be done here. Bailey's vet has said that some bone cancers are not properly diagnosed until after the horse has passed and a necropsy is done.

Right now, Bailey is on a course of strong antibiotics in the event that there is an infection deep in the bone. We are doing this to cover all bases, but an infection of that sort is not likely due to the fact that Bailey has not been running a high temperature, nor has he been off his feed. An infection like that should make a horse pretty sick.

After the antibiotics, there is the option of x-raying again to see if we can find a pattern of less dense bone in the center of the mass which will indicate that cancer has progressed to eating away at the bone. Perhaps we caught it early and that is why the x-ray did not show the tell-tale shadowing in the center areas of the mass that would indicate cancer.

Unfortunately, if we did catch a cancer early... it won't be helpful to Bailey like it would be to a person. Some equine bone cancers metastasize to other organs very quickly and once they are visible, they have already moved on. And even if this cancer is localized in his jaw... it is where the bit goes, and removal of the mass in it's entirety would be necessary and would disrupt the jaw structure so much that I am not sure it would be wise to attempt for the sake of Bailey's quality of life after such drastic surgery.

So that is where we are. I am giving Bailey time so that his body can decide what it is going to do, and so that we get some clearer indications before making any decisions. For now he is eating well, and the one day we had sunny weather, he was bucking and playing, and driving his pasture mates crazy just like the old Bailey.

P~