On horses and shoes

I spoke to my vet today and she had the results of Rusty's bloodwork. All of his protein and enzyme levels are back to normal! Yeah Rusty! She initially thought we were going to have to feed him a high protein extruded feed to help him out, but it looks like he can stick to his regular grain.

The vet also confirmed that my decision to move Rusty was a good one. I told her about the new, vet-owned barn and the turnout situation there and she thought it sounded great. I gave my current barn owner a heads-up about all of this, so I just have to give her official notice this week. Even though my new barn owner is a vet, she isn't licensed in a practice anymore, she works for the government. She wouldn't be able to officially diagnose and treat my horse, so luckily my current vet travels in the area of the new barn.

Glad to have the major decision of "move? don't move?" over with! I do not like making decisions - I always second-guess myself. Although, I just learned that a new gelding has moved into the barn and is in Rusty's paddock. That paddock doesn't have enough room for 7 horses. There will also be a weaning colt in there next month to make 8. I think all of the factors are pointing towards me making the right decision to move! The new barn owner has offered to trailer Rusty over to her place - so we will work out a date in mid-October to do that.

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Poor Rusty threw one of his new shoes on Sunday. Rotten horse. :-) Three other horses at the barn also need farrier work, so it should be easier to get the farrier out soon. I'm hoping this is the last set of shoes for the year, as I plan to keep him barefoot over the winter.

The weather has been fabulous here - everything is still green and very alive. I'm hoping to ride alot before I move Rusty so we are both in shape to start working in our lessons! Fall is definitely in town though, as the air is cool and brisk. I love fall - it is nice to have cool weather - although it warns of winter's imminent arrival. Winter here usually is not very nice - lots of snow, ice and bitter cold winds. Good thing I have an indoor arena to ride in this year!! (I'm a little excited about changing barns - can you tell!)

Fall was myfavourite time of year when I was young - I liked going back to school, my birthday is during the fall and fall was the best time for riding where I lived because all of the crops were harvested. I had several hundred acres of my neighbour's property to ride on, once the crops were down. Winters where I grew up weren't that bad either - we didn't get a lot of snow most winters.

Spring was nice, but muddy and the crops were going in so I coudn't ride in the fields. Summer was hot, buggy and hard to ride in 7ft high corn. I did though - did anyone else do that? Ride down the rows of tall corn? The corn cobs would hit you in the shins and your legs would go numb, the horse would go faster and faster - egged on by the whooshing sound of the corn stalks and our giddy laughter! Oh, man that was fun. *sigh* Some days I miss my carefree childhood so much.

*Note - picture is of me riding my cousin's arab gelding a few years ago. You can just make out an empty field in the background.

** Question - why is blogger such a pain with pictures and adding extra spaces everywhere?