The Catch-Up

Oh my, I have been very bad about updating.  I haven’t even got to some emails yet :O.  So here is the current news, what’s going on in my life of horses…

Ink has been doing well.  Matt and I are on an experimental teaching Ink how to lunge spree.  It’s going OK.  I mean, I just cannot seem to get around this.  But now Ink is responding A LOT better to pressure and now we can push him around the arena (not literally) freely with the lunge whip, and be towards the middle.  Ink and I have this new game, actually I discovered it by accident yesterday.  But I stand in front of him, and jump side to side, and he hops side to side :D.  He follows me around, really enjoys himself after his exercise.  He does really put his heart into whatever he is doing, and I love that about him. 

I gave him a bath yesterday, which went well.  I’ve been blanketing him with a cotton sheet daily.  And since the weather is cooling down, it’s perfect to leave on in the day. 

Errika is doing well too!  In a week she can have her stall door opened to go to the small paddock outside.  She goes on 5-10min daily walks, and is fed her grain about 3x a day now.  Currently Errika is eating 3/4 of a flake of hay :]. 

Last Wednesday the equine dentists came out, and Ink got his teeth done.  He was GREAT!  His teeth needed to be done.  We have been trying to put more weight on him without success, and his teeth were no doubt the culprit. 

Stall Life

Errika is on two months stall rest (after the colic surgery) and she has been a good girl since we brought her home.  She otherwise hates being locked up, and honestly who wouldn’t?  If effects both Ink and Errika mentally.  They seem so obviously happy when they are out.  The dry season is the only real oppurtunity for Ink to be out.  Last winter, if you remember, Ink got an abscess not too long after the mud came about.  He was in for the remainder of the winter.  It was such a hassle during that time with many factors to take in and adjust to.  Ink needed to be turned out sometime everyday.  Because as it goes if we store his energy, he needs to have an outlet.  Well the only place that he could go for turnout was the arena.  That’s not un-common.  But the owner of the facility didn’t like the idea.  I had to turn him out in the round pen, which added in some other negative factors; there was grass growing in there, in the sand, so he would graze instead let some energy out, and there wasn’t a lot of room for this big TB to really kick up his heels.  But it was better than nothing.  Besides turning out, we had to do a lot of ground work before we even got to the turn-out part of the day.  He was such a ball of energy, that he would pull me out of the stall and to the arena (as he quickly started to know the routine) and then we had to be careful releasing him once in the arena because he had a tendency to take off bucking.  I would have lunged or round penned him some of the days, but he doesn’t know how to lunge and won’t go around in the round pen.  As soon as he gets his shoes and pads on, I want to have Stanley or the other trainer help me with the big guy, so we can make this winter easier on everyone, especially Ink. 

I’m really getting excited about these portable stalls, because we are making progress.  My dad is building them, and now instead of the panels to help frame the stalls, he is building the frame out of steel tubing. 

Portable Stalls

First I want to update on Errika.  I have been very busy lately with her and I haven’t been able to check up on emails lately.  Things happend so suddenly and in a blur.  The Friday before last we visited her and went to talk with the vet, at her request.  We thought we had to put her down.  But the vet then said she wanted to try one last thing, but not to get our hopes up.  The next day the vet called, and said she had done a complete 1-80!  And just this past Friday, we brought her home!!  We have a large remaining balance to pay for the surgery she underwent, roughly $5,000.00.  To help raise money to pay for that, we are selling photos of her, taken by me.  To view all the details please visit Errika’s blog: http://www.dearerrika.wordpress.com

The latest news is that we; being my parents, Matt and I, are going to build to portable stalls for Ink and Errika this winter.  Errika is in the barn right now, for two months stall rest.  But after returning home and being off regular feed for nearly 4 weeks, she is skinny, and needs to be warm and dry during the winter.  As well as Ink.  We are going to shortly be looking for the paneling, but we already have the metal roofing, metal siding and plywood for the interior siding. 

 My other problem is bedding for the stalls?  Errika has wood shavings right now, but they are expensive for lasting only a few days.  I came across this product called “Dry Stall” in which is a permanate bedding: http://www.drystall.com  Has anyone tried this product before or know anything about it?  Comments and reviews would be excellent!

How has Ink been?  Well he still isn’t sound.  But he will be getting pads and shoes on soon…  Next week he is getting his teeth done as well.  He’s been a good boy lately :).

Missing Errika Pt 2

I want to write from where I left off, but I need to get everything current.  I use my blog to release some of my hidden thoughts and feelings that otherwise would be locked away, building up until it became to much to bare.

Errika is still in ICU.  We drove up to the hospital yesterday evening.  It’s roughly a two hour drive, except last Sunday it was a 3 and a half hour drive, bumper to bumper traffic.  It’s very hot up there, but the barns are kept cool with industrial ceiling fans over each stall, and generally well built and designed barns.  It’s amazing how sterile they keep it.  It’s just like a human hospital.  You have to wear big plastic booties and wash you hands when you get there and when you leave.  The little Arab next door to Errika was hooked up to monitors.  The vet said he was put down last night, one of three others.  He was in a more advanced state of what Errika is going through, and in pain. 

 Last night the vet said they would do one last thing to help break up the impaction in the large intestine.  Otherwise it would be time to lay Errika to rest. 

However this morning she called and said that her stomach seems more empty and that they are going to try to slowly put her back on feed and Equine Senior.  She wants to give her a few more days now.

She was so perky and happy when we visited her last night.  I miss her so much, and wish she could recover and come home. 

Missing Errika

It has been a while since my last update.  The computer issue has yet to be resolved, but I am using Matt’s laptop for the time being.  Getting used a good old PC again : ).  I set up the wireless for it, and now here I am back on TEI!  I want to get everyone up to date, but the following is from two weeks ago up to present. 

 The title of my entry explains how I feel, missing my true love and aching from the emotional turmoil that has raged these past two weeks.  We have been shaken out of our usually comfy beds to endure sleepless nights and been taking on an alien role.  One which we have never known before, and to pray to never know again.  Admist the upsetting decisions to even been thought about and living each day through the 60 minutes in every hour the good has been the lessons that have been and are to be learned.  I just never thought we’d go through this much so sudden. 

 Last week, on a Sunday morning, the phone rang.  It was around 9:30.  The owner of the facility “K” called.  I had always knew this day would come, in the back of my mind the constant worry and haunting that this would happen eventually.  Not sure when or how, it just would.  Just days before my mom and I went down to Petsmart to take Sophie for a grooming and while she was in the salon, we walked around the store looking at the vanishing Horse department.  We got on the subject of my aunt Sue and Uncle Larry’s dog, Bo.  Great old Bo, that wonderful Border Collie that held that same secret that I see in Errika.  My mom then said that the day when Errika goes, will be impossible to bare.  That the relationship and sense I feel and have in her is what she believes is similar to my aunt’s.  See Bo was not just a dog, she was a soul capable of things far beyond our understanding.  She was a healer, a lover, and a secret adventurist, an adored addition to the family, and to her dedicated parents.  I would imagine that loosing her would be something like a mother loosing her child, suddenly taken. 

I was sleeping that morning, but I woke suddenly to the phone ringing, which isn’t like me.  It’s almost as if I knew Errika was on the other end of that call, I could feel her.  I didn’t know what was wrong, if anything but I knew she was there, somewhere.  I heard the whole conversation, with my eyes closed and my heart beating quickly.  My mom came in, shook me and told me to get dressed.  All she said is that, that was “K” and she said that something was wrong with Errika and we need to come over.  I didn’t know what to expect, but mataining a complete freak-out, I calmly got in the car and we drove to “K’s.”

To be continued…