An Award Winning Week

MY APOLOGIES for the tardiness of this post. I ran smack into the brick wall of my own limitations this week and am still reeling from the impact *laugh*

Did you know (some random levity here) that in Wilbur, Washington it is against the law for a person to ride down the street on an ugly horse?  For those of you who are saying ooo-kaaaay and now looking sideways at the screen, I'll go one better: 
In Marshalltown, Iowa it is illegal for horses to eat fire hydrants. I'm sure that fire hydrants everywhere will rest easily now that they are no longer in danger of being consumed by equines. Wow. Of course Champ did eat that stray golf ball that one time (thankfully, he spit it back out). Hmmmm. Well. I ordered a Scholastic Book entitled, "World's Dumbest Laws" and have to agree they are pretty much right up there with the Darwin Awards.  
For you dog lovers: You can not take a French poodle to an opera house in Chicago (no culture for you, Fifi).  
Oh, and let's not forget the cats: In International Falls, Minnesota, it is illegal for a cat to chase a dog up a telephone pole. I am sure that these laws came with some kind of convoluted rationale, but I for one do NOT wish to know the specifics (because it really scares me).
Champ hurt his leg this week; he seems to have pulled or strained one of the ligaments in his [lower] right fore. Since he was fine the night before and hobbled his way down for breakfast, I'm not clear on exactly what he did. Too much frolic in the field perhaps? Dunno. We bought a ColdFlex wrap from Jeffers, which looked like a pretty cool (ha) thing at first. Sadly, it did NOT hold up worth a flip, so we ended up going back for a "real" ice wrap (pic further down). As you can see, he didn't seem to have any trouble downing his medicine (a mild analgesic) either. I'm betting it was the watermelon that came with it *laugh*. Thankfully, he has put himself on stall rest for the most part. I thought about locking him in, but when you take a horse that was on 24 hour turn out (and used to being able to come and go as he pleases) and stick him in a stall for an extended period of time, that can get kind of dicey.
We did some hosing [of the leg] too, and discovered that the spray nozzle can double as a ginormous waterpik. Seems our boy thought he needed a good flossing:

We got some more wraps and Absorbine gel - the wraps help the liniment to penetrate more deeply. The bottle of liniment we had on hand was so doggone old it had pretty much lost its zing. I think the last time we needed any liniment was around 2006; we're mostly dents and dings around here (no strains). Anybody besides me think that stuff smells exactly like "Freshen Up" gum? - I kept taking little side trips down memory lane to my Sunday school class [waaay back] when a friend gave me a piece of that stuff for the first time ;o) Funny. In case you didn't know, our sense of smell is the strongest sense we possess in triggering memories (a random edumacational fact for ya there ;o)

Champ has discovered room service, which he thinks is pretty great. Shadow kept him company, and helped him eat his hay (for some reason this made me think of visiting a family member in the hospital and sampling the Jell-O, etc. on their supper tray *laugh*).

After three days of alternately icing and applying liniment like a crazy person, Champ's leg seems to be much improved (thank goodness, as I'm worn out!) We're still keeping a very close eye on him and applying the liniment regularly, but hopefully it's a sign he's well on the mend. I definitely like the EZ ice leg wrap a WHOLE lot better than the less expensive Coldflex (waste of money there). Shadow has turned out to be a decent babysitter, and keeps pretty good tabs on Champ. DD was out of town all weekend (Baptist Conference for the Deaf in Florida), so it was a good thing I had Shadow to help me by watching me run in and out and up and down with ice, liniment and bandages, water and hay (he supervised in DD's absence and said all my running around wore him out).

I came within a hair of canceling with Champ hurt and DD gone, but with the liability insurance looming large I went ahead and set up a table at the Twilight Pageant last Saturday (they raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) hoping to sell a few things. I'm thinking the amount of work involved to get everything together, manning the table all day, plus the loading and unloading of all the things I took to sell (including tables and chairs) was definitely not worth the $25 we made. Oh well; it was a thought, right? ;o)

I think that's probably enough of me for now (I need a nap) *laugh*. I do have two more photos to share though. There was an Elwood sighting this morning:

And a really unusual looking sunrise with lots of haze (this is straight out of the camera, too). My apologies for the security light that's marring the shot; I couldn't get him to move *grin*.

 Have a blessed week everyone! What's left of it anyway;o)

 

Farewell Frostbite, Hello Flashflood

Well, the subzero temps seem to be over with but I couldn't resist one last bit of photographic evidence. Rickey had to break up the ice in the Moo Crew's water trough; would you believe it was almost 2" thick? Woo! I'm pretty sure most of the 48 contiguous have experienced a whacked out winter. How about it? What was your weirdest winter day this year? I'd have to say that ours was the morning I walked out to find the ropes on the Girls' doors sticking out in frozen curls. It had rained a bit, then the temperature plunged. Is that bizarre or what?

Our week began with rain-rain-rain and:

While all of the horses got pretty darn dirty, I felt that Champ deserved some kind of recognition for going beyond the call of dirt duty.  What I can't quite figure out, though, is how he managed to keep his tail completely clean...go figure (??)

  

Mid week, Rina showed up for supper with a rather impressive ding on her hip...I have absolutely no idea what happened, although I can speculate that she may have slid in the mud while running and clipped a tree. As leader and the unequivocal Queen of Mean, I am sure that none of her pasture mates would dare to nip at her hip :o)

I kept it small in case any of you are squeamish, but it was a good two inches in diameter. I have to say that I was very proud of Rina for her cooperative behavior in letting me treat it; not only did she turn herself around and line her injury up right in front of me for the medicine, she stood stock still the whole time in an open area and without a halter - what a good girl! I'll do a shameless plug here for Skin Renovator for an awesome product. At $15.00 a tube it's expensive, but it is the best there is for healing wounds quickly. I even found a handy dandy way to recycle the empty container and solve the problem of the missing cap on our gate at the same time (ta-da! :o)

The week came to a melodramatic conclusion with one of Shadow's Blankie Moments...

If you would like to know more about Shadow's dramatic episodes, go to my Squidoo lens on Colic and scroll down to "Cranial Colic". A bit of love and some time with Blankie made for a miraculous recovery (he's such a silly boy!) Oh, and I forgot to squat while taking his picture so Shadow looks strangely disproportionate (oops :oP

How about your animals? Do they have a blankie or special toy that makes it all better? I'd love to hear about it, and so would Shadow. He's rather proud of his alliterated title of "Epic Farms' Eccentric Equine", (but he is secretly afraid of being referred to as "Whatta Weirdo" by certain hard-hearted bipeds). Do tell us please!