My Vacation

It has been a whole week since I'm back from vacation and have not even posted about it yet!

I have been so busy at work and in life, it's very exhausting.

So, here goes:

My vacation went well, as I vowed to do, I spent a lot of time resting and relaxing. I could feel the exhaustion creeping up on me. I really needed this vacation.

I had scheduled all of my appointments on Monday in order to be done with them as soon as possible. So I went for bloodworks on Monday at 8:00 am and I had to take my car to the garage right after. So I was home by 2:00 pm that day! Unfortunately, I missed the better part of the day waiting for my car at the dealer. My mom and I had plans for the week that consisted of resting and going out on the river for a pedal boat ride every day. We also had plans for a morning walk every day. Things didn't really turn out that way...

On Monday, right after diner the wind picked up, it had been windy all day, but this wind was much stronger. My dad was outside with my dog, so I glanced out at them and I saw a great big storm brewing at the far end of the river, I could actually see the wind coming in and the rain right after the gusts. My dad made his way quickly inside the cottage and joined me in the sun room to witness this storm.

The winds started strong and were causing waves 2 feet high or more (on a freshwater river or lake, this is pretty impressive) with white caps on every one of them. I took pictures from inside the cottage so excuse bad quality...

Below: This is how it started, the wind had just started to blow. Notice the rain blowing in the wind on the other side of the river. It was not yet raining where we were.

Below, the wind proceeded to blow at gusts of 100 km/h ( Or 60 mph). We could hear the roof of the cottage cracking and huge branches were breaking from the surrounding trees and falling on the roof, then, they were quickly swept off of the roof and blown accross the street over 300 feet away!

Then, the rain hit, the wind died down a bit (although it was still very windy, it wasn't dangerously windy anymore). Excuse for the pictures through screened windows, but I wouldn't have gone outside for a large amount of money!

It's pretty hard to believe but the following pictures were taken the same night, less than 2 hours after the storm. This is the view from our cottage. It was still windy, so for reference, the river is usually calmer than this.

I actually managed to capture a sunset. The following days of my vacation were pretty cold and rainy until Thursday, where I returned to the farm to do some chores and bale the hay. My vacation fell short of my expectations, but I still managed to rest during those cold and rainy days, so I'm back at work, feeling 100%! I didn't get to ride until Friday (I think)... I had vowed to ride every second day at least... didn't happen, but I did check on the horses and spent more time with them every day, even in the rain... I spoiled them rotten!

Our hay was a real success this year, it has not seen any rain from the moment it was cut to the moment we've put it in the barn for storage... it is of very good quality and does not contain any dust like last years'! HOORAY! We've already fed some to the horses... they seem to REALLY like it!

My vacation - part 1

For lack of a better picture, here's the opening act of the rodeo. My parade pictures aren't yet downloaded... Did I mention that I LOVE the buckskin at the back!?!??!?

I'm back from my vacation!

I can't say that it was the best vacation ever. I left on Friday, June 25, 2010 at noon to go prep the horses for the parade. It was our annual rodeo on that weekend and the opening ceremony was a horse and buggy parade, so I was up for it and was bringing Dandy, Peg and Pearl.

I got home and started right away on washing the horses, with the help of my sister. We decided that we would wash Pearl the first, then Peg and Dandy. So Pearl gets her shower and is all sparkling clean and stunning. We tie her up to the fence to dry and proceed to showering Peg.

To this point, all goes well and we start washing Dandy after we've tied Peg beside Pearl. We are in the middle of shampooing Dandy, when I quickly glance at the two horses tied to the fence and notice that Pearl has got a leg over her lead, as quick as I could tell my sister, Pearl panicked... and this is where it gets ugly...

Pearl is pulling back on the lead, with her leg caught up, she falls to the ground, gets up, falls down again, at this point, we are half way to her to help, but she is not tuned in, she rears up and nearly runs us over. While she reared up, she pulled back on the lead and on her way down from her rear, two things happened: The lead rope with tension on it caused her to over extend her knee and on her way down, she smashed her nose on the fence post. At that time, I was running to the barn to get a knife. When I came back, Pearl was on the ground, her legs tangled, her nose in the dirt and breathing hard. There was way too much tension on the lead to release the quick knot (these knots are useless!!!). I cut the rope quickly and left Pearl loose in the yard. She was terrified, so there was no use running after her, there isn't anything in the yard that she could've got hurt on and I knew that she would search the comfort of the other horses, so she went near the pasture, where Misty was standing.

At that point, I was making my way towards her, I saw that she was limping and that there was blood, but I didn't know where it came from. I was shaking like a leaf... Pearl was shaking hard too. It broke my heart when I caught her. She wouldn't put weight on her leg and I noticed that the blood came from her mouth. My sister came to join us but I was crying so hard, I was really scared, I couldn't even lead Pearl anywhere so I let my sister take her. My heart was broken. I watched Pearl walk away, she was limping. I ran in the barn to get a rag soaked in cold water to stop her bleeding. It worked almost immediately.

I also put some cool clay on her leg and felt for any dislocation but all seemed in good order. Obviously, we left her home for the parade and my sister took my SO's horse, Peg, for the parade, he was kind enough to let her go with Peg after our terrifying ordeal. My heart wasn't really into it anymore anyways, but I still went because I had an engagement towards the organizers.

Dandy and Peg did great, we were there way too early and we drew a big crowd, but the horses handled it like real pros! I know Peg is used to this kind of environment (speakers, loud music, crowds of people, like kids running everywhere, all kinds of different horses, etc.), but it was a first for Dandy and I couldn't be prouder of her. She was jigging a bit at first because of all the new "friends" she wanted to meet, but quickly settled and was a real doll. After waiting for about an hour, a few horse buddies that were also participating in the parade made their way to us. We left about 10 minutes late. There was quite the crowd and we went right through town and Dandy did great, never flinched! We won $25 each because we had the cleanest horses there! So it was worth it, but I would've liked it better if Pearl hadn't been hurt, I don't care for money at that point.

I don't have the pictures of the horses with me right now, it's on my mom's camera and I need to put them on my memory stick to post here... so probably next week, we'll have them since I should see her this weekend.

All went well. I returned to Pearl and she looked better. Over the week, she kept getting better and better, the limp is completely gone, there was hardly any swelling and she is back to running around, chasing her buddies. She will get another week off, then I'll reassess her and see. We might try her out under saddle for a short (very short) ride to see how she does. As of the last time I checked, there was no heat, no limp and no swelling.

This was a huge lesson for me. I tied Pearl long enough that she could eat some grass. I always preach to tie short and I didn't practice any of it. Thankfully, she wasn't badly injured and it scared the heck out of me. None of my horses will ever be tied long enough to reach anything again. She wasn't tied there overnight or anything, just for a few hours. I will never do that again. I had questionned myself about the lenght of rope a few times, I should've shortened it right away, it would've saved me a lot of heartacke and panic... and for Pearl, pain, panic and confusion. If you have any doubts on something you've done with your horses, don't wait, fix it NOW before something like this happens. If you preach about something, you'd better do it yourself... skipping on it only once is not okay. Feel free to throw rotten tomatoes at me, I feel rotten enough as it is. I wanted to spoil them a bit and let them eat the long grass along the fence (that is not part of their pasture) but it turned into a real disaster.

Below: Pearl on Saturday morning, no more limp, no more heat, no more swelling. The leg that was injured is the left front from the knee to the fetlock. Pearl got a lot of cookies and attentive care for the whole week. I checked on her every day, applied cool clay when I felt heat and she was a very good patient. She's always had great legs and I want to keep it that way!

Please be careful and prevent instead of trying to heal!

Much much more pictures to come... I will cover the rodeo in the next posts.

Vacation!

As you may or may not know, my vacation starts in less than 5 hours! This means that I wont be able to write on my blog for the next week. I am going to the cottage, where there is no Internet, no phone or TV... I can't wait!

Here are some of my plans for my vacation.

1. Ride, at least every other day.

2. Spend quality time with my mom, who is also on vacation!

3. RELAX! I need to rest, I feel exhausted.

4. Spend some time outside, as usual.

I didn't plan any work on the farm, because I feel like I REALLY need the break. I will still be able to go to the farm every day to check up on everyone and everything.

We had an earthquake here on Wednesday (5.0 on Richter scale)... the horses seemed fine about it. The dogs were just going crazy! I was in an office building and it shook quite hard, stuff was falling off the walls and at one point I really felt as if something could fall on my head at any given time. Of course, I didn't know what it was given that there is the G8 and G20 summits and that we were advised to be on our guards about suspicious people (I work for the Canadian Government)... At first I thought it was an explosion, then I felt like the upper floors were crashing down, that's when I took my purse and ran for it.

It's not until I was out of the building to notice no material damage to it that I realized that it wasn't a bomb... then I saw the streets flooding with people and realized that our building wasn't the only one afffected, then the thought of an earthquake was the most likely. Anyways, nobody was hurt and there wasn't major material damage, just a few reported cases. It is the first strong earthquake that I witness and let me tell you that I could feel the building swaying from side to side. I'm sure I was as white as a ghost and my legs were shaking the whole time I was going down the stairs. I thought my office window was going to fall out of the sill! I didn't know if it was going to get worst before it got better, so I got out, like everyone else actually.

Anyways, glad that's over!

We are participating in a parade tonight for our annual professional rodeo. It opens tonight with a horse and buggy parade. I am taking Dandy, Peg and Pearl. It will be Dandy's first time in a crowd and with horses that she doesn't know... I don't know how it'll go since she is so friendly and always wants to meet all the new horses. I don't think that she'll be out of control, once we get working, she always pays attention to the rider. I'm not at all worried for Peg and Pearl, the old girls have been in races, they know the whole crowd, noise and strange horse stuff. It'll be their first time since they got rescued that they'll participate in any horse event. They have been with me for over a year now, they are both doing great and are very happy horses.

I will take many pictures of the preparation to the parade and the horses... I will get my mom to take pictures of the parade itself... since I am riding in it... it's kind of hard to take pics and I don't want to carry the camera with me. It's a great first time for Dandy, since there isn't supposed to be any sirens, I'm sure it wouldn't phase her, but I might feel more comfortable! :)

So I'm off on vacation and will only be back in the office on July 5th. By then, if I'm not too busy, I might post stories and pictures! Have a great week everyone and I hope that you did take some time off from work to enjoy summer... my week isn't supposed to be too hot, but not too rainy (except Monday, but I have erands to run!). See you in 10 days!