Blackie & Red – Day 4

posted in FSHR Horses, Horses, Rescue Horses, Rescue Tales | Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Sunday Feb. 14

The Daily Routine, and a botched Valentine’s

Happy Valentines: Pinky and Rosa at Rosa's "new" home in Dove Creek

I awoke in a terrible state of anxiety over the horses. I had to see how they were. So without even a kiss to my husband or a “Happy Valentine’s Day,” I went straight outside. (Based on his reaction to that, I guess I “should have gone to Jared.”)

They were fine, watching for me. I found that the intensity of the preceding days had exhausted me. I had an extra hard time weighing out the 20 pounds of hay for each of them. I had to hold it in both arms, which blocked my view of the bathroom scale I was standing on. Then, when I managed to shift the load so I could see the scale, hay had fallen on the little window. Already, for so little reason, I felt ready to cry.

But I had my two 20 lb. piles, and as usual I took half of the first one and gave half to each of them for their first feeding of their daily four. Interestingly, the listless Blackie had become the dominant one in their little herd of two. She left her pile and pushed Red away from his! I took that as a good sign.

Then I went in the pen with my shovel and broke the ice on their trough, and my fingers hurt from the cold. I collected the empty buckets from last night (Red had had fun flinging them all over the place). Then I adjusted Blackie’s blanket, which had shifted to her right side as it does every night. I took their buckets to the feed room where soaked beet pulp and EQ. Sr. were waiting. I doled out their first helping and took the buckets back to them.  This is a bit of a walking back and forth, as the quarantine pen is the farthest from anything.

Then it was time to feed the rest of the horses, which involves doctoring Tempo’s eye first (she has uveitis and has to get medicine in it four times a day) and doctoring Stormy’s little area where he had proud flesh surgically removed from his fetlock, and then wrangling the hay everywhere for twenty horses in various locations. I kept tripping, dropping bales and lying over them gasping and panting. I felt that I was being a drama queen.

By the time I got done with that, it was almost time for Blackie and Red’s next feeding. But I went inside to do Valentine’s Day stuff with the family. The horses got all their feedings and doctorings on time that day, but B&R did not get out for their midday grooming, sunbathing or walk and I did not get a good look at their droppings. At least it was a beautiful day.

Later we did take Pinky, our little Ute mustang up to Dove Creek, because Rosa, the adopted BLM mustang, needed a friend. And boy, was Rosa excited to see her. It was funny to Patrice that now she had a pink rose pair!