May 2008

We are PREGNANT!!
Meet SPECK!


We arrived at Va Tech a few minutes early and they took us right in. Kazi was ultrasounded first, then her uterus was flushed. The liquid flushed was drained thru a very fine screen and the vet looked at the screen in a microscope for what seemed like forever. He said he didn't see anything on the first pass....and I stood next to Kazi tearing up a bit. Then a few minutes later after two other vets looked thru the microscope, the original guy looked again and found an embryo! Can you say happy? WooHoo! It is about the size of a pin prick, too small to see by eye. After we all got a look, Donnie took the above photo with his camera thru the microscope. Speck got transfered to Daisy, who by now was bored out of her mind waiting around . A little happy juice and she was out and they put Speck into her. A week from today the vet will come here and ultrasound Daisy to see if the embryo has adhered to Daisy's uterus....so we are not out of the woods with this, but things are definitely looking good so far!
Speck's name won't stay this, but until we come up with a name, we have to call him something! Recipient mare: Daisy

Kazi on left, Daisy in stocks......

May 6:

I had a little scare this morning. I went down to let the horses loose and was moseying along taking my time doing everything. The last thing I do is let Ivan out of the arena and when I happened to look up at him from the barn, he was standing on three legs with a front leg caught in his hay net. I have no idea how long he had been standing there, probably not too long, but I was mentally envisioning all the disasters that could be about to occur while I was trying to calmly get over to him to release him. He stood stock still while I unhooked the empty haynet and let it drop. If he had pulled I would have had to cut it and do carry a knife, but he didn't pull at all, he stayed calm. Whew! I guess all those lessons of ropes around the feet have paid off! He didn't have a scratch on him. I, on the other hand, nearly had heart failure....Maybe my wild child is calming down....

Tomorrow we find out if Speck has adhered to Daisy's uterus. If I keep things crossed for good luck any harder, I will implode. I so hope Daisy is pregnant with Kazi's foal. The breeding project has really taken over my thoughts and Ivan has been somewhat neglected this week, other than just handling and petting him. He seems to be getting friendlier all the time, and less fearful of everything going on. Kazi is still slightly limping on her left front foot, so riding her is still not in the picture. Ivan is going to be my riding horse for the foreseeable future, so I guess I had better get back on a regular training regimen again with him.

I just heard that there is a new endurance ride taking place not far from here! Ivan will be too young to go this year, but hopefully we can do the 30 mile ride there next year. I am going to volunteer to help out the ride management this year. Should be fun and only about 50 miles from here!



May 7:

We're still pregnant!!!!

Speck is now about the size of your thumbnail . He is still floating around in Daisy's uterus, apparently he won't attach until about the 35th day. The vet is coming back in two weeks and we should be able to see a heartbeat then! I have a photo of Speck from the ultrasound which I will post when Donnie downloads it this evening. He looks like a black circle to me, but the vet and his students seem to be quite certain that Speck is right on track.


Here is the ultrasound photo of Speck taken today. Speck!

Ivan had two traumatic events today. I put his flymask on for the first time, which that didn't bother him. But when I had to take it off this evening, the evil velcro scared him silly. Then I took him over to the Noodles of Death and he took about 15 minutes, but he did go thru it! It took me a week to get Kazi thru it the first time she saw it, so Ivan has bravery potential in there somewhere . While Daisy was in the stall being ultrasounded, Ivan was very concerned and came all the way to the stall door to look in on her, even with all those vet students right there. He has been so sweet lately....

May 8:

We had a torrential thunderstorm this afternoon. You could tell lightning was coming, so what were we doing? Putting the
noodles obstacle back up, standing on the arena fence holding a metal pipe...Smart, huh?.... A certain young horse pulled it down overnight... I guess he showed those noodles who was boss. We didn't get killed by lightning and managed to get to the house just as the deluge started.

May 9:

After risking our lives to put up the Noodles of Death last night before the big storm arrived, we saw Ivan pull them down again this morning. He grabbed a noodle, pulled back and brought the entire structure down. He watched it fall and then stomped the noodles on the ground. I guess he isn't afraid of them....I had to go down at 7 a.m. and save the noodles from the wrath of Ivan. He was picking them up and shaking them. So I guess we can't leave them up in the arena where Ivan lives at night or they will be shredded before our trail obstacle competition in late June.



May 10:

Ivan took 15 minutes to go thru the noodles when I first introduced them to him. (It took me a week to get Kazi thru them the first time. Daisy did it instantly.) He would put his head thru them and then refuse to go further. Then finally, he squirted right thru them. I stopped the lesson there. That night, he tore them down. We put them up stronger the next night just before a big storm and then watched him tear them down the next morning. He apparently isn't too afraid of beating them up. He stomped on them and bit them after he knocked the entire structure down. So I don't know if he will walk thru them with me quicker now or not, we have to find a place to hang them where he won't be able to destroy them.

He has also taken the plastic covers off the bolts holding the spare tire to the horse trailer, torn the arena mailbox lid off, picked up a 50 pound bucket of sand and dumped out the sand for about 10 feet, unscrewed and walked off with the bung hole covers on the arena barrels, walked off with Donnie's hammer the other day, picked up the 10 foot metal conduit pipe that the noodles were attached to and moved them across the arena while dragging those noodles, and dumped out a bucket of tools inside Dave, the farrier's car. Ivan seems to be Daisy Times Two....


May 12:

We had thunderstorms all day yesterday, canceling our horse club's playdate and keeping our computer off line all day. We needed the rain, I guess we got it. I suspect we are no longer in a drought situation right now...Today it is still raining a bit, but the wind is the problem, up to 55 mph.

Yesterday Ivan thought he had arrived . We put the ponies in the large mare's stall and put Ivan in their run-in stall. He rarely goes into his little shelter in the arena, but stayed in the barn during the big rains yesterday. Then during a non-rainy spell, he went out into the pony lot and rolled in the mud .

The vet coming to give the second round of shots to the horses today and Dave is coming to work on Trinket's feet this afternoon.
---------------

Whew, Horse problems.

The horse shots are over, thank goodness. Kazi has once again had a reaction to one, she was limping on the hind foot of the hip she had her Potomac fever shot in. She has lumps on her neck from shots and I won't let the vets give shots there anymore. We gave her some bute and hopefully she will be okay tomorrow. At least this time we have the shot isolated and know what she reacted to.

Trinket's feet are still not ready for her epoxy shoes, so got cleaned, disinfected and re-wrapped again. White line disease is hard to get rid of. She has at least a little in all four feet and a lot in her front feet.

You would not believe how tired I am of limping creatures around here.....including Donnie and his gimpy knee!
May 13:

I spent the afternoon with Ivan's former owner, Debbie. We went over to Southern States where I wanted to get a grazing muzzle for Trinket. They had them a couple of weeks ago for $29, which is considerably less than the $45 I spent on Kazi's and Zippy's. I looked at their display and they didn't have Trinket's size anymore, so I paid for my plants and was walking out the door when I saw the very muzzle I wanted on their 50 % off table!! I got her muzzle for $15! It fits Trinket, but she isn't going to like wearing it.

I got to show off Ivan's new skills to Debbie . I think she was fairly impressed considering what a wild child he was at her house. And it was very flattering when Ivan hid behind me to avoid her . He did all his little skills without a halter or leadline in the open field...for snacks, of course. He was soooo good!



May 14:

I spent another fun evening holding Trinket while Dave worked on her feet. She was finally to the point where he could apply epoxy to her hooves to replace the hoofwall that had been removed because of white line disease. He got the fronts done and will do the rear hooves tomorrow. Hopefully the bacteria/fungal infection has been killed off. She is moving better already. If you saw how Big Brown's feet looked, hers look very similar, without the $500 shoes.

Donnie is off to Dayton, Ohio tomorrow with three other fellow Amateur radio guys. There is a big convention there this weekend that has hundreds of venders to browse thru. I would be bored after a couple of hours, but he will have a great time for three days rambling thru radio parts, antennas, and some seminars. I am glad he will have a good time, he sure has worked hard enough this year.



May 15:

I got up early to help get Donnie off on his mini-vacation and went back to bed. Got woke up by the tree trimming crew grinding up bushes and small trees along our side of the road near the house and had to dash out to make sure they didn't do too much damage. The peacock would scream every time their machine would whack into the trees and brush. Between them and the peacock and guineas and the dogs next door, life in the country wasn't very quiet this morning.


May 16:

Donnie is enjoying himself at the giant hamfest in Dayton. It is untelling what he will come home with. For someone who hates yard sales and shopping, he LOVES this geek fest he is at right now with the hundreds of fellow geeks selling electronic related stuff. He went to the Air and Space Museum in Dayton yesterday. He is definitely having a good time.

I think Kazi may be showing a shot related reaction. Last night I found a line of edema lumps on her stomach from her left elbow to her udder....sigh....The lumps are much reduced today and she is eating okay. Dave is coming by this afternoon to do Trinket's rear feet and I will ask him what he thinks of Kazi's latest problem. Poor Kazi, it is always something. Dave, her farrier, is gearing up to try something different on her front feet to get rid of a scar build-up in her hooves that are making her toes grow strangely. It is something Gene Ovnicek has designed and done for other horses with good success.

May 17: Trinket is moving much better today. She is still limping a bit on her worst foot, but I can see improvement already. She has lost a fair amount of weight over the winter and is looking pretty good, and much lighter grey than before. She is going to be a little white horse in a couple of years. I turned all the horses loose this morning while I was cleaning things up. It is sooo pretty today. Ivan was annoying Trinket, so I yelled across the field at him. He bucked away from her, acting like he was only joking. He started running around and around the field and would come back to near where I was standing and would jump over the big logs. I would yell "Good boy" and he would turn and jump over the logs again! I bet he jumped those logs 10 or 12 times , and each time I would praise him. The rest of the horses kept eating as fast as possible. They KNEW their grass time was limited and weren't wasting a minute on running, bucking, and jumping logs. Ivan was so pretty while he was running. He looks much like the Black Stallion, with a white nose, tail and socks.

May 18: While Donnie is out of town, I tend to stay up late and get up later than normal. No one ever calls me in the mornings, so of course this week I have been awakened twice in the mornings by a ringing phone. No rest for the wicked.... Donnie is home! He got home at about 2 pm and we had to go running down to Floyd County to get a load of hay. It has rained so much that it is untelling when our hay will be cut. It is so pretty right now, I wish they could cut it immediately. So poor Donnie just now got to sit down after we got the hay unloaded for the first time since he got home. He had a great time at the Hamfest in Dayton and bought me a cute little radio that can be carried easily while riding and will be useful for contacting folks where a cellphone might not work. It also puts out a signal if needed that will help find "the body". Those were his words, not mine . I am not sure what that means about how he feels Ivan and I will do on a trail ride . I worked with Ivan yesterday afternoon while the weather was so pretty. We hadn't done much of anything in a couple of weeks, but he remembered everything and actually improved greatly on standing still while I leaned my weight over his back while standing on the mounting stool! He stood rock still on both sides! I also rolled and bounced a beachball around him without him having a freak out attack. He actually let me touch him with the beachball after a few minutes, and let me roll it into his feet without moving away. He is still deathly afraid of velcro, but is getting over his reactions to it quicker. Getting his flymask off is a real trip.... Daisy gets Speck checked on Tuesday. Time to start crossing those appendages and eyes again....!!

May 19:

Today was a red letter day. Ivan stood still, on both sides, while I put ALL my weight on him with no toe on the step stool!! I was leaned over his back like the victim in an old Western . Unfortunately, the very first time I did it, I bent my knees and lifted
my feet up trying to get my weight centered on his back just as he turned his head to look at me and I kicked him square in the nose . That spooked him, but he recovered pretty quick and did it well several times on each side after that. Donnie was impressed anyway!

We are supposed to get thunderstorms in the morning, so once again the Va Tech vets will be here with the mud. I don't think they have seen this place when it wasn't wet and muddy. Daisy gets ultrasounded and Ivan gets the rest of his shots. I suspect neither will be too happy about it. Kazi's lumps are shrinking, but I suspect she won't be getting many shots in the future. It is just too risky with her.


May 20:

Speck is growing!
He looks Speck-tacular!!


Speck sort of looks like a little peanut laying on his side. He is now 2 1/2 centimeters long and his little heart was flashing beats!! Looked like a little light turning on and off . I have pix to post when Donnie downloads them from the camera.

The vets said that we were making it look too easy . I told him that he didn't see all the fertility dances I have been doing while he wasn't around. They will be back on June 12th, which is Day 50, and will do a
progesterone blood test to see if I can wean Daisy off of Regumate. Boy, I hope so. She and I are both tired of that stuff.

So far, everything is going like clockwork.

Ivan got three shots. He wasn't a happy camper....But now we are totally thru the shot season. Ivan hadn't gotten as much as I had originally thought he had, so he got quite a mix today. Kazi sat back and enjoyed the show, happy she didn't have to participate.

Later Ivan and I worked on having me lay over his back with all my weight on him without him moving. I looked like a victim in an old western, laying on my stomach over his back. He did great! He stood still as I did it from both sides. I need to be about 3 inches taller, or have a taller mounting block, to make this easier for me to get over his back without a 'thump'.



May 21:

I had a silly dream about Daisy last night. She is very apparently on my mind a lot. I dreamed she was laying down between several piled bales of hay and the stall wall. I asked her if she could get up from that tight spot and she said "Of course I can!" She has a very nice voice!



I really hope Speck is a boy so we can change his potential tune early on. In vitro sounds like a good plan! I love my mares, but having three all after Ivan's hide at once is a bit much. Trinket is in heat again this week and throws herself at Ivan, who would love to accommodate, but falls over her. Strange that none of these mares were the least bit interested in Zippy or Cactus Jack. That has got to be a blow to their egos....


May 22:

Ivan let me put a tarp on him for the first time this afternoon, and Donnie got pix of me trying to hang onto his back from
both sides. This is not easy. Ivan probably is suffering in silence with the ton of lard on his back squiggling around trying to hang on....Ivan has been so good lately! He even is letting me rip off the velcro on my gloves without freaking out. The flymask velcro is still his personal monster, though.

Ivan being GREAT!





May 23:

I actually rode Kazi for a few minutes this evening, at a walk only. She didn't seem to be limping and I didn't want to add to her problems, so we took it easy. We did some ground work to see if she remembered anything, she did, and then I rode her around the arena. Boy, I have missed that...Dave is going to try to rid her feet of scar tissue next week. It may help her hooves to stop changing angles half way thru the growth. They grow out fine and then go out horizontally too much at the toe, no matter how many times she gets trimmed.

I just did ground work with Ivan this evening. We are trying to learn to sidepass properly on the ground. He does his front feet great, but forgets to move his rear ones. So moving the rear over was the lesson of the day. I ripped the velcro on his flymask when I took it off and he only gasped and jumped back three steps. Progress...

May 25:

We have had a perfect weather weekend so far! Unbelievably nice, high 70s, low humidity and gentle breeze. We just got back from our club playdate, which is much more fun when you actually take a horse. BUT! I did get to ride the big Belgium named Thunder that visited here a few weeks ago! This is a tall horse! He is also extremely sweet natured and let me ride with no problems and he is in only a halter.
That was fun!

I worked with Ivan this evening and we had a little breakthrough! I thought I would introduce him to a bridle with a snaffle bit, but didn't think I would get it on him. I was just going to mess around his head with it. Well after a little while, I slipped the thing right on him! He spent about a half hour with Kazi's bridle on mouthing it and accepting little bits of grain to make it more interesting. I had him turning his head to either side and touching his side by pulling on the reins. Then when it came time to take it off, he didn't pitch a fit, he opened his mouth and out came the bit! Yippee, skippee!

May 27:

Ivan has been in an interesting mood today. This morning he spent some time torturing the feed sack full of trash I was going to take up the hill before the garbage guys arrived. He picked it up, wagged it around, stomped on it and carried it away. He was so funny that I let him play with it until he had gotten thru the first layer of the feed sack and I didn't want to pick up the trash again.

Then this evening, I had him in the arena while Kazi and Daisy were out loose in the barnlot, mostly because Kazi is once again in heat and was intent on killing him. She reared up and struck the arena fence with a front foot, so I chased her off. She went up the hill to be with Daisy, then they both spooked at something imaginary and started galloping all around the barnlot pasture. Kazi was moving so well, and so fast, that I encouraged her and Daisy to run all around. Ivan ran the inside of the arena fence line, turned and jumped over the fence! He knocked the top rail with his left rear fetlock, and landed on the other side. He took off running with the mares, none the worse for wear. He skinned a little place on his fetlock, and broke the top rail of the fence....it was in the same place Kazi had struck it and the wood was punky there anyway. So we spent the last two hours repairing the fence. How tall is Ivan? 14 hh or 56 inches tall. How tall is the fence? 56 inches tall! If I hadn't seen him do it, I would never believe he could have.

....
Ivan and the fence he jumped.

Never a dull moment with Ivan around. You can see where it was patched until we gathered the stuff we needed to repair it.