Tuesday was my day off, but since it was rainy and snowy, and the horses were only out for 2 hours, I cleaned all 5 paddocks, because I couldn't stand seeing them filled with manure and nasty hay. Then we got hail sleet and rain. It was 32 degrees and the horses were brought in.
Wednesday 28th-7 hours. 32 degrees and ice everywhere. Tops off feed barrels. Buckets left out and frozen. BL late leaving to pick up lumber for fence line. Trainer came and took old horse out for walk in the sleet. Young horse longed for 15 min, and turned back out. Old mare and filly out, Young horse out, mare in foal out, young pinto mare out. All horses out at upper barn. BL said she would put them in on her way out, she forgot. I cleaned all stalls, and for the ones that stayed in, I put them in cross ties and gave them hay while I did their stalls. Brought in horses in paddocks because it started pouring, then it went to 60 degrees, and I pulled all their blankets.
Decided to clean feed room which was a disaster. Filthy and moldy feed and rat droppings everywhere. I cleaned all the supplement bins and everything that was in there with soap and hot water. Reorganized the room, made shelves wider so that it was more efficient. Used chain link gate on 4x4 pieces of wood to store bags of feed which were getting damp on the floor. Here are photos of the finished room.
Thursday-29th- 8 hours - Horses were in over night due to freezing rain. My truck doors were almost frozen shut. I have to hold horses for the farrier today, so I just cleaned 4 stalls, watered and hayed the rest, and went to fix the Dish Satellite. I had called since we had no reception, and fiddled with it because it looked like the post (mast) was leaning. Well, the soil is sandy and the installer, in his infinite wisdom, failed to put in a permanent pipe in concrete to put the mast in, so the weight of the dish and the shifting soil kept the mast from being perpendicular. I learned through the myriad of calls to the company, that the problem was something I had to have an appointment for two weeks forward, and this was simply not an option, for me or for the owners. After all, how could I miss two weeks of my Fox Channel?
I kept calling until I did find a service agent that told me about the perpendicular mast and how to test it, and what to look for (12 former 'agents' failed to impart this bit of trivia) and when I just even 'eyeballed' it, it worked and gave me a 99% success on the transponders, so whopee!! we now have entertainment (such as it is). Back to the day.
When the farrier got here I held one horse that needed pads, put him back out and went to upper barn and brought down two Morgans. Farrier said he'd be 3 hours at least on the first one, so I could take a break. It's very cold just standing still holding a horse, so I was running out to throw hay to everyone and then running into the office and holding on to the register. I also took this opportunity to keep working on the satellite which eventually was successful. I made coffee and gave the farrier some along with a few of my famous Fuel bars. Then I went back up to the barn with the finished Morgan, put him in his stall, went into the field and got the 3rd Morgan, put her in her stall, and turned out the one that just was shod, and took her down to the barn. Then I returned back to the upper barn and got the last pony to bring down. I was then able to start picking out the stalls and hold the horses. I'd been on the job since 6:45am and it was now 4:15pm. I was getting a bit tired, mostly of just standing in the aisle and cold again. It was nice outside, and many of the horses had a nice lie down in the sun. I slept from 6pm until 5am this morning.
Friday 30th - 6 hours. Today I have the whole place again, and hope to be able to get on Harry and have a ride after work.
Sat. 31st-leave for NC at 4:30 am. Arrived at feed store in Aberdeen at 8:30am and got a bag of foot for Tutti with the coupons I've been saving. Called Gina and picked up her feed at SP Feed store. No help wanted on either of the boards or at the restaurant on May Street. Went to see Denny Emerson for an hour. He's going to see if they can find some work for me, but most all of it has been spoken for. Nelson's not home so left a note. Went to Gina's to deliver feed and spent an hour there.
Gina and Feral Errol her Adv. Horse and Miss Emma, her newest addition to Ticket To Ride Farm.
Left there and went to my sister's and we had supper and I was home at 8:30pm.
Sunday Feb. 1st - 8 hours Started work at 6:45am. Went into the feed room that I had organized, and all the feed bins were open, and buckets strewn all over the place. Fed, hayed and turned out horses that stayed in. I went to upper barn and all of the gates were wide open, and the 3 Morgan's were wandering around towards the road. BL decided, in her infinite wisdom, to turn out the gelding from the upper barn in the field next to Harry with the old mare and the filly. He had no introductions, just let loose. He went ballistic, herding and nipping at the filly and striking at the old mare. BL just laughed. All the other horses were tearing around, and not in a good way. The gelding charged Harry's fence and busted through the boards, which cut Harry right on the coronet band. I finally got him calmed down, and eventually she decided that the gelding shouldn't be in there. I ended up having to feed the PM and bring everyone in.
Monday 2nd - 6 hours. Fed and turned out, hay all horses. removed blankets. Rode Harry at a walk for about 30 minutes while trainer was here. I fixed the PM feed up for BL. One of the owners came at 3:30 and brought everyone in, leaving Harry out. It was 62 degrees, and she had the time wrong. BL came back and by then Harry was upset, and his feet very warm from running around. BL then turned everyone back out until dark. I brought Harry in at 5pm with old horse and fed them. Still no hot water,
