Doggy Tales

Last year in Poppy’s house

Our old friend Poppy has come to stay with us for a week.

Cookie greeted her with a most unfriendly snarl, but within minutes they were playing rough and tumble around the house like they’d never been apart, while Cinnamon watched from a distance and gave grown-up growly warnings every so often : “Someone’s going to get hurt”  “It’ll end in tears”  “Don’t come crying to me when you get hurt”

Poppy settled in quickly, even though I don’t think she’s ever been here before.  She slept in Cookie & Cinny’s little bedroom last night and came for a 5km walk with us in the woods this morning, which she thoroughly enjoyed.  She loves the big picture window, and when she wasn’t wrestling with Cookie today, she sat and looked out at the wolrd going by.  Evenings are sprawl-on-the-couch-watching-telly time…
although she does tend to hog the TV remote!

Cinnamon had her vet appointment this afternoon.  It’s not awful news but it’s not great news either.

On full alert in the waiting room

First of all, there’s the little lump on her side.

It’s grown a bit since I first noticed it in early December.  I was hoping it was something trivial like a blocked pore, but unfortunately the Vet thinks it’s some sort of tumour.  The only thing to do is to remove it, do a biopsy to see what it is and then see what course of treatment is best (hopefully no treatment!)  She’s booked in for Feb 14th – Valentine’s day – and he will scale her teeth while she is anaesthetised too.

What I found worrying, though, was what he had to say about her heart murmur.  I’ve been a bit concerned about her because she’s been wheezing and coughing every so often in the evenings.  When the heart isn’t functioning properly, the lungs also don’t work efficiently and can fill up with fluid, causing wheezing and a chronic cough – I was worried that what we were seeing was an indication that her heart was getting weaker.

I came away reassured on that front – he said the sort of wheezing and coughing we’re looking out for is something that happens every day and goes on for ages – so we’re definitely not there yet, and if/when we get there, we can adjust her medication to help.  Well, that much was good.

The rest of what he had to say was not so good.  He advised me to take the following precautions with her :

No big long hikes – five hours was the number he picked (does that mean 4.5 hours is ok?)

Don’t take her hiking in the mountains – he specifically mentioned Mont Ventoux, but also said nothing over 2,000 metres

Be very careful with her in the summer, keep her indoors and cool, and only exercise her early in the morning or late in the evening when it’s cool

In the winter, don’t exercise her when it’s very cold (she’s kinda told us that herself, actually!)

Don’t let her get hyper and excited – he told me a cautionary tale of a dog with a similar heart murmur who died after playing happily in its owners garden for the afternoon.

Which begs the question – is it better to mind her carefully and restrict what she does or should we allow her to enjoy a full, active life and die a little younger?

I think I could not, with a clear conscience, take her on long treks with the horses, which is something we’ve been hoping to do.  This is quite a blow – of the two dogs we have, she is the one who I know will follow faithfully beside us, no matter what we meet, whereas there is a good chance that Cookie will someday disappear in the wake of a cat/rabbit/goat/sheep on the side of a mountain.

We are going to have to rethink our plans and shape our treks to suit our dogs as well as our horses.

A Big Day

Today was a Big Day for me.

I’m sure there’s lots of people out there who will go “Huh?” and plenty more who will go “What a wuss!” but for me, it was a milestone.

See that?

Dark bay ears… hacking out alone… with me on top!

Chips (pronounced Sheeps, not Tchips) came with us, which I wasn’t to happy about initially, but it turned out Aero looked on her as a companion, not a predator.

We had a mostly uneventful forty minute hack.  The bit that was not Mostly Uneventful was when two big black dogs came charging at us, barking ferociously.  Fortunately, Chips turned out to be a useful decoy and she distracted them while Aero and I made our escape.  We were both a bit worried about her for a while, but she reappeared eventually (unscathed).

Aero was a bit lazy heading out and a bit turbo-charged heading home, but the feeling of tension throughout his body that was apparent even when walking in hand three months ago is gone.

This week has been great with both horses, I had a really good arena session with Aero on Monday where I felt like I was actually getting somewhere with him, followed by another good session with Flurry on Tuesday (after I chipped all the muck off him!)

I’m not sure if I’ll get to ride on Thursday (Cinny has to go to the Vet) or Friday (the farrier is coming) but even if I don’t, it’s been a good week.

Go Aero!

How to Carve a Horse out of a Large Heap of Muck

(which may or may not be roughly horse shaped initially)

First haul your heap of muck from the paddock to the yard.  Tie it up – those heaps of muck like to wander if not restrained.
A well-secured heap of muck.  Attached oak leaves add to the charm.
Next, get your pneumatic drill.  What, you don’t have one?  Ok, get the chisel and lump hammer from your grooming kit.  Don’t have those either?  Fear not.  Get your metal curry comb and use it to shape the muck instead, but it will take a lot longer this way.
Set to work.  I find it helps to work on just one area at a time.  You can set yourself little goals as you go along : “I will have this section of neck fully exposed in ten minutes.”  “I should be able to carve out the tendons on this leg with another five minutes of work.”  It’s fun and there’s a great feeling of accomplishment when you reach each little target.  Honestly.

Front section chipped out

Use the metal curry comb to break up the concrete-like chunks of muck.  If that doesn’t work, try using your fingers first to break the chunks up a bit before tackling them with the metal curry comb.  If THAT doesn’t work, you have no choice but to use scissors to cut the stubborn chunks out (before you ask, yes I did – behind his ears).  After the first pass, go back over each section a few more times to chip away at the stubborn bits, then, to finish it off, use a dandy brush to put a nice nap on the coat.

Finally, it will look like this :

Tada!!
but don’t get excited, you’re only half-way…

un-Tada

and you undoubtedly started on the easy side.

so have a little rest, you will need plenty of energy to tackle this :

Follow the same procedure, even though both of your wrists which you broke in various horse related incidents feel like they’re going to fall apart and your hands have turned into frozen claws, incapable of doing anything but clutching the metal curry comb.

Finally, after about an hour and a half, you will have a beautiful horse standing in front of you.

Now it’s time to ride.  Enjoy.  Alternatively, you can collapse in a soggy heap in the corner.  It’s up to you.

Points to note :

Safety goggles are a good idea, to keep the dust, crap, hay, oak leaves, twigs and bits of stone and grit out of your eyes.

Remember to bring water with you – it’s important to rinse the muck dust from your mouth every so often.  Who knows what’s in it.  Actually, you can probably make a fair guess as to what’s in it from the flavour.  It tastes like digested hay – yum.
Also remember to bring a few tissues.  It’s going to be interesting when you blow your nose.  You can always conserve the output and try growing roses in it.
Remember that your face is now covered in muck-dust and you look like someone from the Black & White Minstrel show, so don’t call into the shop for milk on the way home.
Plan on a shower as soon as you get home, and it’s probably a good idea to brush your teeth too.
Your clothes (yes, all of them) need to go into the washing machine just as soon as possible.  (How on earth did that leaf get in there?)

It’s really helpful if you have a tube of that numbing stuff (Fastum, Volterol etc) for your aching wrists afterwards.


Seriously, can someone remind me why exactly it’s better for the horses to be kept “naturally?”
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