The Sandy Effect

Sandy made her place in history, that's for sure. Fortunately for us she did not effect us beyond wind and rain. Neither my house nor the barn lost power and there was only a little flooding on the roads I travel.

The rain made our grass arena a bit to slippery to ride on, so the ponies have had a vacation. I took advantage of being able to do less at the barn to bite the bullet and go in for an eye exam. My last exam was 5 yrs ago, about 4 yrs longer than they like between exams. I tend to put my money towards my horses before myself, but my glasses are limping. I survived the exam, even the dreaded puff test for glaucoma and got a pleasant surprise. My insurance covers contact exams too. So I also got fitted for new contacts. These will make life easier. Then it was onto picking out frames for my new glasses. I have not picked out new frames in about 8 years. After my last exam, I  just had my lenses changed. Well in 8 years frames have changed making the decision really hard. After about half an hour, I finally picked out a pair of pink, yep I said pink, frames. I did almost choke when I saw the price, six times what I paid 8 years ago. Well that was the easy part. My sister came too and she looked at frames for 2hrs. First she wanted one kind, then she settled for another. We had it down to two frames, when she decided she wanted color. Another half an hour and a phone consult with Mom and she finally settled on a purple frame that hmm I showed her nearly an hour before. By next week this chore will be completed.

We still had dreary, drippy weather so my having to go into work for a couple of hours was not too bad. While I went to work, my sister went to the barn to take care of the horses. Roscoe loves when she comes because she lets him walk in by himself, where Mom and I use a halter. She uses the extra incentive of a carrot, I know cliche but true, to lead him into his stall. He really could be so bad with her and he does not do it. The horses seem to know she will work with them if they help her. They got to go back on pasture after only one day on dry lot because Dottie is still with out her shoe and the pasture is softer. After I did my time, my sister came to get me and we went to the used bookstore. This was much better than frame shopping. I got just under 20 books for about $30. My sister got like 30 books for $22 after taking out her trade in value. Horse stuff or book shopping are the only kind of shopping I do willingly.

And tomorrow Mom, Peggy and I are going to the Equine Extravaganza. Sandy did not cause them to cancel this event. It is located more centrally in VA so I do not think they saw much damage. These shows can be hit or miss, so cross your fingers for us that it turns out to be a hit. One of these shows is where I bought my trailer for a great deal. We don't need anything that big but some good deals would be nice.

Best of luck to anyone still battling the effects of Sandy. I hope your family and animals are well.

Sandy

Well Sandy has definitely arrived. Yesterday we basically got a lot of wind during the day, but no rain. I let the horses go out and graze since I planned on putting them on dry lot for the night. As the day went along I went back and forth about where to put the horses. I finally called Mom and asked her opinion. She felt better if they were on pasture and out of the way if anything blew off the barns.
Today I knew they were staying in over night. Our barn is on a hill, so 55mph winds are crazy. My sister was great and came to help me get the stalls set up and the food ready. I went to work filling our self made slow feeder hay nets. They are cheaper than those on the market, but they do take more work to fill. My sister set to making their meal and soaking some hay cubes. Since our barn is on well water, the water is dependent on power. I filled all the water troughs, a couple of spare buckets and soaked an extra bucket of beet pulp. My sister put extra buckets into all the horses stalls to make sure they had plenty of water.
When we pulled up to the barn the horses had all been out in the field eating grass. After the wind picked up and the rain increased Roscoe started calling. I looked out to see the girls in their run in and the boys looking toward the barn. Roscoe kept calling until he finally heard me telling him to come. Then he wanted to run into the barn. That was not happening. He gets wild when he is wet and has no brain processes beyond getting dry. I would not let him into the barn until I could put a lead line on him. It took a while, but he finally stood still long enough to let me catch him. As soon as I put him in his stall he immediately started rolling and rubbing into the sawdust. We settled the other two boys and had to convince the girls to leave the run in for the barn.
I went back to stuffing bags while they dried off a bit. Roscoe continued to roll around until my sister gave everyone their food. Then as I was putting Winston's net in his bag, I heard a scuffle in DaVinci's stall. A glance showed he had pulled the eye hole holding his hay bag out of the wall. Emergency repair. Whew.
Finally all the horses had 3 big flakes in their hay nets, 2 buckets of water and the big guys had warmer clothes. Again I called Mom to see if she thought they needed anything more. Since they will be in for a longer time, she had me give them some loose hay on the ground. We also decided to let DaVinci roam the barn. He is our pony that gets cabin fever and will be happier moving around. All the others are used to him roaming so he won't cause any problems. I put his loose hay in a wheelbarrow in the aisle so he feels like he is stealing it. Everyone knows stolen goods taste better:)
Before we left we gave them their bowl of wet alfalfa cubes topped with carrot pieces. Those were happy ponies.
Tomorrow's weather is not looking promising and they may have to spend more time inside. These times are when I really appreciate my horses' flexibility. They do not worry about schedule changes or turn out changes.
I hope everyone else on the East coast are safe. I asked Mom how she is the one who went to Florida and we are the ones getting the hurricane. She just laughed.