Ending 2020, Looking Towards 2021

It is Christmas and once again I am sitting down enjoying the peacefulness of early morning. Every year I say it and I will say it again next year, time flies by. I feel like it was just yesterday I was sitting down the write the recap of 2019. 2020 has been a different year as a whole for the world. 

January started and we were pretty lucky that the winter season had been nice to us. I was finally going into my last semester for my Bachelors degree. The horses were still in Columbus staying with our friends Kelli and Clint. Our days were filled with the normal things around our house work, school, dogs, oh and dreaming of Spring of course. 

As winter slowly started to fad into spring we were heading into March with some crazy weather swings.  It would be warm then snow storm then back to above freezing. It was a weird weather pattern that seemed to be repeating itself. Unfortunately, weather swings like that are always hard on horses. The first week of March we found ourselves saying goodbye to our sweet foster horse, Asher. He had been with us since November of 2019 and we thought we were on the up side of the battle, but colic was too much for him to handle and he left us and many others with broken hearts in his absence.

As March continued 2020 started giving us a glimpse of what was to come for the year. Pixie was diagnosed with Heaves. We got notice that we needed to move the horses again and talk of a new virus was starting to ramp up.  

As Spring was finally arriving in Montana, I had been sent home to work remote due to COVID-19. Sarah's work place had decided to shut down for the month of April out of precaution due to Covid. That meant we were home together all the time! That was both good and bad. 😉

April and May we worked on moving all 6 of the horses to their new home in Laurel. Yes, Laurel! Less than 15 miles from my house. For the past 6 years we had been driving 50 miles to see them in Columbus. I was excited to have them near by again! We found the nicest family that has pasture and land to ride on. I can't say it enough that we were beyond blessed to have meet them and have them welcome us and the horses to their home.  

In May, I officially graduated from MSUB with my degree in Business and Accounting. It was a day I had worked long and hard for!  

Spring started to turn to summer and COVID was still the talk of the world. Restrictions had started to lift, Sarah was back to work full time, me...well I was still working from home for the most part. I thought I would be home for a few weeks, but it was looking to be months. We carried on with what would be our new routine for 2020, which included seeing the horses daily with 2 that need meds once a day for PPID.

Summer we found ourselves busy with the horse rescue, we were both on the board. We fostered a Belgian Stallion named Boomer for a month. He was a good boy during his stay and we were happy to be part of his new chapter in life. 

I feel like before we knew it summer was coming to an end. We had stayed busy with horses, dogs, work and of course the horse rescue. We had didn't ride as much as we have in the past years, but that was ok as we were enjoying our time with the horses and dogs. 

In August after 5 months of working from home I went back to work in the office. That was a change, but it was nice to see people again. 😃

Fall was coming and I was planning a trip to Corvallis to spend the weekend with Jasmin at the Rescue for the annual fundraiser. The weekend was a huge success with a fun filled day. I was able to meet some of the drafts I hadn't meet before and I was able to celebrate my birthday with special friends, including my life long friend Hannah. 

As fall continued on we welcomed a new foster horse, Charm, a Belgian cross. We also extended our backyard for the dogs. They enjoyed having a much bigger yard to run in! 

Winter was arriving in our area and COVID started to surge come November. I found myself back at home working for most of November. Mid November I passed my exam to become a Certified Orthopedic Surgery Coder. As Sarah put it I got more letters to go behind my name.😀

Here we are back to December, it has been a different year to say the least in the face of the pandemic. This year we made some new friends, got to see some old ones and for that I am thankful. I can't wait to see what 2021 has in store of us. 

From my family to yours, we wish you the best for 2021!

The Battle Against Canker Starts

Three farrier appointments later, two of those three included a vet so we could sedate Charm, and we had back shoes with plates officially on by Nov 10th. We were set! I had the shoeing stock at my barn, stationed right next to my trailer (delivery of the stock was delayed due to mud). The trailer has lights so for the short days ahead due to winter. 

All we had to do going forward was to unbolt the hospital plate from the shoe and pack with gaze then wrap one time, bolt the plate back on the shoe and away we go. See pictures below:

No problem, right? We have the shoeing stock and oral sedatives. The farrier made the process look fairly simple. The was one problem, ok maybe 2 problems. Charm was barely touched by the oral sedative and my farrier has what I would compare to super human strength. Charm isn't what I consider a huge horse, he is smaller in size for a draft horse cross probably weights about 1500lbs. So compared to my Goliath, not a super big horse. Not huge, but plenty big enough to make it nearly impossible for me to pick up his feet. The plan was that I would be doing this alone since I don't really have anyone to come help me before 5:30pm on the week days. 

It was quickly discovered that I would not be changing his bandages alone. Heck if Sarah and I could get his bandages changed with both of us there it would be a miracle. The first day we attempted it without my farrier it took 2 hours! 2 hours of fighting to get his foot tied up to the stand. We got it up there more than once, only to have him fight and rip it away mid bandage change. We just couldn't get it tied tight enough. We called defeat that day and put him out without the plate on. The next day we gave him the oral sedative and somehow were able to get both feet done and bandages changed. That day gave us all sorts of hope! We had, with minimal fight, gotten him to take the oral drugs and he didn't try to kick or fight too bad while drugged. So we went into Sunday feeling like we got this! Phew just give the drugs and all will be fine. 

Sunday came and it did NOT go like it had the day before. He knew our plan with the oral drugs now. So he was not having it that day! Remember we are short, old, and out of shape when compared to a draft horse. So even in a stock trying to get him to hold still to get the drugs UNDER his tongue is a little bit of a workout. We got it done, but he was already worked up and 45 minutes later he was sleepy, but not sleepy enough to not fight. One foot got done, the next one not so much. Ugh we called defeat a few hours in. He had a few minor cuts on his leg from kicking the wood block and fighting the ropes so much. 

After we put him back in his pasture, I was in tears. It was hard on us and hard on him. There was lots of cussing and wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. Did we need to call complete defeat and say it wasn't possible, we couldn't treat his feet? I sent a message to the founder of the rescue and the advisor saying I wasn't sure we had the ability to treat him. He may need to go back to the rescue headquarters. 

But here is the thing, neither Sarah or I like to give up easily. Or well give up at all on an animal that we know could have hope. The next day the brainstorming started. There are no guarantees, but we are taking a different approach now. 

Meeting Charm...

 I think the conversation started something like this between Sarah and I:

      Me:" Hey this horse has canker in all 4 feet, do you want to foster him?" Her: "What?! How is he standing, and what did you just sign us up for?" Me: "I don't know?"

Flash forward 1 month later, I found myself staying at the public auction yard with a sort of skinny draft mix horse that needed electrolytes as he had just arrived from MN. Easy peasy! Well we both wore a little of it and he got most of it, but that was as good as it was getting. I said good night and walked away wearing his green alfalfa slobber in my hair and all over my shirt. Overall, he was a pretty chill dude that most definitely had canker in all 4 feet. I knew as I walked back to the car from his paddock that our adventure was just getting starting. 

My farrier had already laid out a plan for us because I knew next to nothing about canker. What I did know was that it is hard to treat and most people are only trying to treat it in 1 foot at a time. Why not try to tackle all 4 feet, right? Just treat each hoof daily, sounded easy enough. 

The next week Charm arrived at my barn. I gave him a few days to settle in and then went to see how he was with this feet. Started with the front, safer that way. I didn't know if he was a kicker. Personally, I don't like to get kicked, it hurts. So off to work we went, I leaned over and said "foot" he stomped and then swoosh he tried to kick me with his back foot. Yes, he kicked forward with his giant back leg. Ok, well that was a first for me. Clearly this wasn't going to go quite as well as I had planned. Let's try the other front foot. Lots of stomping with it is what we got. No trying to kick my head off though on that side, so there was that. Well we left it at that for the day, no way I was winning that battle. Put a call in to my amazing farrier told him that we might have a slight problem because it appears Charm doesn't like his feet handled. He said ok we will figure it out.  

With that our adventure with Charm and trying to treat his canker in all 4 feet officially started...