Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Oh, and on an Off Note...
IT'S SNOWING!!! We've already gotten about an inch and we're due for 2-4, some areas up to 6 and some rumored to get 10-12. This is Coastal North Carolina we're talking about here. It hasn't snowed, and stuck, in like 8 years or something according to the 'residential population' of (mostly) rednecks and the like. But anyway, this is a blessing considering I haven't seen it like this since I lived in VA 5 or 6 years ago. And for someone originally from Oregon, it's very nice to see snow like this again.
Second Day Stablehand
I know this is two days late but at least I'm posting. Sunday was my "officially" first day working at Terrapin. Holy crap. Wow. It, honestly, sucked. Why am I not quitting? I have no idea. Maybe it's because I don't want to make her see myself as a quitter, as my boyfriend so kindly put that I'm not one, or weak (though I quickly found out how weak and out of shape I really am). The fact that I want to do this, underneath the pain and long hours of laboring physical work, I want to work with the horses, to care for them. All nine, of them.
I got there a few minutes before 8:30 in the morning and took the time to take pictures of everyone. Granted if I had known, I would have started immediately doing feed instead of waiting till when I was supposed to start at 8:30. The horses were supposed to be fed by 9. That didn't happen. They were an hour late being fed because I had to learn how to do it all right and wait for her to help me with the tinctures and herbs that each one gets or doesn't get, then we have to fill the buckets with hot water accordingly and let it soak for about 10 min. Pull the gater in the barn and everyone goes crazy.
I'm supposed to get everything done: feed, stalls mucked, water buckets emptied, troughs outside filled to the brim (which I never got done... it was raining), and barn swept in about 3 1/2 hours. It took me an hour to feed, and about 3 1/2 hours just to do stalls, that's with breaks every few minutes because of my back. Then she comes out around 3:30 when we're supposed to start the afternoon rounds (fill water buckets, do feed, bring the horses in) and inspected the stalls. I'm just going to jump to the point and say, according to her standards, I did horribly. Her critiquing nearly, well did, bring me to tears and she said she didn't mean to be, well, mean, but she's running a business and she wants things done right. Apparently I didn't get enough of the little tiny broken off pieces of manure from the bedding or mix in the wet and dry good enough. I was alone all day except when she came and checked on me. Just me, the radio, and some random wild cats wandering through the barn and making kittens, no joke.
On the bright side, I learned a few things. I learned that most of her horses have won a lot of different competitions. One named Justin, a pony, beat 16 and 17 hh thoroughbreds in some competition. One of their thoroughbreds, Lily, was at the racetrack 5 years and came back safe and sound in the head, which is unheard of in racehorses. Others won things too but I can't recall all of them. And I got all their names down, I just still have to match them all to faces. Justin, Tater, Sampson and Lincoln and self-board horses, Zeus (who has something that's making him to lame), Strike, Ben (the one I might be leasing), Lily (the one with I think canker in her hoof), Foxy, Star (who has one eye), and Sasha their fostered horse from USERL, a horse rescue place. I also learned that turmeric is an anti-inflammatory, and that mineral oil is used to cure and prevent colic. Given to the horses in their feed once a month, mineral oil acts as a laxative and helps clean the horses out. Given at the first signs of colic (fewer droppings than usual, and/or much harder and drier manure) it can help, if not completely prevent, colic from occurring. If your horse does suffer from colic and the vet comes out, they give them a stomach tube and pour in about a gallon of mineral oil, which I guess can be a very expensive bill (who knows why) so it would be best to treat the signs before it comes on full force. Also canker (sp?) is a fungal disease of the hoof and if not treated (Cindy is treating Lily herbally) and taken care of, the surgery is about $3,000 and takes half the horse's foot.
So at the end of the day, soaking wet, freezing, and covered from head to foot in dirt and manure from trying to dump too-heavy buckets of the stuff, sore but not near as sore as I will (and was, and still am) be the next day, near crying and about to pass out from the exertion, and after a long talk with my beau, I've still decided to keep at it. What am I thinking, I have no idea. But maybe, just maybe, it'll all pay off in the end.
Wish me luck!
I got there a few minutes before 8:30 in the morning and took the time to take pictures of everyone. Granted if I had known, I would have started immediately doing feed instead of waiting till when I was supposed to start at 8:30. The horses were supposed to be fed by 9. That didn't happen. They were an hour late being fed because I had to learn how to do it all right and wait for her to help me with the tinctures and herbs that each one gets or doesn't get, then we have to fill the buckets with hot water accordingly and let it soak for about 10 min. Pull the gater in the barn and everyone goes crazy.
I'm supposed to get everything done: feed, stalls mucked, water buckets emptied, troughs outside filled to the brim (which I never got done... it was raining), and barn swept in about 3 1/2 hours. It took me an hour to feed, and about 3 1/2 hours just to do stalls, that's with breaks every few minutes because of my back. Then she comes out around 3:30 when we're supposed to start the afternoon rounds (fill water buckets, do feed, bring the horses in) and inspected the stalls. I'm just going to jump to the point and say, according to her standards, I did horribly. Her critiquing nearly, well did, bring me to tears and she said she didn't mean to be, well, mean, but she's running a business and she wants things done right. Apparently I didn't get enough of the little tiny broken off pieces of manure from the bedding or mix in the wet and dry good enough. I was alone all day except when she came and checked on me. Just me, the radio, and some random wild cats wandering through the barn and making kittens, no joke.
On the bright side, I learned a few things. I learned that most of her horses have won a lot of different competitions. One named Justin, a pony, beat 16 and 17 hh thoroughbreds in some competition. One of their thoroughbreds, Lily, was at the racetrack 5 years and came back safe and sound in the head, which is unheard of in racehorses. Others won things too but I can't recall all of them. And I got all their names down, I just still have to match them all to faces. Justin, Tater, Sampson and Lincoln and self-board horses, Zeus (who has something that's making him to lame), Strike, Ben (the one I might be leasing), Lily (the one with I think canker in her hoof), Foxy, Star (who has one eye), and Sasha their fostered horse from USERL, a horse rescue place. I also learned that turmeric is an anti-inflammatory, and that mineral oil is used to cure and prevent colic. Given to the horses in their feed once a month, mineral oil acts as a laxative and helps clean the horses out. Given at the first signs of colic (fewer droppings than usual, and/or much harder and drier manure) it can help, if not completely prevent, colic from occurring. If your horse does suffer from colic and the vet comes out, they give them a stomach tube and pour in about a gallon of mineral oil, which I guess can be a very expensive bill (who knows why) so it would be best to treat the signs before it comes on full force. Also canker (sp?) is a fungal disease of the hoof and if not treated (Cindy is treating Lily herbally) and taken care of, the surgery is about $3,000 and takes half the horse's foot.
So at the end of the day, soaking wet, freezing, and covered from head to foot in dirt and manure from trying to dump too-heavy buckets of the stuff, sore but not near as sore as I will (and was, and still am) be the next day, near crying and about to pass out from the exertion, and after a long talk with my beau, I've still decided to keep at it. What am I thinking, I have no idea. But maybe, just maybe, it'll all pay off in the end.
Wish me luck!
First Day Stablehand
(For Saturday, January 17, 2009)
Woo today was, well, cold, to be quite frank. I had my 'training day' today at my new job, Terrapin Horse Center ( http://www.terrapinhorsecenter.com/ ). Pretty cool place, privately owned, but the woman who owns it runs an herbal business, a boarding/leasing/lessons/training business, and does natural rehabilitation for horses (and their humans). It's really neat since she mixes all her own herbal stuff that she sells and uses on her horses. She told me that when she started using all natural medicines and foods for her horses, her vet bills went from $10,000 a year, to get this, $300 a year. Now that, people, is saying something. But anyway, I'm a stable hand and had to go in for training with a friend who already has been working there. We're in Coastal North Carolina. It was 19 degrees this morning at 8:30 eastern time. 19 degrees! And I can guarantee it never reached over 32 because all the ice that we pulled from the water troughs in the paddocks and that was in the water-filled puddles never melted. We had to break the ice in the troughs with a metal baseball bat, that's how solid it was. The ice had to be at least 1" thick. I couldn't feel my fingers or my toes for most of the day, which is bad considering you use your hands an awful lot. And her house, which is on the property, is an old farm house so the plumbing and such isn't all that great. Her toilet water was frozen. The spickets outside were too so we had to use hot water from the kitchen inside in the horses feed. Even our house, which is relatively new, had its own problems because of the cold. My boss said that this was the coldest it's been in 5 years and that she moved down from Connecticut to get away from it, but I guess it finally caught up to her.
Any who, the barn has 11 horses right now, and two are self-boarders, and I met their owners today. Along with the help from my friend I had to muck 9 stalls, sweep the main isle which is huge, de-ice the water containers inside the barn and out, feed them, dump the manure, and take hay out to the paddocks. All together, because of the water crisis, it took about 5 hours. That's a long time to be unable to feel your digits. But regardless, it was a good experience and I go tomorrow for my real first day. She leases two of her horses out to people and since even though we were thinking of rescuing one, I'm thinking, for financial reasons, it would be best to lease one of hers so I can ride, and show with the 4-H team around here that I'm hopefully joining. The one I'm hoping to be able to lease is Ben. I'll have more on him later. For now, off to go do some things around my own house.
Keep On Riding Free
Woo today was, well, cold, to be quite frank. I had my 'training day' today at my new job, Terrapin Horse Center ( http://www.terrapinhorsecenter.com/ ). Pretty cool place, privately owned, but the woman who owns it runs an herbal business, a boarding/leasing/lessons/training business, and does natural rehabilitation for horses (and their humans). It's really neat since she mixes all her own herbal stuff that she sells and uses on her horses. She told me that when she started using all natural medicines and foods for her horses, her vet bills went from $10,000 a year, to get this, $300 a year. Now that, people, is saying something. But anyway, I'm a stable hand and had to go in for training with a friend who already has been working there. We're in Coastal North Carolina. It was 19 degrees this morning at 8:30 eastern time. 19 degrees! And I can guarantee it never reached over 32 because all the ice that we pulled from the water troughs in the paddocks and that was in the water-filled puddles never melted. We had to break the ice in the troughs with a metal baseball bat, that's how solid it was. The ice had to be at least 1" thick. I couldn't feel my fingers or my toes for most of the day, which is bad considering you use your hands an awful lot. And her house, which is on the property, is an old farm house so the plumbing and such isn't all that great. Her toilet water was frozen. The spickets outside were too so we had to use hot water from the kitchen inside in the horses feed. Even our house, which is relatively new, had its own problems because of the cold. My boss said that this was the coldest it's been in 5 years and that she moved down from Connecticut to get away from it, but I guess it finally caught up to her.
Any who, the barn has 11 horses right now, and two are self-boarders, and I met their owners today. Along with the help from my friend I had to muck 9 stalls, sweep the main isle which is huge, de-ice the water containers inside the barn and out, feed them, dump the manure, and take hay out to the paddocks. All together, because of the water crisis, it took about 5 hours. That's a long time to be unable to feel your digits. But regardless, it was a good experience and I go tomorrow for my real first day. She leases two of her horses out to people and since even though we were thinking of rescuing one, I'm thinking, for financial reasons, it would be best to lease one of hers so I can ride, and show with the 4-H team around here that I'm hopefully joining. The one I'm hoping to be able to lease is Ben. I'll have more on him later. For now, off to go do some things around my own house.
Keep On Riding Free
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
