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!