The Aftermath

After the torrential deluge that California suffered on Friday and Saturday, we started putting things back together at the barn. Speedy's blanket was completely dry so I returned it to the tack room. Izzy's was nearly dry, which surprised me, so I flipped it over and let the inside soak in the sun while I puttered.

There wasn't much we could do about the lakes that occupied many of the paddocks, but fortunately, all of the horses live in such large enclosures that there is always dry land somewhere in the wetness. The big thing we had to work around was Pixie. Up until very recently, Archie and Pixie had lived directly across from Izzy. When Archie was euthanized a few weeks ago, Pixie was left in the double large paddock by herself. Rather than upset her even more, the ranch owner decided to see if having Izzy across the way would be company enough for her.

Pixie

As it turns out, without Archie in the way, Izzy has fallen hard for his neighbor. When Pixie began to shiver too much, the ranch owner moved her temporarily to the mare motel which has more shelter from the rain. This did not please Izzy at all. He was pissed and pouted the entire day. On Sunday morning we decided to fit Pixie, who has never been blanketed, with a blanket so that we could move her back to her regular paddock. While the blanket was not the best fit, she stood quite bravely as we fiddled with the buckles and straps. Once it seemed secure enough, we turned her loose. Both she and Izzy called back and forth as though they had been apart for weeks instead of hours.

Pixie up close.

When we were comfortable with the modifications we made to the blanket, we pulled it, folded it up, and stored it in the barn for quick application if needed this week. With his gal pal back where she was supposed to be, Izzy got to work on his breakfast. Pixie was still rattled, so we turned her loose, fed her an extra flake of hay, and left her to decompress. We had a second horse who needed some extra support.

Dollar, Pixie's sire, had chosen a very bad place to lay down the evening before. The ranch own found him laying on the slope of his paddock, unable to get up. Apparently he had laid down with his feet on the uphill side and couldn't roll himself over. With the help of a new tenant, they were able to flip Dollar over so that he could get back up. After scouting out the least muddy spot in his paddock, we decided to dump a bag of shavings down in the hope that he would choose to rest in them rather than on the slight grade in his paddock.

Pixie's sire, Dollar

Horses being horses, Dollar decided that they shavings were his lunch so we spent even more time coaxing him out of the shavings with a bucket of senior feed - which he turned down, a fresh flake of hay, and a bucket of beet pulp, which finally distracted him. 

When you only get six inches of a rain a year, four inches in a single weekend requires some creative thinking.