Working vacation
Aug. 27th, 2007 07:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
murakoziThe horses are off on their vacation so things are more quiet than usual at the barn.
Upon arriving at the barn, I immediately noticed the results of the storm that came through on Saturday night:
Good thing it fell away from the barn. I hate to imagine the damage it would've done if it had fallen on the roof.
In this picture, you can see where that big chunk of the tree broke off up near the top. That's the main trunk, not an offshoot that came down.
Not all of the school horses went up to Don's place for their break. A couple of the newer ones and a couple of the horses who just need to be worked with a little stayed behind. Lynn, Bev, and a couple others were at the barn, getting some time in with some of the latter group. Duncan managed to spook at some imaginary monster in the corner of the indoor ring and bucked off his rider, Bev. She landed badly and her knee was hurting. It didn't seem like anything major, but she was hurting.
Bev wasn't the only one to suffer an injury. I started to scrub out some of the feed buckets on the school side of the barn. I don't think they've been properly cleaned in a long time. Now the barn is old enough that over time, some of the eyebolts that the buckets normally hang from broke or pulled free. As a result, some of them are just tied to the stall bars with baling twine. While cutting one of those free, I was less than careful. The knife cut the twine and ended up poking me in the ring finger of my left hand about halfway between the nail and the knuckle. It wasn't serious or deep, but being a finger cut, it hurt some and of course, bled a lot.
I went to the mens' room and rinsed it off then wrapped it in a paper towel while I got the first aid kit out of my car. After a little better cleaning I put a bandaid on it and the middle finger (I'd also cut that finger right next to the nail but it barely bled) and went back to work. It seems that when I originally went to the mens room, I left a trail of little drops of blood on the floor. The others saw that and got the impression I'd hurt myself more seriously than I had. Danged fingers do tend to bleed a lot when stuck.
Doc is back at the barn. He's been gone for months now while he recovered from the torn flexor in his leg. He was out being ridden on the trail when I arrived at the barn and was all huffing and sweating when he came back. It's great to have him back, but he's going to need some work to get back into shape after weeks and weeks of eating grass and bullying the retired horses up at the farm.
Don is negotiating the renewal of his contract/lease with the park service. It happens every five years. This time, though, it looks like he might be able to get them to do some much needed work on the barn. They may actually replace the awful standing stalls with proper box stalls, which is something everyone has wanted for a long long time. I know the horses would sure love that.
Upon arriving at the barn, I immediately noticed the results of the storm that came through on Saturday night:
Good thing it fell away from the barn. I hate to imagine the damage it would've done if it had fallen on the roof.
In this picture, you can see where that big chunk of the tree broke off up near the top. That's the main trunk, not an offshoot that came down.
Not all of the school horses went up to Don's place for their break. A couple of the newer ones and a couple of the horses who just need to be worked with a little stayed behind. Lynn, Bev, and a couple others were at the barn, getting some time in with some of the latter group. Duncan managed to spook at some imaginary monster in the corner of the indoor ring and bucked off his rider, Bev. She landed badly and her knee was hurting. It didn't seem like anything major, but she was hurting.
Bev wasn't the only one to suffer an injury. I started to scrub out some of the feed buckets on the school side of the barn. I don't think they've been properly cleaned in a long time. Now the barn is old enough that over time, some of the eyebolts that the buckets normally hang from broke or pulled free. As a result, some of them are just tied to the stall bars with baling twine. While cutting one of those free, I was less than careful. The knife cut the twine and ended up poking me in the ring finger of my left hand about halfway between the nail and the knuckle. It wasn't serious or deep, but being a finger cut, it hurt some and of course, bled a lot.
I went to the mens' room and rinsed it off then wrapped it in a paper towel while I got the first aid kit out of my car. After a little better cleaning I put a bandaid on it and the middle finger (I'd also cut that finger right next to the nail but it barely bled) and went back to work. It seems that when I originally went to the mens room, I left a trail of little drops of blood on the floor. The others saw that and got the impression I'd hurt myself more seriously than I had. Danged fingers do tend to bleed a lot when stuck.
Doc is back at the barn. He's been gone for months now while he recovered from the torn flexor in his leg. He was out being ridden on the trail when I arrived at the barn and was all huffing and sweating when he came back. It's great to have him back, but he's going to need some work to get back into shape after weeks and weeks of eating grass and bullying the retired horses up at the farm.
Don is negotiating the renewal of his contract/lease with the park service. It happens every five years. This time, though, it looks like he might be able to get them to do some much needed work on the barn. They may actually replace the awful standing stalls with proper box stalls, which is something everyone has wanted for a long long time. I know the horses would sure love that.