Blog Details: Bay State Brumby

It has been almost a week since Bill built the bionic hoof for Lilly. She is still not quite better. She's well enough to chase horses in the pasture who are lower in the pecking order away from the food she wants to eat, but I can still see a teeny gimp when she walks. I thought maybe today she would be sound enough to ride at a walk, but after watching her, I decided against it.


It has been really hot and dry here. We have really needed some rain. Friday after work I drove over to see Lilly. At the exact time I arrived, there was a deluge! Suddenly, water was everywhere. Here is Lilly checking out a mini-river that formed along the side of the road. Here you can also see the special wrap Bill put on Lilly's hoof (right) to help the synthetic hoof stay on her foot. It provides the fake hoof a little support. I forget what it is made of, but it feels very solid. Not like cement, but very strong.

In the barn I noticed that someone had bitten my poor brumby!! Immediately I blamed Ruby because I always blame Ruby when I see Lilly has been bitten. Ruby is so bossy! Bill says he sees Lilly doing the same to Yogi but I pretend I do not believe him. I joke, My poooor brumby! Am I the only one who loves and cares for this sweet and innocent flower?

In any case, I cleaned it with some Calendula Wound Cleanser, and then gave it a nice coating of SWAT. When I arrived today there were so many flies on this little wound. Ugh! The bugs are so terrible this year. Last year was wet and rainy and cool, but the good thing about it was the bug population seemed very low. (Not that I am complaining about the heat and sun. I really like it.)

Today as I returned Lilly to her pasture, I watched her walk off to join the other horses. I won't see her for two weeks because we are going to the beach. So I might not be able to blog for a while. This will give Lilly some good pasture recuperation time. Bill calls this kind of time "Dr.Grass." So she'll be hanging out with Dr. Grass for a while. My worry is that the big chunk of hoof that is missing will have to grow out substantially before she's truly sound. I seriously hope this is not how it works out. I can't imagine not riding my brumby for months!! Bill has other horses I can ride of course, but I really only want to ride Lilly. I'm such a big baby. Ultimately however, I just want Lilly to get better and I will do whatever that takes.

Meanwhile, in other space and time, Brandon and I have been taking Gettysburg to an Agility class. Each Wednesday night we go and for an hour try to lure her through obstacles that frighten her.

She really hates this teeter. She hates that it teeters. So we have to lure her onto it with Pupperonis...which smell terrible and cannot be healthy.

This was one of her favorites. Until she jumped through it and the whole contraption actually fell over. Then she hated it. So we had to start from scatch with that one. One of the things Getty loved about Agility class was that Henry was one of her co-pupils. Both Henry and Getty had a hard time focusing on the obstacles because all they wanted to do was play with each other. Next time Henry and Getty will have to be in separate classes!

If I can figure out how to blog using my camera on my iPad, I will blog while on vacation. But if not, I will be blogging again in TWO WEEKS! I am excited to have you see the changes I have planned for my blog. Wait until you see it!! It is going to be great! (Thank you, Madeline Miller, for helping me spice things up!)

Farewell, fine blog-readers! See you soon!

Saturday I headed over to Bill's to see how my brumby was doing. Bill had said on Friday she was still lame.

I knew I wouldn't be able to ride her, but I was very surprised to see that my brumby had been moved to the stall! If you are at Bill's and get moved to the stall, it means things have gotten serious. So I felt sick when I saw her up there. The good news is that she came right over to me (limping) and gobbled up a carrot (happily). At least she didn't seem cranky. I took her out of the stall to see how she was moving.

Lilly was very tenderfooted. And then I noticed that Bill had constructed a new hoof for her! The new hoof did not totally surprise me. She has had a big piece of hoof that has been looking like it was about to fall off for a while. Remember last December when Lilly had a terrible abscess?

Here are some December pictures of the abscess after it blew out.

That darn abscess took forever to blow. In any case, it blew out and healed, and then the crack in her hoof began to grow out. I have been watching it moving down her hoof as the months go by. Last week it was about half-way down her hoof. Lately, the part of her hoof below it looked like it might break off. I have really wanted to pick it off, but I refrained and let it come off on its own. Which is what must have happened between the time Lilly showed up as lame (Wednesday), and Saturday. Bill must have noticed this and took the time to build her a new foot.

Does all of that shed any light on her current lameness? Maybe. I think it must, but you never really know. Lilly has been getting some bute for pain. Isn't her tongue in this picture cute? She does so many cute things.

Sunday Lilly was feeling much better. Not limping nearly as much. In fact, somewhat spunkily she tried to avoid me haltering her in the little paddock. It is always such a relief to see things moving in the direction you want them to.

When I left Lilly she was peering wistfully at her buddies in the pasture.

It is still fairly hot here, so Brandon and I headed to the lake in our tiny town to cool off.

This is Brandon going off the diving board.

And this is me!

We are having some sweltering summer heat here! The temperatures have skyrocketed. Look at Bill's thermometer! It looks like the Heat Miser has resurfaced!

Since I have lived in New England, I have seen all kinds of crazy weather. This is topping the charts. Even as blistering as it is though, I must say, I would rather be too hot than too cold. because if you are too hot....

...you can always slither into Bill's pool and hang out in the water! This is me with Bill's wife Jackie.

Here is Jackie with Norman and Ollie. Did you know Jackie ran the Boston Marathon this year? How AWSUM is that?

Ollie likes lounging in the pool as much as the next guy!

With all of my recent bikini wearing, all I've noticed is how pale and flabby I am. So this is the best view of me in the pool.

Since the evenings have been a little cooler, I headed over to see Lilly after work on wednesday for my usual "lesson." But even then it was so hot. See these jeans I have on? So hot and gross! Even Bill had shorts on. I thought I would get on Lilly for a short bareback ride. But as it turns out, she was limping so I could not ride at all. Here she is getting a carrot and looking like a long necked goose in the process.

Of course it was impossible to discern what was going on with Lilly's foot. She is a bit notorious for throwing curve balls when her feet are concerned. Maybe it is a stone bruise? Maybe it is an abscess? (I hope not!) I can say that she was not limping severely. We will have to adopt the wait-and-see approach. What a cute nostril!

Still, isn't it all right for my brumby to have as many carrots as she wants? Do you see her eyes on those carrots? But look, she's ground tied herself! Oh bumby, how much do I love thee? Let me count the ways: I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach...

Delightfully, I made my way to see my brumby on Monday since it was an official work holiday. I tried to get Brandon to join me but he refused because it was not only very hot, he had discovered that a corner of our mudroom needed to be rebuilt. I left him sweating it out with power tools in the crawlspace and went over to Bill's. Christine has been sailing all weekend but Bill said he would join me on the trail.


In the sun it was very hot. In the woods it was hot but shady. So it was summery and beautiful. The only nightmare were all the bugs buzzing around us. So obnoxious! It is almost better to wear a long sleeved shirt and be hot than be devoured by big flies! Bill got a work out snapping low hanging branches from the trail. Here he is, Tarzan-like, cutting a big devilish vine that seems to have appeared out of nowhere across the trail. We don't cut all the branches and vines on the trail, mind you. A lot of what we do is learn how to duck!

Ah, here's another tree that was across the trail that Bill is cutting up with a small saw. I have actually walked over this tree twice with Lilly before, but the problem is that the mud there has been so deep and the branches are so pokey and tangly, that both times we went over it, there were a few hairy seconds for horse and rider! The first time Lilly charged over it so fast and panicky, I almost fell off of her! So it was best to get rid of it.
That is Ruby, the horse Bill was riding. Do you see how alert she is, looking off to the side? That's because she heard people down in the river below us!

Later on our journey we came up to the pasture where 12 of Bill's round bales are waiting for another guy to come and get them. Ruby saw those big round bales and did not want to do a step farther. Maybe they looked like alien space ships out in the field to her! So Lilly and I went first and then Ruby followed easily.

Lilly just saw these the other day so she was not as bothered by them as Ruby. On this day she went up and took a big bite out of one.

Bill made sure Ruby could see them with both eyes and both sides of her brain. Right side, left side. Then she was just fine. In fact, she was so itchy with all the bugs that she leaned into one of the bales to scratch herself all over! Ruby is one of my favorite horses of Bill's simply based on her looks alone! But she is also very friendly. She will always come up to me in the pasture.

Here is a short clip of Bill and me coming back from the ride. It is very short, and we are so close to the barn that I am not even on Lilly. Maybe it will give you a good idea of how stunning Ruby is!

When I went to see my brumby today, she was the lone horse nibbling at this gigantic round bale of hay. Bill made 24 round bales himself. Usually he uses square bales, but this one particular hay adventure he has been having this summer ended up in round. You can see my brumby does not seem to mind. She is enjoying her holiday.

I got this stars and stripes bikini and was determined to wear it on the 4th of July while riding Lilly. As I was driving over to Bill's I kept asking Brandon if I looked ridiculous. He said yes. Oh well, a patriotic cowgirl's gotta do what she must do. That donkey is looking at me and thinking, "Whaaaaaat?"

Here I am really wishing I had more of a tan. I think it is easier to hide pot bellies with a little suntan.

Oh well! Here I come with my stars and stripes and all american brumby!

My brumby was so good for me today. Can you tell I am not using a saddle? Bareback in a bikini? This is grrreat!

I hope every one had great time celebrating Independence Day. Perhaps your day too was filled with a red, white and blue bikini, some bareback riding and a beautiful brumby.

I hope your night is filled with fun and fireworks!