Dog Days

After I die I want to come back and be a dog, horse, cat or some sort of pet on this farm! We have quite an assortment of dogs, most of whom you have read about and/or seen pictures already. We have Trooper the 3-legged black lab mix, Bush the coon hound, Bear the schipperke, Bugle the border collie mix and Bella the border collie.

One of my favorite videos of some of the dogs taken in December 2007:

Bear says "Daddy, I promise to be a good dog for five whole minutes if you skip the bath"

Please, please, PLEASE don't give me a bath

Making sure he gets Jason as wet as he possibly can
Bear hates to be bathed but he looooves being dried with a towel; I have no idea why

Trooper the 3-legged wonder sleeping in the flower bed in front of the barn

Bugle was sleeping right behind Trooper

Bush was enjoying the sunshine and the grass

Welcome Asterik

Asterik is our newest retiree to join us on the farm. He made the trip down from Long Island a few weeks ago. Asterik is a Holsteiner by the famous show jumping stallion Cathargo. Asterik is dearly loved by his owner who is understandably devastated at having to retire this talented horse at the young age of thirteen. Asterik stepped on a nail at a horse show and it went through his foot. After exhausting all resources for Asterik as far as diagnostics, testing and rehabilitation his mom came to the hard decision to retire him. She told me he would probably be sound enough for flat work for awhile, but his future was too uncertain for her to be comfortable enough to sell him to a non-jumping home. So she made the decision to retire him and we are the lucky ones who have been chosen to host Asterik in retirement.

Asterik was a wonderful horse and showed (and won) in both the hunters and the jumpers. In addition to having the scope for the jumper ring, he had the movement, stylish jump and soft way of going for the hunter ring. He also has a big personality and loves to play and interact with horses, humans, and anything else that happens to be in his path. Welcome Asterik, we are thrilled to have you with us!

Asterik easily cleared this fence with mom; you can tell he isn't even trying

Asterik's first day with us; he loves to strike a pose for the camera

Trying to introduce himself to Cloudy

Playing with a stickHaving fun

Trying to follow all of the chickens around
Asterik especially loved the goats; he thought they were awesome

When the goats would go in their house Asterik would stand there with his head in the door and watch them
Asterik with Sebastian, one of his new roomies
Trillion, Asterik and Sebastian were intently focused on something

Meet Harmony

You have already had a brief introduction to Harmony in this post. Harmony is an Argentine bred Thoroughbred mare, bred for polo and out of a star polo mare. She has been owned and loved by Cathy for over 18 years. Cathy said the first time she ever saw Harmony she had just bucked off a prospective buyer into a mud puddle. It was right before a polo game in Illinois and the prospective buyer was wearing his whites . . . which were not very white anymore. Cathy says that she is positive Harmony was laughing, and I believe her! She learned later that day that Harmony had broken her groom's collarbone right before the summer season and her owner was furious at her, thus she was for sale.

Cathy and Harmony in October 2002

Fortunately for Harmony the muddy polo player bought her anyway! His groom however did not get along with Harmony either, and that was when Cathy started riding her. She quickly became Cathy's favorite. She said Harmony was just a very active-minded mare and if you gave her something to do she was fine. Simply canter around in circles and she would spook at everything. Harmony reacted to bad hands with rearing and a poor seat by propping on her front legs. But if you gave Harmony a lovely ride she gave you a lovely response.

Harmony in 1985. I love this picture, she looks so young and still has a dark mane. What a gorgeous mare she was and is.

Harmony gave Cathy a good scare pretty early on in their relationship. She colicked badly and spent the night in the horspital. The attending vet gave her only a 20% chance of survival without surgery but Cathy stayed with her all night and walked her in between rounds of IV fluids. Thankfully Harmony pulled through just fine.

Harmony looking in the door of Cathy's house; this picture was taken in the early 1990's

Harmony standing in Cathy's garage; this picture was taken in 1999

Harmony blossomed with age - she played polo, she jumped, she ran barrels and poles, and even taught some lessons. In fact she improved so much that at a polo game in Chicago another player made a big offer for her. Harmony's owner - by then Cathy's boyfriend - was inclined to make the deal until Cathy chimed in that Harmony was a really good deal because Cathy came with her! Harmony stayed, and so did Cathy.

Harmony teaching a young rider how to jump; this picture was taken in the early 1990's

Harmony and Cathy in 1992

Harmony outlasted that relationship and most of Cathy's other horses. When Cathy got a job in Toronto in 2000 she moved Harmony and her friend Lacy up there with her. The mares stayed in Toronto while Cathy travelled around and did other things and basically got out of horses. They lived on a small, private farm and had five acres to themselves. It was a great situation for them until Lacy started having trouble keeping weight on in 2006. After a blood panel and a long discussion with the vet Cathy decided to move the girls to a warmer climate for Lacy's comfort. In the fall of 2006 Harmony and Lacy made the trip to our farm in Tennessee.

Harmony in 2005 saying "For God's sake mom, move me to Tennessee. I hear the winters aren't like this!"

I am more than happy to let everyone know that Cathy feels that was a great decision (wink wink)! Lacy fattened back up and looked wonderful until she passed away in December 2007. Harmony continues to enjoy her life of ease and luxury. Cathy ran into the brother of Harmony's original owner and breeder a few years ago and told him she still had her. She said his jaw dropped!

Harmony in 2003

I love how Cathy summed up her relationship with Harmony: "Harmony was a lot of peoples' nightmare, but she was and is my treasure. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the pictures of her grazing in horse paradise, and knowing she is getting a reward for all of those years of hard work." I think that first sentence is just wonderful (I like the rest as well!).

Harmony and Cathy in 2005

Although I have many pictures of Harmony that I could share, and have shared some of them, Cathy had several pictures of her and Harmony that she sent to me. I hope you have enjoyed all of these old pictures of Harmony and reading her story. She is a really special mare with a lot of personality, and she certainly deserves her life of ease here with us!

Happy Birthday Elfin!

Everybody please join me in wishing Eflin a happy birthday! Elfin is 19 years young today, although he typically acts like he is a long yearling.

Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday Dear Elfin
Happy Birthday To You

. . . and many more!!!!

His birthday feast

He finally stops grazing and notices the bucket

Moving in to investigate
Grabbing a bite
That tastes really good - and there are so many yummy smells!

Look Mom, I got icing everywhere!

I scraped the icing off for Elfin and he licked it off my hand; he handled the carrots with no assistance

Bella celebrated with Elfin, and helped polish off the carrot cake

My Horse Will Hate Retirement

I don't know how many times I have heard "my horse will hate retirement." I'm sure I have not heard every reason out there yet but I have heard a lot of them:

My horse is a show horse
My horse is used to being pampered (they don't have to be ridden to be pampered but ok)
My horse hates being turned out (ok, so pay for a stall - we offer both!)
My horse loves being ridden
My horse is depressed if he doesn't have a job
My horse loves to go to horse shows
My horse hates it when the trailer leaves without him
My horse is so attached to me, I don't think he can handle not seeing me every day
My horse loses weight if he has to much turnout/not enough turnout
My horse hates to be hot/cold/whatever temperature he apparently dislikes
My horse runs/paces the fence when he's turned out

These are just the most common reasons that I typed out without even having to sit here and think about it. I could write endless blog posts refuting each and every one of those statements based on what I see and watch on this farm every day but I won't do that right now!

Today was a day that us humans don't usually really like, low to mid 50's and raining. I guess if I were a person more in tune with nature or appreciative of my surroundings or whatever I would like days like this. But unfortunately as I was getting soaked through while feeding everyone and doing all of my morning "stuff" I mostly was thinking about how much I wished it would stop raining. I like to think of myself as a tree-hugger on some level, but I have no urge to stretch my arms open wide while the rain soaks me and think about what a beautiful place planet earth is. Call me a cynic. It didn't help that I broke the zipper on my rain jacket this morning so I could only zip it about a third of the way up. Grrrr.

I'm sure you are wondering what all of this has to do with horses and hating retirement. Be patient, I'm slowly getting to the point.

So I'm working my way through the pastures feeding everyone. Normally they are all waiting for me but of course since it was raining of course I had to hunt them down. I was feeding Trillion, Faune, Asterik, Sebastian and Ogie, and waiting for them to finish so I could remove their feedbags. They were all really hyper this morning and when they finally saw me and heard me calling them for breakfast they came charging through the pasture doing their best imitation of the Black Stallion, racing with the wind. As I was removing feedbags Faune ran off before I could remove his. Why? Because Asterik has only been integrated into his family group for a day and a half and Faune knows he comes in to his stall after breakfast. He did NOT want to miss out on any getting to know you time with Asterik.

So Faune is merrily charging around his 20+ acre pasture, with me following him and talking in a pleading voice "good boy Faune, I've got a treat in my hand." Hah! Faune knew I didn't have a treat and wouldn't have cared if I did. His only goal was to stay OUT in the pouring rain with Asterik. Jason and I joke that Faune prefaces every thought with "my mommy is Gillian and . . . " Today he was saying "my mommy is Gillian and she says I don't have to come in today!" as he was gleefully bolting around the pasture with me in pursuit. After chasing him around in the rain for fifteen minutes he finally let me catch him. "My mommy is Gillian and the only reason you have a halter on me right now is because I decided to be nice and let you catch me." Thanks so much Faune, I looove having extra time out in the pouring rain! I can't say that I was seeing any signs today that Faune hates retirement or finds life to be boring!

After the Faune chase I continued to make my way around the farm feeding breakfast. The big boys were in fine form this morning. The "big boys" are a group of young, rambunctious geldings that have been retired due to various injuries. They are a very playful bunch of geldings, but today they put on a performance that was beyond anything I've ever seen them do.

They were pretty quiet as they were eating breakfast, but they charged off after I removed their feedbags. I didn't think much of it as they just ran halfway across their pasture and then started grazing. I was feeding the horses in the next field and turned around to see what they were doing. Normally Elfin is the instigator in this group, but today it was Homer. First I saw him roll which isn't odd, but when he was done he stood up and then would rear up, come down and buck, then rear up again and kept doing it. At first I thought there was something wrong with Homer as he kept doing it!

Then Ivan walked over and started doing the same thing with him, and they would run a couple of steps and then stop and rear and leap. Apollo was the next one to join in the fun, followed by Leo and finally Elfin. Chance would lift his head from his grazing to watch but didn't feel the need to participate. Then they all took off at a mad gallop, all of them throwing in bucks and leaps as they went. They circled the field once, then again, then a third time! I saw Homer in the lead, then Elfin, then Chance, and then Apollo.

They stopped running and gathered in a corner. I thought they were finally done but the rearing and bucking started again. A minute later they were off to the races again. Two more laps around the field, galloping and bucking. By this time the other horses had finished eating and I was voluntarily extending my time in the pouring rain watching their show. I don't think I've ever seen a group of horses having more fun or being more carefree. Apparently someone forgot to tell these horses that they would hate retirement!

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the events of today as it was raining too hard to have my camera with me. Since I'm on my third camera of 2008 I'm trying hard not to move on to my fourth!

Pictures

I am still way behind on sharing all of my pictures. So I am going to sort through some more and let everyone see more pictures of the residents. I have to say that I think we have an incredibly attractive group of horses retired with us!

Apollo and Ivan, best friends

Finn
Elfin's beautiful head

Elfin

Harmony sharing breakfast in the shed with Bella

The cows also like the sheds

Faune and Trillion

That is Teddy hiding behind all of the grass

Bonnie

Follow the leader: Leo, Finn, Homer, Elfin

Sebastian and Faune

Why?

Did everyone see this post on the Fugly blog where the horse managed to get its head stuck in a tree? That blog entry also had pictures of the draft filly that wedged herself into a water trough. My first thought when I look at the pictures in this post below is why, why, WHY? These horses all live in big pastures, we allow approx. 2 acres per horse, and the pastures are well maintained. Even during the peak of the drought last year we still had lots of grazing in our pastures. Granted they've looked a lot better than they did last summer, but they weren't grazed down to dirt and weeds either. We really try hard to keep up our pastures, and it can be pretty expensive and time consuming. So why do the horses contort themselves so they can shove their head under the gates to pick at grass when they have acres and acres of equally good grass if they would just turn around and walk a few steps away from the gate?? *headdesk* *headdesk*

Harmony

Trillion
Buffy

Teddy

Faune (this picture was taken a couple of months ago but the rest are all in the last few weeks)

Nap Time

I guess it is only fitting that on a horse retirement farm I see the horses napping regularly. After all they are retired! The horses have pretty regular routines, and being prey animals they tend to do more of their resting and sleeping during the day than they do at night. That allows me the opportunity to take a lot of exciting pictures of horses sleeping. I have managed to capture a lot of these pictures in the last few weeks.

The "big boys" gathering in their usual spot for their afternoon siesta

I think Bush spends as much time sleeping as he does awake Poco letting out a couple of big yawns as he settles into position for his afternoon siesta

Trillion was so sleepy he was letting the fence hold his head upTrillion says it is a tough life but someone has to do it

Sebastian was right next to him and was dead asleep

Cloudy's barn cat duties wear him out

Poco and Ogie napping in the shed

A Few Of Our (Least) Favorite Things

There are a few tasks that I really don't enjoy. For some reason I hate dealing with dirty horse blankets. For the most part I am a very organized person and like to stay on top of things. When it comes to dirty horse blankets I am the queen of procrastination! I don't know why but I always find a million excuses and other things to do rather than sort through the blankets and get them over to the wonderful person who cleans and repairs them. I did finally sort through them all a few weeks ago, load them into the back of the truck and happily dump them all out at her house so they could be her problem! Since we have a blanket or forty (or more) around here it isn't a small job for her to wash them all and do any needed repairs.

Dirty blankets loaded in the truck and ready to be cleaned and repaired

Another task that would not make my list of favorites, and for that matter most of the horses don't like it either, is being wormed. You know you go through a lot of wormer when Valley Vet or Country Supply or whomever I recently ordered paste wormer from slaps a mailing label on the original box from the manufacturer and sends it on to you. It seems like I spend as much time opening up each individual box of wormer, then removing each individual tube from the plastic wrap, as I do actually administering the wormer to the horses. Depending on the season I paste worm every 6-8 weeks. Most of the horses don't object at all, but of course there are always one or two who let you know it is not their favorite thing.

My pile of boxes and tubes as I work my way through the box getting everything opened and ready for use

I can't say the horses love their annual visit from the dentist. As with worming they are all mostly cooperative, if less than thrilled, about having their teeth done. But really, who actually enjoys going to the dentist?

We provide equal opportunity care and housing on this farm which means Sparky the donkey has his teeth floated every year, is paste wormed on the same schedule as the horses and has his feet trimmed every six weeks.

Asterik is the most recent retiree to join us on the farm. He was a very good boy about having his teeth floated.
Ivan says the best part about the dentist is the drugs! He was very lightly sedated, as they all were, and quite alert when the dentist was working on him. He acted like a drunk when he went back in his stall though, and let the door hold his head up for a few minutes.

Poco Is Home!

Poco was evicted, er, I mean discharged from the clinic today. His breathing was back to normal yesterday and stayed that way though lunchtime today so we were asked (begged) to bring him home. After being scoped, having multiple ultrasounds, being on IV fluids and being poked and prodded for four days, there is still a big question mark as to the cause of his upper respiratory inflammation. At this point the vets think his liver problem is a separate issue from the upper respiratory problem. We will be redoing his bloodwork (for the fourth time!) in two weeks to check his liver enzymes again. In the meantime I have the pleasure of medicating him several times a day. He is off the steroids for now and will be on banamine for two more days, and antibiotics and Liver Kl'een for 14 days. Yeah for me.

Thank you everyone for all of your well wishes and for the comments and e-mails I have received the last few days. I really appreciate them! I can't say that Poco does but I have no doubt he has enjoyed his 15 minutes or less of fame. I hope we don't repeat this any time soon!

Things felt normal on the farm again this evening as I wrestled with Poco to get his medications in him. Sparky is one happy donkey to have his friend back and Poco is thrilled to be back. He was almost too friendly when we visited him at the clinic over the weekend. Poco bit me on the arm tonight. All is well again at the farm.

In his stall at the clinic; he hated being in the stall and looked tiny and dejected yesterday when we visited himPeeking over the door of his stall at us
Streeetching his neck up to look over the stall door
We were given permission to take him for a walk when we visited him on Sunday. Poco and my mom below going for a walk around the clinic. I think it is cute that she is barely taller than the shetland pony. The shaved patch of hair was one of the areas where the ultrasound probe was used.Foaming at the mouth tonight after I medicated him

Poco Update: Still in the Horspital

Poco is still a patient at the horsepital. He is a a sad little sight with his IV fluid line. The good news is he is acting as feisty as ever and giving the clinic staff a lot to complain about! As of mid-day today after he had another ultrasound there was no improvement in the swelling in his upper respiratory area. There was also still no sign of any fluid where it shouldn't be, he still does not have a fever, still has excellent gut sounds and his heart sounds great.

His bloodwork was redone today and the liver enzyme that was off the charts high did come down a bit. Yesterday the reading was at 337, and the high range of normal would be about 84. Today that number had come down to 276. So some improvement in the liver area.

He has now had three of the five vets at Tennessee Equine Hospital consult on his case and I know he is in the best of hands. I have no doubt the staff there wishes he were in someone else's hands! Poco was making it clear that he was not grateful or appreciative for all of the expertise, time, care and money being spent on his behalf. Obviously he has long ago forgotten his humble beginnings when he was in desperate need of a new home and being offered for sale at a flea market one weekend.

Sparky the donkey finally gave up his vigil by the gate this afternoon. I saw him wander off and join Ogie for some quiet grazing. My mother bought Sparky his own batch of fresh carrots today so we think that helped ease his concern.

Everybody continue their good thoughts for Poco, he needs them.

Think Good Thoughts For Poco

As I type Poco the pony is at the vet clinic hooked up on IV fluids and receiving antibiotics and steroids. We noticed his breathing was really labored today and he just wasn't acting right. The vet came quickly and examined him. Normal temperature, excellent gut sounds, heart sounded great, terrible sounds coming from upper respiratory area. The vet tried to ultrasound so he could see his lungs but Poco was being himself and completely uncooperative. The vet was hesitant to tranquilize him before having a better idea of the problem. So the trailer was hooked up immediately and Poco went to the clinic where they could put him in the stocks. Why did he object so strongly to having an ultrasound probe on his stomach and chest? That is life with Poco.

The ultrasound was successfully completed and revealed a very inflamed epiglottis and larynx but no fluid or foreign objects in there. His bloodwork was completely normal with one glaring exception: one of his liver enzymes was extremely elevated. The high end of normal would be mid 80's and his was over 300. Two of the vets at the clinic (Tennessee Equine Hospital) consulted about his case and are unsure if the upper respiratory and the liver issue are related or unrelated, and we are all baffled about the cause of the upper respiratory inflammation. So Poco was admitted as a patient to the clinic and will be spending at least the weekend there.

I complain often about Poco as he is an evil pony always looking for the opportunity to bite me. But I have been sad all night and am now complaining about how much I miss him. So please think positive, healing thoughts for Poco. I hope he gets better and can come home soon.

Sparky the donkey is also devastated. He and Poco have been inseparable companions for nine years. Sparky brayed when Poco left on the trailer which is highly unusual. I hear Sparky "talk" maybe once a year. He waited for Poco for hours by the gate this afternoon.

I want Poco to get well and come home so I can complain about him some more. It isn't the same around here without him. :(

As I mentioned in a previous post Poco was purchased at a flea market (!) by my father who happened to be driving by and felt sorry for him. Poco has been torturing me and all other humans on this farm ever since and enjoying every minute of it.

In other news we had a chicken rodeo yesterday and today rounding up two new flocks of baby chicks, Gwen our wonderful farrier was here today, Apollo's mom Vivian was here today from Florida to visit him, and the vet accidentally knocked my camera off the shelf and it won't turn on. The concrete aisle in the barn has claimed yet another camera. Oh, and my refrigerator was repaired this morning and is now back to normal.

Changing Seasons

On Monday morning I was up and out early feeding the horses. I've mentioned before that mornings are my favorite part of the day. It is so quiet and peaceful, and the horses are so happy to see you. I know they aren't happy to see me, they are happy to see the food lady coming, but I pretend it is me that makes them happy.

It was an especially peaceful and quiet morning. There was still a bit of fog and it was very quiet outside. I was walking through the pastures lamenting at how terrible they looked as it suddenly had decided to get really dry and hadn't rained for 45 days. That was rectified on Tuesday and Wednesday though as we got 3+ inches of rain. Hopefully the pastures will spring back soon.

As I was feeding some of the horses a big flock of geese came flying overhead. They were flying quite low and circling above the pastures I was in at the time. I wasn't surprised to see them as we have a pond and have geese visit us each year. The geese are just one of many signs I'm seeing these days of the changing seasons. I've started to see a hint of fuzz on the horses' coats, the leaves are starting to hint at changing colors on the trees, the pastures look like they are approaching the end of grazing season in another month or two instead of their fresh spring look.

The geese made quite a loud entrance on what had been such a quiet morning, and eventually settled in one of the pastures. They had everyone's attention, mine, the horses, and Bella the dog. They were an interruption, although a pleasant and welcome one, to our peaceful morning. Once they landed they joined us in our quiet solitude and were quiet in the field.

It always makes me a little sad when the seasons change, it feels like you are saying goodbye to a friend. Except I never feel that way when spring comes. I detest cold weather and winter. I am sure Jason will remind me that we don't have winter here, just what he calls extended fall. Jason is from Canada and I am from the South , so to me any season with the possibility of snow (although granted we get very little here and it melts quickly) is winter, not spring or fall. But in his world spring and fall both bring snowfalls, but winter brings permanent snow on the ground for awhile and deep frost. He grew up east of Toronto and their frost line was six feet I believe. Yikes!

One of the peaceful scenes I saw early Monday morning

Bella was being playful in the pasture as she walked along with me

The geese got her attention though

Flying above us

All of the horses watched them come in for landing as well; here Teddy watches intently

Settled in the pasture; I know the picture is terrible but the fog was still hanging on

Pictures

I started to catch up on posting some of my pictures yesterday and will do the same today. I know so many pictures of horses grazing can become very repetitive, but I see something different in each picture. Sometimes it is noticing a new buddy system, or maybe a different expression than I might typically see on a certain horse.

On another note the home "fix-it" projects are gaining momentum. My refrigerator decided it was time to stop running properly today. Hello, universe, I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS RIGHT NOW!!! Could you please move on to someone else's house? Besides, it is a really nice refrigerator and only four years old. I thought these things were supposed to have a long lifespan? Well, I guess I just needed to get that off my chest, rant over!

Back on topic to pictures . . .

A happy triumvirate

The same triumvirate a few days later with a slightly different arrangement

This rooster gets around; yesterday we saw him grazing with Sebastian and riding on the Gator. Today he is grazing with Trillion
Peaceful

Poco, the bane of of my existance. My dad bought him a few years ago at a really low rent flea market. He was going to the TSC store across the street and saw several ponies tied to a trailer. This flea market typically has just cheap junk and he was shocked to see ponies. He took pity on them and their less than stellar condition and bought one. Now I have the pleasure of being the recipient of Poco's charms every day. He is all pony. I guess I love him anyway, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure if Jason was painting the shed, his clothes, his legs, hands, boots or . . . ?

Clearly Bear wasn't supervising very closely or surely Jason wouldn't have been covered in paint

Sebastian peering out of the shed that Jason commenced painting with Bear's assistance (and of course mine)

I love everything about this picture from the horses' expressions to the scenery

Moving on to another grazing spot

Pictures

I am way behind on sharing my pictures with everyone. I have a month's worth of pictures of the horses, farm, and various other farm residents to share. Without further ado I will begin uploading a few of my pictures from the last month.

Sparky and Bella

Waiting to be fed on a rainy morning
Sebastian; he has such a cute face

Ivan and Apollo

Elfin, Homer and Finn

Sebastian grazing with a friend

Buffy, Harmony and Teddy

Sebastian, Trillion and Faune bringing up the rear

This was a "Green Acres" moment; my dad was driving around on his Gator with Bugle in the passenger seat as always, with the rooster hitching a ride on the back; The rooster just hung out while dad drove from the barn to my house. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself. Only on this farm.

Homer and Ivan

Elfin with his mouth stuffed full of grass Leo grazing

Nothing To Do With Anything

This post has absolutely nothing to do with the horses, the farm, running a retirement farm or anything. It is yet another "How I Spent My Saturday" post, or at least part of my Saturday. I found the whole thing to be quite humorous and decided to write a blog post about it despite the fact that it has nothing to do with the focus of my blog. Jason did not find a lot of humor in the day.

For some reason our toilet started running a lot a few days ago. Jason went to Home Depot Saturday morning and came home with replacement parts. I can't remember what he said he replaced, maybe the valve?? and something else. According to him replacing these things did not solve the problem. He decided the best thing to do would be to replace the entire toilet.

First he had to remove the old toilet. This should be an easy, pretty quick job. But we're talking about home/farm maintenance that involves us. Apparently whomever installed the toilet used the wrong size bolts and just pounded them in. Jason is down on the floor trying to loosen the bolts. He keeps having me bring him more tools, ranging from scissors to needle nosed pliers and everything in between. I hear a lot of grunting and moaning as he contorts himself trying to remove these bolts. Finally he gets the job done.

Then he starts screaming for me to open the door and to hurry up. He is racing through the house kind of half straddling the old toilet carrying it out. Of course it is heavy and still has some water in it. Me being me I took the time to grab my camera and was waiting for his appearance at the door. I have to say it was not a pretty picture, speaking literally.

Thank goodness he didn't drop it in the house and made it to the back door

That is not a happy look Jason

Then it was back to Home Depot, and we both went this time, to pick out another toilet. Who knew buying a toilet could be so complicated with so many choices? We finally picked one. We were able to narrow down our choices dramatically as Jason decided he would only buy a toilet where everything was in the same box: tank, bowl, seat and all parts needed for assembly. We purchased one with a flush performance of a 10 out of 10 and went home.

Now it was time to install the new toilet, which should be about a thirty minute job. Bear was our supervisor again, although from his expression in this picture I think he thought Jason was hopeless, or he was very unhappy about working on a Saturday again and decided to sleep on the job as protest.

Jason set about installing our new toilet. It seemed to be going fairly well with only a few explosions and minimal cursing. When he had it assembled and just needed to tighten down all of the various bolts he kept insisting it didn't look right. He made me come in and look at it. Like I know what the heck I'm looking at. I picked up the installation guide which Jason immediately ripped out of my hands and informed me it was useless. I found it fascinating that he knew the directions were useless given that he had yet to take them out of the plastic baggie they came in!

Finally I just called my dad and asked him to come down and look at our toilet installion and deliver a verdict. Not that he really knew any better than I did probably, but he is always happy to dispense an opinion. And since he is male his opinion carried some leverage.

He pronounced the toilet installation acceptable, Jason tightened all of the bolts, and we officially had the throne room functioning again. So I went outside to play with the horses. My blog will return back to its regularly scheduled program of horses and life on the retirement farm with the next post.

Meet Apollo

Apollo is a gorgeous bay Hanoverian that was imported from Germany as a four year old, and his registered name is Grand Rebell. Apollo is by the noted Hanoverian stallion Grand Cru, who has sired several international dressage competitors. He was imported by a hunter trainer which is where he met Vivian, his current owner. Pretty much everyone who visits our farm meets Apollo. Given that he stands at 18.1 hands, he is hard to miss! People always notice his impressive presence and it would be hard to say how many people have had their picture taken with him.

Apollo

When Vivian was horse shopping she and her husband had narrowed their choices down to two horses, Apollo and one other horse. Vivian had fallen in love with Apollo's personality, but was talked into vetting the other horse as Apollo's size and lofty gaits didn't appear to be an ideal match for an amateur returning to riding after many years. As it turned out the other horse failed the pre-purchase exam miserably. Vivian was in the hospital recovering from her first cancer surgery when her husband had to deliver the bad news that the horse didn't pass the vet. Vivian told me that she started crying in her hospital bed when she heard the news, so her husband decided to go ahead and purchase Apollo. If becoming the proud new owner of a wonderful horse like Apollo isn't enough to motivate someone to beat cancer I don't know what would be!

During her recovery Vivian's husband rode Apollo, doing flatwork and low jumps. Vivian said he would set up a chair for her next to Apollo in the cross ties and she would sit with Apollo and simply enjoy his presence. As she began to recover and gain strength she began grooming and hand grazing him, and finally was able to start riding him. Vivian had quite a challenge as she went from riding small school horses to 18+ hand Apollo. She rode at the hunter barn at first but decided she wanted to pursue dressage. She changed barns and began her relationship with Joan, who is still her dressage trainer today. Vivian credits Joan with teaching her to truly ride Apollo's big gaits and to be comfortable and confident on her huge horse.

Two pictures of Apollo with Vivian's trainer Joan aboard

Just as she and Apollo were really starting to click Vivian was diagnosed with lung cancer, and faced her second battle with cancer. She went through surgery and had the top lobe of her right lung removed. Her husband again drove her out to the barn to sit with Apollo and spend time with him while she recovered. Amazingly, Vivian was back in the saddle five weeks after surgery! Joan began showing Apollo in rated dressage shows while Vivian showed in some schooling shows. Apollo was the horse who made Vivian's riding dreams come true, and on him she rode in her first ever horse show at almost 50 years old.

Apollo has taken well to retirement

Apollo was doing solid first level work and schooling second level when he collapsed in the pasture one day. He was diagnosed with EPM. Vivian and her husband gave Apollo every chance and treated him aggressively. A few months later Apollo was cleared to go back to work and her trainer Joan began slowly conditioning him. Apollo was only a few weeks back into work when he relapsed. Apollo was treated again, but due to some complications and nerve damage from the EPM he is no longer rideable.

Apollo letting me know that the barn is boring and he is ready to go back outside anytime

I know it is a huge sacrifice for Vivian and her husband to provide Apollo with a retirement. They are fabulous people and are both compassionate animal lovers. Several people tried to talk Vivian into either giving Apollo away and hoping he wound up in a good home or giving him to a rescue. As Vivian said, Apollo is the love of her life and she knew for her own peace of mind that she could not chance him having such an unknown and risky future. So Apollo made the journey from Florida to join us in retirement. I still remember his arrival as the shipper arrived here at 3am! I spent the rest of the night in the barn with Apollo to make sure he settled in well.

Aside from his impressive presence Apollo has a wonderful personality. He is sweet and loving towards everyone, although he greatly prefers to be out in the pasture with his friends over being in the barn. When he first arrived he fell madly in love with Sparky the donkey. They were quite the mismatched pair and made for an interesting picture next to each other. Apollo was obsessed with Sparky and wanted him all to himself. He would herd him around to keep him away from the other horses. Apollo was not interested in Sparky being friends with anyone but him.

Apollo grazing nose to nose with Sparky; Apollo is 18.1 hands and sparky is a little over 14 hands

Apollo on his first day at our farm. It isn't a particularly good picture of Apollo, Jason or my Dad, but does a good job of showing how big he is.

To Sparky's relief that changed a few months later when Ivan joined us for retirement. Apollo dropped Sparky like a hot potato and Ivan became his new best friend. His loyalty to Ivan has been much more enduring than his loyalty to Sparky, as over two years later he and Ivan are still joined at the hip. They hate to be separated from each other and scream and call to each other incessantly on the rare occasion they have to spend a short while apart.

Apollo and his best friend Ivan

It has been a lot of fun to have Apollo on the farm with us. He makes friends with everyone, people and horses. In fact, he has such a big social circle that he knew one of the retirees that arrived here about a year after he did. You met Stacey and Elfin in this post. As it turned out, Vivian and Stacey boarded at the same barn for awhile, and Stacey rode Apollo for Vivian several times! Stacey and Vivian had lost contact with each other as they each moved on to different barns, and neither knew that the other one had retired their horse with us. Stacey came to visit Elfin shortly after she retired him with us, and she recognized Apollo. It is really neat to realize what a small world we live in sometimes!

Sometimes Apollo makes me laugh out loud as he reminds me a bit of the elephant and the mouse. He is not always the bravest horse in the world, and will spook at things such as Cloudy appearing around the corner and surprising him. It is hard not to laugh when an 18.1 hand horse is snorting over a cat!

Apollo eyeing me suspiciously; he probably thought I was going to take him into the barn

We have thoroughly enjoyed hosting Apollo in his retirement. Vivian said that the heat and humidity of Florida was never a friend to Apollo, and she wanted him to go somewhere where he would be happy and well cared for. Of course my opinion is completely biased, but I think Apollo is both very happy and content and well cared for. We've enjoyed every minute of our time with him, and he has also been a wonderful conversation piece with visitors to the farm!