Virtual Brush Box

Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. [Begin]

Week 7 post surgery
Week 1 of paddock rest

Sent weekly photo to vet. Got the thumbs up.

Vet asked us to feel along the incision for soft spots, which might indicate a possible hernia. In-house medical advisor says tum feels okay, and he managed not to get kicked. Milton doesn’t like his belly touched on a good day.

Got clarification on phase III turnout. No trotting. To the vet, a “small” paddock means an area where the horse can walk and graze but not have space to trot. Both of our horses are capable of trotting in the stall. Hand walking it is! [Stall Rest Chronicles 13 Feb, Phase III]

Speaking of tele-vet, should I include the visuals? We don’t have many from immediately after the surgery. At the clinic, the incision was covered most of the time, either with iodine and medical tape or with a belly band. By now, the wound is fairly benign. The incision is closed, save for minor leaking. Each photo is mostly a big expanse of shaved gray belly with a line down the middle. It’s fine, as long as one doesn’t stop to consider what it represents. (Pause to shudder.) Do you want to see the pics?

Onwards!
Katherine

Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. [Begin]

Week 7 post surgery
Week 1 of paddock rest

Skidmarks. Notice the second set off to the left.

We tried having Rodney out grazing on his own while Milton was on a leadrope for hand-grazing.

First time. All went well.

Second time. Rodney decide to strafe Milton. Milton decided to take it personally. Hopping ensued.

If I look back many months ago to January, I think we had the same pattern when we tried walking the two together. 1st day fine. 2nd day acted up.

That’s enough of that.

Onwards!
Katherine

Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. [Begin]

Seven weeks post surgery
Two weeks at clinic DONE
Four weeks of at-home stall rest DONE
Starting week 1 of four weeks of paddock rest
Still to go, four weeks of pasture rest

Starting today, Milton has veterinary permission for turnout in a small paddock or round-pen. Hand-grazing has been raised from 20 minutes daily to unlimited.

Unfortunately we don’t have a viable option for small turnout. Our spaces are a large stall, the adjacent run-in shed, and the pasture. We could temporarily divide the pasture, but I’ve watched a horse trot through a hot wire.

The plan is to provide continued stall rest with as much escorted time out of the stall as we can stand. We will start with 20 minutes twice a day and build up as Milton gets stronger. He still gets tired after 20 minutes, which is up from getting tired after 5 minutes when we started. We figure the amount of time he wants to be out will go up as we go along.

Rodney is on the schedule to get back to work. Now that Milton has unlimited time out of the stall, he can stand next to the ring and supervise. There was no physical reason for Rodney’s extended winter vacation. It’s just that all of our time & attention was on Milton. And on keeping Milton from having his standard screaming hissy fit when Rodney leaves the barn to go to the ring.

Onwards!
Katherine

Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. [Begin]

Finishing week 6 post surgery
Finishing week 4 of stall rest

Horses shod end of last week. Nine weeks. Amazing how long shoes last when you sit around with your hooves up on a metaphorical couch.

Blacksmith has never trimmed this much foot off of either horse.

Milton

Rodney

Plus two more, right, after sweeping up. The rightmost is huge! For a Thoroughbred foot. Possibly from Rodney’s hind.

Onwards!
Katherine

Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. [Begin]

Week 6 post surgery
Week 4 of stall rest

I draw your attention to The Idea of Order: How does your horse enjoy the weekend?

Milton chose Friday evening of New Year’s weekend. [When Weekends Go Wrong]

Book Club Blog Hop

Announcing a new Adventure! Project! Digital group experience!

Book: Life with Horses Is Never Orderly, by Morgane Schmidt (Trafalgar Square 2021)
From the webcomic The Idea of Order
TSB book page
TSB author bio
Cover image from publisher website

Post Date: Saturday 15 April 2023

Procedure

Thought it might be fun to join a book club. Couldn’t find one that sent me. Start one? Okay. Since I don’t want to get involved in organizing & running a zoom meeting, we will do this by keyboard instead.

Steps:

1) Buy, borrow, obtain book on your own.

2) Read. Gather your thoughts.

3) Post on specified day. LMK & I will include a blog roll on my post.

Not a blogger?

Steps 1 & 2, as above. Then,

3b) Comment on the book post when it comes out.

or

3c) Send text to me to be included in the post. May be edited for space. This will require sufficient time for us to agree on how the text will appear. See approval policy below.

Content

Your blog. You do you.

Personally, the book review has never appealed to me as a form, either to write or to read. I don’t see the point. However, notifying you of books you might like? Absolutely.

“Imagine we are in a bookstore. I wander up to you, hand you one of these books, say ‘Have you read this one?’, then wander off. Whereupon you look at the cover, turn it over, look at the back cover, read the blurb, flip through the book, and decide for yourself if you are interested. It’s like that. Enjoy.” [Have You Read This? Graphic Novel Edition]

So, for post content, I would be more interest hearing stories that only you could tell. That reminds me of the time when … This is so true because … Did I tell you the one about …

Guest Text for Non-Bloggers

Text approval philosophy. I will not post something with your name on it that you have not approved. Hence the need for time to go back and forth. If we can’t reach, we bail. Not original to me. I read this as the policy of non-fiction author whose name now escapes me.

“You will have total control over the text. I won’t make any changes without discussion. OTOH, I reserve the right to nix the whole idea if – for whatever bizarre reason – we can’t come to an agreement. As do you.” [Guest Post Invitation & Rules]

Scheduling

Two months from now should give us all time to find & read the book. On the regular schedule, I do word-related things on Saturdays. This will be the first Saturday after stall rest (🤞). The fact that it is a lighthearted book to perk us up near US tax day is a happy coincidence.

How often will I do this? No idea. Not monthly, That’s too often. Quarterly? When an interesting book floats by? One and done? We shall see.

Speaking of scheduling. I see no reason to pan a book. Skip it and move on. In the future, I guess I will have to get & read the book before announcing the blog hop. I have not done so in this instance. I know the comic and I trust Trafalgar Square as a publisher.

Their order page warns that Media Mail shipping might be a while. YMMV

Why?

Back in the day, I had a book column in the USCTA News. I loved finding books and telling folks about the books. I did it for years, but pre-Internet, so I only found one link. Still recommend all of those books, USEA: Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

I picked Life with Horses Is Never Orderly as the first book because I like the comic, and could use some light-hearted just now.

Affiliations

None. I have worked with Trafalgar Square Books (at horseandriderbooks.com) in the past. They were kind enough to send review copies my way back when it was my job. Trafalgar is a small publisher but big within horse books.

This time around, I bought the book like any other customer. Not that buying books is ever a hardship for me. Milton’s rehab has involved a fair amount of retail therapy as distraction. I have a horse on stall rest. I deserve this book. And that book. And that one over there. But I digress.

Also, I interviewed the Managing Director, Martha Cook, 11 years ago (?!?) as the first of the Behind the Scenes series. [Clips: USDF Connection, scroll alllll the way to the bottom]

Posts

TSB Blog: Welcome to the Schmidt Show: 24 Hours with Dressage Trainer and Equine Cartoonist Morgane Schmidt 2022

The Cheshire Horse: A Fun-Filled Interview with Cartoonist and Author Morgane Schmidt, March 23, 2022

On the blog, recurring references to the Daylight Savings comic, Horse Nation: The Idea of Order: Hello Darkness, my Old ‘Friend’…, [2019], [2020], & [2022]. General recommendation [Service to Reader: Horse Comics 2013].

Onwards!
Katherine

Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. [Begin]

Week 6 post surgery
Week 4 of stall rest

Everyone is ears up & steel down.

My weekly reminder to myself that uneventful is what we are aiming for.

In Other News

Friends of Calligraphy: DeAnn Singh: Hollywood’s Favorite Calligrapher, March 22, 2023, This is a free, on-line lecture via Zoom.

“DeAnn has been making props for movies since the 1980s.
She’ll tell you stories of how she made the documents and researched them, and how to make parts of a page burn while other parts don’t so you can get the close-up shot.”

Onwards!
Katherine

Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. [Begin]

Week 6 post surgery
Week 4 of stall rest

Activity in the cow field. Rodney went back to eating regular hay. Milton had to be bribed with alfalfa.

Vet says this week’s pic of Milton’s tum looks good. I’ll be happy when the incision finally stops leaking.

Onwards!
Katherine