Holy crap I'm so behind in this!!!!!!

So, it's been quite a while! April 13th Kharma had a baby boy! Patriot for Patriot's Day weekend and his barn name is Rio. Watching him grow has been an amazing journey for sure!  He gets bigger every day just about.  It goes without saying that Carolyn was smitten with him from his first breath. He is a "pretty good egg" to quote Lindsay Robbins. Unfortunately for us, Judy has decided to take a break from horses for a while. So, the number of barn buddies shrunk to just 4 horses.

Socks had a second opinion (or 3rd rather) with Dr. Nostrant and he was finally deemed retired with his stifle not healing properly. It was bittersweet news to me. I was glad to finally have an answer and while I didn't have to worry about euthanizing (I was extremely worried about that), I now have 2 retired horses and no one of my own to ride. Socks was also put on Previcox for pain management. He has some ouchy days but for the most part seems happy being a pasture potato. We did get the ok to do some clicker training/in hand trail course stuff from the Dr. so hopefully we can do more of that.

In good news, we welcomed Lisa Gorski to Longrun as she had adopted a foal. She brought him and his mom home the beginning of August with the intention of weaning the foal and giving the mare back afterwards. Pacino was a weaning master and never looked back and Jerseygirl (the mare) just recently left us on the 15th of September to go to training to gain a step closer to a forever home for her too. Rio is having a bit of a hard time with the weaning process and still cries for mom despite being out with Pacino and Zak.

This morning, Kharma is going to training as well (same place as Jerseygirl) and she'll take her first steps into being a working girl for the first time in a while. She's going to Crimson Acres in Orange Mass. to work with Peter Whitmore. He's a pretty amazing trainer and I can't wait to see how she does. That being said, we're going to have to put Socks and the kids and Zak together and hopefully that goes seamlessly with no major problems. Crossing fingers for sure.

Ok, that was a whirlwind catchup post for sure. I'm going to have to try and post pictures and keep this up now that there are babies growing and Kharma in training. This should get interesting again!

Check your baggage!

Well, it's official. Miss Kharma is starting to get a little bagged up in her udder! It's a teensy bit but it's definitely there! She now has a bigger stall to have her baby in thanks to Speedy donating some of his to her. Thanks Uncle Speedy! =) She's getting more and more comfortable with Carolyn touching her all over too. She's also getting better with the farrier as well. It's all a very good thing!
We're still awaiting Miss Roxie's return to Long Run Farm from her training in Orange Massachusetts. She's been a good student for Peter and she seems to catch on rather quickly although being a girl, she does have her opinions. ;-) She'll be home soon to tell us all about it!
As for the boys of Long Run.....well, they're all fat and seemingly happy. I say seemingly as Zak is always grumpy in the winter anyways. Zak has been moving pretty good on his supplement and we await Dr. Heidi's arrival next week to draw his blood for his ACTH level recheck. With any luck, we can reduce his pergolide dose to one pill a day instead of two. My checkbook would absolutely LOVE that! Speedy has been going out for rides here and there. Our weather has not been very cooperative at all for riding though. It's either FREEZING or extremely muddy or icy or both. Socks seems to be moving well and is very happy to be out with friends. He was covered in dried mud last night and I curried his body and in my haste to find my horse under the coating, I curried his stifle that had the surgery. He didn't even flinch! YAHOO!

Catching up......

Well, Roxie is off to training and learning well. She's been round penning and such and learning to wear a person on her back. =) Kharma is getting bigger...and her belly is getting closer to the ground. Carolyn got a stall camera and we had some fun setting that up. Now she can see the big event when it comes time. That is, of course, unless Miss Kharma waits until 4 a.m. to have the little weenie tot. As for the rest of the scoundrels at Long Run Farm...Speedy is, well, speedy, Zak is back on his old supplement and moving great and Socks and I went for walks this past weekend with Carolyn and Kharma. Saturday was just a handwalk with tack on as he was a bit too hyped up for me but Sunday I was on his back to go "around the block". Let's hope that this is a better year than 2012!!!

White with a red stripe......

....and we're not talking candy canes folks! Yup, Carolyn did a pregnancy test on Kharma and it came back POSITIVE!!! How disappointing, scary and exciting at the same time for Carolyn! She will have the vet out Tuesday to get her some more info, like how far along Miss Kharma is. And so, the foal pool begins...I say, it'll be a February baby! We'll have to wait and see.

Hurricane winds of change are a blowin'

    Well, here we are almost into December. Things have changed for sure here again. Survi had healed from his suspensory injury but a nagging back issue caused some concern for CB. As luck would have it, the breeders agreed to take him back and trade a mare for her to take instead. After some long weeks (more like almost 2 months) Survi went back to Pennsylvania and CB didn't take the new mare. Too many issues both seen and also looking into her future. In the meantime, Judy found a little Arab mare in the Carolinas that she bought. The shipper totally sucked and his truck "broke" down and he wouldn't communicate well with her and all was very stressful. As she waited to hear from the shipper, CB started looking at rescues. She found a little gray Arab mare at Camelot and scooped her up for the exorbitant price of $200! Not a bad catch. They both arrived safe and sound the other day. Kharma (CB's) has a bit of a snotty nose and some loose manure but no worse for the wear seeing as she was in an auction house. Roxy had a little runny nose too so the girls are on antibiotics to clear anything up. Kharma is also a bit on the rotund side....perhaps CB got a 2 for 1 special? Only time and a vet will tell.
     On the Socks front.......he had a horrible setback and was EXTREMELY lame again. His ultrasound on the ligament looked good but the joint capsule itself was very inflamed. Not good. He got a round of steroids and more walking to do. He was still pretty lame again so back to Tufts he went for IRAP to be done. He got his 3rd and final one the other day and was still a 2/5 lame. Dr. Heidi Williams thought it may need more time...he may never fully come back or he may after 6 months to a year. Lovely. She was going to have a conversation with Dr. Jose Garcia (the surgeon) and we'd regroup from there. Lots of tears shed. I may never be able to ride my silly orange boy or maybe I can in a year. So much up in the air. It's amazing I haven't lost millions of pounds from stress!!! At any rate, during all this, I have to thank CB and Mary for letting me use their trailers and time getting Socks back and forth to all his appointments. Your friendship and help has helped me through this.
   Guess I'll mention the grand old man in this as well. Zak managed to choke a few weeks ago on the little bit of grain he gets. With the help of Dr. Fred Nostrant, we got the crud passed and he was no worse for the wear. Now, he gets his grain wetted down and he seems to think he gets a mash every night and is loving it. Thank God! Other than that and his wonky leg, he seems to be enjoying life and is still kicking his stall and running people over when he can. 
   Where do we go from here? Heaven only knows!!!!! I may be busy crewing for Judy and CB....perhaps being able to rehab (again) with my boy and get riding again this summer...helping foal out the potential mystery baby.....or, I can write all this down in a country song and become ridiculously rich!  At any rate, there's adventures ahead for us all!

And so it begins...........

So, Socks' surgery went well and he even trailered to and from Tufts wonderfully thanks to 1 mL of acepromazine IM.  Guess I'll have to use that to take off "the edge".  Of course it was a rainy day getting him  home and it's been pretty rainy ever since with a hail/thunderstorm yesterday.  YIKES!  At any rate, he's to have "strict" stall rest although I can hand graze him for a bit.  Survi, on the other hand, is getting walked about 40 minutes a day to keep his rehabbing on track.  He has another ultrasound soon to see if he can have a bigger paddock.  That will be exciting for him.  Socks can have a small, stall sized pen if I want and I'll probably do that once his stitches come out in a week or so.  That will help his little brain immensely if he can be outside with his "buddies".  Then, in another week, he too can start a walking regimen starting with 5 minutes a day and working our way up to 20 minutes a day.  He'll be happy to be able to do something and I'll be that much closer to riding again.  Hopefully CB will be riding again too in the near future!  As for now, we're planning a "Pity Party" and hope to see everyone from the "old" crowd to commiserate with us.

The winds of change.....and a nasty wind at that...

Well, Survi is still rehabbing and still in his pen.  He is progressing so that's a good thing.  Zak is getting out for about an hour to graze in the afternoon and is loving it.  He's lost a good amount of weight from living in the babysitter pen next to Survi and looks much better being on the Prascend pergolide pills.  That being said, Socks is the latest to fall victim to the black cloud that seems to loom over the barn lately.  He went lame a few weeks ago, had an ultrasound at Tufts that confirmed a tear in his ligament attachment to his meniscus.  UGH!!  So, he too is getting hand grazed with Survi but he has to live in his stall all day.  Thank God he's a neat stall keeper!!  The tear is such that he will be going into Tufts for surgery next Friday.  It hasn't hit me yet that he's going in and even though it's not too big of a deal....arthroscopic surgery.....it scares me.  He can then start rehabbing as well.
More sad news.........CB has been having the nagging thought of what Sereele is up to and finally tried to get in touch with Norman.  His phone was disconnected and his e-mail was cancelled......she called the equine dentist that he referred to her to ask if he (Dave) had heard anything.  He had indeed.  He received an e-mail from Norman thanking him for his service but also adding that he wouldn't need him any longer as "we're all dead".  Norman had euthanized all of his horses including Sereele and then killed himself that night.  This all happened over the winter around January some time.  =(  How horrible! Very sad, sobering news. 
With any luck, this nasty wind of change switches in our favor again and a redeeming wind blows these damn clouds away!  I am totally up for planning a Pity Party for us all.  We could sit and eat and drink and feel pitiful for ourselves for a bit.