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Endless Summer
Sep. 11th, 2012 01:06 pmThis has been an unusually long summer even for Southern Arizona. First 100F-degree day on April 22nd--a month early--and our summer rains, our monsoons, started a week or so early and are still going on, a couple of weeks after they normally end. We're told they'll shut down this weekend and we'll go straight into our month or six weeks of fall hot-and-dry. But not, we hope, as hot as the last dry spell was--it was over 105F in late August.
I moved out here to get away from humidity, which activates the fibro. My Irish-English-New England genes are not fond of heat. Ergo, July and August are the hard months here. Usually the joints seize up. This year they didn't, for the most part--just a bit of stiffness, which was excellent news for riding the horses, including Ephiny who is coming along slowly but very well--but the chronic fatigue hit like a ton of bricks. Not assisted by the evaporation of the barn help/farm backup. And then, in mid-crash, there was a Lipizzan in need and an owner who needed to move him somewhere affordable literally Right Now.
And so, barely two weeks after Carrma moved over to River Valley Ranch to be Queen and to have her own yoga disciples that she doesn't have to share with her whole fam damnily, we welcomed Cisco, aka New Kid, aka Da Nephew (of Pandora, and brother of Gabriella), aka Beeg Honkin' Lipi Number Two. He has arthritis, which we are treating, and the Wonder Shoer has played a major role in this. He is ridable, and will be a Feature at Camp. (And if you read this far, I will be putting up a Camp Sale in the next couple of days. Want a pre-sale? Comment or email.) Fans of Pandora will completely melt. As will everybody else. He is the original KISS MAH SCHNOZZ! pony. His schnozzola is truly Durantean--a thing of beauty.
The herd have taken this well in general, even including the major changes in turnout rotas and herd management. He doesn't go out with the crew--doesn't need the stress on joints as we adjust feed, meds, and rehab--but needs room to move, so there is the Fine Art of Horse Arranginging several times daily. It was challenging for a while, but now they're all on board with it and seem to enjoy their variations in routine. It also, Aarrghh episodes aside, frees up the arena at midday for horses who can't be ridden in the herd, which is good news for Pooka and Gabriella (once we find a saddle that fits her) and Cisco (once he's got his meds sorted out).
Today we are dealing with Aarrghh, as in Pooka got himself a stone bruise while getting a walk Out before a ride yesterday, and Tia, not to be outdone, got into it with Cisco through the fence and boinked her front foot (same foot as Pooka's, in solidarity) but good. So she's on stall rest and he's out of work for a few days or more depending on how soon the bruise resolves and whether it blows into an abscess. And this morning ze keed cut his foot, non-catastrophically but in the same spot as the cut that's been healing. I don't know what he's getting into, but it's doing a good job of slice and dice.
That's three. And that's it for the summer dammits. We hope.
I have, believe it or not, managed to get writing done in there somewhere. Including revision of the Kickstarter novel, which is almost ready go to the formatter and the cover designer--pub date is November 20th, and we shall all be thankful. Getting back into the swing of editing and mentoring now, after taking a bit of a break. The human needed time to adjust to the change in barn routine, too. Which had a tendency, with the heat and humidity and general relentlessness of Stuff, to encourage a degree of curling up in fetal position in corner, whimpering.
We are now upright, Winter is coming (thank god), and functionality is improving. Communications should improve--I apologize to the friends who have worried; I have been doing a bit of the run silent, run deep thing. Am undertaking to breach the surface more often now we're inching out of summer.
I moved out here to get away from humidity, which activates the fibro. My Irish-English-New England genes are not fond of heat. Ergo, July and August are the hard months here. Usually the joints seize up. This year they didn't, for the most part--just a bit of stiffness, which was excellent news for riding the horses, including Ephiny who is coming along slowly but very well--but the chronic fatigue hit like a ton of bricks. Not assisted by the evaporation of the barn help/farm backup. And then, in mid-crash, there was a Lipizzan in need and an owner who needed to move him somewhere affordable literally Right Now.
And so, barely two weeks after Carrma moved over to River Valley Ranch to be Queen and to have her own yoga disciples that she doesn't have to share with her whole fam damnily, we welcomed Cisco, aka New Kid, aka Da Nephew (of Pandora, and brother of Gabriella), aka Beeg Honkin' Lipi Number Two. He has arthritis, which we are treating, and the Wonder Shoer has played a major role in this. He is ridable, and will be a Feature at Camp. (And if you read this far, I will be putting up a Camp Sale in the next couple of days. Want a pre-sale? Comment or email.) Fans of Pandora will completely melt. As will everybody else. He is the original KISS MAH SCHNOZZ! pony. His schnozzola is truly Durantean--a thing of beauty.
The herd have taken this well in general, even including the major changes in turnout rotas and herd management. He doesn't go out with the crew--doesn't need the stress on joints as we adjust feed, meds, and rehab--but needs room to move, so there is the Fine Art of Horse Arranginging several times daily. It was challenging for a while, but now they're all on board with it and seem to enjoy their variations in routine. It also, Aarrghh episodes aside, frees up the arena at midday for horses who can't be ridden in the herd, which is good news for Pooka and Gabriella (once we find a saddle that fits her) and Cisco (once he's got his meds sorted out).
Today we are dealing with Aarrghh, as in Pooka got himself a stone bruise while getting a walk Out before a ride yesterday, and Tia, not to be outdone, got into it with Cisco through the fence and boinked her front foot (same foot as Pooka's, in solidarity) but good. So she's on stall rest and he's out of work for a few days or more depending on how soon the bruise resolves and whether it blows into an abscess. And this morning ze keed cut his foot, non-catastrophically but in the same spot as the cut that's been healing. I don't know what he's getting into, but it's doing a good job of slice and dice.
That's three. And that's it for the summer dammits. We hope.
I have, believe it or not, managed to get writing done in there somewhere. Including revision of the Kickstarter novel, which is almost ready go to the formatter and the cover designer--pub date is November 20th, and we shall all be thankful. Getting back into the swing of editing and mentoring now, after taking a bit of a break. The human needed time to adjust to the change in barn routine, too. Which had a tendency, with the heat and humidity and general relentlessness of Stuff, to encourage a degree of curling up in fetal position in corner, whimpering.
We are now upright, Winter is coming (thank god), and functionality is improving. Communications should improve--I apologize to the friends who have worried; I have been doing a bit of the run silent, run deep thing. Am undertaking to breach the surface more often now we're inching out of summer.
