Random Friday

1.  Brett took Flash to the vet Wednesday.  He's been moving slower and slower and we wondered what else could be done to make him more comfortable.  Brett gave him a bath before loading him into the trailer and off they went to our vet's clinic, a bit more than an hour away.  Flash was happy, alert and ready to go.  When the vet asked him to trot, Brett figured he'd take two or three steps and stop.  Nope, he went around and around and around.  In the end, she said that, yes he has a decent amount of arthritis and his days of trucking up and down hills are over.  But, at 20 years old, he is a horse who still has the desire, and the need, to be used.  Her prescription: put shoes and pads on the front and then ride him.  Motion is Lotion, she said.  Don't ride him hard and keep it on level ground.  But use him.  Brett called me from the truck on his way home and was almost incoherent with happiness. Words cannot adequately describe how much he loves that horse.

2.  It's been a quiet week with Tex.  The weather has been warm, but not hot, and fly masks were not needed.  Tex and I have just been hanging out together at the pasture fence, not doing anything in particular.  He seems to have turned a corner of some sort; his energy is relaxed and happy.  He wants to be in our company.  I told Brett that when he rides Flash, I'd like to ride Tex.  I plan to ride him at the walk and not do anything more than that until we are in sync, relaxed and happy.

3.  We still have our one chick.  It is growing taller and sprouting wing feathers.

Often, it is flanked by the two roosters and it is never far from Mama Hen.  The other day, it clambered up onto the back of Mama Hen and went for a piggy-back ride.  The chickens are all very vigilant and, so far, they have kept the chick from harm.  Calvin, the barred rock rooster, is a bit too vigilant.  He took some menacing steps towards me in the hen house (baby and mama were outside so unnecessary) and I countered with menacing steps and a kick towards him.  Usually, he backs right down but not this time.  He fluffed up and kept coming.  I screamed at him in my most menacing voice and kept up the counter-attack.  Lord Byron, the head honcho Blue Andalusian rooster, arrived and jumped on Calvin.  While they duked it out, I slipped out the gate.  Calvin took longer to acknowledge Lord Byron as boss, but he did.  I'm hoping he will take on any rats with the same amount of focus and bluster that he used with me.