Then, when I mucked his turnout, I noticed that the manure was scattered hither and yon. When he hurts, he walks out, does his business, and goes straight back inside to stand in his straw. When he feels good, he spends most of his time in the run-out walking about which scatters the manure piles. So, even though it was a pain to rake up I was pleased with the mess.
I decided to longe him for a few minutes and see how he was going. Answer: ...he was going full tilt. I asked him to walk, he trotted. I said okay, just for a few minutes, you look comfortable. He said: Yee-haw! Look at me buck and crow-hop and gallop! It wasn't easy bringing him back down to trot. He doesn't pull on the longe line or otherwise misbehave, he just wanted to go go go. After 15 minutes, I put him back in his stall and went to work.
While I was gone, Brett finished putting the sprinkler line in for the new sycamore tree. For those of you who had visions of the goats making quick work of the tree, no worries. Brett has been laying awake at night for weeks thinking about the BEST fencing to put around the trees in the goat area. I suggested puppy pens stabilized with stakes. He was thinking chain link, or no-climb, or something along those lines. I've learned to just let him be and let him figure it out. Unless, of course, he suggests gold-plated chain link.
The solor heating company came out to fix the leak on the roof that caused the electrical short that has been causing all the power to go out in the house. Despite turning off the solar system, the power is shorting out every time the pool pump runs. The rupture in the pipe on the roof was big enough to overflow the rain gutters and spill -- no pour -- into the pool equipment area. We suspect that is the problem. Something got wet and is still unhappy. We just can't figure out what that is. So, the solar is working again but the pool pump isn't so the next call is into the pool company. Fortunately they are still in business (many aren't due to the recession).
When I got home from work, I went back down to the barn to check on Jackson. The chickens were busy digging holes.
I put Jackson in the arena to roll. He proceeded to trot along the rail.
He looked so cute that I went in and played with him a little bit. I love this part of his rehab -- the playing and just hanging out together. We ran around together for awhile, playing tag. I haven't done that since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Then I went off to check on the garden while he munched on stray leaves. When I came back to get him, he ran to greet me.
I love my horse.
