Days 8 and 9 and 10, I Guess. Apparently I Screwed up Somewhere. I Think I Skipped a Day.
On Monday I was groggy from lack of sleep, sniffly, headachey, and my body didn’t really want to work at all. Even worse, I felt like my brain was lagging behind my body and I was at least 5 steps behind everyone else all day long. It was like the straight timeline of our daily routine was suddenly whipping around like a trapped snake and I was struggling to keep up with it. Also, every little annoyance seemed to grieve me inexplicably.
Tuesday morning was really nothing eventful. I went into Wall-E’s stall to give him a quick brush and he was exceedingly grouchy; I couldn’t clean his hooves out because he kept threatening to bite me. I gave up on the enterprise and went to the feed room to report his swollen and weepy right eye, and Kathryn showed me how to put an NSAID medication in it. He needed several applications throughout the day, so he got to stay in his stall rather than go out with the other geldings. I’m sure he was ecstatic about that. I want to know what his glitch was, though. He’s my favorite little guy at this farm (you should hear how I say his name when I address him – sometimes I call him Fuzzy Wuzzy Wally Bear – it’s embarrassing), but I can’t be terribly fond of him if he’s going to start biting.
Speaking of horses being mean, I tried my hand at grooming Yogi, an unnecessarily grouchy bay mare. Luckily Kathryn spotted me and warned me that she has a mean streak. And indeed she does. There isn’t much coat area you can cover with a curry when you have to keep an eye on the horse at both ends so you don’t get either kicked or bitten. I don’t know whether this is a good or a bad thing, but I saw my first actual cow kick ever. I’ve always heard about them and sort of imagined them, but I honestly don’t think I’d ever seen one in person before. In any event, I returned to the feed room and announced that I have entirely too much respect for the integrity of my ribcage to attempt to groom Yogi. I was not chastised for this, but can you imagine what would have happened if I had done such a thing in Colorado? Aaron would have chewed me up like fresh bacon in a dog pound.
We all got to go to lunch at noon because our first seminar/meeting/informational talk was scheduled for 1pm. Jill popped into the kitchen shortly after we left and said that she was going to start the meeting at 1:30 or 1:45 to give us time to eat (technically we didn’t need that much time, but no one said so), so we got an extra half hour of lunch break-ness. YES!!! I used the extra time to start this blog.
The meeting lasted about an hour, and we learned how Jill deals with problem volunteers, how much work it is to keep them occupied (this is especially important when the farm serves a babysitter function for parents that like to drop their kids off at 8 in the morning and pick them up at 6 that evening), and how to pair volunteers with chores, horses, and other volunteers that they will be compatible with. During the time we were in the volunteer lounge discussing these things, the snow and wind outside whipped into a frenzy and we were even more grateful than we thought that Jill had given us an excuse to come in from the cold, because it was downright FRIGID! It was easily below freezing for pretty much the entire day, we had a few snow flurries, and the wind was deadly. We got two random spits of sunlight, but no one wanted to go outside and enjoy them because it was so damn cold out there.
When the horses were eating and we were ready to consult the meds sheet, I asked Kathryn if we were going to put more drops in Wall-E’s eye, and she said that Brittney wanted to test it for ulcers first. It was the first time I’d seen or heard of a fluorescein dye, but it looks very uncomfortable and I don’t blame Wall-E at all for resisting us when we tried to stick it in his eye. It is a wee strip of paper that contains a green dye that leeches into the eye when it comes into contact with the eye’s fluids. From what I understand, in the presence of an ulcer the dye will migrate from the corner of the eye to the corneal area, highlighting the ulcer.
Our Wednesday talk was with Caroline, and it lasted a lot longer than Jill’s, with question after question from the interns. She is the Development Coordinator here, which means she’s in charge of forging financial partnerships, securing grants and donations, and organizing fundraising events. Her major bits of advice were 1) Be creative, 2) Find yourself a rock-solid mission statement (it’ll make it easier to know when to say no), 3) Don’t be afraid to ask, and 4) Asking is the hardest part!
The other big thing that happened yesterday was the farrier/vet visit. I was asked to hold Ozzy for the farrier, but he was being a total butt and wouldn’t stay still. Andy and Yogi were also scheduled for hoof work, and of course all three of them are horrible for the farrier. The vet was scheduled to come out to help, x-raying Andy’s feet so that the farrier would be better able to figure out exactly how to proceed. I got to see a working portable x-ray for the first time, and was fascinated watching the vet and farrier work together so closely. I’d recently read some advice from Stable Management Online about how important it is to have service professionals that work well together, so it was interesting to see a relationship like that in action.
Last night Sabrina and I had to get up to check Persian at 3am. I thought, “Crap, I’d better jump down right now and plug in my camera battery in case something happens tomorrow that I should be taking pictures of.” But did I? If you know me, I shouldn’t have to answer that.
This morning (in stark contrast to yesterday morning) was crazy. When Sabrina was sent to Persian’s stall to check on him, she found his lying down in his stall with his head against the wall. Immediately all 9 interns, Brittney (the barn manager) and two of the maintenance guys were out there working to help him stand up again. We ended up having to drag him away from the wall and flip him over, let him rest, then prop him up with hay bales and entice him with a bucket of feed. An hour later he was on his feet, a little unsteady, and the vet was there checking him again. He said that an imbalance of electrolytes from fluids could have caused the weakness in his hind end that made it difficult for him to get back up (he’s doing blood work to confirm or deny this), or it could be arthritis in his neck pinching his spinal chord. He did brief lameness, neurologic, and blindness exams ( backing, circling, tail pulling, eye poking, walking over an obstacle), then sedated him for another rectal exam. He then took out the catheter and wrapped Persian’s neck up.
On behalf of all four of the residential interns, I wish to say that we will be SO FRACKING BOUNCE-TASTICALLY HAPPY WHEN PERSIAN DOES NOT NEED NIGHT CHECKS ANYMORE. We miss being able to sleep through the night. This is yet another experience that will serve to remind me that I do NOT want to have children.
In other news, Today we had a brief hands-on seminar with Sara on training horses. I was paired with Yadin, which was frustrating because she was spazzy about being away from the herd and didn’t want to pay attention to me. I had a certain degree of success with her, though, and although the last exercise looked quite complicated, she was surprisingly good at it. I have decided that there is a reason I did not pursue a degree in training. I don’t think I would have the patience for it.
I think I’ve covered all of the basics of the past few days, although Elise just came in and said that Persian’s heart rate is still elevated and that Brittney is calling the vet again for advice. We may be on 2-hour rotation call again. GAAAAAHHHHHH, HORSE!! JUST GET BETTER ALREADY!!!!

Going to bed now. As of now, Sabrina and I are getting up at midnight. Hopefully I’ll get to sleep tonight. ZzZzZzZzZzZzZzzzzz…

♥
SM