The weather is starting to warm up here, so spring is not too far away. The horses are actually starting to shed. Gave them their spring lice treatment this week, and took the heavy blankets of the geriatrics.
Funny story. Somehow Buckley scraped the side of his left hock, so he had to come into the barn for treatment and some tenderloving care. He stayed in the barn for a few days. Buckley is in a field with five other standardbreds, two percheron geldings and Max, a paint gelding. The boss of the herd is Geraint Hannover (Gerry), a noble standardbred who won almost $100,000 on the track and knows it. He came to me from a wonderful trainer who also had Pacing Artist. On day two of Buckley's tlc care, I went out to the barn in the morning and Gerry is standing at the gate by the waterer, and picking up his left hind foot and putting it back down. Every time I look at him he picks up his left hind foot. I went into the barn to get started with chorse (A sisters creek spelling), and when I came out to feed the other horses, there he is picking up the foot and putting it down. He actually got himself up against the fence and hopped a little on that leg, moving back towards the gate. All the time he is looking at me. Well, I thought I had better check that out, since I pride myself on how observant I am with the horses. Keep in mind that I hadn't taken Buckley out of the big pen and put him in the barn, and I usually don't do chorse when it is really cold because of my asthma, but he has me categorized as the carrot lady.
I went and got the halter, took it up towards the gate, Gerry is standing right at the gate, not letting anyone else close, and held up the halter for him. He threw his head into the halter, quietly came out of the gate, turned and waited for me - remember we have a foot of snow around, and in some places its quite rough; and off we marched to the barn.
In he went as happy as could be into a box stall with lots of hay and a serving of grain, and he was happy. Not a sign of a limp, no heat, nothing. He just figured out what he needed to do in order to get into that barn for some tlc. Never once called to the other pasture buddies. So he now is on a cycle of in the small pen, and back to his stall. This morning when I took him to the small pen, he looked out at the pasture as though to say "See what I've got". I am half expecting another standardbred to be at the gate in the pasture pen with a gimpy leg tomorrow morning, maybe Nron, or Zilch. They are very, very smart horses. Keep in mind that he used the same leg as Buckley had scraped, and looked directly at me as he raised his foot. Who's the boss here. You tell me.
