My friend Nora– who owns Buttercup, the beautiful Percheron draft cross that you met in one of my blogs– and I were sidewalking little Abby (Abby’s blog) around for her therapy riding outside and Buttercup was sitting in the sun, sunning herself. We got done about a half hour later and Cup was still sitting in the sun…
I was just leaving when Nora came out and asked me if I could help her. Buttercup couldn’t get up. She’d sit and then roll over on to her side and then sit up again. She tried to get up on her feet by herself, but just couldn’t. So, Nora pulled with the lead rope and I pushed on her back end (at the same time trying to stay out of the way of her flailing legs) and of course, there was no way the 2 of us could get that big girl up off the ground.
By now, Cup had been on the ground at least an hour and was attempting to get up less and less. And of course, all I could think was that it’s colic or that she’d broken a leg somehow. Nora thought it appeared to be a problem with her right hind leg. So, Nora called a few horse experts whom she knew would be able to come and help.
While Nora and I waited, I talked to Cup gently telling her what a good mare she was. Poor Nora. She was outwardly calm but very, very quiet. I know how much she loves that mare and you could see the pain she was feeling as she saw her beloved friend totally helpless. We couldn’t do a thing to help Buttercup.
Finally help arrived, but before they did anything, Nora was warned that “If the leg is broken, then you understand that it’s over right here and now”. Nora couldn’t speak, but just nodded. It was awful to hear those words and to see the pain in Nora’s face. But both Nora and I already knew that if the leg was broken, that this would be the end. Both of us were close to tears. (Cup is 26 years old).
Finally, after looking at the situation, the people assisting attached 3 lead ropes to her halter, one on the lower ring and 2 on the side and they all pulled her up opposite the side of the bad leg. And once she was up, she limped around for a few minutes but then… appeared fine! They listened to her stomach and didn’t hear anything unusual, so that was wonderful! [Ed.Note: if suspecting colic, you WANT to hear stomach noises, which indicate that the gut is still working and not "stopped up".]
And that very same leg that she couldn’t seem to put weight on earlier… it appeared to be just fine once she was up and moving around. So, the consensus was, that while she was sunning herself she had cut off the blood supply to her leg by the way she was sitting and it had gone to sleep. They gave her some Banamine [like Tums for horses, except stronger-- see comment below by Q.L.] once she was up. All was now well! Three days later, Buttercup was still doing great! Don’t you just love a happy ending?!! Happy Trails!
These were going around in Emails… just so cute I had to post them!!!
young cat, young bird… the innocence of babes
Has anyone else besides me heard that orange cats (males?) have the sweetest dispositions? I have an orange tabby and he’s the most laid back and affectionate kitty I’ve ever had, in my whole life of keeping cats… He loves belly rubs, get under the bedcovers at night, lies on his back in the floor, wants to climb onto your shoulder and be carried around upside down cradled in your arms… (Scooter, aka Scootch, Cootie, Tubby, Cooter, Scoot Scoot– named from Boot Scoot Boogie, he has white boots)
And daughter Em has a real nice orange male cat too, Sidney.
WOW!!!
But I just don’t think even Scooter would be quite so laid back with a bird around. This is amazing!
[I still miss my budgie, Sweet Petite, aka Sweet, Petie, Sweetie Pie, Petie Bird, Pretty Pete... he could say all those names and more, had about 30 words in his vocabulary-- he was just the color of this one in the pictures. 11 years with us.]
This is a link to a video I uploaded this week on YouTube in memory of the horses that died in the fire four years ago this past Sunday. Someone was talking to me about it and said she couldn’t remember their names. I can’t forget. They were the horses stabled next to and in front of Q.
The pictures of the fire were sent to me just after the fire. I don’t know by whom. This is what I saw as I ran to the barn. Just as I arrived the roof was caving in. The pictures of the aftermath I took with film I had bought for a horse show the kids were supposed to have gone to a week later. I had gone back to say a final good bye and to see if I could retrieve my mom’s St. Francis medal which I had tacked to the outside of Q’s stall. Needless to say I couldn’t. Luckily I lost everything but the Q.
I can still remember that sunny Tuesday. Around 12:30 a co-worker came up to me asking, “Is your horse in Revere? There’s a bad fire there and they can’t get them out.” I remember running to my car. I was in Burlington. Q was in Revere. I started praying not to let him die then not to let him suffer.
I sped down 128N then onto RT. 1S. I could see thick black smoke more than 2 miles away. Having grown up with farming I knew there was basically no chance of surviving a barn fire. I felt hope as I saw a horse trailer in the distance rushing to the scene but it was only one. When I got there the barn was engulfed.
As I ran up the hill towards the fire and barn entrance a fireman grabbed me. I saw someone I knew - I screamed asking did Q get out?? - He didn’t know but yelled those that did were in the back field. He added only one of the big boys got out.
I ran an obstacle course of firemen and news reporters, through blackberry bushes, down a muddy path and got to the field but couldn’t see him. There were more reporters and someone tried to stop me. A woman asked who I was looking for I said a big dark horse. She pointed to where the field dipped and I ran.
There he was chomping on new grass. A woman whose name I never found out was holding him with pink package twine.
A red cross worker came up to me and handed me a bottle of water, some tissue and a blanket. I quickly put the blanket on Q, wet the tissue with water and started cleaning his nostrils, which had black goop and mud, and I wiped his eyes. He was covered in mud, which was still damp. He also drank water from my hand. It was sometime later I realize she had brought those things for me since I had lost my coat in the blackberry bushes and was covered with scratches and bawling like a baby. A man later came up and gave me a coat to wear.
Luckily a new horse was brought into the barn that day. It disrupted the turnout schedule and resulted in Q being turned out later than usual that day. He rolled in the thick mud in the paddocks. He was brought in covered with mud and no one removed it not even the mud in his nostrils. Thank God. It gave him protection. He did have some spots of singed hair and missing mane and a cut on his hock but nothing compared to what could have happened.
The news people had broken through and surrounded us. They were asking questions. Q chomped down on one of the microphones a woman held out and someone asked them to leave us alone. I was told were were on the nightly news. Someone taped it and gave it to me. I still haven’t watched it.
The fire had started 3 stalls from him and had already moved over his stall when Jose Garcia the barn hand ran through the barn opening stalls. Jose had come back from lunch to see the flames. He ran through the barn opening the stalls– no horse got out on his own except Q. He told me he said “Go Quintin Go” and Q went flying out of the barn. He was found waiting at the outside end of the riding ring. Normally horses don’t do that; they will refuse to leave their stalls.
The rest of the horses had to be haltered and grabbed; few lead lines were ever near the stalls. The horses then had to be brought out of the barn and handed off to be held or they would run back into the barn. If it hadn’t been for passersby on Route 1 and the guys from the body shop and welding company holding them more would have died. Many of these people had never been near a horse before.
Before long while still holding Q in the field I found out the horses stabled in front of Q, Amber and Esco, died in their stalls. Their bodies were in gentle repose so it was assumed they died of smoke inhalation quickly. Orlik the horse who had been stabled to Q’s right had actually been brought out and was shown in a TV interview at the fire being held by the barn manager. Somehow after that he broke free and ran back into the barn to perish in the aisle in front of his stall. Amadeus was in horrible condition he was in the stall to the left of Q. He had severe smoke inhalation and had to have a tracheotomy. He survived after spending many months at Tufts Medical and became known as the miracle horse.
The animal control officer came up to me as they were loading the horses to go to Lane’s End. He asked if Q was my horse. He said he found Q with a couple of horses at the outside end of the riding ring. All he said was come and Q came. He’d never heard of that. He took Q and the others to the field to be held away from the smoke. He had never trained to work with horses. I was proud and relieved. We had just been working on the Go and Come commands.
The news reporters were pretty much kept at bay by the Revere Police but a few would approach. It’s their job. One reporter– Jorge Quiroga of WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Boston– I have to say is an extraordinarily kind human being who showed us great compassion and respected our emotions and space.
There are milestones in your life and this was one of mine. I stopped looking to find a home for Q that day. He had already found one with me.
On our second excursion out in the Piper Warrior Feb. 17, Ezra flew me up to Maine to buzz his favorite place, the Sunday River ski area in Bethel where he loves to snowboard (and so do I, but lucky dog Ez has a season pass!)
Ez always checks the updated weather before our departure, both for Laconia and for where we are going.
A pilot navigates by homing in on airport beacons (if they have one) and by using flight navigation maps.
Some of Ezra’s flight and route prep notes.
our takeoff from Laconia airport…
Mount Washington was sure pretty clear this day!
Circling above Sunday River ski slopes, Bethel Maine.
Buzzing Sunday River, saying hi to Scott!
Ezra’s buddy Scott was on the mountain skiing and watching out for us to fly over as Ez dipped his wings a few times. Minutes later Ez received a text message that Scott had seen us! Too funny!
This flight was different in character from our first time out and had some interesting incidents. Leaving Laconia heading northeast we had a terrific tailwind, averaging about 140 knots groundspeed, so we reached Bethel Maine REALLY quickly. Ezra had intended to do a practice landing on Bethel’s air strip, and he made a steep approach after buzzing the ski slopes on the mountains; however, the little-used runway looked excessively icy and caution won out, so we just did a flyover at Bethel.
Steep approach to Bethel runway, bailing out when observing too much ice on the runway for a practice landing!
I am happy to say that Ez IS cautious, and methodical to a fault, so he has all the qualities to make a skilled and also a SAFETY-conscious pilot. There WAS a little incident starting out– before we left the ground, when he first fired up the plane’s engine for the routine high-RPM engine check, the thing ran really rough, shaking the whole plane, and we both were startled. Ez even told me then we might not be going up after all…
But he fiddled with the throttle and fooled with it and tested it several more times revving it up, and decided it was OK after all… it smoothed out and ran fine on those succeeding checks. Afterwards Ez explained to me how the engine has two magnitos (things with spark plugs in them, you fly on one, and the other magnito is a backup) and you test each one individually before takeoff.
The problem had been with one of the magnitos; he figured that a spark plug had gotten carbonned-up from running too rich on the plane’s last flight or on landing, and by adjusting his fuel/air mixtures while on the ground he was able to clear it up by running the engine hot for a while.
Turns out Ez had read about this happening sometimes, and how to fix it, in a flight magazine; it was not part of his flight training lessons per se. So it’s sure helpful to know something about engine mechanics as well as operating the controls and reading the gauges and navigating! And he loves flying so much he reads a lot about it.
Anyhow, our other interesting incident was on our return flight. We knew there was a huge front approaching from the southwest (hence that terrific tailwind on our outbound leg) and Ezra knew when the front was expected to set in at Laconia (having dutifully done his weather checks before takeoff). The issue was, we had to be on the GROUND in Laconia before the ceiling (cloud layer) coming in on that front got too low for a VFR landing (Visual Flight Rating), because Ezra is not rated for IFR landing (INSTRUMENT Flight Rating). In other words, he’s not trained yet to land through a cloud.
The cloudbank moving towards us while we were flying towards IT!!
Well, flying INTO this headwind so reduced our groundspeed (to less than 80 knots) that it was taking twice as long to return to the airport as it took to get TO Bethel. And that was a LONG flight back let me tell you, because we were both looking at the approaching front the whole time, and Ez was periodically checking with Laconia station reports for how LOW the ceiling was at Laconia. If I could have been a passive passenger, I never would have known to get nervous about it, but I had to know what was going on and so I WAS a bit nervous, and so was Ezra a little.
The ceiling at Laconia was about 3,800 feet when we made our landing, and Ezra says he needed about a 3,000 foot ceiling for landing, so if I should have been sweating bullets I didn’t know it. We came in under a solid cloud layer that stretched away in three directions. Ez was calm at least outwardly, and everything was cool. I’ll tell myself he planned it just right and not that he was cutting it close that time.
I guess worst case scenario, if Laconia had gotten socked in before we made it back, we would have had to backtrack and land at some other airport that was clear enough to land at, and then we would have been stuck there until the weather cleared… not anyone’s idea of a good time, and possibly an expensive mistake too if Sky Bright wanted to charge extra rental time on the plane for that!
I did say he wasn’t foolhardy, didn’t I???
See more videos of small plane flights in my youtube videos.
We were on the bay in dad’s 1935 GarWood antique wooden 20-foot utility boat.
People honk their boat horns after the finale… ours sounds like an old Model T!! The really loud blast is the Mount Washington cruise ship. Awesome!
One Man, One Horse, A Mustang Story, a Canadian production, filmed in
Alberta and British Columbia, is an inspiring story. This online series
follows a frightened little mustang that was rounded up by helicopter,
separated from her herd mates, penned up in a metal trailer and shipped to
Canada. The horses that were not lucky enough to find an owner that day
were destined for an uncertain future, including slaughter.
Matthew Ford rescued this frightened mustang from a horse sale in Alberta,
Canada. Being a novice rider, it didn’t take Matt long to discover that he
had gotten himself in way over his head. Matt contacted natural horseman,
Jay O’Jay, to help gentle this wild horse.
“This was Matt’s horse, and to him it was imperative that he be involved in
each and every step. He was the one who wanted to ride this horse for the
very first time,” quoted Jay O’Jay. “This made it even more challenging”.
You can watch episodes of “One Man, One Horse, A Mustang Story” at: Jay O’Jay, Horses… Naturally This site also contains interviews with Matt Ford and Jay O’Jay.
These videos may also be watched on YouTube at horsetrainingvideo.
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THANKS to Kristine for providing us this information!
Updating last summer’s report from friend C! on the truly unusual occurrence of not one but THREE baby albino raccoons living in her neighborhood…
Cat meets raccoon!!! Big OOOPPPSSS!!
These pix of C!’s from July - November 2007 show the progress of all the coon babies. Sadly, one albino they called Cecilia began to visit in October without her mother, although she was too young at three months to be without her mother.
C! speculated that mom coon had met her demise, leaving Cecilia orphaned. Despite C’s best efforts providing food and water in a very dry fall, Cecilia began to show up solo, acting lethargic and looking less and less healthy in early December.
In this shot I count sixteen including the albino!
Finally it was realized that Cecilia was blind. Not long after, she passed away, perhaps from some raccoon ailment or else from lack of a mother, and received a solemn burial in C!’s backyard. They are not sure what has become of the other two albinos, Pinky and ???.
UPDATE (after posting the entry below):
Two things lead me to believe these albino moose pix were NOT taken in New Hampshirel… Jana commented (see Comments below) she noticed a magpie in the fourth picture, placing the pictures in British Columbia (area) because she says magpies are not NH birds. I researched magpies and that appears to be true, their range is the Northwest and western Canada.
Also I checked on snopes.com, and they report about “white-haired” moose reported in Canada, Alaska and Idaho. (So I was right in that this one is not a true albino.)
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Pictures reportedly taken in Boscawen, NH, circulated by email…
Now let’s speculate… are the other two meese her youngsters? They are certainly a whole lot smaller. And I hope they have learned to steer clear of barbed wire fencing…
Is she a true albino? Her eyes don’t look red or pink…
They are eating like my horses… maybe our equines are part moose instead of beaver!
Once on a trail ride, me on Willy mare and a young friend on Odie, we encountered a moose statue up a cleared gas line right of way. A moose statue is one who stands so still you start to wonder if she’s a statue! She stared at the horses, and they stared back, and she didn’t even flick an ear for 3 or 4 minutes!
Meanwhile, to either side of her at the treeline were her two calves, chomping away. We did not dare approach her. The horses didn’t know if she was real, but they paid attention to the babies. Finally she moved her head, and we turned our horses and walked away slowly in the other direction!!
We have encountered meese in our area, one summer we were blueberry picking on a mountaintop and so was the moose. And once Hubby and I were spring hiking in the Belknaps when we started hearing a bleating noise, sounded like a goat. On getting closer, we observed an almost-newborn moose calf teetering in the woods, with momma nowhere to be seen. We watched and listened to baby crying for a short while, then quietly left the scene so momma could return! Nature is so wonderful!
THANKS to HorseGal for sharing these pictures with us, as passed around in emails!!!
