Animals. Who'd have them?

I wonder sometimes.

Yesterday we ended up taking Seven to the vet. He had something in his eye that made him blink and made the eye weep. We had a look and saw a brown thing in his eye that seemed mobile but try as hard as we might we couldn't move it enough to let him shed it naturally so in the afternoon, we stuffed in a cat basket and away to the vet. We were a bit apprehensive because of course Seven is sort of semi feral but he was actually very cooperative.

The vet had a look, up close and personal like they do and then got a pair of tweezers, we held him down and she removed it. The only thing we can think it was was a fluke, or a parasite that normally gets into the skin but somehow got into his eye and partially under the third eye lid. Pardon me while I heave. The the vet removed a couple of sheep ticks, one of which was alive and wriggling (pardon me while I heave again) before we brought him home.

So all was well that ended well there.

The weather report for today should have been light rain but in Wales that means heavy rain to the point of deluge with winds set to tear your hair out and a temperature 5 degrees lower than the rest of the UK which added to the wind chill makes it 10 degrees lower. There you go, I could be a weather forecaster of the telly couldn't I?

Adrian disappeared outside and didn't return and the finance lady wanted a word so I went on a reccie in the pouring rain and high winds to find him and Tabby out in the front paddock trying to entice the foal close enough to get a head collar on so they could bring her mother inside to warm up. The foal was having none of it and was cavorting round the field kicking her heels up and generally making a nuisance of herself while the two humans had to try not to care.

Tabby had just got a hand near her neck when there was a noise from the main barn where Chance and Sasha had been put to warm up. Now we know that Chance has a bit of a claustrophobia problem but usually if she is in the barn with Sasha she will settle.

Not so today. We heard the noise and looked at Chance trying to get over the stable door and all credit to her she nearly made it as well but somehow she lost it and ended up hanging over the stable door, front feet in the corridor and rears in the stable. The mare and foal were released to deal with this more urgent problem and the foal went into the field shelter with mum which was what was needed in the first place. Gee thanks.

Away to deal with Chance then. She was starting to get edgy now and was shaking in fear. What we didn't want was for her to struggle and hurt herself. Adrian tried several different ways to sort the problem but she is too heavy for him to lift up from either end (good way to be kicked as well) and her weight on the door meant he couldn't open it at all to try and get her into a better position so she could extricate herself. If she hadn't been quite so large that all feet were in fact firmly on the concrete that would have worked.

What to do, what to do?

Bolt cutters. Cut the hinges on the door and it should fall forward and she will move. Bolt cutters didn't work, hinges too big. I suddenly remembered the crow bar I keep in my wood shed (every woman should have a shed) so I fetched that and Adrian had to lever the stable door off and then pull it forward so that the mare could at last move out of danger. But stap me vitals, she didn't want to move then and just stood there. Waiting for a bus I suppose. We checked her over, doesn't seem to be any damage apart from a cut on her leg but we were very lucky that she didn't tear her stomach open on the tin strips that are across the top of the doors, some of them are pretty ragged. Then of course it was what do we do with her now?

In the end we had to move Humphrey and Sadie out of the other barn into the main barn and put Sasha and Chance down there and leave the back door of that open just in case she gets a panic attack and needs to be outside without one of us being there to help her.

So we have one stable without a door now. Chance is as happy as a clam apparently down in the other barn with Sasha but they can't stay there as the paddock is too small for them and the grass will be gone in 48 hours. Then of course there is the problem of we have been trying to keep everybody in seperate places so that we don't have any cross infection of the flu thing the horses have so we will have to juggle that one as well.

Let no man tell us that we have the idyllic life up here till they come and spend a week or two.