Paige’s Page

Nanook is shy around people she doesn’t know very well, so most people don’t get to see her playful, funny side.  Here she is showing her trick, “Give Me Ten.”

I got off work early today so I could meet the blacksmith in time to still have some daylight out.  Cassie was good as gold like she always is, and Paige was a bit of a pistol.  Not too bad considering I just started working with her again a week ago, but we still have some work to do.  I sure am glad their feet are done–they were overdue for it.

I took advantage of the time after he left to take some pictures.

Here are my beautiful Big Girls showing off their new pedicures and their hay bellies:

This was a really cute picture of Cassie that was unfortunately blurry, so I “antique-ed” it with my photo editor:

And of course the girls got to enjoy some hoof trimmings afterward.  Josie opted to forego the treat and go inside to warm her little piggies instead.

Nanook was smelling the air here.  I think she was smelling the deer that were a little ways off in the distance (we get a lot of them at our place).

The sky was absolutely fantastic tonight, so I got some photos of it as well:

See the deer prints down to the water’s edge?

The blacksmith is coming Wednesday to give the Big Girls a much-needed pedicure.  For the past several days I’ve been having them pick their feet up for me when they’re eating because I haven’t been working with them for so long, and tonight I fed them while they were tied since they haven’t even been tied up for a couple months!  I installed tie rings a few weeks back right before the big snow, and tonight we got to try them out for the first time.While they ate, I worked on clearing out the snow in front of the barn where the mini-avalanche took place.  It seems the roof of the horse barn acts just like a mountain peak when snow’s blowing.  Great.

We’ve had above-freezing temps for several days now, so much of the snow has melted.  It’s below freezing again today, though, which makes the remaining snow very difficult to shovel.  So my lesson learned for today…shovel the snow when it’s still soft!!  Doh!

My husband took BEAUTIFUL pictures of the horses a couple days ago.  He has to “perfect” them (he’s a photography-head), and then he will give them to me to post on the blog.  So stay tuned!

ADDENDUM:

As I look back through my blog, I realize that I have not shared what has been going on this past Fall, which is a big part of why I have had little to no spare time up until recently.

Shortly after we moved into our new home, my grandma took a turn for the worse.  She had been battling congestive heart failure for several years, and she finally reached a critical point where she had to go into Hospice care at a nursing home.  Up until that point, she had lived with my mother, who was her primary caregiver for six years.  When she went into Hospice care, she was so weak that we didn’t think she would make it more than a couple weeks at most.

She surprised us all, though, and hung on for 3 months, passing away on Dec. 28.  She made it to Christmas.  So we all got some bonus time to spend with her that we didn’t think we would have.  It was of course very sad in the end, but she was suffering a lot and it was a blessing when she finally let go.  She was 86 years old, and her mind was sharp until the end.  It was very sad to say good-bye.  I like to think she’s somewhere with my grandpa, my uncle, and her little dog Snoopy right now, being young and happy again.

It’s been balmy in the 30’s the past couple days, and it is supposed to continue for the next week or so.  Poor Cassie had big old balls of ice packed in her front feet yesterday.  She was walking around elevated an extra couple inches off the ground.  The one was packed in there so hard I had to chisel it out!  She was very tolerant, and she has to be more comfortable now.  I think hers were bad because her feet are long.  I swear her hooves grow twice as fast as Paige’s!  And they are narrower than Paige’s, too, so easier for snow to get packed in there.

And of course, those little turds have pushed in one of the new plywood walls of their stall already.  *Sigh*  Oh well…I tried.

When it gets really cold like it was the past couple weeks, they do a lot of running around to keep warm.  They run in to meet me at the barn when I pull into the driveway, snorting, prancing, and carrying on like a couple of hot Arabian stallions.  They make me laugh when they do that. 

I took these pictures at about 7:45 this Sunday morning.  It is barely light outside, 2 degrees, and foggy.  I can’t believe it has managed to be foggy on such a cold, cold morning!  It is absolutely beautiful, and silent.  I love our home.

Can you make out the outline of the horses in this picture?

Dexter, solitary…

…joined by Zoey…

Zoey, solitary…