PSA

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THIS

Saturday morning I went out to feed a little later than usual.  I turned Pink and Dazzy out to get some grass and heard a loud thunking noise coming from up by the house.

I went up, Cartman was at the gate so I put him up in the barn with some hay (we were going for a lesson Sat. morning).  I went back to the paddock, no Taj.

I headed for the shed and was horrified to see Taj's head over the divider and I could see the hay net was pulled down and under pressure.  Uh oh.

I'd had no coffee, wasn't even really dressed, and had just gotten up, brushed my teeth and headed outside; I was completely unprepared for problems.  I had no knife.  Luckily I always tie everything with a safety knot and all I had to do was pull the string to set Taj's leg free.

He seemed a little, confused and took a couple of funky steps backwards.  I carefully lifted his foot up and got the haynet completely free.  His leg had no outward signs of trauma but it was a little shakey when he tried to step down on the foot completely.

So, I started the cold hosing. 20 minutes worth.

Then I gave him 1.5gm of Bute and put him in the barn.  I then ran back into the house, downed a cup of coffee and found some standing wraps.

Crap.  What a week.

I've used hay nets for years, I know they must be tied up high.  I always loop the string back through the bottom of the net so that they don't sag unduly as they are emptied.  We used them at the racebarn and I've probably filled, oh, I'd guess thousands of them over the years.  I have never had a horse get hung up. 

Almost a year ago Flo and I found a source of clean 50gallon barrels.  We drove down to Portland and I picked up 6 barrels.  I had intended to make some barrel feeders to replace the haynets.  I, um, didn't get around to it until today. 

 PSA: Don't procrastinate!!!!!
Horses are born trying to kill themselves- anything you can do to make life safer for them is going to pay off.  Do it now.

So, today Todd and I got those feeders done.  Here are some photos of the day. 

Like any stationary object in Wa. they'd started to turn green.

What's this?  A hoarder's house?

Oh, it's Todd's garage!

Draol and Girlie sunbathe, while we work.

Lookin' pretty happy!

First barrel.

Quickly becoming my favorite tool, the hole saw!

Installing barrel feeders in the shed.

More holes needed.

Looped as tightly as possible on the chain, no room for hooves here!

Pink checks out the new feeder.

The girls check out the feeders, while Todd and I head to work inside the barn.

Cute:)

Taj loves his feeder!

We had one feeder that we'd previously cut in half sideways.

`

The misfit feeder.

Todd's version of sexy cowboy bathing in the water trough.

Todd got stuck.  I laughed so hard.  I tried to pull him out, but he was really stuck.  He finally yelled at me "Just flip me over!!!"

                                   Cartman gives the misfit his seal of appoval.


Later in the day I pulled Taj out again.  Todd grazed him for a few minutes.  I hosed his leg and the swelling had really come down. 

Yeah!!!!

I think I'll give him one more day of stall rest and wrapping and if all still looks good he can go back out.  We'll be on vacation after Friday so he won't be doing much except hanging out with Pinky anyway.  :)