Mudslide-The Newest Girl

Tattoo Search

Mark purchased another polo horse. She was in a polo lesson program in Newport, RI. Guess she was too much for the beginner students. It happens to be the same place where we bought Eva (Read "The $500 Polo Pony" 1-23-09). The first time I saw her, I thought "Arabian, how odd for a polo horse!". She has a dished face, and short back. I was surprized to see that she had a lip tattoo. Thoroughbreds are required to be lip tattooed in order to participate in an offical TB race.The tattoo consists of a letter followed by 4-5 numbers. A foreign born TB will have an asterisk followed by numbers. The letters corresponds to the horse's year of birth. 1971-1996/A-Z; 1997-2010/A-N. If the TB is 25 yrs old or older, it will only have a letter and 4 numbers. The Jockey Club is wonderful about helping with researching a lip tattoo. In the past it usually has only taken a couple hours from submission of a Tattoo ID Form to recieving the info on the horse. Sometimes pictures are required, but it is an easy process. Well, the new horse, who came with the name Saffron, had a horrible tattoo. Jenn, Mark and I all took guesses as to what it read. The letter looked like an F,P or H. This meant the year of birth could be 1976,1978, 1986, 2002 or 2004. The numbers looked like 4, 1, and 0. I submitted what little info I had, guessing the letter was an "F". Mark had been told she was 8 or 9. She definately wasn't 4 or 24! I also took a photo of the tattoo, and after a few emails back and forth with the Jockey Club, a match was found. The winner was/is F44602, and they were able to find this match with my submission of F_1_0_!! I was/am very impressed. Saffrons registered name is "West Ballerina" Born April 5, 2002 in Iowa. --insert soapbox--For those of you that think a slaughter plant in another state will not affect your horse here in MA, take note! Iowa! I also have horses from FL, TX and CA. A slaughter plant in ANY state puts ALL horses at risk.--off soapbox---Back to West Ballerina. So after all the research, we found out we have a TB from Iowa, who was an unuccessful race horse, who was from unsuccessful parents. Why oh Why do they breed these horse!! Well she was fortunate enough to find her way to Mark, is a great polo horse, very sweet, and Mark promptly changed her name to "Mudslide"!!!

First Aid

I've been thinking about a good blog topic this past week. My first idea was to bore my readers with a list of the contents in my 2 "new and improved" equine first aid kits. I just know you would love to read about different size telfa pads, and how many oral syringes I own! I won't list the contents, but will tell you about how these kits came to be. By now, if you have been reading my blog, you know that my horses are always looking for ways to deplete my credit card accounts, and keep the local equine veterinarians gainfully employed. Whenever there is a medical problem, I run around the house, barn and trailer looking for all the items needed for triage. I decided it was time to put everything that I might need in a "kit". One kit turned into two. My friend Kathryn told me I needed at least 20 placed in strategic spots around the farm!! Anyway, last Monday, as I was getting into my car to go to work, I noticed that Fancy had blood/a wound above her left eye. Its a long story about how that happened, and maybe I'll enlightened you another time. Putting it briefly-when you own horses, sh** happens! Very pleased with my emergency preparedness, I run in the house, grab some telfa pads, bowl of warm water, betadine, and furacin from the kit! Out to the stall I go, start blotting the blood on Fancy's face, and realize that its a good thing my phone and credit card are on speed dial! Thirteen stitches later (my lucky number) and my dear sweet Fancy looks like a war causality! As a result of this latest episode I have taken into consideration, Kathryn's suggestion of needing 20 Kits! On second thought, maybe not! Tom was looking for the furacin yesterday. When I told him it was in one of the "new and improved" first aid kits, he told me it was easier to find when it was on the shelf in the barn!

Feathered Guests

My friend Laura called and asked if her hens, rooster, and guinea fowl could visit for a few days. Something had been getting into her chicken yard, and had killed 5 hens. With all the birds gone, Laura hoped to catch the culprit. I figured "whats a few more birds" in the yard. We already had 5 hens. Well the "few" more birds turned out to be 25 and 4 guinea fowl. For those of you that don't know about Guinea fowl, they have ugly heads, love to eat ticks, and have got to be the noisest creatures on earth. Tom refers to them as "those damn vultures".The birds have been here about a week, and it seems Laura is not having much luck trapping the poultry connissuer at her house. Oh, well! Such is life. Never a dull moment here at Stony Bridge. At least we are getting a dozen eggs per day, and NO ticks!!

The Story of Sage

This morning when I opened Sage's stall door, she bolted past me, ran out of the barn, and headed for the road. Fortunately, she stopped before actually going in the road. Yesterday, when it was time to put everyone out in the paddock, Sage got impatient, reared, and managed to get one of her front legs caught on her stall door. The only way I could think of, to quickly free-her-up, was to unlatch the door, even though I knew it would mean having to repair the door. The door came crashing down, ripping off the hinges, and Sage took-off out of the barn. When things like this happen with Sage, my initial response is anger. I have to stop and remember that she has very poor eye-sight and her hearing is bad. She is not being naughty, she is just panicking because she thinks she will be separated from her herd. Herd equals safety, even though no one in her "herd" has ever bonded to Sage. Poor old Sage!!! Sage has been at Stony Bridge Farm for 5 years. She belongs to a college friend of Marks'. Sage was Lindseys first pony. Lindsey outgrew Sage,but Sage remained with Lindsey. Paying board for Sage, and tuition for college was getting increasingly more difficult. One day when Lindsey was visiting, I overheard her telling Mark about her dilemma. I said "Bring Sage here. Whats one more poor old soul!" When Sage arrived, I waited with anticipation to see the cute new pony. What a surprise! She was the homeliest equine I had ever seen. Head too big for her 12 hand high body, long shaggy coat, and the strangest coloring--sort of roan, but not quite. Well, little Sage is still the homeliest equine on earth, and a pain-in-the-rear end, but many a child has enjoyed getting pony rides at Stony Bridge Farm.