Bit of some updates...

I have changed the look of my blog. There are still some kinks to work out, but it is not the weird colours it was before. I hope this will make it more readable for people.

I changed my credit union for a bank. I am not sure this is a good thing, but so far it is good in that I don't have to pay fees on my transactions. There are probably other fees that I will have to pay, but only occasionally, because I make only transactions, and not much else at the moment. I have had to go around and tell those who need to know that my accounts have to be changed.

I also opened an account to save a little money in, and the bank has assured me it will not be taking money out of it under any circumstances if I am only depositing money into it. Which is all I wanted from the Credit Union. Sometimes long loyalty with a company counts for nothing these days; that is not a good thing for anybody.

I noticed some people on Facebook are back to going on about the end of the world in 2012. Good grief. So my reply is to ask them for their stuff and offer to water their plants and care for their pets. Maybe this should be on my religious blog. haha. I am also offering people if they are planning on having an apocalypse to supply their equine needs. Can't have a decent apocalypse without horsemen, and horsemen have to be mounted on horses. Oh well, so far, no takers on either of them.

Poor old Steph...

Old girl nearly gave me a heart attack - again. She was lying down at dinner time, then when she started to come up, she lay down again. She wouldn't move, and rolled a bit like she was colicky. We offered her a little food, which she wouldn't eat. Rang a vet, who said to walk her. So we put the halter on and the daughter lead her round and around. After about the third time around, the mare had a great passing of manure, a huge fart ;-), and then we gave her a little food. She ate the food with great gusto.

We kept an eye on her a bit longer, offered her some water, which she didn't really want. She and Bell stood around the food shed for a while, then wandered off in search of the steer.

I checked on her again about half an hour ago, offered her a piece of carrot. She not only ate her piece, but swiped Bell's as well. So hopefully she is fine now. I will keep check on her during the night. More later.

Negligence...

Just as well the blog can't charge me. lol.

I have really not been doing much. I am finding the muscle cramps a bit of a distraction and have to wait till January for the MRI for the spinal specialist. Four days later I am getting the first of my dental work done. Although I am nervous about the pain I am starting to feel excited about the finished result when I get my dentures.

I am fully committed to loosing weight, and even though the exercise part is difficult, I have been doing it. So by this time next year, I will be a totally new person. My 2012 New Year's resolution will be to get fit enough to start horse-riding again. So I suppose my 2011 Resolution will have to be to stick with it.

The photograph above is of a lady who is 75 years old and had not ridden for over twenty years. When I saw this photo on one of the horse forums and realised how much older than me she was, getting back in the saddle, I was just blown away. I know I can get back in the saddle at a much younger age. (yes I do have permission for the photo).

So while I am loosing all this weight, I am saving up for a quality helmet, boots and maybe a pair of joddies. I keep looking at Bell in that way. lol.

Christmas is just around the corner, and this year we are prepared. This is the first time ever I can say this. EVA.

Appearances to the contrary ....

I am not dead. Some days I feel as though I am. I have just been doing much thinking and organising. I still haven't finished organising the studio in the garage. Just little things that need storage that I do not have. It is frustrating. But I am getting there. Hopefully by the end of this week.

I have a new horse, my Arabian mare. Her name is Stephanique but we just call her Steph. She is a real character and has happily settled in with Her Ladyship, the ex-racehorse. I have photos on my mobile phone, so will have to download them soon. She is 26 years old, fit as a fiddle and can raise a trot with the best of them. Tail up over her back and she thinks she can outrun Her Ladyship. That is so funny. (Reminder to self: learn to put vidoes on Youtube and onto blog. It isn't rocket science!)

My eldest son came at the end of February and is still here. He has a job in a warehouse, where they unload containers and stuff for companies to pick up. He also drives a forklift. He is very tired most days when he comes home. He has to start at 6.00 am of a morning.

I am going to try and update all my blogs over the next few days, work on photographs and maybe even a video. I am much more motivated and the worst of the depression seems to have gone. Getting sick last year was the downer and it has taken me this long to feel well again.

until again ...

Back to work ...

I returned to work today. It was a fairly good day, could have been filled with drama. Cityrail is busy upgrading its railways along our line, and for the most part has put on buses. However, it turns out that they are still running peak hour trains. I have to leave a little earlier in the morning and get in a little later due to a change along the way, but at least it is train travel and not the buses.

One of the guys at work, who lives even further out than me decided once to catch the bus. It got stuck in traffic for about two hours. So he decided to drive in. Yesterday he got stuck for almost five hours. Bugger that for a joke. I'll keep a bottle of water with me, as the train took almost an hour for a normally half hour trip. If it is any longer in the heat, it will be a killer. Luckily both trains today were Millenium trains and like fridges to sit in. It is only tomorrow and Friday. Next week will be back to normal.

Surprisingly everyone was pleased to see me back. I spent the day using a Stanley knife to cut teeny little squares in pieces of paper. The challenges of working in the Public Sector never cease to amaze me.

On the walk to the station, which is about a mile, there was a thunderstorm threatening, but it never came to be more than a few drops of rain. I am the biggest chicken when it comes to lightning. I can run faster than her ladyship the ex racehorse when it comes to that. The boy picked up from me to be afraid of storms, and he was as big a chicken as me.

The vet came out yesterday and gave her ladyship her second vaccine. He had to also take blood from her jugular vein. It took him three goes, and she was totally unimpressed. Still a carrot afterwards always helps. Vet was glad to be on his last run. He looked really tired. He still has his normal practice to run on top of all this EI. But he was quite chirpy and a little chatty.

I was able to finally tell him about the boy and how he died. He also confirmed that the operation that can be done does not give the horse quality of life, just drags it out indefinitely. The way we spoil our horses and give them the best food, farrier, veterinary care etc., he could have lived in misery for 25 years. So hard and all as it has been, I know for sure that I did the right thing putting him down.

His horses had EI, which would have been an added worry for him. Apparently they came through it okay, however. They have better immunity than is gained from the vaccines. However, a matter of demographics means that most of the horses on our side of the freeway did not get EI. Also, as I have previously written, we are pretty isolated here.

Still working on getting a buddy for her ladyship.

So it has been a not too bad couple of days...

It's done ...

I mostly blog about my horses on my horse blogs. But I want to share this experience with non horse people as well. As I have mentioned previously, we have been bogged down with the mare because Equine Influenza has been bought into this country. It stopped racing for three months and put a stop to much breeding in the TB and other horse industries. It has seen the deaths of several horses, mostly non TB, and quite a few foals. It has been a tragedy, and something I and others have been quite angry about.

Much of my anger has been at AQIS the quarantine service, although many people on the forums were angry with TB owners in general, and I have had a tough time defending not just myself, but others as well. This has been frustrating to say the least.

And even though it is late December, we are still restricted, and I cannot move my mare and I cannot have a companion come in for her. She has been very dependent on me and my family to provide her with company - not something we can easily do although we try very hard for her.

On Friday, I rang the vet's office to find out what was going on with the vaccines, since it was five weeks since I had heard from them and given them my information. I was then informed that in the next few days, we would be visited by the vet for the vaccine. No day or time. However, I was assured the vet would contact me prior to coming. That way I could get the mare and have her ready.

Yesterday (Saturday) around 1.00pm, the vet rang to say he would arrive around 3.00pm. I had to find another halter for her, since she had just broken hers the day before. Luckily we had an old one lying around. A quick clean of the dust and we put it on her. We found her lead. Usually she is so good, we don't need a lead and it rarely gets used.

Another thing about the mare is that she loves our vet, and she would go home with him if he would take her. He can walk up to her, put a needle in her neck and she will nicker friendly at him as though he had actually give her a big hug.

So just as it is about to rain, the vet comes in a new vehicle. He has to don a "spacesuit", a disposable overall with a hood. He has on blue disposable gloves. The mare is convinced this is an alien and he is coming into her paddock! I really thought she was going to pull her lead off me and bolt. But he spoke to her, and right away she relaxed ("Oh, its you"). She offers him her neck, as usual, he puts in the needle with the microchip, she flinched a little. Then she didn't seem to notice the needle with the vaccine. It was as easy as that. She neighed after him as he walked back to his car.

The vet removed all his disposables, hands them to me, so I can dispose of them. They only have "our" germs on them. I had to sign some paperwork, put a label in her passport. Off he went.

He is a very nice man, he really knows his stuff with horses, very professional.

So the mare is fine this morning; there can be slight side effects. There was a slight warm lump where the microchip is, but I will keep an eye on that. At least she wasn't off her food.

Oh, and the sister came to visit yesterday. It was lovely to see her. I am glad racing is back on, because the old person doesn't like the sister, and I can only invite her over when he is there. The daughter and grandsons have gone to Woollongong for a couple of days.