Winds of change

   Gosh how the summer has flown by!!  I have hardly had the opportunity to even consider organizing my thoughts here! 

   Well started the summer off by sending Sahib back to the trainer's farm so I could continue with my lessons and he could as well!  Had the chiropractor out for him and he also had some accupuncture done.  Now, I am/was quite the skeptic regarding non-western medicine, but this has REALLY helped him!  Amazing!  I realize this is the condensed version, but there is so much to blog about!!!

 

   I am continuing my dressage lessons and finally think I understand how posting feels while riding!  Never knew how to "feel" it.  I hope that my lightbulb moment  continues to be effective!  I am also continuing my workouts at the club, and now my heartrate hardly rises when I am walking @ 3.2 miles per hour on the treadmill!  This is progress!!!  I invited my friend to accompany me a couple of times, and boy did she feel she got a work out!  We both did!  Dripping in sweat!  That is a great feeling! LOL!

   

    My bees are doing well, had a slight mis-step when one of my hives lost the queen, I was afraid I was going to lose that hive!  But as nature intended, the hive created a new queen, and all is well.  They are getting another box this week.  My other hives already have their new boxes, I am hoping to have a honey harvest by the middle of August, just in time for a local celebration, called Garlicfest.  My mentors had a booth there last year, and we actually extracted honey right there in our booth!  Gave people a chance to see what goes into ( or out of ) the honey they purchase!  People were quite curious and eager to see the mystery surrounding honey unveiled.   Honey production, prior to my becoming a beekeeper always seemed like a secret society to me.   There was always some magic surrounding the whole thing, I mean, you saw bee hives out in the countryside, but never saw anyone tending them.  So, how DID that honey become so?  It was so revealing to me to find out!   I have had the opportunity to watch bees place pollen in the cells from there back legs positively packed with pollen.  I have watched the share nectar with their tongues, I have watched newly hatched bees pop out of their cells, I have watched the bees do their "nectar dance" which precisely tells the other bees where the nectar and pollen are located from the hive.  So many things I have learned!  So many more things to learn!  What a powerful gift this learning thing is!  How humbling to learn from a creature as small as a bee!

Back at the ranch... my 5 year old gelding Handsome got quite badly injured 3 weeks ago.  He managed to put his leg through the metal wall of the run in shed, and gave himself a degloving injury.The injury was to the bone, but luckily he didin't bag any big nerves, arteries or his tendon ( I have no idea how he managed not to do it like that but I am counting my blessing he didn't!)   Several hours and many hundreds of dollars later, the vet says, " complete stall rest".  Those who know me personally, know I have no barn, hence no stall... So I call my trainer and ask her if she has room for my injured fella for as long as he needs stall rest.  Without any hesitation on her part she allows us to haul him up there for his convolescence.  Now Handsome has not been off my farm that often, ( last year when I was injured, a good friend took him and 2 others off my hands), so he didn't really want to get into the trailer.   We tried all kinds of tricks, but without forcing him, since he already had enough stress in his life with the horrific injury to his fetlock.  Then I grabbed a handful of cracked corn, the big bugger stepped right into that trailer for his corn!

  The 1/2 hour trailer ride was uneventful, he is a good hauler once he got in.  Then the adventure of getting off the trailer at the trainer's farm.  Since I don't have a barn, Handsome had no idea what a building like that looked like.  should have seen his face when I asked him to follow me into that barn!  And the sound his feet made on cement!  He had no idea who in the heck was making those clopping sounds, but he didn't know if he liked it!  Then his pop, Sahib spoke up,  he was like a puppy rushing over to be comforted by the elder.HIs introduction to a stall was also an adventure, he took one look at that dark hole and you could see his brain thinking: "She wants me to go in THAT?!  Well, being the good sport he is, and trusting that I will not bring him to anything that will kill him ( I think he trusts me like that anyway, I have tried to be consistant with him), he entered the stall without much more ado.   Turns out he likes a stall,...  To my knowledge he hasn't had any meltdowns, and is being a good boy for my trainer. He is healing nicely after almost 4 weeks at the trainers, thanks to her due diligence and care.  I imagine it will be a while before he is healed enough to come home.  Here are some pictures:

This last picture is from last week, the 15th to be exact.  The wound is healing nicely ( thanks to Jean's ministrations and Wonder Dust!).  We were able to even get his hooves trimmed with him standing sound on that leg!  My only concern is for his fetlock and the possiblity he won't be sound on that leg, but for now we will take it day by day.