Life........Flooding, Teeth and Trucks

Today was another one of those days when life just jumped up and smacked me right in the face. I knew before it ever got started that flooding would probably be an issue. Between the weather reports and my friend from the county's warning, imminent flooding was a given. The question would be just how much flooding would we get.

It was still dark when I fed the horses this morning so other than knowing I had water in front of the hay barn and some water in one aisle, I really didn't get the full picture until the sun came up.

About the only place on my property that's dry is my house (not counting the leak in my roof) and inside my horses' stalls. But the horses are dry and we're relatively dry so that's good. However, working to clean stalls, water and feed horses sloshing around in 6 inches of water just is NOT fun.

Despite the torrential rains, I loaded up my first trailer load of horses and headed off to Richard's with the three geldings. I was drenched just loading horses. As I got out of the truck to open the gates, I wondered if maybe, just maybe I'm a tad bit crazy. But the thought only crossed my mind.......it sure didn't stop me.

Over ar Richard's by the time I began running horses back and forth between the horse trailer, the barn and then to the arena, I was half drowned and loosing my sense of humor.

Because 2 of the 3 horses had an appointment with the vet in the afternoon to float teeth and pull wolf teeth, it was a relatively light day. The horses were longed. Then Jessica rode them without the usual intense instruction from Richard with another fifty cents worth from me.

Getting done with all three horses under 3 hours is just not the norm but we pulled it off. Then I swapped Louie out with Reflection so I could get the stallion to the vet as well. He has had an ongoing problem with "ramps" in the back of his teeth that have needed multiple visits to fix and he was due for another check.



With the horses loaded I headed home for a quick lunch and a change to dry clothes. Then off for the vet where he told me as I pulled in that I had a major oil leak going on.

While I do have a very small oil leak, Angie and Richard had noticed the other day what looked like diesel underneath my truck. I was beginning to think that I had more of a problem than my husband thought. But first off we dealt with the horses' teeth.

Our timing was perfect, the ramp that Reflection had is finally fixed. Percy had some sharp points right in front that knocked down easily and the beginning of a ramp way at the end of his jaw. Because we caught it early it was easily fixed. By the time we hit Tag we were on a roll. He had a couple of caps that were stuck with puss underneath them but both came out easily. The wolf teeth were very small and quite sharp........so no wonder the horse was wincing at pressure from the bit.

Six hundred and some dollars later and I was heading back towards home to swap around horses and head to Richard's with my second load. I was supposed to call Ricahrd first to let him know what time I'd be going his way.

As usual the cell phone connections didn't and I got his voicemail, so I unloaded all the horses.........even Reflection who needed to go back to camp.......Richard was planning on riding him tonight.

I headed to the house for my third change to dry clothes when Richard called telling me to head on over at my leisure. I have to laugh at my leisure..........I'm about as leisurely about this horse thing as Richard is. I was about to load the horses when the vet called. I'd paid him with an expired credit card..........oops!

An hour later I finally had found the new card, gotten it activated and fixed things with the vet but by then my fanny was really dragging and it was getting dark. I was hoping that maybe Richard's might be too........so I called him to see if he wanted to call it a day............Again, the cell connection wasn't and I ended up with Richard's voicemail. I never know when my voicemail messages are going through or not so I dutifully loaded up the horses and headed down the road.

I arrived at Richard's in the dark and parked in the swamp that hours ago had been my standard place to plant my horse trailer. Hope unloaded easily despite the 3 inches of water I asked her to walk through. I wondered as we exited how much higher the water level would be when it was time to load.

Once in the barn I met up with Richard who had tried to call me 3 times to tell me he was pooped (believe it or not)...........so back to the horse trailer with Hope. The good thing was the water level had only raised an inch. The mare waded through it like a trooper and I was off for home...........or was I?



My truck would not start. I turned the key to get only a brief attempt to fire and then nothing. It would turn over but wouldn't start. The battery was quickly complaining so I quit trying. Sitting there in the dark, I wondered what my options would be.

Getting out of my truck, I looked around to find beneath it a pool of diesel. My truck was definitely a no go. With 3 horses (2 stallions and a mare) in the horse trailer I was stranded. I called my husband.......again, no cell connection.......left a message and then headed for the house.

Angie and Richard were super. We all decided probably the best course of action was to put the horses up with them for the night. Then get them home in the morning.

Next thing you know Richard, Jessica and Jen were setting up a horse motel in the arena for my 3 horses. Reflection went back to his stall that had been inhabited by Louie all afternoon and Louie moved to join Legs and Hope in pens in the arena. In less than 20 minutes the horses were housed, feed and watered and Angie was driving me home.

Once Dave got home, he took me back over with the horses' blankets. We got them all tucked in to their new digs and turned out the lights for the night.

I don't know what tomorrow holds but it's still raining and the mechanic can't even get to my truck until sometime tomorrow afternoon. Stay tuned. I'm pretty sure there's an adventure in here somewhere. I don't think that Richard can go a day without working those horses without some kind of withdrawal. He's just having too much fun. I can't imagine how we're going to make this work but at this point nothing will surprise me.

Oh ya, and whatever it is will be just fine with me as long as I get to ride.....otherwise Richard won't be the only one suffering from withdrawals.

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