Rancher's Hours

Yep. Around here, we keep odd hours. On Friday morning we were loaded and headed out before 3 am.

When we dropped off our girl's horse a few weeks back, we also dropped off our horse trailer for a paint touch up. We ordered the trailer in 2012 and picked it up last year, and although we love everything about it and Joe builds an awesome trailer, we soon noticed a few thin spots in the paint up top and we didn't want rust to start working its way into the metal.Yes, it's a horse trailer, but its a lot of money for us and we'll keep it forever. Joe told us to bring it back and he'd make it right. Customer service is another advantage to dealing with Joe. He's built a top notch business for a reason and if you find yourself in need of a horse trailer, Joe's your man.

We drive a 15 yr old pickup, but we sure have a nice looking horse trailer!

So, back to the present: Joe called and said our trailer was ready so we headed out to pick it up. And the reason for the insane hour was that it would allow us to be back at the ranch before noon, leaving enough hours for us to get a  decent day's work in.

We also squeezed in a very quick breakfast, meeting our girl at 7 (Texas time) at McDonalds before she had to be at work at 7:30.

We were home by 11:30 and I quickly...VERY quickly, pulled together a good dinner before DH had to jump in the feed truck and make his feed run. I had leftover fresh green beans that I warmed up and I pulled out boneless, skinless chicken tenders from the freezer and threw them into a skillet. I like to keep these just for this reason. They cook up really fast, and with the addition of some seasoning, sliced mushrooms, diced bacon, lots of green chile, and some shredded cheese...well, it made for a really yummy meal. I threw together a salad and called it good.

I REALLY wanted to take a nap long about 3 that afternoon, but opted for an early night. I'm fairly certain we were asleep before the sun set.

On Tuesday, we had a repeat performance. We loaded 3 horses at 4 am and hauled them to an equine vet in  Lamesa, 2 1/2 hrs away.

Lamesa is a small west Texas town, but their veterinary practice is not small. Dr. Brock started the clinic 20 years ago and they have 6 vets practicing there now. They are well known for their work with equines and people haul their horses from near and far for their expert care. We took 2 in for lameness evaluation and one that had a really sore ear and we wanted to be sure there wasn't something odd going on. DH had already sedated him and used tick meds, but he was still really sensitive.

After some sedation

Some x-rays

Some clipping and disinfecting:

Some injections

We loaded everyone back up and headed back home.
No Navicular is good news and with a bit of time and a bit of corrective shoeing that DH has already tended to, we're hoping everyone will be back in good form in a couple of months.

And we were once again home by noon. These super early mornings, mean I'll be under the covers before the sun sets because this ranch wife is pooped.