Recovery update 2 - Get your act together

And so the weeks go by. 

I have arranged a 'Mr F' watch. As I had to work and couldn't loose any hours, I asked a 3 people who would be reliable and had time to go and check on 'Mr F' on various times of the day. "You don't have to do anything. Just drive up to the yard, peek into 'Mr F's stable and see if he is still standing."

My two main concerns during 'Mr F' recovery where: 1) Is he still standing or has he tried lying down and can't get up? 2) Is he calm. 'Suzie' (Vet) prescribed absolute calm stable rest. 'Mr f' is not to make any abrupt movements. 

I had asked the other people at the yard if they could try and be calm around 'Mr F'. And nobody was to go into his stable unless I gave instructions. 

Needless to say, this wasn't being followed. One day I came back to find the light switch in his stable smashed up and the broken plastic and screws strewn all over his stable floor. I spend ages going through the shavings to make sure there wasn't anything that he could step on that would pierce his frogs. The last thing I needed now was an abscess or any other hoof injury.

The light switch for 'Mr F's stable was located on a beam inside his stable. Most short people, such as myself, have to use the handle of a broom to switch it on or off. Clearly, one of the teenagers just hit it with something really hard and it shattered into pieces. What made it worse was that the loose and still life wire was dangling inside 'Mr F' stable.

On another day I came back in the evening after work to find the floor in 'Mr f's stable all turfed up and him looking quite out of sorts and in discomfort. It didn't look like he rolled though, it was more a case of him having had to shuffle around in there, seemingly because something frightened him. His stable mate on that day was one of 'Jane's horses. 'Jane' had two horses and both of them benefited from stable rest due to poor foot conditions. As 'Jane' was always busy with matters she had one of the teenage girls do chores for her. And of of those chores was to feed and water 'Jane's horses. 

I instructed specifically that nobody apart from one other person namely 'Fluff chucker' was to enter 'Mr F's stable. I also said I would look after 'Mr F's stable mates as though there would be my own. I would muck out both stables, feed and water both horses. All the horses at 'Buttercup Farm' new me well over the years and I have looked after them and fed them all for years. Without sounding big headed: I knew how to keep things calm, which was the main aim.

Adding two and two together, the teenage girl must have gone into 'Mr f's stable to fill up the water buckets with a hose. I was upset that she actually entered the stable even though she was told not to. But more importantly, 'Mr F' has one pet hate, and that is the sight of a hose. To him it is probably a big snake wriggling on the ground waiting to attack. He generally steps back and snorts like a dragon. I can only imagine him trying to get away from the hose in his small stable. And the girl surely must have realised that he was spooking. It's not how you keep a horse calm. This happened only 3 weeks after the injury. At this stage it was all still in the open with 'Mr F's well being.

On some days I would come back to find 'Mr F's stable door wasn't even properly locked! He knows how to open the top bolt so the bottom bolt needs to be in place too, which often it wasn't.

The whole set up at 'Buttercup farm' was in dire need or repair / replacement. The stable doors were falling apart, in fact 'Blue' broke through it several times in the other stable by simply pushing at it and the rotten wood gave way. One morning I arrived at the yard seeing 'Blue' loose - luckily this didn't seem to have upset 'Mr F' too much. Still, 'Blue' could have escaped down the lane right into the road. What saved him was his constant desire for food ... so he spent most of the night (judging by his poo everywhere) in the yard or more: in the barn where he found the open bale of haylage.

There are many more incidents and I began loosing patience. I was furiously protecting 'Mr F'. To me, a horse is not just a tool to take out the box (field) and play with it, then put it back in the box. Frankly, I care more for any animal that I care for a human. I don't dislike humans but I don't care for them much either. Animals are innocent, humans are not. 

I wasn't pleasant and I didn't care, I wanted people to be responsible for their action rather than aimlessly and often ignorantly plodding along. I wasn't interested in people politics. This wasn't a pub, this was a yard for horses. I don't go to the yard to socialise, I go to the yard to be with the horse(s). And now 'Mr F' relied on me to keep things calm.