One of those weeks

It indeed has been one of those weeks. I woke up in the middle of the night to the horses carrying on. There was the telltale thumping of hooves on the ground so I assumed that Snow had broken one of Ellie's unwritten and heretofore undisclosed rules. Ellie has no problem with giving Snow a good whooping. I've started calling her Muhammed El' Lie. We've had a serious talk about her behavior... she was abused by her original owner and now she is carrying on the "cycle of abuse." I'm not sure that I have been getting through to her. She normally just gives me a look like this:

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(obvious look of defiance)

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In the morning, when I went out to groom the horses, I gave Snow a good exam. To my surprise, she was free of cuts, hoof prints, or anything suggesting she had been kicked. When I was grooming Ellie, however, I found that she had a pretty nasty gash on her leg... right on the joint. There were a few vet visits, lots of antibiotics (shots... both to the joint and to the neck), and even an ultra-sound. Now she is on stall-lockdown and I need to keep her wound clean and bandaged. She's not enjoying it, but all things considered, she is being a pretty good patient.

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(note: blue bandage)

To keep the horses stimulated, I have been doing a lot more target training with them. Snow in particular has been bored without her friend. She has been getting into everything. I went to dump the manure and shavings from Ellie's stall this morning and lo-and-behold Snow comes running in with me. She decided to trample through the manure and thus, I had to give her a bath. She loved the attention and seemed rather pleased with herself. Unfortunately, the pictures did not really come out.

Just as I was done squeegeeing her off, Cowboy and Sarah showed up. I guess they heard I was bathing animals because they needed it:

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As I noted, Snow is bored and wants to be in everyone's business, thus, I got a few shots like this:

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It was all quite a scene and we even drew the attention of a new resident:

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I'm pleased to have Mr. (or is this a Ms.?) black rat snake in the barns. I think he/she is quite handsome and/or pretty. Sarah, Cowboy and Snow, however, were a bit too interested in their new guest, so I figured it was time to put the camera away and lead the curious onlookers to safer activities. Snake bites are terrible and I did not want to spend the rest of the week rubbing antibiotics into noses of various shapes and sizes.

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Thankfully, things will get back to normal shortly.