Stormy's Big Adventure

Tuesday March 23 2010

It's been a long time - 5 or 6 years (Stormy has a bad owner) - since Stormy had a dental appointment, so today Carol hauled him, with her mare Suz, to meet Sarah.

Sarah's a full-time equine dentist. She lives in northern Idaho, and once a year she brings her rolling dental clinic to a place down the road from here, where she parks and works on patients.

Stormy was a bit leery as I led him to the dental trailer. Sarah has a living quarters horse trailer, with the hauling part set up with her dental equipment, and stocks for a horse.


The whole setup was mighty suspicious, as was his owner's extra-sweet voice that was telling him he'd feel so much better later.

He was reluctant to go up the ramp into the stocks, but once he got in, he got the Happy Shot that made him oblivious.

For a 19-year-old Thoroughbred who hadn't had any teeth work done for half a decade (shame!), he wasn't in terrible shape. Sarah had a first look in his mouth. His canines had already been filed to a decent level but they were caked with tartar. Sarah got that off with a pair of pliers. He had no wolf teeth, so he either had them removed long ago, or he never had any.

Next: put on the torture device-looking mouth speculum that locked his mouth open, prop his head up in the round hanging gallows and on assistant Carol's shoulder, and he was ready to go.

His pre-molars and molars - 6 on top and 6 on the bottom, each side, running from the middle to the back of the mouth - had sharp hooks on the first and last teeth,

and a sharp edge on the outside of some of the molars. I got to stick my hand in his mouth (almost up to my elbow) and feel the sharp hooks on the back teeth. He had sores in his cheek from them. Sarah used an electric power float to file them down


and a hand float to finish them and to level the other molars.


He had a small overbite, which wasn't a big concern, but the incisors had a curve and diagonal that had a steep table angle that Sarah wanted to correct. By balancing the angle of the incisors, all the teeth - incisors, canines and smoothed molars, would work together and grind food more efficiently, passing it from front to back of the mouth and on down the throat, and the teeth wouldn't trap pieces of hay. It was either that or I'd be dental flossing him.

She used a burr, a little round spinning ball, to fine tune the teeth, and a spinning wheel to grind down the incisors, to correct the 'table angle' and curve.





Remember when I asked if Stormy was fat with his big belly in November? Most people suggested it was a hay belly. Whatever it was, it's definitely shrunk in the last month, and even through his winter coat I could see an outline of some of his ribs, even though it hasn't been a fierce winter. I'd also noticed him throwing wadded up chewed hay balls out of his mouth now and then. I'd had a feeling he wasn't able to grind his food up right.

I've had dental trauma and am somewhat terrified of dentists. I sit in The Chair and will myself to relax, even as my toes are curling and my fists are clenching; and I constantly flinch and jerk - doesn't matter how gentle the dentist is. Even just a cleaning, I almost can't stand it - the sound, the feeling... and watching Stormy being worked on, I was doing the same thing, tensing up and holding my breath. The sound of a power float on big horse teeth is like a jackhammer in a construction zone; it's awful. You know how your teeth smell when they're being drilled into - get a whiff of the horse teeth when they're being ground. Stormy would twitch and jerk and I'd do the same in empathy. Next time I'm asking for some of his tranquilizer.

Sarah said he could gain 75 pounds (oooooh, isn't he going to be happy!), and she'd like to see him again in a year, to see how his teeth have worn. It will be more of a maintenance visit, since she did a lot of corrective work this year (since his bad owner waited so long to get him to a dentist). He'll be digesting and absorbing his food better because he'll be able to chew it better (and without pain). I just wormed him with Panacur also. He ought to be looking mighty spiffy in a month or two.

Now, I only have to figure out a new way to trick him into going to the dentist again. I've got a year to do it.

A Day in the Owyhee Life

Monday March 22 2010

What is there to do on a blustery cold spring (winter?) day?

Play


Roll


Shake


Roll


Shake


Line up


Pose


Gather sticks for your Raven nest!

Cogitate

Sunday March 21 2010

What goes through his head when he stops to survey the country?


Jose's favorite spots to stop on the trail and observe are, naturally, from high points, because they give the best view. Just like I like to do. He particularly likes the view from a rim down into a canyon. What does he see when he stares out there? What does he think? Does he think, like me, Wow, what beautiful country?


He's not afraid of things. He's observing and thinking. Sometimes he spots wildlife in the distance (before I see it); sometimes he just takes in the scenery. I can hear the wheels turning in his head as he gazes.


Then there's the cows. Whereas Mac (the former cow-horse) is at times skeptical of them (especially when they charge him from behind), Jose is very curious about and interested in them. Especially the babies. Today a newborn calf caught his eye. While Mama Cow eyed us warily ready to protect her baby, Jose had bright eyes only for the baby and he headed right for him. I know for sure what Jose was thinking here: Toy!


It would have been quite interesting to see what Jose would have done with him, but with Mama Cow's eyes getting bigger and bigger as we got closer and closer, I pulled him away.

He's intelligent, curious, agreeable, and he likes exploring.


And of course he loves a good meal.


Jose's a very special soul. : )

Pronghorn Surprise

Friday March 19 2010

It can run so fast nothing can keep up with it. 45, 55 miles per hour, and it can keep that speed up for miles.

While it's often called a pronghorn antelope, it is not technically a true antelope. The pronghorn has branching horns, which it sheds annually, whereas true antelope do not. It's the fastest animal on this continent.

It's rare to see pronghorns on this side of the highway - they prefer the Snake River Birds of Prey NCA to the north. It's even more rare to see, while riding around here, 1 pronghorn standing on a ridge and watching us in the wash below, (then keep running along the ridge, turning to watch us, and posing, several times), and for another 3 pronghorns to be waiting for us in Blond Cow wash before taking off on their romp.

The lone Arnie P. Antelope was posing on the ridge above Spring Ranch wash and watching us proceed for quite a while before he took off running. He stayed right along the rim, in sight, and he kept turning to stop and watch us again. He made a bold statement posing on the ridge against the blue sky. (Bummer, no camera today!)

When we turned the corner into Blond Cow wash, we saw the three antelope ladies; they took off running up the wash and up onto the next ridge, frolicking along the rim in sight a while before they disappeared.

Mac was quite bold. He ignored all the deer we saw today, he Stink-Eyed the cows, and he watched the pronghorns with interest. He led the way, trotting all the way up Blond Cow wash to the end, where the trail takes us up onto the ridge where the antelope ladies had gone.

When we were fifty yards from the top, the three lady antelopes appeared again. Instead of turning tail and running from us, they started running towards us, following the perpendicular rim trail that we were approaching. The closer they came, the faster they ran. They passed within 30 yard ahead of us, hitting warp speed as they bounded effortlessly along. I swear they looked like they were going to take off into the sky. (I'm thinking now that Santa Claus uses pronghorns disguised as reindeer.)

By the time we reached the trail - within seconds - they had disappeared, nothing left of them but their tiny hoofprints in the dust. And on the next ridge to the left, there was Arnie P. Antelope, still posing on the rim, watching the proceedings. Maybe the ladies had been looking for him. Maybe he was trying to give them the slip. He turned and ran the opposite way along the rim.

The antelope ladies were out of luck today.

(The above photo is a public domain photo, it's not mine.)

Chasm

Wednesday March 17 2010

You can see the two canyon notches here: Hart Creek on the left, Little Hart Creek on the right. When we do the Hart Creek Homestead ride, we ride right up to the Little Hart notch on the downstream side, before we turn off and climb around and up onto the ridge above it.

Often we'll see an eagle or two flying around in this Little Hart Creek canyon. There's supposed to be a historic nest in the Hart Creek notch. We've never ridden to or around that one.

Today we drop down behind the Little Hart Creek notch on the upstream side. The notch looks quite tame and unimpressive from the this side. Here it's a wide drainage. There's no water coming down here now.


As always, Jose likes to stop and take in the view.




Between Hart and Little Hart Creek canyons is a box canyon.

It's a rocky climb to the top. The top is a broad plateau, with a view down the entire Hart Creek drainage, all the way to the distant Snake River. As if on cue, we see a golden eagle flying around.

We ride toward the rim of Hart Creek Canyon.


Holy cow!


It's like the Grand Canyon of Owyhee. It's amazing the power of water can carve such a deep gash in the earth. Some of it so dark and deep I can't see the bottom. I can hear the water running far below. I can see part of a waterfall. The only word I can say for five minutes is - WOW!








Jose didn't even graze because he was fascinated by the view.




This is looking downstream toward the Snake River. Hart Creek and Little Hart Creek join below us (right around Suz's butt).


Looking upstream at Little Hart Creek notch, behind which we first descended.


You won't find the Grand Canyon of the Owyhee marked on a map, and there's no easy way to get there by vehicle or on foot or on horseback. Probably best to keep it our secret anyway.