How We Spent Our Anniversary

Or the interesting life of someone who is now helping with some horses.

Well our sick horse stepped on something and jammed whatever it was up inside the soft part of his foot. Which foot you ask? Why, the very same foot that was previously hurt but had pretty much healed.

So the veterinarian came out and examined the foot and wrapped it up in some bandages after applying some pine tar stuff to the injured place. I took a photo of the wrapped foot but really it doesn't show much.

He also prescribed a neoprene pad held on by a horse shoe. So that required another visit from the farrier and that happened yesterday. And yesterday was also our anniversary and it was also one of the most beautiful days I've enjoyed.

Now the foot is already sore. Horse shoes are applied to the foot with nails driven up through the hoof from the underside. The horse is about 1200 or maybe 1300 pounds. He was not happy about having nails driven up through his hoof. And I thought to myself that I would not be happy about that either while I was saying things like "good horse" and "good job" and "easy boy" and "you're a good boy" and whatever the heck else I could think of to say over and over in my most soothing and gentle and calm voice.

We had already given orally some stuff called "bute" to Jet to try to make the process easier on all of us.

Our combined efforts ("bute", me, horse, and farrier) pretty much came to naught. At the very first nail Jet reared up and in the process kicked me and the farrier with his front leg. He didn't intend to kick us of course but our bodies simply were in the path of his leg. If he had intended I probably would not be blogging this.

We had him outside the corral and his companion horses (apparently human companions were not high on his list at the moment) had decided to move about as far away from the activity as possible. So Jet couldn't see his buds and he moved over to the gate with me trying to hold him by the halter and lead rope to little avail. He let out the most plaintive, long whinny I think I've heard. It was loud and high and just so desperate.

Finally I led him to a spot where he could see the other horses and that placated him some but not nearly enough. After some discussion we all decided for everyone's safety we needed some additional sedation so the farrier gave him a shot of something.

While we were waiting for the sedation I took another glancing blow to my "private" area shall we say. You will notice in the first image that I am standing a bit sideways as I did not really want to enjoy another similar blow.

At the time of the first photo the sedation was very much in evidence as the horse was definitely leaning on me with his head on my shoulder.

Here's another closer image of Jet with his head on my shoulder.

This was after the shoe had been nailed on. The horse is very mellow. He does not particularly care much about anything right now in this photo.

The farrier has this little anvil that he has mounted on his truck. The shoes are preformed and generally the right size. But after some sizing measurements the blank shoe has to be beaten on the anvil to make it a better fit for the specific animal.

In the old days the blacksmith would actually forge the shoes from a bar of iron. In fact there are still some places where that is done today. If you do it that way it can take and entire day to do just one horse.

In our case the farrier also had to fit and cut a piece of neoprene to the foot. He can buy blanks of neoprene pads, too. I found that truly interesting.

But you have to remember that I am truly a neophyte when it comes to horses.

When the shoe is nailed to the foot the nails come out on the top side of the hoof. So the farrier then has to cut off the tips of the nails and bend the remaining nail over to help keep the shoe on the horse. I asked how long it would last and he said it should be good for at least 8 weeks or so.

I hope we don't have to do this again because I am sore all over.

I led and pulled Jet back into his corral after it was all done. He was still too drugged to be joyous apparently as he just kind of meandered off. Later we checked on him and he was doing okay.

Later still we dressed up and went to this fancy dinner celebration. It was at an old downtown hotel that's been totally renovated and restored. Really it is a treat just to get to enjoy the hotel. There was some kind of Halloween parade that was going on downtown so we parked in a garage and walked over to the hotel.

The invitation said business attire. I put on my Sunday clothes which is slacks and shirt and tie and sport coat. I don't usually wear that to work.

So when we arrived I was talking to this other fellow and his wife was talking to mine about the attire. I don't think we men would have initiated a conversation about clothes had our wives not already done it.

Anyway he said that he wore jeans to work and no tie and that was his normal business attire and most of the people he knew wore something to similar to work. I said that's pretty much what I wear, too. His wife is a potter and she said if she wore her business attire she would have on an apron and have mud all over her.

When I think about it the only ones I see dressing up anymore during the week are bankers and insurance guys. Given the state of banking and insurance I wonder if they will continue to dress up?

The food was absolutely wonderful at this party. We had little cards at each place setting that told us what the food was. Because I wouldn't have known what it was without referring to the card. You know you are in a good restaurant when you have to have a card to tell you what it is you are eating.

The first course was some kind of butternut squash soup with some lobster in it. Oh my was it good. The soup part was really thick and there was hardly any of it in the rather large, shallow bowl but it was so good.

The main course was a small piece of bison that had a crust of pumpkin seed according to the card. It was wonderful but accompanied by some sea bass that was just as wonderful. There was stuff beside these two that was called "piped Peruvian Blue and Sweet Potatoes." Piped apparently means they kind of extruded the stuff out onto the plate because that's what it looked like. Boy it was good, too!

Dessert was this tiny amount of sauce stuff that had this little chocolate rod on it. There was some other stuff that someone said was Creme Brulée that was served in this ceramic spoon kind of dish. I don't know what Crème Brulée is and my little card didn't have that on it anywhere so I don't know. However, I did know about Crème Brulée because of High School Musical but really that is another blog I guess. It was good whatever it was. Then there was this really thin cracker deal that had some kind of grape halves or something like that on top of it with some kind of cheese. It was also yummy.

I don't know where people come up with these ideas for meals like this. Really it is an art form all its own. These plates were so beautiful I felt kind of bad about eating them. I should also mention our servers. I have had some good service before but I would have to rate these servers among the best I've ever experienced.

There were several kinds of wine with the meal and champagne beforehand. The hosts wore tuxedos by the way. Oh, and there was live music provided by a group from one of our universities. There were 4 musicians playing. I think 3 violins and 1 cello.

After we finally made it home it took me a couple of hours to wind down enough to go to sleep.

This morning I am trying to get over being sore and to get over staying up well past my usual bed time. I am also enjoying remembering and savoring all yesterday's experiences.

And that's how we spent our anniversary. If future anniversaries turn out half as good as this one I'll be really happy because I had a wonderful time.