Life's A Beach: Everyone loves a parade...

I decided that since I wasn't able to make it down to Sunriver to spend the 4th with the fam that Flash, the pups and I were going to be in the Gleneden Beach parade instead. This is a fun little community parade that anyone can sign up and be in. There are prizes given for Best Float, Best Animal, Best Car, Best Entry 9 & Under, Best Band, Most Unique and Judge's Choice.

So, on Saturday I headed up to where Flash is boarded to get the animals ready for the parade. When I pulled Flash out of the pasture he looked like this:

I don't see the problem, mom. Mud is awesome...

So I shaved him up, gave him a proper bridle path and dispatched his goat-like whiskers.

Heheheh... that tickles.

Then it was bath time.

Holy crap that water was cold!!

It was a toss-up as to who was actually more wet by the time the bath was done. But, mission accomplished... I had a clean-ish horse.

Then the shoer showed up to do his feet, which needed it badly. And after that I gave him some dewormer because he was due. I then threw some hay out in the pasture and turned him loose so I could work on the dogs. Well, one dog in particular.

Noelle had been molting chunks of hair all over my house so I decided that while I had the clippers out I would shave her as well. I don't have any before or after pics, but when I was done it looked like she had spawned 2 more dogs. There was a LOT of hair on the ground.

I was just about to leave when I noticed Flash was acting weird. He was biting at his flanks and laying down then getting up again, then pawing at the ground and then laying down again. It looked like he was starting to have a bout of colic. This is a VERY bad thing in the horsey world. So I threw a halter on him, called Farmer for some advice (because I have never had a horse in distress like this before) and started walking him. Farmer told me that I needed to keep walking him until his appetite came back and he had pooped. So up and down the street we went...

Mom... I don't feel so good.

And after all that work he had rolled in the mud and gotten dirty again... figures.

Eventually, after a few hours, he started eating again and eventually we got poop. Usually I'm hoping Flash will hold it, this time I couldn't wait until he pooped... the smelly signal of all is well.

So, with that little crisis over it was time to go home and finish prepping my tack for the parade in the morning. By midnight I was exhausted and gratefully fell into my bed for some much needed sleep.

The next morning it was a mad dash to get the pups, the tack and myself loaded into the trailer. With that mission accomplished I went to go pick up Flash. As I was driving up the road to the spot that I use as my turn-around I was daydreaming and missed it completely. It's a pretty narrow road and my truck and trailer are a long combination so I continued up the road looking for another driveway where I could execute my turn-around.

I thought I had found one so I pulled in and then started backing the trailer out. Then WHAM... I had backed the trailer into a tree. CRAP. Not the best start to my morning. Plus I had just scared the crap out of the couple who's tree it was I had backed into. I apologized profusely, checked to see if there was any damage (both the trailer and the tree were fine as far as I could see at that time) and proceeded up the road further to find a better turn-around spot.

I finally got turned around and got Flash loaded. I was doing my visual inspection on my way back to the truck when I noticed this...

Pretty sure that is NOT how that is supposed to look...