My playlist (inadvertently) has had a common theme for the past half hour. I've listened to:

Golden Brown: The Stranglers. (Yes, as heard in Snatch.)



Mr.Brownstone: Guns n'Roses

Comfortably Numb: Pink Floyd

Perfect Day- Lou Reed

Ok, so what's the common theme? This is a musical research project. Think of it as discovering the themes in Austen novels, but instead, you're discovering the common theme between all of the above songs. ;) Honestly, it's too good to reveal. Too much of a coincidence.

In six weeks, I'll be waking up in my two bedroom house in downtown Toronto, mere steps from Kensington Market and China Town and Trinity Bellwoods park, a few blocks from the myriad of awesomeness that is Queen St. West and a twenty minute bike ride from the St.Lawrence Market. Can't. Wait.

My cousin and I are living out childhood dreams and renting a house together in Toronto- it is a converted coach house (where they used to park the horse carriages in the early 20th century) two bedrooms, two floors, full washroom and kitchen, and stand alone, not attached to another house, or anything. And super affordable- just small. We LUCKED OUT. There is a hammock on our roof! :yesnod: which is where I will sit with my bong, since the house is no smoking :lol: ... I think they meant cigarettes. SHHHH.

Being an adult is so cool. I'm going to eat cookie dough at two a.m and my cousin and I will design hideous Barbies on barbie.com, like we did when we were little :lol:

I have an interview to bartend at a strip club (one of the better ones). I am a smart, smart girl- I KNOW that. But there is something about me that just loves dive-y places, and parties and ridiculous situations.

At the barn where I work, we have two pregnant mares- both are very well bred, great temperaments, and worth more cash than I make in three years. They are also incredibly well loved by their owner (my boss), so as the one mare has neared and went over her due date, its been an extremely stressful time, checking the mare constantly for any signs of labor, etc.

Yesterday, 12 days over her due date, my boss and I agreed she was behaving really strangely when we first came in in the morning. She's usually a vacuum cleaner who will eat anything thrown her way, and is demanding about coming out of her stall and into her grass paddock ON TIME. Today, she barely touched her breakfast, and stood quietly in the back corner of her stall until I went in with her halter. We decided to put her out on grass anyway, while I did my chores, as we didn't want her to decide to have the foal while nobody was around! So I brought her in from grass three hours later, and noticed a faint red vaginal discharge. Hmm. Unusual. Just the way she was behaving, standing in the corner of her paddock not eating, and calling desperately to the pony mares whom she usually despises, convinced me to call the vet. I called out our reproduction specialist vet, saying I think the mare was going into labor, and called her owner as well.

While I'm waiting for them to show up, having put the mare in her nice, deeply bedded stall with hay, and fresh water, I begin to worry that maybe I've called everybody out for nothing. How embarrassing would it be if both the owner and vet dropped appointments and meetings to come out for nothing? Uh-oh...

Anyway. Dr.P shows up, a forgetful, elderly Englishman, still dressed in his surgery scrubs and not wearing his barn boots, but rather, his nice white Nikes. He quickly looked at the mare and said, rather patronizingly, 'No, no, I really don't think she IS going into labor, but since I've come all the way out, I'll just have a tickle about in there to be sure.' (He means he'll do an internal) The owner shows up, we bandage up the mares tail, put her halter on, and Dr.P gets lubed up and goes in.

Just as he said, 'Why, I've found feet!', the mare promptly covered him in amniotic fluid head to toe, and I had to resist the urge to excitedly shout, "I TOLD YOU SO!"

The foals head was malpositioned, so after we spent an hour and a half trying to reposition it and help her get it out, we had to load the mare into the six horse trailer with legs sticking out of her vagina, and take her into the clinic at the U of G for an emergency cesarean section!

Both Mama and Baby (a healthy, strapping boy) are fine, and will return home tomorrow.

You know who I am! If you don't, this blog will tip you off :D.

About a year ago, I was contacted by a woman who had a horse who was formerly a racehorse. She had acquired him as a re-sale project, because he was a pretty little mover with lots of potential. Unfortunately, the first time she tied him to put a saddle on him, he flipped out! Literally! He reared in the cross ties, beaned his head on a cross beam, and fell down, thrashing, in her barn aisle.

He was in my barn two days later, and I didn't pay a cent for him. She said he was crazy. She said I could never put a saddle on his back, let alone ride him. This is also the lady who used to go around to racetracks in my area and get FREE horses that weren't fast enough for racing, and sell them to SLAUGHTER (classy, right? She's banned from several of the racetracks, but this is very little known information, and as such, she still receives credit for being a horse lover who runs a horse rescue!? *head-scratch*. Anyway.) She'd been gone for twenty minutes, and I had the horse entirely tacked up and ready to ride.

Two days later, I rode him for the first time. My barn owner said to start looking for 'horse whisperer' classifieds in the newspaper, as this was the third 'crazy' horse we'd had in the barn that I had ridden with no problem... common sense, people!

My barn owner found out she was pregnant a month after we brought the horse home. Her boyfriend left her. And she stopped receiving disability checks. And then stopped feeding the horses. And giving them water. And even going to check on them. It was at this point that I started working whole days at work, so I had no idea what was going on- by the time I was done work, she would text me to say she had already been out to feed/water, and as I usually got a ride to the barn wit her, how was I to know any differently? I went to ride one day after about two weeks of this, and found an emaciated horse under his blanket, dehyrdated, overdue for the farrier (which she was also meant to arrange!) and his mane hacked short and unevenly by her young daughter.

She had been feeding the hay I bought for my horse to hers, and tossing him the ****ty, moldy cow hay that was three years old and she got for free. *Grrrreat*. She was feeding HER thin horses MY horses hay cubes and good grain, and giving mine either none, or the dregs of the cheap **** she would buy from time to time.

My boss caught me crying at work the next day, and asked why. I told him, and he immediately called my other boss, and they hooked up the horse trailer and went to get my poor baby and bring him back to the farm. They helped me rehabilitate him over the past few months. And I thought I would share some before and after photos of him.

I am hoping to take him to some small horse shows this year. The plan was initally to re-train him to sell him. Unfortunately, I've kinda come to like him :P and am no longer sure if I will ever be able to say my goodbyes...


This is Vegas on Dec.10th '09


March 8th 2010


And him on May 10th, 2010.

I dare say I can pat myself on the back. I get a lot of comments from people who saw him when he first came to his new home, and who see him now- they don't even think it is the same horse, and can't believe how far he has come. I knew he was under there all along... and he still has a long way to go... but I am so proud of my beautiful, beautiful horse.