Things are moving faster... at least for Canada

So with the health care system in Canada things can move slowly or quickly, but either way its free!

So we went from a possible 5 year wait time, to less than 2 years in the past week.  I have referrals in to 3 surgeons but the one who will actually do the surgery will most likely see me after another surgeon has passed me on again.  Good news is that my family doctor went to school with the ankle surgeon, and thinks that with my history it should be 2 years or less. (And will be sending an email to the surgeon personal email)

So I still have a long process in front of me, but its a much shorter wait that I thought it was.

The weight loss is going good, down the 3 pounds I gained in September and October, and back on track again.  (Tonight was treat night and I got a burger from Wendy's!)

I did end up doing showmanship with Chilly last weekend, she was very smart and remembered her 'lessons' from when she was a yearling on setting up and standing still.  Also got her to trot in hand and we tried a pivot or two just to ease her into it.

Monday I lunged Oscar and did showmanship and on Tuesday I rode for about 20 min, just to get back into it.  On Monday we got a new sale horse into the barn and I got to ride him on Thursday night!  Hes so much smoother than Oscar!  But was a little 'lookie' and I am glad that Oscar is so solid and non spooky. 

It was fun to get on a new horse and learn and adapt to him quickly.  I'm hoping to start riding Rusty soon, to get more horsey experience under my bum before it comes time to ride Chilly.

Oh and I tried to get pictures of me in my chaps, by myself, but that didn't work.  I need practice with my selfies!  

Stallions, and breeding season.

So in about a month we will be starting breeding season at the farm, my most favorite time of the year!

Our first mare (who was breed to Chevy, Chilly's sire) isn't due until the end of January but from the looks of it we are praying that she makes it past January 1st!  The other 3 mares are breed to foal around the end of March and all are doing well.  (One is breed to Chevy, one is Chevy's dam breed to No Doubt I'm Lazy, and the new Potential Investment mare is breed to Special Invitation (APHA).   It will be fun to see how all 4 of the babies compare to each other as they grow up.

Both Chevy and Rusty got lunged with saddles on today, vacation is over!  Over the next 2-3 months they are going to have a lot of visitors as people wanting to breed start looking for a stud.  The extreme issues that local breeders have had with getting shipped semen over the border and to our remote area means that having stallions that are quality animals with quality bloodlines is a big draw to locals who want to breed their mare.

Unfortunately D and C do live cover which can be dangerous for the stud, mare, and humans that are involved.  But again, finding a vet that is competent to do AI in mares can also be difficult.  I have heard of a vet who dropped several thousands of dollars worth of frozen semen into hot water to defrost them, like you do with bull semen..... killed all of it.