Note to self: turn around before grabbing a glass……

I love old barns. It may be cliche but they really don’t make them like they used to. At least not very often. Here are a couple favorites from the road trip:

the cowboy hat that is. Found one of our barn cats snoozing under the dining room table in a cast off hat that belongs to the little boys. This is one of the orphan kittens we bottle fed last year btw. All three are still around. We have two and a friend has another. They are enormous.

The vet came last week to do Taylor’s ‘float’.  His teeth had become overgrown and he wasn’t processing his feed well.  We got some pics and I am including Alannah’s narration of the big event. And let me just say if you have never seen a doped up horse it was quite a sight. Like one of those cartoons where the horse accidentally drinks the moonshine or something. Poor guy was weaving and swaying.  In all he really wasn’t uncomfortable though. Not unduly uncomfortable anyway – more just annoyed.

             Equine Dentistry

          On Friday morning the vet came to float Taylor’s teeth. A float is when the vet straightens a horse’s teeth. Taylor needed this because his teeth were curvy and caused him to lose a lot of his food.

The first thing the vet did was give Taylor a sedative shot. The shot made him very sleepy and wobbly.  Then he made me get a crutch and hold it under Taylor’s head to keep it up.  After that he got a halter with a flat metal that covered his teeth.  Then he cranked his mouth open. He got his tools and began to file Taylor’s teeth down.It looked like it hurt him a lot.  Then he showed us what he did. Taylor’s teeth looked much better.

The float was important because we didn’t want Taylor to starve to death. Now that he is done we can expect him to fatten up.  I didn’t realize it was so dangerous, but now I know more about it.