Cowboy Boots to High Heels

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I know what you\’re thinking – how does the picture above tie into deworming and breeding AVs and 46 mm? Easy.

It defines the segway of last Friday.

Friday morning for me, last week, started at 3 am. Clay and I had to make a quick run to Moose Jaw to pick up one of our horses who had made a one-day turnaround trip to Moore & Company vet clinic in Balzac, Alberta.

The morning ensued with laundry tasks, a run to the post office, some light paperwork, emails and deworming of the herd:

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Keeping current with the vaccines and deworming of 40+ head is sometimes a challenge. I do it with the help of handwritten files, kept right in the front of our tackroom for easy access. The trick is to updating the files as soon as something happens. And if not, my back-up plan of writing the date and name of the horse done on the back seems to help me get it recorded at a later date.

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That is, except when I forget to go permanent and use a dry erase marker instead…

Staying on top of things is especially tough when you have a busy Friday. Covered in white paste, I began to realize how quickly my day was about to fly by. Literally.

This was Friday afternoon:

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Upon a routine ultrasounding appointment around 2:40 pm, we discovered one of our mare’s – Pine – had a 46mm follicle.

I had planned for ultrasound time. I had planned for the time it would take to “usher” Pine and her filly out of the pasture and into the barn: a job that isn’t much fun since the filly has now developed “independence”.

But I hadn’t planned on breeding her that afternoon. Of course Pine would have a 46 follicle today – if nothing else but for the fact that I had a plane to catch at 6 pm.

Thanks a lot Pine.

With a good collection in the AV, Clay took over the breeding side of things along with our vet, Jeremy Ross, and sent me off to pack my suitcase and have a shower. As much as I would have loved to get on that plane covered in white paste and smelling like the barn – amongst other things – a shower and maybe some perfume, was in order.

At long last, and with only 2 minutes to spare, I was packed and clean and ready to head to Edmonton, Alberta, to attend the wedding of my youngest brother.

I traded in my cowboy boots for some flip flops and later, high heels and armed only with my little point-and-shoot, here’s how the rest of my weekend went:

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Obviously, it was a proud moment for everyone in our family. But what has really impressed me, inspired me, awed me – was my brother\’s commitment not only to his new wife, Kacey, but also to her young daughter, Kit.

Way to go Little Bro. On this day you have proved yourself more than just a Man.

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