I thought he was having a heart attack

The other day I was talking to a member of the Wentworth Hunt and she mentioned that her draft cross had been very sick. When she described the symptoms I relayed the story of Cupcake and his mysterious illness. They had taken their draft to The New England Equine clinic and even they could not tell what was wrong with him. My vet ran extensive tests . I must confess, I have forgotten a lot of what she told me, but it seems both these drafts had the same problem. Symptoms were: And odd that they are identical....I took Cup for a ride, was not an exceedingly hot day in November, and he gets worked pretty regularly. He stopped on the trail and started to shake, he was sweating profusely, and I do mean profusely, dripping from his neck and off his chest. I thought my big white boy was having a heart attack and dropped my stirrups, preparing should I have to leap from his 17.3 height.
 My wonderful vet was not sure what caused the problem, but looked it up and found that the treatment for what she surmised was wrong was soaking his hay and changing his feed. He does not get a lot of grain as is, and he eats enormous amounts of hay in the winter, and shares with 3 other horses. If this was going to be his new regimen, I was in for a lot of work.  A while back one of the mares at Mountain Lane Farm tied up and got better as soon as she was given selenium and E. Mountain Lane's owner, Heather White, a wise horsewoman, thought perhaps we could try giving Cup selenium and see what happened. Within a few weeks there was a big change.
About a month later I was in Tracctor Supply and saw that they had selenium blocks. I had read that horses can actually get too much selenium, but that they will only eat what they need if they have the block free choice. My horses now have free access to not only an mineral salt block but also a selenium block and are doing great. They are not licking down the selenium as fast as the mineral which leads me to believe they are, now that they are back on pasture, in a good balance.
This leads me back to the Wentworth hunt Master's horse. I mentioned the selenium to her mother and I will be interested to see how her draft fares.

While this blog is titled "Life on the Farm" we all know that there are days when one just needs to get a change of pace. For me, that is either hiking or riding my lovely little collapsing bike which my son Baylor gave me. The most useful present aside from the camelback which followed later.
I am not a road biker. I don't have spiffy biking clothes. When it is cold, I wear riding britches and muck boots. In summer I wear a wonderful skort I got at LL Bean on sale for $10. (love a good deal) and a glow in the dark vest (also gift from son) which I wear even though I NEVER plan to ride in the dark. Vest does come in handy on those late evening walks back from the barn. I digress.....I love rail trails and started my fitness program on the little rail trail in Peterboro, NH. Part is paved, my favorite as far as my seat is concerned. Part is gravel, doable, and I usually let Cromwell ride with me when I do that part as we have to take it slowly. Part is dirt and roots which I avoid. The non paved section runs along the Contoocook river and is very scenic. I kayak the Contoocook often and highly recommend it, I start my boat trip in Greenfield and then paddle up to Peterboro, that way I can float with the current on the way back. (oops digressed again).
This month my favorite Rail Trail is the Nashua River trail. http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/northeast/nash.htm It is the perfect length for me to get fit, 22 miles or so round trip. There is a great little restaurant in Groton:  www.filhoscucina.com,  and a great sandwich shop, the Black Bird cafe. Filhoscucina looks as if it would be a white table cloth kind of place, but it is low key and great for bikers, and...for those who would like a little something extra while they sit outside, the liquor store is right next door.
So far, I have done this trip twice. The first time,  a group of friends were eventing at the Groton Pony club event and I could not pass up the proximity and the second time with a dear friend who is a far better biker than I but very patient. The first trip was far too eventful. A student of mine wanted to come with me so we started out in Groton, headed for Hollis. When we pulled her bike out I knew we were in trouble as it was small and looked more like a driveway bike than a Rails to Trails bike. Stupidly, I did not check the tires and the poor kid rode all the way up to Hollis with a somewhat squishy tire. In an effort to help I first asked a bickering couple. She was already upset as she had a flat and her "friend" couldn't seem to pump up the tire. I probably should not have asked them for help but we were somewhat desperate. He kept saying the pump was broken, she kept saying he wasn't doing it right. He loaned it to me to try on our tire, and it was quickly obvious that it was in two pieces and all the air was escaping out where the hose had split. I don't think I helped their relationship any. Next I asked a guy at the Hollis parking lot if he had a pump and he somewhat begrudgingly offered to help, only to find he didn't know how to use his pump and succeeded in letting more air out of the already squishy one. So now matters were even worse and we had about 8 miles to get back to the car in Groton. What I thought was going to be an great outing with some exercise turned into an exercise in extreme patience for me. Had it not been for the fact that my student is one of the most wonderful kids you could ever hope to meet, and always has a great attitude I think I would have had a melt down. It certainly shows that a smile and a laugh can make even the worst of situations better! We made it back to Groton, or I should say, she made it as she ended up walking most of the way while smashing her shins on her pedals. Finally a mother saw her walking her bike and asked if we needed help. She pumped up the tire and for the last couple of miles we got a good ride. Leave it to a Mom!!!  I guess Third time is a Charm. And... Mothers can fix ANYTHING!!
I couldn't wait to get back and try the trail again, which I did with my energetic friend, but that is for a later blog.