lots of good things, unless you're a mouse or Dave's finger

What a great week so far!! On my way home from work, I stopped at Schartner's Farms. This is a really small family-run place and Kenny and I love to go there in the fall to pick our pumpkins and buy apple pies. I stopped there today to see if they had any "reject" carrots and look what they sent me out the door with!! These are gorgeous, fresh home-grown carrots that may have had a little defect and not been ok to sell. Lucy's eyes bugged out of her head when she saw me arrive with that bag of goodies!

I walked down the barn aisle feeling like Santa on Christmas Day, and had a smile from ear to ear until I almost stepped on this:

O.C., that cheeky little cat, laughed to himself from the rafters. Of course he thinks it's a present and was clearly proud of himself, coming down for a "good job" pat after the photo was taken:

So the real news today is that Lucy was seen by Dave Ribeiro, of From the Horses Mouth NE, for her 4 y.o. dental check-up. Dave was telling me that he had just been to see another horse who gave him a lot of trouble, so I was secretly praying to the horse gods that Lucy would behave herself. After all, I got a message while at work today that she was acting like such a nut job in the paddock that she had to be brought in early (sigh). I let her out in the indoor when I first got to the barn (after she had some carrots, of course) and she had lots of energy to get out, but I still was worried she'd be naughty for the dentist.

I picked Dave to come and work on Lucy because he has a fantastic reputation, was very highly recommended, and does the work by hand vs. using power tools. I also heard from several people that he is very calm and patient with the horses he works on, and since I wasn't sure how Lucy would be, that was very important for me in case she needed some reassurance.

Dave and I were both pleasantly surprised by Lucy because she was so well-behaved! In fact, Dave said that if he could clone her and have every patient be that cooperative, his job would be super easy. That made me feel really good about her. She really is a fantastic horse. He said he found issues that are typical for a 4y.o.: a few hooks, some sharp spots, and some unevenness where her adult teeth are still growing in. It was nothing major and he was able to smooth everything out. We'll have to see if she's any different under saddle.

The only bad thing that happened was that Dave had his hand in Lucy's mouth checking to make sure everything was smooth and she managed to (accidentally) bite one of his fingertips and she actually took a chunk out of his finger! OUCH! Let me just say I'm glad I'm not an equine dentist!