Stella's Booty (No, this is not about her small behind.)

I haven't been able to ride in AGES because it keeps pouring down. I guess it's for the best, though, because I've been in excruciating pain for the past week or so, and Stella's front left hoof had an abscess. She never acted like she was in pain and I never noticed anything unusual on that hoof when I cleaned it, but the farrier came out and said that she had an abscess. Weird, huh? Stella's a tough cookie :) Now she's wearing a little hoof booty made out of betadine-soaked cotton, vetrap, and duct tape.
Jean helped me with the procedure yesterday, but I had to do it myself today.
It was an ordeal, to say the least. I cut off the old booty and tossed it out before Jack could get it and leave it in shreds around the yard. Then, I had to pick Stella's feet and get everything situated in my reach so that I wouldn't have to put her foot down again. Stella was okay with the part where I picked her hoof up to clean it, and she was willing to pick it up again so that I could do the initial cotton-in-bars, squirt-betadine-everywhere, and wrap-entire-hoof-in-vetrap business. My back needed a break and Stella was getting antsy from having to hold her foot up for a few minutes, so I figured she'd be okay with her foot down for a minute or two. The only problem was that she knew she was going to have to hold the foot up again and didn't want to. She was very difficult about picking her foot up again, but I made her hold it long enough for me to get the bottom of her hoof covered in a layer of duct tape. I guess the betadine started to sting a little (that, or she wanted to play with the booty) because Stella started to lift her hoof up and paw. I didn't let her do that, though. I wrapped the outside of the hoof in duct tape too, and then we were all set. My tough cookie got a cookie and then I put her back into her stall so she could finish her hay.
There hasn't been much going on at the barn lately. It's just been too wet for too much fun.
Oh, I forgot--but how could I? Yesterday, I came to the barn and heard Stella talking to another horse from inside her stall. I was confused because she normally doesn't talk to Tatiana like that when they're both in the stalls, and it didn't sound like she was trying to talk to the horses inside the barn. I came into the yard and saw that Chester was out and about in the yard, messing with Stella and Tatiana in their stalls. I went into the barn and discovered a disaster area. Someone had left his door unlocked. He dragged one of Larry's schooling bridles into his stall (It wasn't damaged, just covered in sawdust.), pulled all of the halters and leads off of the hooks beside each of the stalls, pulled both of the small brooms out of the corner and bent the metal one, knocked over two old box fans that we had sitting in a corner, tipped over the folding chair (He removed the padded seat and shredded it, leaving foam and vinyl-plastic shreds all over the aisle.), completely destroyed a hay bale, knocked over the industrial-sized fan that we keep in the aisle, pulled rags and saddle blankets off of the blanket bars on each stall, and threw the small orange traffic cones off of the fence post where we'd placed them out of Jack's reach. I guess they weren't out of the boy's reach. He didn't hurt himself and he didn't do any major damage; he just made a huge mess for me to clean up. Sounds just like a little stallion :)