Have had a time trying to find a vet who would come out here to do a Coggins test on Petit Point (which she needs before I take her to Oregon). It seems half the vets these days say "trailer your horse into the clinic" (and while I have the necessary equipment, when the heck did this start happening? Used to be you only took the horse to the vet if it needed major surgery, or you were going to the teaching hospital in the next state, or something), and the other half ask where I am and say "well, I don't usually cover that area..."

But I begged (the local referral had to refer me onward because their vet was on vacation and then booked solid and and and), and Dr. Goldhahn arrived today exactly when he said he would. He had a very quiet manner with the horses, and for their part Julian and Petit Point behaved like hairy four-legged angels, which was good as I had yet again failed to get my boots on before the vet showed up (I despise wearing those boots) and instead went out and caught the horses and presented them to Dr. Goldhahn in my best do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do-bad-example-for-students style, wearing shorts and Tevas (the sandals are the real sin here).

There are supposed to be at least three sentences in a paragraph, aren't there? Well, tough. :-)

Anyway, he drew blood from Petit Point, which was what I'd made the appointment for originally, and then sedated Julian and cleaned his sheath, very businesslike, which was nice of him because it's a messy job and I hadn't mentioned it on the phone initially. But he had time, and I had just burned $40 on the farm call so I might as well do all the overdue maintenance.

I'm pleased. Just sorry that I likely won't be able to get him to come back in the fall to do shots then, as he's based in Lodi. We talked a bit about repro work, as I mentioned that I was going to need to breed with shipped semen in coming years. He agreed that it's tough to do without a teaser stallion, and mentioned that there were repro farms in the Central Valley who would take in outside mares. That's nice to know -- I don't particularly want to take a mare to Santa Barbara to be bred if there's a facility closer to home.

And I heard back from CW with the thumbs-up to leave Julian there while I am out of town, so I'm making progress. Once the truck and trailer have their maintenance done, I'll be close to ready, and much more relaxed about the whole outing.