Poco Goes Home…

…and Molly returns.  Molly did great at her new home for the first seven weeks.  She got along with the other horses and Lee had the help of a trainer to work out the few quirks that she had.  Then all of sudden, things went very south.  Molly started beating up on the other horses, tried kicking Lee a time or two, and was constantly irritated and on edge.  Since Lee boards her on the farm where he lives and the horses she was trying to kill are owned by the owner of the property, Molly has been evicted.   When she got back here to the farm yesterday, she and Sassy hooked up right away and ran around the pastures terrorizing everyone else until Satin put her in her place.  Now things are back to normal and Molly is leader of most of the herd, once again.

Poco was adopted by the same people that have Chester, Tootsie, and Peppermint.  The poor girl has gone without love and affection for years, but now she’s going to be doted on and spoiled rotten!  After introducing herself to the other horses, the only thing she wanted to do was stand at the fence and be loved.  She and Chester hit it off right away, but Poco didn’t know what to think of little Tootsie and kept her at a distance.  Peppermint just wanted to kick Poco, but I think Poco thought it was a bit of a joke that this little tiny dog-sized creature was actually trying to kick her. 

 

Chester and Peppermint are good buddies, but only when Peppermint is in the mood.  Which isn’t very often.

 

Then there’s the rug rat, Tootsie.  Who is just as spoiled and ornery as ever! 

 

I made the mistake of sitting on the ground to get a better angle for pictures of her, forgetting that she likes to roll on your legs.  I was barely on the ground when she came over and climbed into my lap, then rolled her body down my legs.  Then she got up and came back to my lap to do it again. 

 

Please excuse my filthy feet.  I had to chase loose ponies over half the county this morning and didn’t have time to clean up before taking Poco.  You should have been here, I’m sure it would have been amusing.

Whenever something scares her, it’s not her mother she goes running to… it’s her Uncle Chester, who loves and protects her like she was his own.

  

Speaking of Chester, his adopters had to have their satellite dish moved today.  It used to sit on a pole out in their pasture, but one night when they were watching a movie they kept losing signal and couldn’t figure out why.  The next day they saw Chester scratching his butt on the satellite!  So now the dish is safe on the roof of the house and Chester will just have to find another way to scratch those hard to reach places.

 

I got to visit with another of the Fairmont horses yesterday at his new home.  Apollo is looking great and his adopter is madly in love with him.  He’s proven himself to be an incredible all-around horse and loves to trail ride.

So many happy endings in one post.  I wish they were all like this!

Sleeping In

I wish I could.  Every morning when I arrive at the quarantine farm I’m greeted by something like this.  The horses don’t even bother to rise until they see me come in the gate.

 

Approaching them with the camera doesn’t even wake some of them up.

 

Awake, but not ready to roll out of “bed” yet.

 

Apollo was not amused at having his slumber in the sun disturbed. 

 

Matlida and Sierra jumped up as soon as they saw me get out of the truck.  THE FOOD LADY IS HERE!!!!

 

Matilda is getting so much better!  I no longer have to trap her in a corner with a bucket of food in my hand just to catch her.  Tonight she lost her halter and followed me around the pasture while I looked for it.  When I found it, she let me put it back on her then followed me back to the barn for dinner!  Progress!  And… the big news… Matilda has been in serious heat the past couple of days, which means she’s probably NOT preggers!    I say “probably not” because when Semi was pregnant with Kita she still acted like she was in season whenever something upset her.  So I’m not getting my hopes too high yet, but I am optimistic.  She’s been trying desperately to get Chester to “help” her out, but the poor guy doesn’t have a clue what to do for her. 

Their quarantine period will be over next weekend so these five will be moving here to the farm.  Dahlia and Matilda will be going into the quarantine paddock after I move Willow and Kita back in with the main herd.  Willow’s foal will also be a month old next weekend (and I still haven’t blogged about her… so sorry!), so she should be more than ready to assimilate into the herd.  Apollo, Chester, and Sierra will also go in with the main herd. 

Molly, Lakota, and Genesis should be headed off to their new homes soon and have I mentioned the really bad news?  I mean, the horribly awful news that I don’t even want to discuss?  Maverick has a new home waiting for him to go on a couple of trail rides, which is why he wasn’t on the list of potential horses to take to Farm Days.  The day he leaves, I’ll be holding a sob fest here on the farm if you’d like to attend.  Free admission, just BYOK (Bring Your Own Kleenex).

More Updates on the Fairmont Horses

Anne’s daughter, Emily, came over and took some pictures of everyone on Saturday and you know how I like to share. 

Don Juan is very much bald at this point but his hair is beginning to grow back and he feels as soft as velvet right now.   He’s upset about being apart from his women, but he’ll just have to get over it. 

 

Once I started grooming Chester the hair came out in great greasy gobs.  The poor guy was such a mess from the lice that he scratched himself bloody in places.  His hair is just now starting to grow back and he’d stand still for hours if someone would just rub and scratch him.

 

Sierra has done a complete 180 degree turn since yesterday.  It’s like someone just flipped a switch on her and now she seeks out attention and loves to just stand there and be petted.  She’s gained a lot of weight since being separated from Don Juan and is looking great.  I had thought she was a younger horse but I got a look at her teeth tonight and she looks to be around 15. 

 

Matilda is also learning to trust and spent a good 15 minutes being petted and adored by teeny boppers tonight.  At first her eyes were wide and she was as tense as a board, but after the first twenty or so cookies she began to relax, lower her head, and willingly get closer to people for more cookies. 

 

Peppermint and Tootsie… because how could I not include those two?  Peppermint is slowly gaining weight on Equine Senior feed and is now producing more milk for the munchkin.  Tootsie is growing up fast and has become quite the character!  She’s so small that she loses mom easily when coming or going out of the barn.  She just sees a set of legs and follows them… even if they belong to humans or the big horses!  She loves people and will often stray from mom to play with the humans. 

 

Shortcake has still not foaled and she’s not producing milk at all.  However, Blondie’s bag was HUGE today so she may foal before Shortcake.

And this… this is how you tell your Ivermectin is working as it should.  See all those little red things in there?  Those would be worms. 

  

For days after worming everyone with the first dose of Ivermectin, the “land mines” were FULL of bot larvae and threadworms.   I wormed a second time yesterday and I've only seen a few worms so far.  I’ll worm again in a month with Safeguard, as Doc suggested.

Introducing…

I promised introductions to the new horses tonight, so here goes.   Anne and I made notes about gender and personality and named everyone on Sunday.   The horses really didn’t look as bad as I thought they would, but the sheriff said the owners had been feeding them alfalfa and letting most of them out to eat next door at the quarry since Monday.  He said they looked a lot better in just a week and were no longer eating their own manure.   Bonus.

We named this gelding Chester.  He’s the friendliest one of the bunch and is more than happy to stand around and be loved on.   He’s a little guy, only around 14h tall.  He’s missing a bunch of hair thanks to the lice and being chased and chewed on by the bigger stallion.

 

This Tennessee Walker mare is Dahlia.  The neighbors told me that they used to see her being ridden up and down the road, so I assume she’s broke.  But like most the others, she would prefer not to be caught.  I was able to catch her tonight while she was eating and get her wormed.  She wasn’t happy about it, but she didn’t fight me about it.

 

This is Don Juan, the Buckskin (Dun?) stallion.  Of course he was running with all of the mares, so let’s just hope Don Juan didn’t impregnate any of the mini mares!  He’s also got a lot of bald spots from lice, but his hair has started growing back already.  He’s getting friendlier by the day and I was able to get my hands on him to worm him tonight.

 

We named this little girl Sierra.  She’s also very shy, but once in awhile I can sneak up behind her and scratch her butt without her taking off.   She seems like a youngster, but I haven’t had a chance to check out her teeth yet.

 

This is one of the two yearling(?) colts that have obviously never been touched before.  They were both extremely difficult to catch and had no idea how to lead.  They are still very skittish and are terrified of us, even when we have food.  We named this one Fraggle.  I can’t tell you how much I just want to tackle him and take a shedding blade to him!

 

This is Apollo, the biggest surprise of all.  He’s a palomino AND he’s gelded!   Unbelievable!  He’s a long-legged boy who has been catchable since being rescued.  He loves a good scratching and was more than happy to be wormed with apple flavored ivermectin tonight.

 

That’s it for tonight, I’ll introduce you to more tomorrow!