Thanks for the rain!

While you people out west have been flooded, we’ve been painfully dry.  So thanks for sending some much needed rain on Wednesday and Thursday this week!  I had to haul water from town to fill the spring-fed tank because it couldn’t keep up with the herd.   We hadn’t had a decent rain in weeks and it’s been so danged hot!  So two hours after I bring home water, dump and scrub the tank, then refill it (with an eager audience impatiently surrounding me), we got one hellacious storm!

Now, I’m not the type that is afraid of thunderstorms.  On the contrary, my favorite past time is sitting out on the porch watching the lightening and listening to the thunder.  However, this storm had even me a little worried!  Some of the cracks of thunder were right over our heads and made us all jump.  Stormy, Cody, and Heidi were cowering under whatever furniture they could fit under in the house.  Thor, Xena, Lucky and I were out on the porch.  Xena did pretty well with the thunder and didn’t seem to mind until this one crack that sounded like the sky was falling – she took off and ran a circle around the house as fast as she could, then came bounding back onto the porch with her tail between her legs!  After that, she hid in the house with the rest of the wimps.  Thor didn’t bother to even wake up during the storm and just kept snoring.  We should have named him Rumpelstiltskin instead!

The big problem with Wednesday’s storm was the wind…

 

 

I loved that tree.  It was the lone tree on top of the ridge in front of the big barn.  That barn you see in the background is across the road at Cattle Baron’s place. There were also trees down all over the roads and Cattle Baron lost a couple that fell across the road and took out our fence.  I was waiting to see if he’d fix it, but it was still down earlier today.  Up here, you’re responsible for any trees or limbs from your property that fall down and block the road.  But we all know that ‘responsibility’ is too big of a word for Cattle Baron.   I lost electricity for almost 24 hours, and it took DSL a little longer to come back up.  The wind took down half the roof of our first attempt at a run-in shed in the back pasture.  I knew it wouldn’t last long since we did a piss-poor job at building it, and was actually hoping it would fall down so I’d have an excuse to build a better one.  All things considered, we came out of the storm in pretty good shape. 

We just had some wet and unhappy rumps afterwards.

 

These girls were standing in the shed when the sky fell, then quickly ran out and went romping around the pasture, bucking and kicking in the rain.  Silly mares!

Speaking of silly mares, go check out Jewel’s latest update over on Training the Unwanted!

So Much for Spring Fever

 

It’s group snooze day around here.

 

And I would just love to be curled up snoozing in the sun with Summer right now.  Except it’s cold, windy, and muddy.   So, nevermind.

 

 

I should be starting up with training next week, and will try to keep up with the Training the Unwanted blog.   Sassy and Miles are still my two holdouts, but both are starting to come around and see that I’m not totally evil.  Sassy follows me down to the house after every feeding, braying at me as if to say she’s still hungry and why did I not give her 10 times more food?  Miles allows me to lock him into a standing stall to eat and I’m allowed to touch his head while he’s eating.  Otherwise, he keeps one eye on me at all times, just to make sure I’m not going to turn into a lion and devour him whole.  Next week I’ll try luring him into the round pen at feeding time and see if I can convince him that halters aren’t all that bad.  What fun!

No Guarantees

Late last March (ish) we had a heck of a thunderstorm one night that knocked down a tree that took out the fence between Maverick and the main herd.  I found him the next morning, after a night of merry-making with the girls.   No problem, that’s why they make Lutalyse shots.  You have to wait 45 days after exposure before giving the mare the shot, so in June when Doc was out to castrate Marbles and vaccinate everyone, he also gave all the exposed mares a shot of Lutalyse to abort any fetuses that might be brewing. 

Now before you pro-lifers judge me on this, think about the alternative.  I’d be responsible for bringing a few more grade and hungry mouths into a world that doesn’t want them.   I’d be no better than the backyard breeders that produced most of the rescues here on the farm now.   It doesn’t matter how adorable Maverick is, he’s simply NOT breed worthy. 

Doc had given Willow the Lutalyse shot in June and I have the vet records to prove it.  So why does she look like a beached whale???   Doc said he’s had several cows that have needed more than one shot to abort, but never a mare – Willow was the first.  I think the brat  just did it to spite me.

Why didn’t I notice earlier, you ask?  I did notice that she was putting on some weight, but she’s been a very easy keeper and a little plump around the midline ever since we bought her two years ago.  Besides, she got the shot.  How could she possibly be pregnant?  Doc said it was 99% effective, so she’s got to just be fat, like Meghan.  I just kept telling myself that and hoped it was true.

Doc was out tonight to check on Timmy (that’s another blog post, poor guy) and I had him palpate Willow while he was here.  Sure enough, the promiscuous little slut is pregnant.   She’s between eight and nine months, too late, in Doc’s opinion, to abort.

I called Glenn to let him know he was going to be a grandfather in a couple of months and he actually sounded pleased.   Someone remind me of that the next time he comes home so I can beat him senseless.  I did tell him that this foal will stay here FOREVER.  We are responsible for bringing it into the world so we’ll be the ones responsible for the next thirty years of it’s life.  He was ok with that, too.  Damn him for being so amenable!

Once she starts waxing up, we’ve got about three weeks until baby makes an appearance.  She’ll go into the back pasture with a buddy (probably Kita) at that time and I’ll close off 3/4 of the run-in shed for her “stall”.  It’s close enough to the house so I can keep an eye on her from a window all hours of the night, and right now the back pasture is empty anyway.  I can also run extension cords out there for light and heat lamps, if necessary.

So while I wasn’t expecting a foaling this year, at least I don’t feel like I’m completely unprepared.   Been there, done that at breeding stables where I worked in my younger days, and with Semi when I rescued her with a Kitabun in the oven. 

But I don’t think any amount of preparation will get me used to the sleepless nights spent waiting on the munchkin to pop out.  And knowing Willow, she’ll do everything in her power to make those nights stretch on for as long as possible.

Hussy.

Equine Photo Overkill

I have a new volunteer and her name is Amy. She’s 18 and wants to be a vet. She has long blonde hair, legs up to her neck, and if I was half as beautiful when I was that age I would have been dangerous. Glenn is not allowed to meet her.

Amy loves horses. So much so that she wants to smell like them. All the time. Except for the beautiful part, she reminds me a lot of me at that age.

Amy’s mom has an awesome camera, even better than my new toy. She even knows how to use hers, unlike someone else I know. They both came out on Thursday morning to take pictures of the horses in the rain. Not only that, she took one hundred and fifty pictures! And I thought I was crazy for taking 50 pictures of a rabbit!

Well yeah, ok. Maybe that really was crazy.

So here are the ones that I really liked. Yes, there are a lot of Kita pictures. So sue me.

Somebody help me, these mares are nothing but trouble, especially with Willow in the lead.

Beet pulp nose. Kind of like a milk mustache, but even cuter.

Oddly, out of all of those pictures I didn’t see Jewel, Duchess, Maggie, Marbles, Frisky, or Kenzie. She did get a couple of pics of Ellie, but they were very far off. It turns out Ellie was terrified of the umbrella. Did you know umbrellas can eat small ponies? I didn’t either, but it must be true!

More Spa Fun

To continue with the spa theme from yesterday, most of the horses gave themselves mud baths today. I think their complexions are already starting to improve.

Gentry and Jewel are the cleanest horses in the herd. I should also mention that Jewel has declared herself Queen of the Little People. As she's become more secure about herself she's also become more dominant. She's now the boss over Meghan, Willow, Radar, Sadie, and Indy. I just hope she's smart enough to stop there and not try to challenge the Brat Pack!

After the mud baths, there were many naps to be had. Check out the droopy bottom lip on Jewel -- much lower and she'll be tripping on it.

Hunter was in this position for almost an hour. Talk about a relaxed and secure pony. I hope Radar isn't supposed to be standing guard because he's failing miserably at alertness.

Is that drool?

Even Princess Kita got down and dirty in the mud. This is one mare that HATES getting dirty, but a girl's got to get her beauty sleep somehow.

Please forgive my ripped and way too big jeans. They were Glenn's. There was no way I was wearing my freshly laundered flannel-lined jeans to kneel in the mud. That would have just been wrong.

A wonderful way to spend a Sunday

Yesterday was a day of beautiful views and great riding. Anne, Glenn, and myself all went over to Anastasia's for a three hour trail ride. First let me say that Kita and Classy are becoming AWESOME in the trailer loading department. Both just walked right on yesterday and pleasantly surprised us all. Usually there's a couple of minutes of "Really? You want me to get on that? Why?"



Willow and Glenn, ready to hit the trails.







Mid-way through the ride we stopped at the river to let the horses (and our butts) rest. We're all very old, you see, and us ancient people can't ride forever without getting off to stretch aching muscles and complain about the pain in our joints. It's just the way of things and you youngins out there should be prepared for it.

You're welcome.



If you want to know how Classy did on the ride, check out the Training the Unwanted blog.







One of the views from the trail...




One of the trails. Nice and wide, little rock -- this is truly trail riding heaven.