Recap of the last few days

Really, we are here. I promise. I've been so darn tired by the end of the day I'm lucky to make it to bed. So much has happened over the past few days. The biggest news is Savanna and Prize.

Gentle Spirits Horse Rescue and Sanctuary graciously took Savanna in to try and find her a new home. She has so much potential (even if I hate that word). She shouldn't be sitting around a pasture at Borderlands. She needs to be loved by someone and Gentle Spirits will find just the right person for her. Savanna is still a little underweight but she'll get there now that Prize is weaned.

I wanted to wait a little bit longer but Savanna needs as much time as possible to gain weight before winter. Savanna did amazingly well with the new experience. She (unlike Prize) loaded like a dream. I really think Savanna knows so much more. She stands tied for hours without a complain (unlike her daughter Sahara). She tolerates almost anything. We just have to go slow around her face. But Savanna jumped into the trailer and we took her Sunday to Gentle Spirits where she met her new pasture mates, Aries, Nikki, and Pi.

We'd been slowly weaning Prize over the past week and Savanna didn't seem too concerned. She whinnied a few times but otherwise she just checked out her new surroundings. I think Savanna was weaning Prize on her own.

Prize is still here but he's a little down in the dumps. He's hanging out with Rabbit, who also is down in the dumps. I think Rabbit and Savanna had become good friends. Poor Rabbit lost Dick the first part of August and now lost Savanna at the first part of October. Lifes been a bit hard on Rabbit. With both Prize and Rabbit down in the dumps, I thought I'd bring Queen over to at least perk up Prize (because Queen loves babies...two legged or four). But Flower would have noen of that. So we'll have to wait a little longer before bringing Queen in to hang out with Rabbit.

Prize is scheduled to go to his new home the middle of October. I'll be sad to see him go too but he's going to a fantastic home who knows how to work with babies. The new owner has already come over a couple of times to get Prize used to her and start halter training. Prize is going to be one fast learner. Unlike his sister Sahara!

Sahara and I have been going round. I decided that I now need to grain Babe and Thor. I think Thor is losing a little weight (probably needs his teeth floated). But that means I need to halter and tie Prince and Sahara. Sahara will have none of the tying. She halters, leads, and backs but will NOT stand tied. She broke two lead ropes the other day. I'm trying to come up with a solution or at least figure out her quirks. She's going to be a challenge. She's trying to be herd boss with me and that will not work. But the more I handle her the better she's getting. I really did just leave her be to be a horse these last few months. The first time I started working with picking up her feet she tried to take a chunk out of me. But now she actually picks up her left leg with barely any asking. The right leg is a little bit more work but she's getting the hang of it. She at least holds her feet up (unluck some of the other horses!) I haven't started working on her back legs. I'll need an assistant for that. I'm sure Sahara will try to knock my head off the first time until we establish that I am in charge. With the tying issue, I'm not sure what to do. I tied Prince up and then kept her close (but still in hand). She was fine but any time she started to paw, I'd correct that behavior. If I would stand still, she would pretty much sidepass around me, never standing still. So I worked her along the fence, just walking up and down. She did panic a little around the post where I had her tied but when she realized I wasn't tying her she stood just fine. The other day when I worked her along the fence and just stood there, she siddled up to me. I know that she's crowding my space (because she was touching me) and that is not right, but she stayed calm the entire time. It almost seemed as though she needed the physical contact to reassure herself that standing was ok. Because she didn't paw once. But she was touching me and almost butted up to Prince. So I guess I'll keep working her and see what she does. I know the space issue is not right but I'm still working on figuring her out. To fix one bad habit I need to figure out some of her quirks. If someone opposes my methods, I will gladly hand over the lead rope to someone else. When I let Sahara go after our "training session" she took off like a bolt of ligthening. Even with her crooked front legs, she can still truck it around the pen. Having her in with the older horses has helped, as it has with Mayhem.

Mayhem is getting naughty. She's come to not appreciate standing tied while Queen and Flower eat. I guess its' about time that I start tapping in to Mayhem's brain and getting her to think. She stands almost as tall as Queen these days. But Queen is a fairly small horse. She is doing well as is Flower. Queen is going to go into winter just fine and Flower is packing on the pounds. She doesn't look so unbearably thin these days.

Sam comes in every night for his evening feeding but I'm going to have to change that up a bit. His ulcers flared and it's due to the grain. So I'm going to have to come up with a different feeding ration for him. I'll be calling the vet later today to get the ulcer treatments. He gets ulcers every fall (I'm guessing due to the grain) but last year I thought we had it under control and it turned into an epic ulcer this spring so I'm not willing to risk it. He's going on ulcer meds. We'll start with the two week daily treatment and then I want to keep him on the maintenance. If anyone would like to help cover the costs, I'd greatly appreciate it. It's such a catch 22. Don't grain Sam and he loses weight. Feed him and he gets ulcers and won't eat. I just need to come up with a different feed for him to keep the weight on. Less senior feed and more beet pulp, timothy hay pellets, and oats I guess. But I'll try a different concotion and see how it goes.

Bo is full of himself these days. He comes in for his daily evening grain. Last night Mike was giving him treats. Bo would tip his head side ways to see the treats in Mike's hands. Oh I so wish I would have had a camera. Bo is such a special horse. We are really truely blessed to have his personality here. He just makes me smile. I'm blessed to have all the horses, but there's something about Bo that just makes my heart flutter a little faster. I didn't think you could have more than one "heart horse". Bo is such a ham and is very demanding for his grain. At least he appreciates his food.

Tommy and Skippy are porking out on the last remaining blades of grass on the lawn. I guess we'll be going in to feeding hay in the next week or so to the ponies. I had to cut off Tommy's forelock. He had a massive unicorn that there was no way I could get rid of. So I took the easy route.

Speaking of cockleburs. Maverick now has a toupe of cockleburs. It's going to take hours to pull everyone's cockleburs. The bottom of the drylot and the bottom of the pasture are full of those painfully sharp little cockleburs.

Last weekend Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Mike helped get the roof on the new leanto (you know, the one we started building this time last year). We have a few more things to do to the lean to to make it more secure and useable by the horses. I'm so excited to get to use it this year. There's not enough time to build another lean to so I bought a "garage in a box" for additional shelter for the pasture that Prize and Rabbit are in. It's just another place for the horses to go. I need to get an area cleaned up by the barn so I can put the new shelter up. We'll see how long it lasts before wind and the horses destroy it.

Last Saturday, Mike and I made a run over to Parkston and bought two round bale feeders. They aren't the good horse feeders but it'll do. I'm sick of watching the horses walk up to the round bales, rub on it, and then proceed to either lay down or pee on it. Makes me so mad! I don't like feeding round bales but the pasture where Queen, Flower, and Mayhem are is dried up and the blind pen does so much better when they have access to 24x7 hay. Thor gets pretty grumpy if he doesn't have hay in front of him. I guess I would rather waste a little bit than have a grumpy draft horse on my hands.

The days are getting so much shorter that I dont' have much time to do anything but evening chores before it gets dark. I haven't messed with any of the horses in the big herd. I had hoped to put the horses over at the neighbor's again because he offered his hay field. I haven't been able to find the time and next weekend is opening pheasant season. I hate hunting season. So we'll see if I find the time to get the horses over there by the end of October. We'll have to talk with the neighbor again to see if he's still ok with it. But less pressure on the big pasture is always a good thing.

I know there is more going on but i'm drawing a blank. It's been a busy few days with absolutely gorgeous weather. Hopefully I wont' be so blasted tired so I can get something done in these last few nice days.