Day in Pictures

Not too much to post about tonight. Farrier came out this afternoon. I'll blog more about it but I think the couch is calling my name.

So instead, enjoy just a few pics.

Chaos and Brego

The herd: Chaos, Rain, Sam, Brego, King, Dude, and Brob

Tommy and Skippy

Rain, rain go away

Finally!! After a full week of clouds, rain, and dreary weather WE HAVE SUN!!! Ok, so we did have a few hours of sun last Monday and um, I'm sure one other day! But the sun has been out ALL morning. And of course I slept through it all. But it's absolutely gorgeous out.

Not too much going on. It's been so dreary I haven't done much with the horses. I was planning on messing with the horses yesterday but right as I as crawling out of bed, it started to rain. DRAT! I ended up spending an hour in the rain messing with the horses and being completely drenched by the time I finally came in the house.

But I did give the horses their 3-way shot. I still need to order the rabies. I can't figure out what's wrong with me this year. I'm behind by about two months. I was going to have the rabies vaccine ordered months ago and I still don't have it done. Guess that's what I'll do after I finish here.

The farrier was supposed to come out yesterday but it was so wet and cold that we decided to postpone it to today. So today Dude, Skippy, and Tommy are getting trimmed. I want the farrier to look at King's feet. I think he's about due for a trim and new shoes. I also want the farrier to look at Bob and Sam. Bob hasn't been done since last fall and I think he's due. I don't know when the last time Sam was done but I'm afraid it was April of 2008. He wears his feet weird so I'm not sure if he'll need it or not. But I want the farrier to decide. Maverick could probably use a trim too but he's not ready yet. I don't have him where he will willingly pick up his feet. And if I'm not comfortable handling his feet yet, I'm darn tooting not going to let my farrier mess with him either. I dont't think it's fair. I'm hoping soon to get Maverick ready for a trim.

It's too nice to be inside, so I'm going to go order my rabies stuff and then head outdoors for a few hours to enjoy the nice weather. I've heard reports that only Saturday and Sunday are going to be nice and then back to rain. Booo.

Bailing on the Bale Guy

Yesterday we were supposed to get in 100-150 small square bales of ditch grass. The guy who baled the hay had problems with the baler and the hay could only be moved once because of the strings, hence the cheaper price.

After we’d agreed to buy these bales, I found out that it was ditch grass instead of pasture hay. I was pretty nervous about buying ditch grass, sight unseen. The guy sounded pretty nice but I’m still leery of ditch grass. The guy was scheduled to come out Wednesday night about 6pm to unload but he was going to call beforehand.

About 5pm the hay guy called. He wanted to give us a status on the bales. He went on to tell Mike that he’d had two options when baling the hay. It was either leave it down and let it get rained on for who knows how many days, or bale it up wet. He opted to bale it wet and see if he could sell it fast.

That Tuesday I’d read a blog about someone that had purchased wet hay (without knowing) and started having problems. The hay guy checked the bales at 5pm to see how the bales were doing. He said they were pretty wet and that if we would use them up quickly it wouldn’t be a big deal. Well, I was planning on using the bales all summer so that didn’t really work.

So the bale guy bailed on us. Ok, more like we bailed on him. He wasn’t upset that we weren’t interested since it was a bit far for him to haul the bales anyway. So I guess my premonition that the bales wouldn’t be good were true. So now that I’m down to one sliver of the last large bale I guess Mike and I are going to make a run to Madison and bring home one of the emergency bales. I’m glad that I have them but was hoping I could use them this winter instead of this summer. It just means I’m going to have to fork over more money this fall to buy bales to get us through the winter.

So instead of moving hay bales, we moved straw bales. I’d hoped to get a picture of the 90 straw bales on the trailer but I didn’t think to do it until most of the bales were already in the hay barn. It didn’t take us too long and didn’t take up too much room in the hay barn. We could have hefted them up into the barn loft but without a bale elevator, it was easier to just stack them in the hay barn. I’m sure at some point I’ll have to move them around. The hay barn was empty anyway except for 20 straw bales I picked up from family and the leftover alfalfa bales. I think I have a total of 12 alfalfa bales left. I’m hoping to get more alfalfa this summer to last me through the winter. I’m not looking at buying 100 like I did last time. One hundred alfalfa bales took me through two years.

After we moved all the straw bales, I did my chores like normal. It was starting to get dark but I was bound and determined to ride Maverick last night. I have been waiting for the lice to die off but I couldn’t wait any longer. I tried on the saddle a couple days earlier but I still needed to make some modifications. I never did make them last night but I’m hoping to tonight. I really need and want to start riding Maverick. We still have so much to learn about each other but I’m excited to ride. He looks so much like Ace, color and blaze. If I treat him like I did when I first got Ace, I’m bound to depend on him at some point.

Well, that’s it for activities at Borderlands. I’m going to meet up with a gal next Tuesday to discuss getting a saddle club started in our area. Hopefully it’ll go well and we can get some rides scheduled. I’m hoping tomorrow I can email a few people in the area and invite them to the meeting. And if not the meeting, invite them on the trail rides.

Naughty Ponies -- ARG!

The last twelve hours or so have been interesting. I’ll break them into two blogs so I don’t bore you.

This morning I went out to do my normal chores. I was still on cloud 9 after riding Maverick last night. I know I’ve been on him at the trainers and I should have gotten on him right away when I got him back but I waited since I’m a chicken. But it was so great to be on him last night.

So this morning I put on my steal toe shoes (since my tinglies have a hole in them and I didn’t want my feet wet). Tromped on out and fed Maverick his hay and headed over to the big herd to let them out. Nothing too exciting there. There’s usually some fuss. Dude hates Sam and I think it’s rubbing off on Bob so Bob doesn’t like Sam right now either. I’m sure Bob is jealous that Rain is hanging out with Sam instead of him.

Next are the ponies. I haltered them up. They are pretty good about letting me halter them. At first they were real pills but they have improved by leaps and bounds. They were a bit ornery this morning to lead them to their lawn pasture.

I moved the hot fence over to a new section but it ended up being fairly small this time around. I knew Skippy was a tad uncomfortable being that close to the electric on Wednesday. I’m guessing the grass wasn’t all that good. But I am tired of tromping through knee high wet grass and figured the ponies could eat it down for me. They’ve done a wonderful job of eating other portions of my lawn with no problems.

I led, with some difficulty, Tommy and Skippy over to the lawn pasture. Skippy started getting really naughty. I unhooked the leadrope from both Tommy and Skippy. Skippy decided to try and make a break for it. I don’t like messing with the electric fence while I’m hanging on to the ponies so I normally unhook them and then tighten up the fence. Well, I didn’t get a chance to tighten up the fence before Skippy decided he wanted out of there.

Luckily I was able to grab Skippy, literally grabbed him around his neck/chest and hung on for dear life. I was able to get ahold of his halter but right then Tommy came flying by. So then I had a loose horse. As many of you know, I’ve got a pretty bad temper and potty mouth. A screamed a few choice words at both the ponies. Oops. I shouldn’t probably admit that.


By this time I realized that my steal toes are not dry from the last time I tromped through the wet grass. So one foot is completely wet, soaked from the bottom up. I hate wet feet. What’s worse is then they are wet AND cold.

I led Skippy over to the dry lot while Tommy raced back and forth. If I wasn’t so worried about catching him, I would have enjoyed the scene unfolding. Tommy really knows how to fly. He had his tail up like an Arabian and his head held high. He really can run pretty quick. He raced across the yard a couple of times while I led Skippy back to the dry lot.

I threw Skippy in the drylot and watched Tommy race back and forth between the hay barn and the red shed and trees. He really enjoyed running back and forth. The minute I put Skippy in the dry lot he took off running and bucking. He did not stop whinnies for Tommy. If I wasn’t so angry at the time, I would have laughed at Skippy. He has such a high pitched whinny it’s funny to listen to.

After about ten minutes of all out running, Tommy settled down to grab a quick bite to eat. Luckily I’d left a grain dish out to coax him in to letting me catch him. I’m not sure if it was the grain dish (most likely not) or the fact he was out of shape and hungry that made him stop. I know if he didn’t want to be caught, I wouldn’t have caught him. He’s really come around to be a good little Shetland. I enjoy him immensely.

By the time I had Tommy back in the pen the other foot was starting to get wet, from the top down. So now my left foot was soaked from the bottom up and my right foot was soaked from the top down. That might sound funny but you know what I mean!

So the chores that should have taken about ten minutes total took closer to 20 minutes. I guess I shouldn’t be too upset. No one got hurt and the ponies are standing in the dry lot. I’m hoping they’ll think about what they did but I doubt it.

I guess it means I’m going to have to find a different place to put the ponies for tomorrow. I’m thinking I may just put them in the front yard and see what happens. Otherwise I need to do some permanent fencing and get the ponies back into the trees. There’s some really tall grass behind the grain bin along the fence line for the mare pasture. I’ve been thinking of putting the ponies and Maverick in the trees. I guess now is as good of a time as any.

So that was my exciting morning chores. I’ll blog more about the hay guy later. And here I was thinking “ponies aren’t so bad. Why do people think they are so naughty all the time?” HA I know why now! Naughty Skippy. Naughty Tommy.

I Rode Maverick!

I rode Maverick for the first time since getting him back from the trainers!! YEAH!

Ok so I've only had him back for a week and a half and haven't ridden him until now. oops. But I did it! I rode him.

And to top it off, with everything else going on tonight, I didn't get a chance to saddle him up and ride him until after dark (9:45ish). And to to add a cherry to the top, I saddled him up in the dark, with a new saddle! HAHA Talk about boosting my ego. Ok, so it was stupid on my part to be fiddling with him in the dark but still.

I rode Maverick!

Much more to blog about but it's already 11pm and I still need a shower and then off to bed for yet another day of booooooooring work!

Bale Mistake?

Sure hope I didn’t make a mistake by buying these bales. The guy is delivering the bales tonight. I thought at the time he could deliver to mom and dad’s and we’d just pick them up. But I guess the baler didn’t bale them right so some bales are pretty loose (how many times can I say bale in a sentence?)

So now he’s hauling the bales 40 miles down to us. I’m only paying $2.50 a bale since he had problems with the strings. (Is that right, strings?) And the bales should only be moved once and that’s off the trailer and into someone’s barn. The guy did mention maybe paying for some fuel. I’m a little irritated. That wasn’t part of the ad and I hadn’t figured that into the cost.

And about three hours later, I saw an ad for hay bales out of a pasture/field for $3 and that it would be cut later this week if the weather held. I need the hay NOW but I could have scrounged around for a little bit and maybe gotten better hay. Instead I’m getting ditch grass. So I’m a bit nervous. I thought I learned my lesson last time buying hay sight unseen. I’m pretty picky about my hay quality. I’m also spooked about damp hay, ditch hay, and mold.

I guess if it’s crap hay, I can contact the other person (who will put up about 1200 bales) and sell the other stuff at Kramers. I just need something to get me through the summer with Maverick. I don’t want Maverick on pasture because I’ll never work him then. If he’s near the house, I’ll feel guilty for not working him and go out and mess with him. If he’s in the pasture, not a chance I’ll do anything.

So the hay guy is coming tonight about 6-6:30pm. I got the hay shed ready last night for the bales. I also go the hay barn ready for the straw bales. I want to get the straw bales stacked soon so we can get the flatbed back. We’ve learned that if we don’t unload the trailer right away, it’ll never get unloaded.

Mike called our farmer friend yesterday too. Sounds like I’ll be able to get a few small squares of alfalfa too. He cut the alfalfa already (you can see it from my house). Unfortunately it’s rained the last four days and it’s supposed to rain more. I’m not sure if/when it’ll ever dry out. The alfalfa I bought from him last time was awesome. I hope this stuff is just as good. I don’t know if I’ll have any other horses on alfalfa this winter or not but I want to make sure that I have enough in case I take in an oldster that needs the alfalfa. If Bob and Queen keep up their weight I’ll keep them through another winter so I would currently have three to feed alfalfa. Otherwise, it’ll just be Babe. But if that’s the case, then I’ll HAVE to pick up an oldster for Babe (unless I put Brego in with Babe for the winter). It’s a long story and it makes sense in my head but I haven’t blogged about the possibility that my herd may be reduced due to age/health (of specific horses, not mine).

Mike also asked about borrowing a tractor with a three point on it from our farmer friend. The farmer friend has to do a bit of work on the tractor and then it’s ours for a very short time. So hopefully very soon, Mike and I will be going crazy doing a bunch of major fencing. We have a TON of work to do. I’m going to have to make a list of the materials we need and see if I have enough in my account to cover everything. The fencing around here has been going downhill but I’ve been able to piece things together. Unfortunately, with the number of pushy horses around here I have to do something QUICK before they break through what little fencing is still standing. And to top it off neither Maverick nor Brego respect fences. Dude is starting to push on some fence even though he’s surrounded by grass. I will never figure out the why horses eat grass on the OTHER side of the fence. I need to get the electric up and running soon in the big pasture too. There’s always some type of fencing to deal with.

I’m afraid I may not be making much sense. I think I better go before I confuse you more. I seem to be a bit scatter brained here this morning.

Score! We Have Idiot Bales

Great news! We just scored idiot bales, er, I mean small square bales. I hope it's good hay. It's always so hard to know what you're buying sight unseen. But the guy was willing to sell them for $2.50 per bale and I haven't been able to find anything under $3. It's ditch grass but I think that'll hold Maverick for the summer. I'm going to get stuck paying some fuel costs but it still means I'm paying less than $3 a bale (I think. I can't do math!)

The guy is going to deliver them tomorrow evening. I guess some of the bales have loose strings so it could get a little intersting. Sounds like there's 100 to 150 bales. Yikes! Mike better take some benadryl.

Now I need to figure out where to put them. I never really thought about where to put them when I had Mike give the guy a call. I just knew I needed the hay. I'm guessing I'll just stick them in the hay shed instead of the hay barn. I want to save the hay barn for the straw we just picked up.

I'm just hoping they aren't crap. I guess if they are, I can always take them down to Kramers or save them until this fall/winter and sell them later on. I hate to say it but some people are willing to feed their horses anything. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that it's good ditch grass (although I'm pretty picky about my hay). I don't consider ditch grass high quality but I don't need the high grade hay since it's summer and I'll be putting Maverick out on lawn pasture in a short while. Also, Maverick isn't a hard keeper so ditch grass should be ok.

I was realy starting to panic. I have enough from the last big square to last me through Thursday night. After that, I was going to have to just dump Maverick out on grass and his system isn't ready yet for 100% grass grazing. He needs to work up to it and if he's out on pasture I'll never work with him. So, today really is looking up even more.

Tis the season for small squares. We've now loaded up the straw bales on Sunday and will hopefully start unloading those bales tonight (weather pending). And Wednessday we'll unload the hay. Hopefully it won't be raining. The guy said they've never gotten wet. Keep your fingers crossed that it's good ditch grass.