Picture Sunday

Figured you were all tired of listening to me ramble on about stuff so instead I'll leave you with pictures.

Prince

Sahara - look she does stand tied...or about 30 seconds at a time.

Thor enjoying his grain mash

Babe - girl after my own heart. This girl loves her grain mash as much as I love my chocolate.

Babe - her age is showing a little bit but she's still a tough cookie.

Thor

Sahara watching Thor and Babe eat

Prince and Sahara

Prince - he's such a looker

Prince - he's definitely a Prince Charming

Fog Prediction

Mike said the awful word last night. Scared the dickens out of me. Wanna know what that word was? Starts with an S and ends with a W.

His fog prediction says we are to get precipe/snow November 5th. I missed that bit of fog, thinking it would either be rain or just a dusting of snow. I'm not ready. The last time I thought we were to get precipe/snow the first part of November was a La Nina and there was no way to track the snow. I'm hoping that it's an El Nino and I'll just suffer with a bit of snow if we are to get snow next weekend.

Maybe the snow will stay in other states or the precip will go to states that depserately need it. I can't imagine snow right now. The yard is still a mess and I'm just not ready (insert temper tauntrum).

I expect it'll snow next weekend though. Why you ask? Because Mike is taking a well deserved vacation over November 5th and it'll just be me, the horses, the dogs, and the barn cats over the weekend. So, not really "alone." The plow is finally ready for some action, although I hope there isn't much snow to push. But I would rather be too prepared than not prepared enough.

I'm hoping to sit down and mark the calendar a little closer. Mike was keeping a better watch than me apparently. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it'll only be a rain shower instead of snow. I still have fencing to finish and blankets to wash and mend. The blankets pretty much sat wherever I took them off last spring, thinking I would get to washing, reparing, and waterproofing long before winter rolled around again. Guess not.

On the bright side, we haven't really had any more fog lately. So from what I can tell, there's no major snow storms set in motion until February. Somehow I think this is a La Nina year. Anyone else a nerd like myself and track weather through old wives tales? I'd love to hear your predictions for this winter.

Wednesday Ramblings

Surprisingly enough, I don't have much to ramble on about. I did finally find the camera and snapped a few pictures last night before we lost all light. It's so hard to get anything done outside now that the days are getting shorter. I don't even want to think about the time change coming soon. I'll be doing all my chores in the dark after the time change. There's about a month where I don't get to see the horses in the daylight except on the weekends.

The only bright side to the shorter days is that I can be inside earlier. Inside earlier means to bed earlier too! I tend to sleep more during the winter months. And when I say sleep more, I mean get close to my needed eight hours of sleep.

I hope once winter sets in I can start doing some of the necessary paperwork to take the sanctuary from private to non-profit. If anyone wants to help or has some good ideas, please let me know. I'm really at a loss and would be ever in someone's gratitude if they wanted to help me out. If we finally become non-profit, I could do more with pulling horses from auctions. Surprisingly pushing papers really could help save a life.

I did hear a nasty rumor that we will have a "wetter winter" or something along those lines. You know what that means? Snow, snow, and more snow. I hope the rumor isn't true and we have an easy winter. If we have another bad winter, I''m afraid of what will happen to so many horses. Of coures I like to spoil the herd here with a warm stall and a blanket. I've been keeping a close tab on fog/precipe but so far the only precipe I have marked on the calendar is for the very end of November. I hope it's a El Nino type of year so the old wives tale of 90 days from fog holds true. If it's a La Nina, we are up a creek without a paddle.

I'm still in the middle of trying to get everything ready for winter. We still have SO much to get done before the ground freezes and the first snow flies. I'm going to be working like a madwoman. If anyone wants to come out and help, just tell me when and I'll have a project ready and waiting for you. I have lots of different projects to choose from. The help is always needed and always, always appreciated.

Old Girls

Those mares love their evening meal. I'd compare their love of grain to my love of chocolate!

Spittin' Fire

Poor Babe. She likes her pen quiet with no drama. She hasn't gotten a quiet day in a while. When Thor went blind, we messed Babe's world up by putting those two together. I've since had to rearrange living arrangements much to Babe's dismay. Hopefully things will settle down after a little while and Babe can go back to enjoying her drama free days.

We put a round bale in the blind pen Sunday night. It's not net wrapped so the horses pull half the bale out onto the ground. I was in the pen scooping it up and tossing it over for the big herd (who think they are starving). Thor and Babe were rather disgusted with me. They thought it was grain time. I kept telling them they had to wait but they wouldn't listen.

While I was scooping up hay, something got into Sahara. I have no idea what. Apparently no one has ever told her that her front legs are croocked and that she should take it easy. She took off like a bolt of lightening, racing around the pen. She was running and bucking for the pure joy of it.

Of course, that commotion got Babe into a tizzy. It also set Prince off. He started loping around with his head held high and his tail outstretched (boy is he a looker when he does that). Any time Sahara would take off with lightening speed across the pen, Prince would lope or trot around. At one point both Sahara and Prince were bucking around the pen. Poor Babe. She hates all that commotion.

It was fun to watch Sahara feeling good. She was running and bucking and farting all around the pen. Putting the young ones in with the old sort of tones down their spunk but it sure didn't have that affect on Sahara. It's probably a good thing that no one told her that her legs aren't straight. It sure didn't stop her from a full gallop around the pen. She'd always stop close to Thor. She must find comfort in Thor. That or Thor was her stopping spot for racing around the pen.

Prince looked gorgeous trotting around the pen with his tail out (makes his tail even more luxurious). I was surprised to see him let out a few bucks but apparently he was feeling good last night too. I sometimes forget that he's only 5 years old. He'll stand tied while I feed Thor and Babe and the only thing he does is paw every once in a while and tries to untie himself.

The other day, while Prince was standing tied, King came over and started harrassing Prince. Then it dawned on me, we have two paints one named King and one named Prince. Thought it was rather a neat idea. So now we have a Queen, King, and Prince. Never knew we'd have royalty. At one time we had a Queen, King, and Ace! I don't play poker but it sure felt like we had a full house.

Luckily both Sahara and Prince settled down after just a short time and Babe was able to back to a less drama filled pen. And to not forget Thor, he could have cared less about all the commotion. He just stood their searching for his grain dish. That boy may have lost his sight but he now has a better sense of smell. I did think it very cute to watch Sahara race around the pen and go straight to Thor, like Thor was the "safe zone". Rather cute.

That Sahara. She sure was spitting fire last night.

Bo

Have I ever mentioned what an awesome horse Bo is?

I have been itching to get on him for awhile now (although I still haven't ridden him yet). I decided I would see how he would react to being saddled and bridled on Friday. He's always so anxious when I tie him to the trailer but he stood while I pulled cockleburs out of his mane.

I went slow and let him sniff the saddle pad and went even slower with the saddle. I know he's been ridden as the previous, previous owner came up to me at the auction to tell me a little about him and that she said he's fast (which means she rode him).

I took him out after saddling him and lunged him both directions. This boy is AMAZING. He knows how to lunge both directions and stops after a loud "whoa".

I decided I'd push my luck with a bridle. Here in lies the problem. He's really hard to bridle. I just threw Maverick's D-ring snaffle and know for a fact that a snaffle wont' work on that boy! He didn't seem too responsive while I was on the ground after getting the bridle on. Now, getting the bridle on was another story. He slammed my arm in to the trailer. He's definitely mouthy when it comes to a bridle. I'll have to experiement on what type of bit will actually work with him. He's going to have a lot of "get up and go". I want to make sure I have a soft landing spot if his "get up and go" takes me for a ride.

But I think Bo is ready for some riding time. He's still thinner than I like, but he'll always be a harder keeper because of his metapolism. Now if I could just get brave enough to swing a leg up and over him.

Weekend Activity

Saturday Mom, Dad, and Grandma came down to help around the place. Last winter we had a fence break in the drylot. Mike and I cobbled it together and with no horses pushing on the fence, it held. Knowing that those boys are going to be pushing on the fence because there are girls on the other side, that fence won't hold. So Saturday we dug holes.

I had thought I could hand dig the holes earlier in the week. Nope. We are talking clay. There's no amount of hand digging gonna happen to get through a layer of solid clay. We spent all afternoon digging five holes. Luckily Dad's quick eye saw the bolt about to come undone on the two-man auger before we sheared off another pin and had to dig the auger out of the ground (speaking from experience, digging an auger out of a hole is no fun).

I played my weiny card after two holes. Dad took over my spot while Mike had to dig all five holes. We could/should have dug two more to have all the same types of posts but there are two railroad ties that are pretty solid in the ground so we left them and will use instead. Now we need to go back to town to buy more fencing supplies. Seems all I've bought this year are fencing supplies and feed. I'm not talking a couple bucks here and there for materials and feed, I'm talking a couple hundred bucks.

I knew this fenceline needed to be fixed and it wouldn't last after last winter. I just wish I would have had the common sense to take care of it this summer instead of now when everyone is busy trying to get ready for winter. But I feel a thousand times better having those poles in the ground. I can finish that fence even after the ground freezes.

Now I only have three more major fencing jobs that need to be finished before the ground freezes. Everything else will hopefully hold (fingers crossed). There's a few other things I'd like to take care of before the ground freezes but we'll see. I'm hoping the weather holds and I can get more fence posts in the ground before winter sets in. I'm still a little paniced but having those five beautiful fence posts in the ground have taken some of the pressure off.

Last night I pushed Sahara past her comfort zone. I paid a small price for it but it was worth it. We had to run to town yesterday for grain and I snuck in a quick ride on Jim before starting chores. It's too nice to not ride, even if it's just a mile or two down the road and back. A ride helps clear my head some days and Jim seemed like he enjoyed himself.

The blind pen was out of hay again so Mike had to push another round bale in. It's not as easy as it sounds, especially when we are working in the dark. Our tractor isn't big enough to pick up a bale and just dump it in. Here's a rundown of what I had to do.

1. Halter Prince and tie him to a fence post.


2. Halter Sahara and hang on to her because she still doesn't stand tied calmly.


3. Track down Babe as she wanders the pen to feed her her grain mash.


4. Coax Thor out of the way of the gate and feed him his grain mash.


5. Lead Sahara out of the blind pen (can't stall her because she'll dismantle yet another stall).


6. Grab the cable to tip the hay bale on to its side with Sahara in tow.


7. Hang on to Sahara as she freaks out next to the tractor and have her smash me in to the tractor wheel rim.


8. Stand with Sahara at end of lead rope while she gets anxious about the tractor coming right at her (in the dark with lights on.....she didn't freak out too bad except that one time but it was a lot for her to take).


9. Watch Mike loop the cable over the bale and tip the bale over.


10. Walk to the bale, grab the cable while Sahara sneaks a bite from the bale, and drag the cable out of the way.


11. Holler at Thor to get out of the way. Apparently Thor ate faster than I had anticipated.


12. Stand out of the way as Mike pushes the round bale in to the blind pen and then backs out.


13. Walk Sahara in to the blind pen and then close the gate with Sahara in tow.


14. Ensure Thor and Babe are done with their grain and unhalter Sahara.


15. Push Thor out of the way of the hay bale and manhandle the hay ring around and then over the new round bale.


16. Unhalter Prince (who stook patiently the entire time).

It may sound easier than it really is. But keep in mind, I have a frightenend yearling filly at the end of a lead rope during almost all of it. Sahara did pretty well, except for when I put her in a tight spot between the tractor and some aluminum pallets. She dragged me around for about 10 seconds and knocked me in to the tractor but after that she behaved. That's a lot to ask of a filly, to stand next to the tractor in the dark. We did walk around the tractor while it was running to see if she would freak out over it again but she didn't. I think it was just tight quarters that freaked her out. We'll see what happens the next time we push a bale in. Maybe she'll be better, maybe not. But I think she'll catch on. Now if I could only spend as much time with Mayhem as I do with Sahara.