Morning Chores

So this morning I wasn't sure if I should throw Bob's blankie on him or not. I don't think he's all that impressed with it. I decided that I would since they are talking 20-30 mph wind, I paid good money for it, and want to use it more than once before he trashes it. I'd rather he hate me for the morning rather than have him get chilled. He can get out of the wind but I'm so worried about him keeping what little weight on. I'll blog about Bob's weight in another post.

Ok, so back to my original train of thought. Morning chores normally only take me about 20 minutes in the winter time. Just throw some hay out to each group, trudge along with some water, and call it good. That's typical morning chores.

Unless of course the weatherman calls for nasty weather. In the case of last night, it was freezing rain/drizzle. So I decided to not only put the big herd in the barn, but to also pull Maverick and Brego into their box stalls in the hay shed. In doing that, morning chores take much longer. The big herd is easy to take care of. Throw the hay out before I let them out, otherwise they like to "help" me scatter the hay. But then I have the ordeal of handling Maverick and Brego. Maverick was acting really frisky this morning so I wasn't sure how well it was going to go. He does like to toss those front feet around when he gets antsy. I can't leave Brego in his box stall alone since it's just two panels and he gets so excited and rears if left alone.

To solve my herd bound buddy issue, I pulled Brego out and tied him next to a bale. He did ok. Nothing too stupid anyway. He was occupied by hay and I've had him tied before without throwing too big of a hissy fit. Then I pulled Maverick out and made sure I kept a close eye on his hooves. I don't need to get stomped on in the dark by myself. Maverick went right for the hay when I let him lose. But he decided that he wanted to run and buck too. He's not too keen on being kept in a box stall overnight. Brego came next and with just a bit of head tossing he did ok. I am more comfortable handling him when he's not too excited. I simply don't like handling Maverick at all. :-(

So once those two are in munching on hay I have to haul more water. It wouldn't have been bad but Brego didn't drink all his water and I ended up dumping out the water bucket all over the concrete. I'm sure to fall on it tonight. And with the temps dropping the darn gate to Maverick and Brego's pen froze down. I have some other panels set up so I don't have to fight that gate on a normal basis. Thank goodness. Hopefully they don't try to investigate the little pen area. It's hard to explain. I'll have to take a pic of it.

Anywho, instead of a 20 minute enjoyable morning feeding this morning it turned into a 45 minute mad dash to get everyone eating their hay. And to top it off, it started to do the freezing rain thing again. ARG! I can't wait for spring.

The weatherman also said the temps will be below zero tonight so I get to do the whole thing over tomorrow morning. But I guess that's what the barn and box stalls are for.