Lawn Pasture Time

My poor boys. This weather is going to drive me batty. Yesterday the temperatures reached 94 or 95 degrees with gusts as high as 35 mph. I was actually surprised to not see Bob hanging out in the leanto off the barn. I figured with the temps as high as they are, he’d want to be in the shade. Not the case! I think he was checking Sam out. I really need to introduce Sam and Brego into the big herd. I’m only worried about how Dude will handle the new horses.

Last night after I got home from work, I let Bob out onto the lawn to munch on grass. I realized that I am behind on everything this spring. It’s been such a long and cold spring that the pastures haven’t really come back yet. At the last trail ride, I overheard one of the saddle club members ask someone else about their hay supply. They needed more hay since the pastures aren’t coming back. So at least it’s not just my pastures that don’t seem to be doing so well.

I’m guessing that with the high temps these next few days that the pastures will go quickly, which is a good thing because I’m down to only one and a half bales. And the bales that I’m using now are my emergency reserve bales. Had I used them last year, I would be completely out and forced to put the horses out on the not yet ready pasture.

But I digress. So when I got home from work, I decided that I would put the main herd out on the lawn also. I can’t trust them like I do Bob. The main herd requires electric fence to keep them from wandering away from the home place. Unfortunately I used most of the poly posts on the mare pasture last fall and never retrieved them before winter hit. I trudged down the hill to retrieve just enough to keep the wire from sagging too close to the grass. I strung up just enough hot wire in the main lawn area where I hate mowing. I’m hoping they’ll eat it down enough that I don’t trip over the grass when I go to the pony pen.

I first caught Rain, who thought I was going to ride him. It was too dang hot out to ride. I didn’t want to put them in the hot fence area until I had everyone pulled out so I tied him up by the cattle chute. When Bob saw me pull Rain out, he walked right up next to Rain and hung out. I swear Bob wont’ go anywhere without Rain. Then I pulled Dude out and tied him up next to the ponies. He’s ornery enough to handle the ponies (mostly Skippy). Then I pulled Chaos out and tied him up. I tried to catch King but he was a stinker so I figured he could suffer in the dry lot alone. I pulled Rain into the new temporary pasture and put the electric fence up and on. The horses were eager to eat. I’m not sure they lifted their heads the entire time they were in the temporary lawn pasture. Bob hovered around the new lawn pasture the entire time the main herd was eating. I’m guessing he’s very buddy sour now.

I decided it was also time to let Sam out onto grass too. I put up a few more poly posts and twine (yes, I said twine), threw the halter on Sam, and let him out onto the grass between the red shed and the hay shed. I didn’t figure that he would push on the temporary fence. His previous owners kept him in with twine when they let him out to graze in their temporary pasture area also. So I figured I was safe (at least for now).

I kept a very close eye on everyone. I decided that I would do some gardening while the horses ate grass for an hour. That way I could keep an eye on Sam to make sure he didn’t break through the temporary fence, since it wasn’t hot. I also wanted to keep an eye on Rain, Dude, and Chaos to make sure they didn’t make a run for it and bolt through the electric. I know they respect electric but having only one strand up to keep them contained goes against my normal theory of fencing.

I’m hoping to pull everyone out (except maybe Brego) tonight so that they can get another hour of grass. I figure I’ll put the big herd out to pasture by next week. I’ll still have to break into the last bale before this weekend. But maybe if these last bales go, I can do some serious cleaning in the hay shed and hay barn. I’m thinking of scrounging up enough cash to buy some small idiot bales for the ponies.

After about an hour on grass, I put all the horses back and decided that I would put the ponies out on a little bit of grass. Having never had ponies before and constantly worrying about founder and laminitis, I decided that I would only put them out on grass for about 10 minutes. I put halters on and tied them to the opposite side of their pony pen where the grass is knee high to me. Within those 10 minutes, they had it eaten down to ankle height. I’m hoping that I can pull them back out so they can eat the grass down a bit more. They are pretty good about eating everything in their lead rope range. There’s a bunch of very tall grass near my tack room so I’m hoping to move them over to that area in a few days so I don’t trip over the grass. The ponies almost remind me of goats, they eat everything in their wake. Haha, just kidding.

So that was my exciting night. I’m hoping the horses won’t be naughty about being caught. They have been pretty naughty these last few months but if it means getting caught just to eat, it may mean I can catch them much more easily. I guess we’ll see how tonight goes. Maybe tonight I’ll be able to catch King this time too. I’m betting within another day or two I’ll have to move the temporary lawn pasture to a new spot, which is fine by me. It all means less mowing, more time for the big pasture to take off and grow, and time for the horses to adjust to pasture grass. I see it as a win, win situation (although I’m not sure my lawn thinks that way!)