Monday Ramblings

This weekend was rather quiet for messing with the horses. We spent Saturday afternoon in town. On the way home we saw some omnious clouds and figured we'd better hurry home. By the time we parked the car, the thunder was non-stop. We heard on the radio heavy rain, hail, and strong winds. I decided I'd better get Joe in since his body can't handle any sort of bad weather.

In go the ponies, Joe, and Thor into the barn. I rushed off to find the mares to get them into stalls too. They are simply too old to stand bad weather. The rest of the herd had the leanto and protection of the barn. I was still worried but they are strong, young boys. I'd still perfer to have a 20 stall barn to run everyone in during storms like we had Saturday. I'm sure glad that I did pull horses. The rains came crashing down and we even got hail. I'm not sure the size but it was enough for me. We lucked out and missed the stronger, damaging winds. After the rains, we still had lots of thunder and lightening. Luckily the only damage we received were shingles torn off the roof of the house.

On Sunday I decided to be brave and pull Joe and Thor out to eat grass in the yard. Their pasture is getting beaten down from the constant walking. There wasn't much lush grass in that pasture anyway. My biggest concern is that the pasture Joe and Thor are currently in was supposed to be the mares's pasture for Sept and October. I'm not sure if I'll have Joe up to weight by then or not. So to try and eleviate some pressure on the pasture, I fenced in the yard from the chicken coop to the barn. I've had horses in there before and it works perfect. My only issue is that I only have electric at this time (no corral panels like I prefer). Both Joe and Thor seem to respect the electric but I didn't want to chance it today with being gone for work. Tonight when I get home, I'll pull them out to eat the better grass. I'm hoping tomorrow I can let them out in the morning. Both Joe and Thor were hovering by the gate hoping they could get out this morning. I guess that grass meets their approval!

I also extended the pony pasture. Tommy and Skippy have eaten down where they were currently. I decided to be lazy and just add more electric fence and extend the pasture so all I have to do is open a gate and they'll have the entire yard. It beats me having to halter and lead them to their pasture. This way their water is closer to the barn and I can keep a better eye on it. Again, I was too nervous letting the ponies out on the grass for the entire day. This new grass is a bit more lush so I want to work them up to it. I know some people don't approve of putting ponies on pasture since there's the risk of founder. I know of others who will put their ponies out on pasture and not think twice. I've worked the ponies up to grass but I want to make sure that I do the right thing. They are much happier out on grass even if it's only for a few hours.

I doubt there will be any riding time tonight or much this week since it's going to be so blasted hot. My alfalfa guy stopped out yesterday and said he'll be cutting alfalfa this week so I should have 75 bales ready for me by the end of the week. That means I'll have to hustle around and get the hay barn cleaned out and ready for all those bales. I still have some of the older bales from last year (that aren't the greatest). I guess this means I'll have to do some serious rearranging. I'm not sure if I can fit 75 bales on that side. But I'll figure something out. It always makes me feel better having hay and alfalfa sitting in wait for the winter.