Mass Destruction

I’ve been letting the big herd onto the lawn for the past week or so in preparation for this weekend’s “releasing of the hounds” er I mean releasing of the herd. I still need to walk the fence line to make sure the electric fence is up, or at the very least not strung half way across the pasture. My farmer friend said he’d be out to spray but with the rainy weather, I’m guessing I’ll be hand spraying the weeds and hand fertilizing the bare spots. I don’t think the pasture is going to hold this year so I have to do anything and everything to get it to last.

A couple days ago, Dude, while on the lawn, decided that he would harass Thor in his pen. Thor decided to spin around and kick the top rail off his pen. I didn’t see the episode but Mike did. With the top rail down, it mean that Thor could push on the fence. Keep in mind, the pen I have Thor in is an old cattle loading area. The wood fence posts are old. I have no idea the actual age but they are old and rotten. Add a pushing draft horse in with a rotting fence and you have the beginning of the end for the fence. Thor managed to break the fence and fence post.

So that was my motivation to move Thor in with the mares. Maybe not the brightest idea to put a blind horse in with another blind horse, but I am limited on space. It seems like everyone is ok. Thor wandered around the new pen investigating. I thought maybe he’d be too scared. Nope. He took little steps to investigate and then rolled. His little pen was too muddy to get a good roll in these last few weeks. Queen absolutely HATES that Thor is in with them. I did have Thor in with Babe and Queen before but Thor was too tough on Babe and preferred to hover over Queen. He didn’t like getting run into by Babe. Well, now the playing field is a little bit more even.

Dick and Rabbit were interested in what was going on in the mare pen. I think Dick was sizing Thor up to see how hard it would be to take him down. Dick is most definitely a herd boss. But Thor stuck to wandering around, staying away from the fence line. This morning when I went out to do chores, Thor was standing where I’d fed him the night before. I know he investigated the pen last night so I wasn’t too concerned about him being too scared to move.

To add insult to injury, the horses broke the barn door. Mike says it’s reparable but I have my doubts. I didn’t open the sliding door wide enough and the herd rushed me. They wanted out on the pasture and decided that no one was going to be patient and wait. I can remember Sam and Ivan going through the door at the same time. I know there was another brown body in there somewhere (I’m guessing Brego). They didn’t break the door but they shattered the door frame. The door frame is big and heavy. It’s a good six inch piece of wood and they split it like it was a pencil. I swear, I can’t have anything nice with horses. :-)

Once the main herd was out, I let Savanna and Prize out into the drylot much to Savanna’s dismay. She really prefers to stay in the barn. I think there is comfort and protection in the barn whereas the drylot is open and not as inviting. Prize decided that he would test out his legs more. Once he started loping around the drylot, he kept loping. He’s absolutely too cute to watch. And then, to my amazement, Prize discovered that he could rear. It’s so fun to watch a young one learn something new, to discover that they have the ability to do something they didn’t think they could do before. As long as the rearing takes place while I’m on the ground far away from hooves, it’ll be acceptable. Of course, he’s only two weeks old so I’ll enjoy his play. And I just realized that Prize is two weeks old as of yesterday. How did that happen? I have been a bad horse mom and haven’t gotten any pictures as of late.

I’d like to get some pictures of Savanna but she’s looking tough. Her hair is falling out. It’s to be expected because she was in such poor health to begin with. I’m not sure if she’s losing her hair faster than Bo did or not. But she’s looking pretty tough. I know that when the hair grows back, she will be absolutely stunning. She has such a pretty and petite face. Add to that the stunning dark brown/black, and you have a combination that you can’t go wrong with. I have noticed she doesn’t crib as much as before. I’m sure that once she’s on pasture 24x7 she’ll be much better and I can pull that darn cribbing collar off her.

And speaking of cribbing, Mike and I discovered that we have another cribber. I thought that Savanna was my first and only cribber. Nope. Maverick is a cribber too. I thought he just liked to taste things. Nope. But he’s not as bad as Savanna. I do need to start putting some time on Maverick. He’s really getting naughty, testing out his herd position. I think he needs to get back into work and be too tired at night to anything but eat.

Last night while I was trying to finish chores, I noticed the sky was getting hazy. Yup, another rainstorm. With Mike’s help, I rushed the horses back in to the drylot where there’s good fencing. I was afraid the wind would pick up and the horses would get spooky. So into the barn Savanna and Prize went (the minute I opened the barn door), and then herded the horses back into the drylot. I thought it was going to be a doozy of a rainstorm but it lasted for about 10 minutes and then was done. I was lucky enough to stay under cover for most of it.

Last night was nice. After the storm blew through, I went back out and tossed hay. Everyone was quiet. It’s amazing what a belly full of grass will do for that herd. This morning the wind was atrocious. Lots of cuss words both last night and this morning fighting the hay. I’ll be so glad to get all of the horses out on pasture. I’ll not know what to do with myself when I don’t have to do three hours worth of chores. I doubt I’ll get to do much with the horses tonight. 30+ mph wind and rain isn’t very conducive to get much done other than standard chores.

While I was doing chores last night, Mike came out with the curry comb and brushed Mayhem and Queen down. Mayhem LOVES to be brushed. She’s such a diva. When Mike switched to Queen, Mayhem put her nose on his arm. I guess she was telling him that he wasn’t done with her yet. Mayhem is definitely going to be an amazing girl when she grows up. I’m glad she came out plain ol’ sorrel. It’s not the color of a horse that matters, but the character hidden behind the color. Mayhem amazes me all the time. She’s a doll and we are so blessed to have her at Borderlands. We are blessed to have all the horses that we have at Borderlands. I love each and every one of them. They are so unique.