Out of Sorts

Sorry for not posting over the long holiday. I've been out of sorts lately. I've successfully lost the camera so whenever that resurfaces, I'll take pictures of the herd if I can get out before the sun sets.

We had absolutely gorgeous weather, perfect for riding. But I didn't go anywhere or do any riding. I will admit I was disappointed.

Saturday we moved the horses around at the neighbor's. They've been grazing over there for four weeks and we are trying to eek out as much grass before having to bring them back. The big pasture isn't holding up. This fall we will be spraying and hopefully fertilizing. I'm afraid we'll be feeding hay much sooner than I had anticipated. I guess we will be on the lookout for additional hay to cover the extra months of hay instead of pasture.

The herd at the neighbor's seemed really spooked when I checked on them Sunday late afternoon. They were spooked enough to take down the electric fence in six spots but luckily they didn't go anywhere. Thank goodness for good boys. While I was checking on the horses, I wandered in to the trees and heard the telltale noise of a tree getting ready to fall. The hair on the back of my neck rose pretty quick when I realized the noise was behind and to the left of me. I thought the tree was going to come down right on me! Luckily I had the good sense not to run to the left where I heard the noise but I didn't have the good sense to run to the right where I had come. Instead I hopped a huge downed tree branch and kept running straight ahead (probably in the line of the tree fall). Luckily the tree didn't go down but myself and the horses were spooked.

The horses were still a little spooked yesterday afternoon when I went to feed Sam his daily grain. Luckily with some fly spray and a few good pats, they all settled down and stood around waiting for Sam to get done eating. Sam turned up his nose at the beet pulp. I guess he wanted his grain first instead. He didn't snoof up all his grain that he dropped on the ground like normally does so I hope all is ok today. I checked on them this morning but only Dude came out of the trees and I wasn't inclined to tromp through tall grass, weeds, and trees to find the other boys in the dark with the smell of skunk hanging in the air. The neighbor has a skunk I can't seem to track down (but maybe that's a good thing as long as he doesn't come visit us).

Chaos, Maverick, Jim, and King are doing well at mom and dad's. They are eating down everything and enjoying the smaller herd situation. I wish I could make smaller pastures/pens so that there's less compitition but there's the issue with the automatic water to contend with. I guess I'll have to come up with something becaues the herds seem to be doing pretty well with this grouping.

I swear Flower is gaining weight but it's so hard to know for sure. I wish so hard that she's gaining weight that maybe I'm seeing things that aren't there. With the cooler weather, I've been putting a sheet on her at night to keep the chill and the damp off her. She tolerates me messing with her but she's found a way to get the sheet off when she doesn't want to wear it any more.

The other morning I heard Skippy whinnying up a storm. I knew something was wrong because only Tommy was replying. Any time those two start in at each other, it means somethings wrong. At first I thought it was just Skippy giving me the whatfor for not getting out earlier to feed him. Nope. Instead, it was Skippy frantically running around with the old mares. He'd managed to fall out of the pen when he was giving himself a good scratch on the fence. Luckily Skippy was more than willing to be caught once the big horses were away. The old mares weren't too thrilled with all the commotion and were happy to see Skippy leave their pasture. Skippy settled right down when he was near Tommy. I swear those two are connected at the hip.

Mayhem is doing amazingly well. When I feed the old girls, I have to tie her so there's no competition between the young and the old. She will stand there for hours. I'll get the old mares fed and then head over to feed Sam and Mayhem will patiently stand there waiting for my return. She really is going to be an absolute doll. As long as I can keep her heaves under control, she's going to be an amazing horse to work with.

Other than basic morning and evening chores, we really didn't do too much over the long weekend. I had hoped to finish up a few projects but I guess in do time they will get done. I'm hoping within the week I'll not be out of sorts and things can return to normal. Until then, if there aren't many posts, it's because I'm still out of sorts.