Monday, March 12, 2012

Weekend Recap - Where Did the Time Go?

I know I’m such a tease. I promised you a sales report from Friday’s sale and as you can see, I didn’t get to it. The last few days have been jam packed with events and I don’t foresee it to quiet down until the middle of next week.

Friday I hustled around to get chores done and head to the horse sale. Mike decided he’d come with, which was nice. I hate going to auctions alone and the moral support was a great help. We pulled in just before 6:30pm, which was when the auction was to start. The parking lot was full to the brim. We went right to the pens to look at horses. I didn’t see as many loose horses as I’ve seen in the past but I think having a monthly sale cuts down on the number of loose horses, but that’s just my opinion. We also took a quick walk through the open consignment horses. People put some work in to those open consignment horses. Nice to see some elbow grease going on. I did see one paint in a pen standing alone. I have a bad feeling this horse was rejected from the auction. He was a little bit on the thin side but with no auction tag. I don’t know what was going on with that horse. I didn’t bother asking anyone. I knew I would only get the run around and then possibly be marked as a trouble maker later on.

We finished walking through the horses and the auction started. I missed the first half dozen or so. The stands were packed. There really wasn’t any room for us to find a seat. Luckily there’s standing room way at the top and that’s where we headed. After a few horses, it started to clear out. I guess people got bored early. Mike left me not long after the sale started. He wanted to check out Cabellas (his real reason for coming with me!)

I figured Mike would have plenty of time walking through Cabellas while the open consignment horses ran through. The auctioneer was trying to give the open consignment horse as much time as needed. I was surprised by the prices. Oh sure, there was about three or four that went for way cheaper than they should have (and I’ll list those when I find my sheet). But the lowest a horse went (besides those three or four) was $450 and that horse was gimpy. The highest horse went for $2,000. The average was somewhere under $1,000. I didn’t bother writing down any of the open consignment prices because the stands were so packed and the prices were fairly decent. Spring is never the time to buy when looking to rescue. In about six months the price will plummet again.

I did read on another discussion board that the prices at the Corsica horse sale were really good. I didn’t bother going. It’s a good ol’ boys club and until I’m ready to take a trailer, I just can’t go. That auction makes me angry.

But I digress. The open consignment horses ran from about 6:30-8:30pm. When the auctioneer wrapped up the open consignment horses (approximately 50 head) and heard that it was already 8:30pm, he stepped it up about three notches. Infuriating! The stands were already fairly empty by that time too. The auctioneer spent two hours on about 50 horses. He spent a half an hour on 25 loose horses. A half an hour!!!! We were out the door before 9pm! There were some really nice horses in the lot too. I sure wish we could have brought a couple of them home.

After the sale we gragged a bite to eat and headed home. I was exhausted by the time we pulled in the driveway at 10:30pm. On the bright side, there weren’t any thin horses like Bo this time around. They did announce another sale in April. I’m hoping to go to that sale too, but again, no room and no funds to pull anyone. I’ll only be able to take down prices.

Saturday was filled with running errands. We needed to pick up some grain for the herd. We risked Walmart on a Saturday for Flower. I’ll never do that again. We got stuck behind someone who thought they knew how to do the whole “couponing” thing. Disaster. We stood around for a good 10 minutes waiting for the girl to realize she didn’t know what she was doing. Least to say I was ticked beyond belief. If you’re going to coupon, do it on a weeknight and if you do it wrong, don’t fight with the clerk. I think at one point there were three managers over there trying to tell her that she couldn’t do what she wanted to do. The worst part, we only came in for Epson salt. Of course, I can’t walk out without buying more than one thing so it’s not like I could just walk away from all the stuff waiting on the counter (although it crossed my mind). I just had to keep thinking of Flower.

Mom, Dad, and Grandma surprised us by being at our place when we got home. They stuck around to help me clean out the big gooseneck. I haven’t had time to clean it out and it started looking like my tack room (aka dumping ground for all my stuff because I haven’t had time to organize). I need to get the trailer cleaned out and ready for this weekend. That’s my goal for Wed.

After everyone left, I started cleaning out the horse pen. It’s been just cold enough that it’s impossible to clean out the pens by the time I get home. To clean the pens, we cheat and use the tractor. The problem is, the gate we normally go through is broken. Ok, not the gate, the post. I’m afraid if we move the gate, the post is going to fall apart. The post has rotted away but it’s not an easy fix because it’s surrounded by concrete. It’s something we’ll have to fix this summer (as the horses use the post as an itching post and weakened it even more). But I didn’t want to risk having the post break when the sun was already setting so we went through another gate. That gate meant moving the mares into the barn, back dragging the round bale out of the way to get the tractor in. It was a do-able project, just time consuming.

But the pens are a little bit cleaner and we were able to push the mares’ bale into the big herd’s pen to finish off. The mares don’t really like that hay and I’d prefer to give them the good stuff anyway. We weren’t able to get the entire pen cleaned out because the sun had set and it was too dark to see exactly where we needed to go. It was really an all day project that we tackled at the end of the day.

Flower spent most of Saturday snoozing in the sun. The puncture wound closed and healed, the abscess broke, but there’s still heat in Flower’s hoof. The heat moved from the corninary band to lower in her hoof. I’m hoping that a second abscess is working its way closer to the hoof wall. I feel terrible for Flower but I don’t know what else to do, other than to soak her foot and giver her bute or banamine.

Sunday we dealt with daylight savings time. My body must have already been on daylight savings time. I’m glad for the extra hour of daylight at the end of the day. I desperately need it this week. I thought the weather was supposed to be rainy/drizzley all day but the skies didn’t get cloudy until later in the day. But I already had a plan of attack for the day and Mike and I focused on projects that needed to be done in the house. We spent all day getting this project or that project going.

It wasn’t until about 7pm that we headed outside to do chores. For some reason chores seem so much easier these days. I can’t quite put my finger on why, unless it has to do with not having anyone take an hour to finish their beet pulp. We were actually done with chores in just an hour. Last fall we bought a tank for the back of the truck and Mike filled all the big troughs using that instead of carrying bucket after bucket back. It’s a time saver and now with the nice weather we can actually use the tank. I didn’t realize how much time it took keeping the water troughs full until Mike was waiting on me to finish up with chores. Usually it’s the other way around (at least since we lost Sam).

Mayhem is adjusting to being in a pen by herself. I need to start spending more time with her. She’s not as naughty now as she was when she had the protection of Rabbit. I think Rabbit’s bad habits were rubbing off on Mayhem and that’s unacceptable. Now Rabbit is stuck with the ponies. I don’t know if she really cares or not. She’s in charge which makes her happy. The ponies aren’t impressed but they at least get to steal some of Rabbit’s grain when she’s finished.

It’s hard to believe that today marks the one year anniversary of bringing Bo home. I was going to groom him down and get some good pictures of him this weekend but it didn’t happen. I have discovered that he is always going to need to be grained during the winter. There is no option. When the weather started getting nicer, I stopped graining him and he’s started dropping weight. He is always going to be a hard keeper. Hay alone will not keep his weight up. He’ll always have to be on some type of grain and possibly a weight booster. But it’s worth it. He’s such a sweet horse. I did get some more information about Bo. I was hoping to chat with the person who told me the information as it’s not rumor, it’s the truth. Some of the information flying around last year was total bogus and it ticks me off that people (who I thought knew me), would even consider those rumors and wouldn’t bother squelching them right then and there. But I at least know the truth now and how Bo got into the shape he did. I don’t want to post all the details until I get permission. But still waiting to hear back. But at least now the pieces are falling together and make more sense. But Bo is ours and safe at Borderlands until his final breath.

This week is going to be even busier than last week. I’m not sure if I’ll find the time to post or not. I am slammed at work and swamped at home with trying to get ready for the horse fair. Tonight we are working on our saddle pads and hair clips for the horses. Gotta have that bling! Tomorrow is our final practice at our normal location. Wednesday is my one free day and I have to do some serious digging to find a few horse items, clean all my tack, and throw everything into the trailer that we’ll need for the weekend. Thursday is our dress rehearsal at the arena so we’ll know exactly how it’s all going to work. Friday is still up in the air. Being that Zeke is white, I’d like to give him a bath but we don’t have access to warm water at our place. Unless I haul Zeke to the horse fair Friday morning, Zeke may just have to be dirty (unless anyone knows where I can haul Zeke to give him a bath!) If I don’t take Zeke and the others Friday morning, I’ll head to the horse fair Friday afternoon and just enjoy myself. Then, Saturday and Sunday will be packed full of horsie fun and performing! I can’t wait but it’s going to be an unbelievably busy next few days!

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