Drought

I'm starting to worry. Ok, worry more than normal. I know that worrying doesn't do any good but I'll still do it. I can't remember the last time we had any rain (or snow) that soaked the ground. I don't know what's going to happen if we don't get some moisture into the ground.

If we don't get some decent moisture, we are going to continue this drought. Our pastures won't hold out at this rate. Awhile back we got a little bit of rain and the pasture started to perk up. If the pasture doesn't come back, we will be feeding hay. I'd rather not feed hay year round to the herd. As it stands, I still haven't paid for all of this year's hay. We are still saving up to cover the cost .

If the drought continues, I forsee an increase of horses headed to auction. That thought really bothers me. There are too many really good horses headed to slaughter.

So if anyone knows a rain dance, want to show me how it's done? I normally follow the old wives tale of 90 days after fog is precip. Well, so far that isn't holding true. Of course it depends on if it's an El Nino year or a La Nina year. La Nina doesn't work. Do not sure what this year is supposed to be. From my records, we were supposed to get a fairly decent amount of precip over Thanksgiving because we had fog that last weekend in August. But no dice. Still no precipe to account for anything.

On a happier note, Bo is really starting to come back both in reduced lameness and increased weight. While I was hopsitalized and unable to care for him afterwards, Bo dropped a bit of weight. But  now that he's on a round bale 24/7 along with a grain mixture, he's starting to look good again. He's also acting like there's no lameness. I am sure I'm being over cautious by pulling him from the big herd but I feel better knowing he's on soft ground and won't get pushed around.

I have spooked him twice now. I was busy doing my chores while Bo had his head buried in the hay (he and Babe are separated by a corral panel but I swear they eat with their noses touching). So when Bo finally heard me messing with his water, he spooked. I figured his spook would cause some damage to his leg but it didn't.

Last night after I got back from drill team practice (I'll talk more about that in a later post), Bo was going crazy! He was loping back and forth in his smallish pen. I sat and watching him looking for any sign of lameness but didn't see anything. So I don't know what's going on. I'm keeping a close eye on him but it's impossible to keep him quiet in that small pen. So we are still doing the "wait and see" method. But I'm about half tempted to throw a saddle on him and putter around the yard to see how he does. I am afraid my weight will be too much for him just yet and I want him to pack on a few more pounds before I do any riding of any sort with him. But if he appears to be sound with no issues, I may start working him a little to build back the muscle that he lost.  But I'm not going to push it and I won't be disappointed if he turns into a pasture pet. But it would be really  nice to ride him so that he can represent Borderlands AND that a super thin horse isn't always an old horse AND that it's possible to bring back a horse from the brink.

If Bo does stay sound and keeps the weight on, I may start using him for drill team.  But for now, either Maverick or Chaos will represent Borderlands on the drill team. It's nice to show off horses that would have potentially been lost to the auction circuit.

This weekend is supposed to be goregous so hopefully I can sneak a short ride in.