Winter Mode

It's summer. The grass is growing. The corn and beans are shooting up making the black earth turn green. The trees are all leafed out and the flowers are blooming. And what do I do? I hear that there's bad weather and I put the mares and hard keepers in for the night.

I apparently am still in Winter Mode. Ugh!

I have no idea what I was thinking last night. Sure it was going to rain. I saw the big green blob on the radar but ... it's not snow. And the temps weren't bad. What was I thinking? It wasn't even a bad storm with hail, or the radar wasn't showing the ominous yellow or red blobs either. What was I thinking?

We had such a long and hard winter that I think I'm still in Winter Mode.

The geldings are on pasture now for about 14 hours a day. I'm working on getting the mares on pasture for the same amount of time. I'm also working on the ponies. I let the mares out on the lawn but left the ponies in the pen. I don't want the mares or ponies sneaking in to the hay shed and devouring a bale. I don't think the mares would but I bet the ponies would. But I won't keep my fingers crossed either way. I'm hoping to walk the pasture tonight and then put the mares out in their summer pasture tomorrow.

After the  mares are settled in to their normal routine, I'll start the ponies on their summer routine. I've been letting them out on the lawn and they do more running around then any of the other horses. It's actually rather fun to watch. Tommy and Skippy were trying to get Mayhem to play with them but since Rabbit was out, Mayhem decided it wasn't worth it. Although a couple of times the ponies got Mayhem riled up enough to lope around.

The only downside to putting horses on the lawn (especially Mayhem and the ponies), is that after it rains, I have skid marks everywhere. The love to buck, rear, and come to a sliding stop in the lawn. I wish I would have had the camera last night. The ponies were running for the shear fun of running. Oh to have that type of enthusiasm.

Lets hope that we don't have any severe weather and that I can get out of Winter Mode and get into Summer Mode quickly!