Prankster

Ok, so I'm hooked. I can't stop blogging. But I am going to back down on a few things so I may not blog as often. But I do have a few stories I'd like to share.

The other night I was out in the pasture, watching the stars and the farmer wrap up picking corn. It was quiet, cool, and I was alone. I guess I just needed some downtime to re-evaluate some things going on right now. No worries for the horses though.

I only sat out there for about a half hour before the wind picked up (go figure it's SD). The horses were down in the low area of the pasture and I decided I wanted alone time. After awhile of laying there watching the stars, I heard a coon singing. I don't really like being alone, in the dark without some type of "weapon". The only thing I had was an empty pop bottle. Not really good a good weapon to protect myself.

So I decided I'd call it a night and head to the house. As I was wandering amlessly back to the drylot, I heard something. It sounded like someone was running right for me. Of course, every nerve freaks out and the hair on the back of my neck stands up. I spin around, wave my hands, and let out a little screech.

Wanna know what it was?!?!

Any guesses?

None?

Not even a single one? Oh come on now, you know you want to say it.



The scary thing running up to me wasn't a coon, or a fox, or a coyote, or a freaky stalker, or anything like that. Nope, none of those.


It was....................................................



Bo



BAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I guess he was just so happy to see me out in the pasture that he came on a fast trot (and he has a ground eating trot). I spooked him with my waving arms and little screech that he took off at a lope past me for a few hundred feet.

When I realized it was Bo, I started laughing. Laughing so hard it brought tears to my eyes. That Bo. He's my heart horse for sure.

As I was talking and petting Bo, telling him what a naughty horse he was for scaring the crap out of me, I heard another noise. Wanna know what the noise was?

Any guesses?

Not a coon, not an owl, not a fox, not a pheasant.......

It was King huffing and puffing up the hill to see what Bo and I were up to. King is so fat now that he practically waddles around the pasture.

I think both Bo and King knew I needed a little bit of "luvin" and they wouldn't leave my side until I climbed the gate. I don't think they were happy that I left.

I've been so caught up with personal matters and looking at the bigger picture that I've forgotten the most important things....the horses.

So I may not go into hiatus like I thought. But I'm going to focus more on the horses at Borderlands for a little while. I hate to "retreat" but I think it'll do me some good... and I think the horses have been telling me this for a while. Who else would come up in the middle of a dark pasture to check out what's going on?

Hiatus

Due to personal reasons, I'm putting this blog on hiatus. If you need to get a hold of me, please leave a comment on our Facebook page and I'll get back to you.

I Am An Animal Rescurer

I don't know the author or I'd give credit. I saw this on a discussion board I follow today and it really hit home. Why it appeared today, on a day I really needed the encouragement, I don't know. But I'll take it as a sign. I know some dont' understand the feelings I have towards rescue or the draw I have towards it. I honestly wish that there wasn't job security in rescue.


I Am An Animal Rescuer


My job is to assist God's creatures
I was born with the drive to fulfill their needs
I take in helpless, unwanted, homeless creatures
without planning or selection
I have bought dog food with my last dime
I have patted a mangy head with a bare hand
I have hugged someone vicious and afraid
I have fallen in love a thousand times
And I have cried into the fur of a lifeless body
too many times to count

I have Animal Friends and friends who have animal friends
I don't often use the word "pet"
I notice those lost at the road side
And my heart aches
I will hand raise a field mouse
And make friends with a vulture
I know of no creature unworthy of my time

I want to live forever if there aren't animals in Heaven
But I believe there are
Why would God make something so perfect and leave it behind
Some may think we are master of the animals,
But the animals have mastered themselves
Something people still haven't learned

War and Abuse make me hurt for the world
But a rescue that makes the news gives me hope for mankind
We are a quiet but determined army
And we are making a difference every day

There is nothing more necessary than warming an orphan
nothing more rewarding than saving a life
No higher recognition than watching them thrive
There is no greater joy than seeing a baby play
who only days ago, was too weak to eat

By the love of those who I've been privileged to rescue, I have been rescued
I know what true unconditional love really is
for I've seen it shining in the eyes of so many
Grateful for so little.

I am an Animal Rescuer
My work is never done,
My home is never quiet
My wallet is always empty
But my heart is always full

Late Night Doing Chores

Sounds like we may have a busy day at Borderlands on Friday. I'll keep you all in suspense on what's going on until Friday rolls around. It'll just keep you coming back. ;-)

Last night I was late in getting chores done (was off playing with our drill team). When I started doing chores (in the dark), there was lightening all around us. I worked as quickly as I could but it still took over an hour. I was gathering up the loose hay from the round bale feeder (no sense in letting that good hay go to waste). Ivan and Brego were up at the barn while Sam and Bo were in the barn finishing their evening meal.

All of a sudden I heard thundering hooves coming. I love listening and watching the horses. Luckily the white horses were in the front and King's heaving breathing (because he's so out of shape) gave them away for who was coming in first. While I was standing their leaning on the bale feeder admiring the horses, a bolt of ligthening lit of the sky and I heard this funny noise. That noise is exactly why the horses came galloping up out of the field. Wanna know what that sound was?

You guessed it....rain. It's weird to hear the rain come before it hits. Unfortunately I wasn't completely done with chores and had to scramble. Luckily it wasn't a drenching downpour like it sounded and I didn't get too wet. The experience would have been more enjoyable had I been done with chores but it still made for a few brief minutes of amazement, watching the horses gallop in to the pen and watching mother nature at work. Looking back (now that I'm dry), I realize I'm pretty blessed.

Check back Friday to see what all the commotion is about.

Finally, a Post

Sorry for my laps in blogging lately. There is stuff to blab about but I don’t seem to have the energy lately. I think it’s the stress of knowing I won’t get everything done before winter rears its ugly head again. I’m at least a month behind. I can only hope that the ground doesn’t freeze and the snow doesn’t fly until the end of November. I’m not even sure where to start to get you caught up to speed with everything going on. So I guess I’ll just do a huge data dump of everything on my mind and you get the joy of piecing it all together.

I didn’t put two and two together earlier. I was told from my normal hay guy that I have 80 big squares. Who knows the price but they are baled and waiting for delivery. But I ordered 100 bales. The other 20 were supposed to come out of a different field but that didn’t happen. My hay guy dug up all his ground and put most into corn and beans. Everything else he’s shipping to TX. So I have no idea what it’s going to cost me and I wont’ know until January at the earliest. I did just write a big fat check for last year’s hay. That’s right, I had to use up everything from last year and then pay for it. It’s odd but the hay guy wants to wait until January but then the weight tickets disappeared and it took until last month to find them. So the 70 bales from last year and the 8 round bales to feed the horses this summer cost me $3700. Who knows what this winter will be like.

But because I was in a panic, I found someone on Craigs List who was selling hay. I do have hay lined up from a guy an hour away but hauling 20 bales 6 at a time would take forever and cost so much in fuel. So we went yesterday to look at some hay baled out of CRP grasses. It looked good and is only about 10 miles away so I took them all. 39 bales at $40 a pop. It will add up but I gotta have the cash on hand when we start picking them up Wednesday night. Anyone have a flatbed that wants to come and help haul? We are taking three at a time unless I can borrow another trailer (or someone else wants to bring their trailer and donate time and fuel). Luckily the guy is really nice and is going to haul the rounds to the end of his driveway and let us use his tractor to load them, since he wont’ be around when we can get there. It’s going to be a nightly ordeal until we get them all home. I don’t look forward to it all but at least we’ll have the remaining hay. There is a chance I’ll get some additional hay out of a different field from my uncle so I’ll have extra, which we’ll need to keep the blind pen full of hay until late spring.

Mom, Dad, and Grandma came down Sunday to help around the place. Mike has been scrambling to get a plow on the old truck. Our neighbor plowed us out all last winter but he’s moved so it’ll be up to Mike to clean out the snow for us to get to work and for me to work with the horses. Least to say, it’s not going well. The last time I looked, the fuel tank was hanging from the frame. Realize it’s a rust bucket of a truck. I hate to even take pictures because it looks bad. But it runs (when there’s a fuel tank) and it can go through snow since it’s a three-quarter ton and it saves using my truck. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully we wont’ have any snow any time soon and Mike can get the truck back up and running with the snowplow attached.

While Dad and Mike worked on the truck, Mom and I cleaned out behind the leanto of the barn. It’s been a junk pile for the past few years but I need it cleaned out so we can put up a little building for the older mares. The building will help save me time so I can throw the old mares in while they eat and leave the other mares out (so I don’t have to stand guard). By cleaning out all the old wood, I can now get in and start digging fence posts. Anyone want to help? I need a new fence line put in ASAP. We cobbled it together last winter/spring and the horses stopped pushing on the fence when we moved the horses out of that pasture but now that we’ll have horses hang on the fence again, it’s now become a necessity to get a new fence up. I also have to patch the blind pen fenceline. The first snow, and a few of the fences will just fall over. That’s the “blessing” of moving in after cattle were there. All the wood fence posts are rotting away and all the other fence lines are mangled. I keep my fingers crossed every time I have to open a gate on an old fence post. Hopefully there will be just enough time for me to dig enough holes.

Babe is going downhill, so is Thor. I’m really worried about Babe. I think Prince is really hard on her. I now have to halter and tie Prince up and halter and hold Sahara while Babe and Thor eat their grain. I need to figure out a different fencing situation so that I can give Thor and Babe additional food/grain. If I could tie Sahara up, it would be a big deal but Sahara still doesn’t stand tied. I’m trying to figure out her quirks but don’t have time to mess with her. I threw Sahara and Prince into a stall Saturday night so that we could push our last round bale in to the blind pen and give Thor and Babe time to eat their grain in peace. Bad idea. When I went to pull Sahara and Prince out, I ended up getting Sahara behind Prince while I was standing at Prince’s side. Prince thought I was Sahara (being that he’s blind and it was a new situation) Prince thought I was Sahara and bit me. Totally my fault but boy does it hurt. He left a huge bruise on my rib cage. I’m just happy it wasn’t three inches higher. ;-) hahaha… I just heard every woman wince.

I’ve decided to stall Sahara and tie Prince next to Sahara while I grain Thor and Babe. That’ll give the two older ones time enough to eat in peace and will give Prince time to learn how to stand (which he does) and will hopefully give Sahara time to adjust to being stalled and not stand right on top of someone. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully Sahara doesn’t break this stall door too.

I think there’s more but my mind is mush. I’ll try to snap some pics but I make no promises. The days are getting shorter so much faster. I’m struggling to get even the basic stuff done before dark.

Gigantic Queen Hug

I sure do love Queen. She may be old and crotchety but when you really need someone to lean on, she's there. I've been having a rough go of it lately and last night was no different. I decided to wander outside to get some fresh air and ended up at the old mares' fence line.

Queen, thinking I had treats or more grain, came over. She stood with her head over the fence comforting me. I don't know how many of the geldings would have done that. But she kept by my side until I felt better. She would try and wrap her neck around me or bump me with her head to let me know she was trying to help.

Flower came over to investigate too but Queen stood her ground and let me hang on her. She really is an amazing horse. She may drive me crazy some days but she really does know how to make someone feel better.

Thank you Queen.

Recap of the last few days

Really, we are here. I promise. I've been so darn tired by the end of the day I'm lucky to make it to bed. So much has happened over the past few days. The biggest news is Savanna and Prize.

Gentle Spirits Horse Rescue and Sanctuary graciously took Savanna in to try and find her a new home. She has so much potential (even if I hate that word). She shouldn't be sitting around a pasture at Borderlands. She needs to be loved by someone and Gentle Spirits will find just the right person for her. Savanna is still a little underweight but she'll get there now that Prize is weaned.

I wanted to wait a little bit longer but Savanna needs as much time as possible to gain weight before winter. Savanna did amazingly well with the new experience. She (unlike Prize) loaded like a dream. I really think Savanna knows so much more. She stands tied for hours without a complain (unlike her daughter Sahara). She tolerates almost anything. We just have to go slow around her face. But Savanna jumped into the trailer and we took her Sunday to Gentle Spirits where she met her new pasture mates, Aries, Nikki, and Pi.

We'd been slowly weaning Prize over the past week and Savanna didn't seem too concerned. She whinnied a few times but otherwise she just checked out her new surroundings. I think Savanna was weaning Prize on her own.

Prize is still here but he's a little down in the dumps. He's hanging out with Rabbit, who also is down in the dumps. I think Rabbit and Savanna had become good friends. Poor Rabbit lost Dick the first part of August and now lost Savanna at the first part of October. Lifes been a bit hard on Rabbit. With both Prize and Rabbit down in the dumps, I thought I'd bring Queen over to at least perk up Prize (because Queen loves babies...two legged or four). But Flower would have noen of that. So we'll have to wait a little longer before bringing Queen in to hang out with Rabbit.

Prize is scheduled to go to his new home the middle of October. I'll be sad to see him go too but he's going to a fantastic home who knows how to work with babies. The new owner has already come over a couple of times to get Prize used to her and start halter training. Prize is going to be one fast learner. Unlike his sister Sahara!

Sahara and I have been going round. I decided that I now need to grain Babe and Thor. I think Thor is losing a little weight (probably needs his teeth floated). But that means I need to halter and tie Prince and Sahara. Sahara will have none of the tying. She halters, leads, and backs but will NOT stand tied. She broke two lead ropes the other day. I'm trying to come up with a solution or at least figure out her quirks. She's going to be a challenge. She's trying to be herd boss with me and that will not work. But the more I handle her the better she's getting. I really did just leave her be to be a horse these last few months. The first time I started working with picking up her feet she tried to take a chunk out of me. But now she actually picks up her left leg with barely any asking. The right leg is a little bit more work but she's getting the hang of it. She at least holds her feet up (unluck some of the other horses!) I haven't started working on her back legs. I'll need an assistant for that. I'm sure Sahara will try to knock my head off the first time until we establish that I am in charge. With the tying issue, I'm not sure what to do. I tied Prince up and then kept her close (but still in hand). She was fine but any time she started to paw, I'd correct that behavior. If I would stand still, she would pretty much sidepass around me, never standing still. So I worked her along the fence, just walking up and down. She did panic a little around the post where I had her tied but when she realized I wasn't tying her she stood just fine. The other day when I worked her along the fence and just stood there, she siddled up to me. I know that she's crowding my space (because she was touching me) and that is not right, but she stayed calm the entire time. It almost seemed as though she needed the physical contact to reassure herself that standing was ok. Because she didn't paw once. But she was touching me and almost butted up to Prince. So I guess I'll keep working her and see what she does. I know the space issue is not right but I'm still working on figuring her out. To fix one bad habit I need to figure out some of her quirks. If someone opposes my methods, I will gladly hand over the lead rope to someone else. When I let Sahara go after our "training session" she took off like a bolt of ligthening. Even with her crooked front legs, she can still truck it around the pen. Having her in with the older horses has helped, as it has with Mayhem.

Mayhem is getting naughty. She's come to not appreciate standing tied while Queen and Flower eat. I guess its' about time that I start tapping in to Mayhem's brain and getting her to think. She stands almost as tall as Queen these days. But Queen is a fairly small horse. She is doing well as is Flower. Queen is going to go into winter just fine and Flower is packing on the pounds. She doesn't look so unbearably thin these days.

Sam comes in every night for his evening feeding but I'm going to have to change that up a bit. His ulcers flared and it's due to the grain. So I'm going to have to come up with a different feeding ration for him. I'll be calling the vet later today to get the ulcer treatments. He gets ulcers every fall (I'm guessing due to the grain) but last year I thought we had it under control and it turned into an epic ulcer this spring so I'm not willing to risk it. He's going on ulcer meds. We'll start with the two week daily treatment and then I want to keep him on the maintenance. If anyone would like to help cover the costs, I'd greatly appreciate it. It's such a catch 22. Don't grain Sam and he loses weight. Feed him and he gets ulcers and won't eat. I just need to come up with a different feed for him to keep the weight on. Less senior feed and more beet pulp, timothy hay pellets, and oats I guess. But I'll try a different concotion and see how it goes.

Bo is full of himself these days. He comes in for his daily evening grain. Last night Mike was giving him treats. Bo would tip his head side ways to see the treats in Mike's hands. Oh I so wish I would have had a camera. Bo is such a special horse. We are really truely blessed to have his personality here. He just makes me smile. I'm blessed to have all the horses, but there's something about Bo that just makes my heart flutter a little faster. I didn't think you could have more than one "heart horse". Bo is such a ham and is very demanding for his grain. At least he appreciates his food.

Tommy and Skippy are porking out on the last remaining blades of grass on the lawn. I guess we'll be going in to feeding hay in the next week or so to the ponies. I had to cut off Tommy's forelock. He had a massive unicorn that there was no way I could get rid of. So I took the easy route.

Speaking of cockleburs. Maverick now has a toupe of cockleburs. It's going to take hours to pull everyone's cockleburs. The bottom of the drylot and the bottom of the pasture are full of those painfully sharp little cockleburs.

Last weekend Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Mike helped get the roof on the new leanto (you know, the one we started building this time last year). We have a few more things to do to the lean to to make it more secure and useable by the horses. I'm so excited to get to use it this year. There's not enough time to build another lean to so I bought a "garage in a box" for additional shelter for the pasture that Prize and Rabbit are in. It's just another place for the horses to go. I need to get an area cleaned up by the barn so I can put the new shelter up. We'll see how long it lasts before wind and the horses destroy it.

Last Saturday, Mike and I made a run over to Parkston and bought two round bale feeders. They aren't the good horse feeders but it'll do. I'm sick of watching the horses walk up to the round bales, rub on it, and then proceed to either lay down or pee on it. Makes me so mad! I don't like feeding round bales but the pasture where Queen, Flower, and Mayhem are is dried up and the blind pen does so much better when they have access to 24x7 hay. Thor gets pretty grumpy if he doesn't have hay in front of him. I guess I would rather waste a little bit than have a grumpy draft horse on my hands.

The days are getting so much shorter that I dont' have much time to do anything but evening chores before it gets dark. I haven't messed with any of the horses in the big herd. I had hoped to put the horses over at the neighbor's again because he offered his hay field. I haven't been able to find the time and next weekend is opening pheasant season. I hate hunting season. So we'll see if I find the time to get the horses over there by the end of October. We'll have to talk with the neighbor again to see if he's still ok with it. But less pressure on the big pasture is always a good thing.

I know there is more going on but i'm drawing a blank. It's been a busy few days with absolutely gorgeous weather. Hopefully I wont' be so blasted tired so I can get something done in these last few nice days.