Moat Ponies

Warning!!! Tons of pics today. Only a few were also posted on Facebook.

Foxy and Lady are once again in weaning mode. Foxy just got bred today, so hopefully we will have an awesome foal next summer. A little late, but the flood messed us up.

While we were mucking stalls, we turned out all of mine and two of my sister's horses. I was trying to get her kids to move faster at cleaning stalls so I only put out the horses that we would be cleaning their stalls. Belle and Lady, Foxy, Sergeant, and Princess's stalls were all to be cleaned. Belle and Lady's was easy. Foxy's is a pain because it doesn't have a hard floor so we built it up with the sand bags and then put her floor mats back on it. Under the floor mats was pretty bad, we finally got all of the stuff hauled in from the flood. Sergeant's stall was just as easy as Belle and Lady's but with two arguing kids. . . Well, they never made it to Princess's stall. Maybe today.


So, we put the ponies out. Here are a few heading out to the pasture.



The mares are pretty good about hanging out together.

But Belle hates Sergeant.

But he generally wanders off.


One thing that I really appreciate about Belle is that she knows that when I call, its time to head in.

She tries to avoid going straight through the moat.



And just her hooves are wet.

The other horses just come straight through.

Well, not so straight. Foxy had to stop for a roll.(these pics also seen on Facebook, the rest are never before published)



I just can't wait to wash them all for the show on Friday!!

The Show!!!

Kid #1 and Lady took 1st in Halter!!!! Lady was not a perfect Lady, but Kid #1 was able to handle her and get her through the day.

In the Championship mare class, they were both too confused to do well, but the second place paint mare under 3 flipped out and reared over backwards slamming her head into a fence. She got up OK and tried to run, but I caught her on her way out of the barn. People thought that it was Lady because I caught her, but Lady was much better behaved than that. Showmanship was tougher because Kid #1 forgot part of the pattern. TROT away from the judge, not walk!!! But they still pulled a 2nd. Lady is very good about trailering now. (Lady IS under Foxy's neck. This is a habit that we really need to break. She does it with Belle, too. She can't do it with the other horses)
She just needs to be given a little bit of time to think about it. We are still working on backing out of the trailer. Tuesday, Foxy and Lady went to the fairgrounds for practice and to get the kids certified for the county fair next week. Although Kid #2 had been practicing with Foxy, Foxy was not impressed with the surroundings and all of the strange horses around her baby(Lady). Foxy was running everybody over and refusing to listen to Kid #2 at all. This was very frustrating for him. He reverted to being scared of her, like right after he was thrown and received his concussion. Lovely!!! I started to lunge her and then passed the line to him again. Foxy just kept screaming and hollering for Lady, but at least she was moving in a circle and not running him over anymore (its already tough being 12, brilliant, and short, without your 16 hh horse stomping on your feet in front of the other 4-H kids) Lady was just fine in the other arena. She listened and practiced well.
Once he lunged Foxy for 30-45 minutes, she settled down enough to let him get certified.
He will just have to lunge her before their Halter and Showmanship classes. Lady will be in the Showmanship class since they are both in the 11-13 year old class. They won't be in the Halter class together because Lady will be in the yearling class and Foxy in the aged Mares. It will be an interesting day. I will be the only adult (unless Mr. BPA can take the morning off) with the two paints, Sergeant for my niece, and Sassy for my nephew. AAAAAAAaaaaaagggghhhhh!!! At least I am not SUPPOSED to handle the horses. Only the kids are (yeah, right). Foxy and Lady have stalls reserved, so that might make things easier. It might make it tougher.

Getting ready for the show

Lady's first horse show is this Saturday. We had meant to go to more, but the flood really messed things up. We took Lady to the fairgrounds without Belle or Foxy. She was good, but very loud. It was only her fourth trailer ride and the first without her Mamas.

She rushes in the show ring. We are working on that. A few trail obstacles were set up, yoo. The mailbox did not phase her, but she saw no reason to walk on the bridge when she could easily go around.

All three girls got baths yesterday. With all of the swimming and the mud, they were really gross.

Before:




During: (This is Belle's prefered method for cleaning her mustache. She really hates it being scrubbed. A hose is much better)


After:

101 updated with Pics!!!

This is my 101st post. Wow, I should have noticed that the last one was my 100th, but I have been busy and stressed with the crazy flood. We saw this carriage in Thermopolis on the way home from the family reunion. Its even big enough for my family:)

Lady got a sunburn on her nose when she was evacuated to the pasture during my family reunion, so I had her babysitter putting sunscreen on her nose. So, of course, Foxy got a really bad sunburn on her nose. She hates the smell of the lotion, so until it actually hits the sores on her nose, Foxy fights the concept of having lotion applied to her nose. Belle is really stressed over moving around. She has never been an easy keeper. He weight has been really fluctuating. She was looking like she was putting weight back on until yesterday, but while I was there and filling her water, she came over and drank for about 5 minutes, so I wonder if she is just being picky about her water, which, of course, will affect her weight. They are coming home tomorrow. Her scratches are so much better. They are always better when she is out to pasture. In her stall, she will stand and scratch them. Foxy looks really great, except for her nose, but that is healing, too. Lady is a happy baby and the scratch that she got during the flood is finally healing. All three of them walk through the irrigation water without problems (but will that transfer over to walking through streams and puddles on trails?) This pic was taken the last week of June.
Its a little better now. The round pen is now dry. The runs are not underwater, but are muddy and mucky. Its still too wet for machinery to scrape it all out.
Monday, my brother helped Mr. BPA pull the carpet and particle board flooring out of the tackroom. Under all of that, the boards looked good, just soaked. I sprayed the whole thing down with disinfectant and we are waiting for it to dry out. It was cool and rainy yesterday, so we are still waiting to put everything back in. The Chicken coop was really disgusting, but the kids and Critter worked pretty hard on it so that we could move one of her horses into it. All of her horses will be on one side of the barn and mine will be on the other. It puts all of her horses with concrete floors. My side only has one concrete floor, with two dirt (currently mud) and two with wood that is too broken up for horses. One was used for the rabbits and the other for the model trains. A ton of train modules, mostly destroyed by the flood. Grass is growing up through the wood. That stall is low on the list for clean up.

The first horse show that Foxy and Lady will attend will be July 17th. The County fair is July 30th. They will only be doing Showmanship for the 4-H. Hopefully, the kids will have fun. Next year we will try for the parade, but Foxy is not ready to pull in a parade. Belle definitely is not.