Rough day on the farm

For the dogs, it was fine. Turkeys. . . Not so much. I found parts of one of my hens. Rabbits. . . Worse. Kid #1's doe that we have been watching due to abnormal behavior ate her tail to the bone last night. Which meant I had to put her down. That meant calling around to find said kid. She wasn't answering her phone. Kid #2 wasn't either and Kid #3 left his in the car. Why do all of these kids have phones if they won't answer them!!! I digress. I called the ex, but I had to explain the whole thing before he would hand the phone over. Then I had to explain the whole thing again to the kid. Fortunately, the kid is not stupid. Even though Cinderella is a pet, she realized that the poor thing was going to die a painfull death if we let this continue. She has ribbons and trophies to remember her, at least. This is where the ponies had the rough morning. Mr. BPA got my pistol ready for me (he is so helpful:) I strapped it on(I love the feel of a sidearm on my belt, I am truely in the WRONG profession) And pulled Cinder from her cage. The ponies took one look at me, the pistol, and the rabbit and took off her the back 40 (ok, their pasture is only 9 acres) I have learned to make it a clean death. One shot. She had started in on her little paws, too. Not sure what turned a show bunny into a flesh eating zombie, but she is out of pain, now. No, I didn't eat her. Ick!

Changing Seasons

My herd will be changing. Misty is for sale. Lady is going in for training while her PA(kid #1) is in Utah. Bart, Belle's Brother and former teammate, is retiring from driving and becoming a Wyoming pony. Belle--- well, maybe she will snap out of her funk when her baby bro comes home. She is blind on the right side. She struggles with Antares, the 2 year old of Foxy. I am not sure if she will make it through another Wyoming winter. I am going to try and shoot some video footage of Belle and Bart's reunion. They have not seen each other in over 6 years. It should be cool. Belle with Kid #3 and Daniel, the watchcat, before her blindness started in that eye.

Let's reboot:)

Let's begin again. My blog is called "Adventures in Painting" because I have some Paint horses. I don't actually paint. I am not artistic. I just got the call that Bart, my Belle's brother is ready to retire. Yippee! I love that big monster! In sadder news, Belle is not doing well. I have come to the realization that she will not survive another WYwinter. She had a small stroke and is blind on one side. I quit taking her to school as my TA for animal science. I have made her complete retirement as comfortable as possible. When she starts having more bad days than good, I will have to put her down. I have arranged for her head to be cleaned and mounted for my classroom (She might just end up on the wall in my living room, though) Her legs will be sliced in half for hoof/leg examples. I feel blessed to have known her for 15 years and owned her for 6. She still neighs when I pull in to the drive, and comes in from her 9 acres when I go to the gate. I am a very lucky person. Kid #1, the artistic one, is creating a memorial in glass, similar to the homepage blog pic. Here's to the goal of writing once a week:)

I do exist

Life is insane.

But you knew that.

Antares is huge. She is only 8 months, but is a tank.

This is an unbelievably windy day. I wanted to show just how big Antares is compared to her 3 year old sis, Lady.

And compared to Foxy.



And the other ponies (except Belle)

Belle at School

Belle went to school yesterday. I have referenced horses and used horse pictures, skulls, hoof cuttings, but never actually hauled a horse to school before. I did have my homeroom students go to the barn shortly after Lady was born, but that was just to show off and we picked up trash along the road as a service project, not exactly part of an offical lesson plan. I work with At-Risk kids at an alternative school. I have about as many kids total as I used to have in just one class. I cannot just supply all of the information needed to pass the government tests and hope that they will succeed. I have to try and teach them how to learn and to enjoy learning new things. School started last week. I built up this visit from my pride and joy. I saw big tough kids get all stupid about how tough they are and that they were going to jump on and ride off with her. I saw kids pretend indifference to the concept of a horse at school.

Reality? It was the best day of the year. (ok, it was only day 6, but it was awesome!!!) Some students were shocked at just how big she is. Some were surprised that she wasn't bigger (she is a small Clydesdale). Only two students with previous bad experiences with horses would not approach her. My Integrated Science classes worked on accuracy and precision in measuring and calculations. This is a skill that as I pointed out to them can have costly repurcussions. If I order the wrong blanket, harness, bridle, bit, etc. Often, they can not be sent back after trying them out on the horse due to the horse hair. We also used measurements to estimate Belle's weight. I pointed out that if she is under or over wormed, due to inaccurate estimations, it is not a good thing. We read her grain label, figured out how much feed she should be receiving, and weighed out how much a quart of feed weighs. I had them pack a loose quart and a tightly packed quart and demonstrated how that will change the weight and density. (we did not go into mass on that day) They also got to pet her, and feed her treats. My animal science class had to actually point out the external anatomy for a quiz. They also all got to feel her chestnuts, hooves and lift up a hoof to demonstrate cleaning. I was surprized how many of them had never been that close to a horse. They got to feel how hard her face is and feel where the cartiladge meets the bone on her nose. It was pretty cool to see the looks of wonder on the kids' faces. None of my students acted inappropriate (other than cussing in surprise on occassion when she moved or shifted her weigh, or swung her head around to look at them better) In Zoology, we discussion the evolution of the horse and the evidence of vestigial toes. We also discussed the pecking order of a herd.
It was an awesome day (I know that I keep saying that, but it was cool)
Belle was nervous at first, but settled right down and carefully and graciously took treats from them. It was cool (yep, I said it again)
No pics due to student confidentiality, but Belle was a big success. I can't wait to use the other animals and ponies for class.

one week old

July 4th and the fireworks didn't phase Antares. How could a few fireworks scare you when you are named after a Red Super Giant star, anyway?
Antares is smart. I know, I own her, so I am biased, but she will stand and get her zinc oxide smeared on her nose without a fuss. Does her mother? No, Zinc oxide is of the devil and will make your nose fall off in her opinion. Antares nose was getting a little pink, so we are being careful. She will also stand and put her nose in her halter. I know many adult horses that are not that good.

The three spinsters got baths this week. Lady likes to roll in the moat and then in the dirt. She looked like she was a minimal white paint. It takes dish soap and then whitening to get her remotely clean. Misty is almost as bad, but Belle avoids the moat whenever possible.

Before











After





Misty doesn't look that much different, but Lady looks better. She has a lot more little spots this year, just like her sire. Her face mask got its weekly (sometimes daily) scrubbing, too. I didn't get a better pic of Belle, but she was really enjoying the leg rub. Mr. BPA even commented about just how good she was being.



Foxy did not get a complete bath. I just scrubbed her back legs up really well. I would have done more, but Antares was running around and the llamas were approaching too closely, so I turned Foxy loose just in case they considered Antares a threat. We are still working on the llamas. At least Foxy is the only one still nervous around the llamas. Belle was terrified at first. Misty and Lady would chase them and then the llamas would chase the horses. Now they can graze together.


Kid #2 is keeping watch to that they stay away from the construction materials. Foxy doesn't keep Antares out for very long. She will head to the stall many times before Antares will actually go in. Antares likes to swerve right before she goes through the gate. The look on Foxy's face when she goes back out to round up Antares for the 4th or 5th time is hilarious. Then Antares collapses in a heap in the stall.


We took a bunch of junk to the dump yesterday. Now that I know where the dump is and I don't have to go clear out to the other dump, I am doing to completely dejunk (probably a pipe dream, but at least I can dream!) We are building much nicer outdoor poultry coops, so the birds will be out of the barn so that we can lock up Lady better. She is a bully and likes to pound on Misty. They have acres to run, but just this morning, I could hear Lady slamming Misty around in the stall that they share (which is open to the pasture, its just for shelter. Lady, Belle, and Foxy can easily fit in these oversized stalls

Adjusting to 5 horses

Foxy is in full protective Mommy mode. She pins her ears and goes after Lady and Misty through the fence.
Belle is in full baby stealing mode. Belle managed to get the chains off between the panel and the side of the barn and allowed Antares to escape Foxy's run. It didn't last long, but scared me to death because the dogs were out. I have been highly paranoid about the dogs and Antares. Lady antagonizes the dogs until they chase her, and Shooter has brain damage from chasing Foxy's tail from puppyhood until now. These pics have the sun behind them, but they d show Lady and Shooter playing.





Antares has a sock on her hindright leg. She doesn't really have black markings, but black on the back of her pasterns.


Isn't she a cutey!