Hay was NOT the best idea.

When I bought my last load of hay, the weather turned quickly. I did not even get it unloaded before it snowed. I left five bales in the bed of my truck to allow the extra weight to give me more traction. I was meaning to unload it so that I could get another load, but I was just not getting around to it. I finally did.
Can you see why?


Poor Lady is too short to get her mouth on the hay. Belle and Foxy shredded the bales, but the bad part was the other horses that do not adequately respect the white Elephant. It got a few dents from the squabbling, so the hay is no longer in the back.

First Manicure

Lady got her first manicure. These aren't the best pics, they are from my phone.Critter was taking the pics since I was holding onto Lady.
We are in the barn since it was a miserable day outside and the footing was terrible.






She was pretty good, but since she is not used to holding her feet up for that long, she was bored fairly quickly. At one point she buried her head in my coat, like she was trying to hide. She got tons of loves, eye rubs, ear scratches, etc. to make it through. At another point I had give back scratches to keep her from leaning. She about fell over a few times. But she was better than Belle. Belle tried leaning a few times, too. NOT GOOD!

The BEAST

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had found the perfect stud for Belle. We even named him The Beast (Beauty and the Beast reference). When I finally went over to the pasture with the camera, the herd of belgians and percherons was gone. They are used for hunting and packing trips, so they went elsewhere. Yesterday, they moved The Beast to a new pasture near my house. So, out I went with the camera BEFORE they moved him again.

Since the offspring are used for packing and hunting, they are bred for endurance and strength, so my foal would not be whimpy!

Isn't he pretty?!?!!
I love his grey mane. When I got too close to the fence he wandered off.

This picture is for Cowboy. Shooter doesn't sink to the nose and eyeballs, but he does love to lay in the water trough. It was 35 degrees this morning, and his water bucket was frozen, but he had to climb in the trough anyway!


I tried out my niece's mare yesterday. She is really timid. She doesn't like to lope under saddle. I figured with lots of room, I would give it a try. Instead she slammed it into reverse. I will leave the training to the professionals.

Lady is starting to wander on her own. Here she is with Sassy, the roan appy, Sarge, the bay, and the two blacks, Princess and Mystique.
Shooter loves his ponies
Foxy and Belle were doing their best Giraffe imitations.

Today, Belle and I were working on her back feet. She has never been great with her back hooves. Since her beloved farrier is too far away, I am trying to convince her that she must pick up her feet better. Its a struggle. I have not been the best about those back feet and as long as there was nothing in them, I did not try and make her hold the hoof up. For our first serious session, it went really well. The right rear she held up for total and complete picking. I rubbed and scratched her for her excellent behavior. The left rear, it took about 5 tries to get it completely clean and for her to hold it for 20 seconds. 20 seconds may not seem like a lot, but for that leg, it is. Expecially since I did not get kicked. It was that leg that got me one memorable driving day so badly that I could barely get on the box to drive because my knee was so swollen. (Not a fun day, I did not send happy thoughts down the lines that day!!!)

Mud bath

Tigris
Rascals
This is my first serious attempt at uploading pictures at the library. It takes a while.

Here are the barn cats.


Lady was in desperate need of a bath. The weather is supposed to be great his weekend, so I took at chance. Here she is before.
(isn't she getting so big?)

After her bath, I was going to put her on the walker to keep her from rolling until she was dry. She decided that she was hungry, so I let her nurse. I took that opportunity to take pictures. . .




She took that opportunity to roll...




then she did not want to be caught.



She got another bath.

Update

I finally got called in to sub at the high school. It felt so good to be back in the classroom, but I missed the control of my own classroom. This high school is fantastic. I really would love to get a teaching job here.

Since I am not working full time, I am having tons of fun with the animals. We currently have 3 cats. Tigris and Rascal are the barn cats. They are kittens. Probably about 3-4 months old and sisters. When they caught their first mouse, they were so proud. They had to show it off to me. Puma is supposed to be the house cat since she had ten teeth pulled at her last vet check up. However, she can still catch and kill birds, just not with the decapitating finesse that she used to demonstrate. (but she refuses to kill mice, thus two barn kittens)

Shooter is apparently more brain dead and defunct then we thought. His shepherd heritage is coming through. When the horses are all out to pasture, I occasionally have had to yell at Sergeant to leave Barnaby alone, or for Foxy to leave Sergeant, Princess, and Barnaby alone. Shooter got it in his head to herd them into the corner of the fence, barn, etc. They did not apreciate it and he is now limping... sometimes. I checked out his leg, nothing appeared wrong. I checked out the other front leg, he has two broken toes. His brain cells are so messed up that he limps on the wrong leg. He doesn't limp after he soaks in his swimming pool. He spends most of the day in his swimming pool.

Lady has been very frustrated with the new horses. She wants to play with Princess (2 year old Morgan filly), but Foxy and Sergeant are against it. Foxy will now allow Lady to follow Barnaby around,(26, 27, 28, I don't remember, just freaking old!!! Morgan Gelding) but Belle doesn't like it and occasionally chases him off, which sends Shooter into protect mode and then he chases Barnaby away.(and gets kicked in the head)

Princess is a loveable pain in the butt. I am way too used to my horses. Princess kicked kid #2 in the knee. She is terrified of water, and she is a bit skittish. But she loves to play tag with Shooter.

Sergeant is arrogant, thinks he owns the place (until Foxy has words and then he backs down quick). He might be 18, but he is fiesty. He is a screamer. He can't handle Princess out of his sight. Foxy was impressed until he refused to breed her last week (it was really funny because she is 16 hh and he might be 14-14.1 hh and she was backing into him, the whole nine yards and being way too agressive. he backed away so fast, I thought that he would fall over. Then she chased him off. Too bad I did not have the camera!!!)

Belle is pretty funny. Even though we don't have all of the fence fixed, I let all of the horses out for grazing time and play time, but it is supervised. If she would rather be ridden, she will follow me around until I hop on her back. If I ignore her, she whacks me with her head. I feel loved.

Barnaby is recovering from the move, still. He is on the same diet as Belle, just not as much hay. At older than dirt and missing front teeth, he is in really great shape. He no longer paces in his stall and seems to like Wyoming.

Foxy is a hussy. She was so bad last week, teasing every horse, calling out to the stud. It was bad.

We have found the perfect stud for Belle (or maybe Foxy, we are still thinking about that option, too) We have nicknamed him the beast. For those of you that know and loved Red, the true love of Belle's life, the Beast is better looking. He is a gorgeous red belgian stud that lives with a herd of belgian and percheron mares. There also appears to be a jack in the herd, too, since some of the foals are mules. He has a long grey mane and tail like Vea had. We were driving by to show Critter and her husband the herd when we realized that he was a working stud. Belle will be impressed!!! She has always had a thing for Sorrels. Next spring, after shots and vet checks, Belle will be introduced. Vea was a great looking, awesome Belgian/Clyde cross.

There's the update. Still no pics. Still using the library. My first paycheck will probably be used to get internet at the house YEAHHHHHHH!!!!!

Cabin Fever

This post is completely in response to a post on Confessions of a Slave Driver.

First off, any reference to Princess Bride -- Awesome (should that be awesomesauce? I don't know, I had never heard of it before)

I am not hip, cool, etc. My students were convinced that I was really bizarre and old. I don't get the whole "TapOut" crap. I just ask if they are tapping out of life. Generally the answer was Yes!

I am also "Way too old" to like Metallica (hello, they are older than me) Guns n' Roses (Ditto) Avenged Sevenfold (hey, my hubbie turned me on to them and he is way older than me) or Nickleback (no defense, they are just awesome(once again, should that be awesomesauce, ). My kids, now that they are stuck with a stay at home mom, know that I am not cool or hip either. I mess around with the animals, unpack boxes, write lesson plans for the classes that I don't teach, and make healthy cookies(applesauce, banana, craisin, raisin, pineapple) and the ultimate today -- Beet bread. (yes, beets were injured in the making of this bread. Yes, the kids will have pink sandwiches at school tomorrow.)

They better call me to start substitute teach. . .

soon. . .

Please. . .

Library access ramblings -- No pics

Using the library to access the Internet is not the easiest thing in the world. Uploading pics is a joke. Lady, Belle, and Foxy made the 130 mile trip just fine. Since I wanted Lady to have Foxy RIGHT THERE in case of panic, we did not use the stall dividers. That meant no stall dividers between Foxy and Belle, too. Lady was first so that she could lean on Foxy or the wall. Then Foxy, then Belle. They were pretty happy to unload by the time we were all done. Since we have knapweed in our pastures and the fences need to be replaced/worked on/etc. the girls are in stalls with a run. The run connects the two stalls. Last weekend we built a round pen to keep up with Lady's training. Critter and family came out to bring a load. Three of those horses come out next weekend! Lady will have another filly to play with! Princess is two, but they are similar in height. (My sister is really into short horses) Barnaby, the ancient is coming out, too. I think that Belle will be happy. She has a thing for Sorrels. Sergeant is coming out, too. I might need to rename this whole blog, with only two paints on the premises, they will be out numbered. We will have two paints, Foxy and Lady; one Clydesdale, Belle (at least until Bart comes up); one sorrel Morgan, Barnaby; one bay Morgan, Sergeant; two brown/black Morgans, Princess and Mystique; and one roaned out appy mare, Sassy.

Lady is amazing. She loves to be groomed. Her bottom lip sucks in and her top lip goes crazy and she stretches out her neck when I curry her, and I am still trying to convince her that mutual grooming is not necessary (no biting!). At feeding time, while the big girls are eating their grain, I have to block Belle's stall opening to keep Foxy out, so Lady knows that she will get undivided attention. Her favorite spot is her withers. I scratch the withers and she leans her chin on my shoulder and apparently drools down my back. When Belle is almost done with her grain, she will let Lady have some and moves on to the hay.

Hay!!! Its half the price I was paying at the old place. And I am really getting more than a ton, instead of whatever was thrown on my stack. Awesome!!!

As long as Lady is being worked in the round pen, I let the two girls out to the pasture to graze. They avoid the knapweed and have avoided, for the most part the fences. They aren't about to leave Lady, and we keep a close eye on them anyway. Belle comes when called, so it all works out. Belle gets alot more time loose than Foxy, because I don't work Lady very hard at only 4 1/2 months. Its mostly time to have the stalls cleaned and to stretch out her legs.

Lady's coloring is still changing. The spots on the back are almost completely black. The sides are sorrel. The tail is black. The spots that only appear when she is wet are black. I think that I have a tri color. One eye is half blue. She is a sweety.

Belle knows that there is a sorrel stud next door. She is so in love. If only I wanted to breed her to a sorrel quarter horse. But then I have a friend with an awesome sorrel quarter horse stud that would breed for free if I wanted one of those.

Enough rambling for the day. I must go back home and unpack some more boxes!!!