Updates from the barn

I haven't had a chance to get out and visit the horses since the big move on Saturday. It might have something to do with the -45F wind chill, you never know! But I have gotten a couple of updates on how things are going from the new caretakers.

From Tuesday, January 29
"They're good! They are staying in their herds of four and five. Red is more of a loner, and he hasn't been any trouble, at all. Kalani will stand with Red at times, but if Kiko comes over, Red will leave. Cody's gotten over his need to protect Kiko. Kalani, and sometimes Axel, feel the need to chase Gunner, but that thrill seems to be waning."

"Tom's/Elise's are in charge, so ours will move out of the way as they swarm over, but even so, there hasn't been any biting or serious kicking. They pretty much kept ours in the space behind the round pen on the first day! But now they are all quiet when tied up and waiting for dinner; however, we do have to tie "them" up before we tie "ours"; and we have to let ours go before we let theirs go. We've replaced all the lead ropes and hanging buckets with ties and bucket clips, so it's much cleaner looking. Not to mention, so much easier to feed."

"There was a possum, about the size of Koko [the cat], on the table with him last night! Koko was *so not* disturbed by that fact, that I'm expecting it's not an uncommon occurrence. The possum is no more, but Scott will be buying a gun tomorrow because - yuck, otherwise!"

"So, maybe more than you wanted to know, but every thing's good. We did harrow out there and it looks MUCH better. It's created safer traction, little clumps instead of frozen giant mounds."

And from today
"I can't believe how well this is going. The herds are starting to mingle - primarily it's Kalani, hanging out with Gunner and Poppy. Papillon and Kiko have been keeping company, too. But there's no more real chasing - and yesterday, when Axel pinned his ears back and shook his head at Daley, Daley didn't even pick up his head from the hay! (However, I did notice a bite on Daley's side - that's the only one of those I've seen on anybody so far.) They are settling down nicely."

"Yesterday, Poppy smelled like evergreen and right now, I can see Gunner scratching his behind on a tree - must feel good. Having prepped feed buckets yesterday, feeding this morning only took 20 minutes. I was surprised to find Poppy, Red, and Gunner under the overhang, waiting; Axel is always waiting at his tie. The horses are doing well and everyone's just fine."

"We should also mention that the horses are drinking a LOT more water. We put a second power strip in the tack room so we could hook up a better tank heater. It was freezing over pretty hard with the old one. They almost emptied the tank yesterday."

So that's the latest and greatest from the ever increasing herd at Pinto Creek Ranch. I plan to make a trip out there on Saturday to see how things are going, maybe do a little riding down the road, and some more ground work with Cody to see what his attitude is like.