Rough Weekend

Cody and Axel are doing well (save for Axel letting the cows chew his tail short). They spent the summer in the pasture with 3 cows and calves at the brother in law's place (same place as where they wintered). They are now in the big cattle pasture/wheat field with all the stock cows for a couple weeks enjoying the volunteer wheat. Then they will likely move to another location for winter, yet to be determined. There was one minor instance I was told of when they moved the horses with the bigger herd. The one bull mistook Axel for a nice stock cow and tried to show his affection, Axel did not appreciate it and ran through the fence. Doh. So there was some fence repair to be done but I don't blame Axel, that's for sure.

And in less happy news, Haji has crossed the rainbow bridge. The summer had not been kind to him and even while on pasture AND free choice hay, he still lost weight. :( We'll miss the old guy and I'm sad Daniel didn't get more of a chance to learn some horsemanship from a real expert that Haji was.

Forgive me

I'm all pregnant and stuff and getting to the barn and to the farm just isn't happening all too often these days.  Here's a photo post to catch up.

Still Slacking

It's bee a very cold winter around here and we've had quite a bit of snow.  We worked with Booker a little, not as much as we wanted since it was so cold.  Mostly working on the things that the trainer suggested along with a little goofing around.  Then at the beginning of March we sent Booker to the trainer for the month.  She's going to work him several times a week and get him back into shape and work on the stopping issues and just getting him listening and using his body properly.  Along with the training Nancy gets to ride a couple lessons as well so if the weather would cooperate that would be useful.

As far as my boys are concerned I haven't seen too much of them as we haven't been to the farm very often this winter with all the crazy weather.  I know the brother and sister in law and sister in law's brother took the three out for a little bareback ride around the pasture a couple months ago.  Sounds like they had a good time and the boys all behaved themselves.  The most work they've done in ages!  I've visited a few times to make sure everyone was still on all fours.  The slow feed Cinch Chix net is doing it's job, Axel is looking good and not too fat and his swelling has gone down significantly.  I'm guessing had we not put out hay without the net this year he wouldn't be swollen at all.  Haji may have lost a bit of weight which unless we're force feeding him 24 hours a day that was to be expected with the cold weather despite him having a blanket on. Spring should be good to get some weight back on him.  And though Axel still wants to eat everyone's feed, I think the three are getting along pretty well thanks to the small area they are in for the winter.

Middle of a Deep Freeze

We're in the middle of a deep freeze around here.  As in -20F with a -40F windchill.  Needless to say I don't like being so far away from being able to check on the boys.  Luckily they have the red barn with plenty of room for all three of them to hang out.  The report is that they spend the day outside and are always inside overnight.  So I guess they got a little smarts in their old age.

We switched over to a bulk feed.  It's easier to get and cheaper.  Probably not ideal for old men horses but I think everyone has their teeth still (talking to you, Haji) so it should be okay.  It's definitely good fat content wise and everyone likes how it tastes.  Jeff says that he hasn't met a feed these horses don't like (he hasn't tried to give Haji beet pulp I guess).

So the bulk feed is around 15 cents/lb versus the bagged senior feed which is more like $3/lb.  And they have apparently figured out how to store 1000lbs of it at a time.  Not sure what they did about that, I have two rodent proof bins that hold 300lbs of senior feed, so that probably holds a bit more bulk feed but I doubt 1000lbs. Anyways, they are fed and from all reports seem to still be alive and standing.  Someone is going to have some instructions to go photograph the horses and check under Haji's blanket for me next time he goes to the farm (without me this weekend).

Someday I will catch up

The time has gotten away from me. Granted I haven't been to the barn in quite some time.  The holidays kind of sucked the life out of me amongst other things.  And then we hit a nasty deep freeze so everyone's been hiding out.  Sounds like Booker gets to spend the night in the barn when it gets this bad.  I'm feeling pretty okay about his wearing a blanket when it gets this cold and windy, that's for sure.

The last time we made it to the barn we actually had a trainer come out to give us a lesson.  The name of the game was getting Booker to find his feet as well as not having to have the last word especially when it came to the halt.  Nice and easy stuff to work with on our own in the next few weeks.  He's a stinker that one, he'll do what you say and then take a step, or bob his head, or just any little thing to make sure he's the last one to comment on the situation.

So we're doing some ground work, turns on the forehand and turns on the haunches.  Then some mounted work, bending and giving at the poll and then walk to halt transitions with out putting up a fight.

I managed to make it out to the barn once after the lesson and worked on some of the stuff including the mounted work (yay me for getting on and riding!).  Not the most exciting work but it's definitely up my alley.

It's supposed to warm up at the end of this week so hopefully we'll make it out for a little more work.  Time to get back into the swing of things. No more being Miss Lazy Pants (my UP band hates me right now).