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).

Let it snow!

Went out at lunch for a visit. Brought Booker in the arena and free lunged him a bit and he rolled a bit.  Nothing too crazy, no bucking or anything just a little head tossing.  Usual soundness. Did a little ground work at liberty nothing too serious just walk, whoa, trot.

So I was doing really awesome and I was proud of myself.  I got in the barn before it really started raining/snowing and while we were playing in the arena it really started up.  First rain then turned to big fat snow flakes.

So I groomed and Booker was nice and dry and I put the blanket on and there's no straps.  I wander around in circles trying to figure out what to do. Texted Nancy and then sent a FB message to the gal that sold us the blanket. Debate looking in her trailer and "borrowing" whatever I find but decided against it.  Wasted some time measuring Booker for blanket size.  The blanket doesn't have a size written on it and it is a tad big so I thought I'd measure him just in case, especially since we had no straps for the existing blanket.  74" BTW.

So I give in and bring Booker back outside.  By the time I get back in the barn I get a reply from the gal that sold the blanket that the straps are on the floor of her trailer.  Go figure.  So I go back out to get Booker who is now wet wet wet.  In fact he has a pool of water in the crease in his chubby back ;)

So I scrub him as dry as possible with one of the fleece blankets I brought, run him around the arena again in hopes he'll roll, and groom him again. No rolling of course.  Gave him some treats.  Brushed him again and fluffed him up and then just gave up and put the blanket on.  So all my awesome timing was for naught.  Anyways he's not soaking wet, just damp by the time I put on his blanket so he should be fine and will probably dry quickly under it.

All the horses with the exception of those in Booker's pasture have blankets on.  It's not cold now but Booker doesn't have a super thick winter coat and if it keeps snowing like this, big wet flakes and rain, they'll be wet and then it's supposed to get super cold so I think the blanket is the right move.  Just a little peace of mind.

I promised Booker I wouldn't be back to get him again today at least ;)

Working with Booker

I'm not doing much better keeping up with Booker's updates either.  We borrowed my dad's .38 and took Booker out to the pasture to try and shoot that a bit.  We shot half loads and full loads and there didn't seem to be much difference between the two.

Booker did alright with them outside but we just shot from the ground.  We've also shot the .22 a few more times in the arena from the ground and mounted.  We figured we'd just keep up shooting a little each time so he doesn't forget.  Not sure when we'll start working on the .38 in the arena or from his back.  Every time we go out there we come up with new things we should work on with him if we actually remember or get our butts out there more than once a week.  Ideally I'd make it out a couple times myself and Nancy would make it out a couple times a week but we'll see.  So far that hasn't happened.

I did make it out on the Friday night when Jeff was in Canby and I rode for a while myself but I didn't want to get him too sweaty since I had forgotten the cooler.  But it was nice to get back in the barn with no time constraints.

So our plans for the future are to have a trainer out to give us some lessons.  We thought maybe we'd do lessons for a month or two and then maybe in the spring send Booker for a 30 day tune up with said trainer.  She'd be able to ride him up to 4 times a week and we just haven't been able to put in that kind of time.  Not sure our whole list of goals but we'd love to have him remain calm while being ridden, he's still gets a little anxious with a rider, guessing that's part of his gaming past.  He needs to use his rear end more and bend bend bend.  We think those things will help with his heel pain, just learning to carry himself better in general.  As far as our goals as riders, well we have to learn to ride one handed a bit better (or at all in my case) and we just need someone to ride him and know him and then be better able to help us help him move better.  We did try the old trick where we don't pick up the reins when he speeds up or gets nervous since sometimes the gaming horses think tight reins mean "go faster."  We did discover that while having no rein contact Booker speeds up a bit, say when the gun is fired, but he doesn't do much more than that.  It's just hard to get ourselves to not choke up on the reins when we get nervous.  Practice practice practice!

Moving Again

I've been really horrible about keeping up with this blog lately.  I think part of it is the distance between my horses and myself.  But anyways better late than never, right?

Last time the horses had just gotten their feet trimmed and I'm happy to report that a month later they still look like they were trimmed last week and no one was sore from it that I noticed.  The family hadn't plowed the wheat field and a lot of volunteer wheat was growing so we figured we'd turn the horses out there for a change of scenery and something to munch on.

Low and behold, a couple weeks out there and I'm pretty sure Haji gained weight.  And they weren't eating much grain at that point because no one wanted to come up to the barn to eat.  All the while they were still on their first bale of hay.  Of course out of that whole 11 acres or so, the horses chose to stand in the one little patch of brush which meant tons of burrs.

And by "horses" I mean Haji. Though the other boys had their fair share of burrs as well.

When they needed to plow the wheat field they moved the horses back to the front pasture where they nearly finished off the first round bale.  So that bale lasted them since the end of September!  Guess they weren't done with the grass yet after all.

I wasn't able to make it out to Canby after that so Jeff took on the chore of pulling all the t-posts and trailering the horses over to his brother's place.  There's a leak in the well so we can't leave the water on all the time which means we can't use an insulated/heated automatic waterer.  And since the hose will freeze we can't really get water at all at our place so we decided to move them for the winter.  The cattle pens are all full of cattle at the inlaws so Jeff's brother's place is the only place left but there's no fence.  So Jeff pulled the t-posts in the dark and hand pounded them into frozen ground til his hands hurt for a week. Don't worry, I got to hear all about it ;)  Not being there just compounded my worry about the horses and not being able to manage their care being so far away.  It was a rough night to say the least.

So when they moved they threw out some hay from the loft and then put out a new round bale without the net which they all but finish in a week.  When I finally got out to see them after Thanksgiving they were FAT, super fat.  Which for Haji is a good thing, scratch that, great thing.  And that's without a lot of care in feeding him several times a day.  So I'm hoping he'll keep that weight on this winter. At some point someone took off Haji's blanket when it was a little warmer so I threw that back on him though he's got a nice winter coat and would probably be fine, I like the thought that he doesn't have to use his energy to keep himself warm and it'll help keep that sticky hip of his nice and warm.

So we had ourselves some more chores this past weekend and luckily the weather cooperated wonderfully.  I wrapped up the wire fencing from our place (that is a super lame job BTW) while Jeff started cleaning out his brother's barn.  Sunday I was able to get some time while Daniel stayed with Grandma and I went out to help.  The barn was full of who knows how many years worth of manure.  But between Jeff hand shoveling (I helped a tiny bit) and Joe running the bobcat they got the barn looking pretty nice.

We tied off the sides of the barn so the horses will just have access to the middle portion. That way they don't mess up the sides where the bobcat can't get and make it easier to clean in the future.  Also leaves the sides for storing various random things we found in the barn.

I put the buckets on the fence inside the barn which should mean a person can enter the barn from the small door and fill buckets without having to cross any fencelines or even go in where the horses are. The buckets will be out of the snow and rain so they can stay hung up and they won't go wandering away when a horse decides to play.  I thought maybe a neighbor kid could even feed but Jeff thinks that's too dangerous.  Anyway it's a pretty nice set up at this point.  The buckets are a little closer than I had hoped so hopefully the boys can figure out how to eat in peace and not run Haji off.  When I feed them from their buckets on the ground Sunday morning they all stood nicely and ate and Haji was able to finish before Axel came looking for seconds.  So that was nice.  Oh!  I saw Haji pin his ears and move Cody off at one point over the weekend.  Yay Haji!

I think there might be a bit of mud in our future but we'll see.  There was a low spot where the paddock is set up but this fall they filled it with gravel so maybe it'll be okay.  They do have a cement apron on the barn as well as the barn aisle to stand in if the mud gets bad.  We'll just have to scrap the aisle of manure on occasion.  Maybe throw out some stray or something.  I don't think it'll be as mud free as I thought our place would be but I think it'll be okay.  They don't have a large paddock right now but when the ground freezes they don't do too much moving around anyways.

So we cleaned up the barn, cleaned up their paddock area and put out a new round bale with net and everyone looked pretty happy.  I'm a little concerned that Haji hasn't figured out the net yet, so I'm hoping he figures that out soon if that's the case.

Sadly my hopes to see if Axel would not get swollen this winter are foiled.  They had a full round bale not in a net and he's swollen up again so I guess that experiment is off.  Oh well, I'd rather have fat happy horses in the end.  I'm also hoping this small area will make the three horses become better buddies in the end.  Maybe Haji will stick up for himself a bit more or something.

So after all my personal turmoil over the horses and their home and gaining or losing weight, I'm feeling good after this last weekend visit.  I'm thinking maybe the initial weight loss Haji had was a combination of not great hay, not getting grain quite enough, and the other horses running him around too much.  The hay is decent and the boys don't seem to run him around and he's getting regular grain so I think he'll do good this winter.  I think I can relax now.  Thanks so much to Jeff's brother for letting them live there this winter (I'm sure he doesn't mind the added bonus of us cleaning his barn either).

Always Playing Catch Up

We finally shot the gun off Booker's back.  Worked in the arena for a while and shot from the ground and next to him and finally got on and shot from his back.  He actually did best under saddle than he did on the ground.  Next up is more work with the 22 and starting work with a 38 half and full load.  We figure if we keep doing the 22 a few times each time we work with him that should keep him fresh all winter while we work him up to 45s.

I did make it out another time in the past couple weeks and do some ground work.  Did some makeshift versions of the Parelli friendly game, circle game, and squeeze game.  Then we spent quite a bit of time working on backing out the barn door and down the step, a little make shift trailer unloading practice really.  He gets a little nervous backing out so we'll keep working on that when we can.

Pulled his shoes last week so we'll see how he's feeling as far as arena riding goes.  We don't want to do too many sharp circles but now that it's almost winter we're going to be confined to the arena with not much room for straight work.

Back on the Ranch

Lots of photos in this post.  Back to the ranch after having been gone a couple weeks.  This time I was able to get a friend to come out and help with hooves.  Cody hadn't thrown his other shoe and it took the two of us and a lot of elbow grease to get the darn thing off.  It also took 3 hours to trim up all three horses but they are finally done and looking good.  A little shorter than my previous farrier but since we aren't riding and it's been hard to get someone out, this is probably for the best.  Now I just need to keep up on the rasping myself.

We were actually at the farm for 2 extra days so in that time I spent some time putting up the new barn door, painting it, and cleaning up the shed.  Haji spent some time laying down while I worked.  It was a little weird but I'm hoping he was just happy I was there and decided he needed to nap.

We also pulled up the fence from the side yard and fenced in the end of the wheat field so we could turn them out there for a while.  There's quite a bit of volunteer wheat growing out there and lots of space so it gives them something exciting to do for a while.  They must still have enough grass since the round bale is still not gone and it's been out there for over a month.  I was expecting some exciting running and bucking when I put them out in the wheat but I guess the old guys are getting old.  They did run, a little.  But that was about it.

Sadly to get to the field they have to wade through a pretty decent patch of burrs and nasty things.  Not that they hadn't already found enough burrs.  Haji was covered.  I finally went out with some old cutter thing and chopped down a path so they can hopefully avoid a few burrs.

And then I decided I would put Haji's blanket on as it's been getting pretty chilly and he needs all the help he can get saving energy for gaining weight.  I made sure to moderate his introduction to Cody and Axel with the blanket on.  Sometimes they freak out when they see a blanket for the first time of the year.  Axel came prancing up like he was trying to impress that new purple horse.  Then he realized it was Haji and things were back to normal.

Long time no see

Well I finally made it back to the farm to check on the boys.  It was kind of a rough weekend.  The new farrier I had found apparently dumped me with no notice what so ever.  He asked to reschedule our second appointment and that was the last I heard of him.  Left him several messages and never heard anything back.  Is it really that hard to text me and say "sorry I don't have time for a new client, or it's too far to travel, or whatever?"  Ug anyways.

So I'm out a farrier.  We hadn't gotten the boys back on grain since moving them back to our place but they did have a round bale and the brother in law put the net on.  Apparently there was enough grass still growing because this 6x6 bale had been out for over 2 weeks and it was less than half gone.  And they had the net open (thus the hay all over the ground) so the slow feed net wasn't slowing anyone down.

But I thought everyone looked too skinny.  And it was crappy weather.  And the water tank was empty.  It all just piled on and I was feeling pretty down to the point I was going to try and find a place to board all three of them some where.

In all reality Haji isn't much different than he has been all year.  Other than putting on more fat I just don't think his body shape is going to change much.  He has muscle wastage on his back and at his age and retirement I just don't see him getting that back especially since we're dealing with a roach back to start.  And who knows what affect the cancer has on his system.  So I think it's just a matter of making sure he's fed and happy.  And boy can that horse eat.  He'll eat a full bucket of grain and knicker for more.  He even pushed me aside so he could get out the gate and graze in the yard.  Thank goodness he's easy to catch with a can of feed.

So since I was out a farrier I was left to my own devices.  I actually know someone that lives near the boys but she was unavailable this past weekend and she doesn't do shoes.  Since we're so far behind in trims, I was ready to pull shoes for the winter anyway.  So I was going to pull Cody's shoes myself and trim and trim everyone as best I could until I could get said friend out to help.  Cody had already pulled a shoe so I only had to work on one.  But I could not get that shoe off no matter what I did.  On top of the fact that Cody's feet are still a little tender I decided to give up on that.  I thought maybe Jeff could help but we ran out of time to even try.  I think I was able to rasp the clinches off so maybe he'll throw that one easily and not do any damage in the process.

So I nipped and rasps very conservatively on Cody and put him back.  I grabbed Haji and tried the same and as I was holding his front foot he went down on his knees.  Ug.  I didn't touch any one's back feet as they all seemed pretty okay.  And I didn't touch Axel's cuz his looked really good (though long). Basically I think I gave up.  Like I said, I was having an awful day.  But it sounds like my next trip out I'll be able to hook up with that friend that can help with the trims.

So I did end up grooming everyone, getting all the burrs out and what not.  Cody had a gash on his knee.  Haji got to graze in the yard while tied to the fence.  I was able to pick up more feed so now I have 300+ lbs of feed.  I don't think I'll run out in the next two weeks at least.  That reminds me to order more weight builder for Haji.

Jeff had been working on the tack room for me.  He cleaned a bunch out (though there's a lot left to go) and put up some lights and a set of lockers and one of my saddle racks.  I got some poison and mouse traps so hopefully we can get it cleaned out and sealed up a little better before I put my tack in there.  I should be able to keep bridles and blankets in the lockers and my saddles have covers.  I might have to add Bounce dryer sheets to my shopping list to put in with the saddles and help keep the mice away.  There's also some metal medicine style cabinets so once Jeff gets those better adhered to the walls I will put all the meds and first aid stuff in there.  He also built a new door so we have to get that up and paint it.

So in the end I was feeling a little better.  If everyone is still happy next trip out and we can get their feet under control I will feel much better about the situation.  One good thing was that Cody and Haji "shared" Haji's extra bucket of feed.  Cody didn't run Haji completely off.  So that was nice to see.