The horses usually get 2-3 hours on the pasture sometime between 08:00 and 13:00. This morning I was out by 06:00 to help load our hay, and it was 11:00 by the time we got it unloaded and stacked. The storage bay is filled to the brim, and another 25 bales are piled at the back of Henry's spot -- isn't it beautiful?
Being largely selfish I chose to take a hot shower before turning the horses out. From the bathroom window I saw Bernice jogging past -- Tonka and Raven are usually grazing when she goes by, much to her disappointment. Today she was able to ply them both with alfalfa cubes (we have a box of these attached to our fence with a sign asking people not to feed Tonka anything else), and David reports that she stayed through most of my shower (i.e. a long time).
I eventually turned the horses out, and when they came back in this afternoon Raven headed straight for top part of the paddock and waited patiently under the cedars, hanging her head over the fence now and then to look down the road. She stood there the whole time David and I performed our lawn care ritual (i.e. a long time) and finally headed down to join Tonka at the feeder around dusk. It could be that she's starting another heat cycle (they make her weird), but I think that she was waiting for someone to come along with more tasties.
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7 comments:
Hanging the food you want people to feed your horses on the fence is a good idea. On one side of my fence I've got a grandmother who likes to bring her toddler grandson over to pet and feed the horses. On another side of my fence I've got a lady running an illegal bed & breakfast out of her home, and her guests like to feed and pet my horses. On the third side of my fence I've got people running an illegal horse boarding business, and their boarders like to feed and pet my horses. I find all kinds of weird things like ham sandwiches on the ground by the fence. Lostine colics easily and Bombay chokes easily, so I have asked these people not to feed the horses period, but they won't listen. They think I'm just a cranky lady, and don't understand that they can be endangering my horses' lives by feeding them something outside of their diet. I look forward to the day I can afford a 10-foot high brick wall instead of chain-link, or better yet, 50 acres of my own land.
I just wanted to come by and say Hello! Thanks for your tips to my weight loss blog. Tonka is a gorgeous animal and I am glad he is in your care. I will enjoy watching this journal!
I second that hanging the food you want people to feed your horses on the fence is a good idea. I'll have to remember that for when I move. It looks like no matter what property we purchase out of what we've looked at, the best place to fence in pasture, boarders the road.
Thanks, folks. The sigh on the bucket reads "Only feed Tonka (white horse) these treats. Anything else can make him sick" and it seems to have worked. He had a laminitic episode after some well-meaning neighbors fed him some carrots, so I thought this was the best way. Our neighbors also know that he can have one apple or a bit of other tasty things and they never overload him.
Wow! Up at six on a holiday. And that hay is indeed a beautiful sight. In my one year of horse experience, I had only to climb up to the loft and throw down enough hay to feed maybe about 30 horses. The stable owner being the type of guy he was, the hay was often moldy. I remember picking through it, hoping to find some better quality bales. I also remember how much work it was to lift a bale of hay, and that was about a billion years ago. You worked hard yesterday, but I know it's a feel-good sort of work. Will you rest a little today?
I love your little links. Just found some info about your goats. Had been wondering about them. Will try to figure out how to do links for my blog too.
Hooray for hay! Doesn't it feel great to have it all found, purchased, received, stored (phew!) and ready to go? Great work!
Mares. Hard to say WHAT her deal is. She could be having nightmares about the bathtub, or going into heat again. It's been about 3-5 months, right?
Take a day, and a hot bath!
Thanks for your nice comments everyone. Raven's heat cycle was a reliable 21-28 days through the summer, but her last heat was about six weeks ago now. Yesterday both horses stood under the cedars between 5 and 7 pm, and we think it's because there's fewer blackflies under there.
I actually love haying and I always have, though it is hard work when stacking the 5th and 6th levels in our garage. David and I had dinner at McDonalds (rare) the night before, so it was nice to get the arteries unclogged.No rest for the weary yesterday or today as we continued to get the shelter up. Fortunately my back stopped hurting just as mysterious as it started hurting. I think I may have had a little virus as I have been feeling great again for the past few days.
BJC: Links are super easy to make in your blog. One of the buttons looks like a green chain -- just highlight the text you want to make into a link, click on the chain, and add the URL. Done!
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