How High is the Water, Mama?

While many places in the US are suffering from drought and out of control wildfires, here it's the water that has our attention. Fortunately, the rain has stopped, and water levels have stabilized or receded. Here is a look at some of the water close to our place. In this photo, you can see the dyke, behind the power pole. Those white bits close to the road, where the road disappears, are the buildings on our farm.

That dyke is holding back this:

The white building amongst the trees on the right side of the photo is the big shop at our place. You can see it better in this photo:

I figure the level of this water is about 10 ft. above the level of the land we live on.  I keep telling myself the dyke is well built, and won't fail. One bonus to all this water is that the wetlands are replenished, and the ducks are loving it. So are the mosquitoes- hatching season is upon us! So every evening I'll be lighting the smudge pot for the horses.

The boys

Good grief Beamer. Sunny days are here! You can get up! C'mon, lets go wash the mud off you and you can go graze!

Listen to all that moaning- somebody didn't want his nap disturbed.
I hosed the mud off and put him in his grass pen- much better!

Nitro has his own special place to nap in the morning sunshine- right on the side of the compost heap; this side is old stuff that has turned to dirt, it's what my gardens are made of.

Love those fuzzy ears!

And just in case you think this is normal Nitro, here's a reminder- this was him a few minutes later, guess he was building up his "Nitro tank".

Please excuse the sound of my breathing, this camera has a really good microphone and I do have loud breathing. 

Since I'm showing you the boys, I guess I shouldn't leave Rio out, he was looking good in the early morning light.

His wire cuts are healing, I hope I can get through the rest of the year without any more mishaps (sigh). The good thing is that he is getting used to being hosed off, and is good with his feet. Also with all this handling I'm staying on top of his manners- a good thing with a young stallion.

Flowers, fun and flight

Hey, Crystal, the rose does look better in the sunshine!. We finally got some nice weather. I  led Chickory over some hard smooth ground to help toughen up her feet, then went for a putt down the road on Gussie; great day for a ride! Gussie didn't want to leave the homeplace, I think she figured that she should get some pasture time, but I got her lined out and on down the road we went- got a nice photo for Sunday Stills, the challenge this week is roads.
Yesterday, I caught a really neat shot of Nitro- he was puddle jumping.

He landed and then lit up the afterburners as he raced for the gate I had open to the pasture. Mud don't scare this boy!

The baby Raven spent the whole of yesterday in the rainstorm hanging out on a branch in one of the trees, I finally shooed it over to another tree just so he could figure out that yes, he could fly in the rain, and then this morning all 3 Ravens were gone. One of them was around this afternoon, but I'm hoping that they will stay away for a while so the Owl can come back.
I got my Hoofcare book, and once I'm done reading it, I will be doing some trimming, starting with Belle and Nitro; the other ones I have touched up a few times, but Belle hasn't been done since Tara did her on May 19, so it should be interesting. Might take me a couple of days, but I'll get 'er done!

Wordless Wednesday

Over the Rainbow Bridge

Texas

May, 1978- June 25, 2012. 

Stop over at Own a Morgan to leave your comments, please.

Taking flight

Today was a big day for the Raven family- the fledgling left the nest! Too bad he didn't do it the day before the Owl visited. I was out doing chores and I spotted a Raven on the corral panels under the roof of the mare shelter. It hung out there for quite a while, and I noticed it had some fluffy feathers above its legs- aha- the fledgling! It is used to seeing me, from it's nest; I used to stand below the nest and talk to it. So I could get fairly close. Here he is:

He was pretty funny, didn't have good balance yet, I think he was kind of afraid to move. Mama and Papa were nearby, keeping a close eye on things.

He wobbled and hobbled around on the panel:

And finally, I got to see him fly.

and it was not a graceful landing for his first time in a tree!

Now he is camped out in he tree and his parents areah bringing him food. Kind of like a teenager when he first leaves home!

Drama in the skies

I'm not talking about the weather. Yesterday morning as Ted was having his coffee on the deck, he hollered at me to come see the Owl- our barn owl, remember him?- had come back, probably because of the proliferation of mice in the fields nearby. Trouble is the spot where he roosts is exactly where the Ravens built their nest. And they weren't exactly welcoming to this intruder to their domestic bliss. In fact, they got downright nasty!

That's the Owl being chased out of the pole shed by one very determined Raven. Unfortunately my camera doesn't focus quickly even in action mode, so I missed several good photo ops. From there he got chased out of all the other places he tried to hide including the rafters of the shop.

Beamer was quite unconcerned as the Owl flew right over his head; he wasn't about to let a domestic dispute disturb his breakfast.
From there, the Owl headed for the trees, and I sure wish I had my camera in video mode, because the Ravens chased him out of the trees, and he flew within 10 feet of me, at eye level, what a beautiful bird! I could clearly see his face and feel the wind from his wings.

This shot is a little fuzzy- well, a whole lot fuzzy!- but you can see the golden color of the Owl and his size- not much bigger than the Raven but with a longer wingspan. He ended up leaving, and probably won't come back this close.

Sunday Stills

With today's challenge being the color brown, I didn't have to look any farther than my tack room.

But.... of course, I did.....

What I did...

was forget about the lawn- time to ride!Saddled up Gussie and went for our longest ride of the season- she's still way out of shape, so only a couple of miles out then back. About half of the way we walked in a plowed field, so that was extra exercise for her chubbiness.

She was reasonably good except on the way back she got a little het up and opinionated, only to find that it meant extra work; such as two track, sidepass, stop and back up, ride circles, etc. So pretty soon we resumed a nice long strided walk the rest of the way home. It did get me a little anxious for a moment because the last time she got opinionated, I ended up on the ground (last October) and this big mare can be quick when she wants to be. But, she got over it and all was well.

I felt pretty secure in this saddle too, it's perfect for her. It comes with tapaderos that I'm going to put leather conditioner on and  then put them on.
I trimmed her front feet again after the ride, she is growing pretty fast in the soft moist ground here. Hosed the sweat off her, and of course she rolled as soon as I turned her loose. I have plans to take the rasp to Nitro's feet this weekend, if I can get Ted to help. He's 2 and a half months old now.

Summer Sunshine

Summer at last! The first full day of summer promises to be a good one, at least we have a sunny morning here; perfect for a flower shot or two.

The Masterwort is doing really well, and my Morden Sunrise  has about 3 dozen buds on it.

I can't wait for the corrals to dry out so I can get the tractor in there to clean them, it's driving me nuts.
I haven't done much with the horses, just routine maintenance; Gussie got a bath yesterday and managed not to roll in the mud until today; oh well, at least her mane and tail are still silky instead of feeling like straw.
Rio's barbwire cuts are healing, one of them is deeper than I thought at first, but it will be all right.  The comfrey/plantain mix is doing a nice job of healing.
Only problem with having a sunny day? It means I have to mow the lawn, 'cause it'll probably rain by tomorrow! Totally screws up my afternoon.

Wordless Wednesday

Nitro moves

So do you think he's athletic enough? Boy sure can stop and turn!

Despite the rain

Even though I had to dodge rain showers all weekend, I did manage to get quite a bit done- but alas, no riding. Saturday I set up the electric fence around Rio's pasture- after tearing out the offending small section of barbwire!- and even managed to get the lawn mowed in between showers, and get some of the housework done. Sunday is a day of rest around here, and it was too wet to do much anyway. Today we got the electric fencer hooked up, and Rio got to go back on his modified pasture.

The panels are where the barbwire was, and I split the field in half, and ran the electric tape along the barbwire that separates his pen from the cow pasture. Ya I know, kinda like shutting the barn door after the horse is stolen.
Chickory is improving, I've been using my oils on her as well as the poultices. Even though I can't see any place where an abscess may have broken through, she is walking way better. Today I pruned some willow branches ( a good source of salicylic acid) and threw some in each of the horse pens, guess who was busy munching?

Belle gave up quickly, but Chickory just loved them. At first, Nitro though they were horse-eating branches, but then he became a horse, eating branches.
I got a lot of digging done today, moved a blackberry bush and developed the spot it was in for transplanting the new roses. Got a few "brown" shots for the next Sunday Stills- no, not dirt! And managed to get a really cool video of mama Raven feeding her getting-really-big-baby- Raven.

Tomorrow I'm going to get a photo from up the hill that shows the amount of water down here on the flats. I think there is some flooding just south of us, and I sure hope the diking system holds, or we'll be in trouble. It could quit raining any time now.

Sunday Stills

Clouds, the challenge for today; well, I was hoping for some spectacular thunderheads or lovely sunsets, but it wasn't to be. We did get some interesting skies though:

Clouds that lay atop the mountains in the early morning

Ominous black clouds that brought strong winds at their leading edge:

and clouds that are everywhere, filled with rain.

There was a bright side though, the storm blew through and cleared the skies for the next day.

Rascals and roses

This morning Rio had stocked up a bit, but overall I think he'll be ok. I put him in the round pen for a few hours, there's a little grass for him in there, but interestingly enough, the first thing he went for was the plantain.

Poor Rio, he's full of lumps and bumps and nicks and scrapes and bites and cuts. Now you understand why I call the yearling year the wonder year, and why I prefer to sell the babies right off the mare....
Speaking of plantain, I picked a bunch of it, and Ted brought me home some fresh comfrey from a farm he was working at, and I stewed them together today to make a wound wash/poultice base. Poultice; yeah, for Chickory. I'm pretty sure she has at least one abscess in her front feet, so I've been padding and poulticing- trouble is, I can't get them to stay on overnight. I use a baby diaper, and put the herbal solution in that, then a big tough baggie, and then LOTS of duct tape. She goes to work on it, chewing and shredding. Today it lasted   5 hours. I'm looking for some medicine boots locally.

Poor girl,  3 days ago she could hardly walk, today she was much better but I don't see any sign of draining yet. I sure hope it breaks soon, I hate to see her hurting.
Today I set up the electric fence in Rio's pasture, and burned a bunch of branches from some pruning we did last week so I didn't get time to ride Gussie. Maybe tomorrow....
No matter how busy I am, I always take time to check my flower gardens, and today the Morden Sunrise roses that Janice gave me popped open. This one has some funny brown streaking on one of the petals:

But this one is perfection:

although the colors aren't as vivid as the other bush.My other Morden rose, the Blush, has been blooming for a while and it's just lovely too:

Ted and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on Friday, and for the occasion I bought him a yellow rose bush- Thomas Hardy, an old fashioned and very fragrant rose, and for myself an Abraham Darby from the David Austin series. Which means I have to develop another flower garden just for them.No rest for the willing!

Hoofcare book

Some of you have requested info on which books I'm buying as I learn how to trim my own horses; Here is a link to ABC Hoofcare; if you click on their products button, you will see the book. I just ordered the book and I'm pretty excited to get it! Also, I've created a new page of links on my sidebar (top right) which I will add to as I explore more websites and products.

Grrrr!

Well I'm about fit to be tied.

What do I have to do, bubble wrap this horse?????? This is Rio's third wreck. Fortunately the wounds aren't deep. Not sure what sent him through the fence, but I suspect horseflies and a rotten fencepost.

Who knows best?

This post is something I've been debating on writing for a while. I don't like dissing people, but I think we as horse owners need to be able to make informed decisions about the welfare of our equines. Last month my regular farrier didn't show up when I expected him to, and a friend from another province was visiting and since she is a barefoot trimmer, I asked her to do my horses. What should have been a simple trim for each horse became a rehabilitation project; I won't go into details but none of my horses had the kind of feet they should have had after a year in the care of a professional barefoot hoof care provider. I am very grateful for my friend for the education she gave me, but since she lives very far away, the end result is that I have decided to learn to trim my own horses.There is a book or two that I will be getting to help me, and I get a lot of support and advice both from my friend and from Mrs. Mom- who I consider a friend, even though we haven't met!- and I'm finding that it isn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Of course, I can't do a lot in one session, but I plug away at it. The money I'm saving on farrier fees will go into educating myself.  The following photos show Beamer's feet in May before my friend trimmed him, and just the other day, after I gave him another maintenance trim.

They are a work in progress, and I still have so much to learn. The point of this post is to encourage people to get involved in the care of their horses feet, don't just blindly trust that your farrier is doing the best thing for your horse just because he's a professional. I'm sure many of you are more educated on this than I am, but you are never too old to learn.

Normal Nitro

Just in case you thought Nitro was sleepin' on the job..... here he is doin' what comes natural to him.

Zoomin'!