New dynamics

The last few days have been focused on getting the pens built - enlarging the pen for Kai, Josie and Nitro so that we could give Beamer his full pen back instead of having it divided for Nitro. Kai is pretty bossy, so to put Nitro in with him and Josie we needed plenty of space. We borrowed a little gas powered Stihl auger, that thing is the cat's pyjamas! The guys had to bar the frost off the surface, then the auger made short work of the holes, perfect size too.

With the ground frozen solid now, I won't need my round pen until next spring, so we took it down and used it to set up a fence between the horses and cows. The landlords do have farm fence to put up, but I can't wait until next year, so we put up our own fence line to be replaced by the wire at a later date.

I ended up having to run some electric tape between Beamer and the kidz; they share a common fence line now and I don't want Beamer to be trying to get to Josie when she eventually comes into heat.

I know it isn't huge, but it is the best I can do living here, it's all the space that my landlords will allow us to have.

That's not snow in Beamer's pen, it's white gravel that we put in to combat the mud that happens in the spring.

It's interesting watching the new herd dynamics. After a day, it is clear that Kai has taken the role of herd boss. When I first turned them out in this pen, Kai was just beside himself, trying to do two things at once- herding Josie away from Beamer, and keeping Nitro away from the hay feeder. He was a busy boy for a while! Once I put up the hot wire and Beamer backed off to mind his own business, Kai settled into just being a brat- pinning his ears and charging at Nitro- just enough to get Nitro to move- and getting after Josie for hanging out with Nitro.

I found out that Kai was not the boss in his last herd, but he was best buds with the herd boss. Guess he was studying up for the top position! Josie pretty much ignores him, or gives him both barrels when he gets too pesky, but Nitro is quick to get out of his way. Nitro might be bigger, but he is only a long 2 year old, where as Kai is 2 years older than him.
So it looks like we are set up for winter, the water tubs with heaters are in place, the pens are as good as they are going to get, the horses all have shelter and it's lookin' good. Time to get back to working with Kai now!