Sunday Silence

 

Sunday Silence

 

Colder days are here

 Winter is closing in on us, inexorable juggernaut that it is. Every morning as I head to the barn for chores, the wind has an icy bite to it. The mares stand with their tails to the wind, hopeful eyes checking to see if they get to share the barn with the kittens ( they don't) as I prepare their ration. 

Timbits surveying the guardians at the door

 

Their coats are thick, the summertime dapples still showing on ole Velvet. 

The farrier was here yesterday, and they were both good for him. I asked him to not put Velvet's leg between his knees when he trimmed, as I am sure that was what was upsetting her - being so short,  the angle was just too much for her at her age, and so he just propped her foot on his knee to trim and she was much happier with that arrangement. 

I am the queen

I haven't ridden since last winter, not counting my work with Rally. For over a year I have had health issues that have impeded my mobility, hoping to get it all sorted out soon as I really would like to get a few rides on Gussie before she foals. Weather permitting of course!

The barn kittens are ready to go, but no takers yet for them. 

From top to bottom:

Timber (Timbits)

Minou

Matilda

They are starting to wait at their food dishes for me instead of scattering when I come in the barn. Minou is still fearful, she freaked out when I picked her up and it took her 3 days to figure out that I wasn't trying to kill her and is starting to come around again; the other two are quite content to be petted and played with.

 Thumper has old cat privileges, he now gets to spend 90 % of his time sleeping on the loveseat, and in the heated garage at night.

 He takes up a lot of room!

Wordless Wednesday

Let there be light and love.

 In all the sadness of the recent weeks, I choose to look for the things that make me happy, to deflect my thoughts from the creeping darkness of this world. 

Hello little ladybug, how simple your existence is. 

Being injured and in pain definitely slows  down one's ambitions, plans and goals. 

But it's nice to get extra Thumper cuddle time.

Having plenty of pasture left for the winter makes me happy, as do shiny, healthy horses.

Patsy aka Pattycakes will be headed back to Shayla later this week. She has grown a bunch and is still the sweetest filly. 

Flowers and bees and butterflies? Happy making for sure!

The moose hung around the riverbanks until the next morning. And now the deer are starting to come back, like these 3 does who didn't have fawns this year, showing up at daybreak. 

View from my dining room window. Can you spot the third one?

Sunny Sunday

Early Sunday morning, there were 3 buck mule deer in our yard. 2 smaller ones and the big one that I spotted last year. I figured his days were numbered, judging by the pick up trucks who passed by and slammed on their brakes when they spotted him. We have certain hunters who are allowed on our property, within limits I set to protect my horses. 

One hunter who spotted him drove onto the hayfield, where he was allowed, but he didn't take the buck as he would be shooting directly towards my horses. So I worked with that hunter and gave him access to my pasture after I locked up my horses. 

I figured since this buck was not going to make it through the day, at least I would assist this ethical and polite hunter to harvest him. And they did, it was a guy and his wife, and she was the one who had the tag and did the shooting .

I guess now all the young bucks will have to step up to the plate and generate the next batch of fawns, like this young buck who was hanging out with Beamer later in the day. 

It was such a lovely day that I spent some time just hanging out with the mares. Well actually, Ruby, at first. She was feeling quite peaceful and walked over to hang out with me, after she inspected Thumper. 

Yes, all the snow is pretty much gone. 

I spent a lovely half hour just having a peaceful visit with her. There is a Facebook page called the Red Mare, a lady in Scotland who has a red TB mare and writes about their interactions. She wrote about what she calls A Place of Peace and that is exactly what Ruby and I shared. She would touch me with her nose if I moved away, or would follow me. We watched all that was going on in the pasture and in the sky and in the barnyard. 

All was well in our world. That is, until Velvet decided she had better see why Ruby was hanging out at the barn. Because, you see, there might, I say just might be, food involved!

After all, she is eating for two now!  However, sorry Velvet, no extra food happening. Once Velvet came up, my connection with Ruby fizzled away, but it was lovely while it lasted. 

It was a great day to soak up some sunshine!

I have an excuse...

 for not posting in a week. I have been busy fencing. We have so much grass here and if I don't get it grazed down it just dries up and becomes a fire hazard. So we fenced off a few acres for the mare's next pen as their original one that they have been grazing since winter is getting short. 

I had a supervisor doing QA and QC. 

Better turn that insulator a couple more times!

We put in 30 posts and 3 strands of hot wire rope. The heat is brutal  so I could only work in the mornings, and 1 evening. But we got it finished today!

That board fence in the back is where their first pen was. We only had to fence 2 sides of this pen. 

Happy mares!

They only grazed for a short while then went and hid out in the shade of their shelter to get away from the biting flies. They have lots of distance to go for shelter and water, so they won't just be filling their faces 24/7. I may lock them out of the new pen and just have them in their shelter pen at night if they get looking too... fluffy. 

Velvet is 29 days post breeding and hasn't come back in heat. I will keep checking her for a few more days just to be sure. I will start checking Ruby back around the 17th. For inquiring minds, I just lead the mare to a safe spot over the fence from Beamer and let him holler at them. If they aren't in heat they let him know- pinned ears, striking etc. If they are in heat, they squat and pee a little bit. 

We have a heat warning for the next few days. I want to get back to working Ruby so it will either be early morning or evening for that. I did take her out for another ride, but she was nervous so I kept it short. Not having someone to ride with makes me more cautious with a mare I don't know really well yet. I found a good post by Martin Black on ways to work from the ground to get her more focused on me that I can do in the round pen, so that will be the next step. I think a horse that is worried on the trail or riding out alone isn't connected with and trusting in the rider, so it looks like I have a lot of work to do with her before we get to that point. 

I found a guy locally who does feet/teeth/bodywork as a combined way of assessing the horse so I may haul over to him. Ruby is very stiff laterally in her neck, which may be from the years of needing her teeth done. I think my next step with her will be to do a lot of the Masterson Method on her first before I spend the money on anything else. See what I can do myself first. 

She had become much more friendly and wanting to interact with me. Even lets me touch her face - I attribute that to  having her teeth done and a bit of hand feeding a bit of grain. I want them to come to me, even if I have to treat to make it happen. Build the desired behavior and  let it become a habit. 

We have a bunch of new birds around here. We have seen Baltimore Orioles, blue Herons, Gold finches, several birds I can't identify yet and of course baby birds like these starlings. 

It may be difficult to keep the cats from getting them when they start to fly. May have to lock them up in the barn for a couple of days. 

Mr. Innocent.

Sunday Silence

 

Firewater

 I was going to do a Wordless Wednesday with this post but I didn't want to alarm anyone.

We have a deep well here for our water supply and being in Alberta which has a plethora of natural gas, we actually have methane gas in our well. It builds up a bit and the tap hisses and spits when you turn it on. Normally  a glass of water has bubbles in it that dissipate as the gas evaporates but Ted being Ted, decided to flare it off.... just for fun. We have soft water here which is horrible for making coffee, so we buy spring water or Reverse Osmosis water for drinking. 

The cold snap is about over (for now). The mares had their snow blankets on the other day, 

and then today, it warmed up to -9 C and the snow blankets were gone. 

It is such a wonderment that they don't lose body heat in the winter when they are well fed.  As you can see, they have a plentiful supply of hay  and hay is what generates the heat for them,. Contrary to popular opinion feeding extra grain isn't what keeps them warm in the winter. That being said, there are situations when grain and/or targeted supplements are necessary to keep up the body score on a horse, but they add weight without providing that extra warmth. 

I had a little bit of help at chore time tonight.

Thumper decided it had warmed up enough to go out for more than 2 minutes and supervised the feeding this evening. 

 

And what a lovely evening it was! The sunsets/sunrises here never disappoint. 

Oh- by the way, li'l Bandit wants y'all to know....

She does indeed have  blue eyes.  She is getting less fearful all the time; I held my phone about 3 ft. away from her for that photo and can get my finger within about 4 inches.