Winter pasture

 My handy niece and her partner came out last weekend to help out us old folks get our winter pasture set up. We had to remove the bottom strand of hot tape that had gotten beat up with all the storms and replace it with new tape. All 700 ft. of it. There was a lot of swamp grass grown up over 6 ft. tall along one section that we had to stomp down and drive over to flatten; the weed whacker was not powerful enough to remove it all. We got it done! The horses were happy to get turned out on that 15 acres, as their grazing pens were getting a bit low. Velvet has been on the 15 before, so she led the way through the 4 ft. gate and the others followed. Room to run, you would think, but eating was more important! They did do a bit of zooming the first day and they still have access to their auto waterer and shelter, so when the bugs get to be too much, or if a rain storm comes along, they lope on back to the shelter. 

Tuffy did lose a bit of weight at weaning but it is coming back. 

Took the Nikon out today and tried for some decent photos. 

Normally I would edit a bit, but my old computer is having a moment and won't let me so these are straight out of the camera. 

Velvet, who was first out, went off to the far end, (can you see her?) while Tuffy and Dally stayed closer to the entrance. 

Those weeds are Canada Thistle and stinging nettle, both of which horses will eat in moderation. We have plans to spray this field next spring. 

Dally wandered off to see what Velvet was eating, and Tuffy stayed munching on his patch. 

He was keeping an eye on them, but when they went out of sight, he galloped up to the corner, whinnying and they came a-running at his call.... good mares!

This will be their winter pasture, at least until the snow starts covering the hotwire tape which is about 2 ft. off the ground for the bottom strand. 

Once the Leo colt gets here in a few days, he will be penned up with Tuffy so they can buddy up and be friends before I turn them out together to pasture with the mares. Can't wait!

Wild weather

 The start of summer has been a bit tumultuous around here. Starting with a Monsoon season then turning into multiple warnings for severe thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes.  None of which hit here! 

A tornado did touch down at Rocky Mountain House, which is a 45 minute drive west of us. The clouds that day were quite ominous from our vantage point. 

All is well that ends well though!  The system moved off to the north east of us. What we did get was very strong north wind about an hour later, I thought for sure we would lose some trees, in fact I could hear a tall old spruce tree cracking as I was watching out of our only north facing window in the bathroom. Thought for sure that old giant was going to come down, but it stood strong. 

Now we have rain and smoke.... always something!  But at least it has cooled off. 

We have a lot of cliff swallows that have congregated here- they are very welcome because ever since they arrived, the mosquito population has been decimated- yay! 

This is just a very few of them, the rest were reeling around the sky snacking on bugs. 

My flower gardens are thriving, this is my Jacmani clematis which last year had only a handful of flowers. 

The veggie garden is yielding carrots and peas now  and the potato plants are flowering. That is actually all I planted this year, I still have enough green beans in the freezer from last year. I did plant a tomato that I picked up for 3 bucks, it may or may not have fruit before frost time. 

Tuffy is growing and thriving too! 

Thumper intrigues him. 

Today was vet day, Happy came up open, no foal, so come mid August she will go live with Shayla and I will wean Tuffy early. Vet said wait and see until after weaning on how his hernia is, we hope it will close on its own. 

Meanwhile, the little herd gets to enjoy summer. I will wait until end of August to start working with Dally. 

All together

 I finally allowed Patsy into the full herd; she has been with Velvet long enough that they were comfortable with each other, so I let Gussie and Rally in with them. Of course that meant shenanigans!

Showing off speed and athletic ability!

Velvet got in on it, but not for long. 

They had their moment, then decided to hang out in the shelter for a while. I love that they all fit in there and get along. 

Later on they went out to the pasture. I opened up the middle pasture again, I had them in there twice this year and it came back beautifully. 

They have their fave spots so not all that tall grass will get eaten

Something had them all on alert.... so they ran back to the barn. Safe zone!

The horse flies have been horrible lately so the mares are doing a lot of rolling. 

Velvet is slowing down. She tends to want to be more by herself now that the other mares are there to keep Patsy busy. 

In Rally news, she has let me do a little nipping and rasping on her front feet, but she is a ways away from being ready for a farrier. One day at a time. I am not in a hurry with her; if I don't get her handled to my satisfaction this summer, I will wait until next year to breed her. But I will still try to get her to the stud this month. Trouble is, she has silent heats, so I will just have to guess. 

Out

 Now that we are getting more spring like weather, and the ground has thawed some, it was time to fix fence on the 15 acres  so I could let the mares out for grazing. 

The winter winds and possibly wildlife had broken the top strand of the white electrical tape, so we patched that and totally replaced the bottom strand which had been patched too many times. I also added pickets to help with wind resistance, as the fence posts there are 30 feet apart. 

I was a bit concerned about that 4 ft. gate, 

hoping Dallas wouldn't get trapped there- but they are all good.

One must fly when one can!

The mares were sure happy to get out! They did their exploratory gallop before settling down to find the green grass hidden below all the dead grass. 

Since then, I have been turning them out during the day, and keeping them off it at night, giving them hay instead; it's a bit too early for full time grazing, but I want them to have some to get their systems accustomed to it as the grass comes in, to avoid spring grass colic. 

I did see Gussie laying down again the day after her episode- she did lay flat out for a short while, and wasn't as worried once she got up. I think something flipped a switch for her, but I continue to keep watch to see if she continues to get that REM sleep, or if she regresses. 

Fooled

 Here I was, saying that August is surely the hottest month.... not so far. Rain, thunderstorms, and having to turn the furnace on for a bit to get rid of the damp chill in the morning, that's what we are getting. I'm sure it won't last, and it is welcome after the stifling heat- and the farmers who got their first crop off and were worried about being able to grow the second crop are getting the moisture they need- at least in this area. 

No shortage of grass here; those little specks are the horses. 

This field has a lot of reed grass in it, which is elbow high on me. Mostly the horses don't eat it. I guess it can be considered lowland, as the river borders this pasture. Those trees are on the far bank of the river. 

I walked the fenceline to check on any issues- the electric fence is all intact but in places completely hidden by grasses. I'm not too worried about it at this point as I know our horses won't go near it. Not even Theo, after that first little zap he got .

The tape goes up to the top of the hill and joins up with a barb wire fence that is also has one strand of electric, which the deer have managed to stretch out and it will need repair. But again, the horses stay off the fence. Once the rain stops, I will fix it. 

Finally found some wildflowers! This little bluebell and some yarrow. 

Also fooled I was, in presuming that Gussie was in foal because she hasn't come in heat in the last 11 months, and she was gaining weight. Hah. She came in a full heat on August 1st. And I am betting the weight gain was due in part to me feeding her like I would a pregnant mare, and her lack of exercise, even though she has to get out to graze on the 15 acres and walk all the way back in for water- not enough for that big girl. 

I'm not pregnant, I'm fat!

Gussie has never been this fat before, even when she was just on pasture and not being ridden before. I can only assume that at age 21, her body is undergoing age related changes. Time to put her back into work and see if we can get her in better shape. 

Out and about

 A few days ago, Theo and Velvet got their turnout with Gussie in the winter pen. Velvet has been asking to get out for a few days, and Theo was getting fairly independent in the foaling pen without mama getting too stressed, so it was time. I have been taking things a bit slower than usual with him; eg. halter training and leading, both of which I haven't really done yet. Partly because I need someone to halter Velvet while I work with him as she gets all agitated and herds him away or just gets between us. And partly because my good left arm isn't working very well for catching and holding him. Ted did help a couple of times and we petted him all over, picked up his feet, and even slipped the halter on him but didn't try to put any pressure on it, just let him wear it while we petted him. Once caught, he stands well with just an arm under his neck as we touch him. Until Velvet intervenes that is!

I didn't have my camera with me at their first turnout, but they all went ripping out into the field at full tilt- that little colt can flat out fly! Gussie was hot on their heels, excited to finally be together with them. Velvet quickly put her in her place. I kept Belle separate the first day, as she can't move fast enough to get away if needed. 

Learning about hills and uneven ground

Trying to graze

Mama relocating him (or is he leading her? )

Getting exercise to build those muscles!

He is really starting to fill out and look like something and not even 2 weeks old. He is so light on his feet, seems like he floats across the ground. I have sent away his DNA for registration and disease panel testing. 

We got a spring snowstorm the last day of April and into today, May 1. I call it the winter-I-wonder-when- it is spring, storm. Enough already! It is turning into rain, so I guess that's a blessing as this province is already in wildfire season. Look like May is fixing to be wet and I hope the farmers can get all their field work done before we hit our true rainy season in June. 

A couple of whatsits

 Hey all you birders, can you identify this bird for me? I have looked through my books and I think it's some kind of juvenile warbler but no idea which one. 

It was perched on the bird house and watching for bugs on the lawn, then flying down to grab a bug and return to its perch. 

My garden is nearly done, no frost yet but we have been close. The gladiolus are blooming finally though!

Gussie finally came in heat and Beamer covered her, it will be a mid August foal next year. Gussie and Pie head home on the weekend. 

I have really enjoyed having them here! 

We fenced off a major portion of the rest of the farm that is part of our rental. It was already fenced on the north and east with barb wire which has a strand of electrified wire , so I am not concerned about them leaning on it, and the west side is bordered by the new hot wire pen that we built last month. So it was just posts and 2 strands of white electric tape to cross fence- made for a fairly easy job. I figured the measurements out at 15 acres.

There are 2 drawbacks to offset the benefit of having all that pasture- no access to the automatic waterer, so it's tubs and hoses to water them, and their only shelter is trees at the far end. At some point we will figure out a track system to get them into the shelter pen which has the waterer. Before winter!

 Ideally, this will be a winter grazing pen once we get the track system built. 

Here's another "identify this" I need help with. We have all these mushrooms popping up, and I want to know if they are edible. 

The stem

And the heat goes on....

La da da da da.... like the old Sonny and Cher song..... 

The heat wave continues. We have dropped from the low 40's to the mid 30's. so that is a mild relief, but the land is so parched and fires are a real threat. My willow trees are dropping leaves, when I sit under their graceful branches in their welcome shade, the leaves are floating down on me, or if it's windy, whapping me in the face! We are in dire need of rain. 

I have given up on my pasture; it is all brittle and dry . The weed spray worked, but the heat hasn't allowed the grass to come through. I will replant it in the fall and let the moisture from the snow help the seeds to germinate next spring. I do have one small field that I can use for turnout and grazing, it has enough ground water to keep its grass green. It only has electric tape for fencing so I mostly use it for Beamer. I need to check the voltage all the way around it and see if it has enough juice that if Dally touches it (and she will investigate!) that she will get a little zap and leave the fence alone like she does in her current pen. It has been so hot that I haven't had the gumption to go do that, and I wanted anyway to keep them close to the shade of their shelter and the trees in their pen.

Speaking of Dally, she is quite helpful at chore time. 

She would benefit from having another foal to play with. She is getting quite independent from her mama, so I may start taking her for little walks. She will be 2 months old on the 16th, and that is when I start supplementing her separate from mama and start her kindergarten training. I will have to keep her in sight of Jayne though, as I think Jayne won't be too happy if her little darling gets out of sight. 

Dally is starting to rub out her baby coat. A lot of that is normal shedding, but she is getting itchy and rubbing too. (No she's not turning black, that's just her skin colour.)

You know how foals always turn their butt to you to get scratches? I don't scratch them when they do that, I move up their side and and scratch their wither and then around the neck, chest and top of the back. Then I will give butt scratches. I think rewarding them for turning their butt to you is a bad idea. We don't want them to do that in training later on, so as a foal it's a good time to start.