We just worked on horsey feet all weekend. Kazi is sporting her new front feet and has been told she has to exercise to build up her circulation. So today we ran her, Daisy and Ivan around the arena. Poor Daisy cannot keep up with the two Arabs and got to stop the soonest. Kazi has a limp, but not too bad, so she had to keep on trotting and cantering, whichever she wanted to do. Ivan flew. Before we let him into the arena, he galloped around the outside while the mares ran on the inside . He ran much further and faster than the mares and barely broke a sweat. Kazi was a bit warmer than Ivan, but not bad. Poor Daisy was huffing and puffing despite not having run nearly as far.
We put the Noodles of Death up again this evening...for the third time. Ivan walked right thru them in about 2 minutes! We tied the noodles up high for the night so that Ivan can't dismantle them again.
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June 5:
Long hot day here! I had a ton of things to do and then had Dave the farrier here to work on Trinket this evening. Poor Trinket is so little it is very hard to get things to fit her. Dave says Kazi's feet are looking a bit better, her coronary band is starting to even out and go back up, which is what he wanted. The scar tissue had pulled it downward. She is wearing quite a set of pads on her front feet, but is moving better. She has to be exercised every day to build up her circulation...and doesn't appreciate it much in this heat.
My hay guy is coming at 7 a.m. tomorrow to mow our hay. It is supposed to be 100 degrees here on Saturday . He says it will be baled on Saturday. I have 200 bales of it sold to Dave already, so I sure hope it turns out good!
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June 6:
Sweat.....The hay is on the ground. I have been up and down the hill to the barn a dozen times. It is 93 degrees on my thermometer....Sweat.....The horses got their work out this morning at 7:30 a.m. They wondered who the maniac was making them work so early in the morning. Kazi started off with a limp, but after about 5 minutes, she seemed to warm up a bit and the limp disappeared. I had her and Ivan doing laps around the arena with Kazi occasionally firing a double barrel kick in Ivan's general direction. Daisy got to be lazy out in the grass and not work. She can't keep up with Ivan and Kazi anyway after about 5 minutes. Kazi has to work every morning to help with her hoof circulation. Ivan is just a convenient victim to keep her company....
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June 8:
It is early to have such heat here, it usually shows up more like on July 4th, if it gets this hot at all.
My hay is put up. My face is sunburned. My feet are dog tired. My bank account is depleted. But we have a beautiful barnful of great hay for next winter!
We got 630 bales of which Dave the farrier will get 150 or so. We worked like slaves all weekend in the worst heat we've had in a few years, mid 90s and high humidity today. The hay guy found a great crew for today and they loaded all the hay fast and furiously. I plied them with cold water all afternoon hoping no one would have a problem with the heat. I watched and sweated with them this afternoon, but started early this morning before they got here and helped Donnie turn over the 300 bales in the lower field that got left out over night. I was outside all day.
Yesterday Donnie and I cleaned out the garage extension of all the house building leftovers, had the gravel floor leveled by the neighbor's bobcat, and had it ready for the hay. This after cleaning the barnlot and arena, running Kazi and Ivan around for 15 minutes exercise at 7 in the morning. We got in after dark both days. Did I mention I am dog tired and sunburned?
But we got great hay!
Buying hay is soooo much easier than worrying over rainfall, fertilizer, late hay guys, equipment failure, and then getting it in the barn in good shape and surviving the heat, sunburn and raw nerves! I figured out we have $3.20 per bale invested in this process, labor, gas, and fertilizer prices are higher this year. Not much of a savings to raise one's own, but I guess at least my horses have good hay to eat this coming winter.
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June 9:
It is 97 degrees on my thermometer. Whew! I am not made for this kind of weather.
I have exercised Kazi and Ivan every morning for the past several days.
Even around 7:30 a.m. it is humid and warm. After 15 minutes of trotting and cantering, they build up quite a sweat. Kazi will let me rinse her off, Ivan doesn't have a clue how good that feels yet....
Now I have to wonder if Ivan will ever like water . I haven't tried to give him a bath yet, but he needs one. We have a thunderstorm hanging over us, so he may get a shower this evening anyway. Sure glad this storm wasn't here yesterday, I would have been doing nakked anti-rain dances and the guys would have been howling with laughter...
I had to deal with the hayguys early this morning when they off-loaded the last hay wagon into the garage, then came again later to pick up their equipment. No rest for the wicked until AFTER they left and the barnlot was cleaned. Then I slugged out all afternoon . I am reading Mark Rashid's book, Life Lessons from a Ranch Horse, and have really been enjoying it!
Rain starting. I am so grateful it waited for us to get the hay in!
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June 10:
Ivan tore down the Noodles obstacle AGAIN. This is the third time and we
thought we had it out of his reach. The boy is a destructive dynamo. He is getting a bit better about velcro, but still isn't very happy about getting that flymask off. The eyes get VERY large, but the freaking is minimal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 11:
It is a bit cooler here today, mid 80s. We could actually use some rain, it has missed us over the past couple of weeks. That helped the hay, but now we could use some, it is dry. They have been closing the county schools a couple of hours early all week due to the heat.
Good luck with the floor tomorrow!
I ran Ivan and Kazi around the arena this morning. They are such a pair . Kazi gets down to business and moves out around the arena, Ivan follows her, then races ahead of her while she is shooting evil mare looks at him. Kazi seems to get into the work if we do it every other day. If we do it every day, she seems to drag along. I think she needs the day between to recover. They seem to be getting into better shape already. Daisy enjoys the show....
We are getting a nice rain shower this evening! We need it, it is so dusty
in the barnlot and our new grass was starting to die. The established grass is doing fine. Ivan managed to get his flymask off himself, so we didn't have our nightly upset over that.
Please keep all fingers, toes, and assorted parts crossed for Speck tomorrow! Thanks! The vet will be here after lunch. If Speck is still with us, Daisy will get a blood test to see if we can stop the Regumate. I sure hope she has the right hormone levels for that! That stuff smells like lighter fluid and probably tastes just as good.
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June 12:
waiting...waiting...waiting.....
The vet will be here around 1:30 pm. Guess what I am doing?
I have the barnlot clean, animals all put up, crapola picked up...which means little since they are all back in the barn where they can add more.
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WooHoo!! Daisy is still pregnant!!! Speck is peanut sized!
This is Daisy's last ultrasound, she may get palpated after the first of the year. I will post the ultrasound photo when Donnie downloads it this evening. Speck seems to be right on track! The vet said Speck has little legs and a head, but I think he may be imagining things a little . I asked if he could tell what sex Speck is, but he didn't claim to see those sorts of details..
Kazi was so funny, she watched the entire procedure and looked right at the ultrasound machine screen like she knew what she was looking at. We told her that her baby would be a lot prettier in a few months. Ivan stood outside of the barn and nickered at Daisy the entire time. He couldn't get past Kazi to look any closer. Ivan likes Daisy.
I could see where his heart was beating in the center of the spot that is Speck! The vet said Speck was about 3 fingers side by side across and one finger thick. I love a vet who talks in technical terms .
I just found out that Daisy's vet has a website with all sorts of horse info on it. The website is: http://www.horserepro.com/
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Here it is, the latest Speck photo hot off the camera! Notice the lovely eyes, slender legs, and cute little 'x' that marks the spot where you could see his heart beating. (Can you really see all that? ) Truthfully, other than the heart, I am not sure which way is up on him, but he is still the cutest foal kit I have ever seen! Click on photo to enlarge.
Speck !
Daisy is still on Regumate for at least through early next week when the blood test will reveal whether or not we have to continue it. I hope she won't have to take anymore, the stuff is really awful, besides being very expensive! It destroys syringes in no time flat and smells like lighter fluid. One can only imagine how it tastes... ...Speck seems to like it, though....No accounting for tastes!
It was a little cooler here today, mid-80s, but we have horrendous amounts of smoke in the air making it fairly miserable outside to breath. There are fires in eastern NC and we are getting the winds off of them apparently. It is really hazy and my lungs can feel the smoke in them. Folks with lung problems must be having a hard time with this. I didn't run the horses today because of the smoke, no sense in causing problems. I did play with Ivan with a large ball this evening. It is about 3 feet in size, fairly well matching the size of Ivan's eyes when he first saw it. After rewarding him for touching it and following it, we eventually were bouncing it off his front legs. The ball got stuck underneath him once and we waited for the explosion, but it didn't occur! The ball is part of a new obstacle I have planned for the competitors....WEG...
Of course, things can happen, but at this point it looks like a viable
pregnancy. Dr. D will be coming back when Daisy foals, he will be her baby doc...He's a wonderful vet. You should have seen him handle Ivan when he was giving him shots. Very patient and kind and got the job done without undue stress to Ivan....who was sure he was going to die and not acting very reasonable.
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June 13:
Ivan has been pushing that big ball around the arena this morning. I think he is trying to bite it, but it keeps escaping.
It has been really interesting watching this entire breeding process we have gone through. I never would have thought we'd do an embryo transfer, but so far it seems to have worked out well! I get a Kazi baby and Kazi doesn't have to carry it. Works for us both!
Only 9 more days until the trail obstacle competition here . We have been busy planning obstacles, gathering materials to build some of them, and arranging to have the arena deeply raked and smoothed. Tons of things to do!
I ran Ivan and Kazi around the arena this morning and Kazi did her pretty extended trot part of the time. I haven't seen her do that in a long time. I hope this means her feet are feeling better!
Ivan let me remove his flymask this evening easily!!! I even ripped the velcro very slowly and he didn't try to pull away, have a heart attack, or jump out of his skin! He still doesn't like it, but is starting to accept it. He doesn't mind the huge bouncy ball rolling around or bouncing off his legs, he noses it around. Kazi hates the ball. She knows it is going to eat her one of these days....
Busy day tomorrow.....
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June 14:
We did something interesting today! We bought some dry ice,at Kroger's (of all places), and put it into the horses' water trough in the arena to see if it would make fog. Yep it did! Kazi and Daisy thought it was very interesting, but it didn't scare them as it bubbled the water and fog spilled over the trough onto the ground. So we are going to make a tarp puddle and put buckets of fog behind the fence that will spill out over the water for an obstacle.
Dave the farrier took home his hay wagon of hay and delivered his round hay ring to make another obstacle with, too, today. He is going to put battery run strobe lights on it this week. We are also going to make a tunnel out of tarps. The other new obstacle will be several huge balls in an enclosed area (raised 6" rails) that the horse has to navigate thru. It will be about 20 feet of giant balls and beach balls.
So we are getting things planned pretty well. Only a week to go to get it together!
We had a HUGE storm here this afternoon. We got about 1 1/2 inches of rain fairly quickly. Mud City. We needed the rain, but I hope the weather gods cooperate and don't make our pastures a muddy mess next weekend. It could really throw a monkey wrench into our horsey club playdate here.
Ivan let me put his halter on over his flymask this morning with Dave standing nearby and didn't try to avoid it! He was sooo sweet, and made me very happy that he cooperated in front of "company" . Dave said Kazi was moving better, but Trinket may need a wedge on one of her hooves to straighten out a habit of walking on the edge.
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June 15:
We ran all day. No garden weeded, no yard mowed, only part of the house peak painted. Where does the daylight go? Even in the longest days of the year, there isn't enough daylight to get everything done on the weekend. We need more weekend....
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June 16:
Big storms this afternoon around here. I heard there was actually a tornado to touch down on the VA-WVa line, one county up above us. I haven't heard if there was any damage yet.
Ivan let me open an umbrella in front of him, touched it, and let me put it up over his head this evening! He can be so brave sometimes.....then there are other days....
June 17:
Our weather is cooler today and the storms from last night have left things more green.
I have our list of obstacles for our 'event' this Sunday.
Now I have to figure out what to do with Ivan, aka El Destructo, when we get the obstacles put up.....
I spent the day cleaning up the usual and then shopping for stuff for the competition and arranging for judges. I got little
prizes for everyone and notepads for the judges to keep score on. The farmer guy scraped the arena with his John Deer bobcat machine and then Donnie finished it with an English harrow pulled by my Blazer. The arena looks so nice and clean and level. Ivan was immediately suspicious when he went in there, it just didn't look right! He had it arranged just like he liked and we messed it up!
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June 18:
The first obstacle is up. I helped Dave, the farrier, put up his hayring, on edge, in our little ravine that used to be the old road bed. He put strobe lights on it and we blocked passage around it, so the horse has to go thru it, or turn around and go back. Should be interesting to watch!
Donnie is taking off Friday to put up the tunnel and noodles and then we will finish the decorating on Saturday. I have to time it for the least amount of time that Ivan can tear something down in before the playdate. Sneaky little guy...
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June 19:
We worked on the lower field's obstacle signs this evening. I made all the signs and tags to hang on trees, and we hung flags around the groundhog holes to keep horses away from them. These are inactive holes, but we never seem to get them filled with dirt. Tomorrow we start the real obstacle building.
Ivan did a great thing this evening! I removed his flymask without holding onto him, and used only one hand to do it. he stood still and let me slowly rip the velcro and then take the mask off!!! By George, I think he has finally figured out that the velcro is his friend . I am going to lead him around the obstacle course during the competition....IF he lets me. I am hoping he will stay as good as he has been lately when there are a dozen or more strange horses and 30 loud people here on Sunday. We are holding the competition rain or shine....and there is a 40% chance of rain Sunday. Dave is bringing his tractor to pull horse trailers out of my pasture if needed....
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June 20:
We were outside from about 8 a.m. until after dark, getting ready for our trail obstacle competition on Sunday. We are on the downhill side of being ready now. I am sunburnt and worn out!
Dave brought his tractor over with a rototiller type of attachment and re-did our hard packed arena. It is now soft and sandy instead of like concrete. We are going to have to get some kind of device to keep the arena groomed properly. The first thing the horses did when we put them in the arena was to roll in the sand . They like it much better! Ivan watched us building the framework for the tarp tunnel very carefully. It will be interesting to see if he destroys it overnight....He is a demolition expert.
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June 21:
There is a 50% chance of rain today and tomorrow...sigh....We are holding our competition rain or shine, but I sure would prefer dry weather for this. Last night we left the three giant balls in the arena so that Ivan could watch them all night. The biggest is 4 feet across, the other two are 3 feet. This morning Ivan grabbed the lightest weight 3 foot ball with his teeth, carried it across the arena, shook it, kicked it, fell on it and blew it to smithereens....So ends the rainbow colored giant ball....That was kind of fun to watch, but I guess we won't leave the other two in with him tonight. It would be nice to have something left for the contest tomorrow.
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It's 10 p.m. We just walked in the door. We are tired beyond belief and still have a few things to finish. Poor Donnie's knee is killing him, but the tarp tunnel and new noodle curtain structure look really good. The fog pond may end up just a pond if we don't have enough time to get over to Blacksburg in the morning to get some dry ice. I have to make a map for the judges and get the prizes together this evening. Ivan never got a chance to walk around the arena this evening, we just didn't have time.
My neighbor girl, Megan, who unloads the manure trailer every week, is going to walk Zippy thru the course tomorrow. She is SOOOO excited . Donnie is going to be a judge in the arena since Daisy is in isolation from strange horses. If Ivan is reasonable, I will walk him thru what he will go thru.
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June 22:
The trail obstacle competition playdate is over for the year! We got
everything done this morning just in time for the first horse trailer to show up a half hour early. It had been sunny and fairly warm all morning, so we got another dose of sunburn while we finished all the arrangements outside. Then when the first horse trailer showed up, the heavens opened up and we had a deluge! It poured, lots of lightning, and more horse trailers showed up as the rain continued. As far as I know, no one canceled out because of it, but we had some worried folks pulling those trailers into our pasture and wondering if they would be able to get out. So the sunny day turned cloudy, became fairly comfortable, and though we had thunderstorms pass on either side of us, no more hit us while the crowd was here.
We had 22 horses and I don't even know how many more extra people. They came in packed cars and trailers and I lost track of how many showed up, but we had a good crowd. They got to practice a few things between 1 and 2 pm, then the contest began. Four judges, including Donnie, did a very efficient job of getting the contestants thru the course in the arena and then on around the fields, across the creek and along the lower hay field. There were 18 obstacles, which as funny as they might look, do serve the purpose of training the riders/handlers and their horses skills to be able to get thru things on a real trail ride that might pop up. The horses learn to face their fears, trust their person, and work thru an obstacle in a (somewhat) controlled manner. Then when they go out in the real world, the rider and horse have methods to use to cross water, deal with scary objects, be brushed against by strange objects, sidepass over an object, and cross over things. One horse here had a problem passing by our goats and donkey, but worked thru it. Dragging a corrugated pipe caused some excitement, too..
Our neighbor, Megan, walked the ultra-muddy Zippy thru the obstacles, her very first time leading a horse. Zippy rolled in the mud about 2 minutes before he left the pony lot, so looked like a mess . Megan had fun. Ivan couldn't handle the excitement early in the day, so I had to put him back up and took Kazi around. Kazi did great in the arena, but didn't like going off by herself to do the pasture obstacles. Later, Ivan settled down and when there were a few less horses and people around, went thru the obstacles fairly well. Trinket got walked thru the objects by a friend and Daisy went thru them later when everyone left so she wouldn't feel left out.
We didn't get many pix since I was handling horses and Donnie was a judge, but hopefully someone will send us some. After the crowd left, the heavens opened up again and we have had some big storms all evening.
Did I mention we are totally exhausted? Good thing this is just once a year, it gives me quite awhile to recover...Folks seemed to have a good time.
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June 23:
We were so lucky with the weather yesterday. Despite the initial downpour as folks were arriving, we didn't get any more rain during the contest. We had storms pass to either side of us all afternoon. Just a few miles away, there was a hail storm in our old county that had up to 6 inches of hail!! They plowed it off the streets with snow plows! Unreal. I am so grateful it didn't hit here!
I need a serious slug day, but spent the morning cleaning up horsey doo anyway. We need to take down the stuff in the arena so we can park Ivan in there this evening. El Destructo will rip down those noodles again promptly. I hope he gets used to the idea of other horses, he was a nutcase at the start of the day. He has only met about 10 horses in his entire life and yesterday's crowd blew his mind. You never heard such bugling....
Poor Donnie went off to work with a badly swelled knee and his ice pack. He is taking off the end of the week to get ready for his annual big event, Amateur radio field day. It is a national contest with several categories, he will be doing the division for those using Morse code by themselves, not a group, out in a field somewhere. He will be camped in the horse trailer for 24 hours Saturday and Sunday, tip tapping away on his Morse code key and having a wonderful time. He loves doing that. I would be a zombie after a few hours of that, but he will not waste a minute on sleep during the contest.
Donnie and I are out tearing down the obstacles in the arena, something I am sure Ivan would have rather done. It is amazing how much more quickly it is to tear something down than it is to put it up. Here are a couple of Ivan pix taken this past week....
Ivan's profile.....Ivan killing big ball....Ivan running in the fog
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June 24:
We have completely dismantled the obstacles except for the little tarp pond. Kazi and Ivan can go back on their exercise program starting tomorrow. They have had several days break while we were getting ready for the horsey event here. I couldn't get Ivan to stick his toe into the water of the tarp pond, so we left that one intact. I am not sure Ivan has ever seen water from a creek before, he lived on a 9 acre pasture that I don't think has a creek in it. He is quite sure our little puddle is going to drown him. He won't make much of a trail horse if he is afraid of water. Kazi, Daisy and Zippy all cross it with no problems. Here is a photo of the little tarp pond:
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June 26:
Donnie is off for the next couple of days. We will be building antennas and setting up his little horse trailer camp for the national Amateur radio field day contest this weekend. He has to be set up with batteries, no electricity from house wiring, to simulate working in a disaster situation where electricity might not be available. He will be doing it alone, but there are lots of radio clubs who make it into a camp-out/bbq party and share the actual radio work, they get actual sleep. There are categories for clubs or small groups or individuals going it alone. Donnie will come up for air on Sunday at 2 p.m. when the contest ends. It starts Saturday at 2 p.m. when the airwaves go from dead silence to an explosion of activity! He loves it....
On Sunday during our competition, I took Kazi away from
Daisy, who proceeded to pitch a fit. She raced up and down the fence line, slipped in the mud, landed on her rump and then her side and slid into the side of the barn with a whomp....sigh.....luckily she didn't have a mark on her and seems to be okay. I didn't see this, but had several folks tell me all about the show. ...Daisy is quite creative about getting into messes. Yesterday she loaded herself onto the horse trailer that is sitting opened up in the field. I am sure she went in to check for snacks, but when she was unloading herself down the ramp, she slipped and landed on both front knees...including that $2800 knee. She is fine. I am not sure if TWHs are clumsy in general, or if she is just a supreme klutz. Our farrier, Dave, has a matching palomino TWH mare, about 6 months older than Daisy, who does similar things. Maybe it is a blond horse thing.
The Competition: There were about half the 22 horses who ended up being ridden, but they practiced some on the ground beforehand. We had 2 competitions, one for mounted and the other for unmounted, so they didn't compete against one another....
We did have some spooks, but so far none have shown up in photos. Clyde's horse spooked at the unseen goats in the barn . I guess he could smell them, although I don't have stinky goats. Another horse was a bit put off by the donkey's braying (which he did periodically thru out the day ). A few horses wouldn't go thru the noodles or across the pond, but we didn't have anyone tossed or hurt...thank goodness!
There were three palomino TWH mares there. If Daisy hadn't been in quarantine, I would have gotten a photo of the three of them together. They would make quite a parade entry.
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June 27:
Donnie is still in antenna hanging mode, having a great Donnie-time. I am waiting on Dave the farrier to come over and fix Kazi's hoof pad, the bottom part came off when the screws sheared off while I was exercising her yesterday. It just has to be screwed back on in the right place. I have a pot of chili awaiting Dave, his reward for coming over on a Friday afternoon....his favorite dish.
Dave fixed Kazi's rubber pads during a fast and furious thunderstorm this evening. It didn't last long, but was fierce! It
rained just enough to wet the arena down just right for Dave to use his tractor to groom it really well. It is nice and fluffy. I almost hated to let Ivan back into the arena this evening .
Ivan was playing with one of the big balls this morning, chased it all over the arena, then fell on top of it and blew out the air plug. Poor ball was flattened. Luckily, I found the plug and we should be able to re-inflate it. Ivan loves those big balls
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June 28:
Donnie is immersed in his contest. I see him dash to the bathroom on occasion, or to the kitchen to grab a snack, but basically, I am having a quiet day here. It started at 2 p.m. today and goes for 24 hours. I will be sleeping alone tonight....sniff...if alone means with a couple of cats taking up a lot of the space.
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June 29:
Donnie is still tip tapping away on his radio. He has over 700 different contacts so far and still had a couple of hours
left in the contest. He should collapse around 2:01 p.m.
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Donnie finished up the radio contest with 796 contacts in 47 states and Canada, Puerto Rico, Italy, and the Virgin Islands. This is supposed to be just a North American contest, but the Italian guy wanted to play, too. After 24 hours of Iron Man Radio Contesting, Donnie looks like something someone might of stepped in recently.. He had a little nap and is at least back amongst the living.
The contest was continent-wide and everyone who participated has to send in their log book entries to be checked. I suspect it will be fall before they know who won in all categories, but Donnie feels he stands a good chance. It is the best he has done to date and he got second place one year.
We took all the horses, ponies and donkey down to the creek, mostly to see what Ivan would do. I really don't think he has ever seen running water before. Kazi and Daisy were led across the creek and did great. Zippy and Trinket (!) walked across the creek on their own and did great. Ivan and Cactus couldn't believe the others lived thru the experience and there was no way they were going to cross. So they ran up and down the hill on their side, yelling and swearing and crying, but never crossed the creek.
So after we got back, I had Ivan and Kazi running inside the arena, and had Kazi and Daisy cross the little tarp pond in front of Ivan. Then I turned them loose. I told Ivan he had to cross the tarp pond before he got to go out to pasture. So we spent over a half hour circling back and forth in front of the pond, finally jumping the corner of the pond, but only managed to get one foot into the water once...by accident. Ivan didn't get much grass time.
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June 30:
I am worn out. It cooled off so nicely this afternoon after some storms went by (65 degrees!), I just had to work with Ivan.
I had no success in getting him into the tarp pond the other day, so I thought I would do something with him that I just KNEW he could do....jump. He did jump the arena fence and the logs in the pasture, so I knew he could jump the plastic barrels in the arena. Well, he did. In his own time. Very slow time. I got him across the barrels twice, then he didn't want to do it again. So we worked and worked and I finally as the last light was leaving the sky, got Ivan to jump the barrels one more time. Big rewards, hugs, snacks, praises, and I was outta there......pant, pant.....
Tomorrow should be just as fun. I am going to the dentist.
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