monday morning

Yesterday afternoon, following the pony dancing exhibition in our arena (he was truly dancing with my daughter, it was amazing!) I discovered that the end stall had a disgusting spot where the mats had separated over a depression in the stall base underneath. Every time I stepped on the mat putrid black sludge oozed up and out.

I was horrified, and with the help of my husband and daughter, we got the stall mucked, transferred the clean shavings to another stall, and then stripped the mats out so we could address the mess underneath.

There were actually two spots of black sludge. I used some sawdust to soak it up and then mucked that out. Now it's stripped, the mats have been washed, and the whole thing will air out for a day or two before we put a new layer of stall base in and level it out so the mats can go back properly.

This is one of those chores that stays on my "to be done" list, but almost never gets done until something (like black sludge, for example) carries it directly to the top. The mats weight over a hundred pounds each (and each stall has SIX!) and are incredibly difficult to lift and move. My idea is that maybe we can get this stall done and then tackle one a month until we get through the rest of them.

After getting horses set up for the night, my husband and I made a run to the grocery store, and when we got home, it suddenly occurred to all of us that we hadn't seen Dickens E. Wickens all day. The search ensued. He did not come to anyone's call, but was suddenly heard crunching cat food in the laundry room, thank goodness! He slept on my pillow for most of the night.

Today I have a load of shavings being delivered, FINALLY, and will spend some time getting stalls comfy for the coming week.

Hopefully we can get rides in before the rain arrives. OR if I'm lucky, they're WRONG and we won't get any rain at all!

saturday's riches

A pony who has been in treatment for sore hocks, floating around the arena at the trot, breaking into the canter out of sheer pleasure, head and neck rounded, tail lifted and swinging softly, hindquarters fully engaged.

A donkey whose leg was broken putting on his special "donkey trot" - nose lifted, head turning from side to side, proudly sailing across the arena, with his best buddy right behind him.

A new round bale of hay, plus mustard greens and fresh eggs from our hay grower extraordinaire.

Temps above 40!

a friday evening in november, cold, but look at the light!

Today was pretty bitterly cold. The horses kept their blankets on, and I actually let Salina and the donkeys have the entire barn as back-up if they wanted to get out of the biting wind. They alternated, taking some sun during part of the day, and getting out of the elements the other.

A huge tarp blew into the fence mid-morning from our neighbor's yard, and while we have our own tarps flapping about, without any disturbance, the "strange" one seemed to un-nerve the equines. Salina was spooky when I fed her lunch, and brave "low man in the herd" Cody was issued forth to walk through the gate, meaning he had to face down the tarp, which had blown along the fence line and gotten tangled yet again.

Once he made it through safely, Keil Bay and the pony came through too.

I moved Cody to the near side of the barn, put Salina in with Keil and Apache, and gave the donkeys back their barn aisle, making the executive decision that it was nearing 4 p.m., they had been out in the wind all day, and maybe some quiet stall time with NPR and hay-filled mangers was what they all needed.

An hour later, I was in the laundry room switching out laundry when I happened to glance out toward the barn. It looked cold, but the barn itself seemed to have a nice warm glow. I could see Cody's rump through his back stall door, and across the barn aisle, Salina's head over the stall door, where she was communing with her donkey boys.



Not sure about the dusky light, I took a second one, using the 'night shot' feature. And look how it came out:



My image of peace and safety for my family, herd, and friends always includes a circle of white light. And there it is.

Here's to a safe, peace-filled, warm weekend for us all.

morning meditation

After my bath this morning, I glanced out the window and was met with this little scene.

I caught this morning morning's minion..., from Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem came to mind.

These darlings of the farm, soaking in the sun.

snow!

I knew it was going to be cold out today. Before going out to feed breakfast to horses and donkeys, I finally got around to cleaning out the front closet, which was stuffed with coats, gloves, hats, assorted and sundry used shipping boxes, plastic inserts, etc., as well as a few games, a bag of clothing needing to go to the thrift shop, and AC filters.

I made up four more bags of thrift store donations, two bags of trash, and matched up all the gloves. There was a barn jacket that fits me and I have no idea where it came from.

Son, daughter, and I all bundled up and went out to do morning chores.

It was nice feeding a warm breakfast to the equines. I'm somewhat fanatical about them having their blankets unbuckled up front while they eat feed, so we got them all undone, let them eat, then buckled them back up again so they could go out and face the very strong, cold wind.

It wasn't bitterly cold, but the constant wind made it seem a lot colder than it was.

On the way to the feed store to buy shavings (this is what happens when you let the shavings pile get down to the dregs and call for a delivery at the last minute... then it rains for three days and he doesn't want to deliver until the ground dries out) so everyone would have a fresh warm cushion for tonight's hard freeze.

When I pulled into the thrift shop parking lot, it started snowing!

By the time I pulled out of the feed store lot down the road, it was snowing hard, and combined with the wind, it was almost like a blizzard. We don't really get blizzards here, but this was close. Of course, it only lasted about 10 minutes, but for that span of time, it was like I'd moved someplace else entirely. I had flashes of Little House on the Prairie, which we read out loud, every single volume in the series, several times when the kids were young.

I couldn't wait to get home to see what the horses and donkeys were doing.

They were eating hay in the field and grass paddock, business as usual. A few minutes later the sun was out, blue skies were back, and our little afternoon blizzard was over.

I created a bit of excitement with a syringe full of crushed digestive enzymes and molasses. Cody was the recipient, and after getting about 2/3 of the dose, somewhat enthusiastically, he decided the aftertaste of enzyme wasn't worth the sweetness, so he took off down the hill. Keil Bay and the pony, ever ready to taste anything, bellied up and shoved their open mouths at me. The pony gripped the syringe in his teeth and tried to run with it, but I wrestled it back and gave each a taste. They tasted, they flapped their lips, and they walked off. Cody came back, thinking that maybe I had switched out the original syringe for something more tasty.

In the barn, the donkeys had their turn. Only Salina, the wise one, resisted. I suspect her 25 years have taught her that nothing good comes from a syringe.

But wow - that pill crusher works great!