flying by the seat of our pants

This week has been chaotic in a lot of ways. Chase, our male Corgi, has a tumor in the same area as a cancerous one that was removed several years ago. While this one appears to be very different, we have to talk to the vet and create a treatment plan. Apollo Moon, our older cat, is having mini-seizures again, and suddenly sneezing off and on, so I've been trying to monitor him more closely the past few days.

My head is swimming with information for feed routines, and equine nutrition.

When I went out to open a new round bale last night, I discovered that both the round bales we had here were wet all the way through and spoiling. It was nearly 7 p.m. on a Saturday night and I had no hay!

My daughter and I managed to fill hay nets with the little bit left from the previous bale, and my husband and son returned home early from a weekend trip so that my husband could go get more hay early this a.m.

I reconfigured feed time last night to try and make the most of what we had, fretting that the temps were dropping to the 20s and the equines would need more than what we had.

In the midst of my worry, I forgot to soak beet pulp for this morning's breakfast.

My husband found the empty pitchers this morning and made up a batch, but by breakfast time, the pellets hadn't yet dissolved. He left to go get a new round bale, and I sat in the feed room, in the middle of the floor, surrounded by feed tubs, picking hot beet pulp pellets apart with my fingers. The horses and donkeys stood in the paddock, ready for breakfast but so patient. Every now and then I heard the chain on the gate being rattled, but I'd told them what was going on, and the usual impatient hubbub never happened. They stood and waited.

I called out periodically to let them know I was still working on the pellets. At some point a goose seemed to be circling the barn, honking repeatedly. Ted Andrews says in his book Animal Speak that the honking of the goose is a call to a quest. It all seemed funny suddenly, me sitting there, all the craziness with the hay and the beet pulp, and all the other things that never truly seem to be quite under my control, even given my tendency to be organized, fooling myself that planning and organizing are enough.

My husband got back with the hay just at the moment I finally served the breakfast tubs, and I realized we'd gone through the feeling of feast, famine, and then feast again within a 12-hour period.

Even with all the chaos, we are having a gorgeous springtime day, and I have spent much of it cleaning one small corner of the dining room, inch by inch, clearly a way of soothing this weekend's unsettling reminder that in fact, we're all pretty much flying by the seat of our pants, on a daily basis.

And remembering that, for the most part, flying by the seat of one's pants is okay.

week's end and the first day of spring!

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Addendum for anyone who is interested, up top so you won't miss is:

The Ontario Dehy Timothy Balance cubes are indeed the equivalent of horse crack. In fact, if you're like me and are a total horse nutrition/food geek, they're probably better than human crack! (not that I know about that, but... sticking with the analogy here)

I wet them down in my mixing bowl in the feed room and the smell was heavenly. The color is beautiful. They 'melt down' really quickly and look, truly, like something I would eat.

I made up a bit too much for the donkeys and the pony this a.m. and the donkeys couldn't eat all theirs! So I stuck their little tubs out in the paddock so anyone who wanted to could lick them out as they headed out to pasture.

None of them made it to the pasture - there was a total logjam of horses right up near the barn, all wanting the cube mix. It got a bit scary as Keil Bay was protecting both the tubs, Cody was hovering to get what Keil didn't eat, and Salina was determined Cody needed to leave the area ASAP.

Whew! All I can say, is, big hit with the cubes, and don't make my mistake with leftovers!


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Yesterday was another beautiful sunny day, and after doing the morning chores I went to the feed store to replenish some of my bins. I was excited to find that the feed store had gotten in my first bag of Ontario Dehy Timothy Balance cubes.

These are made from timothy hay, beet pulp, and have the correct mineral balance so that they are a complete feed if fed at the right % to body weight of the horse/donkey. They're often used for IR/Cushings' horses, but I'll be trying them with the pony and the donkey boys in an effort to simplify my feed routine and keep the easy keepers happy and healthy without high sugar/starch.

They do have to be soaked, and I'll add their loose salt, ground flax, and vit. E as needed, but otherwise, all the mineral work is done. (assuming nothing is really out of whack with hay/pasture analyses)

The bags are plain brown with the info printed on front and a lavender tag with the nutritional info. It reminded me of years ago when I worked in Perkins Library at Duke and the French shipments would come in brown paper lined with the most stunning lavender/purple paper. I used to ask for it and take it home, and for years all the gifts I gave were wrapped in that paper. Very understated and classic, but lovely.

So I was impressed when I saw this feed bag! The first thing I did when I got it in the bin in the feed room was open it up and check out the cubes. They are lovely too, very green and really, like something you'd pop into a pot of soup cooking on the stove. I'll be trying them out this morning, mixing a few into the existing mix to let the pony and the donkeys get used to them. I have read that they are like "horse crack" for many horses - we'll see.

After Salina had lunch, my daughter helped me get Cody cleaned up for a ride. He was a mud cake, again, and it took awhile! But then I had a lesson with my daughter as instructor, although it probably wouldn't be too far off base to refer to her as a drill sergeant.

She stood on the mounting block with my dressage whip and issued her commands while waving the whip about. Cody didn't mind, but it was very disorienting to ME. She tends to push me really hard in these lessons she gives, and I get a lot of feedback on my position.

Keep those heels bouncy. Fix your wrists. Stop pulling on his mouth. Don't use your leg every stride. Bigger trot!

And I thought I was doing pretty well!

She's a no-nonsense instructor.

At one point I balked at something she told me to do, saying I'd already done that, and she responded:

No talking back!

I finally had to inform her that my thighs were jelly and she would have to hop on and finish Cody's canter work. Which she did, but with a few comments about me pushing harder.

It was an interesting ride. We're doing a new protocol with Cody right now and are closely monitoring his movement. We're seeing a much more relaxed, swinging walk, and a bigger canter, but the trot is slower to change. Yesterday, I noticed that the canter was so big it almost felt like the early cantering I did on Keil Bay. I can usually sit Cody's canter easily, but yesterday found myself going up in the saddle and riding it in two-point the first few strides.

There were two sequences of trot where he got on the bit and really pushed from behind, and it felt just like it does when Keil Bay turns on his Big Powerful Trot. So I think we're on the right path.

I realized again about myself that daily riding is the secret to all good things. If I miss days my back gets what I call "the hinge" and I get the blahs (not mentally so much as physically) and my riding stamina decreases.

After sponging Cody down and letting him have some time in the barnyard, my daughter got the pony going for his ride, while I cleaned Cody's bridle and watched.

During the course of her ride, we went from sunshine to a very ominous deep blue/black sky, and the wind began to whip up. When she got off, we had to move quickly to get the barn set up for evening.

Especially touching was Keil Bay walking with me to the back field to get Salina's fly mask, and to close the back gate. The wind was really blowing, and there was a bit of lightning, but he had gone into protector mode and didn't want any of the herd wandering out.

Believe it or not, we had a rainstorm last night! The sun is back today, and I hope we haven't completely reverted to mud outside. Certain areas hadn't even dried out completely from the last rain spell.

Today, the first day of spring, is sunny and bright. I have two family members heading for the beach and the other one off to a sleepover/party. So by this evening I'll be celebrating the vernal equinox on my own.

The redbuds are blooming, I've pulled the first tick of the season off the Big Bay, and I received notice that the first batch of fly predators has been shipped. Spring really is here.

back to the good days

We had beautiful fog, the sun came out, I worked on my book, and I let the blahs go and got back on the Big Bay.

This was one of those rides when I wish I had a gate that led to about a thousand acres of trail. Keil Bay was in the back field caked with mud, anew from the mud he was caked in yesterday, because all THAT mud got groomed off, and I called to him as I fed Salina her lunch tub to come on up and get ready for a ride. It took a few minutes, but he came in, and I spent what seemed like a long time getting him clean.

My daughter had Cody all ready and she did things like play with donkeys and go inside to use the bathroom and finally came and just handed me Keil Bay's saddle because it was one of those endless grooming sessions that threatens never to end.

I decided to forget the bridle and just use the halter and clip-on reins, and off we went.

We had decided ahead of time to split the arena in half for the first portion of the ride, and so Keil and I warmed up in our end at the walk, did a little bit of shoulder-in, and then he went into his big beautiful trot right off the bat. For whatever reason, after these wet rainy days of not riding, we just clicked instantly when he trotted. He was in a lovely frame, moving well, and I was balanced. It felt perfect. We did more trotting, we changed directions, we did a little bit of leg yielding, we did some walking around the entire arena, we did a little cantering. And it was all fine.

But that initial trot work was so perfect, the really right thing to have done was to head out the back gate and go on a long, relaxing trail ride. Mostly I love where we live and rarely want to leave, but today, I wished, for the Big Bay as much as for myself, that I could reward such a beautiful bit of harmony with a little adventure.

In any case, we finished our ride and his reward was being in the barnyard with Salina and the donkey boys, sun shining, green grass shimmering, round bale tipped over and split open in the most inviting way -- I suspect he liked that almost as much as the thousand acre adventure.

and now, fog

We woke up this morning to dense fog, so thick our neighboring houses were not visible. It felt like we were on top of a mountain here, very isolated from the outside world.

I kind of like that.

My husband took my camera out when he opened the back gate for the horses, and got a few photos of the herd in the fog.

I think personalities become pretty clear, even when surrounded by fog.

Keil Bay and Apache Moon go about business as usual. Eating tops pretty much any weather event.



Cody follows more slowly, looking like a spotted horse because of the shavings he's wearing. A young man needs his beauty rest!



Salina is ready to head out, but is held back by the donkeys. Redford is ready to go too, but can't quite bring himself to leave Rafer Johnson, who says Do you REALLY expect us to go out in this?



Supposedly the fog will burn away in a bit and we'll have more sunshine.

here comes the sun

No rain today, and this afternoon, later than expected, the sun finally came out. The horses and donkeys were ready for it - Keil Bay galloped in from the field for his breakfast tub, Cody spent his time waiting for breakfast in the arena doing beautiful trot work all on his own, and Salina was doing pirouettes in the paddock. I kept having to leave the feed room to see all this lovely action, which made breakfast take longer than usual, and the longer it took, the more they moved.

In spite of my happiness to see the sunshine, I still had a case of the blahs, and did not manage a ride as I had planned. Finally in the late afternoon I groomed two of the mudcakes, Keil Bay and Salina, and worked on the donkey boys a little while my daughter rode Cody.

They were all happy and ready to come in from the first full day in the field they've had since last Wednesday. And according to the 10-day forecast, there is nothing but sunshine in our near future, with nice temps for the horses.

I came in with the lovely soft, relaxed muscles that come from doing the exact right amount of work. That grooming was a good idea, and I hope the horses have the same good feeling.