warmer, sunshine, and poetry in motion

This morning I was getting feed tubs ready for mixing. Salina had already come in to her stall to wait, and the donkeys were lining up as well.

Cody had gone through the open back gate into the arena, where he'd been herding Redford a few minutes earlier, so I asked Kenzie to open the closer arena gate so he could come through into the paddock and get ready for breakfast.

She opened the gate, but Cody didn't come out. He tossed his head in his characteristic circle toss, inviting both Keil Bay and the Little Man to come in and play.

I was shocked when Keil Bay accepted the invite, since he tends to be so focused on breakfast he is nearly always waiting at his back door, ready to bang if need be.

But this morning, after all the wet stuff that came down yesterday, I guess he welcomed the no longer frozen footing, the sun beginning to shine, no ice in troughs, and a generally warmer day. The knowledge that breakfast was coming was such a sure thing he was willing to forego it for a little romp.

Cody trotted around the arena, soon joined by Keil Bay. The Little Man really didn't do much except hunt for acorns, but my guess is he'd already done his morning exercise.

Although I am usually pretty focused on serving breakfast, I dropped the tubs I was carrying and stood watching the two big boys move. At one point they trotted toward the center of the arena from opposite ends, whirled their heads at one another, pivoted, and bucked, each kicking one hind leg up, completely in sync. It looked like they were doing a dance, mirroring one another's every move.

Keil Bay started at C and cantered straight up center line, doing an absolutely gorgeous collected, balanced, powered from behind canter. Cody trotted like an upper level dressage horse, with absolutely gorgeous suspension (and he's a Quarter Horse!), and that elusive schwung that is hard to describe but when you see it in action you absolutely stop and hold your breath it's so beautiful.

I recently tweaked their minerals, tightening the ratios (Ca:Ph and Fe:Cu:Zn:Mn) even closer to the "ideal." I have no idea if this is why they are looking and moving so beautifully or if they just both hit their best strides at the same time on this welcome morning. Whatever the reason, it captivated me. Even Redford stood and watched, as if appreciating each step.

Sometimes when I watch competition dressage I am disheartened by the mechanical movements that seem to get the high scores. The whole discipline begins to look labored and the horses look constrained and unhappy.

And then I see what Keil Bay does when he feels good and wants to show off, and what Cody does too. The fact that what they are doing with their bodies so obviously FEELS GOOD to them is all the difference between classical dressage and competition dressage.

Watching horses in double bridles, muzzle to chest, looking like something is going to literally explode out of their necks, always causes me to tighten up. I feel the muscles in my shoulders clench, feel my own neck draw up as though it's being pulled out of alignment with the rest of my body.

But this morning, watching the Big Bay and Cody, my entire body relaxed. I felt like my legs had taken root in the earth, and yet at the same time my upper body felt free and flowing. It occurred to me that this is the way to judge what you see when you watch horses being ridden. How does YOUR body feel?

With every step the two geldings took this morning, I could feel the movement as if I were riding it. And I wonder, when I get back on either/both, if that sensation will carry through and bring my own lightness and balance up a notch.

I suspect it will. Even now, writing about it, my body feels soft and supple. Poetry in motion. A simple but profound gift.

wild angel water bucket cozy

Last week I went looking for water bucket and trough insulation ideas - I have never been willing to try the electric bucket or trough warmers due to my paranoia about either electric shock or potential for barn fires. 

I found THESE.
 

I only ordered one, so I could see the quality in person, and so I could try it out. UPS was on the road very late tonight - with snow and ice and now rain, I am impressed that they kept delivering! - and the bucket insulator arrived.

It is very nice - excellent quality, aesthetically pleasing, and I will try it out tomorrow and see if the Big Bay gives it his stamp of approval. Then, if it works, I will order a couple more!

I'll have to figure something else out for the donkeys and Salina, who drink from big HorseTech buckets on the ground.

And the water troughs, although I discovered that filling them to the brim before sunset and removing every chip of ice in the a.m. and on through the day help immensely.

 

the girl and the horse

This popped up on Facebook today and it is so lovely it made me cry - a story many of us share:

cold and clear

Last night I went out later than I usually do to help my husband lever the huge new round bale into its shelter. This involved two jump poles, an extra straw bale, and me laying my entire weight on the end of the pole and then shrieking, "It's not working!" But in the end it worked perfectly, and the hay ended up right where it needed to be.

My husband generally does the night-time feed for me, so I'd forgotten how a clear, cold night can be almost magical. All the equines were enjoying their barn time, with lots of hay, straw bedding, water straight from the well (and thus not ice cold!), and lights off. I peeked in at them and saw 6 pairs of blinking eyes.

Out in the arena, the Mystical-kit was dashing around chasing leaves blowing in the wind. I never knew how quickly a small gray body could get from A to X, or how fast a 20-meter circle could be run!

The wind was finally beginning to die down, but we had one more frigid night to get through - 12 degrees F - and the temperature was slowly dropping toward that low.

One of the best things about caring for horses, and I'm sure it's true for caring for any farm animals who live outside, is that it brings us into contact with nature at different times of day than we might otherwise experience.

Early mornings in winter can be brutal, but there is a clarity of thought that coincides with those coldest mornings that I find impossible to replicate without the actual sensation of the early morning sun and the cold.

Similarly, cold nights have a sense of magic, as though something is waiting to happen but you have to be very alert to see it. For a few moments, I waited.

Then I walked to the gate, on along the well-worn path in our backyard that leads to our back door. There's something palpable that happens when I come out the back door to head to the barn - a feeling of being drawn forward, to the horses and the donkeys, to the "barn time" that is for me very different than any other time. Actually it's more like walking out of time, leaving the world ruled by clocks behind.

There is also something special about walking from barn back to the house, especially at night, when the lights from within are shining through the doors and windows, and now, nearing the winter solstice and Christmas, the lights on the tree are twinkling, much like the stars twinkle in a dark night sky.

Feeling the warmth of the wood stove, seeing cats lying on sofas and chairs, Kyra and Bear already inside on their beds. When we go out in the cold, clear night, maybe what is waiting to happen is the homecoming at the end.

adventures in stall bedding - straw!

Well, actually straw on top of pine pellets.

With the frigid weather we're having, I was not really happy with the pine pellets alone - the stalls felt very unsnuggly and although the horses and donkeys aren't really IN the stalls all that much, I wanted them to have someplace soft and warm to lie down during the times they ARE in.

I've wanted to try straw bedding for years, but have never quite managed to convince myself to go for it. Yesterday, with several cold nights in front of us, high winds that would mean the horses would in fact have access to stalls all night (and in the case of Salina and her donkey boys, would not be turned out to the bigger fields at all), I decided it was a good time to try.

Our hay supplier usually has wheat straw but didn't have extra this year to sell. He gave me a name of someone else. He just sold the last of this year's crop. He gave me the name of someone who had oat straw. An internet search said oat straw was more likely to be eaten by the horses than wheat, so I called the feed store. Bingo - they had wheat straw.

I headed over and got a baker's dozen wheat straw bales. Just as the sun was setting, my daughter and I unloaded them and began to bed the stalls, while impatient equines watched over the stall doors and one in particular began to bang loudly to be let in.

The straw made all the difference. We used 2 bales per stall and banked it up high in the corners and along the edges. It was so cozy I wanted to lie down on it myself!

Everyone except Cody and the pony took a few bites. This morning it was fun to see what each equine did with their stalls during the night. Salina and the donkeys kept their straw fairly clean. They used one area in each of their stalls (and the barn aisle) to deposit the manure.

Keil Bay obviously slept more than usual in his stall - there were many flattened manure balls and he uncharacteristically deposited most of his manure in the edges, along the wall. Those balls were frozen hard, while the ones he laid on were still soft.

My daughter mucked Cody and the pony so I'm not sure what they did. It was interesting to learn a new mucking technique this morning. I used the pitchfork to heap all the straw, which was 98% dry, only a little bit was wet with urine, high into the corners so I could muck pee spots and get the manure that was "in the open." Then as I forked the straw back out, discovered that there is a completely different technique to getting the manure out from under the straw. Instead of pushing forward with the rake, as you do with the pellets. what works best with the straw is to insert the rake just under the manure and then pull back, shaking the rake gently as you do so. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy.

I don't know that we'll use straw year round, and it might be drastically different if we stalled the horses many hours a day, but for our purposes, it worked really well. The barn felt warmer this morning, and the horses were in good spirits after a very cold and windy night.

I'd love to hear if anyone uses straw full-time - any special tips, etc.