what we're up to this fall

 

Kyra Corgi is getting older but she still loves her special hikes. We carried her about half the way so she wouldn't get tired or sore. The last stretch she rode in the front seat of the truck and let Bear get the rest of his boundless energy out. 

 

Rafer Johnson at dinner time, really wanting Salina's stall door open so he can go lick out her big red feed tub. He periodically uses those lips to work on the stall latch and we are in big trouble the day he manages to get it open!

The lovely senior mare Salina, who is in good spirits and seems to be getting a slightly naughty streak this year. She's been tipping buckets, knocking things down in the barn aisle, and then, just when you think maybe she needs to lose barn aisle privileges she does something charming like this. A few moments further on she probably came halfway in and started pulling things out of place, but you know, I love seeing her bold spirit and sense of humor coming out. She has earned the right to play a few jokes after so many days and nights tracking those silly geldings!

Bear is the youngest animal family member on November Hill and although he can wear out the patience of a saint with his boundless energy, he is a sweetie too. There is something to be said for having some "young'uns" in the family.

In other news we are trying hard to keep the red maple leaves out of the pastures. There are a number of trees coming down this weekend, and neighbors are working with us to help out with the maples along the fence line.

And Moomintroll is having a bad weekend with no appetite and some difficulty using the bathroom. He is getting on in years too and I'm worried about him. Vet trip in the morning and then we'll see.

Daughter rode in the annual hunter pace today and her team took second place in the long course. Son took the SAT on Saturday and is awaiting his results.

The theme of all the above: time races on. Puppies and children grow up in the blink of an eye. Horses and cats too. Stop and enjoy the moments along the way, and celebrate every single second of youth and good health. 

C. and Val are fine - but no internet!

C. and Val (Calm, Forward, Straight who blogs at Transition to Harmony) phoned this morning to let me know that she and Val are both fine. They made it through Sandy, never lost power, but are stuck on the island and have no internet. Aside from what sounded like a terrifying untying of a tarp in the night with 60 mph winds from the top of a ladder, I think they had very few issues on the farmette.

She reported that Val was sleeping in the sunshine today and loving it.

She especially wanted me to let folks know that she is thinking of everyone still dealing with the hurricane and its aftermath.

Sending good thoughts to everyone affected by this storm.

goings-on on November Hill

Yesterday I had a nice relaxed day - a morning ride on Cody and then an evening ride on Keil Bay. Even though I had a chauffering gig (mom to two teenaged humans) in mid-afternoon, and it took longer than I thought it would, the day still felt expansive. I love those days.

Today was a bit different. Early in the day my daughter came in to tell me she'd just seen Dickens (cat) sitting in the clearing in our neighbor's back yard. One of the mama does walked out of the woods with her fawn and they walked up to Dickens and sniffed him. Leave it to Dickens - he's charmed the horses and donkeys, and now he's working on the deer.

We had to hurry through chores, as we had a lot of running around to do today. I was relieved when I ended up back home mid-afternoon. As soon as I walked in the house I went to the kitchen window and looked out to see if Salina was in her stall in the barn. Her window was empty, but the moment I thought of her she popped her head out and looked right at me. A little while later she, Keil Bay, and the two donkeys were out in the barnyard grazing side by side. Seeing the gleaming black mare, the bright red bay, and the silver and red donkeys was a reminder of why I love being here. I love looking out my windows and seeing the equines all day long.

I headed out and immediately the action started. Our neighbors are having a huge wedding on their farm this weekend and today the big white tent went up. The truck that delivered it rattled and banged as it drove out of their driveway and up our gravel lane. The pony was down at the front fence when it passed and he galloped up like a race horse, right to me, and stopped. He looked me right in the eyes as if he were saying, "Did you see THAT?"

Salina, Keil Bay, and the donkeys came through the barn to make sure everything was okay. Cody was his usual laid-back self. A few minutes later a huge noise started up - I think they were having their sewage tank pumped out. We waited out the noise together, mucking in the front field. When it stopped the quiet was huge and lovely.

I did some chores and fed Salina. Keil Bay insisted that he too, is a senior and needs, desperately, his own senior meal. I had some extra beet pulp so I gave him a serving of beep and oats with water.

Redford Donkey has had a hoof abscess brewing and finally, today, after several nights of wrapping and remedies, he is better. In spite of his hoof he's been as active as ever, but it's nice to see a normal gait returning.

Everyone got their HA gel and some carrots, I finished chores, and by then it was near dark. They all go out with hay until the late feed around 9:30 p.m. Salina headed to the back field to find some acorns. Redford followed. Keil Bay sauntered out. Cody came up to me and looked right in my eyes - was I sure I didn't want to ride him again? Tomorrow, I assured him.

Tomorrow is a free day. Just horses and donkeys and cats and Corgis. And me.

post-chiro bliss

Today I rode Keil Bay after my adjustment yesterday - it's been close to 6 weeks since my last one - and now that he AND I are both clear, the big swinging walk was truly back. My legs were longer and my feet felt really loose and relaxed and flexible in the stirrups. No twinging anywhere in my body!

We did a lot of shoulder-in, shoulder-fore, and flexing the poll at the walk. At one point when we got to the free walk (my version, where Keil can do anything he wants as long as he keeps up a big swinging gait), he did his own spiral in and out on a 15m circle. I was impressed - it feels to me like he does what he needs to stretch things out. 

The relaxation was a good thing today, as the neighbors drove their truck into their far-back yard area while I was riding, and were unloading something on the other side of their sheds. Keil was a bit alarmed at the ruckus, but handled it well.
Things got a little sticky when they finished. Dickens headed back there to see what they'd done, Cody and the pony went to the back field and proceeded to spook and gallop and play, and Keil went from normal relaxed swinging walk to poll in the clouds - super alert mode. We had to do circles and I had to keep an eye on Cody and the pony, who ended up galloping to the back gate of the arena and tried to open it to get in with Keil and me!

As soon as we got settled down, Dickens trotted up from the woods with something in his mouth and between his tossing whatever it was in the air and then chasing it, the geldings still spooking in the back field, and Matthew appearing in the barn out of nowhere, I decided it was time to end the ride. Keil had already come to a halt that said clearly: I'm ready to be done.

And so we were. More tomorrow.

Gentleman's Agreement

I've noticed the past month or so that suddenly the geldings' side of the barn has gotten tidier. Keil Bay has always been, at best, a slob in his stall. He was like that when he was stalled for portions of the day/night, and he has remained that way with back doors perpetually open to the great wild yonder.

To be fair, he's a big horse and if he turns in the stall he tends to stir up any manure, hay, whatever is lying in there, into one big swirl. Though if he would choose to drop the manure along the stall wall this swirl would be much less likely to happen.

Cody is the neatest of the geldings. He has selective areas for urine and manure and he doesn't get hay all over the place. His water bucket stays clean too. No hay dunking for him.

The pony is neater than Keil Bay, but to be fair, he IS smaller and so it's easier for him to move around without stirring things up. He tends to clean up every strand of hay and that too makes his stall a bit nicer.

We could speculate that the manner in which these guys keep their stalls is directly related to how they have been kept in their lives.

Keil Bay has always had people coming in and mucking up after him a number of times a day. To put it another way, he is extremely accustomed to maid service.

Cody was young when he came to us, but based on what I saw when we bought him, I suspect he spent much of his young life in a stall, with very specified turn-outs. If one stays in a stall more hours than not, keeping it tidy is a sort of self-protective mechanism.

The pony lived out for the most part. Being in a stall at all was relatively new to him, and he seems half-annoyed and half-intrigued with the notion of being in a "room." He definitely does NOT understand the concept of "room of one's own" and is constantly barging in and out of Keil Bay's room and Cody's room, which as you've read before, creates a problem sometimes.

I've noted before that the three of them tend to play musical stalls when the back doors are open. They often sneak out of their own stall and drop manure in each other's spaces.

But recently something different has been happening. Out of the blue, they seem to have come to a gentleman's agreement. Manure goes outside the stalls, underneath the shelter, to the right. Urine goes outside the stalls, underneath the shelter to the left.

Sometimes the agreement shifts. Today the manure went outside the stalls to the right, but urine went in the end stall along the back wall. As it happens, that stall is the pony's and it had more/deeper pine bedding than the other two.

I wonder what Cody and the pony had to do to get Keil Bay to concede to this agreement?

Did the pony agree to stay out of Keil's stall if Keil would knock off the slob behavior? Did Cody mediate and use his low-man-in-the-herd status to sneakily get the two squabblers to come to a truce?

Did Keil suddenly decide to have a slightly-past-midlife crisis and change his ways?

I have no idea, but I can tell you - maid service has gotten easier!