Fun With Buckets

One of my sheep, a young black ewe named Simone, had some health problems in the Fall that left her very thin. She has been gradually climbing back to health, but it's taking her a long time to regain all the weight she lost, so I have taken to sneaking her extra food when the other sheep aren't looking.

As a consequence, Simone has become fixated on me, and convinced that I serve no other purpose than to be her feed dispenser. When I'm in the yard, she follows me everywhere, so close on my heels that she often steps on the back of my shoes. When I'm inside the house, she wanders around mournfully outside, searching all the nooks and corners of the yard, hoping to find some hidden stash of food I may have left for her. Sometimes she comes up onto the back porch, stares into the kitchen through the glass door, and bleats for me to come out.

Yesterday morning, I woke up to the sound of the wind roaring across our hill. I also heard the distinctive, hollow, bump-bump-bump sound of one of our plastic buckets being blown across the back yard.

Raising myself up from my bed, I looked out the window in time to see the bright yellow bucket go tumbling at high speed down the driveway. Startled by this unexpected apparition, several of the other sheep scattered in panic.

Then I had to laugh because, running along behind the flying bucket as fast as she could go, was Simone---completely convinced that the bucket must be full of food for her!

This afternoon, the sheep had another bucket adventure.

A few days ago, when my filly Libby got sick with colic, I made up a bucket of warm molasses water to try to encourage her to drink. She didn't want it at the time, and eventually recovered without drinking any of it.

Rather than dumping it out, I left it in the back yard for the sheep to find. For a few days, the water remained frozen but lately, with milder temperatures, I've noticed the level of the molasses water dropping each day as more and more of the sheep discovered the tasty treat.

Today, the bucket was empty except for a sweet film of molasses in the bottom. I looked out the back door to see a mob of sheep descend upon the bucket, fighting to see who would be the lucky one who would get to lick up the last of the "candy."

Through size and sheer determination, after a lot of scuffling, that honor fell to my senior ewe, Moriah (who, coincidentally, happens to be Simone's mother). Victorious, she shoved her face into the bucket, forcing her nose to the sweet stuff at the bottom, even though her wide horns would barely wedge into the bucket.

Unfortunately for her, they wedged a little too well! Suddenly, she lifted her head up, with the heavy-duty 5-gallon bucket still attached to her face. Blinded, she started careening around the yard, crashing into all the other sheep that were crowded around. Finally the bucket shifted so that it was dangling from one of her horns by the handle. A moment later, she managed to flip it off onto the ground.

So much for the dignity of the flock's matriarch!

Windy Morning, Fillies at Play

It rained all night, and now this morning the wind is roaring across our hill: a perfect recipe for feisty horses.

When I got up, I decided to let all the horses, both mares and fillies, out into the big pasture to play while I tried to capture some pretty photos in the morning light.

Here are a few:

Safe and Sound

We got home after midnight last night, so I was too tired to post a blog entry before collapsing into bed. But we have good news all around on the horse front:

1. Boo and Shane arrived safe and sound at their new home in Florida.

2. Libby seems to be mostly recovered from her bout of colic.

3. Senter made his trip to the trainers just fine, and is now starting his educational career.

I wanted to spend some time with Senter yesterday to put him in a happy, interactive frame of mind before we suddenly put him on a trailer and hauled him away. So yesterday afternoon I groomed him for a while (That gray stone dust footing in his paddock really puts a fine gray powder into his coat and makes his white patches look very dingy).

Then I took him out to the round pen and let him romp for a few minutes. I didn't really ask anything hard from him---mostly just let him play and stretch his legs and get out any excess friskiness. Then I took him out on the grass and let him graze for a while, which is his method of favorite relaxation.

It was nice to have a fun, relaxing afternoon with him before sending him away. I'll miss him, but I'm so pleased that he has this opportunity.

When it came time to load him up in the trailer, he was really good. Even though he's only ever been on a trailer once before in his whole life, when I led him up to the entrance, he stepped his two front feet right up in, stood their looking and sniffing for a couple of minutes, and then hopped right in. (Maybe it helped that I told him that there would be mares waiting for him at the other end of the trip!)

Ken and I followed the trailer in our own car, because we wanted to be there to see him settled in to his new place, to give him a little continuity. We heard him whinny in the trailer a couple of times, but other than that it was a pretty peaceful ride.

When he stepped off the trailer at the trainer's farm, there were hordes of mares all standing by the fence watching, so he really wanted to prance around and show off. He especially had eyes for one Art Deco mare named Alura, who he will probably be breeding later.

The trainer handled him for a few minutes in the stable yard, letting him know that he had to pay attention to his handler, and not just go flirting with the girls. He responded well to her, and soon was settled down enough to go into his new stall.

They'd given him a stall where he could sniff noses with his neighbor gelding through the bars, so of course Senter had to show off and snort and prance around the stall for a few minutes, just in case the gelding turned out to be a mare. But before long he settled down and started eating hay.

He's going to have so much fun there, with so much to see and do, so many things to learn and keep his mind busy. He's just such a basically happy horse, pleased to have attention, eager for praise, I think he's going to do great.

Two Down, One to Go

Boo and Shane finally left today. They were supposed to leave a few days ago, but the shipper got delayed, so today was the big day. Boo did not want to load up into that trailer at all, and when a horse weighs 1,600 lbs. and doesn't want to go somewhere, it can be a trick to make her do it.

Given the choice, I would have given her more time. I would have sat on the end of the trailer and let her relax about it, but the shipper took charge of her and tried to load her himself without even giving me the chance to ask her.

He was okay with her---not mean or abusive or anything at all like that---but he had more of the "traditional" handling methods rather than the natural horsemanship ones. He tried to rush her a little, and she got flustered and anxious, which led to her getting resistive and defiant.

We had such a hard time loading her that we finally tried loading Shane instead. He'd never been on a trailer before, so we had no idea how that would go. He didn't really want to go on, but with enough encouragement he finally did.

By that time, Boo had had a chance to calm down a bit, and with her buddy Shane already on the trailer, she was a little more willing to consider getting in herself. It took a bit more effort, but finally she loaded up.

So now they're gone on their way to their new home in Florida, where they will be loved and spoiled by their new family. I think they will love the attention!

Senter is leaving tomorrow to go to the trainer's. I'm pretty excited about this opportunity for him. He's going to learn so much! He's been really bored here and not being used to his full potential at all, so he's going to really thrive in a more active environment.

When the shipper saw Senter trotting around in his paddock, he was completely wowed. He kept commenting on what an impressive animal he was, and asking questions about him. That's pretty much everyone's first reaction to seeing Senter. Now, with the chance to get a better education, he's going to be even more stunning. I'm so happy for him!

Libby is still not feeling completely well today, but she didn't have a fever and she ran around some playing with the other fillies, so I think she's on the mend.

We had just gotten a large shipment of the alfalfa hay in yesterday, but we had to call our hay supplier and get another shipment of the grass hay too, so that we could take all the babies completely off the alfalfa for now, until Libby is feeling better. Eventually, we'll introduce a little alfalfa back into their mix, but probably will try to keep feeding some grass hay too, to prevent this from happening again.

We thought we were getting a good deal with the alfalfa hay. All of the hay is $7.00 or more per bale now, and prices are still going up, up, up! When our hay guy said the alfalfa, which is richer and more nutritious, was the same price as the grass hay, we thought we were lucky to get it. We thought if we introduced it gradually enough, the horses would be able to make the switch with no problem. But according to our vet, it may just plain be too rich for the baby horses, regardless of how slowly we introduce it.

So, after yesterday's $400 vet bill, it doesn't look like much of a bargain after all.

Sick Day

I woke up today with a splitting headache. All morning, it didn't go away. I was feeling kind of stuffy, so I thought it might be a sinus headache, which is something I almost never get. Hoping to clear it up, I took one of my husband's decongestants.

All midday, the headache didn't go away. I took ibuprofen, without any noticeable effect. Finally, even though I had a lot of things I really should have been doing, I went to lie down for a while, hoping a little nap would help.

I dozed for about an hour, and felt somewhat better when I got up. For some reason, I decided to cook dinner early, so Ken and I could eat before we did evening chores. It's a good thing I did, because it turned out I didn't get back in the house for the evening until almost 9:00 o'clock.

When we went out to do chores, we noticed one of the fillies, Libby, was lying down and was extremely filthy. It was a little unusual, but didn't strike me as extremely odd, since the baby horses lie down all over the field to nap all day, every day.

But after we'd finished chores, I was walking back through the paddock and saw that Libby was collapsed on the ground beside the hay feeder.

A chill went through me. Colic!

Colic in horses is a very serious and sometimes life-threatening thing. Because horses can't burp or vomit, any digestive disturbance has to make it all the way through the horse. Anything that causes a lot of gas or anything that causes any kind of blockage, causes a lot of pain. A horse that is in a lot of pain will sometime roll on the ground, which can sometimes cause its intestines to twist, which leads to more problems and pain and sometimes death.

So any horse person who sees one of her horses with any symptoms of colic knows that fast treatment is imperative.

I went and forced Libby to her feet, and though she was reluctant to even move, I dragged her out into the yard so I could walk her and prevent her from rolling. She had laid down in a puddle, so she was wet, chilled, and shivering, so I got a blanket and draped it over her.

I took her temperature, which was normal, and listened to her belly for gut sounds. There were almost none. Not a good sign. Horses' guts should always be gurgling, an indication that things are moving along inside as they should be.

I got some warm molasses water and tried to get her to drink, but she refused. I gave her a dose of Banamine to ease the pain, and had Ken call the vet.

We walked her around the back yard for over an hour, waiting for the vet to arrive. Eventually, the Banamine kicked in, and she started feeling a little better. Shortly after that, her belly started gurgling a lot. A little later: a giant, liquid burst of diarrhea!

Okay. Well, at least that meant she wasn't impacted. After dealing with Scylla's impaction colic two years ago, which led to a trip to the horse hospital and several thousand dollars worth of vet bills, I had been fearing the worst again.

But by the time the vet arrived, there wasn't a lot left for him to do. He took blood samples to test that it wasn't some kind of infection, but we agreed that it seemed more like Libby was simply having a hard time adjusting to our new hay, which was supposed to be a grass/alfalfa blend, but turned out to be almost entirely alfalfa.

We transitioned the horses over to the new stuff over the course of a week, and we thought they'd all adjusted just fine. But apparently Libby had a bit harder time with the change.

She's resting now in the run-in bay, with clean dry bedding on the floor for her to sleep on, and a hay bag full of grass hay to sooth her upset tummy. With any luck, she'll be on the mend and feeling better by tomorrow.

But me... after a day like today, what I need is a drink!

What Heating Vents Are For

In case you were wondering, heating vents are not for heating your house.

This is what they're really for:


All of our heating vents in the downstairs of our house are at floor level.

We have eight cats with very warm bellies. :-)

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You

Whatever you do, don't play this game:

The Impossible Quiz

It will have you laughing, groaning, and tearing out your hair in frustration. You will waste hours (days!) of your life trying to get to the next answer, and the next, and the next. Inane jokes will start to make sense. You'll develop a fondness for dancing elephants and a fear of ticking time bombs!

You will become addicted and your life will not feel complete until you finally manage to complete the last question. (I haven't gotten that far yet, by the way!)

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Big Horse, Little Tiny Stall!

In honor of the fact that Boo and Shane are leaving tomorrow for their new home in Florida, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share a photo of Boo that was taken almost exactly a year ago.

I woke up that morning to the sound of a horse pawing on a wooden stall floor. Which would be less weird if all my horses were not 100% pasture kept.

When I went outside to investigate, this is what I saw:

Boo had pulled the door off our hay feeder and was settling in to have a nice comfy day of it. All the other horses were sulking because there was a HORSE in their breakfast!

Silly me, in my plans for my future someday-barn, I was imagining that with the size of my horses, I'd need 14 x 14 stalls, or 12 x 16 stalls.

Imagine my relief to learn that 6 x 10 will be plenty big enough!

Just Say No

The past two days have been so hectic. Lots of inquiries from sheep and horse shoppers, lots of email to answer, lots of paperwork to do.

And a couple of big decisions to make:

After several days of discussing, pondering, weighing the pros and cons, deciding, re-deciding, and changing our minds, Ken and I have finally decided not to sell either Torchsong or Callisto right now.

I feel bad about disappointing the two buyers who were interested in them, but I just feel like both of those fillies are too good to let slip away. Maybe in the future, we'll reevaluate our situation, but by then we'll have more specific information to base our decisions on, because Callisto will be started under saddle and bred to Senter this year, and Torchsong will probably follow in her footsteps the following year.

Once we see what kind of foals each filly produces with Senter, that will tell us a lot more about how valuable she will be to the farm as a broodmare.

Anyway, I'm just happy that I'll get to keep Callisto long enough to see what she's really like to ride!

Callisto Under Saddle

Even though I'm not advertising either Callisto or Torchsong for sale, I now have prospective buyers interested in each of them. I'm having a really hard time trying to decide which one to sell.

First I'll decide I definitely want to keep one, then I'll decide that it would be stupid to part with the other. Then I start wondering why I don't just keep them both!

Yesterday, the person interested in Callisto asked me to take some pictures so she could see what she looked like wearing a saddle. Callisto has never worn a saddle before, but today I showed her the saddle, she sniffed it, and I put it on. No fuss at all---what a great girl!


In the middle of this, the vet arrived to do Coggins tests and health certificates for some of the sales horses, so we left Callisto tied to a post while we dealt with the vet. She waited patiently until I came back, and then I decided to try sitting on her.

I sat on her only one time before, bareback in the pasture, but this was the first time with a saddle on. She didn't care at all.