I just changed to foxfire, as well...ie was giving me fits.
The Old Folks Home
- Thread starter Wisher1000
- Start date
I just changed to foxfire, as well...ie was giving me fits.
We have 7 horses and just 2 acres for them and all of the chicken's, Been there and Done that one more then once!!Looks like I'm going to have to postpone the nervous breakdown - someone needs me to look after their miniature horses for them this weekend. Oh, well, it was a nice thought while it lasted.
Anyone want to know how my week has been?
Here's a sample:
Slippery roads, power outages, iced-up steps and windshields, and downed trees breaking fences and blocking driveways have made things interesting, but they aren't enough drama for one week, it seems. We have a new boarder over at the barn.
Other horse owners may or may not back me up in this, but I've come to the conclusion that all new horses are crazy. They are hyper-reactive while they learn their place in the system they get thrust into, and to some extent, they tend to make the horses already in residence a bit crazy, too.
This new horse is supposed to be some type of Warmblood. It isn't one that I've ever heard of, but with his broad chest, high withers, and slightly Roman profile, if someone just said, "draft cross," I could believe it. He's enormous, probably 17 hands tall, and weighs at least 1500 pounds.
He came in late on Monday, and was put in a pasture with two Appaloosa mares that belong to the barn owner. Now, I know that there are lots of geldings that are just geldings, but for some reason, we seem to get more than our share of "studly" geldings. Watching this guy prancing around those two mares, it was obvious that he was that sort.
That is a problem, because of one of the other horses. I have two Quarter Horse mares there (Latte and Sunny), and look after three geldings that are owned by other boarders (Kota, Mo, and Brady). These horses have shared a large pasture for a few years, and get along well enough. But when those Appaloosa mares arrived several months ago, we suddenly saw a side of Kota that we'd never seen before. Suddenly, he decided he was a band stallion, and those were his mares. He often paces the fence line that separates the two pastures, and becomes almost frantic if the mares go where he can't see them.
As you can imagine, Kota ain't happy with this new arrangement. I kept our horses in the barn out of the freezing rain all day Tuesday, but let them out for a couple of hours on Wednesday while I cleaned their stalls. The entire time I was cleaning, I could hear intermittent screams, squeals, and the occasional sound of a hoof hitting a fence as these two stallion wanna-be's threatened each other across the fence.
When the weather finally broke on Thursday, I had to turn our horses out as usual, and went to tackle some of the nastiest stalls I have ever seen. The boys were bugging each other again, but things weren't too bad until after the barn owner fed his horses and turned them out again. There is a gate in the fence line that divides these two pastures, and as the owner and I watched, Kota walked over and pushed it open with his nose. Nobody goes through that gate, so how it came to be unlatched is a mystery, but there we were with Kota and his nemesis together in the same pasture. Somebody had to deal with this, and it wasn't going to be the eighty-something-year-old man standing beside me at the gate.
I grabbed a halter and lead rope and started toward the horses. One of the mares, a two-year-old named Snowflake, was giving the big guy grief, pinning her ears and lunging or kicking at him every time he got near her. All I can say is, thank Heavens those two are only geldings!
Who needs computer games? If you want drama and excitement, there is plenty to be had wading in among 4 excited animals weighing 700 - 1500 pounds apiece, trying to fish one of them out before serious bodily harm can be done. Sometimes I moved them around, sometimes they moved me around. The barn owner tried to call his horses back into the barn, but they had just eaten, so they weren't interested, I tried to chase Kota in through the open gate once, but he wasn't going for that, either.
There were a lot of kicks thrown, but I don't think any landed to any account. At one point Kota bit the big gelding on the neck, and pulled out a mouthful of mane hair. The whole encounter probably only lasted 10 minutes, but finally the energy level in the group dropped a bit, and they stopped near the fence, with the two mares between the two geldings. I walked up to Kota, he turned his face toward me, and didn't try to move away. I put the halter on him and led him back through the gate.
The barn owner and I made sure the gate was fastened securely, and I went back to cleaning the stalls. As I was hauling yet another load of muck out of the barn, I looked over at the gate and exclaimed, "Good Lord, they've done it again!"
This time, the gate had been knocked off of its hinges. Kota had slipped through the gap, and as the barn owner and I hurried toward the gate, the other three horses scooted through the other way and trotted out into the bigger pasture.
The barn owner and I put the gate back on its hinges. We tied a rope around it so that, even if it did come off again, it would stay snug against the post. I then collected Kota again, and this time, put him in a small paddock on one side of the barn. I figured I would give him some hay later, but for right now, we'd had enough excitement from him for one day!
Then I went hiking out to fetch the horses from the furthest corner of the 17 acre pasture. I took a rather circuitous route, so I could check for downed fencing and plan my strategy as I went. As I walked, I saw two very brief skirmishes between the big guy and first Brady, then Mo, and watched as he collected Sunny and Latte into his little "band."
I didn't think that my halter was big enough to fit the big horse, and I wasn't sure he'd let me catch him even if it was. The two-year-was a bit flighty under the best of circumstances; I might not be able to catch her, either. Genesee, the older mare, isn't all that easy to catch, but I was pretty sure that if I could get her on a lead, the other two would follow,
It took a couple of minutes, but I got a halter on Genesee and headed back to the gate between the pastures. Sure enough, the others followed - all 6 of them. So when I got to the gate, I had 7 horses rearranging each other around me (and occasionally bumping into me) as I struggled to open the gate (which is usually a 2-hand-job). Finally I got the gate open, and fished Genesee through it. By carefully timing the opening and closing of the gate, I managed to get only the horses I wanted through it. When all three were back where they belonged, I latched the gate, and went back to cleaning the stalls.
But apparently, I wasn't as done as I thought I was. Later that afternoon, one of the other boarders called me. As he had driven past the barn, he had seen Mo, Brady, Latte and Sunny milling about in the barn aisle. Evidently, I had forgotten to latch the gate between the barn and the big pasture when I went out to get the horses, and of course, I had gone back in through the gate to the other pasture. All of the horses in that pasture know how to hook their chins over the gate to open it, and they all had. The boarder had stopped and put the horses back where they belonged; fortunately, the gate between the barn and the parking lot was securely closed.
And that was just Thursday!
I feel your pain
Scott
Bummylady...I thought I would stay up a bit longer, but I'm not quite sure now after reading your Thursday day! It wore me out just picturing everything. I've dealt with horses, but not like that. I've never owned a horse, always have wanted one. But, I did have my day of riding..a lot! I do remember helping others to catch their horses. It's a job. Can't imagine doing this in a pasture as large as yours. Hope you slept well, that Thursday night.
I have firefox, went to it a few years back. Love it!
I think it was shockwave that crashed my chrome last week and I had to uninstall and re-install it. But all the tracking cookies will muck up your hard drive and make your computer run very slowly.
I run spybot search and destroy weekly on my pc or I would not be able to use it.
Bunnylady, I have to agree, it is not necessarily the breed but the individual horse's temperament and the amount of handling they get. I have seen "crazy" Arabians because they are just penned up all the time and Arabs that are really laid back because they are turned out every day and handled often. I have pretty much seen the same thing with many breeds, Appys, QH's, Thoroughbreds, you name it. Glad to hear no one got hurt (especially you!). I have had to chase mine down a time or two but luckily they usually didn't go far (neighbor's yard to graze) and I could catch them with a can of grain. Catching them in the turnout area is actually pretty easy even though they have about 2 acres to themselves. The only one who was hard to catch sometimes was DD's horse. She was the alpha when she was here and if she caught wind that you were going to trim her feet, she was lots of fun to catch.
Oz more beautiful pictures of wonderfully warm places! You must share your "adoption" story with us when you have some time. It sounds so very interesting. I will hold off on the nervous breakdown for now, surviving without one but we aren't getting feet of snow either.
Oz more beautiful pictures of wonderfully warm places! You must share your "adoption" story with us when you have some time. It sounds so very interesting. I will hold off on the nervous breakdown for now, surviving without one but we aren't getting feet of snow either.
What I like best about firefox is that it has spell check built right in.
And... my scheming worked a bit. Only got about 2 inches of snow. Beats 6-10 and upwards of 15 in some spots.
And... my scheming worked a bit. Only got about 2 inches of snow. Beats 6-10 and upwards of 15 in some spots.
Sounds perfect - will it be attached to an enclosed structure, or will you move them back and forth each morning and afternoon?
What I like best about firefox is that it has spell check built right in.
And... my scheming worked a bit. Only got about 2 inches of snow. Beats 6-10 and upwards of 15 in some spots.
Similar threads
New posts New threads Active threads
-
Latest threads
-
-
Hi! Sonny Smiles! New Member!🐣🐥🐦⬛🐓🪿🦆🦢🐦🦃🦚🦩🦉🦜...🪽's
- Started by SonnySmiles
- Replies: 3
-
-
Rooster Trade near Purcellville.
- Started by Larafamilychickens
- Replies: 1
-
-
-
Threads with more replies in the last 15 days
-
-
Question of the Day - Thursday, August 14th, 2025- Started by casportpony
- Replies: 75
-
-
-
-
