Thursday, March 25, 2010

Rain Crazies

We experience a phenomenon on this farm that I refer to as the Rain Crazies. Whenever it rains the horses are just wild. It doesn't matter if it is a warm or cold rain, or if there is wind or no wind, but something about rain brings the crazies out in the horses. Is this something that is unique to this farm or does this happen in other places?

This morning it was raining during feeding time. Thankfully the pouring, driving rain had passed at that point and it was just an on again, off again soft rain. The horses were wild as I knew they would be due to the rain. Instead of their usual orderly, mannerly selves at feeding time they were acting like wild banshees. I used a lot of strong body language as well as firmly telling them to "back up" to keep from getting trampled.

The wildest one of all was 30 year old Chili, he put all of the Big Boys to shame with his antics this morning. In fact most of them were watching him across their shared fence line, probably thinking they didn't realize the old man could move like that! He ripped around the pasture like a weanling, he finally managed to contain himself long enough to come and eat his breakfast. As soon as he was done he was off to the races again doing the run/buck/fart/spin routine as well as any 2 year old. What amazed me was how long he kept it up, at least 15 minutes. He lapped the pasture (about 15 acres) multiple times, with various other horses joining him in the fun. It is a shame I didn't get any pictures or video of it but I didn't have a camera this morning due to the rain.

The latter part of the day was more pleasant and I did a bit more shedding blade work on a few horses. My hands are sore and raw from so much shedding. Who knew you could make muscles in your hands so sore?

Ivan, Leo, Trigger and Thomas walking through the pasture


Chance and Tony grazing

Teddy (Lucky behind him) enjoying the grass and the sunshine

Winston and Faune

Missy and Cuff Links

Lily running through the pasture yesterday; she had her ears back and was going for the aerodynamic look

MyLight with Missy in the background

Lightening in the front, then Clay and O'Reilly, with Lucky and Teddy eating hay

O'Reilly and Slinky

Chili, my super wild man this morning, grazing sedately yesterday


Harmony enjoying a nap in the hay (one of her favorite napping spots)

8 comments:

jane augenstein said...

My boys just stand in the rain and sleep! No wild shenanigans here!

Unknown said...

I think it's just yours. It was raining and blowing today and all the horses were standing as close to the barn as possible to stay out of the precipitation.
I remember just after I got Indigo I was about 3 miles down the lane and this MONSTER of a storm picked up. I mean black as night clouds, thunder, lightning, crazy ass stuff. Of course I was the tallest thing out there so I decided to ride down the center of the corn field since it was dumping buckets on us at that point and the ground was too slippery to gallop home. By the time we were back at the farm it had stopped, the sun was out and it was humid as all getup. Indigo was as calm as ever during it. Good horse, getting me home safely.

Anonymous said...

I've seen that Lily look before - you don't want to be on the receiving end of that!

Melissa-ParadigmFarms said...

Kate, she just ran through the pasture - for no reason that I could tell - from one end to the other with her ears back in an aerodynamic look. It was very random but quite cute.

RuckusButt said...

Wow, your place really looks like spring now! I love that it was an older guy sowing his oats like that, what fun!

I rock climb (ok, not as much as I used to, but still...) and really grooming shedding horses always makes my hands hurt. Everyone looks great, hopefully the end is in sight for you soon.

Jason said...

RB;

Yes, it's springtime with a vengeance in middle TN (!) and the surprising part is that it is two or three weeks LATER than it should be !! :) Forsythia is yellow, flowers are blooming, cherry and pear trees are flowering and others are just beginning to show green.

Anastasia said...

Maybe it's the Middle TN Rain Crazies. Because Taco gets a little crazy! He comes in with his belly completely spattered with mud!

RuckusButt said...

Hey Jason, thanks for rubbing it in, lol :P