Farm Projects and the Boys Play in the Pond

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. We continued on with our glorious weather and Jason and I spent all of the last three days outside, not that there is anything unusual about that! I have an awesome sunburn on my shoulders that I achieved on Friday and was relegated to wearing a long sleeved shirt in sleeveless shirt weather for the rest of the weekend.

The Big Boys were thrilled as we opened the gates to the area around the pond on Thursday afternoon. The gates have been closed for several months but the grass was almost a foot tall in some areas around the pond and it needs to be grazed down. The Boys are more than happy to step up to the plate and handle this job. Even more than that they LOVE being able to splash around and play in the pond. I've already had the pleasure of watching several water wars, and had my camera with me when Elfin was in the pond splashing around and got a short video of it.

Jason and I spent some time on one of the endless farm projects that are always waiting to be done. I don't think it is possible to live on a farm and not have a "to do" list a mile long. We put the chain saw and one of the tractors to work cleaning up old downed trees. Jason needs a clear path in the pastures for mowing. He's already spent several hours cutting up and moving downed trees in the last couple of weeks. Jason is a row cropper at heart and grew up looking at cleared land planted in crops, and it would give him great pleasure to bulldoze the trees so he never had to spend another hour cutting up and moving old trees!

I've had some great rides with my girls lately. Not every ride is amazing but most of them are pretty great and I'm happy with our progress. I am almost scared to type it out for fear of jinxing myself but lately I've had fun riding Bonnie. There was a definite point when I never thought I would say that. Jason summed it up well today when he said he thought she was finally growing up mentally and no longer had the desire to set firecrackers off under ladies' skirts anymore.

Sebastian and Winston both had baths this weekend. One more gray horse scrubbed white, at least for a few minutes anyway! Winston despises being in the barn, probably more than any other horse here, so he was not. happy. about his bath. But we got through it, complete with mane and tail scrubbing and conditioning. I think he pooped five times while I was working on him. His record is nine. Did I mention he hates the barn?

Jason dumping the results of his chain saw efforts to make another burn pile; the pile was MUCH larger than this by the time he was finished!

I think he's had about enough of the chainsaw for awhile

One of the dogwood trees in bloom

Leaves are starting to appear everywhere, we've had a very late spring this year

I had to take this picture simply for the "green" factor

Me in my usual position these days - working on someone with the shedding blade (which happens to be Elfin in this picture)

I took this picture just because of all the leaves everywhere; Teddy is grazing in the background

Video of Elfin splashing around in the pond, then enjoying a roll. As I said on our Facebook page I think his stress level is way too high.

Elfin playing in the water

Chili and Silky grazing
Alex and Asterik Chance and Thomas grazing by the pond
Tony and Trigger; I liked their reflections in the water
Leo, Levendi and Homer
Chance splashing around in the water
Dustin and Apollo were excited when I opened the gates to the pond
Missy Lily; we jokingly call her the keratin factory. Anything that requires keratin she has in abundance, from her hair to her hooves, even her chestnuts grow like crazy.
MyLight

Thanksgiving Day Pictures

You get used to not having holidays (or really any day) off when you run a farm. My Thanksgiving present to Jason was I handled all of the morning chores by myself so he could have a bit of a break. The horses were all exceptionally pleasant and cooperative, and it made for a very nice morning. The weather was pleasant as well, sunny with a light breeze.

The horses and dogs gave me several nice Thanksgiving day pictures and I have shared some of our scenes from around the farm below. It is hard not to reflect on how many things you have to be thankful for when you look around you and see so many happy animals and so much beauty.

I have a long and lengthy list of people and things I am thankful for. I am thankful that I love my job and my day to day life. I am thankful to live on a beautiful farm surrounded by so many creatures: horses, dogs, cats, a donkey, goats. I am thankful to have so many people from so many places trust us to care for their beloved pets. I am even more thankful that they give us the opportunity to provide a high level of care and that we don't have to cut corners. I am thankful to have wonderful vets, an amazing farrier and great help on the farm.

I am eternally blessed and thankful to have the most wonderful, supportive and loving parents anyone could ever hope for. They support me through everything and I would be lost without them. Anyone who has met them knows how truly blessed I am to have such amazing parents.

Last, but certainly far from least, I am so thankful to be married to Jason. There are no words to describe how much of a blessing he is to me. He is the half that makes me whole.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and has much to be thankful for.

The Big Boys took some time out from their antics to pause and reflect on all of their blessings in life today (yeah, right - they live in the manner they feel they deserve!). Baby and Ivan are standing by the fence. In the middle, L-R, Trigger, Homer, Thomas and Levendi enjoy some 'down time.' Chance is in the very back enjoying some down time as well.

Same group of horses except Elfin joined them. Elfin is standing in the back grazing.

A few of them spotted me coming with food and they started to get up. Except Trigger decided it was time to nap harder and went all the down on his side. Tony is grazing to the far left. In the front pasture Chili and Lightening are grazing together.

Homer and Chance telling Trigger he had better get up or he will miss the big meal.

Clay, O'Reilly, Chili and Slinky grazing together

Even Bella the Border Collie was taking it easy today

Trillion, Faune, Winston and Sebastian grazed quietly

Bear and Trooper were busy investigating things around the pond

Trooper looks very happy here

Bear in front of the pond

A Visitor in the Pasture

We had an interesting visitor a few days ago. The mares and Cuffie were acting very snorty and spooky during breakfast one morning. Usually this is a time of focused eating. I did not not see anything amiss and thought maybe it was because it was somewhat windy.

Cuffie staring at the strange visitor

I finished up feeding the other horses and noticed things were getting more intense in their pasture while the horses in the other fields were quiet. Usually if it is a weather related frisky all of the horses are participating. Then I finally saw something that looked different. A turtle lumbering through the pasture. It had exited the tall grass and was in the short grass around the gates. I guess the horses had spotted him long before I could see him. He (she?) was very slowly lumbering across the pasture. He was headed in the opposite direction of the pond so I guess he was heading from the pond somewhere else, although I have no idea where.

Harmony looking from a safe distance

She moved in a bit closer

He would stop and lift his head and stare at the horses while they stared at him. After a few minutes of staring he would start slowly making his way through the pasture again. The horses finally lost interest in him and he completed his journey across the pasture. I wonder where he went.

Everyone finally lost interest; Missy and Lily finally lost interest and went back to grazing

Trigger; he is an Appendix Quarter Horse retired from the hunter ring

I could not resist this shot. Dustin on the left and Tony on the right. Dustin is a Westphalian and retired from the jumper ring. Tony is a Dutch Warmblood and was nationally ranked in the Amateur Owner hunters.

Cuff Links and MyLight grazing together. Cuffie is a Welsh pony retired from the hunters and MyLIght is a Thoroughbred retired from dressage.

The pet cows lounging around

Norman; he is also retied from the pony hunters

Sparky the donkey and Traveller; Traveller is yet another retired pony hunter

Clay and Snappy; Clay is a Quarter Horse who started his life as a race horse and ended his career as a trail horse. Snappy is a Polish bred horse who competed through the 4 star level in eventing before switching careers to the hunter ring.

Peaceful grazers; Slinky (another pony hunter) Clay and Snappy

Cuffie and Harmony

B-Rad, Ogie and Winston; B-Rad is a Belgian Warmblood and retired from the jumper ring. Ogie is a Thoroughbred and retired eventer. Winston is also a Thoroughbred and retired hunter.

Back in the Saddle and Feeding the Fish

I have not ridden in three weeks due to a lack of time and some physical restrictions. I had to have a very minor surgery a couple of weeks ago and riding was on the 'no' list for a couple of weeks although after a couple of days I could do all of my usual farm work. The week before that I was busy finishing up the last couple of days of dental appointments and just generally busy. I was very happy to get back in the saddle today. It was another gorgeous day today and perfect for enjoying the horses. I hopped on Sky for a few minutes and of course had very low expectations after three weeks off. I was only on her for 15 minutes total.


Too my great surprise I had one of my best rides yet on her. She remembered everything we had been working on as far as contact, pushing from behind, lifting her back, being on the bit, it was like we had not missed a day. I mostly walked with a few minutes of trotting and two 20 meter canter circles. I was expecting we would regress in our progress so I was very pleasantly surprised. She had lots of patting and heard "good girl!" over and over. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to ride both Sky and Bonnie. We all know Bonnie does best with consistent work, but maybe Sky has set the tone and Bonnie will give me a pleasant surprise as well.

Sky lifted her head from grazing for a moment when I took her picture

Things have been pleasantly routine around the farm the last few days. In an interesting herd dynamic note MyLight has become the definite boss mare in her group. The mares and Cuffie are always an interesting and entertaining group, you will recall the pony wars they had a couple of months ago! Anyway, in a gradual transition over a few weeks MyLight emerged as the alpha mare and has remained solidly in that position for a few weeks now. It was not a dramatic change but rather a gradual shift. The only real difference is that she gets fed first, and on the rare occasion that she pins her ears at one of the others they get out her way pronto. I definitely wasn't expecting this as MyLight has typically been towards the bottom of the order in the past according to her mom.

The weather has been pretty spectacular the last few days. It has been great to have normal October weather again, 70's and sunny. I spent a pleasant 20 minutes or so at the pond yesterday afternoon feeding the fish. My dad keeps the pond stocked and feeds the fish regularly so they are trained to come up to the surface to get the food. When you start throwing the food in all of a sudden it looks like a tidal wave heading for you as the fish charge their way to the food. The fish actually know the sound of his Gator and head over to the spillway when they hear him coming!

Not much else to report here so it is time to sign off.

These pictures of the fish with their mouths open makes me hear the music from Jaws playing in the background.

Cuffie, Missy and Lily grazing quietly

I love this picture of Apollo; he is a great horse with a kind personality and I think it comes through in this picture

Levendi's totally adorable face

MyLight and Buffy

Teddy, Lucky and Mr. O'Reilly

Trillion and Winston are buddies

This isn't the picture I was going for; B-Rad was resting his head on Ogie's back but he moved just as I took the picture

Faune and Sebastian can often be seen right next to each other

Enjoying retirement