More on the Pony Wars

We have told many stories of the pony wars that have happened here throughout the years. The mares like to stake their claim on a pony and occasionally they have what could be described as "discussions" about who owns which pony.

One mare who has tended to stay out of the pony wars, in fact has seemed to have a total disinterest in ponies, has been Lily. Her arch nemesis in the world of ponies has been Cuff Links. When Lily first arrived and was integrating into her new group she was, how can we put this, unnecessarily rude to Cuffie sometimes. Cuffie had arrived about three months prior and had not yet become the pony we know and love today. Although comfortable in the group he was not the independent, bossy, overly full of himself pony that we know and love today. He was still respectful of his elders and if someone told him to move out of the way he did so promptly.

This went on for a few months with Lily clearly dominant over Cuffie. Until one day things changed. Lily pinned her ears at Cuffie and told him to move, she wanted to graze where he was grazing. Cuffie ignored her and kept grazing. Lily swung her butt around and in horse talk was telling Cuffie to move now or face my wrath. Cuffie's response to this was to swing his butt around and fire double barrels at Lily. Lily was so stunned she walked a few steps away. Cuffie didn't stop, but instead threw it in reverse and flew backwards at Lily with hind legs flying. Lily hustled out of his way, in fact went almost halfway across the pasture, with a stunned look on her face.

For almost two years this remained the status quo between Lily and Cuffie. Their roles were reversed and at times Cuffie was "unnecessarily rude" to Lily just to remind her where her place was. Most of the time they just functioned together as part of the group but every now and then Cuffie would remind Lily of the way things were, and that they hadn't changed.

Right about the time that we moved their group to the new farm we began noticing subtle changes in the dynamics between Cuffie and Lily. Cuffie seemed to no longer feel the need to remind Lily from time to time of how things were. Now it is not an unusual sight to see them paired off together, we see this routinely whereas it used to be rare. It is too soon to tell if Lily has not only claimed a pony but claimed Cuffie, her former arch nemesis, or if they are more like frenemies. Cuffie typically prefers not to be claimed anyway and likes to remain independent and be his own boss, despite the fact that pretty much every mare has tried to stake their claim on him. It will be interesting to watch them over the next few months and see if this new friendship remains or if the former status quo returns.

I took this picture of Lily and Cuffie a couple of weeks ago

matching chestnuts; Fuzzy has his ears forward and Murphy has his ears to the side

then they switched ears; Fuzzy's to the side and Murphy's forward

Tiny and Johnny

Alex

Gus, Chimano, Fonzi and Asterik

Toledo, Largo and Rampal watching and waiting anxiously for breakfast

Cinnamon

Thor

George

Fabrizzio and Walden

Chainsaws and Loaders

I had a profoundly thankful thought as I was effortlessly spearing and feeding 1,000 pound bales of hay with the front end loader earlier today. If there are two tools I absolutely cannot imagine trying to run a farm without they would be a chainsaw and a heavy duty front end loader tractor.

That said, I'm going to start my thankful tool post with a gripe. If anyone wants to become an instant millionaire all they need to do is invent a blade for a chainsaw that holds an edge for more than a couple of hours. It is no exaggeration to say that for every hour I run a chainsaw I spend at least half that much time re-sharpening the chain. If I have a bunch of cutting to do and a limited time to get it done in, the easiest and fastest thing to do is bring along several sharp chains and worry about repairing and sharpening the dull ones at a later time.

Dull chains and all I still cannot imagine trying to run a farm without instant access to a really good chainsaw. For fun I've run a crosscut saw with a friend a few times. I cannot fathom the labour involved in trying to convert a two foot thick oak trunk into manageable pieces with a crosscut saw and an axe. Yet until a couple of generations ago this is exactly how logs were cut up.

As I mentioned earlier, the other non-optional tool around here is a heavy duty front end loader. In the winter, our loader's main job is feeding and moving hay. Just in the last week we've fed out 10,000 lbs of hay and have moved another 25,000 lbs. All total this took me about an hour. Prior to 1950 every pound of hay on this farm would have been moved, stacked and fed with a pitchfork. (Melissa chiming in to say I would just quit. No way am I moving 10,000 pounds of hay a week with a pitchfork. I wouldn't get anything else done.) We regularly ask our loader to lift, move, spread and smooth literally tons of earth and gravel, lift and move logs, push and pile brush, etc, etc.

That we can get as much accomplished as we do every day is in no small part thanks to the many labour saving devices we own and operate. My back and I are thankful for each and every one of them.

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Grazing as the sun was going down; Apollo, Thomas, Hemi, Trigger, Leo, Tony

Miss Lyle in the back of the gator, Mina attempting to climb in and Jo watching. When you are a fainting goat everything is a toy.

Miss Lyle demonstrating her climbing technique with Mina watching

Wiz and Sebastian napping with Murphy and Sam hanging out

This picture is demonstrating how hard it is to be a retired horse. Gus, Fonzi, Silver and Romeo are down and George, Chimano, Faune and Asterik are hanging out.

Renny and Clay

B-Rad

Calimba and Maisie

Lighty looking so clean and well groomed that I think we should use this picture for marketing purposes.

Baby, Trigger and Moe

Toledo rolling, Kennedy hanging out and Stormy grazing

Walden, Lucky, Snappy, Fabrizzio and Noble

Clayton

Clayton and his mom first met in February of 1996. Clayton's mom had ridden some when she was a child. She had a couple of horses and had fun with them but never took riding lessons, just enjoyed her horses. When she started high school she stopped riding altogether. As often happens she felt the urge to return to horses, and when she was 30 she bought a horse. She rode that horse for 13 years until she retired him, and the search began for another horse.

Clayton

(photo credit Bob Tarr)

She ended up purchasing another horse from a dealer in upstate New York. That horse turned out to have a lot of soundness issues, so she took him back to the dealer in February of 96 and picked out another horse. This horse was Clayton and it was the beginning of a long and special relationship between them. At the time of purchase Clayton was five years old. His mom doesn't know much about Clayton's life prior to her purchasing him except he was bred in Canada and he is half Selle Francais, 1/4 thoroughbred and 1/4 percheron.

Clayton showing off at a dressage show

(photo credit Bob Tarr)

Clayton was very green when his mom purchased him and she wisely always made sure that she and Clayton were under the guidance of a good trainer as they progressed in dressage. As his mom said the thoroughbred side of Clayton never really showed up under saddle. He was kick along quiet and liked to squeal in protest and do little bucks when his rider would insist that he start working and engage himself. Most of the time the bucks were little and nothing scary. One time when his trainer was riding him across the diagonal she asked him for a lead change. Clayton threw a huge buck and sent his trainer airborne, the only time Clayton ever did anything like that. When his mom told me that story I said "I'm sure Clayton felt really bad after it happened, that is so not him." His mom said "no, I don't think he felt bad about it at the time!"

this photo was used to create the painting below

"PUNCH" is a 60" x 36" oil on canvas painting of Clayton by Patricia Powers. I would love to see the PUNCH painting in real life. As gorgeous as this replica is (scanned from a notecard) I am confident that it must be seen in full size to be truly appreciated.

Clayton's personality is aptly described by his mom, she refers to him as the Wal-Mart greeter of horses. Clayton loves everyone and assumes that anyone he encounters, be it another horse, a person, or even a fainting goat, has come along to be his friend. I don't think Clayton knows what it means to be in a bad mood.

My favorite picture that I have taken of Clayton, taken almost a year ago on his second day with us. Clayton was being playful with Kennedy, note all four hooves are off the ground. Clayton had rolled and when he got up from his roll he sprang straight up into the air and did a 360 spin.

Clayton's kind and happy personality was put to the test several years ago when he was kicked just above the knee. This resulted in a spiral fracture and in infection. Clayton had to be tied in a stall for three months and could not be allowed to lay down. It was a rough time for Clayton and his mom. Thankfully Clayton pulled through and made a full recovery.

Clayton looking very focused at a horse show

(photo credit Bob Tarr)

Clayton and his mom showed through first level and he showed through third level with his trainer. They did not do a lot of showing through the years and kept the focus more on training and enjoying each other. Six years ago Clayton started having some soundness issues and was diagnosed with ringbone. Despite the best efforts of Clayton's mom and her team Clayton was never completely sound again due to the ringbone and their riding days came to end.

Clayton with his mom and dad

(B. Cataldo photo credit)

In some of the various pictures we have posted of Clayton on the blog you may have noticed that he is missing his left eye. A few years ago he began having reoccurring bouts of uveitis. He had a cyclosporine implant put in at Ohio State which helped for awhile, but eventually his eye had to be enucleated. With his laid back personality Clayton has adapted well to his circumstances. Most people who watch him in the pasture interacting with the other horses do not even realize Clayton is missing an eye. It doesn't stop him from playing hard and being rambunctious when the mood strikes him.

Clayton winning a high score award at 1st Level

(photo credit B. Cataldo)

We met Clayton almost a year ago in January. His mom made the hard decision to not keep him in Ohio with her after 15 years of seeing him almost every day so he could have more turnout. Clayton also had to leave behind his girlfriend, a mare named Marlie who had been his neighbor for several years. His mom said one of the hardest things in her decision to retire Clayton with us was breaking up his romance with Marlie. Hopefully no one told Marlie that Clayton did not spend any time mourning the loss of their relationship. He wasted little time settling in and quickly discovered the joys of playing with Toledo and hanging out with Stormy.

Clayton getting some pats from his mom for a job well done

We have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Clayton over the past year and we hope you have enjoyed getting to know him as well. Several people have asked about Clayton after seeing his pictures on our blog. To borrow Paul Harvey's words, now you know the rest of the story!

a couple of pictures from a schooling ride at home

Things Jason learned in 2011

1. Redbox is a vending machine for movie rentals ! Of course I'd heard of Redbox, but I had no idea until this year what it actually was or where I might find such a thing. (I'm aware this has absolutely nothing to do with horses !)

2. If you pull up old fence wire with your city born wife who (thankfully) had no idea what this entailed ahead of time, you're guaranteed ten curse words a minute between you, no matter how unlikely that may seem while reading this at home. Don't believe me ? Give it a try and report back to me.

3. It doesn't matter how much money your southern born wife spends in pursuit of winter time comfort, if it rains and snows hard enough for long enough she's going to be wet, cold and miserable anyway! (Please don't tell her I said this).

4. It's not very manly to dress up your fainting goat for Hallowe'en.

5. We buy gravel the in exactly the way some people buy tobacco products or alcohol. I wonder if there's a group called "Gravalholics Anonymous".

6. Frogs, bleach, wives and water troughs don't mix well at all.

7. If you are going to play pasture strip tease with your southern wife, for your sake wait until it's a lot warmer than 43 degrees outside ! :)

8. Some rocks aren't going to move no matter how much effort you put into it.

Melissa here. I saw this post and asked Jason if he forgot to finish writing it. He said no. I said "but your list only has 1-8, aren't these usually top 10 type lists?" He just shrugged his shoulders and walked away so . . . I guess this means he hasn't learned anything else??? I was hoping that number 9 would be something like "I've learned my wife usually hands out excellent advice and now I listen to her." 2011 is not over yet so Jason still has time to learn one more thing.

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Lighty, Alex and Darby

Ivan and Hemi

Rampal and Tiny with Rocky grazing in the background

Kennedy, Stormy and Toledo flat out on the ground

Norman and Cuff Links

Calimba

Fonzi, Romeo, Gus and Silver were staring at something intently

Winston joined the others in staring at whatever had captured their attention

Rampal, Clayton and Kennedy

Cleaning Hay Feeders and Preparing for Rain

First of all, Melissa wants to say thank you to everyone for their boot suggestions, no doubt another purchase is in her near future. Her box from REI came on Friday and I got to see all of Melissa's winter clothing and glove purchases. Curiously, I saw everything except the bill. I'm thinking that little nugget will remain well hidden for some time.

As Melissa mentioned late fall weather in Tennessee can be somewhat schizophrenic. We've got a cold front that's getting ready to stall out just to our west overnight tonight and that scenario usually brings copious day long rains to our neck of the woods courtesy of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. But today was simply gorgeous; shirt sleeve warm (even for Melissa) with lots of bright sunshine and a nice breeze out of the south. We've had several days in a row of nice weather and the ground has dried up quickly.

I thought today would be a good day to clean up the wasted hay in each hay feeder as well as the manure that collects around the feeders. We try to do this every few weeks as the weather permits because if you don't keep after it the hay feeders slowly get buried in a stomped up mess of old hay, and the feeders get surrounded by a stomped up mess of dropped hay and manure. We stand each round bale hay feeder on it's edge and roll it a safe distance away and then we scrape up and push away the old hay and manure with the front end loader of the tractor. We do our best to remove everything and get all the way down to the gravel layer. This often requires the use of a pitchfork to supplement the front end loader. Like most jobs on the farm this one can get tedious, but it was such a nice day that I actually briefly felt sorry for all the folks sitting inside wondering what to do with themselves. After a few hours of labour we had this done and we ended our day by refilling the feeders with new hay.

Although we started out grumbling about working on Sunday it turned into a nice day. I hope you had a nice weekend !

Kennedy and Toledo napping with Stormy hanging out

Fonzi

Norman

Silky

Trigger and Baby

Lightening, Walden and Fabrizzio

Snappy, Lightening and Lucky

Clayton and Largo having a grooming session

Maisie, Calimba and Cinnamon