Spring Work And Jobs

[goodhors]

Longer days means more stuff to get done or get in driving time! Horses are up to 2 1/2 hours turnout twice a day. They are really liking that! Routine is established, they see us coming thru the gate and head in by themselves. The boys amble in, while the mares make it a race!! No one is very interested in hay, even at night in their stalls. We are guessing they are just full, not hungry. Violet is blooming, much more filled out and shiny. Still turned out alone, have to get her tying well before she can get stalled beside the older girls.

Husband is getting in two works with Luke and the Pair most days. He has lessons next weekend so horses need to be fit for their hour. Hoping to get tips on some things or new ideas to try to further improve things. Then lessons again June 8th with a different clinician who was extremely helpful the last time he lessoned with her.

Pastures have been mowed twice, need doing again. Waiting on new mower wheels to be put on. Talking about cutting hay already! The big pasture is ready and I could use the grazing. Hayfield is still soft ground with the regular rains. He thinks the hay won’t dry in a timely fashion, laying on wet ground. We cut Memorial Weekend last year. All depends on the weather!

Bought some tomato plants before the selections are reduced. Hauling them in and out of the shed because nights are still cool, sometimes 40F. Waiting on flower purchases, not hauling LOTS of pots in and out daily!

Horse dentist is due Monday, need to confirm that. He had surgery earlier this year, may not be back to work yet. Pretty sure Violet will have wolf teeth that need to come out. Not sure how Luke will behave, but we have meds for him and Violet if needed. Need to go get Peri, the mare in training, so she can get her teeth done as well.

Fun to watch spring, then summer develop. See the changing leaves and flowers appear. Eating aspargus! Waiting on body clipping until horses are swapped to night turnout as bug protection. Bugs are sure after them today! Lots of galloping and tail swishing. Ears have been greased to keep gnats out, needs redoing every couple days. Luke does NOT like thumb rubbing enhanced Vasaline on the inside skin! Very good about all other ear handling, just need to get him used to this. Might help when his ears are gnat bit and scabby so they really itch. Vasaline seems soothing then. Violet also needs to relax more for ear greasing. Everyone else LOVES getting ears rubbed and greased to get the itches gone. Sure makes bridling and clipping bridle paths easier.

Is everyone getting in some driving or training time? Sure is a good season to be driving down the road. Nice breezes but not cold or hot yet. Horses looking forward, seeing new baby calves at the corner to view. Turtles jumping off logs as we cross the bridge. Baby Canadian geese are as big as small chickens when the family marches across the road to the other pond, halting traffic on the country road!

[2DogsFarm]

I should be getting in some Drive time
But it rained on & off most of last week, then yesterday we got Instant Summer: mid-80s before noon.
I’m a wimp, knew I’d be all sweated up from harnessing, so …
Yes, hitching just a single VSE, but I’m playing my Old Card.
Maybe today? Before it warms up again?
Sadly, 2 new subdivisions less than 2mi down my road are making for heavier traffic on my roads.
Drivers who don’t give horses Right of Way & no shoulders to pull off on. 4’ ditches either side

I’m still picking asparagus from my small plot.
Not enough to freeze yet, but plenty for me to grill/roast & maybe a salad tonight.
My brother is coming from NV to visit soon & I’m going to ask him to buy me the organic heirloom tomato seedlings I like from the local CSA.
Rhubarb has become freezer jam, pie & cookies.
Nothing else planted yet, the beans & sunflowers I put in got eaten by bunnies & birds

My Herd O’ Geldings gets a wild hair every now & then. Instigated by the horse, pony & he come galloping in for dinner.
Mini sometimes joins them, but usually catches a few more muzzled mouthfuls of grass.

I skipped a clinic my Club put on last month.
4 to a 1h lesson doesn’t suit me with this clinician.
Instead, I’m pinching pennies hoping to get a private session at this Fall’s Ntl Drive.
Sterling Graburn is one of the clinicians this year.
Will you & Mr Goodhors be there?

[goodhors]

Lessons here are individual, no groups. So the clinician is focused on US which makes it more worthwhile. Lessons are not cheap. I remember when a riding clinic for a weekend was the cost of a lesson! Guess that makes me pretty old! Ha ha But we figure their trained eyes will spot things faster, have more varied ideas to modify or tweak things than what we have already tried. Plus his willingness to try their ideas (because they ARE the experts!) is increased. “Well it worked for them” thinking!! Ha ha

I am hoping we can attend the fall National Drive, but cannot commit. Too many things in the wind still. Horse sitter is needed, DD has clinics scheduled as her fall work slows, can’t commit either. Lessons with Sterling could be quite eye opening!

Have committed to sending the younger gelding to the Amish guy next week. He has a “breaking horse” for Pair work that listens to him. Our old steady horse can’t walk out as big as needed (arthritis) with gelding when hitched. Has been good for ground driving as a Pair, so bumping each other, learning turns, commands together worked nicely. Just not good enough for hitching. The Pair horses are too touchy, try too hard for a greenie to get steady with. Luke would probably be fine as a partner but gets confused when asked differently for the refinements gelding already knows. Luke will probably get paired with him after gelding comes home or mix up the 4 as “different” Pairs as time goes along.

Luke is coming along, both in fitness and more subtle cues. Well bent on 3 out of 4 corners now! Learning to bend in cones too. He had no clue about bending before. Trot is getting better with different speeds achieved steadily more often. He likes the current bit, finally! Still in a snaffle, hates all curb bits. Worries while wearing them. He likes going down the road, sometimes talks to the beef cattle down the road, mostly is quiet. NEVER talks to any of the horses along the roads. Still needs to lose some bulk, get more athletic looking, though with his build he may just stay rounded looking. Cleveland Bays are lIke that, especially the Purebreds. They don’t need much grain, made to survive WELL and work hard on just grazing. No one is eating much hay now that they can graze a few hours a day. He was pretty heavy when we bought him, with no work over winter. He has lost some weight with work, getting more fit, still needs to lose some more. He may need body clipping for the heat. Just a real dense coat, no length, so he sweats up easily. Likes his new shoes with just road studs instead of blobs of drill-tek for traction. Evidently had never been hot shod before, he was not too sure about the noisy gas forge! Eyes got very big! Faced him away from the forge and that made everything just fine, despite the noise. One of our mares is the same, look away from the forge and things are fine. He seems to be a VERY good guy to deal with, staying quite happy with him.

[goodhors]

Dentist visit went pretty well. Violet did have two wolf teeth with long roots. They were in her upper jaw, which surprised me. I think all our other horses had theirs in their lower jaw. She got meds, though they took a while to kick in! Stood pretty well for everything.

Luke was pretty amazing too! Seller said he had been floated before the sale, but I tend to be skeptical, so we had the Dentist look at him. Dentist does all hand tools, so most here are not sedated for working on. We thought to try Luke unsedated, see how things went. Luke was obviously not familiar with the speculum, but allowed it to be fitted on. He did clamp his jaw, which took some effort to get the speculum open to work on him! He was very attentive, even with husband whispering sweet nothings in his ear!! BIG EYES!! He stood pretty well, only a couple steps back during the work. No fight, just really unsure what was going to happen. His mouth was rough, lots of points that got rasped down. His cheek pokes should heal quickly now. Then he got a beautiful “model smile” after his incisors were smoothed and aligned! He got patted and praised, put back in his stall to think about everything. Dentist was impressed! Luke gets more amazing as time goes along!

The others all did quite nicely. All who needed it, seemed to remember how to step up when backing into the tie stalls for their work. They can only back up so far when trying to escape, so they quit and stand nicely. I remember “chasing” some horses backwards around the box stall during teeth work! Way too much work after the inspiration of backing them into the tie stalls! Works like a chute at the Vet clinic. Besides Luke, a couple stand well in the aisle, no backing or sidling around. Got all my notes made on their tooth sheets from the dentist, which show what he did. I add notes on who stood well or got backed in. How long before meds kicked in on the couple who needed it, recovery times.

Done with that until next year.

[DMK]

Wolf teeth are on top and have deep roots, they aren’t too common in either sex. It’s canine teeth on the bottom that are shallow and primarily found in males

[cattywampus]

I absolutely HAVE to work on fences, and probably run new electric wire–my mom, who is tiny, always had TALL horses, so the hot wire is along the top rail.

We moved back to my hometown to help care for her (Lewy Body Dementia) with my ponies, who top out at 13 hh and change. They have decided they can weasel out the middle rails and squeezle right under the hot wire, but I’ve been waiting for it to stop raining before tackling a big project.

Also have to pull Coggins on the ones who are going places, update their vaccine records, and go through all the going-places trunks to see what I’m missing.

Last but not least, I have to either up my hairy pony braiding game or face the censure of the Fell pony people and roach Josie so she doesn’t disappear in a pool of sweat this summer. Might have to reach out to all those VSE people for some tips on hot-weather mane management…