Officially winter

You know that it's truly winter when the temperatures don't rise above 60 degrees and the lows dive down into the low 30's.
Well tonight we are expecting a low of upper 20's with windchill estimates in the mid 20's! Everyone who has a blanket will be wearing one!

In the next month we will be attempting to gain access to an adjoining 20 acres of gorgeous property. This property is currently unoccupied but is only partially fenced. There is areas of pasture and areas that are heavily shaded by massive oaks - a nice place to take a leisurely trail ride. One side of the property backs up to the West side of Greener Pastures (behind the mobile home). The property stretches out into a square shape and opens up on SW 75th St.
The owners live in another state and plan to one day retire on their property, but for now it sits vacant. We would love to utilize this wonderful space for our boarders, whether it be pasture, cross-country field, or just for trail riding.
We will keep you posted!

It's been fairly quiet and chill out here the past few days. We'll be staying home with the horses on New Years to make sure everyone stays calm during the fireworks.

See you at the farm!

Tis the season

Happy Holidays from everyone here at Greener Pastures!

Since my last blog a few days ago Greener Pastures has received 40 cubic yards of custom blended shavings, 16 750lb coastal round bales, and many e-mails from horse parents looking to board with us.

We wish we had a hundred acres this close to town and could offer board to everyone who was interested! But in the last 3 months we have had to turn away 12 horses. Some of our current boarders are waiting for pasture space to open up so that their stalled horse can be pasture boarded instead. This is a beautiful, convenient place to spend time with your horse - no wonder people are banging down the door!

We are just entering winter and everyone is tolerating the cold very well. It's those warm days that throw them off!

Bodhi and Casanova are enjoying their new herd which consists of head-gelding Magic, easy-going Dusty, and picked-on Tav.
This morning Magic was feeling frisky and chased Bodhi. But Bodhi doesn't tolerate being picked on (take notes, Tav!) so he kicked up, double-barreled, three times in a row until he whacked Magic in his massive chest. Magic, annoyed, gave up and walked away. Poor Mag just wanted to play!

Our wonderful farrier, Lana, has recovered from her car accident and over the course of 3 days got our barn all caught up. She trimmed Tie, Bodhi, Magic, Betsy, JW, Satin, Dancer, Jedi, Ufir, and Molly. Lana is a nurse specialist at the ICU at Shands VA hospital. She's been a nurse for 30 years and a farrier for 27 years. Lana is highly educated and firmly believes in continuing education (she's forever going to conferences and getting CE credits to keep up with the latest). Lana has tremendous patience. For example, when Karma the donkey arrived and was diagnosed with white line disease, Lana asked me if I minded if she take a look at Karma's hooves. I was thinking "Of course! But who wants to volunteer to do an angry donkey?" Karma has a sketchy background and was not trusting of humans. Lana strategized the best plan to get Karma's hooves trimmed quickly, safely, and with the least amount of stress possible. You can imagine how frustrating it is to handle a mistreated, naturally stubborn donkey jenny with painful feet. With soothing whispers, gentle patting, and a snug rope attached to a cement wall, we trimmed Karma's feet, opened up the nasty areas and treated them. Karma recovered quickly after Lana did her magic.
Jedi is a stud at heart. The kind of stud that has no manners and thinks only of himself. Lana patiently dealt with his overgrown hooves even while he fought and struggled against the cross-ties. She gave Ufir time to stretch her arthritic legs before asking her to pick them up, and helped Molly find just the right height on her hoof stand that was most comfortable for her arthritic, popping hock.
Lana doesn't advertise, doesn't have business cards, and doesn't gossip like a farrier. She's a great friend, does a great service, and we are very lucky to have her as our hoof podiatrist!

I hope you are having a great holiday!

Fa-la-la-la-la la-la-la-la

Rain, rain, go away

It is so muggy at the barn that the cement walls were literally dripping. All the horses were brought in the for the night around 7pm, but after they finished eating John and I decided to turn them all back out to the pasture. The barn air was thick and hot. At least if they were in the pasture they could feel a nice breeze. The low overnight didn't get below 65 degrees. The body clipped horses seem un-bothered by the heat, but the thick-coated horses are miserable.

The lawn mower seems to always have issues. For those of you that don't know, the mower belongs to the property owner but we pay for all the repairs. Just last week we trailered it to the shop to get a tire fixed. A few days ago it decided not to start. We brought the battery to our mechanic, Clyde's on SW Archer Road, when we went to pick up the PT Cruiser for repairs. The battery was so low on charge that it couldn't be measured by their equipment. We asked if it is safe to jump the battery with a car and they gave us the okay ( The mechanic said, "Well, I don't know if yer s'posed to, but I do it." ). We go home, put the battery back on the mower and jumped it with the PT Cruiser. Viola! Problem solved! For now...

We'll be getting a HUGE delivery of shavings in the next week! I am so excited! These shavings come from our previous producer, The Shavings Bin, and are of the highest quality. A percentage of the shavings are kiln dried making them highly absorbant (when the pine shavings absorb the urine, it helps with odor and moisture. If I were a horse I would NOT want to be smelling my own urine and sure as heck wouldn't want my porous hooves to be soaking in it!). This new delivery will have less of the big flakes and more of the easier-to-pick, small flakes. I made sure that the small flakes still provided plenty of "fluff" for them.
The way I clean stalls is different than most barns. I learned from upscale, large breeding barns such as Churchill Farm (Appaloosas), Kimberwicke Arabians, StarQuarry Farm (Hanoverians) and Hawksfield Farm. Incorporating their management practices with my ethics, I do what's commonly called "turn-over" every time I clean I stall. Turning-over involves removing all manure and urine, and then lifting a tossing every last bit of shavings in the stall. This essentially fluffs the stall every day. The horses pack down the shavings in just a few hours, resulting in compacted, uncomfortable footing. Fluffing the stalls gives them cushion and encourages them to relax, lay down, and be happy.

This morning Betsy, who is typically very submissive, showed her dominant side to Satin. Satin cannot stand conflict and all it takes to make her move away is to pin your ears at her. Betsy simply approached Satin with ears pinned. The funny thing is, Dancer, who is also very submissive, then came up to Betsy to scare her off... and moments later Satin came back and moved Dancer away. An interesting dynamic - no one is really more dominant than the other, it just depends on the individual and what they feel like putting up with at that moment (for those of you that are familiar with birds, you can see the similarity in bird behavior. There is no real hierarchy, just winners and losers that change every day). Shellie is always the aggressor and gets what she wants, when she wants it.

The results are in: Casanova has the littlest winny on the whole farm. It was a close call between Cas and Bodhi, but the final vote went to Cas as he made little baby girl sounds at feeding time. Way to go Cas! You're truly a cutie!

Warm, cold, rain, clouds

Dear Florida, please make up your mind. This every-other-day cold spells with rain or heat in between is... annoying!

The horses with furry coats, like Betsy, are not tolerating the warmer days. Poor Betsy was even sweating in 70 degree weather yesterday because it had been 40 degrees the night before. A cold front came through on Thursday, dropping overnight temps to 35 degrees! Friday stayed incredibly chilly with a high of 49. Friday night wasn't so bad and stayed at 50ish. Now it is Saturday - cold and rainy! It's been raining all morning. We got blankets off just in time and brought them to the barn to keep them dry. Tie, Pokey, and Goose are snuggled up in their stalls to keep dry.

At feeding time this morning, Molly was Ms. Brave and came trotting up all excited. She even tried to steal some of Jedi's food! This is quite unlike submissive Molly - but it was a joy to see her all full of herself!

We still have not moved Bodhi and Cas in with Magic, Tav, and Dusty. We want to be less busy when we decide to make the change so that we can be here for long periods during the first few days, just to be sure all is well.

The name plates for the stall horses arrived and are super nice! I especially like Satin's: "Satin, Mommy's Brat"
They are currently just resting on the stall window until we attach them to the stall doors.
If anyone else would like to purchase a stall plate - hey, even pasture horses can have name plates, too! Just let me know and I can send you the link. I got them off ebay for about $9.00 each (includes the name plate holder) plus shipping. Fun!

The pair of red shouldered hawks are still around which means they must be nesting nearby. They love the jump field and can be seen perusing the pasture for tasty critters atop the standards. If you have a moment, take some time to watch them. The thicker, slightly larger one is the male. The lighter-colored, more petite one is the female. It's neat to watch them swoop down and land on something (they seem to miss most of the time. Or maybe they are practicing). Then they proceed to dig with one food at whatever they think they caught. It's like they are stomping on it. Fascinating!

All the horses appear to be in good spirits and have been taking turns galloping across their pastures. Yesterday, the four mares, Betsy, Dancer, Satin, and Shellie went for a run around. Shellie is almost always the instigator. She runs with crazy in her eyes. Dancer follows close behind because she can't be more than 5 feet from Queen Shellie, and she usually looks like an anxious mother running after Shellie. Satin runs, rears, and spins, just for the fun of it. She really enjoys a good buck. And Betsy mostly trots behind because that's the thing to do. I think I hear her saying, "Girls, do we really have to do this again?" And Shellie replies, "YES! It's good for the soul!"
Yes, I talk for the horses ALL the time!

I hope you are enjoying the winter weather! Feel free to bring some holiday decorations for your horse's stall or for the barn!

Cheers!

Clear skies, clear eyes

The rain puddles are almost dried up here at the farm. You can be sure that on icky-weather days all the horses are getting their bellies filled with warm, mushy wheat bran. Those that get alfalfa cubes get the soaked in nice, hot water.

Dancer and Goose are still in love. Their odd relationship drama is probably due to Dancer's current estrus status. But of all the horses she could flirt with, why Goose? Perhaps because Goose is the most receptive to Dancer's advances? I'm not really sure, but I find it fascinating to think that these horses make individual choices.
Maybe it can be explained on a basic, instinctive level; Goose is an alpha mare. Dancer is a very submissive, yet maternal mare. Somehow these two personality-types compliment one another? The same theory can be applied to any horse relationship - why does one horse get along so well with another horse in particular, but not with horse "X"? Complimenting personalities? Just like humans, right?

So when choosing which horse is stalled next to who, and which horse is pastured where, I always take into account complimenting (or conflicting) personalities. Horses spend all day with each other, forage, and their pasture environment. They spend most of their time grazing, so we offer quality forage and safe, digestible, seasonal grasses. They spend part of their time resting in their pasture; under the shade of the gorgeous oaks during the summer and in a spot of sunshine in the winter. And they do all of this with the companionship of other pasture mates, so I make every effort to allow the horses to choose their friends. After all, they are the ones having to spend time with one another all day long, every day. They deserve to be allowed to make an individual choice, no?

Dancer is not pastured with Goose. I imagine that their little romance is a fleeting one and will subside as quickly as it came on. But perhaps not. And if Goose and Dancer decide to remain BFF and continue to express their desire to be together, I will gladly make arrangements to accommodate this! This is one of the best part of my jobs: making horses happy.

In that same vein, Bodhi and Casanova are very attached to JW and the few attempts I have made at changing this herd have resulted in lots of crying from all parties. I plan to give it one more try in the near future, this time with Cas and Bodhi in with Magic, Tav, and Dusty. My hope is that their new friends will act as a diatraction to their loss of their old friend, JW. However, the only way to distract JW will be to put a mare in front of him. He may be moved in with Dancer, Shellie, Betsy, and Satin. JW is retired - he deserves a harem!

If you see an old, skinny, grey-faced buckskin wandering around the barn, have no fear. Tie seems to enjoy freedom - it brightens up his demeanor. We will be allowing him to roam the barn area during the day. I will be watching him closely to see if he is bonding with any other horses. Feel free to sneak him a carrot. No one deserves a free carrot more than a late-30's starved old man!

Everyone seems to be tolerating this cold-warm-cold weather. Goopy eyes are clearing up. Runny noses drying out. Fur coats thickening.

Feel free to comment!

34 degrees

This morning, Sunday 6th, is currently about 34 degrees! At least it's not raining today like it did all day yesterday morning and afternoon. You can bet that like yesterday, everyone will be getting hot bran mash with their grain.

Last night at feeding we let the 4 stall mares walk from their pasture to the barn on their own. They are all very comfortable with this now, with the exception of Shellie. Shellie isn't fearful so much as she is excited. She's forever trying to get the other lazy girls running. Last night Satin, Dancer, and Betsy went right into the barn and waited to be let into their stalls. Shellie, of course, did not. Usually she wanders around the barn perimeter, chatting with the horses in the pasture. But tonight Tie was out of the pasture eating his grain and cubes. He was tucked away down the driveway and in the dark. But Shellie spotted him and immediately dominated him and started stealing his food. John ran over and shooed her away. She stayed close in case John turned his back.
Eventually she gave up and put herself away.

Dancer has taken to Goose, and vice versa. Saturday we allowed Goose to hang out in the barn aisle while we fed. She apparently became best friends with Dancer during that period, and when the time came to turn everyone out Goose called and called to Dancer. Dancer, the loyal friend that she is, refused to walk down to her pasture and instead stood at Goose's pasture gate, nuzzling her. I should mention that Dancer is in heat - that explains their behavior, sort of.
Then in the evening when the girls walked to the barn, Goose was in her stall calling. Dancer stood at her stall winking and squirting while Goose nibbled her neck. You would have thought that Goose was a stud! Bizarre!


Blankets will stay on until the chill is alleviated by the rising sun. Fingers crossed that the sun comes out!

Drizzle drizzle rain drops

It has been raining now for nearly 24 hours and it is still drizzling strong with no signs of a reprieve. The pasture horses are taking refuge under the cover of trees, remaining relatively un-soaked. The temperature did not drop nearly as low as it was predicted. This morning at 3:30am it was in the mid-50's. All of the "below 50" horses were blanketed.

The stall horses were towel dried and those needing blankets were tucked in. John and I went back out to the barn around 10:00pm and spent an hour added clean, dry shavings to everyone's stall before blanketing them. I figured they would want to roll and better and more comfortable if they got to roll in fluffy shavings.

The donkeys are released from their pasture every evening and last night they hid under the cover of the barn, munching the remaining round bale that we pulled into the barn. I left the shavings stall door open and pulled shavings down onto the mats for them. When Kurly is wet his hair curls - too cute!

Jedi, Ufir, and Molly were moved to pasture 4 across the way.
We still have plans to move Bodhi and Casanova into Pasture 5 with Magic, Dusty, and Tav. JW and Tie will likely be pastured together and in the evenings when JW is put away in his stall we may allow Tie to hang out in the barn aisle, so long as Kurly isn't too pushy with him.

We will be getting a new truck load of shavings very soon. When choosing where to purchase shavings my top priorities are high absorption, dust-free, kiln dried. The last batch of shavings was from a company called "The Shavings Bin", www.theshavingsbin.com. You can see a picture on their website of our delivery in August. These shavings were a 50/50 blended mix of "Shavings" and "Dust". The dust is actually just smaller, curled flakes. Although the bulky flakes makes it more challenging to clean stalls, it adds cushion for the horses' comfort, and that's our highest priority!

I highly recommend the following horse toys for Christmas. If you purchase a toy for your horse and would like me to refill it with treats on a regular basis, I would be happy to! Anything to enrich the life of your best friend.
Toys:
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Graze-Treat-Toy-Green/dp/B0006G56UM/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2
I purchased mine from Drs Foster & Smith website

http://www.nose-it.com/
This one looks like fun! You can get it fro mebay for $29.99

If you have other Christmas ideas, share them here for everyone to see.

Stay dry and see you at the barn!

Props

If these posts are fun or comforting, let me know! Leave a comment. Tell me what you want to hear. Ask me how your horse is doing. Let me know if a gate needs to be repaired, if a fence is broken, if a light is out...

The grass is always greener...

... at greener pastures!

There is much drama surrounding the life of our newest arrival, Tie, a late-30's buckskin Appendix-type gelding with a body score of about 1. In a nut shell, Tie was being neglected. The dwindling grass was enough for the remaining easy-keepers on the property, but nibbles of grass alone were no where close to what this geriatric horse needed. A good Samaritan, one of our own GP boarders, Molly, made the appropriate and legal steps to get Tie help. His blood work came back clean and the vet determined that his only issue was that he was severely underweight. We're feeding him 4-6 times per day and supplementing his grain with alfalfa cubes, hay, and of course, loooove.
Now Tie can relax, eat to his heart's content, and maybe even boss some submissive horses around like the good ol' days. We hope to see him start packing on the pounds and live the rest of his life happy and healthy!

In other barn news, the weather was a tad dreary today with what appeared to be impending rain. No rain so far and the predicted low is in the 60's - perfect weather for spending time with you furry friend!

Pasture changes are in the very near future. We planned to make the moves today, December 1st, but our schedules are overflowing. We will be moving Jedi, Ufir, and Molly across the way to the currently empty big pasture and introducing Tie to their herd. Cas and Bodhi will get to play with their new buddies Magic, Tav, and Dusty in the other large pasture. JW may miss his young pals, but we think he'll be content to hang out with the laid back Pokey and Goose. The four mares, Betsy, Shellie, Satin, and Dancer, will stay where they are currently.

There is rain expected over the next few days, and with rain comes the cold!

Freedom for confidence

Dancer is a stereotypical anxious Thoroughbred. When she was being fed in the pasture she would trot in big circles, nervously waiting for her grain. When I first started working with her, even on the ground, she showed an extreme lack of confidence.
I discovered something that has made a huge change in her own personal confidence, not just her comfort level with a person, but her bravery even when alone.

Dancer is a hard-keeper. Even when she's fat her belly hangs down, pulling the skin tight over her ribs, giving her that underweight appearance. During the summer instead of restricting her to a stall for 8 hours with hay, I let her free-wander around the property to graze the lush grass with the option of coming into the barn where her fan was blowing. At first she would stick very close to the barn and only graze in a 10 foot perimeter. But once that grass was gone in that area, she started venturing further and further into the mysterious land of her own TB imagination. It was a huge turning point when she successfully passed by the pump house all alone. I was amazed at how her confidence was developing. It was as if she would talk herself through situations and eventually become familiar and comfortable with once horrifying objects.

That said, I want this for every horse. Knowing that individual horses learn differently, I was curious to see how other horses would respond to this same confidence-building freedom.

John and I started allowing the girls (Shellie, Betsy, Satin, Dancer) to walk from their pasture to the barn at evening feeding time. We let one horse out at a time and they walked about 40 feet, sometimes past a wheelbarrow or a tarp. John would wait in the barn with all the stall doors closed. I would call out to him, "Here comes Shellie." and he would open up her stall and occasionally encourage them in.
Satin, Dancer, and Betsy never had any issue. Satin and Betsy are very food driven. Dancer doesn't want to be a non-conformist, so she always goes right for her stall. Shellie, on the other hand, remains true to her young age. She has never once walked from the pasture to the barn. No, she takes a scenic route each time, sometimes trotting aimlessly around the barn playing hard to get (we just let her do her thing, under supervision). Sometimes she teases the donkeys or picks an argument with a horse already in their stall. Eventually, I walk up to her and gently reach my hand under her head and take the bottom of her cheek in my hand. She walks very calmly to her stall and finally ends her adventure. She doesn't like to be walked by her mane and will often become annoyed at this. "Don't tell me what to do!" Instead, she prefers you ask or encourage her. She's a sweet girl!

The girls seemed to enjoy this little deviation from the norm so much that when we moved them way down to Pasture 3, we decided to allow them the same freedom. We started by walking one or two horses and allowing the other two to follow. Now the girls are permitted to exit the pasture on their own and make their way down the long path, past scary objects like horse trailers, cages, shadows, the pump house, and more!
Their evening routine has become this:
Satin, who is night blind but also the most food obsessed, is usually the first to start walking. Betsy and Dancer follow right behind. They generally walk the entire distance unless Shellie decides to trot up behind them and herd them like the alpha mare she is, in which case they may brake into the trot. Shellie is always hard to convince to leave the pasture. I have to encourage her by the cheek to leave the pasture. By the time I get down to the barn, Satin is standing at her stall with a front leg raised, crying starvation. Betsy is hanging out a few feet away, keeping out of grumpy Satin's reach. Dancer is being forced to trot around the barn by Shellie but usually ditches Shellie after two laps around the barn. Once those three girls are in and munching their grain, Shellie's loneliness sets in and she finally comes into the barn.

These girls really seem to enjoy their daily dose of freedom. The only problem is I always feel guilty leaving Molly behind in the pasture. Maybe soon I will let her free roam with access to the barn and her girlfriends (Jedi and Ufir apparently aren't good friends).

We've now allowed the 4 girls to walk from the barn to their pasture in the mornings. Sometimes we will let them explore for 10-20 minutes before going down and opening the gate for them.

Pokey and Goose are still adjusting to their freedom. Most of the time they trot around a few feet and stand their, not really sure which way to go. Eventually, Pokey will realize that there is food waiting for him and will come into the barn. Once he's eating, Goose cries for her best friend and rushes into the barn. With time they will likely calm down and enjoy their short walks from Pasture 1 to the barn.

We rarely use even a rope when bringing JW to and from the barn. He'll usually follow you where ever you're headed, and will definitely follow you if you're carrying grain. He enjoys watching the girls free-walk and will often trot around the pasture as they walk by. If he's in the stall he's constantly flirting with the girls and dropping hay outside his stall door to lure them over.

Bodhi and Casanova absolutely adore JW. Their young cries remind me of a 4 year-old child getting dropped off at day care. But they find comfort in one another and I will often see them sleeping nostril to nostril or munching on hay with their shoulders pressed up against each other. Too cute!

But soon we will be introducing Bodhi and Cas to Magic, Tav, and Dusty. We will try JW with Pokey and Goose. I don't anticipate any issues with the geldings, but we'll see how Goose accepts old man JW.

Hot bran mash

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings everyone was blanketed with the exception of two horses (Satin and Bodhi). The lowest temperature dropped to about 36 degrees on Friday night. Each frigid morning the horses all snorkeled in their steamy hot bran mash soaked in their grain. Warm mushy goodness for their spoiled bellies.

Jedi and Ufir, the two geriatric Arabians, are getting much more tolerant of having their blankets put on, but you have to get them while their eating or the chances of you catching them is extremely slim. Many times when a horse tries to tell me something I usually listen and oblige, but in the case of the oldies, I felt that I knew better. Perhaps both Jedi and Ufir know that they would be just fine without these artificial coats, but I'd rather be over protective than have them shivering when a cold wind blows across their muscle-less bodies.
Next time you are out at the farm, take a peak at Jedi - he's finally putting on some weight after a dental float, tons of soaked grain and T&A cubes. Let me know how he looks to you!

As I mentioned above, I listen to what the horse is trying to tell me. Magic, who is a perfect gentleman when putting on his blanket, refused to let me put it on him Saturday evening. It was late, around 8:00pm, so the sun was long gone and the temp was about 50 degrees. I checked the blanket for irritants thinking he had a bad experience the last time he wore it, but found nothing. It turned out to be a fairly warm evening and didn't dip below 40.

That's not to say that if a horse decides to be ornery about something that I give him whatever he wants. It's a case by case basis.

You can be sure that your horses are toasty warm every night and getting their bellies warmed on cold mornings.

Blankets, blankets, blankets

Yes, cold weather creates more work here at the barn because everyone needs their coat, but the way I see it is at least the horses aren't standing around the water troughs begging to be hosed off, right? I personally would much rather the sweltering Florida summer heat over any temperature below 60, but many of the horses thrive in the chill!

With expected temperatures to drop below 40, possibly even down to 36, John and I set out to feed in the evening, blankets in hand. At least since it has been cold a few days now all the creepy crawlies are, sadly, dead, and I don't get too nervous pulling blankets off the racks. As a matter of fact, not one single insect came scrambling out of the blankets.

All the horses are excellent when it comes to blanketing with the exception of Jedi. But he's a cranky old man and is allowed his quirks. Oh, and Ufir decided she was comfortable with her fur coat and made sure blanketing her was out of the question. At least I got her underweight counterpart blanketed! Even sweet Molly got her jacket this evening.

Bodhi and Cas laugh in the face of winter! We don't need no stinking blankets! Actually, their coats always feel warm in the mornings without their blankets, so I would venture to say they aren't wimps. They won't need a jacket until it dips below freezing.

Magic hasn't grown much of a coat but he does have a nice layer of fat under that speckled skin. I still blanketed him because I'd rather him be a little toasty than too cold. We'll see how warm he feels under his blanket in the morning.

Tav, Dusty, Pokey, and Goose are pros with their blankets and never give any trouble.

Shellie, a 5 year old, acts her age but in a very kind way! She hasn't been around the block yet, but she is a sweet girl and tries her best not to be a stereotypical Thoroughbred (like Dancer!).

With everyone snuggled up in the barn with oodles of hay, we closed the barn doors and as usual, released the donkeys to free roam.

It's expected to drop even lower tonight, possibly below 35! So make sure you get your visits in while the sun is still shining :)

Cool Thanksgiving Morning

Happy Thanksgiving!

It only got down to about 50 degrees last night, but it was crispy cold in the early morning. All the horses dove in to their hot bran mash mixed with their grain. I like to give them a hot wheat bran mash when the temperature changes pretty suddenly. Lately it has been in the upper 50's in the evenings, so the dropping temps in the morning was a good enough excuse for me to spoil them all.

As the sun began to rise, all of the fence boards that have been saturated with rain the past few days started to steam. It looked like smoke coming off the fences!

John and I moved a new round bale into Pasture 1 for Pokey and Goose and Pasture 2 for JW, Cas, and Bodhi. We used a "skid" (a 5 foot piece of chain link attached to the ball) to drag a round bale instead of our usual method of pushing it with the front of the truck. This worked fabulously well except for the fact that our truck's transmission is about to crap out. The truck was hesitating and surging forward for the 10 minutes we used it. We decided to give the truck a break and had to hand-push the next round bale. These bales are about 800 lbs each and are HARD to roll with only two people! JW and Cas tried to help by pulling the bale into the pasture as Bodhi stood back and watched.

It should drop temperature all day with a low tonight of 38 degrees! Blankets!

Who's Who?

Not much going on at the farm on this dreary, rainy day. It rained from 1:00am this morning until about 8:00am when the sun finally shown it's face. I kept the stall horses in until it stopped raining, hoping to keep them dry. But at about 10:30am the rain started up again! Everyone kept munching their hay so I let them make the choice to stay out. No one seemed bothered by the rain and took turns napping under the cover of the trees.

Last night John and I gave Bodhi and Cas a new round bale. Of course it got drenched in the rain over night and the young boys weren't making a dent in it. So rather than let the wet hay sit around and go to waste, I moved Bodhi, Cas, and JW into Pasture 2 (that's where the bonfires are held) and gave them some fresh hay (but not a full round bale) and moved Betsy, Dancer, Satin, Shellie, Jedi, Ufir, and Molly into Pasture 4 to eat the wet hay. They have already eaten through the moistened hay! Shellie was quite the chicken as we walked from the barn to a *new* pasture. She was asking, "Where are we going? Why are we going this way? Where are my friends? Aaah!" But she's a very good girl and survived walking past the pump house. Dancer followed blindly behind us (I was walking them both, but Dancer decided to trip over folded up tarp, scare herself, and pull out of the rope around her neck. I let her go and she calmly just followed Shellie and I).
Jedi, Ufir, and Molly had a silly gallop around in the new pasture. The three oldies are fun to watch!
Betsy and Satin were lazy and calm as usual and walked together down to the new pasture. They both went straight for the hay and unlike the rest of the herd, they had no desire to gallop around. I told them they were pathetic and that even the 27 year old Jedi got his heart rate up this morning.

Pokey and Goose were served fresh, dry hay in a wheelbarrow. I love watching Goose get snippy with Pokey around their hay. Pokey seems to care less about her drama, but Goose is always making ugly faces and squealing at him. Pokey just continues to munch, munch, munch.

Magic, Tav, and Dusty were nice and wet this morning. Although I was surprised to see that Magic's tail was fluffy and dry, but the rest of him was wet! Maybe it was blowing in the wind?
Tav continues to urinate at feeding time, every time. Oddly enough he didn't do it this morning, Dusty did! Dusty stretched and urinated RIGHT WHERE Tav always does it! Weird!

Bodhi and Cas were good boys and walked together to Pasture 2. Cas was a bit snorty but was comforted by Bodhi's laid back demeanor. These two youngin's love JW, even when JW turns his butt to him in dominance.

Lots of limbs have been falling from the huge oak trees - they get so heavy when they are soaked that they finally come toppling down in a loud crash! The horses never seem bothered by it. I'll be keeping the lookout for limbs falling on fences or low-lying limbs that should be trimmed. Also because of all the rain we have a few standing puddles. But from what I hear around Gainesville, our property is very dry in comparison to most!

More to come!

GP's blog, explained

I hope you're as excited as I am about Greener Pasture's new blog!

Why?
I try to approach managing the barn as if I was boarding here. What would I want? Ideally I would clone myself so I could spend time with my horse and also so I could be certain that my horse was receiving excellent care. Well, I can't be cloned, so I must trust that my horse is receiving loving care from someone else. That's hard! I know when I have boarded my horses I never knew for sure that my horse was being fed consistently, if she was being pushed around by other horses, or if she felt comfortable in her environment.
As horse moms and dads, we want the best for our babies and we will always worry about them!

My hope if that this blog will give you a little less worry when you're away.

What?
What will I be writing? Basically, this blog will contain the same types of little tidbits that the "Your Horse's Notables" binder keeps track of. More personal notables such as lameness will remain in the barn binder. Your horse may not be mentioned every day, but I will be blogging about everything! You should be able to stay updated on your baby even if you can't make it to the barn!
I particularly enjoy discovering each horse's individual personality. There's no such thing as a bad horse, so even if your horse is dominant or cranky, we love them just the same! We allow the horses to be themselves, whether nervous ninnys, slow in the brain, grumpy old farts...

When?
Starting immediately! Yay!

Who?
Me, Kathy, the barn manager lady, will be the one blogging. I feed 'em, fix their fences, fill their water, hose them down, handle them daily, and give them love every day.

Updates should be daily, so check back often!