Mud, the coolest fad

Mud is the new spring shade.

All the cool kids are wearing it, in abundance.

 

Even the short, extra hairy ones.

Some really pile it on.

All over and anywhere they can get it. I'm not fond of the look, but, there it is.

Thankfully, this mud fad won't last too long...and it's a temporary look (except, it does stain lighter colors a bit!)

The Spring Stupids

It's amazing what a week will do. This time last week we still had snow. Now, it's all melted and everything is coming up green! Even the mud is finally drying up a bit. Yay!

And the horses, well, I think they all have a bit of spring fever stupids. They took an unexpected journey over the weekend, and that dang little pony, Lou, started it all. He's too smart and wily for his own good. He showed them all (except Montana) how to push past a human to rush through an open gate and head for the hills, or, in this case, head for the dairy farm.

Funny how the cows don't bother Gabe at all when he's on his own. Even funnier how all the big, wide, water-filled ditches contained zero horse-eating crocodiles when he's out gallivanting with his herd buddies. The turd.

It took three of us and a truck to finally convince them to head home, and boy were they a sight, all galloping together and being crazy, bucking and farting and running hellbent for anywhere. Every time my husband got close to them, Lou tossed his head and took off, inciting the rest of the bunch to follow. Little inciter, inciting riots, just like a pony.

Lou may find his name changed to Houdini (or, as I like to call him, That Little Brat). I don't know how he's doing it, but every day this week he is somewhere other than where we left him. No fences are down, the wires are hot and there is no place he can crawl under. He's either an amazing jumper and clearing fences significantly taller than he is, or, his hair is still just to thick (imagine wooly mammoth thick) to feel the zap of the fence through it and the green grass is far too enticing. Who knows but I sure wish I could catch him in the act so we know how to bar any further escapes! At least he sticks around the yard. 

I'm so excited the weather is finally cooperative...looking forward to many, many rides soon!

Warm blankies

Snow? Really? REALLY?!  We've started shedding like mad and you throw THIS at us? Mother Nature, you have one heck of a sense of humor. We are not amused.

"Your horse is a jerk."

So, my husband calls me at work and the first thing he says, "Your horse is a jerk."

Uh oh. That is never a phrase you want to hear when you have horses and are an hour away from home!

"Ummm...why is he a jerk this time?" I ask cautiously, not quite sure I want to hear the answer, pretty sure he's managed to mangle himself in some obscure way.

"Well, all I have to say is this: He has no excuses any more. He can jump, don't ever let him convince you otherwise," he replied.

Well, that's kind of a cryptic answer. So, I pressed for the full story.

We have most of the property and driveway fenced so we can turn horses out into the yard (more grass/room, less wear and tear on the pastures). By fencing the "non-pasture" part of the property we gain several more acres of good grazing, and that means less for me to mow! The fence ends at the pond, but sometimes, when the pond is low, those brats walk around the fence, through the pond and "escape." We're pretty far from the road and they've never wandered to the road, but they do like to graze along the driveway and along the outside of the fence when they do manage to escape.  You know, the grass is always greener! Now that the pond is low and the mud frozen, we plan to extend the fence INTO the pond as far as we can (hello hip waders!) to prevent any future escapes.

Anyway, my husband went out to call the horses in so he could lock them up before leaving. They are allowed out into the yard, but only when someone is home to keep an eye on them just in case they do decide to go on an unauthorized adventure. They all come running when we call for them, and they came galloping down the driveway as expected and were rewarded with peppermints all around. They're spoiled that way.

All except Gabe.

Mr. Prissy Pants had escaped through the pond and was on the other side of the fence grazing along the driveway. He did not like being left behind by all his buddies. He apparently ran all the way down the pasture fenceline, figured out he couldn't get through, then ran all the way back to the driveway and JUMPED the freakin' fence! The fence is nearly five feet high. My husband said he didn't even hesitate, just soared right over it and kept on going, galloping down the driveway, tail straight in the air, to find all his buddies grazing in the arena.

We know the big guy can jump...he's always enjoyed it under saddle but I've kept the fences low. I believe in starting slow and low to build confidence and give them a good experience. Now, we know he has a little bit of scope, too, maybe I can bump the size of the fences up a couple of inches this spring when we start schooling over fences again. 

I would have loved to be there to see him clear it!

Nap time

Hey big guy?

Yeah, little man?

You sure make a comfy pillow.

I know. You're welcome.

Weird horses are blow-hards

The big man was in a weird mood today.

The farrier was scheduled to do pedicures on everyone, so, I pulled them all out of their mud lots (can't really call them dry lots at this point in the season) so I could wash legs and give them a brushing before he arrived.

Everyone stood nicely and let me dunk their legs into warm buckets of water to rinse most of the sticky gunk off. Teddy freed himself four times (he's a master houdini and can untie just about any kind of knot!) and I had to go chasing after him. Gabe wanted to play face wars with Teddy at the hitching post (he can be an ass about it), Little Lou was completely content with scratching his face on the tie rail and Montana fell asleep at the post.

We had NO thrush in any feet and they all looked great, which surprised me considering the mud they've been standing in for months. I expected at least some thrush, but there was none. Yay!

Each horse (except Gabe, of course) stood beautifully for the farrier, as expected.

Gabe, he was weird. He's usually wiggly, not being bad, but wiggly. He doesn't like to stand still for long. He typically shoves his head against my chest and rests it there while the farrier works or tucks it beneath my armpit and grinds his teeth. He grinds when he stresses or worries, and having his feet done stresses him.

This time, all he wanted to do was shove his head between my arm and body or into my coat pocket and BLOW hard, you know like they do when they see something that gets them excited or worried. The harder he snorted into my arm, the more excited he got, and when I pushed him away, he was extremely insistent on getting his nose back where it was so he could "bugle" again. The more excited he got, the pushier he got, which is unusual. He can be nosy and in your space, but rarely adamantly and rudely pushy. It was weird. He's never behaved like that before and I can't quite decipher it.

But, his feet got done and his frogs are right at the shedding point, so things aren't beautiful, but better than they were. No thrush, no cracks, no worrisome anything.

Tomorrow, he's going on an "exciting" trip. Little does he know he's headed to the horse dentist. Poor guy needs some dental work. He has a cap that never fell all the way out and it's now looking swollen, sore and infected and I know his grinding habit has played hell on his molars and his canines need clipped. His been dribbling his food a bit more than usual and not holding his weight like I'd like to see. He's a normally sloppy eater, but the slop is bigger than usual. Typical Thoroughbred mess mouth, I'm sure. It was a mess the last time he was done, it'll be a mess again.

A small change

I always get so excited when I see a new comment on a post, eager to find out what my online friends have to say. I value your words and the time you spend to read, comment, offer insight or suggestions.

But lately, more of the comments have been unintelligible spam, not words from actual readers. If the spam was articulate, interesting or even amusing, I wouldn't worry so much about it, but this spam is awful and obviously written by someone who has zero grasp of the concept on how to construct a sentence that makes any sense at all.

I used to have this blog set up to require word verification to post comments, but for some reason, the verification words blogger uses are generally impossible to read.

I won't do that to you guys. It's frustrating to have to go through three or four verification screens because you can't quite decipher what it says! And eventually, if you're like me, you just give up after the 3rd or 4th failed attempt and leave no comment at all.

So, instead, I have enabled comment moderation. I will check frequently to approve and publish comments as quickly as I can, but, it's the only thing I can think of to do to stop the really annoying spam.

Please bear with me as I try to keep up. If your comment doesn't show up within 24 hours after you post it, I'm probably out riding!

Or digging my horses out of the mud. :)

Happy Trails!
Jenn