Feeling Better

Catfish is feeling much better. I could tell yesterday when I separated the horses. He struck and bucked and tossed his head and basically threw a fit. I've never had a horse that gets so MAD about changes in the herd. I had to wave my finger at him and tell him to behave or he wouldn't get supper. Sassy pants! He did settle down after his initial fit and has adjusted this morning quite nicely.

I had been waiting for about three weeks for a nice balmy day (35 degrees F) to go out and do some work in the horse pen. Meanwhile, Dixie and Gunner had been getting fatter by the day. With all four horses together rationing food is a bit hard. The grain is easy, it's the hay that I can't control.

After our first big snow storm I wasn't able to get in the horse pen with my cart, so I resorted to throwing the manure in a pile in front of the pen. It seemed smart at the time, but as the weeks went on and the pile grew I saw my error. Yesterday I was able to scrape it off and move it until the spring. Hopefully by then we will have a new/used manure spreader purchased to get rid of it.

I also put up the fence I took down when our new shed was being put up. Then I moved some gates and did the separating that angered Catfish so. At this point I think he realizes that he has the better deal because he and Classy can still go out on the pond bank and paw through the snow to the grass.

S got off the bus as I was finishing up with the fence. She came out to help move the gate and the horses and then hopped on Dixie bare back. She rode her around walking, trotting and loping, kicking up the snow as they went. I wish I had my camera for that.

Lloyd also had his first day of work here yesterday. We used him for breaking one of our calves to lead. I had been apprehensive at first about Lloyd's well being, but let me tell you, he not only was safe, he led that calf around with little or no effort. I now understand why people use donkeys for teaching their horses and calves to lead. Especially animals that haven't been around humans. The calf we connected up to Lloyd last night was our former bottle baby, and while he is calm, he just does NOT want to lead. He tosses his head and jumps around and at 650lbs it's a lot to handle. Trust me, I had to lead him last week for weigh-ins for the fair. If you haven't been around cows before you might not know that a cow actually can kick sideways and out, while a horse either kicks forward or backwards. Lloyd definitely let this calf know who was boss and gave the calf some new respect in leading.

By the time everything was said and done I had been outside for over three hours. It really took a lot out of me, but I am SO pleased with the results.

This morning after I fed I finished one area of the fence where I had miscalculated the hardware needed and added chains to the gates instead of baler twine. I even used cable ties to attach the chains to the T-Posts so they don't get lost in the snow. I still need to adjust one of the gates as it is hung to close to the ground to swing nicely, but that can wait until spring.

So, at long last we are ready for winter. A month after it arrived! My wish for warm weather for Saturday looks to be coming true. Unfortunately they are predicting rain along with the warm weather, so I suspect my new cleaned out horse pen will be a sloppy mess by the time we return from our lessons.