Posts Tagged ‘horses’
Language Barrier
It appears that I continue to be hampered by my limitation of being monolingual, when it comes to communicating with all our animals, and none of them are showing any signs of understanding a word I have been saying.
I kind of expect that from the cats. They are naturally aloof. Although, I haven’t tried too many phrases on them. Mostly, they just hear me repeat, over and over, “What do you want? What do you want?”
Delilah sometimes responds to single syllable commands, but she is inconsistent about it, so I don’t have much faith that she is actually interpreting the words or sentences I have used.
With the horses, I know I should be trying to move out of speaking just from my head, into trying to use my gut and heart energy more, but sometimes the message feels time sensitive and my words are the quickest tool I have. Most often, it is Legacy who I find myself face to face with, and my words have been eliciting a blank-stare response from him.
He seems as frustrated with me, as I am with him. I expect he is probably transmitting his messages to me loud and clear, but they aren’t coming through in plain english, so I am at a loss as to what he is trying to say.
Yesterday, he showed up at the other side of the fence while I was cleaning the ground in the paddock. For some reason, he started chewing on the fence post above the electric wire. Now, the wire is there to discourage them from chewing on the wood fence, so I was half-hoping that he might get too close and feel a shock that would teach him to leave it alone. He may have been just trying to show me that he could, that he was that good, he could work around our little deterrent.
I didn’t want him to do it, so I was feeling peeved. At first, I tried ignoring him, so he might notice it would gain him nothing with me. My frustration got the better of me, when he continued, so I walked over and told him not to chew on the post, and I slapped my hand on the top of the post a few times, to emphasize my point. When that didn’t alter his behavior, I stepped up again and pounded on the post and then told him I was angry. I wanted him to know in his language, so I put my hands on my head, to mimic horse ears, and I pinned them back, telling him, “See? This is how I feel about you chewing on the post. I am angry!”
He didn’t show obvious signs of reacting, so I brought my ‘hand-ears’ forward, so that he might understand they were supposed to be my ears, and with that, I startled the heck out of him! He pulled his head back, and took a couple of steps backward. I pinned my hands back again and told him I was angry!
It was funny, because the part he reacted to wasn’t supposed to be the threatening gesture. Regardless, it seemed to do the trick. I went back to scooping up manure, and he went back to grazing.
Apparently I know more horse language than I realized.
Work Visit
We put the new “Griz” ATV to use yesterday, and it worked like a charm. One of my goals for the day was to take down the temporary fence we put up to define a grazing area just west of the big field. Our friend, Rich, and his daughter, Sarah, offered to visit and help with some chores, so I also had a goal of having a little fun. Both were accomplished!
They got to meet our horses for the first time, which also served a purpose for us, because we want the herd to be at ease in the presence of visitors. The more chances our horses have to experience receiving visitors, the better.
Cyndie brought Legacy into the barn to be groomed, and Sarah was able to help out with that task. I think she may have done too well, because when we returned to the barn later, to give the horses their afternoon feed, Legacy was covered with mud. He must have felt too clean, and rolled on the ground, in his version of self-grooming, to create a new layer of “insulation.” It was pretty funny to see.
Rich helped me to roll up the poly tape and pull out T-posts. I had rigged a way to connect our little trailer, ill-fitting and undersized though it is, to the Griz, and pulled that along as Rich picked up the posts. We reached that point where the load was becoming precarious, yet had only about a half-dozen left, so we went for it, and with Rich supporting the posts hanging off the end of the trailer, slowly worked our way out of the field.
The load was enough that I got stuck on the slope of gravel leading up to the pavement of the driveway, so I shifted to low, and then put it in 4-wheel-drive, and up it went, easy as could be. Then my only remaining problem was figuring out where the heck I would put all the posts. I hadn’t thought that far ahead!
Rich helped me create some space in the back of the shop garage and we finished putting things away just as soup and fresh-baked bread were being announced, topped off with cookies that Sarah helped Cyndie bake.
Thank you to Rich and Sarah for the visit, and assistance with chores. More than just a helping hand, having another person around when working provides opportunity for banter that energizes the endeavor.
Wintervale is a place that is made whole by the presence of guests. That has become apparent to me. At first, I thought we just needed to get the horses here to achieve the fulfillment of potential this place holds. Horses are a big part of it, but having people here to immerse themselves in the experience is the most precious of all.
Selective Intelligence
Legacy is definitely the “spokeshorse” for the group, and in most situations, he demonstrates a lot of intelligence. I was cleaning the paddock yesterday while the horses were out grazing. See if you can follow this: The wheelbarrow and I were stationed inside the large paddock, along the fence bordering the big field where the horses were grazing. The gate that was open between the paddock and big field was located in the other, smaller paddock.
At one point during my effort, Legacy sauntered into the small paddock and headed over to the waterer for a drink. While I continued scooping up manure, he crossed through the opening between the two paddocks and walked over by me into the very limited space between the wheelbarrow and the fence.
I was just about to ask him if he wanted something from me when he proceeded to deposit a fresh pile for me to pick up. He was so close, he might as well have just dropped it directly into the wheelbarrow himself.
I got the feeling he was trying to impress me with how smart he is. Unfortunately, his next behavior totally undermined his little show of smarts.
Upon completing his contribution of fertilizer for me to pick up, he looked to rejoin the three horses in the big field, by walking up to the closed gate near where I was working. The herd approached him there and waited. They quickly became frustrated and started running, so Legacy ran with them, along the fence, past me and the wheelbarrow, sliding to a stop when he reached the end of the paddock. He turned, frustrated, and ran back, stepping in the pile he so conveniently placed for me just moments before.
He did this run a couple more times, even as I was attempting to coax him to the wide open route he had used to get into this situation. He is intelligent, but he appears to experience lapses of memory. The horses in the field joined in his increasing frustration and sprinted back and forth, stopping amazingly close to the open gate in the small paddock.
I continued to invite both him and them to join me in passing through the open gates to reunite, by walking in and out through the openings. When his frustrated gyrations finally brought him far enough along to see what I had been trying to show him, he bolted through just as the other three figured it out and were charging in. I thought I was going to witness a demolition derby collision. Somehow, they avoided that catastrophe, and the four of them turned and raced full-speed together through the open gate, out into the big field, throwing chunks of mud 20-feet into the air in a thunder of pounding hooves.
One thing about horses, just as quickly as he forgot which gates were open, they forgot about how frustrated they all were, and instantly relaxed and went back to grazing. It’s one of the more intelligent things they do.
Incredible Gift
We have received an incredible gift from our friends, Mike and Barb Wilkus. It has Cyndie and me struggling to find a way to fully convey our appreciation. It is a one-of-a-kind painting by Mike. Not only is it a unique and generous gift, the artistry has absolutely captivated both of us. Like a favorite song that you want to hear over and over, we keep finding ourselves drawn to gaze upon this image repeatedly.
Cyndie has collected and displayed a significant number of images of horses, but none of them come close to catching my eye as much as Mike’s watercolor image does. It is alive with the vibrant spirit of a horse.
It is absolutely stunning, and perfect for us, Mike. We can’t thank you enough.
It is a priceless masterpiece that we will enjoy anew every single day.
Momentary Bliss
We had some blissful moments yesterday, working in the paddocks and round pen with the horses grazing around us. Cyndie decided to allow Delilah to accompany us, off-leash. That exercise went surprisingly well, until it didn’t. More on that, later.
Like happens so many times around here, I set off with one project in mind, and then found myself drawn to work on another. I was intending to cut down some small trees in the recently cut field north of the driveway where the brush cutter wasn’t able to mow. I never made it out there. The allure of the herd was just too great.
I needed to stop by the paddocks, because I had offered to bring in the wheelbarrow for Cyndie to harvest the latest crop of fertilizer. That’s when I noticed that Cyndie had included the gate to the round pen when she opened up the gates to grazing fields after she fed the horses earlier in the morning. While we have been busy with other things, the dirt of our round pen area has been getting overgrown with grass. They have been grazing the area around the pen, but the grass inside was untouched. Horses to the rescue!
Cayenne was the only horse inside the pen, when I showed up. I decided I wanted to pick up where I had left off last week on the task of turning over the soil in the round pen while the horses were around. It didn’t take long for the other horses to notice my presence, and in no time, I had 4 helpers. With all 5 of us inside the round pen together, Cyndie came over to take a picture:
After a break for lunch, I moved just outside the round pen to cut down growth that had sprouted from a stump left over from last fall’s project to clear that area. Delilah was with me, alternating between being entirely fascinated with piles of poop she came across, and digging and chewing on the stump and sprouts I was cutting.
Once again, the horses moseyed over to graze right beside where I was working. I looked up at one point and paused to absorb the bliss of Delilah nosing around in the grass among the four grazing horses, beside Cyndie and I toiling away on our respective tasks. Delilah had had a spectacular day off-leash. Cyndie had walked her up and down the driveway, practicing commands and rewarding her with treats. Delilah had stayed close to Cyndie, following her commands, when Cyndie was cleaning the paddocks.
At one point, Delilah and Hunter greeted each other, nose to nose, with no adverse reaction from either of them. Cyndie and I instantly shared the same hope that those two might somehow become fast friends. Delilah continued to receive treats rewarding her good behavior and the horses remained calm despite the dog wandering among them. We were enjoying things working the way we envisioned they could.
I have no idea what changed. Maybe it was that Delilah still has a lot of puppy in her, and just couldn’t hold herself any longer. She wanted to play a game of chase, and the horses make such irresistible targets. While Cyndie and I hollered at Delilah, the pursuit spun around the outside of the round pen fence. With me brandishing a shovel and Cyndie, a rake, we eventually collared the dog to put an abrupt end to the disruption, and an instant revocation of Delilah’s off-leash liberties.
Realizing how quickly things can go awry is probably why the moments of perfect harmony seem so incredibly blissful.
Mostly Unscathed
It is finally the last day of October. What took it so long to get here? Geesh. Trick or treat?
I was thinking it would be fun to do a surprising reversal of tradition and visit all our neighbors on this day to ring their doorbell and offer them a treat from us. Great idea, huh? Too bad that is all it is: an idea. I thought of it while tending to the animal-care chores all by myself during the time Cyndie has been out-of-town. Were she here, I could have tested the idea on her, whereupon she would become inspired to bake something incredible, and then the treat-full trick would be on.
Ah, but Cyndie is home now and the animals get to receive her masterful attention once again. I am happy to report that they all survived, mostly unscathed, under my care. The “lowlight” of the time I was the sole care giver was the morning I brought Delilah with me to the barn to feed the horses. She had been so good the day before, I figured she deserved a day off-leash. I had it in mind to do some work that would accommodate her roaming in the vicinity.
I left her enclosed in the barn while I was out under the overhang with the horses. I walked across the paddock to open a gate to the big field so the horses could wander out there after gulping down their feed. The “chestnut-three” were particularly squirrelly during the feeding, startling each other and doing their merry-go-round rotation of chasing each other off the feed pans.
Unbeknownst to me, Delilah was picking up on this through the wall of the barn. I shrugged it off. I had the gates opened that I wanted open, the feed distributed; my work was done here. I was prepared to take Delilah and move on to the next project I had planned. I was not attuned properly to our dog.
I cracked the barn door open enough to step out and Delilah bolted like she was shot from a cannon. She bee-lined a circle around the barn to where the horses were eating, despite my hollering to stop her. If none of the horses had moved a muscle, she would have barked a lot, but nothing would come of it, but the chestnuts were already on edge from their own shenanigans, so they jumped and ran when Delilah showed up. The chase was on.
It is such a helpless feeling when Delilah tunes us out and goes into predator mode. I shouted, the horses neighed, bucked, ran, and kicked, and Delilah barked and chased. The only result of that formula is escalation. Two of the horses headed out into the big field, but that just inspired Delilah more. She picked one out and stayed right on its heels. In the frantic moment, I wasn’t able to notice which horses she was picking on. Luckily, whoever it was, they ran back into the paddock again and I was eventually able to reclaim the dog’s attention and get her to come out of there. I unleashed my meanest alpha dog routine and rescinded her chance at frolicking off-leash that day.
After I put Delilah in her kennel, I returned to the horses to give them my humble apologies. They seemed to have already forgotten the incident. In fact, it appeared to have helped settled down the chestnuts, as they finally parked themselves, each at one of the 4 feed pans, and were now calmly munching away.
Here are a couple of shots from two distinctly different days:
Flying Solo
For the first time since the horses arrived, I am home alone while Cyndie is out of town. I am trying to keep calm and project a positive confidence, but… oh. my. god.
So far, so good. Our animals are eating the food I cook, er… serve. I know I don’t do things the way Cyndie does, but so far, the dog and horses are politely tolerating my methods. We’ll see how patient they are with me after a few days without Cyndie around.
The cats behave like cats, and take care of themselves for the most part. Speaking of cats, it was over a week ago now that I spotted a white and gray cat beneath our bedroom window, savagely dining on a very recently deceased rabbit. A rather graphic depiction of the circle of life. I don’t know whether that cat gets credit for the kill, or if it was some other critter. If it was Delilah, I don’t think she would have parted with it long enough for the cat to have access.
Whoever it was, the cat didn’t get a chance for seconds after its first meal, because Delilah did find the carcass and had her way with what remained of it, making sure to show everyone around that she had a special prize.
Delilah and I are already missing Cyndie’s extraordinary skills of removing burrs. My skills seem to be in the realm of getting Delilah into more burrs. Yesterday afternoon, we were down by the labyrinth garden and I was clearing a path into the woods nearby that will meet with an old trail we plan to clear and re-open. Then I wandered over to do a little work on a tree that had fallen back in May, when the late-season heavy snow storm hit.
Delilah was exploring everywhere in the area, occasionally stopping by me to bite on a branch as if to help. By the time we got back to the house, she had some burrs that I haven’t seen before. I brushed her for a while, and then we had burrs on the floor, burrs stuck to my shirt, a pile on the table, and some on the counter.
As I was getting ready for bed, I discovered I brought back one more thing from my chores by the labyrinth: a tick. I think it was smaller than a regular wood tick, so that could mean the dreaded deer tick. Unfortunately, he/she was attached and dining on me. That’s the first bite I’ve had in the year we have been here, which I consider pretty good luck. None of our activities here fall under the guidelines of ways to avoid ticks. I was bound to run into this sooner or later.
It gives me something to tell Cyndie about, since I don’t plan to have anything newsworthy to report about the horses or Delilah. Now I gotta get back to work, tending to animals. There is no copilot available to cover for me for a few days.
Gnawing Challenge
Why, yes, in case you were wondering, we do have a tree, two of them, in fact, inside the fence of one of our paddocks. (I just wanted to see how many commas I could fit in a sentence.)
We have been informed by many different sources, that we need to protect our trees from the horses gnawing on the bark. Some folks, we were told, put a fence around trees in this kind of situation. We didn’t want to go to that extreme, so we planned to wrap the trees in something that would block access.
My first attempt involved some left-over plastic fence material from one of Cyndie’s previous garden projects. The horses quickly showed me they are more than happy to chew on plastic, which wasn’t a surprise, so I moved on to the next left-over material I could find lying around. There was some chicken wire that might do the trick, if I could make the limited amount stretch far enough.
It didn’t. I ran short of being able to get high enough up the willow tree, and somebody in the herd decided it was time to show what they could do if given the opportunity. When I noticed some bark had gotten chewed, I figured I needed to take it to a new level, and go the route of a fence. I don’t know why I was limiting my focus to only using materials we had on hand, but it occurred to me that we kept some old cattle fence that would work to keep them from reaching the trunk.
That effort was doomed to having been under-thought and poorly executed. Cyndie reminded me that the size of the squares were large enough to get a hoof through, so we needed to wrap it in a mesh like we did on the big field border fence. Then I noticed that they were just pushing and mouthing that structure to a degree that I would need to keep adding upgrades that would soon have it looking like a Rube Goldberg contraption.
While exploring Fleet Farm the other day, I stumbled upon some material called hardware cloth that wasn’t too expensive. It resonated with me and I decided to give it a try. We dismantled the cattle fencing completely and went back to just wrapping the trunk of the tree, leaving the earlier vinyl and metal chicken wire attempts as a base layer. Now it has a look of medieval chainmail armor from a distance.
I feel like it’s a challenge to the horses, inviting them to try their worst, by allowing them to get right up to it. They can rub their bodies to scratch themselves, then find a weak spot where they could get a grip with their teeth to pull and tear at it until something gives and it looks a mess.
I was hoping Cyndie would just ask them to refrain from chewing on the bark, but apparently it doesn’t quite work that way.
Spunky Behaviors
I don’t know if it was the wind, or that the daytime temperatures rose into the 50s (F), but the horses were really charged up in the afternoon and evening yesterday.
Cyndie had fed them in the morning, and before she left for work she told me that she had opened two gates from the paddock, allowing the horses access to either the big field in front, or the small area behind it that is enclosed by temporary fencing. As I was heading out to visit the hardware store later, I noticed the herd had split, with the three chestnuts grazing in the big field and Legacy near them, but on the other side of a fence in the back area.
While I was out, I visited Fleet Farm for the first time since we moved here. The place has a whole new meaning to me now, compared to when we lived in the suburbs. I am not fond of shopping, so I do it as rarely as possible, but it works out because Cyndie shops enough for the both of us. In fact, I was surprised at how many items I recognized in the store as things Cyndie has “acquired” for the ranch in the last year.
When I pulled back into our driveway, I noticed right away that the horses were in the same location as when I left. It occurred to me when I saw them the first time, that they might not want to be separated, but had probably lost track of how they ended up on different sides of a fence. After parking my car at the house, I headed right down to see if I could guide them back together.
I think I was spot on about them not wanting to be separated like that, because when I showed Legacy that he had a wide open gate available to travel through the paddock out to the big field, much revelry ensued. The herd went a little nuts, galloping around at full power, leaping in the air and kicking up their heels. Do horses have heels? You know what I mean. It was a spectacularly fascinating sight, as well as a bit nerve-wracking. They were so wild I thought they might run into each other, or fail to pull up in time as they tried to “downshift” from a full sprint before running into a fence.
After that, it appeared that all the celebrating had put Cayenne in the mood for some specific attention from the boys. She did everything she could to egg them on, but other than a few brief hints that they noticed, the geldings showed no interest whatsoever. Back to grazing.
When the usual time for their afternoon feeding of grain rolled around, they walked into the paddock where I was working on bolstering my inadequate tree bark protection scheme, and they announced themselves with a whinny. I obliged them and went in the barn to get their grain. When I stepped out again, they were long gone, out in the big field again. No problem for me, I set out the feed pans and went back to work.
They did finally come back in, but they were uncharacteristically timid about going up under the overhang to get to the feed, which is where we have served it to them almost every time since they arrived here. Even after they broke down and walked up to munch, it was in a completely unsettled manner, and they either chased each other away while trying to get a bite, or all 4 would bolt in the well-practiced emergency evacuation drill.
It was probably just the wind, but I wouldn’t be surprised if their being separated –against their wishes– earlier in the day, was contributing to their nervous behaviors.
Busy Day
Under a sky that alternated between peeks of sunshine and downright threatening yesterday, Cyndie and I started early and worked most of the day to establish a temporary fence around an area we want the horses to graze before the serious winter weather arrives. When we weren’t bathed in sunlight, which happened only rarely, we were being showered by occasional cloud bursts of light to moderate rain, and one blast of ice pellets that don’t deserve to be referred to as snow.
It was our first try at setting up a temporary fence, and now that it is done, we are feeling good about the accomplishment. It was a challenge of trying to figure out the best location, the distance of the run, how many posts that would be, and how to get the tape strung and connected to our existing electric fence. This kind of task is one of those that involves walking back and forth to get one more thing. I bet we made over a dozen “one-more-thing” hikes yesterday.
In addition to getting the fence up, we took advantage of the weather and our proximity, and lit fire to the brush pile located over toward the labyrinth garden. It burned so much easier than the two piles we had from last fall, because this one didn’t have any stumps or root bundles packed with dirt. It was all dead, dry branches that accumulated from projects like making room for the road behind the barn, or cleaning up sticks and branches that continue to pop up in the areas we cleared of brush last year. There was hardly anything left but a small smoldering pile by the time I took the photo below.
It felt like a day of non-stop effort, except for a couple notable breaks. One, to accept a gift from our neighbor. He brought honeydew melons from his bumper crop. He said he liked one he bought from the store, so he kept the seeds and put them in the ground. His wife told him that would never work, but now he as more melons than he can eat. He gave us 8 or 9 and still had plenty in the trunk of his car. Sounds like the story of magic beans!
The other break was when Cyndie made lunch over the brush pile fire. She roasted a couple of brats and we had a little picnic during one of the rain showers. Just 10 minutes earlier, and we could have had a much more enjoyable meal. As it was, it turned into a rather utilitarian affair of eating for the sake of eating, while trying to put things under cover to keep them at least partially dry.
Then it was back to work, toiling away on tasks in the vicinity of our temporary fence so we could watch how the horses would adjust to the new area opened up to them. We were so occupied with our tasks, we barely got in a wave goodbye to Elysa and friends, as they departed up the driveway after an afternoon visit with the horses.
As for the horses, they hardly took notice of the fence, putting their attention almost exclusively toward the ample grass finally made available to them.
Relative Something 