Posts Tagged ‘paddocks’
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.
Rain, Rain
The weather here has taken a turn for the wettest again. In the last 3-days, we have had over 3.5 inches of rainfall. After being so dry during the second half of the 2013 growing season that our hay-field couldn’t produce enough growth to justify a second cutting, we now have plenty of water at the time when the things that grow are in transition toward dormancy to survive the harshness that winter will bring.
We knew we would be facing some challenges in the paddocks during wet periods, especially during the springtime, but we decided to just get the horses here and deal with it as it comes. The horses have quickly been able to show us what we are facing. Managing this is now our next priority.
My long-term vision was to carve drainage paths to direct water to flow around the paddocks and toward a main ditch that will direct water to the edge of our property where there is already a waterway in place. The immediate need to address this has led me to quickly try a test of the drainage grade to see if the water will flow. In two different spots around the paddocks, I have been pleasantly surprised, and am optimistic that my idea can work.
It will take some time, and repeated attempts, to create drainage paths that are durable and stable. Ideally, there will be grass growing in them, and it will take a while for that to occur. In the near-term, just getting channels created will greatly reduce the amount of water that makes it into the paddock in the first place.
We will probably still need to add some gravel to our paddocks, and even though we were told we can’t put gutters on this barn, we will be investigating a way to do that.
In every project we consider here, we tend to solicit as much advice as we can. I am always amazed at how often the responses we receive are at odds with each other, often completely opposite with regard to what is, or isn’t, possible.
Luckily, Cyndie likes to dwell in possibility, and I am learning to trust my gut instincts. Eventually, we come to solutions that work… rain, or shine.
Rough Terrain
I’m sure I have mentioned this before, that one of the hassles we continue to struggle with around here is the uneven terrain where trees and overgrowth were dug out last year. There are big divots in the ground, shrapnel from root branches, and mounds of dirt that the skid-loader kicked up, the majority of which becomes obscured by the thick summer growth of grass and weeds. Some of that rough terrain is located inside parts of our two paddocks.
Cyndie is very concerned that such unsure footing will be dangerous and problematic for our horses, so one of my next priorities is to get the ground in the paddocks fixed up. The early opinions from our many advisers have leaned toward “discing” the entire thing. I don’t have a disc attachment for my tractor. We could rent one, but there is the challenge of transporting it. Of course, my neighbor has a disc harrow, as he has demonstrated recently by volunteering to smooth out the area outside our paddocks, but I’d rather try to solve this one on our own, if we can.
The thing is, there is a fair amount of good grass growing in the paddocks, grass that we really want to keep for the horses to graze. If we disc the whole thing, we will need to plant grass seed, and wait for it to get established. If we put horses in there before new grass gets started, they will never allow grass to get established. It will all become a dirt sacrifice area.
I am lobbying for a more refined, albeit manual, approach. We did a little test area last evening, and it worked well enough for me that I am encouraged to forge ahead, by hand. It allows me to save the grass that is already there.
We still need to plant new grass, as a large part of this was dug up to install our on-demand watering station, but this way we won’t be trying to replant the whole thing. All we will need to do is augment what is already there.
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It has been a dry few weeks, but right before we went out to work on the ground, we received an inch of rain in a blustery summer thunderstorm, which softened things up just a bit. The dewpoint was high, and we became drenched in sweat as we worked. Then, as darkness approached, fog began to form.
It was just plain wet, in the air, on the ground, and all over our bodies.
Big Day
Lately, every day seems to be a big day around here, but yesterday was bigger than most. We had excavators and fence installers working at the same time at two different locations on the property.
A ditch was dug to lay in a water line and an electrical wire to supply an on-demand water station between the two paddocks, which will be heated to keep from freezing. They need to move a lot of dirt, to get below the frost line, and to make a ditch wide enough to be safe for a person down in it. It was a fascinating process to watch.
The backhoe is like a toy. I can see why there are “big machine” camps where adults can go to “play” with them.
The man running this one was a real artist. After they finished with the water installation, he drove around behind the barn and shaped the ridge beside our new driving lane. Then he moved out to the fields where he buried what remained of our two brush piles.
They worked non-stop till after 6 p.m., pausing only briefly for lunch.
Now that the work requiring the backhoe is complete, they can finish the fence around the paddock.
If we don’t pay attention, these paddocks will be ready for horses, and we won’t have yet prepared to bring some on. We’ve been waiting so long – since we moved in last October, really – it would be a shame to have not prepared in advance for the moment we’ve dreamed of for a long time.
After all that waiting, it suddenly feels like things are moving real fast.
That’s good, but also, a little scary.
Relative Something 