A bit of Equine Stuff

Busy morning! This time hubby didn't wake me at 4 am! Whoo Hoo!

Our old pony is starting to show his advanced age. This past winter has been hard on him. He gets a stall inside at night as he is the only one who won't try and rip things apart. Throughout the winter he has had access to places where he can not only eat hay, but he could search for greens.

I checked our paperwork and we got him as a 4 yr old from our friends in Missouri. I always thought he was a 2 yr old when we got him. That would put his age at 32. This is the first year that I've seen him lose weight. 

He was a very happy camper all this week when I found patches of green for him to be tethered out on.

He is our weed whacker and trimmer for tough spots.

In all of his years of being tied out, he has never ever damaged a vehicle nor has he ever gotten tangled up. 

This is 15 years ago when I had him tied to the tractor.

He surely has had a good long life being a Guard/Yard Pony. His first job on our place was being a teaser for our mares. His retirement job is Guard Pony and Entertainment Pony.

Here he is ON Guard in 2009. I physically had to get out and move him out of the way.  

He is such a handsome fellow with such a fine temperament. He can prance and dance like a fancy high stepping pony. But considering that he has been handled every day since he arrived here, he is a breeze to lead around.

I love how he talks to me with his wee little whinny every morning and evening. He wants to make sure that I don't forget him.

And since I was going through older shots, I came upon a photo of our old 'string' of riding mules in 2005.

Left to right. Henry, Badger, Pipes, and Patchy. All from our Jack named Bruce. All half brothers.

Rich's main mount was Henry and mine was Badger.

Patchy now works in North Carolina as a pack mule doing training exercises with the military and was used to pack in supplies after last year's hurricane.

The others are no longer with us but always in our hearts. These guys were our 'cool' dudes.

Another quiet rainy, misty, cold yucky day in WI!

Fun and Silly

 Mushroom Hunting

Training the pony

Silly Hats

Silly Dinosaur

Brass Ashtray with Hen and Chicks in a mini garden made out of an old pie tin.

Guess who's coming to dinner?

Hunting

And I leave it at that.

Continuing...

We remain in self isolation.

Our State Supreme Court tossed out the 'Stay at Home' order and most areas are not enforcing any of the rules that were imposed. Suggesting to use masks are still recommended except by those who have decided that masks are a political statement or some such thing.
Social Distancing was still being respected [with masks] at the two stores I stopped at Sunday morning.

When I stopped for gas, it looked like pre - pandemic era. No masks, everyone milling around inside the gas station, no sneeze guards for the cashiers, no distancing [the place is small], and the general chaos that ensues in these places.
Since I hadn't purchased gas in nearly 4 weeks, I was surprised.

I won't go back to that store unless it is immediately after opening.

Enough of that...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been busy as a ... well, an ant!

Seems I am a fence builder. Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon making two more lots for Sven and Lil Richard to keep the grass and weeds in check. Last year I staked them out in those areas but I find that if the goat is in a lot with the pony he is far more content and will eat the thistles and burdock while the pony takes care of the grass.

This is an area behind the little red shed that is a tough one to hand mow. Sometimes I just resort to the weed whacker, but I hope the pony and goat can keep it under control. This isn't a good spot for a lot but it is an area that I hope to find a good use for other than growing grass. It is shady most of the day so it makes a good alternative for Lil Richard and Sven to spend hot days here in the shade!

I had half a mind the other day to just put a wire across the driveway and one around the house and let everyone loose.
We've done that before, I believe that was when gas prices were so high and for whatever the reason the yard had gotten out of hand [I'd had shoulder surgery!]

I just recall that using the equine was a great alternative.

However, having my laundry hung out with a donkey around...well....

That didn't work out so well.


Another gloomy day is in store for us and I can finish up the lot for the pony .. and then work on another section for the mules. We had such a dry early spring that the pastures need more time to recoup from where I let the mules out earlier.

Yards and Gardens, Goat, Dog, Pony

I got the yard mowed again before I had to put pontoons on the mower! Well, I got most of the yard mowed. I left a section for the pony to clean up and did some manure raking by hand.
I couldn't mow the hill by the shed as it is steep and was still wet under the grass.

But my supervisors watched me carefully.

Charlie and Sven tied out so they can enjoy sunbathing 

together.

If Sven sees Charlie in the yard, he cries and Charlie

runs to be with him.

Charlie doesn't really need to be tied when he is with his Goatie friend. But since I had a huge mower out, it was a safety thing.

I have been calling Sven 'Goatie Goat' and he seems to not mind. I refer to Lil Richard as Pony and he doesn't mind. Charlie gives me a look when I call him Dog.

Later, my supervisors were bored...

An old picnic table top

serves as a place to

sleep.

Lil' Richard was in his area cleaning up around the machinery and the old Jeep which has finally been sold. I'll move him and then rake out the manure there. The next trouble spot are two places I can't mow. I could weed wack it. But I'll wack down the weeds he doesn't eat..

The mules moved to what will eventually... I hope, be a picnic area overlooking the ridge to the north. I just love to sit under the big old Box Elder and enjoy the view.

After my mowing and whacking, I decided to plant some flowers. I'd gotten marigolds for the right half of the porch and planted seeds on the left side with a mix of cosmos, zinnias, and sunflowers. Some of the sunflowers reseeded themselves so I will move them around when they are big enough.

I tried something different this year.

I picked up the logs from a tree that was cut down last year. It was hollow and I thought it would be fun to try planting stuff in them. I moved other logs to the Morris Garden to be used as holders for my pails with plants. It is fun to try and get a bit creative with plants and planters. 

I have one spot under the kitchen window that may need more color this summer. I may transfer some seedlings or pick up some more Marigolds. I never liked marigolds as a kid, but now they are fun and I love their late summer hues.

My bleeding hearts are doing well and as they fade out, the iris's will shoot up with purple. As the iris flowers fade, the Blazing Glories will burst into color.

After that the zinnias should show up along with the 4 oclocks.

I don't know that I will do a veggie garden this year. Seems I have a lot of vegetables left over from the abundant garden of last year. I still need to string the electric wire down by the creek. 

At least I am not running out of things to do.

15, The Wonder Horse.

Well. The pressure is off. The equine are sorted out and a huge hay bill no longer looms on our horizon.

However that is not the point of this blog.

 I called the mule gang out for a brushing session.

 After brushing, they wander off...except...

Siera who decided to heel me and ask for more attention. 

Lil' Richard cleans up the rough spots

Rich felt pretty down when the others were loaded up and left. I felt a pretty huge sense of loss and change. However, it was necessary.

Pedro went with a team penning gent who fell in love with his color and attitude. Pedro, Willy, and LeRoy are headed off to school. They will have jobs to do also.

I went to the paddock where I am keeping 15 right now for easy access. She goes inside when it the sun is hot in her paddock and comes out for most of the day.

After supper was cleaned up I told Rich that I was going to brush 'his' horse and apply some bug spray to her legs. I would also like to pick out her feet and practice with her a bit more. 

With all the changes in the past three days, I thought a distraction would be nice.

Rich came with the spray. He'd been complaining that it was too hot or too buggy, or too...something and had been ready to go in for the evening. Afternoons are very hard on him. He says that his brain tends to 'misfire' late in the day. And it does. Late afternoons and evenings are tough.

Once he got into the paddock with 15, she perked up and her eyes and ears followed him. He talked to her and told her with mixed up words what he was going to do.

She listened to his voice and relaxed as he sprayed her with fly spray. And she didn't move a muscle.

I took the halter and lead rope off from her and handed them to Rich. 

I turned to leave her pen.

Rich didn't leave. 

He began to run his hands all over her and talk to her. I think she loves his tone of voice. She doesn't mind it if his words are mixed up, she doesn't care if he forgets part of a sentence or stops mid sentence because the words won't come. 

She stood like a statue while he walked around her and talked quietly. He then put his arm around her and leaned into her. She didn't move.

Then he put most of his body weight into her side. She simply sighed and licked her lips.

This from a man who has never had a particular fondness for horses. 

He has always liked them, and treated them well. But mules were his 'thing'. 

15 makes him smile. I think she makes him feel whole.

Who knows?

And does it really matter? 

All that matters is that she is the little Wonder Horse.

Gardens and Donkeys and Ponies

Well now those things really don't mix together now do they? Or do they?

So why on earth would I even put them together in the same blog post?

Well because I worked on these things in the past couple of days.

The new garden. It is in the place where all of the 'stuff' from remodeling sat most of last summer and through the winter. I dug it up after cleaning up the bricks and pieces of carpeting. I hauled the mess to the dump. One huge load that filled the back of the Jeep cost only $10 to get rid of.

Anyway, I looked at the huge ugly bare spot and decided early that this would be a fun spot to put some iris's and maybe some other plants.

And the project kept growing. I put in 50 vinca plants and tossed in some other transplants.
Last week while we were at the hardware store, I begged for a garden cart and hubby agreed to buying me one.

I am using old rusty and busted up buckets as planters again this year. I think they make a fun contrast to the beautiful flowers growing inside of them.

Photo from last year

So I began to add a few things like a brick border. Bricks I found in a pile over by the garage. And some rocks from another garden.
I just place things and then constantly rearrange them.
I thought just to be fun I'd add a Yard Gnome. I am not a fan of Yard Gnomes, but it would be a fun little twist anyway. I also considered a Dragon.
Someone notified me of this item: The Gnome Massacre

Now this would be perfect and would definitely satisfy my strange sense of humor.

I looked it up on Amazon and some other sites. My finger was itching to hit the 'order' button. I may still do that.

Imagine my surprise at finding some marigolds sprouting up in the 'new' garden area. I tossed last year's marigold blossoms and dead heads into the 'junk' pile. Apparently the seeds were good!

I've arranged the odd rocks I collect while hiking in Awesome Creek. The neighbor kids call it Dog Poo Rocks. I admit, they do look like dog poo. But they are such odd rocks, I have to have them somewhere!

Someone else said I needed to put some of my 'skulls' in the garden for display.
Hmmm, that would be interesting too. I should take some of those old skulls and paint them.

These flowers begged me to purchase them at the store. I walked by the Petunias and was ready to put some into my cart when I stopped and looked at these.

My father was pretty fond of these flowers. I've heard them called Pansies and Johnny Jump Ups.
My father called them the Happy Flower. He said they looked like little smiling faces.

So I brought these home. Some will go in containers and some will go in the East Garden and ... well, I haven't thought it out yet, but the flowers will all find homes.
And I will smile at them.

I thought the porch could use a freshening up, so while waiting for a shower to pass, I washed it and scrubbed it with a barn broom.

Then I while hubby took a nap, I went out and decided to do something about the troublesome area on the north side of the Big Shed.
Bob's Pen had turned into muck so I thought Bob could do me a favor and clean up the grassy/weedy area I had thought I could keep under control with a weed wacker. And I thought "Why waste the gas on a mechanical tool, when a donkey could do the job?"

This is a poor shot from my cell phone, but you can see that Bob is quietly working on cleaning things up for me.

Next week I have some summer pasture work to do. I need to clean the brush off the electric lines.

And I have to fix Lil' Richard's tie out line. He has some work to do also.

Last but not least, I must include my Supervisor.
Mr. Morris.

Fifteen

I had a lot of other things to write about. One of those things of course was photography and my trip to the east coast of Wisconsin....

However as soon as I returned I was tossed into 12 hr night/day shifts and time got lost somewhere.

Hubby decided to go to an auction. He and I had discussed at length the prospect of getting a pony. I didn't want to go through raising a foal and training it again. I've done that so many times over the past um... well, I've had something 'in' training since I was 36.
We discussed the fact that the neighbor kids had expressed an interest in learning to ride. [The older grand kids learned last summer on Fred and he was so perfect.]

Fred the mule is our perfect teacher. He is pony sized and ultra patient. However he is also aged and even though he shows no ill health, being 30ish is sort of old.
He has given so many people their very first rides that I've lost count.


I wanted a horse pony since I was a little kid. Not the fancy Welsh pony or the Shetland kind. Just a small horse.
I am a small person.

I've also been going over the idea of getting back into 4H as a leader. I enjoyed it so much when my kids were in it. Having a pony/small horse would fit right in to my plans.

We did quite a bit of searching and found some nice pony sized horses. Nothing quite fit the bill. I wasn't looking for a fancy show pony but something I'd use as well as be able to teach with.

Hubby went to an Amish horse auction. I stayed home to recover from some 12 hr shifts and take a hike. I know Rich is very particular when looking at animals, I was pretty sure that he'd come home soon.

I went hiking and found some false morels as well as 3 small greys.

Rich came home and stated that he'd bought a pony and had his eye on another one.
I was surprised.

I went back with him and found #115. That was the sticker on her rear end.

When we got her home the neighbors came down for a look see. She stepped off the trailer and looked around. She quietly surveyed the area and all of the commotion from the honking donkeys to Little Richard's shrill whinney.
There was a new kid on the block and everyone had a voice in it.

"What are you going to call her?" Everyone asked, "What's her name?"
Well I'd thought about that.
I looked her over and ran my hand down her back. It stopped at the sticker.

"Her name is 115 or Fifteen for short." Rich nodded, he was used to me giving animals strange names.

And Fifteen has been home for two days now. She has shown us a very high degree of smarts. It takes a lot to impress a mule man.

Fifteen is doing just that.

I can't wait to work with her.

Welcome home Fifteen!

A little story about a little Pony

Lil' Richard came to us years ago.

Here he is with our Grandson, Dennis.  This was 2009.  I think Dennis may have been 3 years old here. You can see that Lil' Richard is not a Big Horse, but more of a crop out mini.  He is somewhere between 33" and 34" at the withers.

He has always been very gentle to be around, but he was our 'teaser' pony for when we bred some mares to our donkey stud.  Most of the time he spends his summers grazing areas of the yard that are too rough to mow.  He can be happy tied to a tractor and clean up all around it.

This winter I started to mess with him.  I worked with him twice in December when we had mild weather. I then worked with him in January and rode him bareback inside the round pen and outside of it.

Then the temps dropped and the weather was pretty awful.  I let things slide and yesterday I decided I'd work with him after I'd ridden Siera. [Siera will get her own blog entry.]

I took the bridle that I'd introduced him to last time and put it on him.  He chewed and chewed and chewed the snaffle bit.  I put the saddle on him and he was very nonchalant about it.  That bit kept bothering him.
So I tossed a leg over him and sat in the saddle.  I made my noise for 'forward' and he took 5 or 6 steps, I gently took one rein and asked him to turn for me.
He stopped and dropped his head with his neck stiffened.

He then simply lay down.
I couldn't help but laugh as I stepped off to the side.  This is one of the reasons I find him so fun.  My inseam is 32" so it wasn't like coming off from a 15 hand horse!

I adjusted the saddle and took the bridle off.  I put his halter back on and used some twine to make the nose piece smaller.  The I jury rigged the large training rope and made reins [sort of] for the halter.

I would normally ride him bareback, but in January, I'd bruised my tailbone while riding my high backboned mule bareback, so I wanted a seat this time.  I will sort through and find a much lighter weight saddle to put on Lil' Richard, or more than likely just ride him bareback.

I stepped on again and he was fine.  He walked forward at every command and turned as I asked with the lead rope.  He and I were bored with the round pen. So we went out to the muddy driveway.

I think it is easier for him to get his feet muddy than me to have to walk in it!

So we rode up and down the bottom of the driveway for a bit.  I wanted to see how all of the distractions of the mares and mules whinnying at him would affect him.
I tried the blue bridle again and he refused to go anywhere while chomping.  

I eventually took it off and redid the makeshift halter/lead rope contraption.  
I guess my thinking is, if he responds so well and doesn't try to run off with this halter contraption, perhaps I'll keep him happy and let him ride that way.

He pretty much ignored the mares and molly mules who fussed and ran back and forth in their pasture.  He was working out what I was asking him to do.  I asked him to take me over water that was standing in big puddles.  He looked the situation over and seemed to just shrug and walked through it.

Here is our Big Shadow in the driveway.

After a few laps up and down the lower drive, I pointed him up the hill towards the ridgetop.
At first he hesitated about leaving the farm, but then I think I heard little gears click and whirl in his brain.  His ears went forward and he started to trot up the hill.

Of course this is his escape route if he gets loose or his tie out breaks.  He runs up the driveway and out the ridge to another farm.  The owner always finds him in the barn with her horses.  She opens a stall door and he goes in and gets some sweet feed and hay.  We generally get a call early in the morning to come and get him.

He hasn't escaped in a year, but I know that he knows that UP the driveway is on the way to Linda's farm.

Halfway up we stopped.  Lil' Richard is not in super pony shape, let's just say he is a bit chunky and soft.  He is not used to carrying my weight.  I waited and let him catch his breath.  He moved forward and pretty quickly we were at the mailboxes.

He checked the mail and decided it was mostly junk.

I let him have a breather at the top of the hill and let him find something to nibble on.

He'd done such a good job, that I led him while carrying my mail back down to the yard.  Here is a shot of the saddle I used.  It fits him well, but I'm going to try another much lighter one on him.

That is mainly for training right now.  I will probably mostly ride him bareback because I don't need assistance to get on him, nor do I need a stump or a bucket.

When we got home, I rode him up to the shed so I wouldn't have to walk in the mud.  I unsaddled him and then took the curry and led him to the south side of the house and let him graze on some green grass while I groomed him so more.

The Little Pony that could.
I am having way too much fun with him!