Pony Rides, Flies, and Hoof Trimming Limbo

The good is that Sweet Pea finally got to ride Harley again.  The bad is that I haven't been in the irons in about a month.  And the ugly is the flies.

Sweet Pea has been asking to visit and RIDE Harley.  Getting her to the barn is easier said than done.  As if by magic, one day we found ourselves with a free afternoon, reasonable temperatures (Did you know that New Jersey is a long lost tropical region?), and it wasn't time for anyone to eat or nap (baby, toddler, and Harley included there).   Sweet Pea's helmet fit for the first time without extra padding and so did her new leopard-print barn boots.  Harley was up for anything and baby was too.  What an excellent combination!

Love.

My favorite part was when she said, "Don't hold me".  Brave girl.  It was also my least favorite part, because I did not want to let go!  I feel confident riding, but putting my small child up there is a different experience.  I kept my cool and so did Harley, but I was secretly relieved when she said she was done.

This was also Sweet G's first barn visit and meeting with Harley!  She was very interested and cooed pretty much the entire time we were there.

Unfortunately, I am finding it very difficult to ride right now.  I still trim Harley's feet and that is ruling my barn time.  I only have the time and energy to trim just his fronts or just his hinds and his feet grow so quickly that I have to trim every two weeks.  I only use a rasp, which is part of why I trim so often.  So there is my limbo.  I get stuck trimming his feet every weekend and miss out on riding.  My second baby is still very young and nurses often so leaving her is difficult.  I usually reserve that for Daddy only, hence the weekends.

As for the flies, they are just awful and Harley is delicious so he is miserable.  I finally broke down and ordered a fly sheet, but I have the same problem of not being able to get to the barn often enough to check on him.  This is why I absolutely cannot put him in fly boots. We will see if the sheet is a possibility management-wise.  My poor horse hides in the shed or stomps in his feed dish all day to avoid them.  The repellent is always short-lived relief.  Why do the bottles say eight hours of protection?  Try eight minutes.

Backup Blanket

Do you have one (or three)?

I never used to, in fact, I didn't own a blanket of any kind for the first several years of horse ownership.  My horse grew a warm coat and none of the other horses were blanketed, so mine followed suit.  When I did finally buy a winter blanket for Harley, he only wore it at night and the temperatures were rarely below twenty degrees Fahrenheit.  He wore the blanket to help him maintain weight.  I never actually saw him shiver or show signs of being cold.  The plan worked very well and that blanket is going on its third season.

However, this year I got an itch. I felt the need to buy a second blanket.  Maybe it was because this blanket is getting on in years.  Maybe it was my need to make Harley feel better in a time in his life when he is not "healthy as a horse".  Whatever it was, I bought a second blanket somewhat on impulse and kept it, unopened, in my dining room.  I wasn't sure if I would use it this year, but that was fine with me.

Then in mid-December when we had some crazy-low temperatures (5 degrees Fahrenheit) and an impending winter storm, my barn owner approached me about the dropping temperatures and what I wanted done with Harley.  I gleefully exclaimed that I HAD a second blanket!

So the backup blanket was hung on his door in preparation for the bitter, upcoming night.  The idea was that he would wear BOTH blankets.

The coldest of nights arrived and I slept soundly knowing my horse was warm in his two blankets.  The next morning I drove out to see him and gawked at how handsome he looked in his new blanket, but when I got a little closer I realized something...

...he was only wearing one blanket. 

Sporting the new blanket

That was odd.  What happened to the other blanket?

I found it in the barn and could hardly believe my eyes.  Ice lined the bottom edge of the blanket where water had run down the blanket and frozen in place before leaving the surface of the blanket.  The blanket could almost stand up by itself!

The icy blanket

I am happy to report that the waterproofing held up and Harley was dry under his ice blanket.  He also did just fine with one, ice-free blanket.  I had never seen anything like that before (I guess I have been lucky).  Thank goodness for backup blankets!

First good snow pics of the farm since winter 2009/2010!

And Sweet Pea's first snow!

It's Kind Of a Weird Story

I have noticed over the past several weeks that one of the barn cats has been using my horse's stall as a toilet.  I find a neat little pile of "you know what" in the same corner, day after day.  At some point, I stopped picking it up, hoping that the cat would abandon his bathroom if I stopped cleaning it.

The next day there were two piles side by side.  Oh well.

I do not like to complain about too many things.  As a boarder, I am a guest.  A paying guest, but a guest, none the less, and what exactly is someone supposed to do to prevent the cat from using my horse's stall as his own personal outhouse?  I groveled under my breath for a few weeks and gave the cat my best, evil-sideways-glance whenever I saw him sauntering across the farm yard.  How can he be so smug?  And he doesn't even have the class to cover his business.

I started to wonder, where had the cat been going to the bathroom before he starting using my stall?   There has been at least one barn cat around for as long as I have kept my horse at the farm.  Oddly, my horse seems to really like the cats.  He will put his nose right up to a barn cat's belly and sniff so diligently that he nearly lifts the cat off the ground.  He has never been scratched for this, so I assume they are friends.  Maybe he invited the cat to use his stall.

"Sure!   Come back anytime.   I barely use my stall anyway."

I complained to my husband, because who else can you complain to when you are trying to "be cool" about something?  However, this didn't resolve the issue.  In an effort to help, he cleaned up the mess for me during his last barn visit.  I do not think that I have seen him carry a manure fork before.   It was a nice gesture.

Then one day, after lessons, late on Thursday, I went to clean a pile of horse poop from my horse's stall and noticed the cat's pile next to it.  I was in mid-conversation with the barn owner and just decided on a whim to mention it.

"You know the cat keeps using my horse's stall as a bathroom."

There was a slight hesitation and then,

"It's not a cat."

"Huh?"  Was a small child using my horse's stall as a bathroom?   I was seriously confused.

"It's a skunk."

"WhhAaaTtt?!!?", my exclamation was drawn out, because I was presently holding a manure fork of skunk scat.

Apparently, a skunk had taken up residence nearby and was making himself at home.  I unabashedly proceeded to freak out, vocally worrying if it could be a potentially-EPM-carrying opossum instead of a skunk and generally distraught that a wild animal was hanging around the barn.  They carry diseases you know!

I was reassured that it was definitely a skunk, because one evening when my horse was being led into his stall for dinner, the skunk was in there doing his business.

"My horse could have been skunked!"

At this point, any attempt I may have made to "be cool" had completely failed and I now was in total boarder hysterics.  I am sure that the barn owner was silently wishing that she had just let me continue to believe that it was the cat.  We have a local wild animal guru, who had already been contacted and she assured us that the skunk will not spray in a confined space, because he, himself, does not want to be skunked.

How is that for irony?

So long story short, the skunk is being humanely-trapped tomorrow and will be relocated.  Until then, I have been keeping Harley's stall door shut and his bedding has remained free of "mystery presents".

Last Friday, my teacher came out for a lesson and happened to poke her head into another horse's stall.  After a few moments she commented,

"Hey, I think the cat is going in here."

Signs of Summer Around the Farm

My husband purchased a new Canon Powershot to replace our original Canon.  We bought the older Powershot S50 in 2004 and it is still taking great photos.  Unfortunately the sliding door, which protects the lens and turns the camera on and off is barely able to slide on its track.  The camera is also huge by digital camera standards, kind of like my last cell phone.  I will continue to use the original from time to time, but it is very nice to have a new and improved model.  What better place to try out the new camera than on the farm?  I did not realize how creatively the barn owners have decorated the place, until I started looking for photo opportunities.  You might also see Harley and our resident Icelandic Horse.  Enjoy!