Thursday March 18, 2010

It has been a tumultuous week. This poor little guy has been singing his heart out to attract the perfect mate to no avail for about two weeks now. It is the closest I have been able to get to a Cardinal, he is so absorbed with his song that he doesnt mind me. They usually disappear in a flash when I want to try to photograph them. Unfortunately it was overcast and raining.

It had been raining for over a week when last Friday night we were hit by a severe storm. I am usually always keeping tabs on the weather so I know whether to close barn doors etc. but missed this one and when it hit at about 10pm it was too late to go out. My barn was a bit flooded the next morning but not as bad as I have had it before. Those who have been following my blog for a while will have seen the scenes below a few times over the past 3 years LOL. This is my "pasture". This is how it looks after it has rained heavily. We had 1.5 inches in about 8-10 hours and it rained the whole day on Saturday afterwards!!!

Cat (the B&W mare) and Piglette loved the water, Piglette loves to roll in it despite the just above freezing temperature.

This is what it looks like from the road looking back up my field, the house it out of frame on the right!!!! Waterfront property!!!! You can see the two horses in the distance and the railroad runs along the top of the frame.

Here is my oldest mare, Sonnys Copper Gal (Barn name Girl Sonny). She is 20 years old now and has borne many foals for me, and Larry when he was still with us. Here she is peering out of the barn doorway as I was walking up the lane. The mud was too terrible!!

We have a small farm down the road from us which I pass on the way to feed my friend Judy's horses every morning and evening. The sheep are always so shaggy and they have started having their little spring lambs. Quite a few sets of black twins this year. With the dreadful weather I havent had much chance to photograph them yet but shot a few frames a few days ago. The gese were chasing the little lambs LOL.

I think this is also a twin because it has white paint on its head, even on the black twins one has a bit of white paint on its head. It is very new because you can still see the umbilical cord hanging underneath it.

On Monday the weather improved dramatically and I got to let Judy's and my horses out for the first time in over a week on Tuesday morning when things had dried a bit and the temps had risen a bit. They are very muddy and dirty but were very happy to be outside. Here are 3 of Judy's brats (she has 11). L-R Snickers, Rain and Red.

Here are some of my brood next to the "Lake" L-R Piglette, Blue, Kooter, Wiggle and April (Kendal's filly). Top right of frame is where our road crosses the railway track. They have installed booms now which is great because I got tired of watching people come flying over the tracks, sometimes with all 4 wheels off the ground, never even slowing to check for trains even though there were warning lights, what the heck would they do if they werent working, and often I would see people taking really unneccessary chances to cross the tracks despite the close proximity of the train. This photo is looking north and sometimes the trains travelling south to north are speeding down this track, it makes me cringe. How we have not had an accident here I have no idea. Now the booms come down but I have seen people weaving in and out to cross the track anyway!

The lake has nearly dried up now and we have had a wonderful week of beautiful weather. We are expecting freezing temps, rain, wet snow and cold again from Saturday evening onwards. We always get these few cold snaps before spring sets in for real so I suppose I should have expected it. It just sucks because it has been so nice after the dreadful February we had.

Judy's one mare tried to jump over the stall wall into the aisle on Monday and I found her on Monday night with her two front legs and one back leg in the aisle and her one back leg stuck straddling the wall and in great distress. She has obviously been there for more than a few hours. The boards had pulled out of the wall with her stuggles and there were 6 inch nails protruding. Thank God she didnt get into those and was so exhausted that I somehow managed to get her off of the wall, still dont know how, just shoved loads of hay over the protruding nails, tried to get something bulky under the hoof to give her some footing and leverage to get up and out and she eventually lost balance and got her leg out without more damage. Her leg was severely grazed and the inside of the leg that was stuck has a long laceration right up by her udder where her legs rub together, only the skin fortunately, and a bad cut and grazes on the top of the leg on the front. By the time I had got help to get her to the vet and got her back home it was 3am Tuesday morning. She was so sore she couldnt or wouldnt move, poor little thing. Long story short, with cold hosing of the leg twice a day, lots of penecillin, pain killers and salve she is doing really well today and I am hopeful that there will be no permanent damage, but infection and the possibility that she has done nerve and tendon damage are still there which will leave her with a limp, so we are hoping for the best. She is only 2 so this is a big blow. I would post pics but they would probably gross you out. I will try to find a photo of her, she is called Jeannie.

So that is my week in a nutshell. Got hay in today, I am running a bit short but this should carry me through until we start our own baling Mid to end of May. Everyone else is well and enjoying their time out. (((((Hugs)))) and I hope you are having a good week. Have a great weekend!

Lori
xx

Thursday 11 March 2010

It has been a long absence! January and February were tremendously hard months for me both with the terrible weather we experienced for such a long period and thus my mental frame of mind. It has finally started warming up after 5 weeks solid of sub freezing temperatures, snow and ice (not nearly as bad as some of our surrounding states ... but with 13 horses here and caring for 11 of my friends' horses 5 miles down the road it made it unbearable). We have gone from below average temperatures to above average temperatures in a matter of days. Indianapolis topped out at 72F yesterday, there are still patches of ice and snow all around despite the warmer temps which is a good indicator of how fast it has changed. Of course the mud has come along with the thaw!!! One can just never win LOL!

I put Gee and the two babies (Goldie who is now a two year old and Herbie who is 9 months old) out for the first time in a while the other day and they had a ball. Below is Gee, all 17 hands of her, elevated at least 2 feet off the ground!!!
(Click on each pic to see a slightly larger version)
She has such a joy for life, she is the TB mare who has boarded with me for the past 4 years. I love her to bits, she has such a wonderful disposition and mind for a racehorse! With Larry passing last year (can u believe it has been nearly a year) I havent had much time to bond with my little palomino mare, Goldie (yeah I know that is original but her Daddy is CK Sun, and I had just seen the most beautiful sunrise minutes before I first laid eyes on her that her name CK Golden Sunrise was a must), and have NEVER seen her roll. She rewarded me with a few rolls on this occasion, this one was in a drier area of the pen, you will see further along that she found the wettest, muddiest part of the area and promptly rolled there too! She is not going to be a big mare, might just make a horse but may still stay short enough to be a pony but she is a tank.

Gee just loves to find any water she can, paw it into a muddy mess and then roll in it. There is a small pool that forms at the base of this tree when it rains, and she found it and did her thing. You can see the results, oh yes she made sure she laid down in it on both sides!

Herbie found the Jolly Ball in the mud and had a bit of fun with that. He and Goldie are also best buddies, my next job is to get him gelded, poor boy. He hasnt displayed any studdy behaviour yet but then spring is young that could change quickly.

He also had to coat himself in the mud. It is one way of getting that winter coat to shed out, and when it does start shedding it probably itches like heck so they love to roll all over the place and when I look out in the pastures there are white and brown patches scattered all over LOL.

Here is a picture of the three of them after they had all had their bit of fun in the mud, you can see how muddy and wet Gee got and Goldie too.

I have hardly touched my camera in months. I was looking at my photos the other day and since the beginning of January I have only shot a few more than 100 frames. This is very unusual as I normally shoot hundreds every week. I am hoping that with the arrival of the warmer weather, my passion for photography and life will improve. It has been a long battle the last 11 months. I am still looking for a job and have no income so have become an expert at shuffling money between accounts in order to get the bills paid!

I am not going to aim too high to start with, hoping to maybe get a post a week up. I miss all my blogging friends. (((Hugs)))) to you all.

Lori
xx