15 December 2007

Missed another couple of days. I have been battling the mud and had horses in for nearly a week but decided to put them out yesterday for a run despite the mud. They had a ball, Piglette (the black mare) went straight down to the pond that has formed in the bottom of our field as it always does when we have too much rain, lay down in the water and rolled in it!!!! Bear in mind that it was about 30F (just below freezing yesterday). She loves to do that and I have posted pics of her doing it earlier this year. I took a few shots of them all muddy and happy, that is one of the things they like to do, roll in the mud, it makes them happy so it makes me happy LOL. This first shot has all 11 of them, 10 mares and Dosie the gelding who is on the extreme left.

Stan finished my barn doors right on schedule and just in time. We are expecting up to 12 inches of snow between now and tomorrow!!! We have a few inches on the ground already, it started snowing mid morning here. This is a dreadful shot, you can see how the mares have chewed the barn to pieces, that is one of the next projects, to get siding onto the side of the barn that they have access to which will make it look a whole bunch better. So this isnt a very pretty picture but it shows my new doors, the wire mesh is what I have pulled off stalls to replace with bars, just need to find a home for it where it isnt in the way. It sure beats the tarp I have had to do battle with every year to keep the snow out. Oh yes, I wanted to add that that is a train passing behind the barn, shows how close it is. I didnt even notice it until I looked at the pics, we are so used to them, it is one of the busiest lines in this part of the world and we can sometimes see a train every 30 minutes.
This last shot is of Eb and Blaze playing yesterday. They do get pretty rough LOL. Learning to be young stallions is a difficult thing!!!

Well that is about it, not much going to happen until all this snow stops but I will keep you all posted. Keep safe everyone who is in the midst of these storms. I should be able to get some lovely horses in snow photos tomorrow if it turns out they way they predict. Stay warm.

(((((Hugs)))))

Lori
xx

6 December 2007

Once again I am behind on everything. In typical Indiana fashion we have gone from heat to cold in record time again. We had 4-5 inches of snow yesterday and I put the horses out which they really enjoyed. I had managed with the help of my helper to get the stables all sorted out on Tuesday so everything was clean and dry. Here are some of the mares out in the field yesterday.

I put the 3 stud colts out too in their new enclosure, and here is a pic of Dream breathing steam and of him and Blaze playing in the snow also shot yesterday.

(Click on pics to enlarge)

We woke up to 4F (for those of you in celcius, that is about -12C) this morning!!!! No wind thank heavens and beautiful blue skies and sunshine but just too cold to be out there. It is lunch time now and it is about 24F right now, expecting a high of 32 (right at freezing), but I havent been able to bring myself to do anything other than feed the horses and come back in because even with two layers of gloves my fingers are freezing by the time I get back in. I so want to get some pics in the snow with the lovely light but may wait until this afternoon sometime first. We are expecting another 3-4 inches or thereabouts tonight but it is not going to be as cold (when I say not so cold, I mean just below freezing but not like this morning).

I started with a sore throat yesterday and it is still feeling blaaah so I am not a happy camper today. Thought I would get this in early. I am hoping to have some pics of Taxes in the snow later, the last time it snowed was the day he was born and then it was wet slushy snow that turned into mud before he even got his first outing.

I am going to end for now. If I do get more I will post again later. (((Hugs)))

Lori
xxx

21 November 2007

This has been a very trying year for me on a whole lot of levels and I am going through a phase of my lost childhood and family possessions, birthright and I have been feeling a bit like a nomad. Growing up in a warzone has had its effect on me and this past week it has been at the forefront of my mind. I am still struggling with the animal abuse problems and now this so I am sorry I havent been very good company. I will try to elaborate at a later time so that some of you may try to understand where I am coming from.

Today's pictures were taken yesterday when I put the 4 mares that have been down the road, in with the horses that have been here. It is always quite a stressful ordeal because when you get a routine in place for the horses it is good to stick to it as they are herd animals and have their pecking order and like to keep it with as little disruption, it also makes it far easier to handle so many horses for one person. I put Cat and Piglette (the B&W and the Black mares) in the field with the three yearling fillies. The fillies really need to get used to sharing with other horses because they have only been the three of them and before that their other 4 siblings. It went really well, Cat and Piglette ran up and down full tilt and because they remembered the field knew where the boundaries and fences are already, just needed a refresher. I put Wiggle and BB in the other field with Dosie, Girl Sonny, Cayenne and Lori. That also went really well and they settled down quickly.

Wiggle loves to roll, and as can be seen, that was one of the first things she did, after finding the muddiest spot of course LOL. Above she and Girl Sonny are feeling each other out and doing their squealing thing.
The picture below has 10 of the 11 horses out in the 2 fields in the picture. The ony one missing was Dosie who was off to the left finding things to nibble on and not too phased by all of the goings on.
Taxes had his first day out in the new enclosure yesterday. He stuck close to the barn and we didnt leave him out on his own for this first time but he did discover the electric tape so knows that it is there now and treats it with respect. I will supervise his first few excursions while he is learning where everything is, then I will be able to leave him out unsupervised.

I didnt take photos of the mares when I put them out and they were running or Taxes because I am normally more worried that there wont be a wreck than a photo op.

It has been raining all day, we have had an inch so far but has been really warm, upper 50s but tomorrow we are expecting a drop into the 30s yuk, so it has been a dull grey wet day all day. The horses are all in their new pens and stables and seem to be content and dry.

I need to go and feed the last round to all the horses right now so am going to publish this, may add to it later. Mike mentioned Victoria Falls Hotel which is in Zimbabwe and I thought I might elaborate on that beautiful place. I have a few photos that my daughter took but will have to find them.

(((((Hugs)))))) to you all.

Lori
xx

14 November 2007

I have missed a few days again so I am going to post a bunch of photos I took yesterday. It has been raining here and we had one and a half inches over the past two days which was very welcome. The first two pictures are again dedicated to Mike who was doing a series on porches which were fabulous. I saw this yesterday, it is one of the houses on our lane and the red bush looked wonderful and I thought it would make a good addition to this normally mundane porch.



This is a photo of Girl Sonny, she is the mother of Taxes, Lori, Cookie and Dudette. She will be 18 years old in January and has given us some of our best foals, not a lot of spots on them other than Lori, but great minded, well put together foals nonetheless.
I snapped this a few evenings ago, it was pretty dark already so it is not a great picture, but it shows the four girls down the road, all nice and muddy from rolling after the rain. They were waiting for me at the gate to get their grain and I have started giving them a bit of alfalfa hay too as the grazing is not that great now. I am hoping to get the temporary winter stalls built tomorrow and then we will be bringing them home. I am not relishing the thought of 17 stables to keep clean, I have got off lightly this summer because I have been able to have most of the horses out 24 7 because of the lack of rain which meant no mud to deal with.
Abraham commented on the last picture I posted on the blue background. That is a bit that you can see, I am not sure what type it is because there are so many LOL. Here in the USA the western style of riding can be really ornate, not in the working type horses but in the western pleasure, trail and halter classes. They have a lot of silver and bling on their clothing, bridles and saddles. The bridle on this horse has only one loop over the one ear if I remember correctly, very unusual I was quite fascinated when I first got over there and saw all the different tack. Just visit a website like http://www.smithbrothers.com/ and you will see the variety of tack and clothing (I hope that link works, will check it after I publish this).

Taxes is doing really well, he is absolutely huge and still a brat of note!!!! I still havent had him in the great outdoors, he exercises in the bottom half of the barn and bounces around like a ball, jumping on his jolly ball and playing with the three yearlings outside on the other side of the gate. He is a beautiful colt, I adore him, just needs to be gelded so he loses that mouthy stuff which makes it hard to handle him sometimes. He is happy when he is holding the end of the lead rope in his mouth but until he has hold of it he is impossible LOL. I will try to get more pics of him soon. When I build the new stalls I wont have the bottom of the barn for Gee and Taxes to exercise in so I will have to get them used to the new enclosure outside, and pray that they will be sensible and not go crazy and run through something.

Other than that it has been a pretty dull few days. I have had a few more photos to edit and print and spent quite a few hours on doing that, my motivation is still not great but I am in good health and that is the main thing. ((((Hugs))))) to you all.

Lori
xx