Better Late Than Never

I am really struggling to focus as you might have noticed. If anyone still comes to check here from time to time thanks and drop me a line so I know I still have a few blog buddies LOL. Today's pictures arent too pretty but it is what surrounds us at the moment.

Although the mud has dried up just about completely and we are having the odd shower of rain, the small acreage we have is not nearly enough to accomodate 11 horses, so as you can see, here is Wiggle having a nice roll which helps her get rid of her itchy winter hair and she loves to do. There is not a blade of grass to be seen in the fields.

(Click on pic to enlarge)

This second picture is one that I shot for stock the other day. The three two year old fillies spent the whole winter with access to the outdoors and a shelter and had thicker coats than the others and this is how much hair is coming off of them with plenty more to come!!!!!

(Click on pic to enlarge)

I watched the Kentucky Derby this evening with great anticipation only to be saddened by the fate of the filly who came in second. So sad, her owners and trainers must be devastated. I didn't know her and I am, but then as you all know I am a soft touch for any animal especially one in distress.

Nothing much happining here at the moment, the lilac bush is in flower, I will try to get some shots tomorrow if the wind lets up, it has been very gusty. I may set up a small studio because a friend gave me some peacock feathers and I am dying to shoot some pictures of them, so I can perhaps pick a sprig of lilac and get some shots of it too in good lighting.

I have been diligently working on archiving my photos and catagorising them all, and choosing some of the better ones for stock photos to send to the magazines and agencies. I try to do a few a day and it also helps me to just switch off and keep my mind occupied and not feel sorry for myself.

The horses are all fat and sassy and happy despite their slightly reduced rations (feed has tripled in price) and they spend all of their time outside so it has eased the burden on me as far as the stables goes. Gee is still with us, she still hasn't gone to the track so I dont know what her owner is doing but I love her to death anyway.

Taxes is as big as any of my other horses and he is only just one year old. I need to get him gelded but just have to find the cash to to it, as well as Blue. Taxes is still as pushy, nippy and naughty as ever. I will post an update pic of what the wound looks like now, amazing when you think how it started.

(((((Hugs))))) to you all, I do visit the blogs from time to time but dont always get time to leave comments.

Lori
xx

Windy Day today

I am getting my post in early today, as I have missed a few again. This is a picture of a starling that I saw while walking outside the other day, I had to crop it quite drastically because it was pretty far away but I liked the way the feathers were glistening.

Yesterday I posted on my other blog http://loriscritters.blogspot.com/ a picture of one of the little hawks I have noticed flying around here recently. I dont think it is the same as the one I saw a week or so ago and only got one shot of it before it flew off. Check it out and see if you can identify it for me please???

I also posted a pic on there of my View from my kitchen window. Would you believe those 5 mares have completely anihilated that whole round bale (Cat Piglette and the 3 fillies) already in 6 days. I am still not really happy about having it out there because of potential mould which I know is present, but they have really enjoyed it and are still eating their grain normally and are much more content than standing in complete boredom. It rained all night so it is a mess out there this morning and after getting to the 60s yesterday we will be in the low 40s today with 25 - 30mph winds again!!!! I just dont have any horse pics to post because they are so muddy but will try to add a few mud shots a bit later to give everyone their horse fix.

Hope all is well with everyone (((((Hugs)))))) I have finally resolved myself to the fact that I am never going to catch up and will just do what I can to keep in touch with you all LOL, but know that you are always in my thoughts.

Lori

xx

Spring Has Sprung

The weather has been all over the place the last few weeks it is difficult to remember what we had on which day LOL. These little lambs are down the road from us and they were a bit far away so they arent too crisp and I could only get two in the one shot. There are 7 and they are all black. Too cute!!!

The owner had a big roundbale of hay on this wagon at one stage and they have obviously eaten it all and this ram was laying on the wagon in the sun, when he saw me approaching he got up so I only got this quick shot and he herded his brood away even further.
They also have geese and this guy was perched in the sunshine and when I got too close he got up and screeched indignantly all the way over to his buddies. I am hoping that I will get there again soon with good light and that they will be closer so I can get some cute pics of the lambs.
Lori got an abscess in her hoof. I noticed a few days ago that she was limping a bit but the mud is so sticky and thick that I wasnt sure, and they sometimes pull a muscle when they try to walk and their hooves suction into the mud. Yesterday morning I went and had to force her up to the barn because she could hardly put the foot down and the mud was so bad.

I tried to clean her hoof out and her joint looked swollen but I wasnt too worried because I found nothing in the hoof so decided to hose her leg and see if it improved. By that evening she was grunting in pain each time she tried to step on that hoof and was only using the tip of her hoof. Stan luckily has had experience with trimming hooves and normally shoes his own horses which is far cheaper than getting a farrier in to do them, it can cost $120 for a set of shoes and that was before all these rediculous price hikes.

So he got her foot up and was strong enough to hold her leg when she tried to pull away (it is her right back) and he cleaned the inside of her hoof and the next second liquid came pouring out of it. She had obviously got a cut in the hoof (I wont go into details because most of you wont know what the heck I am talking about LOL) and it had started to go septic. He had a hoof cover (Like a shoe for a horse that has a base and coers the hoof) which you can put poultice into and strap it over the hoof and keep the medicine in place. Luckily she has left it alone, because she normally cant stand anything flapping or strange on her body.

This evening we took it off and it is looking really good, there was hardly any discharge and the swelling has gone right down on the joint and she is putting the foot down normally despite the shoe on it.

So that has been my few days, today it was soooooo windy, the wind always makes me feel uneasy, I hate it. I can take the cold if need be but the wind just makes me uneasy.

I got my load of hay yesterday and it is really a nice quality hay. I am still trying to get the round bales for the field. I would normally never use round bales because it is so hard to measure quantities and have only used them once 5 years ago when we couldnt get hay at all the whole summer and we managed to secure 2 round bales for an absolute fortune and within 2 days I had 16 horses off their feed. So I resorted to Alfalfa cubes which doesnt help a horse which is a browser and needs to chew and keep itself occupied. They were getting the calories but dying of boredom and it was costing a fortune. I have already substituted some of the hay this year with beet pulp but my supplier has run out and wont be getting any until June/July and they have the price listed at $10.99/40lb bag shredded beet pulp. Four weeks ago it was $7.99 a bag. Dont even ask me what alfalfa cubes cost now because 5 years ago they were $8 a bag and I used 2 bags a day on top of their normal grain.

So the battle carries on, we are keeping them fat and sassy just not occupied but health is better than starvation in my book and they are all healthy. Still hoping a few wonderful people would come and buy some of them and give them wonderful homes.

I am glad to say I am feeling a lot better with the longer days and better weather on its way. It is still in the 30s a lot but bearable and we are drying up and warming up slowly.

That's about it for today. I have a few other shots that I have done but will post some more of those tomorrow, I havent had new material to post often over the last few months so I am going to make the most of it.

(((((Hugs)))) to you all. See ya tomorrow

Lori
xx

What a difference a day makes

After the sunshine on Friday and warmer (50s) temps), yesterday we had snow and didnt waver much off of 34 the whole day!!! Today again it is cold will be a bit warmer than yesterday and is very sunny!!!! The mud is drying up but it will just take one rain shower to make it into mud soup again because of all the deep hoof marks which will just fill with water again. Abraham I feel your pain although I do know that only 60 miles south of us which is more or less where you are they have been having far nore rain. We seem to be in the average belt which I am grateful for.

Expecting some hay tomorrow which I will have to unload because I just can't come up with someone to help me do it, Richard will help but lifting large bales of hay is the last thing he should be doing.

I am going to try to get some poop out of the barn today, the horses have been living out because it hasnt been raining and they have managed really well especially since it was about 23 when we woke this morning. My poor babies had frost on their backs LOL, but they didnt seem to mind. Can't wait to see a bit of green out there although with this many horses on that small space I am not holding my breath.

On to my picture for the day. A new group tht I have joined of equine photographers have set themselves an assignment to shoot a picture that they consider abstract art or that has the potential for an abstract picture, so I spend a little while out in the cold yesterday looking for textures, it doesnt necessarily have to be a horsy image. Ths is the rust on part of my poor little pickup truck. I dont know how it keeps going but it does and has been so reliable. I am going to play with it in PS and see if I can make something interesting and appealing out of it and a few other shots I took of other stuff.

Hope you have all been having a great weeked and havent indulged in too many chocolate easter eggs. Stay warm safe and happy.

Lori

xx

The View Today of Our Estate with Horses in Sunny Pastures Next to the Lake

Okay so that is a fib, but it sounds great and is not entirely untrue because we have all three of those LOL. The horses spent the night out last night and we didnt get any rain until this evening and then it wasnt too much so they are staying outside tonight again. I have some round bales of hay coming soon to throw out in the fields so that the horses will have something to occupy them and get a bit more nutrition as hay is becoming scarce and I dont know how we are going to cope this year because all the farmers are planting corn instead of hay because the corn prices have risen so much with the advent of ethanol!!!! Here is a picture of a round baling machine so you can get an idea of how big they are if you dont already know.

I would normally never feed round bales to my horses (The ones we get are very big, weigh about 700lbs where the normal square ones only weigh about 50 or 60 lbs here) because they can have a tendancy to have mould in them which is not good for horses and that is if they have been kept covered and indoors. These havent been so lucky but the horses will stomp all over them pick out what they want to eat and have a reasonable dry place to lay when it starts spreading out. I dont have any pregnant mares either because mouldy hay can be really dangerous for them and their babies.

It is going to be a rollercoaster ride of weather over the next few days, I just dont know how to dress each day, just look outside and make up my mind LOL.

Keeping our heads above water each day, hope you all have a wonderful weekend. ((((Hugs))))

Lori

xx

Another Sunny Day at Last

We have had really lousy weather since my last post and the poor horses have been cooped up for a week now. Today we had sunshine and despite the mud and near freezing temps I just had to put them out. Here are a few shots, I took my life in my hands in that field, I could hardly walk with the mud and the horses thought I was there to play rough with too LOL.

Below Front to back Dosie, Cayenne and Lori and the half black horse is Piglette.

Piglette is so funny one of the first things she will do is go down to where the lake is and lay down in the water, now bear in mind it was at freezing, there was ice on the puddles!!!!! She did it 3 times LOL.
And here is my Beautiful muddy Wiggle Monster. They are all so muddy but happy and their coats are starting to shed so the mud and rolling is helping to loosen and remove the loose itchy hair.
Abraham if our river and lake were a natural permanent waterway I would get the fishing pole out for sure but it isnt, just the run off from all the properties around us, whe are the convergence point LOL.

Thanks all for your visits, great to see you all.

Lori
(((((Hugs))))
xx

7 January 2008

Sorry for the confusion but Eb didnt go to his new home yesterday, he is still here, we just gave him his first lessons. Stan and Valerie still have to section off a shelter and few acres for him in the pasture that they have because he is still a stallion and one of the other horses they have is a mare, who has the same daddy as Eb, so that would not be a good idea putting them together LOL. Anyway because of this wonderful Indiana weather they just havent been able to get it done and finished (not taking into account the expense!!!) so Eb is staying with his brothers until they can get that finished, hopefully we will get better weather. The shelter is the biggest drawback because they have to build a complete new shed. I will definitely be upset when he goes but I know he is going to a great home and joining two of his siblings.

(Click on pic to enlarge)

Have you ever wondered how far away you have to walk around a horse who kicks so that you wont get taken out? Well here is Miss BB giving us a perfect example of how high and far those legs will reach and believe me they do it with major force, this would definitely be a head shot if there was someone there. The good think is that NONE of my horses kick anything other than each other when it comes to pecking order, but I am always cautious about letting them know where I am when I walk around them. This was just exhileration after being cooped up for a few days. You can see the snow is gone and the mud is back and they made the most of it!!!
And more exuberance and mud LOL not very pretty pictures but I could sit and watch my horses playing and interacting all day. We had amazing temps today, in the 60s and tomorrow will still be warm so I have left them all out tonight, hoping it will rain and clean them all up a bit LOL, but tomorrow night the temps are going to drop to around freezing again so I am going to be shovelling poop all day tomorrow I suppose and making the most of a very small load of sawdust, should buy me a few days of dryness and comfort for them anyway.

Nothing exciting to report, had a bit of a down day today. Thanks everyone for your visits, I dont always get to comment on everyone's blogs but I am trying to keep up with visits. (((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

17 December 2007

It was very cold this morning, no more new snow but cold Brrr!!!

I didnt get the horses out today, the ground has finally frozen and is quite hard under the snow, yesterday it was still muddy under the snow and a thin layer of ice so I didnt have to worry about the horses slipping. I did get them out yesterday and took some pics of the yearling colts. You can still see the mud all over them from the last time they were out LOL. They havent rolled it off in the snow yet. Here is Dream having a nice gallop in the new enclosure. Mud and Snow looks kind of strange.

(Click on pictures to enlarge) Of course no photo shoot would be complete at the moment without Blaze and Eb being brats and biting each other, so here is Blaze biting Eb and then Eb biting Blaze LOL.

And last but not least another one of Dream with his ice blue eye.
I didnt get much done today, wasnt feeling so great, coupled with the cold it certainly wasnt a day that I wanted to spend outdoors any longer than I had to.

I also put Taxes out with Blaze for a while yesterday but didnt get any pictures. He is being so good with the brat considering all Taxes wants to do is jump on him and bite him. I will turn them out again tomorrow, I am glad that it is working out because he really needs to interact with other horses.

Well that is all folks, nothing exciting to report I am afraid. Hope everyone is keeping warm. See y'all tomorrow.

Lori

23 November 2007

Huggy Cat on the new fence

L-R : Wiggle, Cayenne, Lori, BB & Girl Sonny

Cayenne, Wiggle and BB (these three were born the same year)

Dee and Dawn, two of the yearling fillies.

After a couple of very soggy days and a pretty cold one yesterday, dank and dreary, we had a beautiful day filled with mostly sunshine today, with some periods of cloudy weather but in general it was cold but pleasant.



I fed the starving masses and then put them out in the fields and they were very happy to be out in the fresh air. The one new spicket (water hydrant) that I had replaced in the main barn had started leaking during the night and I got into a barn under water this morning, just what I needed with the cold and no chance of it drying very easily. I baled water, threw down sawdust to soak up the remaining water and managed to make an adjustment to the faucet which seems to have solved the problem, we will see tomorrow morning!!!! I also managed to get five stables cleaned and filled with sawdust, will get the remaining 8 tomorrow. We also had some snow last night so there was a nice dusting on the ground this morning, makes everything look so clean until it melts and turns to mud LOL.



The pictures today are a few that I took this morning, had to get the kitty one in for Catblogging Friday. This is Huggy Cat on the new fence next to the electric tape. Good thing he didnt zap himself. Muddy horses LOL I love muddy horses.

Hope you all have a great weekend and are recovering from Thanksgiving dinners. ((((Hugs)))) to you all.

Lori
xx

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