Winter Digs

About the middle of last month, we moved our horses down the mountain to winter pasture.

There are 9 or 10 other horses down there being boarded by our farrier's dad, Scott.  Scott was our farrier about 15 years ago, but his son took over our herd after a year or so and has worked with our horses since.

The herd that our guys have joined is a fairly diverse group, but all seem to be pretty friendly.  Except for one that Scott calls the "Muslim Terrorist".  Seems that this particular Arabian horse, with a crescent "star" on his forehead, had kicked Scott in the leg "so hard I couldn't cuss."  If you know this old cowboy, you'd know that must have been a heck of a kick.

Ranger might disagree with my assessment of the  "friendliness" of the herd.  Several of them spend their time trying to chase and bite Ranger.  Washoe spends a good deal of his time running interference for the old guy.  Ranger may, for the first time since I got him, NOT be the number one gelding in the herd. 

Alloy just seems to be spending his time just RUNNING.  He has a new buddy in the herd.  It is, of course, the terrorist.

Speaking of Alloy running, today is the 1 year anniversary of Alloys "Great Escape".

The herds seem to have melded to some degree, and they are only a half hour away, but we miss them.  Particularly on sunny days when we could be riding.

I think our guys are enjoying the time off, though.  Lazy bums.

Bill

Never Have So Few...

I'm dying here.

It has been over a month since I have touched a horse.  I don't think I have gone this long without bugging my equine friends in 15 years or so.

We try to winter our ponies someplace else.  Not in our home corral.  They are mustangs, and it really improves their attitudes to run free, eat grass and  not worry about the people for between two and five months.  The longer, the better as far as they are concerned.

We sent them away to an 80 acre mountain side last December 1st or so.  But then about a month ago, they had their "Forced Relocation".

The property they are on now is a 10 acre (or so) plot of property behind the property owner' s home.  We can just see our horses and the mares they are with from the highway.  Just.  But no touching.  Or giving of treats.  Or nuthin.  The property they are now on was supposed to be sort of a temporary stop-over, but all of the the fencing is down on the long term pasture, so we can't move them there.

I miss our horses.

I think my saddle is lonely.

Bill

Quiet Horse Time

We had a few minutes yesterday prior to guests coming in, so we hopped in the car with a few breakfast scraps - aka 'biscuits' to the horses, better known as left-over waffles, pancakes and homemade bread slices lovingly dried on the grill for our furry friends.  They each have their preference, but right now they just seem to be really happy to see us coming for some petting time.
"Hey, is that the treat bag you have there?"

Ranger - You got my favorite in there?  (He's the waffle man.)

Jesse - I wanna see!  (Don't you just love their fear of the plastic bag?)

Ranger - Hey, that's my waffle!

Washoe - I've been waiting; can I have something? (He's not picky - as long as he can get it in his mouth.)

 Not to disappoint Ranger, Beel had to practice his 'dead Indian' trick.  You notice the other two are getting away before he can try them.

It was a fun few minutes.  Horses are so good for the heart!
Bionic Cowgirl

Home Again, Home Again, Piggety ....

We picked up the horses today.  The weather forecast had originally called for 14 - 17 inches of new snow tonight.  Of course, now it has been down-graded to 1-3 inches.  How does that work?  That's OK; I really love have them back home and it is currently snowing pretty good; just starting to stick.  The amount of snow was the deciding factor.  We had hoped to leave them another month, but I had forgotten about the difficulties of moving our horse trailer once snow does set in.  The trailer gets snowed in and can't be moved, so - we picked up the guys today!

They obediently came when called.

Followed us to the truck like the pied piper... and loaded ... not so great.

Ranger had ice on his front feet and didn't like the feel of it on the rubber mats, although on the second try, he hopped right in.  Jesse was not interested in the least; this from a horse who normally loads easily on voice command.  Something across the highway and neighbor's field had caught her attention and she did NOT want in that trailer until she figured out what was going on!  She then stepped on, turned around and stepped right back off, pushing Beel out of the way.   Ooooh!  So not good.  For her efforts, she got to run up and down the road shoulder a few times until she could pay attention.  Then, she got tied into the trailer when she got on; such an embarrassment for her.  It's been a loooong time since she has had to be tied in the trailer.  By this time, Washoe had seen whatever had Jesse's attention, but his attention came back quicker and he got right on the trailer.  So, instead of a 5 minute process to load all three horses, it took about 15.  I suppose we don't have a lot of room to complain.  99% of the time they are fantastic travelers.

They unloaded like the well trained horses they are and walked nicely to their old corral.

This is what you do when you first get home; get a little home grime on you.  The two grays were at the fence re-introducing themselves to the neighbor horses and mules.  They seem glad to be back!
Bionic Cowgirl

Found 'Em

Yesterday we did a drive-by on the horses; didn't see a thing; not too surprising since it was one of those surprisingly pleasant, sunny January days that pop up now and then in Colorado.  We didn't have time to do more than that, so decided that as soon as the guests left today, we would 'hunt them down'.

We got dressed for hiking and headed out - across wind blown pastures and snowy wooded areas.  We were pretty sure they would be in the farthest reaches ... and that IS where we found them.  They were excited to see us.

They came running ....

and they came ....

and they came!

Then they showed us around.  This is our new grazing spot...

and this is our wind break.  It still needs a little work.

We fed them, and yes, it was that windy.

As any good hostess and hosts, they walked us back to the car.  They showed us the shortcut through the trees....

back out into the sunshine - and less wind ...

I had to stop for a hug; I couldn't believe they were still coming with us.

Oops!  Jesse had spotted Ranger checking my pockets for cookies and was giving him the evil eye .. and Ranger doing his typical "not me" look.

We got back down to the icy snow path and I borrowed Jesse's tail to keep from falling.  Washoe was bringing up the rear guard.  When I did slip and go down on an icy branch, she just stopped and waited for me to get back up and grab her tail again.

Soon we came to the frozen stream (don't worry, they have a whole open pond for water)....and I had to ask Jesse how to get across.

This way. Duck the branches and step on the brush...

see, it works.  Just follow the guides.

R:  Watch your footing, slow poke. 

W:  Good job.  You made it!

Look, Beel's getting something from the car.  Maybe it's for us.

Yummy!  Dried apple treats.

Thank you.

Bye.

A GOOD day!!!!
Bionic Cowgirl

Bill's Bored!

Our horses are turned out to pasture,

which fills them with nothing but rapture.

With a whole mountain side

on which they can hide.

Ummm...eh....well damn, this poems a bust.

Bill

Doggerel is not for horses, Beel.

Can you tell?  It's cold outside; it's been cold outside for a while now! Negative 6 at 7:00 a.m. (don't know the night's low; don't want to know).  It is now positive 8* out there.  The small family group that are staying with us this weekend opted to brave the cold and go for a hike in the park.  Well, darn!  That makes us feel like wimps, so we decide the horses would like some hay.  Now we are not even trying to fool ourselves into thinking we are doing this for the horses.  This is solely for our personal peace of mind - it's such a boost just getting to see them out there loose - and it gets us outdoors, if for only a short time.

We load up the truck with a couple of bales and drive the 15 minutes to their pasture.  Nobody home.  We decide to unload the hay and do a couple of drive-bys to peak into their open spaces.  Jokingly, I tell Bill we should start beeping the horn a couple of times at home when we drive up in the truck, so they get used to the sound.  He laughs and  ....  beeps the horn right then.  We climb out, unload the hay, and head down the embankment with our load.  Half way to the gate I see a white head peak out of the trees beyond the first meadow.

Washoe:  "It is you!  Hey, guys, the hay people are here."  He starts to amble up, then breaks into a trot when he sees what we have just thrown onto the ground.

As we climb through the gate into the field to move the bales away from the fence, Jesse breaks out of the trees at a dead run, bucking her way up the hill.  She gently nudges the bale in my hand and looks at me, like she's saying thank you.  Once we set the bales down, they both dive into one of them; I swear they were purring.

Looking around, we both wonder where the old man is.  Bill starts heading down the hill toward one of their favorite paths through the trees, where the grays had appeared.  As he's walking, I turn to Jesse and ask her, "So, where IS the old man?  Where's Ranger?"  She looks off over my shoulder at a different spot.  I look that way and there he comes, ripping out of the trees like some young colt from a new place.  I call to Bill just as Ranger spots him in his peripheral vision, does a huge leap to the side, hesitates with one of those beautiful stallion poses you see in pictures, then says, "OH, it's only Bill," and proceeds towards us at his funny trot.  All accounted for - and obviously feeling good.  Gee, they look good; all sleek and shiny.  Even Ranger's two-toned mane sparkles now.  We do a complete rub-over of all of them.  They are toned, good weight and feet in great shape.  They have slimmed down; you can see Washoe's ribs a bit, but you usually can, even when he is considered 'fat'.  He's just built that way.  We laid our faces on their backs and you could feel all that heat emanating off them.  They do like their freedom.  We drove home feeling like new people.

Bionic Cowgirl

Moving Estes

Yep, today was the day chosen for moving GunDiva's horse, Estes.  It was really tough - a lot of work.  We had to haul the trailer over to the mountain area all four of our horses are currently 'grazing' (if you call digging in the snow for your daily allowance of food, grazing), which takes, oh say, 15 minutes.  There stand the horses, enjoying the sunshine, right by the fenceline.  You would have thought we had called ahead.  We manage to drag ourselves through the foot of snow on the embankment, crawl through the gate, and ...
"Wait, Estes.  Can you let me stand back up before you shove your head in your halter?"  You'd think she knew what was happening, as the other three head straight to the bale of hay we have brought to entertain them so we can get her through the silly wire gate.

She stands patiently with me by the side of the road while Bill manages to get the gate back together - it's pretty cobbled!  We wave at cars passing by, smiling like we know what we are doing until Bill can open the trailer door (too high for me to reach at the angle the trailer sat).  She loads like a pro and we are off to lower pastures.

Finally, a good shot through all the traffic!  Where are all these cars coming from?  It's early afternoon; they should be at school or work or something.

She has a lot of hair; even got a little sweaty on the half hour trip down the mountain - and she managed to stay in pretty good shape; not a lot of rib showing.  Boy, she did like her new pasture mates, which are friends from by-gone days.

Happy eating, Estes.
Bionic Cowgirl

Couple Days O'Freedom

Well, the horses have been loose on the mountain for a couple days now.  So today after our guests left, we went out to check up on them.
  Washoe met us at the gate, and the rest were right behind him.


All seemed to be okay.

After a couple bites of apple and some dried pancakes most wandered off.
Except for Jesse.

 

She seemed to have something to say to us before we left.

I think I've been insulted.

Bill

Just One More .... Then Gone

Yesterday was our scheduled day to release the horses for some winter pasture fun.  We were fortunate enough to actually find a really nice sized, treed, mountain side for the gang to hang out for the next 4 - 6 weeks.  But a certain Beel kept dragging his feet about bringing out the trailer.  When asked what the problem was, he said, "I really want to go for one more ride on the mountain."

"It's sunny, but there is a darned cold wind out there.  Are you sure?"

""Yep!"  So we grab the two boys and head out with just halters and bareback pads, on the premise of looking for our herd of Rocky Mt. Bighorn Sheep.  It was a great time once we got past the windy meadow part.

Then .... today we loaded up the whole crew of four - Ranger, Jesse, Washoe, & Estes.  We discovered that by removing the stall separators in the trailer, all four could just walk right in and stand side-by-side without even being overly crowded; certainly nothing like the sardine can situation that happened when we used to put our three horses in a two horse straight load.  And off we went for their new adventure.  They have never been in this area, although it is mostly across the road from another one they liked.... and only 15 minutes drive time from us, so we can hike in to see them weekly (or more).

It became obvious pretty fast that this was an acceptable area .....

We couldn't leave without giving them a good-bye treat.

Have fun guys.  I miss you already!
Bionic Cowgirl

Just Look'in Around

About 15 minutes ago, we looked out the window and saw a string of horses going down the road.  Probably 15 or 20 of them.

Not really an unusual sight around here.

They were all saddled and on their way.

With no one on their backs.

And empty feed bags on their faces.

Opps.

Team Lodge (Juanita, Bill, and grand-daugher "Autobot") mobilized and headed out to head them off.  In years past, I would have jumped in a truck or minivan to herd them home in, because they would be off at a run.  But these guys were obviously just out for a stroll.  We managed to get them stopped (okay, they stopped themselves at a nice lush patch of grass and tried to eat through their feed bags, with limited, to no success) and grabbed a few to lead them back to the livery.  Reinforcements arrived from the livery, and we got them home in less time than it's taking me to blog about it.

Back to breakfast prep....


Bill

Turnout update

I haven't been out to see the horses in their temporary pasture and am dependent on Mom and Bill for my updates. Lucky for me, I was able to catch up with them in Las Vegas and get at least a verbal update. I don't know if they got pictures last week when they visited, but they assured me that the horses are all doing well and have "fuzzied up". According to Mom, they've got twice the fuzzies they had when we turned them out and are fat and sassy.



Like you, I wish we had pictures, but we'll have to wait until Mom and Bill are back from the NFR in a couple of days.