Bad Cop, Good Cop

 

Saturday, March 19^th, 5:00 p.m.

Phone rings.  “Hi Scott.  How are you?”  “Juanita, I just wanted to call and let you know I moved the horses from the north section to the south.”  “OK, thanks.”  “I really called to tell you … that brown horse of yours ….” 

Oh, oh.  What has Alloy done now?  Apparently, after getting caught, loaded, and moved, Al had decided he couldn’t get out of the trailer fast enough, so he went charging out backwards, breaking the hay string that had been used on his halter to lead him and load him.  (We tend to use whatever is handy to move our horses around, be it a dog leash, hay string, belt, whatever – as they are generally very good about it.)  There was no way anyone was going to get near him again.  So we got the call that we now had a horse loose in a very large pasture with a halter on; an absolute no-no in all our books.

 We headed the 18 miles down off the mountain to see if we could be of help.  Fortunately, the time was just right for us to use our own canyon to make the trip.  Our canyon is under construction to fix flood damages from 8 years ago and you can only drive it certain times of the day.  We got to the pasture, found the horses and discovered we also were not going to get near them; even my boy who comes at a trot when I call said, “not now, there’s grass!”

                                        Washoe is the white horse, Alloy is hidden behind him.

We decided to just come back the next day and ‘walk them down’.  Sunday dawned bright and sunny.    This time Washoe walked right up to me and let me brush all the mud off, a good deal of winter hair, and detangle the dreadlocks from his mane; all without a halter.  We spent the morning walking the pasture behind a stubborn bay horse with a more stubborn black mare, who seems to have become the lead mare and wanted nothing to do with Alloy getting caught.  Washoe went back to the other horses and started grazing and the two errant horses decided to circle them.  You would have thought they were inside a 30 ft. round pen, instead of on 30 acres of pasture.  

 Fortunately, the mare is not the endurance horse Alloy is, and finally tired and joined the others grazing.  That made the circling game not so fun any longer and Alloy finally joined them after a few more circles. Bill did almost all the ‘lunging’ while I stayed on the outside incase one of them decided to leave the circle.  Finally, Bill walked back to the car for some water and more snacks.  In the interim Al decided to just hang with the others so I walked into the group and started rubbing faces.  Guess who wanted his face rubbed, too?  After a couple of attempts, he stood still when I offered him an oat granola bar in exchange for his halter.  He was very still while I unbuckled it, then almost forgot his oat bar.  He sooo wants to still be a wild horse! 

The whole process really only took three and a half hours.  Bill said Alloy considered him the ‘bad cop’ and me the ‘good cop’.  What a great way to spend a gorgeous day – with the horses.

Bionic Cowgirl

The Catch

We brought our 2 remaining horses home from their winter pasture a couple days ago.  It's odd only having 2 horses now.  First time in a while we've been able to feed just 1 forty pound bale in the morning.

But getting them up here took a little planing.

Alloy the Mustang decided about the time Ranger was put down that he had become a wild horse again.  No touching required, or allowed.  At least if the "toucher" was carrying a rope or halter.

I ended up doing some basic "target" training with him out in the field over the winter.  Touch the halter, get a treat.  Finding a treat that was worth touching the halter took a couple of trips.  Apple slices?  Not worth the danger approaching the halter put him in.  Carrot slices?  Close, but no.  Dried pancakes?  Waffles?  Bread crusts?  Nope-nope-nope.  Crackers?  OH hell YEAH!  Saltines!  Butter Crisp!  And best of all, Ritz!

Bump the halter, get a cracker.   What a great way to get your salt.  None of this licking the block stuff, you just get to eat it!

After a couple of weekly trips down the mountain, he would not run away when I walked up with a halter in my hand.  Of course, there was NO WAY IN HELL he was going to let me drape the rope over his neck, much less stick his nose in that bear trap device.  You aren't a wild horse any more when you wear one of those things.  It would be embarrassing when you are "back to the wild" like Big Al figured he had gotten.  So he would touch it, but it was "head for the hills!" when I looked like I was going to touch HIM with it.

Now, every day that Al and I were doing the vending machine dance, Juanita and Washoe were walking around, Washoe in lead rope and halter, with him getting brushed, groomed, eating all sorts of treats, and just generally hanging out.  The other half dozen horses in the field would try to nose in on Washoe and Alloy to try to get in on this snack action.

It was...difficult... to keep Al's attention with all the activity going on around him.

Moving day finally came, but we had a plan.  We set up some panels to make a catch pen in one corner of the field.  We would drive Alloy into the pen, and then we could halter him.

Yeah.  Right.

Moving that horse without a lead is like herding cats.  Only the cat can run 30 MPH and weighs a half ton.

So I caught his girlfriend, Terri, and led her to the catch pen.  He tried his best to block our progress by standing sideways in front of us to block our path.  As we bulled past him, he would move in front of us to block us again.  FOR A QUARTER MILE.

Jerk.

When we got Terri and Al into the catch pen, we suddenly realized why Al (and Washoe for that matter)  did not want to leave.  Of the 6 other horses in the field with them, it looked like 4 were mares in season.  And although our 2 horses have been gelded, they seem to recall there was something.......

We got the horses except for Al and Washoe out of the pen,  and I dropped the loop of a rope around Al's neck.  He went nuts for about 5 seconds, pulling and rearing, and then he got over it.  Just like that his eyes went soft and Juanita put the halter on him.  Then we loaded both horses into the trailer and came home.  No problem.

Washoe and Al unloaded just fine and we let them go in our pen.  They seemed mostly glad to be home,  but both continued wailing for a couple hours... 

"Ladies!  Where are you!?!"

 Bill

The Move

Late last night we got home from helping a friend move to her new home - in Minnesota.  We had loaded all her worldly possessions in our horse trailer - including her horse, two dogs and cat - and drove through the night earlier in the week on a 15 hour trip.  Everything went great; we had waited for a break in the winter weather storm systems that kept hitting the Midwest.

Her new home is fabulous; she will be working as the Equine Director for the Ironwood Springs Christian Camp, setting up therapeutic riding programs, and helping horses also, with special needs.  The camp sits on 140 acres in southern MN and has a beautiful log lodge, indoor horse arena, lots of cabins and super fun stuff to do, like tubing, sleigh rides, hikes, you name it.

While there, Bill fell in love with Clyde - the camel.  Who would think of finding a camel in MN?

A Camel Selfie

Really?

Who's more infatuated, Bill or Clyde?  This camel does love his scratches.

I got to pet Dot the deer in the petting zoo.  Such a little sweet heart.

Wandering around the grounds in sunny, warm weather.

The Snack Shack - the barn before a larger barn was built.

Their version of a BBQ - a big piece of old farm equipment that was turned into  something that could cook hamburgers for multiples.

Miracle Lodge - all 28 rooms are wheel chair accessible.

The camp graciously let us stay in one of the lodge rooms.  They were all beautiful.

An idea of what the inside was like - looking down from the 3rd floor to the main conference area.

How would you like a moose overlooking your meeting?

We stayed a day to rest up and see the area a bit, so we went into Rochester, MN and walked around the famous Mayo Clinic.  We happened to arrive the day an ice festival was starting:  SocialIce.  The warm weather was nice for us - but the ice sculptures were melting as fast as they were being placed.
The main theme was to build a bar that could be actually used.  I don't think that was going to happen, but they had some interesting ones.

...and some interesting sculptures.

On our way home we saw different weather related stuff - like 5 semi trucks on their sides in the ditches within the first 100 miles after leaving the camp.

You just don't expect to see big trucks from this angle.  It's quite scary when you are pulling a horse trailer out there.  I guess there was big wind problems here at home, too.  Glad to be back home.
Bionic Cowgirl

Big Thunder - Little Thunder

Last Thursday (1/14) we moved our horses from one winter pasture to another; quite uneventful as things go.  The horses came when called, were easy to catch and two loaded nicely into the trailer.  Since we had four horses to move and a 3-horse trailer, we opted to move in pairs, so while Bill and Compass took her horse, Henry, and Washoe to the new/old location I stayed behind with Ranger and Jesse.  It was a great sunny, warm day, albeit windy, and it gave me time to continue working on getting burrs out of Jesse's mane.  We would have gotten them all out, too, if Bill wasn't such a fast driver (teasing).  He did get back in half the time I had expected.  We loaded the last two on and headed to one of their normal winter hangouts.

Now we had been assured that all the fencing had been checked and was intact, but that possibly one section was not yet 'hot'.  It wasn't much of a worry since our horses knew that pasture, it was big - going from 7 acres to 20 acres - and there was no reason for them to stray.  There was a heavy layer of snow on most of it, but our guys are good at digging, so we left them.

On Saturday, we planned on going to Big Thunder, the draft horse show held at one of the local fairgrounds.  Most of the competitive large horse teams use this event to get their horses acclimated  and ready for the draft horse section of the National Western Stock Show in Denver.  On the way, we stopped to check on our herd and make sure we didn't need to supplement them with hay.

OK, they seemed like they were farther away than they should have been, so we drove to the end of the road, and sure enough, they were at the far end of the NEXT pasture..  We parked and started walking fence lines.  There's the break ... wait, there's a large section that was apparently used as a gate for large equipment, and not re-closed.  Can't fault the horses for deciding the next pasture was more pleasant looking.  After all, it had a huge patch of uncovered grass under some very large trees.

We walked most of the way across, in fairly deep snow, until we could get their attention.  True to form, my grays came the rest of the way to us, and the two other geldings saw the halters and decided "no way".  We slipped halters on Jess and Washoe and walked them back toward the gate, in hopes the other two would eventually follow.  For once, it actually did work (not a given for Ranger!)  Henry didn't want to miss out on whatever, and Ranger finally decided he didn't want to be left out and came straggling in.  We were patting ourselves on our backs about our luck; might actually get to go to Big Thunder.  You all know what happens when you do that.....

Bill fastened the gate - merely a single barb wire strand, as was the rest of that section of fence - and I released my horses.  To my surprise, Jesse took off at a dead run right for that section, ducked her head and peeled under the 'gate'!  Be careful what you teach your horses.  I had taught mine a 'duck' command to duck under things on the trail.  Last summer, unwittingly, Bill and I had both used that a lot to move the horses from one pen to another or to get out of our corral without having to unhook the hot wire every time or remove the top gate rail.  In our minds (besides being lazy), we were just reinforcing a verbal command.  In Jesse's horse mind, it meant she could move to the pasture she thought better on her own.

While Bill kept the other three from following her, I tramped back into that pasture intent on catching a horse who now did NOT want to be caught.  It quickly became clear she just wanted me to understand which pasture was better.  As soon as I called her, she returned to the fence line but instead of crossing in, she raced as fast as she could all the way to the other end.  When I called again, she came racing back, passed me and continued to the other end.  Now she was just having fun getting some much needed exercise.  This was a game we would play when she got bored if we had to keep them on the mountain in the winter.  So I just stood there and called again; again she raced past me to the farther end.  I had to laugh; she looked so like the big drafts when they go flying by in the arena, so I called her Little Thunder.

This time I just followed to the corner where she calmly waited for me.  I started to reach for her halter, but she just walked over to the fence and started to step over the wire.  When her leg touched the wire, she just put her foot down and stood there.  I realized then that the fence in that spot was barely 8 inches above the snow, so I stepped on the wire and told her to step over, which she nicely did.  I raised the wire back up to the height it should have been, gave all the horses a good pat since they had wandered down to watch the escapades, and headed back across the pastures.

Bill had secured the gate better and decided to halter Ranger to make him walk back to the proper end in hopes all would follow.  We decided to feed them a bale of hay so they would have something they didn't have to dig for.  Of course, this time the others would not follow, so Ranger got the whole bale to himself, which he promptly scoffed at and returned to the others.  Go figure.

We climbed in the truck and continued on to the fairgrounds, arriving just in time for the main events.  It's always glorious to see those huge teams in action.

The big yellow wagon won the 6-up - with all mare Percherons.  Second place was also an all mare team of Percherons - only 3 years old!  Go girls!

Nothing like traipsing around in deep snow in your dress boots to get your exercise!
Bionic Cowgirl

Backup

   Well, our horses are back up on our mountain now.  We picked them up a couple days ago and trailered them home.

   Our horses get shuffled around to several different areas for their winter boarding, down at a lower (and warmer) part of the state where they can graze freely. The last property they stayed on this winter is a hay field, and the unseasonably warm weather started the grass growing.  So the field's owner wanted the herd off so they wouldn't damage this year's crop.  I suppose a herd of horses stomping, eating and pooping all over the hay field would limit the productivity of the acreage somewhat.  So home they went.

This is what we picked them up from.  No snow.

You can't see Ranger in this picture.  He took to hanging around the back fence of the farm house.  I suspect treats were involved.  He wouldn't say.


In this picture you can see in the background where they were going.

About halfway up the white peak on the left. Yeah.  Snow.

When we unloaded them from the trailer, the first thing they did was roll.  A lot.

After a good scrubbing in the snow they went off to check out the feeder.

Then suddenly, they heard it. And they went crazy.

For better than 20 minutes, they talked to a chicken.  It's really kind of embarrassing. 

(But I'm still glad they are home...)

Bill

A Poem

 The field that's their home was going quite bare,
they spend all their days just eating out there.

 It's time to move to far greener fields,
before the grass they're eating finally yields.

 So off we went, halters in hand
to move the gang to a new bit of land.

 The two gray horses ran up to be caught
"Who was to be first?" was why they fought.

 Gathered and standing they watched while in hand,
whilst I pursued  my horse Ranger.  A cranky old man.

 "The grass is still here and I want to stay."
Said he "for at least one more night and maybe a day."

  "Ranger" said I "It's time you should go.
I don't want to chase you when it starts to snow."

 "No" said the old horse "And that is how I feel
I am not leaving this place today Beel"

 So I went in pursuit of the crusty old horse,
me trudging along and him running, of course.

 The sun was bright and the weather was warm,
and the old horse was moving with very good form.

 His thick winter coat would shimmer and flash
with each step he took in this "for freedom dash".

 So close I could get at the end of each sprint
I could darn near touch him 'fore again off he went.

 I stayed in pursuit "I'll sure make you work
If you keep on running you evil old jerk."

 At last he stopped, and he spoke with a snort-
and he put on his halter, I'm glad to report.

 To the new field we took them and then set them free.
One more day in the life, 'twix Ranger and me.

Bill

Loose Again!

It's that time of year again - when we turn the horses out to pasture for the winter.  They weren't as fortunate this year to get to stay at our altitude on the many acres of mountain terrain they so love.  However, they are on a nice grassy pasture, keeping a couple fellow buddies company.

We had quite a welcoming committee....

These are Ida's new passion:  we are not allowed to call them miniature cows; they are officially 'low-line' Angus.  They really are not that much smaller than their normal counterparts, but it is easy to confuse them with yearlings, although they are not.

We were surrounded!  Notice the ice on top of the trailer; that's why we moved the horses a little earlier this year.  We have already had -23* and 80 mph gusts...and winter is still a month away.  No way was I going riding.  The only days it was possible, Bill was working on frozen pipes in the lodge (water tends to gush from breaks as soon as they thaw).

Meet Audobon.  She was the love of Washoe's life when he was younger.  The first time we turned Washoe out to winter pasture, he was just two; I had only owned him a few months.  Audobon, who is about a year younger - and now stands a good hand taller - was in a neighboring pen when we first took the horses off the trailer that year.  He was beside himself trying to get to her; we had to chase him away from her several times before he would finally go off with Ranger and Jesse.  They have since been pastured together during the winter season and she was pretty glad to see him in the trailer, racing around the trailer several times before finally coming to this pose.

After a bit of excitement trying to get all the horses into a roped off corner of the pasture - to keep them away from the cows - we watched the interaction of the first get-together.  Jesse has always been the herd mare, but Audobon is quite a bit bigger than her now and I was curious to see the current status.

It's interesting to see the nuances that we miss watching horses.  In the movie, you actually miss the important parts because they happen so fast.  Bill shot these stills in sequence, and you can see just how subtle their language is.

See how the two 'herds' are separated?

Jesse has started  making her move...see how she has started moving herself away from our other two?

Now she is totally hidden by Audobon, who has turned slightly away from her.

Jesse is continuing to circle her, continuing the turn.

Now you see Jesse coming out from the back with her head in a very slight 'snaking' position.

This is the important shot; notice Jesse's left ear.  It's pointed toward Audobon, essentially asking her to go that direction.

And we have the turn, with Audobon obliging.

Moving in toward the others.

Herd mare has been established....

...and they are all grazing together as one herd.  Peaceful and no theatrics.  Boy, do they love the grass!

I already miss them terribly, but I love seeing them get to be 'free' for awhile.
Bionic Cowgirl

They're Home!

Today we brought the horses home!  All of a sudden I feel energized; what a difference it makes to have them where we can go touch them and love on them.  They did their normal whinnying when they got out of the trailer and stood looking toward their corral - announcing their arrival.

And what do you do when you find all this lovely snow in your pen?  You make snow Pegasus!

It took all of 15 minutes to catch them and load them in the trailer - even Ranger.  He tried half-heartedly to make it exciting, but ended up cornering himself in a small area with Jesse, Washoe and I blocking the only exit.  He could easily have smashed through us but chose to stick his nose in the halter Bill was holding and walk nonchalantly to the trailer.  He can be good, it just has to be his choice.  I hope they are as happy to be here as we are to have them.

Bionic Cowgirl

Forced Relocation

 B-   Ranger!  Jesse!  Washoe!  Come on guys!  We have to move y'all to another pasture!

B-   Thanks Washoe.  Got your halter/lead rope on and you're ready to go.  Jesse, You're next.  Thank you Jesse.  You're good to go.  Okay Ranger, you are next.

R-   No.

B-  What "no"?  We need to move you to another pasture!

R-   No Beel.

B-  Awww, come on buddy.  The guy that owns this mountain side says he's got a couple neighbors that are worrying about you horses being outside in the snow all of the time.

R-   Are they crazy Beel?

B-   No, Ranger.  It's not really their fault.  They just don't know much about horses.  They are worried you don't have a barn to hide in, and we aren't giving you hay every day.
 
R-   Beel.  Many trees grow out of the dirt here so we can hide there. The grass grows out of the dirt here and we eat it.  This is a good place.  So no.

B-   Now darn it, the folks see you standing outside all day.  They think you will be cold.

R-   Go catch the deers.  Go catch the elks.  Go catch the moosemonsters.  They might be cold.  Leave me here. 

B-  Awww Ranger, now you have riled Jesse up and she's running off with you, dragging her lead rope.

R-   Good bye Beel.

B-   Ranger, dog gone it!  We have guests showing up at the lodge this afternoon.  I don't want to spend all day tracking you two through knee deep snow!  Just stop moving!

R-   No.

B-  STOP RUNNING!

R-   No.

B-   You jerk.
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-
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B-  Your mother was a dope.  Your father was a dope.  And if you have any siblings, they're dopes, too.
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B-   We can see where you're going, you two.  Your foot prints kinda stand out.
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-
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B-  I'm cold and wet.
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B-   I wish I had a barn.
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-
-

B-  Alright, we've been after you knot heads for 45 minutes now, wading through snow drifts on the mountain side, and Juanita finally spotted you two standing in the trees fifty feet away from us.  Just STAND STILL!

R-  No Beel.

B-  Look, Ranger.  Jesse went to Juanita.  Jesse is a good horse.  Just wait for me a minute.  Come on, buddy,  please?

R-  Okay Beel.

B-  Jeeze.  'Bout time.  Okay, now we get to walk back.  Can you hear Washoe hollering?  I'll bet he's tired of just sanding in the trailer.

R-   The kid is noisy.

B-   Wait.  We are still following y'alls tracks.  You went almost all the way out to the trailer, and then turned around and came BACK to us?!?

R-  You were very slow.  We had the time.

B-  Great.  Load up.
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-
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B-  Okay buddy, this is your new pasture.  It's down out of the mountains.  Flat and grassy.

R-  It is hot here Beel.

Pasture Prime

Wow!  I got lost with the time (lack of sunlight doesn't help either).  I kept thinking of all these great blogs, but just couldn't seem to sit still long enough to write them.

Let's backtrack to Thanksgiving:  I hope everyone enjoyed theirs.  We were lucky enough to have most of the kids and grandkids spend lots of time with us - and my mother made it up the mountain, too.  Last week was actually really nice weather - and I still didn't manage to get on either of my horses.  GunDiva and hubby came up on Tues. night last week; I hoped to drag her out for a ride the next day, but alas, she had a book to rewrite and get published.  OK, so Bill and I are now enjoying reading the e-version of "Hunted Lyon" and I have to forgive her for not riding with mom.

Thanksgiving dawned warm and sunny and we ended up with 18 for dinner.  I've decided keeping up with 18 family members is much more time consuming than 18 guests.  There's always so much to catch up on, even though we stay in close touch.  We had the traditional turkey and everyone brought lots of yummy stuff to add to the table!

Friday, most of us went to the Catch the Glow Christmas parade in Estes Park, to start off the holiday season.  It's been a couple of years since I was able to go and we had a grand time, including the traditional pizza at Bob & Tony's prior to the parade.  We didn't even freeze our toes and fingers this year!

We had some fun guests over the weekend and had planned on fixing fence on Sunday afternoon, then moving the horses on Monday.  We spent three and a half hours at it and still had only gotten about half done.  We just hadn't realized all the damage from the winds and flood.  We ended up spending another three hours fencing on Monday and decided to wait until Tuesday to move the horses.  I had not been watching the weather, so when Nebalee called Tuesday morning to ask if we were ready for the big snowstorm, I was caught totally off-guard.  Looking out the window, we decided we had better move the horses right now!  We gathered them up and didn't even feed them breakfast.  Being the great travelers they are, they loaded right up and off we went.  We did take a couple of bales of hay with us, even though they were going to some great pasture.  We had planned on staying in Ft. Collins for the night so we could go to a grandson's Christmas band program.

It wasn't very exciting when we dropped them off this time; since they hadn't had breakfast, they just trotted the short way to the grass and started eating!

We laughed and left them there.  The next day we stopped by to check on them and found one irritated grulla horse and two racing white horses!  There was 10 inches of new snow on the ground and -4 degrees.  I thought maybe they had heard the car and were coming to tell us they wanted to go home.  Ha!  See what I know?  When we got to the gate, Jesse came charging out of the trees, barely stopping at the fenceline.  The look on her face told the story:  something had been in their pen.  We checked the hay and decided they had indeed had help with the hay pile.  The ground was so torn up from their hooves, and the snow was dry and didn't make good prints, so we could only surmise the visitor.  However, while fixing the fences, Bill and I had run across quite a few moose tracks and some fairly fresh moose droppings.  My guess is there might be an unhappy moose thinking we brought in some nasty neighbors!  Look at this face!

Biggify this to see the real dragon face!

That is definitely her "you had better get out of my pen" face.  Washoe chases dogs out of the pen; I think he had a lesson in how to chase bigger game because he was having a great time trying to keep up with Jesse.  Ranger was just 'staying out of the way'!  Bill pulled out an apple for them to share and they calmed right down.  Ranger had to show off his snowy nose.

We checked back again today and found them happily grazing the pasture, even in the deep snow.  Their hay was scattered but hardly eaten.  We called and they came a runnin'.  (We have a really cool video, but after multiple tries, we can't get blogger to load it.)  Fed them a couple oat granola bars, got some good hugs and went on home.  Sure do miss them here, but it is far better for them where they are; they get to run and dig and act like the wild ones they are!
Bionic Cowgirl