Horses On The Run

Well just another ordinary day at the farm, chores are done and now to cut the grass. Hogs is bringing in the last few loads of hay and the children are actually playing outside, after all it is absolutely beautiful out! I start cutting the grass thinking "wow, it sure is a nice fall" when I see heads moving down the neighbours driveway.

Ok, the neighbour left his farm about 5 minutes earlier, i sure hope it isn't his cows out again......um nope it would be the three WILD horses.....oh man.....
He has had the horses two days now, he kept them in the barn all of yesterday and decided to let them out today. He has a small pasture arean behind his house fenced with one strand of electric. Well seeing how they DID NOT respect the page wire fence at their previous home I am not sure why he thought one strand of electric would be suitable.

So now, with the three horses (one being only 2 months old) running down the highway once again we run to get a bucket of grain and some lead ropes. I am beginning to feel like we are the local wranglers of loose animals. We again shut our gate because our horses are running around like crazies wondering who the visitors are. Except Houston, he is casually looking at them with his little moose face.....

I run into the house to call the neighbour and he answered and was like oh really they are loose? Um yup, they are...... so him and his dad show up, there is so much traffic and we are flagging the cars down cause the horses are now panicked and racing around the highway... omg as if. They start running all over my other neighbours yard and let me tell you, he has immaculate lawn haahaha we run past his window while he is eating lunch and he just stares at us. He came out pretty quickly. Well now the horses are just running around super fast so my neighbour runs to his truck goes home and returns with his...... yup 4 WHEELER, I am seeing a trend here....

He zooms around on the 4 wheeler and the horses are actually listening and going where he wants guess they are used to this hahahaha, he steers them right to the highway where once again there is a lot of traffic coming, so I jump in the middle of the highway and again tell them to stop. The horses cross the highway and into his yard again, thank god. I go over to his house and see if I can help, for now he has them back in the pasture and fixes the broken wire.

I am thinking this is going to be a regular event, I am also thinking I need to do a new fence line between my farm and his, or we could have some wild horses in with our herd. The excitement around here NEVER ends........ wonder what tomorrow will bring?

YEE HAWWWWWWW

So, i hook up Black Beauty to her better half, and my neighbour and I head out to Powassan to pick up his three new horses...... it was a very nice scenic drive with a bit of construction, but we finally reach the driveway to the farm, or what was supposed to be a farm. He said that the driveway was narrow but shouldn't be a problem.

I pull into the long NARROW driveway, which was man made with HUGE stones all over and very loose sand, boy this could be tricky.... we continue our drive and up a huge hill, well because of the sand driveway and the steepness of the hill Black Beauty decides to spin her tires and then roll backwards, ok thank god for 4x4.
Phew made it up the hill, over the hill, i get quite the surprise, a bunch of tarped hay (no big deal) and a bunch of old cars, oh tons of sled dog huts and dogs, and finally a bunch of horses.
My neighbour had to back up BB because the driveway was so narrow I was going in the ditch. We park and the lady sais ok here are all the horses (his not separated naturally) and she asks us what the plan is. Ok so first thought, well you should be ready for us, and second of all I hope to heck the horses have halters on. Here we had 1 stallion, and about 8 mares with about 6-8 foals all running wild.
The woman opens her gate (electric fence gate) to let in my neighbours three horses into the trailer area, which also has a tractor, bush hog and loose page wire fencing all laying about. Well guess what, the whole herd runs through her, not surprised really, now to try and keep them from getting by us and running loose. OMG this isn't looking good already. They tie the stud up to a fence post, not to bad I hope he ties, and then the fun begins!!!!

The woman proceeds to try and catch one of the two mares, and after she runs through the page wire fence taking some other mare's foal with her, the woman then decides to try and catch the second mare. oh god, they catch her but she has a foal at her side and he is not coming with us, so they tie her to a fence post and immediately she starts pulling back and then jumps into the page wire fence separating the two herds. Well now the herds are mixed, the stud is still tied though.....

The woman sais to me oh they are acting so wild today, I said um I think because they are wild.... she didn't like that, IT"S TRUE! She then gets a great idea to go get the FOUR WHEELER oh god this isn't sounding good.
While she is gone the two men catch the two month old filly that is coming with us , and drag her into the trailer, poor wee thing, then the mare jumps in after, good both are in and in separate dividers and tied, one more to go. Here comes the crazy woman..... she drives over the down fence and starts chasing the herd with the 4 wheeler. WOW i can't believe my eyes.... like really are we win red neck ville or WHAT???

She chases the herd into the trailer area, and then they take a roll of page wire and wrap it around the horses, creating like a little pen, at this point I just want to leave, after getting the other mare and separating her from her newest foal and last years we get her on the trailer and secured. GOOD we can leave now. This woman then looks at me and sais wow you looked scared hahahaha i bit my tongue HARD! I could go on and on but will stop here, some people should not have animals.......

Sick as a Dog

Well, not often do I get the flu but this time it hit hard and quick. Worst of all HOGS also got it at the same time as me. Not sure if many are non sympathetic like me but I can't handle a sick guy!!! All the moaning and groaning and oh how this hurts bla bl bla, gah I can't handle the whining. Like life doesn't stop because you are sick! So i go out to do the everyday chores and prepare for the farrier, and he moses on out and does the water for me. Thanks! Glad to have the help, then get a call Hunter is now sick and needs picked up. GREAT the whole household is going to be sick. So I finish with the farrier and hear my name, it is HOGS asking if I am coming in soon, that usually means they needs something. So i finish in the barn and head into the house, sure enough SOGS (son of golly swell) sais he wants lunch, which pisses me off then because HOGS has been in here the whole time, why couldn't he make SOGS lunch...... i just don't understand the male species sometimes....... well off to make soup I guess.....

Rain Day

Oh Hum..... what to do today, I know NOTHING.... sometimes I like when it rains, i can actually have a day in the house. Did my morning chores, then went shopping for hockey equipment. You would think that stuff is made of gold it is SO expensive, like even 4 year old size as if!!! Austin has his first practice tonight though , can't wait to watch him NOT skate hahahaha. He will be the boy making snow angels on the ice or counting the lights, oh well as long as he has fun.

My neighbour just stopped by to ask if I would trailer some horses hhahahaa him of all people has just bought three horses. Ok nothing against cow farmers, but SWISS cow farmers, he likes to EAT horses, boy his new girlfriend is nice though he has changed since her hehehe. Will be interesting to see how it goes, one is a mare and foal, I hope he doesn't just throw them out in a field with his cows...... When he knocked on my door my first response was "Do I have horses loose"? hahahaha lately seems to be the thing around here loose animals. Think I am getting sick, sore throat and all sniffly, I will live no one panic! Black Bird likes my blogs apparently, hahaha at least she can get some news since she isn't able to be here. Well gotta go cook the hockey player his dinner, ta ta for now.

Just a regular day.....

Well not much to report on today. The usual Sunday morning sleep in till 8, get up vacuum, yell at kids, chores, more chores, lesson, etc..... oh wait but a boarder did show up today that owes some money, saying they had a potential buyer for their horse. OK so this horse is NEVER touched except for vet or farrier days. The owner finally catches the horse, takes her to the round pen where she then freaks out and gets her leg caught in the gate...! I am teaching a lesson and of course am expected and summoned to go help. Thank goodness she got out, but the "potential" purchaser is standing there watching all of this. I think I would have left, anyway the owner then proceeds to yell at the horse cause naturally it was her fault they were not watching her. They have advertised this horse as being saddle broke, OK you can put a saddle on her THAT IS IT! People are showing up and expecting to see a trained horse..... wow I just don't get people. Long story short, the mare is still here and not sold. The owners get mad at her for not respecting them, yet they don't touch either of their horses for more then 10 minutes at a time every 6-8 weeks. Lucky they can handle them for the 10 minutes.......THEY did however finally pay half of the board that is owed, and I didn't have the nerve to ask them to leave. I am such a chicken.

Had a fun trip to FOGS' house, picked up 19 cedar posts that apparently leak maple sap.... kids know nothing these days. Fogs helped me load them all in Black Beauty, some of those posts were huge especially DOWN THERE as FOGS put it lol.

Black Bird sure is missing some exciting times at the farm. I hope she is recovering quick and will be back out here moving quicker then turtle pace. Black Bird (AMANDA) and I had an interesting ride a couple of weeks ago. Her not so quick horse decided to demonstrate how quickly he can do a 90 degree turn and bolt, after being scared by a raven sitting on a fence post. I think Black Bird will remember to do circles next time..... all I remember seeing is her feet tattoo on her back as she so gracefully dropped to the ground, sliding to a halt. Never having the wind knocked out of her, she thought she was dying, lucking she caught her breath and when she looked up at me her face was covered in road rash type scrapes. She didn't feel she could ride back to the farm because naturally we were in the farthest field from the barn, but she also didn't think she could walk, so I was willing to walk both horses back and come back for her with the truck or 4 wheeler, well evidentally she didn't want to be left behind as bear bait so we walked back together.......

Get well soon Black Bird.

Being Brave

Well, I have to admit i am not afraid of hard work or independance, infact I like both.... with Blair being out of town for work, there were some things that needed to be done. So first thing was to build a chair for one of my foster girls school project. In order to do this I had to use the chain saw so I could cut a cedar post into four pieces for the legs. Ok never used a chain saw before but feeling confident that I could....... here goes. First of all why is it that when you want to do something with a tool that it never works??? After about 40 times pulling the thingy, and my arm ready to fall off, it starts YAY I did it. Ok cut the four pieces for legs I am so good..... thought I would also cut some wood from the trees we cut down. Well after having my fill of using the chain saw and smelling like bar oil I decided to put this monster tool away. UM HELLO shut off already.... what the heck, where is the off button. There is clearly a button for this as it sais STOP right above it, just my luck I think it is broke. Ok.... both my boys are now concerned that the chain saw is not going to shut off, and how are they going to sleep if it runs ALL night hahaha too cute. So plan B, open the choke maybe it will die.... nope of course that doesn't work either. Now really pondering on what to do, because I don't dare want to call Blair and ask how to shut this thing off!!!! I decide that dumping all the gas out will work. So i take off the cap with this thing still runing and kind of bouncing on the driveway, I tip it over and dump the gas out..... YAY it shuts off. I am so smart!

September Continued

Well I am tired but since this is now the second blog entry i think i can stay awake a bit longer to continue with my exciting month.

Just to go along with my exciting "COWS ON THE RUN" story i have another exciting story. Two days ago as I was tearing down a paddock, (and doing a great job of this) i was extremely surprised to look up at the highway and have 7 horses staring at me. Ok first thought holy shit there are a couple of black ones, it must be Chance's group, 2nd thought, OMG how am I going to catch them on my own, panick has now started and my heart is racing like it has not raced before. Then as i looked at them staring at me again, I realized they were WAY too big to belong to me, PHEW panic has subsided a wee bit. I run (ok walk quickly) to shut my gate because once again if these horses enter my yard, my already running horses will escape and I will be in big trouble. As I close the gate the horses form a line across the middle of the highway and start walking slowly as drafts do. They don't care about the cars hahahah at all! This was quite the site and unfortunately becuase I was still very panicked i didn't get a picture. I called the owner and we put the 7 Percherons in my neighbours barn until the owner could trailer them home. WOW what a great day :-) Back to wrecking my paddock... which was coming down quickly because of my foul mood. Funny how when you are angry you can get a lot more accomplished.