More Arctic chills

Our weather has been so strange this year.  We'll have days of bitter cold, often with high winds, then there will be 1 or 2 days where it suddenly jumps up 25 degrees into the mid-20s to low 30's.  This weekend was pretty horendous with very nasty blowing snow and highs in the single digits, though you wouldn't think it given how bright and sunny this picture is.  The horses choose to stand on the lee side of the hills in their pasture and soak up the sun on those cold days.  Catlow of course notices that I came out on the deck to take their picture...is it time for hay yet?

Thankfully, many of those 1 nice day here and there's have happened on the weekend when I have actually been home.  And I've taken full advantage.  If the weather is at all bearable (minimum 15 degrees, and not too windy), I've gone for a ride.  Usually I ride bareback in the winter, but I have ridden in a saddle a couple of times.

I've been alternating between Stormy, Cody, and Catlow.  I'm not even going to try to ride Chico until next summer and I know he should be fully healed from last Fall's injury.  Then I'll be able to more adequately assess his long-term soundness potential.  Chico's wound is looking pretty good, by the way.

 

 

 

His hair on that leg is all crimpy, I think because the winter hair was growing in while he was wearing a bandage.  It tends to collect snow and ice-balls more than his other legs. 

It also makes it hard to tell just how big that fetlock really is.  It is bigger than the other, but I think it looks even larger with the crimpy hair.

Since it was so windy and cold today, I didn't ride, and I pulled the horses' hay over to the lee side of a hill to feed.  Usually they are fed on top of the hill next to our house.  Out of the wind, the sun made this weather totally wonderful.

And my dogs like the cozy little leeside as well, digging up frozen horse turds and doing their best to chew them up.

 

 

So, I like horse butts.  I'm sure everyone does, right?  All my horses have very different, but equally nice butts!

 

 Stormy

 

Catlow

Cody

Chico

 

My dark horses' coats are getting that faded late winter look.  I can't wait till they shed out this spring.  I'm ready for winter to be finished.  Usually I really like winter, but I've been so busy, away from home, and last winter was so long.  I feel like the majority of the last year has been winter for me!

 

Chico and Cody

Stormy again

 

So, have I mentioned that I love Stormy?  I do.  When I bought her, I thought I was going to keep her till next year and then look into selling her.  I may still do that...but the longer I have her, the less likely that is looking.   I just love her.  And she loves me too.  I love my other horses too of course, but she is just a sweet little peppy mare.  She's the bottom of the pecking order in my herd, but she still has her own "personality".  My horses have taught her some really nice manners.  She is not nearly so pushy about food as she used to be.  And she is so fun to ride.  She hesitates occasionally about going out alone, and we might have a very brief second of discussion about it, but really, she does whatever I ask of her.  I want to try to get her a little more fine-tuned at this point.  She still doesn't know a whole lot about leg cues (other than squeeze to go faster), but she is slowly catching on.  I am getting to the point where I can feel her slightly responding when I ask her to step over one direction when riding.  The reason we haven't gotten far yet is mostly my fault.  I just haven't been working with her.  I jump on and we go out for a ride.  I try a little bit on the trail, but I think some of this sensitizing of her body needs to happen on the ground, because she just doesn't realize she is suppoesd to respond any other way than she currently knows.

 

 

 

Last weekend I rode her with my 1964 Simco saddle.  It is a really nice old saddle that I restored and it doesn't fit any of my other horses.  I've been having trouble finding a saddle to fit Stormy.  She is narrow, but short - backed, so Catlow's saddle fits her back well, but the rigging is not in the right place for Stormy.  As is, Catlow's saddle rides up over Stormy's withers, all because the rigging pulls it up there.  It's really annoying and makes me not want to ride down hills in it at all.  I actually was thinking (daydreaming) about trading Catlow's saddle in for the same brand and style but a more typical rigging.  But that is going to cost a lot.  Then it dawned on me that I need to try my super old almost antique saddle on her.  And it fits!  So I dont' have to look into anything new for her.  The only downside of this old saddle is that it is heavy.  And with Stormy being my smallest horse, it makes me feel bad for her!  But, I have to give the little mare some big credit. 

 

Two weeks ago, I rode Cody bareback and we cantered up the snowmobile trail, which starts out at a gentle incline, but then gets really steep to get up to the top of the ridge.  We cantered along, and when we got to the steep part, Cody was already tired, but I urged her a little and she dug right in to get us to the top.  Then we had to stand at the top for a good 5 minutes without moving while Cody huffed and puffed and caught her breath.  Now, this weekend, I did the same thing with Stormy.  But I was in my 40 lb saddle on a tiny little mare.  Stormy started out cantering much faster than Cody, and when we got to the steep part, just chugged right up to the stop.  She wanted to stop and rest for a second too, but she was not huffing and puffing like Cody was.  Both of them have had the same amount of activity these last several months.  Stormy just has some really nice drive that is fun to play with.  She can be really fast!

 

 

 

And I think Stormy's delicate face markings are so cute.

 

So, two more pictures and these are not of horses.  This is one of our cows. 

 

 

A few weeks ago, my husband noticed that she had some pretty nasty eye discharge.  We got her in the chute to look at her and saw that she had a big tumor of her third eyelid (likely a squamous cell carcinoma).  It was so large that we couldn't cut it out in its entirety and to leave any in was just asking for it to grow right back.  These tumors can be really invasive into the surrounding bone and are one of the more common reasons that carcasses are condemned and not allowed to be used for human consumption.  It's commonly called "cancer eye" and is usually seen in white-faced cows because of the carcinogenic affects of UV radiation on unpigmented skin.  This cow is a middle aged brood cow and is a valuable member of our herd.  With her "cancer eye", she is worthless and will be condemned if sold.  But by removing her whole eye along with the tumor, we can be pretty sure to get the whole cancerous growth and prevent it from recurring.  Now she will have a long comfortable life having more babies.  I'm proud to say that my first enucleation/eventeration went pretty well, and she is healing as expected!  She is a little more wary after all is said and done though.

 



Arctic chill

Yep, It's cold here.  High of -13 today with -40 degree F wind chill?  We are free choice feeding the horses hay right now on the lee side of the hill.  No blankets, just a windbreak...the horses are doing fine.  They do have access to a barn, but the hill actually breaks the wind better than the barn does and the horses never use it.

Christmas

Christmas was a big hit this year in our house.  Our daughter is now 3.  When we asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said, without any hesitation, a dollhouse.  And repeated asking always yielded the same thing, a dollhouse!  "Just like the one in my book", she said!  So, Daddy, oops, I mean "Santa", got to work on building one.  And we modeled it in part after the dollhouse in her book.

I think it turned out pretty well!  And the cat likes it too!

We have had some really up and down temperature here, and lots of snow.  During the "warm" days (temps around 20 degrees F) I have been able to take some really nice snowy trails rides with my mares.  Those rides were so heavenly...just the quiet rustling of the hooves in deep powdery snow.  The mares have been pretty cooperative despite not having been ridden since before I got Stormy.  I'm looking forward to the high of 30 degrees on Saturday and another ride!

In between meals, the horses are always digging through the deep snow for more grass morsels.

Stay tuned...I'm planning a post about wine making very soon!  I have some pictures all ready for it!

Winter's end

Even though the ground is still snow covered, the end of winter is in sight! Forecasted highs in the 50s and 60s (YAY!!!!) for the rest of this week promise to get rid of the remaining snow very quickly!

The horses bask in the sun at morning's first light.


Later, they are found napping while Chico stands sentinel.


Griffin and Kachina are so comfortable that they lay flat out while Chico guards them.


Later on, I saw Griffin get up and stand for a while and Chico laid down with the rest of the herd.

There is still a lot of snow in the pasture, but on some of the south facing slopes in our yard, there are bare patches of ground! Of course, they were found by the chickens today!


Most chickens I've ever seen really dislike snow. They won't walk in it if it is deeper than an inch or two. So, when the weather was nice this winter, I had to shovel a small patch outside their coop door so that they'd come out and get some fresh air. I didn't have to worry about shutting their fence door because there was no way they'd wander. Too much snow! But on this day, I did close the door, and even so, one determined hen found her way over the fence and ran across the old hard snow (hard because it had settled) to forage bird seed on the bare patches of ground around the bird feeder.

We are all excited for spring!

I know a lot of my pictures look similar, but like I said, this is the view I get to see from my house. This morning was beautiful and sunny and the day after another Wisconsin blizzard. We had 1 week of above freezing weather and our several feet of snow had almost completely melted, but just one day of windy snowy weather, and it's ba-ack! I guess it's not quite spring yet, eh? This winter has had way more snow than average for this region.

The horses bask in the sun to warm up in the relief of the still weather. Windy blizzards suck a lot of heat from their bodies. Look at their long shadows!

Snowshoeing with the little monster

We have had a very cold winter. I'd say it's been colder than average with highs only in the teens and even single digits more often than not. And we've also gotten quite a bit more snow than usual (added on to a summer with way more rain than usual - multiple storms that dumped 7-8 inches of rain at once). It's been a crazy year to say the least, especially given that we have a new addition to our family to add to that! Since it's been so cold, baby and I have been house bound. When the highs suddenly went from single digits the day before to almost 50 degrees today, we HAD to get outside! We decided to go snowshoeing around our place. We started out carrying baby in a wrap, but she became upset when she couldn't see well. Everytime she looked to the side, her hood would occlude her vision. So we ended up pulling her out of the wrap and carrying her. The conditions were absolutely perfect for snowshoeing! The snow had settled just enough that we only sank in about 4-5 inches (on top of another couple feet of snow).


Our path took us along the horse pasture, right past the area where I always watch them loafing.


They all of course came to investigate! Doesn't little Pumpkin look in fabulous condition? Granted, she also has lots of winter fluff, but she looks in great proportion compared to the big bellied, thin bodied animal that came to us. And you might think that I'm horrible, but I don't worm my horses constantly. I think that they can build up a bit of resistance to the parasites themselves. I've decided to only worm in the fall after the ground freezes so that they can have a winter parasite free.


Cody and Chico look so cute, but would you have guessed she had her ears laid back at him the moment before I snapped this photo?


Griffin is one handsome boy.


His zebra striping really stands out. He'll be 4 years old this spring, and I plan to really start working with him this summer, now that I'm no longer pregnant. I'll have to get someone to watch the little monster while I do that, but I really want to get back out and on my horses this year.


The lineup of horses. They are currently standing in their usual loafing spot. You can see how packed down they have the snow, although they are still standing on close to 2 feet of packed snow! Our house is visible in the background. I love to be able to see them from there during the day.


Kachina is also in good condition, although her slim build and high energy temperament prevent her from looking fat like some of the others. Kachina will be 5 this year, but she still looks and acts like a baby.


Kachina is interested in the little monster in Todd's arms. This picture shows how high the snow is. The top strand of wire is usually level with the base of the horses' necks when there is no snow.


My little monster is the cutest little girl in the world. She is now 4.5 months old and getting so active! In a future post, I'll show some of my favorite pics of her.



After we got to the top of the hill, I took over carrying the monster for Todd. She gets heavy! She weighs about 19 lbs now! She's thrived!


Jasper has a hard time in the snow as well. Him and Sage sink much more than we do, since they aren't wearing snow shoes. He doesn't care though. He's high energy enough that this barely wore him out...although I was wore out and had to take a nice long nap with my baby when we got home. Neither of us are used to all this fresh air!

wild dreams

The horses spend lots of time out in the big pasture, even with the several feet of snow. Most of the time they are just loafing out here...


...but they also spend a lot of time digging through the snow for grass.


They have a feeder full of second crop alfalfa grass mix, but yet still they dig.


Are they lacking some minerals, even with two different kinds of mineral salt blocks?


Or are they listening to their wild hearts and keeping up their snow digging expertise just in case they return to the wild someday?


This of couse wouldn't apply to the 3 domestic born horses.


But even they must be wild in their dreams.


Even the tiniest member of the herd.


Her face bears the evidence of her grass hunting, even though she must have the most difficult time of all digging with her tiny hooves.

Brisk

It was a cold day again, but the temps actually reached the teens today! Still, the horses basked broadside in the sun and their breath was visible in the crisp air.

This is the view that I see most often of my horses. I can use my telephoto lens to capture them in the field. When I give them water at night, it's usually dusk and I don't bring my camera, so I have no pics of them then.