Bit Day

I decided to try Otoelene in a bit today.  I had this new pinchless snaffle that I wanted to use. 

 But her head was too small for the headstall that I had handy.  I did lunge her for a few minuets and despite some minor chewing she did fine.

 I went ahead and just used the halter that I had been riding her in even though it is too big and sits too high on her nose.  The bucket is still a big help in getting on.  I've got to get a less slippery saddle pad.

 Lots of rubbing and moving around in the saddle.

 Flexing to the left,

 and to the right.  Notice she hasn't taken a step since I got on.

Then off we go.  Still just walk and trot for now until she gets a little bigger and older.  Thanks J for taking the pictures.  I think it's the first time he's seen me ride her.

Snow Storm

It seemed like we had nothing but snow last year.  We are finally getting our first snow of the winter today. 

 It's a very wet and heavy snow.  The power has flickered off twice so far.

 The weather has been so mild the daffodils were starting to bloom.

 They were promising to be very pretty this year.

Looks like we'll end up with about 8 inches.

Hauling Heifers

It was time to move our bred heifers from our rented land 20 minutes away back to the house. 

J swooked them in with a bat of hay.

We had sold 6 of them last month.  That left a pretty uniform group of 14.

Nothing is ever set up right to start with so there are always preparations before the trailer can be backed in. 

They are unloaded under the watchful eye of Emma. 

Now they are close to the house were J can keep a close check on them when they start to calve next month. 

Happy Valentine's Day

Chickens, Maybe

J has been talking about getting some chickens for quite some time now.  He raised them growing up and loves free range eggs over store bought. 

 This pitiful chicken house is on our other farm,

 but contains this nesting box which we might be able to use.   That is if we can get to it without the building falling on us.

 Another building has some old windows

and this gable end.  Maybe we can come up with a plan to reuse some of these parts this spring.

Rabid

I was catching a horse when Emma ran toward the trees and I heard an odd noise.  When I look there was a raccoon running around in circles.  I called Emma away I got J when he came in for lunch. 

 The raccoon had only moved about 20 yards during the hour before J got in.

Emma, Bumble, Bea, Kit, the horses and me, are all vaccinated against rabies because you never know what will show up.

Circus Training?

We had this big orange ball one of the girls won in elementary school.  I thought I would use it to help desensitize Otoelene.

Kit seemed to have other plans.  It looked like I was training a miniature circus lion.

Otoelene wasn't very concerned about the ball.

She was curious.

And she let me bounce in all around and over her.  She did flinch a time or two when it bumped her leg but that was about the only reaction.

I had been using the fence to climb on to get on her but I thought I would start using the stirrups.  The pad I have been using is to slick and her withers aren't very high so the saddle slid pretty bad so I used a mounting bucket.

It's hard to take a picture of myself riding.  We are up to walking and trotting, one rein stops and neck flexing.  Her trot is soooo smooth.

"Kit, will you please let go."