WhooHoo!

Huston is coming to visit Danny next week.....and me and Steve but we're secondary, lol. He's staying several days which is rare for him. I'm so excited. We've got a full schedule and every bit of it involves horses. I'll write a full report later. Right now, we're working furiously to make this house "guest worthy." It's Ok to work so hard now though because next week this time, we will be having fun and enjoying our friend's company!

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

We might have to start calling him Super Dan after he crashed through the electric fence a few days ago. I was just walking down the hillside through the other horses' day time pasture on my way to feed nightly rations to Danny and his mom. Danny was standing by the watering trough waiting on me and watching my progress with his food. Suddenly, he screamed and jumped straight up in the air. I can only assume that a bee stung him because I found no other injury that could account for that reaction. He took off at a full and very fast gallop. He made three rounds of the pasture at full speed only pausing to look at me and whiney pitifully every time he passed where I was still standing, dumbfounded by what was happening. Then he stopped and charged the fence. He managed to leap through, missing the top and bottom wire and breaking the center one with his chest. He ran up to stop beside me and whine; I suppose he thought I could fix whatever had hurt so badly that it caused all of this. I was more concerned about making certain that his attack of the fence hadn't done any harm but before I could examine him thoroughly he spotted the love of his life, Brandy on top of the hill and just as quickly realized that Steve still hadn't closed the gate to the upper pasture. He was off before I could turn and shout, "Shut the gate!" Steve, who already was in the process of doing just that, started running with the gate in hand and still just managed to get it shut as Danny arrived with a skidding, dusty stop. Steve was able to look him over better than I had as Danny ogled Brandy and she ignored him. He shouted back down to me that he could see no injury as I went to let the now frantic Mouse out into the pasture with her baby. Ahhh, the adventures of motherhood...no one said it was going to be easy. Especially when your little one is growing like Baby Huey and more powerful than a locomotive ;^)

Hay Daze

We baled our teff hay yesterday. It wasn't the best first cutting. We only got a partial field and 198 bales. Not enough to get us through the Winter but there will hopefully be several more cuttings. The fun part was watching Danny get his first taste of fresh hay. At first he was more interested in the other horses who came over to the fence to get their share. And then he managed to stick his head into the small space between the fence and the round pen!  I was feeding Brandy when I saw him and I went running to rescue him. Turns out, he didn't need rescuing since he was reaching for the fish net that I use to clean out the water troughs. Before I could reach him, he'd managed to lift the net off of its hook, pull it back through the fence and then placed his little hoof on it and tore it to pieces with his teeth. Once it was destroyed, he lost interest. I pointed out to him that the bugs and leaves that it was suppose to be picking out of his water were now going straight through but he didn't seem to care. Oh well, another one bites the dust. I think I need to buy stock in aquarium fish nets!

The wagon filled up before we reached the small field and Steve asked if we could use my truck to load the bales from there. This small field is right across from Mouse's and Danny's pasture. Danny wasn't so impressed by what we were doing but Mouse was prancing around and neighing because she's had fresh hay before and the small sample I'd given to them earlier was already long gone. We broke open one bail and I took them a few flakes. Mouse started eating with relish and this time Danny followed suit. When I left them last night, both were eating as if it was the last food they'd ever get.

Fourth of July Fireworks

Steve has started calling Danny, Patches. The flies have been terrible this year. I have been spraying Danny with fly spray....he's better behaved about it than the big guys...but I haven't put any on his face and the fly spray doesn't help much anyway. So, the result is that he ends up looking spotty especially with the new hair growing in so much darker than his baby coat.

The holiday fireworks came early to our farm. Everyone, including our vet and Huston, have been telling me that I should put Mouse and Danny out with the other horses but we all neglected to tell Mouse that this was a good idea. We opened up the gates to the large upper pasture last night and let Riley and Django go out there. Brandy lagged behind expecting her "secret" evening meal...she's a smart old girl. Then we let Mouse and Danny out into the other horses' day time pasture thinking this would allow us to introduce them to each other gently. Well Mouse is eating and Danny is running around and neither one has noticed that the other gate is open......so glad, in retrospect, that they didn't! Then Danny sees the love of his life, Brandy, and realizes that there is no longer a fence separating them. He runs up and starts aggravating the poor old girl like crazy. Then the other two boys spot Danny and they come running off the hill. That is when I  turned to Steve and said, "I don't know if this was a good idea." Steve yells at Mouse who is still grazing and unaware that any of this is happening. When Mouse looks up and sees the boys near her baby, first her eyes got huge, then she turns and gives Steve and me one of those looks, and then she takes off, screaming with her ears already pinned. What I still don't understand is why, after she bit and kicked them out of the way and then started herding Danny down the hill into a corner where she could protect him, did the boys feel compelled to chase after them. They weren't really being aggressive; it was almost like they were playing follow the leader with Mouse. They stopped a respectful distance away from her and the baby but Mouse didn't think it was far enough. She ran over kicking at Riley and climbing Django's back and biting him. Neither boy fought back but the idiots did then follow her and Danny up to the top of the hill. I thought we might be Ok to leave them together then since the boys stood and looked at them for a while, Mouse started grazing and the boys lost interest and left. The excitement wasn't over though. Danny spots Brandy, who had been observing all of this from afar, and he goes running up to her nuzzling her and then trying to nurse her! I'm running and saying Brandy don't hurt him because she's trying to at least cow kick him. But Mouse sees Brandy with her baby and it doesn't matter that Danny instigated the entire situation, she's on top of my thirty year old horse biting and kicking. We finally get them separated and the gates closed. Danny, who's been calm and respectful for over a week now, is agitated and wild and Mouse is content to stay in the other horses' pasture where we don't want her to spend the night. Finally we managed to get them both into the round pen and then back into their own pasture where I plan to keep them for a while.....or at least until Danny is ready to wean and Mouse is no longer so protective.

Two Months Old!

Isn't it amazing how much he's grown? Our vet, Melissa Hamilton, called last week and asked if she could stop by and see him. She was out of town when he was born so another vet had taken care of Danny and Mouse. This was her first opportunity to meet with our boy. She thought he was gorgeous and quite large for his age. She said that he looked more like a four month old than not quite two months. I've been telling everyone that you can practically see him growing. His color is changing, too. It is hard to tell by the light in these photos that were taken late this afternoon but he is a lovely golden brown now. I don't think he'll stay that color for long though. The places where he's rubbed the hair off or gotten his little boy scrapes and scratches are all growing back with silky black hair. The nose is gray so I'm thinking that he will be either gray or roan. I still have several months before I have to register him so I'm hoping that he settles on one color by then.

The second photo above is of Danny and his big brother, Django, talking through the fence. I'm waiting until Huston arrives in two weeks to let him decide if Danny is big enough to be turned out with the "herd." He loves to whinny at them and will touch noses and sniff of them whenever he gets the chance. I think they will get along fine and it will probably be good for him to have someone around who will make him behave. I don't know if Django will be a good influence though. He is the most mischievous horse and at eight years old, he shows no sign of change. We have to tie down the hose going into the water trough or Django will chase the other horses with it, spraying them with water. Many of his pranks have to do with the trough since he's constantly stealing the fish tank tools that I use to keep it clean and usually chases poor Riley with those, too. His latest trick really tops them all though. Last night "someone" picked up a bucket and put it in the middle of the trough. Now who do you think did that?