The Art of Natural Dressage

My veterinarian palpated and estimated sometime between Jan and April, like that's hard to guess.

But what was important was that he verified the presence of a fetus, which I suspected but could not be sure about.

She looked good this morning with her usual appetite and gentle ways. I took in double hay, and of course her warm water.

I decided that indeed the trough should be up under a big tree that had shown little effect from the snow (no lost branches) right outside her stall door. The snow, while over two feet elsewhere was only a few inches thick there.

The bigger trees around it catch most of the snow and they are the one's losing their branches that I worry about. So this choice will be safe. Or at least safer.

Boy was she happy with the arrangement, though she protested the too hot water by making a face and walking away. I cooled it with snow and she was fine then.

Just further to carry, but I'll take more breaks on the way up from the road.

She's a little cleaner these days because there is nowhere to roll in dirt and tree cones and gunk.

Donald

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Love is Trust, trust is All
~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.

I feel guilty.

You see, we have had record snows hereabouts. Very deep very fast. It got deep last year but it took months. Now it all happened in a couple of weeks. Three feet of snow in most places.

In irritation I said, since all my building efforts were stopped and hauling water and hay was becoming an herculean chore, that I wish it would rain and rain and rain and wash all this snow away.

Yesterday I learned that we are to expect, tomorrow and the next day, torrential rains to come down. Over two inches in 24 hours or less. And warm. It's raining now, and above freezing so the snow is getting heavier but melting down too.

Everyone is preparing for floods and landslides. I'm safe here, and I believe Altea is safe at her temporary barn (except for those big trees over her that I am afraid might fall -- though they haven't for over a hundred years).

The weight of the snow, before it melts, and is full of water from the rain, is going to bring down roofs too. Oh how I wish I hadn't wished so hard for lots of rain.

But then, I WILL be digging out my lumber, and hauling enough into the barn to finish the walls, hopefully this week. Can't get to the lumber yet, but I'll try again this afternoon.

And to speed things up I've decided to slightly change the barn building. Instead of setting up the double stall on the West end, I am going to set up the single stall in the center. I already have panels for that, and can then tarp a smaller space to keep Altea warm and dry.



My intent is to build a nice open airy barn (we can get very warm and humid in the summer here) and use tarps creatively to make spaces for different conditions. This is the third of four years in a row that we have had records broken for cold and snow and ice, both how much and for how long.

My plans must change to reflect this new weather pattern.

I'll now be boarding up solid both ends, east and west, of the building, leaving only the front open. But I won't wait to bring Altea home until those two ends are completed. I can finish the center stall and get her into it with using the tarps for protection.

We are much further along than this photo shows, but I use it to demonstrate the location of that center stall. She'll be ten feet from either end, and those I'll probably tarp over too just to protect us as we work on completing the barn. She'll have a stall within all cozy and dry.



In the above pic I haven't finished hanging the stall panels. Only the nearest one, with the others held up temporarily waiting for big lag screws to tie them solidly in place.

That odd looking square of wood all nailed together in the foreground is her step up into her stall, but it's upside down. It works great. Just used the scrap ends of all the heavy timbers I cut for the beams and posts.

And I have an air-compressor powered nail gun and can't resist using it. What fun.

Why am I rambling on? Oh, well, maybe because I'm watching the rain pour down on the snow and can't seem to work up the enthusiasm for going out in it right now to get to work.

And I have to pull a tractor tire on my snow blower tractor. Now there's a jolly chore for a cold rainy winter day.

Altea was fine this morning. I've upped her hay ration to compensate for the cold and wet. Hay helps keep them warmer as it's digested.

She is wasting little of it now. Though she loves to take a bite, then spice it with a little nibble of snow to keep the dust down. Very cute.

Face all healed, growing a bit wider with her foal. But doesn't seem to be very close. I hope. Yes I do.

Okay, I've goofed off enough. Back to work, after I have a little lunch.

Donald

_________________
Love is Trust, trust is All
~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.

Donald,
I can't begin to imagine what it's like and what it takes to cope with that weather. It can't be easy.

But we all know you're a tough cookie, and you'll be fine.

And, by the way, life going all SNAFU? is better than life going all FUBAR and lets not forget about FUBAR-BUNDY either ... there's always a next step!

_________________
Glen Grobler

Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled. Anon

Oh, Donald - it's nothing as bad as rain in the winter.....

But you can even see the good things in that!! Wish I get like you when I am "grown up" (you are not really grown up, are you.... ).

Hi Kristi,

On the subject of being grown up or not:

I chaff and complain about as much as anyone I think. I talk about various grown up ways of dealing with life's little irritations, and life's big boo boos, but the truth is I struggle with and am impatient with and make decisions mistakes about life just like you do.

I also have fun, try to laugh at myself as much as possible, and let myself enjoy the decision successes I make too.

Yesterday, for instance, I needed to restock the supply of alfalfa pellets to Altea. Carrying a fifty lb bag of pellets on one shoulder and trudging uphill for about 45m (150 ft or so), in a deep rough bottomed snow valley path, I found the big red hungry mare standing in my way just outside the barn feed room.

I thought immediately of you, with kids, ponies, and one horse stuck in one of those same litte valleys. Only you and I, and others that live in snow country were it gets deep knows just what I'm talking about.

The mare didn't want to move out of the way. She expects me to feed her. And can't get it that feed her or not I have to get past her.

What would Kirsti do, I wondered.

And laughed to think of the tangle of kids, ponies, and horse you'd have to deal with while I only had one old mare to try and convince to move out of my way.

Did I laugh?

Naw, I was grouchy as heck.

'Course once by and that heavy sack set down I felt guilty and went back and apologized to the mare. And made my problem worse for the next time by feeding her a bit of hay.

See how brilliant and grown up I am?

Donald

_________________
Love is Trust, trust is All
~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.

spring is comming!!the early signs...
i see you struggeling in the snow and an old grumpy mare in front of you great story

Well, Spring certainly has dropped in early this year. Of course we do tend to have a mini-Spring couple of weeks, usually around the last week of January into the first week of February. This time, it's the second week of January, and it's really gotten warm, tropical, wet, humid, and did I mention warm?

40F (4.5C) plus for the past two days, and temps bouncing up and down even into the fifties, but rain, ooooohhhh yes, rain. One place not far from here got 10 inches (25CM) in 24 hours. That's a Noah dimensioned flood.

The snow is down to a foot and less. By this afternoon only the sheltered spots will still show white, I'm sure.

Interestingly for Altea this change in the weather is making her shiver.

When the temps were at the freezing level and below, she was just fine, because it was dry. And she grew up in such cold country.

Yesterday, for her late afternoon feeding I found her shivering just a little ... until of course she started to gulp down her alfalfa pellets.

She doesn't like this low starch hay much, and tends to fling it about from some bales. It's not very consistent from bale to bale, apparently.

And hay is what will best keep her warm, so I've got to break open some more bales and see what she will eat.

We'll go to a turnout blanket in the next few days if I catch her shivering again. I'm opposed to them generally, but her situation, with the Insulin Resistance, living now in very wet conditions under big trees, is special. And considering she is in foal ...

This all inspires me to push on with the stable building. As of yesterday it was still a struggle to even get to the site to take measurements for ordering more lumber for the final stages of construction. Snow to my knees still.

But by evening I started seeing my remaining lumber come out of the snow. And my good neighbor has offered to help me with some of the really heavy work moving my monster steel and wood stall panels about into their final configuration.

That's a relief.

Alone I have to inch them along with safety lines and my pulley system and try to keep out from under them should one come loose while I'm moving it.

Now if the weather will only hold. And I can hope for it to be dryer too, as I run a lot of electric power tools, and my compressor on this project, and that's not always safe in really wet weather.

I want so much to put the end walls up, but have to put those off for now, and focus on that center stall, because once that is done, I can bring Altea home, and then work on the rest at better times, and after catching my breath.

Don't want to miss her foaling event so now it's all haste to get this portion done.

And yes, it does feel like Spring, Inge.

A time I always enjoy, despite the mud and slush, and tricky changeable extreme weather that goes with it in the mountains.

This year, because of burning piles of logging slash on part of the property, I am anticipating Morel mushrooms. Love them. Yummy. They tend to come up around burned over areas. Even where I dump wood stove ashes in my garden for augmenting the soil the Morels come up.

Sautéed lightly in butter and garlic...mmmmmmmm......
Then next it's the Shaggy Manes that come up, then the ... oh well, I guess it's time to cook breakfast.

Best wishes, Donald

_________________
Love is Trust, trust is All
~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.

I blancet my horses sometimes, when it is snowing or raining for days and it is cold at the same time (about as with you - usually around 0C ). I have actually never seen them shiver, but if I get the chance to get them rugged before they get wet, I'll do so - just to keep them dry. Vilja seems kind of depressed in such weather if she is not rugged - even though I have not seen her shiver. I think that is totally ok if you feel like that - I would have done so with Altea too, especially since she is on foal....

I think shivering by a horse is a very strong signal of a problem. They usually don't, even in very harsh weather.

That's why it took my notice, though it lasted only a few seconds.

She had been outside merrily scattering her hay about and was wet and she was quite hungry (usual with IR horses), so the combination could have triggered a few moments of shiver. I'll be keeping a close eye on her.

The blanket should be here in a day or so.

Donald

_________________
Love is Trust, trust is All
~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.

Yes, I do the same, keeping them dry is the key. Also we live on a ridge and the winds are commonly 30 - 40 mph, add that to snow or freezing rain and it's nasty! And even tho they can get in out of the wind, I feel that when I blanket them they go out and explore more on those days, getting more precious exercise, and just seem happier!

I have many different blankets for each horse and each situation:

Heavy insulated and waterproof blanket for the big snow/sleet storms

Medium weight blankets, not waterproof, sometimes used under others for layering if needed on extremely cold and windy nights

Waterproof rain sheet with no insulation for warmer but wet days, especially if the temps are forecast to drastically fall after sunset.



But I don't blanket that much. I watch Jack more than Lucy the fuzz ball!! I blanket/sheet on extreme days, wind chills below zero, or heavy cold rain or snow to keep them dry, and never when the sun it out!

Brenda

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Lucy04574
http://www.youtube.com/user/Jack04574

Think that is a good idea Donald.
And i do the same as Brenda, only blanked when realy needed.
Heavy rains and wind...and it is a rain blanked no isolation

some pics of frozen waterbuckets



don't see them maybe this way

http://www.bitloosrijden.nl/AND/bevrorenemmers7109.html
http://www.bitloosrijden.nl/AND/wachtenopmij7109.html

Couldn't see your frozen waterbuckets, but then I had my own Altea water trough, a little frozen, to meditate over this morning.

I'll see it again this afternoon late, when I haul the hot water up to it.

But this must be a quick note after lunch, as I got help positioning the two stall panels this morning and am enthusiastic about getting back out to the Palacio and hanging them properly and building the extensions on them.

Closer and closer.



Donald

_________________
Love is Trust, trust is All
~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.

this way is better i gues :-) sorry i am not always "handy" with the compu and placing pics
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Album=DGOUH6WZ