Take the Time to Learn from the Herd

I challenge you to watch your own horses in their pasture with their herd. Quietly set and watch, see how they interact, notice the subtle things that go on within the herd. Notice how some things are merely a ear flick or a look. This will give you great in-site on your horse. And when you walk away you will feel a wonderful peace for having shared that time and space with them.

The true character of the horse is never completely revealed in the stable or in the riding school, beneath the saddle or in harness. To know him as he really is we must watch him under the open sky, in the meadow among his own kind, for there we can see how different each horse is from his companions, how the ancient law of the herd live on, and how the hierarchy is created with barley an encounter.
-Hans Heinrich Isenbart, The Beauty of the Horse

And So It Begins

Yep fall is fast becoming its evil counter part "winter". Oh we don't have snow yet but they are warning us that we will see some on Sunday (yuk) you would think I would move someplace warmer. Realy no other place I can imagine to live that has what we have. I live about 30 miles from the West Coast of Michigan and if you have ever been here you would know why we all stick out the winter here. I knew the other day we had had one of our last nice days. I felt like an old friend was leaving town and would not be back soon. So sad.
Well the puddy tat is being a trooper and not picking on Found Her, but he is a bit of a stoner, yep a stoner. I have cat nip planted in a planter in the flower bed by the barn doors. I picked all the long stems of cat nip and hung it to dry and covered my roses and plants with straw so they had nice warm beds for winter but Cat keeps digging up the flower pot to get to the remaining cat nip. This morning I discovered he has managed to pull down the hanging budle of nip and was eating it. You never know what you might get when you take in a stranger HE he He. His herbal flea collar should come this week so maybe we can get rid of the darn fleas he has, poor thing. Horses are really getting wooley like big stuffed animals. Winter wool is soft and squishy, Mare gets a much longer coat than Gelding but they won't get too thick cause they go in each night. Looks like we will be looking to get more hay I started with 240 bales and did not plan to feed until October but had to have some in the summer until we got some rain again so I fed some of it through August and September, and I had some that moulded on the bottom so I sold it to a friend with cattle Lost about 25 bales that way. Figured on putting away some rounds rounds are those large round bales you see out in the field. With horses you have to be very careful though because they cant have mouldy hay and the rounds sometimes have mould if your farmer has not taken good care to keep it out of the weather. I guess I need to get that done. I hate the hay hastle. Price is high and handling the bales is darn hard work and it just never ends even if you have pasture like I do you need a small amount in summer if you put horses in at all. Well I have mouths to feed at the barn and they are expecting me soon so that will be all the clever thoughts I can muster for today.

I Thawt I Saw A Puddy Tat I Did I Did Saw One

I Well about 12:00 a.m. I wake up from the stupor I was in after falling asleep in the recliner. (A Really bad habit I have developed this summer) I go into my bedroom check to see the window is open just he right amount, about an 1 1/2" perfect for the cool weather, crawl into my down mattress covered bed and cover up with my down comforter. I cough a bit which is part of my fall ritual. I get settled and I hear Mew Mew sounds like a kitten, I have been expecting one. That is hard to explain but it is something I seem to know ahead of time. I have wanted one to keep my Found Her company this winter and hopefully help her stay warm, but I have not been sure she would like company, so I have not pursued a kitten, I decided to let her and the Universe make the decision. I wait to see if the mew noise is on the TV that is still roaring in the living room, and I hear it again right outside my bedroom window. I get up go outside thought I saw a tiny black kitten, but I guess it was a shadow, I go back in the house to get pants and shoes since I only have a night gown on, I go back out and there I see a pretty yellow-gold short hair cat probably last winter's kitten, not a tiny one its a male about half grown but not adult, it comes right up to the door as soon as it sees me peering out at it and he pathetically cries. He is not the kitten I expected but it is a male like I expected maybe he is the one? I knew I should not have done it but there was a can of food here that Found Her wont eat so I open it go to the door and the poor thing walks over and lays down and rolls to greet me, just like Found Her does, I put the can out and he goes to town eating it. He actually looks very healthy and like he has not missed a meal but he is hungry and knew to come to the door. I remember earlier someone was stopping just up the road from the house and I wonder if they dropped the poor thing off. In the country this seems to be a all too familiar scenario, people get pets let them have litters of babies then decide they have too many and drop them off at the first farm house they find. They either get ate by coyotes or get hit by cars or worse die of a long slow cold starving death during winter. I have seen cats and dogs treated this way. Heck there used to be some tame bunnies up by the cemetery that probably got dropped off. People in the country often shoot strays, people hate that idea but it seems less cruel than the alternative. My other half will not be happy that I fed it but I can't let it starve and he is not likely to shoot it he is pretty kind hearted anymore despite his upbringing. The cat does not seem to have hunting skills or it would not be up at the house on a night like this with a full moon, hunting should be good tonight for a cat. This cat needs to be at the barn, I hope he goes there, but I hope that he does not try to beat up my old girl if he does go to the barn. If he does go to the barn and behaves himself I will know that he is the puddy tat we are expecting. I guess we will have to wait to see.

Well that did not go like I planned

As you can see this summer did not go as planned no blogging as promised. Things in my life seem to be that way, I just accept it and go on. I was planning to work 3-4 days a week then I ended up working 6 days a week. Whew, things have slowed down but as you know that makes money tight.
Anyway. Chicky A. Chicken and Scooter A. Chicken, are living very comfortable in their new home and they love it. But, they still jump up and down at the cage door when I drive into the barn drive. They follow me around like puppies when I let them out of the pen. Scooter has Chicky worship really bad, I have not figured out if it is because he thinks she is his momma or if he just knows how to treat a woman. Whenever he finds a bug or juicy night crawler he just chirps and chirps until Chicky comes running and he just steps aside and lets her have it. He always tells when he finds something good, and she always takes it. I guess he just loves her. When I let them out they both take off on a dead run to see if there is any cat food left in the cats bowl they seem to think that is Chicken Caviar. I don't know if you have ever seen chickens run but it is hilarious.
Scooter decided one day to just light into Found Her (the cat). Now picture this she is a nice little cat but, that chicken is about the size of a fat pigeon and this cat rules the barn. She was so appalled that he even had the nerve to try to pick on her that she just looks at him in discussed and walks away. What a dynamic.
As for the cat, Found Her, I bought the little heated Kitty Kabin she wants nothing to do with it it is smaller than her other bed so I think I will be putting the heater in there for her. I have to get one of those heaters for the chickens too.
Mare and Gelding are fat and sassy ready for winter. They have been having regular jaunts out to the woods and around. Gelding is loving his job, but still not working cattle like we planned. Once he has that job I know there will be no stopping him. Mare could care less she will do whatever I want she always has the attitude that she will do what it takes to get along she just wants to hang around and look pretty trail riding is her thing I think. She is the sweetest girl.
I do some clicker training with them, actually after I got Mare that helped her come out of her shell. Many horses that have been neglected or abused get that glazed over behavior, so clicker training was a nice thing for her. Gelding likes it too, when I get out the clicker he goes through every trick he knows to get a click. Mare will drop her head, touch whatever I have in my hand and try all her tricks too. Too funny to watch them you would think they were a couple mentally challenged horses if you did not know what they were doing. Gelding likes to pick things up and throw them with his mouth. When Mare gets a treat she has to run right over and lick the salt block must be she likes the sweet then salty taste. Pretty amazing how much character my critter friends have. I am pretty blessed to share my life with them and I hope they feel that way about me.

Introduction

Today is the first blog for me.
A little about the Ranch
We are located in beautiful Northern Lower Michigan, God's Country as they say. On the ranch we have 2 great horses a gelding and a mare. One very prentious barn cat, and a couple chickens.
Things are pretty quiet most times but once in a while we get things wound up around here and have fun.
I will introduce you to my horses. I have chosen to call them the Gelding and the Mare, just to keep their privacy. The Gelding. He is bright copper red and built like a steam roller, and smart. He seems to think he is smarter than any human and absolutly smarter than any other horse. He is strong and athletic and the superior breeding he comes from rolls off him like thunder rolls through the clouds. The mare is equally smart but she is not quite so stuck up. She is beautiful athletic and gracefull. She is a paint and when she stands out in the woods she looks like an Indian pony you might have seen in a movie. She is sweet and kind and she worships the ground the gelding walks on and he loves it.
The Barn Cat came into my life in a most unusual way. One snowy night a long time ago I was driving home from town. It was blowing and snowing and the road crews could not keep up with the snow coming down. As I drove I saw two little eyes along the road, at first I thought it might be a bunny rabbit but than realized it was a small kitten. Someone had thrown out a little kitten along the road into the snow bank just left to die I guess. I turned around and picked her up. Just what I needed a kitten, but there was no way I could let the poor little thing freeze. That was about 17 years ago as best as I can count. She much prefers to live at the barn she likes her freedom and she has a job there as far as she is concerened that is the best life. I worry about her in the winter now that she is getting old but she will have a heated bed this winter. I now have electricity at the barn and her usual bed is up on top of the tack room. Now the chickens they have just gotten their new home completed. They have a great little house that is insulated and I just finished the fence area for them. They actually lived in my basement this winter in a cage. Now before you all go crazy thinking I am a red neck think of it this way. Many many people have parrots or other birds in the house. My chicken is about the size of a Pheasant and last winter I brought home an egg from the farm I worked on and she sat on it until it hatched, she hatched out a small rooster, He is about the size of a Morning Dove full grown. When they get moved into their house this week, I will be getting a few more hens so I can have fresh eggs. I will tell you my chicken's names they don't mind. The Hen is Chicky A. Chicken and the Rooster is Scooter A. Chicken. So you can see what we are dealing with here. Chicky actually will come to the cage door and jump up and down just like a puppy, she wants to get out of the cage and go outside. Now this type of chicken will let the babies set on their back while they are small just so they can keep track of them I guess. Anyway Scooter still thinks he is small and when they sleep at night he gets up on her back and goes to sleep. She lets him cause she thinks he is still small. No one has told her he will not get as big as she is so she thinks it is taking forever for him to get grown up. He actually started crowing when he was only about 4 weeks old he still had all his baby feathers that was a sight to see and a sound to hear let me tell you.
Well I guess that is enough for now I plan to try to post at least once a week to keep you all updated on the critters here. I hope you enjoy the blog