Here's what I was doing last night prior to my ride:
I'm not in the pictures, but I'm out there, trying to catch my horse.
I'm not in the pictures, but I'm out there, trying to catch my horse.
Fun. Not.
The weather is finally acting like summer. I'm loving it. I got a lot of outdoor chores done today.
Wait a minute, let me interrupt for a minute. I just saw the neighbor-cows, and had to ask y'all a question. My neighbor's cattle are on my property. Have been for several days. It irritates me. But it's a part of our property we don't use. I had thought about haying it if there's enough grass though. What should I do? Call and tell him to move his cows or just don't worry about it? It may be too late to save the hay, unless they're staying at one end of the field. I feel like I'm being petty, especially if we it wasn't going to be usable as hay anyway, but he's getting free grazing and that bugs me! He's the one who gave us greenhorns a sickly steer in trade for hay too, so it's not like I feel like doing him any favors. Oh, and don't worry, he doesn't mind if his cows are out. We discovered soon after we moved here that there's no need to tell him every time they get out. He's pretty comfortable with their waywardness.
Back to other stuff before I get too irritated...
My sister came over with her horse today and I had a really good ride, but she was in tears, and made me cry too. Her horse was recently diagnosed with kidney failure. They said she could keep riding as long as he always has water, and they couldn't tell her how long it would be before he'd die. He could be okay for many years, or not. Last weekend she took him to a clinic and he didn't drink at all and barely peed. He's supposed to drink and pee a lot because his kidneys don't concentrate urine. She called the vet and they said that's bad. So she brought him over here to see if he'd do the same or if last weekend was a fluke (she hadn't been able to observe him at home, so taking him for a ride was the best way to tell how much he's peeing). He peed once, just a normal amount, and it wasn't watery like it usually is. He never did drink. And he was being a pill about trotting or moving out at all. Which is frustrating for her because she doesn't know if he's being bad or if it's because he doesn't feel good. He will do all kinds of maneuvers with no resistance though, but doesn't like to move out. I think he's not feeling well. His muscles aren't working right... Anyway, she ended up in tears because he's sick and she can't enjoy being with him because she's worried and frustrated. He's been with her for something like six years now, and they started from scratch and spend a LOT of time together. I can't imagine that. I've had Tonka for just two years now and he's totally stolen my heart and if he was sick like that I'd fall apart. So it's hard to watch them struggle, especially knowing it's not going to get better.
Now for a comic interlude. My son thinks that the Mythbusters are God. Something to do with the experiment where they tried to walk on water... Apparently maybe I need to have a talk with him about the nature of this "God" concept. I did tell him that God isn't a person, because I felt I could make that statement without lying and looking like I had any conviction either way on the existence of God, but he didn't seem to get it. Obviously we don't talk much about religion here... Come to think of it, he's about the age Katia was when she asked me what a church was.
Anyway...
Both of the kids got to ride their horses today and spent a lot of quality time just dinking around with them. It's nice to have the "geriatric pasture" where my son can go in and love on the horses and I don't have to worry about him. I just make sure he asks first so I know he's in there.
I trimmed Soxy's hind feet, which is a bit more of a chore than it is with the others because I try not to crank her old legs up too far. I also built her a small corral off the big stall so she has a totally grassless place to stay during the day. She is GROSSLY obese. I didn't put her grazing muzzle on her this spring like I normally do, and I think I'm very lucky she hasn't foundered. Katia is going to start riding her every day, at least once a day, so that ought to help too.
Other than that I moved and filled troughs and built Tonka a temporary enclosure in an area where we need the grass eaten down.
So, now you're up to date with all the boring details of my life... Sorry, I guess I like to babble.
4 comments:
Ugh you gotta love neighbors like that with no respect for others. You could maybe talk to him about the cows grazing and tell him that next year you are going to use it for your horses. You could also call the sherriff on him if his cows get out. Then he might start to care if his cows are getting loose and straying. There is nothing more irritating then an unresponsible animal owner.
On your horse that is obese what kind of hay does it eat? Sweetie was obese for a while too (ball and sticks) and she founderd on us. She is now on a grass hay only diet (we used to feed them alfalfa hay). She lost the weight and looks wonderful just from switching to grass hay.
Well that post was sad and funny. But very interesting. Is your sister's horse getting enough minerals? I'm no expert, but I think low potassium is not good for kidneys.
We have cattle and had to sell a cow and her calf a few weeks ago because she had no respect for fences. She was the one that tore down the gate of the mustang proof pen while waiting to be hauled off. The gate even had tailer racks in front of it to make it higher and it looked solid. She was leading a few of the other cows through a fence, across a county road and into a hay field that we also own. My advice, call him! We have had people who think it's ok if their cattle get into our pastures. I must add, one of our neighbors is very responible and moves them right away when we call. We had one guys bull breeding our cows! Always call. We call other people and other people call us when they see out cows walking across the road to greener pastures. Now we sold that one cow we haven't had any problems. Your neighbors cattle will think your field is part of their range and will become harder to keep out.
Your son made me laugh. I know what you mean about religion. When my son was about 7, we had a guy here doing some work and he told my son he'd go to hell because he wasn't going to church. My son was so frightened. He wanted to know what hell was and everything.
Funny post! I love the part about religion! My religion is simple: love is better than hate, forgiveness than anger, hope than despair...yada yada. Not too difficult.
I would worry about the neighbor's cows getting into my horse pasture. There's an old saying, "fences make good neighbors." I think I read that in A Day No Pigs Would Die.
The horses look great. Realizing of course that they were being naughty, they still look great. I can't beleive how big Scout has gotten.
I also have to say I love the picture of Liam and Coda!
I will call you tonight or tomorrow.
Laura
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