Monday, September 8, 2008

Juggling hay

Been a pretty quiet week, and mostly fine which has been fantastic for the ground. Raining again today but apparently it's mean to disappear this afternoon. Been so nice getting the horses out of the paddock and their legs aren't covered in mud!

The ground was even dry enough to finally take the tractor and trailer down to the bottom woolshed and grab some hay. The stuff in there is better than what is in the big shed and would rather feed that to the horses. I tried taking the Bighorn down there earlier in the week and got well and truly stuck (dumb road tyres...) so had to ask the guy who grazes his heifers here if he could tow me out with his tractor. Got called a townie and no doubt won't hear the end of that for a while! There was no hay left in the big shed for the horses though (only stuff good for cows) so it was getting a bit grim.

Dee thought it was great having a moving buffet come through her paddock and followed the tractor and trailer around grabbing a mouthful when she could. It's not the best pic as it's from my phone but you can probably see she is not exactly starving - just thinks she is.

The others were a bit more intelligent and actually ate the hay that I'd already thrown out for them. I think Dee just has a thing about trailers and wheelbarrows, she sees them and seems to automatically think there is food in them - just for her.

The piggies are getting friendlier, and know the rattle of the bucket now. They are very cute and still burrow under the hay to sleep, and pop their noses out when they hear the bucket. Their appetites seem to be growing so hopefully that means they are too.

Mother to be heifer still has no udder, she is due in a week from today so once this rain eases off I'll bring them all over from the far paddock and put them into the one next to the house so we can keep an eye on her and her udder.

Managed to ride Choc on Wednesday and Saturday, he is still being pretty well behaved although Saturday was a bit of a dick - had forgotten to give him his toxdefy for the previous two days so am guessing that was it. Asked for a canter on the lunge and we had some pretty cool bucks - the type that would send me over the handlebars easy peasy, so am glad I wasn't on board. He was really spooky leading up the road too but heaps more settled on the way back down to home. We are going to attempt a dressage day with the riding club on Oct 5th. They are usually pretty laid back days so I think it'll be good for him. Have done one before on Maddy and it was good fun so at least I know what to expect. Am sure he'll be fine, he is pretty good in new places usually.

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