Christmas Parades were successful!

The Parade was a success!!  This past friday night was the Greenville Christmas parade.  I pulled a hay wagon made up into a float by Turtle Creek Veterinary Medical Center.  A big thanks to my pal Pat Chase for loaning me the hay wagon.  Another big thanks to Jacob Riddle for helping me handle the horses.  Pam was not in the mood to stand around at first, and it was great to have Jacob on hand.  The float looked great and the horses pulled it great.  I should mention that I had the bells this year and they really added to the Christmas feel.  Here's some pictures of the Greenville Parade.

Putting final touches on the float

Attaching the lines to the horses.

Waiting for our turn to go.

My family!  Merry Christmas!

My header, Jacob, helping Pam to chill out

Another shot of us waiting

A rear view of the float.

Side view of the float with all the lights on

 The next day I did the Campbell Christmas parade.  We used the same float (minus all the vet stuff), and my son's football team rode in it.  It was a great time.  I'll post pictures if I get any.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Today was a great day.  I got to spend some good time putting miles on the horses.  It was 6 miles by the time it was all said and done.  I had the bells on the horses and they did wonderful.

What prompted todays trek, was a need I had to deliver a hay wagon to a friend who lives 3 miles away.  I will be pulling this wagon in the Greenville Christmas night parade, and it needs to be decorated how my riders want.  I knew right away I could just drive it over, but then I needed to have a ride home.  I came up with the idea to load my forecart onto the hay wagon.  This would give me a ride home.

My pioneer forecart strapped down to a hay wagon.  Quite the ride!!

I should probably back up a few days.  On Wednesday I had the farrier out and he put shoes on the horses.  (I got Rachael's shoes from Graber steel again.  Love those people, and love the drilltek shoes!)  Rachael got iron on all 4 feet without a problem.  Pam was REALLY being a moody preggo mare.  For the first time she kicked at me.  I couldn't believe it.  She stood for the farrier perfectly for the front feet, but when he went to work on the back, she swung her rear end towards him and kicked at him.  I was baffled.  This is definitely not my docile mare Pam.  I don't know if it was the cold weather, the preggo, or something else, but that mare was a tad unruly.  Since she's pregnant, the farrier didn't want to tie ropes around her.  We discussed how much I'll be using the horses on the road, and he felt that I would be fine with only shoes on the front for Pam.  This saved me some money, and saved us from fighting Pam a day before Thanksgiving.  :)  

Since the horses have iron, I had no problem running them down the road.  It was a nice ride too.  Both girls were stepping nicely and responding well to the lines.  I had the bells on, and the girls didn't mind them at all.  I actually enjoyed the ride sitting so high up.  I had a birds eye view.  I was sitting in the implement seat on the forecart.  It worked well.  I set out alone, but after half a mile, my white dog Saphra was following me, so she got pulled up on the wagon and came along.

A birds eye view.  This must be what a nice hitch wagon is like.

Another shot while riding the hay wagon.  Note the bells!! 

After I dropped off the wagon, I hitched up the forecart, and headed home.  The point of view was much different.  Instead of looking down on everything, I was peering between the horses at the road.  The pictures show this well.  The girls did enjoy having a lighter ride home, and they trotted well for me.  Driving with a dog  between your legs on a forecart was the most difficult thing I encountered.  :)

Forecart view on the way home.  Compare with above.  I prefer the high ride!!

My wife took this picture from behind me as I drove up the driveway. 

My wife took a video of me as I was pulling into the driveway.  It's listed below.  You can really hear the bells cut through it.  It was a fabulous afternoon!

Getting the girls used to bells

I decided that for my parade and wagon rides this holiday season, I'd like to see about getting some sleigh bells. I began searching for bells, and I found that real brass bells are pricey!  I was looking for the bands that go around the girth of the horses.  They were upwards of 100 dollars a piece for the nice ones and $300 a pop for the REALLY nice ones.

I did more searching and found some made by Weaver.  They are black leather, 72" long, and just nickel plated bells.  Probably not as nice sounding as the others, but they were 22 dollars a piece.  I decided that for that price I'd give them a try.

Last Saturday I got Rachael and Pam out.  After I tied them to get them ready for harnesses, I walked over with one set of bells around my neck.  Rachael was completely relaxed and didn't mind the bells.  Pam had her head set very high, and her ears were tipped a little back.  She was concerned.  I talked sweet to her, and let her check them out while I brushed them out.  I then put one strand around each horse and left them tied for a bit.  Neither cared at that point.

I then harnessed them up and off we went to my pal Pat Chase's house.  I needed to visit Pat for a variety of reasons:  1) it's been a while since I've hung out with my friend, 2) I needed to do some upgrading of hames at the Pat Chase Tack Shop, 3) I needed to borrow the hay wagon that I'm going to use in the Greenville Christmas Parade.

As always, it was great to be out at Pats.  I was surprised to see him working his 2 year old gelding.  It's been a while since I've seen him, but wow has he grown.  It was awesome to see him harnessed and pulling a sled.  Pat has done awesome work with him.  He's nearly 17 hands tall and is going to be an amazing horse.  This summer Pat learned some great training tricks from Cathy Zahm, and he explained them to me.  Very cool!

For those who may not know, Pat keeps a bit of harness stuff at his place for sale/trade.  He has collars, hames, and other things.  For the past 6 months, my new harnesses have needed smaller hames.  The harnesses were originally used on bigger horses, and the hames just didn't fit my 24 inch collars very well.  Not only does Pat have the gear, he has the know how.  He quickly measured, and told me I needed 26" hames to go with my 24" collars (2 inches bigger is the rule).  In no time, I had new hames that fit my collars perfectly for a very reasonable price and trade-in.

We then worked horses for a bit, and went for a wagon ride.  It was great to just relax and hang out with my friend.  My horses did very well with the bells on their harnesses.  I ground drove them all around Pat's place.  Unfortunately we couldn't hook them up to Pat's other wagon, so we only took Pat's horses and wagon out on the ride.

After the wagon ride, I had to get home, so I loaded my horses and off I went, with a hay wagon being pulled behind the horse trailer.  I had to keep it under 45, but I made it home just fine.

Looking forward to getting the girls shoe'd over this Thanksgiving break.  Then I'll start hitting the roads a little more often and working those muscles back into shape.  I don't want the girls to go from Summer Vacation to 3 hours of work a night all at once.

I hope everyone out there enjoys Thanksgiving and finds something to be thankful for.  There's plenty of reasons for all of us if we look close enough.

Driving with my son

My son with lines in hand

Today I decided to do some things just for me.  I came home from work early, and decided that I'd work the horses.  It's funny to me that whenever you think you can do something quickly with horses, life happens.  My first delay was getting Whinnie (the little buckskin filly) back into my pasture.  She managed to get in the neighbors field somehow, so I had to cut the fence, get her back on my side, and then fix the fence.

Delay #2 came from a preggo mare Pam acting like a total butt.  She refused to let me halter her.  This meant we spent 30 minutes of her running away from me while I slowly walked behind her (like a murderer in some slasher movie from the 1980s).  After 30 minutes she finally tired herself out, and she stood.  I chuckled when I saw how sweaty she had made herself.  After that, she was a perfect mare.  She had no more strength to act up.

My boy driving the sled across the pasture.

About that time, my son got home from school.  To my surprise, he told me he wanted to come out and work the horses with me.  We had an awesome day!  He helped me halter Rachael, and also helped me groom them and harness them.  We hooked the girls up to the sled, and I started driving them.

He actually did pretty good at keeping slack out of his lines

About that time, Riley asked if he could drive.  I quickly agreed, and he took over.  He did so good!  I was very impressed with him.  I took a few video's of him driving the horses.  The first one below is of him starting the girls from a stop.  It took him 3 tries to get them to respond to his voice, but he got them to listen.  (turn the sound up and you can here him talking to the horses)

The next video is of Riley turning a 180 degree circle.  He completely impressed me with his ability to command the horses.  By the time we finished working the horses, Riley had driven much longer than I had.

There is something very fulfilling about sharing this stuff with my son.  I love that he wants to be involved, and I love that he does so well with the horses.  Had a fabulous day with my boy!!

Team Line Trick

Yesterday I was calling around to different harness shops looking for pricing on Bells.  For this Christmas season I was hoping to add some sleigh bells to the wagon/horses to really complete the Christmas theme.

I got referred to the Samson Harness Shop in MN.  I called and they were so pleasant!  I ended up talking with someone for hours (Bernie Samson maybe?).  We talked about all kinds of different things.

One thing we discussed was using team lines.  He asked me if I had any issues with lines getting hung up.  I mentioned how I had the team line buckle pull through my spreader once.  He asked if I also had times when the cross checks would get hung up under the team pole.  My answer was a “Yes”.  That seems to happen every now and then; never from actually working, but by standing still and them moving their heads around.

Bernie then laid out to me an old trick from the early 1900s.  He described using 2 sets of spreader rings to solve the cross check problem, and using 3 extra rings on the cross check line to prevent the buckle from pulling through.

For the 3 ring thing,  you just get 3 sizes of rings (6 total – 2 per size).  They should be sequenced such that the smallest ring will not pull through the middle one, and the middle one will not pull through the biggest.  The biggest needs to be big enough that it won’t pull through the spreader ring.  You put these on each cross check, in sequential order, before you run it through the first spreader.  These rings will then prevent the buckle from pulling through.



Drawing of team line setup using 2 sets of spreders



For the last part, I was having a hard time understanding verbally what he was describing, so I had him send me a fax with a drawing.  I found this very interesting.  I’ve never heard of this, but it looks pretty good.  The extra set of spreaders will keep enough line on the tension that you don’t get that droop in the middle of the cross that can get hung up.  I like it, and I think I’m going to have to get some spreaders to try it out.

This kind of rig seems ideal for a guy like me;  someone who works the horses alone most times.  when this kind of thing happens for me, I usually have to hope the horses stay still, and walk around myself to un-tangle it.  This means that there is a time when my hands are not on the lines.  If running an extra set of spreaders can fix this, then I’m all for it.

How to cure a diva!

This summer was such a bad one, and my time has been so busy, that I haven't worked the horses in over 4 months.  Yes, I know ... shame on me.

Two weeks ago, I had the farrier out.  Well it turned out that Miss Pam has become quite a Diva!  My horse who stood awesome for the farrier had been replaced by a raunchy, impatient mare who didn't want to stand at all, but only wanted to go back to the other horses.  She resisted quite a bit.  It was one of those moments where you find yourself telling the farrier "she's normally really good", which you know he must hear from everyone.

That cemented in my mind that Pam needed to be cured of her new Diva ways.  I figured I knew the best way to cure that.  WORK!!!  It's amazing how a horses temperament changes when they have a job.  So here's how it worked out.

First, I just got her out of the pasture and tied her up.  I left her tied for 45 minutes.  She spend the first 15 minutes pawing the ground and trying to turn herself all around to get free.  The last 30 minutes she settled in, and just waited on me.

Pam the Diva ... standing tied.

Next,  I took my time harnessing her.  She was pretty good with this.  No real issues at all.  Once the blinders were on, she started turning her body a bit, but nothing too big.

Rachael, being the amazing hitch horse she is.

Next came the work.  I ground drove the girls together at first, and the first few starts and stops were a tad rough on Pam's part.  Rachael was a dream and acted like the pro she is.  After the girls were stopping and starting well on command it was time for the sled.  I should note,  Pam was still not staying stopped very well.  She would start to pace and paw to keep moving, however, she would stop on command.  This was OK with me, because HARD WORK cures that impatient crap.  :)


Up next came the heavy work sled.  I got a new work sled this past spring.  It's got metal runners, and it's pretty heavy.  I hitched the girls up to it for the first time and away we went.  I made them walk for a good 10 minutes, then we stopped for a rest.  I watched Pam, and as soon as she started to Pace, off we went, for another 20 minutes.  On the next break, she stood for a few minutes, then paced once, so off we went again.  Another 15 minutes later, we stopped, and she stood perfectly.  Success!!!  I did this a few more times, till they were standing with no intention of moving.  This is the team that I know and love.  Even stood well enough for me to walk away from the sled and snap a picture.  :)

What a good team!  Enjoying a nice break after pulling the heavy metal training sled.

Working a horse hard enough to realize that a break is a good thing is a wonderful cure to the pacing/impatient horse.  Once they realize that a break is something to fully take advantage of, it really sets them up well.  The important thing to note in draft horses, is that it takes a lot of effort to work them hard enough to need a break.  Even on that heavy sled, it was only after an hour of pulling it that they finally started sweating.  Work work work!  It brings out the best in these animals.

The result ... I got my sweet Pam back.  For the rest of the day, she was the horse I used all spring and last christmas.  It was great.

So ... how do you cure a Diva?  Make her work ... and work HARD!  :)

Update on Nellie

A bit more happened with Nellie since the last blog posting. Nellie seemed to be fine the next morning after the vet came out. However, the next night, she was laying down again, and rolling worse. She had really scraped herself up on her hips, withers, and side of the head from rolling.

Vet said to bring her to him and we'd tube her again. We also needed to get her some more bantamine. We took her to the vet that night, While looking her over, the vet noticed a small string hanging out of her rear end. He pulled on it, and out came a 1 foot long piece of Hay wrap/netting. He tubed her again, and this time there was no reflux at all. Also, she wasn't passing much through her intestines. This led the vet to diagnose her with an obstruction instead of just colic. We figure that Nellie unknowingly ingested some amount of hay netting (the plastic wrap that is used on round bales now days).

A sick Nellie.  Note the IV bag hung from the tree.  This is country living!

This started a long 3 day long ordeal. I made a pen for Nellie in our front yard near the house. We had to keep an eye on her. She had a catheter put in, and needed to be on IV fluids. We also had to tube her twice a day and pump a gallon of mineral oil, and a 3-5 liters of water into her belly to try and flush out the hay netting/wrap that was stuck. Suddenly it seemed that our whole life was about Nellie, and making sure she made it. We were also advised to give her 4-5 small amounts of hay each day to keep the digestive track functioning.

It also began the awesome fun of dissecting poop. Everything that dropped out of her got dissected and analyzed. It seemed that each small pile had small pieces of hay netting with a few long pieces too. Slowly but surely, she was passing them. We kept hoping to finally see a big ball of the hay wrap come out, but instead we saw a string or two with each load.

There were storms coming through, so I moved the pen under my porch.  IV bag hung from the rafters.

On the 3rd day of fluids, Nellie started acting like herself again. She had not tried laying down and rolling at all, and we were not giving her any meds. We were advised to keep her on the IV, but to begin giving her a flake of hay at a time. We did this, and it made for a very happy Nellie. She had no problems digesting it, which also made for very BIG piles or poop for me to dissect.

On the 4th day, we stopped the IV, and put her out in the pasture. She was glad to be out of her pen, and we kept a close watch on her. She did perfectly. No soreness, no laying down or rolling. She's still doing awesome. We think we got her to pull through it. What a relief!!

One of the silver linings about this ordeal, was that Nellie doesn't care about needles on her neck anymore. Last year when it was time for shots, it was a rodeo. We didn't get to draw blood for a coggins because she was so unruly. By the last day of her being in the stall and feeling normal, my wife was able to draw her blood all alone, without me holding her. This is a great thing.

Also, on a bit of a disappointing note ... we did a blood test on Nellie to see if she is truly pregnant (supposed to be having a March foal) and the test result came back negative. Looks like she didn't take. I'm a little dissapointed, but that's Okay. It means I can work her with Rachael when Pam get's too big for her harness. :)

New Hay!!! The good, the bad, and lessons learned

Things here in NE Texas are not ideal for keeping a horse right now.  Lack of rain and good temperatures have no grass growing at all.  Hay is in short supply and is VERY expensive.  I feel worse for people in other parts of Texas because they have it much worse, but still ... it's not a nice situation we're in.

Fortunately, thanks to my Aunt Karen, I was able to get in touch with a hay guy up in Little Rock, AR.  After a month of plotting, planning, and co-ordinating, I was able to hire a truck to drive up to Little Rock, and bring 34 bales round bales of Bermuda grass (with some sage grass) home.  There were 4 people who went in on this load, and it worked out great.  The truck driver, Jaice, with Sheffield Trucking, sent me this picture of our hay before we hit the road heading our way.

Now that is a pretty sight!  A load of fresh cut bermuda!!

As you can imagine, the horses were also VERY excited about the new hay.  To stretch till the hay truck came, I had them on minimal hay rations and grain.  In the past, I've never had to worry much with the Belgians on changing food and what not.  The drafts seem to just handle that stuff very well.  So, I put out a round bale, and the horses went to town on it.  They were all very happy, and I was too.  Things were great ... or so I thought.

Yesterday I came home to find Nellie laying down.  I noted that half of the round bale was gone (in 1 day).  I walked out into the pasture and she stayed laying down.  She wasn't rolling or anything, just laying.  While looking at her, Pam laid down next to her.  This was odd to me.  I took the picture below:

Nellie and Pam laying down, with upset stomachs

 I got on the phone with some friends to brush up on my knowledge of colic.  I was told to watch for rolling and thrashing, and to also watch for them to bite at, or kick at their bellies.  The horses didn't seem to be in pain, so I went about my daily routine and just kept an eye on them.  As the afternoon/evening passed on, I noticed Nellie was laying down more often than standing. 

At 8:30PM I went out to check on the horses, and Nelle was not doing so well.  She had abrasions on her whithers, hips, and the sides of her neck and head from rolling/thrashing on the ground.  She was moaning with each exhale, and she kept bumping her belly with her nose.  At this point, I knew things were not well, and I called the Vet.

I got a halter on Nellie, and was able to coax her into standing.  I then led her out, and was walking around with her a bit while we waited for the Vet to arrive.  The vet took a look at her, and noted that she had a raised pulse, and that her gut sounds were not well.  He gave her a minor sedative, and then administered bantamine into her vein.  Within minutes she was breathing easier, and calming down.  She decided to lay down at this point, and laid flat on her side.  The vet told me that the next step would be to tube her to check her stomach contents.  He did that, and out came a gallon of gross smelling watery stuff.  It also relieved a lot of gas.  He told us that the gut sounds, plus the stomach contents led him to believe she was in the beginning stages of an impact colic, and that we're lucky to have caught it early.  From what I understand, impact is where you get a total blockage and this requires surgery to fix.

Nellie was calm and easy to work with.  I think it was 60% on board drugs, and 40% her desire to be made well that made her easy to work with.  My horse that hates needles was just fine with all the injections that were being made.  I was shocked.

The Vet added a gallon or so of water, and a gallon of mineral oil to her stomach.  He then told me that my job was to keep her moving for the next 2 hours.  He said I could do that by walking her, or by loading her in the trailer and driving around.  Due to the price of fuel, I opted for the first.  He also told us to pull the horses off the hay, and only let them eat it a few hours a day for the next week.  He also instructed us to give grain daily with 1 cup of mineral oil added for all horses.  He wasn't too concerned about Pam, and said that the mineral oil in the grain will help her, and if she did get worse, to call and we'd do the same thing we did with Nellie.  We thanked the vet for coming out, and I went to work walking Nellie.

She walked very easily.  She never fought me and kept her head right near me.  Pam was still in the field laying down a bit, so I decided to keep them all walking.  I opened the pasture gate, and walked out to pasture with Nellie.  All the other horses followed.  I then shut the gate, keeping them away from the hay.  Then the 2 hours of walking started.  I just did laps around the pasture.  Over, and over, and over again.  Nellie was awesome and followed my lead.  She never complained or acted up at all.  I think she must have made some kind of connection between me and the fact that she was no longer in pain.  At one point I stopped to turn on the hose and fill up a bucket of water, and she stood perfectly still in the pasture, and waiting for me to return.  She was calm and seemed to be on the rebound.

One interesting side note ... all the mares followed Nellie.  I was essentially walking the herd.  Nellie is alpha, and Pam and Whinnie followed behind her.  Then there was Buck.  He was the boy.  Ever since a nice blog article by Bob Skelding (the wagonteamster), I pay attention to how the herd acts.  Last night, the girls all fell in line, following Nellie.  Then buck ran around the entire pasture, kicking and bucking, with his head down.  It was interesting to watch.  He'd be grazing somewhere, then suddenly I'd hear the thunder of hooves, and here he'd come, running at full speed bucking occasionally.  At one point, he ran close to Nellie, and then he stopped about 10 feet on front of her.  I then learned that a lead mare who isn't feeling good can still flip 180 degrees around me in an instant, and deliver a 2 footed cow kick to a gelding who is acting out.  :)  Buck was much less crazy after that.  LOL.

At about 1:30 AM, Nellie had to stop for a potty break, and I noticed the oil working it's way out.  YAY!  That made me very happy about things.  I was scared of a blockage.  After the 2 hours was up, we gave her another dose of the mild sedative to help her through the rest of the night, and then I went to bed.  By that point, I was walking like I was drunk.  My legs were worn our, and I was a tired boy.  Walking straight for 2 hours is not something I'm used to. 

This morning all the horses were up and grazing on what grass they can find in the pasture.  They all seem to be well.  I'm very relieved.  Hopefully we're done with it.

Lessons Learned:  Even draft horses can colic from feed changes.  The Vet said this was caused by them eating too much of a new feed too fast.  When changing hays, you should not allow a horse to have free access to it.  Work them into it for a week first so their body can get used to the changes in the grasses.  I won't be making this mistake again.  The old farmers tale that draft horses aren't suseptable to this is FALSE!   

Horse Rescue/Extraction Seminar

Today was an awesome day.  Today the saddle club I belong to (Easy Rider Saddle Club) put on a Large Animal Rescue/Extraction Seminar.  The loss of my horse Lily a year and a half ago was one of the reasons our saddle club decided to purchase the equipment needed to safely and efficiently extract a large animal from a sinkhole or quicksand.  There was a newspaper article on it, and it featured Lily's story.  (Click HERE to view the blog entry for this event).

This Ad was run in the Greenville Herald Banner on 9/30/2011

The clinic was taught by Brooke Vrany and David Beard of Days End Farm Horse Rescue in Lisbon, MD.  They are part of one of the biggest and well run large animal emergency rescue organizations in the country (well, I don't know that for sure, but I know they are at least the biggest and well run in MD).  :)

We had a classroom session, that basically covered 3 main topics;  Large Animal Rescue Equipment, Horse Physiology and Behavior, and the Emergency Rope Halter and Lead Line.  I sat like a sponge absorbing the information.  It was very well done, and the kind of information that leaves a horseman feeling that they understand just a little bit more about their horses.  I definitely learned some things that made me see ways to improve my own training and every day handling of horses.

The second half of the day was spent at Cedar Creek Run (Thank you Connie for letting us come over!!).  We did a more "hands on" afternoon.  My horse Buck (Lily's son) was used as our practice horse.  I took Rachael as well, just in case they needed a horse that would not care at all where it was touched.  I'm still learning Buck's personality, so I brought Rachael as a backup.  However, Buck was amazing, and we didn't even use Rachael.

David Beard and Brooke Vrany, using Buck to explain some things about horse physiology

To start off, David took Buck to the side and sacked him out (worked him and made sure he was desensitized to ropes and was going to behave well for the demo).  David is an AMAZING trainer.  I'm sure Brooke was saying something important, but my eyes were focused on David and Buck.  It's like watching a master carpenter work with wood, or an artist work magic with paint.  I watched as Buck learned and reacted to David.  It was soooo cool.  In no time, Buck was responding to the simplest of pressure from David, and he wasn't spooking much at all.  In what seemed like 15 minutes, David had buck moving his feet with no or very little pressure even on the halter.  he would move his body and hands, and Buck would respond.  I hope to be like that someday.

David and Brooke

Brooke showing us more about horse physiology

Brooke did some hands on stuff with Buck to show us more about horse physiology, and things that need to be considered when the need to move a downed horse should arise.  Brooke is sharp and really has a great command at this subject.


Up next was one of the neatest things I've learned in a while.  David and Brooke showed us how to use a single piece of rope to tie and emergency rope halter.  I could not believe how simple it was.  It worked so good.  That went right into this old noggin of mine, and you can bet I'll pull that trick out when I can.

Brooke showing how to tie an emergency halter from a single piece of rope

After that, Brooke amazed us with showing us how to use a single rope and tie a rope sling on Buck.  A rope sling can be done very easily, and is great for simple and short lifts.  All you need is a long piece of rope.  It was very cool.  After that, we fit Buck with the new sling that the saddle club purchased.  We got some pictures of it.  Buck filled it out well.  :)


Buck modeling our rescue sling



Anne Sides and Brooke putting the sling together on the ground.  Me and Buck in the back ground.



One of the highlights for me was talking with David afterwards. I felt like I was trying to absorb as much information as I could. I asked him all about how he worked Buck, and some of his philosophies. I really really like his training style. I mentioned how I was struggling a little with Buck getting him in the trailer. He volunteered to show me how he does it after the clinic was over. All I can say is ... WOW! In 10 minutes, he had Buck self loading. David would walk to the back of the trailer, toss the lead rope over his back, and up and in Buck went. I was completely impressed!

We even got to eat dinner with David and Brooke tonight.  It was so fun.  I really like them and am so glad I got the chance to meet them.  I plan on staying in touch with them both.

 After I got home, I let the horses out, and decided to give them some feed before I let them back in with the herd.  They definitely earned it.  I let them just stand there with their lead ropes and enjoy a meal.  I'm sure it was nice to not have Nellie or Rosie pushing them off the food.

Buck and Rachael after a long day

Buck



Rachael

 Here's a funny shot I took during feedtime.  Something has my horses acting very wierd lately.  They are sharing feed.  I happened to catch this picture to prove it happens.

Rita and Pam, sharing a feed bucket.  Whinny cleaning up some scraps.



Also,  here's a picture I took a few days ago.  Is it possible to get 5 mares and a filly to share a bale of hay?  Not usually ... but I guess when the stars line up just right, anything can happen.  I managed to snap this picture to prove it happens.  :)



5 mares and a little lady, all sharing the same bale of hay.  I draw some funny images in my head when I think of what they might be talking about.  You may notice that Buck is NOT welcome to eat with them.  :)



Maybe this drought we are going through is making my horses be friends or something.  I've never seen them so passive towards each other.  It's almost as if the family is all getting along.  Crazy!  :)





#9 Mower Update

Had to use penetrating oil to get the sickle bar to come down

Lifting assembly

Bottom part of sickle bar

Some of the parts I've removed.

tool box

 

Mower partly disassembled

Originally this part of the pitman was stuck on the pitman flywheel.

Lifting gear removed

 I did some work last night.  The next pictures show more of it's current state

I was able to get the pitman arm off

Mower with tongue

 I currently have it back together.  Pretty exciting.

After last night, I now have a tongue on it

 So here's what it needs.

1. The wheels do not click when they roll backwards, instead, the entire axyl moves.  This is not good.  I need to pull the wheels and get the hubs un-stuck.  When a mower rolls backwards, there are some pawls in the hub that allow the wheel to spin backwards freely.  Only way to solve this is to pull the wheels.
2. I will need an entirely new pitman arm.  The metal peices I have are pitted and worn so bad that I don't think I'll be able to salvage them.  10+ years of sitting in the dirt is not good to metal.
3. I will need a new sickle bar and teeth.  The ones on it are worn out.
4. PAINT!  I'm going to paint it back to it's original colors.

Not too shabby though.  It's been fun to work on it.  I'm going to enjoy using it.


IH #9 Mower Page

Not much to tell, but an update none the less.

Temps are finally cooling down!  HOORAY!!!

Today I did some work on my mower.  I was able to get more of it broken down, and was able to take a peak at the gears.  I'm very excited.  No shavings.  The gears look good.  I thought the clutch may be stuck engaged, but found out that it was the lowring mechanism that was holding the clutch in.  Once I figured that out, I was able to check the gear action.  Everything is tight, and turning nicely.  This was great news!

I promise that tomorrow I will get some pictures.  It was dark when I thought about it, so I didn't grab any.  Tomorrow I'll post pictures of where I'm at and what I've done so far.

The herd is doing well.  Buck is fitting in very nicely.  The mares make him mind his manners, but are accepting him now.  He, of course, helps this by staying out of their way.  I have a happy herd, and that is a plus.

Right now I'm trying to find hay.  It is scarce.  I'm looking towards Arkansas and Mississippi to see if I can find it priced well enough to justify a road trip with a 40 foot trailer.  If anyone reads this and knows of anything, let me know.  I'd surely appreciate it (as will the horses).  :)

I'm also looking for a yoder stock.  It's times like these that I wish I lived up in Amish country.  I think I may have to use my networking skills to get one.  We'll see how it goes.

I'm confirmed to do Christmas wagon rides this Christmas again on Park Street in Greenville, TX.  I'm very happy to be doing that.  It's a lot of fun.

That's it for now.  I'll post some pictures of the mower tomorrow.

An update ... at long last!

If any of you have followed the weather here in Texas this year, you will know that we have experienced heat like we've never seen.  The past 3 months has been over 100 degrees outside.  I think they said 68 days of 100+ degree temps, with 45 days in a row at one point.  Needless to say, we have basically been hibernating inside in the A/C.  I haven't worked the horses at all, and have been making sure they had electrolytes in their water, and plenty of feed/water to get them through the hot temps.

I haven't done any blog updates, because I really haven't done anything with the horses.  Now that I think on it though, I probably have a lot to say to get y'all up to date on things here.  In the name of a shorter blog, I'm going to hit a few bullets and say stuff about them.


More Land
This summer my in-laws bought 12 acres of land adjacent to mine.  As soon as it was purchased, I fenced it off, and my horses now have ~16 acres to graze on.  This could not have come at a better time.  The heat has stopped all my natural grasses from growing, and being able to open up 10 more acres of land to the horses was a God sent.  This enabled me to not have to purchase hay for a bit longer, which is always a good thing.  My in-laws will soon be moved up and will be my neighbors.  We're looking forward to having family around and all the fun that entails

Hay/Feed
Hay prices have gone through the roof.  I have never seen hay prices like they are now.  Before I needed hay, I remember hearing horrid tales that out west of Ft. Worth people were paying $120 for round bales.  I couldn't believe that.  When it came time to check on hay for myself, I found it going for $75.  It has continued to go up and up.  Not a good time to have to be on full time hay.  Luckily my best friend Bev and Mark and I have been working together to get hay for all our horses.  Thus far, nobody has gone hungry yet.  Hopefully we can keep that going. 

Besides hay, the heat has hampered the soybean crop, and so feed has gone up as well.  I normally buy a 12% protein pellet for around 7 bucks a bag.  Last time I bought it, it was at 10.  Suddenly my wallet is really feeling the horses we have!  I am very fortunate for Mark and Bev though.  Bev is an awesome woman with coupons galore and is finding great deals on feed.  I have to say that without her help, my horses would be much skinnier than they are.  I love you Bev!!!!



#9 Regular Gear Mower
That's right ... I found a mower.  I was trying to hold out for a #9 high gear, but decided I might as well get what I could.  Options aren't very good here in TX.  A friend of mine found this mower at a salvage yard.  Someone had brought it in.  The owner of the place was hesitant on melting down an antique like this, so he sold it to my friend for the price of scrap.  I got it and have begun working on it.  I have some pictures, and now that I think on it more, I think I'll do a separate blog post on the mower.  I'm real excited to get this thing going and be able to cut the grass in my own fields.

McCormick Deering/International Harvestor #9 Regular Gear

All parts are accounted for.  Time to get it working.

IH #9 Mower Page


Lily's Buckshot comes home
This one probably deserves it's own post as well.  I'll summarize here.  My beloved mare Lily, had a colt 3 1/2 years ago.  Lily's buckshot was his name, and if you look back through the blog, you can find posts on him.  I sold him at 5 months old to some awesome people.  I've stayed in touch throughout the years.  I received a call last week that times were rough, and their life had taken a turn for the worse.  They needed to find Buck a new home, and I was given the chance to get him.  I jumped at it, and got him home.  He looks so much like Lily.  As I brushed him and groomed him I felt a rare charge of emotion in the hole in my heart from the loss of Lily.  Buck is not Lily, but having him has made me feel good again.  Funny how the heart works like that.  (Added a page for Buck HERE)

Lily's Buckshot.  3 1/2 year old Belgian gelding.

He seems sweet.  We'll see how he works.

Today's work
Today the temps were down in the 80s.  I could not have a day like this and not work outside.  Needless to say, the first thing I did was pull each horse out of the pasture and groom them properly, including fly spray.  All the drafts were great for me.  I even had a friend help me catch Whinnie (my buckskin filly).  This is the second time she's been worked with a lead rope, and it was a fabulous day.  She got wormed, shots (including strangles), and brushed and groomed galore.  She let me pick her feet all out, and then we even worked on trailer loading.  After the 3rd approach, she was following me in the trailer without any hesitation.  Whinnie is an amazing girl.  She's completely docile and I just love her.  I think she's going to make a great saddle horse for my wife and Riley when she's old enough.  It was a great day, and wonderful to get my hands on the horses.