Here we go again! Evie has been a good girl but has had some changes in her life, it seems. Her dam, Kate, was sold yesterday, much to my sadness in missing her, but Evie ? Did she miss her mama at all? No Way. She was out in the field w/ her Aunt Allie, busily searching for bits of green grass to nibble. March is tough on us in central Pa- leaving the ground soft n' gooey- making the most Wonderful mud to wallow about in if one is a 4-legger. So Allie and Eve have been coming in FILTHY with dried mud. This time of year, I'm sad to tell folks that my once white/ grey horses are now painted Percherons. Not the pretty light grey or white they USED to be... oh noooo, they look horrid. The Good thing is that all are shedding like mad (even Bob the Belgian at long last) and it comes right off with the use of a shedding blade. I like this ! Anyways, back to Ms Independence.... Evie's mom loaded like a dream and Evie never even turned an ear. So this proves what a successful weaning it was.... Neither was concerned at all.
Stats on herself : she is an honest to gosh 16 hands now, as an almost yearling- still looking SO baby like. I'd guess her weight to be right around 1000 pounds, but am not positive. Her first true birthday (yearling) is on April 5th, so we'll have to get her some kind of gift and add some sweet apples to her birthday 'dinner'. She's just so odd looking for one so tall. Some days all those big parts seem to fit and others ? Oh dear- she looks like someone hit the "extra horse part'' area of the local junk yard and went to gluing parts to create some semblance of a Percheron. She's getting it all together and sometimes If I look with my eyes squinted almost shut, I can imagine the mare she is Going to be one day ! We have a LONG ways to go though ...
Back to Evie's new life as a Percheron...without mama around at all. Because of the mass destruction team being stabled together (side by side in stalls), we finally got tired of re-building stall partition walls over n' over again. BoJangles was being REAL BAD about pawing and simply knocking boards loose. Lynda was getting oh so tired of living in a stall with loose boards (and NAILS) hanging in her stall and had begun 'helping' BoJangles do these things. BAD HORSESSSS !!!! So, I got tired of it, and told Glenn that this was going to be stopped. I learned Years ago, that sometimes separating two destructive horses works great- but ehhh, sometimes not too. Evie needed to be up in the front half of the barn so she could see more of what goes on... horses being groomed/ cross-tied/ taught misc. things, etc,etc. She had become WAY to aware of another horse being next door to her and then of " Omg- someone is OUTSIDE MY WINDOW !!!" I didn't understand her panic at any sounds outside her stall.... but there was Carlene peeking in on "her filly". I was in Eves' stall one morning- Carlene was out supposedly eating her breakfast hay. I heard a clomping about outside Eve's stall window, looked up to see a BIG white Clydesdale nose w/ black polky dots on it peeking at me. So I tapped on the window saying " Hello, Carlene !" and the nose disappeared. Soon it was back again though. Any-who- Evie must have thought a demon from Hades had appeared - all she could see was a chin and nostrils!! We cleaned those two stalls real well, and Bo was moved down the aisle to be neighbors w/ Bob the Belgian and Evie was moved into the second stall between Carli n' Lynn. NOW she would be able to see/ hear everything. Even when hay is delivered or feed was being brought in. First evening, she cried and called to Aunt Alli who went on down the aisle to her stall sort of across from Evie's old stall. Well that was not to be allowed- so Evie yelled like a banshee until food appeared, then that was more consoling. Food is always good for a lost filly, it seems. Not much more panic from Evie and Alli could have cared less. Hahaha- Alli knew where Evie was,so why call back ?? So that's been going on for about a week now. Oddly enough ... no more broken stall boards, no more damage to that poor wall, or even in BoJangles' new stall beside Bob. Those two are quiet and peaceful too. Evie has some new "friends'' to be with and Lynn is SO pleased that her stall is once again her 'haven of poop' and no boards attacking her at night. All is peaceful in my barn again, and I was right - breaking up the duo of destruction worked! So now when Evie goes into her stall at nights, she runs to her feed tub to check for dinner, and if its not there, she yells for Alli- and gets no answer. She's cool with all the horses going past her stall too, when they get turned out or brought in at night. First off, even that was a little scary ! Now, she'll do these soft whispers to them all. And wow, is she happy to see her Auntie each AM ! All's well with that big change. Nothing huge in the realm of our lives, but for Evie, it was.
Alli has this very very bad habit of deciding WHAT Time she should come in for feeding. Now, if its sunny n' warm on her old body, she's fine to stay out ALL day long and more. But let it be cloudy, or heaven forbid- Rainy, she has a fit and is ready to come in just a few hours later. She walks the fence, looking and yelling to the house the Whole time and Grinding up the earth with her hooves. This might begin at 1 PM or at around 3, depending on how 'dark/ cloudy' it is. Oh lord, if she gets WET ? That's worse than anything. Sometimes I give in ,and let them come in early on those miserable days, but Alli begins it all. Because of this fence pacing, we have a Bog up the side of the long pasture...thanks to Alli's fretting about coming in. Evie also helps w/ that as she has not realized that she doesn't HAVE to follow her herd leader yet. It's beginning to dawn on her that If she stands at the bottom, near the gate, guess who comes right back down that long hill ? Yep, Aunt Alli. This realization is just beginning to hit Evie's little filly brain. I have seen her do it a couple of times recently, but its slow in coming. Eve is getting more independent. I'm sure Lisi,a friend's draft filly, didn't have this problem much but its hard work, this learning ''to be your own horse" and have some independence about yourself. I figured it might dawn on Evie around a yearling and it is... slowly. Percherons are basically quiet critters out in the pastures, and Evie will learn too. Well, most of the time, they are but not this morning. The greys must have hit haul-ass mode three times during a riding lesson. They went full tilt up that long hill and wow, it Was Impressive !
But I keep getting off track here. What we did was to switch fields... Evie and Alli into the pasture around the ring, and the greys into the long pasture which runs the length of the farm. The grass is trying to make a showing and will be better as the weather/ temps hold to warm.We were still breaking ice from outside tubs just last week. The greys are usually more quiet and will not cut up the land so badly- like Alli does. So they are there, and Eve n' Alli are in the 'sacrifice pasture". Now, to explain things- we have a one eighth of a mile track that has a vinyl fence around it making it my ring. All else around it is fenced in to make a pasture area. That is where Evie n' Alli are. Its not real big, but is alright to chop up as its a small area. The greys had a wonderful morning, nibbling grass and Galloping from the bottom ALL the way to the top of this long hill pasture. Bucking and leaping about- oh it was a glorious sight to see ! Due to the ring being built to drain off properly, we end up with big deep, puddles. Evie is the one who loves pawing in the water tubs, so she was in filly heaven when she discovered these big "tubs" !! If Blanche is reading this , remember how she Loved those puddles when she was teeny ? I think you took a photo of her in them? She STILL loves pawing and playing in these puddles. She'll miss them once they dry up I am sure. This new puddle is around 12'' deep and Evie was having a most wonderful time playing. Of course that meant she was soaking wet from her tummy, down !Seems we have a water baby here, Big time.
I just looked up the hill to their new pasture, and it seems Evie has discovered that she can stick her head thru the fence n' the sight wire with out being shocked. Hmmm, I hope our new solar charger battery arrives soon- Or we will have a loose baddddddddddd filly.
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