God Bless the Old Horses

12.30.17

As we get closer to 2018,after reading a great post concerning old cows and how their owners watch over them so much during the winter, I got thinking that I have been doing the same thing with my old horses.

There are quite a few Teenagers here, but only two ancients left. Those are my two Percheron horses. At 25 & 27, they are considered OLD. Draft horses usually don't live as long as the little ones do. While a well cared for riding horse might get into it's 30s, a draft horse of that same age usually has more health issues than that horse and won't live as long. Again, this depends on how badly or how well a horse was treated during his long life. From being ridden into the proverbial ground, to lack of veterinarian care and more lack of good care, a horse won't live as long or be healthy as long as a horse who was carefully conditioned, having great internal care as well as mental care. That horse may well live into it's 30's.

At any rate, I look at these old horses of mine daily. It may seem as though I am just talking to them,or petting them, but I'm not just doing that. Checking to see for arthritic joints swelling, fluid in places there shouldn't be, creaks and groans from skeletal structures, their demeanor and more. They are checked walking across from pasture to stalls, listening to sound foot falls or lame ones. Heads' down in pain or a happy drafter coming in for dinner. All of these things are taken into consideration for my ancients.

They get extra fattening feeds, top quality hay that they Can chew easily, lots of fresh water, salt and a very carefully chosen diet just for them. Deworming right on schedule and proper hoof care too. The same with keeping a check on those teeth.
 When they get groomed, it is a gentle one due to old body parts being sore. I think these two enjoy a good vacuuming over a hard curry... it gets them cleaner and leaves them happier too.

The old horses have paid their dues in life. They have earned retirement just as many humans have. Used to be I'd think well they're paying for their keep.  Now ?  I owe Them. I owe them a warm comfy stall and lots of hay to keep their old digestive systems working properly. Each time these two are moving around outside, I check on them, making sure there's no limping or simply being "off''some how or another.

Wintertime is hard on old horses. They no longer can get out of the way from other horses wanting to steal their hay. My mare has gotten down 3-4 times and hasn't been able to get up on her own. So, she lays there, waiting for someone to come help her. And we do with no complaints... I understand how it feels to rely on others for help, and have them disappear. My mare will never be allowed to have those feelings of abandonment.

They patiently (haha- or not) wait to come inside in the evenings, no gallops now, but perhaps a trot towards the barn.Mostly a crisp walk...  I still get happy whispers of delight when I come into the barn and warm brown eyes looking directly at my face.

The most terrible part in keeping old horses is that their time on this earth is almost done. That to me, when they let me know, will just break my heart. When it's time, I'll be the one to call our vet for one last visit for them and my time to say a final goodbye.

My mare and I have been friends since she was 15 months old- we have been through hard times, heartbreaking times and a lot of wonderful times also. Yet I wonder- is it good to keep a horse til 'the end'? So many people sell their older horses ; they don't have to deal with a useless animal that needs special foods, or the heartache of saying goodbye- but is it good for the horse? I say no... if a person owns a horse ( or dog, or cat, even a hamster)- then try to be the best partner to them possible- til their last day.
But to keep an old horse until it is ready to leave this earth? 
I say wholeheartedly, YES.

Farm Stuff

12.28.17
In a few days, we will begin a New year. Not being one to make lists of resolutions, I do have one for 2018. I want to work w/ Briana enough for a debut at a "first" driving show for her. Stay tuned.

Alrighty then!! I am tired of living on a frozen tundra. TOOO damn cold for my toes now.  No more complaining - I'm done now. ;)

This morning water buckets in the barn finally got some ice on their tops so it was time to exchange them for the heated buckets. That took a good while but once it was done, I felt cozy knowing everyone would come into nice warm water to drink. This creates yet more extra work for us as we have to dump the heated bucket's leftover waters into another bucket, and carry THAT outside to dump.

Then a gal stopped by and by the time we were done talking, it was close to 11 AM. LONG past time for me to have stalls to clean out still. Didn't get into the house til around one or so, but things are set up more for this bitter cold crap called winter. Mixed up some beet pulp to soak for tonight's feed, mixed up dinner feed then tomorrow's feed, fed the kitties (Simone liked being outside for about 5 minutes, then dashed back inside!) cleaned their pooh up. By then, I couldn't feel my right foot, my feet were so cold.

The hens got their heated water dish plugged in and filled, and a big dish of feed. I brought Bess n' Gracie  ( my bantam sized Cochin hen & Silky hen) over so they could be w/ the bigger hens. I placed a little barrier for Grace to be behind until the big girls remembered who she was but she was so frantic, I ended up leaving an opening for her to get out with... Hope they don't beat her up- I think she & Bess are my favorite hens.     Below is Bess with her newly hatched family

                               This is "Grace Slick" AKA- Gracie.  One of my "hippie chicks" :)

I am tired out! It is so much harder when it's so cold out. Granted it's hard work but when it is warmer, it seems to be a little easier.

Winter brings more worry for me- How are my ancient horses doing? Are all of the horses getting outside enough? Who is cold? How to keep them all drinking plenty of water during this cold time? Sheeeesh- then the hens and' the barn kitties worry me but not quite so much. So- yep, running a farm is hard work, come wintertime.

                                The good thing? I can feel my toes again!

Brrrrrrrr

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas !

This morning, I had some great company in the barn! A long time pal brought his gelding down to our farm so he and his farrier could meet "half" way. His horse needed a reset or new shoes, and our farm was luckily about midway for them both.

Glenn helped in the early AM, and went back to the house.... I was left w/ the VERY poopy stalls to get cleaned . Already tired from the holiday stuff, I sure as heck didn't want to do double duty on stalls. Pretty much each one got stripped but for the ponies. New bedding added ( which of course was partially frozen- thank goodness for pitch forks!) buckets refilled, feed set up and hay in for the evening. We have yet to have ice in the barn except for the chickens' water. That only had a little covering on it. Tomorrow, I want to combine chickens into one stall and give them a heated water dish.

This was during the time that my pal's gelding was being cared for. Holy moly what a shock from last week's warmth ! Even though our barn stays toasty - well as much as it can in 17 degree temps- it still was freakin COLD out. Sheeesh / lol. I couldn't feel my right foot at all.

After cleaning the equivalent of 14 stalls and re-bedding them, needless to say, this ah hem- "older" body was poohed out ! Still is but at least I can feel those toes now :D

Happily, it was pretty much done by around 12:30 and the barn is back to normal again. I really think everyone inside it partied for two nights BIG time. Gawd, what a mess.....even with just a few horses compared to what I did before I moved up here. Lol- I now once again, realize that I am getting to old for all this.

Christmas Tales.

12.19/17

I'm sure you ALL have some stories you tell around this time of the year. Some funny, some maddening and some flat out sad...

I have some of all kinds, beginning from when I was a little girl, right up to last Christmas and dealing with a new kitten in the house who thought it was grand fun chasing those shiny balls that fell on the floor by "accident".

There was a good story from a long time ago, that I remember around this time of the year. It all had to do with my neighbors. As some of you know, we lived in the country- more like the woods- had patches on our patches and wore 'home made' clothes way before they were in style. Our closest neighbors were about 1/2 mile away thru the woods. There were 5 boys ( !!) in that family and we settled into being friends with age appropriate neighbors. We had a blast playing ourselves silly in the woods, exploring, climbing trees, playing '' war" or cowboys. Whew, when we all headed home for dinner at our individual houses, we were a bunch of worn out kids. Unlike the kids of today, our parents couldn't afford fancy items nor would they have even purchased them, had they been available. So, poor little kids that we all were, we grew up without cell phones, video games, computers, and the like. We were very lucky if one of us had a Brownie camera to use! Most times, we would paint or draw pictures which was using more imagination than any 5 kids of today.

Back to Christmas, though. It was a normal thing for us to search the month before Christmas to pick out the most wonderful trees to be cut down and set up in our living rooms for decoration. There would be paper chains made from construction paper, painted pine cones- with glitter shaken on them so they'd sparkle, cranberry garland and the old Christmas balls that our parents let us use too. I can remember the first time anyone had electric lights on their tree! Oh what a wonderful thing- electric bulbs on wire.

So, the search was on- Which tree would be chosen for Christmas? I always liked the ones that were to tall but ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, beautiful.( As long as it was turned with it's "bald" side towards the wall or corner..) Carefully, we kids would walk around a few before choosing- making sure the particular tree was usable. No empty areas- check. No bald branches- check...  not to tall- Check.  It took us most of the month- after rifle season for deer was over.

Once all of us had found two perfect trees, the dad's were the ones to decide if they were good enough. Then they'd cut down "their" tree, and we all would help drag it to the correct houses.  That's pretty much where it all would end. We would wait til Christmas Eve to put our tree up,and then to decorate it. Our neighbors would put theirs up a couple of days in advance because life got so terribly hectic for their big family.

We had a big family too, but the extended family wasn't as huge, luckily. Ours was beautiful every year, I remember- of course, when one is just 6-7, anything with green pine needles was beautiful. We kids had to be in bed by 9 PM on Christmas Eve, so we left plenty of time for Santa to come and leave those presents!  It was so hard to get to sleep but finally we all did. One time I swore I heard Santa putting gifts under the tree- but my older brother (who was good at ruining things) told me it was probably a burglar stealing the presents.

Christmas morning, we had to stay in bed until our parents got up- sheer torture! Then, breakfast and finally it was Time !!!! My parents taught us how to be patient and enjoy everyone else's gifts by being able to open one gift at a time. One person had a gift handed to them and we all watched it get opened- 'oooing and ahhhhhhhhing' at it politely. Once the gift exchanging was all done, my little brothers would either play with their new toys, or go outside to play. I'd try to help my mom and older sister making Christmas Day dinner but got bored.

One afternoon a couple of days after Christmas, we tramped up the lane to visit our neighbors ( remember- the ones with 5 boys?). oddly enough, they couldn't go out and play that day. I didn't ask why and we tramped back to our house. The next day they came to visit... We couldn't stand it and had to ask why they'd gotten in trouble so much that they had to be inside all day long.

The story was that in putting their lovely Christmas tree up a few days earlier didn't really cause the problem. The problem came when the tree was in the living room where it was always quite warm. (there had been a gorgeous stone fireplace) After a few days of their tree being inside and warm, their mother was sitting on the sofa, knitting. All of a sudden, she jumped up, screaming "BUGS!!!!!".  The knitting flew one direction and she, the other. All of the boys came running down stairs wondering what the noise was all about. She began cussing in Finnish (we all knew when it was cussing and when it wasn't even if we didn't exactly understand the words)... Stomping about like a crazy woman, and cussing loudly. Everyone was staring at her as though she'd finally lost her mind when she stopped, hands on hips and said
" WHICH one of You Boys didn't check that tree !?!?!?!"
 They said to us, snickering- ' we didn't have a clue what she was talking about'.
 It turned out that there had been preying mantis eggs on their wonderful Christmas tree. The heat from the fireplace made the babies think it was springtime and time to hatch... which they did. ALL over the house.

And that's why our neighbors had to stay inside all day long. They were busy finding baby preying mantis'.

"Christmas Eve, bells will ring, as we gather in town to sing....''

Why so much rudeness ?

12/12/17
The past few years, I have been battered by really mean people. If I express an opinion (my own), I get ganged up on and destroyed by those who cannot take a disagreeing opinion of another. So they 'attack' like a group of pit bulls.
Haha- some days I'm like the Red Queen in the fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland" and run around screaming "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!!" ;D  I don't in real time- just in my mind...

 Then there are those who get offended at the drop of a hat.  Everyyyyyything offends them! Unless one plays what I call the Kissy Face Game-(always say something totally sweet and dripping in what ever another person seems to want) one gets rudeness aimed at them.  I don't play well that way- it's to much work for me.

Sadly enough, I have simply backed out of a lot of this so called 'social media' as others don't seem to care or to take the time to understand what the other is trying to express.  Heaven forbid if one disagrees with something that another wrote/ typed!

So many also think that a simple statement is about Them. I mean, who died and made them that important that every single thing said is aimed at themselves. The way I see it is that if one wants to know if a remark is for them, then just ask. It's that simple. It is called communication. Frustratingly enough, there are many of another generation other than mine who don't seem to be able to communicate unless it is the typed word.

Ah well. I see people in restaurants- couples, families,etc- not talking. Oh no- they have their faces looking at a telephone of all things!  What ever happened to ( again) communication?  One evening, a young couple across from us spoke not one word to each other pretty much the whole time there. Nope- scrolling here n' there, looking at someone else's photos or what ever. Sad- just sad.  My horses can carry on better conversations than some humans I meet ; it's like that art is being lost.

 It's scary to me to watch this happening. People truly are becoming 'sheeple' and unless some of them learn about what is going on in the world- with out posting it on a social media page, where surely they will be blasted by others-  this country will be taken over by those who aren't playing games. 

Mind you, not ALL of those with cell phones and those on social media are like that. There are many many who are well adjusted,take it all in stride, and will have a wonderful life.


On to other things!  The weather has finally gotten chilly enough for December to feel like December.  I don't mind it being cold- I Do mind it being near zero w/ the wind chill. That's when pipes freeze, hoses don't thaw out for days and fingers/ toes get frostbitten. My toes on my right foot ( hahahaa- almost types 'hoof') got frostbite back when I was 19 and lived in Michigan.  Being a kid from Maryland, I had no idea about how cold Michigan winters would be... and sure enough, to this day, if those toes get to cold, they make my life miserable. It is amazing how many ways one can come up with to get barn chores done and keep sore toes warm!

This farm is down to just 7 horses now. It's a workable number to care for. Like a friend said the other day- she has noticed that the shovels at her farm are broken or defective somehow. They just don't hold the amount of dirt (or manure) like they did a few years ago. < winks>  There's a pasture for all to be turned out days and come in each evening. My ancients enjoy that as before, they were the ones who had to be out during the nights in winter. There was no way two very old Percherons would be out at night this winter... What with arthritis in all of their joints and being outside in the cold of central PA- well to me, that would be a negative to keeping them healthy n' happy.

No snow here yet, to account for. We had a little bitty snow but it was gone the next day. Nothing Big happens here til after the holidays, it seems. This year, I'll be happy if we just get small snows... those around 3-6" or so. Something easy to walk thru and deal with.

Hope this finds everyone healthy n' happy and looking forward to the upcoming holidays/

              Here's a Cat in a Box for your enjoyment!