I happen to have "real photos" of all three of the girls from this month. There's nothing super exciting to report, but I can use this space to do a mini update with an over abundance of pictures.
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| Eryca and Lilly |
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| Boo and Neighbor Friend™ |
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| Lucy and me. |
The Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge has been on our to-visit list for quite some time now. It's almost two hours away, however, and keeps getting put on the back burner. On Sunday, we finally managed to drive down for a visit. Originally, I had picked out a four mile hike we could do while we were down there, but the main draw of the refuge seemed to be the Wildlife Drive.
We had a few days of glorious, spring like weather last week. Neighbor Friend™ had the day off. She and I took Julio on a little adventure around the corner that involved a quick walk in the woods, visiting a waterfall, and splashing around in the brook. When we got back, Mike had Herbie out on the lawn, enjoying the sunshine and hoarding toys while he took pictures.
Herbie's mobility has definitely declined over the winter. The wheel chair has basically been a flop (though I might try again to get her acclimated to it if the ground ever dries). I did get her a rear support harness so I can get her around myself as needed, but for the most part Mike just carries her wherever she wants to go. Despite all that, she remains happy and bright (which is honestly the hardest part). Laying in front of her space heater and soaking up the sunshine are her favorite activities, and she doesn't need to be mobile for that. She is still obsessed with the ball, although fetch these days consists of throwing the ball underhand for her to catch and then roll back to you. She still wants to hump feet and play tug. She still devours her breakfast and dinner, though she has definitely gotten pickier about what snacks she wants. I hope she'll hold out til summer so she can enjoy one more season of baking on the back deck like a pancake before going over the rainbow bridge. In the meantime, every photo of Herbie makes me misty-eyed because I know that some day soon I'll be seeing them pop up on my memories the same way Ozzy's last photos from three years ago have been appearing this week.
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| My best girl. |
Eryca and I rode together on Saturday. I got to the barn a little early so I could snap some photos of Norman on his three week birthday. Apparently, it was nap time when I arrived. All the critters were soaking up the sunshine. The ground is finally getting dry enough for them to lie down without being on rubber mats.
On Valentine's Day, Eryca and I got together for a trail ride. When I looked at my calendar that morning, I realized that I had ridden Lucy six days in a row. That never happens and she definitely deserved a day off. Instead, I decided to bring Booger along. Lilly had also had a busy week so going for a shorter hack at a slower pace would be good for everyone. Booger had been really good on her first two trail rides of the year, and she'd been awesome in the ring. I was looking forward to getting some miles on her.
Booger was being sweet and cuddly as we groomed and tacked up. She has definitely matured and come out of her shell somewhere along the journey. She still isn't a horse who wants a lot of fussing and touching, and she still picks seemingly random people to like or dislike, but over all she seems like your average horse most days.
Ok, so I have become somewhat obsessed with Lucy's pedigree (mostly because I know very little about Missouri Fox Trotters and am learning about the breed while also digging into my specific horse). After my last pedigree post, I started to do some hard core research. I have lost hours of my life on this project already and I haven't even gotten all the way through Zane Grey yet. The good news is that this should technically go faster as I go because of all the inbreeding (and there is inbreeding on top of inbreeding in here).
I started off by going up Lucy's sire line. I already talked about her sire, Boss' Midnight Cash. His sire is Zane's Boss Man.
Still struggling to catch up on my back log of riding media. On February 13th, Eryca and I managed to get a change of scenery on our trail ride. We were able to cross the creek for the first time since the big snow storm and ended up doing a five and a half mile loop in a different direction than we normally go.
Norman is officially two weeks old. He is frisky and adorable and growing like a weed. He was also banded at a few days old so he'll be a steer, not a bull. This is good news if he's going to stick around for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, because he was born so early, at the end of a tough winter, he can't be turned out full time just yet. Temperatures need to stay above freezing over night or he needs to be three weeks old, whichever happens first. The other concern, according to the vet, is getting stuck in mud. Apparently that's a leading cause of death in calves.
Since Steak was pretty feral when she had Norman, turning them out and bringing them in wasn't really an option at first.
However, I physically cannot seem to leave animals alone, so I took advantage of Steak being in the stall and started to tame her a bit. I started by taking Norman where I needed him to go, and just having Steak follow me back and forth across the barn aisle. Then I started making her eat a few bites out of the bucket while I held it before dumping her feed. Sometimes while she was eating, I was able to pet and rub her a bit. I was also getting a crash course in cow body language, which is somewhat different from horses.
Somewhere along the way, Steak discovered the joy of cookies, and from that point on, things snow balled until suddenly I had a rope halter on her and she was licking my hands and nosing my pockets.
And that's the story of how I halter broke a feral cow because business is slow right now.
With this new skill set in my toolbox, I decided that I'd try turning Norman out the next time I had Booger inside. Booger currently lives by herself in a dry lot. It's a relatively small area with a hay rack, shed, and water trough. Best of all, it is lined entirely with rubber mats, which means no mud for baby to get stuck in. I figured, worst case scenario, if I couldn't get Steak and Norman back in their stall, they'd be safe in Booger's pen. I'd just figure out a different place to stick Boo.
So this weekend, while Eryca was at the barn with me, I put the rope halter on Steak, then took Norman out to Booger's pen and secured him to use as bait for his mom. Then, with a lead rope in one hand, a bucket in the other, and Eryca to open and close gates, I escorted Steak to the paddock like a civilized animal.
Then I took six million photos of Norman's first day outside.
It wasn't long before the little guy was tuckered out. At that point, I led Steak back to the barn with Norman running loose behind her and Eryca sweeping the rear. It went off without a hitch.
Meanwhile, Fran has had a few people come look at the cows. I am trying to convince her to get rid of all three of them because they complicate things. I learned that once a heifer has a calf, the quality of the meat changes so it's not likely anyone will want Steak for, well, steak. Fran says she wants to keep Cheese for another year, but I'm hoping she'll change her mind. A nice family came to look at all three of the cows for a 4H home, which would be awesome, but it doesn't sound like Fran has given them a price. In the mean time, we have a betting pool going and I suspect the cows are going to be here to stay, regardless of my feelings on the subject.
It's not my farm so the final decision won't be up to me. I'm trying to just be zen about whatever ends up happening. For the time being, though I'm just enjoying watching Norman be adorable. I just wish he'd been born a little later so he could go out full time and I'd have a nicer background for photos.
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| "Hello, what are you?" |
So after I posted about Lucy's pedigree yesterday, I got really curious about what percentage of her lineage is made of up which of the various breeds that formed the MFT. I am compiling a megapost about her ancestors, complete with photos and articles. I am fairly certain that all gaited horses in the US can be traced back to the same handful of Tennessee Walking Horses, which in turn means they all go back to certain Morgan and Standardbred lines. Still, it was really cool to trace Lucy straight back to Hambletonian 10 and Figure aka Justin Morgan, and that's just on her sire line!
In the meantime, I'm going to break up the history lessons around here by continuing to catch up on my back log of riding media from February.
On the 11th, Eryca and I met up for a trail ride. The snow was an average of knee high on the horses and powdery fresh. It was a gray and chilly day, but that has not historically slowed us down. That day, I decided I was too lazy to bother with a saddle, and that I wanted to take Lucy on trail bareback. It is, after all, the best way to stay warm during winter!
"Do you want to try Lilly bareback too?" I asked Eryca.
She looked pensive. "Can I try it in the ring first?"
Eryca later revealed that it has been about a decade since she last seriously rode bareback. I had no concerns, however. Eryca has proved to be a sticky and balanced rider over all, and I wasn't planning to do anything crazy. We were still pretty much stuck riding around the neighbor's farm. Both girls had worked hard that week already. I was perfectly happy if we just tootled around at a walk for half an hour or so.
We wound up doing over three miles that day! After letting the horses warm up a bit, we snuck into a trot. Lucy can canter at crawling speed, and it's much more comfortable than trotting, so it wasn't long before I let her roll into a lope. Next thing I knew, Eryca was cantering alongside me!
We had an absolute blast, and I think this was my favorite ride so far this year. We moseyed and took in the scenery. We cantered here and there, and opened the girls up a bit on the pipeline. We laughed and stuffed the mares full of cookies. We posed for pictures and giggled as Lucy repeatedly knocked snow off of trees all over herself and me. It was a great work out and a good way to work on our seats. I knew we'd be sore for yoga that night!
I ride bareback on a fairly regular basis, not just with Lucy and Booger but in general as part of my routine. Still, it has been a very long time since I took a real trail ride without a saddle. It's so nice to have a horse I can just play around with. It makes me feel like a teenager again.
And, of course, I took a billion photos.
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| Too cool for saddles. |
(This was going to be a dry, wholesome post for my own records, but it ended up being quite a journey of laughter and tears.)
This week, I joined the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association, mostly because I wanted to l earn about Lucy's bloodlines. I had already guessed that her sire might be Boss' Midnight Cash, based on her name and the fact that he looks just like her, but black.
I'm also really interested in doing the Fox Trot America program, which tracks trail mileage not in competition. Unfortunately, I need to be Lucy's registered owner in order to pay her sign up fee. Fran said that she'll sign the papers over to me as soon as she finds them, but the whole reason I needed to join MFTHBA to get Lucy's pedigree is because she lost the papers about six months ago. I'm trying not to be pushy so it's a conversation I'll have later this spring.
Anyway....
Back to the point. I finally got Lucy's* pedigree and I was right about her sire. And here's where I get a little hyper focused and go way down the rabbit hole of fox trotter breeding.
*The registration says Lucy is bay with a blaze and four white socks. She only has white on her hind legs. The mare I ride is definitely the same mare listed in the Cash's Lucky Lucy sale video posted by her breeders, all of which matches the paper trail. I imagine Lucy was registered before she lost her baby coat, but I did have this moment of wondering if Lucy is really Lucy.
Now, the MFT is a relatively new breed. The registry was only formed in 1948, and they didn't close the book until 1983. I expected some degree of line breeding, especially since gaited horses tend to have even more of that in their lineage than other breeds. What I was not expecting was straight up in-breeding.
I went ahead and color coded this:
