Barn Happenings

A lot has been happening with the barn. We had a hay delivery and Carrie hung up a mesh wind break which hopefully won't be ripped straight off the barn like all the other tarps.

It looks good.

I thought it was early to order more hay, but we'll eventually need it at the rate Eowyn goes through things. She got fed up with her slow feed bags and modified them to her liking.

I thought the first hole was big until I found a much larger one on the second bag.

Carrie paid extra for nylon bags. "You can burn through cheap bags or pay for high quality ones that last longer," she said.

These didn't last.

SmartPak accepted them as returns and sent us a different bag to try out. I stuffed a whole bale into one to try and tide Eowyn over for a full day.

She wanted more, but at least she didn't eat the bag.

We've been going through more hay lately, because we've been caught in a drought. Somehow Charlottesville and areas around us get rain while we're passed over. The day of graduation I drove to school to pick up a hood and had to sit in the car for a while as it poured. Our farm? Nothing. 

The drought went on long enough we started to get pasture burn (patches of grass that dried out and turned brown). Carrie had me rope off pastures and throw bales, so that the horses wouldn't kill off what we had.

And it's been hot. I had to spread poop one day and Carrie said the only patch of grass thick enough that could survive was by the house. The poop had been sitting under the sun in the spreader and it smoked. I wondered if I could start a brush fire spreading manure.

When the skies did open up, they opened up all the way. Which meant I got to do horse chores in a deluge.

It was what the pastures needed, but I prefer to do chores without getting soaked.

I like the sound of rain on a roof. However, the barn magnifies the noise so that a light downpour sounds like a storm and a storm sounds like an unholy racket!

Still, our prayers were answered and we got several good rains. The pastures started to show some life again and we were able to let the horses back out to graze.

I don't know how the weather affects the bugs, but this year seems bad. The ponies get the worst of it. Maddy and Lilly are both very sensitive to fly bites.

Maddy already has skin issues with her feet. Her hair grows so think that Carrie had to shave her fetlocks again to treat her.

Maddy's over-enthusiastic with her itching and makes things worse. She'll rub her feet raw against the concrete around the waterer in a way that we hope won't break it.

Carrie treats everything and then Maddy runs off and tries to rub off the treatment which Carrie then repeats.

It seems a vicious cycle, but Maddy is all about getting treats after being treated. Maybe it's all a devious ploy? Would Maddy want to hurt herself just to get more apple treats? 

I wouldn't put it past her.

All in all things are going well. There's a new challenge for every season, but we're working through each. Carrie had been riding consistently for a few weeks (and even got me to start), but that's been on hold for the last couple of weeks. Hopefully, it will start again.

I have some other horse news to bring up in a separate, specific post, but I'm waiting for a few more developments before it's post worthy.