COVID 19 - The Coronavirus: Poor Sam

Sam's diet has helped thin him down, but it's been rough on muzzles. They've been broken or slipped off and left in the field (He doesn't exactly bring them back when requested).

The muzzle has also cost Sam his position as alpha out in the fields. Magic's been emboldened. He can get lippy with Sam and Sam can't bite back!

Worse than that, the muzzle gives Magic something he can grip. He bites the muzzle (while Sam bites air inside the muzzle) and then shakes it around. This pulls muzzles into all sorts of interesting positions until they come off and/or break.

Carrie caught Magic in the act here. If there was audio, you'd hear, "Knock it off!" 

Magic would've sounded like a stooge running off, "Woo-woo-woo!"

Or maybe he reads like Dory, "Es-cop-pay!"

And it happens all too frequently. Sam was standing in the field with his muzzle in his mouth when I took this picture.

He couldn't get it off. He just kept eating with it. 

I can imagine him wondering why the grass tasted funny, shrugging, and keeping right on at it.

Sams's still the alpha when it comes to getting food. He will push past anyone if he thinks it will get him a spec of grain a second sooner! 

Sam and Magic are still buds, though. They pick, but they can't stay away from each other.

UPDATE: The muzzle's status can change in a heartbeat! I put Sam out with his muzzle one morning.

He had it on when I went to do some work and checked. I took maybe 10 minutes and found this.

The problem was created and fixed in under a minute each time!

Muzzles aren't free, either. I think Carrie said she spent $40 on a muzzle that the boys broke in two days. She gets to figure out ways to fix them, because that's a rate we can't afford to sustain!

Getting Horsey With It

Maddy didn't understand why she was stalled and no one else was.

The two-headed monster looked on curiously. They weren't sure if they wanted to be inside or not.

Heidi's friend Barbara has come out a couple of times to ride Maddy. She's decided to lease her. In layman's speak, Barbara can drop by the barn to ride Maddy whenever she wants.

We expect it will mainly be to hang out with Heidi. Maddy could use the love and the exercise!

Annie and Kitty watched from the dry lot still attached at the hips.

Carrie recommended Barbara bring some carrots as a treat for Maddy to help warm the pony up to her. They worked like a charm! Maddy kept walking up next to her whenever she stepped away hoping for a scratch or a nibble.

Carrie didn't ride with Sam them this time. Instead, she put Annie to work after they left. 

Annie is new to working. Carrie had a trainer come out to start the process last week. She said it was very interesting to watch. Annie's nervous and skittish about everything, but showed a willingness to listen and attempt whatever was asked. 

Carrie started doing groundwork with herself afterward and she's already good progress. Annie doesn't bolt through the gate anymore and is learning that the jumps won't try to eat her. She prefers to circle counter-clockwise with Carrie on her left, but Carrie makes her work both directions. 

I don't know everything, but it looks like a lot of desensitization, manners, and teaching signals. Shaking the rope left and right means to stop. Up and down after stopping made her back up....or at least I think those were some of the cues. Carrie's the real horse brain here.

Kitty's trainer, Madelyn, hasn't been out to work her much. She's in her final year at UVA and is probably fairly busy. She brought Kitty up after she was unhappy with the care Kitty received while she was away at school.

She's been happy with Kitty's transformation under Carrie's care. Here's the original rainrot picture:

And here's the most current:

Kitty's put on a healthy amount of weight while she's been here, too. Carrie's not fully satisfied with how she's filled out yet, but it should continue. It would help if Madelyn made it out more to work her, but she seems overbooked with school, life, and two horses at two different barns.

My personal goal is to avoid getting bit by Kitty until she either welcomes being blanketed or moves on from our farm!

Sam's Bday

Yesterday, NOVA. Today, Sam's bday party at Jump!

Our first stop, though, was to get a present. 

I had a plan, but there wasn't time to enact it during the week! Thankfully, the End Games was right on the way.

We made it a little early and Shane opted to listen a little more to our audiobook before going in. Then, it was game time!

I took a picture of Shane about to go off a diving board into the foam pit (that was new!).

He played and I made the ill-informed decision to go by Lowe's. They didn't have the style of anything Carrie wanted, so all I did was kill some time and avoid bringing Shane to Lowe's after Jump.

The kids were all playing dodgeball when I got back.

Shane's got some practice in after school.

He doesn't have the throwing arm, but he likes to dodge and Jump adds the trampolines in for extra fun!

Sam and Iggy were on the other team.

Shane really enjoyed seeing all the old Jackson Via kids at the party. That's Zakir from afterschool in the California shirt. I don't know why the kids started to talk about the atomic bomb, but Shane tried to turn it into a conversation about atomic farts (his humor is rather one note).

The kids all jabbered happily until cake time.

Happy birthday, Sam!

It would have been great if the candles thawed the Ben and Jerry's ice cream cake quicker. Sam's dad, Paul, followed the directions and the directions were wrong! He had to saw at the not-so-defrosted cake.

Shane tried the ice cream cake and the gluten free chocolate cake (I followed suit later!).

The blonde kid on Shane's right is Levi. He was in Shane's class at Jackson Via and "the best behaved kid in the school" according to Shane! (I still remember Shane saying that!).

I tried to talk to the adults some while the kids joked away. I need to decide what to do about spring sports for Shane. I want to sign him up for something in Scottsville for a short drive, but if there isn't something here I may try to get him on a soccer team with Jackson Via kids instead.

The kids were ready for presents after cake. I had to tell Shane not to reach in to discover or show Sam anything!

Somehow a new game evolved.

The floor is lava! Truly, a classic. Shane was calling out and all of the kids got into it.

I think it was Annika who was the first rules lawyer. "My feet aren't touching the floor. My shoes are so I'm safe!" she said.

"The floor and shoes are now lava!" was Shane's rebuttal!

I got a great picture of Sam reacting to opening our gift!

"Now we both have Pokemon!" Shane said.

Humorous side-note: I know one of the other parents likes board games. They got Sam Forbidden Sky! Shane and I played it at the beach.

The kids didn't get to go on the ninja warrior course, but they spent the end of the party hanging out in the arcade (TMNT may have got turned off a couple of times on accident).

It was a great weekend. Lots of fun and socializing! I want to keep up these relationships as much as I can.

Rainy Horse Friends

We got our first real rain in two months.....and it didn't know when to quit! We discovered that the barn really needs gutters, because a lake formed right outside the house-side, stall doors.

There were some leaks in the barn from nail pops and mistakes made during construction. Carrie called the electrician, Jason, for a quote on what it would take to fix (He's the one professional contractor we've met throughout everything).

Jason came by while Shane and I were at church. I talked to him when we got back and he'd already told Carrie he knew someone who did gutters.

Carrie and I divided and conquered the afternoon. She ran into town to get some supplies and take care of errands. I stayed at the house with Shane, so that Sam could come over and play!

Sam's dad dropped him off and went into town to work at the coffee shop while I kept an eye on the boys from 2:30-5 PM (basically, when the coffee shop closed!).

We stayed electronic free for the first two hours. I had the boys walk down with me to the barn to take care of chores.

The thirsty ground sucked up some of the water, but the lake was still there.

Shane's been a willing (if loud and hyper) participant in barn chores so far. He's more likely to be scolded to go back to the house than to get off his butt and help!

Sam hadn't been around horses before.

I gave some pointers. Horses are great and ours are very friendly. It's important to remember that they're large animals, though. No one wants a finger nipped when taking a bite of hay or a foot stepped on.

Carrie and I had brought the horses in early morning, because they were all soaked, shivering, and cold. We blanketed them and got them comfortable in their stalls to wait out the rain. She had me checking on them off and on while she was out. I decided to break out the slow feeder bags, because the pigs either porked down their hay too quickly (Nibs and Sam) or spilled it all over their stall (Maddy).

I put Sam to work with a small task. He dumped a water bucket.

Shane filled it back up and I hung it in the stall. It was a team effort.

The boys were fairly helpful and it was a novel experience, at least!

They said, "Goodbye" to Nibs and then I brought them inside. They played hide and go seek at one point. Shane told Sam to count and then locked him out of his room. I picked the lock to the guest room and Sam decided to hide rather than sneak up and scare Shane (I would have done the latter!)

A little while later, Sam came out and said that Shane was waiting for me to go find him. "He's going to be waiting a while!" I said. "I'm working. Would you like to play some Super Nintendo while we wait for him to come out?"

Shane did come out a little later and was very surprised! The boys played for the last half an hour before Sam's dad picked him up.

Carrie came home not too long after. She'd picked up a small pump. It was my job to wade out into the lake and set it up.

A couple of hours later, our lake was demoted to a pond but just barely. There was enough of a land bridge for the horses to walk back out into the fields without wading.

We survived the first big rain when it was all said and done. The ground should absorb more water over time and we'll be back to normal. Shane had a lot of fun with Sam and the grass will hopefully start to grow now that it's had a drink!