Catchin' Up--barn, sales, etc.

They say time flies when you're having fun.

Well, it's not been particularly fun.....but the time flew by anyway.

Stall floors are just about done. It takes a long time to get everything coordinated to finish them.....the stone/gravel needs to be added and leveled, the mats cut. We had to re-finish one of them.....there had been a big hole, and when the weight of a 2000-pound horse got put on it, the stone continued to settle until there was a hole again. Guess we just rushed it. The last one also had a huge hole in it, and it took a lot of chipping out of high spots to get to a point where I could start adding stone and leveling it. This time I took my time....layering the stone a bit more. I think that's what went wrong before.....I had chipped the high spots out and put it into the hole, but the new gravel did not mesh well with it, and allowed it to settle further. This time, the old gravel was well-mixed with the new, so hopefully we won't see the same problem.

We sold Odonata Miss Firecracker at the Dover Sale. Typically, she did not bring much. The good thing is she went to some people who were VERY interested in her and apparently wanted her. So we let her go, since we had seen several that might make a match for our awesome Star. She was early enough in the sale that we could do it.

There were 5 originally. The one I liked the best needed 5 people to hook her to the cart. Not a good start. And there was something.......she was an awesome mover, she was a beautiful mare, and she was young. But there was something.....odd. I watched her a lot, trying to figure it out. She kept trying to fall into a canter; and I wasn't sure if it was because she was being driven right to the "breaking point" or something else. Then I saw the slight hitch in her stifle. A tad of hesitation as the stifle joint moved to bring the leg forward, and the sudden "release" of the joint to allow it. Not a smooth move, but a catch. My favorite one had stringhalt....a stifle problem. DARN!

My next choice was way too big for Star, and would have been great for Jill: if Jill wasn't such a cranky-butt who hates everybody.....everybody but Bill.

My third choice looked good, but my gut was not totally convinced. There was a picture of her hitched.....and if you looked closely, you could see that it had been Photo-shopped. The leg had been moved to look snappier than it actually was. Why they did that, I don't know, cuz she moved very very nicely anyway.

Numbers 4 and 5 were pretty close. Both had better toplines than the other three, but just did not have the "presence" the others had. Both moved just as well. A thorough going-over found one of them to have a cloudy left eye. Probably due to an injury, since it was not just a single cloud, but a large one in the lower third and a smaller one about halfway up further back. Once again, my gut suggested that this was not going to get better; in fact it was probably going to get worse as time went on.

Fortunately, there were several who were early in the sale, so it would be one of those, "well, if we don't get this one, there's the next". And there were others who might do just as well (one had a particularly weird shoeing job), although we weren't going to push it just to have one. And coming home without any would have worked, too.

But we bought one. The first 2 we were interested in went rather high (which was nice to see, although it did not affect our baby). Well, at least higher than we wanted to go for the quality. But then Queen came in. She was 6, and not bred this year which was to her detriment (later we found that she had been bred before..twice...but they did not breed her last year or this because of prices....and who could blame them?). We bought her for half the price we would have paid for her. I had a few concerns yet, but we took the chance.

Bringing her home, we found out something about her......she is a go-with-the-flow kind of horse. Friends of ours also bought a very very nice horse, and some people we know who live close by also bought 2 youngsters. So, we had a loaded trailer. Because it is a stock-type trailer, there is no center divider; we usually put horses head to tail in them, since there is plenty of room for them to move with the movement of the trailer. But, I was driving behind, in the car, and it soon became apparent that head-to-tail was not going to work.
The big Belgian had slammed her body cross-wise and was standing sideways, plastered up against the front of the gooseneck. The 2 babies in the back were also having issues, with one pushing the other literally up the wall. I just kept seeing the sale numbers on the one's butt getting higher and higher as it stepped up on the wheel well because it was getting pushed by the other. Poor Queen had her head resting on the Trixy's (the Belgian) butt.
We pulled the 2 babies off and tried to change places with them, but the "problem child" immediately turned sideways and would not go head first. So we ties both of them sideways instead. We tried to get Trixy to move, but she just went right back, so we re-tied Queen so she could ride sideways, too. Problem child still kept smashing the other baby up against the back door, but the movement of the trailer was enough to pull it off at times. When we got to a rest area to check up on them, Trixy was STILL smashed up against the front of the trailer, the 2 babies were smashed up against the back door, and Queen was just standing there in a 3/4 position, taking up the space Trixy left her. She had about 3 feet on either side of her, between Trixy and the middle gate, and she was just as happy as a clam.

Once home, she paired up not with Star (who squealed and pinned her ears at the newcomer and chased her around for awhile) but with our 3-yo Sheena. Of course, Jill just went right after her, although Jill was actually the second horse to "warm" up to her. Jill actually ALLOWED her into her space (which is 5 feet around her body) without trying to kill her, after a few days. Bill....he just doesn't care. Although Star hasn't really warmed up to her, she's no longer chasing her around or away. However, Queen has a habit of squealing when she gets a bit nervous...which suggests a past that needs to be reckoned with. And the squeal is noteworthy.....a panicked, "I'm gonna die" squeal.

Sunday was the first time we were able to get everyone together at the Fairgrounds to see how things were going to go. 14 people, 9 horses, 3 carts, 1 wagon and 1 forecart all came. The objective was massive. Bill went to "help" a problem child. He's the rock, the one who doesn't do anything wrong. The problem child belonged to the Sparks, a family we have known for awhile. Rosie (the problem child) does not like being driven, although she was fine in the team. She just does not like being by herself. Sparks also have Lainie, who was the problem child last year (and really WAS a problem) that Bill "helped" get through her issues. I drove Star for the first time, single. She is definitely a man's horse. My arms are still tired! She's easy to drive, but if you relax for a second, she dives right into the lines and goes faster. She doesn't run away, but whatever you give her, she steps right up to take! Roy would definitely not be able to drive her with his hands.....mine hurt enough and his are way worse. While Star and Queen were hooked as a team, I drove Sheena around. Sheena is still a bratty 2/3yo. She needs a lot of time driving to get her consistent and compliant. She just likes to do what she wants to do. And of course Bud (my old gelding that Chris and Jim have now) was there so we were going around in carts, and teams....just all over the place.

One of the things we wanted to do was put Sheena and Bud together, since Chris has expressed in interest in getting her. And they actually did fairly well together.
Probably better than Star and Queen. Team is not Star's cup of tea, and she "freezes" when she's brought up to the tongue. They didn't start out so good, so John (the teamster that drives for us) ground drove them for a bit before hooking them. Queen knows how to do things (like step over a tongue) so it was a bit easier to get Star in the right place. Neither horse did anything stupid, but they did not work together very well. Again, just miles, while they get used to each other. Once they got going, they moved very nicely together, and match rather well. When looking at them separate, Queen looks so much smaller, yet pics show they are just about the same size. I think it's because Star has so much "presence" and Queen does not. But the pics show the truth, they are within and inch of each other. They move pretty much the same, but they don't move together....almost as if there is a competition as to who can be in front.

It was exciting and fun. Next time I will need to drive Star and Queen.

Barn Reflooring

I haven't been blogging much, as my time has been filled with re-flooring the barn stalls. It is a time-consuming project, since you have to work around the poles and partitions that are already in place.

I never thought I would have to replace the barn floor, since it is on a rather thick base of blue clay......but this is the second time in ten years that it has become necessary. The first time we filled and tamped and it worked.......for awhile. But I have come to the conclusion that drafties are far harder on the ground than I thought. This time some of the holes have actually gone deeper than the clay, allowing ground water to seep up into the stalls. And, of course, the ever-present rodents keep creating holes under the walls which also allows water to sneak in.

I've had light horses for a long time.....and never had as much of a problem with them tearing up the stall floors. Even though many of them were paw-ers, they just didn't do as much damage. Oh, sure, they were able to make lumpies and holes in their stalls, but not like my big ones do.

I guess it has more to do with their weight. 2000-pounders manage to push and shove material around creating higher lumpies, even hills, and bigger holes. Some of the holes actually look like wildebeest wallows...convenient and comfy for them while laying down.....but massive problems when trying to get back up out of them.....kinda like a bean-bag chair. Once they get their "big shoes" on (scotch bottoms/show shoes) the poor dirt floors don't stand a chance; they get chewed up and re-distributed in ways they shouldn't be.

So, after 12 years and several $1000's of dollars last time, we are trying something new.....well, new for us. This time we are covering the gravel/fill with rubber mats. I've used mats before....in my trailers, under the horses at fair time so they don't start digging to China while bored. When my girlfriend boarded her horses with us, one of them was on mats because the stall floor was in sch bad shape. My girlfriend used mats in her barn at home, and loved them. I'm not so sure, myself, if they are the best choice. I seem to lean more toward the natural end of things, and am not really thrilled with horses lying on cold mats in the winter.

But.....something needed to be done. We are still in the process of fixing the floors, but we have more than half of them done.....and we're running out of mats and fill. The fill is a whole 'nother issue......since the partitions have been in place for some time...it is a one-wheelbarrow-at-a-time and then dump the stuff, rake it out and try to level it as much as possible. That's where the REAL labor is. A skid-steer would be wonderful.....but it would have to be small; like 3' wide. We don't have one, and renting one every week is not a good option. Which is another reason why this project is so labor intensive......between us working our "normal" jobs and keeping up with barn chores there just is not the ability to just "get-r-done" in one fell swoop (although that would be wonderful!!!!) Between working with the feed store to get the mats ordered and in, and dealing with the gravel haulers (who have bigger jobs to do) we are somewhat at the mercy of other interests. However, they have ALL been trying to help as much as possible.

The horses who are now on mats are handling it quite well, thank you. Except for Missy, who thought that the black floor was nothing more than a big hole waiting to swallow her....and nearly killed me the first time she even SAW a matted stall (which wasn't hers, by the way) let alone go into hers once it WAS matted. Fire definitely does NOT like the mats.....she likes pawing the ground and sniffing whatever odors manage to waft out of it.....not something she can do on the mats. She's not much of a paw-er, and being a baby, doesn't do much damage, if any. The others are like.....whatever. Some of them secretly like the noise the mats make when they walk on them, I think. However, we have discovered that it is harder to un-cast a cast horse, as they cannot get a grip with their feet on the rubber like they can with the dirt.

But some good has come out of it on our side, too. It IS easier to clean the stalls. Oh, you still take out as much stuff as before, but it's easier to get to and under....plus you're not taking out even more materials from the holes. And, surprisingly, there is more "clean" stuff left. Because the mats are a bit slick, the sawdust moves from the middle to the sides, so raking what's up against the sides back to the middle has given us much more "decent" sawdust left over!! Plus, the mats keep the decent sawdust from picking up moisture from the ground.

We still have several more horses to do.....some may not get theirs done til Spring, depending on weather around here (getting more fill is tough right now since things are so wet that large dump trucks have a habit of sinking in)....but we've got most of them done....so that only one should go through the winter with a lumpy stall.

I will be so glad when it's all done!!!!