A lot of things got in the way of Lyric's training schedule these past two weeks. Some things you just can't control and you have to learn to be flexible.We did try something new this evening though.
Lyric has been saddled and bridled at the tree four or five times now and pretty much takes everything in stride. Every time I've saddled her, I have reinforced that I expect her to stand still while I'm working ...unless I ask her to move, she shouldn't move. Those of you who've had to try and dress a squirming toddler will appreciate the concept. A toddler who won't be still and cooperate with getting dressed is frustrating. But a 1000-pound horse that won't stand still and cooperate with being saddled can go from frustrating to dangerous in a heartbeat. So it's a lesson we're rehearsing every time she's saddled.
Sometimes doing the same old thing but in a new place will make horses a little antsy. A change of scenery, a change in the routine, even a change in the weather can affect their mood. Changing things up on purpose early in the training process can help a young horse learn to take change in stride. So today, I decided to change things up a little for Lyric. While the horses were still eating, I put the saddle and blanket she'd been wearing up in the front paddock at the round pen. When they were finished, I got Lacy and Lyric and brought them to the tree, just like we've done for the past three weeks. But this time, I saddled and bridled Lacy and then led her around the house to the round pen. I left her up there and went back to walk Lyric up.
Once inside the round pen, I draped Lyric's lead rope over the rail next to Lacy and started brushing Lyric down for the saddle. This was routine and she didn't fidget much until two teenagers on a four wheeler came down the road and turned around in the driveway. Lyric had to look at what all the racket was, but the only thing she moved was her head so that's okay. I got her saddled up in no time and walked her a few steps before tightening the cinch all the way. As a precaution, I pulled it a notch tighter than usual tonight because I intended to turn her loose in the round pen. If a cinch is too loose and a horse gets too rambunctious, the saddle can roll under the horse's belly. That makes for a really scary experience for a young and can be really hard on a good saddle so I wanted to make sure it was snug. But she didn't act up at all which is great.
I unsnapped her lead rope and left it on the rail. She was loose but didn't seem to realize it at first. After a minute or two, she dropped her head to sniff the ground, but still just stood there. I petted on her for a few more minutes and then turned to walk out of the round pen. She followed me as if still tethered by a lead rope. When I went out the gate and closed it before she could follow me, she looked a little surprised but not upset. I walked down the rail on the outside to get Lacy and Lyric just followed along. While I was adjusting Lacy's saddle and attaching her reins, Lyric decided we were boring and wandered off to the center of the pen to nibble grass. So I got on Lacy and started riding around the outside of the round pen hoping to get Lyric interested in following us again. She ignored us. So I moved Lacy inside the round pen and we rode all around Lyric. I ignored Lyric unless she was in the way of whatever maneuver we were working on and, when that happened, I just rode Lacy through her as if she wasn't there. If I had been riding any horse but Lyric's own mama, she might have taken offense at being pushed ...she tends to have a rather high opinion of herself. But I was pretty sure she would be submissive to her own mama and, even if she got uppity, I knew I could move her mama quick and easy enough to avoid a wreck.
I was only in the saddle on Lacy for 30 minutes and Lyric probably only wore her saddle for 45 minutes. Neither of them worked up a sweat but it was still a very good session all the way around. It was good for Lyric to wear the saddle while she was free to move around and good for Lacy to answer up to my cues regardless of whether Lyric was in our way. When I was done, I got off of Lacy, unsaddled her and left her on the outside of the round pen. Then I went back, snapped the lead rope on Lyric and walked her over to where Lacy was standing so I could unsaddle her too. Until tonight, I've been slow and deliberate when unsaddling Lyric, always mindful not to let stirrups or straps flop against her and startle her. But tonight, I decided to quit coddling her so much. I unfastened the cinch and let it fall behind her front legs while I folded the strap up in a 'necktie' through the ring on the saddle. Then I moved to her right side and secured the dangling cinch to the tab on that side of the saddle and pulled the saddle and blanket off from the right side. I carried them around behind Lyric and tucked them through the rail on the pen. She stood quietly through the whole process like like she'd done this all her life.
I didn't really have a set timetable in mind when I started this training process and lots of things have kept me from working with Lyric three times a week as I'd planned. But even the unplanned slack time is good because it hasn't seemed to affect Lyric's progress. She learns quickly and retains what she's learned even if there are long gaps between sessions. That reassures me that she's going to be one of those horses that can be out in the pasture for months at a time and still remember all her manners and maneuvers when you saddle her up. It's a good thing because tomorrow I am leaving town for four days due to work. Yeoldfurt is going to have his hands full just keeping up with all the chores that I normally handle when I'm here. I doubt he'll have time to mess with Lyric until I get back. But I know on Saturday when we have our next lesson in the round pen, Lyric will pick up right where we left off.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Lyric's Progress Report
Lyric's official training began a week ago last Sunday with some basic sacking out (desensitization) exercises and some hang time on the 'thinking tree...which is a big live oak tree out back. We call it the 'thinking tree' because we use it to tie horses when we're saddling or unsaddling or when they need a lesson in patience. They're not tied directly to the tree. We have lengths of chain draped over two stout branches on opposite sides of the tree. At the end of each loop of chain is a tie ring. When we 'tie' a horse to the tree, they are really not tied at all. The end of the lead rope is pushed through the tie ring and a tongue in the loop provides resistance if the horse pulls back or moves away from the tree. How much resistance depends on how the rope is fed through the ring, but this is an excellent training tool for a horse to learn to stay where you put them.
Each evening's lesson began with Lyric on one side of the tree and her mama, Lacy, on the other. Lacy is there just so Lyric won't be anxious about being separated from her herd and can concentrate on whatever we're trying to teach her. The first day, we just worked on patience. A little grooming, a little petting, but a whole lot of standing and waiting for something new to happen. The object was just to establish a routine. I also took the opportunity to adjust the bridle Lyric would be wearing so that it fit her properly. The technical term is really headstall, not bridle. Bridle would be the whole assemby, headstall and bit. But I wanted to make sure the headstall fit before I attached a bit so that it would be as comfortable as possible the first time Lyric wore it.
The bit we are starting out with is a full cheek snaffle with a copper mouthpiece. A snaffle is a broken bit which means the metal part that goes in the horse's mouth is hinged in the middle which allows the two sides to move independently, which gives a rider the ability to send more clear direction to the horse. The 'full cheek' refers to metal bars that extend above and below the bit on the outside of the horse's mouth ...preventing the bit from being pulled through the mouth and aiding in directing the horse's face.
Once the headstall was adjusted to fit, the bit was attached and Yeoldfurt put it on her. She was unsure at first. But with patience and persistence, she figured it out. As soon as the bit was in her mouth, she instinctively mouthed it and played with it, trying to figure out what it was and why it was there. She was probably also trying to spit it out. We just let her wear it and play with it for a few minutes until she relaxed. Then he gave her a honey bun so she would figure out that she could still eat with a bit in her mouth. He expected her to bite off a chunk, but she sucked the honey bun in whole. I had to laugh because you could almost see her eyebrows furrowing up as she concentrated on not dropping any while she worked around the bit. When she'd finished the honey bun and was again settled down and standing patiently, Yeoldfurt removed the bridle and told her what a good girl she was. Then he put it back on her for a few minutes. He took it off and put it back on a couple of times that evening. She learned several things that first day ...how to accept a bit, how to carry a bit, how to eat around a bit and that it was okay to let us put it on because it wouldn't hurt her and we would eventually take it back off.
Her next official lesson was on Thursday and Yeoldfurt was at work so it was just me that day. I bridled her up with no problem. I proceeded with our usual grooming session but with me standing on the mounting block next to her instead of on the ground. The purpose of standing on the mounting block is to teach her that it's okay for me to be moving around above her. Young horses that have never been ridden are often spooky about sudden movements from above. It's a new experience for them. So by standing on the mounting block, I am making myself considerably taller than she is used to seeing me and am able to reach even the far side of her with the brush. That's another important lesson for a young horse ...that we can stand on one side of them and touch them on the other side. I'm preparing her for the day I stand on her left side and throw a leg over her to get on. If I don't teach her I can be on two sides at once, she's liable to go rodeo on me.
Last Saturday was her third official lesson and we progressed to letting her wear a saddle. We followed the same routine we had established the other days, bringing her and Lacy to the tree and then grooming and putting her bridle on. On Saturday, we added the saddle. She did really well for her first time. We let her sniff the saddle and pad before we placed them on her back and we were careful not to let the stirrups or straps flap around too much and startle her. Once she is completely comfortable with the idea of wearing a saddle, we'll make a point to wiggle the saddle and jostle the stirrups so she gets accustomed to those sounds and sudden movements. But the first few times, the goal is just to let her understand the process and that the saddle is not going to hurt her.
I saddled her again tonight right before Yeoldfurt got home from work. I was careful about the stirrups and cinch strap but moved a little faster than I did on Saturday. She did real well and was all tacked up and standing patiently when Yeoldfurt pulled in the driveway. She's really has a good attitude so far and is soaking up the attention. I'll work keep working with her at the tree for the rest of this week. Then next weekend, we'll take her out to the round pen to saddle her up and turn her loose. If she has any inclination to buck with the saddle, that's when she'll do it. If she does, she does ...she'll only teach herself that she can't buck it off. But I'm hoping she maintains the same quiet attitude she's had so far and just waits for us to show her what's next.
Each evening's lesson began with Lyric on one side of the tree and her mama, Lacy, on the other. Lacy is there just so Lyric won't be anxious about being separated from her herd and can concentrate on whatever we're trying to teach her. The first day, we just worked on patience. A little grooming, a little petting, but a whole lot of standing and waiting for something new to happen. The object was just to establish a routine. I also took the opportunity to adjust the bridle Lyric would be wearing so that it fit her properly. The technical term is really headstall, not bridle. Bridle would be the whole assemby, headstall and bit. But I wanted to make sure the headstall fit before I attached a bit so that it would be as comfortable as possible the first time Lyric wore it.
Her next official lesson was on Thursday and Yeoldfurt was at work so it was just me that day. I bridled her up with no problem. I proceeded with our usual grooming session but with me standing on the mounting block next to her instead of on the ground. The purpose of standing on the mounting block is to teach her that it's okay for me to be moving around above her. Young horses that have never been ridden are often spooky about sudden movements from above. It's a new experience for them. So by standing on the mounting block, I am making myself considerably taller than she is used to seeing me and am able to reach even the far side of her with the brush. That's another important lesson for a young horse ...that we can stand on one side of them and touch them on the other side. I'm preparing her for the day I stand on her left side and throw a leg over her to get on. If I don't teach her I can be on two sides at once, she's liable to go rodeo on me.
Last Saturday was her third official lesson and we progressed to letting her wear a saddle. We followed the same routine we had established the other days, bringing her and Lacy to the tree and then grooming and putting her bridle on. On Saturday, we added the saddle. She did really well for her first time. We let her sniff the saddle and pad before we placed them on her back and we were careful not to let the stirrups or straps flap around too much and startle her. Once she is completely comfortable with the idea of wearing a saddle, we'll make a point to wiggle the saddle and jostle the stirrups so she gets accustomed to those sounds and sudden movements. But the first few times, the goal is just to let her understand the process and that the saddle is not going to hurt her.
I saddled her again tonight right before Yeoldfurt got home from work. I was careful about the stirrups and cinch strap but moved a little faster than I did on Saturday. She did real well and was all tacked up and standing patiently when Yeoldfurt pulled in the driveway. She's really has a good attitude so far and is soaking up the attention. I'll work keep working with her at the tree for the rest of this week. Then next weekend, we'll take her out to the round pen to saddle her up and turn her loose. If she has any inclination to buck with the saddle, that's when she'll do it. If she does, she does ...she'll only teach herself that she can't buck it off. But I'm hoping she maintains the same quiet attitude she's had so far and just waits for us to show her what's next.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Training Philosophies ...Theirs and Mine
If you talk to most of the 'natural horsemanship' people today, the less resistance / restriction you use in training your horses, the better. I can buy into that philosophy to a degree, but some of them carry it too far ... asserting that halter breaking a two or three day old foal is 'restrictive' and not natural and, therefore, not good. That's where we part ways.
I've had one or two very young foals that managed to get themselves hurt and require daily medicating or doctoring for a week or so. If that foal is unaccustomed to wearing a halter and unfamiliar with being constrained by a lead rope and handler, daily medicating and doctoring can turn into a daily wrestling match. A newborn foal weighs roughly 60-70 pounds and will double their weight in a matter of a few months. Even if it's a newborn and I still outweigh the little critter, it's all I can do to wrestle them into submission and hold on. If I also have to handle a syringe or bandages, forget it. It would take one of us to hold the bugger down and the other to do the doctoring. That's trauma and stress on all three of us that, in my opinion, doesn't work in our favor as far as building trust, and certainly doesn't do anything for the healing process. So we always introduce a halter the first day the foal is born. They wear it for the ten or twenty minutes it takes their mama to eat, then it is removed. They wear it again every time their mama gets fed from that day forward. When they are about a week old, we introduce them to the lead rope.
At first, we just clip one on their halter and turn them loose. Then we lead mama off a few steps because we know the foal will instinctively follow. Inevitably, they step on the lead rope as they walk and the sudden downward pressure on their nose always surprises and sometimes bewilders them. But they soon figure out that they are stepping on the rope and they move their foot. It's fun to see the little light bulb go off in their heads. I think some of them have those curly-que watt saver bulbs because the light is very dim at first and brightens up as the lesson sinks in.
That lead rope lesson is the first introduction to 'give to pressure' ...a very important foundation for everything else they need to learn. After a few days of dragging the lead rope while they follow mama, we pick up the lead rope and put gentle pressure on it just a fraction of a second before we lead mama off. We are standing right in front of them and they can see that WE have the lead rope and WE are putting pressure on it, but before they have a chance to think about it too much, we lead mama off and their instinctive and immediate response is to follow her.
Timing is everything at this stage. By letting their first step release the pressure you have on the lead rope, they are learning that the reward is in giving to the pressure and following your lead. Just a few steps the first time, then we stop mama, pet all over the foal to reinforce good behavior and repeat the process.
Most everyone I know with horses, even the 'natural horsemanship' groupies, eventually teach their horses to halter and lead. But the one thing I find that people don't routinely do these days is teach their horse to just stand. Stand tied or stand with a rider on their back, just stand and wait. You might not think a horse can learn much when he's just standing in one place, but you're wrong. A horse learns patience. If he's tied up, a horse learns to wait however long it takes for you to come back and release him. He also learns trust ...that you WILL come back and release him and that you have left him in a safe place. If he's got a rider on his back, he learns that it's okay to just stand still and rest. We teach our horses that unless we ask them to move, they should just stand still. We might need to adjust the saddle or adjust something on ourselves, or whatever. If you DO need to adjust something, having to worry about controlling the fidgety horse you're sitting on only complicates the task at hand. These are very important lessons and, in our opinion, ones that horses are never too young to learn. So we introduce the halter the first day, the lead rope within the first week, leading lessons soon thereafter and standing tied by their second month. You have to be smart setting all these lessons up, always try to set the horse up for success and build each lesson upon the previous ones.
Mares and foals are instinctively very emotionally dependent on each other for the first few months, so we use that bond to enhance our lessons. Just as leading the mare off to introduce the lead rope and leading lessons, the mare is also a great great tool for teaching patience. When we have bred mares and new foals, we feed the horses twice a day. They are stalled while they eat and it usually takes them fifteen or twenty minutes to clean their buckets. Like all babies, by the time foals are three or four months old, they are taste-testing everything around them. When mama sticks her nose in her bucket to eat, the foal is curious and wants to see what she's after. Our mares are good mamas and, like all good mamas, they are patient with the babies in their feed buckets ...to a point. By the time the baby is eating a noticeable amount, mama is starting to get annoyed. So we introduce the baby to their own bucket with a little sweet feed. They are already comfortable with being haltered during feeding and familiar with the concept of a lead rope on their halter. So a bucket is hung just outside mama's stall and the baby is led over to their own bucket. They are immediately enthusiastic to having their own feed bucket and they are right across the fence from mama who is calmly eating her own feed, so we are set up for success with this new lesson. While they're eating, we are scratching and brushing and handling the foal's feet. Constant 'feel good' contact reinforces our bond with the foal and also ensures we are right there if foal gets in a panic over being tied. As they become comfortable with the new routine, we gradually spend less time right there with them and they learn to be confident in the situation on their own. Mama's la-tee-dah attitude and the distraction of yummy sweet feed right under their nose makes these lessons go that much more smoothly.
All of this has been on my mind because I've decided to saddle break Lyric myself this year. I raised her mama from the age of four months and did everything I could think of to prepare her mentally and emotionally for the day I would ride her. But when she was finally old enough to be ridden, I sent her off to a trainer for 30 days to be professionally started under saddle. Her daughter, Lyric, is five years old this April ...plenty old enough and plenty stout enough to carry a rider. She's had all the same ground work and preparation that her mama had and we would have sent her off to a trainer a couple of years ago, but a long stint of unemployment and several other personal challenges got in the way. Things are better for us now and we could scrape up the money to send her to someone later this year. But I'm thinking it would be good for her and me both if I do the honors. I'm no bronc rider and if she decides to buck, I will most likely hit the dirt and hit it hard. But if I do MY JOB right, she won't ever buck. So it's up to me to make sure I do things right.
We will start next week and I have a very specific game plan in mind. I'll take pictures and keep you posted every couple of weeks as we make progress. Hopefully it will be a success story in the end and I'll be riding her with reasonable confidence by the end of this summer. But if we hit a few snags along the way, I'll own up to those as well. We all learn from experience, even if it's not our own.
I've had one or two very young foals that managed to get themselves hurt and require daily medicating or doctoring for a week or so. If that foal is unaccustomed to wearing a halter and unfamiliar with being constrained by a lead rope and handler, daily medicating and doctoring can turn into a daily wrestling match. A newborn foal weighs roughly 60-70 pounds and will double their weight in a matter of a few months. Even if it's a newborn and I still outweigh the little critter, it's all I can do to wrestle them into submission and hold on. If I also have to handle a syringe or bandages, forget it. It would take one of us to hold the bugger down and the other to do the doctoring. That's trauma and stress on all three of us that, in my opinion, doesn't work in our favor as far as building trust, and certainly doesn't do anything for the healing process. So we always introduce a halter the first day the foal is born. They wear it for the ten or twenty minutes it takes their mama to eat, then it is removed. They wear it again every time their mama gets fed from that day forward. When they are about a week old, we introduce them to the lead rope.
At first, we just clip one on their halter and turn them loose. Then we lead mama off a few steps because we know the foal will instinctively follow. Inevitably, they step on the lead rope as they walk and the sudden downward pressure on their nose always surprises and sometimes bewilders them. But they soon figure out that they are stepping on the rope and they move their foot. It's fun to see the little light bulb go off in their heads. I think some of them have those curly-que watt saver bulbs because the light is very dim at first and brightens up as the lesson sinks in.
That lead rope lesson is the first introduction to 'give to pressure' ...a very important foundation for everything else they need to learn. After a few days of dragging the lead rope while they follow mama, we pick up the lead rope and put gentle pressure on it just a fraction of a second before we lead mama off. We are standing right in front of them and they can see that WE have the lead rope and WE are putting pressure on it, but before they have a chance to think about it too much, we lead mama off and their instinctive and immediate response is to follow her.
Timing is everything at this stage. By letting their first step release the pressure you have on the lead rope, they are learning that the reward is in giving to the pressure and following your lead. Just a few steps the first time, then we stop mama, pet all over the foal to reinforce good behavior and repeat the process.
Most everyone I know with horses, even the 'natural horsemanship' groupies, eventually teach their horses to halter and lead. But the one thing I find that people don't routinely do these days is teach their horse to just stand. Stand tied or stand with a rider on their back, just stand and wait. You might not think a horse can learn much when he's just standing in one place, but you're wrong. A horse learns patience. If he's tied up, a horse learns to wait however long it takes for you to come back and release him. He also learns trust ...that you WILL come back and release him and that you have left him in a safe place. If he's got a rider on his back, he learns that it's okay to just stand still and rest. We teach our horses that unless we ask them to move, they should just stand still. We might need to adjust the saddle or adjust something on ourselves, or whatever. If you DO need to adjust something, having to worry about controlling the fidgety horse you're sitting on only complicates the task at hand. These are very important lessons and, in our opinion, ones that horses are never too young to learn. So we introduce the halter the first day, the lead rope within the first week, leading lessons soon thereafter and standing tied by their second month. You have to be smart setting all these lessons up, always try to set the horse up for success and build each lesson upon the previous ones.
Mares and foals are instinctively very emotionally dependent on each other for the first few months, so we use that bond to enhance our lessons. Just as leading the mare off to introduce the lead rope and leading lessons, the mare is also a great great tool for teaching patience. When we have bred mares and new foals, we feed the horses twice a day. They are stalled while they eat and it usually takes them fifteen or twenty minutes to clean their buckets. Like all babies, by the time foals are three or four months old, they are taste-testing everything around them. When mama sticks her nose in her bucket to eat, the foal is curious and wants to see what she's after. Our mares are good mamas and, like all good mamas, they are patient with the babies in their feed buckets ...to a point. By the time the baby is eating a noticeable amount, mama is starting to get annoyed. So we introduce the baby to their own bucket with a little sweet feed. They are already comfortable with being haltered during feeding and familiar with the concept of a lead rope on their halter. So a bucket is hung just outside mama's stall and the baby is led over to their own bucket. They are immediately enthusiastic to having their own feed bucket and they are right across the fence from mama who is calmly eating her own feed, so we are set up for success with this new lesson. While they're eating, we are scratching and brushing and handling the foal's feet. Constant 'feel good' contact reinforces our bond with the foal and also ensures we are right there if foal gets in a panic over being tied. As they become comfortable with the new routine, we gradually spend less time right there with them and they learn to be confident in the situation on their own. Mama's la-tee-dah attitude and the distraction of yummy sweet feed right under their nose makes these lessons go that much more smoothly.
All of this has been on my mind because I've decided to saddle break Lyric myself this year. I raised her mama from the age of four months and did everything I could think of to prepare her mentally and emotionally for the day I would ride her. But when she was finally old enough to be ridden, I sent her off to a trainer for 30 days to be professionally started under saddle. Her daughter, Lyric, is five years old this April ...plenty old enough and plenty stout enough to carry a rider. She's had all the same ground work and preparation that her mama had and we would have sent her off to a trainer a couple of years ago, but a long stint of unemployment and several other personal challenges got in the way. Things are better for us now and we could scrape up the money to send her to someone later this year. But I'm thinking it would be good for her and me both if I do the honors. I'm no bronc rider and if she decides to buck, I will most likely hit the dirt and hit it hard. But if I do MY JOB right, she won't ever buck. So it's up to me to make sure I do things right.
We will start next week and I have a very specific game plan in mind. I'll take pictures and keep you posted every couple of weeks as we make progress. Hopefully it will be a success story in the end and I'll be riding her with reasonable confidence by the end of this summer. But if we hit a few snags along the way, I'll own up to those as well. We all learn from experience, even if it's not our own.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Nothing Like a Road Trip!
Yeoldfurt and I have racked up a lot of miles on the highway over the years. I moved from Texas to New Mexico when we got married in 1999 and the move itself involved three or four trips back and forth. I had only been there a few weeks when he got transferred to a location 60 miles further north so we moved again. Five months later, we moved back to Texas. By the time we bought our little place south of Houston, we both decided we were putting down roots. Neither of us wanted to hear the 'M' word (as in 'move') again for a long, long time. For the first few years, we spent many a weekend hauling horses up to Lake Somerville for overnight camping and trail riding. The more time we spent around Lake Somerville, the more we realized this was the part of Texas we really liked. So we started working on a relocation plan. It took us a couple of years and many, many road trips to meet real estate agents and look at different properties. But we were finally able to move up here in the summer of 2006. The property we bought is twice the acreage that we had at the old place and is a brick home versus the singlewide mobile we had at the old place. It has definitely been a step up. But the best part is that the driveway here is only a 30 minute haul to the trails at Lake Somerville. Yes, it has definitely been a good move.
Today, we got to take a road trip down to our old stomping grounds to buy a new hay ring. Yes, they sell hay rings up here ...but choices locally are limited. We could buy a welded steel ring for about $130 but, being steel, it will inevitably rusts apart and become a hazard to the horses. The only other choice locally is a new plastic tubing model that (choke) costs $299! Uh ...not happening. When we lived at the old place, we had a galvanized hay ring that was extremely sturdy and was designed as two pieces that 'pinned' together so it was extremely easy for one person to maneuver. Being galvanized, it was also extremely rust-resistant. We had owned it for over five years when we moved and it was in perfect shape. But we left it behind because we had decided round bales didn't work for us. They didn't work at the old place because that place was only about 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and the climate is incredibly humid. Even with seven horses, the big round hay bales would mold before the horses could eat them down. Moldy hay can kill a horse, so we would end up having to burn half the bale more often than not. Where we live now, we are at least 150 miles from the coast and the humidity is much lower. Round bales are cheaper pound for pound and it's certainly less labor to put one round bale out every two weeks rather than wrangling square bales every day. So it wasn't long after we moved here that we decided to buy a hay ring. We bought a steel one locally and it is literally rusting to pieces now, a little over four years later. We don't want to buy a new hay ring every few years or risk a horse getting injured on rusty metal, so we decided to head back to the old stomping grounds today and pick up a galvanized ring. The heavy duty model was only $135 and I promise you, it will be in good shape and still serving it's intended purpose a lot longer than I am! We had to drive down in the big diesel and at $3.49/gallon, we probably spend $60 in gas but it was worth it. We also met my sister and her three grandkids and two other long-time friends for lunch while we down there. Lunch was another $30, but it was also well worth it because friends and family are what makes life special. For me, even the long drive down there and the long drive back were enjoyable because road trips had been such a big part of our early years together.
My dad used to always say, 'the simple minded are easily amused.' Well, I guess I'm simple minded because driving the same old route we had traveled so many times when we were trying to move up here and seeing so many of the same old places along the way was fun for me. The purpose of the trip may have been the new hay ring, but the journey and the time with friends and family is, for me, what made this day truly worthwhile.
Today, we got to take a road trip down to our old stomping grounds to buy a new hay ring. Yes, they sell hay rings up here ...but choices locally are limited. We could buy a welded steel ring for about $130 but, being steel, it will inevitably rusts apart and become a hazard to the horses. The only other choice locally is a new plastic tubing model that (choke) costs $299! Uh ...not happening. When we lived at the old place, we had a galvanized hay ring that was extremely sturdy and was designed as two pieces that 'pinned' together so it was extremely easy for one person to maneuver. Being galvanized, it was also extremely rust-resistant. We had owned it for over five years when we moved and it was in perfect shape. But we left it behind because we had decided round bales didn't work for us. They didn't work at the old place because that place was only about 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and the climate is incredibly humid. Even with seven horses, the big round hay bales would mold before the horses could eat them down. Moldy hay can kill a horse, so we would end up having to burn half the bale more often than not. Where we live now, we are at least 150 miles from the coast and the humidity is much lower. Round bales are cheaper pound for pound and it's certainly less labor to put one round bale out every two weeks rather than wrangling square bales every day. So it wasn't long after we moved here that we decided to buy a hay ring. We bought a steel one locally and it is literally rusting to pieces now, a little over four years later. We don't want to buy a new hay ring every few years or risk a horse getting injured on rusty metal, so we decided to head back to the old stomping grounds today and pick up a galvanized ring. The heavy duty model was only $135 and I promise you, it will be in good shape and still serving it's intended purpose a lot longer than I am! We had to drive down in the big diesel and at $3.49/gallon, we probably spend $60 in gas but it was worth it. We also met my sister and her three grandkids and two other long-time friends for lunch while we down there. Lunch was another $30, but it was also well worth it because friends and family are what makes life special. For me, even the long drive down there and the long drive back were enjoyable because road trips had been such a big part of our early years together.
My dad used to always say, 'the simple minded are easily amused.' Well, I guess I'm simple minded because driving the same old route we had traveled so many times when we were trying to move up here and seeing so many of the same old places along the way was fun for me. The purpose of the trip may have been the new hay ring, but the journey and the time with friends and family is, for me, what made this day truly worthwhile.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Trying to Catch Up
Why is it that when you fall behind on something, it takes longer to regain the ground than it took you to lose it in the first place? I was off today for President's Day and managed to finish our taxes, catch up the laundry and the housework, and take care of some routine maintenance on the car. If I had been half as productive Saturday and Sunday, my list of what still needs doing would be a whole lot shorter. But the sun is going down and taking my last bit of motivation with it. Tomorrow it's back to the grindstone at the paying job.
Thanks to the nasty flu bug, Yeoldfurt and I have done next to nothing around here for the past two weeks except eat and sleep and occasionally (only recently) go to work. Other than feeding the menagerie and a bare minimum of housework, pretty much nothing got accomplished. We are finally starting to feel better but to look around at what needs to be done just to catch up makes me want to crawl back under the covers.
The garden is a mess but we're reconfiguring the raised beds this year, so it will be a late start anyway. The buckets we used last year need to be loosened and composted. Seeds need to be started. The fruit trees are budding and one is even flowering, so they need to be mulched and watered. The chicken coop needs to be raked out and the bedding composted for mulching the fruit trees. There's the never-ending fence projects and still plenty of downed trees to be cut up and hauled either to the burn pile or stacked for firewood. The iron hay ring we bought when we moved here in 2006 is rusting and falling apart. So next Saturday we're taking a road trip to our old home place to buy a new one. The one we're buying is galvanized and will probably last longer than we do. It's worth the trip and the price.
When we moved up here, we were raising Paint horses but the market for pleasure horses has tanked in the past couple of years. We will be venturing into the cattle business this coming year in order to maintain our Ag Exemption on the property. We'll buy three or four weanling calves this spring, raise them for up to six months, then put one in the freezer and sell the rest at the auction. It should pay for itself plus a little to spare but it's not as much about making a profit as it is about putting quality meat on the table and maintaining the tax exemption on the land. But that means we need to invest in a freezer this year too. It's something we've wanted to do for a while, and will be useful when the garden starts producing. I will be able to blanch and freeze vegetables as we harvest and wait until I have enough to make a whole day of canning worthwhile.
It's going to be a busy year and, I'm hoping, a bountiful one.
Thanks to the nasty flu bug, Yeoldfurt and I have done next to nothing around here for the past two weeks except eat and sleep and occasionally (only recently) go to work. Other than feeding the menagerie and a bare minimum of housework, pretty much nothing got accomplished. We are finally starting to feel better but to look around at what needs to be done just to catch up makes me want to crawl back under the covers.
The garden is a mess but we're reconfiguring the raised beds this year, so it will be a late start anyway. The buckets we used last year need to be loosened and composted. Seeds need to be started. The fruit trees are budding and one is even flowering, so they need to be mulched and watered. The chicken coop needs to be raked out and the bedding composted for mulching the fruit trees. There's the never-ending fence projects and still plenty of downed trees to be cut up and hauled either to the burn pile or stacked for firewood. The iron hay ring we bought when we moved here in 2006 is rusting and falling apart. So next Saturday we're taking a road trip to our old home place to buy a new one. The one we're buying is galvanized and will probably last longer than we do. It's worth the trip and the price.
When we moved up here, we were raising Paint horses but the market for pleasure horses has tanked in the past couple of years. We will be venturing into the cattle business this coming year in order to maintain our Ag Exemption on the property. We'll buy three or four weanling calves this spring, raise them for up to six months, then put one in the freezer and sell the rest at the auction. It should pay for itself plus a little to spare but it's not as much about making a profit as it is about putting quality meat on the table and maintaining the tax exemption on the land. But that means we need to invest in a freezer this year too. It's something we've wanted to do for a while, and will be useful when the garden starts producing. I will be able to blanch and freeze vegetables as we harvest and wait until I have enough to make a whole day of canning worthwhile.
It's going to be a busy year and, I'm hoping, a bountiful one.
Friday, February 18, 2011
TGIF
It's finally Friday, oh happy day! I ended up missing three days of work last week due to the nasty flu bug. I went back to work this past Monday, but have been dragging all week. You know how when you know you're going on vacation, you can kind of prep your desk at work for your impending absence, so the fallout won't be quite as bad when you come back? Well, nasty flu bug gave me NO WARNING and my desk was already severely backlogged. So when I showed up at 7:00am this past Monday, one of my co-workers asked me if I brought a shovel. My desk was that deep.
I made a dent this week, but it would take me at least another week to just get the backlog down to where it was before I got sick. I'm not going to get that opportunity though because the office is closed next Monday for President's Day. My work load (applications for child support services through the Attorney General's Office) roll in around the clock. Some people submit paper applications, either in person or by mail. But applications can be submitted online too. So the work just piles up. Next week I will have only four days to accomplish five days worth of work and try to whittle down the backlog. The following week, I have to go out of town for training for three days, so I'll only have two days to accomplish any actual work. Anyone who thinks 'government jobs' are cakewalks ought to try one sometime. That sure hasn't been my experience!
But now it's Friday and I'm not going to think about my desk or my backlog for three days. Tomorrow is Yeoldfurt's birthday and we're going to celebrate. He found a demonstration on blacksmithing he wants to check out and while we're in town, I'll take him someplace nice to eat. We may even do a movie. Netflix is a great deal but every once in a while, it's nice to go on a movie date. Whatever Yeoldfurt wants to do tomorrow, we'll do. It's his day.
I made a dent this week, but it would take me at least another week to just get the backlog down to where it was before I got sick. I'm not going to get that opportunity though because the office is closed next Monday for President's Day. My work load (applications for child support services through the Attorney General's Office) roll in around the clock. Some people submit paper applications, either in person or by mail. But applications can be submitted online too. So the work just piles up. Next week I will have only four days to accomplish five days worth of work and try to whittle down the backlog. The following week, I have to go out of town for training for three days, so I'll only have two days to accomplish any actual work. Anyone who thinks 'government jobs' are cakewalks ought to try one sometime. That sure hasn't been my experience!
But now it's Friday and I'm not going to think about my desk or my backlog for three days. Tomorrow is Yeoldfurt's birthday and we're going to celebrate. He found a demonstration on blacksmithing he wants to check out and while we're in town, I'll take him someplace nice to eat. We may even do a movie. Netflix is a great deal but every once in a while, it's nice to go on a movie date. Whatever Yeoldfurt wants to do tomorrow, we'll do. It's his day.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Like Dominos
When one goes down, the other usually follows. I've been sick since Tuesday night with flu-like symptoms and am finally on the mend this Friday evening. But Yeoldfurt got up this morning feeling a little off and ended up coming home from work a little early because now he's sick. Good thing I'm on the mend because he needs to spend the next few days in bed. Tomorrow is his off day and he doesn't leave for work on Sundays until almost noon, so maybe he can head this off before it gets too good a hold on him.
I had to make an appointment at the local clinic today because rules where I work say if you miss a third day, you can't come back without a doctor's note. I was out Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so I had to have a note. My insurance options through the state are both PPO's which are very picky about in-network and out-of-network stuff. But now they make you choose a PCP, a Primary Care Physician and that doctor's name is printed on your card. If you want to see someone other than you PCP, you pay the first $500 out of your own pocket even if the one you want to go see is in-network ...unless you call ahead and temporarily change your PCP. My PCP is about 10 miles from my office but about 40 miles from my house. I could either make an 80 mile round trip to see my regular guy or I could spend however long it would take to wade through the automated phone system at the insurance company to make the temporary change. It took the better part of an hour but it was worth to avoid the long round trip commute and the $500 out of pocket. I'm not sure what either of my doctor's offices would charge if they weren't billing the insurance company, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot more than the $25 in-network co-pay I ended up with today.
Long story short, my problems are probably viral but since they've drug on for this long, they gave me a z-pack of antibiotics and some prescription cough medicine. They also gave me my doctor's excuse so I can go back to work on Monday which is the only reason I bothered making the appointment. These things usually wear out on their own but rules are rules.
Maybe it's viral or maybe it's this crazy weather lately. Tomorrow will be in the 60's and several days next week in the 70's. Several days last week never got over 40. This is crazy weather, even for Texas. All I know is I need to get Yeoldfurt well as soon as possible. I'm going out of town for training the first three days March and everything will be on his shoulders while I'm gone. So I have about two weeks to whip him back in shape. His birthday is coming up in just a week and we have plans. So I really only have one week. Good thing I'm on the mend...
I had to make an appointment at the local clinic today because rules where I work say if you miss a third day, you can't come back without a doctor's note. I was out Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so I had to have a note. My insurance options through the state are both PPO's which are very picky about in-network and out-of-network stuff. But now they make you choose a PCP, a Primary Care Physician and that doctor's name is printed on your card. If you want to see someone other than you PCP, you pay the first $500 out of your own pocket even if the one you want to go see is in-network ...unless you call ahead and temporarily change your PCP. My PCP is about 10 miles from my office but about 40 miles from my house. I could either make an 80 mile round trip to see my regular guy or I could spend however long it would take to wade through the automated phone system at the insurance company to make the temporary change. It took the better part of an hour but it was worth to avoid the long round trip commute and the $500 out of pocket. I'm not sure what either of my doctor's offices would charge if they weren't billing the insurance company, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot more than the $25 in-network co-pay I ended up with today.
Long story short, my problems are probably viral but since they've drug on for this long, they gave me a z-pack of antibiotics and some prescription cough medicine. They also gave me my doctor's excuse so I can go back to work on Monday which is the only reason I bothered making the appointment. These things usually wear out on their own but rules are rules.
Maybe it's viral or maybe it's this crazy weather lately. Tomorrow will be in the 60's and several days next week in the 70's. Several days last week never got over 40. This is crazy weather, even for Texas. All I know is I need to get Yeoldfurt well as soon as possible. I'm going out of town for training the first three days March and everything will be on his shoulders while I'm gone. So I have about two weeks to whip him back in shape. His birthday is coming up in just a week and we have plans. So I really only have one week. Good thing I'm on the mend...
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