Things are busy here on the farm - as usual! Sparkie the wonder pony is having some trouble. He seems to be suffering from Napoleon syndrome!!! He thinks he's the biggest, baddest, toughest horse on the property! Unfortunately, he's wrong, and the other horses will only put up with his posturing for so long. He went after Dolly a couple of weeks ago - she backed away, but he just would not leave her in peace so she finally said "ENOUGH" and let him have it. As you've probably guessed, with a 14 hand, rather old pony against a 16 hand, middle aged Clydesdale, things did not go well for Sparkie. He's fine now, but that's after a Sunday evening emergency vet call (thanks so much for the vet bill Sparkie!), antibiotics, pain meds, and wrapping/re-wrapping his hind legs for a couple of weeks. The left hind bothered the most, he wouldn't put any weight on it until it was wrapped. The wound was not deep, but it was right over the tendon and the swelling put pressure on the tendon and made it very sore. The wound on the right hind was actually worse. I thought it might need stitches, but the vet decided she wanted to leave it open to drain so she bandaged it with absorbent padding. The wound actually went all the way to the bone! Carla helped me change his bandages every couple of days and the vet re-checked him after a week and said he was doing great. The bandages are off now, but you can see from the photo what they looked like. The other photo above is Sparkie looking innocent and sweet - ha!

Carla and I had our last ride out for the year. We took Jazz and Scotty. We didn't go far because it was the last day of rifle season here - NOT a good day to be in the woods! The day after our ride Chad (the farrier) came and pulled the shoes from Dolly, Jazz, and Scotty. They were the last to have shoes. Scooby still has front shoes because he can't really go without them. Maybe if we get snow to cushion his feet, he can be barefoot for a while. The pic above is Jazz and Scotty being best buddies. Below is Scooby in the snow.

Speaking of snow..... We had our first real snow of the season. (Below is Autumn, Ziegy and Cami getting snowed on.) Unfortunately, it then turned to sleet and so we ended up with an icy mess. The driveway was ice (I sanded it but it's still icy), and the paddocks are very slippery. I've been keeping Deja and Scooby out back, not letting them out with the big group because I don't want the other horses chasing Deja on the ice, and I don't want Scooby chasing everyone else! The horses are all very bored. There is no grass, they can't run around without slipping, and they aren't being ridden or worked. I don't really want snow, but a good base of 6" - 10" would really help a lot. The weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate. It's super cold right now, below zero last night and tonight, wind chills below zero all day today. Then on Wednesday it's supposed to be high 40's and rain, then turn cold again so we'll have more ice! Not good!

Fortunately, in between weather systems, the hay guys were able to make a delivery. They brought 2 full loads to refill the loft, about 470 bales. I'm hoping they'll be able to fill it again in January - keep your fingers crossed for us!