Finally!!!

Hi Everyone!!!  It's me, Tapper!  I know, I know, it's been AGES since I updated the blog.  Don't blame me, it's all mom's fault - she wouldn't let me use the computer!  But she has a new computrer now (the old one finally died) and since it's SO cold this morning (8 degrees), she said I could eat my hay while I'm doing the blog in the house, though I had to promise not to get hay in the keyboard - as if!!!  Anyway, I'm fine, and so are all the other horses. 

Cami is back here at the stable.  She came back at the end of November but wasn't turned out with us until yesterday.  She's kind of skinny, and mom and Dr Heather had to shave all the hair off her back, butt, and part of her hind legs.  Mom said something about scabs and fungus, yuck!  Cami's feeling better now though.  She has to wear a blanket all winter -BUMMER - but she still gets in plenty of rolls.  The blanket in the photos was clean yesterday!  You'd never know it now!!!  She gets lots of extra hay (no fair!), but I guess she needs it because like I said, she's skinny.  She said they didn't have much to eat where she was, so she's glad to be here with us now. 
When mom turned Cami out with us yesterday, she was a little concerned about how we'd all get along, so this is what happened...
Mom put out 2 hay bags (more on those later), let me out, then let Cami out.  Cam came right over to me and my hay bag.  We sniffed noses and said hello, Cami said (very politely) "may I have a bite of your hay?"  I (very graciously) told her she could have 2 bites.  Then she wandered over to her own hay bag and started eating.  Mom said since that went so well she thought she'd add another girl and asked me who I thought should be next.  I said that if there was going to be a problem it would probably be Dolly so I'd suggest she be next.  Mom agreed with me of course, so she put out 2 more hay bags, then turned out Dolly.  Dolly marched right down the hill, straight to Cami, and said "That's MY hay bag!!!"  Cami looked at her, said "I don't think so!", and went back to eating.  Dolly said "Um...  I meant that hay bag over there, not the one you have", and everything was fine.  Mom brought out 2 more hay bags (whoo-hoo!!!) and let Starlight out.  Starlight ran right over to Cami and said - and I quote - "hi cami, remember me?  i'm in heat, i remember you, remember me?  i'm starlight, i remember you, guess what?  i'm in heat..."  Cami was very polite, they touched noses, squealed, Starlight squirted, and Cami went back to eating.  Becca was the last one out, she saw Cami and nodded a hello to her, came over to share my hay, and that was that.  Mom was very pleased with us all!

Now, about those hay bags.  Mom started using them last winter.  They are "slow feed" hay bags and mom says they are better for us, and they save her hay.  They took a little getting used to, but we all like them now.  They keep our hay up out of the mud and poop, and make the hay last longer which is kind of nice.  They are more work for mom but she says they are worth it.

On another note, rumors have been going around about Ivan so let me set the record straight.  Yes, his name is Ivan again (he likes his name), and he now belongs to mom.  I know, I know...  she didn't need another horse!  But he's a nice boy, a little young and green but well trained and she thinks he'll be a great horse when he gets some more miles on him.  This is the 4 boys, left to right is Scotty and Jazz in the front, and Ketu and Ivan behind them.

Mom and Carla rode as much as they could this summer.  The weather didn't always cooperate with them but they did their best.  Ketu had some hoof issues, a REALLY REALLY bad abscess, so he was laid up for most of the summer, but Jazz, Scotty, and Becca, (and Ivan once mom owned him) all got ridden plenty.  Kate came and rode too, and she brought her kids.  Sam rode Becca and did awesome with her, tacking up, riding, and even trotting on his own!  Eve rode Dolly.  Eve's still pretty little, so she mostly just got led around, but she had fun and Dolly got a little easy exercise (Dolly says the trotting wasn't so easy!)

Well, there is plenty more I could tell you, but my indoor hay is all gone now and I'd better get outside before the other girls eat all the hay out there, so I guess that's all for now.  Hope you all have a nice Christmas, and send any gifts "Care of Tapper" please!

Changes

Changes at the barn....

Tarra and Christopher have sold Summer.  She'll be leaving in the next few weeks.

Jennifer has sold Ivan, he won't be leaving because....

Tarra and Christopher have bought Ivan!  They have changed his name so he is now called Montana, and Tarra has been having lots of fun riding him.  He's a very good boy.

Spring is finally here and there is plenty of mud to show for it.  Things are starting to dry up though, we just need a good stretch of dry weather.

Otherwise, things are much the same as always.  We are riding whenever we can and all the horses are doing well.  Tracy has been out with Starlight several times and Carla and Kate have ridden Ketu.  Both horses are being sensible (yes, even Starlight). 

No photos this post, I'll work on getting some for next time...

February & March

I'm sure you are all saying "Finally a new post on the blog!!!"  Well, sorry it's taken so long, but it's been a long winter.  I have made a new slide show, I'm not putting it on the blog, you'll have to view it from the DHF YouTube page (link in upper right corner sidebar).  It's pretty long, almost 12 minutes.  You see, I had all these wonderful photos from February and March and I just couldn't narrow them down to 8 or 10 for the blog.  So....  I had to do another slideshow.  This is what you'll see:

• Horses running, lots of running and fun.
• Horses playing, especially Ivan and Ketu, and yes, Ivan really does rear a lot when playing.  None of those photos are duplicates.
• Horses looking pretty.
• Horses eating.
• Horses looking messy - and mud season is just beginning.
• Horses looking silly (most notably that would be Starlight and Summer).  And yes, Starlight really does stick her tongue out - a lot - and what you can't see or hear on the photos is that while it's stuck out, she sucks on it and makes a slurping noise.  Sometimes she is a little challenged...
• Snow - on the trees, in the paddocks, everywhere!
• Ice - we had a big ice storm and it made for some beautiful scenes with ice on the trees, & the screen on the porch was so covered in ice that it looked like it was glass.  I lost the tops off 6 or 8 of the spruce trees that line the driveway, they snapped off from the weight of the ice.  There are several trees down across fences in the summer pastures that will need to be cleaned up/repaired this spring.  The ice also knocked the power out for 2 days.  Can you say "thank you" to the generator gnome who helped get it started because the battery was dead?  (Speaking of gnomes, they would like to make it absolutely clear that they are gnomes, NOT elves!!!  Get it right Carla, do you see any pointy ears there???)
• A little bit of riding, we were able to ride 4 times in March.  Hey, anything is better than 0 times...
• Horses shedding, a lot.  You can see how Starlight is changing from her winter color to her summer.  Also Jazz and Tapper surrounded by shed out hair.
• Horses yawning and sleeping.
• Hay delivery - thanks to the hay guys for making 2 trips and bringing us 500 bales in March (even though they got stuck in the mud - both times - and I had to pull them out with the tractor).
• Horses coming in/going out/settling down for the night.
• Itchy horses - there is a series of 3 photos in a row with Dolly scratching her neck on the run-in shed.  She just happened to be the one I caught on film, everybody's been doing the same thing.
• Summer showing how VERY scared she is of the tractor.
• Jazz and Scotty all dressed up in their coolers.  This was after our first ride, out of shape + warmer day + winter coats = sweaty horses who needed to be cooled out.
• Sassy making a fashion statement with her blanket.  Since there was no tail strap (someone broke it while she was in heat), she decided to revamp her look to get attention.
• Dolly peeking out of the window in the run-in shed.  It was warm enough to finally open them up again.

So, I probably missed some things, but those are the highlights of the show.  I hope you enjoy it - please let me know.

New Boy!

Hey everyone, Tapper here again.  Guess what?  We got a new horse in, and it's a boy!!!  This is him on the left below.  He is a Bashkir Curly, his name is Ivan, and he's really cute, a pretty bay color.  He's young, so he's still a little gangly, and all he wants to do is play all day but so far we all like him just fine.  He's out with Jazz and Ketu during the days; he's constantly trying to get them to play and they both will for a while, but then they want to go eat and he won't quit bugging them so they have to learn to be firm with him (I could help them with that).  Mom said she's going to put Scotty out with them tomorrow - he should be able to tell Ivan who's boss, but I'm sure they'll all be pals.  Below are photos of Ivan with his new buddy Ketu.

Mom asked me to pass along a few things to you, so first of all, we want to say thanks to the tractor gnome for pulling the tractor out of the snow when mom got stuck during the last big storm (see photo below), and also for fixing the bucket so it works better.  Thanks tractor gnome!  (The tractor gnome looks an awful lot like the electrical gnome who fixed the outlet last month, do you suppose all gnomes look alike???)

I'm also supposed to tell all the boarder owners that our vet Dr. Heather is now doing Lyme vaccines for horses.  I don't really know what that means except it's more shots for us - YUCK!  Mom said it's a series of 3 to start, 1st shot, then 2nd shot 3 weeks later, then 3rd shot in 3 months.  After that it's every 6 months.  Dr. Heather is having a traveling Lyme vaccine clinic when she's just going to travel from barn to barn all day and start the shots.  I think she is coming here on Feb. 20th (It's a Sunday).  Mom needs to know who wants the shots so she can let Dr. Heather know ahead of time.  She said if you have questions you can ask her, and if she doesn't know the answer you can call Dr. Heather at 802 484 9100.  Please let mom know if you want your horse to have the shots.

Mom also wants to thank Ketu and Dolly for the Valentine's gift they gave her.  I think that's really nice of them to do, but...  where's mine?!?

Slideshow

These are all photos from 2010 with a few from January 2011 thrown in.  They are not in any special order.  The music is Bryan Adams from the Disney film "Spirit".  It's the first time I've tried something like this and I'm happy with the result.  Please let me know what you think! 

Well, Blogspot won't let this play here anymore because the songs are copywrited.  But... you can still watch it on the YouTube page, the link is in the upper right corner of this blog under "links".

Trail Rides

I've been working on a video, a montage of clips and photos from some of our rides this summer and fall.  All video was shot by me while riding either Jazz or Becca, so I'm afraid that it's sometimes pretty choppy.  It's just really hard to hold the camera still while riding!  Anyway, since it's the middle of winter I felt like we needed a "virtual" trail ride....  As always, if you can't view this here go to the DHF YouTube page (link in upper right corner).

Winter News

Hello Everyone - I decided to give Tapper a break (though she's been doing a wonderful job) and write the blog myself this time.  So here's whats been happening on the farm...

Snow!  We've finally got plenty of snow, we have had 2 big storms now, the last one dumped 16" or more on us.  So no more ouchy feet for the horses, yeah!!!  They've been having lots of fun rolling in it as you can see with Becca, Sassy, and Ketu.

Oh yes, speaking of whom...  Tony finally has a new name.  Carla was looking for something that reflects his personality and his color/markings.  He has a crescent moon shape white marking on his head.  It looks - especially with his fuzzy winter coat - like the moon about to be eclipsed.  So she thought about calling him eclipse, but that doesn't flow off the tongue well when you are calling him in from the field.  After going through more names than I can tell you about, she found (with a little help) Ketu.  Ketu (pronounced keh-too) is the descending (waning) lunar node. In Hindu mythology, Ketu is generally referred to as a "shadow" planet. It is believed to have a tremendous impact on human lives and also the whole creation. Ketu is often depicted with a gem or star on his head signifying a mystery light.  Astronomically, Ketu denotes the southern point of intersection of the paths of the Sun and the Moon as they move on the celestial sphere.  Eclipses occur when the Sun and the Moon are at the northern or southern (Ketu) point. The people who come under the influence of Ketu can achieve great heights, most of them spiritual.  So it seems to fit him quite well don't you think?

The other big news of the month is that all the mares are now together during the day!!!  The 2 that concerned me most were Tapper and Sassy because they both like to be boss, so I put just those 2 together at first.  They quickly battled it out and thankfully there was no bloodshed, and Tapper won that battle.  I then started adding in the other mares until they were all together - 6 in all, Tapper, Sassy, Becca, Starlight, Dolly, and Summer.  Since then, they've had a few more confrontations and Sassy has come out on top (still no bloodshed thank goodness!) so Sassy appears to have taken over the herd.  Tapper now stays away from her, and Sassy has been busy making sure the other mares all know she's boss.  So far the only one with any marks on her is Sassy herself, and quite frankly she deserves them!  They aren't bad, a couple of scrapes and a little hair loss, no big deal.  Why can't they be more like the boys and just get along???

When I put them together, Dolly and Summer immediately went into heat and fell in love with Ketu.  You can see Dolly and Ketu leaning on Summer's back making moony eyes at each other below...

Sometime this week (depending on the weather) Chance will be leaving when Viki takes him back to school with her.  We are going to miss both of them.  Chance (below) is a sweety, and Viki has been a huge help around the barn.  Maybe they'll come back someday...

Tapper's Resolutions

Happy New Year to you all!  It's me, Tapper again.  I overheard mom talking the other day about something called a resolution that people make this time of year.  It took me a few minutes to understand what it was all about but I finally got that it's like a promise to yourself to be a better person or horse.  Of course, there are not too many things that I should change, but I talked with the other horses and a few of the owners and they came up with a whole list of stuff.  Some of them apply to all the horses, some are more specific to certain horses (and you KNOW who you are!!!).  So anyway, here is the list we came up with...

I will NOT try to roll when my human is on my back.
I will NOT leap over or away from large nonexistent objects when the whim strikes.
I will NOT walk faster on the way home than on the way out.
I promise NOT to poop when you are cleaning my back feet.
I will NOT bite my farrier's butt just because it's there.
I will NOT wipe green slime on my human's clothes or blow my nose on my human.
I CAN walk and poop at the same time, I can, I can, I can!
I will NOT leave if my rider falls off.
I will NOT try to mooch goodies from every human within a 1 mile radius.
I will NOT lay totally flat out with my eyes glazed over and my legs straight out and pretend I can't hear my human screaming "Are you asleep?"
I will NOT grab my lead rope in my mouth and attempt to lead myself.
I will NOT have an attitude problem, I won't, I won't, I won't!
I will NOT pull my new shoes off just to prove I can.
I will NOT eat or remodel the barn or the fences.
I WILL accept that not every carrot is for me.
I will NOT do the Sneaky Teleport Trick when a bad/naughty/awful scary thing breathes at me.
I will NOT jump in the air and turn 180 degrees every time I see a bicycle, and I WILL understand that bicycles are not carnivorous.
I will NOT bite the butt of the horse in front of me dring a trail ride just to say "hi".
I WILL put my ears forward and cooperate when it comes to photos.
I will NOT come into heat every time I meet a new horse.
I will NOT try to kick anyone, at any time.
I will NOT mistake fingers for carrots.
I WILL believe my human when she tells me that the mailbox, trash bag, rock, stump, etc. will NOT eat me!
I will NOT find the muddiest spot in the paddock to roll in after my bath.
I WILL hold up my own feet for the farrier.
I WILL move when my human tells me to, without making them use a crop or spurs.
I will NOT try to choose the shortest trails home when my human is trying to go a different way.

So there you have it, our list for 2011.  We don't promise to accomplish everything here, but we  do promise to try.