New Year New Farm

Its been a long while since the last post, almost two years. And things have drastically changed around here. 

First off in October 2019 my husband and I bought a home with and acre of Land just a few miles from his parents house, our last place of residency. In May 2020, once the snow was melted and fences mended, Whiskey was able to come home. Hes got a nice pasture all to himself. Since the plot of land is too small that one horse can kill off all the grass, we had to split the field into a summer pasture and winter pasture. His winter pasture is also our dry lot in the summer where training will be done. This summer July 2021 whiskey will be sent off for further training and to be broke to ride. Im excited.

Our little property grew quickly into a little farm by next adopting more cats to help fight off the mice, which is a difficult task.  In the last year we have had Georgie, Tom, Luna,Hermione and Ella (all since have passed away due to an illness or being hit by cars). Now we have Snowball, Patches ans Cinder and they're trying their best to keep up with mice and this year has been rough.

Next last October is decided I wanted fresh farm eggs, do I got 11 chickens. Two of them had died leaving with me nine birds, and of those nine birds five of them ended up being roosters. ROOSTERS!!! They stayed in my basement until they were old enough to go outside. By novemeber they were old enough and we had to quickly get a coop up. I quickly learned that the chickens do not like the freezing cold, and they hid in the chickens coop all winter, and no eggs.

By march this year the weather started to warm up and then chickens were more likely to start going outside more; thank good ness cause their coop stunk and the bedding had to be changed.   Now here we are into mid April 2021 the snow is gone for the most part and my 4 little hens are now laying eggs. On average is get about 2-3 eggs a day. Soon that will increase because I have taken in 17 more layers, 3 turkeys, 6 ducks and 3 meat birds. Im becoming a little bird farmer.

My husband is starting bees and a garden slowly but surely we are trying to becoms more self efficient.

Now photo up load...

My layers mostly Sapphire Gems and a few Rhode Island Reds

A few of my older birds

DUCKIES!!!

Whiskey being harassed by Roosters

Chicken scratch time

Clinimg the nasty coop

Spring is here ...So is training.

It is the end of March, which means melting snow and warmer temperatures in Wyoming.  Spring is finally here after 4 long months of deep winter.  Yippee! With that begins the long hours of training.

With every great horse is a dedicated trainer.  Long hard hours making a horse move its feet, getting it to pay attention to only you and getting down right dirty.  At the end of each day it is rewarding to see the progress your furry friend is making. Now, I cannot say that I am a perfect trainer, to be truly honest I've never trained a horse in my life.  The only horses I was around while growing up were the two my parents got my senior year of High School, they were mainly pasture pets. So, this trainer is getting trained on training Horses. Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law Mindy.

This has given me a learning experience that I never had before. Being firm and hard on the horse yet still being kind and loving. Almost like being a parent.  Hard, because you want them to learn life long lessons from the hard things in life. Firm, because they need to know that you are the one in charge and that they are to respect and listen to the things you want them to do. Kind and Loving, because they need to know that they can trust you and know that you are there and that you love them.

With this week being Spring Break, I have the time and opportunity to spend time with Whiskey.  We have been working on basic ground work, because you literally have to work from the ground up.  Normally we would have a round pen for this kind of work but our panels are currently being used for other purposes. So its just me, Whiskey and an open pasture. I have Whiskey on a 10 ft lunge line, and I start working on desensitization. 

What is desensitization?

Horses are easily spooked animals, they practically jump at everything. With having a spooked horse all the time it is not safe to be on its back, because you or the horse can be seriously hurt. So as a way to make sure that you and the horse are safe, you introduce things to the horse that would typically spook a it like plastic bags, tarps, hats, flags, etc. You work them until those items no longer spook them.

So, for Whiskey its tarp day. I've watched a lot of videos on introducing tarps to a horse, each video were a little different but essentially the same. A lot of them had the horse on a lead rope in a round pen or not, and the tarp folded up on the ground. The trainers make the horse run in circles making them stop from a certain distance from the tarp and slowly worked it to the tarp. Eventually the horse will hesitantly either steps over the tarp or go around it. The end goal is to have the horse stop or walk directly on the tarp. This, for me was the longest route possible. Aint nobody got time,for that.

So I decided to introduce Whiskey directly to the tarp. I laid the tarp on the ground, led him over to it and let him check it out. Immediately walked right on it, no hesitation at all. He the started pawing it and crumpled the tarp into a ball. He's showing the tarp who's boss.

I led him over it several times just to make sure it wasnt a fluke. Each time across was a success, each time Whiskey was rewarded with pats and treats. Next, it was time to get him used to the tarp touching him.

Captain Whiskey Pants! 

With the tarp on him, it lets him get used to it being around him and being something he will see a lot of in his life. Don't worry about him overheating though, it's,still quite cold out and it wasnt on him long enough to hurt him. What i like to do with it then is rub him all over so that he could,get,used to the sound and feel.

After tarps we worked on our lunging. This is where we,make them go in circles around us in one direction without stopping then we switch directions.  Whiskey is dominately right handed. So making him go right is easier, than the other direction. But we still have to work him moving his feet. It is a work in progress, there is always roo for improvement. Even when a certain colt moves too fast and slips and falls in the mud making a mess of everyone, you always get back on your feet and keep going.

The next few months

In November 2018 Whiskey and Momma were able to return back to our property, and be reintroduced to the rest of the herd. Momma was still a bit under weight but not as bad as she was when we first got her in July. Whiskey on the other hand was growing like a weed.

 Poor Momma back in July/August.

 Momma by November.

By the end of November we had our first snow fall in Wyoming. Temperatures were dropping gradually, so we got blankets for Whiskey and Momma.  We found a dashing pink blanket for him, which he didn't keep on very long

 Merry Christmas Whiskey

Whiskey's Humble Beginning

This is Whiskey-River,Whiskey or Whisk for short. He is a Quarter Horse Paint and 3 months old at the time of the photo.

Not much is known about Whiskey's short past. But we know that sometime in 2018 both he and his mother, whom we call Momma, were sold at an auction to a Kill Lot Buyer in Louisiana. At auctions horses are sold to the highest bidder, and this is a Kill Lot Buyer dream, because they can buy horses for cheap, then they turn around and sell them to meat companies outside of the United States such as Mexico and Canada. There is a community of people that try to stop these Kill Lot Buyers by trying to raise money or donate full funds to save these horses and find them new forever homes.  This is how Whiskey and his mother came to Wyoming. An angel bailed both Momma and Baby (at the time didn't have a name), and she sent them to my Sister-in-law in Afton, Wyoming. 

Both horses were devastatingly malnourished, Mama more-so than Whiskey due to him still nursing her. 

Welcome to Afton, Wyoming Whiskey and Momma. 

After the first week of being in Afton, Whiskey and Momma was moved over on a 10 acre plot of land, that belonged to my sister-in-laws friend, just a few miles away from home.  They were there to help eat down the field and were there until Quarantine was over for the other horses that we had on the property back at the house. Horses there were under a 90 day quarantine due to a horse that was exposed to Equine Infectious Anemia or EIA which is also known as Swamp Fever was brought to us.

EIA is a horse disease caused by a retrovirus, which is transmitted by bloodsucking insects, contaminated surgical vet tools and recycled needles and syringes. Mares can also pass it to their foals.  To learn more about Equine Infectious Anemia click here.  It was very serious, because a kill lot in Colorado that the one horse who was exposed came from allowed a different horse infected with the disease to come to the lot, crossing multiple state lines to get to the Lot without proper medical waivers and coggins test.  This exposed hundreds of horses on the lot, and those horses left the lot which then exposed other horses.  So all who had horses that came from this particular lot in Colorado and all horses that it came into were under quarantine for 90 days.

After the quarantine was up in November, Whiskey and Momma, along with four other horses were allowed to come home.  During this time we wanted to separate Momma and Whiskey, so that Momma can continue to regain her weight and Whiskey was at the age of being weened. Those first few days after being separated were quite hard on everyone, because Momma and Whiskey cried for each other.  Welcome home again.