Villhauer's Farm Blessings: Rotate

As I have rotated from school life to summer life,
I have been rotating from task to task.
During the school year I used to kid and say
"Stop the merry-go-round, I want to get off.",
when it seemed life was spinning out of control

Last Wednesday I decided to give Roni the day off...It was too hot. I spent the day rotating horses from grass, into stalls, to shaded grazing spots as well as cleaning, filling and rotating water buckets. The chickens rotated around the yard as the shade moved with the sun. I rotated in and out of the house several times, getting cooled off by the air conditioning. I picked up around the house when inside, including doing a few loads of laundry. I pulled weeds and planted 2 of the 3 replacement red bud trees.

This first picture, looking north, shows 2 new red buds and the nicely weeded garden. You can also see that the phlox is stressed from the heat and lack of water.

This next photo, looking south, shows a dead red bud that needs replacing and the weeds out of control. The yellow handle of my dandelion picker shows where I need to continue weeding.

And this last picture shows the finished effect, including the third red bud, which you can't really see.

Joe helped me take down the fencing by the chicken coop that kept the ducks and chicks contained. The yellow grass line is where it had been.

I have to rotate Norman into Zorro's stall at feeding time, otherwise Sir Loin steals his food. Sir Loin will wolf down his food first and then push Norman away and eat his also.

Joe helped me load Roni at 7am Thursday and I headed over to Marj's for a lesson. He did great, and I continue to learn new things and get great reminders as to what I could improve on. There was a 50% chance of rain starting at noon and continuing throughout the day, so I decided to get more yard work done until it started raining. Well, by 4:00, I was dead tired and a bit sun burned and the rain still hadn't come. I had a large wheel barrow full of weeds but can see where I had weeded a week ago needs it again. I guess I need to rotate around the house weeding the flower beds. I decided to let the cow boys into the corn crib along with Roni to get out of the hot sun. They rotated in and out during the heat of the day. They also messed up the clean bedding. Like the kitchen floor, clean only lasts a minute.

     Friday I went for a late morning ride on Roni. He continues to progress with ground work and in the round pen. Also, he has, for the most part, stopped rushing when on the mowed paths in the pasture, even when we are heading toward the barn. I think it's because I go all around every which way on the trails and we pass by the barn multiple times. After 40 min or so, we headed down the drive....and right away Roni was turning his head and asking to go back. I nudged him with the leg he was bending towards and encouraged him to go forward. He was getting agitated and started gaiting. I let him gait down the rest of the drive and along the front till he
                                                     slowed down. We went along the east

side and across the back by the tracks. But when we got to Becks, he did not want to continue forward, especially to cross the tracks. I tried different things to encourage him to continue on...but he was getting mad. I was a little frustrated and also worried that I couldn't get him to calm down.

So I let him slowly gait back to the round pen where I then worked him. He went at different speeds, some times quite fast, probably a canter. I just rode it out. If he decided to stop to walk, a gentle tap with my foot and he was off again. We probably did 10 circles in each direction. Then when he finally decided he was done I had him walk back over to Becks. He was soooo much better. He did get going a little fast when we turned to come home and I circled him and had him go in the opposite direction. Once calm we would turn for home. I kept doing this, wondering if we would ever get home. But it wasn't long and he decided to walk in a civilized manner all the way back. I got off right away, gave him hugs and rubs, and hosed him off. He was really scared of the hose at first, even though it was on low pressure, but once it was on his legs, he stood still and seemed to soak it up. Then I took him into the round pen and let him have a good roll in the sand. He was in 7th heaven.

I cleaned and refilled the turtle pond / duck pool,

moved the pile of gravel to get it out of the way in the drive,

and used it to help support the side of the pool and make it easier for the ducks to climb in and out.

The turtles hide while the ducks are swimming, but re-surface once the coast is clear. The ducks rotate in and out of the pool several times during the day, especially when it is hot and sunny, but boy do they muddy the waters quickly.

We went to a bon fire/ cook-out party enjoying good food and drink. Once home, well after dark, I checked on and closed up the barn and coop. I was missing Buck Tooth Betty when I counted chickens, ducks and turkey. I searched everywhere for her....and finally gave up, hoping she was hiding out somewhere.
The next morning...there she was, in the coop.

A bit later, Courtney came over and we started to load our two horses. Amiga did not want to load at first and it took an hour to load Zorro. Richard finally had to come over to help us. We hauled them to Marj's where our lameness vet was checking on several other horses. Come to find out, our horses are both lame. The vet needs to ultra sound Zorro and do the nerve block on Amiga to determine the exact problems. It is so frustrating and depressing. He thinks Zorro's old injury is back...and that it may be a chronic problem. As for Amiga, it may be in the hip joint...or possibly a suspensory ligament like Zorro. I have not ridden her for 10 weeks, nor has she been allowed to run and play. And this is nothing compared to what Courtney has been through with Zorro.

To add to my frustration, there is the issue with our hay. It is about 5 weeks past peak. We have had probably 5 days with no rain...but Mark was cutting and bailing all his other fields. I think we are last on his list but he said we are next in line. Rain was in the forecast yesterday, today and tomorrow, so he is waiting for a better forecast. But it still hasn't rained. Mark doesn't want to chance it...but at this point, the hay will not be good enough for horses. The photo above is of Roni out on the back pasture with the cow boys. The black speck to the left of Roni is a red wing black bird that was dive bobbing him. You can barely see the white spot on Normans back (near the corner post).
In this photo, you can see that

Norman is growing little horns. I am guessing they will be like Chucks.
I was standing at the kitchen window, and saw one of the young squirrels snooping around.

It wasn't long and he found his way over to the duck pool. He hung over the edge to get a drink and next thing you know....splash. I went running out with camera in hand to go save him.

All the splashing indicated he was thrashing around, but I could not see him. Just as I got to the edge of the pool, he had gotten his footing on the slide step and popped out of the pool. He went dashing up the closest tree and proceeded to dry himself off.

   Saturday afternoon I took Roni out to Moraine View and had a nice trail ride with Marj, Richard, Judy and Ron. Roni was pretty wound up most of the time, but it was good for him and I didn't mind the challenge. It was great to be back on the trail again. I was still feeling sad about not having Amiga to ride...but even worse for Courtney.
     Joe came out later to join us for a bon-fire/cook-out and do a little bit of kayaking.   Once home, at almost 10, I saw a large creature walking across the drive toward my turtle/duck pond. I thought it was the big Tom cat we have seen and tried to scare off, but it moved oddly. A few minutes later when I went out to the barn, I scared a big old coon up the poplar tree by the garden. I think it was trying to get into the compost bin. Buck Tooth
                                                                                    Betty was

missing again, and I immediately suspected the coon, but this time I really searched in the coop and look where I found her....right over head. The board she is on is about 6 feet up, and drops down when it is cold to close the window which is screened.

After Church Sunday, I went back out to Moraine view with Roni and joined my friends for another trail ride. We were out for two hours this time. Roni did better, he was more relaxed....but had intermittent times of getting really wound up and acting very anxious. He definitely likes to be the leader of the pack. Returning late in the afternoon, I didn't have much more energy other than to unload everything from the trailer and do evening chores.

Monday morning I had a nice slow ride on Roni, walking him the whole 40 min. I was so proud of him. The average horse person would watch us and say "Woop dee doo, what's so special about that?" But his previous owner would probably be amazed, (he would run away with her). The big thing accomplished was that he never got tensed or wound up. We eventually went outside the pasture and walked the perimeter of our property. His energy level started to pick up out by the rail road tracks but I immediately massaged the rains a few times, kept my energy very low and relaxed, and told him easy. And in a few strides he relaxed again. He even walked back up the drive toward the barn in a slow relaxed manner. I un-tacked him right away, rubbing and praising him. And he had no sweat on him at all. Usually he gets all sweaty just from nervous tension. I felt like this was so good for him. I had also done ground work in the round pen, and I saw improvement there. He is such a nice boy. He tries to please when he is not all wound up. Not sure what I did the rest of the day, but once Joe was home, I helped him with the new truck load of wood shavings. We stripped and then re-filled the stalls.

Today it was supposed to be stormy, so I gave Roni the day off. We did get a little shower in the morning, but it ended up clearing off and being nice....cool but windy. I did the usual chores...cleaning and filling water buckets, tanks, pools, and bowls; picked up sticks, scooped poop, mucked stalls, brushed and sprayed horses, mowed, etc. Once Joe got home we did repairs for an hour out in the barn. Re-did some hooks, fixed some broken hardware, etc. He had also brought home a small load of dirt so we filled in holes around the yard. I planted grass seed by the chicken coop where the duck girls had turned the yard into a big mud puddle.

We moved the horse grazing pens. Now that Zorro and Amiga are both on complete stall rest, we rotate them in and out of their stalls to these grazing pens twice a day. They can't be together because they get too rambunctious, but they are near each other for company. We have to move the grazing pens almost daily.

Roni gets rotated from the corn crib to paddock twice a day as well. And the cow boys just rotate them selves in and out of the back pasture for water and shade.

If it is real hot or stormy, I'll leave the corn crib open while Roni is out with the cow boys. He goes out in the back pasture with them and comes into the corn crib with them also. Some times he moves them out of his way.