A few days ago we finally moved the horses off of our pasture and on to a neighbors rented pasture. All that remained was to sort of some 4 or 6 horses from the herd to sort out for training and for pregnancy related reasons. Simply right? Well no. First things first it started to rain. We continued undaunted and started by moving a large beautiful horse named Nel in with the stud and removing this current partner Becky who was moving onto pasture. After a few circles of round and round we got Nel in and Becky out. Turns out Nel who is pregnant was none to fancy on the studs advances and as we walked away there was plenty of kicks and screams. Next cleared out the dry pen of all the horses we could lead out and let the rest in. Next came the horse from our pasture down the lane. We got them right where we wanted them and then the chaos began. The rain started to fall harder and the plan we had laid out in the house was redrawn on the spot. At the same time the horse, there being about 40 or so of them cramped in the narrow lane, broke the electric fence that held them in on one side and spread out in the now open dry pen. In the process Miah, a horse will a leg injury, got his bad leg wrapped in wire. We cut him free and a new plan was firmed out and we set to sorting horses. This completed we started the push to move the horses to the new pasture down the road. Well some of the horses we had sorted out really wanted to go with the herd, so much so that they broke down cattle panels and rejoined it. We were able to sort out 2 of the 3 horses that escape and decided to call that good. This finally completed we start again for the pasture. As the push started I jumped in the car and head with Deborah and Willa through the herd of fast moving horses in order to get ahead of them. Horses are not accustom to cars driving through there herd, nor am I accustom to begin in a car bolting through a herd of horses. The horses don't know what to do around cars and a yearling dart in front of us. A hard hit to the brakes kept us inches from him and we then quickly got through the rest of the herd. I jump out at neighbors gate to kept the horses from turning in. I only had to wait about a minute before a one ton horse came by at full gallop. Then came the rush of the main herd a few horses turn a head towards me but a few quick swings my rope convinced them to move on. As the last horse went by I walked out and push the herd from behind, not that they needed my help they were far up the road. All this completed we headed back to the farm after counting the number of horses in the new pasture. Arriving back we, interns, discovered that we were each to have a horse to train on our own from scratch. My horse is named Ben. He is a three year old blond sorrel gelding with a long curry mane and a white star on his head. I will write more about him later.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
The big move and a horse of my own
A few days ago we finally moved the horses off of our pasture and on to a neighbors rented pasture. All that remained was to sort of some 4 or 6 horses from the herd to sort out for training and for pregnancy related reasons. Simply right? Well no. First things first it started to rain. We continued undaunted and started by moving a large beautiful horse named Nel in with the stud and removing this current partner Becky who was moving onto pasture. After a few circles of round and round we got Nel in and Becky out. Turns out Nel who is pregnant was none to fancy on the studs advances and as we walked away there was plenty of kicks and screams. Next cleared out the dry pen of all the horses we could lead out and let the rest in. Next came the horse from our pasture down the lane. We got them right where we wanted them and then the chaos began. The rain started to fall harder and the plan we had laid out in the house was redrawn on the spot. At the same time the horse, there being about 40 or so of them cramped in the narrow lane, broke the electric fence that held them in on one side and spread out in the now open dry pen. In the process Miah, a horse will a leg injury, got his bad leg wrapped in wire. We cut him free and a new plan was firmed out and we set to sorting horses. This completed we started the push to move the horses to the new pasture down the road. Well some of the horses we had sorted out really wanted to go with the herd, so much so that they broke down cattle panels and rejoined it. We were able to sort out 2 of the 3 horses that escape and decided to call that good. This finally completed we start again for the pasture. As the push started I jumped in the car and head with Deborah and Willa through the herd of fast moving horses in order to get ahead of them. Horses are not accustom to cars driving through there herd, nor am I accustom to begin in a car bolting through a herd of horses. The horses don't know what to do around cars and a yearling dart in front of us. A hard hit to the brakes kept us inches from him and we then quickly got through the rest of the herd. I jump out at neighbors gate to kept the horses from turning in. I only had to wait about a minute before a one ton horse came by at full gallop. Then came the rush of the main herd a few horses turn a head towards me but a few quick swings my rope convinced them to move on. As the last horse went by I walked out and push the herd from behind, not that they needed my help they were far up the road. All this completed we headed back to the farm after counting the number of horses in the new pasture. Arriving back we, interns, discovered that we were each to have a horse to train on our own from scratch. My horse is named Ben. He is a three year old blond sorrel gelding with a long curry mane and a white star on his head. I will write more about him later.
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