Well, here we go; my first blog post on my farm site! It's been a long time coming, but we are finally all moved and settling into our new home, horses in included, and since this is a blog recapping our first week of having the horses at home I'll just jump right into things.
We moved into our house on December 5th, and began the mad rush to get our fencing up and barn all prepped with the goal of bringing all my horses home in time for Christmas. Was that goal a bit insane? Yes... absolutely. Did I lose my mind trying to get everything done? Totally. Would I do it all again? In a heartbeat. Having my horses home for the holidays was the best gift I ever could have gotten.
After roughly two weeks of putting up fencing and prepping the barn, I was as ready as I could be for them to arrive. My two paint horses, Bug and Jazz, came first on Sunday the 20th. They both settled in very quickly and made themselves right at home. They happily dug through the snow to munch on the grass until it was all but gone and enjoyed exploring their little paddock and watching my dad and I finish working in the barn.
My 8 month old filly, Millie, and my mini Harley and his best friend Reign (who came home with Harley since they're both such good buddies, and I figured it would be nice to have an extra paddock friend) all came the following afternoon. Bug and Jazz were hilarious to watch as they tried to figure out the minis. I put Millie and the minis in one small paddock, and Bug and Jazz were in the other so that both groups could meet each other with the fence between them for safety. It's a good thing I did things this way since Bug was bound and determined to chase Millie off the property for the first two days that they were home. He tore his and Jazz's paddock to shreds and turned the last of their grass to complete and sucky mud from charging the fence line at Millie as well as herding Jazz away from the others.
It was incredibly frustrating to watch, but understandable as well. Bug was only doing what a horse in the wild would do, he was being territorial of his area as well as keeping "his" mare away from these unfamiliar horses. I can't blame him for doing what nature told him to do, but I could have done without their paddock turning to soup...
Millie and the minis also settled in very quickly, and were mostly unphased by Bug's antics, by the end of the week all five of them were co-existing in the run-in on their respective halves. Everyone was sharing hay, Bug was being less of a butthead, things were feeling nice and happy just in time for Christmas.
Things were going well, everyone was settling in fantastically, I was getting into a routine with my morning and evening chores, I got my "tack room" nicely organized, my mom and I even decorated our barn for Christmas! So everything was uneventful, until it wasn't.
The day after Christmas, we got a tiny bit of snow. Nothing like what was predicted or what I was hoping for but there was a nice little dusting. I was feeling really guilty about keeping the horses all up in their small paddocks. With the nice freshly fallen snow and what I thought was frozen ground (oh, how wrong I was), I figured why not let them all out in my bigger paddock where they all would be an integrated herd. Why not just do it now, rather than wait? Let me just say, always wait...
Out they all went into the larger paddock, with a chill in the air and this bigger area they all went flying around. Jazz and Millie were bucking with excitement and racing with Bug. The minis did some brief cantering around before settling in together to pick at the grass. But the big kids were zooming, they were zooming like they'd never zoomed before, especially Bug. Now, Bug, how I love him dearly, but when he gets cruisin' I think he loses all notion of where the heck his feet are going. I was taking photos and video for my site here as well as the farm Facebook page and I happened to witness the scariest thing of my life through my camera. Bug fell. He fell hard. He tumbled down onto his front legs, and when he got up he was literally cantering on three legs with his front right leg held out in front of him. It took everything I had within me not to scream in horror or vomit in that moment, I thought for sure that he had just broken his leg. I yelled for my mom, who was also in the barn to watch them enjoy their first time in the big paddock, to grab a halter so I could catch him. He was holding his leg up and refusing to put weight on it. As soon as I caught him and tried to get him to walk, which he did but painfully, I assumed the absolute worst.
To make a long story short, by some miracle and apparently one of Bug's nine lives or sheer good luck, his x-rays came back perfectly clean, not even a hairline fracture in sight. No heat or swelling in his legs, and his vet was able to palpate his muscles deeply telling us that he likely twisted something or sprained his knee, and bruised himself up pretty good. A couple of days in his stall to rest and some Banamine in his system will do the trick, and as I'm writing this he's almost completely sound again and ready to go back out!
And now that brings us to today, marking a whole week of having the horses on the farm. It's been quite the experience (thanks, Bug), and to sum things up, here's a list of some things that I've learned that I thought might be worth sharing:
Don't turn your horses out into your big paddock until it's COMPLETELY frozen... seriously, just don't.
If it can stick to the bottom of the wheelbarrow it will, and even if you didn't think it could stick to the bottom of the wheelbarrow it still will.
Not everyone is going to immediately love each other, and that's perfectly okay.
Always wear the extra layer that you don't think you need, you'll thank yourself later after you realize that the wind chill makes it WAY colder out than the temperature said.
Going out to do your barn chores in your pajamas is stupidly funny, even funnier when you can go almost a whole week without having to put on a bra because pretty much the only place you're going is a couple hundred feet outside of your house to your barn.
Hearing your horses nicker at you during feeding time is a sound you'll never get sick of.
Remember to breathe.
Always keep your eyes open for frozen poop piles.
A radio for the barn is one of the best things you can have, music makes the mucking go faster!
For the love of all things good and holy get a second pair of scissors, or put a long braid of baling twine on them, those things will go missing all on their own.
Dried alfalfa pellets blow up way bigger than you'd imagine when you add water... oops, the ponies got a little extra Christmas morning.
Someone will break something (or themselves) within the first week... trust me, and if they don't, dang that's lucky.
Mini horse poop is obnoxious to clean, time to add a finer fork to my shopping list.
You're going to practically be known by name at your local Tractor Supply really quick.
You are never going to want to leave your house again.
Your dog will love being a barn dog, and the tired dog is a good dog.
Put a phone cord in your barn, because it sucks when your phone dies and you're outside by yourself.
You will be able to snuggle your horses so much more than you ever thought was possible.
Oh my god these things poop a lot.
At the end of the day nothing compares to seeing your horses out your window, it is literally the best despite anything bad that happens.
And that just about sums up my first week of having my horses at home, boy what an adventure it's been already, I can't wait to see where we'll be after one month!
Until next time...
You forgot...And she lived happily ever after <3