The Golden Carrot Newsletter's Archive
May 23, 2010 Newsletter
The Golden Carrot
Winter-like weather continues to plague TGC
TGC is still in a 'spring/winter/spring' weather pattern, so everytime we start to do something, the weather kicks up again and brings us to a halt. As I write today (May 23), we've had several blasts of snow/sleet to go with the icy wind which has plagued us for a week.
In Mid April, we had quite a snowstorm, as these pics illustrate.
I guess the only good part of this is - donations have been slow and low, so I was unable to purchase the 300-400 bales of grass hay I'd hoped to stockpile for the summer, and so - no damage! However, we're still hoping to be able to buy a large 'wall of hay' as we did last year, not only for the convenience of it, but because buying in large quantities allows savings in the thousands of dollars...and if there was ever a year for getting every possible savings, I think this is it! Please think of us if you have anything left from your tax return.... and always remember the power of numbers. That is, if enough of you will donate even $20 a month, a LOT of good can be done....
Daisy gets first roundpen workout - possible problem?
Of the three rescues this year, Daisy, the oldest, has recovered from her difficulties the best and fastest. She is truly one gorgeous mare, and it was hard for me to understand how a 23 year old mare could look this good - perfect legs, lovely ground manners, fat, shiny and sassy on a fraction of the feed I give the others. My first guess is that perhaps she'd been a broodmare - lord knows the 'color' people like to breed their horses. So I figured I would start her in the roundpen and see if she had any experience. She does. And with her willful and strong personality, she wants to have her way.
However, after only a short session, she was working for me well. Unfortunately, she was also breathing very very loudly! I've seen her play with much more force and for longer without it, but the noise was noticeable enough, and odd enough in a mare that had barely cracked a sweat, that I stopped and walked her for another couple of minutes, in which time her breathing became normal again. I'm going to research a condition I've heard of called "roaring", and then possibly consult with Fred Zadick, our vet, before I continue working her. Later in the newsletter, you'll read that Daisy was turned out with the herd, and although the breathing wasn't as loud after a tremendous workout, she DID make this odd sound again, and just as quickly recovered. So perhaps Daisy has a condition that kept her from being used a lot..... More, as I learn it...
Oso, Daisy and Anaba introduced into main herd
This was so dang exciting, I forgot my camera! I've never turned three horses into my herd at once - in fact, never more than one at a time. I fretted for weeks trying to decide how to do it - as those of you who have visited will remember, there is a large open area where the horses have breakfast and spend most of their day, and a very brushy, rocky, hilly area where they go for shade and scratching late in the day, and then a clear area where I have the hotwalker, and the sand wallow. I decided to turn the three out in the back area by the hotwalker, with a barrel of water and their bermuda grass, after I had turned out the main herd to eat their bermuda in the front open area. Thus, everyone's eating breakfast, and getting used to where they are, and they can start to explore the brushy area when they want to, learning it before meeting the main herd .....Boy, was I wrong.
Luckily for us, volunteers Andrew and Ingrid were there to help and had both brought their cameras. There may be other pics, but these are the ones they have provided for me so far. Leslie and Shela were also on hand, in case of any situation that needed more bodies to control. Like we had control, wow!
Oso, Daisy and Anaba walked calmly over to the hotwalker area for breakfast as though they'd done it every day. I'd given them an early morning bucket of senior and pellets to be sure they had something on board if they were too excited to eat. I'm glad I did that, as they each sniffed their bermuda grass and started looking around. Oso made sure he had distance between all people and himself, and took off like a crazy man, with startled Daisy and Anaba in hot pursuit! They roared out of the back area, took the main path through the brush, and burst into the main paddock screaming 'hello' and 'watch out' as they came! We had about 10 minutes of thundering around, with every gelding latching onto Daisy, who was styling frantically with her tail flagged and mane flying, and group after group cautiously approaching Oso who ran the fenceline with little Anaba skipping along with him (I don't think she could keep up with Daisy and her fans).
Above, Oso tells Topper to keep her distance, while Ronan steps away ....Below Ronan whispers advice to Oso....
After the first 10 minutes of drama, Oso led his ladies, at a dead run, back to the hotwalker area. They WERE followed, tho, by Lew and HIS ladies, Star, Song and eventually Chacha (who is not fond of the rougher footing in this area).
Lew and Oso decided to talk the matter out over breakfast, which had been interrupted by all this silliness...
and Lew kept an eye out for his ladies, who were checking out Daisy, on whom Star developed a huge and immediate "girl crush"...