Nyeah! Nyeah!

I'm all muddy and I don't care!

Drooling

Not only does she stick her tongue out more than any horse I've ever known, but Abby is also the drooliest!

Why, yes, that is her tongue hanging out. Again.

Shark Bait

My sister, Leslie, had a mastectomy last week, and says she looks like she was bitten by a shark. So, when I found this picture of a cross country jump, I had to share!

Ironically, the event was a fund raiser for breast cancer!

Don't Mess with What's Mine

"I don't care if you're the herd alpha or not!"

"Stay away from my mom and my candy canes, Diablo!"

Pre-Adoption Pictures

I was online tonight looking at Indiana Horse Rescue's "Success!" site and found some pictures of Abby, a couple of which I had not seen.

This one was new to me. 

 As was this one. This looks like the Abby I know and love!

 This was her adoption picture on the web site when she was available.

Another one that is new to me. I really like this one.

As I look at these pictures of her, I am amazed someone did not snap her up before I found her!

Leslie's Horses

I was on the Indiana Horse Rescue site tonight and found some pictures that Leslie had sent in of her herd!

Skippy, Beau, and Coco out in the field.

 Leslie says that when she brought Coco to her farm, Beau and Skippy were like, "Hey! We got a pony! She got us a pony!!"

Coco at Indiana Horse Rescue. (He was one of the 19 horses rescued with Abby.)

 Prior to adoption by Leslie.

That's one fuzzy pony!

At the Gate

I love this picture of Mason - he's very much a loner, and usually all by himself on one side of the barn. Today when I came out to fill the tough and check the herd, he came over to say "hello."

Copy Cat! (Er, Copy Horse?)

Either Diablo is saying, "Neener, neener!" to Abby and Dolly, or she's copying Abby's habit of flapping her tongue in the wind!

She's certainly not hot and sweaty, and panting in the heat, that's for sure!

The Queen

She may be eighteen and arthritic, but this mare is the herd queen.

Trouble outweighs her by quite a bit, but he and Hokey give way to her without question. All Diablo has to do is pin her ears or snake her neck, and they hustle on out of there.

Today when I arrived, I saw Trouble and Hokey suddenly bolt from the hayrack, and there Diablo was, nipping their backsides and then swinging her hind end towards them and threatening a kick. They didn't even argue - they were out of there!

She ambled over to the gate to say hello to me with Abby right behind her and Dolly tagging after them both. It amuses me to see the way the mares have banded together, and as a result, Abby is not pushed around by Trouble quite so much.

It pays to buddy up to the queen!

An Afternoon Visit

She's munching hay and unaware that I have arrived to visit.

 So, I call her name. "Aaaabbyyy!"

 Up pops the head. She knows my voice!

And she turns away from her meal to come visit at the gate while I run the water.

We chat and I feed her a couple of treats and rub her face and neck. Such a relaxing part of my day!

Buying a horse is one of the best decisions I have made - it's been ten months, and I love being a horse owner again.

Neener, Neener!

What is it with Abby and her tongue?

Hanging waaay out.

Just the tip peeking out.

And here it comes again.

I have never known a horse who sticks its tongue out like Abby!

(I find it rather endearing.)

Water!!

Tim is still trying to fox the water at the barn. In the meantime, we are using the neighbors' well to fill the trough.

After not having running water, you sure appreciate it more when you see the water start flowing!

Hokey came over for a visit while the trough was filling. I love the late-February look of this picture.

Fixing the Water

When I did my carrot run this afternoon, Tim was there and had been working on fixing the water since noon, about five and a half hours! He was covered in mud from his head to his feet - it looked as though he had gone down into the ground with the pipes or laid down and rolled in the mud like the horses do.

He'd gotten the water fixed to the barn that's rented by a couple with five spotted saddle horses, but to his frustration, water was still not flowing through the pipes to our horses. He'd left the spigot handle up, and I offered to go check so he didn't have to hike back and forth between the trough and the spot where he was working on the pipes. To my surprise, the spigot began dripping as I arrived, and then a small trickle began to flow through it and down into the nearly empty trough.

I walked back to the mud hole where Tim was still working and told him the good news. He hopped on the tractor and came over to look for himself. But then he shook his head in disgust as he looked at the teeny, tiny stream of water.

"Good grief, I think I could pee faster than that," he growled. Then he seemed to remember I was standing there and gave me a very sheepish grin.

I don't think Tim was having a very good day.

No Water

This morning I was out to the barn around lunchtime to check on the herd. Hokey was up by the trough getting a drink, so I decided I would spend some time with him while I topped off the tank with water.

To my surprise, the water was pretty low, a little unusual as we always keep it topped up. I flipped the spigot's handle to open the tap, but nothing happened. No water flowed through the faucet. Not even a trickle.

Not good.

I gave Hokey a couple of horse cookies and then decided I ought to make sure Tim knew that there appeared to be a problem with the water supply to the horses.  I wondered if perhaps the line was frozen underground.

The reality was even worse than that. Tim texted, "I cut the water line on Thursday. :( Hope to fix it on Monday when the weather warms."

I am not sure how he cut the line, or what it will take to fix it. In the meantime, we can run a hose from the barn out to the pasture so the horses have fresh water. It will be some work, and we'll have to make sure we drain the hose afterward so it doesn't freeze, but that's better than watering six horses bucket by bucket!

(Which I used to do with Amy and our original herd. Not fun in the winter AT ALL.)

Cartoon Abby

An acquaintance directed me to a site on the web where you can create My Little Pony cartoons. She said it was fun playing with the various creative aspects of the site and suggested I give it a whirl. Somewhat skeptical, I did, thinking it would be a colossal waste of time. But, just for fun, I decided to do a cartoon Abby anyway.

Notice that she's in a library and is a reading horse, naturally!

I was surprised to find the process fun and relaxing, and an easy way to create for the art-impaired. (Which would be me.)

Feeling Frisky

The barn was a busy place this afternoon. Tim was out riding Trouble, Grace and Jenny were on Hokey and Mason,  and I was handing out carrots to the girls. Linda, Grace and Jenny's mom, arrived with their enormous dog, Bruiser, in tow shortly after I got there. You could sure tell it was a warm Saturday afternoon!

And the horses were feeling a bit sassy. Abby chased Diablo away from me four times - I had to sneak poor Diablo carrots when Abby was otherwise occupied. (Diablo is the herd alpha; I was surprised she tolerated Abby's uppity behavior.)

 Looks pretty demure, doesn't she? 

All Abby wants are the carrots she knows I have. And she WASN'T interested in sharing - that's Diablo in the background.

Tim, Grace, and Jenny finished their rides and turned their horses loose in the pasture. This started a chain of rolling, horse after horse dropping to his or her knees and flopping into the lovely mud.

Hokey was the first. (He rolls a lot, but he never seems to get muddy like Abby does.)

Next was Trouble, while Dolly (left) and Hokey (right) look on.

 Now Diablo and Abby are wallowing.

 The girls made sure they got both sides - after all, the mud is a beneficial part of their beauty routine!

And they continue to roll.

Finally, Abbs decides she's done and heaves herself to her feet.

Then she gives a sassy toss of her head and begins cantering around the pasture while Diablo gets one last back scratch.

 Abby canters by me as Diablo rises. 

 And they all trot and snort around for a few moments.

Dolly joins Abby and Diablo in frisking around.

The girls circle by Trouble and Mason.

And Abby comes back to me, hopeful for one last carrot before I leave. 

Pampered Pony

Why, yes! As a matter of fact, I have been using the barn's mud-bath spa!

I love the feel of the warm squishy goo so much so...

 ... that I make sure it covers my entire body...

...from my head, neck and shoulders...

... and down my barrel. Even my hips, legs, and tail get the full treatment.

 ::sigh::

Life is good! Just call me a pampered pony!

Stopping By [Barn] on a Snowy Evening

Tonight's visit to the barn made me think of Robert Frost's immortal poem.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. 

While there are woods out by the barn, I was watching the pasture fill up with snow. The coats of the horses looked as though they'd been dusted with powdered sugar. And there was the sound of the "sweep  of easy wind and downy flake."

 Diablo, Dolly, and Abby.

(Look closely at my girl - the tongue's hanging out again!)