Nothing but spam

So far I've gotten 2 nuisance phone calls and 5 spam emails on the ads for Red.

After the storm last night, I found several broken plastic posts in the feeding area, but the horses stayed in. Sam discovered there was no current in the fence. So I replaced the posts and checked the fence. The tape had caught again on barbed wire, shorting the current out.

It turns out that plastic posts and tape are great as temporary fencing. We've done pretty well until now. As long as the current is strong, there's no problem. But they break easily and we've replaced at least 20 of them. Next year, we'll be replacing them all with a permanent solution. Some sections of wood and either rigid plastic tape or high tensile wire. We'll see.

Gorgeous, but headstrong horse for sale

I’ve decided to sell Red. I’ve put an ad in the local Trading Post and on AgDirect.com. I realize now what everyone tried to tell me--you can’t ride color or looks. Red is green broke and I know he’s trainable because William in KY made progress with him. He doesn't bite any more or chew on his lead-I've been able to achieve that much. He loves being groomed and I can pick his hooves. He will be a good horse for someone strong, who knows how to handle a horse. He needs to be separated from my mare. He’d be a great show horse because of his looks and build. Give me an older well trained trail horse-not two horses to train--and I'll be happy.

The kick in the groin (still sore and swollen after 3 weeks) took the wind out of my sails. I haven’t done any more than feed, groom and clean up after the horses since then. My confidence is rattled and for a few days I felt like giving up-but I won’t.

You keep doin' this, I'm takin' it away

That’s it. Our escape artist continues to duck under the fence or use her foot to knock down the tape and get out. Red is either too big or not flexible enough or just plain afraid of the tape to get out, thank God.

So we’ve cut the horses off from the front pasture since it was pretty much eaten down to nothing and frost is on the way. The electricity is a little stronger now, spread out over half the distance. But the bigger problem is that Sparkler can hit the tape with her foot and the plastic insulators pop open and the tape comes down.

Sam and I put together the round bale horse feeder.

Still not funny

She got out again this morning. Aarrrghh.

Plum crazy

OK, it's not funny any more. Sparkler has gotten out every morning now since Tuesday. We always find her near the plum tree. I guess they are quite a treat. But she goes back in easily. So tonight, we went through each section of the fence and found why it was shorting out. Three sections of tape had drooped and got caught in the barbs of the wire. Now the zap is back. Try it now, Houdini.

She's Houdini now

Yesterday I started down the drive at 6:15 a.m., just barely light, to get an early start after being gone almost a week from work. I noticed Sparkler and thought she seemed awfully close to me. Sure enough, she had gone under the fence and out from the newest part of the pasture and had pulled down the bottom line of tape. So I opened the closest gate and almost had her back in when she turned and ran away. OK, so I got Bob out of bed and he got a bucket of food and let her in while I fended off Red as he tried to get out. We fixed the tape.

Today, same thing, only the tape was down at a different point. Either the weeds are grounding out the electricity to the tape or the solar charger isn't big enough for the additional pasture.

Damn you, Red (2)

It was a beautiful day. It would have been perfect to ride Sparkler. After grooming Red, I thought, I'd just do a little ground work with him. Why didn't I stop after the grooming? We went outside to the round pen to do some simple leading. I could sense some hesitation when we entered the ring, but thought I needed to be strong and show him who's boss. When he started pushing against my shoulder, I turned to spin him by moving his rear with my hand to his mid section. I thought I was safely away from his read end, but I was wrong. After one circle, he caught me in groin with his rear leg. It made a really neat hoof mark on my khakis. But I was in agony and he was the boss once again.

The really bothersome thing is that Sparkler is the one who loses.

It's clear, I need to find a new home for Red.

Farrier woes

I worked late Tuesday night so I could take W-F off, so Vicki and I didn't do our Tuesday night thing. My "vacation" is going to be a chance to work on my to-do list of leftover remodeling projects, so I'll have little time for horses. But I chatted with Dawna and she invited me to Elaine's for her final horse handling class. She had a full arena and once again I picked up several new techniques to try.

I also found out why the farrier I've been trying to contact hasn't returned my calls. He's moving away from the area. The girls gave me the names of two others to try.