Sheep eat horses, don't they?

The other night - before it turned cold and fall-like and gorgeous - the three of us were out for a ride.  It was one of those hot, semi-muggy, still nights where the dust just hangs in the air.  Everything was very peaceful, and we were all enjoying just moseying along watching the sun sink.

We were riding our usual 8-mile loop around the country roads, covering familiar ground.  About 5 miles along on one of the corners there's a house set just back off the road on a little tree-covered hill encircled by pasture.  They've had in the past the occasional small herd of cattle and a random horse or two turned out, but this year the grass has been knee-deep and undisturbed but for the occasional pheasant when we've passed.

On this particular occasion, however, there was a whole flock of knee-high fluffy white things roaming around out there, the setting sun giving their fleeces a gold-toned rosy glow. 

Snort!

Buddy had spotted something - but what!?  Hooves skidded to a gravel-rattling stop.  Suddenly T and J were both mounted on very tall, very alert horses.  Sunny and Thunder applied brakes, as well, looking around for whatever was bothering the other two.  

At the sound of gravel scattering, sheep heads popped up.  Baa-aaa - inquisitive sheep noises ensued and the flock advanced bouncily to about 50' away, round white bodies hopping and rustling through the long grass.  Buddy and Rufus were not enthused.  They danced.  T and J insisted they remain to face the onslaught.  Sunny and Thunder divided their attention between watching to make sure the other two horses weren't going to sidle into them and surveying the pasture for the "scary" thing.

The sheep paused.  

Baaa-aaaa I couldn't resist - I baaed back at them.  And apparently communicated the equivalent of, "Come and get it!"  A tidal wave of sheep headed our way as fast as they could come.... 

T and J had their hands full with snorting, spinning horses convinced they were going to get eaten.  Sunny and Thunder were looking around still trying to figure out what had the other two horses so concerned (they live with sheep, so after the initial surprise of seeing something move in a routinely empty pasture, weren't worried about anything that went baaaa).  And me?  I was trying not to fall off I was laughing so hard.  Sigh...

The sheep were brave enough to get within about 25' of the fence before I moved Sunny toward them and they fled leaping and still baaing in the other direction around the tree grove and out of sight. 

I do love my "spooky" boys - LOL!

Sunday wrap-up

The tractor's issue - one of them at least - turned out to be needing the clutch bled. The horses have their bale.

And the weekend didn't completely revolve around sheep. I picked up a mineral tub for the horses. They always have a mineral block, but they've been hanging over the fence to gnaw bark. Since they're all round and not squabbling over the hay at feeding time, I'm guessing they're not getting something nutrient-wise from the hay that they need.

After much label reading, the one I picked up is intended for horses getting hay, but not grain. (It has some other attractive qualities, too, but darned if I can recall exactly what they were without the label in front of me.

At any rate, the horses were thrilled.

Star discovered it immediately and left the first teeth marks, but at one time or another they were all nibbling at it. They also upped their water intake - another plus. For now the tub's located up by the waterer, so if they're locked out of water while G fills corn buckets for the sheep we don't have to worry about them eating at it and then not getting in to drink.

I also removed windtangles and checked the geldings' sheathes for stud crud. Too cold to actually do a cleaning, but maybe next weekend. They're also due to be wormed, but I didn't want to introduce the mineral tub and worm both the same weekend, and since I remembered the wrong wormer when I picked it up.... Next weekend for that.

This afternoon we took Aiysha back. I'll miss her furry little body keeping my feet warm tonight.

And discovered that the cows had pushed through one of the upper gates and followed the tractor tracks down to the hay storage area. They were happy enough to be herded back where they belonged, though.



So the weekend started and ended with escapees - none of them equine, thank goodness. Fingers crossed that trend continues.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend, too!

Saturday

Bright, early, and cold we headed out to the farm. I pushed a bit of hay to the horses and then we hauled corn and fed alfalfa to the outside sheep.

Sorry, guys - no corn for you. You'll have to make do with your alfalfa bale.

The lambs, mostly too small to enjoy getting corn just yet, scurried and scampered out of the way of their mamas rush to the corn feeders. These aren't first-year ewes. Most of them are fairly massive, and the majority out weigh me by a fair amount. I made the mistake of being first in with a bucket, and found myself nearly swept off my feet. With a seething mass of wooliness thigh high all around me, the only thing that kept me upright was the lack of space to fall down.

T, bless him, stood by the gate laughing at me, because once I'd dumped the grain out I was stuck - wedged against the feeder by sheep shoulders. Their bellies are so round that there was space by the feeder, but I couldn't squeeze myself through the press to escape.

He finally took pity on me and dumped his buckets in the other feeder, causing a rush in that direction.

Tractor surgery was next. The battery terminals on the tractor were bad, and we weren't sure about the battery. Turned out it needed a new block heater cable, too.
Back after retrieving the tractor necessities, there were new lambs. Unfortunately, several of them were already dead - even inside the barn with the lamp heaters, it's just so cold...

This one was still fighting, but mama was more interested in already dead sibling to care. In the vet room where it's warm we got it dried off, a bit of milk down it, and hoped for the best.Aiysha curled up next the the little guy and washed his ears - I figured her body heat sure couldn't hurt.

With as much done on that front as we could, we headed over the the vet's to get chores done there. All was peaceful. So after one last lamb check (still hanging in there) we headed home.

Farm weekend - Friday

We had made arrangements with the farm owners to watch the farm this weekend so that they could take a long weekend. They were supposed to go over Christmas, then New Years, but the weather this year hasn't proved too cooperative for traveling.

Escapees

They were able to get away this weekend finally, as aside from lingering cold weather, things were relatively clear. G always leaves extensive directions as to which flock of sheep gets fed what, and this time of year we watch for new lambs, as well.

Ummm... You guys are not where you belong!

The Black Hills Stock Show is underway out in Rapid City - and two sets of friends headed in that direction this weekend. The vet, where Rufus is staying, has a horse competing. His place is also pretty easy - a couple buckets of grain, check the cows & horses, and fill the water tanks. It's cold standing, waiting on the tanks to fill, but not too strenuous.

Run, sheep! Run!

The other stop turned out to be more of a drive-by. We were just back-up feeders in case of emergency.

Friday evening, other than the sheep escape that occurred prior to our arrival (and didn't get beyond the alfalfa bales) things were pretty uneventful. After herding the sheep back where they belonged, haying the horses and collecting Ayisha, we headed back to town.

First order of business? A bath for the little dog. She's so low-slung that she pretty much drags her coat through everything. At the farm she sleeps in her kennel, so a bit of doggie-odor isn't a big deal. But when she stays with us she sleeps on the bed. And she likes to snuggle.
Much nicer to sleep with a cover-hogging but fluffy-clean dog than one that smells of - politely - sheep raisins.

Sharing is good

Pennie, Sahara, Star, Thunder, Amyra, Sunny

That's the gang, minus two at one of the tire feeders. New bale tonight. I can tell when they've been waiting to be fed, because Sunny gets possessive of the feeder, but tonight they were almost all squeezed in peacefully.

You know how the media a couple times a winter cover stories about kids getting their tongues stuck to street signs and bicycle racks shades of A Christmas Story? (And we won't mention snow plows. Nope, not a word about them!)

Ever wonder why livestock don't get their tongues stuck to things?
For some reason the snow on the bale fork was mighty darn appealing to these two. Silly!

And speaking of silly - you don't dare leave laundry unattended for long around here this time of year.
I went downstairs to grab the rest of the load out of the dryer and came back to find what I'd just brought up occupied. She was snoring.

Tomorrow we're helping friends move cows. If I can manage the camera and the horse at the same time, hopefully I'll have pictures.

Bad Hair Days

Isn't that a face? All I can say is, don't ever let the sheep trim your hair, no matter how talented they claim to be!

And leave it to Sunny to be the only one to let himself be barbered. On one end, his tail is actually touching the ground. Now from the side he looks sort of like somebody grabbed his tail and pulled until his forelock got shorter. Doofus!

By the way, thanks for sharing your favorite winter warming items. Flannel-lined pants sure do sound grand this a.m. Yesterday was close to 60', but we had high winds to match the temp. Between the flying grit and the hunters next door blasting away, I groomed & hung out with the horses, but didn't ride. This morning it's still, but also chilly, foggy, and bitter. and it's already nearly noon, so I'm not holding out much hope for a warm-up. I guess if it was spring it'd seem balmy, right?

Speaking of hunters and deer - if this one isn't thumbing his nose....

We spotted this guy on our way back from Kansas last weekend. (That trip? Long story - don't ask.)

The orange sign?

It reads:
POSTED
Wildlife Refuge...

Obviously, Kansas deer get a better education that SD deer, because T's tallied three so far this weekend. The freezer will, indeed, be full of venison. And not to worry, it will all get eaten, too!

Contented, Cute, and a Mabel in the box

Today was chilly, but quite lovely otherwise. After lots of errands, I collected T at work and we headed for the farm so he could get a new bale moved in. Afternoons are naptime in the farmyard, so everything was pretty quiet. The horses were contentedly munching away, post-bale moving...and small heaps of sun-tired lambs were collapsed in their tracks in random locations elsewhere.

Everything's better with a daily dose of cute :-)

This one was obviously a supplemented-by-bottle lamb, because it kept attaching itself to T's pant leg.

Kitty cat was NOT thrilled
about sharing his new-found person.

And if that isn't enough cute for you, guess who decided that empty laundry hampers are perfect hiding spots.

Mabel

Like an ostrich with its head in the sand, she seems to think we can't see her when she's in one, and will spend inordinate amounts of time lying in wait for poor Snowball - who knows perfectly well where she is, and avoids passing directly past her. Silly cats!

(No, we don't ordinarily keep laundry hampers - even empty ones - in the living room, but in this case, it's just plain entertaining! LOL!)

February comes with presents!

Like this one:

Just a wee small bit toastier
than what we had last month...

The lambs were enjoying the sunshine - the ground was carpeted with small snoozing white bodies, but these two came over to see why I was leaning over the fence at them.

The horses were not napping. And they were neither enthused about having their pictures taken, nor prepared to hold still for a photo session. This in one of a series of treetop pictures I captured in the process of attempting to get Sunny to stand still.

At least the sky held still!

I spread the last of the bale T moved on Saturday out - they went through this one really quickly, but there was a lot of waste. It was full of very stemmy stuff which they picked through but didn't eat. Hopefully that will be the last of those!

Finally, once I had an arm around his neck, Sunny decide he might as well cooperate - you can see a bit of Star breezing past in the background.

Looks like the weather's going to hold fairly well through the weekend, so I'm off to try to track down the farrier again. Wish me luck!

Lambs eat oats

Well, not this little guy - at least not yet. I'll get some better pictures in a day or so when it's warmer - I didn't want to get too close & disturb the mamas. The lambs were all tucked up against the ewes, staying as cozy & warm as they could. And who could blame them! I can't say I'd appreciate being born in this kind of weather.

Rain, herd dynamics, & sheep

Company left this morning, and have all arrived safely back home to parts distant - and hopefully drier!

The weather remains rotten. Old Man Winter & Mother Nature fought over turning us into a snow globe or a skating rink all day. Freezing rain, fog, stingy little snowflakes.... Everything is just warm enough to be mud, and just cold enough to be slippery.

The drive to the farm was... interesting. The road was greasy enough to require 4 wheel drive. Not enough weight in the back of the truck.

Note to self: must find something heavy to ride back there!

Sunny & co were contentedly working their way into a new round bale when I got there. Thank you, G!

I spread what remained of the last bale between feeding stations, allowing all of them a chance at some groceries.

Sunny guards his spot

Sunny is a dog in the manger with food. He eats first, and gets the best spot, always. In the picture above, he's simultaneously dozing and guarding his spot at the hay feeder by standing with his butt to the rail so none of the others can have it.

When he's eating the two three-year-olds are tolerated next to him, and he'll share with them - even grain, most times - so they tag along behind wherever he goes, taking the spots to right & left like good little henchmen. Thunder, the only other gelding in the group, is definitely low horse, and the mares remove him if he's in the way. So he uses Sunny like a shield to get away from the mares. Amyra on the other hand, uses Sunny's presence like a club, bullying the other mares and then scooting back behind him when they retaliate. Minx!

If Sunny feels the mares are encroaching or their hay is better than what he has, he dispossesses them. Usually with no more than a threatening look - pinned ears or a snaked neck, but he's not shy about backing it up with bites & heels if they're laggard about moving. They sidle behind him warily to get at the other end of the feeder, and if forced to eat to close by, they keep a weather eye on him, ready to move if he shifts in their direction.

Ideally, he'd be separated out or be in with only one or two others, but logistically to access the waterers, the horses need to be in together. They can't go in with the sheep (those fences are not horse safe!), and G doesn't want them in with the cows, either. So....

There's enough access to hay for all of them to get to a spot, and moving around does keep them active. Sigh.

Someday I WILL have my OWN place to keep my horses and be able to manage them as I please.

One escaped sheep

And where there's one, there will likely be more soon. Escapees invariably multilpy like rabbits! I couldn't determine where this one had escaped from, though. All the gates & panels were up as far as I could tell, so I left it be rather than risking both our limbs in the mud & ice trying to chase it back into what would proabably be the wrong lot. It won't stray far from the flock and ready access to hay.