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Post by rachelle on Oct 15, 2006 13:58:15 GMT -5
My husband hauls off stuff for Northwest Landscaping, or used to. They gave us a great deal on it. We just had to haul it ourselves. They new owners don't give us quite the same deal. Now we have a few tree companies who bring us thier ground up trees, branches etc. And my one of my husbands buddies works for a great landscaping company, so we get all thier extras. So, we get it here and there and mostly it's free, just a bit of work to get it, gas, time, and we have to spread it. Just start networking. Alot of tree trimming companies are looking for places to dump thier chips at. It's not 'real' hogsfuel in the respect that sometimes it's not as finely chopped and you can get all sorts of trees in there, not straight bark etc. But it works great and if it's too 'big' we just use it for the birds and goats bedding. We also get a lot of our grains from the breweries. They have extra every week that they need to have picked up. Sometimes it's been boiled already, most times it hasn't. But it's also all mixed together. Usually, they'll give it to you if you're willing to make a commitment to regular pick ups. We mostly only pay for our minerals, vitamins, and horse hay. Well, chicken feed too. The rest we get for doing something for someone else. Like, we pick up the 'sweepings' from the feed store every few days, for free, we get to keep the swept up hay or straw and they give us a discount on what ever we buy for doing it for them. Which means we get all our goats hay for free, we rarely have to buy straw, and anything we do buy we get a better discount on than the employees do. Most of the grain comes from the breweries, the hogsfuel/bedding comes from tree companies, it works. It all took some time to set up and get going and it takes time to do, but it saves us major money doing it that way.
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Post by rachelle on Oct 18, 2006 18:16:44 GMT -5
Okay, so I got a new load of chips delivered yesterday and today I got to go spread them around Chauncey's pen. I have to say this is one smart horse! The first loaded wheel barrow (out of over 35), made her toss up her head, stiffen up and move back a few steps. By the 10th load, she wasn't even picking up her head from her hay anymore. By the 20th (I'd made it to that side by then) she was moving out of my way. By the 30th load, she was waiting until I'd 'parked' the wheel barrow to spread the chips before squeezing by me to get back to her hay. I was literally kicking the chips right under her belly (my foot under her belly!), in front of her, behind her, and she was just standing there eating, not a care in the world. She just watched me all morning and figured out what she needed to do. I never encouraged her to move at all and when she did, she was totally calm about it. Just picked up her head, looked at me, then calmly walked out of my way, barely out of my way. A couple of times I was worried that when I dumped it, I would dump it on her feet. I spread it pretty thick and figure I'll give her a day or so to pack it down and then I'll do it all over again. Tomorrow I get to do Rhoen's pen and tonight I get to do a few spots by the barn. Bye-bye mud!
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Post by rachelle on Oct 21, 2006 14:53:48 GMT -5
Okay, so it's been muddy and Chauncey has been rolling . Which equals one dirty horse. Of course she won't let me touch her yet to get all that mud off (working on it), but here's a pic I took this morning, in all her muddy glory. She took that flake of hay out of her hay rack (which had me running for the camera) and carried it over and dropped it on the ground. Then she started eating it. Not sure why she did that, but there ya go...
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Post by rachelle on Oct 28, 2006 20:05:25 GMT -5
Well, Chauncey is so used to ropes now that we can toss them all over her back. But we learned the hard way today not to let them touch her legs below the hocks/knees. Oh, did she ever go crazy, kicking and bucking. The rope was short, loose and fell right off, but she didn't seem to care, kept right on bucking. So, when she was done with her fit, I had to get out my stick and play with rubbing down her legs a bit. We spent an hour rubbing that stick down her legs with her kicking out, blowing, and snorting. When I was finally able to rub the stick down twice in a row with out her kicking, I stopped, gave her a cookie, and retreated. Then (after a break - a couple of hours) we went back to playing with ropes a bit, letting them hang over her back and moving them up her neck to her ears then flipping them onto the ears and down the face and back again. She does great with it. So, then we moved back to the stick again. Well, again she did the kicking, blowing, and snorting thing, but she stopped kicking much sooner. She is moving along in other areas as well. I can now pet her face, from her nose up to her eyes. She moves back when I get too close to the eyes. I can also pet along the sides (avoiding the eyes) of her face up to her ears. Can't touch the ears, but I'm getting there. I can also touch her with the halter but I haven't tried to put it on yet. I'm hoping she'll be okay on Sat. to get her feet done. The main problem is that she kicks out with the back feet even when you touch the front feet. We will sedate her, but even if we have to stop and not get her done then that's what we will do. I don't want anyone hurt. I will work with her all week and we'll see how it goes. I'll update everyone on how it went this weekend.
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Post by asmo on Oct 28, 2006 22:38:26 GMT -5
The guy that Jen rescued her from might have done something with ropes and her legs, lets just say he was VERY rope happy. He choked Kola until his eyes were nearly bloodshot and he was passed out on the ground. I about decked him. But that might be why she is shy around her legs with it.
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Post by rachelle on Oct 29, 2006 11:45:38 GMT -5
Hmmm, I'll keep that in mind for future reference. I hate it when that kind of stuff is the reason horses hate ropes. That would make Chauncey the number 2 mustang here with that problem. After 7 months of working I finally got the other mustang to allow a rope around her leg (fronts anyway, we're still working on the backs). Yesterday, Chauncey didn't want her legs touched in anyway. Usually, she's okay with my stick on her legs, but not yesterday. Maybe she was having a bad day.
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Post by rachelle on Nov 13, 2006 15:02:36 GMT -5
Chauncey is doing wonderful. She is now letting me pet her neck, only my hand can move though. Anything else moves and she's gone. She's still talking to us all the time and is giving to pressure when we put a rope around her neck and just hold the two ends together and pull. She's doing great.
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Post by horsekrazi on Dec 29, 2006 19:27:46 GMT -5
How is Chauncey doing???
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Post by Sara on Jun 29, 2007 19:35:04 GMT -5
Sounds like Chauncy is expecting a 2008 foal by a 3 y/o cremello stallion. I guess CVR did a field breeding to 6 mares, including chauncy.
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Post by trillium on Jun 29, 2007 20:19:19 GMT -5
What? ??
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mystic
New BB Member
Posts: 15
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Post by mystic on Jun 29, 2007 21:35:57 GMT -5
Nice huh? It's all in vivid color and words on her blog.
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Post by winterlakesfarm on Jul 1, 2007 22:22:05 GMT -5
Is anyone REALLY suprised?
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Post by cat67 on Jul 2, 2007 0:23:07 GMT -5
I am LMAO because her web site is IP blocking anybody but her "friends" now.
Can't believe I'll be deprived of my views of Pallet's Rest Ranch.
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