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Adara
Sept 19, 2006 12:55:53 GMT -5
Post by shireluver on Sept 19, 2006 12:55:53 GMT -5
I'm glad to hear you got the packing out without much drama. How is your momma today?
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Adara
Sept 19, 2006 13:51:15 GMT -5
Post by rachelle on Sept 19, 2006 13:51:15 GMT -5
Adara is fine today. I don't think she likes the rain much. Our stalls open outside (can't get to them from inside the barn) and when she puts her head out over the stall door, she gets rained on. She'll snort and jerk her head back. She did okay having her stall cleaned last night, but then we also cheated. We took a big metal frame and put it through the stall door and made a blockade dividing the stall in half. We cleaned one half, then moved her over so we could clean the other half. She did a lot of snorting and head tossing, but was okay, no kicking or charging. She did not want to be brushed this morning so I left her alone. She just kept backing away from me and we went circles around the stall. I did manage to grab her halter and make her stop. I brushed her face and neck and then left. I didn't want to push her since she was so obviously not up to standing still. Her bags look about the same, but their stiffer. If that makes any sense. They were jiggling a bit when she walked, but almost no jiggle today. But they look about the same size. I wish I could put a blanket on her. She has such thin hair compared to the rest of my herd. But she doesn't want a blanket anywhere near her. Maybe after the baby gets here and I can work with her more.
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Adara
Sept 19, 2006 21:42:48 GMT -5
Post by rachelle on Sept 19, 2006 21:42:48 GMT -5
Well, I had curriculum night tonight at my daughters school, so the kids and hubby had to do all the chores. I showed up with a duck in my shirt (she can't keep herself warm for some reason - a 3 month old muscovey hen who will be white, I'm hoping she survives) which they all got a kick out of. It was pretty good. I Like this teacher much better than last years! Anyway, I get home, my son's still milking the goats (some nights he takes forever), but my husband had already cleaned Adara's stall and given Rhoen his nightly trot and was mostly done with feeding already. I think I have to leave more often. Both horses were fine and behaved very nicely tonight. Of course they did, I wasn't here. Anyway, I hope everything goes just as well tomorrow. It rained so hard last night I barely got any sleep. It was so loud out in my van, I never realized before how loud it sounds on a cars roof...
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Adara
Sept 21, 2006 9:41:14 GMT -5
Post by rachelle on Sept 21, 2006 9:41:14 GMT -5
Well, still no foal. We've decided that she's cooking it so long to make sure all the color is cooked off and she has a nice little pally foal for me. She's eating like crazy. I increased her amount of food and am trying to stretch the time between feedings out more. So far she gets a flake at a time now and during the day(from 5:30 to 10) they're about an hour and a half apart. At night (from 10 to 5:30) she's getting a flake and a half about 3 hours apart, but then she gets fed at 5:30 again. I've been trying to increase her grain/senior chow, but she's just not eating it. She'll eat a couple handfuls, but that's about it. She prefers the hay. So I just keep giving her more hay. Everyone else is doing fine. Rhoen is starting to calm down a little. Not quite so wild in the round pen, but he still really wants those mares of mine. I'm going to see if he will let me put a blanket on him tonight (with my husbands help), I believe I have one in his size. I decided to go ahead and wash all the blankets and start putting them on the horses, at least at night (even if it's just a rain blanket). They like the blackberries too much and end up tearing the blankets all up if I leave them on all the time. I think I have blankets to fit everyone except the big QH mare, Bean, that I got in July. I think she's just too big for a the ones I have. We'll see. We tried hanging a blanket on Adara's stall door so she'd get used to seeing it and smelling it. Well, she pulled it off and attacked it. Stomped it, squealing like crazy. I don't think I'll be able to blanket her. Makes me wonder though. Well, almost time to take my daughter to the bus stop, then milk, feed, water, trot Rhoen. All in the nice wonderful (NOT) rain we're having. The hill is so wet I almost didn't get my van up the hill to the barn last night. Looks like it's time to coat the hill with hogs fuel again....
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Adara
Sept 21, 2006 10:33:02 GMT -5
Post by huskiesnhorses on Sept 21, 2006 10:33:02 GMT -5
Geez Rachelle - you're busier than a one armed paper hanger - (no offense to any one armed paper hangers). Do you think you will try to blanket the foal considering how she feels about blankets? I've never seen a horse attack a blanket before (with true aggression). I sure hope she settles down once the foal comes and the hormones level out.
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Adara
Sept 21, 2006 11:46:15 GMT -5
Post by rachelle on Sept 21, 2006 11:46:15 GMT -5
That's why I put the blanket on the door to begin with. I wanted to see what she'd do if I put one on the foal... So far today she hasn't attacked it, but she's not coming near the door either. I switched it out with an old one that has tears etc. so if she really goes for it, she won't really hurt it too much. I put the one she did attack outside the stall (in the rain of course) so she can see it, but not grab it. She really went for it too, just squealed, grab it with her teeth, ripped it off the door, threw it on the ground and started stomping it, rearing half up and dropping on it over and over, squealing the whole time. I don't know, maybe she thought it was going to jump off the stall door and eat her. But so far this morning we're doing much better. It's still where I left it. I've seen horses go after blankets before, but not like this. iUsually, it was more of curiousity and playfulness than anything else, but of course Adara has to be different. She's probably never seen one before. My husband wants to hang it off the hay rack (the one she won't eat out of), but I told him he was crazy to even consider walking into the stall with it in his arms after her reaction yesterday. She'd probably stomp him. We'll just see how it goes. If I can't blanket the foal, we'll figure something out to keep it warmer. It's getting really cold at night now.
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Adara
Sept 21, 2006 11:49:43 GMT -5
Post by schwung on Sept 21, 2006 11:49:43 GMT -5
Heat lamps can help, although you have to get them high enough that they can't reach them, which minimizes the heat they give off.
Maybe it was the smells on the blanket she couldn't tolerate? Did it smell like other horses? Maybe she is feeling very protective of her safe place right now.
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Adara
Sept 21, 2006 12:03:02 GMT -5
Post by huskiesnhorses on Sept 21, 2006 12:03:02 GMT -5
Maybe she's a fashion diva! "As God as my witness - I shall never wear tartan plaid again!" But really Schwung - that's an interesting idea - I never would have thought of that but who knows - that could be it!
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Adara
Sept 21, 2006 12:10:46 GMT -5
Post by rachelle on Sept 21, 2006 12:10:46 GMT -5
Well, I washed the blanket before hand, but maybe some scents still remained. (Or maybe she didn't like the smell of my detergent). Hmm Maybe I'll go buy a brand new one and see if I still get the same reaction. And nope, it was solid green one, maybe she thought it was grass and got upset when she realized it wasn't. I buy my blankets used. There's a lady out in Duvall who gets tons every year and she fixes the tears etc. and sells them cheap. I got 10 for $70 last spring. Even a couple small enough for my pony. Had to buy a new foal blanket though, no one had any of those available. I'll have to see what I can do. I'm guessing on her size since she won't let me near her with a tape yet.
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Adara
Sept 21, 2006 23:19:12 GMT -5
Post by pdevlieg on Sept 21, 2006 23:19:12 GMT -5
Maybe she's a fashion diva! "As God as my witness - I shall never wear tartan plaid again!" But HNH - plaid is back this year BIG! Maybe you need to pull out that old tartan plaid.
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Adara
Sept 23, 2006 12:22:13 GMT -5
Post by rachelle on Sept 23, 2006 12:22:13 GMT -5
Well, still no foal. Of course I told her she had to wait until Dr. Hannah got back into town. She's still being a cranky old mare too. Sometimes she's just great and all loving (as much as she's ever been) other times she's trying to bite and moving away. Her bags are about the same but if it's even possible her stomach is getting bigger. Yesterday her stomach was all on one side, it was so funny, one side all poking WAY out, the other side nice and smooth... Today it's all down below. I swear she's going to hit her legs on it if she's not careful. And she's eating so much (pooping has gone way up too), she constantly wants hay. Still pretty much ignoring the grain/sn. mix, but she really really wants hay. She's left the blanket alone so far. It was pulled a little bit into the stall, more down the door on the stall side, but it's pretty much still in the same spot. Maybe she's getting used to it. Everything is going okay. My son's cat is getting put to sleep this morning so today isn't a good one, but mostly we're all fine and so are the critters. Someone is coming over today to look at the mini colt I'm boarding here for a friend. He may just be going to a new home today. Which will be perfect timing. I need to turn the does out with the bucks and can't do that with the mini in there with them. He likes the bucks, terrorizes the does. Well, my mom should be here soon with the tree for the cat's grave so we'll have to go take care of all that. I hope everyone enjoys the sunshine and gets outside some.. I'll try to take more pics of Adara later today.
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Adara
Sept 24, 2006 18:45:36 GMT -5
Post by rachelle on Sept 24, 2006 18:45:36 GMT -5
Okay so today has been busy. We decided to get Rhoen cleaned up, since he's gotten kind of well grody since his gelding. He's still dripping occasionally, but not much and not very often. Anyway, so we get out the hose and the scrub brush and went after Rhoen. He was not cooperative at first, but then settled down. I actually scrubbed his whole body (no soap though) working my way back to his back legs. We did get him pretty clean. So then we knew he'd roll (they always do) so we decided to put him in the round pen and let him roll in the 'clean' dirt instead of in his pen. He got in there and started rolling, squealing, running, bucking, just making a total fuss. Which got everyone going. Adara was in her stall going in circles, then she'd stop poke her head out and neigh and snort and do her I'm going to get you talk (the sounds she makes right when she's had enough of us in her stall and goes to kick - at least she gives warning). It was so loud for a while there. The mares were answering Rhoen and when they did he'd only get louder. Eventually the mares and gelding in the pasture gave up and went off to graze, but Adara kept it up the whole time he was in the round pen. Once we put him back in his pen, everyone including Adara calmed down. She still hasn't foaled but she sure is getting big. She's also up to 5 steps when I pull on the halter. It's hard to do too much in that stall, but I try every day. Once the pen is finished it will be easier to work with her a little more. I didn't get pics yesterday or today. I'm hoping to tomorrow when it's less hectic and the kids are gone - they're not being to calm right now.
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Adara
Sept 24, 2006 23:04:43 GMT -5
Post by pdevlieg on Sept 24, 2006 23:04:43 GMT -5
Rachelle - you are doing great with her! I had trouble halter training a baby with only a stall - I can't imagine a full grown 1+1 mare! Kudos to you for all that you do for Adara and the others.
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Adara
Sept 25, 2006 12:28:18 GMT -5
Post by cat67 on Sept 25, 2006 12:28:18 GMT -5
Yes, great job with her! Adara is probably very hormonal right now and I'll bet her behavior will stabilize much more after she has the baby (unless she's a super overprotective mom).
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Adara
Sept 25, 2006 14:23:42 GMT -5
Post by rachelle on Sept 25, 2006 14:23:42 GMT -5
I'm hoping her behavior stablizes a bit when she has the foal and that she's not one of those over protective ones. It would just make my life so much easier. But if she is we have that figured out as well. I think this is one horse who is going to take a long time to get to where you can just walk up and touch her. She will still twitch and flinch when you go to touch her. If you move to fast she'll jerk away and move away. Move slow and you can touch her, grab the halter, and pet her. Her skin twitches at first and each time you take the brush/hand away and move back to touch her again. She does not like her head or neck touched at all. I still do it, but I have to watch for teeth when I do. I figured I'd have more trouble brushing the under belly and legs than the neck, but she's more 'okay' with me doing the legs and belly than the neck. I'll get there eventually, but I don't think anyone will be able to just walk up and touch her for a while yet. It's like she tolerates it, but doesn't like it and given a choice she'd be gone and away from any touching. She isn't panicking as much when I pull on her halter anymore. She used to do the white eyes and pull back alot, not move at all. Now she mostly will take a few steps, stop, take a few more, than stop and just not move. I can usually get her to take one more step after that and then I call it good. The stall is too small to push for more at this point and there's no real reason yet to push her further and stress her out. She has left the blanket alone. Though whenever I move it to a new spot on the door, she goes to the back of the stall and stands there. If I just shake it, she'll lift her head and look, but mostly that's it. I can't wait until she has this foal. The betting pool at mom's work is still going strong. The most choices are for a filly, born early morning, and now for a pinto foal. Whoever wins gets to come out, clean the stall and the shelters out for me. To give me a break, and they get to buy the new baby something of thier choice, for now as a foal or for later. Kind of crazy what a bunch of bankers do for fun, huh.
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