The usurper

We had a few more additions to the farm this summer.

Jellybean, the teenager's fancy pony, came home for an indefinite staycation. She's likely to stick around until her original trainer finds another small child just aching to do dressage - the trainer's and pony's specialty.

Um, yeah, not holding my breath.

In the meantime, Jelly is living the life of a wild pony, free to get dirty and play politics with the herd.

Or both.

Poor Annie is taking the brunt of this. Jelly usurped Annie's role as lady in waiting to Queen Josie and defends it a bit too aggressively if you ask me.

Jelly's ambition in action:

And so it was done.

Watching the grass grow

One headache this spring has been the failure of the mowers -- both the mechanical and the human varieties. Yep, the machine broke and I didn't do anything about it. A little voice in the shadows of my brain kept saying, For crying out loud, you got goats, sheep and horses, why do you have to MOW anything? So I didn't much.

The result is fantastic in a crazy sort of way. Do I ever have grass. Lots and lots of grass. Because I do want the horses (and goats and sheep) to help keep it under control, I think I need to know what's what. Yet it is surprisingly hard to figure out. I google stuff. I ask around, but in the end, I really need someone who knows to just tell me, This one is timothy. This one is fescue...rye...orchard...crab...astroturf...etc.


This morning I picked as many samples of different looking grasses as I could within arms length of Josie's paddock. She would like to eat them all and if I knew what they all were I would feel better. I took pictures of each. Lots of pictures. Maybe my googling success will improve with these comparison pictures to use.

Nom Nom

In the meantime, if any of my real farmer friends out there recognize one of these, could you post its name in the comments? I'd be super grateful. Really.

Walkabout pony style

In all the pony drama this morning, I...

...well

...I...um

...left a gate open.

Cringe.

Josie and Annie, BFFs in crime, got to take their own little walkabout. Unlike the chickens, the ponies chose to take their spin at high speed.

It was Shadow who clued me in. He was racing in circles around his paddock. Something he normally only does during high winds and thunderstorms. Um, no storm in sight.

Oh, wait.

What's that big hunk of spotted appaloosa butt doing OUTSIDE Shadow's paddock fence?

Cr*#p.

I didn't have my iphone on me when I spotted the two fugitives, though I doubt I would have stopped to record the highlights anyway. Too busy kicking myself. But I could have gotten some great shots.

Like, their christening foray into the new pasture, sans fence. They've been standing in their bare, muddy paddock watching me clear brush out there in the grass for days. It must have been killing them.

Their visit to Tyche's paddock on the other side of the barn. Josie was a broodmare in her former life. She pines for Tyche across the barn aisle, but never gets to touch.

Josie crashing through the tree line at a canter only to discover the sagging forty-year-old wire fence buried in the undergrowth. Sheesh. Thank you, Josie, for stopping.

The 80 lb 12-year-old single-handedly guarding the bridge over the creek as 1600 lbs of marauding ponies headed out to the road and an even bigger adventure. That is one pony-savvy 12-year-old. :)

Like a lot of ponies, food was their ultimate downfall. Give me liberty or give me grain. Josie took the grain. And where Josie goes, Annie goes. So that was that.

Really, I need some new fences. And a new stall. Oy.

Josie enjoying greener pastures in years past.