Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Ain't No Rest For The Wicked...

"There ain't no rest for the wicked. Money don't grow on trees. I got bills to pay. I got mouths to feed. There ain't nothing in this world for free. I know I can't slow down. I can't hold back. You know I wished I could. There ain't no rest for the wicked. Until we close our eyes for good."

Words from one of my favorite songs by Cage The Elephant.

If ya haven't heard it, you should...It's On YouTube. Love that song. It's so apprapo for most of us.

Things are busy, busy around here, but I'm finally getting into a routine.

We all know how much our horses love having a 'routine'.

NINE head! I must have been smoking crack when I brought 4 more horses out here to take care of.

Naaawwww...It's working. And I only have a few more weeks and I'll be hauling Shooter, Beretta and Strawberry back to SD for the summer.

In the meantime, Miss Beretta has graduated to the pasture...

It's doing her good. Poor little girl needed some exercise. I've never kept a baby 'up' as long as I have Beretta and I now realize why people say babies go though 'a stage'. I'm so used to our babies growing up with lots of room to roam, the we have never really experienced 'that stage' with them. With 6-8 hours a day of turnout though, her little pot belly is coming off and she is learning how to travel in a straight line...

Surprisingly the best baby sitter I have is her big brother, Shooter...
Out of my adult horses the only two I thought might work as babysitters were Frosty...mostly because he was too fat to run much and I thought if Beretta took off in a mad dash, he would be a steady influence. However, he took a big dive at Shooter the other day and almost put him into the fence. His fat-butt is back in a pen. NO ONE gets away with doing that to one of my babies. Megan's little Strawberry horse is kind enough to put with the babies, but he is just as likely to take off in a mad dash as one of the kiddos. The thought of him leading the charge around the pasture at break-neck speed?...Yea, not a good thought. I don't know how that horse has not killed himself all these years as stupid as he acts sometimes.

So, I just spent a couple of days hand-walking Beretta around the pasture and letting her graze. Then I took her out, turned her loose and hand-walked Shooter and let him graze with her. Finally I turned them together and stayed out there with them. When the inevitable...'I'm free, I'm free' mad-dashes insued, I was there to be the steadying influence. Now these two get along famously and are loving their turn-out time.

It's been really good for Beretta. She has needed to start building some strength up and this way, she will be in good shape and used to being out when I haul her home for the summer. I am looking forward to getting these babies out of my hair.

11 comments:

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Funny who turns out to be a good baby sitter . Hubby's old gelding would charge anything in the parture , except the babies. You could put him in with the "kids " and he was a mommy! My old stud was sweet too , I would put weanlings in a pen beside him , and he would talk to them and keep them quiet over the fence, if they got running and crying he would rush to the fence to call them back and settle them.

kestrel said...

I've got an old pasture puff who has lived out his days teaching babies how to be 'proper horses.' He's the best babysitter, and can break up a yearling argument with a single glance.

Unknown said...

My Indigo makes the best babysitter for those babies that are full of themselves. She lays the smack down when they get billigerent. Naigen was the best as far as sleeping all day and calming them when they were wild.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

People just don't realize how valuable a good baby-sitter is for those youngsters. Anytime a person has a good one, they are worth their weight when you raise babies.

Dena said...

When are you heading to SD? If it isn't too soon I might be able to meet you for a minute somewhere.

Paint Girl said...

I bet those babies are loving their turnout time!
Soon I will be turning Brandy and Chance together. Not permanently, but just so Chance can learn some "horsey boundries". Brandy isn't overly dominant like Fritzy, and is the least likely to cause harm. It should be very interesting though!
9 horses is a lot. I don't know how you do it! I can barely keep up with my 3!

C-ingspots said...

Glad you got it all figured out. Our babysitter is the least likely horse in the bunch...the big, unpredictable, can outbuck anybody, thoroughbred. Go figure! I totally agree with you that these horses are worth their weight in gold. Not all horses make good babysitters or good pasture bosses. Shad's not much good as a riding horse, but he's irreplaceable as the peacekeeper in our herd.

City girl turned Country Girl said...

Oh wow so strange that this topic came into your post, about big'ens chasing babies! I just got rid of my FIL's gelding that was doing that very thing!!! Drove me crazy! I wanted to take a bullet to him, but for family sake I have to be nice!

Glad she graduated out now!! I am sure they love it!!

Rising Rainbow said...

Ain't no rest here either. Pretty sure it was something I did, just don't know what.

Funny how the babysitters turn out to be different that you think. Doesn't really matter though if you picked right or not as long as you find what works. Sounds like you did. That's cool.

Vaquerogirl said...

Everything and everyone is looking good! What a nice place you are making!:)
I've always found that small horses or donkeys work well as babysitters!

Fantastyk Voyager said...

Great song!
It's always good to have a great pasture buddy for the young ones. I'm glad Big Brother is watching over her.