Always More to Learn!

March was supposed to be the calm before the storm. April marks our first mares due, May is when we start breeding for 2022 foals and from there the intensity just keeps ramping up throughout the summer months. So usually March is when we take a deep breath, enjoy some nice weather and try to knock out a few projects to make the upcoming year flow more smoothly.

This year, we have the chance to spend some quality time investing in training for our horses and ourselves with a longtime teamster staying with us for a time. Lee has travelled across the country by horse-drawn wagon 4 times and has spent a lot of time logging in the woods. He knows about working horses and has been putting in some serious time with the horses. It's an amazing opportunity to learn and see how we can improve our own working horse practices. It does, however, make life quite a lot more hectic with constantly catching horses, switching out teams and making sure our horses and equipment are up to speed for what he needs. I'm sure as we settle into a routine some of the craziness will die down but at the moment my days finish with my head spinning!

As if full days of horse training weren't enough, we're also preparing to start working with the boys for the breeding season. It's been an ongoing goal to get our stallions collecting well enough to be able to ship semen to others who are interested in breeding to them. It's been a much slower process than we anticipated but I really think we're getting close. This week several exciting new items arrived for my breeding lab and I'm looking forward to putting them to use. If all goes well I hope to not only improve our collection training but also test out the ability to freeze semen on the boys and see if we can't store some genetics for the long run.

We're hanging in there. It's intimidating to think that things only get more crazy from here. But it's part of life on the farm and it means we've got exciting things happening every day.

Spring is in the Air!

Sure, it's still February. And I know that we often have several 'teaser' days of spring weather so we sure can't count winter out just yet... but it sure is nice to see the sun and have some days above freezing here in western Pennsylvania! Just this week we've gone from overnight lows in the single digits to 50 degrees and melting snow. I hate the muddy, sloppy mess caused by the thaw but it's something we have to get through each year so the sooner we start the sooner we (hopefully) dry out a bit.

Here are a few of the signs of spring we've noticed in the last several days:

- Sunshine (a rare sight in our area over the winter)

- The days are getting longer which means more time for farm chores and hanging out with the ponies

- The boys are spending more and more time staring at the girls' field and daydreaming... silly boys

- The girls are beginning their annual fence testing routine in an attempt to find any possible weaknesses that would let them escape their boring winter field in favor of a fresh paddock to dig out any grass they can find

- No winter coat/gloves needed at chore time!

This winter has been a bit less relaxing than some, given that we started calving season early and last year's freezer beef program bled over into early 2021. So it's been startling to find that time is flying and spring is sneaking up on us. I'm secretly hoping for a few more yucky days to force me inside to finish up some of the winter projects that I haven't quite gotten to, such as ordering supplies for the breeding season and getting our record keeping system prepped for 2021 updates. But before we know it foals will be arriving, stallions will need collecting, and we'll be off on the hectic schedule of spring/summer on a breeding farm again!

When Valentine's Day Doesn't Go As Planned

This February has been a bit crazier than normal since we started calving early. By the 14th I was feeling a bit burnt out from running to our cattle farm twice a day for calf checks and waiting on one stubborn heifer to give up her calf, all while knowing a winter storm was on the way. When we finally got around to 'what should we do together this afternoon' about all I had the motivation for was to take a walk up to our girls and spend some time loving on them and enjoying the peace of horses in the winter. This is something we love to do but as we accumulate more horses (and the accompanying work) we don't get around to it as often as we would like.

All began well as we worked our way through the girls, giving each some lovings and attention. As we neared the end of the bunch I walked over to visit with Sage, a coming 4 year old Brabant mare, and found that she just wasn't quite herself. We watched for a bit and observed her distracted look, wandering, and a lot of lying down then getting right back up. She wasn't in obvious distress but as anyone who has spent time with horses knows she had that colicky look to her. ***Colic is a broad term that basically means an upset stomach in the horse. However, the condition can be mild or very serious, and can even lead to death, so it's something that horse owners take very seriously.***

Fortunately we don't often deal with colic in our herd, but it does mean that when we do I have to re-educate myself quickly on how to address it. We took Sassy into the barn and did a quick analysis of her vital signs- heart rate, respiration, gut sounds, gum color. She was uncomfortable but not in severe pain and was passing manure, which is a good sign in a colic case, but showed signs of being dehydrated and wasn't interested in drinking much. We opted to give her a dose of medication to help make her more comfortable in the hopes that she would drink water and resolve any stomach troubles. Dehan stayed with her to observe while I took a trip to the farm to check for calves (there weren't any) and by the time I got home Sage was feeling much better. We left her in the barn for observation and to keep encouraging her to drink.

Sage had a minor relapse the following day but after talking with our vet we determined that one more dose of medication and continued fluid intake would be a starting point with the chance to re-evaluate in the afternoon in case she needed further treatment before the storm rolled in. Thankfully, Sage responded well and we did not have to get the vet out to treat her. As she recovered she was mad about being on a diet while her digestive issues resolved but once she decided to start drinking a lot of water we were able to slowly start her back on feed and she is now feeling herself again.

Although it wasn't the day we planned and our nice dinner ended up being late and eaten while we were both just ready to be done with the day, in the end we celebrated the way farmers always do- working hard on whatever the day throws at you and putting the wellbeing of the critters before your own. I'd love to say I had a great attitude and was thankful to be doing our work together but that would imply WAY too much maturity and levelheadedness. It's a learning process and the more we do it the more thankful I am to not be on my own. Farm life is never boring for long and if there's one thing you can be sure of it's that the holidays won't always look the way you expect. But we're thankful that this one was a mild inconvenience and that we were able to see the problem and treat appropriately to get our girl back on her feet. Oh, the things we do for the love of horses!