Wolf-Kim: My head is spinning!

[Wolf-Kim]

Guess I better update this thing! Too bad it wasn't more of a blog instead of a thread. Maybe I should start a blog.. Something to keep me on track? Oh, sometimes it's just so hard to keep school and chores flowing and then still have time for projects. I need to organize my thoughts. Later today, I'll make a to-do list like Dave(dac) has on his.

What has gone on lately at Wolf Feathers Farm?

The blue Silver Fox rabbit doe had her litter a couple of weeks ago. Eight beautiful blue kits and all are fat and healthy. Eyes are opening up this week and they are adventuring out of their nest. It's a constant battle to keep them in the box. They come out to explore and then most make it back into the box and a select few seem to get 'lost' and huddle up in the corner. They are all in the house, to keep losses down from freezing or startling. And also, so I can sit and watch without freezing my tush off! LOL

The two white meat does are due again, any day now. Seems I lost the date they were bred when hubby got overexcited for the new year and tossed last year's calander, which had the date they were bred in December. It's okay, they both have their nest boxes and they're ready to go when motherhood calls.

The 5 week old Black Silver Fox doe I brought home, is now about 4 months old and 5-6 lbs. She is almost as big as those white meat does! I have pictures of the Silver Fox that I will add later.

The worm bins are on a temporary hold until it starts to warm up. So all the collected rabbit poo was thrown in the corner of the yard where it's quite sandy and the grass refuses to grow. Maybe that will help. Really need to get some soil tests going, but that's a project for another day. So the worm bins are currently ready and collecting paper, once I have my worms, I will be getting those going.

The bee hives, most unfortunately of all, will have to be put on hold. Money is tight and I can't afford the initial costs. Hopefully things will change as we get further into spring and summer and I can purchase a couple of hives.

Blackjack the horse, has a date with the vet tomorrow. His late Christmas present from me, castration. It's been in the long time coming and we have a couple hundred that we can spare to throw at it. I could use the same money to buy bees, but need to take care of the critters I already have first. So after his little operation, Blackjack will progress into being trained to ride. How exciting! I miss my horseback riding! Both horses get their hooves done next month, we just do trims, no reason for shoes as little and where we ride.

We're in the process of prepping the garden for spring. Rabbit poop and compost is being mixed in there. Adam and I were looking at seeds the other day, spring fever is coming!

I'm excited, because the geese should start laying in the next few weeks! I'll finally have some big ol' goose eggs and maybe some little gosling fluffy butts in the months to come. So as I bid my winter friend good bye, spring is right around the corner and bringing plenty of fun projects with it. Summer is the one I loathe, it gets too darned hot and humid to do ANYTHING outside.

I hope all is well with everyone else and I'll post pictures later today!
-Kim

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

His late Christmas present from me, castration

hee hee hee um.. so much material... so little time... soooo many mods
;-)

 

[Wolf-Kim]

His late Christmas present from me, castration

hee hee hee um.. so much material... so little time... soooo many mods
;-)

The mods wouldn't(or shouldn't) have an issue with castration, it is a common practice on any farm, pet household, or homestead. It would be like someone having moderation issues with saying I was getting my dog neutered! Of course, when you're from a household where the men outnumber the women 2-1, there are plenty of other descriptive methods of referring to castration. LOL

 

[reinbeau]

Why would a moderator have a problem with the use of the term 'castration' when discussing animal castration?

No worries.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Alrighty...

I decided that I would follow Dave's lead and make a To-Do list, maybe it will help keep me on track. LOL

So here it goes, first draft.



start worm bins
start bee hives
thin strawberries
plant MILs forsythia(not spell checked LOL)
mulch(front yard, garden, and around the house)
till the garden, prep for planting
elevate the chicken coop with sand
compost horse manure
restock firewood (done yesterday)
ride the horse
cull and process chickens
repair horse fence
raise some pork this year

 

[Wolf-Kim]

WHHOOOOO!!!! First time on Blackjack's back! He just stood there and I decided that was plenty good enough for me and climbed back off. LOL

Just had to share my excitment! Anyone who's trained their own horse and climbed on for the first time knows how breathtaking it is. LOL

 

[big brown horse]

Congradulations!! Woohoo!

I know how good that feels! I need to read your last couple of pages, did you already tell us how you have been training him, will you ride mostly English or Western and what kind of horse is Blackjack etc?

ETA: Ok caught up now. I don't shoe my horses either. (I just don't believe in it, I'm a certified farrier trained to shoe horses too.) I ride all the time. When I ride Big Brown, he wears boots b/c he has tender front feet. I love the boa boots! They have paid for themselves twice now in the last 2 years...and they make cute horse shoe "tennis shoe" tracks.

I would love to see photos of your horse!

 

[Dace]

I think OFG was imagingin all the fun she could have talking about castrating things for which castration is not a normal part of proper *care*.

Just a guess

Congrats on getting on Black Jack and his good behavior!

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Congradulations!! Woohoo!

I know how good that feels! I need to read your last couple of pages, did you already tell us how you have been training him, will you ride mostly English or Western and what kind of horse is Blackjack etc?

ETA: Ok caught up now. I don't shoe my horses either. (I just don't believe in it, I'm a certified farrier trained to shoe horses too.) I ride all the time. When I ride Big Brown, he wears boots b/c he has tender front feet. I love the boa boots! They have paid for themselves twice now in the last 2 years...and they make cute horse shoe "tennis shoe" tracks.

I would love to see photos of your horse!

Okay okay. ^_^ Now when I go to yacking about my boy, everyone can blame you for opening that discussion. LOL

Blackjack is a QH I bought as a 3 year old colt about 3 years ago. We bought he and his half brother as a pair, when we went to borrow someone's horse trailer and I noticed they had this beautiful chestnust mare that was built like a tank. So they mentioned she had a son in the lower pasture and it went from there. Unfortunately, since the time I saw them and the time they arrived at our farm they had gotten extremely emaciated. The owner had both colts and their father all in the same pasture, no wonder the younger stallions weren't getting any food, surprised their sire didn't kill them. As you can imagine, he is a pretty black QH, foundation bred on his mother's side and impressive/pine bar bred on his sires. He's "maybe" 15 hands high, I don't like them much taller. I like short horses, more in my comfort range I guess. It works out because I'm 5'4". LOL

So 3 years went by and Blackjack just kind of got to hang out in the pasture. The last 3 years have been CRAZY, so we never got to him(Also had to put down a mare I was extremely close to and it was almost enough to turn me off of horses period, I was quite depressed for a couple of years to say the least. I prefer no comments or condolences on the horse that was euthanized, it's tough just explaining why I avoided the barn for so long.). He did get fat and healthy and hit several growth spurts that I thought would never come due to his previous neglect. He's come a long way from that little colt with 4-5 inch long winter coat and you could count every rib though that shaggy coat. You couldn't get your hands on him, the closest he'd come was 7' from you. Where his brother was much more confident around people. When starting from scratch, I prefer a horse that is afraid and never been messed with, over a colt that has been made into a pet and has no respect for people. Sometimes it's just easier to turn fear into a healthy respect through trust, than it is to take a horse that's over confident and take him down a notch. Just my opinion and experience.

Okay, fast forward 3 years until just a few months ago. Finally it seemed like everything in life was starting to get some sense into it( I guess the depression finally wore off enough). I started working with Blackjack in the round pen, I was amazed at how much of our halter work he remembered. Yielding to pressure and remembering whoa's and clicks. We progressed to his feet, still working on relaxing with his back. He does it, just gets antsy if you hold them too long. We did the trailer lessons, holy cow those were easy. He has a foundation head on him, sooo laid back and easy going. All I did was load up our older horse a couple of times and then take Blackjack by the lead rope and a bucket of grain and no lie, he walked on that trailer like he had done it every day of his life. Worked to get his saddle and his headgear(rope halter/tie-down/bridle with a tom's thumb bit) on. And before we started riding, I knew I wanted him gelded, just because I didn't want any testerone induced behavior that could turn into habits after he was gelded. So he was gelded last Thursday and he get's lunged 20 minutes twice a day(vet's orders to aid in the healing of the operation), so we use those minutes for training. No sense in running in mindless circles.

As far as how I've been training them, almost all of my training revolves around the round pen. It's how I teach them from the very beginning, even to accept halters and such. Blackjack couldn't be caught, so we would feed him in the round pen and shut the gate. From there, he would have to 'run'(trot-canter) and I would be fairly aggressive in making him move. When I wanted him to stop, I would say "whoa" and simply stop chasing them. They learn whoa very quickly, because it means less running. If they balk or run from me when I approach, I make them run until I feel we can try "whoa" again. Once they accept what I want them to accept, which in Blackjack's first lesson, was just to let me rub him on the neck, we stop running and end the lesson on that good note. I like this method, because the horse learns to be still on their own. When Blackjack was learning to accept the saddle, we would run, whoa, come to the middle of the pen, and I would try to place the saddle on him, if he said no by turning/walking/running he would have to run some more. I never tie him up when introducing new things, because I don't want him to think that he only has to behave when he's tied so short he can't go anyway. Make sense? I've seen people tie a horse up short, so they can't move but side to side, then throw a saddle on them, cinch it up and then stand back as the horse freaks on this foot of rope. Sometimes the horses in that method desensitize, but sometimes, they begin to panick anytime they feel "trapped" either by a tight space or a tight rope. And there are different methods for different people and different horses, mine has served me very well for the two horses I've trained from scratch(couldn't and never been caught/handled) personally.

So, for this last week, we've been working on accepting weight in the stirrup and someone leaning over your back while standing in one stirrup and he has done great the last two lessons, so today we swung the leg over and sat down. He didn't budge, didn't panick, didn't flinch, just turned his head to look and remained relaxed(neck/ears neutral and relaxed eyes and muscles). So I dismounted and ended the lesson. Next lesson or so, we'll do the same thing and then work on asking him to move forward.

We ride western, I was trained english, so I can ride both. Western is much more relaxing to me and the crowd I used to ride with all rode western. We like to attend the wagon trains and group trail rides. I have little to no desire to show, other than the play dates at the wagon trains.

After we have riding down, I have seriously been playing with the idea of training him to drive next. I think it would be fun to have a cart or wagon. But we mainly just trail ride for pleasure.

I'll look and see if I have any pictures on the computer of him and I'll post them.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

I think OFG was imagingin all the fun she could have talking about castrating things for which castration is not a normal part of proper *care*.

Just a guess

Congrats on getting on Black Jack and his good behavior!

Ohhhhhhhh... Gotcha. I took it in direct response with castrating the horse. LOL I guess there are other things that castration could be applied to and it not be 'regular' care.