burrs

Burrs. . . I hate them. But Shyloh seems to love them. She is a burr magnet. 

Perhaps this is why. . .

Or this. . .

Ugh! All I know is that I spend the better part of our time together picking out burrs. Big burrs in her tail and little bit of feather. Teeny tiny burrs on her legs, stomach, sides, neck, chest, ears, under her chin, and nose. Clusters of burrs in her mane and forelock. And those tiny burrs, yeah, they are about the same size as ticks. 

I think she sleeps in them!

I don't even know how she gets them here.

Not only are the burrs everywhere, but they have become partially hidden by her hair as Shy begins to turn into a woolly mammoth for winter. So I have to untangle and pull the burrs out of her hair. It doesn't look like much, but they are small and have to be pulled one at a time. Luckily, Shy is very tolerant of the constant plucking of the burrs, except for the clumps by her ears.

Shy is totally okay with looking like a feral horse.

Shy's forelock has about three strands of long hair left, the rest is a fluff from being pulled out by the burrs. It is a sad, sad forelock for a Haflinger. Her mane is a twist of nastiness. And the tail. . .the tail that collects the large burrs, which then clump together and intertwine hairs and create a cluster of a mess is just awful. I cannot wait for the bugs to go away so I can put that tail up for winter.

Ugh

More ugh!

So sad!

Why?

So many tiny burrs hidden throughout.

The burrs stick to her halter and to me. I have even found them in my hoodie pocket. 

But the mane and forelock. . . I am beginning to think it would be easier to roach and start over. Yes? No? Maybe so?

*All these photos where taken on different days.

ravenous draft

The following photos are very disturbing. . .do not scroll down if you don't think you can handle it. . .

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These are the photos of a draft horse at dinner time. It is just awful. 

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Shyloh looks terrified.

See how she runs the other horses off their food? See how she won't let the other horses eat? No? Me either.

But, I guess because Reba is big, she intimidates people. Especially those who don't know much about herd dynamics or how horses eat. 

All Reba does is simply eat some food, then slowly walk to the next pile of food to see if there is anything better there. She does not eat all the food then go on to the next pile. She does not pin her ears or chase other horses off. The other horses could stay (clearly, they sometimes do) or check out another food pile. 

But apparently, walking around checking out all the food turns feeding time into a "circus." Ugh. Just let horses be horses! And also, I really need my own horse keeping facility.

/end rant.  

fall drive 2014

Yesterday was the annual fall drive. Last year we went and raced the minis. This year, rode with Beth and Art and got to help harness and hook a six horse hitch of Haflingers. It was pretty awesome!

The Haflinger hitches started a Haflinger and Hitch Pony Championship Series this year from all the shows they have been doing. There are four hitches that made it to the finals: Brugger's Other Farm, Second Star Haflingers, Triple F Farms, and Stream-n-Acres. They will be at the Michigan Great Lakes International Draft Horse Show in October, which of course, I will be going. 

One of the hitches came to our drive to practice with their six. Which also meant that their gelding that I really liked was there!

Woody!

It was fun and a little bit scary to help with the hitch process. Holding two horses is cool, heading four horses is okay, but six is a bit overwhelming for me! Luckily, these are some well behaved horses. 

2. . .Beth got to hold the lines and keep them straight/ 

4. . .

All 6!

It was a beautiful day for a drive. Beth set out behind the hitch and Art seemed to be having wonderful flashbacks from his days in a hitch. He wanted to be right up there with those horses and was trucking along at a pretty swift pace. Art also likes to be in front. 

When we caught up, Art practically wanted to climb in the back of the hitch wagon!

The bridge

When we turned around, the hitch was behind us. Art was happy as could be being out in front. And when he heard that hitch trotting up behind him, he lifted his like he was the lead horse. He definitely remembered being in a hitch! 

Woody and Willy. Brothers. One with an itchy face, one with an itchy butt!

It was a good day for us, until I drove home. Then my car decided to act like a jerk and break down on the freeway. It is getting fixed now. So grateful for good friends!

everybody works

Shyloh has gotten hip to the whole Lily riding her thing. She is past the phase of, Oh, I'll just tote Lily around and be cool with that. 

Coming in from the pasture

Shy has realized that Lily is practicing on her. To Shy this means that if she is going to work, so is Lily. And Shy is a stickler for her rules (like walking right at her shoulder), so she made Lily ask her correctly to get her to do stuff.

I would not have called Shy bad in any sense of the word. Challenging is more accurate. She remained her calm self, but preferred that Lily use both leg and rein cues to get her out of her sticky spots. Lily is not used to Shy testing her, which caused Lily to be frustrated. But they got through their cones exercises. And all was good. Shy got her apple from the kids and was happy.

Shy still toted Tommy around without an issue. He did want to trot and kept asking. And asking. Both kids always ask to trot. Makes me so glad they know nothing about cantering! 

Even if Shy has decided to make Lily work now, she is still so good for the kids. Her patience is just amazing. I watched the kids pick up Shy's hooves to pick them, she held each one up for them as they worked each hoof and talked about seeing the frog. Have I said before that this makes my heart smile?

conversations with shyloh

Sometimes I wish everyone (anyone?) who reads this could meet Shyloh. She really is quite the character. Her face is quite expressive and it is easy to anthropomorphize how she is feeling by the looks she gives.

Excuse her lack of a forelock. . .burrs are ripping it out.

I have mentioned before how she has thought of certain classes that she shows in, either by giving the judges nasty looks (and them commenting on it) or by outright falling asleep. If she is bored, she yawns, over and over again. If she is annoyed, she has a super irritated side eye look. If she is scared, her eyes get big. If I am having a conversation where I am laughing, she smiles. I do not ask her to do any of this.  You can totally tell when she is concentrating on a task. And when she refuses to do something, you can tell the second she decided that if she is asked one more time, she will do it.

She is not herd bound, but when out and she sees her "buddies", she will give them a greeting nicker. She doesn't "talk" much, but the babies did have her calling out at the last show. She is a very independent horse and she is not afraid to let me know it. But at the same time, I can tell when she looks to me for leadership in a scary situation or a new situation that she is unsure of. She is not the horse that will come up to a stranger willingly, she keeps her distance. Or she might flat out run away if a person she didn't know or like approached her, tossing her head the whole time.

Anyway, earlier this week I was told that Shy wasn't going into the front pen for her grain. My stance on grain is that Shy doesn't need it. However, in this pasture situation, there is nothing I can do because they feed the horses as a group. I was told that Shy runs from the feeders and they have to try and catch her to get in her with the other horses. And I guess there was one time when she ran into the Gator, knocked the grain bucket over, and had herself a feast. I let the feeders know that if this is the case, don't try and force her into the front pen for grain. She is clearly not starving and if they leave her alone, she will either figure it out for herself or not. No big deal. The hay is given in the big pasture, so she wold still be getting hay.

So, like any completely sane person, I asked Shy about her behaviors. This was her response:

I asked her about the Gator incident. This was her response:

I mean, really? She has no idea what I am saying, but she does this. How can you not laugh when she gives such silly responses, almost like she knows and is laughing about it? There were no treats present, there was no food, and there was no ask for the smile. She does it all on her own. She is just so funny and exactly what I need after a long day at work. I am very grateful to have her in my life.

Also. . .I did ask the feeding lady to leave Shy's food out if we were working. She agreed. So that piece of drama is cut out, hopefully.

Anyone else have a horse with a lot of expressions?