Cadence is home!

I brought Cadence home on Saturday, July 16th from spending 90 days at Mary Beth's.

She is adjusting well, getting used to her new routine. And I, too, am getting used to her new feeding routine. I think I've just about got it down, it has required me to wake up a little bit earlier in the morning.

In the morning she is getting two big coffee cans of alfalfa cubes, one big coffee can of oats, one big coffee can of beet pulp, and one small coffee can of Empower Boost, as well as two flakes of grass hay. I let the beet pulp, oats and Empower soak in a bucket for about 15-20 minutes before giving it to her.

In the evening she is getting two big coffee cans of alfalfa cubes and one small coffee can of oats, as well as two flakes of hay.

She cleans most everything up. Occassionally she will have some hay left over. But, she is looking good. She's putting weight back on. I can't visibly see her ribs anymore. She still needs quite a bit of weight over her back and hips. I imagine I will be keeping up this feeding routine for another year while she is still growing.

I have ridden every day this week so far. On Monday, I just rode in the round pen, and she was absolutely bored. On Tuesday, I rode around the property. She did good as far as all the activity going on around her. She still does not completely trust me, though, as she kept wanting to veer back to the pens. On Wednesday, I actually got her to go in straight lines, and was able to walk some good squares/rectangles!

I am SO happy to have Cadence home!

Gettin' back to it

The summer monsoon season has arrived... finally. And I got caught out in it last night. I had gone out around 8:00 to clean pens, feed animals, get everyone tucked in for bed, etc. and as I was cleaning pens, the storm moved in. I had been watching it track east across the Bisti to the south of me. All of a sudden, it get extremely windy. I barely got into the hay shed when it started pouring. And the lightning was striking very close! Two bolts hit within half a mile of the house, the second one knocking the power out. I actually saw sparks fly out of the electrical outlets in the barn.

At the start of the storm, the horses ran into the pen... They started out underneath the shelter, but it was so windy and noisy that they ran out to the end of the paddock and weathered the storm out there. All three dogs huddled against me in the hay shed. All three were stressed.

We all survived the storm. After the majority of it passed, I fed the animals by flashlight, then went inside. I lit a candle for light until going to bed. The power came back on at about 3:00am.

Eventful evening!

Welcome to Ladybug Ranch....
....please close the gate after entering! Animals may be loose!