Posy, the mischievous filly

One of our “daughters” works a shift where she is on for 48 hours at a time. She relies on me to take care of her animals when she is working. It isn’t overly burdensome for me because I enjoy her animals-two cats, two to three dogs and four horses, two of which are expecting youngsters this spring.

Before her last shift, she moved Jackson, a four-year-old gelding, and Posy, a yearling filly, out of the pasture they were in and into what we call the “draw pasture.” It has water, and while the feed isn’t starting too much yet, it gives the other pastures a rest. We feed them a little hay while they’re in there. They seem to be quite happy.

During her last shift when I went down to feed, I checked the pregnant mares. It was the day after that last horrible wind and I couldn’t even find one of the feed tubs, so that mare got her pellets in a different feeder than she’s used to. Then I took care of the dogs, fed the cats, built up the wood stove and on my way back to the house, I drove by Jackson and Posy, so I stopped there to throw them a bale of hay.

At first I didn’t notice anything amiss. As I got ready to roll the bale over to the fence, Jackson was right there beside me. But Posy was still over by another fence. I looked over and stumbled because she had both front legs over an electric fence wire, just standing there. I walked quickly to where she was standing to assess the situation but soon realized I could do nothing to rectify it from that angle.

Back I went to try to crawl through the fence. As always when I am in a hurry, my coat gets caught on the fence and I can’t get it loose. I grew frantic, just waiting for her to get spooked and make a mess of herself and the fence, when I felt a nose nuzzling my hair and shoulder. I knew it wasn’t Jackson because he isn’t touchy-feely. I turned my head and there was Posy, standing beside me, trying to make me feel better about getting stuck in the fence.

I heaved a sigh of relief, scolded her gently for almost giving me a heart attack, then cuddled her a little and threw the hay over the fence. She hung around until I had it all scattered, then gave me one last nuzzle and left to go eat.

I looped the loose wire around another wire to hopefully keep it up where she can’t do that again.

I have seen other horses do similar things. I had one some years back that would put a foot over the bottom fence wire and pretend to be hooked just to pull it out and run away when someone came over to help.

Horses. They are either trying to kill themselves or give us a heart attack.

Chicken Fodder

With the upswing in small chicken flocks, I thought it would be good to explain how I fill my hens’ needs for greens this time of year. They are almost crazy looking for green shoots right now, and it isn’t hard at all to make them some.

Supplies needed:

Disposable aluminum pan

Wheat or barley seed

Water

About seven days

I use the pans from a dollar store; I find an 8x8 is sufficient for my 13 hens. Pour enough wheat or barley into the pan to completely cover the bottom. That is to measure the amount needed. Then pour the seed into a jar, cover with room temp water and let sit overnight. The next day spread the seed in the bottom of the pan. Cover with a dark cover (another pan works great). After one day, check and see if it is sprouting. Once there are good sprouts, take the top pan off and water. Don’t drown it, but make sure it is well moistened. Give it a shot of water every day for the next week. In seven days the plants should be 3-4 inches tall. Peel the fodder out of the pan and put it out for the hens. It can be cut into pieces with scissors so more hens can get to it. If you want to give them some every day, start a pan every day. I do it every other day.