Opening Day

My worries about how Frankie would act on the trail and how well my fence would hold up were as usual unfounded. The day I decided it was time to open the gate I made sure there was plenty of hay scattered around the track so he would stop running periodically and eat. I grabbed my camera to document the whole thing and let him go. At first he looked at me as if to say "You really gonna let me out there?" Then he took off up the first hill! The hay was a good thing because he did stop and eat the little piles I left him. Emma was very confused and unsure about the whole thing. She was slow to catch up to him but when she did she ran as fast as her little legs would carry her. They did find some grass along the way and quickly scarfed up what little was there. It was wonderful to see him running so free and enjoying the space.

There are two corners I would like to take out a couple small trees so he may move through a little easier and safer. I also think that next year I will go in and kill off a section of growth where the Mayapples and ferns grow in order to plant some grass. it has been a pain keeping after the ferns, they sprout up constantly and I am tired of walking the trail and pulling them.

I have not had the trail open every day because I went on vacation and did not want my neighbors to have to walk the trail checking for ferns and any downed areas of fence that deer have pulled on. I have actually only had one time the deer completely pulled apart a section of fence. They learn quick but must be getting through it still. I see them out in the track area periodically.

I still have not hung the big hay barrels yet. I have been so busy there are some things I have not gotten to. My new hay nets from Chicks have been great. They have 2" holes and are very well made, easy to open and large. It will all happen eventually. I am not as anxious about it anymore. Now that the fence is done and I have had them on the track a few times I feel much better. I think with the heat and bugs they will only want to be out there in the mornings and maybe late evenings. Winter will be the time they use it the most I am guessing.

Here is a series of pictures of their first trip through the track. Frankie waited patiently for me to open the gate...

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.

But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
This poem by Robert Frost keeps coming to my mind as I am out in the woods working. I love being in the woods and it is hard to imagine some times that I am in my own back yard and not some far away place. Unfortunately some of the things that make the path so beautiful are poison and I have to remove them. The ferns that I love will definitely need to be dug up as they are very toxic and last all summer. I don't think the animals would intentionally eat them but I am not taking any chances of course. There has been another strange greenery that has popped up in several patches through out the lower part of the path. They are beautiful umbrella like plants that I did not remember seeing there before. I had to look them up on line to find they are a common forest plant called Mayapples. They are very toxic including the roots so I will dig them up too.

I am so close to being ready to turn Frankie and Emma out onto the track. I was sure I could do it by this weekend but needed a little more fencing to finish. I went to the local Fleet Brothers yesterday and wouldn't ya know they were out of the white electric rope I was using for the lower portion of the fence. He will get it in by Wednesday so I am not sure if I can let them out before next weekend. The top row of electric tape is finished and the second row of rope will be done but I really wanted the third row of electric as well. He would be fine with the two rows probably but I will feel it out and see. I plan on locking Emma up and hand walking Frankie through the track first. He gets so worked up in the woods for some reason and I don't want to be tripping over Emma while I am dealing with Frankie. I will let her on the track after Frankie has had a chance to be on it on his own and run around a bit. Once he is calm I will let her join him. I just don't want her to get run over! She is a big 200+ lb goat but she gets nervous when he gets running fast.

Oh, I almost forgot, the ATV's are GONE!!! My neighbor got tired of them too and so they went back to their original owner to dig out trails there too. That is such a relief I just hope they stay gone.

Below are a few spring time picture I wanted to share.

This the view from the back of the paddock near the entrance to the track looking back toward the house and barn. The door frame in the paddock is from an old door we had there when our dog had a bigger run. I use it for hay nets and am planning on making a stock for Emma so I can trim her feet easier. Frankie is way up there in the pasture grazing.

Frankie enjoying a little spring grass.

Emma rubbing her horns, her favorite past time.

The stream below has been fenced off because it is protected and is very mucky at the bottom. They will just have to be happy looking at it.

A Few Seps Forward, A Few Steps Back!

Thought I was right on schedule until last Saturday and I went out to do a little work on the track. When I first walked down to the area I was working on I didn't notice the broken pole until I stepped on the pieces. My neighbor's boys have recently gotten two ATV'S and according to the tire tracks they had ridden right through my pole and broke it in half. They have been riding in the woods every day and the noise is starting to get to me. Our property connects and they have been having a blast riding all over their adjoining five acres. Now, these are friends of mine and my boys and theirs grew up together so I can't say a word to them because they have every right to ride back there on their own property. They are nice guys but I just can't believe that after all these years of no one going back there they pick now to do this. Frankie is all freaked out over the noise and at night there are lights flying through the woods. Of course every time they zoom up the hill the ceremonious WHOOOOOHOOOOOO! has to be sounded as well! So the broken pole kinda was icing on the cake. It was an accident I am sure and no big deal to fix but still I got really frustrated. Next, my neighbor comes walking down the hill obviously upset over my fence and wanting to find the exact property line. I think he thought I had gone way off the line but after we spent some time going over the area we found that I only went over at two places. Both of those I new I was over but his wife said it was ok because she was going to connect to it too. So again not the end of the world but I did hate for him to be upset with me.

Today I spent moving the line and redoing some poles and taking off some hardware. I had to cut a portion of track out completely to avoid his property. My biggest concern is one area that comes very close to my stream and the gully that surrounds that part of it. I had to narrow out the track at that point and the footing is a little tricky for him. It is safe enough but I hated to have to change that one area. it is just my bad luck the property line comes so close to to the gully. It could be worse and I would be totally cut off from the back of my property so I am trying to stay positive.

As I start to see the track come together and the top rung of fence going up I am getting excited as well as nervous too. I guess it is pre-fence test jitters! He will be a spaz in the beginning and I just don't want him to hurt himself. Then there is the ATV issue. If they are back there Frankie will have to come in. They ride the fence line at top speed and the motor on those things are very loud. Frankie will go nuts for sure! I just hope they get bored with them soon and the summer heat will chase them away. I am a high school art teacher and we are on Spring break for a week, the weather is looking good so I hope to finish the track before break is over. When I get him on it I will have to do mornings in order to avoid the ATV's. Maybe Frankie will get use to the machines and not be bothered by them after a while. He will ride on the road with eighteen wheelers flying by but then things like lawn mowers and ATV's will freak him out! This certainly has been interesting so far.

Hamering, trimming and clearing

Just a small update. After three days of a few holes in the crab net I have seen no more, YAY! Emma has left the net alone and does not bat at it anymore. I have put the net in various locations including tying it to a container on the ground. They seem to like it up higher better but after a lot of reading, that is not a great location for it as it is healthier for them to eat with their head down. I also bought a basketball net and made a mini "basketball hay ball" that I have tied from a beam and it swings freely. It is up just high enough that Emma can reach. Frankie seems to enjoy chasing it around and trying to grab hay from it.

I have cut the barrels for the hanging barrel feeders and am attempting to make my own nets for those. Other than that I have been clearing and trimming back the trail almost to completion and have hardware up for the entire top rung of fence. I need to buy a couple post for some gaps where there are no trees to attach hardware and then I will just have the two lower rungs of fence. I am hoping to see a lot of progress in the next two weeks!

First encounters with small mesh hay net!

As part of my Paddock Paradise I will, of course, be including slow feeders. I am looking at the various small mesh hay nets to buy and I have also purchased two blue plastic barrels to build some barrel feeders with as seen on the Wetpaint site. I was anxious to see how Frankie would do with a small mesh net so until I make a decisions as to what I want to buy I went to Walmart and found a crab net. The netting seemed strong although thin and had about 1.5' holes, it was nylon and it came on a big metal net handle. I slipped some baling twine through the net that was woven onto the metal ring and then removed the ring. It made a perfect two chunk hay net!

I had no expectations of this net being in one piece by morning. I figures that even though I gave Frankie and Emma some loose hay to satisfy them they would still tear up the net. I had to try however and was very curious as to how Frankie, the destroyer of round bales, would react. To my utter delight he did great! The first bite was a shock and then in just minutes he figures out how to nibble at the hay. He actually seemed to like it as did Emma, as if it was a fun game. The next morning I immediately inspected the net and found only one small tear. So we went for another day and night and had just one more hole. I was still pleased considering this was a crab net and not very thick netting at that.

On the third day I came home from work and noticed that Emma was standing in the run-in doorway with the net on her head? So I tip toe through the mud in my dress shoes to see what she has done and yes, the net was stuck in her horns! This is one of the reasons they tell you to not get a pet goat with horns but she was a rescue and came to me this way so I have to just deal with it. It took me a couple minutes to get her untangles as she had both horns stuck in it. She waited patiently while I got her loose and then ran for some hay to eat. She seemed no worse for wear and the net even survived the attack!

lesson to the story...TIE THE NET HIGHER!

Getting Started!

I set out to plan a path that utilizes as much of the already carved out paths as possible. I had to consider expense and be careful of neighboring property lines. The thickly wooded undeveloped area of our property are also very hilly in some parts. I want to use those hills to my advantage but I don't want them to create any dangerous obstacles for Frankie either. Frankie is an active horse and I want to be careful that the corners do not pose hazards if he gets running too fast. The other issue is the creek that runs through property. Because it is swampy at parts and has some steep embankments I do not think it is safe for the animals to have access to it.

I have a gate at the back of my paddock so as you can see for my original map below, I have started the path there. This way they have easy access back to the barn and water. If I want to close them off from the track that is easy too. The track turns left and goes up a hill then down a large hill to a clearing where I will put a slow feeder. The path then snakes back into the thicker woods to the creek and the back side of our property. At this point the path forks and creates a loop. Another slow feeder will go in the back somewhere.I plan on using as many trees for posts that I can. That will probably be most of them since there are so many trees and it will save me money too. I am using 1/2" electric tape along the entire top row and then two to three rows of electric rope below that. In some places I worry about my goat getting out and wanting to go visit the neighbors! My regular fence is electric from Horse Guard Fencing so I will tap into the already existing current. If I feel it needs more juice I might buy another electric charger.

I plan on making the paths 8 -12 feet with a few bigger resting spots. I have started trimming back trees and vines to widen the existing paths and also create new areas. My branch lopper will only take me so far and I will need to sequester some help with the chainsaw. This is my kind of gardening!!!

Health ~ Past, Present & Future

PAST~
Frankie came to me about three and a half years ago. It was one of those love at fist sight things. He was a very healthy energetic, eight year old.  His feet were extremely healthy as well. He had only been in shoes for a year because of the very rocky environment of his previous home so I had no worries he would be fine without them. After I got him home and settled in I had the shoes pulled off and he has done wonderfully without them. 
 
One thing I did not realize until later was that his very gassy, noisy stomach was not as normal as I thought it was. With the exception of some small gas discomfort and one very mild colic he was OK for the first two years because he had pasture mates and more room to move about. The problem came to a head when I moved him to my house and he was in a smaller area with only a goat for a companion. I can not in any way shape or form afford another horse so for now the goat will have to do.
About four months into his move to my property Frankie sand coliced. The warning sign were all there but I just did not understand them (I do now!). The vet came out and we got him healthy again until just three months later and he coliced again, badly. We got him OK again and it became my mission to keep this from happening again.


PRESENT~
Frankie is now on a free choice diet of grass hay (round bale), no grain, a one cup serving of his soaked alfalfa pellets. He is on a product called Assure and Assure Plus. The Assure is given every morning and has a ration of probiotics, molasses, a small amount of psyllium and some other ingredients for the large colon. The Assure Plus is given one week out of the month and it is mostly a quality psyllium product in a pelleted form. I keep him off grass that is too short and ride him as much as possible. He has been colic free for a little over a year and his gut has good sounds but is not OVER active and he seems much healthier with more energy.

On the down side, Frankie is cooped up in his approximately 20' by 60' paddock and run-in with some pasture turn out. He can get a little over weight if I do not ride him enough and this winter has been one of those times. I also feel he needs a horse friend and I have great hopes to get him a buddy some day. Frankie and Emma are good together but I know he needs MORE in his life.

FUTURE~
I hope to see my animals in a living environment that is mentally and physically stimulating. I hope to be able to not worry so much about Frankie eating dirt out of boredom or letting gas build up in his tummy because he is not getting enough exercise. I would love to have a boarder with us so he has another horse to be with. I have not had the room for that at all but maybe with the Paddock Paradise tracking that is a possibility!