Happy, Happy, Happy!

 Happy New Year to All Out in Blogland!

And an end to 2018!

Welcome to 2019, a new beginning!

Remembering the Acreage

I was poking through some photos and found this one of Tucker, my first horse. She left us at 28 years. She is still on the Acreage, the place she really liked

This fellow came back for 4 years straight. He must have liked my fence post!

Riding with the hounds. There was only Boots and Brooklyn on this trip. Sometimes I had upwards of 10 dogs along. The neighbours dogs seemed to know when I was saddling up and joined in. After 5 hours of riding on the mountain, their butts were dragging

Adios Old friend!

Tucker was a registered Quarter Horse, 16 years old when we first got her. She needed an advanced rider and I was a rank beginner. We learned together. She put me over the handle bars, separated a shoulder and generally was a handful, but fun to ride. Wide open she could do an honest 70 km/h.

 She was the alpha mare in the herd until Alpine showed up, and then relinquished the position without a struggle.

This is a picture of the two of us from 1995.

Now  side by side as they were so often in life! Tucker and Boom..our first two horses.

Sometimes things are not so easy on the Acreage!

We had a bit of a scare with Tucker. With the cold spell that we just experienced, she went from 1150 pounds down to 925 in nothing flat. Her eating rate slowed to about 30% of the other horses and it looked like we were going to lose her. With segregation and an extra heavy feeding I managed to get 75 pounds back on her. The vet came up and floated her teeth which seemed to help, but we both figured this would be her last winter. However, with the weight gain, it looks like she will make it. Tucker is now 26 years old and that's getting long in the tooth.

Weight at 1000 pds, 150 to go

 Tucker has always been prone to abscesses in the front feet, probably due to foundering before we got her. With that history, I have to be careful not to feed her too much sweet feed or beet pulp, or risk another break out. So, extra hay, a half gallon of sweet feed once a day and some tender love and care. My vet donated the horse blanket for the next few months to keep her body temp up, and to prevent a chill. Our neighbour donated some left over sweet feed ( above what I bought) and some used horse blankets to lay on should she want to. This is what I really like about country living...great vets and great neighbours.

 I took the precaution of letting Tucker smell the blanket, and rubbed her with it before putting it on, just in case she had never been blanketed before. The precaution was not required and she took to it well. Today, she was her normal cranky self and pinned her ears to move Biz out of her space.

 I have a whole bunch of funny looking trees. Bad horses!

Boots takes it all in stride. Find a sunny spot in the hay and let the world go by. Smart dog.

On the plus side, I took Biz out for an hours ride  (+2 C}, but could not get into the fields due to the snow pack. She decided to go any way and left the plowed road to go through the grader bank and entered belly deep in the ditch. It's really neat to be sitting on a bounding horse trying to extricate herself from an almost stuck situation! Love it!

BFF

Well, not really. Alpine took over from Tucker as the Alpha mare. Now and again, she will show a little affection towards Tucker.

You can see the effects of the fly bites on Tucker. She is healing up quite nicely. Pardon the dirt, but a good roll seems to take the itch out for a while. I did just brush her just before taking the photo.

The Girls ( plus Friend)

Spring time is not the time to be taking portraits because all three of the Girls are shedding like crazy. I have been brushing almost daily, but they still look like woolly mammoths. What can I say? They are horses and aren't too worried about "lookin' good", even though they are all mares.

Tucker's Fire Star aka  "Tucker "

 Tucker is 23 this year and is still going strong, well, slowing down a little. She gave up being the alpha mare when Alpine showed up on the scene, without even a fuss. Tucker is now number 2 in the herd between Alpine and Biz.

Masten Alpine Black Magic aka "Alpine "

Alpine is the queen. When the ears go back and the neck goes forward, it means one of three things:  

1. Coming through! I am the Boss. 

2. Don't muss with 1150 pounds of PMS! 

3. You are too near my feed, my friend, or________ (fill in the blank. 

Biz aka "Biz "

What can I say? Biz is now eight years old, laid back and gentle. She is a nice horse to ride and has good manners.

I put the AKA in just to make her feel good. It makes her feel like royalty having a title.

No paddock pictures today as it is a sea of mud, and you know, the stuff that horses produce. Yecht!

Oh yeah, the "Friend" is still on guard in case you missed him.