07/10/2025
Not too often are you doing morning chores in July (earlier today) in a sweater and a coat because its only 10 degrees, raining and cold! Oh look, its also snowing in the mountains. Although its one of those "wouldn't want the mud to get dehydrated" seasons, we are so grateful for the rain. It is so much needed after about 4 years of increasing drought conditions. We went back through our records, we hadn't had a super good hay crop since 2021! And of course, last year we tried to reseed and use the old stand as a cover crop which usually has some decent success but last year, being the worst drought year of those 4 for us, we saw a bunch of rain late May 2024, had to delay seeding because it was too wet and then didn't see anything else worth mentioning until September. Needless to say, hard to grow grass in the pastures or hay (or any crop) like that. This year is quite a bit different. So if you see panels and electric in the yard, and the appearance that we have "let the place go" and not mowed, well, that is for a reason. This will be the first summer in a while that the mare herd will have grass until it snows, assuming we also use the yard which is growing very well, to add to our pasture rotation which means the hay we have been bringing in for the summer can be reserved for the private pens that need it.
On the plus side, even in the rain, working on winning the 4 "newbies" over, and they sure are curious which is fantastic. Three unhandled 3yr olds and an unhandled 4yr old. The 2 on the far left, and the bay on the far right all take grass from my hand and I can pet the far left 2 for the most part. The filly on the far right, Squaw, I was able to pet last evening but it made her pretty nervous so we will keep plugging away. The 2nd from the far right, Clyde, is the most timid of the 3 and though hasn't taken grass out of my hand yet, he does approach, but hangs back just a smidge. His soft eye and head shape reminds me so much of Leo, the drum horse gelding, from a couple years back, so interested to see how he comes along once we start working on things. In today's rain, with the slippery mud, we will have to stick to just making friends with them. But they only just arrived the other day and are still settling in, so it works out while it is rainy and cold. Everyone is fresh as all get out in this weather. ;)
