A day with friends

My friend has come and gone - her visit was short, but we managed to have fun.  I also have an invitation to go horseback riding in Sweden - now I just need to get over there!

We even ran into RuckusButt on our ride - we stopped to chat for a few minutes, but we didn't ride together as we were headed in different directions.  I did take a picture, but my little camera isn't that great, so you'll have to take my word that the people in this picture are RuckusButt, Mr. Ruckus and the very cute Hazel.

We borrowed a horse for my friend to ride and she enjoyed the trails on the property.  We also went up to the front of the farm to the grass riding ring. She really wanted to ride Rusty as well and see what an appy was like to ride. She is a dressage rider and she usually rides one of her Lipizzaners - so riding in a western saddle was fun for her.

My pictures didn't turn out well at all, so here is what I was able to salvage...

Horse and rider getting used to each other - she wasn't used to a western saddle and he was probably expecting an inexperienced rider, but was in for a surprise...

It's nice to see what my horse looks like from the ground - not something I see that often...

This is my favourite shot - I like Rusty's big butt and my friend did too. lol  She gave him a good workout with lots of cantering.  He looked pretty good for an old guy!

Sunday dose of cuteness

I have managed to tear myself away from playing with the kittens and have made it out to the barn a couple of times over the past few days.  


I had another short ride with RuckusButt last week.  We are allowed to use some of their facilities, in turn, the boarders of her barn can ride on our trails.  Not a bad deal for either group...  I had decided to go over and try riding on their sand track.  They have a 1/2 mile (I think!) sand track and it is really fun to ride on.  Just as I was heading past the barn, RuckusButt walked out on her way to get her horse!  Nice coincidence!  :-)  So, Rusty and I walked/trotted/cantered a few laps while she got Brumby tacked up and ready to go. We then walked a few more laps and had a good chat.  One of us will have to bring a camera one of these days to get some photographic proof for you guys! lol


I have a friend coming from Europe for a short visit this week. I'm very excited to see her, as it has been several years since her last visit.  She lives in Sweden and has a small farm where she breeds Lipizzaners!  She is really excited to come here and go for a ride on Rusty -  I told her that a 20 year old appy might be a slightly different ride than a Lipizzaner!  :-)   As it turns out, we will be borrowing one of my barn owner's horses so we can go for a ride together.  I will try and remember the camera to get some evidence of the visit.


Okay, enough of my rambling - here are this week's kitten pictures!

I spent last Sunday taking pictures of the kittens because it was pouring rain and I was stuck inside...

Big cat and little cat in the box.  Mr. P barely fits in this box.

Mr. P is pretty good with the kittens most of the time, but he will lay down the law if things get too wild.

Max watching nervously...hoping that he is invisible and the Roxie won't see him...  Notice the burgundy carpet - we had to have that put in so that Max could walk from the living room to the front door. He is terrified of hard wood floors.

New additions to the family

I haven't been online much in the past week - due to some furry new arrivals at our house.  It has been a bit of a transition, but all the pets are doing ok.  The dog is probably having the hardest time.  I'll let the pictures explain...

Two little orange and white kittens!  We had planned on only getting one - that plan crumbled in the face of the cuteness.  Here they are playing with our old cat - who is about 5 times their size.  He doesn't quite know what to think. The dog (all 70lbs of him!) is totally terrified of these little furballs.  It's kinda funny...

This is Roxie (or maybe Rocky) - the vet wasn't able to tell 100% if it is a boy or a girl.  The staff of the vet clinic actually have a pool going on what gender this one will be!

This is Charlie. Definitely a girl.

They are pretty busy - playing, then crashing. And then playing some more.

Roxie challenging Mr. P - the big cat is not sure what to think!

So, that is what I've been up to! It has been a bit of work to integrate them into the house. Mr. P gets a special food, so we have to keep the kittens in the spare room while he eats.  I also don't want Mr. P gorging himself on kitten food, since he is already a bit "portly". lol

I'll probably be posting pictures of them once a week or so, as they grow, so be forewarned!!!

The dark side of clover

I wanted to expand a little on my clover/drooling situation. Rusty was (finally) moved to another paddock and the drooling stopped right away. Phew! I’m glad the barn owner finally believed me. I was hoping that they would bush hog the paddock with the clover in it, but that hasn’t seemed to happen yet. I guess everyone has different priorities…

There are many types/varieties of clover – just do a google search if you are curious. The main ones that most of us see are red clover, white clover and alsike clover. Here is a good resource to help you identify which plant is which.

I’ll start with alsike – it seems to be the worst offender for horses. It doesn’t need a mould/fungus on it to make it dangerous. It can cause severe symptoms such as photosensitivity and liver damage. If alsike clover poisoning is suspected and caught in time, the horse often recovers with no problem.

The main way (that I could find) to differentiate between white clover and alsike is the leave and flowers on white clover grow on separate stems from the ground. The flowers on alsike clover grow as “branches” of the main stem. White clover also has a faint white line in a “V” around the leaves. Red clover is pretty straightforward – it tends to be larger and has reddish-purple flowers, as well as having the “V” on the leaves.

White clover:

                   

Red clover:

Alsike clover:

      

Red and white clover and alfalfa (and probably other varieties as well) are susceptible to fungus. “Black patch” fungus seems to be the most common, with some plants exhibiting white spots. Most of the clover I found had the white/beige spots that the vet described. A few plants had black spots as well.

Here are the pictures I took of the very sad clover - note that alot of it has white spots, as well as black. Most of it is dead, or dying. Kinda nasty...

Most web sites say that the fungus tends to occur when you have a cool, wet spring. Our spring was hot and humid, with some rain in June, but I guess that was enough to cause a problem. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information on how to get rid of the fungus without heavy herbicide use. I know most of us horse people don’t like using chemicals of any sort around ourselves and our animals. Cutting the affected areas might help, I suppose. I have to admit though, if it was my paddock, I would have harrowed the whole field (maybe ½ an acre, tops) and re-seeded it. But, alas, it isn’t my farm…

Here are a few links if anyone is interested in reading further:

• Info from farmseeds.com – explanations on varieties of clover

• Wikipedia

• Plant identification – scroll down to “legumes”

• Different types of disease on clover (sadly no pictures)

So, there is clover, in a nutshell. Anyone have any other info to add? Corrections to make? Please remember that this post is based on some information from my vet and some google searching.