OBSESSED

One of the nice things about having TC at the ranch is that I have access to a camera that spies on the horses all day long. I also get messages from my parents at random when they notice anything about him. It definitely makes me feel really good about having him there! 

But honestly there's only been one boarding facility where I didn't trust the barn manager to message me if something was wrong, but luckily I had friends there who were keeping an eye on my horse. Still, I always felt bad asking the barn manager how my horse was so it's nice to just have cameras now. 

This post is not about me being obsessed with my horse though. This post is about TC being obsessed with his pasture. 

He is so gross

Throughout the year, the horses at the ranch get on a bit of a cycle. TC came into the ranch in the spring when the grass was lush. During that time, he didn't have access to a pasture, but he did get put out for a couple of hours each day. In the summer, the grass dies and the pastures pretty much become dirt. At that point, he was given his current setup. 

TC has a 12x12 stall with a 12x12 porch, then from there, a 50 foot by 24 foot base rock paddock (it's an obscene amount of packed base rock that does not get muddy). From there, he goes out to what I think is probably a 75 foot by 50 foot sacrifice pasture that doesn't get much grass. And then from there, he can go out onto his half acre lush (in the late winter and early spring) pasture. He can be locked onto just the paddock, or the paddock and sacrifice, or he can have the whole thing. 

Anyway, all summer and fall, TC was out in his pasture but without any grass. He loves his pasture regardless of grass status, and spends a lot of his days and nights wandering back and forth between his porch (where his water is) and the end of the pasture, where he watches the neighbor's boarding facility. 

The smallest teal box is his stall/porch/paddock,
the next box is his sacrifice pasture, the next box
is his pasture, you can see the others' pastures too

This winter was his first winter at the ranch, so he got locked onto the paddock when the rain started. It's still a decent size paddock! Especially for California! After having his enormous pasture for so long, he was insulted that he couldn't be out there. 

THEN... the grass came in. A few weeks after rain, we start seeing sprigs and eventually, depending on the rain cycle, the pastures get super deep and lush. When that happens, the horses get certain amounts of time on their pasture to graze but then get brought in to keep them from foundering or getting too chonky. They get reduced hay during that time. 

Obviously it all depends on rain when the horses get access to grass and when they are inside. So it's always a bit of an art trying to balance everything. My parents have been here for twelve years now, so they're pretty good at it. No horse has ever gotten too chonky, no one has foundered, and no one has starved to death (many horses have thought they were on the verge of starving to death because they were not allowed to eat 10x their bodyweight in grass every day). The only one who has needed a muzzle has been the pony, because rather than consuming calories, he gets spritzed with water twice a day to keep him bright. 

Excuse me why am I not allowed out

Anyways, a few weeks ago, we had that huge storm so the horses were locked off the pasture and sacrifice for a while. Then they got the sacrifice when it was muddy but not shoe-sucking-muddy. TC took this as an invitation to be absolutely disgusting. I've never really understood the whole gray horse issue because TC doesn't lay in his poop and he's never laid in a stall (makes it easy, I have never really paid for shavings) because he hates stalls. But now I get it, having a gray horse is gross sometimes. 

There were tiny sprigs in the sacrifice after that storm, so he would spend his days nibbling them, but they weren't enough to change his food or excite him too much. 

Then.... the pastures finally dried out and TC got access to a really nice pasture with GRASS (just over sprig level but who is keeping track) and he became... OBSESSED with it. 

SIR WHAT IN THE WORLD

First, since moving to the ranch, his daily whinnies have been few and far between. I like to take that as evidence that he's not as desperate to see me, as when I took him down to Twin for camp, he shrieked madly at me to come entertain him. I dunno, 

Now though, he doesn't even pick his head up from the pasture when I come get him. He is all grass all the time. Only when I'm RIGHT next to him will he finally look up and then I have to be quick with the halter. 

In the past, he's walked quietly in with me, now he stops all the time to grab more sprigs. 

In the past, when I've put him back, he's quietly gotten a drink and moseyed out to see what the boarding facility horses are doing, or he'd stand and take a nap in his nap spot. Now, he quickly slurps up some water and then squeals and GALLOPS out of his porch all the way out to the pasture, usually bucking when he gets out there. He's moved several mats with his hind legs as he gears up to take off. 

In the past, he's never been the type to dive for grass on side of the road. Now, he thinks he's absolutely entitled to all grass all the time and I've been treated like a small child on a pony who won't stop diving for grass. 

There are also many mushrooms in the pastures

Another hilarious habit he now has is darting out after eating his grain to see if he can prevent whoever is trying to lock him in off the pasture (right now, they are allowed out during the day and then they come onto the sacrifice at night so they don't overeat). My dad made the mistake of starting by locking Sunny in, then moving down to Riot, then Rico, but by the time he got to TC, TC was standing out in his pasture like "lock me on this side! I don't need water or shelter!" 

I guess my dad decided to walk on the other side of TC and try to shoo him into the sacrifice. Remember the blanketing debacle? Yeah, TC can't be shoo'd. I guess he trotted in circles around my dad thinking it was a fun game they were playing in his pasture. He did oblige when my dad came out with a halter. 

The cow pasture rests over the winter and then the
longhorns come back in the spring!

I'm really entertained by how obsessed he is with his pasture. The other horses get excited about their pastures too, but mostly just when they've been locked off of them. The first time they get to go out after being locked off, there is usually a lot of hilarious bucking and celebrating. Then they settle into the routine. 

TC is enamored every day all day long that he gets to have a PASTURE with GRASS that he gets to EAT and no one can STOP HIM unless they lock him OFF OF IT with a non-electrified CABLE in which case he does NOT TEST IT even though he DESTROYS HOUSING. Seriously, how does the horse respect a single cable wire when he would previously try to destroy any fencing he came in contact with? 

Unfortunately no horses get to eat all this grass
down! They don't get turned out above the gate

I'm glad that TC is getting to experience life at the ranch in the winter. It's worth dealing with on and off not being able to ride in the arena just to watch him obsess over his pasture. I now feel very guilty that I'm considering moving him to a boarding facility next winter so I can ride him. How rude of me.