WW: At Least He's Happy

Well, we've had a TON of rain over the last few weeks, so I'm just road walking or even just scraping the mud off of the horse and then putting him back into it. He is thriving. 

Ew

He was galloping around before this,
lost a shoe, obviously

Thinking about rolling again because this is not
enough mud

Gotta get the ENTIRE body, there is still gray

Wow okay

He'll get there, he'll soon cover every inch of
himself lol

I cannot WAIT for it to get warm enough to bathe him. It's going to take me months to get him clean. But at least he's happy!

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. 

WW: TC's Art Project

I went out to ride yesterday and...

Yes, he was wet, not just dirty

Don't let that face fool you, he did
not feel bad about this

I did still manage to ride him lol I'm glad he's living
his best disgusting winter pasture horse life

Mischief Makers on the Trail

So on Tuesday, I decided to trail ride TC, just take him up the hill at the back of the pasture bareback. Once we have a saddle that is comfortable for me to ride in, I'll take him on the real trails, but for now, I can only really do a 45 minute ride (at most) bareback before my back complains. That's perfect for the trails at home! 

Surprise trail buddy!

I had an idea though, one I've had before, but I finally did it. I ponied Rico off of TC for our trail ride! 

See, there are some things I need in place before I get a second horse. Things like, find a new barn where I can have both of them closer to home, comfortably save the amount the second horse is going to cost me each month, and teach TC to pony other horses off of him. Part of having two horses means riding two horses and that's tough to do with a full time job. 

As an aside, did I put this much thought into buying TC? Absolutely not. 

To help with this, one of the things I decided was that I'd hack them out together at least once a week, if not twice. That means they both get out but it only takes me as much time as one horse would (or one and a half horses). I could do that maybe twice during the week and then alternate their days off on the other days during the week so the only days I'd ride both would be on the weekends. 

I dunno, haven't thought too far along, but I knew that I needed to make sure TC is happy to pony another horse before getting another horse. 

I just love this!

Rico hasn't been ponied before (to my knowledge), but he has been driven with another horse in his youth, and with TC and Rico now being good friends, I figured that they'd be fine together. And I was right! Sort of. 

I managed to get on TC while leading Rico, so that went smoother than I thought. Then Rico dragged TC and I over to the grass to graze. Poor TC was just pulled along by my bodyweight leaning off to the side as Rico went to basically yank me off of him to get to food. I managed to get Rico to stop grazing and we headed down the road, Rico in the lead.

About half way down the road I realized that I had no idea how I was going to turn these weirdos around as I had almost no control over Rico. I think Rico thought I'd just invited him along and was going to turn him loose or something. He dragged TC and I down the road and I have to hand it to TC, he was SO GOOD after I told him not to bite Rico's butt as he charged past us. 

I managed to get them to stop and then turned TC around and dragged Rico with me. He wanted to stop and stare at something so I got TC out in front of him like normal ponying should go. But then Rico inserted his nose into TC's tail and decided that's what we were going to do now. Again, TC is just the most wonderful creature because he just accepted that without even hesitating. No kicking, slowing down, squealing, whatever, just put his ears back on me as if to be like "is this fine? yes? okay" and we continued. Then Rico decided to trot up alongside us and try to cut us off again, pinning TC and I under a tree near a fence. TC, again, just ignored this and kind of pushed Rico away from him with his shoulder when I steered TC into him. Add herding feral Grand Prix horses to his list of accomplishments. 

Rico charging ahead and TC
checking in with me lol

I took them back to the ranch and we walked around the pasture (not up into the hills, those are too steep for Rico and the trails are a bit narrow for two horses). Rico alternated between ponying normally, getting ahead of us and trying to bushwhack his way through the pasture, and yanking my arm to graze. 

We did end up kind of getting the hang of it after a while! It's just the first time and Rico had his leather halter on, we'll definitely use the rope halter next time. 

Even so, I had a blast despite the chaos. TC was amazing and I absolutely can see him being the perfect horse to pony my next horse off of so they can get out together. I can even see him being good enough to pony my new horse while my niece rides with me (either double on TC or on my new horse depending on how new horse is with her!). What a good boy, I am so lucky to have him in my life. 

Rico obviously had SO MUCH FUN! He was grinning the whole time and seemed to love being a troublemaker. With Rico's driving background and TC's pure soul (I've never seen him kick at another horse), I never once was worried about the situation. Hopefully Rico gets a little more... compliant... as we do this more, but I don't honestly care. He deserves to be a pest! 

WW: Wild Child(ren)

Rico has gotten a bit... jealous... of TC. I feel bad for him because he doesn't get out nearly as much as TC does (because he's got pretty serious neck arthritis and the only thing he wants to do is go in the trailer to a new trail), so I've been sneaking him special cookies whenever I can. 

That hadn't stopped him from disliking TC, especially when they started living next to one another. 

But TC is not one to give up on friendship. He is relentless in his desire to be best friends with everyone and I think interpreted Rico's harassing of him to be playing. So Rico would harass TC and TC would play with him in turn. TC thought that was great and decided to just follow Rico around. Rico would go out to pasture and there was TC, following him out. Rico would come in for a drink and TC would come in too.

After a while, Rico finally gave up and it actually seems like the two of them enjoy each others company now! 

My mom caught some video the other day that I compiled into a short video, skip toward the end to see some theatrics from Rico, the old man still has plenty of spunk left in him (even if he refuses to do anything in the arena these days). 

Pasture Upgrades

With TC definitely staying at the ranch until something happens that makes me want to move him to a new barn (not ruling that out), we have decided to do a horse shuffle and give TC a new stall, paddock, and now pasture. 

He first went into stall 4, the stall furthest from the house. He went in there because the fencing was the most secure and it was easy to have Riot (stall 3) go up and around TC's paddock to the upper pasture (which is too rich for Sunny and too hilly for Rico). We figured that TC wouldn't do well with cable fencing and it was a temporary situation at first. 

When the pasture was still green!

Now, TC is there for at least the summer and has trained my mom to take him to pasture enough where she's sick of it and wants to give him a pasture permanently. She asked me if I thought it'd be okay and I said absolutely. So we started talking about the logistics and he is now in stall 1! Rico will be next door in stall 2, Riot in stall 3, and Sunny in stall 4. TC keeps his pasture and the others split the rest of the space. 

TC's pasture goes almost all the way to the property line and that plus his paddock and sacrifice area (he's only in the pasture for 5 hours a day because he would get fat) will mean that he has an entire half acre to himself when he's got his full area! This is definitely the biggest living situation he's had since he was four years old living in pasture with other horses. And at that time he had no shelter other than trees, so this is a big improvement I think. 

He settled in SO well. The first day he probably thought he was being turned out and that he was just forgotten about, and he wasn't going to scream at the house to be brought back in. He was not happy to see me come down on the second day to ride him. He's normally a whinny and come over to me horse but he stayed way out in his pasture and only whinnied and came over when I came back out with a carrot. But I think by now he's realizing that this is his life now, no one forgot about him in his turnout, he now lives in his turnout! 

This is almost your semi-permanent home, buddy

I'm really glad I can give him this kind of space for the time that he's at the ranch! At the end of the day, the facility isn't what I need for my sport, so we will not be there forever, but I'm so happy to 1) give him this space now and 2) know that he's happy there so it will always be our home base if he needs time off or if I need to ride him less or if we run into another issue at a boarding facility. 

I know that with all the anti-stall posts going around on social media, there will be a lot of people wondering why I'd ever think to move TC and I do want to remind everyone that I live in the bay area about 10 minutes away from some of the biggest tech companies in the world and that this kind of pasture availability is unheard of. I'm extraordinarily lucky and privileged to have this for my horse for even a short amount of time. So 1) don't judge me if I end up moving him and 2) don't judge people in my area for having horses in a smaller space than TC's giant half acre! 

I wrote about how hard it is to find boarding in the bay area in this post. After going through the house buying process, I have to laugh at my 2019 post about how *insane* the housing market was at the time. In 2021, we had a house that we put in an offer 50k over asking and there were TWENTY TWO OFFERS (we were in the bottom half because of course we were) and it eventually went for 350k over asking. The only way we got our current house is to put in a bully offer for 100k over asking with no contingencies the day after it came on the market that expired 2.5 hours after we made it AND we got lucky that the agent we were dealing with didn't do a lot of work in this area so didn't know how insane the market was. 

Things on the docket this year: hanging
out with the neighbor cows

So, lucky for TC that I've got the ability to get him out there and lucky for me that he's had enough "life experience" as my mom put it, to be allowed to live there. It was made VERY clear to me that he was NOT welcome for the majority of year's I've owned him because of how wild he was. I thought that was hilarious and not at all surprising.

Happy pasture days, TC! Hope you enjoy it! 

Getting What He Wants

So, my mom called me the other day to tell me that I was late getting TC out. Um. What?

Happiest pasture pony

Apparently TC has been training her and I guess she wanted to pass that along to me. 

It all started with his breakfast. The other horses don't get breakfast, they go out on their pastures in the morning to eat for a few hours and then they get dinner later and some more pasture time. I guess my mom felt bad for TC, who clearly wanted to eat some food but also wanted to spend time at the end of his paddock so he could feel part of the herd. I guess he'd eat all his alfalfa, then walk out and hang out with the others while they ate and he'd eat his grass when they came in. 

So, she's started to feed him outside so that he can eat his breakfast with the others. She says he prefers that and that horses at her barn get what they want. 

All the way at the end of the pasture

When I got my COVID vaccine, I didn't ride for two days, so she put him in his turnout pasture for a couple of hours each day. When I came back to riding, he got pasture time after I rode him. Then I had a day off from riding and I guess he whinnied at my mom as she came up and she took that to mean he wanted to go out on pasture. So she took him out. 

So that led to her telling me that I needed to make sure I rode him early enough in the day so that he can have his pasture time after I ride, or he'll start to whinny at her and then I might interrupt his pasture time by riding him. That'd be rude. So my schedule now has him being ridden in the mornings most days so that he can go out after I ride. Spoiled horse! 

Pasture Turnout

So there's a really nice bit of pasture at the ranch that isn't being used by any of the horses. Riot has the upper pasture, Rico has the middle pasture, and Sunny has the lower pasture. 

Rico and Riot are big horses who eat a lot of grass, but Sunny is an air fern who seems to gain weight if you spritz him with too much water or if he SEES too much grass. So the lower lower pasture is way too rich for him and therefore he got his pasture cut in half and there's now just this beautiful pasture that no horse gets to enjoy due to how they're set up living-wise. 

TC is in the stall further than Riot's, so he doesn't have direct access to the lower lower pasture (and he shouldn't have access as he is used to eating hay, not grass), but I figured I could use it as a turnout after rides while I did barn chores and worked. 

Desperately needs a bath and a trim, but happy!

Now, TC has not been in a real pasture in a long time, but he's so chill there and also so desperate to eat grass that I figured he'd be fine. And I was right! He quietly walked around out there grazing for his hour. No antics, no testing the fence (it's just cable), nothing exciting. 

His facial expression was adorable though, and it just made me so happy that he loved it so much. I know it's just because of the food because he really didn't explore at all. But still, the option was there for him to wander about and I'm sure as the grass dies, he'll do that. 

Happy pony!

The next day, I asked my dad if it was okay to turn Riot out there too! Riot and Rico used to go out together but as Rico has gotten older, he has gotten more nervous about other horses and apparently Riot started to bother him too much. Riot is just friendly but Rico now prefers his friends to be on the other sides of fences. Sunny is an absolute brat to other horses (for really no reason, wtf) and can't be friends with anyone, so Riot is now on his own. 

Riot and TC hang out all the time since they live next to each other, they walk out together (and TC watches Riot go out in his pasture) and they walk in together. They play bitey-face together. You know, horse things. They're also just so sweet, I've never seen either of them pin their ears or kick at another horse. So I figured they'd like to be big dorks in the lower lower pasture together. 

TC has not been turned out with another horse since he was a baby. I feel so bad that one day in 2015 I took him away from his roommates and he never got to live with another horse again. That's just horses in the bay area. Good pastures with good footing and good fencing at good facilities are few and far between. So I was SO excited to give him a friend for his pasture turnout time. 

Not sure how big the pasture is but it's much bigger
than any paddock he's lived in

I came armed with a clicker and cookies to catch TC if anything went wrong. I put TC out first and he started grazing, then I went to get Riot. I had this big grin on my face as I brought Riot in because I thought TC was going to get so excited to have a friend and there'd be this big joyful reunion or lots of playing or something. 

Obviously nothing happened. 

Seriously, I put Riot in there and he was the one who was excited to see TC. TC just kept eating. Riot walked over and they sniffed noses and then Riot just walked away. 

He went to check on TC a few times but TC just couldn't get over the fact that he was in a green pasture eating green grass to give two fucks about the fact that he was turned out with another horse for the first time in almost six years. 

So cute together

Since then, I've either put them both out together or just TC out on his own for an hour or an hour and a half each day after riding. He just loves it. 

Hopefully we can continue doing the pasture turnout for the duration that we're at the ranch! It makes me happy to see him happy out there. And maybe at some point he'll hang out with Riot a bit more.