And yet again, another rant about mud and weather. As of right now it is in the 20s (Weds morning) and will be 50 later. Sun is out (first time in a week) but it will be cloudy later. And just in case we were worried about a drought (we were not) we have rain coming in tonight and rain till, wait for it…..all through Saturday. Count them. WED, THUR, FRI, SAT. ALMOST FOUR DAYS OF RAIN. That will be fun won’t it?
I am so frustrated I don’t know what to do. If I could find somewhere to board the ponies for a while I would probably do it just to get a break and stop having to deal with it. I need to go see my dad again and my husband is going to leave me if he has to take care of the horses in this mud. SO SICK OF IT.
They finally came up to the barn on their own last night after PIGGATE 2019 so are calmer than they were. But to get them in you have to either walk out to get them OR beg them to come in with treats (I got Remus in this way last night). They don’t want to walk through the deep mud to get into the barn and honestly I don’t blame them. I could leave them out but A) I want their feet to dry somewhat and B) it is COLD out there at night. I can’t imagine anything worse than standing in mud (and cold water)for 24 hours!
Anyway fun times as always. One thing is Tate is shedding like crazy and really oddly. Little balls of shedding are rolled up on him in the morning. Remus is not shedding at all.
Any thoughts on why he has huge clumps of hair falling out? He is also itchy which my vet checked him all over when he was here for that. Nothing. This free pony is not free in any way. LOL
Last night Tate was so spooky in his stall he was making Remus crazy who was just trying to eat hay as he does. That pony. He is on ration balancer and he gets Remission (I put them both on it since they both have the tendency to be cresty, ahem). Any thoughts on why he is so damn spooky (besides the PIG)? He definitely makes Remus crazier. Gretchen and Ollie were out with me while feeding last night and Remus got a glimpse of Gretchen in the aisle and almost leaped out of the dutch door trying to get away. Then he was like oh…it is a dog. Damn animals are driving me to drink (if the weather doesn’t do it first)!
How is it in your neck of the woods? I hope whatever winter has planned this weekend for everyone is not too harsh. We are supposed to dip very low for this area by Sunday but first Saturday is supposed to be 60 degrees (with rain) then drop to high of 20 on Sunday and low in the teens. The horses will be great with that change I am sure! Stay safe (and sane) if possible!
Fat Buckskin in a Little Suit 
So much mud. So much rain. So much cold. Forget Winter – this is just Mudter
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Mudter! OMG laughing so hard here, so true. UGH
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Remus’s blanket colouring looks so familiar. We are getting the same with a little less rain than you. I’m surprised Mae has kept her shoes on with all of this muck. Both my hands are raised in favor of boarding (which is what we do)
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You need one of those cool paddocks like they have in europe where it’s like wall to wall rubber mats with sand and pea gravel.
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First I might need to win the lottery!! OF Course if i had the money we couldnt do anything till it dried up…which is never 🙂 HA!
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I vote you win the lottery, build a covered arena, and turn them out in there. And pay off my mortgage too because you won the lottery so why not?
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And buy me Ranger.
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Do I get Jiminy then? 🙂
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If you buy me Ranger? We can talk.
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So totally read a post in horse care on coth forums where people talked about horses being terrified of pigs. They said that in the wild pigs were a predator of horses in the past hence the fear. So they are just following their instincts, lol.
Last year when we had (worse) mud I was a crazy and bought bags of gravel and threw it out there. I’m not sure that would be cost effective in your case but maybe you could make them a path? Probably not but it’s a thought. It got us through until everything froze at least.
All the snow and then negative temperatures headed to us this weekend. Already worrying about my ponies and was stress shopping for insulated neck covers (my current ones are not insulated) but have managed to not do an order yet. Probably wouldn’t come in time anyways…
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Yeah Emily showed me that thread re pigs. UGH.
Also, nothing really freezes here which is the issue (Except this weekend it will all freeze LOL)…ugh….yeah i almost ordered Remus a heavy blanket yesterday but then realized it wouldn’t be here in time probably. LOL
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Remus is almost camouflaged in the mud
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He is in Stealth mode LOL 🙂
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Oh god. I can see why you are going crazy. Can you dump a bunch of sand/gravel in the paddock? I’d be heading in the insanity direction …
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I feel so hard for you. That’s a lot of mud. I’d be freaking the fuck out, too, and pulling my hair out from frustration. Maybe that’s what Tate’s doing? Stress-dropping his hair out of mud-caused frustration? lol
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No help on the hair issue. Vet didn’t see any fungus?
That mud is epic. Freezing might be better for a while. It is 60 here today but will be 28 overnight and something cold tomorrow. Winter needs to make up her damn mind.
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Ugh, I can’t imagine how you’re handling all that mud. Have you talked to neighbors? Is it always like this in the winter?
It’s been pretty dry here, which is nice, but it’s pretty cold. Snow for Friday morning commute but hopefully not much. The Sat night into Sunday it will go from snow to ice, to rain, back to ice and then more snow. So that should be super fun too. High on Monday is 11 with 20 mph winds. So that should be fun.
How long till summer?
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they all just shrug and say its Tennessee weather you never know. Some years they are dry all winter!! The cable guy needs to dig in our field to run cable to the neighbors new house and told he installed cable here a few years back in winter and he can’t believe how wet it is this year compared to then (AND YES in my field so my horses have to stay up one day while the do it) UGH and brghh on your cold. CAN YOU GO BACK TO FL? LOL
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Ugggghhhh, how gross. Do you think Tate is just having residual spooks at the memory of Satan Pig? That’s so frustrating to buy a farm and then have to deal with that mess. You’re definitely not alone- I have several friends here in NC with farms (mostly 5-7 acres) and all are experiencing the same issues with mud. As soon as it starts to dry, it rains again. Is there *anywhere* to board in the area for a few months?
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Tate is a bit spooky anyway but he just stands and stares from the stall into the woods looking for Satan Pig. LOL. They are both locked up today with their doors open to the outside, Remus is eating hay, Tate is on watch. (It is raining, again ahem)….. My hope is to find a place to send Remus for a month or so and Tate will have to stay here but I think one horse (esp a pony) will be easier to deal with. I think everyone around here has issues with the mud this year….but i dont care as long as someone can ride the fat buckskin (and I can drive there and ride him) HA!
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Yes! That’ll help immensely. It’s raining here too 😭😭
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Oh man that MUD.
Yuck!
I have found horses in the winter time are a bit more dim-witted than usual, lol. I bet they are probably bored (mud puts a damper on galloping plans yanno hahah) and the pent up energy from cooler temps is leeching into #feralhorse behaviour.
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That’s a lot of mud. Sheesh. I’m not looking forward to mud season here, but snow season’s really not that enjoyable either.
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Ugh you should just move back here. Everything is frozen now haha. But yea that mud is intense – maybe it’s time to plan out getting loads of gravel delivered for the high traffic areas like gates ??
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yeah i want to do that but i need to find a dry area to put it. We got about 4 inches of rain last nite again. UGH….i miss Delaware at times!!
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