Spring is on It's Way...I Think?

Yesterday the weather was 60 F and today it is in the teens. We had a lot of fun yesterday, playing and frolicking, but this morning as the temperatures began to drop we prepared for an extra cold night. The low will be in the single digits.

In the warmth of the day I felt like a wild life photographer trying to capture pictures of a wild horse with out getting hit with a flying hoof. She was excited to play and really went all out, my favorite shot was a frontal of Velvet bucking, but it was a little blurry, since I was scrambling to stay out of her reach.

During the week I only see Velvet in the light of the barn and some subtle things go unnoticed, such as how much she has grown and the changes in her coat of many colors. She has been shedding all week and Saturday morning in the daylight I could really see how much she is changing. She is shedding out to a beautiful light roan, but in patches all over the place. Her face hairs are roaning a lot and over her back she has reached all light roan, except over her rump, which is also lightening up slowly. Her tail is almost all silver on the top and the rest is black. Luckily the new light roan hairs are still long, not as long as her baby hair, but will still protect her for tonight's cold weather. According to the forecast we will have 2 very chilly days and then another warm up. I hope the goats can stay warm during this short cold spell, goats just do not acclimate well to sudden drops temperature. I added 2 bales of straw to the barn over top of the wood pellets, so the goats could snuggle deep. I also have a heated water tub outside for all of the animals, but the wind today has been so cold I felt like my cheeks were freezing off. I have been carrying bucket after bucket of warm water to the barn so that everyone will get plenty of water without being frozen in mid step going to the tub. It is also a great way to monitor who is drinking and how much and from the amount of water I have been carrying today it seems that everyone is drinking well. I will carry one more bucket tonight and then throughout the night after the bucket freezes then they will have to venture out, but given it will only be about a 6 hour time span until I bring new warm water it is likely they will snuggle down and won't drink too much if at all during the night.

Last week I did my due diligence and researched at least 20 articles on different techniques for hoof lifting. Funny how some articles said one thing and others said something completely different and contradicting, which left me at a loss for why my Velvet was acting so strangely when I pick up her hooves. She is a very willing giver, but consistently slammed down her hoof as soon as I picked it up, she got very nervous in the backend and would raise her head and I could tell she was thinking of kicking out by the swishing of her tail. During grooming I brush and touch her legs and hooves all over and she is relaxed and falling asleep, but when I actually start lifting she becomes a nervous wreck. I did not have this problem with my colt 27 years ago, so I pondered on it for quite a while. We even had an episode where Velvet tried to walk away while I was holding her hoof, she almost fell to her knees, but I released the leg I was holding and she regained her balance. She started to lick and chew, but through research I have also found that there are various opinions on what the horse is doing. I agree with the one theory that says the horse may or may not have learned something, but she IS thinking over what just happened, good or bad. In Velvet's case I feel as though she realized that I would give back her foot if she was in danger, since many horses fear their leg will not be released when they need it, causing hoof lifting issues. Since that time, I have held Velvet's hooves longer and she relaxes a little. We still have a long way to go to be ready for the farrier, but now she is not threatening to walk away or kick out. She is big and gangley and I certainly can't blame her for feeling unbalanced and nervous on 3 legs.