Crazy Cow Country Farm

As crazy as yesterday was, today was plain lazy - a Good Thing indeed.

After my morning shift I started thinking about how truly lazy we are around the farm.  Lazy, in the sense of keeping it simple and avoiding work.  There are enough projects and things that need doing around here to last us for the next decade so we like to be as efficient as possible in our daily routine. 

Need an area tilled out or spread thin?  Simply spread a coffee can full of grain around it and call the chickens - they’ll have it neat as a pin in no time at all.

Got a bumpy area that needs pounded down and smoothed?  Put yer brome pile right there and call the horses - they’ll have it tamped down nicely in about an hour. 

Yard needs mowing?  Block the drive and turn out the livestock for a couple of afternoons - you’ll have to call the chickens to spread the manure piles but the yard will be beautiful manicured.

Have trouble walking through 16 acres to catch a horse?  Train them all to come running from your signal - even works when they get out and three of them are galloping away from you in the neighbor’s wheat field.

After my morning shift on the phones I ventured out to the back pasture to sit on a tree stump and watch the horses.  Naturally Blue came over to check if I had any treats and be the first one getting a pet.  Then Smoke, lastly Fire.  Buck stayed his comfort-zone distance away of about 20′ with a watchful eye.  I turned to watch Blue and Fire nipping at each other and was shocked to hear something on my blind side, it was Buck.  He’d come up to greet me and was only about 3′ from me.  I sat for another minute and then walked away - always leave them wanting more and curious about you.  As I ignored him and went to the others for more pets and scratching I felt something at my elbow.  Buck was now directly behind me and point blank asking for attention - I obliged.  After a good scratching and soft words I again walked off but he wouldn’t have any of that and followed closely behind me, all the way through the 8 acres and back to the barn.  He stood at attention in the corral and just as plain as day asked what I’d like him to do.  So although I hadn’t planned it, I’ll saddle him and ride for just a bit. 

Two years ago this guy was running wild with a herd and never interacted with humans.  Now he’s following me like a puppy through my pastures.  Does it get any better?  I don’t think so.

It’s just been one of those days you know?

As I drove out to get the paper at 6:00 am all was quiet on the farm but I arrived home to find the foal out in the road, mom charging the fence, and the entire herd freaking out.  I finished my job and woke Ed up so we could get him back in gently, but the little guy ended up charging back through the fence, getting horribly tied up in the process.  Luckily Ed’s a fast worker and before we had a full stampede on our hands, he had him back with mom.  That was the first problem.

Jen’s been having some respect issues with Cartman so her plan is to ride in pasture for a couple weeks until they work out their issues.  Lisa helped her work on a disengage to stop and get collected again so she told Jen to do that at a walk, then trot, then canter.  We’re all sitting around wondering how on earth this sharp turn/disengage hindquarters is going to work at a full canter but we figured we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.  So I had the brilliant idea to ride Buck out in the pasture with her.  Now, I’ve already had him out on our short ride through the country and he did fine - we’ve ridden in the pastures without incident as well.  After our ride yesterday in the pen I was trying to get my nerve up to canter him ….. but that gets me into a real bundle of nerves because I’ve seen that boy buck and it’s ugly if you know what I mean.

After about 20 minutes of nice calm walking with lots of starts and stops we decide to ask for a trot and for some reason, Buck didn’t respond.  He’s never not responded.  So I asked again.  No response.  Knowing I needed to escalate I ask again with body language, a kiss, and now a little leg.  Holy crap we had a rodeo!  He went flat sideways and nearly ran into Cartman which spooked him so he took another sharp turn and he decided to head for the barn.  At this point, my brain hasn’t kicked in and all I could think of is, Hang on.  You’re in for a ride.  Tuck and roll if you come off.  You WILL NOT DIE!   Then my worst nightmare, I felt his back end lift up for a kick and I knew he was going to start bucking.  I wasn’t going to admit this but with a nickname like Loopy, no one will be surprised.  I swear I’m not blond (no offense to any blonds!) but honest to goodness my next thought was, Oh wow, his bucks are really smooth and not bad at all!  Umm, he wasn’t bucking.  Turns out he was cantering, HARD, and out of control headed to the barn.  Somehow I remembered that I could ride this out and disengage to collect him back to me but I needed to do it now and HARD.  I guess at that point I woke up, settled my seat, and gave him a swift request to disengage.  He turned, disengaged, stopped immediately, and stood stock still while we both calmed down.  Jen had headed down the pasture to block the way and by now she had come up next to me.  We went over what happened and then worked him some more in the pasture to keep him collected.  He did great so I took him back to the pen and trotted around with perfect control so we ended on a nice positive note.

So.  We learned a couple things.  I learned that one little buck and then smooth riding is most likely not a bucking rodeo.  I also learned that it is not only possible to get an instantaneous disengaged hindquarters from a full gallop to a complete stop but it’s actually quite easy and really very smooth.  I also learned that Buck has a fantastically smooth canter and I can’t wait to ride it again!  With better control, of course.

Thankfully, the other horses did wonderful and we even rode dear Blue.  He was absolutely perfect and just thrilled to be working - even carried his own lead rope for me.

So now that I’m a big TV celebrity and had all that star treatment last week in NYC, you’d think the animals would be really impressed and in awe while around me right?

Not so much.

I tried to explain to them that it’s really so like beneath a big TV star to clean up after them and pick hooves and work them in the roundpen and get all sweaty and, you know, all that icky farm stuff.  I don’t think they listened.  Something tells me they didn’t listen at all, not one little bit.  I was beginning to worry that perhaps they just did realize it but then Silver showed me.  She came up and nuzzled with me for several minutes and acted all impressed with me and I thought, she gets it!  She was all like following me around and really showering me with the attention deserved of big shot celebrity.

Then she found the treats I’d forgotten that were stashed in my farm jacket.

I picked her hooves and shoveled the manure out of the barn.  Sigh.  Oh well, it was sure fun while it lasted.

I’ve been thinking for some time of creating a website detailing my work from home experiences since I get so many questions about it and the recent deluge of emails finally motivated me to do it.  Although still very much a work-in-progress, I’ve gotten some of the information up and you can find it at Lisa Works From Home.  Hopefully it will help others find some credible opportunties!

This little guy!  Our boarder’s mare had him this afternoon around 2:00 while Jen and I were out on a 14 mile ride.    He was still very wobbly on the ground and so mama would turn circles around him to help him out.  After being up like this for a few minutes, he hit the ground for some snooze.

I was shocked when I was granted permission to pet him but must have startled him a little.

Eh, no worries, mom says it’s ok for the strange lady to be this close.

He promptly laid back down.

We were anxious to see how the herd would react but had already planned to turn them out around the house when we returned  so that gave her some quiet time for a long drink of water.  After a few minutes we herd nickering and realized that Buck was at the gate to return into the corral and refused to leave.  We walked back to the far pasture with Lee (mama) but could still hear Buck and figured there must be a reason he wanted in so badly - I went back and got him.  After stopping to clean up some dropped treats he ran at a full gallop directly at us and it was clearly very aggressive.  He moved in between Lee/baby and us and did a reining stop.  Clearly he was stepping up to play Uncle Buck.  We left them to a pile of brome, watched from the corral, and were shocked to see Buck licking her shoulder and so “on point” in his role.  After a few hours we turned the herd back into the pasture and Buck let them all know they were to remain back at least so far.  It was really neat to see!