Following my dreams of homesteading and having my own land with horses. I want to raise chickens, ducks, goats, and grow my own food. I want to raise horses and live off the grid. I want to help and give back to the world. This is my adventure. I like to research and learn all about these things. So come along with me and learn everything about raising a newborn Suffolk Punch/Percheron filly, setting up a homestead, and raising animals.
It is amazing that 3 weeks ago Lilly arrived in Wyoming. So much has happened in the last 3 weeks. I am so proud of all the progress we have made. We still have a long way to go but are building our relationship and out communication and that is wonderful.
I still need to work on being consistent and having very firm boundaries.
She knows who I am and greets me EVERY time I come to see her. She will usually neigh and come up to the gate.
It is a wonderful feeling. I also know her favorite itchy spots.
She still likes to push me with her head when she is impatient. Her patience around food is getting better but she still has many many ideas about wanting her food faster. 💜
Lilly has learned so much in just a short period of time. I am proud of her. We are continuing to practice manners when walking. We are also practicing giving feet and cleaning feet.
She is giving me her feet faster. I am still doing it while she is eating. I do not see WHY I have to do it while she is not eating. I think giving her something to do while I am messing with her feet makes out relationship stronger. I am not asking her to be bored while I mess with her feet. But my trainer and ferrier both say that I need to do this while she is standing still and not doing anything. So I will start working on that.
I have a whole lesson in my training about helping a horse give their feet while they are standing still. So we will be working on that step by step. In the morning I will do her feet. In the afternoon I will have her practice standing still and picking up her feet.
When we were done with the morning session today it was so very sweet. All the horses in her pasture (except for Gracie) were laying down sleeping. There was such a peacefulness. Lilly went over to the group very calmly but she nosed around Beryl until Beryl stood up. I didn't want to get closer to disturb them but I thought for sure Lilly was going to join them and lay down. But she did not. So I went away before any more of them were disturbed from their sleep. It was a great moment to see all the horses content and sleeping. Pepper even had a good roll before he stood up.
When leaving the pasture in the evening - Pepper was outside getting his hard food (seems to only get it once a week) and all the horses were crowding the gate. Lilly greeted me and neighed for me when I said hello. Than after we were in the pasture and ready to leave Beryl wanted to follow us and she got out! I have been working with Lilly on turning around the gate with me so I can close it quickly behind us - but with Pepper right outside the gate and Beryl wanted to leave with us - it was not successful this time. Thankfully Pepper's owner was able to catch her quickly and put her back. More lessons learned.
Daylight savings time ending has also made it harder. I know the days are going to get shorter so I need to think about her schedule and probably change things up more.
So far the previous schedule was:
Sunrise (7:30) Hay
8:30-10:30 I feed her supplements
Noon 12-1 Hay
3-5 I feed her supplements
Sunset (7:30) Hay
This way she was eating every 2-3 during the day and given extra hay at sunset to eat overnight.
As the days get shorter this is not going to work as well.
For example today:
Sunrise (6:37) Hay
First Session (8:30) Supplements
Noonish (11-1) Hay
Second Session (2:30) Supplements
Sunset (4:54) Hay
This is only little more than 10 hours. Soon it will be even less time. I need to feed her supplements sooner in the day.
The other consideration is that horses should be eating small amounts. One thing I have considered is going out 3 times a day to give her supplements. But with the shorter days this does not seem feasible. When/if Elizabeth goes back to Indiana I will probably spend the days with Lilly and the pups. (once everyone likes each other) and then it won't matter as I can give her little bits of food all day long. But right now I have to balance spending time with Elizabeth, cooking and making dinner for Elizabeth, and the daylight hours. I also want to be home so I can be in bed on time. I need time before bed to wind down or my insomnia kicks in and with my narcolepsy not sleeping is NOT okay! So trying to find a balance to all these things is challenging. I am also now waking up at 1:30 (instead of 2) because of the time change. It is all a balancing act.
We had a good day today. It is the first day of November. It is crazy to think that! As we go into November I am excited to see what our month will be like. We will continue to work on manners while walking, building connections, being brave and confident, manners while being feed, lifting hooves for cleaning and trimming, and standing still.
She had a lot of spooky things happen to her today. She handled them very well and I waited until she relaxed (licking and chewing) before moving on to something different. I do not want her storing up those rabbits!
The morning was pretty easy. She did very well with her feet. I tried tapping on her cannon bone to get her to raise her foot. It did not help her raise it faster so I just went back to squeezing her chestnut and wiggling her leg. I also tried counting to help me be patient. Her last foot she picked up very fast!
I was able to clean her face. :-)
We checked out the arena and the ball again. She was a little spooked in the arena because the light was shining differently which made different lights and shadows. She also was not very interested in checking out the ball as much so we walked around the arena to the far end.
When we got back to her pasture something really special happened. She fell asleep while I was petting her. I was going to leave - but then noticed that she was getting very sleepy so I stayed with her and gently petted her as she nodded off. When I stopped petting her tummy and was petting her withers she moved forward a little till my hand was on her tummy. I think she was telling me to pet her tummy. I was gently stroking the underside of her tummy. The hair is so soft there. It feels like velvet. So I gently stroked that part of her belly as she dozed. It was so peaceful. I also gently laid my head on her side. It was a magical moment.
The evening session was filled with so many more spooks. Because of daylight savings time ending today the sun is going down sooner. So when I went out they were starting to put the some of the horses away in the barns for the night. Also some people were there to ride and train their horses.
Rabbits of the evening:
Other horses anxious - calling (usually horses are quiet)
Lots of horses moving around (usually only 1 other person or less is out there)
Serenity and (sometimes) Sonnet barking (they were especially barky today much more so than last time - I will need to use the anti-bark collars next time - until they can be calm)
Sonnet excitedly scratching at the window
Someone lunging their horse in the arena with the door open (the horse was running fast on the line and the whip was making noise and she could only see the other horse sometimes and it seem to appear and disappear)
Gracie all saddled up racing through the open pasture right past her and up through the farm (her owner got off the make a phone call and she took off) - this was the biggest rabbit
the barn making weird noises as we walked through
I tried to make sure she let go of each rabbit and didn't let them build up. It was challenging when some of them happened on top of each other. She did very well and we ended the day on a successful note. I am proud of her. She is a great horse and doesn't get too spooked. Today was a unique day. I hope it helps her get more comfortable with lots of things happening at one time.
I also did not have my hoodies (they were all in the wash so I had no place to put my phone so I could not take very many pictures.)
I was able to take good videos of her walking, her hooves, and hanging out.
We had a great day today. I was able to go out 2 times. YEAH!! Both times all the horses seemed contented. I am glad to know yesterday was a one time event. Lilly was laying down sleeping when I arrived. I took a lot of great pictures! It looked like the horses in the pasture next door were watching over her. It was very sweet. I did not want to wake her and encourage her to come right away so I did not call out to her. Than after she stood up I called out to her.
You can see in the video that she neighed and came straight up to me! It is so wonderful. I also had the opportunity to take some really cute pictures of her face.
On her way to her food we worked on manners while walking. She did very well. She only had a little bit of impatience when we got close to the food. She was calmer and did well stopping with me. She is still stopping in front of me so we are working on that.
Manners while walking
We also practiced Lilly lifting up her feet for me. Yesterday it took 30 min to do 3 feet. Today it only took 10 minutes to do all 4 feet! So it is getting much better. I was able to clean her feet as well as put the hoof clay in her crevices. She also has a few splits in her frog that can cause issues so I make sure I put the hoof clay in those crevices. She did very well.
Lilly Lifting her Feet Day 2
I also brought Sonnet and Serenity to visit Lilly. Lilly went up the the car and they all shared some sniffing of each other's noses through the cracked window. Serenity had some anxiety and did some barking (Lilly really didn't like it - but she did not have a strong reaction - which was good).
We also went into the arena and checked out the ball again. She actually made it move 2 times with her nose. I think eventually she will like to play with it. There were also two horses Gracie (her pasture mate) and Spike (one of the horses in the pasture next to her). They were being ridden. She found that very interesting and she wanted to go check it out. So we went up to the other horses and people to check out the situation. It was like she was asking Gracie, "What is that? Are you okay?" It was really cute. She also did the baby horse mouthy thing with both horses. She did very well. Than we went back to the ball and explored it again. Than we went for a grazing walk around the farm looking for hay to eat. We also said hi to any horses we past. We also checked out anything that caught her attention. We practiced walking through the barn. She did very well. I am proud of her. Most of the time she is very relaxed.
Then after taking her back to her pasture we went for some water. I had put some hay at the back of the pasture in the morning. But she did not find it. So I took her out there and showed it to her. She thought that was very interesting. I took off her halter and just spent some time and than said goodbye. I started to leave and after I was a little way away - she stopped eating and followed me. It was so sweet. She wanted to engage with me so I stopped and and engaged with her - giving her scratches and rubs and cuddles. Than continued walking and she followed me again. So we stopped again and had cuddles and scratches. It was so wonderful. Finally we went our separate ways. She is doing so well.
TMI Warning - Update on Lilly's Poop
Lilly's poop was more normal today. It had form. So that helped me know she was okay!
