JULY 5 – One morning last week when I fed the horses I noticed that Shiloh was having trouble eating; she was grabbing big wads of hay into her mouth but couldn’t seem to chew and swallow the hay—just letting it drop back out of her mouth. I looked in her mouth but couldn’t see anything stuck in there, but she seemed reluctant to have the right side of her mouth handled. Our regular horse vet was out of town so I left a message for the new vet that is practicing here.
Bad luck comes in batches; that same morning I discovered that Lida Rose’s bandage had come off her foot in the night (we should have changed it the day before!) and she was walking around on the broken-off toe and it was bloody again. So rebandaging her foot was the first priority. After breakfast Sam and Dani both came down to help us re-do the bandage.
We rigged up a pulley to create a sling, using a big old fluffy horse cinch, to help support her in the squeeze chute while she has all her weight on one front leg as we work on the bad foot—so she can’t sink down in the chute. We also put another cinch over the top of her neck/withers so she can’t rear up. This keeps her adequately contained while we work on the foot.
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| sling to hold up the heifer |
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| sling under her chest and cinch over her withers |
She seemed comfortable with this arrangement and it helped her stand there without her good leg getting so tired trying to hold all her weight. We picked up her foot (holding it up with a rope) and cleaned it up again and put on a new bandage.
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| cleaning the foot |
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| ready for bandage |
We start by putting medicated strips (used on burn injuries—that won’t stick to the wound) over the raw area, cover it with a baby diaper (for padding and to wick away any moisture) and a washcloth for extra padding, and hold all of that in place with Vet-Rap (elastic bandage that sticks to itself)
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| starting the bandage |
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| wrapping the vet wrap |
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| covering everything snugly with vet wrap |
Then we put Elastikon sticky adhesive tape over the Vet Rap to hold it securely in place and add more strength and support to the bandage, then covered everything with duct tape (more support, and fairly waterproof).
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| covering the vet rap with Elastikon |
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| finishing the Elastikon layer |
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| covering everything with duct tape |
This time we backed her out of the chute and had her back all the way down the alleyway to her little pen, rather than letting her out the front and risk having her run around like she did the last time we doctored her foot.
As we cleaned up the chute and gathered all our stuff to take back to the house, Sam and Dani posed with the 4-wheeler and pulley arrangement we rigged up to support Lida Rose with the horse cinch while she was in the chute.
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| pulley arrangement |
After lunch, the new vet, Sarah Chaplin, came out to look at Shiloh. She gave the mare a mild sedative so she’d be cooperative, and rinsed out her mouth, to get a good look in there with a strong light. Shiloh had a few raw sores on the right side of her mouth inside her cheek, next to the molars. She probably jammed some food in there and made it sore. I gave her some bute to help reduce the pain and inflammation, and she seemed to be able to eat just fine after that. Eventually she may need her teeth floated (smoothed) to eliminate a few sharp edges that are starting to form.
Later that afternoon Andrea and Dani came down and Dani rode with me (on Ed) and Andrea irrigated—changing all the water she didn’t have time to do that morning. Dani and I rode up through the 320 and up Baker Creek and saw a group of elk cows and calves that ran up through the timber ahead of us. While we were up there Dani retrieved the elk horn that Andrea had stashed under the old water tank the day she was riding Shiloh and didn’t want to try to carry it home. Dani carried it home on Ed.
That evening I had an e-mail from granddaughter Heather in Canada and she sent a couple photos of young Joseph wearing someone’s cowboy boots, and hanging out with his grandpa John. She also sent a photo of one of their young foals.
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| Joseph |
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| Joseph and grandpa John |
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| young foal |
The next day Andrea and Dani left early to drive to Idaho Falls for Dani’s appointment with the orthodontist to get her braces adjusted. I finished proofing and editing the page-proofs for the next edition of my book (Storey’s Guide to Raising Horses). Lynn and I took a bale feeder into the orchard with the tractor and brought them a big bale. They are running out of pasture and we have a few big bales left so we can feed them until they are done with their breeding season and then we can put them somewhere else after we take the bull out.
Friday the weather was cold and windy but Andrea caught Willow briefly and saddled her, then longed her in circles in the driveway for a few minutes. It’s past time to start riding her again and continue her training. Emily went to work (she really likes her new job, taking care of the elderly people at the care facility) and Andrea babysat Christopher. She took a picture of Charlie and the baby.
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| Charlie & Christopher |
Saturday we moved the cows and bull to the pasture below the lane and let the heifers and their young bull have the horse pasture as well as the orchard pasture now that the older bull won’t be right through the fence and wanting to fight.
Andrea and I made a short ride on Willow and Dottie while Lynn babysat Christopher (since Emily was at work). This was Willow’s first ride this year. We only got to ride her 11 times last year; her training was interrupted when Andrea went to work on the fire at Challis and was gone for many weeks.
Sunday was hot, up to 80 degrees. We didn’t ride. Andrea took a couple photos of Emily and Christopher. He’s now 3 months old.
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| Em & Christopher |
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| Em & Christopher |
Charlie and Andrea helped Emily move all her things out of the small storage shed she was renting, and into the larger storage shed and brought her dresser home, then Charlie helped Lynn get the flat tire off the baler so we could take it to town to be fixed. Andrea spent the rest of the day digging/cleaning the irrigation ditch in the pasture above the house so it will carry more water and quit leaking and subbing down through the field.
Monday Andrea and I made a longer ride on Willow (her 2nd ride this year) and I took some photos.
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| Willow's 2nd ride this year |
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| Willow's & Andrea crossing Baker Creek |
When we got home I smoothed the rough edges of her feet. Her feet are long and hard and she’ll probably be able to go several more rides without shoes but I need to keep trimming around the edges to keep them smooth.
We got the baler tire fixed and hope to start cutting hay soon. We rode Willow and Dottie again the next day, for an early morning ride.
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| Willow's 3nd ride this year |
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| heading for Baker Creek |
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| heading home again |
Then Emily helped us put Lida Rose in the chute to rebandage her foot. It was already getting hot by then, so we left Christopher in Andrea’s car with the air conditioner running (since there was no one else here to babysit him, with the kids gone—out to their dad’s house this week), with the car right next to us in the corral so we could check on him.
We had a little problem when we tried to put the heifer in the squeeze chute, however. Andrea was following her down the alleyway, pushing her along (which is something she usually doesn’t do—she usually stays up above the animal being pushed along, so she’s not in harms’ way if the animal backs up). The heifer not only refused to go on into the squeeze chute, but suddenly jumped backward and pushed into Andrea who had no time to try to get out of the way. Instinctively she grabbed onto the poles at the side of the chute and clung tightly so she wouldn’t get knocked down and trampled by the heifer roaring backward. The heifer isn’t as big as a full-grown cow, but it was still a tight fit as she pushed past Andrea, rolling/squashing her against the poles. As she roared backward I ran to get a pole behind her before she got clear out of the alleyway.
Andrea’s shoulder, hip and ribs were banged up, but not broken, and she was able to get out of the alleyway, and we got the heifer back up to the squeeze chute and got her into it. Andrea was in a lot of pain but insisted on getting the job done and we took the old bandage off the heifer’s foot. There was significant new growth of fleshy tissue starting to come over the bone and it actually looked pretty good. We got it re-bandaged and let her back out of the squeeze and she rushed backward down the alleyway and back to her pen.
Andrea went home and took a shower, then she and Emily and baby went to town and went to the ER to have her shoulder x-rayed. Nothing broken, thank goodness, but probably some soft-tissue damage and a lot of bruising.
The next day was windy with a little rain and we didn’t ride. Andrea probably needed a day off from riding a green horse, with her banged-up shoulder, but still insisted on changing her irrigation water in spite of her pain, and helped us move the cow herd from the pasture below the house, taking them up to the swamp pasture above the corrals.
The new water master came by to meet us and to learn where all the ditches are (and the weirs he’ll have to measure after the water gets shorter).
Yesterday Andrea and I made a short ride, in spite of her injured leg and shoulder, but today we didn’t ride. Andrea left at 5:30 this morning to meet up with Sam and Dani, who were still at their dad’s house, and Lynn’s sister Jenelle, to drive to Missoula, for Sam’s tonsillectomy. Jenelle had to go to Missoula to get some things, and she offered to take her vehicle and drive them over there. They got home late this evening, after Sam had a chance to recover a bit from the surgery and was able to travel.
JULY 15 – We’ve had some hot weather, up into the 90’s and were able to get our haying done. Last Saturday Charlie helped Lynn put the baler tire back on again and Sunday helped him get the swather serviced and ready to go.
That Saturday Andrea and Dani rode with me (Willow’s 5th ride this year) and we went up into the middle range. Dani opened the little bicycle gate for us to go through.
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| riding across the low range - Dani on Ed |
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| Dani opening gate |
We went up the ridge and took a swing by Crowley trough to see if it was working, then went on around the mountain to the next gully and headed back to the low range.
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| riding up the ridge |
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| Crowley trough |
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| heading back to the low range |
Then we hurried home so Andrea could babysit Christopher when Em went to work mid-afternoon. I gave Ed some bute (dissolved in water, mixed with molasses so it doesn’t taste bitter, squirted into her mouth) so she wouldn’t be stiff and sore the next day. Having bute on the days we ride helps her a lot—like aspirin or ibuprofen for a person with arthritis.
On Monday we made a short ride, and Lynn started cutting hay in the field by Andrea’s house. Dani and her friend (who stayed overnight) shooed several tiny fawns out of the way. They were hiding in the tall hay and Lynn didn’t want to run over them with the swather. After lunch he and Andrea cut the field below the lane. Emily left for a 4-day training conference in Boise, with some of her co-workers, and Andrea and the rest of us took care of Christopher for those days.
On Tuesday we put Lida Rose in the chute again and re-bandaged her foot. It’s slowly healing and growing a little more tissue over the bone on the bottom of that toe.
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| wrapping the padded foot with vet wrap |
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| wrapping the padded foot with vet wrap |
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| elastic sticky tape over the vet wrap, ready for final layer of duct tape |
Then Lynn took the swather up to heifer hill and cut that field of hay, and started cutting the field below it. Andrea finished cutting it that evening. Lynn cut the last field (below the old barn, next to the hill) the next day. Charlie helped Lynn change the oil in the other big tractor and he used it to pile up some big straw bales to make a backstop in the stackyard, for stacking this year’s hay crop.
Dani helped me haul a pickup load of hay out of my hay shed, to stack over by Sprout and Shiloh’s pens. As we were unloading and stacking it, Justin Sharp and his younger brother Jack came out to help us, and the four of us hauled the rest of the old hay out of my hay shed to stack over by Breezy’s pen. Then Justin helped Lynn unhook the swather and hook up that tractor to the baler, and get the old stackwagon out from behind the barn and get it running and put the turner rake on our little tractor. Sam babysat Christopher that day while the rest of us worked on the haying. Dani rowed bales.
After lunch Justin turned hay and Andrea baled. Lynn started hauling hay and got one load into my hay shed. Emily got home from Boise that night so Lynn and Dani took the baby into town to pick her up, and Andrea baled hay until well after dark. She finished heifer hill and started on the field below it.
On Friday Justin came out again to help us. The baler started making too-short bales, so he and Lynn figured out the problem and found a part than needed replaced—and robbed one off our other old baler. Andrea started baling again, and Dani spent the day rowing bales for the stackwagon—so Lynn didn’t have to get in and out of the stackwagon to reposition any of them, and also rolled them off the steeper hills and out of the wet areas so the stackwagon wouldn’t have a problem or get stuck.
I fed the crew a big batch of chili for lunch. Then Lynn got the last part load off the field by Andrea’s house and Justin hauled a few of the wet bales on the feed truck—to open up by my hay shed, so they will dry out and not mold. There was a lot of wet hay at the top end of that field next to Alfonso’s field (and some of it so wet we didn’t even cut it) because he put a lot more water in that ditch and flooded our field. We’ll just have to graze that part later with the cows.
We got more hay hauled that day, and Andrea baled hay below the driveway that evening, until she sheared a bolt and had to quit. We fixed it the next morning.
Saturday Justin and a friend came out and helped us for a few hours, helping Lynn restack one load that had a problem, and then helped me put tarps on my stacks. That afternoon it was threatening rain and Lynn babysat Christopher (Em was at work) while Andrea tried to finish baling the last field of hay. She had to stop for a little while because of rain, but the wind was blowing, the rain quit and the hay dried enough to start baling again. She brought Christopher down here for me to babysit while she and Lynn finished baling and hauling that field—and they got done just before dark and just before a bigger rainstorm. It’s good to have the haying finished!
That was the day of the 50K and 100K Beaverhead marathon run along the Continental Divide across the valley from our ranch. Our grandson Nick was running it and came in 2nd in the men’s division. The trail was treacherous this year, with lightning storms along the way.
Yesterday Andrea started some water back onto a couple of our fields, and then we rode Willow and Dottie for a short fast ride over the low range (Willow’s 7th ride this year) and saw several deer. They jumped out of the brush and startled Willow, but she wasn’t too scared—mostly curious. Then we saw a coyote trying to kill a fawn. We heard the doe screaming as we came around the jeep road toward Baker Creek, and our showing up spooked the coyote. He took off up the ridge, the fawn ran over the hill away from Baker Creek, and the doe followed the fawn.
Lynn took a load of garbage to the dumpsters, and had a problem when he was getting down out of the pickup after off-loading the garbage bags. He slipped, and his belt loop caught on the tailgate, and then let loose and he fell down hard on the ground, bruising his hip and shoulder. He’s pretty sore today.
This morning Mark let Dani come out here again to work (she has a paying job here when she helps us) and she helped us rebandage Lida Rose’s foot. Then we made a fast ride over the low range and came down the ridge above our house.
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| Andrea & Dani riding |
When we got down to the road we went on down to the end of our driveway and Andrea let Dani ride Willow for the first time, riding her on home. I led Ed and Andrea walked alongside Dani and Willow. Willow is eventually going to be Dani’s horse, so Dani can start riding her a little and getting better accustomed to riding a green horse. She rode her around in a few circles in the little pen below the driveway before we put the horses away.
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| Dani's first time riding Willow |
This afternoon we had a brief rainstorm then this evening Lynn and I took another big bale to the orchard for the heifers. After supper Andrea brought Christopher down (Em was at work) and we babysat him while Andrea changed the irrigation water and started to move the hot wire in the field by her house, so we can graze the ditchbank and part of the field we couldn’t cut.
JULY 26 – Last Tuesday we made a longer ride, up into the high range, and checked the 320 to make sure no range cows have gotten in. Dani opened the gate into the 320. It’s nice to have a strong grandchild to open and shut the tight wire gates! Then we rode on up through the 320, up Baker Creek, and out into the high range.
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| Dani opened and shut the gate into the 320 |
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| riding up through the 320 |
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| heading for the little creek crossing |
We went to the head of Baker Creek and over into Basco Basin and discovered that there are already more than 40 cows in the high range (they are not supposed to be in there until the second week of August) and the fences are bad. The gate between the high range and middle range by the High Camp trough was nearly flat on the ground.
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| riding through the high range |
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| heading into Basco |
When we got home, Dani rode Willow again, making more loops around the pen by Sprout, and also out in the field below the lane. Willow is getting a little more at ease having someone else on her and not Andrea. She knows Dani really well, but Dani had never ridden her until these short little rides around the barnyard.
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| Dani riding Willow in field below the lane |
We didn’t ride the next day; too many things going on. Andrea has been trying to get our fields irrigated, with very little water. Alfonso was flooding us (in our shared ditches) when we were trying to hay, and then he started using all the water on his end of the ditch when we needed some—not letting our share come down the ditch.
Carolyn stopped by and we talked with her for a while. She told us that Nick’s dog Katy got killed a few days ago. Katy was with Nick irrigating, and as they were coming up out of the field, one of the people who drives the Amish back and forth (since the Amish don’t drive—they hire people to drive them around when they need to get somewhere faster than their buggies) deliberately ran over his dog. Katy was on the edge of the road, waiting for Nick, and the driver swung over onto the shoulder of the road to deliberately kill the dog. Nick was devastated, since Katy went with him on all his training runs out in the hills. When he ran the marathon a few days after her death, he dedicated his run to her.
Last Thursday Andrea and I made a short ride over the low range and across Baker Creek below the Baker Grove. Willow didn’t hesitate to go across a dry bog with bad footing, or the steep gully crossing Baker Creek.
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| Andrea & Willow |
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| riding through dry bog |
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| crossing Baker Creek |
Then we moved the cows from the swamp pasture down to the post pile pasture. We had planned to put them on the ditch bank and top part of the field by Andrea’s house (that we couldn’t cut for hay), but just before we were going to put them there, Alfonso put a bunch of his cows and 3 bulls into his pasture just above it. Our bull would have tried to fight his bulls, and they would have torn up the fence and maybe gotten a bull hurt, so we opted to move the cows somewhere else and graze that piece later. We will put our cows in the back lower field (even though it hasn’t been watered much yet after the hay was taken off) because it has a lot of rough feed around the edges, and grass on the hillside. Then we discovered that there are a bunch of range cows right outside that fence; they never got moved to the next pasture by the guys who run cattle on that range!
On Friday Sam helped Andrea irrigate and is learning how to water the fields. She likes gardening and discovered that she has a knack for irrigating pastures, too.
Later that morning Andrea and I made a longer ride (Willow’s 11th ride this year) to gather the range cows hanging on our back fence and take them several miles to the pasture they should have been in. On the way we picked up a few more cows, and a bull. We definitely don’t want that bull next to our fence when we have our cows and bull in the field adjacent to their range.
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| heading out onto the neighboring range |
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| taking the range cows up over the hill to move them to their proper pasture |
The watermaster shut off Michael and Carolyn’s water that day (the 4th right on the creek), even though there was still plenty of water for the 1st right, and Alfonso is running more than twice his 3rd right. We’re not sure the watermaster has quite figured out his job yet.
Saturday we moved the cows to the big field next to the range. Dani was visiting a friend for the weekend. Sam babysat while Em went to work, and Charlie helped Andrea shovel ditch. The next day Sam rode with us and we made a short ride over the low range, with Sam riding Shiloh. It was Sam’s first ride this year.
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| Sam riding Shiloh |
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| Sam & Andrea riding |
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| Sam & Shiloh trotting up a hill |
Monday Michael and Carolyn’s pump quit working and Lynn went to help fix it. While he was doing that, Andrea, Sam, Dani and I redid the heifer’s foot bandage.
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| taking off the old bandage |
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| the foot is healing and hoof wall slowly growing down |
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| finished new bandage |
We are very short of irrigation water – our ditches are being illegally used before they get to us. Dani helped Andrea put a dam in the creek to try to get more water in the ditch above our house but there isn’t enough water in the creek; Alfonso is using twice his right on the Gooch place above us.
On Tuesday we made a short loop over low range and looked over the saddle toward town.
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| heading out over the low range |
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| Andrea & Dani |
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| Willow looking at something in the distance |
When we got home I put hind shoes on Willow. She’s done really well barefoot for 13 rides in rocky terrain, but it’s time for shoes. She’s wearing her feet down and we don’t want her to get tender-footed. Her hind feet were worn down more than her fronts, so I shod them first. This is only the 2nd time in her life she’s been shod. Andrea rode her on 37 rides 2 years ago and I put shoes on her halfway through the season, but last year she didn’t get ridden enough. Andrea only rode her 11 times (and I was about to put shoes on her) and then Andrea left in early August to work on the fire at Challis and was gone until late fall.
Michael brought his skid steer down Tuesday afternoon and cleaned the old hay and manure away from the feeder fence in the bull corral. It had been several years since it was cleaned, and the buildup was so deep that the bulls might have been able to jump over that fence. We needed to dig it away before we put the bulls in there again.
Our phones quit working (cell phones couldn’t call land lines and vice versa, and we couldn’t call long distance) so I was unable to do the phone interviews I needed to do for several articles. At least the internet was working so I was able to send message to the people I was supposed to call, and reschedule the interviews for another day.
On Wednesday Dani, Andrea and I made a much longer ride (now that Willow has hind shoes on) and went up the road to visit Carolyn and see the landscaping that she and Michael have been doing around their house. They’ve put in more lawn, and shrubs, and decorative rocks.
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| landscaping |
Then we went on up the road into the forks of Withington Creek, and into our old range pasture where we used to run cattle.
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| going up the road into the forks |
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| going up the right fork |
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| heading into the range pasture up the right fork |
We went along the old road where the creek washes down the road in the springtime, and stopped at the creek crossing to let the horses drink.
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| up along the creek |
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| Andrea letting Willow drink |
We rode on up through the high range pasture and into the Forest Service allotment. At that point the old road (that’s been closed for many years) was so occluded with down timber that we decided to come back down the way we’d come and not try to make a loop through that jungle. When we came back down to the forks and onto the main road again, Andrea and Dani switched horses and we let Dani ride Willow home the rest of the way (about 5 miles).
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| Dani riding Willow & Andrea on Ed |
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| Dani rode Willow home 5 miles |
This was a good way to start getting them more used to each other, and give Dani more practice riding a green horse. They both did very well. We’d hoped that that long ride on the gravel road would help wear Willow’s front feet down a bit more; her feet are rock hard and very difficult to trim so we were letting her self-trim. When we got home, she had the right front worn down pretty well and I was able to rasp it enough to get it ready for a shoe and I put that shoe on. She still had a fair amount of hoof left on the other one; she seems to wear her front feet unevenly, with a different slope and longer toe on the left front. Lynn went to town that afternoon for mail and groceries and to buy more horseshoes.
Yesterday was hot again. Nick and his fencing crew came for a few hours and finished the fence project they worked on this past winter—putting in a few more posts and braces where it was too frozen last winter, and stapling the fence to the new posts they pounded in along the lower swamp pasture.
Andrea and the girls came down late morning and the four of us rode—Sam on Ed, Dani on Shiloh, and Andrea rode Willow (her 15th ride this year). It’s been a long time since Sam has ridden Ed, and Dani enjoyed riding Shiloh.
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| Dani on Shiloh, Sam on Ed |
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| heading out for a short ride |
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| riding over the low range |
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| Andrea & girls |
Andrea took photos of the girls riding, then we headed back a different way to make a loop and go home.
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| Andrea on Willow, taking photos of the two girls |
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| Sam riding Ed |
When we got back I managed to trim Willow’s left front foot and put a shoe on it, so now she has all four shoes.
Today, now that she’s shod and won’t become tender in the rocks, Andrea and I made a long, fast ride up the road to the right fork (and now there are range cows in there—two weeks ahead of when they are supposed to be there).
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| Cows in Withington creek |
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| Andrea & Willow looking at cows |
We rode on up through the canyon and around the mountain, and I took a photo of the old burned areas in Withington Creek, and rode on around through the old burn to get to the top of the mountain.
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| riding up to the next creek crossing |
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| looking back into the old burned area in Withington Creek |
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| riding around the mountain through the old burn |
Then we rode up over the top of the ridge between Withington Creek and Baker Creek and found a LOT of cows on the high range on that side.
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| climbing up over the top |
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| at the ridge between Withington Creek & Baker Creek |
We rode past a new trough that had been put in at Cat Hole spring, them came down the trail into Baker Creek.
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| new trough at Cat Hole |
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| coming down from Cat Hole |
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| heading toward Baker Creek |
We came home through the 320 and hurried home so Andrea could get back in time to babysit Christopher when Emily went to work at 3 p.m.
Later in the evening Andrea brought the baby down here for us to babysit while she changed irrigation water. When she was over in the back lower field she discovered our bull down by the fence, nose-to-nose with a range bull on the outside. This continues to be a frustrating problem! The guys on that range allotment never bother to get all their cattle (especially the bulls) when they move their cows to their next range pasture, and leave them here next to our place all summer long. Unless we gather and move those cattle for them, the bulls cause problems trying to get into our place to fight our bulls, and we can’t use our pastures next to that range until we are done with our breeding season and put our bulls in the corral.
So Andrea called us (she actually had cell service at the lower end of that field) to tell us what was going on, and Lynn watched Christopher while I hurried around and got some gates ready so we could move our cows. It was nearly dark, but thanks to our cows being very user-friendly and always coming when we call them, we were able to get them gathered and moved before it got too dark to see. Andrea had them all grouped at the gate by the time I got down there to help her, and we made sure we had every cow and calf (and the bull, of course!) and we moved them up past our corrals and into the swamp pasture. They were not happy, because that pasture was recently grazed, but it will be adequate until we can do something different with them tomorrow.
And then, when we got that done, Andrea discovered that she had NO water in the ditch by her house. Alfonso had shut it all off, using it in the Gooch place. So Lynn went up there to babysit Christopher while Andrea hiked up the ditch in the dark to see what happened to the water, and divert our share back down to our field.
AUGUST 7 – Last Saturday Lynn and I took the hay out of the baler, put the baler in the shed, and gathered up all the other odds and ends of little bales (two on the stackwagon, a couple broken bales in the stackyard) and hauled them into the bull pen with the feed truck to put in the feeder. Andrea finished reconfiguring the hot wire along the edge of the field by her house, so the cows could graze the ditch bank and her upper driveway and the upper end of the field that we were unable to cut for hay because Alfonso was flooding it at that time. First he flooded us when we were trying to hay, and then used all the water on his end when we needed to water the field after haying.
We planned to put the cows up in that piece of pasture (that we couldn’t use when the bull was still with them, with Alfonso’s bulls right through the fence) just as soon as we take the bulls out. The next problem was no water in the ditch for the cows to drink, thanks to Alfonso using it all on his side of the fence. So we asked the watermaster to change our ditch use from that ditch to our middle ditch (which we haven’t used all summer) that the cows can drink from.
We had a doe and fawn in the back yard, and I took a picture of the fawn through the dining room window.
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| fawn in back yard |
My brother’s daughters and their families were here visiting him that weekend, so Saturday evening Lynn and I went up to his campsite for a family picnic.
Sunday was hot—up to 90 degrees. Early that morning I called the cows down out of the swamp pasture and Andrea and I sorted our bull out and put him in the back pen and put the cows up in the ditch pasture. We got the heifers into the calving pen from the orchard, sorted our heifers into the side pen, then took Michael’s heifers and the yearling bull around to the corral. We sorted off Michael’s heifers into another pen, and put the yearling bull in the back corral with our bull. They didn’t fight much; our bull is a year older and bigger. They were soon best of buddies.
We put our heifers up the driveway into the ditch pasture next to the field below the lane, then hauled Michael and Carolyn’s heifers up to the upper place in Jim’s trailer, letting them out in the field above their corral and stackyard. Michael and Carolyn were gone for the weekend with their horses and trailer but we were able to borrow Jim’s trailer to haul the five heifers. They will live in that field until Michael and Carolyn have a chance to sort out their bull from their cows (to bring home to our bull corral). Their heifers are all bred, but in case one of them didn’t settle she won’t be bred to the older bull that sires big calves. None of us want any calving problems next year.
While Lynn and I were hauling the heifers, Andrea pulled the bale feeder out of the orchard with her 4-wheeler and started the irrigation water on that very dry pasture. We couldn’t water that side while we had the hay feeder in there. Then she spent several hours shoveling more sod out of the ditch that comes down through the Gooch place to our field by her house. That’s the only way we’ll ever get our share of the water because a lot of it subs out through the field the ditch comes through.
Last Monday we rebandaged Lida Rose’s foot. Even though the outer layer of duct tape was coming off around the top, the inner bandages were still intact. The foot is looking good.
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| foot continues to heal |
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| re-bandaging the foot |
Then we made a short ride on Willow and Dottie before a rainstorm. We rode up through the field this time and across heifer hill pasture so we could check the water in that ditch before we headed out onto the hills. This was Willow’s 18th ride.
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| riding across heifer hill to check the water in the ditch on our way to go for a short ride |
On days we don’t have time to ride, I’ve been tying Willow for an hour or so, since she needs to learn more patience and never was tied very much as a young horse. Her halter-training lessons need a bit more effort.
Tuesday the weather report was for more thundershowers in the afternoon so we rode in the morning, trying to make a fast ride before the weather changed. We trotted over Coyote Flat and into the middle range, and along the main trail across the bottom of that pasture.
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| heading out across the bottom of the middle range |
As we came down off the hill from the first gully and started toward the second gully, we came across a group of cattle and skirted around them so as not to disturb them. Willow was being a little goofy going down the hill, acting a little rebellious (and tripped because she wasn’t paying attention—jerking Andrea’s neck), and Andrea made her pick up the pace again when we got back to the main trail. I was following her on Dottie and we headed for the second gully at a fast trot.
Then just before we got to the second gully Willow completely lost her footing (which was unusual, on a good trail!) and went down hard, nearly doing a somersault over the top of Andrea. It was a helpless feeling watching it happen—the mare and Andrea hitting the ground with Andrea underneath, with Willow’s legs all in the air and almost rolling over Andrea. Willow landed on her leg and she was pinned there, and had to let go of the reins so Willow could get up. I jumped off Dottie and grabbed Willow.
Andrea had instinctively tried to get out of the saddle and fall clear, but the mare went down so fast and hard that she couldn’t get clear away from her. Fortunately it was just her leg that ended up under Willow, or she could have been crushed. As it was, she landed really hard on her back and shoulder, and the leg that was underneath Willow, and scraped some raw spots sliding along the gravelly trail. She got back on, and I asked if she wanted to just come home, but she was determined to continue the ride. We trotted on around to the second gully and climbed all the way up it to the Bear Trough where we let the horses drink.
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| approaching the bear trough |
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| letting Willow drink |
It was a hot day and the horses were sweating profusely and we didn’t want them to become dehydrated. We started up the next ridge and then let the horses puff a bit and catch their breath after the fast climb.
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| sweaty Willow |
At that point, Andrea got a message from Emily. Andrea’s cell phone was a bit smashed and cracked (it was in her saddle pouch on the side that Willow fell) but it still worked. Emily thought she had the day off, but then found out she had to go to work that afternoon, and we needed to get back home so Andrea could babysit Christopher. We called Lynn and he went up to Andrea’s house to watch the baby until we got back.
So instead of going on up the ridge, we looped around and back down toward the Bear Trough and hurried home. When we got home, Andrea went straight to her house to babysit Christopher and take a shower and get the gravel out of her scraped shoulder, and I took care of the horses.
Andrea was pretty stiff and sore for several days after that tumble. She was lucky, however, that her injuries weren’t worse. No broken bones, but her back is still bothering her quite a bit. That next day we didn’t ride; I just tied Willow for an hour, with Dottie next to her for company, to continue her tying lessons and patience. Andrea insisted on changing her irrigation water, in spite of her painful back and shoulder.
Emily took Christopher to his 4-month-old checkup. He now weighs 19 pounds, 11 ounces. Emily had to work that afternoon, so Andrea took Christopher with her to Idaho Falls for her bi-monthly appointment with her pain doctor. Her friend Anita went with her, to help with Christopher.
Andrea’s pain doctor checked her shoulder and thought there might be some soft tissue damage (partial tear in the rotator cuff) but no fractures. He wants to address her neck pain (from older injuries) with a procedure to kill the nerves. She has several damaged discs and a lot of arthritis. Andrea is reluctant to have such drastic treatment, however, and wants to look into some other way to deal with the pain and inflammation, and hopefully get off the prescription pain meds she’s been on for 19 years since her burn injuries.
The next day Andrea and I made a very short ride, in spite of her discomfort from her banged-up leg, back and shoulder, since we’d skipped two days in Willow’s training. We made it back home before a thunderstorm hit, and had the horses put away by the time it turned into a terrible hailstorm with fierce wind. It didn’t last long, but put down a lot of water. When we rode the next day, many of the trails had new gullies where the water ran down them.
Some of Alfonso’s range cows have been coming down through his upper pasture (the fences are bad) and onto the road, and someone opened the gate on our wild meadow on the upper place and put a bunch of range cows into that field with Michael and Carolyn’s cows. They had to sort them out and send them on down the road—where they eventually ended up in Alfonso’s field. In self-defense, Michael and Carolyn went up the creek and patched the old wire gate (out of Alfonso’s upper pasture) that got taken apart last fall when Alfonso and the Amish brought their cows home, and never fixed. Hopefully that will stop the trickle of cattle down the road.
This past weekend Sam went on a music trip to Boise; the high school Legacy Choir got to attend the musical play Les Miserables. Charlie would have gone also, except that he is working for the Forest Service youth program, and their work crew is camping out for 8 days at a time, clearing trails.
On Saturday Andrea and I made a short ride, and Dani rode with us on Shiloh.
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| Dani & Andrea riding |
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| Dani on Shiloh |
It’s good experience for her to ride that mare, because even though Shiloh is about 12 years old, she is still green, and a bit spoiled (after being a “school” horse at Carroll College before she was given to us). Dani can learn more about training and rehabbing an old green spoiled horse at the same time she’s learning to help continue Willow’s training. I trimmed Shiloh’s feet a little before that ride. She has really hard, tough feet that are difficult to trim, but with the rain we had, and her pen being wet and muddy, her feet were softened up enough to be easier to trim.
Sunday the cows were running out of feed on their ditchbank/field pasture by Andrea’s house and it was time to move them. I’d put the heifers in the pens by the barn to eat that tall grass for a couple of days. Dani helped me put a hot wire temporary fence around my little haystack by Sprout and Shiloh, and we let the heifers into that pen where we’ll be stacking some of the hay we purchase. They can eat the grass down before we put hay in there. After we moved the heifers we brought the cows down to the corral and discovered that Zorra Rose (a daughter of Rosalee) was lame. We held her and her calf back when we took the cow herd on through to take them to the pasture below the lane. We moved Lida Rose temporarily to another pen so we could put Zorra Rose down the chute to treat her for foot rot. Lida Rose (granddaughter of Rosalee and a neice of Zorra Rose) has been living in the little pen by the chute while we’ve been bandaging her broken foot. Her foot is healing enough that she’s walking on it really well now.
After we treated Zorra Rose we put her and her calf on down to the pasture with the other cattle, and let Lida Rose have more space—the grassy alley between the corrals as well as the little pen she’s been living in. That afternoon Andrea, Dani and I went for a short ride—Willow’s 23rd ride this year. She’s progressing well in her training. Andrea’s back wasn’t as sore that day; Dani has been putting DMSO on it for her, which helps ease the pain and inflammation.
Monday was hot—up to 90 degrees. Dani and I went for a short ride on Willow and Dottie. This was Dani’s first complete ride (from start to finish) on Willow. She’s had several rides in which she switched horses with her mom partway through, riding Willow home, but this was the first time she rode Willow for the whole ride. She and the horse did very well.
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| Dani riding Willow |
Today we changed the bandage on Lida Rose’s foot. The old bandage stayed on for 9 days (a new record) and even though the outer layer—the duct tape--was getting raggedy and coming off, the inner layers (sticky adhesive Elastakon tape over the vet wrap which held the gauze and diaper in place) were still intact and protecting the foot.
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| cutting off the old bandage |
The foot is healing nicely, with more fleshy tissue covering what was once raw, bleeding stump with the bone showing, and new hoof horn growing down over the outside (bottom) of the heel. Probably in another month or two the open area will be minimal and hopefully have a hoof covering before winter.
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| foot is healing |
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| more hoof growing |
After we finished bandaging the foot and letting the heifer go back to her pen, we made a short ride on Dottie, Willow and Shiloh (Dani riding Shiloh). This was Willow’s 25th ride.
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| Andrea & Dani |
When we got home we left Willow tied for a couple hours; she still needs more lessons in tying and patience because she has a tendency to still try to pull back occasionally. She needs to learn that she can’t pull free.
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