Author: restingheartfarm

Learning to plow…

Published by

I think of plowing as the quintessential activity of a real farm.  In fact, I hestitate to call my place a real farm because of the lack of said, plowing.  I’m fond of the ‘lasagna’ method of growing crops…layering compost and straw and cardboard.  I’ve run a rototiller a few times, but its just not my thing.  So recently, when I had the opportunity to learn to plow….for real…I hopped on board, quite literally. Some of you may know that I have agreed to sell Peanut to a nice couple in Vermont who plan to farm with him.  He is on trial with them as I write this….staying at Ted’s place, where they are learning the ins and outs of driving a work horse.  I brought Peanut up last week.  Ted and I had hatched a plan (well, mostly I did) that we should put Peanut and Clayton together to plow at the GMDHA fall meeting.  Ted wanted Peanut there a few days early to practice. So Thursday morning, I help Ted harness up the …

Reconnecting with Manny

Published by

The past year has been so full of youngsters, rescues, rehabs and the rebuilding of my practice, I’ve had little time to spend with my best horse Manny.  He’s 15 this year and we’ve been together for over 10 years now.  He’s the type of horse now that remains reliable even after a lengthy period of time off.  He wasn’t always like that and we’ve had our fair share of differing opinions, outright arguments and plenty of wrecks….mostly the type where I am on the ground with him glaring at me from above.  Being a very alpha horse, he knows how to make his point.  I’ve learned from him over the years how to be a confident leader and a sympathetic rider, more partner than master and we have come to appreciate each other immensely over the second half of the past decade.  I think of him more as Mensa than horse.  We have a magnet between us…when I see him at the gate, I have to walk over and rub his muzzle.  When I …

Feedback

Published by

Feedback is a really important part of training horses…any animal for that matter.  Being non-verbal for the most part, horses use body language to communicate their mental and emotional state, as well as their physical well being.  Its important as a trainer and as a caretaker to observe this feedback and make adjustments in our agenda to address feedback, when necessary.  Some feedback requires nothing more than acknowledgement, such as a horse wrinkling his lip with pleasure during a good grooming session.  Some feedback requires action, such as a pony pinning its ears during feeding.  In such a case, I might simply insist he share his food with me or request he back away from his supper for a moment for an attitude adjustment. Feedback can be quite complex and the body language difficult to interpret….is it fear, is it dominance, is it confusion? Using punishment or dominance with a horse that is scared or confused will produce unsatisfactory, sometimes disasterous results. Such is the art of living and working with an animal.  To complicate …

Roosters

Published by

I’ve known a few roosters in my day. Some are calm and gentile with the ladies, others are just outright ‘peckers’ and are abusive. The dominant, out going rooster has its benefits in regard to predator control, but they can get out of hand with kids and visitors. We had such rooster in our midst. Fooled by his youth and good looks, we tolerated his bizarre aggressive behavior UNTIL he stabbed my poor mother in the leg. Being on coumadin (a blood thinner), this was unacceptable. 2 days ago he attacked my two nieces and a nephew…scaring the crap out of them. Mom and I both agreed a rooster stew was on the menu! My bother, Bear and his family were here. He had brought his rifle, as I was wanting a certain fox eliminated. Once our new objective was clarified, the shooting began. I shooed the rooster out into the open and the firing squad began. Near misses all afternoon. I believe Bear was suffering from severe embarrassment…must be something wrong with the scope. …

Cilantro Pesto

Published by

I love to grow herbs!  Basil and Cilantro are my favorites, although I find room for bay leaves, dill and some oregano.  I make alot of pesto,  in icecube trays and store it frozen.  But storage is an issue for other herbs.  My beloved cilantro bolts to seed by mid July…hardly available for my fall salsa projects.  So I have searched high and low for a storage solution.  I came across this recipe recently and tried it……wonderful!  I froze it in 2 oz rubbermaid containers for use later in the season. Cilantro Pesto 2 cups, packed, cilantro, chopped, large stems removed 1/2 cup blanched almonds 1/4 cup chopped red onion 1/2 tspn chopped and seeded serrano chile pepper 1/2 tspn kosher salt 1/4 cup olive oil Method:  In a food processor, pulse cilantro, almonds, onion, chile, and salt until well blended.  With processor running drizzle olive oil in a steady stream.   Add more oil as needed for your use. Freeze in small containers or ice cube trays and store in freezer.

Riding Reno…the first 3 rides

Published by

Reno’s training is primarily as a driving horse.  I believe he has been ridden sporadically by some kids, but no formal training.  He’s got a pretty cooperative personality, so I didn’t think it would be huge deal to get him going undersaddle.  I also felt I could help him rebuild his topline and atrophied musculature in his haunches putting him through some low level dressage maneuvers such as ‘shoulder in’. Our first ride was mainly a ‘meet and greet’ event.  Teaching him to pick me up at the mounting block and stand quietly.  Walk, simple turns, stop, back up.  By the end of the session we were doing some walk-trot transitions as well.  What I learned about him is that his driving experience had set-him up well to understand rudimentary rein cues undersaddle.  I had to reinforce leg and seat cues with the verbal cues he already knew…kiss, whoa, back up, easy, etc….in the beginning, but he very quickly understood what I was asking.  We ended our first ride by taking a leisurely, trail ride …

Spring and Summer with Reno

Published by

My last post about Reno was in late March and was full of optimism, as we had finally seemed to overcome his hock injury and were in ‘rehab’ mode.  There are many reasons why I have not updated his progress.  Foremost is a lack of time.  Spring is always a very busy season for me with pasture maintenance, veggie gardening (this year I have extensive plots of potatoes and corn) and this year pigs.  But in all truth, I was waiting to feel optimism again. Two weeks after my last post regarding Reno and the beginning of what should have been his rehabilitation, he had a set-back.  I found him on 4/7/9, standing alone in shock, hemorrhaging from his previously injured left hind.  He had had a fight with the fence and wrapped the poly wire around the leg, struggled (and eventually tore down a complete length of fencing), lacerating the leg below the hock right down to the canon bone.  My vet confirmed that he had severed the extensor tendon completely.  In addition, she …

Pigs and Horses…

Published by

This post was lost in my edit file from April.  Made me smile remembering that day.  The horses and pigs are surprisingly tolerant, even curious towards each other nowadays. April 2009 I brought home my first pair of piglets last night, Spam and Hamlet. I decided to put them in the barn because of the weather (freezing rain here) to settle in for a few days. While I got the stall across the aisle from the horses stalls ready for them, I left them squealing in the back of my truck. The horses, having never seen a pig, decided to vacate the premises and ran off to the far end of their winter paddock. Ever curious, they carefully crept back to the barn area just in time for me to haul the first squealing pig to its new home in the barn…pandamonium set in and off they went again to the far end, nearing tripping over each other in their hasty getaway. Well, I waited for them to creep back close (they were afterall hungry …

Reno Update

Published by

Reno has been turned out with my gelding herd for 2 weeks now. My vet and I both agree that he has shown enough improvement that he now has to USE the leg to get function back. Still on oral antibiotics, we’ve had no set-backs despite alot of playfulness in the mud with the other horses. Pictured here actually ‘resting’ on the bad leg…a very good sign. He finishes his antibiotics (a full 6 weeks) in a few days. I’ll be watching him carefully for any relapse at that point. So far, so good.