April Doings On The Farm

t’s been a busy couple of months here in Arizona.  We seem to be pretty much in our dry season that takes us up to our rainy season along about July.  The winds are starting to blow and will get worse before they get better and it makes all of us cranky – people and animals alike.  Nae Doot and Barilla played hard to catch the other day when the farrier came and led Matt a merry chase before he trapped them in a corner.  Nae Doot usually only lets me catch him as I am the one who brings out the carrots. Barilla is easy – except when Nae Doot is running – then it is monkey see, monkey do.  However they were caught and they both had their feet done and were turned back out in to the fields.  They ran off joyfully bucking and kicking to the farthest corner acting like the devil might be chasing them.  Both  horses have so many knots in their manes and tails I am threatening to cut them off – well not until after fly season, but it’s either that or buy gallons of creme rinse and I am not even sure that would get them out.

Crown Secret finally had her baby and he is very handsome with big bones and a wonderful shoulder and hip. There is not any gray to be found but he is a pretty bay with a big white star and the longest eyelashes on a cute slightly dished face. He thinks he is THE MAN and I have to admit I do  too.  He is so handsome.  I am going to leave him over at the vet’s place as she is much younger than me and can teach him manners better than I.  I go visit him about once a week.  My vet is so impressed with him she is going to lease the mare to breed to her Quarter Horse stallion Alotta Luke by six time world champion Luke At Me.  Her baby should be easier to name than what I have to work with…..Silver Wagon and Crown Secret – Yuk!

As far as the race horses go, after making a little money claiming My T Quick and then losing him two weeks later, my next claim hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. Triple Check  didn’t run very well in the Turf marathon series that Turf Paradise puts on, so after the first race of the series we elected not to go any further and dropped him back into a low claim on the dirt and he ran second.  Ever hopeful, we put him back on his preferred surface, the turf, for $6250 and he finished fourth but the jockey said good things about him so rather than bring him home for the summer at that time, we entered him back in a low claim last Tuesday.  He ran like a good horse and won easily by over four lengths.  It was fun getting my picture taken and the purse will help offset my training bill.   He will come home for the summer and hopefully will get some sun on his back and let the little naggy things that have been bothering him heal up and maybe he will be a better horse next fall.  That would be nice.

Also coming home for the summer will be my two-year old Likely Story.  She got a bit of a tear in her left tendon which devastated everyone.  But we caught it before anything could get  worse and so because I don’t want to hurt her, instead of the 30 to 60 days that the vet recommended, I am just going to turn her out and let her grow and mature until late summer/early fall when the track opens for training again.  It will be fun to have her home where I can get to know her and feed her carrots.  She and Triple Check arrived a few days ago and they were two happy horses.  The dust flew as they rolled and raced around their small pens.  They will stay in those for a few days and then move to larger pens and finally out to the pasture,  My trainer is leaving to go to Albuquerque, New Mexico and later the Sun Ray meet at Farmington for the summer and wanted to bring them up before he shipped out.

My other big news  is that I have a new horse.  I claimed one named Leo’s Lookin who is a four-year old and is a very fast horse.  He has foot problems but my trainer thinks he can fix him and I sure hope that is true because he is the most expensive horse I have ever purchased.  One of the reasons that I braved the Phoenix heat was not only to watch Triple Check run but also because I hadn’t met Leo.  Leo is a pretty bay with a nice head and he likes peppermints.  He was pretty mellow in the stall and nice to be around – one of the best qualities a horse can have in my opinion.  He will ship to Albuquerque with the first load unless a race can be found that fits him, then he may make a last start at Turf before he goes.  I hope he goes to New Mexico as the purses are better and it is just too hot in Phoenix this time of year, but we will see.

That is about all the horse news.  As for the farm – the pasture grass is so high I need to call the mower man and have it mowed.  He will have to come about once a month through October.  I hate to have it done, mostly because it is a pain in the neck to pen up all the horses while he is mowing, but I just don’t have enough horses to keep it down.  Far cry from when I used to try and kill it every summer with all the boarders I had.

I had the fence men come out and re-do my yard fence.  I divided this and lengthened that and ended up with a nice barn yard so that the chickens could have their own place. After the coyote got Rosie I had to do something so  I made my yard a bit smaller and re-fenced it.  The tree roots and the loose animals that kept running through here had really made a mess of it.  Then I put new chain link up along the other three sides of the barn yard and added it to the gates.  I made sure the fence came right down to the ground everywhere and now they chickens live in their new yard and don’t mess up my back porch.  They have a nice big enclosed area with trees and lilac bushes they can hide under.  They can still be attacked by the jillions of hawks I have in the area but short of putting a roof up there is nothing I can do about that.  Hopefully they will stay under cover of the bushes.  I do miss their cute chicken faces looking in the glass window begging for treats – but not the chicken poop they left everywhere.

Right after the fence men came the tree trimmers showed up.  I have four giant cottonwood trees surrounding my house and they really needed some trimming.  I had a crew of four men here for two days but in the end – the trees look much better. I had lost a few big – well, giant limbs last summer and I was lucky they didn’t come down on the house and cause some major damage. So now the place looks really good.

About a week before the fencers and the trimmers showed up the chicken lady came up from Phoenix and brought us two new chickens and took the rooster away.  It was sad to see him go but all he did was crow – all day and all night.  I don’t know when he rested.  The new hens, Vanna and Bugsy are Cochins and they have the feathered legs.  The new ones are pint sized (maybe bantams) and one is yellow (Vanna) and Bugsy is grey and white.  Of course the old hens hated them at first but they are all getting along now. Bugsy will fly up and take treats out of your hand (she is so small she has to jump)and Matt has become quite the chicken trainer.  They all follow him around and he must give them treats four or five times a day.  Now, you might ask what a chicken considers a treat – well, just about anything.  Ours like grapes, melons (especially watermelon) popcorn, pineapple, bread, tomatoes – just about everything.

So that is my story for this month.  It was a busy/newsy one.  I hope we have some good luck in New Mexico this summer with Leo and I may even try and go over to watch once in awhile.  So, until next time…