Spring

Spring:

Seems like quite awhile since I wrote one of these, so because spring has arrived here in Arizona, I guess I should lose the spring fever and do some work.  The pastures have all greened up and it looks like I won’t have to re-seed any of them.  That’s a good thing as it is expensive and maybe I will have some extra money come fall which is a better time to do it anyway, and can do it then.  Oh what an optimist I am – especially since my phone isn’t ringing off the hook with people wanting to board their horses this summer.  I did turn two old pensioners out while I can because if I get full, one of them (mine), has to live out in the back paddock which isn’t irrigated but does have some grass as it runs alongside the Agua Fria River.

Speaking of irrigating, the El Nino flow has sure helped out and Arizona has been getting its share of rain.  Sadly, according to The Weather Channel, it’s about over and I have been watering everything for the last couple of weeks.  May and June are typically our driest months and we get these horrible winds that only a meteorologist could love.  In fact I am sure that the apple trees blossomed to early and now the wind has blown almost all the blossoms off, long before the bees could get anywhere near them.  I have a couple that are more sheltered than the others and hope that they will produce some apples.  I am not really sure this is the right climate for apples as I have many more bad than good years for apple crops.  If the wind doesn’t blow the blossoms and the bees away, it seems like we have a late snow and the baby apples freeze.  Bummer for the horses, which are the sole reason I have any apple trees period.

I love the trees around the house but unfortunately except for a blue spruce, the apples, and a few willow trees, most of my shade comes from cottonwood trees.  They give good shade but are they ever messy.  In the spring they first get what looks like a nut, that cracks and falls to the ground and that leaves behind something that looks like a fuzzy caterpillar that’s kind of red and yellow.  Most of that falls away, but what is left on the tree, turns into what looks like pods of peas which, when they ripen release the cotton for which the tree is named.  It looks like it is snowing and the cotton gets in and on everything.  It sticks to shoes, the dog and the cat and gets all over the house.  I look like a white tornado when I drive down the road from all the stuff in the back of the truck.  I won’t even tell you what the laundry looks like that I hang out on the line (no I don’t own a dryer).  Thank goodness after that, the leaves come out and the tree is fine until fall.  Now that I have rambled on about nothing that is even vaguely interesting and certainly only my own observations about cottonwood trees, I should get on with farm life.

I have been repairing all the things that seem to succumb to weather over the winter.  Some of the plastic sprinklers just rot and even though there hasn’t been a horse near them they no longer work.  So they have to be replaced and I have so many bad ones, when I turn a set (of sprinklers) on to check for broken ones I have to bring a paper to map out the broken ones.  My memory isn’t what it used to be.  Fencing seems to deteriorate during the winter also, and I have been replacing, poles and gates and welding places back together.  I would have liked to build a new pen and replace a section of fence, but I opted for the new air conditioner instead and hope the fence will last until I find some money.  It’s getting way to hot here in AZ.   Anyway, spring for me means lots of raking, mowing and repairing.  I missed the free dump day that was last weekend at the town hall and that really made me mad as I had a ton of stuff to go.  I can’t believe I forgot that.

I still only have six horses here on the farm but I will hopefully start to pick some up this month as Turf Paradise closes and people will turn them out for the summer.  All my horses are finally at the track and so far are doing mostly well.  The two, two year-olds are galloping, galloping, galloping.  The one that is with Raul Hernandez (F D Icy – Deposit Ticket – It’s Nippy (get it?) didn’t arrive at the track until the middle of last month (he was still bucking) but is very good now and is walking through the starting gate.  The other, Cash Receipt had a work the other day and was the bullet for 2 furlongs.  He is with Chad Story and while everyone really likes him, he seems to have some issues with fat hocks and may end up back here at the farm.

Nae Doot is finally at the track and is also with Chad.  He seems to be mostly ok after getting what is called a ‘knocked down hip’ when he ran into a fence pole.  I wasn’t sure he would make it back to the races but so far so good.  Barilla is also at the track but she has blisters in her throat (I don’t know how they get that but understand it is some sort of virus) which cause her to make a horrible noise when she gallops.  We had her scoped and she is now on antibiotics which will hopefully clear that up.  The last one with Chad is Crown Secret who hasn’t been running very well, although she did just finish second last time out.  I finally let them drop her down to 5000 claim.  I thought she would win easy as we had relieved some pressure in her hocks, but she ran into a steamer that was also dropping down.  She came back coughing up lots of phlegm and the jockey said she couldn’t breathe so I guess she had an excuse.  Now you see what owning horses is really like – lot’s of bad news and only glimmers of good but that’s what keeps us going.

Last but not least is Newtons Theory who is running Saturday April 10^th.   I posted elsewhere how exciting it was to get a great jockey, albeit with skeletons in his closet, to ride my horse.  I am not sure what Pat Valenzuela is doing riding in Sunland Park NM but he is, and he’s on my horse.  Now if the horse can just win so I can get a picture.  Newt is feeling good and was being so mean to his companion goat that the goat had to be rescued from Newt’s teeth and now lives outside the stall and just out of reach of said teeth.  Alex removed a board from the stall so Newt can still see him but can’t eat him.  Newt is a very nervous horse and the goat has really helped calm him down.  After the race Saturday the horse comes home for a nice rest at the farm with maybe a stop in Phoenix for AZ Breed day which offers pretty good purses in late April at Turf Paradise.  A lot will depend on how he does on Saturday.  I wonder if I will have to buy him a goat?

Well, that’s about it for now.  Hopefully next time I will be full of boarders and the all the horses will be well and happy.