The life of a rescued horse and other ramblings...
Photos
You may have noticed that unless I am on the outside of the fence, most of my photos of Alex only include her head and sometimes a small part of her body. Because she is so friendly and in your face it's hard to get good photos unless she's tied and I do most of my work with her at liberty so she's usually too close for me to get her whole body. I tried today, I even handed the camera off to mom but as usual, most of these don't include her body. They do show how friendly she is with everyone though. These kids were all people she's never met before but it didn't matter in the least (especially since they were handling her hay), they must be friends who are here just for her!
The unloading of the hay was interesting to say the least. They brought all 5 tons in one huge stack (7 or 8 bales high!) on a lift truck. That let them just back up to the barn and set the entire stack down in one motion. But because the ground is uneven and the truck moves, the stack becomes unstable. Luke (the hay guy) warned us of this and was very careful about where he backed the truck up to so he wouldn't take out the cherry tree or the new fence with falling bales. Once he set the stack, a couple of rows fell over and a couple stayed upright so Luke and his helper climbed up and knocked them down for us so it would be safer.
Alex was not the least bit impressed with the truck. She started getting hyper as soon as she saw it at the top of the yard and by the time they were setting the stack down she was running and kicking like I've rarely seen her do! I was seriously afraid she was going to go through the fence so I finally went in and stood with her to keep her somewhat calm. She was much better when I was in with her and once the first bale fell near the fence she was right there to start grabbing mouthfuls! She kept a constant watch while the kids, Henry, and I moved it all into the barn and was thrilled when we threw 2 broken bales plus all of the loose stuff that we raked up into the pasture for her.
The kids didn't think it looked like all that much hay when it was stacked and thought they were getting an easy $20 each but once it was tipped over and they started moving it they realized how much work it was! One of the boys has bucked bales several times, one has done it once (or so he says, I have my doubts!) and one boy and the girl have never done it before. I finally got them settled into places, two inside and two outside plus Henry and I pitched in. With 6 of us working, we got it done in less than an hour! The kids stacking it in the barn had a little trouble, especially once the barn started to get full but after a few quick adjustments we were able to get it all in. It could be interesting getting the first row or two out because it's stacked quite high but there was no other way to make it fit. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture but I did get a picture of the load on the truck so you can imagine that going into a (maybe!) 15' x 15' space in my barn. The bottom layer of the stack has to be replaced because it's the layer that's been on the ground so it has drawn a little moisture and has a little mold on the bottom couple of inches. I discussed it with Luke before he left and he said to just set it off to the side and he'll bring me replacement bales. So those bales are still sitting outside, I'm really not sure if we could have fit them in anyway! The rest of it is very nice hay, probably some of the best I've ever gotten and Alex loves it!
The new photos are in the album labeled Hay 2009.
The unloading of the hay was interesting to say the least. They brought all 5 tons in one huge stack (7 or 8 bales high!) on a lift truck. That let them just back up to the barn and set the entire stack down in one motion. But because the ground is uneven and the truck moves, the stack becomes unstable. Luke (the hay guy) warned us of this and was very careful about where he backed the truck up to so he wouldn't take out the cherry tree or the new fence with falling bales. Once he set the stack, a couple of rows fell over and a couple stayed upright so Luke and his helper climbed up and knocked them down for us so it would be safer.
Alex was not the least bit impressed with the truck. She started getting hyper as soon as she saw it at the top of the yard and by the time they were setting the stack down she was running and kicking like I've rarely seen her do! I was seriously afraid she was going to go through the fence so I finally went in and stood with her to keep her somewhat calm. She was much better when I was in with her and once the first bale fell near the fence she was right there to start grabbing mouthfuls! She kept a constant watch while the kids, Henry, and I moved it all into the barn and was thrilled when we threw 2 broken bales plus all of the loose stuff that we raked up into the pasture for her.
The kids didn't think it looked like all that much hay when it was stacked and thought they were getting an easy $20 each but once it was tipped over and they started moving it they realized how much work it was! One of the boys has bucked bales several times, one has done it once (or so he says, I have my doubts!) and one boy and the girl have never done it before. I finally got them settled into places, two inside and two outside plus Henry and I pitched in. With 6 of us working, we got it done in less than an hour! The kids stacking it in the barn had a little trouble, especially once the barn started to get full but after a few quick adjustments we were able to get it all in. It could be interesting getting the first row or two out because it's stacked quite high but there was no other way to make it fit. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture but I did get a picture of the load on the truck so you can imagine that going into a (maybe!) 15' x 15' space in my barn. The bottom layer of the stack has to be replaced because it's the layer that's been on the ground so it has drawn a little moisture and has a little mold on the bottom couple of inches. I discussed it with Luke before he left and he said to just set it off to the side and he'll bring me replacement bales. So those bales are still sitting outside, I'm really not sure if we could have fit them in anyway! The rest of it is very nice hay, probably some of the best I've ever gotten and Alex loves it!
The new photos are in the album labeled Hay 2009.
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