Old Rescue stallion gets a new herd ~ This little horse LOVES his foal!

It's been a pretty exciting last couple of days. Our well is in the ground. I finished a ton of dirt work for the new horse pens. A bunch of the horses saw a new farrier, so I am feeling pretty accomplished right now. Another long-term goal of mine that is finally starting to come true is being able to catch Nigel in a reasonable amount of time. Nigel is a very opinionated senior pony stallion that I got from an auction five years ago now. He came with some pretty significant injuries and past trauma. These days he pretty much just lives the life of leisure. I don't really ask too much of him. Bruce's arrival has changed quite a few of the horses for the better. So far, Prim is experiencing much more milder heat cycles. With Nigel being the only stallion on the property, naturally he believes that Bruce belongs to him. It's been really cute to see these three interact as a little family. Bruce's biological father is a very fancy quarter horse stud named Wicked Pretty. He was the perfect match for Prim, but now that Bruce is here, Nigel has taken over the reins. Since the start of fire season, I've been catching him at least once a day, making sure to reward him with a little something special. I have found that the right motivation for Nigel is visitation nights with his baby Bruce. Sometimes Nigel likes to scream and prance around trying to entice Prim. Other days he is more concerned about grazing. Today it looks like he is going to be very serious and keep watch over Prim and also little Bruce as they take naps. It's a little bit unconventional, but in the past Nigel has been extremely hard to motivate. With the promise of visiting his favorite baby, Nigel has now become so much easier to catch. Here recently he's only taking about a minute or two, which is awesome. Nigel can be an extra sassy old dude, but he is pretty calm and reserved around Bruce. Bruce is a very outgoing foal and even when Nigel is in full on stallion mode, he doesn't mind. Bruce is still only about two and a half months old, but he is definitely taller than Nigel now. Believe it or not, Prim has already started to wean Bruce a little bit. I've been scheduling our tiny little training sessions around feeding time. Prim used to be pretty protective of Bruce, but now she'll let him come over to me on the completely opposite side of their pen. Bruce and I will hang out and review some very basic training principles. Prim doesn't seem too bothered by Bruce's shenanigans, but I can definitely tell that if he wanders over to me and wants to pester me instead of her, she is completely fine with it. The last couple of days she is even letting Bruce go up to Nigel and they're hanging out together. I still have yet to see Bruce clack at any of the older horses. Scarlet used to do it a lot when she was a baby because she was afraid the other horses would hurt her. Bruce thinks the entire world revolves around him and he is not afraid of any of the horses he's come in contact with. That may of course change when he gets turned out with other horses, but right now on the other side of the fence he is perfectly comfortable. While the drilling was going on, they were in smaller pens, but now that they have room to run, I think Bruce is getting more playtime. Most days when I bring Nigel out, if we're out here for quite a while, Prim will lay down and take a nap with Bruce. Although he's not in their pen with them, I think they do feel like he's part of their little herd. Bruce seems pretty occupied most of the time and I'm really surprised that Prim isn't getting stir crazy yet. I think she's still probably using a lot of her energy to nurse Bruce. The weather has been a little bit more on the hot side depending on the day. Prim and Bruce do have a smaller water tank so I end up dumping it and filling it up twice a day just so they have nice fresh water. Recently Prim has decided that every time I fill up her water tank in the afternoon she also needs to get a little hose off. Bruce on the other hand does not seem to be particularly fond of baths yet. Prim is still very tolerant of Bruce's nonsense. I have still been on the hunt for a weanling buddy for Bruce. Generally it's better if these young horses can have a friend that is the same age as them because that's not always a feasible option for someone that doesn't breed a ton of horses. Usually there is a babysitter type gelding that takes over that responsibility. Frisco used to be my go-to horse for gentling horses like Bruce and keeping their manners intact. I'm not 100% convinced yet but I'm thinking that maybe Nigel might be a good buddy for him. Nigel does have some existing health issues that I have to take into account. While I don't think Nigel would run Bruce around too much I do think that perhaps Bruce might be too much for Nigel. He's on a pretty serious nap schedule right now and still does seem to enjoy his alone time. I'm really surprised that Bruce is not afraid of Scarlet and also Ziggy. It could be because they have always had access to each other. Scarlet just turned four years old but mentally she is still not very mature at all. She acts around the other horses like a yearling would. In the last video I talked about some of the horses having a hard time with their feet out here in the dry environment. Scarlet is probably the worst at getting her feet all chipped up. When the farrier was out here he gave me some ideas of other things to do just to keep up the maintenance of their feet in between trims. Scarlet can still be very kicky with her hind feet so I'm gonna trim her for a few more cycles and then maybe the new farrier will take over. After being on this skid steer for about a week straight I am itching to get back to working some of the horses. The next big task I'm going to tackle is either going to be digging water lines for the horse pens or putting up their permanent shelters. The well is already drilled and it's almost complete but we are going to have to get it piped into our house. I'm trying not to stress out about it too much. We are now in monsoon season and you can definitely see a difference. After all of the commotion of the last week Tiny has taken back over her homestead building. I think the drilling and all the noise really scared all of those marmots out. Tiny definitely took the opportunity to swoop back in and reclaim her territory. We've had a few thunderstorms the last couple of days but tonight we are supposed to actually get some precipitation. It can be pretty dangerous out when there's a lot of lightning so I'm gonna hurry up and get all of the horses fed. Okay get your food. Come on boy. You hungry? Want some food? In addition to taking over the old homestead building and watching her hay pile, Tiny now requires her food to be brought to her. I was feeding them closer to the house so no more cats would come around. Hey here you go. I've not seen any glimpses of Ivar's little fluffy friend in a while. I want to keep Nigel on schedule so I'm hoping to get in a little bit of an old man walk with him before the rains come. If you are familiar with Nigel's story you know that he is notoriously difficult to catch. Over the years I've tried a bunch of different things to coax them into wanting to spend more time with me. Like most horses that come with a pretty good amount of baggage, sometimes it just takes a lot of time and persistence. Nigel has never accepted treats from me but he seems to be pretty keen on visiting Bruce as a reward. Before I found him at the auction, Nigel was a breeding stallion for a band of mares. He was pasture breeding them so he basically just lived life like a wild stallion and a herd of little mini ponies. After troubleshooting all of the ways that he likes to evade capture, it's pretty obvious that whenever he needed to get caught up he was roped. Nigel also does have some issues with his sight and the previous broken jaw that he had when I bought him does make him a bit more sensitive around his head. I've adjusted his halter so that the nose band is much bigger than it needs to be so it's not hitting him unnecessarily on the sides of his face. Nigel had a dental and a checkup right before we moved. His jaw was broken for quite a long time before I got him so I think he's always going to have a little bit of sensitivity around his head. From start to finish it only took me a little bit longer than a minute to catch him today. He definitely gets really excited to be out of his pen now if it means he gets to hang out with Bruce. Unfortunately tonight Bruce was busy eating his dinner and he didn't even want to come over and see Nigel. In the evenings I've been doing a little two-for-one taking Nigel on his walk and checking the garden. Slow it down little buddy. Nigel. It's pretty exciting that some of the zinnias I planted are starting to bloom. I put down a whole bunch of different kinds so I'll be really excited to see which ones actually turn into flowers. Since Frisco Bill's passing I have definitely been spending more time with Nigel. That could be a big contributing factor into him finally realizing that I am not going to hurt him every time I catch him. He did seem fairly depressed afterwards and then for a few months he just didn't have the same spark. Just a couple minutes Nigel. He spent some time in close proximity to Prim, Scarlet and Ziggy before Bruce arrived and I think that definitely lifted his spirits. The arrival of Bruce definitely changed Nigel's attitude for the better. I'm always pretty careful with Nigel because he is so old. I've tried for years and years to find Nigel the perfect friends but I was never able to locate the right one. Nigel. It's an unauthorized snack. He seems pretty content to have his own personal space but more and more he is enjoying his visits with Bruce. Our walk was cut short a little bit tonight because of the rain. It went from bright and sunshiny to a pretty drab and overcast with lots of lightning. This was the perfect opportunity to stop doing chores for the evening and just relax. If we get enough moisture hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to tackle some weeds. Come on Brucey. Where's Tiny? Hey Nigel. Tiny. There you go. The next morning all of the animals seemed pretty refreshed. I'm not sure exactly how much rain we got but it was enough that the ground is still wet and Ziggy got himself in a little mud puddle. I've been trying to take it a little bit easy this week because I did work so hard last week. Ever pouncing on you? Just gotta soak little buddy. After I get everybody their breakfast I'll probably do a little tour of the ranch and see what the weeds are looking like. After all the dirt work I did last week I do need the ground to settle a little bit. I do not have a roller or anything else to compact the crusher fine so they're just gonna have to settle naturally. I have drug them a few times with the harrow to help that happen. Sparkler does seem really content up on the arena pad with the neighbor mayors for company. As I get going with the shelters and the fencing I'm going to bring some of the other horses up here. I've been dragging the arena but there's still quite a bit of grass. The easiest way to get rid of it is just to put the horses out on it and have them rip up all of the grass and little roots. Even though this property is pretty large there are only a few small patches of established grass. This area was pretty dry and crispy and it looks like it's refreshed a little bit from the rain. I would love to get the horses down here to graze but I think I'm going to hold off until the hottest part of the summer has passed. I would really hate if they came down here and ate up all of the grass and the ground got super dry and then the grass dried out. I have a feeling there is a lot of grass that is dormant and I can't even see and once the rain comes it'll sprout back up. I just really don't want to put any extra stress on the grass that's already growing in the ground. I've done a few test patches seeding different areas and it seems like it's going to be very difficult to germinate grass out here. One thing that doesn't have any trouble germinating are the weeds. This is licorice and the seed pods are little burrs. I mowed this patch about a month ago but it has gotten super dry and while the weeds continue to grow it is not safe for me to mow unless there's some moisture on the ground. I'm not sure if the last time I mowed did anything to stop the growth of these weeds. When we purchased the property in the fall they were already dry and crispy so you couldn't really tell what the new growth was and where the old growth was. While wild licorice isn't super toxic to horses it is not ideal for them to be eating the seed pods and their burrs make a mess of their manes and tails. Until I get all this pasture reseeded I'm just going to continue to mow it before it goes to seed. Hopefully once I get some grass down it'll outcompete the weeds and they won't be a problem anymore. One of the weeds that I've been keeping an eye on is this milkweed. Milkweed is actually highly toxic to horses and they do not have to eat very much of it for it to be fatal. Unfortunately it is very important for the butterflies and lots of other little bugs. I've been going back and forth as to whether or not I am going to try and get rid of this or make little spots around the ranch that the horses are not going to be in that I can have little patches. Right now it's growing pretty readily along one of the irrigation ditches that has a tiny bit of water in it all the time. There are aphids that lay their eggs on the stems that the ladybugs eat and milkweed is particularly important for monarch butterflies to lay their eggs. I'm not exactly sure when they come through Colorado but I'm going to have to look that up so I can watch and see if I notice any eggs. I did try to cold stratify a few different types of milkweed seeds to plant out of the range of the horses. Unfortunately none of them ended up surviving my lack of care so that might be another project that I try again next year. Since it's probably going to be a pretty long time before the horses are out in any of the pastures that do have milkweed I am just going to leave it alone for now. I always have my eyeballs peeled for different toxic plants to eradicate and with all of the little sprinkles we've been getting every day I have a feeling that I'm going to see a lot more pop up. Like a new hay pile. Having a little bath. Tiny seems much more spry and happy now that she has a sufficient hay pile again. I'm only getting one load of hay at a time. You're being crazy. Got hay in your food. Right now everybody is in full swing haying the second cutting. It's going to be very difficult to get it cut and dried with all of the rain right now. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak out and get another load or two. Right now the amount I have is going to last the horses three weeks if they are not out on any pasture. I do have the little hidden pasture almost completely done. I've got to put up a few more pieces of fence and then I can move the boys over there. But there really isn't too much for them to graze on. My little experiment with the hugelkultur bed is going really good. All of the feed oats that I sowed as a cover crop are now starting to die back. I should probably think about planting something in there for the rains coming up. That's not a cat. That's not your cat. This week instead of doing one gigantic project I'm going to do tiny little ones. Brucey! Last week I was running the skid steer for all the daylight hours and sometimes during the night. It really cut into my snuggle time with Bruce and I think his training has regressed a little bit. He is just a little bit extra fresh every time I hang out with him because we haven't been in the same routine. He is also definitely growing again. I was able to keep up with the garden while I was working last week. Thankfully I will have a little bit more time this week to water and make sure it stays weeded. I'm pretty sure all of the marmots that were living under the homestead building have moved out to this pile of old logs. There are quite a few prairie dogs that have also relocated because of the noise. There is a pair of fox that live in this bunch of tamarisk trees as well. Huckleberry definitely keeps a very close eye on it. You got work to do. Come on Ivar. Get your little white belly. I'm just looking at you. I haven't noticed Ivar going on any more adventures. He mostly sticks by Huckleberry. What's down in there? Mouse? With the heat they lay on the porch for most of the day and then come out and check to see what the prairie dogs and the rock chucks are doing. They've been pretty good around the garden but I still think I probably need to put a fence around it before the deer figure out where it is. After such a busy week it is nice to just take my time while I'm doing all the chores. With the extra heat I've been having to refill the horse's water more often. Tiny seems a little bit restless after hiding out most of last week. She likes to go up and investigate all of the dirt work and crusher finds that I put down. After I removed the fence it really opened up the back of the property. I'm eventually going to take down the fence that's on the side of Whiplash and Goose's run. I'm thinking they might be the perfect pair to join Sparkler up on the arena pad while I'm moving things around. The way we are positioned in between the mountains we do get some crazy storms. We have rain in the forecast for the next 10 days but it's going to be a surprise when it comes. With the uncertainty around the weather every day I'm going to have to play it by ear. This will be the perfect opportunity for me to do tiny little small jobs that I've been ignoring while sprinkling in little snuggle sessions with Nigel, Baby Bruce, and the rest of the horses. Hello Tiny. Oh turkey friends. After leaving him to his own devices for about a week it was so crazy to just look at Bruce and see how much he's changed. He's getting so much darker. His eyes are changing color. His coat is smoother and he is definitely growing taller. Every time I think this guy can't get any better looking the next week he blows me away. It looks like the well is finally capped. I think they cleaned it out and capped it off early this morning. We had a little sprinkle last night that made the ground safe enough for me to mow the rest of this licorice down. When we moved in it was a real struggle to try and keep all of the cockleburs off of Huckleberry so I'm happy to have them mowed down again and hopefully they won't grow back again this year. That is probably all going to depend on the amount of rain that we actually get over the next two weeks or so. I would really love this patch of to green up enough so the horses can go out on it but as I'm driving around the property I'm finding more and more little patches of weeds that need to be mowed. While I was cruising around I noticed that there is some what appears to be knapweed and then this caught my eye. I'm pretty sure that this is some kind of hemlock. Kind of cool to see the first cattail of the season too. On this property we do have a few different streams and ditches. This little creek separates a part of the property that is about three acres. I found another patch of the licorice and tried to pull a plant up and realized that these things aren't all connected. I didn't realize but these things spread by rhizomes which means they can creep out under the ground making it very unlikely that I am going to be able to get rid of these by mowing. They do fixate nitrogen in the soil like other legumes. That is one benefit that would be nice to have in the ground. I should have mowed them before the seed pods came out but the ground was just too dry to safely do that. As time goes on I'm getting a much better idea of how I'm going to have to set up my grazing for the horse pastures not only to get them back to a normal productive piece of ground but also to control the weeds that are already here. I decided that besides the really big chunks of super toxic invasive weeds I am not going to be spraying. I think if I play my cards right when I reseed the pasture and start rotating the horses I'll be able to combat most of them. I was really hoping I was wrong about this one but it does appear to be water hemlock. This is the most poisonous plant to horses. According to the internet horses only have to eat about eight ounces of this and it can kill them within an hour. It would be really easy for them to be out here grazing along the creek bank and pull out a plant eat it and die before I even knew what was going on. Most horses won't eat poisonous plants on purpose but accidental ingestion can kill them just as quickly which is one of the many reasons the horses are not out on pasture yet. You wanna play with Nigel? It's hard to say whether Nigel has been waiting for his food or for me to catch him. Want me to catch you up? Either way it's time for another walk. I've been hammering down our little routine. I'll come into his pen and then make contact with him. Since he can't see very well it's important that I push his little booty up next to a solid wall so he doesn't get too frantic. Since he is very sensitive around his face I will put the lead rope around his neck to catch him. Once he knows that I have a hold of him then he is pretty easily haltered. I am feeling so much better now that in the event of an emergency where I have to evacuate him I'll be able to catch him pretty quickly. With his age and health problems it would not be good for him to be left to his own devices. For some reason this evening Prim was not too excited about Bruce hanging out with Nigel. Bruce has been getting a little bit extra sassy these days and I think Nigel can tell that he does need a bit of discipline. Prim didn't seem to enjoy Nigel's corrections of her sweet baby boy. Once I got Nigel a little bit away from the fence line Bruce kept running back and forth because he did really want to see Nigel. It wouldn't be very smart for me to turn Nigel out next to Prim, Bruce, Scarlet and Ziggy but I have got my wheels turning about how I can create a fence that Nigel can't put his little feet through or other parts of his body. With Nigel still being a stallion if I were to put him next to Mayers it would create a little bit of extra risk. Even though Nigel is so much smaller than the other horses he would try his darndest to do the job. I've seen some crazy things happen over the years and I want to be responsible with Nigel. I also want to make sure he has friends. While I was looking for a friend for Bruce I did find a little miniature stud colt. Miniature horses do take a little bit of extra care so I'm not super keen on getting another one. There is also no guarantee that Nigel would get along with him like he does Bruce. Most of the quarter horse weanlings that I've seen will not be weaned until later on in the year so we've got a few more months. Okay buddy are you hungry? I don't have to find a new buddy for Bruce but I think it would help. Come on. Here you go. Have a nice little bed. You just can't be bothered to get up. For now I think Bruce and Prim are perfectly happy in their setup. I will continue on with Nigel's visitation rights and I'm feeling pretty hopeful that around the fall time an opportunity will present itself for me to find Bruce a good pal. Thank you guys so much for watching and stay tuned for the next video.