Foaling Around
My foal, Joey is now just over 3 weeks old. He is cute, charming and very precocious.
Last night when I went out to feed the horses their dinner, it appeared that Joey had decided to leave the hooves of his mother and move into the pasture with the Trakehner mares. Different. Usually foals stay pretty close to their dam at such a tender age.
With little difficulty and the assistance of a Great Dane that thinks the foal is another of his type, I put Joey back where he belonged and resumed my chore.
When it came time to feed Joey, Brumby and pony Hyacinth I noticed an interesting phenomenon… it seems that Joey has learned to posture as his mother does to warn Hyacinth to stay out of her space. It is quite amusing to see Joey trying out these gestures. He pins his little foal ears, lowers his neck and tries in vain to look threatening. Hyacinth, of course, does not buy into it at all.
The situation escalated to a greater comedic high when Joey decided to try and kick Hyacinth. He seems to have a grasp on the idea of kicking out with his hind legs, but lacks the balance to do so in a convincing manner. Backing up so his hind end rested on Hyacinth’s side, Joey was able to balance well enough to actually kick, but since his legs simply went into the void under her stomache, the effort achieved no result.
Ramses and I watched the scene play out, had a laugh and went on with chores.
Some of the mud has finally dried, so walking is considerably easier than it was only a few days ago. Several fence posts (that were to have been replaced last fall) are beginning to heave out of the ground, so I spent an hour or so pounding them into the ground and creating braces to keep the fence standing until such time as we can begin working in earnest at replacing posts.
I spent some time cleaning up the yard (what we have of a yard) and the asparagus patch. Soon it will be picking, cleaning, blanching and freezing season again. I think this year I will be bringing bunches in to work and letting the others have at it. It sure gets tiresome to prep 40 pounds of asparagus each spring. At least it has some nutritional value and is great in risotto.