My All-rounder.
Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 1:03 am
As most of you know, I haven't been able to ride because of my tailbone surgery (although things are MUCH improved and I am seeing light at the end of the very long tunnel
. I have been trying to do lots of ground stuff with Kyra so I don't screw her legs off with excessive lunging and also keep her brain engaged and active.Well, last week, a fair sized limb came out of a tree that is on the other side of the fence by Kyra's pen. But of course, it fell in her pen and initially was still attached to the tree and too high for me to get it. I informed the B.O. but they just said they would get it next week when the tractor comes out of the shop
I couldn't see why they need the tractor. They have a Razor ATV with a bed but whatever...there it sits. I did chop off as much greenery as I could get to because Kyra is dry lotted with little pasture turnout and eating leaves and tree branches just didn't seem healthy for her although she denuded every little leaf that was left. I tried to fix it so she couldn't walk underneath it...without much success. So I found a little roll of the orange plastic snow fence and put that around the branch. I pulled her fly mask as I didn't want her sticking her head in there and getting a branch stuck under the mask. I've been around horses too long and can envision so many catastrophic scenarios 
.I didn't go out yesterday but went out today and great...limb fell clear out of the tree. Limb was about 5 inches in diameter at the widest and smaller branches out to about 10 feet. I am glad she wasn't under it. I think she was in her shed about 15 feet away when it did go because one of the mats was greatly displaced. She already had a couple of pokes in the chest and dammit, I didn't have a saw to get all those smaller branches that had been resting on the ground that were now sticking up. OK, I will drag it out. Um...NO. It was heavy and I have been having sciatica so I was not so dumb as to try. I am really wanting it out of there though so I decided to enlist the help of my horse. She could earn her hay today
. I drug tires off of her when she was started (she was 4) but nothing much recently (she is 15--how time flies!). I went to the tack room and assembled a large diameter rope, some padding, some bailing twine and fashioned a harness of sorts. Backed her up to the branch, hooked it on and off we went. She had to pivot it around before we could go forward and that was the only worry she ever showed. I had to stop her to do some adjustment to my half-assed harness then off we went. She had to drag it probably 70-80 feet. I had to stop a couple other times--once to adjust and once help the branch over her mats where she eats so she wasn't dragging a 40 pound mat too. She really had to work at it but she did it...willingly and very obedient. Whenever I asked her to whoa, I would have her back one step to release the tension in the harness and she would stand stock still until I was ready to go forward again. Viola, nasty branch out of her pen. Good horse . Susan
. It has only taken 13 years (I got her as a coming 2 y.o.) but she is finally seeming to get the idea to THINK instead of react. I like that