Extreme!
We've had some extreme weather this week! Tornado warnings,
hail, wind, and rain! You wouldn't believe the storm here -
winds up to 65 mph! Dick and I ran out to put the horses into the barn
and I could hardly breathe, the wind was blowing so hard. After securing the
barn, we went to the storm cellar, as it was closer than the house, and spent
about half an hour in there. From time to time, we looked out to see if the
wind was lessening, and discovered that the UPS guy had come!
Several of our dead trees fell over at the
roots, and the tops blew out of many live and dead trees. Also
blew over several grain bins - those are 2-4 storeys tall and
about 40-50 feet in diameter, made of heavy steel. We lost power
for a couple of hours. No hail here, but 1.5 inch stuff nearby.
Thanks to the wonderful rainfall (there's been 3 years of drought here), our
pasture is extremely thick and lush! The brome (wild oat grass) is making seed
already, and is almost to my knees! Murphy can use all the grass he can eat, but
his pal, Stella, is a very thrifty pony and gets sick from eating such rich pasture.
The problem is that if I only put Murphy in pasture, he frets and worries for Stella, and
won't eat anything.
So, if I put Stella in pasture, I have to find a way to not let her eat herself sick. Bring on the "grazing muzzle"! I made it out of a plastic 5 quart icecream bucket. I drilled a big hole in the middle bottom of the bucket (a little over 2 inches) and a series of small ventilation holes about where her nostrils would be, and another series of small holes at the corner of the bucket to let any water drain out. I tied this contraption onto her halter at the two side rings, middle of the nose band and at the chin ring (total of 4 ties). She can eat whatever grass sticks up into the big hole, and she can drink out of the water tub - any water in the bucket will drain through the big hole and the smaller corner holes.
