Paige’s Page

Paige cracks me up. A few days ago, she appeared to lay down to roll, but she didn’t roll. Instead, she started to get back up again, but she rocked back and forth in a sitting position a few times first. I thought she was having a hard time getting up. Well, tonight she did the exact same thing again, but this time she rocked back and forth for a little longer, and I realized she’s actually itching her butt on the ground! I wish so much I could have gotten that on film. She’s so silly.

Today I worked on building the double dutch door for the outside of Paige’s stall.  I need to get it finished and get her used to being locked in there, since that’s where she’ll have to be when the fencers are here doing the job.

I had some leftover treated lumber from the stall, so I am using that.  It’s so nice that I’m able to use the leftovers, so all I had to buy were the hinges and latches.  The lumber is tongue-and-groove, so it’s a really solid (and heavy!) door.  I got the bottom half built and the door frame put up.  I made it a solid 4 feet tall so Paige doesn’t get any ideas about trying to climb over it.  I still need to build the top half, and I will definitely need a second set of hands to help me hang them!

I have to admit to being guilty of using her dislike of the fly spray bottle as a defense to keep her away from me while I was on the ladder putting up the door frame.  Little stinker likes to knock things over, ladder included!  She was a HUGE help with everything today–talk about nosy!  She had to have that big old nose in EVERYTHING I was doing.  The loud drill didn’t even phase her a BIT!  She was trying to SNIFF it while I was drilling with it!

I, of course, gave her lots of kisses. 

Every penny is being squeezed into the fence project at the moment.  I was going to  just do the pasture for now and walk Paige and Cassie back and forth to the paddock until I could afford the rest, but I’ve decided to go ahead and get it all done at once.  It’s going to be tight, but I’m going to try my best to make it work.  The fence going across the creek through the woods will be 3-board wood with swinging gates across the creek that can be opened when the water is high.  I can’t string electric along there, hence the need for a solid fence.  The pasture fence will be wood posts, no-climb horse mesh, and white braided hot wire around the top.  I’m so excited to get it up!!!  And to get Cassie!

Small progress on the back feet–Paige is now letting me hold them up.  I keep it brief, and I haven’t tried to pull them out and back yet, but this is very encouraging!  I try to do her feet every single day, no matter what, and she’s getting much more lax about it all.

She’s also letting me wipe fly spray on her.  Per Lori Schultz’s suggestion, I spray a rag with it (far away from her for now), then walk over and wipe it on her.  I will gradulally get closer to her with it while I’m spraying it, and eventually graduate to spraying her.

No pictures today, but I’ll post some of my new door when I get it up this week!  Cheers!

Woohoo!  She’s pretty unphased by it.  Now we’ll see how long it stays on…

Got the “new” used Wintec saddle today that I won on eBay.  It’s a wide tree, and it fits Paige much better than my old one.  I’ve been SO busy the past few days that I really only had time to throw it on her real quick to see that it looks like it fits.  I’ll try to get a picture of her with it this weekend.

But that’s not the really exciting development…the happy news is that as of yesterday it’s official that Paige is getting a buddy!  I’m so happy that this is working out so well.  A gal I know through the model horse hobby has re-homed her older mare, Cassie, several times with the stipulation that she have first right of refusal if the new owner ever decided to give her up.  Well, Cassie keeps coming back to her, so she was considering just keeping her as a pasture pet even though she’s not in a good position to have another horse right now.

To make a long story short, Cassie is just what I was hoping for in a companion for Paige.  I really wanted another half draft, preferable a Belgian cross.  Well, Cassie just happens to be a Belgian/Quarter Horse cross.  I wanted an older horse that I could give a semi-retirement home to, one that’s well-trained but maybe only up to light-duty riding.  Cassie has some stiffness in her rear hocks so she can’t be ridden hard anymore, but she loves to go trail riding.  It just seemed like such a good fit, and after some discussion Cassie’s owner has decided to let her come live with us.  She will have a forever home here.  I’ll be relieved when Paige has a pasture mate.  I feel so bad for her being out there all alone.

Here are some pictures of Cassie:

Cassie lives in Virginia right now, so it will be a two-day trip to go down and get her.  I’m really excited!  I’m more impatient than ever for my pasture fence to go up now, but I have to practice patience.  Right now the fencer thinks he will get to me in mid-June, but there’s a chance he may get to me a little sooner.  Just kindof waiting right now, as that has to be accomplished before I can have another horse here.

On a slightly different note, the war against the flies has begun.  Paige HATES the fly spray.  It’s pretty tough to get any of it on her.  Tonight I picked up a bated fly trap to hang in her paddock and some “War Paint,” a wipe-on stick of fly repellent that looks like a deodorant stick.  She let me put that under her eyes and on her shins, so hopefully that will help a little tomorrow.  I also got her a fly mask–THAT should be fun to try to put on.  Might wait until Saturday for that one.

I’m also going out on a limb and trying the fly predators.  I subscribed to an every-three-week shipment of them for the duration of the summer.  I’ve done some research on them, and I’ve read good things about them.  You can’t totally eliminate flies, but they apparently help keep the population down.  Here’s some info about them if anyone is interested in learning more:

http://www.arbico-organics.com/fly-control-program.html

OK, off to bed now.  More updates and pictures this weekend!

Caught her rolling on film:

She wasn’t so good about the fly spray today–kept walking away after a couple squirts. She was definitely suspicious.

She let me spray her with a light mist from the hose. She seemed to like it because she stayed within range, but was wary of getting too close.