Paige’s Page

“You Go First, I’ll Follow”

“Meandering Along The Avenue”

“Horse Heaven”

“What Baby Trees Are Useful For (Part I)”

“What Baby Trees Are Useful For (Part II)”

We got some pretty good thunderstorms last night, so the creek is flowing strong this morning.  I decided to let Paige out for an hour or so this morning, but she was afraid to cross the creek.  I watched her for a while to see if she would cross it on her own, but I finally went and fetched my rubber boots.

After I crossed, she sniffed the edge of the water suspiciously, touched it with her front hooves, pawed at it a little, and then finally walked across in the exact same spot I had crossed.  She didn’t run or jump or anything, so that was good.

She wouldn’t go any farther than that up The Avenue, though, so I kept walking.  I walked off to the side because I didn’t want to get mowed down if she decided to take off running, but she walked about 10 feet behind me, following the exact path I was taking.  So then I went over to the other side to get out of her way again, and she proceeded to go over to the other side as well.  One more time of this, and I finally gave up and just kept walking.  When we got near the end, I stopped,  and she finally snorted, farted, and took off running.  She put on the brakes immediately and got down to the business of Eating Grass.

She stayed out there when I came back to the house, so that’s good.  I think she just needed her herd leader to show her it was OK to go out there!  Funny girl. 

They hooked up the solar charger to the hotwire today, so the fence is now officially done! All that remains is to get some heavier chains for the gates and to write that Big Fat Check to the fencers!  Both happen tomorrow.

Tonight I let her stay out there for a couple of hours while I finished mowing it.  It’s been a natural meadow for a number of years now, so the grass isn’t lush.  Funny thing is, tonight she actually moderated herself.  I didn’t have to bring her back in.  She wasn’t as desperate to get as much grass gulped down.  She ran around some, rolled several times, straddled a baby sycamore tree and used it to scratch her belly (that was pretty funny–wish I’d had my camera for that one).  She went back to her paddock by herself after she had her fill and waited down there for me for about an hour while I finished mowing.  I was pretty surprised!

I don’t think she’s zapped herself yet on the hotwire.  Although she might have done it while I was mowing, maybe that’s why she returned to her paddock?  At any rate, she’s leaving the fence alone for now, which is good!  I have her locked back in her paddock again for the night.  Tomorrow I’ll let her out again a couple times.

I have a wedding to go to tomorrow, but I’m hoping I can squeeze a ride on Paige in there somewhere.  I’ll try to get pics of that soon!

Yes, you read that correctly, folks. Paige got to check out her new pasture tonight! It is all done except that the charger is not hooked up to the hotwire yet. So I took her out for an hour of supervised time out there.

When I first started leading her out the gate, she wasn’t listening to me at all. Having learned from that mistake last time, I promptly led her right back into her little paddock for a short lesson. It was important for me to walk her along the entire fence, so I didn’t want her bolting on me again.

Second time was the charm. She was alert and excited, but listening to me better. We walked around the entire field so she could see the boundaries, then I took off the lead. I really thought she’d take off and kick her heels up a bit, but she was all business. It was ALL about the grass. She couldn’t get enough of it. She also took two nice, long drinks out of the creek.

I of course took lots of pictures. I’m as bad as a new mom! She stood in the same spot grazing for about 10 minutes, so I finally wandered off to see if she would follow me. If she didn’t have a good line of sight to me, she would move until she did, but then she would put her nose back down in the grass. Always keeping one eye on me the whole time, though.

On a different note, my Cassie girl will be coming via a horse transport service rather than Mom and I driving down there to get her. With diesel prices so high, it is working out better this way, and Mom and I don’t have to be gone for two days either. Right now she’s scheduled to arrive the third week of June, but it’s possible it may be sooner. Very exciting!

Alrighty, here are the pictures. There will be a couple videos added to this post a little later, once they get processed by YouTube.

The wood fence is up, folks!  Woohoo!  They’re going to start stretching the woven wire tomorrow.

I only snapped a quick pic because they’re still out there finishing up, and I didn’t want to make them nervous:

And here’s my Patient Paige, eagerly watching for the signal that she gets her freedom:

I’m just waiting for them to finish up now so I can let her out!