Week 8 at the ranch

On Monday, I helped Rob with the last two riding horses he was trimming. This meant that about two-thirds were done, only the mares and foals were left. In the afternoon, I rode 2 different horses with Tanya before she started her riding lessons.

On Tuesday, the weather was finally sunny again. After the morning ride, I went to the garden and continued working on the edging. I had just finished the south side when a thunderstorm started, and I cleaned up.

On Wednesday, Rob started trimming the mares and foals' hooves. First up was Maui, the mare that had taken in the orphaned foal. I went into the box stall with the two foals in front of the mare, so she could see the little ones and stay still. Then another mare went, and I brushed her foal while Rob worked on her. At the same time, Tanya took the 1-year-old mare into the stable. Her hooves also needed to be trimmed, and to keep her calm, we still had the other horses in the stable. In the afternoon, we drove to the vet with Maui and the two foals. Her own foal had a swollen face, so we had the vet check if it was a tooth growing wrong or another injury. But he couldn't see anything and thought it was an abscess. There was nothing we could do, so we watched her, and as long as she continued to eat normally, everything was fine. When we got back home, we let the two mares, which we had kept separate because of the orphaned foal, join the other mares and foals again. For that, we took down the fence that we had set up to have a separate pasture. The horses were accepted back into the herd without any problems.

On Thursday, Rob trimmed the hooves of a mare that were in very bad condition. She had such a large crack on both front hooves that almost a quarter of the hoof fell off. To save the hooves, he put shoes on and filled the crack with a substance that was supposed to hold the hoof together. In the morning, a customer brought her horse. It had been in training with Tanya in the spring and now stayed at the ranch for two and a half weeks while the owner was on vacation. In the afternoon, we went riding, and later, Tanya and Rob's two grandsons came to the ranch after their last day of school, and one of them went riding with us.

On Friday, the three days of summer were over again. It rained all morning, and it was cool again. After feeding the customer's horses with hay, we brought the mare with the two foals into the stable. Now that they were back with the other foals, we couldn't bring the extra feed to the pasture anymore because all the foals would eat it before the two little ones. We brought them into the stable every morning and evening and fed them. After that, Rob trimmed the hooves of two more mares before noon. In the afternoon, the sun came out again, but there was still a cold wind. I rode two horses with Tanya before she gave riding lessons. In the evening, we went to Bonnyville to watch a chuck wagon race. The small wagons were pulled by four horses. At the start, they had to go around a barrel, and a rider held the wagon horses so they wouldn't take off before the starting shot. The rider then jumped on his horse, which was usually already galloping, and caught up with the wagon on the track. If the rider crossed the finish line with too much distance to the wagon, there was a time penalty.

On Saturday morning, it was foggy, but there was no precipitation. So after feeding all the horses in the morning, I went to the garden and continued working on the edging. Tanya had a riding lesson, and Rob had customers. After lunch, Tanya had another riding lesson, Rob didn't have any more customers, and he mowed the lawn. He had just finished the part around the house when a heavy thunderstorm broke out. We took a break, Tanya and I watched the movie 'Isn't it Romantic,' and Rob went to the garage to work on his vintage car. When the movie was over, it was already time for dinner. After that, we just had to feed the mare with the two foals and then we were done for the day.

On Sunday, we moved the horses to other pastures. The mares and foals were put on the pasture where the riding horses were, which is not too large so that we can still keep an eye on the foals. Previously, the mares and foals were on a smaller pasture that they had fenced off in the spring. We took down this fence again, and Rob and I checked the fences that stay up all year round. Since there is no electricity on the wires when the horses are not in the respective pasture, wild animals like elk, deer, and bears went through the fence and tore it down in some places. We drove along the fence with the quad as best we could, but in some places, the water was so deep that we couldn't drive through. After that, we let the riding horses onto this pasture. When we finished at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, we had to run from the stable to the house in the oncoming storm with hail, and we just made it in time. Then we had a cozy afternoon in the house.