My Ghost is somewhat solved!

So the next day after I'd made the post about my barn ghost, Saffron escaped. I was in the bathroom and heard Gwyn whinny.

Sidebar:
One of the perks of having your animals on your own property is you get to know their habits and behaviors. You KNOW when something is out of the normal range. Gwyn whinnying only happened at ONE time, when she hears our sliding doors screeeeeech open at dinner time or if Saffron is not with her.

Saffron was not with her. I look outside from the bathroom window in time to see Saffron merrily trotting her way up the neighbor's driveway to go find some grass. I grab the baby, toss warm clothes on her and go grab my carrier so we can go catch a donkey, while Kaylee frantically tries to get her warm stuff on so she can come with me. Thankfully Eric got home as we were heading out of the house and I tossed him (not literally!) the baby and went running to grab a halter and leadrope from the barn as well as some treats for bribing.

Much musing was had. We set up the Nest Cam to face the barn, thinking we had an intruder, but now we were wondering, was there a spot where they could escape. I thought it was the gap by the water tank and stuck in a couple of poles to make it more difficult. I also turned the electric on the fence back on.

The next morning, we're getting ready to leave and the donkey is out AGAIN.  I rush to again get the kids ready to go outside so I can catch her and hope that it won't make me late for work.

That day, while at work, I get a text from the neighbor and from Eric, who is monitoring the nest cam from his phone.

Neighbor: Your donkey is in our yard.
Eric: I saw how she got out. Donkey has escaped. I'm going home to get her back in.

The neighbors I originally suspected of my windy day ghost texted me right away when something went awry, so I'm betting it was not them who caused the strange goings on. They helped get Saffron back in and that was right when Eric got home and she promptly went to her little spot to try and get out AGAIN.  He tossed some sticks in the way and put together a temporary lower fence line.

That super smart donkey found the ONE spot where the slope of the land made the lowest strand of electrobraid decently far up off the ground.  She walks up to it, gets on her knees and scootches underneath it. Her super thick winter coat probably shields her from the zap.

You can watch it for yourself:

Now, this still doesn't solve my 'who locked Saffron in' and 'how did Gwyn get out' conundrums, but it's a start. My working theory is one of our OTHER neighbors saw Saffron escaped, got her back in and locked her up (using the pine pellets as a grain lure not realizing they weren't grain).

Or Gwyn just fucking jumped because we have plenty of previous experience of her doing that because she can.

Gwyn says, "WHY DOES SHE GET TO BE OUT!?"

My original suspected escape route, later proven to be wrong.

Kaylee helps lure Saffron.

Have a cookie!

Actual escape point with anti-donkey additions

My ghost had to have undone BOTH of these carabiner clips and then latched the bottom stall door.

The ghost also unbuckled my macguyvered old kid stirrup leathers.

And if a horse was let out, they reclipped the gate.

Anti donkey measures. Gwyn is too wide for this space.

The door is broken and won't stay latched with even a slight breeze unless I do this. This was undone on ghost day.

Anti Donkey measures

The black t-post is a temporary one until we put more stakes on the current fence posts. That bottom line is what we added. The top three are original.

In Which I'm Unnerved

So, I'm pretty sure someone is messing with my barn. 

On Friday Gwyn got out. I thought it was an accident and she jumped out but I couldn't find her take off and landing spot. The ground was soft enough it would have been obvious. None of my fencing was broken, my one gate into the pasture was still locked (heavy duty carabiner). It was weird, but it wouldn't be the first time she's made an escape like that. It was just the first time where we live now and the first time at home rather than in a boarding situation. I closed off the front pasture (it needs to rest anyway) and put it to the back of my mind.

Quick barn description:
My barn has three stalls which all open to runs and that opens to the pasture. Those doors are dutch doors which latch independently. I keep them open 24/7 and the barn is available 24/7 as shelter. One stall is closed off because the dutch door is broken, one stall is held open with a bungee cord with carabiners, the other is held open with some old synthetic stirrup leathers because all of my bungee cords were deteriorating in the weather or weren't big enough. The human door to the barn is broken and needs replacing. I keep it shut with a bungee because if so much as a breeze blows on it it swings open. Anyway.

Now, today, I went to check on the property before picking up the kidlets from daycare because we've had some really strong winds. I pull around back to the barn and Gwyn is frantic because Saffron is LOCKED into her stall. Like, stall door latched. Both stall doors are unclipped and one is swinging in the wind. Both were undone only on the bottom half of the dutch door and not broken.

The door to the barn itself was not latched the way I leave it. It was wedged shut. And oddly, some expanding wood pellet shavings were in a water bucket as if someone thought they were grain. I asked Kaylee if she had done it and she said she didn't and I believe her (though Eric doesn't)

I am thoroughly freaked out. We now have a camera pointed from the house to the barn and Eric bought unlimited online storage so I'll be able to review footage whenever.

I gave one of our neighbors permission to pet give apples to the critters if we weren't around, and now I'm wondering if they're overstepping a significant boundary. We are also located across from the local high school and our place used to belong to a local horse trainer/riding instructor.

BAH. Not what I needed to be thinking about.

And now I'm lusting after some nice endurance stuff. I want to get a pair of Scoot Boots for Gwyn's fronts and a nice halter bridle (I see your reviews of the Two Horse Tack stuff!) and our tax return is burning a hole in my pocket that Eric would be upset with me if I spent it on horse stuff when I don't NEED it. Boooooo being responsible.

For the month of March I'm doing a squat challenge and that's going well. Probably in April I'll start up the Rider Fitness Challenge. I'm trying to find ways to fit fitness into my day because it's hard with the two kids. There are not enough waking hours in the day and I should be asleep now as it is.

In which the girls ride on an unseasonably warm day for February

My mom is here visiting and she always helps me deep clean the barn. It being a super warm day also helped in that my frozen poop was thawing and thus could be fully picked up. Yay! I took a break from poo picking when Kaylee wanted me to get Gwyn's halter.  She proceeded to drag Gwyn around the arena, who very politely followed along after checking with me.

I asked Kaylee if she wanted to ride around on Gwyn with Hazel and she was excited for that. Mom volunteered to lead Gwyn and I would hang onto the kids. Kaylee then decided she didn't want to share with Hazel, so she was getting off. But Hazel was enjoying herself. So off we tried to go.

Well. Apparently my mom ranks lower than Gwyn, or at the very least Gwyn knows Mom doesn't know what she's doing. Gwyn promptly tried to exit the arena to get back to her hay pile, child still on board.


Instead, Kaylee led Gwyn and I held onto Hazel and mom took pictures. Even better!

(Note: Bad mom, no helmet. But I didn't let go of her the whole time so if anything were to have happened, she wouldn't have fallen.)

One ear on me/baby, one on Kaylee

I don't think that gps is accurate, but that's all Hazel!

Lunging

The weather is on an upward trend and today was well above freezing and SUNNY!  It was great. Plus, since Eric got home not long after me, I headed out to the barn to do some work with Gwyn. On these nights where I don't have a lot of light (though more every day!) or time before dinner I've decided I'm going to lunge and get some side reins on her to help develop her topline.

I've taken pictures and video so I have some comparison. If I can do this regularly, I should see improvement!

The arena was a sloppy mess and I kept cantering to minimum, especially on a 20m circle.  Gwyn was a spicy one to start and got my nice clean lunge line wet and sandy. Grrr.

By the end I was seeing a bit more consistent long and low work out of her with more impulsion and less giraffe impression.

There were some deep, soupy spots today. I can't wait for it to dry out a bit so I can get in and drag again.

"But mom, why you gotta get the whip?"

"Because your impulsion was lacking, poneh"

GIRAFFE

My grooming stall has inches of water in it, so we're in the barn aisle.

That butt needs better muscle. Goals!

"I am hungry, you know. FEED ME"

It was really nice to get out and groom her and just love on her too. I'm hoping to lunge a couple times a week until the weather gets more consistently warmer.

Exploration

It's been cold and I've been battling mystery cough illness and some exhaustion. It makes riding difficult. I've ended up taking naps just to get through the day.

Today, I had enough energy to get out of the house while there was still daylight, with Hazel bundled up on my back, to go out and clean the barn. The manure has been building up from midweek. I keep the stalls clean but the runs start to accumulate more than I can get picked in the dark after work or once the poops have frozen to the ground.  Thanks to some freezing rain the other day, the parts of the runs that aren't covered are pretty much an ice skating rink and Gwyn and Saffron aren't going out on it at all. I don't blame them.

Anyway, after getting three wheelbarrow loads of manure out of the runs and getting the stalls nice and clean (note to self, go get more shavings...) I put the dinner hay in the stalls, threw a halter on Gwyn and took her for a walk.

I've gotten permission from our rear kitty corner neighbors to use their property to access the fields behind them. I wanted to see what that access looked like before riding up there, and also familiarize Gwyn to the walk up AND see how Saffron would behave if we just walked away.

Everything went well!  Saffron called a few times, but Gwyn was focused on me for the most part and behaved.  The path to the fields is NOT riding accessible, just on foot, until I can cut back some branches. So my plan with that is to bring up some cookies I made and ask if I can clip them back in that one spot. Yay bribes!

I've also been contacting the landowners of the fields back there to get permission to ride and so far I'm a go!  This is really going to make getting some good conditioning rides much easier to get without the fuss and time committment of trailering out. I'm very excited! It also opens up the possibility of accessing the Polly Ann Trail from home without dangerous road riding.

Trying New Things, 2017 Edition

This is a kind of horsey post, I've xposted it from my Mom/Science blog.

Since moving to Michigan I've gotten pretty involved in the Great Distance Derby, which has connected me with some local, likeminded horse people. I've gone to Flint to donate water with them on two occassions and gone on some trail rides. I even 'walked' a trail ride with Gwyn in hand just to get out and socialize while I was pregnant since I wasn't allowed to ride. 

The person who organizes GDD has also started organizing a Michigan and Midwest Mounted Archery organization, and is bringing clinics to the area. I wasn't able to do anything last year, but I have done some mounted archery with the SCA back when I lived in Florida. I was a fan of it then and I see no reason why I could do it now.  At this point I'm trying to dial back my expectations of what competitions we can do without really sinking time and money into some training for Gwyn and myself and being realistic about what is within our reach and what is possible in the future.  

Anyway, that's musings for a whole post on its own. Suffice it to say, mounted archery is a pretty darn reasonable hobby and the clinics are reasonably local and kind of budget friendly with the added bonus of including camping! Yay! I love camping!

So for christmas, Eric got me a very basic, junior archery set.  Two arrows, a cheap bow and finger and arm guards that are not meant for my fingers or arms. 

A nice January day! 

For winter training, my friend Heather organized a group of us to meet up and do an activity called Archery Tag at a local indoor sports complex. 

You get totally cool face shields that fog up the moment you start sweating.

And play on an indoor field with fake grass and 'obstacles' 

It's basically like dodgeball but with a bow and arrow.

AND SO MUCH FUCKING FUN OMG

The arrows are blunted foam and while you can feel them make contact, you aren't hurt, mainly because each team is kept separate from one another. You don't cross into the other team's territory and the  neutral middle is where you aren't allowed to shoot from or be shot. 

You can see me in the top part of the picture aiming at Heather, lol.

I've just let loose an arrow!

The game starts with all the arrows in the middle, Hunger Games style like the Cornucopia. 

The referee counts down and then it's a mad dash to the middle to grab arrows and then back to be out of range (or at least at an easily dodgeable distance)  or hop behind an obstacle to snipe the other team.  

You get someone out by hitting them with an arrow. But, if you grab an arrow, the person who shot that arrow is out and someone on your own team can rejoin the game.

I like hiding behind things, but the constant crouching and standing up to shoot and dropping back down. Let's just say I did a LOT of squats. My legs burned FOR DAYS. 

You can also see the white target with black spots. The game was won if you either took out all the opposing team by hitting them or if you knocked out all five of those foam circles. Our team won boths ways!  

Team "Don't Shoot Me!"  which is retrospect was in poor taste....

The plan is to do this monthly in the cruddy winter months (Feb and March) before clinics start up and riding can begin in earnest again.  Until then, I'll be using my baby bow to desensitize Gwyn because I'm planning to do a clinic in June!  I'm so excited!