Horse, beavers and a mountain lion

The horses left today.  It was time as Winter is fast approaching.  The cold temperatures would freeze the water trough each night until either the temperature warmed up or I broke the ice.  The river doesn't freeze so the horses always had access to water.  The grass had dried and with the snow it was more effort for them to find good grass to eat.

The owners took the horses in two loads.  First up was the blind horse and her daughter.  It was a challenge to load the blind horse as she had to step up slightly to get into the horse trailer.  As she is blind she banged her one leg against the trailer as she stepped forward and then didn't want to move anymore.  I lifted one of her front legs and placed her foot inside the trailer and after a bit she figured it out and stepped inside.

One of the foals must have AHAD as she wouldn't stand still long enough to get a halter on her.  She would go in  the trailer to eat the hay in a large bag hanging inside and then out of the trailer before we could either load the blind horse or close the trailer door.  Once we got the blind horse inside both foals went inside a bit to get hay. While the plan was to load one foal we got both loaded.  When the second foal was over half inside I patted her rear to get her move forward enough to get inside so we could close the door.

The two mares pictured below are older and we easily loaded them into the trailer for the second load.  Here they are pictured looking at the trailer as the owners prepared it for their loading.

The horses did well on my pasture.  Here is how the grass looked the end of June and how the horse (on the right in the above photo) looked when she first arrived.  All the horses were skinny when they arrived and all gained weight and looked good when they left.

I wished I had gotten photos of the foals when they left as they grew up also and look better.  Kind of like the difference between a 13 year old person and a seventeen or eighteen year old.

The spotted foal had such a large head when she first arrived and now her body caught up to her head.  Here is how she looked when she first arrived.

In other news, I helped my neighbor remove a small beaver dam on her property that was flooding her yard.  She had been battling this dam and a few others since she removed the large dam in the culvert earlier this Fall.  She found someone to trap the beavers and he will start this weekend.

The neighbor also told me there is another mountain lion in the area.  She has heard it; the lion killed a deer in the trees on the other side of the creek a little while back; and the beaver trapper seen signs of it.  The trapper got a permit and will kill it if it shows up again.

Today's weather wasn't too bad as the temperature stayed a little above freezing most of the day.  But the temperature is sinking now as the Arctic Express is getting closer and the cold air is spilling over the Continental Divide.