For the spring, we have several new projects planned. Things to make life easier on us all! And one of the first ones up on the project board is our new pony paddock!
For all winter long, the two ponies were in the sheep and goat paddock along with everyone else. It was fine, for the most part, however I could see it was a bit crowded coming into spring. With the warmer weather, it was obvious that many of the farm critters were getting a little terse about hanging with their barn mates. And primarily, I noticed that Cody was becoming a bit too nervous with the little hoofed creatures around him and his blind eye.
With Oscar the hog gone to camp, that left us with the big barn totally empty. A big barn is a great place for equines, don’t you think? I do. They would have that whole big space in there as shelter and then the big pasture in the back would be perfect for a pair of pony boys. However, how to make it easy for everyone to come and go. For the first couple days, we would walk them to the pasture and back. But that was just a lot of work really. And it left them without a shelter in case of wind or rain, or even any good shade to be honest. The windchime tree shadows a wee portion of that pasture for a few hours but other than that, it’s just all hot and sunshine.
With Maggie at work for the day, it was up to Jess and I to get the job done. We had a cattle panel and two gates and an extra piece of cut panel. And some nice sturdy posts. Perfect! We just made a little corral, if you like, between the big side door of the barn and back to the opening of the pasture. Now, we did steal the gate off the pasture, and hope to replace it sooner than later with another. Because, sometimes, you just don’t want them out there. Like if it’s extremely muddy or if we want to give the grass a good chance to grow between grazings. But right now, it’s okay.
What I love is that we have another nice confinement area with shelter that we can keep our critters safe and comfy. If we needed to, in case of the other paddock flooding or something, we could move all the animals into this area for awhile. We could use this smaller paddock for shearing, locking the sheep into the area and then letting them out into the pasture when they were done. We could easily confine one pony for medical observation, or to help when we are trimming hooves. It’s just perfect and it didn’t cost us anything!
Well, okay, we did buy the panel awhile back but it’s already had a couple uses and surely has been worth it’s $20 bucks! And the posts… well, some came from our friends and a few we had. I bought the two gates at auction two years ago for $5 each. The barn came with the property! (haha)
So, in reality, it was rather inexpensive and has made life wonderful! Now the ponies have their own space, it’s not very far from the other paddock, so not a burden in the winter. I am going to be repurposing the feed room in the front of the barn as a tack room for all the pony harness and various bits and pieces of grooming stuff and all. As well as a corner for my dairy needs. Kicking the chickens out very soon!
Best of all is that Cody really likes the space better. You can just tell. He only has to worry about Shadow now and where he is. Not a dozen little nervous crazy sheep. He has relaxed considerably! I’m so thankful! My little man doesn’t need to be worried about stepping on a sheep or something darting under his belly like they would, and scaring him. He can relax and just be a happy little pony!
He really is adjusting well to the blindness in his right eye. It’s looking pretty good… every so often it gets a little weepy, and we keep it clean, but no infection or anything. I’m hoping that he can keep the eye in the long run, and so far, it looks good. Such a tragedy… but as I hear it, equines are very good at injuring their eyes. It’s so common, and they seem to really take it in stride, just learning to keep a good eye on things and such. Cody seems much more at ease keeping an eye on big old Shadow as his only companion. As you can see, he hasn’t lost his zest for apple chunks!
We keep two leads at all times on the gate in case there is any need to move them quickly. A friend taught me how to do it safely. You loop them around a rung so that they hang down, open ended. If that makes sense. There is no way for them to get a foot caught in them because there is no loop or anything. Just a single hanging short length of lead. It’s also handy if you want to tie up one for a few minutes to do something to the other! (Not naming names but SOMEONE is very pestery when anything is being done to his Cody buddy….)
Just so happy that this went together so nicely! Only took Jess and I about an hour and a half. Everything was so smooth. The ground is perfect for pounding posts… the panel pieces we had were a perfect fit and length and the gates matched up great. And the ponies really like being able to come and go in the barn. And we don’t have to lead them in and out and in and out all day or keep a watch on the rain. They don’t mind too much being left out in the rain, but I hate that they can’t get away from it if they want. And Cody’s most favorite thing is to take a long nap inside the barn in the afternoon. Now he can without any worry! It’s perfect!!!
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