Amazing Grace

We've been thinking about seeing if we could get a mustang from the BLM since we've been here on the farm. Basically, every so often the BLM rounds up herds of wild mustangs and offers them up for sale or at auction. You can learn more this program here. Well the other day I was looking at the website of Ever After Mustang Rescue and saw Amazing Grace. Grace is a blue roan mustang mare that's about a year and a half old. She is gentle - she allows folks to brush her and they are working with her on picking up her feet but she has not been broke to lead nor introduced to electric fence. So on Monday night, we drove down to Biddeford to see her - she is even cuter than she looks on the website. Since she is still growing, her back end is taller than her withers but she seems to have very good confirmation and disposition. Unfortunately these aren't the greatest pictures (especially the eyes in the 2nd one) but it was the best I could do under the lighting conditions.






























The couple who run the farm that hosts the rescue are good people. Mona and Brad were very gracious hosts while we were there. Grace is kept in a 20'x20' pen inside the indoor arena (BLM requires this sort of housing) so we went in to check her out. She was OK with me being in her pen and eventually Mona and I got her into a squeeze chute and were able to attach a long line to her halter. At that point, Mona turned her over to me and went off to work on the freeze brand of another mustang. By the time we were leaving, I had her semi-lunging and starting to be lead. (Only had about 20 minutes before the younger child was going to turn into a pumpkin :-) ) Mona explained the process of adoption to us and showed me the papers on Grace - she was captured in Nevada when she was likely about a year old. Mona had a horse and burro paired off in one of the stalls in her barn - the kids got quite a kick out of seeing the burro and learning how closely attached they were to each other. Neither can go anyplace without the other. So currently we're working on getting the forms filled out and submitted with our "local" BLM office so we can hopefully be approved and bring Grace to the Diamond G.

We have horses, turkeys, groundhogs, beavers, and racoons on the farm but the other day I ran across some wildlife I've never seen before. Words can't describe it but fortunately I had the camera with me at the time.




















Today I got a delivery of pine sawdust (can't use hardwood sawdust for horses) from N. C. Hunt. When ordering, the woman on the phone asked me how much I would be interested in getting: 3.5 cords, 5 cords, 12 cords, or a trailer truck load. It was hard for me to picture what a cord of sawdust would look like (like a cord of wood 4'x4'x8'?) so since they will deliver year round, I played it safe and just got 3.5 cords. In case anyone else is wondering what 3.5 cords of sawdust looks like, here's a picture of it.















This basically filled up the bed of a 10 wheeled dump truck (GMC General) and had that nice newly cut pine smell. Interestingly enough, James, the gentleman who delivered the shavings, was telling me that they keep their pine shavings in a barn (which holds about 5 trailer truck loads of shavings) and when it's full, it doesn't have that nice pine smell but rather smells like kerosene.

Diamond G Farm Equestrian Program

Well, the boarding business hasn't come quite as quickly as we'd have hoped so we were thinking that we should branch out to some of our other ideas a bit early. One of the things we were thinking about doing was offering riding lessons. So allow me to introduce the inaugural class of the Diamond G Farm Equestrian Program
















A little tricky to teach such a large group (about 30) but one pupil really shined through:
















Well OK so they're really not too teachable. It turns out that we seem to have three flocks of turkeys that are around the farm. We have one large group (the group in the picture above), we have a smaller group (15-20), and there is an even smaller group of two or three. Funny thing about turkeys, they'll all be around milling about until a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Then they'll disappear until early December. Then they do their vanishing act just before spring hunting season opens up. I'll say this for them, they are fun to watch. Speaking of watching, the other morning it was a scene right out of a Halloween movie. I was looking out at the field across the street (it was foggy) when out of the mist, I saw one head pop up after the next.
















Made some good progress with Cleo today. Took her out to where the round pen was (and will soon be again thanks to Wil Howe). When I first saw her and lunged her, she went well to the left but didn't want to go to the right. Today she worked equally well to both sides although she tried to quit a few times when going to the right. Took her down to the ring and lunged her down going to the left and back up going to the right. Not much seems to bother her. Dogs barking, the neighbor using a nail gun to put up siding, the turkeys, shooting in the distance - whatever. She's also getting very spoiled. Now when I groom her, I just ground tie her and she stays very still, only turning to look back at me when I stop brushing with a "why'd ya stop, keep going" look on her face.

Today I went to our local equestrian book store - Knight Equestrian Books and picked up "True Horsemanship Through Feel" by Bill Dorrance and written by Leslie Desmond. I've only gotten through the introductions and forewards and its already looking like a great read. Bill was one of the pioneers of natural horsemanship and was looked up to and mentored many of the greats. Unfortunately he left us in 1999 (at the ripe old age of 93) but left behind a lifetime of knowledge and skills that he was sure would be a benefit to all horsepeople. I'll be sure to post more details and interesting quotes as I make my way through. (This won't be a quick read - this is one of those books where you need to read a little and then reflect a whole lot.)

Fall is in full swing

Well, it looks like fall is in full swing here at the farm. The leaves have been changing at a rapid pace this past week and also falling off the trees at the same rate. Last night we had our first frost of the season.















According to the local weather service, we dropped down to about 31 degrees last night but by mid afternoon we were back to t-shirt weather (~60 degrees).

Today I introduced Laredo to Cleo. Laredo has seen Cleo from across the yard and barked at her from the house but today they got to meet in person. I had Cleo out in the front paddock so I brought Laredo over and he was watching her (staring intently as only cattle dogs can do) from below the bottom rail. So Cleo comes munching over and her and Laredo meet nose to nose. Of course being the heeler that he is, Laredo sees this big thing and does what comes naturally, he tries to nip her (on the nose since he couldn't reach her hoofs). Much to her credit, Cleo really didn't seem to be bothered by this and continued to munch along. (Laredo never got her muzzle.) So we went back later and after another failed attempt, Laredo seems to have come to his own conclusions that (1) Cleo is not a cow and (2) she's OK and doesn't need to be herded and/or nipped. "Nothing to see here, move on" (For those in the know, the rabbit still gets it when someone comes into the house tho).

Meet Laredo

Speaking of cows, I would be remiss to not mention our Blue Heeler, Laredo. He's 4 now so those much more experienced in all things Heelers tell me we've only got a few more years (anywhere from two to six) till he calms down a little. If you're not familiar with the traits/characteristics of cattle dogs, here's a good site that gives a real good background on them Digital Dog - Blue Heeler Info

Without further adu, here he is ...




















Laredo is all those things listed on the characteristics from the link above - fiercy loyal, independent, hard headed, etc. He came to us from a breeder in Florida who told us he was "the mouth of the litter" - boy was she ever right. He has several unique barks for different events and demands and is not afraid to let us know when someone is nearby. We heard him long before we saw him the day we went to pick him up at the airport - just a little fluffball yipping away in his travel crate with his blanket and stuffed rabbit coming down the baggage conveyor.

Laredo enjoys life on the farm - he has much more land to roam out over now and is looking forward to the addition of livestock. (Can I have a some cows pleaseeeeeee?)

If you care to give a listen, Dan Roberts has written a song about Blue Heelers called "True Blue Heeler" off of his album entitled "There's A Little Cowboy in All of Us".

Oh by the way, if you have a cattle dog and you have to take them to the vets, be prepared to pay an "Unruly Dog Fee" :-)

Newest Addition to our Family

Well, since I last posted, we've added a new addition to our farm family. Allow me to introduce Cleo Blue Bailey. She's a 7 year old dual registered (AQHA and Foundation Quarter Horse) Blue Roan mare. Here she is - as its starting to get colder here, she's already beginning to fuzzy up with her winter coat.
















Cleo is the first horse in our barn - it sure is nice to be able to look outside and see her playing in the paddocks and munching away. She's made the transition to our farm and is settling in quite nicely. She's got a lot of reining and cow in her pedigree. I've seen her reining side starting to show through and am looking forward to seeing her cow ability. (Stay tuned for more on our thoughts and plans for cows in future posts.)

Greetings from the Diamond G Farm

Howdy, thanks for stopping by and visiting with us here at the Diamond G Farm.

We are a family of four who are re-establishing a horse boarding facility in Edgecomb ME. Just where is the Diamond G Farm you might ask? We are located at 49 Dodge Road - which is right off of Route 1 and close to Route 27. Anyone from our local area will know our farm as Patty's old place or "the big yellow barn". Here's a quick peek at what it looks like from the outside.


















Over the coming days, we'll be posting more pictures of our facility as well as more info on the goings on at the Diamond G Farm