Jen Jeffrey: The Jolly Rancher - Horsing Around

After a heavy winter took us well into March, the spring weather this April has been a welcomed sight at the ranch. Learning things along the way is part of the fun. When I had trouble as winter kept the horses in their stalls creating more waste to take off with that old manure spreader, I realized the things I would need to do or change.

Using a four wheeler and an antiquated manure spreader to haul the manure that had built up had taken more time just to get those two pieces of equipment to work than it was worth. I asked my husband if we could get new equipment. That isn’t easy to do when you have recently made a large purchase for property anyway, but Jason was willing to ‘discuss’ it with me.

As a new rancher who was dealing with the problems on a daily basis while he went to the office, ‘discussing’ wasn’t getting results fast enough and I started to stress out a bit. My workers were perplexed with the situation and looked to me to be able to tell them what to do with all the manure that accumulated during the snow. I spent all day trying to get the equipment to work and took off two large loads (one load was left all over the road when the rigged bungee cord that kept the blades from moving broke).

I found the equipment I needed online and emailed the links to my husband. He was now in the ‘seriously considering mode’ while my workers were still having to keep most of the horses in stalls and I still had a problem building up. Jason finally reached the ‘okay, we will get new equipment’ mode after he threw on his superman cape and attempted to take off the manure himself. He saw firsthand just how time consuming and frustrating the task actually was with the equipment we had.

We went with Millcreek Manure Spreaders which had a compact spreader I could pull into the stables and we could fill it as the stalls were cleaned – eliminating loading and unloading heavy muck buckets. We looked around at Kubota’s and four-wheelers to haul it with, but when we stopped at a John Deere dealership, I fell in love with the flashy green and yellow ‘tractor’.

A four-wheeler is fun, but I could not use the gear shift that you have to pull up with your foot and I didn’t understand shifting gears anyway, so the tractor was the best way to go for me. It also would do more.

If we have a big snow next winter, I can use the front loader to clear the driveway and a path on our country road as well as hauling hay bales to the shed out in the pasture. I also needed an arena grader to smooth out the arena, so the tractor had everything I needed.

It took a while for the purchase and delivery of our tractor and we are still waiting on the manure spreader to arrive, but spring’s arrival had helped my situation a lot. The horses were turned out to the pastures and there was less to clean up and, a few neighbors who wanted ‘fertilizer’ for their gardens left a couple of their carts for us to fill and it was a great help to us!

Meanwhile, I began working with our new colt and filly, teaching them to walk with a lead rope, conditioning them to touches and sounds and grooming. I even got them to let me lift their feet so that the first farrier visit would go well.

I also got up in the barn loft and cleared many cobwebs that had been there for a long time. There were cobwebs on the dust on the cobwebs! I made a new sign for our ranch and I began organizing and sprucing things up a bit.

It was good to have family and friends come to visit us recently. My sister Angie brought Mama and they stayed with us one weekend. Mama used to be afraid of horses, but she faced her fear and became comfortable petting them. And my busy sister was more relaxed than I had seen her in a long time. She loved the peace of the country and I think it did her heart good to see how happy her little sister is.

Then my twins came with the Grandarlins during Spring Break and we had a marvelous time at the ranch. My sons built a wash rack for me to have for washing and grooming the horses and Landon and Kylee learned how to clean stalls. Completing small tasks around the ranch felt great and we now own tools we never thought we would need.

Last weekend, my Chattanooga friend Hollie Berry came for a visit. I met her a few years ago when I interviewed her for a story. She is the girl who drew ‘dewdles’ in Coolidge Park with an empty paint roller creating magnificent dew art in the mornings. She brought her infinite creativity to Kentucky and photographed our colt and filly at the ranch and she also did some speed-painting of our greyhounds. We also attended MSU’s Spring Fling Horse Event and watched one of our boarders jump with her horse.

It has been a busy spring so far with purchasing farm equipment and having guests, but it has been so enjoyable. I love the hard work and I guess it is obvious, as my stories are few, that I don’t stay inside much at my computer.

A new thing I learned recently about horses is the term “buddy sour”. When my colt and Jason’s filly became attached at the hip, one could not be without the other even for a few seconds. After a hard winter and getting them acquainted with their new home, we kept them in their stalls at night and turned them out in the morning.

Whenever I led Legend out first, Suede would follow while I had a hold of her lead rope, but the girls who work for me (and rent the house on the ranch) were not comfortable leading the two at the same time. Being their ‘mommy’ they were used to me and I spend the most time with them, but they still had to get used to the girls. Suede caused a bit of ruckus when Legend would be taken out first and the girls would come back for her. She reared up and whinnied and it scared one of my girls. Legend was also showing “stallion behavior” with Suede, so I knew it was time to separate them for a while.

The first day we made the change, Legend was put in Arlington paddock and Suede was put in Belmont paddock with the paddock Keeneland in between them. They were uneasy and looked for a way to get to each other, but after a while they calmed down. Though they had their calm moments, they would still look for ways to get to each other from time to time and twice Suede had broken through one of the fences and wandered into the middle paddock.

Having new weanlings getting used to a new home, being away from their ‘horse mom’ and now away from each other has been quite an ordeal for them, but I have been working with them as much as possible and they are doing really great.

At seven months old, their hooves needed filing so my farrier Bill Sampson came out to the ranch. He was afraid they would be a lot harder to work with than they were. I helped hold them as he filed their feet one at a time. He said he was surprised at how well they did and he could tell I had been working with them.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to geld Legend or not, but with having all ‘mares’ on the ranch and he was behaving stallion-like, it just made sense. I was used to geldings and I like their temperament so I had my vet come out to make my colt ‘sweet’.

Dr. Abernathy-Young brought her assistant and I watched the whole procedure. I filmed the ‘after affect’ when Legend woke up from his local anesthetic the same way parents have filmed their kids who were anesthetized from a dental procedure.

Legend lay in his stall snoozing away and his bright blue eyes slowly opened and blinked. He wasn’t sure what had happened and he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to move, but with help from the doc and her assistant, he stood up (though a little woozy). I laughed at my drunk horse and loved on him and asked all the questions that I had for my vet.

She left me with ‘horse Advil’ and instructions to walk him and he is doing fine. He and Suede are getting used to not being together and Suede is learning to play well with others. As soon as Legend heals and has a few weeks to forget his stallion behavior we will be able to place him in a herd.

This month has certainly been busy. Jason and I went to the Expo in Murray to watch Taylor (one of our ranch hands) barrel race. It was fun for me because I really like Western style over the English. He also took me to Keeneland in Lexington to watch the races and I bought a hat for the Derby party next month. At the end of this month, I will head back to Lexington to watch the reining event during the Rolex weekend at the Horse Park.

With all the frustrations, hard work and in-JEN-uity it takes to run Grace Reins Ranch, I have found one thing to be true … I am having the time of my life just horsing around.

jen@jenjeffrey.com