Cider

         We currently have 5 Nigerian Dwarf goats at the barn. We got 4 of them about a year and half ago when they were about 4 months old. They have been great goats, very entertaining and easy to care for. One Sunday morning in January my mother and I were sitting in a diner having breakfast and we were talking about how we wished we could find another Dwarf mini horse so Rascal could have a friend in his paddock with him. Rascal is so small we can't leave him in with the other horses because we are afraid he'll get hurt. Not that any of them would try to hurt him but he's just too small to be with them without supervision. We do let him run around with the other mini horses but only when we can keep an eye on him. Rascal's paddock is within another paddock that the four older goats are in along with the other two mini stallions. They can interact with each other, stick their heads through his fence but he's safe from being stepped on or bucked by one of the goats. He also has his own little run in shelter in case of bad weather, but we felt he needed a friend of his own and there just aren't too many Dwarf mini horses to be found. So we decided to try a baby goat..and a few hours later I was on my way to pick one up.

Meet Cider

This is the day we brought him home. He was only 4 weeks old, started on a bottle and wethered that day. He was a good little goat for the long ride home, layed down in the front seat on my daughter's lap and was a quiet little boy. 

 Then we got him home and did he ever make a racket looking for his mother and flat out refused to take a bottle that night but he caught on pretty quickly. He got his name because the only bottle we could get him to drink out of was a Woodchuck Cider bottle!

We had planned on having him sleep right in Rascal's little stall with him. The lady we bought Cider from said it would be better to just put him right in with Rascal since he was going to miss his mother that first night and he'd probably do better with a companion. Well that didn't work because although the two of them got along fine, Cider can jump pretty darn high and kept getting out. He was running around the barn jumping into the mini horse's stalls looking for his mother and calling out the whole time. So we ended up putting him in a small cage inside of Rascal's stall that night until we could figure something out the next day. The next morning we realized we could not put him in Rascal's paddock either as he was so small he could squeeze right through the fence. So while my parent's went to buy some new fencing they left him in my horse's stall. When my parents returned home Cider was gone. I got a call at work that he was missing and it was an terrible feeling thinking this sweet little guy was wandering around somewhere by himself probably looking for his mother. What a relief when my dad called back to say he had found him stuck behind the pile of baled hay. He had apparently climbed up and fallen behind and was unable to get himself back out. By the end of the day the fence was fixed up so he couldn't get out and he had his own little place next to Rascal's stall. My Dad even cut a window out of the wall between them so they can see each other. They have become great friends.

 

They play so good together and frequently cuddle up like in the picture above. Cider's favorite thing to do is ride on Rascal's back, he gets right up on his back and stands there until Rascal moves and Cider falls off. I have yet to get a decent picture of him doing this but when I do I will be sure to post.

A sunny Sunday to meet the minis

        Today it actually started to feel like spring, it was sunny and the temperature reached 55 degrees. It was very windy though and we were unable to burn brush like we had planned, oh well we have two large piles to burn next weekend.

My daughter rode Moon on her own for the first time today and afterwards we decided to try putting the saddle on my horse Beauty for the first time ever! She's still too young to be ridden but we are starting to prepare her for learning in the fall.

She didn't mind at all and we took her for a long walk and then had some watermelon for a treat.

I need to introduce you to the rest of the barnyard crew. I'll start with the mini horses.

Meet Cricket

Cricket just turned 2 last week. She and Beauty are best friends. Cricket has more personality than you can imagine. She doesn't know shes a mini horse, she runs with the big horses and is just one of the girls. Our farrier told me that mini horses are the Jack Russels of the horse world and "Cricky" proves that. She's a mini with an attitude.

Next we have the mini stallions ..

This is Redy short for Red E Set Go

 Redy will be two soon. He's the biggest mini of the bunch and has grown since I took this picture last fall. He will stay a stallion at least for a little while so that hopefully he and Cricket can have a little one when they are both a little older.

Next up we have Little Man

Little Man is the absolute sweetest horse I have ever met. He loves kisses and will put his head on his stall door and make lips at you. He's a stallion but will most likely be gelded at some point. He's almost a year old and probably not getting much bigger than he is now. He shares a paddock with Redy and four of the goats.

And last but not least we have the smallest mini of all ...

Rascal

Rascal is a Dwarf mini horse, he's not getting any bigger than this. To show you how small he is the picture below is the day we brought him home. We had to take him in tractor supply to try and find a halter that was small enough. We ended up having to buy a goat halter because everything else was too big. We have since found him a mini halter that is small enough and fits better than the one in this picture.

He caused quite a stir in the store, took us forever to get out of there because everyone wanted to pet him. He rode 2 hours home in the backseat of my Jeep and fell asleep. He's quite the little fur ball right now, can't wait to see him without his winter coat.

Next time I post I'll introduce the goats and Rascals best buddy.

Getting started...

      I've recently become addicted to reading blogs, specifically blogs about farming and gardening. I don't live on a farm though I would love to someday. I do have several four legged family members, some live here with me and others live at my parents home in the barn. I started my first garden about 12 years ago. The first few years it produced more food than we could eat or freeze, so I learned how to can what was left. Then the pesky ground hogs moved in and it became a frustrating struggle to harvest anything before "Chuck" and family devoured it first. I just gave up. Last year I wanted to revive the garden but two things kept that from happening. One I started too late and two the weeds had overtaken the area, they were taller than me and there was no way I was going to clear them in time to plant. So I gardened small scale in containers. I had tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash and strawberries that did fairly well. "Chuck" wasn't able to do much damage with the plants off the ground though something did wipe out the last of the strawberries. This year I want my real garden back and I'm planning to garden in raised beds using the square foot method. As for Chuck ..I'm going to try fencing around the beds to keep him and his family out.
         I have a young horse named Beauty aka "Beauty Queen" who lives at my parents house. My daughter's horse Moon aka "Moonshine" lives there too, along with several mini horses and 5 hilarious goats. Their barnyard antics never fail to make me smile and I love taking and sharing pictures of them. My facebook page has far more animal pictures than anything else. There are lots of things we plan to do before next winter. We are currently working on clearing more land so we can make their paddocks bigger. My mother recently got a cart for the mini horses, so two of the minis will be learning how to drive and Beauty will be old enough to start training for riding in the fall. So this is the start of my blog, I hope you'll follow.

Beauty is the black one and the other is Moon. They are both American Paint horses. I'll post more pictures of the rest of the barn crew tomorrow.