The old shed

Princess

Princess

Dante

Dante

Thunder

Thunder

Dante

Dante

Dante

Dante

Dante

Dante

Dante

Thunder

Thunder

Cole

Cole

Thunder waiting for the sun

Thunder waiting for the sun

Cole Train

Cole Train

Cole out stretching his legs.

Cole out stretching his legs.

Pre-Spring

It is snowing, again.  This is the time of year where it seems like you can reach spring if you stretch your arms out really far--and then you find that your fingers are just a little too short.  It is the short season of frustration; pre-spring.

The signs of spring are there--teasing us--telling us that it should be spring.  The horses are shedding; a lot. Ranger gets a thick, yak-like coat every winter.  He has been shedding since January. It is as if he prepares for winter, but by January, he realizes we don’t live in the Arctic.  Ellen and I have been working hard brushing him. HIs coat is now about the same as the other horses, and they are starting to seriously shed, too.  Can spring be far away?

Last week, we had one warm, rainy day.  We actually heard a few spring peepers (little singing frogs), but they soon realized their mistake and retreated back into the mud.  The red winged blackbirds are back, singing in the swamps. Today, when I was walking Maggie, I heard and saw a pair of Kildeer, overhead.

Kildeer are really pretty, little birds.  They love to run along the creek going “Beep, beep, beep.”  They nest on the ground. If you are close to their nest, one of them will walk in front of you; pretending to be hurt and unable to fly.  It will even flop around a little for effect. If you follow it, it will lead you away from the nest. If you get to close, it will fly away.

Once the babies get big enough to leave the nest, they will follow the parents along the creek goiong, “Beep, beep, beep.”  I just call them the Beep-Beep -Beep Birds.

I saw my first butterfly a  couple days ago. It looked like an American Copper, which is strange.  Usually the first butterfly I see is a Red Admiral.

And still it snows...

Not that it matters a whole lot, right now. They are repairing the hill trail, and it is closed.  I think it may be at least another week. We are just riding around the around the property until we get bored.

Cole Train

Stormy Playing

Stormy Playing

Cole Train

Cole Train

Prince, we will miss you.

Prince, we will miss you.

Hill Repairs, At Last

The MetroParks is finally fixing the trail that goes down the hill to the river and the river banks.

In the last few years, the river banks are gathering large amounts of mud.  It is nothing for the horses to sink in a half a foot or more.  That causes two problems.  The first is the potential injury, and the second is the horses' unwillingness to go through the mud.  Oh, and if you have a loose shoe, you could kiss that goodbye!

Cole really hates going through the mud--even if we are on the way home.  I will ask him to walk down the bank, and he will either go reluctantly or spin away from it.  I encourage him when he does it, of course.  When he spins, I just keep him spinning until he is facing the bank, again.  Sometimes, I can stop the spin, too.

We have been shoveling the mud to make a path, but that is very, very hard work-and the next big storm washes all new mud up onto the banks.  The park is going to try to do something more permanent.  (I hope.)

The hill, itself, has 2 very bad spots.  The first is in the center section.  A couple years ago, they tried to improve it by adding a bunch of clay.  In doing that, they filled in the drainage ditch alongside the trail.  Now, the water drains directly onto the trail.  The clay that they added just turns into horrific mud.  They are putting the ditch back where it belongs.

Further down the trail there is terrible erosion that is eating away at it.  We can get around it, but at the rate it is going, it won't be long before this will be a real problem spot.

We are hoping that they will resurface the trail, too.  It has eroded so much over the years, that we are down to the base stone in many places--and the other spots are covered with hoof bruising gravel.  Where we used to ride up and down the hill when we couldn't cross the river, now, I often just stay at the barn.

We'll see how it all turns out.

Cole out playing

Cole out playing

Starry

Starry

Bald Eagles

We saw eagles!!!  Well, we have seen eagles, before, but we never saw this pair.  This is a new nest in the north end of the park. It goes through an industrial section of Cleveland--not the place you would expect to see bald eagles  They built the nest there last year alongside the Cuyahoga River, but we never got to see them--though we tried.

We didn’t see them on the way out, but on our way home we spotted on in a tree and one sitting in the nest.  We brought binoculars, so we were able to get a good look at them. They were simply beautiful.

We have a couple other nests that we will visit in the next few weeks.  One nest is further south on the same river. The other one is not far from where we ride.  That is where we get the best view because we are on top of a hill looking down into the valley--and down into the nest.  They couldn’t have picked a better spot for eagle watchers like us.

Thunder

Thunder

Dante Out Playing

Stormy

Stormy, I just can't get the toothless tiger's mouth right.

Dante

My backyard

Cruiser

Best horse ever!

Just another winter scene. Will spring ever get here?

Cruiser

Another one of Cruiser.  It was a tough one, and it didn't come out as good as yesterday's but it was a good experience.  When he used to play with his buddies, he would run in front of them and keep turning his head back to see where they were.  He would turn it one way, go a couple strides and then turn the other way--and keep doing it.  It was so cute!  Here, he is looking back at my horse, Mingo.  Mingo was always the slow one--and his pictures never looked spectacular like his big brother.  

Cruiser

This was a really tough one-due to the angle.  I struggled with it--and I think I got pretty close.

Ranger, king of the barn.

Ranger, king of the barn.

Dante