The Herd

It's been a peaceful and relatively cool summer for cattle and horses:

Of course the arrival of Teddy, the rented bull, shook things up briefly:

The presence of Teddy kept me out of the field unless I was on the tractor, but he caused no problems:

Whether or not Teddy impregnated all the cows remains to be seen. I won't know until next year. Two of my cows, Amy and Scarlett, could possibly be pregnant from earlier artificial insemination. If so, they should be due in October and January:

Teddy and his red harem looked picturesque in the south field:

And Teddy often walked off alone, leaving the six cows to keep themselves company:

Much of the time, the little horses made themselves part of the herd. I had feared that Teddy might hurt them, but once introduced, Teddy, Blue and Remy seemed to become friends:

Despite a lot of grass in the field, there was always much excitement (and gluttony) when my neighbor delivered a trailer load of grass clippings:

After Teddy had been here four weeks, his owner stopped by to check on him. Teddy ran over to the fence, hoping for grain - but he didn't get any:

Remy has been looking especially good this summer, especially when the wind blows his mane and tail:

Blue has a shinier coat than Remy, but he is getting quite a potbelly. He was shaking himself when I took this photo:

And both little horses still spend much time in the barn, any time they want relief from the hot sun, the flies or the rain. It is difficult to safely clean the barn with Teddy around, so it's been getting pretty dirty. I'll have to clean it soon: