Remy And Blue, Horses Of Winter

I keep the sliding barn door chained at just the right gap so the little horses can come and go at will, but the cows cannot. Without the chain, the cows can push the door open with their powerful necks. Blue, being shy, likes to stand inside but stick his head out to watch what's going on:

I was bringing out a new hay bale but had to stop the tractor, jump off and run back to close the gate behind me, Remy would love to run out the open gate and lead me on a merry (to him) chase:

The winter began with frost - lots of frost:

Both Blue and Remy, not to mention the pasture grass, were covered with frost. Of course we've since had lots of snow which has covered everything:

Both little guys now feel right at home with the big cows, and are not afraid to eat hay at the feeder. They are smart enough, however, to avoid getting accidentally crushed by those big red cows:

Blue and Remy had been spending a lot of time inside the barn, leaving a lot of manure which had then frozen hard. It was time to clean the barn floor and put down new bedding:

It doesn't show well in this photo, but the whole floor was full of frozen poop and urine. It was difficult to walk on and I figured it would also be difficult to clean up because it had probably frozen to the concrete floor. Alas, I was right:

The first job was to use a snow shovel and push it toward the center so the tractor could scrape it back. Then I'd fork it into the bucket. Remy came in to "help:"

And then Blue, usually shy and standoffish, also came in. In his case, he seemed to want attention:

He also wanted to be kissed on his head, something Remy has enjoyed for a long time but was new for Blue. Horses nuzzle those they love, so it seems natural that they should crave kisses:

But then I had to get all that frozen manure, urine and bedding into the tractor bucket and dumped on the compost pile. This is where it becomes dangerous to have the little horses around as I don't want to hit them. They've learned that I get very angry if they don't vamoose when I holler "Get Out!" Yet still I have to be very careful:

I got the old bedding out in four bucket loads, then spread a bale of clean hay over the floor. Remy and Blue came back in to eat some of it and poop on the rest of it. It doesn't take long for it to need cleaning again: