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:

The Miniature Horses

Remy and Blue have had several more nights in their stall, this time because we were having a freezing rain. You can see that they are wet. By the way, the new hay feeder has worked fine and they are not chewing it - at least not yet:

Sometimes the cows keep the little horses away from the bale feeder and sometimes the horses just prefer to keep to themselves. They have clean hay inside the barn but they often prefer to pick through waste hay from where the bale feeder had previously been. I can't explain why:

Remy likes his outdoor salt block and so do the cattle, even though they also have a big block. I make sure they all have minerals plus extra selenium:

Again, picking through the waste hay:

A portrait of Blue, showing his blue eyes:

And a portrait of Remy:

Remy has grown surprisingly large and sturdy. He'd make a fine cart horse, though I doubt I'll ever do it. It would be a lot of money and a lot time training him. I bet he'd enjoy it, though:

A new hay bale, early in the morning:

That hanging feeder behind blue contains free choice minerals, though I don't think any of the animals use it any more:

If any grass shows through the snow, the little horses like to nibble it. They also enjoy pawing through the snow to get at the dead grass below. Again, I don't understand why they want to do that when there is good hay available, but I suppose it is an instinctive behavior:

This is their bathroom inside the barn. At least they go to one spot when they have to poop. They used to come in from outdoors to poop, but they seem to have gotten over that. Now they just use their bathroom when they're already in the barn anyway:

Blue was enjoying his hay so much that he buried his head in it: