Meet Otis, a two week old calf who was abandoned by his mother. Born during the snowstorm, Otis has been cold ever since and here he is wearing two t-shirts to keep warm. All the other calves would be jealous, if they knew about it.
Look at that face. Isn't he adorable with his brown spot on his nose and his gigantic ears? Maybe calves are born with full-size ears. It's as though they know that someone soon will need all that room to afix tags of various shapes and sizes. Some of Katie's cows have enough tags hanging down that surely there are novellas printed on them. I think the cows enjoy reading the stories aloud to each other when no human is looking. They are not partial to Westerns as they pine for the free range that the barbwire denies them. They prefer more existential fare. Understandable as they're all hamburger eventually. Anyway, enough about cow philosophy. Let's enjoy more of Otis.
Otis lives in the horse barn and gets fed milk replacement for some meals and for others he enjoys electrolytes. Otis is a tad dehydrated. Katie is working on that.
Katie doesn't know how she ever lived without a pet calf before now.
And now, to the Princess of the Universe.
Remember this wild child look? This is from January, but it's only gotten worse. Today India had dreadlocks and I could not stand it any more. She may be dressed in a Western saddle, but my inner hunt seat rider came out in a big way. Scroll down.
India's new look:
India after getting her mane chopped off. I hacked off a huge amount with scissors and then used a Solo Comb, which is a wonderful invention and mimics a pulling comb, but is much faster and easier to use. Yes, her mane is not show ring or field hunter perfect, but I think it looks a whole lot better. I am not banging that tail though, at least not yet. Her tail is thick and gorgeous and does not get dreads.
Jenny has me riding her mare, Wendy, practicing one rein stops, leg yielding, and opening gates (the real kind and the figurative kind), and I was, happily working on those and direction changes (more leg yielding and some figurative gate opening) when I glanced over and noticed that Jenny was sitting India's trot. She's never done that before today. I commented on it and Jenny said that she was starting to introduce India to the concept of two rein stops. Wow...that's advanced stuff and I nearly missed it.
Think "trot," and she does
And serpentines...she's doing more of them and doing much better than a few weeks ago. See?
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