What Happened To July?!

HUGE apologies to those who have been following! July was a bit of a disaster for me with contractors onsite, a death in the family, computer problems & absolutely FOUL weather! Mojo & Whorl have spent the whole month just chilling & relaxing in the paddock which doesn't seem to have done either of them any harm. I've managed to catch the odd photo or two so here's a quick update...

14th of July

Mojo & Whorl are now living permanently in the paddock. They'd previously been coming back into the yards at night. Whorl has filled out nicely & Mojo is really starting to relax & look happy. They're quite respectful of electric tape & have made absolutely no attempts to test it, not even when the post rammer was ramming 3m posts right next to them in the same paddock!

Mojo has 'claimed his territory' with an impressive poo pile or two. I think he likes it here. He's sharing a 3 acre paddock with Whorl & is surrounded by other horses & all sorts of strange animals he's never seen before.

Not many 'strange animal' encounters have been planned. Well...not by ME anyway! Chloe Lamb & her wayward girlfriends had been planning this encounter for weeks I suspect.

The busy body Ballet Lamb! She just can't help herself, she HAS to know everyone & everything! 

Chloe looking rather concerned that there is yet ANOTHER horse eating her much loved grass. And he doesn't even have the decency to give her the time of day! Mojo & Whorl have since moved to the other side of the electric tape in the background & posts are now standing 2 metres high around the roundpen. I thought the boys might be worried by the large tractor, post rammer & strange people but no, not really. They had a bit of a hoon around when everyone first arrived but all the rearing & playing gave it away that they weren't really concerned.

23rd of July

And this is how it's been since, WET!

As you can see, the boys have plenty of grass but they're still either waiting or come running, yelling their heads off, when they hear the bike coming with dinner. Whorl gives me enough space to get in the gate & then he needs no invitation to dive straight into his feed while I hold it. He's learned that he has more feed than Mojo & that as long as I'm there, Mojo won't push in & steal his feed so I'm his best buddy at dinnertime! Well actually...it turns out ANYONE who is attached to the bucket is his best buddy. As long as you stand quietly & use similar posture to me, he's happy to be served dinner by others. Hehehe.

Mojo sidles up & will eat quite close but he's not keen to let me hold the bowl for him in the paddock. He's only getting enough feed now to keep him in a routine as he's rather rotund!

To Date...

Whorl is turning into a handsome little man! He spends a LOT of time flat out, snoring his head off as he's growing. When he's not sleeping, he's harassing Mojo to play with him. The two of them have lengthy play sessions of rearing, sparring, galloping around playing tag & another game which Mojo has recently suggested Whorl plays...Mojo is obviously missing the ladies & will soon need to be separated from Whorl. 

Mojo will need to get used to being on his own a bit anyway as Whorl will be ready to go to a new home as soon as the weather improves. I'll really miss my chocolatey sweet little Whorl. He's just the nicest wee man! He's super inquisitive & is happy to just hang around with me after he's eaten his dinner, unlike Mojo who prefers to wander off to a slightly safer distance, to graze. When Whorl's not sure about something, he wrinkles up one nostril & thinks hard about what he should do before he reacts. He never gets defensive & he's not scared of people, in fact he actually quite likes them! Whorl will make some very lucky child's best friend, he has the potential to be one of those 'one in a million' ponies. He's also very clever!! I recently started turning one of the switches off on the electric fence to climb through the double gate tape. Whorl watched me do this twice before I caught him slyly testing his whiskers on the electric tape in his paddock. So far, he remains convinced that it WILL still bite him, he hasn't felt the need to test the theory fully & is giving it the benefit of the doubt after the whisker test. He still takes great interest in my ability to climb through without getting zapped & with his thinking face on, he does his whisker test on his own fence each evening.

Well there ya go! Mojo & Whorl currently think they're at holiday camp & all they have to do is turn up to the buffet each evening. All is about to change! Just as soon as the weather forecast does!