Wednesday, April 26

Nutmeg and Trouble have been out in the larger pasture together since Sunday. Trouble doesn’t like Whisper because he’s still a stallion and Trouble is quite possessive of Nutmeg, so today Ian and I used gate panels and made Whisper a pen so he can be outside too. Bonnie and the twins have their box stall and are put out in a grassy side pen daily for some sunshine with room to romp.

The puppies are learning to move quickly out of harm’s way when a horse comes in or out of the barn. A couple of them thought the horse poop left after a training session on a lunge line was quite tasty. I suppose to the less discerning palate it is with all the molasses-filled sweet feed our horses get.

Lady is weaning them and spends her nights with us in the house rather than in the barn. She does spend lots of playtime with them and they are delightful. They come when called and not surprisingly like to chew, bite, growl and lick; not necessarily in that order. If puppies stayed puppy sized I’d keep them forever, but they don’t and in another month we’ll be advertising them for sale.

I signed Lady and I up for a basic dog training series given by the local community education folks. That should be another nice bonding experience. We begin Saturday morning, May 6.