{"id":11386,"date":"2014-12-24T09:29:59","date_gmt":"2014-12-24T16:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=11386"},"modified":"2014-12-25T19:39:50","modified_gmt":"2014-12-26T02:39:50","slug":"christmas-pony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=11386","title":{"rendered":"A Pony Christmas."},"content":{"rendered":"

No, we didn’t get another pony.\u00a0 One fat hay-gobbling Shetland is quite enough, thank you.\u00a0 But this post is<\/em> about C.C. and this special time of year.\u00a0 Special for her, not because she’s anxiously awaiting the babe in a manger, but because she got another unexpected arrival.<\/p>\n

Joe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe is a Jacob ram.\u00a0 He came to breed my Suffolk\/Welsh cross ewes.\u00a0 We’ve never had lambs born here before because, unlike dairy goats, sheep don’t need to give birth to make their farm contribution.\u00a0 Without kids, goats don’t give milk.\u00a0 But sheep provide wool whether they’re male or female, bred or open.\u00a0 I had actually decided we would never breed the sheep because:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 I don’t have any experience with bred sheep and new experiences can be traumatic, exhausting and\/or deadly on the farm.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 I already had adult sheep in nice range of natural colors—white, black, brown, and 1 wether that carried a mix of tan, gray, and white all swirled together.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 When I got the sheep, I promised The Other Half that if I had 4 sheep of various colors, we would never need any more.\u00a0 And I think he believed me.\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 Sucker.<\/p>\n

It’s true the sheep have done their fair share.\u00a0 I have a little more wool than I am using right now.\u00a0 By “a little”\u00a0 I mean “a closet full.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Eh.<\/p>\n

I prefer to use these lovely mesh athletic bags to store my wool.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Breathable, portable, and only 25 cents each at the local flea market.\u00a0 But when I’m out of mesh bags and have to start using trash bags, it’s time to get on top of things.\u00a0 So I plan to have all that wool carded and spun by this year’s farm tour or farmers market season so I can sell it and finally see a return on my sheep investment.\u00a0 I have heard it said that “She who dies with the most wool, wins.”\u00a0 I think that’s Biblical.\u00a0 However, I was hoping to recover some hay money from my fiber habit, so I dutifully dug dug out the carders.<\/p>\n

But just in case.\u00a0 I mean, if something comes up.\u00a0 In the event that I’m overcome with farm chores or shift work or meal plans or kids’ basketball games or hand-feeding the Venus fly trap its meal worms (that stupid plant is a lot more enjoyable during the summer when it lives by the pond and feeds itself than in the winter when it lives on the windowsill and expects hand-outs)….<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

….supposing for some unknown reason, I don’t get all that wool carded and spun, I figured I needed a back-up plan.<\/p>\n

Even if there’s no yarn to sell this spring, there will be lambs to sell.<\/p>\n

Which takes us back to Joe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When Joe arrived, C.C. had a fit.\u00a0 She generally takes new arrivals with a casual air.\u00a0 She is always the fattest<\/span> biggest animal in the barn yard so she rarely feels threatened.\u00a0 She is also lazy so she doesn’t make much show of aggression.\u00a0 Unless the newcomer gets close to her bowl of timothy hay.\u00a0 In which case, they get a full showing of Shetland pony teeth.\u00a0 But Joe went straight into the old chicken pasture, where Isabella and Samantha were waiting and he was no threat to anyone’s feed bowl.\u00a0 C.C. starting racing around the pasture, kicking her heels and tossing her mane.\u00a0 There was whinnying and snorting and more exertion than we’ve seen in ages.<\/p>\n

Me and The Other Half watched and wondered.\u00a0 Perhaps she was trying to protect the ewes?\u00a0 Did she recognize a dominant male and think he wanted her spot at top of the heap?\u00a0 Did he smell weird, coming from a different farm?\u00a0 Maybe she thought he had some grain in there?\u00a0 It was baffling.\u00a0 We shrugged, figured C.C. didn’t have the stamina to do anything too crazy, took note that Joe was already busy romancing the ewes, and left them all to their business.<\/p>\n

By evening, C.C. had trampled the ground in front of the pasture gate into 6 inches of hoof-printed muck.<\/p>\n

“Stop it.\u00a0 It’s fine,” I reassured her, where she stood outside the pasture.\u00a0 “Leave him be.”\u00a0 She was not convinced.<\/p>\n

The next morning I found her exactly where I left her.\u00a0 In front of the pasture gate.\u00a0 Staring at Joe where he stood, safe and dry in the old chicken coop, with the ewes.<\/p>\n

It had been raining all night and she was totally soaked.\u00a0 Her forelock hung in bedraggled strands.\u00a0 Shetland ponies are pretty much impervious to our moderate weather.\u00a0 But C.C. had always taken to the barn during downpours in the past.\u00a0 I checked to see if the barn door had blown closed, locking her out.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 I looked to see if the automatic waterer had overflowed, flooding the barn and driving her outside for the night.\u00a0 Nope.<\/p>\n

I looked at her again.<\/p>\n

Oh dear,”\u00a0 I said.\u00a0 Because this is what I saw:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Turns out the problem was<\/em> that Joe smelled weird.\u00a0 He smelled like a wooly package of male hormones.\u00a0 Or pheromones.\u00a0 Or whatever else it is that turns a fat and sassy Shetland pony into a pathetic, needy, shaggy mess.\u00a0 Plus, he had a nice rack, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s all too much for C.C.\u00a0 She has spent the holiday season pining near the fence, hoping for sniffing, nuzzling, or any other tidbits that Joe tosses her way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Luckily, he won’t be here too much longer.\u00a0 Isabella was very receptive to Joe’s advances.\u00a0 She is the more reasonable and practical of my ewes and was willing to stand for him within a few days of their introduction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Samantha, however, might need 2 heat cycles before she is bred.\u00a0 She’s much more skittish and cautious of strangers.\u00a0 Hence her crazy eyes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the meantime I’m a little sad for C.C.\u00a0 And a little bit embarrassed for her.\u00a0 But at least I know what to get her for Christmas now.<\/p>\n

A boom box.<\/p>\n

Because, you know, this….<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hey, it worked for Lloyd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, we didn’t get another pony.\u00a0 One fat hay-gobbling Shetland is quite enough, thank you.\u00a0 But this post is about C.C. and this special time of year.\u00a0 Special for her, not because she’s anxiously awaiting the babe in a manger, but because she got another unexpected arrival. Joe. Joe is a Jacob ram.\u00a0 He came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11386"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11449,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11386\/revisions\/11449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}