A note from the Editor:
Here at Cayuse Communications, we’ve been thinking about our community of horse owners and riders. How best to come together and share during this time? We’ve reached out to friends to see how they are making lemonade from lemons and coping with the strains of the pandemic. Read more here.
Unfortunately, the pandemic isn’t going away. Fortunately, our giveaways aren’t either!
The Cayuse Corona Community is a recurring feature. We want to hear from you. Leave your comments below and we’ll put you in the running for a host of giveaways from Redmond Equine, Ranger Ready, Kershaw Knives, Kate’s Real Food, and Pharm Aloe Equine.
Here are images and reports from the many readers who responded recently in the comments section. Leave a comment and be entered to win giveaways!
Kerry ponies her mustang
From Kerry in Colorado
Staying at home has been great for this introvert. Advancing training on my tried-and-true mare, dressage for rehab, and bosal for balance. My crazy wild, PTSD Sulphur mare now ponies and trailer loads! Instead of competing in the Los Angeles Extreme Mustang Makeover, I’m training the sweetest, softest BLM burro EVER for late August TIP Challenge at which time she’ll be available for her new home. Delilah will make a great therapy or pack race burro. She loves attention and really bonds with her human. Gets along with horses, goats, and an obsessed border collie.
Aside from equines, pulling old fence and a dumpster’s worth of rotten fence posts, wire and other dangerous stuff and, weeds, weed, weeds. Eight Cashmere goats are helping, and Remy, the border collie, helps with them. Though she’s not so secretly in love with the burro.
Delilah, the adorable burro
Garden is popping. Salad and herbs on the way to The Share House by way of the Colorado Master Gardener Give and Grow Modern Victory Garden program.
As everyone knows, it’s been a tough summer for ranches without water, but I put in drinking posts last fall and everything else is on drip. Before ya know it, it will be fall. Hope to get in some gorgeous trail riding we’re blessed with here in the Four Corners and then start planning next year’s projects, probably more fencing, high tunnel, lavender, bees, gray water and roof catchment systems.
Being alone ain’t bad, but I could use a clone. LOL.
From Kimberly in Virginia
We are staying busy in Virginia, getting first cutting of hay in the barn, and had much more to sell that we could not store for the winter. Our best first cutting ever!
Virginia hay looking beautiful
We have had an unusually hot July with every day in the 90s so far. Our Heat Indexes have been as high as 117.
The horses go out and come in early and then spend the heat of the day in their covered areas with fans on high. Lots of hosing keeps them cooled down and we are not riding much in the heat. Any work is done early morning except for Olan, our newest Warm Springs boy. He gets R+ sessions multiple times a day. He is coming along nicely.
Our second cutting of hay is doomed due to the heat, unless we have great August and September but it will not be the 600 bales we need to fill our hay storage. Looking forward to less humidity and cooler nights. None of us are very perky in this weather!
Rachael from Wisconsin
Well, for my work at Up There, LLC, and RR Horse Haven , things have been pretty quiet. We stopped allowing clients to the farm in March and returned to allowing clients June 30.
Despite reopening to the public, things have been slow. Wisconsin has had an uptick in COVID cases and those who might intentionally seek us out are self-quarantining. We understand completely and want folks to be safe!
We’re using this time to continue to do outreach and network in a socially distant way–either in an open outdoor space while masked up or via Zoom. We’ve also been working on some farm beautification projects. As for the horses themselves–they are having a pretty quiet life at the moment. I ride when I can, but mostly enjoy walks with them through our forest.