Finally! The girls are home...My sweet Honey too!

[CAM]

My mini girls including our sweet "Honey" and our Arab riding mare, Misty are finally home! They were boarded shortly before our September photo shoot and the plan was to bring them home right after but then we got the offer on our house, put in an offer on the other property and the ball was in motion. I couldn't bring them home until we had at least three pastures fenced at the new house. We have been here a month now, three pastures of 6 are done so yesterday the kids, the dogs, and I made the long journey through the ice and snow, hauling the trailer to meet Stephanie and bring our four mini mares and Arab mare home. I am so excited to have the girls back but it was a treacherous drive through rough conditions to get them here. They joined our llama Tippy and our aging Welsh pony mare "Ginger" aka Pony-oh-ny.

We waited until late morning to leave so the weather would warm up and some of the snow and ice would melt over the mountain passes, then headed out trying to time it right to be back and have all the girls tucked away before dark. I got everyone home and checking out their new pastures by 4:15pm then got everyone fed and let little "Bear", our Anatolian puppy, out to play and meet the "new" girls. All was fine and I said good night to the girls but was pretty nervous about the predators (no surprise there!

. I had been anticipating, and equally dreading, this night for weeks.

At just after 5pm (I know, I couldn't wait long

, with a full moon gently lighting the pastures, I peeked out the back door and saw my mini girls running around the pasture and then I heard it! Those stinkin' coyotes! A pack of them just down the hill from the barn and howling and yipping all together in unison. Of course my husband wasn't home

: so I ran to get the trusty ol' computer and ran to the back deck playing those roaring lion sounds. I only played them once and hallelujah! those darn coyotes quieted right down. My hope is that means they are scared off and not moving in silently. The horses settled down and I spent a little time at the barn to be sure everyone was ok, turning the radio up a bit louder, turning on an extra light, and talking loudly the entire time with our dogs close by my side. Gosh! I feel like I am losing my mind. Many of you guys deal with this all the time but I swear I am like a city girl who's moved to the country for the first time!

:

Now the decision has been made! Tomorrow, I meet with our new neighbor, a retired police officer, to begin my weapons training. I am no longer willing to feel helpless to these predators! I need to know I have the experience to carefully handle any situation that might arise and to be able to protect my "kids". Wish me luck!

 

[Miniv]

Hey Debra, Something tells me this could turn into a neat continuing "saga".........You got to keep us posted.

MA

 

[CAM]

Lovely MA! And maybe I can call it...Like sands through the hourglass, so are the "Days of Debra's Life". :bgrin

Feel free to offer any other suggestions and I'll be happy to entertain, enlighten, or completely bore you on a regular basis.

:

 

[miniaddiction]

Man Debra I dont think I could handle that.. :no: we dont have anything like that here in NZ and Im so glad.

Im happy you got your girlies home safe and sound, Its always a nice feeling.

Best of luck with your predators

 

[AppyLover2]

Debra, I admire your idea to use those recorded beastie sounds. Doubt very much that something like that would have occurred to me.

Also, I definitely think getting together with your neighbor is the absolutely right thing to do. Weapons training is just the thing you need, not only to help protect your little'uns but to help you feel more in control of the situation, and not so helpless.

:aktion033: Good Job on both things!!! :aktion033:

 

[Devon]

Who cares if it sounds crazy it works to keep the ladies safe :bgrin

:

 

[sedeh]

So glad to hear that you've got everyone safely home! Sounds like Honey made a full recovery.....just wonderful. I think it's great that your neighbor is going to teach you about guns. I wouldn't live in the country without one. Hopefully things will settle down and you'll be able to sleep at night again! Good luck Debra!

 

[Reijel's Mom]

Sounds like you have lots of neat critters. I'm wondering if you've ever considered adding a donkey? Some folks around me keep them as guard animals.

Best of luck!

 

[nootka]

I'm so glad that they are home with you, now!

We do have coyotes quite often, but they've never come closer than the edges or wooded areas of our property, but they traverse the ravines behind our barn (I"ve heard them, and recognize their droppings).

They really seem very timid, and small for the most part, but so far, so good.

I hope yours decide they don't like the noises or commotion, and say back a good distance from your horses/main house and horses.

Good luck w/the gun training, I've only had to almost use it once, here, on something after my horses, and that was a neighbor's 15/16ths wolf they owned that got off her chain for the first time in years, and she was biting Gramma Pony (who was then 10 months in foal w/Cherry Bomb) in the flank and ripping at her tail. I probably should have done the dog in, but ended up tackling her and taking her home, sadly back to her chain,w hich was most of the problem that she wasn't properly managed.

Anyway, we have all those potential bad "wildlife" around here, too, bears,, coyotes and cougars, and yet it was a domestic (ha) dog that ended up causing the issue, but I'm not so much a fan of a Wolf being a pet anyway, and for SURE no dog should live the way that one did. Funny thing when she finally ran off, the neighbors came to accuse us of having killed it, but that wasn't the case. Never did find out where she went, but I hope she was given a better home, either way.

I did get the paperwork you mailed me, and will mail it back to you tomorrow.

Liz M.

 

[Valerie]

Congrats on getting all the animal "kids" home safely, sounds like it was quite an adventure & more to come.

Good luck on the weapons training, that is such a smart idea. You just never know when you will need to use the training you will gain.

Keep us posted.

:

 

[runaway ranch]

We have coyotes and I've learned they are really cowards. Thank goodness. My son-in-law gave me a sqeeze can that makes a loud sound, like a foghorn. If they get too close, I sound off with it, and they run off. We also have llama's and our dogs that let us know when coyotes come too close. The llama's have been just wonderful guards.

 

[CAM]

We had considered a donkey until we read about them being more aggressive toward dogs. I suppose that would be good for the coyotes but not for my pets.

And I guess I wasn't quite ready to hear the braying. Nothing against them but I thought I would try something else first.

Our llama, in the beginning, had me thinking she was more of a scardey cat than a guard animal however, when we introduced our Arab mare into the pasture she aggressively went right up to her and there was an "exchange of words" between the two. She showed no fear and now she is quite brave to come up to me for kisses and to any others that enter "her" pasture.

Then I was wondering if our Anatolian pup was going to be useful based on his behavior until we brought our Arab mare into the big horse pasture and the pup, in his stall looking out to the pasture, started barking a "big dog" bark like I had never heard before followed by growling. I told him this just won't do and took him out on a leash to meet the new herd matriarch and all was well once again.

Karla, we are not prepared to stall them all at night quite yet as we are still getting the barn completely rearranged after the move however, it is an idea that we will consider down the road.

:

 

[wcr]

Glad you got the horses home safe and sound. I Don't envy you going over the mountains in winter. I got caught in a surprise blizzard going over the pass with my living quarter trailer and jack knifed my truck and trailer. Luckily I was hauling empty and didn't get hurt.

 

[HGFarm]

Watch your pup til it is grown!!! Coyotes can easily pack up and take down large dogs. They do here. They may not come into the yard, but will sit out of sight (or reach) and whine and make noises to try to bribe the dog out to them- and then it's dinner!!!

Usually the coyotes are chickens- they are more of a scavenger than a predator, but when packed up, can get pretty bad and braver than usual.

Yes, it is good to learn to shoot. Do a lot of practice til you feel comfortable handing a gun. I learned the proper way to handle one at a young age- and am a pretty darned good shot too, if I must say so myself.

A BB gun does not have any distance or power for a coyote- you would have to be right on top of it, and then I am not sure how effective it would even be, especially with thick winter hair.

I prefer a rifle for that sort of thing, versus a handgun- better accuracy. I dont like having ANYTHING suffer, so if I have to use it, I want a clean shot. Speaking of which, if you are not SURE of your shot, DONT TAKE IT. Watch for ricochets and an unsafe backdrop (like is your neighbors house behind where you are shooting, because if you miss, that bullet is going somewhere)

I am sure you will learn from a good teacher, being a retired officer!!

 

[CAM]

Bear stays in a big stall and I take him out with the horses a few times each day so any negative behavior is corrected right away (i.e. aggressiveness toward the livestock) and so the horses don't injure him. He won't be left alone with them for some time.

And the best news...I haven't heard the coyotes since I brought the girls home on Friday! :aktion033: I hope this isn't a false sense of security I'm feeling.

HGFarm, interesting you mentioned the coyotes drawing the dogs off because this past summer the original owner of our property said they did just that with his dog here in broad daylight and fortunately he saw it happening and was able to get a shot off to scare the coyotes off and bring his dog back. He said one coyote was circling the dog while drawing it away from home while the others waited along the sidelines. The whole picture reminded me of the pack of hyenas in the movie The Lion King. Not a pretty picture.

Kathi, I still have to make one more trip to pick up our colt and half-arab filly over that mountain pass! I think I'll wait until I am sure the weather is in my favor this time.