The Battle: Penny vs Dolly

Like any herd, feral or domestic, there is always a dominant member.  We always thought that was Rowdy, he's always trying to boss his mares around and definitely causes the most mischief, but after reading up and watching their behavior closer we have discovered that Penny, our senior mare, is definitely the alpha mare of the herd.  

I recently read this: "The dominant member of a herd is always an alpha mare. This mare decides where the herd goes and, as the high-ranking member, gets first choice of food and water."  Well, this explains a lot! Every single morning we witness an entertaining battle between Penny and Dolly.  

As soon as they spot someone coming to feed them Dolly lets out her ear-piercing whinny, tosses her head and Penny charges her with ears pinned.

They continue their battle into the stalls and bite at each other through the bars.

Penny is a smart horse though, their battle used to be a lot more intense, she would kick her stall (which would get her in big trouble with me) and would kick the rail until she realized that hurt!  Now she just gives little "warning hops". 

Even after Penny gets her feed she makes sure to chase Dolly down the run and give one more warning that she better not try to get her food!

With this happening each morning you can imagine our surprise when we found out what happens after we leave the barn...

After making sure she has picked out all of her senior feed (her favorite!) Penny actually drags her feed bin out of her stall over to Dolly and they finish the rest together.  Seriously, we couldn't make this stuff up?!  

I guess being the alpha mare she is, as long as it's on her terms she's happy to share :)

Source: netplaces

Big Brother Schumi

As we eagerly await Denali's arrival to Sadie Acres, I am reminded of how much fun, and how much work having a puppy is!  

Schumi was born on March 10th, 2006, it's hard to believe he is almost 9 because he still has so much of that puppy charm!   

The first picture I saw of Schumi, this was sent by the family before I even picked him out!

Schumi was always a napper and always loved to cuddle.  

The family I got him from had a little girl that was about 7 at the time he was born. She immediately selected him as her favorite of the litter and would carry him everywhere and gave him TONS of attention. The day I picked him out I actually pulled her Mom aside and told her that I couldn't take this puppy from her daughter. She said he was going regardless so it may as well be to me. 

I kept in touch with the family for quite some time and give that sweet little girl credit for what a loving dog Schumi is and how good he is with kids.

Mauzzy was 9 years old when I got Schumi and a big part of my decision to get him was to help keep Mauzzy young...it definitely worked!  We were so lucky to have her 8+ years after that.  I hope he and Denali get along as well as these two did and she helps keep him young and active.

She was so patient with him!

Mauzzy definitely "mothered" Schumi, this look says it all!

My favorite pic of the two

Schumi is definitely the typical Beagle that requires a lot of patience and rules, but overall he was a good puppy, he never was too destructive and loved to play! 

This gorilla was his favorite toy as a pup

He's a bit of a Momma's boy so hopefully he won't be too jealous of Denali in the beginning :)

Come out and play!

The sun is shining, the snow is melting and everyone is feeling good!

With the sun out and the temps a bit warmer it was a good day to get Sadie and Dolly out of their muddy stalls and let them run around a bit.  

As usual, Dolly had more interest in eating than playing.  Sadie running crazy does not even phase her, she never looks up :)

Sadie and her best bud Rowdy would love to be out running together, unfortunately, he likes to kick at her so we keep them separated.  

 

He likes to kick at Penny too, but after years together she's pretty savvy to his ways!

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The girls enjoyed their play time, but were more than happy to head back to the barn as the temps dropped again and dinnertime approached.

Happy New Year from Sadie Acres!

I've been amazed at how many people have expressed that they miss the Sadie Acres blog posts, so with the start of the New Year I'm starting up the blog again.  

For many of the Sadie Acres residents it is our first Colorado winter!  I'm happy to say that we are all managing the cold quite well, despite some record lows in October and another dip into negative numbers over the last couple weeks.

A frosty day in October where we reached record lows

We did our research early on to ensure that all of the animals would be safe and secure for the cold temps.  

We expected that we would be blanketing the horses, but upon further research we found that horses that are able to acclimate during the fall and have access to shelter are actually better suited to manage their temperature than we are. Horses have the ability to loft and lower their coats to 17 different levels, so it's like exchanging 17 different thermal weights of blankets off and on them all day and night, depending on what they need.  We were pretty nervous those first few nights, but sure enough our horses have done great in the low temps and often choose to be in their runs versus their covered barn stall.  They have also enjoyed many romps in the snow!

The girls of Downhen have adjusted very well to the cold, they spend a lot of time huddled together.  The only change has been that they are laying eggs less consistently, but that is normal when the temps drop.   

The girls have become so friendly, the 3 big ones Lady Mary, Lady Edith and Mrs. Patmore all squat to be pet and picked up now.  Lady Mary is especially fond of attention, I usually get a strong peck to the shoe if I ignore her when she wants attention.  We are still waiting for the little one to catch up, Lavinia is still pretty standoffish...not to mention fast and hard to catch! 

I thought we would definitely be bringing Oscar and Chloe in from the barn on those super cold days, but once again we were surprised by the results of our research.  We found out that we would have actually caused them more harm than good by bringing them into warmer temps after they have adjusted to colder weather.   Major temperatures changes like indoor to outdoor in the winter can be fatal to these little guys.  As you see below, they are happy as can be with extra hay for bedding.

Our biggest challenge is swapping out their water, on a cold day their water bottle will freeze multiple times (this is a challenge for all the animals actually, there is a lot of ice breaking going on at Sadie Acres!). We were shocked to find out that the average rabbit consumes between 50 and 150 milliliters of water per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight per day.   

Schumi has adjusted quite well to Colorado life, his napping has not been at all impacted by the cold temps, there are just a few more blankets involved :)  

I'm off to brave the cold and feed these critters!  Signing off from a very snowy Sadie Acres!