Round Pen Adventure- SEIZE THE WEATHER!

I came up with this great idea to build a round pen in our back yard for our horses. All it took was for my husband to get a little bit excited about it, and soon enough we were cutting down logs and spray painting a 60' circle onto the grass. This is actually happening... as I look out my window the hubster is outside digging holes and placing logs into the ground. I am determined to do this all for free. Wood is expensive, and we have a lot of it sitting in the brush that needed to be cleared out. Why not use it? The hubster was not thrilled with the idea of splitting six foot logs, but sure enough he did it. Now I just need to figure out where to find 10 foot rails. So far I have a small collection of long pine branches... not enough. I need about 54 if them. I have about 17 so far. The scavenger hunt is on my friends... the hunt is on. Fingers crossed this doesn't turn into a diabolical mess of an eye sore. In which case you will never see the photos. Ok, I'm off to take photos of the process... will add to this later. Bye for now!

Update:
We found an ad on Craigslist selling the end pieces of long logs... the hubs I guess they are called. They were perfect. All you could take for $60. The hubster went and got as many as he could fit int he truck and used them for the rails.
It turned out pretty good.
He cheated and used 2x4s to make the gate. All in all though we built a round pen for under $100. The horses like it. They gallop around in it, and eat the wood.
Since we built the round pen it has snowed... and then melted... so the ground is either too icy, or too muddy.
I can't wait for spring.
Pictures coming soon. I promise.

My horses are dumb.

I get asked this question a lot. Are horses smart?
Today, I came up with my answer.

Yes, some horses are very smart. I have witnessed a few horses using their lips to open their stall doors. I have even seen a horse drinking out of a water bottle using their lips to hold it in the air. My favorite kind of smart horse is one that poo's in a corner of their stall, makes for easy clean up; and they don't have to stand in filth.  When it comes to riding... I have seen many a horse dump a bad rider because they were just very annoying. I mean if a horse is so smart, why would it let a predator on it's back? A smart horse really wouldn't let you near it, but they are trusting, and so I will let that one go.

My friend Charlene giving a horse a drink of water. This one was a smarty pants. 

Yet, are my horses smart? No.

My two girls are not gifted. I have witnessed them standing in freezing rain instead of standing in their shelter. Today, I went to feed them, which I do twice a day. Each of them have their own designated buckets, which they eat out of... yet... today, Ellie decided that she forgot where her feed bucket was, and decided to eat out of Raven's... and Raven didn't quite know what to do so she walked out of the pen and stood on the other side of the gate waiting for me to give her orders.

On top of this they have fresh water (hand walked, thank you frozen hose) to them every morning which goes in a different bucket. I might as well have brought them a bucket full of poo. They still stand at their frozen solid water troughs waiting for water to miraculously appear. I just don't get it. I mean I even pour the fresh clean water into a fresh clean bucket right in front of their faces so they can hear, smell, and see that I am in fact giving them their water.

I like to go with the old saying. "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't force them to drink"

I confess that I do own two idiot horses. But they sure do make for some pretty lawn ornaments.