It’s Gone

 

After a week of going up to the main paddock almost daily with gloves, trimmer, step stool (to sit on and take the ache out of my back and knees), and my water bottle in hand, I’ve finally got control of all the sage by aggressively cutting, trimming, and pulling…..and a whole lot of sweat and sore muscles.

It’s finally gone.

You can see the *Before* photo with This Link.

Here are the *After* photos:

(You can still see the stumps of the sage left behind, which I’ll get help pulling them out with the tractor soon) Oh…and it rained not long after I took these photos. Not much, though. It sure is dry and dusty around here. We only got enough rain this summer for about 3 weeks of grass growth. It’s all dried up and brown already.

A couple of you asked if Bella might have gotten sage sickness too, because of the way she acted so out of character and bucked my twinling Jax. It’s possible. Bella really liked the back paddock and spent much time in there. After we sent her back to the horse rescue, I did a walk-thru of that paddock and noticed that two sage bushes had been destroyed, as if she had attacked them.

(Here’s a pic of that back paddock. Bella destroyed the sage bushes, so it’s sage free)

And she had also eaten the bark of the juniper and pinon trees, too. Apache doesn’t even do that. But considering that Bella was staying here to help her lose some weight and was only getting one flake of hay three times a day, and no grain, due to her insulin resistance, it’s a real possibility that the change in diet, eating less food, caused her to be hungry enough to binge on large amounts of sage.

Which is kind of sad if that happened, because I really liked Bella and felt she fit in well here, even though she had health and boundary respect issues. Apache really seemed to like Bella, too.

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This is a view from the back of the main paddock looking towards our house. Notice all the sage is gone now. Only the yuccas and trees are left. You can see the large grey log, just left of center, that Jen and I are sitting on in my blog header.

 

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Apache seems quite confused about the loss of all of her yummy sage shrubs.

(Do you have any idea the amount of courage it takes me to get anywhere near the backside of my mare? I about had a panic attack after this photo was taken, because I was sort of wedged into the corner of this paddock, between two fences and her body, only about 3 feet from her butt.  She had come to me for some scratching and petting when she got jealous seeing me petting Annie, my neighbor friend’s mare.

And when I was done petting her, Apache turned away to walk up the hill. I didn’t relax until she was over 10 feet away from me. whew! After getting kicked in the face, the back side of any horse is not ever where I want to be.)

Apache did stay very close to Jenna and I the entire time we cleared away the sage and weeds. I caught her eating the sage and some other weeds while I was pulling them out. I think she was mostly doing that because she wanted me to stop pulling sage and pay attention to her instead.

 

During all the clearing of the sage, I also discovered a couple of other suspect weeds that I’m removing, too.

Does anyone know what this weed is? It’s those green mounds down to the left and right of Jen’s feet. She took a break from hauling weeds to love on Val’s Arabian mare, Annie.

Close up. Notice the little berry-like fruit. They remind me of mini unripe tomatoes.

After doing some research on the Guide to Poisonous Plants Search Feature, I’m guessing Horse Nettle, which can be toxic to horses if eaten in large amounts. ugh! It’s growing all along the fenceline and I watched Apache grab a bite of it just the other day.

I also found this plant.

I think it’s a Chinese Lantern or Ground Cherry, a member of the Physalis family, which can be poisonous to horses if ingested in large amounts, causing colic, bloat and diarrhea. What a mess!

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I had some help clearing the weeds. My daughter Jen loaded up piles of sage and weeds and hauled them up to the hill to the goat paddock and compost pile.

And the goats and llamas sauntered down to help munch on the little bits of sage and weeds that I missed.

Apache really likes the goats and tries to groom them and nibble on their tails.

Unfortunately, the goats aren’t as open-minded about Apache’s attention and usually run-off. Except Latte, my mini-mancha doe. She seems to be a little more tolerant of Apache’s affection and curiosity.

Apache really likes Dobbie, too. She’s always trying to nuzzle and lick my little dog.

Apache tolerates the llamas, but sometimes tries to herd them around, which usually ends up with Apache getting spat upon. 

But the llamas really like Dobbie and try to nuzzle her, which leads to Dobbie running away and hiding behind me.

(That’s Catlinite, my gelding guard llama sniffing, Dobbie. And my sweet Angora doe, Luna is walking down on the left)

This is Cataleya, Catlinite’s half-sister. She’s my good llama who enjoys going for walks and getting out and exploring. I taught her how to carry her own pack. Catlinite, on the other hand, is a worry wart and doesn’t enjoy stepping off his own home turf.

 

And Dobbie likes to pretend she’s a herding dog when she’s around the goats. They don’t seem to care for that behavior very much, and are always sure to let her know. Dobbie still has fun anyway.

(In this video, you get to see Dobbie “herding” the goats, me getting pestered by a goat, and Apache feeling left out and coming over to join the craziness)