Morning Workout

Karin, Sarah, Emily, Jessica, Luke and Logan left just after 5:00am for a camping trip to Current River in Rachel's van pulling Rachel's camper. Rachel, Dave, David and Caleb will be joining them late tonight. That left me in charge of Emily's new calf and the momma cow Kenna. This morning's weather was cool and sunny so Mark helped me move Kenna and her calf out to the pasture. The calf followed her mom well. The big watering tank needed to be moved over from the horse paddock to the cow pasture as the horses now have a temporary automatic waterer. While the tank was filling I watched. The calf followed the correct mom, nursed from the correct mother cow then promptly walked over to the horse pasture, slipped under the fence and in with the Friesians, Indy, Ayanna, Zalena, Jenis and Killian. Horrified I ran (as fast as an old lady with a hip replacement can run) over to stop the horses from hurting the calf. Thankfully they must have realized this was a baby and were all very gentle and curious. The calf was herded back with the cows and all was well for about 5 minutes. The calf decided to head down to the bottom of the pasture, again went under the fence and laid down in the poison ivy. Both of the adult cows were standing at the fence mooing. I drove the golf cart down and when I arrived the calf was back in with her mom nursing. By this time we were ready to walk and I was telling mom, Diane and Rachel about the problem, and sure enough when we reached the bottom of the pasture the calf was no where to be found. Mom, Diane, Rachel and I went into the field to try to find the calf. This time it was laying down all comfortable in the tall grassy shaded area but not in the pasture. At that point we realize the calf cannot be left in this pasture.  Mom gave Diane and Rachel her walking stick so they could encourage the calf to follow the mom by holding it against her bottom pushing her forward up to the gate while I led Kenna. We put them in the only open paddock knowing this would just be temporary until after the walk. Hind sight we should have taken them back to the stall. We walked mom home then the 3 of us girls got on the golf cart and drove back to the farm to take care of the cows only to find the calf had wandered into Evan's paddock.   Rachel jumped into the paddock to haul the calf out while I went around to grab Evan and Diane put a lead rope on Kenna. The calf is just too heavy to carry so we put her in the golf cart on Rachel's lap. Diane opened the gate and Kenna came running but didn't recognize her calf on the cart. Diane was able to hand  us the lead rope before Kenna pulled her too far and off we drove to the stall barn. Rachel was trying to carry the calf into the barn and I'm leading Kenna when Abby, Ruth's dog gets between the calf and the mom. By the time we got the dog out of the way, the calf is laying on the aisle-way floor and we are huffing and puffing. It was just a bit more to get them both into the stall where they will STAY until Emily gets home. Our morning workouts are exhausting!
On another note Knight's new owners sent this picture:

Knight is cleaning up at the pony shows, and not just in halter. At one point the judge stopped the show and announced "now THIS is the kind of pony parents should be buying their children." So funny because we heard the same statement about Knights daddy Duke!