Autumn on a Horse Farm

If you really want to experience the loveliness of autumn, you'd be hard pressed to find a better place for it than a horse farm. Something about those rolling hills, colorful trees, dark fences, and, of course, beautiful horses.

After being away from the barn for a couple weeks, I was back volunteering at HorseNet Horse Rescue. It was a busy visit! We stacked bales of hay, raked hay scrapes, folded and stowed away horse blankets, and folded tarps. We also picked up piles of pine tree brush in the paddocks and moved it to the pond for burning later. Hauling all of those pine branches and needles smelled like Christmas.

The barn cats, who shadowed us through all of these chores, were a big help.


The barn recently got in a few new horses from a Humane Society seizure earlier this month. With the addition of more horses, there had to be a little shuffling around of paddock mates. One new arrangement was turning out two of the younger horses -- Elsie and Oreo -- out with some of the older, mellow horses.

Elsie, running circles around Cody.

Everyone coming in to say hi.

So far my favorite newbie is Tula. She was there to greet us at the fence and was happy to get lots of scritches.

And dole out some kisses.

Of course, the old horses are still there! Viceroy has a pending adoption, but he was roaming his usual places this weekend.

Giant horse under a little tree.

And who can forget the minis? All three miniature horses are now sharing a paddock together. They all seems to be getting along famously.

Oh, hello!

My favorite horse, Gobie, was moved to the gelding paddock. I'm a little bummed out not to have him closer to the barn, and it actually took me a while to figure out where he was. But it is pretty out in that paddock, for sure.

Welcome to my autumn paradise.

Gobie has loads of company out in the gelding paddock. When I trekked out to visit they were all around round bales eating, except for Gobie who was in the middle noshing on scraps. He looked happy to see me and came right up to say hi.

Looking heroic.

I gave him some good scratches and a couple of treats. He was his usual charming pony self -- checking out my pockets, giving smooches, and trying to eat my keys.

I'm a sucker for a pony muzzle.