My fourth week at the farm has come to a close, and I am already dreading the day I have to leave. I have begun to look forward to waking up at 6:30 and heading to the pastures to greet the horses and my PI. On the good days, the heat doesn’t really hit until around 10, so it is really peaceful and calming to work out on the grass.
These past two weeks have been a mixture of identifying plants, collecting herbage mass, caring for the horses, and chasing after geese to get them off the pastures. I have gotten better at differentiating between Kentucky Bluegrass, Tall Fescue, and Orchardgrass, although I am still working on identifying the other types. I am hoping that in the next few days, the grass will grow out more (it had been recently mowed), and it will be easier to pick out the certain characteristics that mark each type of grass. This past week, I also found out that the horses in each group have developed a hierarchy. I made the mistake of trying to groom the horse at the bottom of the totem pole first, which caused the lead mare to throw a slight tantrum. She also proceeded to continuously knock over the bucket containing all the brushes and picks. I found this amusing, but the horses seem to take the hierarchy very seriously (which I am now trying to respect).
In the upcoming days, we will try to gather grass samples from each pasture. We were supposed to finish this today, but the grass was too wet from the rain. If the hot weather persists, we will also hose down some of the mares to keep them cool. Normally, they stay cool in the shade, but the temperatures reached the high 90's one afternoon, and one of the larger mares was pouring down sweat. I am looking forward to the next two weeks at the farm!
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