Meet Mr. and Mrs. Poofy Pigeon

                                    Em’s pretty pair of Modena pigeons,  

Shimmer....                                                                    and Creme.....

Not your average looking city pigeon are they?

Modena’s are a breed of show pigeon with a huge attitude and lots of spunk. No cowering, flighty birds here. They may look harmless and cute in their little feathery pigeon suits, but once you put your hand in the cage to give them food or change their water-they come at you like two tag team boxers.

Wingslapping and biting.  

Ouch! Yikes! It’s ok really, all things being relative-we are used to dealing with big angry roosters attacking us, so these little guys really aren’t too intimidating from our perspective. Actually we find them amusing.

But we still refrain from going in their cage without the proper hand protection of a good pair of leather gloves. Especially  since Shimmer has perfected his peck, pinch, and twist attack. We aren't fond of pain. Who is?

All Modena's have this tough guy streak. It is a trait that has been bred into them so that they puff up, posture and pose in a way that some pigeon loving humans awhile back decided was just the thing for a beauty pageant pigeon to do-Because this breed exists just for it's beauty, not to fly. Actually they are poor fliers. They also have lost their homing instincts which pigeons are famous for. Which isn't a big deal when you can't fly well anyway. 

The purple/gray looking one is Mr. Shimmer. He has lovely iridescent feathering around his neck. For all of his aggression toward his human caretakers-he lovingly cares for his mate, Crème.

Interestingly pigeons also perform a courting dance. The male sings and dances in circles while the female bobs her head and bows to him. Turn up the volume and you can hear Shimmer singing to Creme. The girls and I call this his "bob-bup-baloo" song.

Pretty cute.
The females don't sing. They grunt. But, honestly if I  had to lay an egg the size of my head, I probably wouldn't be much of a talker either.

We are hoping to have these two love birds raise a family for us this spring.
Stay tuned for more pigeon tales to come...

Thanks for stopping by!

Does This Blanket Make My BELLY Look BIG?

Brrrrrrrr!
We have been experiencing an artic winter blast in our little corner of PA .
When the temps go below 20 degrees and the wicked winter wind comes calling,
we blanket our horses at night.

Think of it as horsey pj's.

Horses grow thick winter coats that feel nice and snuggly warm when you press your hands deep  into their fur. Their hayburning bellies also generate heat by
fermentation, like a furnace. They are amazingly hardy animals in cold weather.

So while they are perfectly adapted to cold weather with lots of hay to munch and proper shelter... We as doting horsey parents, feel better knowing they have a little "extra" cover to keep them toasty warm through the night. They are probably thinking....      

........  Silly humans!

Meet Buddy, our driving pony sporting his purple and black horse jammies.

Cute, huh?

This year, however I noticed that our horses are a little more
"rotund" or "full figured."



Ok, they are fat.    See the little bit of belly hanging out of the blanket?


But wait, then there is
Frosty.

Aptly named by the
rescue we adopted
him from, he is a
big boy who wears
a very big 100 inch



blanket that we had specially made a few years ago.

Although last year, his tummy wasn't prominently poking out the bottom of his

jammies either.

Oh well, as long as they are happy and healthy (which they are) that's all that matters. But we may have to cut back on some of their equine yum yums, peppermints and horse cookies. :o)

Thanks for stopping by!