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Author: Mikki

Mired Down in Real Life

Mired Down in Real Life

Not that horses aren’t “real life,” of course, but lately our non-horse pursuits have taken over. Apparently some of you have noticed – wow! How flattering! We appreciate you all, and promise we’ll be back soon. In addition to work, school, parent-teacher conferences and my birthday (the big 2-9, again…), we are working on a huge, non- horse-related video project with a deadline of Sunday. Weird deadline, I know. It’s for our church; it’s our pastor’s 20th year with the church and Bill and I got suckered into willingly volunteered to produce a video montage of his 20 years there. (Just kidding; it’s very time-consuming and stressful but we’re happy to do it, it’s gonna be great). So we should be back next week. In the meantime, here are some upcoming topics to look forward to:

  • Putting up hay for the winter – we spent one recent Saturday in a hay field collecting freshly-baled hay.
  • Learning to train in a round pen – can’t wait to have time for that!
  • An overnight trail ride – if we can get Valentine in shape in less than two weeks, I’m going camping with him along with my best horse buddy, Shari, and some friends of hers in mid-October.

…and on a related note:

  • Why you should own and use a riding helmet.

See ya’ll soon!

We Have a Round Pen!

We Have a Round Pen!

Yesterday evening we went over to our favorite horse friends’ house and picked up a portable arena they weren’t using. We loaded it onto our trailer when we got there, enjoyed a nice dinner with their family, and headed home a little after 9:00 p.m. So do you think we parked the trailer somewhere and left it for tomorrow? Heck, no! We were out in our dark pasture with the truck lights on, plus our Jeep facing in from the other way, hauling that thing off the trailer and setting it up. If we didn’t have to get the Kid to bed for school, we probably would have tried it out with a horse. We’re so excited!

We have eleven 10′ panels plus a 5′ gate; that gives us a round arena (well, eventually it will be round; it was pretty dark out there when we were setting it up) – that’s about 37′ across. Just about perfect for working a horse with a longe line. Also, it’s not so big that my Tennessee Running Horse can take me for too much of a ride. 😉

And, just in time, we’re supposed to start getting cooler weather this week. I do have this big project I’m working on with a deadline looming…but I’ll find a way to squeeze some arena time in too.

Did I mention that we’re really excited? We are really excited!

My New Saddle!

My New Saddle!

Henry Miller saddleLast weekend, we attended a major socio-economic event, a veritable cultural phenomenon: The World’s Longest Yard Sale. This thing stretches 630 miles along Highway 127 from Alabama to Ohio, and you can find just about anything there. Like regular old yard sales, most of it is junk. There are a few gems among the knickknacks, VCR tapes and 80’s posters, though, and we found a couple in our price range. Among other things, we got a hand-painted light switch cover; a John Deere hat; an “antique” concrete leveler; and a 17-year-old book about east Tennessee.

But our favorite finds, of course, were horse-related. We got a great lawn sign. It’s a big hunk of sheet metal, cut into the shape of a running horse with “Welcome” laser cut into the middle. It’s about 4 feet high by 5 feet long:

Isn’t it pretty?

My favorite buy of the day, though, is my new saddle. I’ve been borrowing my friend Shari’s saddle for over a year now and wanted to give it back. We looked at saddles, but most were more than we wanted to pay. Then at the end of the day, at a stand that was selling lemonade, tomatoes and a mish-mash of junk, were two saddles under a table. One was just too worn-out to even consider, but the other was okay. It’s a dark brown western saddle with no silver (I’m not crazy about the silver) and brand-new stirrup leathers and came with an extra strap and roping cinch. It’s pretty worn but not cracked or torn anywhere, and the tree (the rigid foundation that the saddle is built around, kind of like a car’s frame) is intact. Shari looked at it for me and said it’s okay, and that we didn’t get ripped off. The guy was asking $85; Bill, wonder-negotiator, got him down to $60! What a deal!

See you next year at the World’s Longest Yard Sale!

Our Horses Got Loose Tonight!

Our Horses Got Loose Tonight!

Police CarTalk about an exciting evening! We stayed up late tonight because it’s Friday and we’re night owls. At 11:21 someone pulled into our driveway. Someone coming by unexpectedly that late at night is rarely good news, and this was no exception. It was the father of our horse friends, the Watsons, wondering if we were missing a couple of horses. Bill, who answered the door, said no, of course not. Why would we be missing any horses? “Say…what color are they?” “Black,” replied Mr. Watson. Uh oh. It suddenly occurred to Bill that we had put our goats out in the pasture earlier and when we brought them back through the gate to return them to their pen, we might, just possibly, have forgotten to close the gate.

So Bill came back in to tell me that the police had our horses rounded up down by the road. He ran up to the barn to get their halters while I changed out of my jammies (hey, it was coming up on midnight!) and ran down the road after him. You would not believe the sight that greeted us! About a quarter mile down the road from our house, in our church parking lot, were flashing lights (the police), a half dozen cars, and about a dozen people. As I got closer, a wildlife officer, who had also responded, drove by and said out his window, “Y’all lose some horses?” (Duh!) And there, about 25 yards from the busy highway, were our two fugitive horses, tied to a telephone pole.

Oh, and if all this weren’t embarrassing enough, let me remind you that we live in a small town. In addition to Mr. Watson, there were at least three other people from our church that we know well, in addition to our other neighbor, Mr. Raper, watching from his porch. Ack!

Amusing as this all was – and since it turned out okay, it is really quite amusing – it was also quite a scare. Those horses may have been out for more than two hours. They wandered a good half mile from our house, and ended up right next to a very busy highway. No one but Mr. Watson and Mr. Raper even knew we had horses; I’m not sure how Mr. Watson ended up in the mix, but thank goodness he did, otherwise who knows where Valentine and Moonshine would have ended up? (Do they have a horse “pound?”) And that’s the least scary outcome. Several people there commented on how good-looking our horses are – some less reputable person could have come along and decided they wanted them for their own. And the worst possible scenario, of course, would have been if they actually walked out on the highway and got hit.

Let me tell you, we were thanking the good Lord the whole time we were walking our runaways home. And we probably won’t forget to close that gate from now on.

My Horse Loves Watermelon

My Horse Loves Watermelon

Horse eating watermelonOur garden is doing so well this year! A little too well, in fact, at least as far as the melon goes. We’re kind of newbies to the gardening thing as well as the horse thing (I did grow up in the Arizona desert, after all), so we’re making mistakes. Here’s one: when the seed packet says to thin the seedlings once they sprout, you really ought to follow that instruction. Bill thought the new watermelon and cantaloupe plants looked a little puny, so he left all five of them. On each mound of plants. All four of them. That’s right, we have 10 watermelon plants and 10 cantaloupe plants – in a garden that’s about 20′ by 25′. It’s now actually a melon patch with a few other plants struggling to maintain a foothold. Our pastor described it best when he compared it to kudzu.

Luckily for us, our friends like melon, and so does my horse. We learned that watermelon is a safe and fun treat for horses, so of course we had to try it. We found out that Moonshine isn’t that crazy about it, but Valentine LOVES it. He ate all we brought, and wanted more (we decided that moderation is probably the safest way to go – too much of anything, especially something new, isn’t a good idea).

So now we know about the watermelon. I haven’t been able to find anything on cantaloupe, though – do any of you know? Hurry, we have a zillion cantaloupe ready to ripen, and not nearly that many friends.

Why (we think) We Like Our New Farrier

Why (we think) We Like Our New Farrier

Farrier AnvilOur new farrier, “J”, came out on Thursday, and we are cautiously optimistic. First of all, he showed up on time, which was a pleasant surprise. He brought his teenage son as an assistant, and they were both polite, friendly and quietly competent. Both horses were less of a pain than usual (although it’s possible that we woke them up when we called them up to the barn); because of that, and the fact that he had help, it took him a good 45 minutes less than it did G. Their feet look great, and J guarantees that the shoes will stay on for at least six weeks – he’ll come out and replace any shoe that falls off before then, no matter what the reason. We didn’t even know farriers offered that kind of guarantee; G was going to charge us $20 to replace the shoe Valentine lost after only 2 weeks – if he had ever shown up, that is.

We feel very fortunate to have found this farrier, and even more since he told us that he doesn’t accept new clients. He only agreed to take us on because (1) some of our neighbors are already clients; and (2) more importantly, he’s friends with one of our friends. So we’re very grateful.

There is one downside, though – isn’t there always? J charges about 35% more than G ($150 vs $110, for both). However, he returns our calls in a timely manner, shows up on time and guarantees his work. I guess you get what you pay for, right?

Once again, we’ll keep you posted.

Barefoot v. Shod, Take Two

Barefoot v. Shod, Take Two

Farrier cleaning hoofI’m no expert, but personally, I think it’s better for a horse to be barefoot, if at all possible. It just seems more natural, and it’s still a little creepy to watch the farrier nail a hunk of metal onto my horse’s hoof. However, there are many good reasons to shoe a horse, and for several of those reasons, our horses stay shod (or at least, they’re supposed to). Here are our reasons:

  • Tender feet. Moonshine couldn’t care less what’s on or not on her feet. She was barefoot when we got her and was perfectly happy to stay that way. Valentine, on the other hand, practically limps when he loses a shoe. If he’s missing a shoe, he invariably favors that foot.
  • Soft hooves. Some horses just have softer hooves than others. Moonshine, tough as she is, gets really dinged-up hooves when she doesn’t have shoes; the big baby Valentine, ironically enough, wears his hooves down, but they don’t get any chips or cracks.
  • Unfavorable terrain. Our pasture is rocky and rough in a lot of places, and the horses like to walk through there. I think if it were all nice, soft grass and more forgiving soil, they would both be fine. (Of course, the trails around here are pretty rocky too, so we’d most likely shoe them both anyway.)

Here’s a new reason we discovered the day before yesterday, too. At this point, I have to fess up to something: before Wednesday, I hadn’t cleaned out my horses’ hooves for quite a while. Weeks, in fact. Shame, shame on me! In addition to that, with our ongoing farrier problems, they haven’t been shod in about 10 weeks, and are missing one (Valentine) and three (Moonshine) shoes. But here’s what we discovered:

  • Shoes keep hooves clean. Our soil, in addition to being rocky, is heavy on the clay side. When it’s muddy, that stuff gets all packed up in the hooves. Then it dries out, and the mud stuck up in there dries out too; and it turns to CEMENT. I’m not kidding. I picked up Moonshine’s right front hoof and found a hard, smooth, un-pickable piece of marble.  They were all that way…except on the hoof with her one remaining shoe. On that foot, I was able to pick it out with no problem at all. Same story on Valentine: on the three feet that have shoes, the stuff inside was soft and brushed right out with very little picking at all. On the foot that’s missing a shoe, I’d need a mini-sledgehammer to knock it loose.

So, needless to say, I’m very glad that my horses have all four feet covered again. That’s right…we had a farrier come out yesterday! Hopefully our shoeing woes have finally come to an end. We’ll tell you all about the new farrier tomorrow!

Anybody Know a Good Farrier?

Anybody Know a Good Farrier?

There are two very important people in your horse’s life, besides you. First is the vet; second is the farrier. As we’ve mentioned, we live in a small town, so service people are kind of scarce here. When we got Valentine, he needed to be re-shod (he had in fact thrown a shoe, and he was due for a trim anyway). We asked the former owner for his farrier’s name and number, which he gave us, but after several calls, the guy – we’ll call him G – wasn’t calling us back. So I found someone else on the Internet and made an appointment; the next day, G called. He was going to charge less, and already knew my horse, so I went ahead and canceled the first appointment.

On appointment day, we waited patiently at the appointed time of 9:00…and G came at about 10:30. He apologized, said he was already behind. We later learned that 9:00 is usually his first appointment for the day, so he must have put someone before us.

It’s been over a year now since G started shoeing our horses. That’s about 8 appointments. He has been at least an hour late for every one. It takes several calls and at least a week to get a hold of him. Here’s the thing, though – he’s a really nice guy, and in our inexpert opinion, does a good job of shoeing our horses. He’s shod Valentine for years (through 3 owners now) and puts up with his antics. So for a while, that outweighed the unreliability. But the last episode kind of overshadowed the good points. Valentine lost a shoe about 2 weeks after his last shoeing; we called G and made an appointment to replace that one shoe, and he never showed. He also never returned our calls about it. Unfortunately, we left for Phoenix shortly after and never had time to follow up.

After the first few months of spending days trying to get a hold of G for a regular appointment, we had realized that it was much easier to set the next appointment while he was there. So we had a pre-set appointment for June 19. G never showed. He didn’t return our calls for about a week; we missed that call, he left a voice mail saying he’d try again. That’s the last we’ve heard from him, despite a call a few days ago informing him that Moonshine is down to only one shoe and her other feet are all beat up.

So the day after our last call to G, we again prevailed on our best horse friend, Shari, for the name of her farrier. It only took him 2 days to call back, and his next open appointment was only a week away, so it looks like we might have a new farrier. (We’ll call him J, and let you know how it goes.)

Sorry for the rant…sometimes you just gotta rant. I’m thinking the farrier change was way overdue, but maybe you just have to put up with some BS if you find a decent farrier, especially in a small town. What do you all think?

Mud Abatement, Part 2

Mud Abatement, Part 2

Muddy Barn - beforeWell, it’s not currently “mud season,” but we appear to have made some serious headway on the mud situation. We’ll know for sure when winter comes – when it’s never warm enough outside to dry out the mud – but for now I’m cautiously optimistic. The entryway to our barn, formerly a quagmire of hoof-sucking, boot-stealing, horseshoe-swallowing mud, is a nice flat expanse of plain old dirt. The winner in this fight: SAND.

After Originally, we tried two different techniques, straw and sand. We used straw exclusively in one section, sand in the other. When it became apparent that sand was having the most effect, we expanded the area in which were were using sand. Now, the best way to have done this would have been to buy a dump-truck load of sand and shovel it over the whole area; but since we didn’t know for sure it was going to work, we just periodically bought 50-pound bags of sand and put them in the worst areas. Over time, the whole barn-entry area was treated, and it is so much better. We’ll keep adding to it as winter approaches; in fact, we will probably go ahead and get that dump-truck load now that we know how effective it is, and probably expand the treatment area to include where their water trough is.

One cool thing we did, that combined mud abatement and our unabashed sentimentality: last time I went to visit my family in Arizona, I drove back here with my dad and The Kid. We stopped in the desert on our way out and filled two buckets with Arizona sand. When we got home, we spread it over the remaining muddy spot by the barn. Now our pasture has a little piece of Arizona, AND it’s helping with the mud. Yay, sand!

The entire mud abatement series:

Mud Abatement, Part 1
Mud Abatement, Part 2 (this post)
Mud Abatement, Part 3