Our First Horse

Snow! – Part 1

January 20, 2009 Bill Comments 0 Comment

Snow through the barn We don’t get a whole lot of snow in east Tennessee. Maybe once or twice a year we’ll get a dusting. Well starting yesterday it actually did snow – pretty much all day. And today the snow continued, albeit light flurries. In the three years or so we’ve been here, this is the most snow we’ve seen! I know you cold weather people will laugh but we warm weather southern people get excited when it sticks to the ground. Schools are closed, people stick up on milk and bread, etc. It’s kinda cozy, so long as the electric stays on.

I went outside and took a short video of some snowy scenery around the barn and pasture. This is part 1 of 2. After I shot and edited this video, Mikki and I let the horses out today and got some great video of them playing in it. I’ll post that probably tomorrow.

This is high definition video and it’s probably better seen in full screen mode. After you push play, there is a little icon in the bottom right corner of the video that will allow you to expand it to full screen. The video length is about 3 minutes and there is no music. Just snow falling, traffic in the background, the hum of the video recorder and occasional horsey sounds.

EDIT: I almost forgot – making an appearance in this short video are our new barn kittens, Daisy and Clover! They’ve never seen snow before and don’t seem to like it a whole lot.

Romeo gets a barn stall

January 19, 2009 Bill Comments 3 comments

Last week as very cold weather approached, Mikki and I got a hankering to knock off one of our outstanding barn projects. Although our barn is designed with room for five stalls, two of them were being used for storage. Since we built a hay loft over one, we’re able to store hay there instead of the other stall. Sure it’s more of a pain to get to but poor Romeo needed a stall. Romeo, being the most easy going horse we have, was chosen to be an “open staller”, meaning he got the run of the center aisle. When the weather is nice, that’s not a bad spot. You get lots of room and we kept the barn door open on one end so he could get water whenever he wanted. But when the wind blows, it blows right through the barn. Clearly we needed to do something. So last weekend Mikki and I cleaned out stall four for Romeo. He doesn’t have a fancy wood door like the others and he’s missing an outside window but he’s safe and protected from the wind.

Here is what it looked like before it was cleared out. What’s missing is all the hay bales. It doesn’t look like much but it took hours to find new homes for this stuff, pull exposed nails and clean all the loose hay off of the ground (it was old and nasty).

And here it is after. It was dark by the time we were done, hence the dark picture.

One more project off of the list!

Food aggression update

January 13, 2009 Bill Comments 6 comments

Thanks for all the suggestions in the comments on my last post about surprise food aggression. Separate hay stacks are the plan and I’m glad to see most of you seem to do that as well. One question though. Do you do as I do and drop the hay on the ground? I’ve heard we should try to keep it off of the dirt/mud/stone but does that mean I should buy four or five hay feeders (not round bale feeders but trough-style)? For now, it’s on the ground but I’m always looking for the better way.

Although that seems like this food aggression was an isolated incident, I always keep an eye on my position and as was noted in the comments, I am careful to not let myself get between two horses. I’m seen demeanor change in a flash. A common comment from those who have had horse accidents is “it happened so fast!” and we’d all be better for keeping that in mind.

Surprise Food Aggression

January 9, 2009 Bill Comments 10 comments

Yesterday I noticed some disturbing behavior as I let the horses out of the barn. We have a method of doing it that works pretty well for us, which has us releasing each horse mostly in the opposite order of herd position. In our herd, the order is:

1) Moonshine
2) Romeo
3) Valentine
4) Cash

At the moment, Romeo doesn’t have a stall (we hope to finish his new stall Saturday) so I take out a bale of hay and Romeo follows, without returning to the barn. Next goes Cash. He usually doesn’t want to leave the barn so he sniffs the ground, nibbles on stray pieces of hay, tries to get past me to explore the parts of the barn behind me, etc. But eventually he exits and then it’s Valentine’s turn. Valentine isn’t very aggressive at all but as he slowly exits the barn, it usually gives Cash enough momentum to leave too. Lastly it’s Moonshine, and she doesn’t stand for any lazy horsing around. By the time she gets to exit her stall I can tell she’s annoyed at having to wait so long for the others and each time she shoes them out to the hay.

Since each of the horses seems to have to fight for their position to enjoy the days ration of hay each and every day (even though the result is always the same – according to herd position), we split the hay ration into four equal parts, spaced well enough from each other so as to minimize sneak attacks. They play this little game that is not unlike musical chairs until I suppose they tire of chasing each other in circles and settle down to their own piles. On this particular day, I was putting out the hay and Mikki was letting out the horses. Figuring I had a few minutes before Cash would exit the barn, I gave the go-ahead signal to Mikki as I cut the twine on the bale. Romeo munched away as I carried Cash’s flakes to a location an ample distance from Romeo. But this time, Cash exits the barn right away and comes galloping up the hill to where I stand. This isn’t unusual. They’re often a little spunky after being in the barn all night and it was nice and cool out. But this time was different. Cash showed clear signs of agression – towards me! He came right at me, tried to push me aside and then spun around as if to kick me. Fortunately I was paying attention and yelled and jumped out of the way. I couldn’t believe it. I threw his hay down and he ran at me again. To be honest, it was a little intimidating…scary even. I am no match of a 1,000 pound horse.

So of course I’m wondering why he changed on this day; why he saw me as a threat to his food. Is it because he grows weary at constantly being on the bottom of the pecking order? I’m trying to think like a horse but I don’t know what I could have done to position myself as a challenger or as weak. He’s been fine since but I realize we’ll have to be especially careful to watch for this behavior going forward. It’s disheartening, though, because Cash has never been aggressive with us or the others.

Have you experienced this kind of food aggression?

Walking the walking horse

January 5, 2009 Bill Comments 9 comments

Taking a walking horse walk I thought Valentine was limping a little when I let him out of the barn this morning. As I watched him throughout the morning, it seemed to me something was wrong. Although he is more of a loner, this morning he wasn’t eating when I put out hay and he just stood there next to the other horses looking sad. And he seemed to be standing funny but it’s hard to tell with him. He’s such a big Walking Horse, with dominant hips. Worried, I haltered him, walked him up the muddy hill to the barn, and hosed off his feet and legs while he ate grass in my back yard while I had a look. Everything seemed normal. So I dragged him away from the yummy grass and took him for a walk down the street. It’s not the first time. In fact, I do it pretty frequently to exercise the horses and to keep them familiar with things that otherwise might spook them, like the neighbors barking dogs, cars and tree stumps. After a nice walk I was able to determine that he’s walking normal and there is no swelling and no visible lacerations. Maybe he was just still from being in the barn all night. He drank a normal amount of water, ate all of his overnight hay and his poop looked okay. After returning him to the barn for further observation, I noticed he was eating hay, though I gave him the best we had.

I did notice it’s time for a hoof trim and some new shoes. I want to check into those shoes that are slip-resistant on pavement, too. The street in front of our house has some elevation and Valentine seemed to slip a little on the smooth pavement.

Incidentally, in the photo above I am not holding the lead rope correctly. I figured this out eventually, that you don’t want the rope wrapped around your hand because the horse can move suddenly and then the rope would tighten around your hand. There are times when the safest thing to do is to let go of the lead rope and you can’t do that when it’s tight around your hand.

So do you take your horse for walks down the street?

Happy New Year 2009

December 31, 2008 Bill Comments 2 comments

Mikki, the Kid and I as well as Valentine, Moonshine, Cash and Romeo wish all of you a happy and prosperous new year! Here’s hoping it’s filled with positive equine experiences for all of us.

Merry Christmas!

December 27, 2008 Bill Comments 5 comments

A belated Merry Christmas to all (and if you don’t celebrate Christmas, we hope you had a great day, too). We’ve been busy this Christmas season and I have to admit we didn’t hang stockings for our horses or do anything really special for them this year besides feeding them peppermint horse snacks Christmas day. We did give (and receive) various horse/western gifts. How about you? Did you do anything special for your horses this year? Any interesting horse gifts?

The CD winner is…

December 16, 2008 Bill Comments 5 comments

The CD winner is…d2cmom!

We assigned each post a number (sorry, Lisa – your two posts only counted as one entry) and had the Kid draw a number out of a hat. Number 8 was drawn, and the eighth post was d2cmom.

So congratulations, and contact us soon so we can send your new CD!

Thanks to all of you for posting. We enjoyed all the posts – they were some very good stories, and interesting thoughts. We hope you’ll keep them coming, even without a contest.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

CD Review: On Horses’ Wings…And You Can Win It!

November 26, 2008 Mikki Comments 16 comments

On Horses Wings Album That’s right…just in time for Christmas, we’re going to have another first here at Our First Horse – a giveaway!

We have found another great CD for your listening pleasure. It is a compilation CD called “On Horses’ Wings” and features seven great artists on 19 vocal and musical tracks. Everything on the CD is horse-related, of course, but it’s one of the best CDs on any subject or in any genre we’ve heard in a while.

It is beautifully done. The tracks alternate from a spoken piece (think poem, or short story) to a song. There is a lot of thought put into the arrangement; each song fits the piece before it, and they all flow from beginning to end. Some of the pieces will make you laugh (“The County Fair is Over” followed by “Falling in Love in America,” both by Antsy McClain), and some will bring a tear to your eye (“He’s Gonna Run” by James Cain). All will inspire you, and remind you of how very powerful a horse is, in every way. I love the whole CD. My current favorite is “Hands” by Wylie and the Wild West (I think of it by the more complete refrain, “16 Hands Closer to God”), but I’ve only heard it a handful of times.

Oh, and one of the best things about the CD is that all proceeds will benefit Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center, an equine-assisted therapy center supporting children and adults with disabilities. Read about Little Bit here.

Check it out and listen to tracks here: On Horses’ Wings
Read about it and buy it here: On Horses’ Wings CD

Surely by now, the end of this post, you’ve clicked on the links, listened to all the tracks and know all about the artists and Little Bit. Maybe you’ve even bought a copy or two – we surely hope so! But maybe you’re still remembering the beginning of the post where I said you could win a copy. Never fear, I haven’t forgotten that either. Here’s how: Simply post a comment here, right here on this post. Not just any comment though – we don’t want a whole line of “I want it,” “Me too,” “Count me in,” etc. But we won’t make you write an essay or anything either…it is the holidays, after all, and we’re all busy people! Just please leave a little note telling us something dear to your heart that is horse-related. You could tell us your favorite horse activity, or how many horses you have, or your favorite song on “On Horses’ Wings,” or why you love Our First Horse! 🙂 Make it as short or as long as you like. Post it by midnight EDT on December 15, 2008, and we’ll randomly pick a poster to win a copy!

Good luck to you all, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Update: Even though the contest is now over, the CD is available still at Ecletic Horseman Communications (no affiliation).

What to do with all of this extra oxygen

November 25, 2008 Bill Comments 5 comments

I didn’t realize how much I took it for granted but I learned this week that east Tennessee has a luxurious amount of oxygen. Business took me to Denver last week and since Colorado is a long way from Tennessee, I had to fly in the day before to be there in time for a morning meeting Wednesday. As luck would have it, frequent readers Laura and Rich live in Denver and it just so happened there was a window of opportunity for me to meet up with them for a quick ride, barn tour and dinner. So I left home in my barn jeans and favorite riding boots, hoping that the smell of the farm on my boots wasn’t too strong. I’m not sure I notice it as much anymore but surely my fellow passengers would. Surprisingly, going through security was easier in my boots. No untying of shoes; just slip off and back on at the other side.

Now we live what’s called the western lifestyle on our farm but everything is definitely more western out west. Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona…it’s easier feeling western out there and that heritage is reflected all over the place. The Denver airport had western-styled shops, the entrance to the airport had a giant blue bronco, reared up and angrily staring at travelers entering the airport grounds. It’s eyes even glowed red. The local magazines spoke of rodeos and even my hotel had a western theme. I had been to Denver before but that was before horses were a part of our lives and this time I felt more welcome.

Colorado riding Laura met me at the barn and introduced me to my borrowed ride “Socks”, a gelding who was calm enough to use in a youth equine program. Many thanks to his owner, whose name escapes me but who interestingly visits east Tennessee once a year not 30 minutes from where we live. I hope to reciprocate with a Tennessee ride with her next summer. Laura lent me her 16 inch saddle which fit me perfectly. We tacked up and headed out. We tested the horses in a large outdoor arena and once we were satisfied with their disposition that day, we headed out past the barn. I lucked out again with the weather. Laura and Rich tell me the weather can fluctuate a lot this time of year and on this day it just happened to be 75 and very pleasant. Perfect riding weather. Laura and I toured the countryside, avoiding prairie dog holes (which are quite large). Only two scary things attacked us: man hole covers (why do they use suck threatening devices?) and a jogger, if you can believe it. I saw her in the distance and warned Laura but once the horses realized something was sneaking up on us, they became unnerved. I didn’t mind and was expecting it. With horses, no matter how experienced the horse is, the rider must be prepared for reactions to things the horse perceives as a threat. And Laura is far more experienced than I am so this was no big deal. In fact Laura suggested the right response, which was for us to turn the horses so they could see what was coming up behind us. The jogger even came over gently so the horses could sniff her.

The beautiful sun set over the Rockies so we put the horses up and headed out for dinner. Rich wasn’t able to join us for the ride (darn work getting in the way of recreation!) but we met up for dinner at a restaurant serving tapas called The 9th Door in downtown Denver. Tapas is an appetizer style meal where you order a bunch of items and then share. It’s a lot fancier than any meal I’ve had where I live and I appreciated the unusual dining experience.

I love it when I can combine my love of horses with a business trip and this was one of those rare opportunities to do so. Thanks to Laura and Rich for an afternoon of fun and fellowship and I hope Mikki and the kid can come out to meet you both on a future visit. We’d love to reciprocate if you’re ever in east Tennessee.