Our First Horse

Stall door protection concept – 6 months later

May 14, 2007 Bill Comments 0 Comment

About 6 months ago I posted a note discussing the wood-chewing habits of my dear Moonshine (Protecting Wooden Stall Doors – Part 1). We thought she was bored while in her stall overnight figuring that would explain why she like munching on her main stall door. So in November I went about fabricating an aluminum door cover to make it harder for her to destroy the door with her teeth. I was initially concerned she might bite through the aluminum, causing sharp edges that might cut her tongue or mouth. Six months later, that still hasn’t happened. The aluminum trim is pretty attractive still and hasn’t been damaged by my horse at all. Although at first she liked to lick it after eating her oats, she doesn’t seem to do that anymore. In fact, she doesn’t seem to chew on wood anymore. I mentioned this recently in the post titled Wood chewing habit update. It seems that since we changed to a different feed – Purina Strategy – Moonshine stopped chewing wood. From what people have been telling me, it seems like the feed store sweet oats we had been feeding her were lacking something she wanted/needed. Strategy provides it. Prior to Strategy we tried Purina Omolene 100 and that seemed to work, too.

I don’t plan on removing the aluminum shield I made but at this point I don’t think I’ll be making one for the other door. If you have a chewer and changing feed doesn’t work for you, in addition to trying some horse stall toys, a stall door cover/shield might help protect your barn and your horse until you have the problem licked.

Part 1 – Protecting Wooden Stall Doors
Part 2 – Stall door protection concept – 6 months later (this post)

My trusty barn gloves

May 12, 2007 Bill Comments 3 comments

I’m about to retire the best light-work gloves I have ever owned. I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty but last year I bought a pair of Justin light leather gloves from Tractor Supply. I’ve used these gloves nearly every day for a year and the only reason I’m retiring them is due to some holes they’ve developed. It’s time. I used these gloves exclusively for barn work and riding, etc. No working on cars, no gardening. I like them so much because of the way they feel, tight enough for me to easily grip whatever I’m grabbing but not too tight to be comfortable. I think I paid $20 for them and they’ve been worth every penny. They will be replaced with the same exact Justin glove model, if I can find them. Definitely a “buy” recommendation from me.

Neither Justin nor Tractor Supply paid me anything to say nice things about these gloves. 🙂

Treating the barn with diesel and transmission fluid?

May 9, 2007 Bill Comments 4 comments

55 Gallon Drum One of the great mysteries of our new home was why the previous owners would leave behind several fifty gallon barrels of chemicals behind. It was alarming. We wanted to dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way but weren’t quite sure where to start. The previous owners didn’t have a tractor so why did they have giant barrels of what seemed like thick oil or grease? We mentioned this to several people in the area and it was only last month that someone gave us the clue we needed to solve this mystery. Our barn is wood sided and apparently it’s common in this area to mix some concoction of diesel fuel, used transmission fluid and whatever this oil/grease is in the barrels to treat the wood on the barn. It’s supposed to protect the wood from the weather and insects, such as carpenter bees. I have never heard of such a thing. I guess it kind of makes sense. I know wood needs to be chemically treated to last but it seems odd to me that we should be using something that is…I don’t know…HIGHLY FLAMMABLE!

Have you ever heard of this? What do you guys use for your wooden barns/out-buildings?

Funny Horse Things I Didn’t Think Up

May 7, 2007 Mikki Comments 0 Comment

Laughing horse I hate to have to click on a bunch of links to get somewhere, and I’m sure you do too, but rather than steal from other people AND have a post that’s several pages long, I thought I’d just give you links to some funnies I’ve found that you might enjoy. They’re worth every click:

“How Many Horses Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?” from Bridlepath‘s blog

“If Horses Were Software” also from Bridlepath

“What Breed Horse Are You?” from a link on HorseApproved‘s site. Not technically funny, but interesting for sure.

“The Famous Squirrel Story” – this one will have you giggling out loud, so if you’re at work, you’ve been warned. From Shady Acres , the website of Susan Evans Garlinghouse, a veterinarian and equine nutrition expert.

“Mr. Hand” – this entertaining take on sheath cleaning was written by Patricia Harris and has been extensively reprinted Web-wide (including here on this site), so I’m not sure where the original posting might be. But thank you, Ms. Harris, wherever you are, for an hysterically funny yet very educational piece of horse lore.

I’m sure many of you have found some too. Bring ’em on!

The photo above is by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash

Do hoof trimmings make good dog treats?

May 6, 2007 Bill Comments 0 Comment

Our dog eating something

Our dogs look forward to farrier visits. I think they mark it on their little doggy calendars, in fact. When the farrier visits, he trims all eight of our horses’ hooves in neat slices, just perfect for gnawing. This to me is disgusting. Mikki and I pick up the shavings but invariably one or two get by us and a few days later we see one of our dogs happily chewing on it. They must be good, too, because our dogs will protect this illicit snack with their lives. This can’t be healthy for them, right? I’m sure hooves carry all kinds of nasty bacteria dogs shouldn’t be ingesting. But then again as much as I love dogs, I realize they are pretty gross. I mean how do you reason with something that will eat its own barf and dig “Almond Roca” out of the cat litter box for a particularly chewy treat? Can horse hooves really be worse than poo and week-old garbage?

Our worst offender is our older Jack Russell terrier. He is a hoof aficionado. This last batch he got into didn’t settle too well in his tummy and we got to see what it looked like partially digested…on our living room carpet. Pretty gross. But that’s the dog theme…gross.

Do you let your dog(s), if you have any, munch on horse hoof trimmings?

Should I rename her Mary Jane?

May 4, 2007 Bill Comments 0 Comment

But today…I detected the scent of something smoky.

I love the smell of my horse. If you don’t have a horse, that must be a weird thing to hear someone say but it’s true. She smells horsey and I like it. But today for some strange reason as I kissed her long face and breathed in, I detected the scent of something smoky. In fact, it smelled like…marijuana. Why does my horse smell like marijuana? I wish I knew. We don’t smoke it and don’t know anyone around who does. I really don’t think our neighbors do. Are there plants in the wild that smell like burning marijuana cigarettes or should I be on the lookout for hippies in my pasture? This was an isolated incident but worth noting, nonetheless.

The horse owner’s garden – Part 1

May 3, 2007 Bill Comments 6 comments

We spent a good part of this past weekend setting up a garden. Now the significance of this for us is that we’re previously desert people and are not used to gardening. I haven’t had a garden in almost 20 years and Mikki, an Arizona native, has never had a garden. Horses and the ability to garden were two of the top reasons for us deciding to move to Tennessee. So this weekend we put up some fencing, tilled the soil and began planting. As a horse owner, the thought occurred to me that we really ought to devote a portion of our garden to vegetables our horses like. I’m not sure we’ll save much money…a five pound bag of carrots at Costco and Sams Club runs around $2.50. But if we stagger our carrot planting, for example, at least we won’t have to make a trip to the store to buy them this summer. And we’ll know they were grown without any pesticides, except maybe some sevin dust, if needed.

The only trouble with this plan is, I don’t know what else to plant but carrots. I gave Valentine and Moonshine a radish the other day. She like it, he didn’t. I like radishes too but I could give Moonshine the ones I don’t want. I’ll call them horse radishes (haha). I suppose celery is an option. I’ll have to do some experimenting. Our garden is about 25 foot by 20 foot so we’ve got ample room to grow tomatoes, beans, some corn, strawberries, melons, etc.
As a horse-owner, having a garden is great. Now I know what to do with all that composted manure from the past year. I walked right past the fertilizer section of the Home Depot garden center and laughed.

So this horse owners garden right now consists of only carrots. Any suggestions on other veggies I should try, specifically for horses?

Horse Expense List Updated

May 2, 2007 Bill Comments 5 comments

I just got caught up on our year-to-date horse expense list and chart. 2007 is shaping up to be more expensive for us as horse owners. It looks like the biggest reason for that is because we’re just coming off of the cold months and winter is definitely more expensive for maintaining horses. Last years expense list started in summer. Now that the grass is growing and our horses are spending less time in the barn, our expenses are going down. If it wasn’t for farrier expense in April, our monthly total would have been only $74. But horses (usually) need shoeing!

Here are some expense changes implemented recently:

We find ourselves using more wood pellets these days, as it makes our job cleaning stalls each day much easier.
We got some good deals on more expensive feed from Purina and now we’re hooked. We really like Omolene and Strategy. I think we’ll stick with Strategy for now, which sells for about $3 more per bag than local feed-store sweet oats. We’ll also be cutting back slightly on the amount of feed we use.
We’ll start buying fly parasites again this month (May). We tried them last year and they worked. Today I noticed TONS of flies in the barn. We should have ordered the parasites a little earlier.

On an administrative note, the horse expense list page is looking cluttered to me so I’ll be redesigning it. The information is good, it’s just getting hard to read.

Here’s the updated graph:

Our 11 month average is $157.

Show horses, MEET GIRLS!

May 1, 2007 Bill Comments 4 comments

I’d guess 85% of the participants are female…

At the horse show, this weekend, Mikki and I made an interesting social observation. There are very few boys/men riding at these shows. It’s true. I’d guess 85% of the participants are female and all the boys/men were constantly surrounded by cute girls/women. Our son is only 10 but when the time comes for him to be interested in girls, I’m going to suggest he ratchet up his interest in horses, too. It’s nearly a perfect dating scenario. Horses are masculine but also feminine. Guys look tough on horses and girls like horses and guys who look tough. It’s easy to date someone who is interested in similar topics, such as horses. Chemistry can develop when you’re involved in some friendly competition at a show. And supply versus demand gives guys the edge. Eighty-five percent! Why aren’t more guys into this sport!?

We want to show our horses

April 30, 2007 Bill Comments 3 comments

A friend invited us to a local horse show this weekend where her kids were competing. We are now fairly certain we want to show our horses. We’re not interested in the super fancy dress-up shows, not that there is anything wrong with that. But this local show was right up our alley. Come as you are, show what you’ve got. 43 classes, a few of which either had no participants or only one participant. Mikki is interested in the Walking Horse and gaited classes for Valentine and I’m interested in trying Moonshine out as a barrel racer. Again, local shows, small purse, light competition. But it sure looked like fun!

I know we have some work to do but Valentine is an ex-show horse, to begin with and has quite a striking appearance. Moonshine’s talent seems to be her ability to run like the wind. Our horse friend offered to cart our horses to some shows with them since we don’t have our own trailer. I need a helmet!

Yesterday Mikki and I worked with our very willing horses. We rode both of them some, practiced saddling, mounting and helping them stay focused despite distractions like kids on bicycles and dogs barking. I think that show was just the motivation we needed to get our horses (and us!) into shape.