Our First Horse

Death to Flies!

May 30, 2006 Mikki Comments 2 comments

No to flies! — *Fly photo by Manlake Gabriel on Unsplash*

Time for a report on fly control. First, a little history.

When we first got Valentine, it was the dead of winter. It was very cold, and we were very new to all aspects of horsekeeping, including manure management. We didn’t have a clue what to do with the poo he filled his stall with every day. So, what we did was…and I’m embarrassed to admit this…chuck the manure over the wall of Valentine’s stall into the stall next to his. It was meant to be temporary until we figured out what to do with it long-term. We don’t do that anymore – but there’s still a pretty big pile in the vacant stall. The thing is, we have a really nice trailer to load it up in and take it out to the pasture. But we had to disassemble that trailer to get it onto the other trailer to move it out here (Bill has a “thing” for trailers). And we haven’t found the bolts to put it back together again. So it sits in pieces next to the barn and the pile of manure sits in the vacant stall awaiting the assembly of the trailer. It’s a sad, sad cycle.

Anyway…so knowing that there would be a lot of fly attractant sitting around the barn (and by the way, we are moving it out a wheelbarrow at a time, but it takes a while), we knew we’d have to be pretty aggressive with fly control. We decided on a multi-faceted approach:

Feed-through fly control. As the name implies, this is a supplement that you add to their feed. There are several different kinds. Solitude IGR, EquiTrol, SimpliFly and similar products contain a horse-safe chemical that is passed through the intestinal tract into the manure where flies lay their eggs, preventing the formation of the larvae’s exoskeleton when they molt (gross, huh – but they are FLIES). There are also a few herbal-type supplements that are supposed to make your horse unappealing to biting insects, such as Inside-Out. (I’m thinking of trying one of those myself, I’m entirely too tasty to mosquitoes and such.) We chose a formulation offered by a local feed store. It’s of the first variety, the exoskeleton knocker-outer. We add 1 teaspoon to their food every night, and they don’t complain. We’ve been feeding it to Valentine for about two months now with no problems.

Fly Parasites. It sounds strange, but we bought bugs to eat other bugs. Not only that, but these fly parasites look like tiny little flies themselves. But instead of harassing your horse (and you), they eat fly pupae. Yummy! We ordered them by mail through Arbico Organics (there are several companies that sell these). They send a batch of Fly Eliminators once a month. The first batch we got was already hatching; the new batch we got last week isn’t hatching yet, but once the bugs start hatching, you open up the bag they’re in, distribute them at dusk around places where flies might want to lay eggs, and let them go to town. We see no flies around our giant manure pile, so I tend to think they are working quite well.

Spot-On Fly Control. If you have dogs, you’ve probably used a product like this to repel ticks and fleas. It comes in a little tube that you squeeze on your pet from neck to tail. For dogs, it comes in a 1 ml tube; for horses, 10 ml. We use Equispot. You squeeze one ml on the poll, one ml on the back of each leg, then the remaining 5 ml along the back from ear to the top of the tail. Frankly, I’m not impressed with this product – the flies don’t seem to be deterred from any of these areas at all, and still congregate around their eyes. But I haven’t stopped using it to see if it will make a difference, either.

Fly Sprays. We started using a fly spray to supplement the Equispot about a week ago. There was a lot of stamping going on – the horses were frequently stamping the ground to shake flies off, and this can actually cause injury to the horse – so we spray their legs with Bronco Fly Spray before they go out in the morning. The first day, we tried to do it after they were already out in the pasture. I don’t recommend that, because they’re not fond of being sprayed with anything, and it’s a lot harder to aim the spray when they’re moving out in the open than when they’re in a 12’x12′ stall.

Wound Care. Flies are unfortunately attracted to open wounds. Your horse is going to get owies, and you, of course, don’t want to spray a strong insecticide on an open wound – that would really sting. There are fly repellants especially formulated for open wounds. Since they’re “gentle,” they’re also good for, ahem, sensitive areas. Our poor horses were being eaten alive on their bellies, so I posted a message on Horse City’s forum asking for advice. I was told to use SWAT ointment. It is also working very well.

There are other options as well: good old-fashioned fly strips, bug zappers, and fly masks. We haven’t tried any of these yet, but we may in the future. In the meantime, we’ll continue our current methods of fly mass murder.

Death to all flies!

Watch Your Head!

May 26, 2006 Mikki Comments 1 comment

After being stepped on a couple of times, it appears that I’m paying too much attention to the horses’ feet and not enough to their heads. The other day, we were doing our usual carefully choreographed routine to get both horses out of the nice, comfy barn out to the wide-open pasture. Now, the horses like being in the pasture (as long as it’s not raining, that is), but for some reason, they don’t like to go out there. It probably has something to do with the gooey, murky swamp of mud they have to cross to get there. So we have various tricks to maneuver them out there.

I have to say here that the RIGHT way to accomplish this is to halter each horse, lead them out to the pasture, stop them with a firm command, remove the halter, then walk away. The horse should not lead you out there, and should not walk away before you do. We have done it this way many, many times. However, unless we want to walk across the gooey, mucky mud-swamp, we have to take the horses out through the back of the barn, across our lawn and out through a different, drier gate. So every day, we have a choice: bring the keys, get each halter out of the tack room, halter each horse, negotiate a stall door and barn gate, drag said horse across the broad expanse of luscious, green grass, negotiate another, smaller gate, and release them in the pasture; or, just open a stall door and a barn gate and coax each horse out. We usually choose the lazier of the options. But do as we say, not as we do.

Anyway, this particular day Bill walked out to the pasture (through the “dry” gate) to lure the horses out there, while I managed the stall doors, one by one. We got the mare out (we still haven’t agreed on a barn name for her) without too much trouble, but Valentine had other ideas. Their stalls are on the west side of the barn, and his is closest to the gate. The hay is on the east side of the barn, diagonally from his stall. That’s where he wanted to be, and I was between the two. Now, he could have forced the issue – being twice my height and, we’ll say, 10 times my weight. But, lucky for me, he does respect me. However, in his search for a way past me rather than over or through me, he turned his head rather abruptly and completely clocked me upside the head. I gotta tell you, that HURT. I don’t remember any stars, but I swear I felt something shift up in there. I got a very noticeable lump on my left temple and any pressure in a 6-square-inch area up there was extremely painful for a couple of days. In fact, it’s been 6 days since it happened, and it still hurts to touch. (I know, I know, don’t touch it, then.)

So watch out for the top AND bottom of the horse. At the same time.

Carpenter Bees Attack!

May 17, 2006 Bill Comments 0 Comment

As a kid, I recall spring and summer brought lots of bees. I specifically remember these huge bees and how they would bore holes into our wooden fences. They never seemed to do any harm to me so I left them alone. Now that as grownups we’ve moved from the city to the country and spring is upon us, I started noticing these huge bees here in Tennessee. There have been a lot of them around our house and barn (both structures have wood siding) but since the bees haven’t been bothering us, I didn’t pay much attention. That is until I noticed the number of holes they were drilling into our house and barn.

These holes are BIG (almost dime size) and there are a lot of them. But I really paid attention after doing some research on the Internet. The one or two-inch deep hole we’re seeing is only a tiny part of the tunnel they bore. That tunnel takes a 90-degree turn and can continue anywhere from 4 inches to 10 feet, depending on how many bees use it. Obviously this kind of tunneling can cause serious structural damage. So now we’re on the hunt to kill carpenter bees. Here are some interesting things we’ve learned:

Females drill the holes and are the only ones with stingers.
Males are very aggressive but do not have stingers so they can do little harm.
Adult carpenter bees “overwinter” (hibernate?) in these tunnels and then emerge in spring to mate and drill some more.
Insecticides can easily kill the bees but it’s difficult to eradicate the eggs those bees have already laid. Dusting with carbaryl (Sevin) seems to be most effective against infestation and re-infestation since applied dust can travel through the tunnels. This can kill the bees and help de-hydrate larvae the following season. Dusters are available at many hardware stores for around $15.
Some wait until fall to plug-up treated holes but holes should be plugged after the adult bees are dead.
Prevention includes diligent treatment of existing infestation as well as painting wood surfaces. Carpenter bees seem to prefer unpainted, untreated wood. Wood stain doesn’t seem to help, but pressure-treated wood does.

So now we’re spending an hour or two every week working on this carpenter bee problem. In our barn alone, which is a six-stall barn (pictures later), I must have dusted 50 holes so far. Uggg.

For more information, the following link was helpful to us and there are a lot of articles on Google:

Ohio State University Extension – Carpenter Bees, HYG-2074-94

A Public Apology to My Horse

May 8, 2006 Mikki Comments 2 comments

Something has been weighing on my conscience. I have unjustly accused my horse of clumsiness several times. Okay, the accusations weren’t all unjustified, but one of them was – when I hinted that he had fallen on his side and been plastered with mud. The truth is…he did it on purpose. I know this because our black horses often come back from the pasture as brown horses:

I also know this because we’ve seen them doing it, and it’s hysterical!

Maybe horses are a little bit like big dogs!

Okay, I feel better now. Sorry, Valentine.

My dog eats horse poop

May 6, 2006 Bill Comments 16 comments

I think that’s the best way to put it, really. My dog just loves our new horse. From the start, neither showed fear or even much interest in the other. Except my dog quickly learned that having a horse around meant occasional carrot and apple snacks dropped from our messy horse and an endless supply of the finest horse manure this side of PetSmart.

Now I just know there must be some kind of disease my dog can get from this and of course we stop him whenever we seem him doing it, but there’s no way to keep him from the pasture and as long he as doesn’t run away or cause trouble, we like him to be able to roam freely when we’re outside.

The cleaning up after horsey snacks I don’t mind. I don’t like Valentine to poke his head through the fence and any food left behind will attract bugs and other critters. So I’m fine with my canine friend having some leftover (albeit dirty) carrot and apple pieces. But poop? Ick!

If you ever stop by our little farm, take my advice and don’t accept kisses from my dog.

How The Kid feels about Valentine

May 1, 2006 Bill Comments 0 Comment

I’m a little bit afraid of my mom’s horse Valentine because he keeps staring at me, but mostly because he’s big, fast and his legs are strong. I might like to have my own horse if it’s small and obedient (a little weak). I’d like my horse to be gray or black. I’d like to pet him and ride him around but I wouldn’t want him to jump, stand up on his hind legs or think that he’s the boss.

Things I like about Valentine: he’s shiny, smooth, black and he’s calm. When he’s in his stall he doesn’t try to grab my shirt or anything. I’ve fed him carrots and some hay that was spread out on the ground for him to eat. I also did that with the horse named Blaze that we used to have in our barn. I might ride Valentine but I might be reluctant and a little afraid because I’ve never controlled a horse by myself.

I drew a horse picture that I’ll show later.

The Kid is a man of few words sometimes…Bill

Never Say Never

April 25, 2006 Mikki Comments 3 comments

Okay, remember back in February when I brought up sheath cleaning and proclaimed it was never gonna happen? (And You Thought Victoria’s Secret Was Racy?) Well, after further research, I now think it’s gonna have to happen. Luckily, I have found some expert guidance. Try not to spray sweet tea out your nose:

Mr. Hand

Check to make sure there are no prospective boyfriends, elderly neighbors, or Brownie troops with a line of sight to the proceedings. Though of course, they’re going to show up unexpectedly ANYWAY once you’re in the middle of things. Prepare a good explanation.
Trim your fingernails short. Assemble horse, hose, and your sense of humor (plus, ideally, Excalibur cleanser and perhaps thin rubber gloves).
Use hose (or damp sponge) to get the sheath and its inhabitant wet. Uh, that is, do this in a “civilized” fashion with due warning to the horse; he is apt to take offense if an icy-cold hose blasts unexpectedly into his personal regions.
Now introduce your horse to Mr. Hand. What I find safest is to stand facing the horse’s head, with my shoulder and hip snugly against the horse’s thigh and hip so that if he makes any suspicious move such as raising his leg, I can feel it right away and am in any case pressed so close that all he can do is shove, not really kick. The horse should be held by an assistant or by your free hand, not tied fast to a post or in crossties. He may shift around a good bit if he’s not happy with Mr. Hand’s antics, but don’t be put off by that; as long as you are patient and gradual, and stick close to his side, he’ll get over it. Remember it would be most unladylike of you to simply make a direct grab for your horse’s part. Give the horse a clue about what’s on the program. Rest your hand against his belly, and then slide it back till you are entering the Home of the Actual Private Part. When you reach this first region of your destination, lube him up good with Excalibur or whatever you are using.
If the outer part of his sheath is really grungy you will feel little clods and nubblies of smegma peeling off as you grope around in there. Patiently and gently expedite their removal. Thus far, you have probably only been in the outer part of the sheath. The Part itself, you’ll notice, is strangely absent. That’s because it has shyly retired to its inner chambers. Roll up your sleeves and follow in after it.
As you and Mr. Hand wend your way deeper into the sheath, you will encounter what feels like a small portal that opens up into a chamber beyond. Being attentive to your horse’s reaction, invite yourself in. You are now in the Inner Sanctum of the Actual Private Part. It’s hiding in there, towards the back, trying to pretend it isn’t there. Say hi, and wave to it. No, really, work your finger back and forth around the sides of it. If the horse won’t drop, this is your only shot at removing whatever dried smegma is clinging to the surface of the Part itself. So, gently explore around it, pulling out whatever crusty topsoil you find there. Use more water and more Excalibur if necessary to loosen attached gunk.
When Mr. Hand and the Actual Private Part have gotten to know each other pretty well, and the Part feels squeaky clean all around, there remains only one task: checking for and removing the bean. The bean is a pale, kidney-shaped accumulation of smegma in a small pouch just inside the urethra. Not all horses accumulate a bean, but IME [in my experience] the majority do, even if they have no visible external smegma. So: the equine urethra is fairly large in diameter, and will indeed permit you to very gently insinuate one of your slimmer fingers inside the urethral opening. Do so, and explore upwards for what will feel like a lump or “pea” buried no more than, I dunno, perhaps 3/4″ in from the opening. If you do encounter a bean, gently and sympathetically persuade it out with your finger. This may require a little patience from both Mr. Hand AND the horse, but the horse will be happier and healthier once it’s accomplished. In the rare event that the bean is too enormous for your finger to coax out, you might try what I did (in desperation) last month on the orange horse. Wrap thumb and index finger around the end of the Part and squeeze firmly to extrude the bean. Much to my surprise it worked and the orange horse did NOT kill me for doing it and he does not seem to have suffered any permanent damage as a result. I have never in my life seen another bean that enormous, though.
Now all that’s left to do is make a graceful exit and rinse the area very thoroughly in apology for the liberties you’ve taken. A hose will be MUCH easier to use here than a bucket and sponge, IME. Make sure to direct the water into the Part’s inner retreat too, not merely the outer part of the sheath. This may require you to enfold the end of the hose in your hand and guide it up there personally.
Ta-Da, you are done! say “good horsey” and feed him lots of carrots. Watch him make lots of funny faces at the way your hands smell. Hhhmmm. Well, perhaps there is ONE more step…
The only thing I know of that is at all effective in removing the lovely fragrance of smegma from your hands (fingernails, arms, elbows and wherever else it has gotten) is Excalibur. Even then, if you didn’t use gloves you may find you have an unusual personal perfume for a while. So, word to the wise, do NOT clean your horse’s sheath just before an important job interview or first date. And of course, there is the FINAL step…
Figure out how to explain all this to your mother (or the kid next door, or the meter reader, or whoever else you’ve just realized has been standing in the barn doorway speechlessly watching the whole process.)

Now, go thou forth and clean the Part.

How bad can it be, really? For me, I mean.

These Boots Were Made for…Being Walked On

April 23, 2006 Mikki Comments 1 comment

Something all the experts will tell you is that when you’re working around horses, you need to wear the right kind of shoes. Have you ever had your dog step on your feet? Well, guess what – your horse will do that too. And need I remind you, your horse weighs considerably more than a dog, and has really hard feet to boot? (ha ha) I can tell you from personal experience that it pays to have the right kind of shoes.

Until this weekend, I had been really lucky. I didn’t have any boots, but I always tried to wear sturdy shoes. Valentine swept over my feet a couple of times, but I was quick enough to get them out of harm’s way. Then last weekend, I finally got my boots, and I love them! They are Justin work boots – ugly but tough! Very comfortable too. (I got them at C&S Tack.) Valentine likes them too – he tasted them both thoroughly. Maybe they look like apples to him.

I can’t tell the rest of the story without spilling Bill’s big news, so I’ll have to tell you…he got his own horse! That’s all I’m going to say. You’ll have to wait for his post to hear all about Static’s Blue Moon. But anyway, I was leading Blue Moon out of her stall yesterday, and she stepped squarely on my foot. It stung, let me tell you, but I was wearing my boots and they held up great. Today, the same darn thing happened, on the same foot – and I was wearing tennies. Big no-no. And I know why, now. Unfortunately for me, she stepped on the little toe I broke last year. I sure hope I’ll be able to wear my boots tomorrow. Owie.

Serta or Tempurpedic?

April 19, 2006 Mikki Comments 0 Comment

At some point – preferably before you get your horse, but at least soon after – you will have to decide what kind of bedding you want to use for your horse. Of course your horse’s comfort is an important consideration, but since, unlike your dog’s bed, this bedding won’t just be slept on – that’s right, horses are not “housebroken” – there are other considerations too, such as absorbency and siftability (is that a real word, or did I just make one up?). When you greet your beautiful, elegant equine companion in the morning, you will see that he made a small project for you to work on that day. More likely, two or three projects. He probably even has some stuck to his face. Sweet.

There are several options for horse bedding, beginning with the base – the stall floor. Our barn floor is just plain old dirt, but some barns have permanent flooring. You can also put in rubber floors – we are looking into that. They are easier to keep clean than dirt, and more comfortable for your horse than dirt or cement.

On top of whatever kind of floor you have, you need the multi-purpose bedding. This should provide comfort for your horse and absorb whatever he may leave in there for you to muck out. There are basically three choices: straw, wood shavings, and wood pellets.

Straw is the classic barn bedding. Upsides: It’s cheap and easy. I think it’s pretty comfortable too – we used it at first, and Valentine never complained. Downsides: it’s not very absorbent, and it’s hard to sort the wheat from the chaff, so to speak…when you go for the poo, you get a lot of straw too.

We haven’t used wood shavings for Valentine, but we do use them for our goat, Joey. They work great for Joey, because he hardly ever uses his little house as an outhouse, so one pack of shavings lasts forever. Upsides: They smell great, and cedar shavings, at least, naturally repel fleas. Downsides: We didn’t try these because we decided they wouldn’t be cost-effective. You’d have to buy a lot to fill a stall, and replace the soiled bedding with new shavings at a pretty good clip.

We finally settled on wood pellets. There are several brands out there. When we were researching this topic, the brand we found was Woody Pet. They don’t sell this brand anywhere nearby, but we checked at our local feed stores and co-ops and found a similar product sold under different names, such as Equine Pine and Eagle Valley ABM Advanced Bedding Management. We also asked other horse owners and the people at the feed stores and co-ops, and the consensus seems to be that this stuff is the best thing since sliced bread. So we shoveled out all the straw and put in six bags of wood pellets…

Pouring bedding pellets — We emptied six bags of Equine Pine into the 12×12 horse stall.

…watered them down to fluff them up per instructions…

Fluffy bedding — After watering the pellets turned to almost a sawdust consistency.

…and presto! Soft, fluffy, absorbent and sweet-smelling bedding! Which equals a sweeter-smelling horse. If you love on your horse like I do, you’ll appreciate that.

Equally importantly, the stall cleans up faster and easier than ever before. The sawdust – which is what you end up with after you wet the pellets down – sifts right through the fork and all you’re shoveling out is poo. The urine soaks into the sawdust until the sawdust has reached maximum absorbing capacity, then it clumps together and you can shovel it right out. My big sweetie always pees in exactly the same place, so I just shovel that spot out every couple of days and add more.

The Horse Tax Deduction

April 15, 2006 Bill Comments 0 Comment

Sigh, it’s April 15th as I write this, a day I don’t look forward to every year. For some, however, it’s not as financially painful as it once was thanks to the ability to deduct certain expenses associated with horse ownership. Now as simple and nice as that sounds, deducting horse expenses is not something most horse owners will be able to do. In fact, there is no “horse tax deduction” unless you can prove ownership and maintenance of your horse is a business pursuit. An internet search revealed the following general rules:

You must maintain a separate checking account for business expenses. The IRS will look carefully at whether or not you’re running your “business” in a business-like manner. Save receipts, create profit and loss statements, write everything down.
You cannot operate at a loss indefinitely. The IRS will likely want to take a look at the profit/loss trend over time to make sure you’re trying to make a profit. Otherwise, it looks like you’re trying to write-off your hobby.
How pleasurable is your horse business? One article I found (linked below) noted two tax court cases where deductions were disallowed because owners referred to their horses with affection. This doesn’t seem fair, I know, but it sets some precedent.

I’m sure there are more “rules” out there but those should be enough to make us all wonder whether or not we really want to try and consider our horse expenses as business expenses. However, if your horse ownership venture really is for profit, best of luck to you saving on taxes! Legitimate horse businesses (according to the IRS) seem to be: breeding operations, equine camps and workshops, boarding, riding lessons with a horse that’s not your personal pleasure horse and horse racing. Apparently, if you give occasional lessons to the neighbor kids on your own personal pleasure horse, it’s not advisable to deduct your horse expenses from your personal income tax.

But remember, I’m far from a tax pro so don’t necessarily make any life decisions based on what I write. 🙂

Some information for this post is from here (not affiliated): http://www.horses-and-horse-information.com/articles/0399horsebusiness.shtml