The bridle/halter was supposed to arrive in the mail today. The box did in fact arrive, but for some reason all they sent was one rein. I don’t know much about tack, but I don’t think I can make this work. The ride is delayed yet again.
We finally got the pasture bush-hogged today. We moved Valentine into the barn to get him away from the scary tractor. So there I was, minding my own business – in fact, protecting my precious horse from the ferocious Tractor-Monster in his pasture by standing in front of his stall, reassuring him. I was facing the other way (my mistake) and he nuzzled my hair. A little gross, but kinda sweet. Until he suddenly stuck his muzzle under my hair and BIT MY EAR. I don’t know who was more shocked when his snack jumped and yelled.
No harm done. Ear’s still there, and I reminded him that he is an herbivore and therefore shouldn’t be snacking on ears or fingers.
Now I know why cowboys always wear hats.
We got a saddle today! A very nice person we know let us borrow a saddle. I can’t believe someone would be that nice. I love this place! She also came over and showed us how to put it on the horse, and made sure the stirrups were adjusted correctly for me. That was so thoughtful, I can forgive her comment that the stirrups were already in the right place for me because her kids had been using the saddle.
We were a little late with Valentine’s feed tonight, so when we went out to bring him into the barn, he wasn’t waiting at the gate like he usually is. I whistled for him, rattled the feed bucket, tapped on the gate – nothing. So we grabbed flashlights and headed out into the pasture to find him.
So picture this: 7 acres of rolling pasture, interspersed with stands of large trees. No streetlights, of course, this is rural area. Lots of high weeds, because the pasture is desperately in need of bush-hogging (for those of you unfamiliar with the term, it’s kind of like mowing your lawn, but the lawn is a lot bigger and so are the plants). And somewhere out in the middle, in the pitch dark, is a pitch-black horse. Needless to say, we didn’t find him. We heard a lot of crashing around in the underbrush, which we really hope was Valentine, but never saw him. Until we got back to the barn, where he was patiently waiting for us.
So I was perusing a horse products catalog because there is just a ton of stuff we need. We’ve been getting things a little bit at a time since we got Valentine. Some of it I know we need, and some of it I’m sure “real” horse people would laugh at. I’ve gotten various grooming supplies, and both Valentine and I enjoy the grooming sessions. I just ordered a bridle/halter/reins combo; but, alas, we don’t have a saddle yet. Soon, I hope.
Here are some things in the catalog that I won’t be ordering:
Surgical supplies. Should you really be performing your own equine surgery? Really?
Breeding hobbles. Okay, yes, my horse is a gelding so this doesn’t apply to him at all – but is it really fair to hobble a mare so she can’t get away? Doesn’t she have any say in this at all? What if she doesn’t like his cologne? Maybe they don’t have anything in common. Maybe she just wants to get to know him better. Maybe she’s just not that kind of girl.
Sheath cleaner. If you have to clean your gelding’s sheath to be a horse person, I guess I never will be, because I can’t see a day coming where I’d be okay with cleaning his sheath. And Bill has flatly refused to have anything to do with another guy’s sheath.
Tonight we attended a workshop presented by Purina (Purina Horse Owner’s Workshop: http://horse.purinamills.com/). We were pretty sure it was going to be a live infomercial for Purina Horse Chow – and they pushed their horse feed pretty hard – but we got a lot of good information from the presentation. The best part was at the end, when they had a guest speaker to talk about horse behavior and answer our questions about horses. He was a guy who has been around horses all his life and now makes his living by using his experience with horses to show corporations how to apply the principles of horse leadership to people leadership. It sounds kind of crazy, I admit, but it sounds like it might work. He was really common-sense and down to earth, and gave us some really good advice. His name is Sam Powell (www.asksampowell.com). They also gave out free samples of horse treats, which Valentine loves. Unfortunately, they chose to call them “NickerMakers.” Do real horse people buy things called NickerMakers, or will we have to sneak into the feed store to buy them without being seen?
The Internet is both a curse and a blessing. Since I got Valentine, I have spent literally hours trying to get as much information on horses as I can. I joined several sites with forums, and I think they are great – real people talking about real horses with real-life answers to questions they have. It’s also reassuring to know that even experienced horse owners are perplexed sometimes. But if you go to “expert” sites – and I’m not suggesting you don’t – you’ll end up completely paranoid! After reading about all the bad things that can happen to horses, I’m afraid to leave Valentine alone! He could eat sand and get colic; fall in his stall and not be able to get up; trip in the pasture and break a leg; eat some poisonous weed; be bitten by a mosquito and get horse flu (I’m not making that up); eat possum poo and get myoencephalitis (not making that up either); or do almost anything at all and end up lame. It’s like having a half-ton toddler that can run 30 mph. What have I gotten myself into?
Things are going quite well with Valentine. He hasn’t hurt himself or any of us yet, and I count that as a success. He and Blaze seem to be working things out (Blaze is also a gelding). We haven’t done anything very complicated yet. Mostly because we don’t have a saddle. We’re working on that. In fact, we don’t have anything yet but a halter and lead rope.
One thing we did right away was the deworming. When Bill picked Valentine up, the owner said we’d need to have him shoed right away (we knew this, he had actually thrown a shoe) and also that it was about time to have him dewormed. Bill doesn’t remember too many details about this, because it was cold and late and he was in a hurry, but he remembers that the brand is something “Gold” and it’s apple flavored, and that it’s really easy to do: “You just stick the syringe pretty far back in his mouth and squirt it in.”
Okay, back up the wagon! People say it; dewormer instructions say it; website information pages say it: “insert syringe as far back as possible and dispense.” What everyone leaves out is, how do you get the horse to open his mouth for you? Being new to all this, we’re a little wary about trying to convince a 1200-pound animal that barely knows us to open up and say ahhh. Have you seen those teeth? I know he’s an herbivore, but still! So we opted for the on-feed dewormer – you just put it on their oats and they eat it up. Great plan, we thought! So we sprinkled it on his oats the first time we gave him oats. Then we found out that Valentine likes to swish as many oats as possible onto the ground when he eats! We were alarmed, in fact, thinking he could taste the medicine, but we eventually learned that he eats ALL his food off the ground. He pulls his hay out of the feeder onto the ground. He drops apples onto the ground. He is, in fact, the messiest eater I have ever seen – and I have owned many dogs and survived two toddlers. So it looks like next time, we’ll have to figure out how to get him to say “ahhhh.”
Today I received the most spectacular Valentine’s Day gift ever – a Tennessee Walking Horse. The best part is, it was a complete surprise! My husband spun such a web of deceit and lies, that when we walked up to the barn to “feed Blaze” and a big black head popped out of the middle stall, I was completely shocked.
I had met this horse before. We went to look at him together about 2 weeks ago, and I fell in love with him then. He is pure black, about 16 hands high and has a great temperament. He is a 5-year-old gelding with 8 champions in his bloodline. His “real” name is Clever Power, and his stable name was Paycheck. We weren’t too taken with that, so we call him…Valentine.
I have to admit 2 things here. One: while my horse is 16 hands high, I am only 5’2”. I am not so naïve to think this won’t present problems – but I don’t care.
The other thing is: I really am quite naïve. I have never owned a horse, and haven’t spent all that much time around them. But I am willing to learn. I know that my learning process may be quite painful – but it’s certain to provide a lot of comic relief, too.
Wish me luck.
My husband and I both grew up in small towns but moved to the city the first chance we got. 20-odd years of city living later, we really started to yearn for the simple life again. We had been visiting Bill’s grandmother in east Tennessee for 6 years, and loved the area. As we prepared for a visit in July 2005, we convinced my parents to join us – my dad will be retiring in 2009 and is looking for a nice place to live. We, strangely enough, want them to live close to us. Our diabolical plan: to make them fall in love with the place; find a big piece of property we all can live on; we all buy it, then we live here until Dad retires. Well, the plan worked! They loved east Tennessee. We found a house. Despite our realtor’s efforts to foil us, we bought it. We moved here in November 2005, and it is just wonderful.
We have a house, 2 barns and about 7 acres of partially-cleared pasture. Now we just need a horse! Actually, we have a horse, but he’s not ours. The former owner had a friend who kept his horse here, and we agreed to let him continue to do that. He is a beautiful sorrel quarter horse (I think!) named Blaze.
“Green acres is the place to be…farm living is the life for me!”