Today was mud season at the barn. I am just hoping that the strong wild winds on the hill will dry it up. Of course the water is flowing and the ditches are full. I made a good decision some years ago. Every spring the hay pad would be underwater and the round bales would be ½ way underwater. Gerard came with many loads of shale and raised the pad. The water stays in the ditch now. It isn’t a perfect way to store bales, but the budget did not lend itself to building a storage shed for 100 round bales.
There is an art to placing the bales correctly to shed water, I leave that to the farmer. The trick is not to stack them if they are stored in the great outdoors.
My mud is special; I am not sure if it is more special than yours.
My mud has the power to suck shoes and boots right off your feet. Last Saturday, Trailblazers did the grand fitting of the Soft Ride boots for Prince. Check the video!
His first few steps were pretty awkward, after a few walks up and down the shed row, his ears came forward as if to say, “this is easy and feels good”. And we felt pretty good about it too and sent him out to the field with the rest of the herd.
Sunday morning came round and the herd came in for their supplements. And here comes Prince, Oh Oh!! Only with one boot. All I could think of was Kaching Kaching, money in the mud. Some days I can be a little pessimistic. Those are the days that, what can go wrong, will go wrong.
Lucky us, the barn heroes went to the field and came back with the boot. We then had a fun discussion about finding lost boots. We could attach a magnet to them. That way we could use the sweeper to find them. It would be a long walk. The winter paddock is 20 acres. Scrap that plan. Then the question, “Can microchips be tracked”? My resourceful director, Heidi, is researching trackers. I will leave it up to the techies to work that one out, I do not have a cell phone.
We had lots of laughs with the discussion of “What Ifs”. The good news, Prince came into the barn the next day with both boots on. A good tightening of the Velcro performed that miracle.
Hunter River Lions Club Pancakes Breakfast
The folks at Hunter River Lions Club will be supporting the Sanctuary March 28th with their monthly Pancake breakfast. This is a grand generous gesture for us. The invitation is for 7.30am – 10.30am. Please come. This breakfast also supports the work of the Hunter River Lions Club. They are a quiet force of good in our area. Their monthly pancake breakfast supports many non profit groups and maybe you will buy the winning ticket for the Chase the Ace at the breakfast. Just maybe!!
Learning about horse care and the skill that it needs is so important to me.
And now without an equine vet close by, it is critical that we are able to perform preventative health measures. Observation is the important one. I get really excited when a Trailblazer sees something different on a horse or how they are moving. Every year at the health clinic they learn how to give safe injections, when, where and how. Intramuscular, subcutaneous is important to us. There is not much need for us to do intravenous, we can leave that to the Veterinarians. Perhaps in our lifetime the horse will need two antibiotic injections a day, can anyone afford a Vet to come twice a day??
A useful skill is how to give medicine orally.
At the moment they are getting a lot of practice medicating Prince. He gets his Prescend hidden in a small piece of carrot. If I approach him he gives me the eye, clamps his jaws and refuses the treat. He likes everyone else. The Metformin comes in a 60ml syringe, once more, his eyes say “you are joking eh?!” when I come with the syringe the jaw is clamped tight. Sometimes I have to put my thumb on the bar (this is the space between the front teeth and the back molars), to open his mouth, as you would if you were placing a bit in his mouth. He knows me well!! The working plan is to give the syringe to anyone else standing about.
Catelyn did it for the first time on Saturday, she got more on the front of her jacket I think. She will do better next time, there will be many opportunities to practise, if the Metformin is a forever thing for this fellow with Cushing’s disease.
This month I have started the fly repellant plan.
I am preparing their immune system to repel the insects by feeding them garlic. A 1000lb horse gets six 500mg capsules daily. This is a grandfather’s remedy to repel biting insects, back in that day we grew a lot of garlic. I grew a lot too, it is a lot of work, and when I discovered the capsules, I stopped that. To give the herd more tools to battle the flies, we do not brush manes or tails. Every hair pulled out by brushing defeats the purpose. You can wash the mane and tail to keep it beautiful. I wish I had the key to growing lusher forelocks, Cameo, our Haflinger is the only one with enough forelock to act as a fly mask.
Fly masks are a wonderful invention. There is always a but!!
This herd does not like to wear them. It is always a search project in the summer. Perhaps the tracker idea would work for fly masks too. Flies seek out the moist parts of the body. They also attack body parts that are difficult to reach, that is the chest and the belly. We spray Apple Cider Vinegar, if we are working with the horses in the ring or down the trail. It is an economical remedy for fly repellent. There are a lot of commercial products to buy.
Be careful, anything with Deet in it.
I had an experience that scared me. I over winter some plants for a friend that leaves the island for the winter. The plants came to me with a lot of aphids. I did the soap cure, it didn’t really work that well (this is a big plant) there happened to be a bottle of OFF on the bench. What harm can that do, it is a repellant, so I thought? I used the last of the bottle, and the leaves all withered and died. It scares me that people spray this stuff on their skin, it could certainly make you look old before your time if your skin withers like those leaves. I will leave you with those “what if” thoughts today.
It is fun to work on the kindness skill. Love and hugs from Yogi and the herd.