October 30, 2025
And now we are into our Fall season. The trees are showing their colours and the winds are blowing them every which way. The only trees that are holding their leaves at the Sanctuary are the Maples and my one oak tree. I don’t worry about raking leaves from the grass, the wind takes care of that. Remember this is colic season. It happens when we go from pasture to dry forage. Do make sure that the horses have lots and lots of water. Horses have a gut system that is 125 feet long if stretched out. That is over 2 times the length of our barn. It is a complicated system and if we insist on housing horses it is our job to keep that system full and damp. Prevention is the key to good gut health for the horse. In my situation, the herd has a grand source of apples and the spring did not go dry. Their pasture was really crispy this summer, I was worried and put out three round bales in the field. They have not devoured them, another lesson learned. I have three horses with EMS, a metabolic problem, they get fat on air and the short grass has way too much sugar for them, their necks become a solid crest and their feet get hot. Prince, Cameo and Chairo are at the barn back paddock getting poor rations. I still have some three-year-old hay that proved to be just a little better than straw for nutrition. Still, for Prince the program was failing, he could hardly move when called to the barn for his supplements. Part of the treatment for the problem is to keep the horse exercised. Easy to do with the other two. But if a horse cannot move until he has had a good dose of anti-inflammatory meds, life is difficult for him and us. And what were we doing wrong with him? When we clean feed buckets, any uneatened grain from the herd is thrown into the barn chain and moved to the compost heap. The heap is in the same paddock as Prince, smart boy that he is, he sourced his feast. And we are paying the price to give him his feet back. Through the years the herd has taught me a lot, as hard luck horses do. I have learned that we can’t save everyone, no matter how desperately I might want to, or how hard I dig down and try.
We have found a few Bot eggs on the horse’s legs, the grass has been short this year, still those pesky flies are around. A hard frost will put them away for a bit. That tells us, it is time for the fall deworming ritual. We do not need those pesky parasites munching on our hard earned feed dollar this winter. My rule of thumb for managing the herd: we deworm twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, “Whether They Need It Or Not”. WTNION is my acronym. In my experience they need it!
Another Saturday with Trailblazers and another gathering of water bottles. The fear of dehydration is beyond belief. I never work anyone to the point of any of them breaking out in a sweat. We used to have our water at breakfast, noon and evening meals. We would have a glass or two at a time. And there was a lot of work to be done and we got it done. What good does sipping do? Trailblazers spend more time hunting for their bottles than getting the chores done. It certainly takes their time away from the horses. Time to stop sipping and have everyone drink a full glass of water every time. Then Goodwill would not get as many bottles from the farm. There is a lot of money around to buy the bottles and not one of the bottles has a name on them. Perhaps I could make a buyback plan, I can use the money, I have horses. You have to have a dream eh! Istarted building the barn in 1991, I did not think I would get old and feeble, I just knew I wanted to be efficient in my barn keeping, hence the barn chain and the switch that turns it on and takes the barn honey to the heap at the back of the barn. Cleaning stalls is very, very important. Resting manure and urine manufactures Ammonia and that is death to any animal’s lungs. If you are caring for a performance horse, healthy lungs are an absolute must. So many new barn facilities are being built, with no thought of reducing the physical labour of the wheelbarrow. It is difficult to move the wheelbarrow to the heap in the middle of a blizzard. Each horse delivers a ton of manure per year. Oh my aching back or pocketbook, if hiring help and good help is very difficult to get!! Perhaps this is a question that architects and engineers should address in their building plans. In a 200K facility, a 10K solution is nothing through the years. The horses would love that extra time spent on them.
Always do a kind deed when you can. Love and hugs from Yogi and the herd at Handibear Hills.