September 30, 2021
I lost a day, suddenly it is September 30th, an auspicious day, now declared a holiday to remind us of our history of meanest to our indigenous community. I hope it is a reminder that we have to do better. I was thinking of all the support I have given to water projects in Africa, perhaps I should have been jabbing our government to provide water to the reserves. Clean water would be a healthy start to the children. And then on the same subject we may need water projects on PEI. Our water is pretty contaminated with nitrates, and that does not help the health of our children. September has been a water month at the Sanctuary. We (barn hero’s, Dave, Shana, Mike, Maxine, and Derek) built a watershed over the water tub. Designed to protect it from the cold north/northeast winds. Hopefully it will take less electricity to keep the ice off the water. In past years I have insulated the tub with old hay or new straw, which was successful until the herd decided to eat it. Very annoying when they have 10 perfectly good round bales in the field. It isn’t practical for me to build a permanent box around the tub. It has to be drained and scrubbed on a regular basis when the algae appears. Perhaps with a roof over the tub, there will be less of that. Just a reminder if you are putting ice breakers in your tubs, be sure to ground it well. I put a brick in ours attached to the grounding post of the fencer. There are good information videos on Youtube,
Monday, was dentistry day, it was the first day of the 4th year student dentistry rotation. It is important to me to have this done before we go into winter. They found old horses, old teeth, Obie’s teeth are worn to the gum, Peas are pretty wobbly (loose), Art needs to have one removed, they do not do that at the barn. The mini has big horse teeth in a little horse mouth. What to do? what to do? The hay was late this year and coarse, pretty hard chewing, so it may be a beet pulp winter for them, just to make sure they get enough fiber to keep their gut rolling. Heidi has already bought Peas a bag of Alfalfa cubes. Peas has been her project mare usually, she buys her pretty halters. We will have to watch the mineral levels if we are feeding alfalfa. It is a balancing act with rations, when you have easy keepers that keep fat on by breathing air and the oldies that need every scrap of feed to maintain their body condition.
Pastures need help on my no till hills. They definitely need lime, lots of it, and I think every year. Lime would definitely deter a lot of weeds. There are wet spots at the foot of the hills, so it can’t be done in the spring. Would it be beneficial to do it now? Trying to find someone to lime in a timely manner (in between raindrops) is not easy. Everyone is so busy.
Volunteers are the lifeblood of the Sanctuary, Ryan and Shauna have taken on the task of a trail in the back 40 treed acres. It is amazing what they have accomplished in two two hour sessions. They are making my dream and plan happen.
We have lost a Trailblazer to allergies, it is tough when hay gives you hives. Trailblazers is our youth program, devoted to teaching horse care and management. Youth can start this program when they reach ten years. Maxine posts their accomplishments on our Facebook page “Handibear Hills Horse Sanctuary.
Take care, be kind to one another, love and hugs from Yogi and the herd.