| A Sign of Spring |
February 20, 2008
by Bonnie Davis
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For some folks the first signs of Spring are flowers beginning to poke their heads through dirt. Birds returning to trees that are budding and winter sales at malls. For me, the first sign of Spring is winter horse hair blowing in my face!
Regardless if one blankets a horse or leaves 'em natural through winter months, as soon as the sun begins to shine longer -- hair begins to fall out!! Shedding winter horse hair is my first sign that Spring is just round the corner and Summer riding isn't far off.
It seems someone is always inventing or developing something to make our lives with horses easier and our horses lives easier with us. I just wish someone would invent or develop something that would make winter hair shedding neater.
For the first few days all that winter hair falls off in stray strands. A few here. A few there. A few on top. A few on bottom. But after about a week of warm sun and later sunsets, hair begins to come out in handfuls!! I can get enough hair off Nic alone to stuff a mattress. And he's only 14.2 hands! If I took all the winter hair from the five horses, combined it into one BIG pile, I'd be able to build another horse or completely cover any draft horse suffering from hair loss.
The real problem with that winter horse hair is that it doesn't matter where you stand when brushing, it will always blow INTO your face. Even with no wind it will blow into your face. And since the sun is warmer, you'll work up a light sweat when brushing and currying so those fly-away strands of winter hair will begin to stick to your face, neck, down your back, anywhere. They even get in your mouth when you talk! Smile, you got horse hair stuck to your teeth.
Sure, I've seen the vacuums you vacuum a horse with. But Nic doesn't take to kindly to having his body vacuumed. Might have something to do with the fact that I tried it once using a shop vac from a local garage. Got the vacuum hose end stuck to his hide and had a heck of a time getting it loose. Even when the vacuum was turned off, still had to pry it off his skin. It did do a good job -- no hair left, NONE what so ever. Just a perfect round spot of skin -- no hair. Just skin.
Another time I bought a 'special' curry to "comb and brush winter hair off the horse in one easy swipe". Sure, it took the hair off in one easy swipe but the hair still blew in my face! I could have winter hair blowing in my face without spending $34.95 for a 'special' curry!!
Then there was the "winter hair removal shampoo" and the......well, you get the idea. I know Spring has sprung because winter horse hair is blowing in my face.
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| Losing Another Friend |
February 13, 2008
by Bonnie Davis
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Last week decided to bring my 4-year old Morgan gelding into barn. He's been in stall off and on all year. It's not like it's a new stall or Scooter doesn't know what the barn routine is. He does.
Brought him into barn, fed him his dinner, put his blanket on and gave him a good-night 'pat.' Checked all the horses going out of barn and then shut barn doors.
Next morning, you know how you drive up the barn and feel something isn't right? Can't put your finger on it. But something is just 'wrong.'
Opened the barn doors and all the horses whinnied. Even Scooter. First thing, get all horses unblanketed. When I opened Scooter's stall door, knew it was him that wasn't right. He was standing in stall corner, hip against wall and just looking at me. Didn't want to move.
I took his blanket off and saw it. His right hind leg didn't look 'right.' He wasn't putting his weight on it. I felt around leg and hip and could feel a definite break. When he move, he hopped on three legs.
The vet was due that morning to give some other horses a couple shots. I fed Scooter (he went to eating pellets like nothing was wrong). By the time the vet got there, Scooter was standing square, eating and just looked at us when we went into stall.
Scoot wouldn't move. After a careful inspection, the vet found the break too. Scooter had broken the knee cap on his right hind leg. The break was such that when the leg turned one way, the knee cap would come 'back together' to suppose the joint. When Scooter turned another way, the 'cap' parted so he couldn't walk on it. But through all this, Scooter never seemed to be in pain.
We all talked for awhile on what the best course of action was for Scooter. And after Scooter finished his pellets, I gave him his favorite treats and made that decision every horse owner hates to make -- put him down. There isn't much one can do with a broken knee cap.
The vet, my daughter Becky and I all inspected that stall top to bottom, wall to wall. We could find nothing that Scoot could have hurt himself on. No kick marks. No marks like he got his leg hung up somewhere. He had 12 inches of shavings in stall, mats in paddock. Scoot has "just" broken the knee cap.
The vet said he had never seen an accident like that before. He'd seen broken knee caps but never on a horse in a stall. We theorized that maybe Scoot had cracked the knee cap when he was younger and somehow, someway he had broken it completely when getting up or down or around in his stall.
We'll never really know what happened. But things happen to horses. Regardless of how much we try to protect them in accident proof stalls they still get hurt. About the only explanation Becky and I could come up with was that be it God or a Higher Force, Scoot was needed to be somewhere else for something else. For me, I find comfort in knowing that right now Scooter is grazing with Bud and Sig, Flint and Sam being the obnoxious 4-year-old gelding chewing on everyone's tail, stealing plastic feed tubs and chasing stray chickens that wander into the pasture........
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| Losing an Old Friend |
February 2, 2008
by Bonnie Davis
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Did you ever lose something that you looked upon as 'an old friend'? I did that this week -- lost an 'old friend'. Been with me about 15 years. Provided lots of hours of companionship when the weather was wet and rainy. Never failed when I got tired and leaned on it. Always ready to go and travelled lots of miles. It was my shovel!
Some folks might not consider a shovel as a 'friend' but I have this habit of looking upon objects as 'friends'. Even give 'em names. My truck is Horse. My trailer's Traveler. They serve me well so they deserve names.
My shovel was Digger.
Finding tools that fit can be difficult. Digger had a handle that was just the right length so I didn't have to bend over to dig mud. Some shovels have short handles that will kill your back and others have shovel handles to long. Digger was just the right size to fit in a ditch -- and it kept its edge so it could cut grass into slices too. It even helped pried rocks out of the ground and moved more than a few yards of gravel from one side of the barn to the other. When I'd lean on Digger and watch the water flow in ditches, I'd get a satisfied feeling of a job well done with a good shovel.
Tools not only become 'friends' but partners because the right tool can make a job go more smoothly, faster and efficient. Ever try digging a ditch with hoe? Or a rake? Won't work. You gotta use a shovel!
Digger got left once. Up at Euer Valley on a horsecamping trip. Had turned the fire to make sure it was out, tamped it down and leaned Digger against a tree. Loaded the horses and started to drive out when about a mile away, remembered Digger. Yup, turned the rig around and went back for him. That's the reason Digger had a bright yellow handle. With that bright yellow handle, he never got left again.
Digger had begun to show signs of age and wear. His handle cracked when I was prying a rock out of the ground. Put a couple little wedges in to keep it tight. His yellow color had faded. But he worked. And he gave his shovel life in the line of duty. He snapped moving mud from a ditch up onto the bank. What better way to go than doing something you like to do? Even if it is moving mud.......
Bonnie
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| Getting Started |
February 1, 2008
by Bonnie Davis
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I've never written a Blog before. Not really sure what a blog is. So before I could write (and thinking maybe someone else didn't know what a blog is either), figured I should do some research. Found out a blog is like a diary, a daily journal. One just writes about what they did that day. Or I guess you could write about the last few days if your day was boring.
So with that thought in mine and during winter months, my days seem to be about the same thing over at the barn. Keeping the horses dry and warm.
We don't get snow. But have been getting a lot of rain. When it rains, I dig ditches to try and keep paddocks half way drained so the horses don't sink completely out of sight. Maybe just up to their knees and hocks for a few days.
Actually I've gotten pretty good at ditch digging. Getting the water to drain out through the ditch is the real problem.
Water has a mind of its own. It will stop at the slightest protrusion -- a rock, a piece of straw, a road apple. Which means when the water stops flowing out of a paddock I have to walk the ditch bank, look for the protrusion and remove it from the channel flow.
Then again on some days water just ain't going to go where I want it to flow! So to solve that problem, I just dig more ditches. If I have a big enough ditch that's deep enough with enough water flowing through it -- I can even get water to flow up hill!! That comes from experience.
I have noticed though that while I'm out digging ditches (about 50% of the time when it IS raining), the blanketed horses are standing in their dry, warm, bedded stalls watching me. Sometimes one of them will place a hoof on the paddock surface to check water depth but usually they just stand there looking at me.
With shovel in hand I'm buzy digging ditches and usually wishing I had worn my other rain gear so the water doesn't run down my neck. Today, as I stood there in the pouring rain watching water flow by, Nic gave out a soft nicker. Turning to look at him, Nic looked at me. I could have sworn that horse got a grin on his face with the look "keep digging, my hoof still gets wet in the paddock".
Till next week, keep your back to the rain.......
Bonnie
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