smellshorsey

If You Find a Loose Dog, Tie Him to My Fence

Now tell me. If you were walking through my neighborhood and spied a loose dog dragging one of those spiral ground anchors people tie dogs to, what would you do? Notice my house with Parker, my dog in the yard with an Invisible Fence and think, "This other dog must be theirs because with an Invisible Fence the dog obviously can't see it so they have the dog tied out with one of these spiral anchor thingies."

In spite of the fact that my dog is in my yard. Not tied to anything. And probably barking at said "do gooder."

So, I get home and there's this intact male lab tied to my fence. Even the horses know that this is strange, showing an intelligence higher than whoever tied the dog to the fence with no water.

And if one dog tied to my fence isn't enough, well, this dog has a friend who is not tied to anything other than a long, dripping pink tongue. Both are friendly. Neither are mine.

I'd like to tell you that I went to the house where I'm pretty sure the dog lives but in spite of having three cars in the driveway (BMW and downhill from there), nobody answered the door. So I tried to tie the dog up to their basketball goal post, which is in the shade and I was going to leave water, but the dog got away from me -- and he and his happy little friend ran off into the sunset with me running behind them yelling, "Here, Puppy!"

I do hope they stay out of trouble. Nice dogs. They don't belong tied to a fence in the sun next to a road. They don't deserve to get run over, either.

Look at this Boy's Face

We check out Icanhascheezeburger every night. Finally, a LOLequine. Just had to share this one.

moar funny pictures

Which Color Horse Tastes Best?

If you have a preference for what color horse you like to eat, you're at the wrong place. I don't even have any recipes.

However, I do have a poll about the much kinder, gentler topic of grooming horses and I hope you'll vote. It's that big bulky thing on the right. Think about the horses you have known and groomed. Which color is the hardest to keep clean?

I think it's as much a horse personality issue as a color issue. (And an environment issue -- you live in the mud, you'd be muddy, too.) I've seen grey horses that stay clean, and chestnuts that are a mess.

Vote, comment, view the results. After we've played with this a while I'll put up another one.

I think the different colors do smell differently. How about you? (Maybe it's the mud.)

How Am I Supposed to Keep "Muddy" Clean?

Mom said that I could write a post. And I know that she has written a post about this before, but SHE isn't the one who has to deal with it...

Buddy likes to roll. Especially when he is clean. Ugh. I know that I'm not the only person who has this problem, but I still find him frustrating...
Yeah, yeah, I know that he enjoys rolling and getting the itchy spots, and that I am a terrible person for trying to stop him. But would he mind not transforming from his normal chestnut color to a dirty grayish-brown color? And after I have spent 2 or more hours grooming him for a show?

I have an event next week. Buddy has to be braided, sponge-bathed, show sheened, and combed. I just spent 70 dollars (that I have saved up since the summer) on a blanket liner that I am going to use for shows only. His Sleazy Hood will cover his neck and hopefully keep the braids in overnight.

Lucy isn't going anywhere, and she stays clean. This is the one time where I wish Lucy would influence "Muddy".
I am trying to bribe him to stay clean, or at least to be partially chestnut when I go to get him the morning of the show.   

-Lilly

What You Need to Know about Beet Pulp

We've been out of town on Thanksgiving break and just picked up Buddy and Lucy today. It's funny how terrible and empty our pasture was without them, though it was nice not to have Buddy harassing me about feeding him before I had my coffee today. What all this means is that I really don't have anything to say other than, "I'm back!"

I used to love to feed the horses beet pulp until everybody got too fat. I had this idea it was keeping the horses from picking up sand and preventing colic. It might have been -- but Lucy really did look like a pumpkin. A very happy pumpkin, I might add.

I've found a wonderful story about beet pulp everyone will enjoy. (I found the link on I will jump sweet jumps -- Beckz has been doing some awesome and very educational posts over there ever since her horse had to take some time off.) Though I love a good story, I'm really, really happy that this story isn't mine. I'd have to move.

News Flash!

Here's something to distract you from the haunting tragedy in my last post. I'd love to subscribe to this magazine, wouldn't you? (And I don't even have a donkey.) There's always something good at Home Sanctuary.

Hiding from My Horses

I've been up since before sunrise. Between new work coming in and Paul bringing a client to dinner tomorrow night (which somehow meant we spent the weekend painting a room the client probably won't even see, and all the things we are doing to prettify our house), I need a clone today. So I'm about thirty minutes late feeding the horses. This apparently does not suit.

I've kept horses here for about ten years, but never before we got Buddy did anybody stand at the fence and whinny for me. Over and over and over again. (Is that where the word "nag" comes from? Not that I'd ever say he was a "nag" in the downtrodden horse sense, but he sure does know how to nag.)

Here's the view from my office (sorry about the screen on the window). As you can see, the complaint department is already open and my presence is required.

More Horses in Costume

For those of you who enjoyed the photos of horses in costume, you'll also enjoy the ones at the National Barrel Association World Championships in Augusta, Georgia. Some folks went to a lot of trouble!

I can't believe the horse dressed as a pinata didn't bust wide open with all those streamers blowing around. Colonel Sanders with his great big chicken-horse would have also been a challenge for the horses I know. You can view photos or video.

I'm excited because WJBF TV links back to horses in costume on smellshorsey.com on their Sphere IT button.

Human-Proof Your Barn (We Didn't)

We did it again. Lily and I got our wires crossed last night and neither of us locked the hay gate. I wondered why no one whinnied to me this morning, hungry for breakfast.

And it looks like between two and three bales have been consumed! Lucy has that glazed look on her face like I get after Thanksgiving dinner. She looked so miserable this morning when I ran her out of there, like it suddenly hit her that she was about to burst.

Lily doesn't know about it. I didn't tell her. She's off on a field trip to a barrier island science center for a few days and I miss her already. I didn't want her to be worried about the horses. I think all the preparations got us distracted from our normal feeding routine and that's why the gate got left open. She's supposed to take all these disposable clothes on the trip.  She's supposed to take tennis shoes and jeans that will never be worn again because you can't get rid of pluff mud (that wonderful stinky, sticky black mud in the coastal marshes). Problem is, her old clothes are her too small clothes, some of which are already at Goodwill. What 12-year-old has old clothes? You have clothes that fit now, and clothes that used to fit, and clothes that a relative who hasn't seen you in a while sent that will fit in a few years.

So I'm here doing the colic watch. I've talked to my vet and if Lucy doesn't start grazing -- or if she does start rolling or biting at her side -- we'll be pumping in mineral oil, etc. I'm not so worried about Buddy because I'm sure Lucy didn't share any more than she had to. Since I've started this post Lucy and Buddy have walked into my line of sight from my window -- and they're grazing. Whew. So far, so good. They'd been standing in the stalls for the past four hours, looking uncomfortable.

We've got too much room for human error in our barn and horse areas. We've tried to horse-proof everything. Guess we should have human-proofed them, too.

Horses Confirm Presence of Possum

I hope I can go to bed tonight, fall asleep and stay that way. Not like last night, when the stupid dog decided we were under attack by a possum. (Full story here but not worth reading.)

The dog was barking and barking. He does that sometimes. Something evil wanders into the yard and he goes into full defense mode. Or sometimes I think he just imagines it.

Last night the horses turned out to be very useful. I really don't know how to shut up a barking dog. Actually, with our dog, you can shut him up if he's barking in response to a stranger in the yard by simply snapping a leadrope on the dog and letting him go. Yes, if you have a leadrope snapped on your collar, you are safe from the stranger. You don't have to be tied. You don't have to be held. Just wear a leadrope and nobody can see you.

I wish that at 2:00 a.m. I had remembered this trick, because Parker, the dog, wouldn't cease and desist from his loud, obnoxious and sleep-killing barking. But he thought he was doing his job. So I tried to reassure him that he was living a rich fantasy life, that there was nothing amiss, and would you Please Just Shut Up So I Can Go to Sleep???

But then the horses turned up. And they were snorting at something. I could hear them tangle with each other (you know, biting and kicking your friend just because you can) and then snort some more. We had an intruder.

Thanks to them, I was able to find out the source of the ruckus. A possum playing possum in the bushes.
It didn't help me get rid of the possum or shut up the dog. But I was glad to have their second opinion. "The dog's right. There's something scary here. Snort Snort. Now, can you feed us?" Lucy and Buddy said.

No.