smellshorsey

Some People are Even Stupider than Me

And yes, I know that should be, "some people are even stupider than I." But when you're talking about stupid, good grammar is optional.

Okay, first you had me with my horse tangled up in the hay net in the trailer, even though I knew better. Then you had the other people at the horse show.

Unbelievable as it may be, there are people even stupider than I am. I was walking around the show grounds when I saw two loose horses. Not what you need at a show with so many children, green horses and wild riders. So I yelled to the announcer's booth that there were two loose horses, which when I pointed, they could clearly see. They stopped the show temporarily and announced that there were two loose horses.

Two women at the concession stand yelled out, "They're not loose. They're grazing."

Yes, they had brought their horses to the show and turned them loose, like dogs, to roam around and graze at will. I thought I'd seen everything.

Maybe I'm doing things wrong. Fencing is expensive and hard to keep up. Maybe I should just turn my horses loose. If anybody gets upset, I'll explain with a smile, "No, Buddy isn't eating your rosebushes, Mrs. Campbell. He's just grazing."

The two women did wander over to their horses and catch them. The horses were a bit underweight and could have stood some more grazing time, and the women could have stood a little more time away from the concession stand. They put lunge lines on their horses, and more or less tied them out from their trailers.

Maybe I should have given them my hay net while they were at it.

How We Proved that a Hay Net in the Trailer is Dangerous

Have you ever noticed that if you don't know something is dangerous, you can get away with doing it. Once you know, God holds you accountable.

I have used hay nets for years. About a year ago I heard that you should switch to hay bags because horses sometimes got tangled up in hay nets and the results could be B-A-D. So, I only used my hay nets for when the horse was tied to the outside of the trailer. Inside the trailer I used a hay bag.

Except that Lucy didn't like the hay bag. The opening didn't open exactly where her dainty nose sits. So she'd toss it like a punching bag before giving up and then it was just in her way.

Today when we were going to a show, and running late, of course, Lily put in a hay net instead of the hay bag into the trailer. With my knowledge and permission.

We loaded Lucy, who was upset to be going to the show without her boyfriends, but she was the one who needed schooling and never goes anywhere. She pawed and banged around in the trailer, so without wasting any time, I pulled out. She kept pawing. Then she quit. The weight in the trailer felt odd, and sometimes I felt like it was pulling funny. But I kept going.

Nearly an hour later we got to the show grounds and went to unload -- only to find Lucy standing on three legs in the trailer with one leg very seriously snarled up in the hay net! This was a heavy duty hay net, too. She was trembling from the exhaustion of standing on three legs while being trailered. A friend turned up with a knife and painstakingly cut Lucy loose rope by rope.

To my infinite gratitude, Lucy stood quietly until cut free. Then, after she quit trembling and her veins weren't standing out under her thin TB skin, Lily warmed her up and the horse seemed fine. They had a good day at the show, with Lucy making some mistakes but being a willing and even interested competitor. She enjoyed going somewhere.

Until it was time to go home. I don't blame her one bit -- she decided that the trailer is an evil, scary place and she wasn't getting on it. Ever.

We did what we had to do, which ranged from getting dragged all over to tempting her with the Bucket of Earthly Delights to getting out the lunge whip and holding it in a very visible place but not striking her (though I am not against force, we just didn't get to that). She suddenly and with no warning hopped it. I gave her lots of time with the Bucket of Earthly Delights.

The hay net is in the trash can. And I thank the Lord that my horse had enough strength and balance to stand on three legs on that journey, and also had enough sense to not panic. The what ifs are playing vividly in my mind. What if she had fallen? What if she had broken something?

So very many ways to make mistakes. Just when I thought I'd made them all.

Thank God it turned out all right.

Let Me Tell You Why You Shouldn't Buy My Horse

Buddy is a beautiful, delightful horse. I feel like I'm trying to sell my dog. I act like I'm trying to sell this big ugly goat.

Buddy is a big handsome guy. He is sound and healthy. Buddy has a good mind and has excellent bloodlines. Buddy is a gentleman and a great fellow. He's only for sale because he has informed me (without the use of a Horse Communicator) that he doesn't wish to comply with Lily's dreams of jumping higher and going further. So, as I've said before, he's for sale.

And I'm not the best one to sell him. In fact, I'm sure I'm the worst. I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning in a stew, fussing over the house and barn (with no visible change) so that it would look like a place that would have a nice horse for sale for when my potential buyer comes.

 

And then, the potential buyer who was coming to try Buddy called and said that after sleeping on all the things I told her about him, she just didn’t think she wanted him. She thanked me for being so honest.

 

I cannot help myself. I tell everything I know, especially the bad things, even if they’ve never caused a problem (she was concerned about an injury he had before we got him – an injury that has given us no problems).

 

So, rather than come look at my horse whom she knows everything about, she’s going to go instead to look at the horses offered for sale by a man I believe to be unscrupulous. I know him from when I had another horse and boarded at a stable where he worked. I believe that he certainly will not tell the whole truth about his horses, and here I’ve lost a potential sale because of my overabundance of honesty.

 

I have to believe that God will find Buddy a good home and that I’ve done the right thing, but it doesn’t feel like it.

 

My lost potential buyer asked me what I knew of the man she’s going to see, and she told me she knew that he had a very good reputation. I said I didn’t know anything about that, but that when he was a farrier, I had to quit using him and use someone else because he was unable to shoe my horse. I didn’t tell her about the suitcase of beer he brought with him and would drink while he worked on the horses. I didn't tell her about other things. Maybe he's cleaned up his act. I don't know. I said that I couldn’t speak about his reputation as a horse trader.

 

So, I’ve been in one kind of stew and now I’ve gotten in another kind. But I’ll be all right.

 

I’m not good at this buying and selling of horses. I find it quite stressful. I got several very excited e-mails from another potential buyer that I think I ran off by telling her absolutely every bad thing I know. Not the good things. Anything that could possibly be wrong. I have a compulsion to do that.

Why don't I tell people all the wonderful things about this horse? He is very special. Is there something called being too honest?

Probably I'm not being too honest -- I'm probably being too negative, and no, it's not because I don't want to sell him, though deep down I probably don't. But we have to, if we're going to get a horse that will do the things that Lily wants to do. I want him to get a good home and everybody to live happily ever after. Us. Him. His buyer. Our new horse.

Another prospect is coming next week to look at him. I think I'll excuse myself and let Lily and her teacher show the horse. That is, unless I talk to the prospective buyer again and talk them out of coming. 

Truly Obnoxious Teenage Horse Girls

When I was young, Saintly Brother taught his horse to rear in the style of the Lone Ranger. Of course his mare was named Silver, and he also taught her to bow. He made Silver a trick horse. They were quite a pair.

One day when I was a teenager my friends and I got bored. Yes, it's me, not Lily, who is/was the truly obnoxious teenage horse girl.

We decided to use Silver's rearing trick to fool passersby into thinking that one of us (we took turns) had fallen off a rearing horse and gotten hurt. We wanted to see if people would stop to help. We'd get on Silver, get her to rear, and fall off. No one stopped, probably because three girls laughing their heads off don't appear too damaged. But Silver got tired of this trick and her rears got less and less spectacular.

So on my next turn, I asked her to rear so high that I pulled her over backwards. I fell off to the side. She landed on her back, crushing the saddle tree and flattening the cantle. Silver was thankfully all right, and I never did it again.

It didn't scare me then as much as it should have. But now I have a better understanding of physics and I can only be thankful that God looks after fools, such as I once was, and in many ways, still am.

What Kind of Stall Flooring Do You Prefer?

I should probably have a whole category called, "Things I Wish I'd Done Differently." One is the "flooring" in our stalls. We have no floors. We have dirt. I initially used straw for bedding on top of the dirt floor until Lucy got into the feed storage (another topic for my category of "Things I Wish I'd Done Differently) and had to be kept in the stall with butterfly pads in her hooves and all kinds of anti-founder precautions. Thank the Lord and our good vet, she didn't founder. (And I moved where I stored the feed.)

But I had to take the straw bedding out of the stall so she couldn't eat it and replace it with peat moss/gold.  It did make nice manure. Now I use pine shavings.

Incidentally, the horses are not kept in the stall (unless they've done something stupid and need stall rest) but have 24/7 access to their stalls. That means they can go in there any time they need to go to the bathroom. They take full advantage of this.

Now, what's good about a dirt floor is that it's easy on horses' feet and joints. What's bad about dirt is that every time I strip the stalls I strip a layer of dirt. (And then work lime in, etc. before adding the shavings.) If you saw Lucy in her stall, you'd think she was a pony. She's standing in a hole. Buddy's stall has only been in use for two years (didn't keep the pony before him in a stall) so his dirt floor (under the shavings) is fine. For now. It would also help if Lucy didn't go into the stall to pee every single time.

If I were to do it over, and I'm going to have to at some point before Lucy disappears from view, here are the choices:

1. Concrete, asphalt or other permanent surface. Good part: permanent. Bad part: Everything else.
2. Gravel. Good part: semi-stable surface that lets liquids flow through. Bad part: I don't like adding rocks to my nice soft sandy land, and it doesn't sound comfortable. Plus, the horses would figure a way to churn it into their bedding and I'd end up with heavy, rocky manure and my problem not solved.
3. Stall mats. Good part: made for the job and should be a comfortable surface under the bedding. Bad part: bazillion dollars and would be a hassle to install. Plus I'm not convinced that it could hold up to all that pee.
4. Tamped clay. Good part: Nice, natural surface that is semi-solid and permeable. If I'm smart, we'll slope it so that the liquids run out instead of forming a basin. Bad part: I'm sure I'll be digging up layers eventually, and also imagine that with Lucy's habit of peeing in the stall and ONLY in the stall that even it will become saturated, slope or no slope. Still, it could be redone yearly. I think that's what is suggested.

I think I've read of other options but these seemed like the basics. Before I make my next move, which will not be soon, what flooring do you have? What do you think is ideal and/or most practical? What would you do over?

Questions I Have

I have a few questions.

1. Just what exactly is so scary about a plastic grocery bag?
2. Could you tell if your cat was suffering from sleep deprivation, and what would be the signs?
3. Why is it that the more valuable your horse is, the more likely it is to develop serious veterinary problems? (Which is different from health problems, but not by much.)
4. Why do the people who insist on painting pictures of horses, especially for children's books, not get a photograph of a horse and use that as a guide for how and where horse tack is used/put together (I'm twitching.)
5. Why don't more men and boys ride?
6. Why is it that your horse always picks up bad habits from his/her horse friends, and not the other way around? That's why it's hard to sell a cribber. One cribber in the pasture is like putting a sailor on a ship with a carton of cigarettes. Soon everybody's smoking. Lucy wasn't scared of fireworks until Buddy moved in. Now they both hyperventilate -- and worse. Happy New Years, all you galloping fools!

Stupid things I have done with horses

Here are a few of the Stupid things I have done with horses:

• Tied up a horse by the bridle (have done this more than once and bought more than one new bridle, showing what a fast learner I am).
• Failed to notice the difference in height between a Thoroughbred and a Shetland pony. I put the TB, who I had in on trial, in the stall where I normally kept the Shetland pony. In the next stall was a garbage can containing sweet feed. It didn't register with me that the TB could reach over the partition, pull the lid off of the garbage can, and eat the level of sweet feed down as far as she could reach. It was very embarrassing to have to tell the owner that I would need a few more days to try the horse as I had, um, had to have her stomach pumped this morning and was waiting to see if she would founder.... (she didn't).
• Gone for a ride in a pasture full of happy horses. My horse got really happy, too, and I ended up walking back, even carrying the bridle....(and dragging my pride).
• Foxhunted horses I have never seen before.
• More developing and more to come....

Here are a few of the Stupid things I have NOT done with horses:

• Cannot presently think of any....