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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Bringing a Horse Up from Pasture (Back to Work)

As I am sure I have mentioned previously the horses have not really been worked in the past several years. When we decided to start farming it took every little bit of time to get where we are and get into new schedules with all the new critters, gardens, food preservation etc. Now that we have settled in somewhat I am ready to start working with my ponies again. I didn't realize how badly I missed that until I started helping my friend with her new horses. Since this isn't my first rodeo with bringing an unfit pasture ornament back into real work, I thought I would pass on my handy dandy tips. So here they are. First start slow. Don't just throw a saddle on your horse and go out for that half a day trail ride. If you do that poor horse won't hardly be able to move for a week. When a horse has been in pasture for any length of time muscle, tendons, ligaments and bone must be strengthened back up for the workload expected of them. I like to start with a refreshment course in stable manners. Stand politely while you are groomed, fly sprayed etc., don't be pushy...those sorts of things. Make sure that you have taken care of the basics such as attending to their health and their feet. If they aren't in that great of condition then either start giving them more calories, slowly or start them on a bit of a diet, slowly. A horse in poor condition by being either underweight or overweight will have more trouble getting back into shape. The next thing I like to do is work on the lunge line which will help to build and strengthen muscles without the added weight and strain of a rider. It also puts the horse back into the frame of mind to work. Some horses don't particularly take kindly to being brought in from vacation and this gives a nice transition without too much fuss. When starting the horse on the lunge don't just let your horse run willy nilly in circles around you. I like for the circle to actually be an oval (yes this means you have to work too) as it is easier on the joints and tendons that are out of shape. Start by walking, lots of walking. Then you can move into periods of trotting mixed with walking. Depending on how long the horse has been out of work will determine how long this period is. My best advice is not to rush it. If you and the horse need a change of scene then pick a different pasture or area to work in. Work both directions to work both sets of muscles on the horse. You can start with 20 minute workouts and work up to one hour. As the time period gets longer then increase the trotting time within that time frame. You can introduce some walk/trot/walk transitions which will help to balance the horse along with building muscle along the back and rear. Once the horse is comfortably lunging for an hour with little signs of fatigue then you can start riding. Start by walking for about 30 minutes and build from there. Just the act of carrying a rider is fatiguing to an unfit horse and most horses out in pasture have weak back muscles so take the time to let those back muscles get stronger to prevent back injuries. A horse with a bad back is not fun to have around. I rode one for a trainer for awhile and it seemed like more days than not I was tending to a bad back rather than being in the saddle. So don't feel bad for just walking...you are doing valuable muscle building and training which will save you a lot of heartache in the future. Next you can add some trot work and hills into your walk to build even more muscles and exercise those tendons and ligaments. Once the horse is comfortably handling a good hour to hour and a half of walking and trot work then you can begin to move into whatever discipline is your chosen one. If you even or jump you can start some canter work and work over cavaletti's. If you do barrels then you can start some canter work and work around your pattern. Whatever you do take the time to recondition the horse slowly, it will save lameness and other problems in the long run and make for a much happier willing partner. If the horse associates you with pain (sore muscles, bruised tendons, etc.) then they are much less likely to be happy to see you when you head out with the halter. BC has been out of work for years and I know that I have to take it real slow with him. We have been working on the lunge for a couple of weeks now. At first a 30 minute walk had him in a real sweat. Now, he is handling an hour of walk/trot work on the lunge with less sweat than he started with. He is also balancing himself much better which tells me that the muscles are getting stronger and more used the work being asked. Next, week he will go in loose side reins and then the week after we will start with slow saddle work. I expect it will be this fall before we really start any serious dressage work and even then eventing fitness. However, BC has been out for much longer and it will be slow going. I have to say though it feels good to just be working with him and spending time with him. Blessings, Kat

Friday, June 21, 2013

The Care and Feeding of Tack

I recently mentioned my emotional pain at having to throw out a bunch of tack that had not been taken care of. since I hadn't ridden or worked the horses much I had neglected my equipment and paid the price for it also. So, here are my tips for taking care of your tack and keeping if for a long time. All leather needs to be cleaned and oiled on a regular basis. Even kept in the barn it will dry rot if not kept from doing so. Dry rotted tack is dangerous as you never know when it will break. So on a regular basis clean your tack to get any sweat and dirt off of it with a good leather cleaner. I like Murphy's oil soap and have used it for years. A mild solution of soap and warm water will clean all the sweat and dirt off of the leather. Sweat and dirt will cause the tack to age and degrade faster. After cleaning run a dry cloth over the leather and then oil, oil oil. I prefer neatsfoot oil, but there are many good products for this. This will condition the leather putting much needed oils back into it to keep it soft and supple. Not oiling your leather will cause it to dry out and crack. Now, how often to do this? Many of the big show and training barns that I worked at over the years required tack to be oiled every time it was used and then thoroughly cleaned and oiled again once a week. The horses got a day off of work and that was always tack cleaning day in which everything was taken apart scrubbed down and oiled and then put back in place. After riding a light swipe of oil was run over the leather before putting away for the day. This kept the tack ready to use, clean and intact for a long time. Good tack is an investment so care should be taken that it last a long time. The plus side is that well cared for tack is much more comfortable for the horse to wear as it is supple and soft. When cleaning and oiling pay careful attention to the buckle areas which tend to wear faster than the rest of the leather. Anything that needs repair or looks worn should be taken to the leather repair guy right away instead of put back where it could accidentally be used. If you take good care of your tack then it will last you many many years. Blessings, Kat

Monday, June 17, 2013

Economical Horse Keeping

So you now have your horse and you want to make sure that this very large animal doesn't break the bank. Horses can be an expensive hobby and an even more expensive livelihood. But we are talking about the general pleasure horse, not a career in horses. Horses can be kept relatively economically. Here are my tips on inexpensive horse keeping. First a horse doesn't need a 5 star barn with all the bells and whistles. Yes, we all want one of those barns but in most climates they aren't really necessary. A three sided run in will do in many climates, but if you have harsh winters you might want to add a fourth side with a doorway to provide more shelter from the wind. Horses tolerate cold very well, but wind will kill a horse. Provide shelter from the winter wind and the horse is good. A three sided shelter will also protect against thunderstorms. Second is food. You will spend more on a good feeding program than you do anything else, but if you spend less then you Then you will spend more in vet, farrier and other costs to compensate for the poor health of your horses. Buy a good quality feed. It doesn't have to be a top of the line feed, but it does have to be a good quality. You feed less of it and your horses receive better nutrition so stay in better shape. I have gone the route of buying the cheapest feed available and believe me you will pay for it in the long run because the health of your horse will decline and you will find yourself with underweight unthrifty horses that need lots of supplements and vet care. Spend some time looking at feed tags. Buy the best quality hay you can find. It doesn't have to be a high protein hay like alfalfa, but a good quality grass hay. If it is real stemmy the horses will waste a lot of it. If it is poor quality or been stored for a long time then they will get nothing from it other than roughage. Many horses can be kept on just good hay and pasture without extra feed if the quality is good. Pastures should be kept and maintained. Spend the money to have it bushhogged a couple times a year (or use your own tractor). Overseed for extra forage. I like to overseed in the late summer with annual rye grass as it will grow most of the winter in our climate providing much needed nutrition. Fertilize your pasture at least once a year preferably twice. We fertilize with compost and it has improved our pastures tremendously. Rotate pastures so that they are not grazed below 3". If you don't have enough room to rotate properly (every couple days depending on the size of the pasture) then consider adding a dry lot around the barn to rotate into and just feed hay in the drylot. Next, learn how to take care of minor vet care yourself. Vaccines are easy to get and to give and will cost you much less in the long run. If I paid my vet to come out and do vaccines it would cost me roughly 120.00. Yet I can do it myself for about 20.00. For the farrier, keep your horses barefoot if at all possible. Learn how to take of minor sprains, scratches, and other issues instead of calling the vet out for every little bump and scrape. A good place to start is to learn what you can from your vet and to ready a good horse health book. Barefoot horses built tougher and better hooves anyway and unless they are working on heavy rocky trails or in heavy work or sport then they there is really no need for shoes. A healthy horse has healthy hooves, poor hooves are a sign that your horse is missing something or has always worn shoes. When I was eventing we would pull shoes for the down season when the horses were allowed to just be horses. At first their hooves were fragile but by the end of the season when it was time to shoe them again the farrier was cussing because their hooves were so hard and strong. A trim job is much cheaper than a shoe job every 8 weeks. And lastly, take care of your equipment. Tack is expensive and not cheap to replace. If you take care of it, it will last for a good long time. I didn't heed my own advice and since I wasn't using it I didn't think about my tack. I recently threw out every girth I had and some other tack that had dry-rotted and weakened by being neglected. It hurt to throw all that away even though most of it I have had for years I still remember how hard it was to pay for it and how much money just went in the garbage. It hurt believe me it hurt. I know there are many things on this list that are causing you to think that you are spending more money than you should, but in the long run believe me it will be worth it. Blessings, Kat

Sunday, June 16, 2013

So You Think You Want to Buy a Horse

So you think you want to buy a horse? I have been in and out of the horse world for a long time and there are some serious pitfalls out there for newbies. So here are my tips to make buying a horse a pleasant experience. First, be real about your horse experience. If you don't have any get some. Read everything you can, talk to trainers, spend time at the local boarding stable, volunteer to muck stalls. I gathered some of my most valuable knowledge mucking out stalls just to be around the horses and trainers. Second what do you want to do with your horse? If you just want to trail ride then you don't need that high dollar (and high spirited) thoroughbred or warm blood. You need something that is sane and solid. The next question to ask yourself is if you can handle the financial end of taking care of a horse. They are large and eat 20-22 hours out of every 24 hour day. Some horses are easy keepers who will do just fine on a quality grass pasture, others need grain hay and pasture to keep on weight. They need routine vet care (vaccines and blood tests) and feet trimming. They need equipment which can get expensive especially bought all at once. They need housing even if just a run in shed and they need fencing. Can you manage that? Then there are the emergencies. One thing you can count on is that if you keep horses long enough there will be an emergency no matter how good the care. Having a herd of horses can be like having a herd of toddlers out looking for trouble. Next when you think you have found that horse of your dreams take someone knowledgeable in horses to look at it with you. This is oh so important as I can not emphasize enough that many(most) horse traders are worse than used car salesmen. I have seen it all in that arena. I have seen traders drug horses that were nut cases and sell them as children's mounts and never once blink an eye. I have seen them drug horses so that they are sound on the test ride knowing that horse was lame as the day is long. If it can be done I have seen it done. If someone is pressuring you to buy a horse don't walk away run away. If they have a quality animal then they don't need to pressure you into buying it. The pressure comes when they want to get it off the property before the drugs wear off. Buy your saddle after you buy the horse...not every saddle fits every horse. A bad fitting saddle usually leads to a bad tempered horse as riding is associated with pain. 1000 lbs of bad temper is not pleasant for anyone and those are the horses that wind up at auctions or just standing in a pasture eating money. Find a farrier and a vet as soon as possible. Knowing who to call before you need to call is much nicer than searching around and being stuck with what you can get. The farrier that I used when we first moved here was great, then he decided he didn't want to be a farrier anymore. The next one I got was awful and my horses hated him. I have been through the gamut of farriers that were cruel and abusive, scared of hyper horses, didn't know what they were doing and bad trim and shoeing jobs. I had a vet that killed my daughter's first pony because she was ill after a choking incident and he poured an entire gallon of an electrolyte and glucose solution into her lungs because he was too lazy to check and make sure that the tube was not in her lungs. She drowned as my daughter and I watched and he drove out my driveway. So doing some asking around and finding out the good bad and ugly can help you know who you are calling before you have an emergency. If you have covered all those bases then go get your horse, it's a buyers market out there right now and there are loads of horses looking for just the right home. Of course, there are ways to keep horse cost to a minimum and we will discuss that next time. Blessings, Kat

Monday, June 10, 2013

Where I've been and what I've been up too

Wow, things have been busy and since the mornings are getting started real early around here due to the heat, I haven't posted much. I guess I should get better about that. A few weeks ago a friend of mine got two horses and they didn't settle in very well. Her experience with horses is limited and so this old horse trainer pulled out her dust covered boots and headed down the road every morning after chores to help. The horses have settled in now and we are just working out some kinks with two horses that haven't had much riding or work for several years. So being with her horses has really inspired me to stop procrastinating and putting off my own horses. I have been working on getting BC back into shape and making plans to get Whisper started again. I stated in another post earlier this spring that this is the year of the horse in which much needed repairs and such get done to the horse barn. So I started working on that yesterday. The feed room out there is now nice and tidy, all tack has been gone through and will be cleaned today. The tack area has been cleaned and organized. Today I have plans to make some repairs to BC's stall. I will be taking out the old hay rack that was built way to high up on the back wall to be able to throw hay into and installing a new (to him) hay tub. Why a tub? Because we frequently feed bagged chaff haye and it won't go in a standard hay rack. Then I have the side door to repair, which I was thinking about widening but because of our water problem with that barn I might not. I will be installing a drainage ditch at the door which tends get trampled down to allow the water to flow into the barn. I will put a pipe in there so that doesn't happen and there is still room for the water to flow around the barn instead of through the barn. Then I will be cleaning the outside of that side of the barn where all the junk has accumulated. So busy busy day this morning. Of course the garden is finally in production and we have been getting some good rain the past few days. We just keep planting and will plant straight through fall since the spring was off to such a bad start this is the only way to make up the difference. I don't think I will get much squash this year even though the plants look great. No squash vine borers and no squash bugs, but the squash are not maturing well. Maybe that will get better with time. Harvested most of the onions. Didn't get a whole lot but they are nice looking and I am sure will taste delightful. Sweet potatoes are in the ground and the first crop of corn should be ready soon. We had another snake in the garden so dear hubby got in there and thoroughly cleaned out some areas that I haven't been able to get to with everything else that needed to be done. The weeds and the snakes seem abundant this year. The goats are doing well and still no babies which is driving me nuts even though a couple of my girls look like they are going to explode. I wish they would pop soon because Dolly and Windy are both dropping in milk production. I still don't have a shortage though and have made some cheese and ice cream pretty regularly. Since the heat is getting to be unbearable we spend most of the day inside. The little one and I have been doing some crosstitch and the oldest has had a cold. I have some sewing projects that I likely will be finishing up soon. Other than that we are plugging along doing what we can outside before the heat gets to be too much and then enjoying the quiet time inside for the rest of the day. Hope your summer is going well and your garden is producing. Blessings, Kat