No, I don’t have any sympathy for you, Heidi. I only have sympathy for your poor mare, who is now dead because YOU DIDN’T REPLACE THE BARBED WIRE ON YOUR PROPERTY.

She sounds like a great mare.  I mean, who knows why the FUCK you made her do a dressage test with a hematoma on her back or evented her with her back and a shoulder out.  I guess it just shows that she was a good mare and you were a bad owner.  By the way, maybe you should pray harder as apparently God did not protect your horses from your shitty fence just because you brag about what a great Christian you are all over your Facebook page.  Guess God expects you to get off your ass and FIX YOUR FENCE, ya think?

I know what Heidi’s reaction to this is going to be.  I’m psychic that way.  She will e-mail about what a MEEEEAAAANIE I am for calling her out when clearly she’s suffering (though she’s not the one that wound up with her leg half ripped off – I sure would rather be SAD than have my leg ripped halfway off and die, wouldn’t you?).  Some of her buddies will tell her she should ignore me and that I’m just a bitch who wishes she had Heidi’s wonderful life and blah blah.  That’s OK Heidi.  Stay ignorant.  Leave that Friesian stallion out there on the crap fence too.  I guess that’s one way of keeping his unapproved cross-bred piece of shit babies from going to slaughter – they won’t make it THAT far.  They’ll die on the fence!

But I know, it’s not your fault, nothing is your fault, right?  You went to horse college!  You’re, like, a horse professional, aren’t you, Heidi?  And I know you couldn’t possibly be expected to get out there and perform the hideously SIMPLE task of replacing the barbed wire with hot tape.  You are way too busy with important tasks like uploading pictures of yourself making duckface to your Facebook.

P.S. Your responsible horse-owning friends are the ones who sent this to me. Apparently you don’t listen to people who try to more subtly hit you with a clue-by-four. So we’ll try this in the hopes of saving your remaining horses!

P.P.S. I removed the last name only because some of the people who read this blog apparently do not have any self-control.  Maybe if I make it harder to find people who are featured, then only the smart people – the ones capable of writing a coherent e-mail and expressing their legally protected opinion about the person’s behavior – will manage to track them down and the immature/stupid who think it is appropriate to threaten people (it’s not, and it’s not legal, and I won’t protect you if you do it) won’t have the necessary problem-solving skills to figure out how to make contact, and we can avoid some drama.  You are completely within your rights to tell someone that you think they’re an idiot – this is America.  But tell them once, and don’t continue to harass them or make threats, or you may find yourself in a heap of trouble. If you aren’t sure where the line is, stay away from it altogether and keep your comments IN the comments.  Finally, it is always anyone’s right who is featured here to respond – that’s what the comments are for.  I gotta say, there is a WHOLE lot of drama around that whole Jack Knife Hollow thing – you guys should have a reality show, you’re ALL fighting and accusing each other of everything down there.  Must not be much else to do!

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What is it? Installing t-post caps!

Despite the fact that these things are about 50 cents each, I still see horse properties without them. These properties may have perfect safe fence stretched between those posts – usually electric tape or wire, sometimes coated wire, sometimes wire mesh (reasonably safe if tight and small weave so a hoof can’t go through), but the sharp t-post tops are just waiting for a horse to plunk some part of their body down on them and, believe me, it happens.

One of my readers just sent me this picture – and this is in the middle of the horse healing up! The horse did recover, but spending 50 cents for a t-post cap on the top of what she landed on would have prevented this in the first place. Horses try to jump and stake themselves on the sharp posts, or they do what one of my mares did in 1998 and put their neck/head down on it (she was probably just trying to scratch, but she tore a hole in her jugular vein and nearly bled to death). I know you think you own the world’s most sensible old horse, but he’s still a horse and you cannot predict what they will do 100%. An injury like this means you’ll be spending time before and after work washing it and wrapping it in all kinds of weather, not to mention paying plenty to the vet for follow up visits, antibiotics and ointment. Trust me, it is MUCH cheaper to use the caps!

Yes, I have had horses who pull the t-posts caps off and play with them — just use some Krazy Glue to put them on there in a more permanent way. Putting those caps on, if you haven’t done so already, is the perfect weekend project that you probably won’t even break a sweat doing.

While we’re on topic, if you have a cool before-and-after picture showing how you fixed up the fence (or facilities in general) of your new horse property, feel free to share those. You may motivate your fellow readers, and hey, you deserve a little acknowledgement for your hard work! Remember, direct links only (they start with http) and only the “i” link from photobucket, not the “s” link. The picture will not show up for you. It will show up when I moderate. Links must end with .jpg or .gif.

If you’re looking for a big draft cross trail companion, Shiloh Horse Rescue in Nevada has just started Latte under saddle, and from this first ride video, I’d say odds are good she will be an easy one to continue training. This is a pretty good example, too, of how to do a first ride. #1, the horse has a halter on over the bridle and that is what the ground person is using for control – there’s no rope snapped to the bit, as I see people do. #2, the horse is not forced to stand perfectly still for the first mounting – the steps sideways as she balances herself are allowed and she’s not punished for them. #3, the rider is as quiet as possible, which helps the mare have a good, non-scary experience, and only has the ball of their foot in the stirrup (this is how you don’t wind up hung up and inventing silly devices like the “imprinter”). #4, they’re in the round pen – a safe, small place for the mare to get used to this new idea. #5, all they do is walk. I see so many people screw up the first ride by asking too much and making it scary, and you’re just laying a foundation for trouble if you do that, even if you don’t get that trouble during that first ride. Maybe the only thing I’d change is that the ground person should be next to the horse, not out in front in case she leaps forward, but overall, this is a good example of a safe and smart first ride. Anyway, if you’re interested in Latte, contact Shiloh – they’d love to hear from you!

 

 

 

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I grew up and learned about HOA’s (though I still think they’re largely ridiculous – particularly that part I grew up with about how we had to all have the same lamp out front) and developed a deep and abiding hatred of suburbia, based upon my earliest recollections of it as a Place You Couldn’t Keep Ponies.  But when I had a question this week about how much space it really takes to keep a horse, I decided to Zillow my childhood home and see just how large that yard had been.  It turns out it was just over a quarter of an acre.  So, a huge and wonderful turnout for a horse if you are in Southern California, and not big enough to keep anything bigger than chickens in the rest of the U.S.!

The space issue is an excellent question.  I just adopted out a Thoroughbred mare to a place that is probably a quarter of an acre – but she’s 24 years old.   The space is clean, the fence is new, there’s a large, tall run-in shed and poop is picked up daily.   She shares it with two alpacas and there hasn’t been the slightest issue.  Shortly thereafter, I was asked to look at a horse just down the street that some impulsive lady had purchased at the Enumclaw auction and was now dumping on Craigslist.  OMG.  Same amount of space, but full of crap including a trampoline and numerous other hazards and junk – and the horse was a six year old OTTB!  A rescuer friend snatched him up quickly before he had a chance to get hurt.

There are four main issues to consider when asking yourself how much space a horse really needs.  The first one is safety.  If you have more than one horse, someone is going to be the boss and it’s smart to give the #2 horse sufficient space to get away from the tough guy.  In a small area, horses are more likely to be cornered and kicked or bitten.  That’s why all those horses on a kill buyer’s lot are so marked up – there’s just no space to get away.  So, if you have two twenty-something sweethearts that have been together for years, they may do just fine in a fairly small area, but lose one and replace him with a four year old, and you’re likely to have problems.  Another issue is how active the horse(s) are.  The senior Thoroughbred I mentioned above rarely even breaks into a trot on her own.  A young one that needs to run needs the space to do so, or you are likely to have a heck of a time with him under saddle.  Southern California is full of young Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods locked in stalls or 10 x 15 pipe corrals.  I watch their owners longe and longe, trying to make up for the lack of turnout and space to run, and many of these horses are still nuts.  Seriously, I’ve never seen as many people offloaded at any barn as I have at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center.  It is like the rodeo over there – and I think it’s all about lack of turnout.  (They do have some paddocks, but turnout is not included in board, so many horses sit all day while the owners work).  A final factor about space is what is the space like?  A perfectly flat and mostly clear half acre with no significant mud problem is a vastly superior horse home than ten acres that are thick with trees and turn into a swamp come October.

The second issue is sanitation.  If you are going to have horses on a small area, you absolutely have to get out there and pick up poop.  Yes, in the pasture.  I know, I know.  The first time I saw someone do this, I too thought they were off their rocker – but it’s actually an unavoidable part of decent quality horsekeeping on a small property.  If you’ve got more acreage, you may be able to just drag the pastures or even let nature take its course, depending, but if you’ve got fifteen horses on five acres, get the wheelbarrow – you’ve got a lot of work to do if you don’t want your property to be a breeding ground for parasites.  Don’t think regular deworming will fix the problem.  Horses shouldn’t eat off their own excrement, nor should they stand in it, period.  In nature, they constantly move and travel so that this isn’t an issue.  If you’re going to lock them up, it’s your job to clean up.  You’ll never get a horse worm-free if he’s in a little dry lot you never clean.

(The space issue is so interesting. I know some of you are going, OMG, who would put 15 horses on 5 acres?  And those of you somewhere like L.A. are thinking, man, I wish I could find a place to board that had five acres and only 15 horses on it.)

A third issue is the horse himself, and there are two main considerations about how much space he may need, and what type of space.  The first one is soundness.  It’s not fair to an old coot with stiff legs to ask him to stand in a 12 x 12 box stall and be taken out once a day for a ride. He’s going to be stiff, sore and painful and I’m sorry but NO amount of Legend, Adequan, bute, BL pellets, glucosamine, MSM or anything else is going to compensate for the lack of movement.  Your old guy needs to walk and move continuously, and on a reasonably flat area that doesn’t stress his legs.  He needs to be kept out of mud or deep footing.  A stall with an attached paddock is the ideal, or 24/7 turnout with shelter.   The other kind of horse that absolutely has to have space is the young, energetic horse including young stock.  Ask any vet and they’ll recite for you the problems that are caused by locking growing foals in stalls or small paddocks where they can’t run and play.   A study at Utrecht University in the Netherlands found the following:

“Week-old Dutch warmblood foals were put into two groups: One living in box stalls for five months, and the other turned out 24 hours a day. After five months, some foals were euthanized and their fetlock joints examined. The results showed that confining foals significantly decreased calcium deposition, collagen development, and collagen cross-linking, which is critical to collagen strength. In comparison, pastured foals had normally developing subchondral bone.”  (This is from The Horse)

Yeah, yeah, I know, I would think there’d be a way to do that without euthanizing foals, too, but the point is that babies need to move or you’re looking at soundness problems later.  Locking a foal in a stall or a small paddock is a bad, bad idea and people do it all the time, reasoning that a foal is small, so for him, it’s not such a small area.  He may be small, but his need to exercise is far greater than the adult horse that is three times his size.

The final question is whether or not you expect the horse to live off of pasture, at least in the summertime.  There is no hard and fast rule of thumb about how many acres of pasture a horse needs.  It depends on what your pasture is like. I used to have a five acre property in the midwest and had no problem keeping 5 Thoroughbreds positively hog-fat on it all summer – but it was an old alfalfa field and animals hadn’t ever been out on it when I bought it.  If you let your horses graze everything down to the dirt and you never pick up poop or rest any part of the property and let it grow back or seed/fertilize, I can guarantee the nutritional value of whatever grass remains is about the same as snacking on cardboard.  Horses can only live on grass where there is grass, and this means sufficient grass that it never gets grazed down to the ground.  You either have to have a lot of acreage or separate your property into different pastures and rotate, letting the grass have a chance to grow back before you put horses out on it again.  (By the way, the presence of high, untouched weeds or long coarse grasses that the horses didn’t touch does NOT mean there is still something left to eat out there…use a little common sense.)

A really great book if you have a small property and are trying to figure out how to configure it is Cherry Hill’s Horsekeeping on a Small Acreage.  I’d check that one out for sure.

By the way, large acreages can present their own problems too!  It becomes a lot harder to check horses daily for injuries, maintain fence, watch for the presence of animal holes or other hazards, etc.   And of course it is much harder to secure from thieves.   I know a lot of people with large properties who keep a smaller sacrifice area down by the barn, and use it as a catch pen.  They call the horses down at least once a day and lock them in, usually with a bribe of a few handfuls of grain or some tasty hay that is even more appealing than the pasture.  I’ve worked at a place where they ring a bell and everyone comes running – a huge convenience when it is time to ride and you don’t want to hike out over 100 acres looking for your mount, who may otherwise very well toss his head, laugh at you and head for the hills!

How much space do your horses have?  What are the challenges you face in maintaining it?   Have you had a property for a long time and had to learn what the “right,” manageable number of horses on it was — or are you trying to adjust to that number right now?

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