Everyday Stuff

Just a quick post to let you all know how everyday stuff with the horses is going, if you couldn't care less about this please do feel free to skip it. Well as you can see we've got all the Thoroughbred Horses rugged up and they are getting their fluffy winter coats now, the ponies winter coats are so thick they don't need rugs and most likely won't all winter. 

Above is a photo of our field or one side of it anyway, with all the rain we've been having it had left the fields quite muddy, then we had all the wind that dried the fields out and here you have it one big dirt field, it does have some grass down one end but they won't eat that so I guess they can't be hungry, just as well with all the haylage they munch through.

Of course haylage isn't the only thing our beloved equines are eating, we've still got our portable fencing and although it is a little run down, it's plastic after all, it still does the job. This is a shot to show some of the grazing they get, it's not great and does have rather a lot of weeds but at least they can still get some grass.

Here's what else they can reach, yummy apples, some of our herd are a little too fond of the apples, but we do keep an eye on them to make sure they don't over do it and make themselves feel ill.None of our equines have to worry about getting a shock from the portable electric fence because we don't turn it on, with them in, this does sound a bit silly but they are remarkably well behaved so they're is no real need to turn it on.

  

Coming to the end of the post now with a photo of the wonderful Niko, he is looking over to see when we are done putting up the portable fence. All the equines are well and happy, the farrier is coming tomorrow to trim their hooves, so let's hope that all goes well. 

That's it from me I hope you are all having a great time with your equines or whatever it is you happen to be up to. 

In The Orchard

Now that we have portable electric fencing we can move the horses just about anywhere and as they have now grazed all the land where the trees were removed we decided do some pruning to make room for the horses to graze between the trees. Here’s little Murphy enjoying the new grazing.

  
And Niko too but he is more interested in treats at the moment. It’s still too wet here to be riding so he’s just having a long break from work, but I am sure it’ll do him good to have time off, he normally gets a long break every winter.

  
Pip looking very sweet and innocent, but don’t be fooled he is a little monster at the moment. He is still a colt so is starting to get a bit full of himself, so I’ve started to try and get him to behave himself a bit better. He has the annoying habit of lashing out with his front leg if he is made to wait and he ended up smacking me in the knee today, but afterwards I made him walk and trot about with me and stand to wait a bit as well and he was really good, so I was quite happy with him.

 

Here’s Tipper looking quite the fool with a weed hanging from his forelock, he’s muddy but happy. He to isn’t doing anything because of the wet, but I have taken to putting a bridle on him to take him out and in as he hasn’t been very good about having one on the few times I have put one on him. By putting the bridle on to take him in and out it shows him it is not just for work and can be a nice experience for him, he happens to get a bucket of feed when he comes in ;)

And finally last but by no means least Madeline who is loving the trees as they make for very good bum scratcher, quite a disapproving look on her face in this photo, but it’s the only one that is any good out of the photos I took. Lots of thought going into Madeline right now with regards to her future work.

It always amazes me how I can write so much about so little, anyway that’s about all from me now.

A Yard of Sorts

  
As the horses and ponies have now been moved over to where we had the stables put up I thought I would sort of show you all around. So here are the stables they still have attachments that need putting on like door latches and most still need haynet rings.

  
All the doors except the one on the ponies box have large metal chew strips to help protect the doors, especially from this chap who just loves to have a good crib on the top of his door.

  
Here is the inside of Niko’s box he has the kick boards right the way up the wall to prevent him from cribbing on the wall and causing them to splinter. 

  
When we ordered the stables we asked for skylights and here they are, they’ve proven to be very helpful with so few daylight hours, it’s good to have that bit of extra light before it gets dark in the stables.

  
And here is something we did not ask for but were pleased that it was done, rather than the front wall reaching right to the roof a gap was left at the top, this was probably just a way to use less wood but we like it because it helps the stables with air flow.

  
Now enough about the stables. Here is the turn out area it’s far from ideal but it is not that muddy at the moment so it will do, as you can see we’re using portable electric fencing, it works very well and is quite easy to use.

  
The horses are in at night and go out during the day which gives them time to stretch their legs, have a roll, and socialise.

And finally the muck heap it is quite close to the stables which makes mucking out a lot easier, well that’s just about it, we don’t have a tack room as we keep it all at home.

And that is our yard of sorts.

Enough is Enough!

Normally I don’t have a problem with cribbers and I think it best to let them get on with it, but recently Niko has been very lazy about foraging, can’t say that I blame him as there is very little to forage, but it has been causing him to build up weight more towards his front and with his already poor top line he quite simply looks a mess also he hurt his shoulder. So we have stopped him hopefully for good.

We tried the Cribox and sadly it didn’t work for long as every time it rained the Cribox was diluted and stopped working, so that was just no good as we ended up buying all the Cribox from the tack shop and it still wasn’t enough.

So we tried chilli sauce as we had heard it worked sadly Niko seemed to quite like it and was very happy cribbing on his nice chilli flavour posts, so again no success.

Then one could turn to a cribbing collar or a muzzle, but cribbing collars don’t really work unless you do them up so tight that they are nearly choking the horse, so despite what some may say they aren’t a humane way of stopping a cribber. A muzzle is also a bad way to go about stopping a cribber as it can make them head shy.

So we finally got around to crib proofing one section of the paddock by running a strand of electric wire along the top of the fence posts where Niko would normally crib, this has worked brilliantly and he now doesn’t even try to get a quick crib in, he hasn’t shocked himself once as he is well aware of what the wire is.

I really am quite happy about this and I do think this will work I know that Niko will never really stop being a cribber and if he gets the chances to crib he most likely will, but he is looking better already for not cribbing.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting my review of the saddle pad now I have had time to give it a fair crack at the whip so to speak.

September News

We have finally got around to burning the last of the trees that were ripped up to make room for the paddock, as you can see it was quite a big fire and the flames reached high in to the air.

But sadly I think we will have to relight it to clear up the last bits of branch and twig, but at least then the second paddock will be clear of trees and then all we have got to do is put in the fence posts, easier said than done.

In other news Niko went back to cribbing because after the rain the Cribox was not as effective and he started cribbing again.

We did try using chilli sauce as we had heard it worked but Niko seemed to quite like it so that didn’t work and just ended up giving him… well lets just say the chilli sauce didn’t get on with him!

So we have tried a different way of stopping him that seems to be working but more on the latter.

Getting To the Root of It

If you were to walk though our paddock you would probably notice that lots of the ground has been dug up, but who or what is digging up the paddock, rabbits maybe, or a dog perhaps dogs dig holes right, but no it is none of those things, so what is it?

Oh why did I not think of the pony, yes that’s right little Murphy has been caught red handed digging up the paddock, but why would he do this you say, well I will explain, sometime ago I did a post about stinging nettles and how the horses enjoy them, well it seems they have a taste for the roots as well.

Murphy will spend lots of his time foraging and digging up stinging nettle roots, the roots contain lots of minerals that will benefit Murphy’s health, plus he seems to be very content wondering around digging up roots so I have no problem with it.

Here is a photo of Murphy with his prize, a tasty stinging nettle root, Murphy works hard digging and searching for the roots and I think this is a treat well earned.

Thistles in My Paddock

Recently I have noticed that our equines have been enjoying eating the heads of thistles so I decided to try them on a meal of cut thistles. It went down pretty well and so I thought I would do I post about it and how to make them more appetizing.

As these thistles are not in the paddock I had to first of all cut them down, and obviously place them in something to transport them to the paddock, I made sure to try and get the thistles that had begun to bloom as the horses like the blooming heads, Then I cut the thistles up into lots of little more edible pieces.

If you do try this remember to try your equines on a small amount first, as thistles are very prickly and may not be to the taste of some equines, Tipper was not very keen on them, but Niko got stuck in.

After preparing the thistles I delivered them in the wheelbarrow, as you can see they are going down quite well, obviously these are just a treat of sorts, and they all had their normal feed of haylage after the thistles. Please excuse the muddy equines it’s very hard keeping them clean with all this mud.

So there you go just one more thing they will eat, and they really did enjoy them too, but I think I will stick to something less prickly next time, it wasn’t much fun preparing them for the horses and ponies.

Thank you all for your comments on my last post.

Autumn Mist, he will be all mended very soon, it hasn’t taken long to sort itself out, but it is just one more mark that we will need to get the fur back on.

Sherri, yes sorry about the nasty photos, but I wanted to show how it was all coming along, thanks for the comment.

Abby, sadly we don’t have a hose in a suitable place to use on the horses, so we just let it go down by itself. Yes I think you are almost defiantly right about the farrier, I don’t know if he has been shod on all four, but considering he is a racehorse I would think that he has been. It is very worrying because one of Tippers shoes has become lose, and we will need a farrier to sort it out, but Tipper isn’t ready to have the farrier yet as he is still not very well behaved about having his feet picked up, and I don’t know if any of our farriers are likely to lose their temper with him, if so it will set him back so much and we may never sort this problem out. I think one of our farriers should be able to get it done as he has been brilliant so far, but you never know, right. Sadly the weather here is rain on and off one second it is sunny the next it’s windy and raining, still hopefully it will help the grass to grow. I just go on and on don’t I sorry I just had to get that all out like I said it’s all very worrying.

A Clear Paddock

I have just recently finished clearing the big paddock of weeds, and as you can see the horses and ponies have eaten most of the weeds I cut down, but now you can see just how little grass there is, oh well at least they have plenty of haylage.

Here is what we are using to clear the weeds now as the shears are quite slow, so we use this now it is pretty good at cutting down the stinging nettles, but it does sometimes have a bit of trouble with older nettles, and the cow parsley.

Still it is great for clearing the weeds near and under the fence, it comes with a pack of little plastic blades, you attach just one on to the strimmer and you are good to go, sadly it’s only meant for use on grass so the blades can break easily if they hit a thick stalk.

It doesn’t have a very long charge so I can only do a little bit every day, because we have no where to charge it where the horses and ponies are, anyway I am quite happy with it and it is making clearing the paddocks much quicker, so that is always good.

Thank you for your comments on my last post.

Sherri, yes most of the fur goes quite quickly, there are so many birds here that we don’t have to worry about the fur laying around.

Ragwort in My Paddock

It is just starting to get to that time when all the ragwort starts to grow. I think there are about three different types of ragwort, Common ragwort, Marsh ragwort, and Oxford ragwort, but they are all just as poisonous and so they must all GO!

So today we have gone and bought a ragwort fork, it is very useful, the people that rented a paddock next to the yard we used to keep our horses at, once said they used a screwdriver and garden trowel to dig it up, but I think I will stick to the fork.

Anyway, ragwort must not just be cut down like nettles, as horses are even more likely to eat wilted ragwort, it is not common for horses to eat ragwort if they have plentiful grass to graze, but if poor quality hay is fed it can contain ragwort. Ragwort is still just as poisonous when wilted, and so needs to be removed from the paddock after being dug up.

Now one of the nicer sides to ragwort, the Cinnabar Moth this pretty little moth will lay it’s eggs on ragwort, the poisonous leaves of the ragwort are eaten by it’s caterpillars, this protect the caterpillars from predators by making them taste bad, oh and makes them poisonous too.

Sadly I have no photos of the caterpillars, I don’t think it is the right time of year, but anyway the caterpillars are yellow and black striped and a bit hairy, they look very nice and all the nicer when I see them munching on ragwort.

Thank you for the comment on my last post.

Abby, yes there is so much to learn about horses, I should probably take some BHS courses.

Nettles in My Paddock

Today we have been doing some much needed field maintenance, and what better place to start than the weeds, as you can see the paddock is full of weeds but lots of these weeds are stinging nettles, and so they don’t have to go to waste.

So here they are stinging nettles, horrible plants with seemingly little use to us, or at least when they are like this. But they can become a tasty treat, for your horse or pony but I wouldn’t recommend you try them like this.

Ok, so just cut the whole patch of nettles down, and then leave them to wilt, when we cut some of our stinging nettles they were ready for the horses and ponies to eat in the same day we cut them.

After the nettles have wilted your equines can dig in. So there you go a tasty treat for your equine, and they aren’t just a treat they are quite good for horses and ponies as they have a lot of iron in them.

Thank you all for your comments on my last post.

Luckily all the horses and ponies are being very well behaved now, I guess it was just a one off, and I am not complaining just so long as they all stay well behaved. You are right Michelle I should really try lunging them more.

Hello and welcome to my blog C and C Antiques and Animals. Thank you I too like the fence just a shame it’s not post and rail.