Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion
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Pet Talk
We've cut back on our pets since the kids grew up & moved out. We have 4 dogs, 3 horses, a pony, & 2 goats. When my daughter visits, we increase that by 2 dogs & 2 cats. The boys usually only bring a dog or two.Our horses are all Thoroughbred, ex-race horses, pretty much rescues. Blue was actually rescued by a trainer who then turned him out to retire when he was 4 because he has a lameness problem that wouldn't stand up to racing. He's now 23 & pretty much retired again.
Cutter & Topaz were both starving when Margaret bought them cheap - $1000 each, I think. It took a couple of years to get them fed back up & in good shape again. Topaz never did much at the track, but Cutter raced until he was 4 or 5 & started having hock problems - sort of like what happens to young sprinter's knees. Too much stress, too early, but he's doing fine with Marg at shows.
The pony is a Welsh named Speedy. He was my daughter's Games pony & we've had him about 15 years. He's about 33 now, though. We keep a bridle handy & hop on him to walk the dogs around the farm.
Our goats are a cross between a Nubian doe & a Pygmy buck. That creates a naturally hornless variety called a Kinder. They're sisters; Rosie & Buttercup. They're worthless, but fun.
Thanks for setting this up, Jim! Your animals all sound amazing. If you write reviews, would you be interested in doing some product reviews on horse/duck/goat items? I don't currently have any horses but I do have a lot of requests to review products for these other species and I need to get them going. If you're interested, it's a great way to get free stuff for your pets! We can talk, if you want. My website is PetsWeekly and I'm planning to really start expanding it this next year. Hopefully. :)We currently have three dogs: Cheiss (Aussie/chow/redbone), Brock (Terrier/God Only Knows What else), and Bree - our celebri-pup who happens to be a pit/terrier/pointer/mix. We also have two indoor cats: The Cog (a DSH cat who thinks she's a dog) and Cassie, a Norwegian Forest Cat mix - our newest addition. I also care for a feral colony of 12 cats that are now so elderly they can't really be outside all the time. We just rounded them up and built them a really nice indoor/outdoor enclosure so they don't get cold at night.
Great to meet you!
What is a celebri-pup & a DSH cat? A dozen feral cats?!!! So long as they're in captivity. We're very into feeding & housing the birds, so don't care much for them. I'm glad you're keeping them & all the rest warm & fed, though. The Boss (note the capital letters) is the horse person, so I'd have to talk to her about product reviews. I doubt it as she's set in her ways, almost as opinionated as I am about tools.
;-)
We don't do much with the goats. The only thing we've bought for them is a hoof trimmer & bags of generic Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries. They wear dog collars, but will follow us any where for Captain Crunch! We haven't bred them nor do they have great hair & they're probably a bit old & fat for meat, so they're just fun, worthless, spoiled critters. Kind of like the dogs...
:)
Does anyone else love wild birds? Do you get Birds & Blooms magazine. It has the most fantastic pictures. We get it & give gift subscriptions to my mother & 2 of our aunts. They think it is the best Xmas present ever.We do a fair amount for the wild birds. I've made & mounted about 2 dozen blue bird houses. That size actually fits over a dozen different song birds. We're currently putting up 2 Purple Martin houses & have over a dozen of them returning each year. We have plenty of water for them, including a large, shallow pond next to the house. In the winter, that's open & we put out a couple of heated dog dishes with a rock in the center. They're a lot cheaper & better than any heated bird bath we've found.
We feed a lot of different stuff. All year we have 6 different wild bird seed mix feeders. Three are flats for the birds that prefer that. We also have several thistle feeders & another that does whole peanuts. They're caged so only the woodpeckers, blue jays & such can get to them. We have a lot of woodpeckers. I've never seen a Pileated on one of the feeders, but we have several Red-breasted, Red-headed, & Hairy woodpeckers. We have a dozen or more Downy woodpeckers. I've even found a pair of them drinking out of the hummingbird feeder!
In the summer, we have up to 3 hummingbird feeders plus I've planted a lot for them, such as Trumpet Vine growing on the fence in a few places. Last year, we had dozens of pairs & I got a picture of 8 of them around our 32 oz feeder all at once. 2008 was another good year for them, but I think there was a storm that fall that killed off a lot, because 2009 we only had a pair or two & maybe a few pair in 2010. In the winter, we have a couple of peanut butter & suet feeders.
The sparrows & I have a war going on. They'll kick out & kill Blue birds & Purple Martins, although the Tree Swallows seem to hold their own. I've made traps for some of the houses & occasionally shoot them with a pellet gun. I'm getting a BB gun for Xmas so that Lily & I can get them out of the barn.
Stacy, I put your site out on Facebook for all my friends to see. I've glanced at the first page & it looks interesting.
Sorry Jim but birds are cat food over here.I take care of several strays and the birds don't come around here very often anymore. The ones that do don't stay long.
Don't get me wrong I do like some birds, mostly the raptors or the more unusual kinds, plus most owls and hummingbirds. Hows that for eclectic? Kind of like my library, all over the place.
I remember while living in PA, we had a LOT of owls in the forest, screech owls in particular. Those damn things would scare the heck out of me. They would always go off at just the right moment to scare you.
While in Alaska I became quite the Bald Eagle watcher/photographer. Also there is a nature preserve/wetlands just south of Anchorage where there are so many kinds of birds. You could sit there all afternoon and not get bored. Not all day though since the days are about 22 hours in the summer!
In Montana (yes, I moved A LOT!) I used to get a kick out of the Black Billed Magpie. The turds would steal anything not nailed down. Carry off shiny bits and/or full bags of chips!
Those and Ravens are my favorites besides the raptors.
Ravens are too damn smart for their own good though. I've seen them taunt cats, sneak up and steal food from under peoples noses. Sometimes you even feel like you can talk to them. They sure talk a lot! Loudly.
Jim wrote: "Stacy, I put your site out on Facebook for all my friends to see. I've glanced at the first page & it looks interesting."What's your facebook page? Add me as a friend (stacy mantle) and if you want, "like" my pages at: Shepherd's Moon
PetsWeekly
Also, send me your page info and I'll do the same! Okay - short on time tonight, but I'll reply to you in the morning on the birds vs. cats vs. the fact that more birds are killed (exponentially more) by flying into windows than by cats. >^..^<
But, we keep our pets all safe and secure anyway! We're non-speciests, so we try to keep everyone alive. :)
PS. Really quick, a celebri-cat is my "more famous than me" kitty. Lol! DSH is just short for domestic shorthair. We have a celebri-dog now as well. Her name is Bree and she just got more facetime on the news station than the main act at a recent event this month - LOL). We just lost our celebri-coyote named Tristan last year. :( I'm still missing him a lot...A DSH is just short for "domestic shorthair" cat.
Oh, and HOW can you be worried about cats eating birds when you're shooting sparrows with a BB gun??? That hardly seems fair! ;)
Stacy wrote: "...Oh, and HOW can you be worried about cats eating birds when you're shooting sparrows with a BB gun??? That hardly seems fair! ;) "The short answer is that I decide what I like hanging around my place. I'm sure the sparrows don't think it's fair nor do the starlings. I got rid of most of the latter by putting netting up to keep them out of the rafters of the barn, but sparrows are tougher & meaner. I found a bluebird dead in her nest box, her head all pecked open. I've found their nests with all the eggs shattered, too. The sparrows will also take over all the nest boxes if given half a chance & I didn't build them for sparrows.
I'm also into promoting native species. I spend a lot of time clearing my woods of invasive honeysuckles, multifloral rose, garlic mustard, & other invasive plants. I spend time & money replanting native species in their place. Starlings aren't native & neither are many of our sparrows. Some are, but I can't usually tell the difference & don't particularly care. They're feathered mice & Lily likes pointing them out, so it works out well.
Feral cats are another bother, but a minor one. They usually steer clear after the dogs go after them once or twice. The dogs won't bother Erin's cats when she comes to visit, though. I'm not fond of having them around because they chase our birds off, too. We have 2 feeders right on the edge of the deck & can see them out the big sliding patio door from the living room. We get to see a lot of species up close. Very cool.
Brett, I lived near Aspen, CO for a while & we had magpies. They are a hoot. There was an eagle's nest nearby, too. Amazing. Funny story about owls. My mother had chickens & we had a nest of Great Horned Owls in the woods nearby. One morning she came in to let the chickens out & found them all huddled in a pile in the corner. She started peeling them off & they were fine. They ran off as she'd take them off, but otherwise stayed there. Very weird. It wasn't until she got down toward the bottom corner that she found out why. There was a yearling GHO at the bottom! She shooed him out & he crashed back into the woods, totally freaked out. He'd managed to get in through a hole in the top of the wire, but I guess he got more than he bargained for!
;-)
Jim wrote: "Brett, I lived near Aspen, CO for a while & we had magpies. They are a hoot. There was an eagle's nest nearby, too. Amazing. Funny story about owls. My mother had chickens & we had a nest of..."
LOL! I'll bet you when that kid grew up he had chicken for dinner!
I don't know. He might have been too traumatized by them. ;-)
Okay bird-man, (that's Jim, by the way! LOL!) - riddle me this: I'm standing in the backyard with the dogs when I hear a bird whistle that I've never heard before, but I can't track the bird. Finally, I get a look at it and it's a hummingbird that is circling the house, swooping down on one specific tree, then flying off so fast I can barely track it. It did this about 8 times! It finally hovered long enough for me to identify it, but I've never seen a hummingbird do that (and we have A LOT of them around here!) Ideas?
Not really. Possibly protecting its nest or mate against another bird. They're notoriously aggressive. Depending on the male, we sometimes have to move our feeder away from the other bird feeders because they'll run off everything, except the woodpeckers. This summer we had 2 Downy woodpeckers that were drinking out of the Hummingbird feeder on the front porch. Very weird. Never saw that before. It was the only time I've ever seen Hummingbirds stay off at a distance, too. They wouldn't even swoop at the woodpeckers. Just stayed off at a respectful distance & waited their turn.
That's crazy! I never thought that hummingbirds were so aggressive... this was the biggest one I had ever seen, does that mean it was a male? I couldn't find any sign of another bird there...
Stacy wrote: "That's crazy! I never thought that hummingbirds were so aggressive... this was the biggest one I had ever seen, does that mean it was a male? I couldn't find any sign of another bird there..."I've had them buzz me before. Thing is, they are moving so fast that it takes a moment or two to figure out what just went by!
In my experience, males & females are about the same size, but I'm limited to Ruby Throated hummingbirds. They're about the only kind east of the Mississippi. They're so tiny, the only size difference I ever see is in the babies & they grow up FAST.In 2008, we had a lot of hummingbirds & I got some good closeups of them. I put them on FB, so you can see them here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
The feeder hanging on the double shepard's hook with the flowers is our 32 oz one. This past summer, they were emptying it every 2 days. If you look in this album, you'll find a picture of 8 of them around the feeder all at once & one of a Downy woodpecker drinking out of another feeder.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
I rode in a horse show today for the first time in 40+ years. It was a lot of fun. Just did cross rails, about 18" high, but wound up doing the Equitation division which judges on the rider, not the horse. We wound up getting two seconds & a 6th (I didn't hear them call for a sitting trot & posted half the time until Marg yelled in from the sidelines.) in the hack class. They didn't call for a canter, either. Amazingly, that was enough for Chip & I to win Reserve Champion of the division. I've still got it! I can whip a bunch of 10 year old girls at their own game.
;-)
Chip was a super star. This was only his 3d time away from the farm, the 2d by himself. It was also only his 2d time in an indoor arena, a very spooky place with lots of activity, loud sounds & weird acoustics. On top of that, it was his first show ever. What champ!!!
Pics are here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
They're not great because the lighting is so tough for a camera. Lots of bright & dark places which throws them all off.
Hi. We currently have 4 cats, Sophie, Casper, Millie and Chilli (Chilli came from the dogs and cats rescue home that I volunteer at) and a 17 year old goldfish. In the past we have also had rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, birds and a rat.I also really love horses and used to ride every week up until a few years ago. Am planning to start riding regularly again next year.
How long do goldfish live, Lisa? I never thought about it, but they're carp, aren't they? Kind of immortal or something?I couldn't work at an animal shelter. My daughter did for a while during college. It was heart breaking.
I think they are related to carp and some goldfish have been known to live to around 40 years old but it's rare and it tends to be the ones that live outside in a pond that live the longest. Indoor goldfish that live in a bowl or tank rarely make it to 10 years old and many don't make it past 5 years so I guess we have been pretty lucky with our little fish. The oldest living goldfish in the UK is about 23 years old I think and still going strong!Working at an animal shelter is very hard and sometimes very upsetting but it's also rewarding. I take the approach that at least they are on the road to a new and happier life and are away from the cruelty and neglect that they have suffered and it's lovely seeing them go to new homes. I have to be strong-willed though as I would take them all home with me if I could!
I can understand the will power needed. My daughter & her boy friend rescued an English Pointer from a co-worker. They got her fed & trained up, but then had to go back to school full time & didn't have the time to run her properly. They dropped her at our house so we could find a good home for her. Yep, she found it alright. Now she hogs the bed.;-)
Oh, & thanks for the info on the goldfish. I vaguely recall my uncle, a game warden, telling us about some of the carp (or was it cat fish?) that we saw in the Delaware river while canoeing one time. They were HUGE! I think he said no one was sure how long they lived. This was back in the 60's or 70's, though. It's kind of amazing how little we know about some critters.
Jim wrote: "I can understand the will power needed. My daughter & her boy friend rescued an English Pointer from a co-worker. They got her fed & trained up, but then had to go back to school full time & didn..."It sounds like she has a great home with you. I know the feeling of animals hogging the bed, my cats do the same, luckily not all at the same time!
Oh, all our animals are mistreated. You don't need to ask them, they'll tell you. They NEVER get enough treats, attention, or anything! Blue, Marg's old horse, was trying to nibble open my pockets while I had my hands full getting the goats in for the night & got quite upset when I yelled at him. Lily, the Pointer, just let out a big groan as she settled deeper into my pillows after I pulled back up my bed spread. So put out! Poor thing.;-)
Oh dear, this post is tailor made for me. I'm a fundraiser for an animal shelter and it's been so hard to leave them all at the office! But they find great homes because we're a no-kill shelter with a great track record. And my bratty dog doesn't want fur siblings!
Doggy arguments can be a drag. Right now Pixie, a rough coat Jack Russell, & Lily, my English Pointer, are working out some differences & they've been together for 1.5 years! I don't know what's gotten into Pixie's pea-brain, but I think she's trying to play with Lily who doesn't want to. Either that or dominate her, which is kind of silly given the disparity in size.Pixie is known for getting excited & jumping against the side of another dog. She'll bounce next to them & chew on their ear. She does it to Harley, our 3 legged JRT, when one of us gets home - biscuit time. Pixie also likes to get a chewie & growl fiercely at any dog that comes near her. In reality, she wants to play, but no one ever will.
Two nights ago, I came home & Pixie was doing this to Lily & then cut into my room (Lily's room) possibly to get a chewie. (Lily stashes them in & on my bed.) All of a sudden, I hear a ruckus & find Lily on top of Pixie in the little hall outside my room. Pixie got a hole in her neck, we think into her trachea. She wasn't up to snuff the rest of the evening, sat on the floor shivering later on for a while.
I would have some sympathy for her, but last night I went out to ride & Lily was scouting the barn for birds. This is serious business with her, but Pixie starts bugging her again. I called her off, but Lily snapped at her a minute later & I had to call her off again. No sooner was my back turned than the fighting began. Pixie was losing tufts of hair. I yelled & kicked them apart. Lily backed off immediately & Pixie went after her! Lily put Pixie back on the ground an instant before I punted her out of Lily's mouth. Then Lily wanted to go back after her. Oy! I was ready to kill them both.
I don't know what to do about Pixie. Lily isn't aggressive unless pushed. When she does snap, she means it, though. Unlike Molly who catches stuff & it survives, when Lily grabs a bird, mole, rabbit or whatever, it's instantly dead. Pixie is tough enough with long enough hair that she survives, but her neck in going to look like a bloody pin cushion soon & I don't need the vet bill.
Seems we have another horse person in the group. Welcome, Bev. You'll probably get a kick out of the ride we took a week ago. 2 weeks ago, we went out for a ride & Cutter, Marg's 16.1h TB gelding shied & dumped her. I managed to stay on Chip, but went so far to the side that I bruised the inside of my shin on his withers. Marg went splat & her right shoulder pretty much hates her.
Last Sunday, we decided to go for a ride. It was a cold, windy day & Marg informed me that she was riding Chip & I would ride Cutter. OK.
Then she told me Josh was using my saddle. OK, I'll just use another. Apparently not. OK, so I'm riding the spookiest horse we have bareback on a day guaranteed to get him up on his toes. Not the end of the world.
I went to get his bridle & Marg was using that on Chip. Apparently, my 14.1h pony & this TB 2h taller have the same size head. No adjustment needed. So I got to use Chip's hackamore on Cutter.
We went for the ride & Cutter was pretty good. I got bounced around a bit, but he never did a bad shy nor bucked too hard. As we came in, Marg said that he seemed to go pretty well in the hackamore. She'd thought he would.
THOUGHT? Yeah, just thought. She's never ridden him in a hackamore, either.
Do you think she took out a new life insurance policy on me?
;-)
You might want to look into the life insurance thing...I don't ride much anymore, my horses are very expensive lawn ornaments except when my daughter comes out to ride. Technically, the paint is hers. She got him as a companion for Cosmo when we had to put my old mare down in the fall of 2011. She was twenty-two when she foaled Cosmo and I retired her after that. She was thirty-three when she died. When I do ride him, he is just the best, he is only green broke, but has the best temperament I've ever found in a horse. And he's really smart, can open almost any gate. When I sent him out to the trainer, he opened all the pens and let out all the other horses one morning.
We also have two dogs, a Queensland/Border Collie cross and a Catahoula/Lab cross. They don't get along at all since we had to put our Queensland male down a couple of months ago. Have to house them separately, so I feel your pain about your dogs fighting, Jim.
We keep about ten acres as nature made it and we have a lot of different species of birds that breed here and we enjoy then a lot, except the hawks that pick at our chickens. We also have a pet peacock, Big Bird.
We also have a lot of major predators: coyotes, badgers, bobcats, and mountain lions. There are bears back in the Ventana wilderness, but I've never seen one. All the others I mentioned have been seen on or near our property.
Gate openers are rough to deal with. We mostly have bent horse shoes on chains for the interior gates. It takes some adjustment to get them right, but with a fairly sharp bend on the heel, even Speedy can't open them. They're nice because we can operate them one handed, but Speedy (my daughter's old Games pony) has managed to open the one to his paddock once, so we don't trust them for anything that opens off our property. We use double ended snap hooks on the exterior gates or padlocks when the gate isn't in view of the house.I've never dealt with badgers or the cats. We have raccoons & feral cats, but no poultry to entice them. Marg keeps talking about getting some, though. We don't have a coop & building one would be expensive. With all the hawks we have, I'd have to make a covered run, too.
How are the badgers? Are they as brazen as coons & possums? Are the cats scared of humans? We have lots of coyotes around, but they've never even tried our fences, thankfully. They're very leery of humans since everyone around here shoots them on sight. Feral pigs are becoming a real nuisance now, but there aren't many black bears. I've never seen one, although there are reports of a few locally.
We have double end snap hooks on all of the horse gates to the five paddocks they use. We let them graze off one area before we let them into another, because they get too fat in the spring. We have a dog-proof fence around the top ten acres that we live on, so we don't see coyotes in the yard much. It also keeps the feral hogs at bay. Unfortunately it doesn't keep the cats or badgers at bay. A bobcat ate my lovely rooster just a week ago. Sergio was an auracana and beautifully colored. Hens of his species lay green eggs, and I have about a dozen auracana hens, plus Rhode Island reds, barred rocks, and golden sex-links. They are free range but no longer fertile (damn that cat!). We lock them into two chicken coops at night.
Badgers are scary. Fortunately, ours seem to have moved on to wilder pastures. When we first moved out here, they were well-entrenched in the biggest horse pasture. I tried putting fence posts into the biggest hole, but every morning I'd find the fence posts moved away from it. I heard somewhere that if you urinate on the hole, the badgers will go away. So, my (now ex) son in law whipped it out and peed on the hole. Next morning there was a pile of badger poop right where he had done the deed. I declared the badgers the winners of the territorial dispute. But I think they prefer a quieter setting than a working farm. They raised kits here for a couple of years, then moved on.
Mountain lions are creatures to be admired and feared. I will not shoot one unless it is attacking my horses or my family. I do worry when I am coming home late at night, opening the gate to my driveway, because I cannot be heard by anyone if I scream, but one has to live with such problems when one leads a very rural life. We are an hour from almost anywhere. Once when I fell and needed an ambulance, it took 45 minutes for it to get here. Same with the sheriff when we had someone firing an AK-47 in the adjoining pasture. You will pry my gun from my cold dead hand, but no one needs that kind of firepower.
Badgers sound a lot like coons. Do they dig a back door like a groundhog? We never minded the groundhog's front door much. It was a pain, but plainly visible. Their back doors are like post holes, dug from below, so the grass mostly covers them. Horses & cows occasionally step in them & break their legs, so we used to shoot them & even used cyanide bombs on them at one point.Don't even go there with guns.
Rosie, one of my goats, is in season. She's so funny. Last time she was bugging Cutter, Marg's TB. This time she was in love with my pony Chip. She bugged him so much he bit her a couple of times. She kept coming back for more & wouldn't even come in to eat her Cap'n Crunch! I caught her & wound up getting blood on my hand from her notched ear. She paid it no mind at all. Weird goat.;-)
My peacock courts our chickens in the spring. His mate and the other pair I had came to sad ends years ago. He struts up to the hens and spreads that beautiful tail, rattles his quills and stamps his feet and they just look at him as if to say "Ain't havin' none of that!"My husband and I were talking about getting a couple of goats just a few days ago. I have had some experience of catching runaway goats and I don't think they would be easy to contain. Our neighbors five miles up the road lost all their goats, turkeys and geese to a pair of lions last year. Both lions had to be shot, because they were getting too much livestock.
I used to have mares and they would drive me nuts when they were in season. Talk about PMS!! I'm happy with just my geldings. Getting gelded was brain surgery for Cosmo. He used to nip me all the time (in fun, not mean, but still, it's a nuisance) but since his gelding, he hasn't bitten anybody but the farrier.
About badgers, they are not like coons, unless those coons are on steroids. A badger will come up to a truck and try to bite the tires. Their holes are pretty obvious, too, 'cause they are not small animals. My husband once saw one come up out of a hole out by the barn, grab a chicken and drag it back underground with it. Also have seen them hunt cooperatively with coyotes. I thought it was an old wives tale until I saw it on two separate occasions with my own two eyes. They were hunting ground squirrels.
So badgers don't have a back door? I've heard they have an attitude problem & I'm glad we don't have any around. Coons are bad enough.Our peacocks used to beat themselves bloody against shiny car fenders. Like the Beta (Siamese Fighting Fish) they spar with mirrors. Ours had plenty of peahens around, but still showed off to the chickens.
Mares are weird. You're not the first to say that about them. Others, my wife & kids included, have complained that their best & worst horse has been a mare. Knowing which one they'd find on a particular day was a trial, though.
;-)
Goats can be a complete pain to keep in. Ours are fat, 2' tall, & bounce to the top of their 4' house. I had to move their fence away from a tree because they would bounce against the tree & over it, even though I'd built it over 5' tall.
Horns are a real problem, too. Goats are curious critters & can get them hung up in the damndest places. Stock wire is perfect for them to hang themselves, but I knew one that broke its neck when it fell out of a tree & got its head caught in a branch. I don't like dehorning. The paste to burn off the horns when they're young can blind them & isn't too sure. Searing horns off is just horrifying & can kill them from the shock.
Unfortunately, there aren't many hornless breeds. Ours are Kinder, a cross between an 18" Pygmy & 3' tall Nubian. Horns follow the mother's line & Nubians are hornless, so we were tickled to get these. They were an accident. The owner hadn't thought they could get together, but lust will find a way.
;-)
Badger dens seem to have many entrances and/or exits. You will see one go into a hole in the neighbor's pasture and if you sit and wait long enough, it will come up in a hole in your own pasture and snag one of your hens. At least that is what used to happen to us.We recently trapped (in a have-a-heart trap) a bobcat and our neighbor, who is the county guy you call when predators are getting your livestock, said it was too pretty to kill and relocated it back in the Ventana. About a week later, we discovered it was one of a pair when our rooster dramatically disappeared leaving a trail of feathers. So we have the trap out again. Good thing it's the wrong time of year for kittens.
My old mare, Pepper, was my best friend. She was a brood mare, not for riding, but was a real sweetie. When I was having a bad day, I could just go out and hug her neck and have a good cry and she always made me feel better. I have had four other mares, and they were moody as all get out. Two were appaloosas, one a quarterhorse and one a mustang, so it's not breed specific.
Uh-oh, I have a lame horse. The vet is coming out tomorrow, so I am on pins and needles. Once you have lost a horse to silicosis, any sign of lameness is a cause for worry. He has some arthritis in his left foreleg, but he is favoring his right leg at the moment. It began the day after a farrier visit. Our guy is excellent, but I have to wonder if there is a connection.
Likely. Could be a gravel or something, too. I sometimes wonder if they do that on purpose. I don't think I mentioned that we got a new pony, Rascal. he's a 3.5 year old half Welsh cross. Not sure what the other half is, possibly TN Walker. He's 14.h & pretty narrow. Has great feet, but is kind of a wimp.
Marg's pony, Rascal, tried to kill me. I was riding him bareback & we were going along fine when he suddenly lunged forward & he's so skinny I wound up catching him with my heels. That caused him to put in a huge buck & I did a flip off of him, landing on my back. Breathing was not an option for a while. My back was already sore right between the shoulder blades. That did it no favors, of course. Marg said he got all 4 feet off the ground & I could see he almost touched the ground with his nose as I went flying by. He's pretty athletic, at least. I held on to the reins, but the bridle didn't have a throat latch, so I wound up pulling it right off his head & he headed over to his buddies, then wouldn't let me catch him.
I decided I wanted my pony back. He's got a big enough barrel to take up my leg, so we finished up a pretty good ride on our proper mounts. Rascal is only an inch shorter than Chip, but so much skinnier I can't get my entire inner thigh on him much less touch him with my knee or calf. Marg, in her deep saddle says she's OK, but even Erin didn't feel like she had enough leg on him.
He's definitely Marg's mount. I'm too old for a repeat performance!
;-)
It appears to be arthritis in his left knee that was aggravated by bending it for the farrier. He usually stands really well for trimming, but he was quite restless that day. He is a rescue horse, a thoroughbred that was raced until he injured that knee, then sold to someone who starved him. He was at least 200 pounds underweight when his new owner rescued him. She gave him to my daughter for the sum of $1, just to make it legal. With his history, I know he will not last as long as my boy Cosmo, but we love him just the same. He is really an in-your-pocket horse with a lot of training and really good manners.We are debating whether to vaccinate the horses for rattlesnake bites. At $40 a pop and two shots to start and yearly boosters, is it worth it? I lean toward Banamine and rubber tubing, myself. But it really has worked on our dogs. My Queensland got bitten on the nose and even with the antivenin, he looked like a Sharpei for a couple of weeks. After the vaccine became available and my Aussie got bitten, I thought she had a foxtail between her toes until the vet found the fang marks. What a difference!
Glad you weren't hurt any worse than you were. I'm just too old to get thrown. Will be seventy in September. So, I only ride my Appaloosa, Cosmo. He takes care of me just fine.
Typical treatment & conditions for ex-racehorses, unfortunately. It took a couple of years to get 2 of ours squared away. Cutter has really bad hocks from racing. You should have seen his gaskins when got him. They looked like over-inflated footballs. Now we have to get him injected with cortizone occasionally. I don't think anyone else can say on inoculations like that. Can you get the shots cheaper mail order? Or is that the mail order price? I don't know what sort of reactions they can have with that or what all the vet would give them in case of one. If you're keeping Banamine around, I'd guess you're quite ready & able, if it is possible.
Except in a few cases, we give our animals all their shots. (We don't inject joints nor is rabies legal, for instance.) Sometimes we pick them up from the vet, but always check prices first & dicker if needed. The price difference can be incredible. A decade or so we got a cat & saved about $70 giving her the shots from the catalog over taking her to the vet.
I'm glad, too. Mom's a little older than you. I talked to her this morning & she told me to get out & do something to work out the kinks. Still works for her & while she steers clear of the worst, she's still hunting a lot of race horses. Unfortunately, I can't do any gardening today. It was 70 yesterday & today is right at freezing with snow, sleet, & freezing rain. Yuck.
Cosmo is a wimp when it comes to injections. My husband messed up giving him a shot once, and now he freaks out at the sight of a needle. I let the vet handle that rodeo. That's why she gets the big bucks. Even so, she would like to buy him. Both trainers who worked with him made me offers as well. I know when I've got a good thing. Mine were the first human hands that ever touched him, and as long as I'm alive and can afford to feed him, I'll never sell. My youngest daughter stands to inherit the ranch and him too, I guess.The weather here has been balmy and my orchard is blooming like crazy. My apricot tree has set so much fruit that I've already done a little thinning, and the almond tree has almonds for the first time since I planted it. So, unless we get a late hard freeze, we will have fruit this year. I have cherries, plums, pluots, apricot, peaches, nectarines, pears, apples and persimmons, as well as the almond tree. We always grow about thirty tomato plants, pumpkins, and squash, too. I love my garden and orchard.
The orchard sounds awesome, Dee. I've been giving some thought to planting some fruit trees. Not sure exactly what would do well & don't know anything about it, though. I don't want to have use sprays or spend a lot of time fiddling with them. I'm in northern KY, would you have any tips?Giving shots to uncooperative animals sucks. We had a pony for Mom once that got a bad gash, so we had to give her a lot of penicillin. I HATE those shots. It was so much & so thick she wound up with pads of it all over. I had to do some shots in her butt & I've never liked that. Too much movement & danger. Luckily, she was only a 400 lb pony, so we could gang up on her. Obviously, you can't do that with a horse. I'd get the vet to do it, too. The money is a cheap price to pay.
We had a nice ride with Josh & Erin last night. I posted some pictures here:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
I'm a third generation Californian and have never been east of Utah, so don't know much about the rest of the country. The weather here in upper Carmel Valley is a lot like the weather in the Central Valley (Sacramento, Fresno, etc.) We're at 1300 feet, so we do get snow sometimes in the winter. In the summer, the hottest I've experienced was 112.9. All of the varieties of fruit I mentioned do well here, except the persimmon tree, and I think I have a problem with its watering system. If your winters get down to freezing, most apples, pears, peaches and cherries would do well. I don't use any sprays or commercial fertilizers on any of my plants. I raise chickens and use chicken and horse manure, which we roto-till into the soil before planting in the spring. Have used "Chicken-poop Tea" on the orchard, but carefully, so we don't burn the roots.Enjoyed your pictures. That palomino paint is a cutie. Is Rascal a POA? My horses are pretty big, Cosmo is 15.2 and Jackson is 16+. Cosmo is a registered Appaloosa. His registered name is Manx's Bright Spark; the "Bright" is permitted because his line goes back to Bright Eyes' Brother. His sire was a Doc Bar grandson, so I guess he could be registered as a Half-Quarterhorse, as well. He does pretty well working cattle.
Rascal is a registered half Welsh through his bottom line. Not sure what his upper line is - possibly Standard Bred or TN Walker.We do get below zero for brief periods & persimmons are native to the area. I think all the trees you listed would be good ones. Yeah, chicken poop is rough. We used to mix it with wood ash & still scatter it thinly. We don't have chickens or fireplace any more, though. Thanks.
He didn't get that beautiful color out of the blue. Welsh ponies are great. My daughter learned to ride on one, a beautiful white one named Paloma. I didn't get my first horse until I was fifty-nine, but have loved them and ridden them all my life. My neighbor was going through a bad divorce and she was a "back-yard breeder" of Appaloosas. I bought her twenty-two year old brood mare and a nine-month-old filly. I sold the filly after the second time she laid me out with a kick and bought my neighbor's other brood mare, Bright, a beautiful leopard Appaloosa with a strawberry blonde mane and tail. Her tail swept the ground and streamed behind her when she ran. Imagine my horror when after Cosmo was born, I found her one morning with her tail chewed to the tailbone.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...
This topic is for discussing the rest of our pets & whatever.