My Horse Fix

Isn't it funny how God arranges things for us? I decided to part with a few more horse things and placed an ad on craigslist. Long story, but the lady who wound up purchasing the equipment was trying to start a horse rescue. She had 7 horses at the time, including 3 pregnant mares. She was having some difficulty though, as a horse had kicked her in February and broken her leg. So she was still accepting rescues, but was unable to do any training with them. She was desperate for help, but had been unable to find anyone with any training experience. After we conversed for a while, she invited us to join her family for Easter lunch and get to know each other, which we did. Yesterday, my wonderful husband offered to take over my household tasks and to watch the kids while I went out to help her.

I couldn't believe how nervous I was. It has been 2 years since I trained a horse! It was somewhat hard to believe, but once I got to training some skittish, frightened mares she had, it all came back to me. I was embarrassed, however, to find how completely out of shape I was! I used to thoroughly groom 5 or 6 six horses in one shot, and after a basic grooming on my first mare yesterday, my arms felt like they were going to fall off! I am just thankful she had 20x20 stalls for me to work in instead of having to use her 80-foot pen. There is no way I would have had the endurance for that! Despite my workouts here at home, I re-discovered muscles I had forgotten existed! So humbling.

It turned out to be such a great situation, as, I was free to train the way I feel comfortable, using the gentle techniques I have found work best and fastest, and have the owner just trust me to do whatever I felt necessary. After doing some training with 2 of her horses and helping out with a few other tasks, I got to go play with this little 4-day old filly:

I cannot express to you how much fun I had yesterday! Today, my face and neck are sunburned, my back and arms are so sore I can hardly lift my babies, and I was so exhausted that I overslept this morning. But it is all so worth it! There are few things as thrilling to me as walking into a pen with a horse that is so scared of me that I can't even walk up and touch it, and, after working for a bit, being able to walk out of that same pen after not only approaching and petting the horse, but also being able to groom, lift her feet, have her follow me around without a halter or lead rope, and generally have her comfortable with my presence.

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It was a wonderful experience and I thank God for the opportunity to refresh my skills. I look forward to returning in the future.

Don't Rope A Deer!

I found this on a homesteading forum. I don't know who wrote it, or even if it is true (considering it would be totally illegal!), but it had me laughing so hard I cried! I thought I would share.

I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it.

The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me.

I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it...it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and then received an education.

The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

That deer EXPLODED.

The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer-- no chance.

That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined.

The only up side is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual.

Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist.

Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head -almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds.

I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp. I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -- like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run.

The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away.

So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope to sort of even the odds.

A Horse is a Horse

I have been around and involved with horses for many years. I have handled, ridden, and/or trained everything from donkeys to draft horses, wild mustangs to gentle and seasoned show horses, and every age and gender. I have volunteered at mustang adoptions where bloodied, injured, and upset horses are a fact of life. However, last night, S and I experienced a true "first" that I will never forget.

After hearing about an annual event this weekend celebrating the pure spanish horses, we decided to have a date night for once, get a sitter for the kids, and go to the Friday evening performance. I was so excited to watch the dressage and different acrobatics performed by these amazing horses, as well as watching how the trainers cued and handled these well-trained animals. The evening began with a halter demonstration of some very impressive spanish stud (breeding male) horses. They were a variety of colors, but all gorgeous and graceful. This was followed by a Medieval performance of some spanish horses and trainers from a local advanced performance venue. Then the performance got into some dressage performances. If you have never seen dressage, it is amazing. It usually involves some type of classical music, and looks as though the horse is dancing. It is truly the epitome of grace and fluidity in a horse and rider team. We watched several of these dressage displays, and about half way through the evening, were treated to a synchronized dressage performance using two very impressively bred studs. Two horse/rider teams performed identical movements as they stayed very close together. It was beautiful.

As we sat there awestruck, they concluded their performance, the horses bowed to the crowd, and as they turned to leave, one of the horses (the grey one) seemingly stumbled and fell over on his rider. It is very unusual for this to happen, and particularly in such a highly-trained horse. Despite his obvious pain, he very calmly turned and ensured the reins were loose enough for the horse to rise. The horse attempted to rise, giving the rider just enough time to slip his leg out, then fell over again, and appeared to start having a series of seizures. From our viewpoint I am not positive whether it was seizing or struggling against pain, but in either case, we knew it was bad. A bunch of trainers and stable hands immediately ran out and removed his tack, but the horse continued to flail and thrash. We could see his breathing became very labored and slowed to minimal breaths. And then, right in front of our shocked eyes, it was obvious that life left. He died right there in the middle of the arena, probably 30 feet from us.

In the span of about 2 minutes, this amazing horse concluded an amazing performance, bowed, and died. As a vet tech and animal person, I have witnessed and even assisted in countless animals dying. Horses, however, have always had a special place in my heart and I have never experienced the death of one. I actually cried as I watched this horse's owner and trainer console each other. It became a reminder that no matter how gorgeous, well bred, valuable, or highly trained a horse is, it is still just a horse--susceptible to anything any other horse is. And in the blink of an eye, a dream or way of life can end.

As a side note, I found out this morning, he was diagnosed as having a "cardiac incident" similiar to a human heart attack.

Born in the wrong era

I have always half-joked that I was born into the wrong era. I always wanted to ride my horse into town, raise my own critters, and work the farm. OK, so I admit I like some modern luxuries such as toilet paper and indoor plumbing. According to my mom, toilet paper should not be considered a luxury, but after a recent outdoor wilderness experience where I was forced to "use" a rock, believe me, TP is a wonderful luxury!! Anyway, our family life seems to be gradually taking a turn toward the desires my blood has always had. We have our little farm, it happens to be riding distance to the nearest town, and it is perfect in many ways for "homesteading". So I have been researching how far we want to go with this new endeavor, and we are loving the idea. We have already taken our diet to about 95% organic, I have already learned to plan my meals a month at a time, I shop only once a week, we try to conserve and recycle what we can, we are pretty thrifty financially, and I have the passion for animals, while S has the passion for manual outdoor labor. This could work.

Some of you may think me crazy, but we are considering trying it all--from growing our own organic fruits, herbs, and veggies in our little (already planned) garden and orchard, to canning seasonal items for later use, to building a "summer kitchen, " to raising our own horses, cows, goats, pigs, and chickens. The chickens are good for meat, eggs, and pet food--and did you know there is a such thing as a chicken plucker now? You don't have to spend hours plucking feathers by hand anymore. The plucker does it in under 30 seconds! Pretty neat actually. It tenderizes the meat a little in the process. The cows will likely be the Dexter breed, as we have a supplier nearby with a bull, they are small and easy to manage, and they are good for both meat and milk. The goats and hogs I wouldn't be as interested in except that they are so versatile. Goats are browsers, and therefore basically eat the stuff the horses and cows won't, which is more efficient on a farm. When their work is done, they provide meat, milk, and apparently pretty good revenue from the kids. The hogs and chickens are great for churning up compost and garden soils. Hogs are later good for meat or piglets for sale. So the more animal labor we can put on our farm, the more food we have and less gasoline and modern equipment we have to use. All the animals will be grass-fed and as natural as possible. Even our predator control will likely consist of an adopted burro, as apparently they have an instinctual hatred toward dogs and other predators. I may consider a few guineas as well, as they are safer than peacocks, but make great alarm systems when predators are around. Chicken losses are a big problem on free-range homesteads. I figure with raw milk, fresh cheese, yogurt, and whatever other dairy I can learn to make, produce, meat from cattle, goat, hog, wild turkey and venison (all over our farm), I think we can basically do everything except grow our own hay and grains.

We have already started gutting the front half of our barn and have been trying to decide how best to set it up. It looks like I will keep the horses in the back half, and set up a tack room, work area, and milking stanchion in the front. The chicken coop will also likely work very well attached to a hidden corner of the barn. I am so excited to start this project! I just wish it wasn't going to take 5 years or more to see it all come together!