The Novice Horseman Blog

At one time, I actually managed a self-service barn.  It wasn’t very large, just 10 stalls, a large tack/feed room, riding arena & about a 5 acre pasture.  This property was one of several that was at end of the flight path to my town’s airport.    The largest of the properties was about a 30 acre pasture.  This made a significant greenbelt region in town.

The wildlife varied.  In the spring & fall, there were the migrating birds that landed looking for food in the pasture.  There was even a red fox that showed up but never stopped.  It made its hurried travel through the pasture to get to cover in the next property.  There were the urban possums & rabbits.  You could catch a glimpse of an occasional owl at dusk in the fall.  The one critter that seemed to make it’s home somewhere near (or under) the buildings was a skunk.

I was running late to feed Iggette one night.  I turned on the light in the feed room and there I was, having a stare contest with a skunk.  I almost killed myself backing out of the feed room before it decided to spray everything in sight.  When safely on the other side of the doorway, I noticed that the skunk was not concerned with my presence.  It was merrily eating the cat food that someone had left for the barn cats.  I waited until the skunk had it’s fill and waddled back under the hay & out of sight.

For the next few weeks, the skunk & I came to an understanding.  I had put my lunge whip next to the door.  When I turned on the light & if the skunk was there eating, I tapped it on the back with the whip.  It would look at me and then move under the hay.  Fortunately, it wasn’t my hay so I could do what I needed to do in the feed room.  Each time I left, it would reappear to eat.  Each time I would come back, I would tap it on the back and it would move back under the hay.  The amazing point is it never offered to spray me or the room.  It was never aggressive.

One night, my husband came with me.  I was behind him when he turned on the the light to the feed.  I don’t think I ever saw anyone move as fast as he did getting out that room.  He bumped into me, almost knocking me down.  I thought he had seen a snake or wasp or something like that.  My husband is irrationally wary of wasps, hornets, etc because of an unfortunate encounter with hornets as a young boy.  I asked him what was the matter.  He looked at me & replied “SKUNK!”  I told him I knew there was a skunk.  I told him to move and reached for my whip.  By now, the skunk knew the routine and just moved back without being tapped.  It stayed put until I was out of the feed room and then moved back to the food.  My husband was utterly amazed at our strange routine, but he didn’t offer to help with anything that was inside.

This strange relationship went on into the winter.  Then the skunk disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.  I never saw it again.

With humankind ever encroaching on nature, some wildlife is adapting to urban ways.  This incident gave me cause to do some research.  Wild skunks usually stay away from humans.  Skunks can carry rabies.

Where am I going with this?  I highly encourage vaccinating your horse for rabies as part of your annual shots.  I started giving my horse a rabies shot shortly after the skunk moved in.  I continue giving my horses a rabies shot every year.  I have persuaded most of my friends to give rabies shots to their horses, whether they board in town or have a place in the country.

You protect your dog & cat from rabies.  Why not protect your horse.

As always, don’t forget to let me know what YOU think.

I went to a seminar recently put on by my vet.  We were introduced to the 2 new vets that had just joined the team.  We were also reacquainted to the team that is behind the scenes; the office help, the vet techs who accompany each vet on calls and the barn manager who looks after your horse if he needs to stay for more intensive care.  I really appreciate each & every one of these people.  They do a great job.  A presentation was done by each of the 2 new vets.  One was on the importance of proper wound care.  I could go on for days about this subject because my horses have given me plenty of practice.  But I would like to talk about how you can possibly prevent some injuries.

Lord knows, both Iggette & Zip had their share of injuries.

Iggette had one injury to the left hind leg caused by a loose fence. The wire was down in one spot of her pasture and tangled in some weeds.  This happened all too soon after I purchased her.  Doctoring a leg & changing dressings is not what I envisioned for my bonding experience with my first horse.

A few years later, she caught her shoulder on an exposed nail head in the gate post.

Iggette also injured her front feet from pawing at the fence & getting caught on the barbed wire.  Each time this happened (twice on each leg), Iggette found herself in the stall with a cast for weeks while recovering.  I don’t know who disliked stall rest worse, Iggette or me.  Iggette NEVER liked being in a stall.  She walked circles the entire time she was confined.  This meant  ground in manure which was next to impossible to pick out.  It was just easier to strip it & start over with clean bedding.

Zip had a puncture wound to a hind pastern.  The vet said I was real lucky it didn’t cut a tendon.  Then just a few months later, she sliced herself on the under side of the jaw line.  This took about 30 stitches to close.  The cause of these 2 injuries were never found by either my trainer or myself.  We looked for hours & did not find a spot of blood or the tell tale sign of horse hair on a fence post or tree branch.  Zip’s injuries were costly & required weeks of stall rest to heal.

With colder weather just around the corner, your horse may start spending more time in the stall.  You can prevent some injuries by just being observant of their surroundings.  Take time to really look over your horse’s stall, barn & pasture whether you own your barn or you are boarding.

Over the years, I’ve learned what to look for to make sure my horse’s environment is relatively safe.  I’ve listed a few of the things to look for below.

BARN & STALLS:

• Hammer down any nails that have backed out of the wood.
• Look for any loose or broken boards in the walls that need to be replaced.
• Check the stall doors & latches to make sure they are working properly and the hardware is securely in place.
• Make sure the bucket hangers are in good shape.  You don’t want to find your horse with the bucket as his hat or using it as a kick ball.
• Keep the aisle clear of clutter.  A loose frightened horse and a cluttered aisle way are not a good combination.
• Make sure the tack room & especially the feed room have a good lock on the door.  You don’t want your baby helping himself to a midnight snack.  An open feed room to a horse is like turning a kid loose in a candy store.  They just don’t know when to quit and more importantly . .  they won’t.
• Check the fence charger to make sure it is working properly.
• Check the electrical wiring for damage to the insulation.  Rodents (rats, mice & squirrels) will chew thru wires.  While most wiring is not in the reach of horses, frayed wires can be a fire hazard.
• Check for leaks in the roof while it’s raining and mark them for repair on a dry day.  You really don’t want rain in the feed/tack room or over your hay storage area.

 
FENCES:

• Walk the fence line of both paddocks & pastures to look for loose wire.  Look at the posts to make sure the wire is actually attached and not just hanging somewhere near it.
• Make sure the gates are hanging properly.
• Check for broken planks on board fences or broken fence posts.
• If you have an electric fence, make sure the insulators are all in place and that the wire is not shorting out.  I had a little paint mare that would actually touch the electric fence everyday just to see if it was working.  If it was off, she would poke her head through the fence to get the grass on the other side.

PASTURES

• Keep the trash picked up.  This goes for the barn also.  Blowing trash to some horses is the absolute most terrifying monster there ever was; even if the piece of trash is just a small candy wrapper.
• Make sure to mow as necessary to keep the weeds down.  Tall pasture grass/weeds can hide a lot of potenial hazards.
• If you have had really bad weather (heavy snow, ice, high winds, floods etc), check any trees on the property for damaged branches.  Dead branches falling from the trees can happen months after it was damaged.
• Remove as much of the debris as possible.  Any debris that is allowed to stack up in the pasture can become the home for unwanted animals & reptiles.  This is a whole other type of hazard to your horse.

If you are boarding your horse, let the owner/mananger know of anything you find that is in need of repair.  You could even offer to help with some of the minor repairs.  If you own your place, fix the minor things as they are discovered and schedule a weekend to tackle the bigger repairs.  The sooner repairs are done, the safer the environment is for your horse.

In my opinion . . . . . It’s not if a horse will get hurt . . . . it’s just when and how bad.  Protect your baby, and your wallet, as best you can by just being observant.

Dollar is my 6 year old palomino gelding.  I named him after the horse John Wayne rode in his movies.  Never mind that the movie Dollar was a sorrel, I am just one of those avid ”Duke” movie fans.  Anyway, Dollar is just about as laid back as a horse can get.  I haven’t found anything that bothers him.  He also has as much curiosity as any cat.  He’s always looking to see what you are doing and at times it seems like he would really rather help you with whatever it is you’re doing.  He’ll walk along side of the tractor while the pasture is being mowed looking like he’s trying to tell you how to drive & mow.  He stands guard by a ladder while you are on the roof.  He also likes to floss his teeth with the tail of the lead rope you have him tied with.

Dollar has had his moments where he didn’t want to load in a trailer.  I have had to do last minute trailer training while trying to go to a show.  I have also had him refuse to load in the trailer when trying to leave the show.  Almost all horses at one time in their lives will be difficult to load in a trailer.  But consistent training and practice rides have helped immensely.  He now just walks into a trailer like an old pro.

My trainer, Ellen, told me she had to use Dollar this last weekend.  One of the other horses (let’s call him Teddy) at the barn had been sold and was leaving.  The new owner could not get Teddy to load in the slant load trailer.  Teddy is just a big kid (about 16.5h) and really had little training.  He stopped at the trailer door and refused to budge.  The new owner decided some trailer training was going to be necessary before leaving.  After several failed attempts, Ellen offered to get Dollar out of the pasture.  Dollar was Teddy’s “pasture and play mate”.  Dollar was loaded first and then Teddy was led up to the trailer.  He was quite reluctant to load.  He did get his front feet in the trailer and immediately backed right out.  He did this a few times, each time inching further in the trailer.  Finally, Teddy stepped all the way in and stood nervously beside Dollar.  Ellen told the new owner to just let them chill there for awhile, so Teddy would become adjusted to the trailer.  Then both were unloaded so Teddy could be loaded by himself.   Next Dollar was tied to the outside of the trailer as an enticement for Teddy to load.  It took a while, but Teddy was finally coaxed back in the trailer.  Ellen took Dollar back to the pasture.  Before she walked back to the barn, there was Teddy standing at the gate ready to go back to the pasture.  The new owner told Ellen that Teddy had managed to get his head over the divider bar and his neck was caught between the trailer wall and the divider.  He couldn’t get loose by himself.  To keep him from becoming terrified, he was freed from his precarious predicament and he immediately escaped from the trailer.

Well now, you can just imagine how hard it was going to be to get Teddy back in the trailer this time.  No amount of coaxing or bribing with his favorite treat seemed to work.  So it was back from the pasture for Dollar.  This time, tying Dollar outside the trailer did absolutely no good.  Since Teddy was wise to this trickery, Ellen decided it was time to actually load Dollar in the trailer again.  By this time, Dollar was a little tired of the this game also.  He balked.   But after being walked around in a circle, he loaded right in.  Teddy took some convincing.  He was  convinced by 2 people locking arms behind his haunches & helping him in the trailer.   Ellen told the new owner to tie Teddy in the trailer.  This way he wouldn’t escape again.

Now, how to get Dollar out of the trailer.  The new owner offered to let Teddy out so Dollar could be unloaded.  Ellen graciously declined this offer because it had taken literally 3 hours to get Teddy to this point.  Spending another 3 hours loading this big baby was not what Ellen had imagined for her afternoon.  She said she would get him out through the escape door.  She threw the lead rope over Dollar’s back, opened the escape door and called for him.  She had placed the bucket with the remaining food about 3 strides away from the trailer.  Dollar looked at the food and started out.  He then saw the ground which was a very long drop.  He backed up, looked at the grain and Ellen called him again.  Dollar once again stepped towards the escape door, once again looked at the ground.  Then he stepped forward enough to get both feet on the ground.  He never balked after that and just stepped right out the door and walked over to the bucket that held his treat.  The new and old owners just looked in amazement.  All Ellen said was “He’s not for sale” , turned and walked Dollar back to the pasture.

The point of this story is not about the loading/unloading methods (through the escape door) that were used on Dollar.  Neither Ellen nor I advocate this method used for anyone!  It was used because we both know the temperament of Dollar and knew his trailering abilities.  Please do not try this with your horse.  So what is the point of this story?  If your are selling a horse, be honest about the experience your horse has with trailering.  If you are buying, ask to see the horse load in trailer and maybe even take a small trip to see how the horse rides.  If you are going to a show, trail ride or even just to the vet, don’t wait until you need to leave before you trailer train your horse.  All you’ll get is frustrated with your horse and your horse will probably develop a very negative attitude towards trailering.  Take the time to trailer train your horse properly and take him on small trips every now & then to reinforce the training.  Nothing takes the place of preparing you and your horse for anything, whether it be riding or trailering.

How do I know this . . . don’t ask!

Leave a comment & tell us one of your horse trailer stories.