June trims

Lana was out on Monday and Tuesday of this week to trim horses. Both days were hot, but Lana comes equipped with her own fan! We had two fans blasting her and the spoiled horses on the cross-ties. I think it was because of the fans that all the horses were falling asleep and were therefore very uncooperative! Fortunately, Lana is amazingly patient (more so than I am!) and even at her most frustrated with simply step back and say, "Quit being a snot nose."
Gone are the days where the farrier whacks a horse on the belly with their rasp or angrily yanks the horse around. Not Lana. She'll put a horse back in the stall and come back to them later.

On Tuesday we did the Thoroughbreds (JW, Dancer, Shellie) and Kurly has his front hooves trimmed (we're doing corrective trimming every 2 weeks on Kurly's hoof since he tore a huge chunk of hoof wall off a few months ago). The TB's hooves always look awful just before their 6-week trim. Lana suggests a biotin supplement for horses with crummy hooves - no other product really does the job.

 

On Wednesday we finished up the horses on the 6-week schedule. Bodhi and Magic had lead in their feet as I dragged them from the pasture to the barn. I do not recommend trying to walk the two most lazy horses on the farm at the same time. While one eats grass, the other plants his feet. I wanted to release a badger behind them to nip at their heels! We finally made it to the barn where they rested in stalls with breezy fans and copious amounts of hay. Molly and Betsy were also trimmed. It was a bad day for Molly's arthritis (and attitude) so we didn't push her and didn't finish her back hooves. I will be giving her a dose of bute a few hours before our next session to help ease her discomfort.

Even without much rain the pastures are holding up. Pasture 4 (the one on the left as you drive up our road) is empty - the grass is beautiful! Two more weeks of growing and hopefully some down pours and that pasture should be busting with grass! Pasture 5 (Magic. Bodhi, Cas, Dusty, JW) is holding its own. I mowed it this week to keep the weeds at bay and the grass, although short, is thick and available for eating. Come July 1st, there will be more pasture rotation to allow other pastures to grow.

Since it is SO hot I will be buying some more high quality fans for the barn. As tempting as it is to purchase the $20 box fans, they just don't create the breeze the horses need in this humidity. Even brand-spankin-new box fans leave you begging for more. Plus, the plastic fans don't stand up well to the barn dust and they are more likely to cause a fire, apparently. It looks like the best deal I can get is $40 per fan (metal 20''), but these are Wal-mart brand and who knows about their quality. The next best option is a huge leap to $80 per fan, but they are guaranteed high quality, high velocity and will do the job. If I bought one for each used stall that would cost $700. It would take months and months to recoup that cost. So I may get a few fans at a time and see how doubling up on box fans will work. Rest assured your stalled horses will not be hot!

If a horse is sweating, I hose them off. I just can't help myself. Sometimes even if they aren't sweating I will hose them off anyway because it feels so good. Just this past week I have hosed off Molly, Betsy, Shellie, Tav, Pokey, and my horses.

I got a load of 15 coastal square bales on Friday. These are super green! I'll be heading to Micanopy to pick up a load of O/A bales this weekend.

That's all the news for now! Stay cool - your horses are!