Many years back, I had an orphaned (at birth) colt who would bite. He just mugged me wanting treats even though I did not feed him by hand. Typical of orphans who have not been raised by their Mum, he didn’t really know that he was a horse, not a human. He spent time with my elderly Appaloosa gelding in turn out, but that was hard on my Appy!
The treats I loved the most were Herballs by Hilton Herbs. I gave them to my old gelding and he loved them (and they were healthy as could be).
I was poor. I struggled to feed myself, my dogs and my horses, teaching Dressage and writing for several magazines… I decided to make my own “herb treats”. I ground flaxseeds, used oat flour for a base and added ground garlic, peppermint, rosemary and oregano. When I gave the first one to Snookie (the Appaloosa), he spent 3 minutes working the chewed-up pieces out of his mouth with aggressive tongue lolling. Oops.
So, I decided to try using them for Dharma Gita (the colt) as a deterrent. When he came at me with his teeth, I popped one into his mouth. He chewed it up then stared at me like, “what the heck?”. Then he spent 3 minutes spitting it out.
I continued to just pop a nasty tasting treat into his mouth every time he was “mouthy”, keeping several in my pocket at all times. It worked. Dharma Gita soon quit mugging me, quit trying to bite and I never had to slap him or get aggressive with him. The treats were safe, just horrible tasting… which had not been my intention. Yet, they were useful!
Ugh, hay prices went up again… one hay dealer is charging $36.00 a bale right now (3 strand grass or alfalfa). It’s the worst time of year to buy hay (prices up, quality down). We can count on the quality improving come spring, but I suspect prices will never come down. We feed just over 3 bales a day at one yard alone – not to mention all the supplements and herbs. When Mark came here in 2015, we thought $18.00 a bale was too high!
Because we are a Rescue/Sanctuary, my “crystal ball” tells me there will be many more horses abandoned or needing homes.
We are in the high desert – no pastures, no choice but to buy hay year-round. And we’ve had some cold, wet weather lately. Feeding extra hay keeps the horses warm… we blanket the elderly and special needs equines (which is most of them!), but they have to have a constant supply of forage (hay).
And the colder days prompted me to get to the Thrift Store for some more warm clothing. I saw my reflection the other day in a window. My “transient look” made me decide to find some more attractive attire. I succeeded on the “warm” front, but now attractive may not be a suitable description – I bought a lot of fleecy tops that now are hay covered. Even the dog hair “block” doesn’t pull off the scraps of hay… maybe it makes my jumpers more valuable with a pound of hay clinging to each one (a pound of hay is worth 36 cents now). It certainly makes me more interesting to the horses!
And last week a tractor-trailer tried to make the right angle turn from Coyote Road onto Arrowhead Road. It got stuck in the intersection, in deep sand with the front and back of it up on the berm that forms because Arrowhead is essentially an arroyo that runs when it rains on the mountain. The tractor was at a 45 degree angle to the trailer. They finally got it out, but we all had to find creative ways around it! Thank goodness for four wheel drive.
This was a grand reminder that I must communicate with the driver bringing our new barn soon! We have a barn, identical to our Infirmary Barn arriving within days. We’ve waited for months for it to be built and it will be delivered and set up all in one day – but it cannot get stuck between roads!
My mind is always spinning. I go to bed thinking about hay solutions; wake up thinking about whether the horses stay rugged or if we need to pull them, then put “pajamas” back on for the night… We need more of the big round plastic feeders that they don’t toss hay out of (seeing the waste can be soul crushing at these prices!). We know they are sturdy because several of the horses STAND in them. Where we got the one we have doesn’t carry them anymore. I found some in Virginia… we’re in New Mexico.
So, mind spinning, I fed my most special needs horses at one yard and helped Mark get hay out to the shelters on the track system at the other stable yard tonight. I left a message for the driver who will bring our barn to CALL me – GPS will send him into a sand pit (or worse). I looked on Craigs List again for local hay, spoke with our supplier (who we LOVE) about what might become available and commiserated with a friend who also runs a Sanctuary about how the hay situation has become a nightmare.
There are vegan substitutes for eggs (also costing an “arm & a leg”, IF you can find some) – there is no substitute for hay. We just take a deep breath and pay what we have to. The horses are the priority. Always.
Stablewomen 