Meet Doc...our first boarder!

This is Doc. Doc is a 1999 Buckskin Tobiano Gelding, out of Body Talk x Docs Easter Blanton.

"Doc" has over 150 APHA points in Halter, Western Pleasure, Western Horsemanship, Hunter Under Saddle and Hunt Seat Equitation. He is extremely willing and gentle. Doc is a big mover who is competitive at the big shows.

Doc can be seen in area shows, ridden in Western Pleasure by his owner, Mary Johnson.

As you can see from theses photos, Doc and Best get along great!

Sorry for the long lapse!

So sorry to have dropped off the face of the Earth!!! Things have gotten a bit busy around here!

We have our first boarder, he has been with us since November 2007! He is a delight, and well mannered! I will try to be more current with events!

New Horse Hunting

Well a lesson to be learned for all: when your are new horse hunting be VERY specific for what you are looking for. I saw an ad for a Draft-cross, not started, 3 years old, reasonable priced. Her picture looked exactly what I was looking for, a potential dressage- hunter/jumper type, nicely colored.

What I found was a 7/8 pure draft, nothing that could ever go over a jump, very short strides, never being able to do any type of dressage, nice enough mare, very kind eye and easy to handle. but to be a potentials dressage mount???...NEVER! Any I was very clear in what I was looking for.

Thankfully I only spent 5 hours driving round trip to see this mare. Lesson learned, be very clear what you want the horse for and ask for more than one picture, from different angles, to be sure to save yourself a journey which never needs to be taken.

Soon We will Be Ready for Boarders!

The building of new fences and turnouts continues. Soon we will be able to share our beautiful facility with others who are looking for a premium barn to board their horse. The small pasture will be ready soon. The second driveway will be gated providing a secure, escape proof area for others to join our small herd. Their is much to be said for small private barns, especially those who offer premium services. Look no more, you are here!

She is Foot Loose and Fancy Free!

Well the big day arrived and Brooke was released from a confinement period of 14 months. Since she foundered on all fours last June, she has lived in a 12 x 14 stall. No sun on her face, no sand in her hair, no running and plying, no nuzzling the horse in the next turn out. She has existed alone in her stall, watching the goings on in the barn. Last Sunday that all changed! She was given the OK to have a small in and out.

When she was moved to her new stall in the back of the barn, she walked out so calmly I thought, "this is not my horse, she is taking this too calmly". We walked her around the new stall and paddock twice in both directions, then let her go.

Soon she was running and turning like the best of the barrel racers! Rolling in the sand, bucking, kicking, rearing, and pretty much being a "girl gone wild". Then it hit, the pain, the exhaustion, the aches set in. WHOA! Let's just walk around for a while.

After just 5 days she acts like she has been there all the time! This Sunday we will increase her turn out by another 7 feet, more freedom. I can only wonder what that will bring! Happy Trails!

This Past Week...very busy!

This past week flew by! The kittens have been here for just over a week, and they have already had a "Great Escape". I am trying to keep them in the barn until they get a bit bigger, right now they could easily become hawk food, or coyote food, so I have kept them in a "playpen" with a top. Well, creative little creatures they are, they did get out. Thankfully they remained in the barn and I was able to recapture them. They also have new names. The little calico is now "Cleo", and the black is "Devlin". Those names certainly fit better them better than Patches and Garfield. They seem to be adjusting well, getting friendlier and they have gotten used to the horses.

The addition to the back of our barn is almost finished. Brooke has been on stall rest for just over a year. She foundered on all four feet last year secondary to a tooth infection. After she recovered she was put on stall rest. She has made a dramatic recovery and is ready for her own in and out paddock. The vet suggests it start out small, so we have designed it so it can expand. It is 24 feet wide, not very wide, but two round pen panels can easily be moved to increase the length as she continues to improve. Yesterday was a huge step forward for her. She has been wearing heart bar shoes on her rears for 1 year, and glue on hospital shoes on her fronts. She had a 14 degree rotation in both fronts and her coffin bone sunk through her right sole. Her rears were not as bad, they were at about an 8 degree rotation, with the right slightly worse than the left. We did X-rays back in February after several acupuncture treatments. She has improved to a 8 degree rotation in her right front, 6 degree in her left front and her rears were about 4 degree in both.

We were hoping to change from a heart bar shoe in the rear to an egg butt. The most recent X-rays show her rears look like a normal horse and her fronts are slightly improved since February! The vet felt she could skip the egg butt and go directly into a regular shoe! We will re-x-ray the rears in 6 weeks, before the next shoeing to be sure there is not change. If not, well it is regular shoes for her in the rears! The goals is to change out of the glue-on shoes once she has a good enough hoof wall to nail to. This little mare came so close to dying 3 times I was given the option to let her go, I did not as she was fighting so hard to live! And soon she will see her in-and-out! The plan is to put her in her new stall next Sunday morning. I'm sure she will do a lot of jumping for joy when she is first released, but I expect she will soon exhaust herself and the novelty of freedom will wear off. When it does, we will move the panels out another 12 feet. This will be the plan until they are out of the paddock all together! I'll keep you posted !

The Kittens Are Here and They Need Names!

This morning after my ride I went to pick out my new barn kittens. There were five to choose from, 4 blacks and 1 calico. I really wanted females as from what I have researched about cats; both big and small, the better hunters are the females. Well I knew the chances of the calico being a female were pretty good as only 1 in 3000 calico's are male and then he is usually sterile. So that choice was easy. The next was a bit harder. The four black kittens were pretty identical except for some minor white spots on their bellies. These kittens were also raised on a farm with 2 cows, 4 pigs, assorted chickens and goats. They were born outside and raised outside, yet handled daily as there is also a preschool on the property where the kittens have been handled by people and children daily. The kittens also had names, they were named by the children who attended the school. The female calico kitten was "Patches", and then I asked the son of the owner of the property about the rest of the black kittens. He told me we had "The Twins", "M&M," and "Garfield". The twins were solid black and not as friendly as the other two blacks, Garfield was almost solid black with a small white spot on his belly, and M&M had 2 small white marks on his belly. I took home "Garfield" and "Patches". Patches is very friendly, purrs like crazy when held or petted. Garfield is not as friendly as her, but I think he will come around. Neither looks like their names, so I think we need to come up with new names for them! Any ideas???

Every Barn Needs Kittens!

No matter how clean you keep your barn, how often you sweep, it always seems sooner or later you will see the tell tale signs of....MICE! Some are very bold, running from stall to stall in search of spilled grain. Others do not show themselves but the signs are there....chew marks in saddles or saddle covers/bags, droppings on counter tops. You see less signs during the late spring and summer as they are happy and fat in the fields. Once fall and winter arrives, well they come back in for a warm nights rest. Well what is the best way to handle them? Barn cats, that's how. Happy, well fed barn cats. when I first started looking around for kittens, I could find none. And when I found some and said I was looking for barn cats, I got a look like I was a vile person who was going to condemn this innocent kitten to death! People have the wrong idea about the life of a barn cat. These cats are not left to fend for them self. If they had to hunt for their food they would not stay in the barn! Why spend hours stalking the mouse who is hiding when a few minutes in the field will yield them a big, fat dinner! The best barn cats are cared for, well fed, and want to stay in the barn for a reason, to "play catch a mouse". I certainly plan to have these kittens receive their inoculations, be spayed/neutered, and provide them with feed and water, and love all in my barn! I want them to stay there; their mere presence will keep the mice away! As we all know animals like company so in fairness to the cats, well......I had to get two kittens, not just one! So I finally did find someone who was happy to let me have a couple of kittens to become my barn cats. Guess what..their cats live in their barn, so naturally they knew exactly what I was looking for, good mousers. This Saturday I go to pick up my new kittens to join the members of "The Feather Horse Farm" and they will take their place among the ranks of the latest members to our animal brood. After I have spent a few days getting to know them, well then they will need names. I surely will not call them "Barn Cat Number 1 or 2!

Where are the Horse Lovers?

Well I have a couple of blogs going and I find one has 4 visits per day, and my other had 200+. I realize horses are not of interest to the general population, but no one has posted a comment to this blog. Am I totally boring the horse world, or the want-to-be-horse -world? My goal was to educate people the best I could about various aspects of owning horses, and Frisians especially. I wish I had the knowledge of such a site when I was researching Friesians. I know I prefer to talk to real people about their real time experiences when ever possible. I have not been actively involved in "the horse world" for a long period of time, however I do know much about the training and raising of dogs, and much of the principles which apply to dogs flows easily to the caring and keeping, and understanding of horses.

I plan to breed my mares down the road and I would like to expand my facility to accept boarders. This would be my retirement goal. I love caring for these animals and seeing their needs met. I know I have an excellent facility and I have the knowledge to recognize healthy from not. I have learned from my research classes how to obtain information, so I am a bit confused why I have no comments. I wish to only help others with their equestrian quests.

Does everyone know everything already?? I know I don't as learning is an on going process.

Thinking about owning a horse..have you done the math???

So you are thinking about bringing a horse into your life. Have you done the math? I'm not talking about the actual cost of the horse, though that is also a consideration. I am referring to the actual upkeep of the horse. Whether you pay $100,000 and up, or get the horse for free, they all eat, use shavings, need foot care, vet checks, teeth floated, and that all costs money.

I have raised and shown dogs for years, and I always tell my puppy buyers, "you have just made a $10,000.00 investment." Then they gasp, 'I thought the price was....." That is what it costs to raise the average dog to 10 years. There is no such thing as a "free puppy", or in this case a free horse.

Depending on where you live, the cost associated with horse ownership varies. In my area, the Northeast, hay typically goes $6-8 dollars per bale depending on the time of year, shavings are $4.25-5.50 per bag, grain on average is $10.00-12.00 per 50 lbs, teeth floating $65.00-$80.00 every 6 months and the cost of yearly spring and fall shots, plus shoeing or trims every 6 weeks.

There are ways to reduce costs and still provide you horse with quality care. Buying in bulk is an option if you have many horses or board. You can also use sawdust from local mills instead of shavings. If you have a reliable sawmill near by, this can be a better option. If they do not mill kiln dried wood it can actually be more beneficial to both your horses feet and you wallet. I can bed my three horses for 3 weeks with sawdust from a local mill, for the same price I can spend for 1 weeks worth of bagged, kiln dried shavings. I can provide the basic care for my three horses at my own farm for what I paid to board just one horse locally. However, I do all the work.

If your horses have good feet, you can get along nicely with just trims, no shoes as I can do for 2 of my three horses. If they have "issues" with their feet, well that is an entirely different problem. I have one horse who foundered, all four feet, which is resulting in her needing corrective shoeing for a very long time. She is not the norm, but you need to make provisions for all the possible things which can go wrong.

If you do not have proper facilities at your home, then you need to board and the costs associated with that also need to be considered. I could own a vacation home, or a fancy new car for what it costs me on a monthly basis to care for my three horses. The fact that they are Friesians have nothing to do with the cost of maintaining them in a healthy manner. If
I had 3 adopted horses, or rescue horses they would need the same care. This is the important thing to keep in mind before you assume responsibility for taking an animal into your family. Can you provide for them in the worst of situations? If not, do some more thinking. You may be better off leasing, and not assuming full responsibility for a horse on your own.