I’ve said many times, “not my circus, not my monkeys”, but I’m not so sure about that.

There are days that I feel like I live in a circus or zoo.  A three-ring one at that.  I can’t believe the stuff that goes on around here.  How boring it must be for people who don’t have what I have.  Some days, however, I would like to try boring.  Just for one day.  Or maybe a vacation.  Either way, if you keep an open mind, it can be very entertaining, except when you are tired, at the end of your rope, and someone pushes your buttons one too many times.

In the movie Forest Gump there is a line that says “Life is like a box of chocolates.”  Well mine is full of nuts, and it’s rubbing off.  I have the biggest assortment of clowns who are in disguise as horses.  (By the way, I’m not fond of clowns.  They frightened me as a child and it’s still there in my mind.)  But I love my horses.

My old horse Desert was a clown.  He always made me smile with his silly ways and expressions.  Yes horses have facial expressions and they are very good at reading yours.  Not my words, but studies have been done recently to back that up.  I miss him so much, but even looking at pictures of him brighten my day.  Now I have a whole barn of assorted nuts.

Nut number one.  My Zoey.  She’s really a very quiet, stays in the background kind of horse, until you walk in the barn and you are met with a whinny and the pee pee dance.  Zoey doesn’t like to pee in her stall, and you have to take her out to pottie.  Just like a child, left foot, right foot, back and forth, bouncing her head, swaying.  Let her out she runs out into the field not far from the gate and you can hear her go ahhh.  She sat on the rope the other day that I keep across her stall door.  The clip snapped with her big QH butt, and she was free.  She knew she’d be in trouble so she went and stood next to Fridays door waiting for the consequences of her actions.  Now she had the opportunity to leave the barn, go and annoy the other horses, go into the dogs stalls, or the best, the feed room.  I leave the door to the feed room open with the fan on to keep air flowing.  Not one bucket of soaking Beet Pulp was touched, which was right on the counter by the door.  Nor did she go in and open the tops to the cans with all the sweet feed and help herself.  The bags of Beet Pulp which were against the wall were not bothered, she just didn’t go near there at all.  Sweet girl.

Nut number two.  Friday the Grinch.  Ears forward, ears forward, ears back and snarl, repeat.  She was the princess to her last owner and doesn’t like being just one of the herd.  She looks like she would eat you up in a heart beat, but she’s just conveying her displeasure of not being number one.

Nut number three.  Copper the worrier.  He’s the sweet boy.  Shy, timid, had been abused in the past.  Turn him out with his best friend and this 26-year-old pussy cat becomes “Copper, King of the Wild Stallions.”  Rearing, biting legs, spinning to kick, just like in the movies.  Speak his name and he drops back to the sweet innocent puppy dog.  Walk away and he and Lou go back to their play acting routine.

Nut number four.  Lou the bad boy.  He’s like your typical angelic child.  Sweet expression.  Gives you hugs, and then a nip.  His head shoots up in the air waiting to get reprimanded.  He’s a nudge.  Always into something.  He got yelled at for kicking the wall when he eats.  So now when you turn your back he still taps it with his foot,  Then looks up as if to say “who did that? not me, it was him next to me, he did it.”  I shake my head and say it was not Copper.  Then Lou will say “then it had to be Cory, because I didn’t do it.”  And as I walk away, tap again comes from his stall.  He has to have the last word.  He just wants your attention.  Like some children, even negative attention is appreciated.  I smile as I walk away.

Nut number five.  Sky the quiet one.  He’s the least of my clowns.  He looks like the poor old soul that you just want to feel sorry for.  Until you come at his face with anything, even a wash cloth.  Then it’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  The sweet, poor me innocent turns into Conan The Barbarian.  “I can take anyone on, just try me.”  Oh my!  Not one of these horses like getting the Flu Internasal, but Sky really insists that anything to do with his face is off-limits.  We are working through this and he even let me worm him several weeks ago.  However, flu is coming up in September and we’re back to square one.

Which brings me to nut number six.  Cory aka Coronado.  Now I’ve been in the business for fifty plus years, but I have never seen a horse who begs for treats like this one.  He sticks his tongue out and flaps it in your face.  I was told about this when he came in so it didn’t come as a surprise, but Cory thought I wouldn’t understand his gesture so the first time, he was facing me because I was going to remove his halter, he picked his head up so we were nose to nose, and out came the tongue and he kept flapping it at my nose.  You can’t help but laugh, and he will keep it up until he gets a treat.  Did you ever see those old movies where the inmate will take a tin cup and run it across the bars to get someones attention?  Well Cory will take his upper lip and run it back and forth across the bars in his stall.  I felt bad that he would hurt his upper lip so I gave him a “Sunny D” jug and sometimes he will run that across, but he prefers using his lip.

Nuts seven and eight are really no problem,  I don’t spend enough, one on one time with them, and they seem really sweet and normal.  That would be Diva and Mimi.  I guess they just haven’t been at this funny farm long enough to join in the fun.  But then maybe the craziness down by the barn hasn’t made it to the hill yet.

This wasn’t a very informative post, but sometimes girls just want to have fun.  Just gives you a little insight as to why I’m like I am.  I guess it speaks to how I allow the horses on this farm to express their whole personalities.  They’re happy and having a great time, wish you were here.

There’s always something to worry about when you have a horse.  Now we have to worry about weeds too.  I guess we always did.

What are weeds?  They are wild flowers that grow where we don’t want them to.  Sometimes they are just weeds.  Annoying weeds.  Hard to pull weeds.  But sometimes they are poisonous to our horses.

Now if your horse doesn’t have beautiful pasture they will sometimes just eat the weeds.  Sometimes when they do have beautiful pasture, they will just eat weeds.

Sometimes it takes a lot of one particular weed to kill a horse, and sometimes it doesn’t take that much to make them sick.

We have two that I see a lot of.  One is Coffee Bean, but I was told it takes a whole bag of them to really do damage.  The other one is sneaky.  It’s Creeping Indigo.  It creeps under the grass and you don’t notice it until it blooms.  The leaves look like clover, and it has the prettiest coral flower.  Horses absolutely love the sweet taste, but it will kill them.  I’ve found two little patches and I’ve been working on getting rid of it for 3 years.  But they pop up and yell “Surprise!” every once in a while.  It is in an area where the horses don’t graze, but I don’t want it anywhere, because it will spread.  There is an Indigo plant that grows upward, that is not poisonous.  Same pretty flowers.  The bad stuff creeps under your grass, or along the ground.

Are you aware of the poisonous weeds and plants in your area?  Do you even look for them?  Do you know what they are?  Do you even know how to dispose of them?

I know there is a book out on Poisonous Plants for horses.  A lot of them we wouldn’t even consider to be harmful to our horses.  When we moved here I did all this landscaping to pretty the place up, it was barren.  Boy did I have to rethink my choice of plants when I got that book.  “Do Over!”

It might be a good thing to invest in that kind of a book or look up on the Internet to find out what plants are poisonous to horses and what are especially common in your area.

It’s interesting to find out if you’ve been lucky so far, and will make your horses life a whole lot safer in the long run.

This for your consideration.

Red headed people have sensitive skin, so do horses.  It’s not something you automatically think about.

I have a beautiful, copper-colored gelding at the barn, who is allergic to everything.  At age 26, he is getting worse.  It wasn’t so bad when he was by himself, he would stand under the trees in the summer and stay cool.  If there was a tree in the pasture he would rub so I kept him in a pasture without trees, but there were branches hanging over the fence.  He was terribly lonely.  He had been out with another old horse and they made the perfect pair.  They both enjoyed taking naps and hanging under their favorite tree.  His friend was sold to a young girl who needed a horse like him.  Then depression set in.

So for several years we were hoping for a friend for him.  Well the six-year-old came in and he had a friend.  One who would rear, run, chase, and play.  I wasn’t keen on that idea, but he loved it.  The six-year-old looks like swiss cheese, but they both have a great time and Copper is in charge.

However, they go out and play and graze all day.  They are both good sweaters, but it’s taking a toll on Coppers skin.  Where he is sweating on his back, with the sun baking on it, he is losing his hair.  I’ve had horses with sunburn on their nose before but this is a new adventure.  Because there are two of them they are in a bigger pasture with trees.  I feel so bad for him.

I’ve been rinsing his coat and applying a skin conditioner, but the vet will be here in two weeks and once again she’ll give him an allergy shot.

It’s been a really hot humid summer so far and they are all sweating, thank you God.  What I am noticing is that where they are sweating, they are getting bleached more than usual.  I guess it has something to do with the salt laying on their hair.  Don’t know that for a fact, just seems that way.

Putting him back in his old pasture is not an option, its only two and half acres and is not big enough for two to graze for nourishment, they will take it down too quickly .  I have another old horse I can put him with (which would be more quiet like he used to be) but those two bad boys would not accept being separated at this point.

I think I’m more bothered by his condition than he is.  His owner is fine with it, as long as Copper is having a good time.

So things go along as they are until the fall gets here.  This happens in December, so I have a long way to go.  Even in Florida they start losing their summer coats and start getting their winter coats in August, so we’re almost there.

His coat has always been on the thin side, but with a beautiful shiny copper glow.  He’s pretty much bald on his back so I have to watch him closely.  Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you realize you haven’t.

I know, many of you are thinking, I wish my horses had two and half acres, but this is what they eat, with a little grain on the side.  Hay only when they are in the stalls, which is only during a storm.  They are pasture fed.  We fertilize, and they really maintain their weight.

So onto the next adventure.  I wonder what that will be?  Don’t ask.

Whether you are looking for a new barn to board your horse, or someone to care for your horse while you’re away, what do you look for?

I know I’ve spoken before about people you hire to horse sit, but it’s worth revisiting this subject.  We all like to go on vacation, but we all worry about leaving our fur and hair families with strangers.  Even if we know this person personally, they still aren’t us.

Now being far, we know that some things are right, somethings are wrong, and somethings are just done differently.  No one is going to do things exactly like we do.  If it isn’t life threatening, we can clean up the mess when we get back.

My friend was looking for a new barn recently and her biggest concern was if the people who would be taking care of her horses knew the difference between colic, and lameness.  It sounds pretty dumb, but so are a lot of people.  But I didn’t say that, and you didn’t hear that.  Well that’s a broad spectrum.  It’s easy when you walk in a barn if you know they are getting fed and cared for.  You look around.  If all the horses are fat, hydrated, and free from cuts, you know they are pretty well off.  If the barn is clean and safe, you know they are on top of things.  If the property is neat and cared for, you’ve got a good idea.  If the horses let you walk up to them and you can pet their heads, you know they are not roughed up.  If they fly backwards, you may have to look deeper.  Yes some horses have been abused in the past which leave a lasting impression, but if they all want to escape, that should be a red flag.

Check water buckets and troughs.  Make sure they are clean and the water is fresh.  Look in the feed room and make sure there is no evidence of rodent activity.  Make sure the feed is stored well.

Ask a lot of questions.  If people have nothing to hide they will be willing to speak with you about anything.  Ask how long they have been caring for horses.  Do they have a local vet and farrier (get names), and how often do they come to the farm.  Call that vet and farrier and ask them their opinion of the persons reliability.  If they keep a regular schedule on shots, and shoeing.

Ask the person how many cc’s of Banamine they would give a thousand pound horse? (Thank you Louise that’s a wonderful question).  Ask what signs they would consider to be a colic.  It’s your horse, and you are paying them, so don’t hesitate to ask.

Personally, I would think very highly of a person who cared enough to ask and check out that I know what I am doing.

If you are a person who is not going to visit your horse at least once a week, these questions, including the detection of lameness, are important ones.  I know every time I see a horse walk across the pasture I’m looking at his movements.  Every time I walk a horse in and out of the barn I listen to his foot fall on the concrete.  The one mare I have places three and slides one.  No lameness to be seen, but there is a difference in her movement.  I watch them run in the pasture and note what leads they are picking up.

You want to know that this person is observing your horse.  That they learn what is a normal and what is not.  What time they lay down to take a nap and how long they stay down.  How much water they drink in their stalls.  If they have finished their grain.  If they didn’t finish you want to make sure that the left over is removed and not laying there  to get moldy in the bottom of their buckets.

Ask about their worming schedule, how often and the rotation of wormers.

Ask about what feed they use, where they get it, how often they get it.  I know that my feed is made here in Florida.  I pick it up every two weeks, it’s stored in heavy-duty garbage cans, and it was made within a week of my purchase.  I know that the feed company does not make cow feed so I have no worries about the cow antibiotics getting into my feed by mistake and killing my horses.

Look to see if things are posted and up-to-date.  What horses get how much feed, and what supplements each horse gets.  Shot records are kept handy along with Coggins.  If anything happens to the person in charge, know that someone else can come in and pick up where things were left off.

Walk around the property, and as my friend said, especially to places that the owners don’t want you to see.

There are things that you have to take into consideration, like fencing.  It seems we repair things daily around here.  Especially with new horses coming in.  We have to reach an understanding of what is acceptable.  We don’t turn the electric fence on automatically, but when a horse stand there, takes the wire in his teeth and snaps it, it’s time.  You will be able to see if a place is being kept up, or just let go.  Now that’s a red flag.

If you are going away make sure everyone is on the same page.  Give a date of your return, but tell the person caring for your animals to keep taking care of them until you call them and tell them that you are home.  Miscommunication almost cost two horses their lives.  They were in their stalls, in the summer, and the person caring for them thought that the owner would be back in a week.  So after a week she stopped going to care for them.  The owner was to be gone for two weeks.  Horses had no food or more importantly, no water.  They were just short of death when the owner returned.

Be proactive in every detail of your horse’s life, don’t worry about what other people think, it’s your horse and you have to be able to sleep at night knowing that whoever is taking care of them is doing the best job possible.