Working with the children last Wednesday evening and on Sunday morning we were talking about how Thanksgiving came about.  We talked about the Pilgrims, the Indians and of course the corn they planted.  My lesson consisted of the Pilgrims putting 5 kernels of corn at the top of their plate to remind them of what they were thankful for.  With the children we used Candy Corn, and they got to eat it, after they said what they were thankful for.  Of course I always fill them full of sugar and send them home to their parents.  The children love me, the parents, not so much.

I did that about 20 years ago with my family before we left and moved to Florida.  Everyone had to tell five things they were thankful for.  It’s really interesting and quite an eye opener when you hear the deep thoughts of others.

As Americans, especially these days, there is so much that we can be thankful for.  Most times we just take everything for granted.  We, as horse people, should be thankful that we live in a country where we can have the luxury of owning a horse, or just being able to ride one when we have the opportunity.

I challenge you to say, or just ponder, five things that you are thankful for this Thanksgiving.  I know one of my five will be the animals that I have been blessed to have in my life.  I know I will give them a carrot and say thank you to them for the love, peace, and happiness they give to me everyday.

Have a wonderful, turkey filled Thanksgiving, and don’t forget the carrots for the vegans in the barn.

I know there was a book out, and a movie with that name.   I don’t remember what it was really about, but I feel like I belong to the Dead Horseman’s Society.

When I was younger, there was integrity, and professional courtesy.  Now like everything else in the world, there is no such thing.  It’s every man for himself and too bad for the next guy.

It saddens me to see the way the industry is going.  But it’s not only the big shows, and organizations.  It’s now just neighbors, messing with other neighbors.  What’s worse is that they brag about it.  Seriously?

The simple backyard shows were disappearing, but now seem to be making a comeback.  The fact that everyone sued everyone put a stop to a lot of the small shows.  No one could afford the insurance.  The children and new riders suffer.  The shows have become so expensive that you have to offer your firstborn in order to be able to participate.  And in order to qualify, you must have a certain trainer, board at a certain barn, and of course, buy your horse from certain people.  When I was a kid you didn’t need any of that.  You got a horse (usually with no specific breeding) paid your entry fee and rode in Madison Square Garden.  You could ride against all the top name competitors.  You didn’t have to spend mega bucks to qualify.  Look at “Snowman.”  He came off a killer truck.  That was the era I grew up in.  Of course horses back then didn’t cost the money they command today.  But they were still pricey for the take home pay of the time.  There are so many horses, just like Snowman, sitting in killer pens, or rescues, just waiting for a chance to be great.  And there are so many great riders who will never have the chance, because they can’t afford it.

Yes I lament about the way things used to be, just like all the other “Old Timers”, but maybe it’s time that we took a few steps backward and grasp on to the old before it disappears forever.

Don’t be a Dead Poet and just go along with things.  Rise and shine and make a difference.

Facebook can be annoying with all the nonsense that people post, but Facebook can also be a link to the past.  In the last several months I have been contacted by people I used to ride with, both in the hunt field, and just for fun.

The one thing I can say is that even though you haven’t spoken with these people in about 20 years or more, when you speak with them, it’s like you’ve never been apart.  It’s especially true when you speak with kids you grew up with, or maybe even with their children.

Of course horses are the main topic.  The horses we had, and the things we did together.  The funny things that happened while we were riding, and the stupid things we did.

Then you always have to catch up on the horses you have now, and the dumb things you are still doing.  We may be getting older, but we may not be getting that much smarter.

Horses are a catalyst to the past and to the future.  Meet a horse person and you can speak with them for hours, feel like you’ve been friends forever, and as a matter of fact, you probably will be.  You may not remember their name, but if you’ve seen them riding, you will remember their horse and the horse name.  The other odd thing is that you will meet people on the hunt field, or in the show ring with their helmets on, but at the tea or parking lot afterwards, remove the horse and the helmet and you won’t be able to place them.

Funny, but I have no interest in going to any High School Reunion, but get a call from someone I knew years ago in horses, and I really enjoy speaking with them for hours.

So here’s to horses, our past, present and future.  Our link to a multitude of friends, old new, and those we haven’t met yet.

The times sure are a changin’.  Someone said that years ago.  I don’t remember who, or maybe it was in a movie some where.  But the truth of the matter is – they are.  The “Old Timers”  always used to shake their heads and talk about what had changed from when they were a children.  Now I’m the “Old Timer”.  I really can’t believe how much has changed in our life time.  All the new technology.  We’ve gone to the moon and now we’re trying for Mars.  Although some things are for the better, sometimes I’m not so sure.  We have a car that just about drives itself.  I don’t know who is scarier when they drive, Bob or the car.  They both make me nervous.  Bob lets the car drive while he plays with the computer on the dash.  They should disable that thing unless you are stopped.  I really think I’m ready for the old horse and buggy days.  Although they are pretty much the same.  The horse used to bring you home too, and trust me, they would take off just as quickly as the car does.  They didn’t slam on the brakes like the car.  Actually brakes were not a thought in their head.  Okay, so scratch the horse and buggy thing.

Now to the point of this post.  Buyer beware.

When the boys were little and we brought them to a restaurant, they would order something they remembered having there before.  When it would arrive they would say “It doesn’t taste like the last time we ate it.”  Well I’ve been going through a similar situation with products.  And I was convinced I was imagining things until the other day.  My neighbor called me complaining about a hoof product that we’ve used for years.  Now when my farrier was here last time, I mentioned that the beautiful purple liquid wasn’t lasting on the horses hoofs like it used to.  My hands, well that’s a different story, but not as much as usual.  He told me it was because of all the wet in the grass that it wasn’t staying.  I looked at him funny, because it always used to last, but I shrugged it off thinking I was just losing my mind (happens a lot lately).  Then my neighbor called.  She reads the bottles every time she gets something, and sure enough, they had changed the formula.  Aha!!!  I’m not crazy.  She called the distributor and they said they didn’t know anything about the change, but they would contact the manufacturer.  Two of the main ingredients had been removed.  So now we are left with colored water, without a drying agent and whatever the other ingredient did (maybe killing bacteria).

How come every time we find a product that works, they either change it or take it off the market.

I emailed Procter and Gamble a few months back asking why, when I was a kid, my mother used a detergent and, with whites, a little bleach.  Sometimes she used a washing machine and sometimes she did them by hand, but my clothes were always clean.  Now a days I have to use a detergent and 5 different additives and my clothes still aren’t clean.  They told me that if they included all that stuff, the cost would be so high that nobody could afford it.  Well guess what, I’m doing it now, with still no results.

When you question a company about why a product was removed from the market they will tell you that one or more of the ingredients are being used to make drugs.  So we all suffer because someone is so stupid to use that stuff, they might kill themselves?  What is wrong with our society.  I’m to the point that I really can’t keep everyone from harming themselves, so let them make that decision and suffer the consequences.  When I was still up north we could no longer buy sulfur powder.  (Haven’t checked down here)  When I was a kid we mixed sulfur with Vasoline and made a wound dressing.  Now they call it Nitrofurazone at a much higher cost.  When we were kids we went to the gas station and got the used motor oil for free to paint on the horses hooves.  Then they added (for a change) a detergent and you couldn’t use it anymore on the hooves.  Now we buy hoof dressing for a sum of money.  Our water was clean and we could turn on a faucet, or drink from a spring and never worry.  Now we have to buy water in a bottle.  They tell you not to drink that water if it sits in the bottle in the heat.  Does anyone think about the fact that these bottle sit in a hot tractor trailer, for who knows how long, before we get it?  Why are we, and our animals, dying of cancer?  Duh.

Okay I’m on my soap box.  Does anyone really remember soap boxes anymore?

I have a friend whose horses were dropping weight.  I knew she fed her horses well, and was always on time with the wormer, so it bothered me.  I had that problem a few months before.  When I inquired and check the ingredients of my grain I found out there had been changes made to the contents.  I switched grain and my horses were back on track.  I mentioned it to her.

So the bottom line is.  If a product isn’t working “the way you remembered it.” chances are it isn’t the same product.  Looks the same, smells the same, but check the ingredients.  The price may even go up, but does the quality?

I’ve spent money trying different Lime Calcium Rust removers for my hard water stains.  I gave up and tried white vinegar.  Surprise!  It worked better and faster.  Cost a lot less, and didn’t burn the skin off my hands.

Maybe, just maybe, we should revisit the “Good Old Days” and go back to basics.

Don’t accept things, read and challenge the way things are “now-a-days.”  Then make a decision.  And don’t hesitate to call them out on a product.  I did.

So the price of horse meat is up.  This always leads to problems for horse owners.

Back in the mid 70’s trailers would back up to pasture gates in the middle of the night and clean out a pasture.  In the morning the owners would go out to feed and their beloved pets would be gone, never to be found again.

Now the brazen butchers just pull a horse out of a pasture and cut him up right there.  A couple of days ago they took a very expensive show horse, sawed off his legs, cut off the meat, and left body parts there.  They feel this horse was singled out because of his weight, and body mass.  This has been happening on the East Coast of Florida in Miami Dade County for a while, they would just pull them out and butcher them in the woods.  But now it’s happening on the West Coast too.  Getting way too close to home for me.  Whether it’s been going on in other states, I don’t know, but if it’s happening here, it must be happening in other places too.

So what is a horse owner to do?  Back in the 70’s I stopped leaving halters on my horses.  The horse that got cut up the other day was in a pasture with three board fencing.  They just broke the boards and removed him.  I have horse wire with a top board and electric wire.  Way too much trouble to get through.   We are on a one car width, dead end street.  It would not be a wise move to come up here and be blocked with no way out, but still, maybe locking the gates at night would be a good idea.  We live on the property, have an intercom in the barn that lets me know any noise that happens out there.  It’s just a baby monitor, but it works great.  It’s right next to my bed.  I put it in there to hear the smoke alarm if it goes off.  We have a motion sensor on the lights on the front of the barn.  We have dogs that are definitely going to take charge of any situation.  But still, how safe are we?

Now I’m not telling you to sit there at night with a shot gun, but don’t make it easy for some wacko either.  This is not a one time deal.  These were professional butchers.

I’m just putting this information out there for you.  What you do with it is up to you.

Winter is not only coming, in some parts of the country, it’s here!

Oh do I hate winter.  I’m not sure what happened to spring this year, and now fall has gone missing too.

I couldn’t believe the pictures this morning of the snow falling in the upper states.  The leaves are still so beautiful, but with snow on them?  Really????

So it’s time to think about bring out the blankets. oiling the clips, and finding that heating element that keeps the water from freezing.  Don’t forget to look under the bushes where the water line passes.  Make sure your dog didn’t expose it during the summer when he was seeking a shady cool spot.  Mine did that one year. and my line froze leaving me no water to the barn.  So then I was bucket watering from the old well with a hand pump until that froze.  Then it was carrying buckets of water from the cellar.  As I slipped on the ice, fell with the buckets, and created more ice.  I think that was the winter I decided to move to Florida.  Or may be it was the following winter when the snow was five foot and I couldn’t get the wheel barrel out the door.  Doesn’t matter.

Then you can remember how much fun it is to ride in the freshly fallen snow.  We used to love riding in the first snow fall of the season.  It was peaceful and quiet.  You can also start remembering that you have to pick the snow balls out of their feet, feel the pain in your feet and toes as you hit the ground, and not being able to feel your fingers.  Only kidding.  Or not.

The bottom line is that even though you still have time, believe it or not, it is time to start thinking and planning.  Try to remember what you need to do to make it through until the little buds and birds of spring return.  Don’t dwell, just prepare.

There are good points to both.

In the old days, horses worked every day, or at least 6 out of 7.  The amount of work they recieved exercised their bodies, probably, more than they needed.  As long as they had a large enough stall to lay down in at night, all was well.  Actually they lived or died.

Now they are not working horses, but pleasure horses.  If they get an hours worth of forced exercise every day, they are lucky.

Let’s look at some of the reasons why we Stall –

1. Hopefully you’ll always know where your horse is if you leave him in the stall.  I’ve had a few who were great at opening doors and letting everyone out.
2. They stay much cleaner in the stall.  Maybe.
3. They don’t get sun bleached if they are in the stall.
4. They don’t usually get hurt when they’re in the stall.  There are exceptions to that rule.
5. You know exactly how much they have eaten or drank if they are stalled.
6. You don’t have to wander around in the fog or dark looking for them.
7. You can catch them easier.
8. You don’t have to worry about who they will get a long with.
9. They’re happier to see you coming.  “Jail break!”

Not to stall –

Well you don’t have stalls to clean in the morning.

I guess the reason I’m for not stalling is because of something a vet told me 44 years ago.  Which to me makes sense.  Horses are a grazing animal.  Every part of the horses body, mind, and how it functions, depend on constant movement.

It’s especially important for the older horse.  To keep an old horse going they need an hour of forced exercise a day to keep arthritis at bay.  An old horse won’t do more than they have to.  Looking around these days, neither will our human teenagers.  I think I recently heard that some government agency is advocating forced exercising our children.

Since the horse is a grazing animal,  they were not intended to have one or two large meals a day, but they were created to eat small amounts over extended periods of time.  The head and neck (sinus’ included) were meant to be down grazing.

When we pull them from their natural environment, we cause changes to the natural order of things.

1. We cause tendons and ligaments to lose the constant motion that keeps them fit.
2. They are standing and stomping on unnatural footing which causes hoof and bone stress.  Not to mention if stalls aren’t kept clean, we have thrush problems.
3. The air they breathe is cleaner outside, no ammonia from urine, or dust particles from bedding to cause irritation to air passages.
4. Movement keeps arthritis at bay.
5. Many horses stress at being closed in.  Gee, I wonder why more horses have ulcers?
6. Some horses do not eat or drink as much if they are in a stall.
7. They like to be out and hear the sounds of nature around them.  Not idle chatter or loud radios.
8. They like to be in a herd.  It’s the way they were intended to live.  Not in solitary confinement.
9. Attitudes improve when they’re allowed to be horses.  They run when they feel like it and get their bucks out without catapulting us into orbit.

Yes they do need trees or a lean-to to get out of the sun or rain, but it should be their choice.  Some times they just like to lay in the grass and work on their tan.

They’re living breathing animals, not cars that need to be garage kept.  Although in Florida people don’t keep their vehicles in garages.  Washing machines on the porch, but not cars in the garage.

Against their wishes I do bring them in when we are having a severe storm, or a bitter cold rain.  It’s just for a short while and they do forgive me when they are turned back out.  I don’t think they really care, but it makes me feel much better.

Not everyone can keep their horses at home and turned-out.  Some struggle to even keep them at a good boarding facility.  We do the best we can for our horses, if you have to keep them in, do right by them.  Feed smaller amounts more often.  Keep hay in front of them so they can “graze” all day.  Make sure stalls are kept clean, and dust free.  Mostly make sure they get enough exercise time, whether it be turned out or ridden.

A body in motion stays in motion.

I’m watching too much TV. 🙂

This is a very odd subject, but interesting.  I wrote this a while ago, but wasn’t ready to post it yet.  But after the post last week, I think I’m ready now.

We like to place our thought process and emotions on our animals, but what really happens in their minds.  Actually I’ve never asked an animal communicator to ask one of the horses, but I’ve witnessed a lot of horses crossing the Rainbow Bridge, and had the opportunity to watch their foals and pasture mates reactions.

I had a Thoroughbred pasture mate to my first horse.  He would stress so bad when I would take her out for the day.  He would run the fence line and scream the entire day that she was gone.  When it came time to put her down, at the young age of 36, I didn’t know what I was going to do with him.  We walked her away from the paddock and he started screaming, which he continued to do for about on half hour.  Then he stopped abruptly, and never called to her again.  He didn’t see us put her down, but he knew.  How???

Another horse I had, the vet couldn’t prove it, but he assumed the horse had cancer internally.  He was not the cuddly, in you pocket type horse, he was strictly business, but my husband and I loved him dearly.  We’d give him love, attention, and carrots and he’d be aloof, but when he thought we weren’t looking. he’d put his ears forward and watch us walk away.  He loved his job as a hunt horse, but when we found out that he probably had cancer, we stopped using him.  Within two weeks he just stopped eating.  If he couldn’t do his job, he was out-of-here.  The day came to put him down, the vet was schedule to come at 4:00 p.m., his wife was an animal communicator and had told Mac what was going to happen.  I bought a 5 lb. bag of carrots and went out to give it to him.  He was standing by the gate looking up the driveway, waiting, this is something he never did.  He took only one carrot from me.  When Bob got home I told him that Mac would only take one carrot and he said, oh he’ll take the carrots from me.  He went out and Mac just kept looking up the driveway and he only took one carrot from Bob.  The first needle was barely in his neck and he dropped dead.  He knew.  He was ready.

My soul mate Desert was showing signs of colic, but not the usual colic, this was different.  For three nights I slept in the barn with him, but he wouldn’t go in his stall, he went in Toy’s stall (Toy died the year before).  The last morning he wanted out of the stall before day light.  I made him wait since it was still dark, I wouldn’t be able to see him in the pasture.  He walked out to a pasture he wasn’t used to being kept in, went to where another horse Lad used to lay, he laid down in that spot, he laid there for only a minute or so and got up and walked out.   (We put Lad down the same time as Toy, Lad was also 36).  Then he asked to go out in the pasture with his usual friends Magic and Zoey.  I really didn’t want him to walk around that much but he was pawing at the gate.  I let him out, they were standing near the gate, he nosed with them, and walked across the pasture to the tree that he used to stand with Toy, Magic, and Zoey.  He stood there for a couple of minutes then came cantering back to the gate  looking and calling for me.  As he approached the gate I saw he was in distress, I ran out to him and he collapsed at my feet, he died in my arms.  He knew.  He wanted to visit all his favorite spots and his pasture mates, but he came back to me.  That was heart breaking in itself.

I’ve lost 18 horses in the last 50 years.  Mostly from old age.  They each have taught me about life, myself, but mostly about horses.

Magic was an Alfa mare, even to the end.  When we put Toy down she got down right ugly.  Ears back running around screaming at us.  She bucked, kicked,  just angry that we would take her soul mate.  She gathered up the rest of the horses and herded them up to the far corner of the pasture and wouldn’t let them come back.  Toys legs were so full of arthritis that he couldn’t walk to the feed bucket anymore.  We had an animal communicator come and speak with Toy before that day.  Toy said that our horse Shadow, who was killed by lightning years before, came to him and told him that if he came with her that he could run again.  Toy and Bob loved speed, he was an Appendix Quarter Horse race horse, then a ranch horse before becoming a hunt horse.   He wanted to be released from this old body and run like he used to.

When it was Magic’s turn to cross the Rainbow Bridge she was true to form.  She’d had bad stifles for years, but wouldn’t stop running.  After all, she was in charge and had to keep her eye on everything that went on around the farm.  Her hind end just gave way.  She couldn’t get up or move her hind quarters.  She would spin around on her butt and then collapse again.  I sat with her on the ground while we waited for the vet.  Zoey came over to nuzzled her muzzle, very softly, very lovingly.  Magic, the witch that she was, slowly picked her head up off the ground and bit Zoey in the nose.  Yup she was going out the way she lived.  She didn’t want sympathy.  She was going to be in charge to the end.

Another Mac, my boarders horse, was totally confused.  I brought him there to watch Lad leave this earth so that he would understand that his best friend was gone.  He kept going over to Lad, as his body lay on the ground, and smelling him.  Then he would look around and call for him.  Now Mac wasn’t always with the program so I didn’t think much of it at the time.  That is, not until we lost Maggie, the mama Clydesdale.  I knew this was going to be hard.  Bobby loved that horse and that horse loved Bobby.  Her baby Dawn was 12 years old by now, and they had been together since Dawnie was born.  Once again cancer was the cause.  Maggie was 25.  Bob, our neighbor Gary, who came over to give Bob support, Dawnie and I were there while our wonderful vet agreed that it was time.  She always believes that it’s really not time until she gets there and sees it for herself.  Bob was with Maggie, and Dawn was between me and Gary, tears running down our faces (not Dawnie, just us humans).  Dawnie was not on a lead line, she just stood there.  As Maggie was given the tranquilizer and went down, Dawnie walked over to her mother and put her nose on her.  Then she walked back to us.  Bobby was on the ground with our vet and the last injection went in.  With that Dawnie went back over and touched Maggie again.  This time she started screaming and running around looking for her.  She kept going over to the body and then run around.  She finally ran out of the pasture, through the barn screaming and ran up to the top pasture looking for her mom.

I asked our compassionate vet what was going on.  She said that Dawnie knew that her mom was gone, but she didn’t know where.  This said to me that the body isn’t as important as the spirit is to them.  The next day was a show and Dawnie was still looking for mom.  After that she stopped looking and just went on with life.  Over all the years, and all the horses I’ve had to let go, Maggie was the hardest because of Bob and Dawn.  Now Dawn just lost her boyfriend, and she did the same thing.  While we were working on him and gave him the tranquilizer she just stood there watching.  After we gave him the last injection, she waited a minute or so, and the same thing.  She started trotting back to the barn screaming for him.  I told the vet.  You don’t even have to check if he has died, Dawnie just said so, he was gone.  Even though it’s been weeks, she still longingly gazes up that hill hoping that he will return.

I guess in closing I can say that they know something about the death of the spirit, but mostly I can say that they accept it, and go on.

In my heart I know that God created these beautiful creatures, and I look forward to seeing them all again.  Young, sound, running with the wind, beautiful, majestic animals, with manes and tails flying.  No more pain, arthritis, or belly aches, just pure joy.

In Loving Memory of all my beautiful horses.

I will always love you, and miss you, until we meet again across that Rainbow Bridge.

Or not.

I often wonder how I, and every other horse person, missed inventing Velcro.  We’ve struggled for years trying to remove those little stickers from horses tails, but never thought of using the idea to work for the good.  We could have been very rich by now.

Hook and loop closures, more commonly known as Velcro are wonderful when they work, and frustrating when they don’t.  I hate when I have a piece of cellophane wrap, and it sticks to itself just fine, but won’t stick to the bowl that you want it to.  Hook and loop also can fall into that category.  You’ve put a leg wrap on, and you either see your horse walking along dragging this colored banner behind him, or you end up having to walk the pasture to find it before your kids or husband run it over with the mower, (of course you would never do that) thus leaving you to pick up a million little pieces that were once your favorite leg wrap.

Anyway, I’m getting off track.  When your Hook & Loop no longer want to stick to where it should, it’s quick to fix.  Those little hooks catch everything, much like our stickers, and it accumulates under the hooks.  All you need to do is clean them out occasionally.  My old blanket repair man used to use a steel brush to pull the little fibers out.  I use an old shedding blade.  You know the kind that had leather (or plastic) on each end and you could bend it around to itself.  One side you could use as a sweat scraper and the other side a shedding blade.  Or you could use a cat or dog brush (the kind with the needle like ends that puncture your fingers if you grab it wrong).  Just rake it down and all the little threads come off in a ball.

The bottom line is if you keep the hook side clean it will grip like the day you bought it.  No need to replace the Velcro or throw, what ever it’s attached to, out.

Simple.   You’re good to go now.

There is nothing as wonderful as the smell of fresh-cut Timothy or Alfalfa hay.  When I was up north we would bring in a whole tractor trailer’s worth of hay, with the amount of horses I was keeping at my barn, it would last until the next years cutting.  I like second cutting the best.  First cutting was usually not cut on time because the field would be too wet to get into.  The local hay down here just doesn’t have that wonderful aroma.  It was always more cost-effective to buy large quantities.  We had a three story barn so we had plenty of room for 655 bales or more.

Down in Florida we do not have that kind of storage, and I wouldn’t want to.  The humidity makes it extremely difficult to store hay.  Unless you keep it in a room, that you can keep the door closed, regulate the temperature, and keep a dehumidifier on, you’re throwing your money away.  It may not be moldy, but the dust will kill you.  I have asthma, so it does a number on me.  And if it does a number on me, I’m not giving it to my horses.  I’ve seen horses with breathing problems, and you don’t want to deal with that.

My horses are on pasture all spring, summer, and fall, but I usually have about 15 bales left over.  It’s good to have on hand in case you get hit with storms where you want to keep your horses in the barn.  BUT it’s dusty!  Now the hay isn’t moldy, just dusty.  So what is one to do?  Well if I’m feeding it outside for any reason, I shake the dickens out of it (with a mask on of course), but if I’m in the barn, I’ll either soak it for a while or spread it out and hose it down.  The horses don’t mind that it’s wet, some of them like to dunk their hay in the water while they are eating it anyway.

This is not just a southern problem.  When I had left over hay up north, before my delivery of new hay, I would do the same thing.  It doesn’t take that long and it’s so much better for the horses bronchial tubes and lungs.

Don’t forget, as you work your way through that bale, to look for mold.  That should go without saying no matter what time of year it is.  If a bale of hay isn’t cured right, there are many possibilities.  Or you could have had a leak in the roof that you weren’t aware of.  If it’s wet in the middle when it’s baled, it cannot only mold, but can burst into flames and burn down your whole barn.  You can check this by forcing your hand down into the middle of the bale.  See if it’s wet, or hot.  You can break the bale open and let it dry and let the heat out before it molds.  Same thing if your hay gets rained on.  Open it up and let it dry out.  Even though I trust my hay men, now and in the past, I still always keep close watch on what’s going on with my hay.  I lived in New Jersey, but my hay either came from Pennsylvania or Canada.  If he would hit a rain storm on the way down, he would cover the hay with a tarp.  This would trap the heat and moisture in.  He would always warn me that he had done that.  He would also make good for any hay that was not to my liking.  I was also instructed at a very early age how to stack hay, so that it could breath.  You never stacked your bales with the strings up, always the cut ends up.

These are a lot of words just to say “Watch Your Hay.”  But be mindful, and remember, a belly ache can kill.  It’s just not worth it.