Belly aches and fence crashers

As I previously reported, some days are better than others. After a long 48 hours of dealing with horse "ordeals", I can happily report that all is well. At least for now... 


You see the nature of a horse is to spend their lives acting as if something is trying to eat them, harm them, or kill them. So in order to survive they must be ready to bolt, jump and/or flee at any given moment. If a person can remember this little tidbit, they will be a lot better off in understanding that complicated yet simple mind of a horse.


Another thing that a horse owner needs to remember is that horses are food driven animals that will do almost anything to get to their favorite food. So it is ALWAYS important to keep their oats and sweet feed securely locked away from horses. Horses won't stop when they are full. They will keep eating until they get so full their stomachs are literally about to explode. This is where the dangers of colic, founder and twisted gut come into play. All serious to life ending problems in a horse.


So when my quarter horse Lacey came down with a tummy ache I immediately started to worry. Stomach aches in horses are never a good thing. Determining the seriousness of her problems was priority one. Thankfully, luckily and blessedly her problem was minor and just a stomach ache. I have decided now that the problem most likely stemmed from gorging herself on acorns that had recently fallen from an oak tree. 


Generally it is not a good idea to let horses eat acorns, but Lacey and my whole herd actually, have eaten acorns all their lives without any problems. But this year we have had a bumper crop of acorns and apparently Lacey wanted to overindulge herself. Today she if fine and back to eating hay, being her usual self. If I had to keep her from the acorns it would mean either stringing additional fencing or putting a grazing muzzle on her. Neither option very good.


My other drama that played out at the same time that I was dealing with Lacey's stomach ache was my little 6 month filly deciding that she would choose the route of greater resistance to get to her food. 


Sometimes it is quite the ponderous thing to try and figure out what goes on in reasoning area of a horse. Maybe the wind blowing sent something into Chessa's nostrils that made her decide that simply going through a gate that she had entered numerous times wasn't the best path at that exact moment. Never mind that the other horses had calmly walked through it in front of her. 

Whatever the reason, Chessa decided that veering off the traveled path of her horse-mates and jumping head long into the almost 6 foot high fence was the better choice at that given moment. Again, thankfully and blessedly she wasn't hurt. The fence was not so lucky. The metal fence post snapped into, as well as the horse wire broke loose at the wooden pole. Repair work would have to be done and done quickly. Having a fence on the ground is not an option.


After giving it a temporary rigging the day it happened, we spent a couple of hours repairing Chessa's damage. We had to pull fence post, remove barb wire, restring horse wire and set new posts. Today, everything is back to normal, all of us a little more tired from the experiences we all shared. 








I had a friend on Facebook ask me why at my age was I not trying to make my life more simpler? I had to think about that one for a little bit. I guess that to me this is the life that I had dreamed of years ago and while it may be complicated at times, I am living my dream. If I have any common sense, I will try and learn from the experiences that I encounter along the way. Hopefully I won't mess up too much in the process and will remember that even dreams can have belly aches and fence crashers...