Your Climate's Horsekeeping Challenges
Like most of us, I tend to get inured to the everyday horsekeeping issues created by my area's climate. For instance, since I live in northern Idaho, near the western foothills of the Rockies, I expect to deal with wet winters (translation--nine months of mud), and to be rewarded for all the inherent inconveniences, with temperate, relatively bug-free summers.
But after spending last weekend with a longtime horse friend now based in Arizona, I was struck by how the vastly different climate contributes to a vastly different sort of horsekeeping. While I'm worrying about having horses lose shoes by going out in the mud, she's having to think about such matters as prevention of sand colic, and encounters with rattlesnakes. Whereas I probably spend more time on barn maintenance as I do in the saddle, she doesn't even need a barn in the first place. A simple shaded structure serves all her horsekeeping needs quite well.
I sometimes have to chop ice from water tanks. She never does. She has to know how to deal with poisonous varmints. I never do. I buy horse blankets seemingly by the ton. She buys of flyspray and sunscreen seemingly by the gallon. I spend three-quarters of the year riding with ear warmers. She spends every day of the year riding with sunglasses.
Different climates. Different horselives.
How's yours compare?
posted by Juli Thorson @ 6:39 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I live in central Florida...the last land owners nestled at Disneyworld's chin...Hurricane Charlie took out my barn with six horses in it, leaving the second story which housed my art business lying on the driveway and scattered across acres of destroyed trees...I found a car bumper in my pasture. 100 yr old oaks were uprooted...The horses were badly traumatized, and once we could get them out of the shattered barn (after spending days drinking black water and standing in knee high water in their stalls) their legs swelled up like stumps, but there was no cell phone or phone service let alone power for weeks...I thought they were going to die...By some lucky chance I had bought about 80 bales of hay and could get them from having to eat the damp grain. The pasture was a mess of twisted wire from trees collapsing on the fences, and if there was any one time on my life I wished for NO horses, this was it...it broke my heart to see them have to go through this disaster. Now years later I am down to 3 horses, the barn has been replaced (my husband spent a year rebuilding the shell to a hurricane resistant bomb shelter) and I wish we could get the heck out of this state!
I'm in western Washington so I deal with lots of rain and mud but I don't care my horses may not be able to be out on pasture all year long because of "proper horse management" as the conservation district would call it. But they do get to be out on it close to half the year.
I lived in southern Cal for a while and will take this any day. Pasture there are not the lush green things they are here. Not to mention the zillion hour commute necessary to even have pasture at all.
I live in south central Nebraska and we get a wide varity of weather here. This Spring seems to be lasting longer than most with rains everyday or 2 bring with it bugs of all sorts and mud up to your knees. Spring also brings uncertian temps ranging from 40- to 80+ rain, tornadoes, hail and flooding that continues on through the begining of fall. oh and the winds that last year round everyday and never fail to suprise you with how hard they can blow. Summer brings with it nothing but dry and dusty, with temps of 80 to 110+ and a humity of 65%+ and all you do is pray for rain. Fall is easy and fix it time. The days get long hot and dry and make for easy riding if you don't sweat to death. Fall also means winter is around the corner with freezing weather and snow just like men. You never know when their coming, how long they'll last, or how many inches you'll get. The ground freezes and you break out the heavy winter blankets, ice picks, and mud boots. Still with all the bad and divers weather there's something for everyone. Civilization on the east side of the state and wide open spaces on the west with central inbetween. No matter what I still can't imagine living anywhere else.
I live in NORTH eastern Washington, near the boarder. I share an equine life much like Juli's - My horses are going to break me one day buying blankets, not the light or medium ones either, we're talking 400+ grams of fill and only 1200 denier water proof nylon will do. We get the really hot and the really cold.
In all 7 to 8 months of the year are rideable - if we don't have an early winter and if we have an early spring. Only way to ride year around is with an indoor. Winter gets dangerous up here, alot of the time ice, snow depth and/or avalanche danger make riding too much of a risk.
But we have little black flies and mosqitoes by the thousands! I spend a fortune on fly repellent and salves for fly bites on chests, bellies and inside of ears. Just when you think its safe to take the fly masks off - thier back again.
We know how to treat rattlesnake bites, spider bites and remove wood tics. Our pasture is 40 to 65% wooded so we are constantly on the watch for cougars and more recently wolves attracted by foaling. As a result we also have gotten good at first aid to puncture wounds caused my claws. Haven't thought about it till now but our location is most likely also why my whole family if familar with and unafaird to use a firearm to protect our livestock. Sounds odd but every few months I have bullets on my shopping list.
But we have nice safe, protected, and warm barns. We have water heaters and frost free automatic waterers. We also have indoor storage for at least 10 ton of hay which we buy all at once in the summer and haul at night when we can tolerate the heat. We also spend a noteable amount of time in the summer removing poor thirsty dead critters from our outdoor water tank that have fallen in looking for water. And we too feed Sand Clear in the late summer as the grass dries up.
We got it all baby!
I live in Northern Florida near the coast. Summers in Florida are miserable hot things - heat and intense humidity broken up by powerful thunderstorms laden with lightning. We chase armidillas out of the pasture where they love to dig holes. The horses spend their days in front of fans and the barn is a shed row to encourage air flow. Riding is done late evening or early morning when its cooler - when its not to muddy to ride in the arena due to the afternoon storms. Occassional hurricanes, evacuations for fires, mosquitoes, spiders, snakes, flies, and no place to ride because the developers are putting buildings everywhere.
But winters in Florida are wonderful - cool, sunny, blue skies, few bugs...I'd take all this over snow and ice any time!
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