If you ever wondered what it would be like to keep your horses at home...read on! Doc and Tuffy (my two hay-burning Thoroughbreds) are currently residing in my backyard pasture. The obvious advantages are...
It's cheap (they eat the hay my husband makes).
It's handy (I only have to step outside to feed them)
It gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling (they're currently in their stall thirty yards away and I can check on them during the commercials with a flashlight from my front porch).
However, the first thing you learn by bringing your horses home is that their manners go down the toilet. They lived out all summer and are now completely inseperable. You can't take one out of the pasture without the other breaking through the electric tape. Also you can forget riding. I tried (once) to lunge Doc and three year old Tuffy trotted and cantered at his shoulder the whole time. Twice he got tangled in the lunge line and the two of them stood there bound up tight looking so comical I gave up 'lunging for exercise and manners' and chased them round the pasture kicking a football instead!
F.Y.I. I did take them back to RO-NO Ranch for a month or two in the Fall and they were perfect within five minutes of getting off the trailer and acted like they didn't even recognize each other!
My stall arrangements leave a lot to be desired too. I have a neat little 'run in' stall about 10' by 12' attached the the back of our garage with a small boarded corral area about 12' by 12'. I've noticed there's enough room for two horses to turn around, but NOT if I'm in there. Invariably I end up sandwiched between Tuffy's butt and the wall. Every time the weather gets bad I rush home to bring them in, imagining them warm and cozy munching hay. Instead they stand outide the shelter in the rain or snow, hanging their heads over the fence, thumbing their noses at my efforts to make them comfortable. (Nola is reading this and laughing at me right now!!!)
Because I work, I only really see my boys in daylight on Mondays (my day off). That's the day we backyard horsekeepers clean the stall (my boys only come in about once a week, although January/February may be more), burn the feed bags, buy MORE feed, attempt to pick out feet and give up when Tuffy walks off (because you can't tie him to the electric fence!). It's also the day I diligently empty and refill the water tank, check the tank heater and wonder why my horses would rather dig a hole and drink from the frozen creek in their pasture than lower themselves to dip their noses in my carefully maintained tank!
It's cheap (they eat the hay my husband makes).
It's handy (I only have to step outside to feed them)
It gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling (they're currently in their stall thirty yards away and I can check on them during the commercials with a flashlight from my front porch).
However, the first thing you learn by bringing your horses home is that their manners go down the toilet. They lived out all summer and are now completely inseperable. You can't take one out of the pasture without the other breaking through the electric tape. Also you can forget riding. I tried (once) to lunge Doc and three year old Tuffy trotted and cantered at his shoulder the whole time. Twice he got tangled in the lunge line and the two of them stood there bound up tight looking so comical I gave up 'lunging for exercise and manners' and chased them round the pasture kicking a football instead!
F.Y.I. I did take them back to RO-NO Ranch for a month or two in the Fall and they were perfect within five minutes of getting off the trailer and acted like they didn't even recognize each other!
My stall arrangements leave a lot to be desired too. I have a neat little 'run in' stall about 10' by 12' attached the the back of our garage with a small boarded corral area about 12' by 12'. I've noticed there's enough room for two horses to turn around, but NOT if I'm in there. Invariably I end up sandwiched between Tuffy's butt and the wall. Every time the weather gets bad I rush home to bring them in, imagining them warm and cozy munching hay. Instead they stand outide the shelter in the rain or snow, hanging their heads over the fence, thumbing their noses at my efforts to make them comfortable. (Nola is reading this and laughing at me right now!!!)
Because I work, I only really see my boys in daylight on Mondays (my day off). That's the day we backyard horsekeepers clean the stall (my boys only come in about once a week, although January/February may be more), burn the feed bags, buy MORE feed, attempt to pick out feet and give up when Tuffy walks off (because you can't tie him to the electric fence!). It's also the day I diligently empty and refill the water tank, check the tank heater and wonder why my horses would rather dig a hole and drink from the frozen creek in their pasture than lower themselves to dip their noses in my carefully maintained tank!
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