Fencing

I don't know about anyone else, but we are always repairing or putting up fencing. We have 7 acres of land, plus the use of a field across the street from our farm. Now that the horse population is exploding on our property, we are building more paddock and turnout areas. We have the land across the street divided into 3 areas. Each is surrounded by electric fence. We use aluminum wire, T-posts, and step-in posts. When we were getting the quarantine area ready for Zanita, Mark went to the Hardwick Farmers Exchange and bought the best solar power fence charger they sell. Its the one that will stop an elephant, even if a tree has fallen on the wire! Tom and I spent an entire day clearing brush, pounding-in fence posts, attaching insulators, stringing wire, attaching flags, and t-post toppers. We hook-up the fancy new fence charger, and try the fence tester. As always happens with us, the fence wasn't getting any current. We recheck everything, and still the tester showed no current. Now, my favorite part. I ask Tom to touch the wire. He balks a few times, and finally gives in and touches the wire. ZING!!!! It works!! Guess the fence tester wasn't working!! And guess what? Not only will the new charger produce enough power to stop an elephant, it will also knock it to the ground!!!

What an Experience!

A horse auction is held in New Holland,PA every Monday. It is known as the biggest horse auction east of the Mississippi,especially if your are a "kill-buyer" and deal in horse meat. They buy the horses cheap, and when they have double-decker trailer load, ship them to Canada for slaughter. The meat is shipped to Europe and Asia where it is considered a delicay. The horses are mostly young-who wants old tough meat, and most are healthy-who wants meat from a sick animal! How sad to see weanlings in the pens that sold for $50, or the gelding whose mane had been braided. Guess his previous owner thought he would be bought by someone that would provide a loving home. Instead, he was bought for meat! Minis, donkeys, ponies, drafts, Standardbreds, paints, QHs, TBs, Warmbloods, Arabs, and the list goes on. Because of the economy, no ones buying horses but the "kill buyer". Why do people keep breeding so many horses? Well enough of this for now. I had found out about a TB polo mare that was in a kill-buyers pen. The KB was waiting to acquire enough horses to ship a load to Canada. Another Chance 4 Horses had pictures of her, and a very short video of her trotting, on their website. Tom and I decided to drive to PA and rescue her from her nightmare. Turns out she is registered, only 9 years old and as sweet as sugar. Her mane was roached, top of her tail shaved in what I call "polo" fashion, and had recently had her feet done, as there was no new growth on her hooves. It looks like they took her from the polo field to the auction! She was stocked up a bit in her hind legs, but that has gone down now that she is home and can move around freely. Shes about 100 lbs underweight. Why, why, why? What did she do to deserve this? Was she too slow? Didn't turn fast enough? Why was she thrown away like yesterdays newspaper? Was it too much trouble to find her a home? If nothing else, have a vet humanely euthanize her. Whats that cost, about $200? Was her previous owner so desperite for the $150 he got from the KB? Well she is safe now. Our plan is to rehab her, and find her a loving home. We hope this works-out, and we can rescue more polo horses. I heard today that a bunch of them had just been dumped at New Holland for next weeks auction. Wish I had more land and money!!!

On a Mission

Sorry I haven't posted in over 2 weeks. I am currently in PA on a rescue mission. Picking-up a bay TB polo horse. She was spotted in a Kill-Pen at the New Holland Horse Auction. Has a "lovely" USDA inspection sticker on her rump. Shame on whoever sent her to this HELL. Will tell you the entire story when I return to my regular computer, instead of my laptop!!!

Old Habits are Hard to Break

Horses, like people, have different personalities and habits. Some habits are considered strange, and even annoying. Each of our horses has some odd behavior, or habit, that make me wonder "where did they learn that from, and why do they do that"?
Tequila, sticks her nose out and makes a funny sound from her mouth. It almost sounds like she is sucking on a bottle. She also paws the ground, and tries to toss her grain bucket while she is eating. I've had to screw her bucket to the wall in her stall. Eva bangs the wall with her hoof while she eats grain, and almost always has her ears back. She never bites or kicks, but is very mean looking. Trick will always urinate near his hay pile. He looks like a dog marking its territory. Devine makes the same sucking sound as Tequila, but is very quiet. She also threatens all the other horses, by putting her ears back, and sometimes lounging at them, though I've never actually seen her bite. Alcott, when he is upset,takes ahold of his stall walls with his teeth and pulls in a downward direction. I suppose its a form of cribbing. He also won't stay tied. We tried lots of different tying techniques, but have had no luck. Its a good thing he ground-ties! Sage always urinates as soon as she is put in her stall at night. She also gets hysterical when she is left alone, and has broken through many gates and barriers, so that she can be near another horse. I find this odd, because none of the other horses like her, and are always chasing her away. I wonder if I have any habits or behaviors that annoy the horses? They probably watch me, and think "why is she always bothering us with pats, brushing-and we wish she would stop talking!"

A Special Bond

This past week I was out in our paddock, removing manure. I had just fed everyone their morning hay, and things were quiet. I happen to look-up from my chore and noticed that Eva was laying down. She was flat down on her side, including her head. All the other horses were busy eating, and there she lay. Immediately I got a knot in my stomach, and my mind started racing. I couldn't tell from the distance, if she was breathing.Was she dead? Why isn't she eating? Did she eat something that made her sick? I stood frozen for what seemed like several minutes. Finally I saw her tail move, and I relaxed a bit. I moved closer, and saw that she was OK. I breathed a sigh of relief. This got me thinking about what our horses mean to us, and how much we care about them. It also brought to mind the terrible tragedy in Florida, when all the polo horses were "dropping dead" at the polo match. I can't imagine the horror, fear, and helplessness everyone was feeling, especially the owners and riders. Quoting from an article written by Peter Rizzo in POLO magazine "For people who do understand the relationship between a human and a horse, this loss can't be measured in cost of purchase or the expense of replacement or can it be calculated as an inconvenience that all these great horses are no longer available to play. THESE HORSES BELONGED TO PEOPLE WHO LOVED AND RESPECTED THEM, INTIMATELY. Those players relied on and trusted those horses to keep them safe from harm as they played. The horses relied on their owners to provide them care, welfare and to keep them from harm. The unfortunate owners were there with their horses as they became sick and were dying, and their grief and desolation was stark and real as they realized nothing would save their horses." In sharing your life with horses there is a special bond. We recognize each individual whinny, eating habits, where they like to be brushed or scratched, what frightens them, and all the other little idiosyncrasies. The special bond between horse and human has always been a fascinating topic. Why horses? Why not cows, or goats, or sheep? Yes, there are people that seem to bond with these other animals, but it doesn't seem to be the same type of bond as with a horse. What is it about horses? We will probably never have an answer to this question, but one thing is certain, there will always be horses, and people who will devote themselves to these wonderful animals. I know that without horses in my life, I would feel that I had lost contact with the earth, like a Buddist monk having lost contact with Nirvana.

Top Ten Player Quotes

Taken from Polo World Magazine
10.Horses are uncomfortable in the middle and dangerous at both ends.
9. If they don't have polo in heaven, I'm not going.
8.Polo scars are better than tattoos because they come with stories.
7.Just give me a horse, a mallet, a ball and someone to embarass.
6.If at first you don't succeed it's because of me.
5.A bad day at polo is still better than a good day at the office.
4.Losing is for losers.
3.I've spent most of my life playing polo, the rest I've just wasted.
2.I'm a much better player now-I haven't hit a spectator in months.
1.Leave it, leave it, leave it!!!!

Its a Wrap!

In polo, as with most equine sports, the horses legs need to be protected, and/or have support. They are all types of bandages, wraps, and boots. There are bell boots, brushing boots, tendon boots, fetlock boots, open front boots, splint boots, hind boots, and the list goes on. There are so many sizes, types and colors, its a wonder anyone can decide what to buy. Lets take open front tendon boots as an example. To me, they look just like open front boots. When Mark said he needed open front tendon boots for the horses, I went to Dover Catalog and ordered a pair. When they arrived in the mail, we tried them on one of the horses. Now, I probably should have explained before, that in polo, the tendon boots are worn over polo wraps. Needless to say the straps on the boots weren't long enough to securely close the boot. The boots were returned, and I ordered different looking tendon boots from State Line Tack. Of course, these didn't fit either, so they were returned. I went online and found Las Pampas Polo. I figured that since they sold only polo equipment, their tendon boots would fit over polo wraps. To my surprise, the boots were 1/3rd the cost of the others I'd tried! I went through the steps to place my order until I got to the shipping page. The boots would be shipped from Argentina, so the cost was an additional $110. Great, if they didn't fit, it would probably cost that much to return them! Now what! I took a deep breath and entered my credit card number, and placed the order. The boots finally arrived after about 6 weeks-I guess it was a slow boat-and to my delight, they fit. We now had a pair of appropriate tendon boots that ONLY cost $180. This was 3 years ago, and we still have only one pair of boots, which we switch between horses. I can't bring myself to spend the amount needed to purchase 3 more pairs.