The thought of moving one and a half tons of hay another time:
one to get here,
two to load into the old hay barn ( fell out of my trailer when the hay hook came loose),
three to put it onto a second set of palettes as the hurricane waters rose,
four to load into my truck heading to the farmette.
and five into the new hay barn (almost blew my knee out and got crushed by a bale),
was making me sick. Literally.
So was the thought of watching my horse get thin.
So was how the math of replacement hay would affect my budget.
So was figuring out where I would find any decent hay this time of year.
So was deciding out what to do with the offending not good enough hay -
(Please buy my extra hay even though my horse won't touch it - no really - I swear, it's great hay!)
Thank you Val for giving in before I had to.
This morning I rolled the manure cart with yesterday's discarded hay into Val's paddock. He dove in as I moseyed over to his stall to make my morning how much hay did he leave check. What? There's not even any manure in there for you to eat around, my beloved steed...
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| SO much tastier from the big bowl... |
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| nom, nom, nom |
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| Just can't get enough... |
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| My friend likes it too! |
and --------- yesssss! Bags were almost empty.
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| Nibblenet retired (temporarily) |
Still, I wasn't 100% convinced. I cleaned the stall and mucked the paddock, wondering "but will he eat this morning's hay?" and "do I need to continue peppering with the tasty alfalfa meant for trailer rides?" As Val devoured his pellets I filled and hung the breakfast hay bag, unadulterated. For the first time in ages, he left his most favored bowl of crunchies and walked over to the hay bag... sniffed...
(Critical moment. For the last several weeks, he would sniff the bag - look at me - sniff again - push the bag with his nose - sigh disgustedly and walk away.)
... and yanked out a big mouthful. For this he got a kiss on his nose and my undying gratitude. Well, he had that anyway. :)
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| Hay - this is good! |
