Location Location Location: ASSFS Blog Hop

Well - we've been out of commission so long, most of our readers have probably forgotten all about us. I've been struggling for a while with how to make the transition back to posting. A Soft Spot for Stars blog hop seems like a handy way to "get back on the horse" so to speak. Thanks so much to those of you who checked in.

Always hogs the frame

Equestrian life is challenging here on the Outer Banks. Land is hard to come by, we're very remote, and the climate can be harsh, so overall even basic horse-keeping is an expensive endeavor.

• Hay / Feed

The nearest decent hay source is a 7 hour round trip to SE VA. Nice square bales of second cutting orchard grass are $10 - $12 each, usually weighing around 50 lbs. Val consumes 150 bales a year. I can store 100 bales if I cram the two hay barns to the rafters. Best to do this by December to have all the same crop. (to do otherwise invariably leads to frustrating hay strikes when switching to the new flavor) That will usually last until hay is harvested again in the summer.

To find the true cost, I have to figure in fuel and travel time. This adds another $200 to the truckload - usually fifty bales, making the per bale cost more like $16. (multiplied by three or four trips a year)

Luckily, the local Ace Hardware carries Southern States, so feed is just a twenty mile drive. They are great about special ordering, and give rewards on all purchases. TC senior is $25 a bag, beet pulp $20, and my ration balancer $35.

[A slight digression: This fall I had stocked all the winter hay by October and was super psyched about my stockpile. Then there were two hurricanes in one month. The second storm (Matthew) brought the worst flooding in at least a hundred years. My property has never flooded before, and I had three feet of salt water covering the entire farmette. Both of the hay barns and the tack room flooded.

Less than 24 hours after the flood waters receded, the wet hay was almost too hot to touch, and had to be un-stacked to avoid the barns spontaneously combusting, sorted to salvage what I could, and disposed of - about half of the hay. I didn't even document this part because I was in shock and then utterly demoralized. I lost all the animal feed, many tools and machines, the entire garden, and my tack room was an utter disaster area.

Biggest bummer: the bottle of hoof dressing tipped over in the tack room. While floating around it covered everything touched by the water in sticky black oil. (which was everything)

SO very lucky: I had taken all my tack out to clean and it was stored in the one building that didn't get water.

Still unclear on the state of the Brenderup... haven't been able to face that situation yet, beyond obsessively rinsing and spraying anti-corrosive on all parts that got under salt water. *heavy sigh*]

:(

Starting to recede finally. Val was unimpressed...

• Boarding

There is only one barn that boards, and they advertise full board at $450, "scheduled feedings twice daily along with free range of hay and turnout, stall cleaning twice daily, bedding, parking for your trailer on the premises." Turnout is in the riding ring, which doesn't meet my safety standards due to fencing issues and debris. There is no pasture or grazing here.

• Property

Real estate here is expensive. My nearly three acres was initially $250k, which I eventually got for $110k. This was basically raw land. Still saving towards house building...

Last week. It took months of work to get back to this.

• Lessons / Equestrian Scene

The nearest quality dressage instruction is 3.5 hours away in SE VA. When my trainer was still teaching, lessons were $50 for an hour. She generously let me come up for a weekend to get two or three lessons at a time, and I traded barn work occasionally. It was an ideal situation for me. I was lessoning regularly, progressing as a rider. I miss her terribly. Sadly, I haven't had a lesson in years, with none on the horizon unless something can be worked out with remote technology.

Most of the local riders are trail riders - a pretty spectacular proposition with 70 miles of beach to explore. There are thriving dressage and eventing scenes mid-state - a round trip of 10+ hours. The nearest showing (I've flat out given up on this possibility) is also either SE VA or mid state. I'm contemplating Working Equitation at the moment, and with a more well suited horse in the future I'd like to try endurance.

Nearest tack stores are also SE VA, and are expensive. With all the online options this isn't an issue.

I pay $40 for a trim. Not sure what shoes cost as we've been barefoot for about six years. For the last several cycles my farrier has just done a few corrections. I am taking over the trimming responsibilities. I've done this out of necessity because our farrier situation is always tenuous. He travels over 3 hours to get here and generally has to stay overnight to get all the horses without rushing. I don't think he makes much on his trips here.  I arrange the schedule for him and make sure all the horse owners "show up".

I'm searching for a natural balance dentist at the moment. My former dentist doesn't want to come this far out of her way - she was traveling from MD. With her, Val had his teeth done standing in his run in, un-sedated and at liberty. The nearest dental practices in Va are vet connected, and will probably insist on sedation. I'm leery of trailering that far and having to withhold hay on the return ride because of sedation. If anyone in SE VA or eastern NC reading this has a dentist recommendation please share. :D

The nearest equine vet is also 3.5 hours away in VA. They do not come to the island. I give all the vaccinations (excepting rabies) myself, and the small animal vet kindly pulls a coggins and gives Val a once over at the same time. He actually removed a melanoma from Val's anus (tmi) over the summer, saving me time and money. I assisted for the surgery - it was pretty cool actually. Val is a super cheap drunk - he had half-rations of anesthesia and proceeded to cut major zzzzs while the cross ties barely held his big 'ol head off the ground.  

• Climate

Summers are hot and humid - generally in the mid 80's with 80% - 90% humidity being the norm. This is hard on Val and me. (landscaper) Thank goodness a jump in the ocean is never far away.

Fall and winter can often be very mild and comfortable, with less humidity and mosquitoes. This is the best time for riding, with average temps of 40's to 50's and the occasional nighttime dip into the 30's. A hard winter here would be several weeks of sub-freezing temps. It rarely snows, but is almost always windy, so big wind chills are common. Spring can be beautiful, but it is often stormy and unsettled.

Basically - life on this island swings between insanely beautiful and ruggedly inconvenient. It's not for the faint of heart, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

How to get hay when you live in the hinterlands... Or - miles to go before I sleep

Got up at 0 dark thirty. (4 am) Scooped poop in the foggy rain by flashlight. Am now waiting in line to leave the island for the first time since - August maybe? I honestly can't recollect, but the hay man has the last of the good orchard grass for the year in...

Wish us luck - all the trash trucks need to get on the ferry too. And it's foggy...

Update:

Home safe and sound, listening to rain on the roof of the Shimmy Shack. The trip clocked in at 15 1/2 hours... not all bad - I had a sweet nap on the boat ride home, snuggled up with my pillow and blankie + little dog Q.

Val objected to the interruption in his schedule, but once the warm mash bucket arrived, all was forgiven. And my OCD hay hoarding tendencies are satisfied. (for now...)

Merry Christmas Val!

First on the ferry (yay!)

 

The winner again :D

Cramulated with fragrant heavy bales

At the Barn #53 - It ain't over 'til it's over...

Hallelujah - the hay strike has officially ended. I could not be more relieved.

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...

SO much tastier from the big bowl...

nom, nom, nom

Just can't get enough...

My friend likes it too!

and --------- yesssss! Bags were almost empty.

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. :)

Hay - this is good!

In the Arena #45 - Let the hammer drive the nail

"There is a saying in carpentry, 'Let the hammer drive the nail.' So too in riding, we should let the aids inspire the horse to respond as we wish, rather than trying to move the horse's body with our own physical effort. Dance your horse forward, do not push him." Eric Herbermann

Our second ride of the year was simply the best work Val and I have ever done together. No issues. Everything I asked for, I got. We were a team. Accurate circles, serpentines, leg yields through the cones. No balking at the deep spots in the arena, or the (formerly) very scary corner. Going both directions felt the same. Our transitions were soft and immediate. And the trot work... well I can't even think of a good enough adjective. Once again Val worked over his back, reached for contact and used his core. This makes three rides in a row. Possibly a trend?!

I guess we've had some kind of a breakthrough. I'm almost afraid to acknowledge this because I know from other disciplines that breakthroughs are often followed by new periods of struggle. It's as if you're climbing a mountain, and you finally make it to a plateau. There is satisfaction, and a little time to reflect. But there is also a new perspective of your goal. Everything looks different from here. You're basically starting over.

We're heading up the road to get some lessons this weekend. I'm figuring we'll have our opportunity to come back down to earth there. I can't wait ;)

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Hopefully I'm starting a new trend regarding my luck getting hay as well. I called my supplier to see if I could replace the needle hay I threw away, with some beautiful orchard / timothy mix that they've had most of the winter. "Oh, we just sold the last bales of it a few minutes ago..." I asked what they did have, and the choices were less than inspiring. Orchard / alfalfa, heavy on the alfalfa and some straight timothy. I  reluctantly decided I could buy some of both, and use the timothy to cut the alfalfa. There is no way my horse needs alfalfa, although he would tell you different. Kind of like horse crack - he tries it and needs more NOW - nothing else will do.

Eavesdropping as I stood in line to place my order the next day, I realized they still had some of the orchard mix. "I'll take it!" I practically shouted. There were exactly enough bales left to fill my horse trailer. We should be set until May, when the first local hay will be ready. What a relief, and well worth an entire day of driving.

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On Saturday we had a random sudden snowstorm. I happened to be up at the barn so I could snap some pictures of the boys enjoying the "Fifteen Minute Blizzard"...

In the Arena #44- First ride of the year = best ride of the year ;)

My knee has responded very well to (about a million) ibuprofren and getting iced frequently over the last few days, so I headed up to the barn as soon as I could break away from work for the year's first ride. I woke Val from his trance for a nice grooming, tacked up, and off we went.

Today I thought a lot about Erik Herbermann's analogy of keeping your horse, of keeping the energy, "between the riverbanks". You create the "riverbanks" with your aids. You don't want the energy to leak out laterally, so you channel / focus the energy between them. (It just occurred to me while typing this that if the energy isn't leaking out there should be more forwardness!) That was a great place to start, as Val was more of a noodleneck than usual. And I always benefit from trying to coordinate my legs and arms.

We worked on straightness - in Val's neck and our movement within the arena - utilizing the cones and staying on the quarter line. There were some nice round 10 meter circles in both directions. Our trot work was fun and enthusiastic. We were round, and Val was reaching for contact. His trot felt big... posting took less effort and when I sat the first few strides of each transition it felt like I could keep on sitting. Val was carrying himself. Best of all, he seemed like he was enjoying the work. 

I have two theories about why: One is that the deep footing I've been fretting about (and avoiding trotting in) doesn't bother Val at all - in fact it encourages him to engage his core and use his back. I think it feels good to him!

The other is that discovering and treating Val for this "needles in the hay issue" over the past few weeks has strengthened our relationship... the trust he has in me. No kidding, he voluntarily comes over to the spot where I take care of his mouth every evening, patiently waits and stands ground tied. He keeps his head low and within reach while I'm working on him and seems to get great relief from the process. Tonight I finished the treatment by repeatedly rinsing his gums with a diluted Listerine (vet recommended) solution after the saline rinse. He didn't bat an eyelash. I was impressed, as Listerine (the brown kind) has a pretty harsh flavor. I can barely keep it in my mouth :)

So even though I'm distressed that Val has been so uncomfortable, something good seems to have come from the situation. I confirmed the dentist's recommendations with our vet today, and feel confident that Val is on the mend. I tried to get in touch with the man who grew the hay to let him know about the foxtail issue, but low and behold, his phone number has been disconnected... I sure am tired of throwing hay out money down the drain!

At the barn #29 - Danger lurking in your hay... am I the only person who didn't know about this?

Although Val's mysterious gum issue doesn't seem to be getting worse, it's not going away. I have (temporarily) replaced the nibblenet with a couple of easier to eat from hay bags. I've been feeding his beet pulp from a ground pan so he doesn't have to mash his face into it as he gobbles his evening meal, and I've been steadily treating him with my go-to home remedy - warm salt water rinses - after gently brushing his gums with my soft rubber dog toothbrush that fits on the end of your finger.

 

Being the consummate worry wort that I am,  I've been contemplating whether to go off island to see the vet. Then I had a brainstorm, and emailed my future new natural balance horse dentist on the off chance that she might have seen something like this before.

BINGO!! She emailed me right back and said it sounded like foxtails in his hay. She's seen a ton of horses afflicted with mouth trauma due to foxtails this year. Immediately I knew that was it. I remembered noticing the fluffy little seed heads when I first got this hay. Turns out it's infested with them. The hairs sticking out from the seed head are like little cactus spines. They often lodge in the horses mouth / gums / lips and create inflammation and potentially infection. Sounds hellish doesn't it?!

And I wasn't far off in thinking that the nibblenet had something to do with the situation either. Because of the way Val grabs hay from the nibblenet, he apparently was driving the little spines right up into his gumline. The dentist said that my treatment was exactly right, and that the condition will eventually subside on it's own.

I'm so bummed that Val had to go through the pain and suffering. If there were a bright side to find, I guess it would be that Val pretty much showed me he was having a problem, and where. And he has been exceptionally cooperative about getting treated. We've definitely bonded over this toxic weed situation. It has deepened our relationship. But it's still a drag. You can believe I'm going to let the hay farmer know what he was selling. And from now on I will be the

major pain in the butt every bale inspecting hay purchaser!

At the barn #28 - Communication - it's a two way street...

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,

But the fire is so delightful,

And since we've no place to go,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Still waiting for the snow that's been predicted. So far only rain make that freezing rain and lots of wind. Grey horses do look fantastic against a white background...  I'm still hoping we'll get some photo ops later on this afternoon. 

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I'm constantly amazed by how our horses communicate with us, and often wonder how frustrating it is for them that we (sometimes) take so long to figure out what they're trying to tell us. Just another testament to the generosity of spirit our horses share with us.

Before our last ride Val was rubbing his gums along my leg. That seemed strange, so I inspected more closely. I saw a tinge of bleeding, and what looked like some of his evening mash kind of collecting at his upper gum line. After our ride, I gently brushed his teeth with a soft brush. Then I made a saline solution, and used my dose syringe to jet it around where the bleeding was. I've done this every day since. 

As I pondered what might be going on, I eventually remembered noticing that Val had also recently been biting his metal gate, chewing on his tack room door and doing some different, strange looking jaw stretching / tongue action. It suddenly hit me that Val's Nibble Net and the cold weather must be to blame. Because it's so cold, I've been cramming extra hay into the hay net - to the point that it's hard to get closed. The hay he's eating now is pretty coarse and more chopped than long and stringy. For him to pull it out through the small holes of the hay net he is abrading his gums on the webbing.

Besides treating his gums, which he totally cooperates with, I'm dividing his hay into two nets so it's looser and easier to get out. Obviously Val was trying to tell me something.

Lesson: if your horse suddenly starts up with new, different or weird behaviors, it is worth looking into. I feel really bad that he was suffering while just trying to eat, but I'm so glad he's smart enough to let me know. Interestingly, all of this went on at the same time as I've been working out scheduling with a new, natural balance horse dentist. Synchronicity!

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As far as Christmas goes, suffice it to say that Val won't run out of treat options any time soon... possibly in this lifetime. He also got a heavy duty increased capacity storage container for his treat riches. (He got his main present a while back - a pair of Cavallo boots.) Actually, I noticed that he was sort of busting out of his back-up blanket as I tried to buckle it this morning, so some rationing will probably be necessary.

Due to Christmas meal preparations, we missed out on a great day for riding yesterday. Next year we're doing a Christmas Eve dinner instead! Luckily we're expecting a number of pretty days in a row with temps in the 50's this coming week - more like the usual conditions here - so Val and I can work off some of our holiday indulgences. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday - we sure did :)

Look what Santa left me under the tree...
Guess what sound the alarm makes!
And who knew such a thing existed?

At the barn #24 - Hay Fever

So - a month ago, I bought thirty five bales of hay to get me through the winter. Pennsylvania orchard grass. Great big bales - still fairly green. Very very heavy bales. Loading and stacking this hay (by myself) completely wore me out. And it wasn't cheap.

I should have known something was up. When Val, the equine vacuum cleaner, did his taste test he was ambivalent about it. At the time I thought it could be flavor shock as he had been eating a tasty rye mix for a while.

This week we were nearly finished with the sugar hay - decision time... I got cold feet. I asked around and did some research, but was still confounded.

The facts:
The PA hay let out a poof, had an objectionable smell, was really heavy, and my horse wasn't super excited about it. When I originally went to pick the hay up, the bales were stored still strapped into even larger bales, not conducive to air circulation. I didn't see any active mold, but the poof was suspicious. Smoky, light, floating dust... and I hated the smell (chemical-ish). I wondered if it could be the hay drying agent (propionic acid / sodium diacetate). An article in thehorse.com claims that hay preservatives are safe.

Back at the ranch... I heard that someone else returned some of this hay for mold. One of the bales I broke open was warm in the middle, so I called a horse friend (not as picky as me) to weigh in. She thought the hay was fine although it smelled funny. She bought it from me for a thirty percent discount. Am I crazy?

Most of today was spent driving (six hours round trip) to a different hay man's farm. He had a beautiful just baled orchard mix for a decent price. Now there's enough hay to last through mid February. Trying not to dwell on the lost money, time etc. Nothing's to good for my guy ;)

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Friday made four rides in seven days. Each ride improving on the last. We're going to try working in the newer (non-fenced) arena tomorrow.

He's a goofball, but he's my goofball :)