An article in the N.Y. Times with the above title caught our attention, because it resonates so strongly with us. My Hubby has always grown a garden, and in recent years he has tried gamely to minimize if not totally eliminate chemicals applied. This makes a good crop difficult to produce. It means that bugs, grubs etc. stunt or kill a lot of your plants.
Nevertheless, the effort is worthwhile and the food is very healthy for us. In the Times article (by Nicholas D. Kristof, June 21, 2009) the author is somewhat nostalgic remembering backyard-grown lettuce which had to be rinsed and carefully examined for possible unwanted dirt or critters. Hubby calls it “extra protein.”
A recent documentary film, “Food, Inc.”, declares that “the way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.” Hubby and I ourselves believe that to eat healthy, you should NOT eat anything your great grandmother would not have recognized. In other words, get away from PROCESSED food.
Described are chickens grown today to maximize their breast meat. They are genetically re-engineered to grow breasts so huge and to mature so quickly that the rest of their bodies can’t keep up, such that they cannot walk around normally and every few steps must plop down onto the ground. (I wonder if they actually have opportunity to walk around at all.)
The article asks “Do you know what’s in hamburger? Or cookie dough?” citing how E. coli makes its way into commercial food products. The film notes that if feedlot cattle, which are typically fed massive doses of antibiotics, are moved onto pasture for five days, 80% of E. coli bacteria disappear from their gut. The point made is that “one reason for [America's] health problems is our industrialized agriculture system, and that should be under scrutiny…” as well as our health care system.
Giant agribusiness is the norm today in this country, with lobbies almost as powerful as the oil or banking industry. Small local farms are bought out, driven out, or struggle to survive. “Unhealthy calories are cheaper than nutritious ones. We even inflict unhealthy food on children in the school lunch program, and one in three Americans born after 2000 is expected to develop diabetes.”
Something is terribly wrong with this picture.
We personally do what we can– we buy a side of grass-fed beef and also lamb for our freezer. Hubby grinds his own wheat berries and makes homemade whole wheat bread. We eat lots of fresh or frozen vegetables. Food, Inc. declares that we as consumers DO have power. We can “vote to change the system, three times a day.”
(This is one of several ongoing questions and replies… (see other posts on Penny for more reports)
JUNE’S UPDATE (June 2):
Update on our little orphan filly who is almost 2 mo. old now. She is well and thriving. We finished the fencing, finally - and yes, it’s barbed wire, but, thankfully, we had someone who knows fencing really well who did a wonderful job, plus the posts are very close together (about four to five feet apart), and it’s strung with 5 strands), and we’ve tied bright plastic ties between every single post. She has not once tried to rush the fence, though when I take her her milk, she does come running and nickering.
She is large enough now, that I can’t hold the bowl/bucket, and just set it down on an upturned bucket, holding the edge just long enough that she doesn’t tip it over in her first sucking. She paws at the ground and tends to nudge the bucket agressively at first. She has socialized with the two calves just fine - though at first she was frightened of them. She loads and unloads fairly well from her trailer stall - but tonight, I placed her in a small pen inside the pasture instead of putting her in the trailer. The pen has more room, yet still confines her in a safer fencing area should she become frightened by anything in the dark.
She wasn’t happy about it, because it’s a new and different confinement, but we’re sure we’ll be ok. She had a bucket of her feed (a mixture of foal starter and creep feed), and a bucket of water. Just wanted to let you know, she’s doing great. She stands for a lead being snapped on her halter and leads fairly well, most of the time, and lets me touch her all over and lift her hooves, though only for a second or so and isn’t totally comfortable with that, yet.
CONNIE’S REPLY:
THanks June, I’m really glad to hear how well she is doing. I would say, continue the handling as much as possible. Perhaps begin using treats as a reward, or even try clicker training.
From my (admittedly limited) experience, it is much easier to train them the younger they are; as they get bigger and stronger, it becomes harder or at the least more intimidating to teach them things which they might resist or be leery of. At her age she should be totally accepting of haltering, being handled and having each foot picked up and held for longer and longer stretches of time. You can use a rope looped around her ankle to do that safely. [Reference: Earliest Riding Prep green horse training videos]
Her willing acceptance of restraint is extremely important, as is learning to move away from pressure. Moving off pressure makes her easier to handle on the ground, and it also helps her understand that a person is her dominant “herd leader” who will keep her safe from harm, and who she must trust and “obey” so to speak. Building her acceptance of restraint is how you teach her that. She should lead perfectly well all around; she needs to be exposed to many different and unusual things to get used to stuff and build her confidence. Once you get her a companion animal, you hopefully can lead them BOTH together out into the world to experience new things in a non-threatening manner.
There is so much to teach a foal, and so little time– all the things you want her to know as a grown horse. You have made a terrific start. I hope you will continue to read on my blog and to research & learn all you can about working with foals, and do as much as you possibly can. IMO, it has made all the difference in the world in our 2 boys being so tractable and easy to manage as full-grown horses.
Sadly, these 2 horses need a new owner– they will be free to a good home.
Prince is a gray gelding, quarter horse type around age 12. He has been used trail riding and is good both on neighborhood streets and off road, alone or with other horses. His cute little companion is a pinto mini mare named Blue, and they are such good friends they even share their hay. Blue has blue eyes! She will ride with or be ponied beside Prince.
Email Connie and I will put you in touch with the owner for more information. Horses are in Gilford, NH. and must be given up due to changes in the family’s situation.
Aptly described as an international horse “triathlon”, the Rolex is a CCI**** (4 star=highest international level) event. An event consists of dressage, cross country, and stadium jumping. This is the cross-country phase held April 24, 2009 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Video by buzzterbrown on youTube.
Less than two weeks before this picture was taken I started my fly traps near the horse barn (see previous entry Big Stinky fly trap extraordinaire).
Here’s what they look like now; what you see in this gallon jar are dead flies, with a few live ones buzzing around above. Initially baited with a chunk of raw meat, the flies themselves are now the bait. The other 2 gallon jars are almost this full. Some good old duct tape holds my lid’s fins secure in place, because I have had these traps for years.
Big Stinkys are not for the squeamish; their odor is powerful and they are powerfully effective. They work best on hot sunny days, because that’s when the flies are out. I use 3 gallon jars and 2 quart jar traps; I will dispose of probably 3-4 gallons of flies by the time of first frost. (Dispose of by burying in the woods.)
Maintenance is needed to keep the gross mess moist by adding some diluted attractant as needed, typically every 2-4 days in a hot spell. AND, a one-time addition of borax soap powder will kill maggots which start to hatch in the early stage. (You can see some maggots in the photo above.) If one trap is more effective than others, you can transfer some of its sludge into the other traps and then they will work better. I also check occasionally to keep the lid openings cleared of spider webs, which would keep the flies from getting into the jar.
This year I am also using “Fly Parasites” biological fly control as my second means of fly killers. These are gnat-sized insect critters, described as “wasps” but they do not sting, they only eat fly pupae. These parasites are shipped to me on a monthly schedule and sprinkled around manure areas, where they hatch out and seek out larva to eat. They are placed in different areas each month in order to establish a population base. Our neighboring horse person is also using them and has used them in the past; she thinks they seem to make a difference. I liked the idea because you can place them around pasture areas where manure accumulates, which broadens your area of control.
(This is one of several ongoing questions and replies… (see other posts on Penny for more reports)
CONNIE’S QUESTION:
June, I’m sort of puzzled why anyone would sell or take a month-old foal away from its dam, that is too young to wean and almost any breeder or vet would tell you 3 months is the minimum time a foal needs with its mother. When you told me you fed her mare substitute I assumed she had been rejected by her mom and hand-fed from birth.
JUNE’S ANSWER:
Except for the first day when the mare had some colustrum, she has been hand-fed from birth (the mother dried up), plus the mother was - not exactly out and out cruel and mean - but very pushy and had already bruised her hooves by pushing her against walls, etc. (I saw this myself when I went to see the filly before deciding to buy her). In other words, though somewhat attached to her baby, the Dam couldn’t give her milk at all, and wasn’t a ‘good mother’ [in the words of the owner, who owns and raises Welsh horses all the time], plus the owner said, with her full-time day job, she didn’t have the time to give to the filly what she needed.
She was doing good to feed her twice a day, and she kept her a month so the filly had at least some interaction with other horses and foals for that one month. I plan to keep her on the milk replacer for at least four months, though I hope she will go from being fed from a basin (now) to drinking out of a bucket. As it is, she gets anywhere from a quart to a quart and .25 of the replacer when I feed her (that’s all she’ll take in at a time). I am currently looking into buying a donkey to provide her equine companionship here. The owner said this was the first time in all the years she’s raised horses that she’d ever had this problem.
Penny is doing well, gets the mare replacer three or four times a day, plus either my daughter or myself spend several times a day touching her and moving her around on the halter (just to get her used to it). I am considering putting a single line of electric wire inside the perimeter of the barbwire fencing and introducing her to the perimeters of the fence before turning her loose. That’s the best I can think of. Believe me, between that and tying brightly colored pieces of tape or cloth, that’s all I can think of.
It has been two days that we have tied her to a tree on a long lead for several hours so she can graze, roll in the grass, etc, and she has learned not to run or entangle herself at all. She’s very intelligent! So, we are optimistic and hopeful that the fence won’t be a problem and that she will quickly learn her running limits.
CONNIE’S REPLY:
How interesting about the mare, I never heard of that either. Thank goodness she got the colostrum. They did the best they could too. You and your daughter are really doing a great job, and have taken on a big responsibility but are approaching it very sensibly. Best of luck with all of it!!!
Your vet or the breeder may have already told you, (if you aren’t already), to start offering her grain too. Check with vet for the best mix to feed her, but as soon as they get teeth (which she certainly has by now) they can start nibbling on grain. This is important for her best development. You don’t want the feed super-rich, but formulated for her best growth. A donkey of course is a good idea.
JUNE’S RESPONSE :
Penny was eating a mixture of grain when I got her, and she is now on a mixture of foal starter, calf manna starter and creep feed - and loves it.
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Easy stable maintenance can be planned into the design of your barn. Tips shared here are based on two different horse barns we have built, plus other barns I have observed. Pictured are features in our barn which greatly increase convenience and ease of horse management.
CONSTRUCTION– Starting from the ground up in New England:
- Build it LARGE, as large as you can possibly afford
The basic center-aisle drive-thru stall barn design is popular for a very good reason.
- have a 12-foot wide center aisle, 8 ft. ceiling for best headroom
- plan your barn to be multi-functional
Run-in stalls or a shelter for 24-hr. turnout is the healthiest way to keep horses
- site your barn ABOVE GRADE– be SURE your contractor/carpenter understands this! This means that all land around the barn should be lower than the lowest ground level inside the barn.
- site it for best natural light & plan for best possible thermal warming
This barn takes advantage of natural light from the east and south.
- place windows to take advantage of the sun
- plan water lines carefully, run all pipes below the frost line for your area
These 3 unique front doors slide both directions for access to the center aisle OR to the left side of the barn; the left sliding door is made to look like the left side of the barn structure.
Run water to include an in-barn hydrant and also a paddock/pasture hydrant where the horses’ water tank will be. We use this dead area under our stairs for shavings/sawdust storage.
This is a frost free, self-draining hydrant, using a short water hose piece into the water tank, which we boxed in and placed insulation around for more efficient heating. In winter we must carefully unfasten and drain the hose after each use. Under the ground the standpipe is sunk to 4-foot depth (below the frost line) and installed over a rock base for drainage out its bottom. The PVC pipe in the tank protects the hose and the water heater cord from the horses’ nosy lips.
- if you can afford it, install self-filling, heated waterers, in stalls and outside
- run electricity underground into the barn, with the water pipe if possible; run an outdoor outlet(s) where needed to heat your water tank in winter
- plan where your electric fence charger will be installed and run your electric accordingly
- run all electric wiring out of reach of, or protected from, horses
- plan well for where snow will be piled up when plowed off driveway and away from gates and doors
- consider roof runoff and drainage and how to route it, especially for winter icing (don’t have gutter downspouts abutting gate openings, doors or walkways, etc.– downspouts freeze up and icicles will be above them in winter.)
- consider where water runoff will go: swales, slopes, manure heaps and stableyard drainage
Latches should be horse proof (if ANY latch truly IS), but mainly should ALWAYS be double-checked that they are securely fastened
- plan well where to locate gates and safe enclosures, considering snow removal from gates and horse walkways
- interior lighting should maximize natural light; also install sufficient artificial lighting in stalls, rooms and aisleways
- all aisle and ceiling fixtures should have protective cages covering the bulbs
INTERIOR:
- Hooks and hangers should be decidedly horse-safe, not sharp or protruding more than an inch or so from wall
- Feed storage should be in a doored room, or otherwise horseproof area, inside horseproof containers. We use trash cans with lids (metal cans will be vermin-proof), and our feed/tack room door latches well.
- Feeding hay off the ground or floor is healthier for horses than using a hay rack or net; horses are designed to eat with their heads down, which drains their nasal passageways and helps avoid hay dust reactions such as heaves
- All glass windows or glass in doors should be metal-grated to protect it from horses
> Stalls should be WELL ventilated; bars above half-walls facilitate ventilation (as opposed to solid floor-to-ceiling walls). These full-grill doors seemed like a good idea at first, but we ended up having to board them because the horses paw them when impatient to be fed.
Hay feed-doors above each stall are REALLY handy, especially in winter, as are feed-thru openings through the stall bars. Here the blue bucket is a heated water bucket with the heater built into its bottom. Its cord goes through a hole drilled in the stall wall so it can be plugged in outside in the aisleway.
Dropping hay down from above… manna from heaven!
- Windows should be in all stalls as well, protected by bars or grates on the inside and outside if necessary
- Leave roof eaves open for venting. Our barn builder placed screen wire over the soffit vents; I’m sure this was to ward off potential bad bird experiences.
The second story of your barn if built with knee-walls will maximize its usable storage area.
We use a chain fall to load all sorts of things into our barn loft: a snowmobile, our wood chipper and mower deck, the Meadowbrook cart…
- Although fire safety recommends not storing hay inside your horse barn, few have the luxury or space for a separate hay building; we store our hay above and can drop flakes into the stalls. Just make sure your hay provider is reputable and careful in their harvesting and baling process. If hay is not dried properly (baled while it’s still damp), it can begin to ferment and possibly spontaneously combust.
- Place salt bricks in the feed buckets (cut in half is a good size, chop them with an ax) which ensures the horses will ingest plenty, thus drink plenty of water. OR, you can install salt brick hangers in each stall, &/or outside in a sheltered area
Narrow rubber runner mats around edges of barn & under sliding doors cut down on mud in summer and make snow shoveling much easier in winter!
Rubber mats make your life tremendously easier and your horses’ legs comfortable inside the stalls, and are well worth the investment. In years past we were able to acquire used rubber conveyor-belting from gravel quarries. They would give it away free when the edges got worn down too narrow for their equipment, about 2-4 feet wide; we could pick up rolls of it (very heavy but the quarry guys would help a lady put it into her pickup!) We trimmed this using a saws-all; it can be cut with a utility knife with a lot of work.
These rubber mats in front of stall doors also facilitate snow shoveling and manure shoveling.
In recent years however we couldn’t get these used rubber rolls anymore, either the quarries found a paying outlet for it or they recycled it somehow. So we had to purchase 4×6 stall mats, and eventually we matted our whole center aisle over the bankers gravel base. The stalls have rubber mats on top of packed clay footing which is about 4-5 inches deep. Under the clay is sandy gravel/soil. We have found other creative uses for rubber conveyor belting (see pictures.) A saws-all is a handy tool for cutting rubber mats. 8-10-inch spikes can be used to hold mats in place in tricky spots as needed; pre-drill holes in the rubber to drive the spikes through.
EXTERIOR:
- A shed roof overhang off the side(s) of the barn makes a great run-in shelter
- Rounded gravel such as peastone SEARCH LINK will help stabilize the footing in gates and in runoff and mud areas, such as around the water tank
- Purchase a magnet on a stick and police your stableyard for metal: you’ll find discarded nails from construction, also old garbage pits if your land has ever been lived on before. Such metal-detecting should be repeated on a regular basis, because the horses dig up their yards. It is amazing what you find in a horse yard with a magnet, and each metal scrap you pick up is one less piece a horse might ingest or puncture his sole on.
Fly control is a necessity if you keep horses; here is a Big Stinky fly trap in action.
- Preplan your manure storage for composting; for 3 horses we use 2 alternating piles, one pile is built for 6 months, then left to compost 6 more months while we build a second pile. We put all stall waste into it, shavings, sawdust, manure, and spoiled hay. It always composts and melts the snow off the top in winter.
- Our winter-use manure pile is closest to the barn. Each pile gets as high as our tractor’s front-end loader can reach to turn it over; lime plus ash from our fireplace is also added. All our manure gets spread on garden and fields once it has composted about a year.
Fence Alert warns you when your electric fence fails or is unplugged
