Where do we put the horse food?

I wish we had my friend Aarene's view of her pasture from her kitchen window. Instead, I can see the street and when I'm lucky, the sunset. Tonight was a pretty one, the sunset shining through pouring rain.





Someone mentioned that the snowbells growing in our yard may be poisonous to horses. Oh dear, oh no..so I asked our barn helper, Elke, and she said "Oh, you'd better dig em all up!" and I said, "Well, you know, it really depends on whether or not a horse actually eats the plant. Usually they won't. My problem is, my horse is American and has never seen a snowbell before." She pondered a bit and said "I'll go get one."

So she skipped out of the barn and came back with a bunch of snowbells and their leaves in her hand. She, the lady who gives my horse carrots and store-bought horse treats, presented the poisonous plant to my horse on the flat of her hand. Baasha, totally expecting a carrot, opened his mouth at her hand. She flinched back, knowing that if he ate them, she'd be the one who poisoned him! Then he moved it around with his lips, looking for something else. Then he said, "Well, that's not edible! Give me something edible!" and she threw it in the garbage and gave him a carrot. "Good boy", I said, hugging him. and she mimicked me, *in English*: "Good Boy Baasha!"

Later as I rode way too long in the pouring rain, I searched for a grazing spot, but it was too windy and rainy for us to stay long. Then I saw it, the perfect patch of only snowbells growing on a ledge. I rode him right to it and put his nose there and invited him to eat. He thought, "Grass!" and went down there, but upon sniffing them, he went, "Oh, it's those things again" and turned away. Good boy: )

"PSA": Given plenty of hay and pasture, a horse will usually avoid a poisonous plant. We had tansy in the pasture back home, I never could get rid of it all. The horses only eat it if they're starving. My friend had a personal experience with a horse who ate tansy cuz he had nothing else. He started walking into walls and had to be put down. Very sad. Technically bracken fern are poisonous, but Baasha loves them, and eats them every chance. It takes an awful lot of those to hurt a horse. I don't mean to be cavalier about such things - if Baasha would have taken a bite of those snowbells, I'd be out on my hang right now digging them out.

We made our first visit to the feedstore to buy horse food. This was a really big deal for me, cuz I had no idea what to expect from this feedstore. Even not knowing, I'd hoped I could just ask the guy, "Give me a list of all your horsefeeds, their ingredients, and their prices." Yah right. Instead, he handed me the fancy brochures for the various feedcompanies that they supply, with their complete lineups (and ingredients). Hm. After paging through them for a while, I pointed to a particular pellet bedding that I like. Good, they have it in stock. Then I asked about beet pulp and hay pellets. They have the pelleted beet pulp, and no alfalfa, but grass hay pellets, the same brand that Baasha eats twice a day now, so I got some of those too. Then we asked for corn. I didn't know til I got home that I had bought *whole* corn, not crushed, but after some research and friendly tips from a horse nutritionist, I feel better about the corn. I was worried that the beet pulp says 20% mollasses. 20% is pretty darn high, but Baasha's not IR, so I don't have to worry. I can always rinse it if he seems too keen on it.

The odd thing is, we don't really have anywhere to store grain. We have a nice little hay loft, but the tackroom is my man's office, so where do we put the bags we bought today? In the house. I think it would be cool to buy a fancy living room cabinet from IKEA and fill it with horse feed, but my man doesn't like that idea. So for now, at least, the grain is in the back doorway area, which is a tiny little room between the backdoor and our bathroom. Now it has the delightful odor of horsefeed. My man doesn't find it delightful, imagine that!? OK beet pulp is a little odd.. (Funnily, those are the same crappy old rubbermaid containers that I used in America to store his grain in. I used them on the airplane to bring my tack and supplies overseas, and now they're in our house, full of horse feed again!)

We're driving out to the fencing supply place tomorow to get the bare essentials for our last-minute fence-making. (Another tour thru Rick Steve's Germany, WOO, this time with my man!) We need the fence up by Tuesday, the last day of the month and the day Baasha *must* come home. Agh, that's not much time, the fencing company was a little slow so we're just gonna go out there and get some more tposts and the charger, and the stall mats. We have to pay cash cuz we don't have time for bank transfers. That cash has been burning a hole in that drawer, it's time!

I was kind of stircrazy today, but that won't be happening when there's a horse here: ) No, then there will be poop to scoop, and a winter coat to shed out.