Getting ready

There's nothing as sweet in life as setting up a stall for a new horse. It takes me back to my horseless childhood, wishing I could put a horse in our backyard and turn the garage into a barn.

My tack room this year had become a garden shed. All of my tack was cleaned and put away in the attic, and the tack room became home to lawn mower, garden chairs, everything I wasn't motivated to take down to the cellar.

I fixed that yesterday. And took ibuprofen today because of all the heavy lifting and lugging things down stairs in the snow. I swept out the room, tried my best to remove the majority of the cobwebs, and then moved the hay into it from the extra stall that had been a hay room.

Then I got as many of the cobwebs down from the stall itself.

I drove to the feed store enjoying the feeling, "I'm going shopping FOR A HORSE."

They had saved me that hoof pick I'd ordered, and it was exactly what I wanted. The simple kind with black rubber coating on the metal. Then I bought two bags of Leinstroh, a bucket of Reformin Plus, and asked, "Do you by chance have low sugar beet pulp?"

He didn't seem to understand me. I took a chance and mentioned the brand, "Speedibeet." He said, "OH yes, we have one bag left." The Eastern European guy went out to the storage and came back and said, "All gone." The other guy said, "Go check again. There should be one bag." I was feeling very tense, would I get this elusive product? Yes! And for cheap too. My entire bill came to 47 euros. I lost the receipt somehow (in all the excitement) but this new fangled beet pulp must not be too expensive.

I drove home and bedded the stall. I scrubbed all the water troughs. I also ordered that insulated bucket thing. I'm tired of worrying.

I decided to test the new beet pulp to see if it actually soaks in only 5 minutes in warm water. Well, it does, but I put too much water in. It seems to need less water than normal beet pulp pellets. I wanted to see if this no sugar/molasses thing would be edible, so the donkey got to try it. She loved it. Whew.

What a game changer, beet pulp that soaks in less than an hour. I have been using regular beet pulp since 1999. My world has changed. I'm planning on using half Speedibeet and half regular beet pulp to both save money and reduce sugar.

Mag is used to getting oats every day. I will have to explain to him that here, horses have to earn oats through work. No work, no oats. However, small amounts of beet pulp to carry vitamins and increase water intake is a good thing. The donkey will teach him to eat beet pulp, I think.

***

As you know our barn lights have been out lately and it's been inconvenient to use a flashlight to check on Bellis and her water solidity during the night. I pleaded with J to please, TODAY, fix the lights.

He said it might be a safety breaker that needs replacing. I said, "Whatever it takes, let's do it. I need lights."

***

Fence. You know I've been wanting to repair and optimize our fence for a while. We thought, when we bought the fence, that we were getting the best quality wire available. I think we were wrong. I recently found a brand that has rust free wire. Stainless and copper. 3 times more expensive. If only we'd known. Our fence is OK, but at every connector or gate, the wire has rusted, and so much that the wires have actually burnt up and split, no longer conducting anything.

I ordered this rust free wire yesterday and it arrived today. 500 meters X 6mm. A wonderful, magical fence.







To replace all our wire we'd need three times as much, but we decided to take this project in stages. First address the weakest points - the paddock/barn area and especially, the new path through the hippies' lot that we just threw together without thinking much. All those connectors are rusted through, all those gates have rust at every gate grip (what is the English word for that?).

I also ordered 50 new *stainless steel* fence wire connectors, for all those gates and splices. I don't want any rust, in the future, if possible. Is it possible? Does anyone know?

Last night the snow turned to rain shortly and made a layer of ice everywhere. I literally could not walk into my paddock this morning and I drove to the grocery store and bought a bucket of salt. After dusting the paddock with salt, it was much better. I had hoped the rain would take the snow away, not make it worse.

I was determined to start my fence project today. I took the donkey with me, over the street to the pasture because the path is too treacherous lately. She happily ate grass while I removed the top wire that we'd put up 6 years ago. Our fence looks totally weird without its top wire, but honestly, the lower two wires are the height of a typical German horse fence. Hip-high. I knew the donkey would not consider jumping, like all the German horses do not.

As I made my way around, I heard hoofbeats and looked up to see Bellis charging down the hill, heading back for the barn. I yelled BELLIS and she stopped. She'd lost me out there and ..apparently she does not like to be at  pasture alone lately. She gratefully came to me and grazed some more.

Over an hour later I was feeling frostbitten in hands and feet, and had several long ....long...LONG rolls of electric rope coiled up as neatly as possible considering there was 500 meters total.

Our plan is to replace the top wire with this fancy new wire, because the original top wire was in 3 long sections. Then we'll take the 3 long sections and decide where to implement them into the paddock/barn/path area to eliminate as many splices as possible. Fun huh?

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to go out and install the new 500 meters of magic fence wire, using temporary connectors at the gates, end points.

I hope I have time cuz tomorrow is J's 40th bday and many family members have RSVPd so it should stretch our limits for people in our house. We've never had a birthday party here.  I will make both American brownies and American cheesecake, his request.

***

But in addition to all of this, I need to prepare horsey toiletries. They're all frozen solid out there. That was fixed when I brought them inside. But so untidy. I spent some time washing all of them, the containers.







Two of them came here on the plane with me and Baasha. The Quic Silver and the Betadine. The Quic Silver has run out, but I refill the container with an Oster "white horse" shampoo that works almost as well. The Betadine has also run out, but my friends brought me a huge refill so I'm still working on it. The pale blue container is Baasha's baby oil for his sheath (sorry, it's behind the vinegar container). I've always had good luck with baby oil and as long as I keep it at house-temperature and not outside-temperature, I'm sure I can teach a new horse to deal with it.

The Quic Silver was never so urgent while owning a chestnut horse. It will be again. The Betadine is my first defense against thrush, which almost all horses in this region have. The yellow spray bottle is tea tree oil and water. I just love that smell so I like to spray it on hooves. The clear stuff is brandy wine vinegar, what I use most often on hooves after controlling thrush. Almost every day.

***

After lugging snow-covered fencing rope around, my husband helped me carry the rolls back to the barn. Then he said, "Look." and flipped the switch. The barn and outdoor paddock lights switched on! !!!!! Wonderful, I was so happy. I love that my husband is an electrician as well as Physics teacher.

***

Tomorrow will be full, and Monday I have a horse on the way. Hopefully no one will slip on ice and injure herself at our party tomorrow, and hopefully I'll get that new fence wire up before a horse arrives.