The more time passes the more I wonder about how many corners the barn builders cut. Nibs was impatient and gave her door a kick during the week. One of the crossbeams popped right out.
Then we had a moment of deja vu on Sunday.
Only this time, Nibs was innocent. Annie was oblivious (as usual) and kept crowding around Maddy and Maddy's door right before dinner. Maddy asserted herself and spooked Annie right into the door. The door lost.
Thankfully, we still had nails from the box Carrie had to run out and buy last time. The hardware store in town is closed on Sundays and Lowe's was a half-hour journey one way.
We upgraded the latch while we were at it. The old, small one was bent out of shape from Maddy trying to scratch her rump.
Between breaking things and mounds of poop, the horses certainly keep us busy
I plan on doing a costs breakdown eventually, but for now I thought I'd mention some of the ways we've gotten smarter about how we do things.
The hay feeders are a prime example. The boys like to roam their fields, but the mares LOVE their comfort food. They'd eat hay all day if we let them.
Grass is free and hay costs money, though. A greedy horse can gorge themselves on hay, too, so it's beneficial to force moderation.
We used to throw the hay directly in the mare's feeder, but it would disappear forthright.
We started to use slow-feed bags to help. They're a simple concept for the non-horse folks: You put the hay in a mech or string bag that lets horses eat, but prevents chomps.
The purple bags are actually the second type we tried if I recall correctly (Carrie's sleeping or I'd ask her). The first bags were too good at what they did. The horses would fiddle with the bags, get annoyed, and go eat grass. That seemed like a win to me, but Carrie pointed out A) that won't work as well in winter, and B) hay that's not eaten will mold.
We started with a bag and eventually shifted to three bags to allow a feeding station for each mare.
Carrie wanted to hang the bags evenly. She would lace the bag through the feeder and itself and used a carabiner to secure it.
At first, there was a set way Carrie wanted things tied. I started to mess with the formula a little bit every time I went out. I wanted to find the strongest way to hang the bag for the least effort. Part of it was to keep my mind active and part of it was because on cold nights it's a pain to fiddle around with cold fingers in the dark.
While I was thinking about knots, Carrie was thinking about other options and deals online. She found a set of bags that were cheap and easier to stuff (The purple bags had to be turned inside out, jammed on top of the hay, and then scooped right-side up and tightened).
We used three carabiners on the new bags: one on each corner to keep it up and then one in the middle to keep the top closed and a smart horse from turning the slow-feed bag into a convenient, fast-eat serving sack.
Originally, we'd hook both sides of the bag into the carabiner, push it through, wrap it around the feeder, and then hook it back onto the bag (Carrie likes everything super-duper secure).
I felt it was overkill and eventually started to keep the carabiner and the back end of the bag hooked all the time. I'd unhook the front side and the carabiner would help hold the bag open wide when I stuff it with hay.
It won Carrie over with it's convenience. No horses have found a way past it yet.
Nibs is still giving Annie the run around some, so Carrie decided to hang another feedbag under the lean-to. She backed out a pair of rivets, drilled the holes larger, and inserted eye-hooks to hang the bag from.
Annie isn't the smartest pony, though. She stayed by the feeder dejected. She chose to be near the other girls instead of eating.
I offered her some grass and Nibs wanted to get in on the party....which let Annie snatch some hay! Nibs shooed her off when I stopped handing her grass (Loki is still pretty intimidated).
I did get a picture of the three feeding stations working as intended later! Success!
The girls get along well 90% of the time. Nibs is bossy for another 5%, but it's the 5% where she turns on witch-mode that it could potentially be dangerous. It weighs on Carrie, because that's her baby girl.
Amazingly, you can sometimes hear the horses from all the way inside. Carrie and I heard what sounded like a stampede so we ran outside. It looked like Nibs was running Maddy off into the field, but then Nibs turned around and started a race back to the barn! The other girls came tearing after her and Carrie's heart nearly stopped when they almost skidded into the side of the barn!
The girls were at play! For all of her witchiness, they'd missed Nibs when she was put into seclusion. I missed the race, but I got a video of some of the prancing around afterward.
It was great seeing them run around. Nibs tried to nip at Annie when it was all done and Annie still wanted to nuzzle up to her, but maybe they'll mellow out more with time, the new feeding stations, and some supplements Nibs is on to help calm her and her heat cycles.
I showed the video to my classes and some of the kids really liked it. I think a lot of them find me an odd package. I'm the poop shoveling, wrestling, math nerd and boardgame geek who's a Christ follower...but that's my life!
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