Now and Then (Summer)

Foxtail. Carrie's old nemesis. 

Carrie was very concerned about foxtail on our property when we first moved in. The seeds have barbs that can hurt horses. Carrie was hypervigilant. She set about to rooting up and destroying as much foxtail as she could. She enlisted everyone she could in her war against the weed.

There was an awkward foxtail moment with Kyle (the contractor who finished up the barn after the fence fiasco and later ran away to Kansas or somewhere else). Carrie had bought hay bales from him, but specified she wanted it as foxtail free as possible. He brought the hay and it wasn't up to her standards, so I had to tell him to take it back. I didn't think the hay was poisonous to horses, but if it was going to cause a mountain of anxiety I didn't want it here.

Over time, Carrie mellowed on the subject. We've never had a foxtail incident we know of. If we have, it's been minor and sorted itself out (like a canker sore). I feel like it's one of those things that as long as there's not an overabundance of it, there's no worry. We haven't allowed it to grow unchecked ever since Carrie's early purges. If we got bales in a hay shipment that were heavy with foxtail, we'd pick out the heads. I remember sorting through many a bale to throw away seed heads, but I couldn't find a post on it anywhere (possibly because it's not something Carrie would want advertised). Brand new barn owner Carrie would've thrown them out, so that was real progress.

Battling fear/anxiety is a two step process. There's the initial crisis that has to be overcome. If handled well, the next process is long road to familiarization. We now know what level of foxtail is and isn't acceptable on our farm and take measures to ensure it doesn't become a problem.

I've learned a lot about hay over the years we've been here! It started with the foxtail. We bought budget hay with lambsquarter another time (That turned out to be more work than it was worth). I figured out the hard way hay could get tangled in the spreader, and Carrie educated me on the dangers of fescue with pregnant horses. 

If you're living, you're learning!