Equine Retirement Farm Blog

Happy Birthday Elfin!

Everybody please join me in wishing Eflin a happy birthday! Elfin is 19 years young today, although he typically acts like he is a long yearling.

My Horse Will Hate Retirement

I don't know how many times I have heard "my horse will hate retirement." I'm sure I have not heard every reason out there yet but I have heard a lot of them:

Pictures

I am still way behind on sharing all of my pictures. So I am going to sort through some more and let everyone see more pictures of the residents. I have to say that I think we have an incredibly attractive group of horses retired with us!

Why?

Did everyone see this post on the Fugly blog where the horse managed to get its head stuck in a tree? That blog entry also had pictures of the draft filly that wedged herself into a water trough. My first thought when I look at the pictures in this post below is why, why, WHY?

Nap Time

I guess it is only fitting that on a horse retirement farm I see the horses napping regularly. After all they are retired!

A Few Of Our (Least) Favorite Things

There are a few tasks that I really don't enjoy. For some reason I hate dealing with dirty horse blankets. For the most part I am a very organized person and like to stay on top of things. When it comes to dirty horse blankets I am the queen of procrastination!

Poco Is Home!

Poco was evicted, er, I mean discharged from the clinic today. His breathing was back to normal yesterday and stayed that way though lunchtime today so we were asked (begged) to bring him home.

Poco Update: Still in the Horspital

Poco is still a patient at the horsepital. He is a a sad little sight with his IV fluid line. The good news is he is acting as feisty as ever and giving the clinic staff a lot to complain about!

Think Good Thoughts For Poco

As I type Poco the pony is at the vet clinic hooked up on IV fluids and receiving antibiotics and steroids. We noticed his breathing was really labored today and he just wasn't acting right. The vet came quickly and examined him

Changing Seasons

On Monday morning I was up and out early feeding the horses. I've mentioned before that mornings are my favorite part of the day. It is so quiet and peaceful, and the horses are so happy to see you. I know they aren't happy to see me, they are happy to see the food lady coming, but I pretend it is me that makes them happy.

Pictures

started to catch up on posting some of my pictures yesterday and will do the same today. I know so many pictures of horses grazing can become very repetitive, but I see something different in each picture. Sometimes it is noticing a new buddy system, or maybe a different expression than I might typically see on a certain hors

Pictures

Nothing To Do With Anything

This post has absolutely nothing to do with the horses, the farm, running a retirement farm or anything. It is yet another "How I Spent My Saturday" post, or at least part of my Saturday. I found the whole thing to be quite humorous and decided to write a blog post about it despite the fact that it has nothing to do with the focus of my blog. Jason did not find a lot of humor in the day.

Meet Apollo

Apollo is a gorgeous bay Hanoverian that was imported from Germany as a four year old, and his registered name is Grand Rebell. Apollo is by the noted Hanoverian stallion Grand Cru, who has sired several international dressage competitors. He was imported by a hunter trainer which is where he met Vivian, his current owner. Pretty much everyone who visits our farm meets Apollo. Given that he stands at 18.1 hands, he is hard to miss! People always notice his impressive presence and it would be hard to say how many people have had their picture taken with him.

Welcome To This Farm

There are several canine residents on the horse retirement farm. Over the years between my parents and I we have taken in a large number of wayward animals. I've already mentioned the stray goats, we have the stray flock of chickens, the cat that I cat-napped, as well as our assortment of dogs. Today I would like to introduce you to Bush the coon hound.

How I Spent My Saturday

If only running a horse retirement farm was all about playing with the horses. It would make life absolutely perfect! Unfortunately there is a lot of other stuff that is involved in maintaining a farm that has nothing to do with horses. About a week ago I was feeding the horses one morning and I noticed this huge tree limb was down. It also happened to be over a fence line. Thankfully it was not touching the fence and hadn't damaged the fence at all when it fell. I don't have any idea why it fell either. We hadn't had any wind, rain or other type of weather and the tree is (was?) healthy.

New Chicks And Other Pictures

I'm not exactly sure when these chicks hatched. I know they weren't there last night, and I noticed them today about mid-morning. They hatched on one of the workbenches.

We All Need Good Help

Videos

Pictures

Everybody Say Hello To Chance

I'm sure any family members reading that will do a doubletake since Chance is also the name of my brother-in-law! Chance also happens to be the name of the most recent horse to join us for retirement. Chance is a thoroughbred who joined us over the weekend from Connecticut. He walked off the trailer and looked around for a moment, and then realized he was surrounded by grass and immediately put his head down and began grazing. He's rarely lifted his head up since then!

Rain = Mud

Last year we experienced a record breaking drought here in the southeast. I hope to never have that experience again, especially since it was our third year in a row of drought. The two previous years had been manageable, we were drier than normal but hay production was decent and it wasn't awful. 2007 was a nightmare from a farming perspective. We watched hay prices more than triple thanks to the drought and other factors.

Pictures Around The Water Trough

Who knew you could take so many pictures of horses around water troughs??

What Would Happen?

I was talking with one of our clients the other day about some pretty serious health problems she is facing. As often happens we form a friendship with our clients as we become e-mail and/or phone buddies as we keep in contact about the horses. I knew something was going on in her life as I had left her a couple of messages about needing some things ordered for her horse.

Like any true horse person, even though she didn't have the energy to phone or e-mail back, she did make sure the things her horse needed made it here.

Stupid Girl

I had somewhat of a frustrating, aggravating day today. The good parts of my day was the time spent with the horses. They were all in wonderful moods and put a smile on my face. The irritating parts of my day involved all of the other stuff involved in running a retirement farm. The stuff that isn't as fun as playing with the horses.

Deja Vue

Meet Elfin

Pictures

Some of the many pictures I have taken in the last couple of weeks.

You Want Them Painted What Color??

When I first decided to start blogging I worried that I would run out of things to write about. Much about our daily life here is pretty routine and how many pictures of grazing horses can you possibly ask people to look at? However I seem to keep coming up with new things to complain, err - I mean blog, about on a regular basis.

Another Week, Another Visit From The Farrier (Lots of Pictures)

You've met our wonderful farrier Gwen before in this post. I also subjected you to my mini lecture in that post as well: just because your horse is retired does NOT mean you can slack in the area of farrier care.

How Many Horses Are In That Pasture?

I'm sure you have all had one of those mornings where you aren't really completely awake yet, you know something just isn't right, and you can't put all the pieces together. I had one of those mornings this week.

There is an Election Coming

in November, and Leo definitely thinks he is running! I told Leo's owner that I refer to him as our politician because he certainly acts like one. He has things to do, people to see, babies to kiss and all of that good stuff. Leo is a very handsome Dutch Warmblood gelding who is enjoying retirement with us. He took great care of his amateur mommy in the hunter ring on the "A" circuit until repeat suspensory injuries lead him to retirement.

They Are Really Cute Little Creatures

Ruling With An Iron Hoof

Just like people, some horses enjoy being leaders and others simply want to be part of the pack. Of course we have a wide variety of personalities on the farm, but one retiree in particular stood out as determined to be in charge.

A Week In Pictures

Since the horses here are retired you would think it would be hard to take good pictures. However, it would be easy to put three times as many pictures in this post just from the shots I have taken in the last week. What is amazing is how many great photo opportunities I miss! I have my camera with me often but not always, and inevitably I find myself wishing I could grab my camera.

The Day I Ran Screaming From the Barn

I now have proof that even when you have your dream job there are still days when you want to run away screaming!! I am sure you are wondering what would be so hard about caring for retired horses all day that would elicit such a strong response.

Farrier Day

Today was a busy day as our wonderful farrier, Gwen, was here. I wish I had a pedicure every six weeks! On a retirement farm excellent and routine farrier care is very important for the horses. Of course it is important for any horse, but people often have the misconception that you can lower the standard of care when they are retired. I find the opposite to be true.

New Camera

After taking care of the horses one of the biggest jobs I have running the retirement farm is communicating with the owners. It is really important to them (for obvious reasons) to feel informed and involved as much as possible about their horse(s). A picture is worth a thousand words, and nothing brings more peace of mind or comfort than regular "visuals" of your horse.

A Chainsaw Fit for a Queen

. . . or the queen of the retirement farm anyway! I have been campaigning for my own chainsaw for quite some time. They are incredibly useful tools that have many uses. Our favorite uses for chainsaws or cutting up old trees and repairing fence boards.

Plumbing 101

What does plumbing have to do with a horse retirement farm? A lot when you realize one of your water lines has a leak!!

The Taming of the Shrew(s)

Who knew retired horses could be so entertaining!? This is the tale about two shrews, I mean mares, named Buffy and Harmony.

The Best Laid Plans

Today I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. I decided to use some of the compost out in the gate area in one of the pastures. My reasoning was two-fold: it would make the horses stop constantly over-grazing the area by the gate and water trough and keep them from turning it into dust and mud; at the same time it would provide some fertility and enable the grass to grow back more quickly.

Weaning Day On A Breeding Farm

About 10 days ago I decided to do a pasture rotation. All of the horses stayed in the same groups, I just changed which pastures they were in. Horses are very, very hard on the land and tend to go back and regraze the same spots repeatedly. Since they graze by tearing the grass off with their front teeth they can graze the grass down to the dirt in their favorite spots. It drives me crazy to see them wrecking one spot in the pasture while there are acres and acres of beautiful grass just begging to be eaten all around them, literally just a few feet away!

It Takes A Village

We've all used the saying "it is really hard to get good help" at least once. The day to day things on the farm really aren't as time consuming as most people expect them to be. Everyone always wants to know how many people we have helping on a daily basis. It isn't feeding the horses, scrubbing and filling troughs, putting on blankets, grooming, stall cleaning, or any of the day to day things that are particularly hard or time consuming. We have the daily routine down and get these things done thoroughly and efficiently. It is all of the non-routine things that are the killers. Like maintaining pastures, repairing fence boards, cutting and baling hay, servicing equipment, chain-sawing fallen trees . . . the list could go on. Really, the hands-on daily care of the horses is the easy part!

Frenemies or BFF?

No, I'm not talking about Paris and Nicole! For that matter I'm not even talking about two mares. I am referring to the relationship between two geldings, Trillion and Faune.

The Hard Part of Boarding Retired Horses

When I talk to people about what I do for a living, they often have a very romanticized idea about everything. They have these visions that you spend your days looking at the pretty horses out in the pasture. And I do spend a lot of time doing just that! And I also enjoy getting to know the residents, grooming them, feeding them, and just generally interacting with them. Of course their is also stall cleaning, pasture maintenance, fence repair, messing around with blankets, but that is all another post for another day! All in all it is a very satisfying feeling to look around and see a farm full of happy horses, grazing on gorgeous pasture, very content with their life.

Their is one major downside to all of that perfection though.

Welcome to the horse retirement farm!

People often don't know how to react when they ask what I do for a living. I tell them proudly "I board retired horses." The responses vary from "oh, that's nice" along with a confused look to "what are they retired from?" and many odd questions in between.