My Soapbox for Equestrian Writings
Cribbing is in Freedom’s DNA. He is not as bad as some cribbers: he can stand on a trailer for hours without cribbing, but without a collar, he will crib consistently. In fact the days before I ordered the Dare cribbing collar, he walked over to the fencepost near the gate and cribbed while I […]
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The last few days have been challenging, but in different ways: deer, turkeys and wind have made each ride a little more exciting than it had to be. Yesterday, it was the turkeys and the wind. It’s courting season for the wild turkeys and they are everywhere. Poor Freedom, who has always had a turkey […]
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Yesterday when I got to the barn, I didn’t see Freedom in his field. Usually, when I whistle he comes running, especially if it’s near mealtime, but there was no sign of him. He wasn’t in the run in shed. He wasn’t behind the run in shed. I grabbed his halter and walked down to […]
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Zelda has been testing me. I was traveling for a few days last week, and when I haven’t been working her regularly, she forgets that I’m not Curly and she tries to boss me around. She will drag me toward the best grass, try to nip me when I put her saddle on, refuse to […]
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The crime scene was perplexing. The charger for the electric fence lay on the ground on Friday morning, a good five feet from the post where it normally resides. It had been firmly mounted on the post when I fed at 6 p.m. on Thursday night. To vandalize the charger, the perpetrator would have had […]
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Every herd needs a watch horse. After all, when a twig snaps in the woods half a mile away, they need to be alert! Sometimes Freedom is absolutely fixated on sounds or smells that are far too subtle for me to hear. Zelda and Curly generally ignore them, too, but Freedom? He’s all over it. […]
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Do you have a special bond with your horse? New research shows that the concept of a “heart horse” may be more accurate than you think. Marcel Montañez, an associate professor and associate department head in NMSU’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences’ Family and Consumer Sciences Department, wants to explore that bond between […]
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I’ve always noticed that my horses show some good releases when they are being shod. They may not enjoy the shoeing, but they appreciate the stretches. But none of them have shown quite the reaction that Dandy did. My farrier and I had some good laughs over his faces. He gave some huge yawns and […]
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