There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Home....

I don’t own horse property – at the present. My husband and I live in a nice little house in a nice little neighborhood and I pretty much hate it. We’ve talked about buying horse property, but have decided to put it off for a couple of years so that we have plenty in savings. So in the meantime I board my horses at my friend’s ranch about 10 miles away. She has a beautiful set up and I should be very happy to keep my guys there, but I’m not, I’m miserable. I want to walk out in my backyard and see my critters staring at me, waiting for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I want to take care of them the way I feel they should be taken care of. By keeping them at someone else’s place, you’re at the mercy of how they do things. Not that my friend doesn’t take care of the horses, she’s takes excellent care of her horses. I just don’t know how to explain how I feel when certain things are done with my horse(s) that I wouldn’t do myself. None of these things ever hurt the horse physically or mentally, only me. For example, Art has decided to be very itchy this summer, so he is rubbing out his tail and mane. We have a futurity in two weeks and he’s freaking me out. I would have him in a stall with climbless horse fence on the runs so he can’t stick his head between the pipes to get the last bit of food on the ground and I would double up on the flaxseed, grinding it first, to help with his itchiness. My friend has over 20 horses and no one stays in the same stall two days in a row – this would be an inconvenience for her and I just can’t ask it. My husband’s mare Ginger got hurt and she is treating her in the barn and she thinks that Ginger needs her best girlfriend in there too, so now Art doesn’t have a stall. He’s regulated to the pasture until Ginger is better and can go back out with the broodies. That’s great, I appreciate all her help with Ginger, but Art has a futurity in TWO WEEKS (can you guess I’m freaking out about our futurity in two weeks? LOL).

The only saving grace I have is that once the futurity is over, I don’t plan on showing him again until next year as a two year old under saddle. And that probably won’t be until this time next year. So after this show, Art can go out in the pasture and get sunbleached, and rub out his mane and get noogies from the other babies and just hang out and grow up. Then I’ll bring him in sometime next year and put the plastic bubble wrap back on.