Storm

[KcMopar]

I have all ways dreamed of having a couple easy going mares for casual riding horses but, I know I do not have the time to devote to them yet. I have thought about getting a goat or two in about a year or so when I finish fencing my land. For now its just the Fish, Dogs, and the Cats. Oh and the kids.

 

[Thyra]

Careful with a goat!! They can sure be cute, but also big trouble. We had one for a while. (Ulysses S. Goat) He ruled the place and was playful. Unfortunately he wouldn't stop playing and he got too rough. Ulysses thought it was all a game, but one day he wore both my husband and another man completely out. He would butt at them and they would grab his horns, but then he wouldn't stop and neither of them could turn and walk away. They finally got backed into the garage and were able to get away. He never bothered the kids and I started just carrying the horse whip with me, but we finally decided he was just too dangerous and needed another home. Fences mean nothing to a goat. Right now the neighbor across the way has one and he goes in and out as he pleases, but he also will just butt the posts and then lean on them until he loosens them one by one. They climb on cars, machinery, convertibles, etc. The kids left the travel trailer door open and I found him on the bed. I remember hearing my youngest hollering, "Goat in the house, goat in the house" and finding Ulysses heading up stairs! And you have the right idea - an older mare or gelding. If you aren't an experienced horse person it is a good idea to get one already trained. If your kids are young enough horse 4-H is good. I led a group for quite a while. Don't ever, ever let anyone talk you into a stallion. Seems like every kids wants the "black stallion". A stallion is never a kid's horse and without a lot of experience and the proper environment, they are a real liability. I once saw a stallion that got loose at a horse show, mount a mare that a little girl was riding. the mare tried to get away, but the stallion had managed to pin the little girl. In the end no one was physically hurt, but I am sure the little girl was traumatized. My husband had open heart surgery, but his biggest scar was from being bitten by his Dad's "gentle" stallion!

 

[Kiara1125]

Wow. I would like a mare or gelding, but as a friesian. That way I could have my "black stallion." I actually like dappled greys the most. Maybe a Perchon. Love those gentle giants.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Some friends had goats. They do all the things mentioned in addition to bringing ruin to the land. I suspected that they had too many right away. For some reason the wife considered them to be pets with cute names. She would not slaughter them for a long while and gave them names. It was not possible to sell as many as needed to go so the land was overgrazed. By the time the wife came to accept the need to have a number slaughtered, the land was denuded and left open to erosion. The meat is tasty enough but I never developed a real tasre for it.
The cheese, feta I think, I still do not like to this day. It has something to do with the association formed when I discovered the unsanitary conditions under which the wife made her cheese.
The ram had to be penned away and hardly anything smells any worse than a ram. If you get a ram be sure to put the pen away from where you will need to be very often. I spent several hours getting a tractor running that had been parked next to the ram's pen.

 

[Thyra]

Kiara, in case you have no experience riding a "gentle giant" I will tell you it is nothing to look forward to! Before I had my horse, my girlfriend and I went riding - she had a small horse and they also had Old Dan which was a huge black work horse. I had never ridden. We devised a way to get me on Old Dan and off we went. I knew if I got off, I would have a major problem getting on, but eventually Old Dan went under a low branch and I wound up on the ground. My legs no longer seemed to fit together. We were out in the woods in the snow and somehow we managed to get me back on and home. I missed the first two weeks of the semester at school and have never been in so much pain in my life - I developed a large boil on my tail bone - commonly known as a pilonidal cyst. I couldn't even go out to milk cows until it opened and drained. Shortly after that, I managed to buy a lice eaten nag that had been let run wild for the winter and was skin and bones for $75. She is the horse I had for over 30 years and turned into a real beauty.

 

[KcMopar]

I am past the green riding. That was fun when I was a teen and young adult. I liked to do the barrels and jumping was my favorite but only with a well broke horse. Now I would be happy with an OLD WELL BROKE horse. I would rather enjoy the ride now then the adrenalin rush of tight fisting the reins when the horse has decided he wants you off his back LOL. That horse in the pic is a great looking horse.
Those goats can be awful, thats for sure!! I am putting in a fence now using goat net wire with a single strand of barb on the top. I am sure that will be fairly secure for a goat or two. The fence now is to keep my dogs in and the coyote, bears, and cougars out. I almost did 7 strand barb but figured the net would be better in the long run. The goats are still an options but so is a few sheep as they are really more useful and they taste better to.

 

[Fuzz16]

would love to have a horse too, but in the apartment no lol. foods getting super expensive too on top of care. the amount of horses needing homes for free is abundent around here. my fiances mom has one, his sister does western pleasure and a couple other classes with him. hes a great horse and they happened onto him by chance. my 3 year old could walk under him all day and he wont move or dig or anything he loooves attention and is pretty tolerant of her interested with his giant nostrils hopefully when shes not so afraid of being on him she can learn to ride...shell get on an elephant but not a horse HA!
i hear people keeping pygmys as pets now...goats are stubborn little things and i wouldnt keep a male unless he was fixed! at least the females produce mlk, that some perfer over cow milk for fat content?

 

[KcMopar]

I would only get female goats. Personally I think the bests four legged pets are females (fixed to of course). Goat milk only needs to be pasteurized as homogenizing is not necessary. My old neighbor would use straight goat mild for his coffee every morning which kind of grossed me out as a kid. I worked there when I was a kid, I got the cows from the holding pen to their milking stalls every morning and filled the feed, hay, and water bins before school. Cows are very smart, all of them know what stall they needed to be in, sometimes they need a little help but not very often. After school I had to use the bobcat to scoop and push all the poop out of the milking area then I had to do the same in the pig barn but, the pigs stink WAS AWFUL compared to the cows!!!! LOL it was so bad!!!

 

[Thyra]

Sorry, Kerry, but IMO the words “cow” and “intelligent” do not belong in the same sentence having grown up with the dumb animals and them depending on me. City folks would come to the farm and say, “How did you ever train them all to find their own stanchions?” We don’t - it is just the herding instinct - which BTW people have too. (Ever noticed how adults in a class room will pick a place and stick with that place the entire course)

You probably just didn’t work there long enough to see the chaos that can occur. Weeks can go by and everything clicks and then one day, you’ll open the door, everything is normal, and the first cow just walks on by her stanchion. In minutes you will have the rest of the herd - in my case - all 25 of them at various places in the barn - none in stanchions. They don’t seem to know the stanchions exist. I’ve had them walk up the narrow aisle in front of the stanchions where they can’t turn around. Ever try to back a cow 50 feet?? I have heard of them going up stairs into the hay mow. They do not come down stairs well. We did not have stairs in our barn so I was never faced with that project.

Not only that, a cow’s answer to chaos is making cow pies - none of which are in the gutter. The only thing you can do is try to get them all back out the door and close it. Then clean the mess up, open the door like it is a different day (hoping they didn’t go back to the pasture) and they will quietly go in like nothing happened.

I think cows are a great educational tool - you learn to cope and deal with frustration and you also learn responsibility, but I don’t think I ever taught a cow anything! LoL

 

[KcMopar]

LOL, not intelligent just smart. I had a couple that would stomp there hoof when I presented feed to them, One would moo back at me every time I moo'ed at her even if i was on the other side of the barn. Yes, there was the disaster days to. Mostly these where days of bad weather. This barn was pretty open and no stairs so they would just need to be led into their stall if they got confused. Sometimes there was days when they were spooked for some reason and would run and trample anything in its way!!! That would get scary.

 

[KcMopar]

So are you back running 100% now since your weather ordeal.

 

[Thyra]

Yup! All back to normal except for the clean up! I will admit, I do get a little jumpy when the wind blows because there are a lot of limps still hanging by a thread that the crews may not have noticed in their hurry to get everyone back on.

 

[KcMopar]

Well thats good to hear!! I hear ya on the wind and the loose limbs.

 

[Kiara1125]

Good to hear that everything is ok.

I have ridden horses before and taken care of them, just never owned one. My favorite horse that I ever rode was an Appaloosa named Charlie. He was 26 and you could say something and he'd do it. Walk, trot, canter, gallop, jump, piaffe, and a few other fancy dressage moves. He was lovely and I would love to see him again. He's going on 31 now. He retired from competitions a few years ago though. I love that horse.

I like pygmy goats, they're adorable. I admit that the billies can and will be mean. I kinda like views, never got up close and personal with one, but they burp too much. Haha. I did get to pet one if those long horn bulls that have horns that are like 7 feet in width. He was a gorgeous amber color and he was so sweet.

And lol to Kerry about mooing to the cow. I whinnied to a horse and it whinnied back at me. I can get cats, dogs, birds, horses, goats, and a bearded dragon to react to me, yet not a cow.

 

[Thyra]

All I had to do was open the barn door and if Queen was in her stall, she'd nicker to me. (She never liked being in the barn, tho - even when it was a blizzard) If she was in the corral waiting to be fed as soon as I came out the back door she would call me. Out in the pasture tho, it would become a game of catch me if you can. (Kiara, did you look back to page 5 and see the picture). When we got involved in showing it was with Appaloosas. We showed mostly in pleasure and trail classes, but they also had an Indian costume class and we had a kid that rode our horses that could really ride and was kind of gutsy. He and I decided we couldn't afford the money for a chief's costume and we had never seen a warrior in the class. We really went cheap - I bought a chamois cloth for washing cars and went to work on the details including painting him and Drum. He would go in to the arena running wide open on Drum and yelping with the chiefs. The crowd loved it! Not only that - he always got first place - probably because he was so original because we certainly didn't have a costume worth a grand! He also did it a couple of times on Grandpa's stallions. Sadly, it couldn't last. People started entering their kids and were afraid they would get hurt if they ran their horses with the others.

 

[KcMopar]

I have not been to any horse and pony show activities in a long time. They were always a good time.

 

[Kiara1125]

Very nice Thyra!! I saw the picture and she's gorgeous. I've seen too many emaciated horses, on tv, and I don't like it one bit. I've ridden horses before and I've cared for them for several months at a time, I just want to own one. I like all horses (my dad wants a Clydesdale, aka a Budweiser horse, lol), but my favorite are Dappled Gray Percherons and Blue Roan Horses (no preferred breed). I also love my neighbor's Gypsy Vanner. Here's a picture of her and the her grown foal. God, how I love their feathered fetlocks!!!!

 

[Thyra]

It is my understanding that the dappled greys eventually get white as they age, but I agree they are beautiful. The upkeep on those Friesians would be extensive. If horses can be turned out in a big pasture, they pretty much stay okay, but in close quarters they need constant attention.

 

[Thyra]

Hate to continue this - but the power is out AGAIN. On the positive side, we had just stepped out of the shower and the coffee was hot and the generator started. As I suspected, a tree someplace close by has fallen on the wires. It took me always an hour to find out that piece of info from the power company. They have a round about way of giving out info. I don't expect this to last all day, but it is in the 20s outside so I need to keep feeding the fire. Fish will be okay.

 

[KcMopar]

I got they get you back in power soon!!