Sunday Stills ~ Signs of Autumn

A sure sign of autumn is when the horses start losing their sleek summer coats, and that fluffy undercoat for fall winter starts to come in. 

(this is Frosty)

 Another sign of fall is getting hay for the winter.  This is a photo from the rounds off our hall field last year. I couldn't bear to share the one from this year, because it's just that. One. ONE freaking bale, and smaller than these. This drought needs to come to an end.

 

 

We do have hay sorted for this year, but it's been tough. Supply is scarce and prices are high. Thankfully I've got a supplier that is really good to us and sold us squares for the same price as last year. Then we managed to get in some rounds without being totally hijacked by the price. Not much you can do though except keep your head up.

Sunday Stills ~ Summer

 Summer means haying. Our yield has been decreasing the last few years due to the drought. Sadly this year it wasn’t just drought but also a plague of grasshoppers and this one bale is all we got. I won’t lie, I cried. 

Hey hay!

One of the biggest things on the minds of many horse and cattle people in my area is hay.
Saskatchewan experienced a record setting drought this year (yep, worse than The Dirty 30s!)  There was 30 cm of snow in late April and pretty much no real moisture again until July.  Accuweather.com shows a whopping 14 mm of rain TOTAL in June for my area, a day with 6 mm, a day with 1 mm and then a day of 7 mm (there was nothing in May).  July we finally had rain in the double digits, 84 mm total and on one day alone 54!
Thank goodness for that rain, but for some it was too little too late.
Hay is still very expensive because people aren't getting anywhere near as much as they normally do.  However it isn't as ridiculous as it was a little while ago.  People were panicking and the prices were STUPID crazy.  I saw round bales that would normally be $50 being advertised for $200, worse yet they were selling at that price! :o
Probably the worst one I saw was 5 year old bales selling for $150 - yes you read that right, years.
Hubster and I have actually had a bit of good luck though.  First of all the guy that cuts and bales our hay field had an issue with someone else that he bales for and had almost 300 squares to sell at a decent price.  It had been rained on but would still be decent cow hay so we bought that.
Our field gave us about half what it normally does, which is pretty much typical for most people around here this year (anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of a normal year).  Between what we got this year and what was left over from last year we have about 500 horse quality squares.
Fortunately the drought actually worked in favour of a friend of mine, and as luck would have it I happened on his Facebook post at just the right time (less than 30 minutes after he posted).  PW's status said that he had been lucky enough to get more hay than needed and was going to offer it to his friends first before advertising it publicly.  Of course I sent him a PM right away!  Turns out he'd gotten 125 bales off a field that last year gave him 58! WOW.
When I told him that Marge and I were both looking for hay he said he'd sell to us for $100/bale and help us load*  I double checked with Marge and she was game for it, we had both been on the lookout for hay and promised to pass on leads about deals - two sets of eyes are better than one! ;)  Better yet, she would haul for cost of fuel and have her hubster help unload my bales at my place (our little tractor isn't big enough for bales over 1000lbs and these ones are about 1400lbs).
*I don't get the ads I see where they state they can't help load.  How do you expect people to load it themselves?
Hubster spoke to people at two local feed stores and has agreements to buy bulk amounts of hay cubes for the current price (both places are expecting the price to go up any time now) as well as to keep getting our complete feeds from the one place at the current price (as most of you know, at times like this all alternate feed sources tend to get more expensive).  Even better, those cubes are in handy little bags, 40 and 50 lbs each so we get the 'bulk price' with the easier handling!
Then today we were talking to our hay guy again and Hubster asked him if he has any more hay for sale and he said "Only for you" lol  We've got another 300 or so squares coming in!
Goes to show it pays off to treat people decently! :)

2013 Haying

No, we didn't just finish.  I'm just a little late getting around to posting... this season instead of a field of dreams it was more a field of nightmares.  The hay itself looks good, but getting it down, baled and put up...

First the new to us swather we bought last fall.  Yeah, we pretty much bought a POS.  We knew it wasn't great, it's pretty old.  But it was in our budget and with a little bit of work it should have been fine.  SHOULD have.
Instead it got a few feet and kablowey... the header deck came loose.  The good news is there is a very small chance it is fixable if someone who knows how to weld decently and knows farm equipment can fix it without it costing a fortune she'll get another shot at life.  The better news?  Our neighbour asked if it's still drivable and when we said yes he replied "Well bring it over, pretty sure I can fix it!"

The swathing was done by the same neighbour that cut & baled for us last year.

The square baler worked fine, until we were almost done.  Seriously, we were thisclose and it calved.  Good news though, it's fixable.  In the meantime neighbour that is going to look at fixing the swather came by and baled for us (rounds).

So we ended up with 6 rounds and hundreds of squares... with only Pie & I to put them away.  Once again good neighbours played a role.  My friend/neighbour SD runs a group home and he let us hire one of his guys to help pick and stack bales.  It still felt like forever getting them put up though because we only had a few hours each day before it was time for Pie & I to go to work.
One of the guys from work came to help one day too.  He worked his butt off and wouldn't take a dime, he just came to help because he's never done it before!

In the end it all worked out, with the blessings of good weather, family and good neighbours we have a hay barn filled for the winter :)  I just hope it's not as long as last years!

Hay!

It's been quite a spring & summer for weather.  Some places have had a horrible drought, others have been at the opposite end of the spectrum and had records amount of rain, and then it seems like a large portion of the States have suffered through an incredibly bad fire season.

Hay has been on the mind of a lot of horse owners I'm sure.  I know it was on mine, Saskatchewan was one of those places with lots of rain.  I swear it seemed to rain every 3rd day, at least.  There was a stretch (when my neighbour books off from his mine job to hay) that it rained 5 out of 7 days! 
Seriously, how do those of you that live in places where lots of rain is normal get your hay put up?

Then there was the challenge of finding someone to hire to cut & bale our hay.  This is our 3rd summer here and neither AP nor TW, who each did our hay the last two years, were able to this year. 
When we bought our place Pie & I had talked about buying baling equipment and pretty much everyone laughed at us and told us what a waste of our time & money that would be.  This year most of those same people were saying "Why don't you get your own equipment?" lol
Well with how things were going we looked at used stuff and thanks to my awesome stepdad B we bought an old self propelled swather and a used square baler.  Small world moment, I had talked to the swather guy on the phone but I didn't realize it was someone I KNOW until I pulled into his yard... it was an older guy from sorting that always asks if Voodoo is for sale.
In the meantime we were put in touch with a neighbour and he had the time to do our hay, and wanted to.  Funny how many people think it's not worth their time... I wouldn't be so quick to turn down a grand or so! lol

So the end result, our hay barn is stuffed full of small, hard-core rounds and there are 7 more sitting outside.  Also I have a lead on some squares that aren't too rich & were baled when it was dry and are available at a reasonable price (delivery included!).  Squares are always handy to have around.  AND next year we should be set to do our own hay! (well, B is set to do the hay lol)

The back rows are 9 bales across, 5 on the bottom row, 4 on the top.  There's "stuff" on the sides at the front so Pie could only get 3 bales in the front two rows.
(stuff... a huge bag of oats for the cows, straw bales, pallets and the few square bales I had left)

Check it out, literally stuffed to the rafters! :)

I figured it out, if we had had to buy this hay this year it would have cost us close to $3000.  We spent considerably less than that to have someone else cut & bale our field!

EDucation continued...

There was a lot of info covered in the "classroom" (non-riding) portions of the Ed Wright clinic.  My notes were in point form so bear with me if they seem a little jumbled.  Also at times there were a bunch of questions being asked & answered and while Ed wasn't wishy washy on his opinions, for me it was sometimes hard to sort out what exactly was being said (blame my hearing and the Chatty Cathys causing distracting background talk)  Again its MY take on what I thought Ed was saying so please keep that in mind.

Feed.  Test your hay!  And if you do, don't just do it once and leave it.  Hay grown in the same field but cut, dried and baled at different times can have different nutritional values.  Heck hay in the same field cut & baled at the same time can have different values in different areas of the field.
Also research which lab you send it to.  I believe Ed said Cornell had one of the best labs in the country.  He told a story about one place he knows of that you could send in the same sample on Monday through Friday of the same week and have completely different numbers from each day.
Also weigh your feed!  A lot of us know to weigh our hay, but at the clinic we were also told to weigh our grain.
Probiotics were recommended for competition horses.
For winter time fat & protein are especially important, with the fat being 2% below the protein.  Fat sources are important too, corn oil for example can heat the body (cause lactic acid to build) and also heat the brain.  Soybean oil and rice bran were good sources of fat.
Water is extremely important.  Electrolytes can help encourage your horse to drink and come in many different flavours, experiment and see what your horse likes.  If you have a horse that's a really picky drinker or won't drink away from home haul your own water if at all feasible. 

Misc. Tack.  Ed seems to like to keep things as natural as possible and is a pretty traditional guy.  For instance his preferred boots are good leather boots, he has his own and there is wrestling mat or something similar in them to absorb shock (I believe).  Neoprene style boots hold too much heat, he actually didn't seem to like neoprene anything (boots, pads, cinches)  Polo wraps are good IF you know how to wrap really well.  The problem with them is that they can only be used about 10 times before they lose they stretch/support/give.
Cinches, a good wool fleece (real wool) over nylon. A nice soft, mohair cinch is great but has too much give for arena events.  Great for pasture/trail riding though.
Pads, they need to be thick enough to absorb shock but also need to breath letting air & heat through, and they need to absorb sweat.  A good compressed wool pad (again real wool) about an inch thick, firm yet pliable enough that after 20 or so rides it conforms to your horse.  Although there are some horses that have a more sensitive skin (such as one gorgeous Appy that was at the clinic, she was pretty much all white and had a lot of pink skin which was pretty sensitive)  He said a blanket style pad made of 100% wool might be more comfortable.  (I believe he said like a Mayatex or Navajo pad but I'm not certain)

Saddles.  There was much discussion over different saddles, trees and materials.  Once again real wool was the winner, this time for the underside of the saddle. 
The treeless saddles aren't exactly 'treeless'.  There's a rigid cantle and rigid swells.  Ed demonstrated how when your horse is running they kinda fold together and can pinch in the seat area.  Also due to how they're made, they kinda lock you in, its really hard to get up into that athletic position over your horse's first two ribs.
Flex tree saddles, well one girl had one and Ed took it off her horse.  He demonstrated how when he pushed on it it didn't really flex.  And that was with him pushing on it pretty good, so how much would it flex on your horse?  He didn't really seem to buy the idea.
He didn't dis either the flex tree or treeless saddle.  In fact Ed said something along the lines of "they're looking for the answer but they're just not quite there enough yet"  The bottom line was, at this point, the traditional wood tree saddle, that fits your horse, is still the best option out there.

A couple more things that fit under 'natural'... Ed gave us a recipe for a flyspray.  He was doing it from memory so I hope this is right.  Take 1 cup cayenne and 1 litre of apple cider vinegar and shake together, spray this on do not feed!
(I'm going to give this one a try myself)
As for materials, everything needs to have 'life' or 'feel' to it.  Reins for example... nylon or rope reins don't really have much feel, and not all leather ones do either.  The leather has to be tanned and handled properly to make good reins with good feel.
(after my first clinic with him I really did notice the difference when I rode with good leather reins as opposed to my old rope reins that I used for trail riding)
Ed really did mean everything though; pads, cinches, bridles, reins, heck even ground.  Ground can only be worked and used so long before you should take it out and replace it (honestly I don't think that is an expense a lot of us little, private back yard arenas can afford lol)
Another thing that loses life that a lot of people don't consider is the wool lining of their saddle.  Even if the saddle is in great shape that lining needs to be taken out and replaced every once in awhile.

There was a lot of discussion about breeding, bloodlines and conformation.  
Certain bloodlines are known for certain traits, but once you get too far back on the pedigree bloodlines are so diluted that a lot of what people talk about doesn't really matter.  So if you're looking at papers the sire and dam, and their sires and dams, are the real things to be looking at. 
Also there are some horses out there that are just freaks of nature.  They themselves may have been outstanding athletes but they never passed that on and none of their close relatives had what they did.
Conformationally what he looks for is a nice full hip, symmetrical slope to shoulder & hip, a short back with a long underline, short cannons and a good wither.
So it kinda boiled down to the motion of the horse, how he/she uses themself is the most important thing, next is the mind, then is the conformation.

As for exercise, this surprised a lot of girls.  Ed alternates 2 mile and 3 mile rides each week (3 days of each) with one day off (ie Monday, Wednesday, Friday 2 miles; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday 3miles, Sunday off).  Of that time riding, half is a long trot, half is a slow lope.  You do have to work in some speed work, he likes to sprint around the barrels to get that in.  In fact he does some barrel work each week, or day, as the horse needs it.
The shortness of the rides is what really got to some of the girls.  I was pleased to be able to guess the reason, longer rides work different muscle fibres (think of the conditioning Funder does for her endurance and long distance rides)  If you overly condition your horse its harder to get those quick bursts of speed.

There you have it, a good portion of Ed's classroom in a nutshell (from my perspective)

Hay, I've got a question for you

I always wonder - when I hear people talking about hay prices, what do they mean?  Whether hay is at $3 a bale, $10 or $16 (or more), what size bale is that?  What kind of hay is that?

So I'd like to hear from you guys.  Tell me about your hay.  Even if you usually lurk, speak up! 
Where do you get it?  What kind is it?  How big is your bale?  About how long does it last you?

I'll start off with my hay.  When we bought our place we were very fortunate that about 30 acres of our land is hay field.  Where we're not so fortunate is we don't have the equipment to hay it ourselves so we have to find someone to do it (its just not financially feasible, at least for now, to buy the equipment ourselves)
Last year (our first year here) we had more than enough hay for the year.  It was baled in squares and rounds.  The rounds are soft core and small (about 800lbs).   
I sold about 20-30 round bales to a neighbour friend.  We went into this winter with some squares & rounds left.  Our hay last year cost me about what I paid for 3 months board for 3 horses when we were boarding.
This past year we had to get someone else to hay for us (the neighbour that did it before had medical issues)  He wanted hay in trade, about 2/3 of it  - which is the going rate.  Well we need our hay!  We ended up settling for some hay & some cash for payment.  There are a few squares from this year's crop and the rounds which are still soft core but slightly larger (about 1000-1100lbs)
Our hayfield is mostly prairie wool, with some brome & a bit of alfalfa.

When we got the Dexter babies this winter we bought some hay for them.  Rounds, about 800lbs, that are grass/alfalfa mix.  We paid $25 a bale for them, delivered and unloaded.
(for our rounds I could probably have got about $30-40 a bale for them last year and this year)

Okay guys, your turn... go comment! :)

Booourns!!!

Spent yesterday getting the last of finals prep ready... Western shirts are washed and dried, truck and trailer are cleaned (insides only, didn't make it to the carwash), fresh shavings in trailer, boots cleaned (wore out my scrubby brush cleaning boots lol) and EVERYTHING is loaded except water & ponies so that this morning I could just load up and roll out without a rush or worrying about forgetting anything.

I jinxed it!!

Toonie runs are cancelled for today.  There is supposed to be 12" of ground and there's only 4.  Not sure who's screw up that was. 
Better still the arena set up is changed so the bleachers will be on the left barrel, and since I've switched both boys to running right first we will again be running straight into the crowd for our 2nd barrel. grrr  Last year running into the crowd for that 2nd barrel really caused Voodoo to booger. 
Now I know if they are seasoned enough blah blah blah.  Simple truth is that around here unless you rodeo your horse doesn't get exposed to that kind of thing.
(I hadn't switched directions because of finals, it was just a nice bonus)


Then there's the hay situation... last year we paid Neighbour Tony to cut & bale our hay.  He couldn't do it this year for medical reasons so he talked to Neighbour Tom and told us to call him.  Neighbour Tom agreed to do it and cut & baled our hay.  Its really nice hay but our yield is way down this year (it is for a lot of people in this area).  Last year we had 65 800# round bales and about 280 squares.  This year there are about 120-130 squares and only 28 1000# round bales. 
** the square bales this year are a bit heavier and tighter bound than last years, I estimate that if they were baled the same there would be between 180-200.  still down from last year but not as drastically **
Tom told us he wanted some of the squares for when his son is out on the rodeo trail.  Not a biggie, we still have some squares from last year and we use mostly rounds for feeding in the winter.
Yesterday Pie asked Tom what we owed him for the hay, thinking cash.  Tom told him he doesn't want cash, he wants 20 of the round bales. 

Sh!t  That leaves us 8

With the rounds we have from last year and the 8 we'd get from this year we will have JUST enough to get through the winter, hopefully.  But then what about next year?  Buying our own equipment to hay 30 acres just doesn't make sense financially.  Then again basically ending up with no hay and having to buy extra isn't great either.

Pie told Tom to talk to me today and we'll try to sort this out.  I'm really hoping he'll either take less hay & some cash or no hay & all cash.  Not sure though because it sounds like he really wants hay... then again he took over all or most of the hay Tony did last year so its not like there's not other hay out there for him.
If he insists on taking 20 then I guess we'll have to figure out something else for next year.

Wordless Wednesday - Hay, what's up :)