A place for horse related questions

[Overread]

One thing worth pointing out is that horses aren't grassland animals - they are plains animals. Basically they are more used to short patchy grass than lush thick fields of grass. Too much good eating is basically bad for them and can cause hoof and gut problems including things like colic. So whilst they graze all day, too much good food can be bad for them.

This is before we've even touched on providing a more balanced diet for working horses where the owners will likely be looking to avoid horses overeating and getting overweight.


At the other extreme of keeping horses, conservation sites are using more ponies for grazing of meadows/grasslands and reedbeds. Helping to provide a disruptive element to the environment breaking up soil, defecating, bashing brush down etc... Indeed they can be quite effective on newly stripped woodland that's destined to be made into restored heathland because certain breeds will munch on saplings and other more woody species. Basically preventing them from getting established.

A konik horse in conversation is generally left outside in all weathers on poorer quality feeding grounds. They are more than happy to be belly deep in mud and water if they choose. Of course sometimes there's pushback and some sites have had to provide hay for them not because they need it* but because locals would complain of horses having nothing to eat - the public perception being that they only eat nice short green grass.

. Just like some cat owners run the gauntlet from farm cats that are basically just hanging around the yard and aren't even fed much through to pampered cats that spend all day inside, go to the groomer, have clothes and are pampered up and couldn't so much as chip a claw without great panic from the owners and vets. The same is true of horses. Of course breeds also come into it, some breeds are more fragile than others - though of course a more fragile horse is still a horse and many times a persons strength and durability.


*if anything most conversation ponies likely need to eat less and exercise more. Since there's no predators and UK herds are often in smaller areas with smaller herds, they basically spend all day resting and eating and are thus super lazy and mostly out of condition.

 

[Montero]

Thanks @Joshua Jones and @Kerrybuchanan
We've actually done hay making - our own with a neighbouring farmer coming in to do the cutting, some of the turning and baling, and helping the neighbouring farmer on baling day. (All square bales.)

Does alternating grazing other animals like sheep or cows help with the horse worm problem?
What fencing material would you use - is stocknetting OK? (If alternating grazing need sheep proof fencing as well as horse friendly. I know don't use barbed wire.)
Would exercising extra precious horses on a lead rein inside a barn be the ideal?
Would you need to put some sort of flooring down - rubber mats say - over concrete floors of a barn? (I'm meaning an agricultural barn not a horse barn - thinking farm converted to animal hospital.)
Should the loose boxes have padded walls?
Is a horse on its own in a field happy? (Most sheep wouldn't be - apart from the occasional seriously independent one, three sheep is the minimum.)
Would horses be happier if they can look out across countryside from their stable? As compared to stables sub-dividing inside a barn, where all they've got to look at is other stables with strange horses and the barn.

@Overread Thank you. I once knew that on not too rich grazing but forgot it. So perhaps turning out for a couple of hours fresh air and exercise and then bringing back in, if the paddock is too lush?
Would owners be concerned about disease being handed on between horses if you time shared them in a field? As in put out one for two hours, bring it back in, put out second for two hours etc.

Oh, and I just remembered from reading westerns that ranchers allegedly hated sheep for nibbling grass too short for cattle to eat (and possibly horses). Is that a real problem?

 

[Overread]

"Is a horse on its own in a field happy? "

Nope they are herd animals and a typical horse wants to be part of a group even if they have just one companion. Of course practicalities mean that sometimes there's a fence between them, but in general horses want a companion. It's why some horse owners will have mini horses or ponies or even sometimes other species for companion animals for their horse. Smaller animals of course cost less to feed and keep in general, so if they only need one horse to ride then they can make do with a smaller companion animal.
Horses kept on their own for prolonged periods would develop issues, just like sheep and most other communal based animals including humans.

 

[Joshua Jones]

"Is a horse on its own in a field happy? "

Nope they are herd animals and a typical horse wants to be part of a group even if they have just one companion. Of course practicalities mean that sometimes there's a fence between them, but in general horses want a companion. It's why some horse owners will have mini horses or ponies or even sometimes other species for companion animals for their horse. Smaller animals of course cost less to feed and keep in general, so if they only need one horse to ride then they can make do with a smaller companion animal.
Horses kept on their own for prolonged periods would develop issues, just like sheep and most other communal based animals including humans.

Thanks for the opportunity to clarify a previous comment. The hedges we have aren't so that the horses cannot see one another (we have no paddocks where horses cannot see at least one other horse, although they may not be able to see all the horses on the property), but to provide stable, unbreakable barriers between the paddocks so the horses do not get at each other. The hedges we have are no taller than about a meter and about 2 meters wide, so they can't be jumped or pushed through. And, on either side of the hedge is fence to further dissuade encroachment. But yeah, keeping a horse by itself is not something we normally do or recommend, though owners of pet horses do sometimes have this situation.

One animal which should never be used as a companion animal for a horse, though, is a goat. Goats can and will eat the horse's tail.

Thanks @Joshua Jones and @Kerrybuchanan Quite welcome!
We've actually done hay making - our own with a neighbouring farmer coming in to do the cutting, some of the turning and baling, and helping the neighbouring farmer on baling day. (All square bales.) Yeah, square bales are the only sort which should be used for horses. The large round bales mildew too easily, and horses' stomachs are notoriously sensitive to mildew. Collecting these bales is fantastic work for teenage boys, btw... I worked for a local hay farmer as a teen loading around 1,000 bales a day. Phenomenal workout, that hay is...

Does alternating grazing other animals like sheep or cows help with the horse worm problem? I honestly don't know; we never kept cattle so never had the opportunity to rotate. We primarily just kept up on the maintenance and spread the manure so it didn't get infested.

What fencing material would you use - is stocknetting OK? (If alternating grazing need sheep proof fencing as well as horse friendly. I know don't use barbed wire.) The problem with stock netting is a horse can pretty easily break through it. We use 4" PVC pipe and three strips of something called safe fence, which is a white tape like substance with bare wire running through it. Each block of paddocks has a dedicated solar powered fence charger, which feeds a pulsing high voltage, low amperage electricity which hurts like fire and is powerful enough to take a grown man off his feet, but won't cause any burns or actual injury. The other, much more expensive way is to sink 10' 6"*6" oak posts halfway into the ground about every 10 feet and run three 2"*6" boards around the whole of the paddock. At least here in the States, oak is a relatively plentiful hardwood which, when properly affixed, is able to withstand most abuse a horse may throw at it. That said, many people who go this route still run a charged wire or two along it. Side note on charged fences... certain nefarious young boys (names of my brothers withheld to protect the guilty) will sometimes attempt to convince unsuspecting cousins to urinate on the charged fence as a prank...

Would exercising extra precious horses on a lead rein inside a barn be the ideal? My mom has an indoor dressage arena attached to her barn and an outdoor arena where she does exactly this. I believe she still does this for an hour at least twice a week with every horse, and requires either 2 or 3 lessons per week for every boarder, as well as her regular riding of her own horses. Lead rein exercises are essential for dressage, as they allow for form correction of the trot and canter.

Would you need to put some sort of flooring down - rubber mats say - over concrete floors of a barn? (I'm meaning an agricultural barn not a horse barn - thinking farm converted to animal hospital.) If it's concrete, you will need mats over anywhere horses may stand for any extended period of time, and potentially multiple in the stalls. We have a clay base for the stalls and still use rubber mats, as well as have mats at the tack area. If the horses are kept shod, mats in walking areas aren't necessary. We also have a cement shower stall which has mats. Bedding for stalls, btw, is a point of serious contention/neurosis among dressage riders. We use wood shavings, but some sociopaths prefer straw for some ungodly reason. If you want an added point of realism/conflict with the horse owner, have her blow a gasket over the bedding...
Should the loose boxes have padded walls? I'm going to operate under the assumption that boxes here means what I call stalls. I haven't seen many padded stalls for two reasons. First, horses can be rather playful animals, and giving them something ready made to pull on and toss about the stall is asking for this to happen.

The second will not make sense, though, without some basis in how stalls are constructed, at least over here. Our barn is made of block, so the back wall and one side wall of the end stalls are made of solid block 10' tall. The front wall is a solid oak frame with tight boards about halfway up, then metal mesh somewhat like thicker, painted stock netting the remainder of the way up to the frame, with a sliding door in the same pattern with a metal frame that slides on a reinforced metal track at the bottom and a wheel track at the top. The oak posts for the front wall, btw, are reinforced with steel rebar centers, which are sunk 6' into the cement foundation and clay. All this to say, horse kicks are ridiculously strong, and the structure must be able to withstand it. The dividing walls, however, are 2"*6" oak planks set into a two point metal track, with small (like half an inch) spacers between the boards starting at about 4' up. These spaces are for two reasons. First, if a horse kicks and breaks a plank, they aren't likely to break more than one. Second, so that they can see the horse in the next stall while in the stalls. This is one of the ways we get horses to socialize with each other while in the barn, and thus are less likely to fight over the fences in the pasture. If we padded these walls, most likely these gaps would be covered, which is detrimental to the herd dynamics. Also, it's superfluous, because oak can bend quite a bit and snap right back into place.
Is a horse on its own in a field happy? (Most sheep wouldn't be - apart from the occasional seriously independent one, three sheep is the minimum.) Overread already answered this, and my only additions are above.

Would horses be happier if they can look out across countryside from their stable? As compared to stables sub-dividing inside a barn, where all they've got to look at is other stables with strange horses and the barn. Honestly, most barns I've seen recently have stalls which open inward toward a center aisle, and windows for the horses facing outside. We have shatterproof glass (you know, that glass that has the wire mesh running through it?) on the outside part, followed by a couple inches then that same metal mesh I mentioned for the windows at the front of the stall (we have alot of custom metalwork in our barn...). And, again, metal brackets bolted into the block walls. The glass is to keep the flies out, and the mesh is to keep the horses from breaking the glass.

@Overread Thank you. I once knew that on not too rich grazing but forgot it. So perhaps turning out for a couple of hours fresh air and exercise and then bringing back in, if the paddock is too lush? That's exactly what we do if we if a pasture becomes too lush and don't have time to mow the pasture. To be fair, this doesn't become much of a concern because a horse is quite capable of keeping the grass under control over a half acre, so their normal schedule, barring inclement weather, is to be out from about 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM during the winter and the inverse during the summer (although, we don't have any large predators where I live, so places with wolves, bears, wildcats, etc. may have a different practice). But their schedule is VERY tightly kept at all times. Barn hands have been fired for bringing them in 30 minutes late.

Would owners be concerned about disease being handed on between horses if you time shared them in a field? As in put out one for two hours, bring it back in, put out second for two hours etc. TBH I've never considered this. Most afflictions of horses are pseudo-self-inflicted (letting themselves into the hay field for a buffet leading to colic, galloping about like a crazy horse in the pasture and pulling a muscle or worse. I say pseudo-self-inflicted because a good owner/trainer will take steps to prevent this, such as adequate fencing and maintaining a consistent schedule so horses don't go crazy when turned out [which is why the schedule is kept so tightly].). I'll defer to the experience of @Kerrybuchanan here, but the most common reason we called the vet was colic. I'll be happy to elaborate on some of the treatments for this we have utilized through the years... but the general premise is to make the horse defecate.

Oh, and I just remembered from reading westerns that ranchers allegedly hated sheep for nibbling grass too short for cattle to eat (and possibly horses). Is that a real problem? I honestly don't know about this one, as we never kept cattle. I know it is hypothetically possible for one sort of animal to eat a pasture in such a way as to make it unusable to another animal, but I don't know if sheep and cows have this sort of relation.

In the interest of organization, I put my replies inside the quote in italics.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Heavens! I'm away for an hour or two, baking a cake, and look at all these brilliant posts!

Little to add, but here goes (and I'm bound to miss something):

Hay (or haylage, which is a bit like silage, but drier) can be fed from big round bales, but only if they have been baled and stored in perfect conditions. We've used both, and I'm really careful about my suppliers. I watch the crop grow, then watch the harvest, and only buy if I can be sure it hasn't seen a drop of rain before baling! I've experience mouldy hay and rotten haylage when we used to keep our horses at livery and the owners were cutting corners to keep costs down. Not worth it.

Fencing. Sheep-netting in Northern Ireland is usually square-holed wire fencing to about 3' high with two strands of barbed wire above it. This is not considered safe for horses, although I know plenty of horse pastures that are fenced this way. If it's tight and not sagging, it can be okay, but as soon as it begins to stretch and sag, it is dangerous. A horse can get a foot though one of the holes in the wire (they're about 5" square roughly), panic and literally skin itself. I've seen injuries like this, and they're not pretty. Ditto barbed wire. It's an abominated should never be allowed near horses. You can get special horse fence, which is similar but the wire is stiffer, the holes are much smaller, and it's taller, so no barbed wire needed.

@Joshua Jones, I had a giggle at your hedges. Obviously designed for dressage horses. Our youngster (bred for dressage, but will probably end up as a 3-day eventer) was leaping dry stone walls bigger than your hedges from six weeks (yes, I did say weeks) old, and steel five-bar gates from four months, just for the fun of it. None of our other horses ever showed any inclination to jump boundaries. We had calls from all our immediate neighbours at various times to ask us to remove him from their fields, which he'd gone exploring, leaving his panicking mother behind. Now, our farm looks like a deer farm, with eight-foot high fences and live electric tape over every single gate. And yes, even the beautiful plank fences need a string of electrified wire to prevent the horses eating the top plank. Some of them love to chew on fences.

Exercising horses. Most good yards, and veterinary practices that specialise in horses, would have a motorised horse walker. This is a circular structure which encourages the horses to walk at various speeds from slouch to brisk march in one direction or the other (they usually change around halfway through the session). These are great for horses that are recuperating from injury, and for building fitness, and for warming up one horse while you're riding another (which is what we used ours for). There's also lungeing, which is the same thing but in a big space and the horse circles at the end of a long line with the trainer standing on one spot in the centre and slowly rotating. Lungeing often involves walk, trot and canter (and rears, bucks, charging at the trainer, or even legging it off towards the horizon, towing the trainer) and is often used with young horses, or to allow a rider on the horse to concentrate on one issue whilst someone else controls its direction.

Rubber mats and bedding. Concrete is slippery when wet, so rubber mats are often used in walkways. They can be used inside stables for the same reason, and for insulation, but they need to be taken out and cleaned regularly as the urines can pool beneath them (unless they're fully-fitted, halfway up the wall type that we've never been able to afford!), which is unhealthy and can lead to lung problems in horses and any staff picking them out. Actual bedding is, as JJ said, a bone of contention for most owners. We're always looking for the perfect bedding, and we never find it. Chopped up newspaper, wood shavings, sawdust, peat, straw, chopped straw, wood pellets (that turn to shavings when wet, a bit like wood pellet cat litter) are all types we've used in the past. The best ones we've found seem to be a sawdust/shavings mix for wet horses, shavings for dry horses and straw for big turnout shelters (open-fronted barns in the fields). Dusty bedding can cause lung problems in some horses, so newspaper shredded is good for those ones.

The only padded walls I've seen are on anaesthesia and recovery boxes (stables) at equine veterinary surgeries. They help prevent the horse injuring itself as it careers around, half-asleep and uncoordinated. I have seen people fix mirrors on stable walls for horses that get bored and lonely in the stable for long periods. They must be unbreakable, I guess, but I've needed to use them. Our stables are all stone walls to about eight feet high, and open to the very high roof above that (they're inside a barn with huge sliding doors for ventilation -- think aircraft hangar). They all have stable doors they can stick their heads over to see each other. There's nothing to beat the sound of chewing and the warm horsey smell on a winter evening, when everyone is mucked out and fed.

Horses love routine, as JJ said above, and @Overread is right to point out the importance of overfeeding. Laminitis (inflammation inside the hoof from too much sugar in rich, fast-growing grass) can be fatal if severe, and so can colic. Ponies and in-foal mares are most prone to such problems, but any breed can suffer. Either restricted grazing or a grazing muzzle (so they can only eat a bit at a time) can help. I've known pony-owners who were reported for cruelty by ignorant members of the public who thought they were trying to starve their overweight pony instead of trying to keep it alive and well. A Shetland pony, for example, evolved to live off harsh, thin grass (and not much of it), lichens and moss, pretty much. Their systems just can't deal with high-energy food.

If your fictional premises is housing sick horses, you would definitely need to follow good practice to prevent them passing diseases on to each other. There are very many highly contagious bacterial and viral infections that can rage through a premises between horses, some carried via feed buckets, hosepipes, owners' clothing, etc. Examples include strangles and equine influenza (although horses should be vaccinated against the latter).

Phew. Going for a lie-down now.

 

[Joshua Jones]

Heavens! I'm away for an hour or two, baking a cake, and look at all these brilliant posts!

Little to add, but here goes (and I'm bound to miss something):

Hay (or haylage, which is a bit like silage, but drier) can be fed from big round bales, but only if they have been baled and stored in perfect conditions. We've used both, and I'm really careful about my suppliers. I watch the crop grow, then watch the harvest, and only buy if I can be sure it hasn't seen a drop of rain before baling! I've experience mouldy hay and rotten haylage when we used to keep our horses at livery and the owners were cutting corners to keep costs down. Not worth it.

Fencing. Sheep-netting in Northern Ireland is usually square-holed wire fencing to about 3' high with two strands of barbed wire above it. This is not considered safe for horses, although I know plenty of horse pastures that are fenced this way. If it's tight and not sagging, it can be okay, but as soon as it begins to stretch and sag, it is dangerous. A horse can get a foot though one of the holes in the wire (they're about 5" square roughly), panic and literally skin itself. I've seen injuries like this, and they're not pretty. Ditto barbed wire. It's an abominated should never be allowed near horses. You can get special horse fence, which is similar but the wire is stiffer, the holes are much smaller, and it's taller, so no barbed wire needed.

@Joshua Jones, I had a giggle at your hedges. Obviously designed for dressage horses. Our youngster (bred for dressage, but will probably end up as a 3-day eventer) was leaping dry stone walls bigger than your hedges from six weeks (yes, I did say weeks) old, and steel five-bar gates from four months, just for the fun of it. None of our other horses ever showed any inclination to jump boundaries. We had calls from all our immediate neighbours at various times to ask us to remove him from their fields, which he'd gone exploring, leaving his panicking mother behind. Now, our farm looks like a deer farm, with eight-foot high fences and live electric tape over every single gate. And yes, even the beautiful plank fences need a string of electrified wire to prevent the horses eating the top plank. Some of them love to chew on fences.

Exercising horses. Most good yards, and veterinary practices that specialise in horses, would have a motorised horse walker. This is a circular structure which encourages the horses to walk at various speeds from slouch to brisk march in one direction or the other (they usually change around halfway through the session). These are great for horses that are recuperating from injury, and for building fitness, and for warming up one horse while you're riding another (which is what we used ours for). There's also lungeing, which is the same thing but in a big space and the horse circles at the end of a long line with the trainer standing on one spot in the centre and slowly rotating. Lungeing often involves walk, trot and canter (and rears, bucks, charging at the trainer, or even legging it off towards the horizon, towing the trainer) and is often used with young horses, or to allow a rider on the horse to concentrate on one issue whilst someone else controls its direction.

Rubber mats and bedding. Concrete is slippery when wet, so rubber mats are often used in walkways. They can be used inside stables for the same reason, and for insulation, but they need to be taken out and cleaned regularly as the urines can pool beneath them (unless they're fully-fitted, halfway up the wall type that we've never been able to afford!), which is unhealthy and can lead to lung problems in horses and any staff picking them out. Actual bedding is, as JJ said, a bone of contention for most owners. We're always looking for the perfect bedding, and we never find it. Chopped up newspaper, wood shavings, sawdust, peat, straw, chopped straw, wood pellets (that turn to shavings when wet, a bit like wood pellet cat litter) are all types we've used in the past. The best ones we've found seem to be a sawdust/shavings mix for wet horses, shavings for dry horses and straw for big turnout shelters (open-fronted barns in the fields). Dusty bedding can cause lung problems in some horses, so newspaper shredded is good for those ones.

The only padded walls I've seen are on anaesthesia and recovery boxes (stables) at equine veterinary surgeries. They help prevent the horse injuring itself as it careers around, half-asleep and uncoordinated. I have seen people fix mirrors on stable walls for horses that get bored and lonely in the stable for long periods. They must be unbreakable, I guess, but I've needed to use them. Our stables are all stone walls to about eight feet high, and open to the very high roof above that (they're inside a barn with huge sliding doors for ventilation -- think aircraft hangar). They all have stable doors they can stick their heads over to see each other. There's nothing to beat the sound of chewing and the warm horsey smell on a winter evening, when everyone is mucked out and fed.

Horses love routine, as JJ said above, and @Overread is right to point out the importance of overfeeding. Laminitis (inflammation inside the hoof from too much sugar in rich, fast-growing grass) can be fatal if severe, and so can colic. Ponies and in-foal mares are most prone to such problems, but any breed can suffer. Either restricted grazing or a grazing muzzle (so they can only eat a bit at a time) can help. I've known pony-owners who were reported for cruelty by ignorant members of the public who thought they were trying to starve their overweight pony instead of trying to keep it alive and well. A Shetland pony, for example, evolved to live off harsh, thin grass (and not much of it), lichens and moss, pretty much. Their systems just can't deal with high-energy food.

If your fictional premises is housing sick horses, you would definitely need to follow good practice to prevent them passing diseases on to each other. There are very many highly contagious bacterial and viral infections that can rage through a premises between horses, some carried via feed buckets, hosepipes, owners' clothing, etc. Examples include strangles and equine influenza (although horses should be vaccinated against the latter).

Phew. Going for a lie-down now.

Brilliant post, and its interesting to see the distinctions between locations in practices. I live in a high humidity area (right now its about 60% humidity, and days up to 90% are not entirely uncommon) so the perfect conditions you describe for storing a round bale for horse feeding are completely impossible here. So at least here, round bales are strictly for cattle. Interesting that it's even possible to use them for horses there! BTW we use alfalfa and the natural grass hay we grow at the farm, primarily as a supplement during the winter months when the pastures are rather lean.

I was wondering if you were going to mention how our fences and hedges weren't suited for jumpers... and they most certainly aren't! We waive off potential boarders who have jumpers just for this; we are strictly a dressage farm. And yes, munching on fences and stall boards is a very real thing... although, a dose of Tabasco sauce on the boards (especially for stalls) does tend to dissuade this...

Interesting point on the walker; we've always just lunged them, as the motorized variant is expensive and we usually only have 8-10 head at the farm at a given time, so its rather superfluous for our needs. I certainly see the value, but if its a small farm with required lessons, just telling the student to go to the other arena and lunge them is usually sufficient for us.

We had a bit of a creative solution for building our barn to prevent water incursions and wet surfaces... we built the barn and indoor riding arena on a 3' mound of clay to prevent ground water, laid the cement slightly concave, and put a slight lip across the wash stall entry as well as a drain trench (with metal grate over of course!) down the middle and out the side. The most wet the floors get in our barn is when the wet horses are led out of the wash stall, so we don't need mats in the walkways. But yes, if ground water or the like is a concern, rubber mats in the walkways are quite helpful.

I'm flatly impressed with all the bedding options you've tried! I haven't heard of most of them being used; here its primarily sawdust, shavings, or straw. We used to do sawdust but it was too dusty after awhile... but the humidity here makes it so shavings have very little dust.

I could see padding being used in boxes in a post-op setting (although, with the way today is going at work, I may need a padded box for myself...). Your barn sounds lovely, btw! I wish I had a good picture handy of the barn part of our facility... But the green part below is the office, meeting room, tack room, and observation loft, while the yellow part is the indoor arena. The barn itself is just off to the left, attached to rest of the building. The horse, btw, is LSF One Tuff Cookie, a retired showhorse who was trained to 4th level and now is the main new rider horse and the darling of my 5 year old daughter... Not that Grandma would EVER indulge her to ride upon every visit or anything...

 

[Overread]

One thought - depending on how big a thing its going to be in your book - never overlook the value of hands on experience.

I'm not suggesting that you go out and spend hundreds of hours at it, but even a few afternoons can give you a few insights that you might otherwise overlook. Maybe smells or sounds, subtle elements that you might weave into a story. Or even just something really simple like the texture and feel of horse fur and hair etc... Plus if you're getting some tuition you might pick up other things form someone in person that you might not get from a book or even internet chat about a subject.

Sometimes these little things can give you some small details that can add some life to a story. Heck my father has read a good few books on raising poultry and can generally tell when one is written by someone who has kept birds and by those who have mostly copy-catted what others have written about birds.

Of course with the current times such things might not be safe/practical/possible; but its a consideration for the future and such.

 

[JimC]

What is a conversation pony?

Another don't for horses. If you land your fabric covered airplane in a pasture that contains horses, don't leave it unattended - they will eat the fabric right off of it. They particularly love Grade A cotton treated with butyrate dope.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Conservation, I’m guessing. Probably another one to blame on autocorrect. I only realised how many typos littered my own comment after the editing window had passed!

 

[JimC]

Ain't that the truth. I hate auto correct.

 

[Montero]

@Overread Hear you. I have some basic experience as I had one hour riding classes once a week for five years when I was a kid and it included lessons on grooming. So not in any way top notch riding experience..... but some colour there. I'm a great believer in experience it yourself too.

@JimC Cattle also eat the fabric off aircraft.

 

[Overread]

Conservation, I’m guessing. Probably another one to blame on autocorrect. I only realised how many typos littered my own comment after the editing window had passed!

Sadly sometimes its my fingers that seem to have their own version autocorrect!
Partly its cause I touchtype so half the time its because its a word I use more often that starts out the same so the fingers just sort of auto-pilot to the most common positions. Thus conservation becomes conversation because the latter ends up being faster and requires no thinking because its a word I use far more often.

 

[Montero]

I read conservation because I am familiar with conservation grazing

Further on writing what you know...... I am a chemist originally and I get fed-up with misunderstanding of people who are scientists by some writers and also the silly chemistry labs on TV with some brightly coloured liquid bubbling in a round bottomed flask - very, very little is brightly coloured unless you are making aniline dyes..... most of it is colourless and should be in a fume cupboard anyway, not sitting on an open bench. Most scientists obsessively talk science - they don't have dates where they say "let's not talk about work" any more than a horse person would go out for a drink and not talk horses..... But detailed conversations about the latest issue of Journal of the American Chemical Society isn't of course a winner for the general audience.

So the animal hospital is important to one of the main characters, and he will spend time there, but it is not the key part of this story - but may have a more central role in a later book. I'd started off planning sheep treatment, but other than a few pets and prize winning rams there is even less money in sheep than in horses. There will still be sheep around. So I wanted a place that was financially plausible - doesn't have to be a big earner, just keep its head above water. What I have learned over the last few days will help a lot with designing the layout and look of the place and buildings, fields, the animals in the fields (or not in the fields because they are being walked in the barn) - my main character was about to drive in the gate and everything juddered to a halt..... All that all of you've shared with me may even change things a bit - I was planning an established place, I'm now wondering about somewhere just getting going..... that's one of the things that's really fun about writing. I will build on it in future books - as I learn more - I think there are definitely ways plots could be introduced through the animal hospital. I love reading books where there is depth to the world and character and also where the main plot has a feel at times of lives interrupted. And also where characters have conversations with their friends in some place other than a bar. So that is my aim.....

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Where will this be set? USA? UK? Mars?

 

[Joshua Jones]

Where will this be set? USA? UK? Mars?

@Montero Do Mars! Do Mars! Do Mars!

A prequel to Firefly!

 

[Montero]

My Friend Firefly.
I bought My Friend Flicka last year and the sequels and enjoyed them as much as when a kid. They have a mature content as well as kiddy - mature as in grown up.

UK - southern UK to be more exact.

 

[Montero]

So plotting out what happens after he drives in and gets out of the car - might be called on to give a hand, or whoever he wanders up to for a chat says "Running late, can you do xxxx, talk later/talk as we work"

To fill in xxxx I am thinking that a relatively unskilled person, who is observant and used to animals in the form of sheep could be asked to do the following to help out:

Groom a placid horse – either working alongside the experienced person or has already had a lesson in how to do it.
Lead a placid horse up and down a walkway (but not a frisky one) or out to a field
Muck out empty stalls and put down feed and water for horses before they are brought in.
Clean tack (but you wouldn't need a lot of tack at an animal hospital)

Questions on detail:

Food
In terms of putting out feed, hay could be put out at any time. But, any feed that is more desirable (like sheep nuts for sheep) that could attract birds or rodents – would you wait on that until just before the horse was brought in?

Mood
If someone is in a bad mood, I'm assuming a horse would notice (sheep certainly do). Could you have an elderly, placid horse that wouldn't care if the person grooming it was in a bad mood, so long as they got their daily dose of brushing?

Questions on grooming – or rather a sanity check on the things I vaguely remember plus a bit I've looked up – I remember doing it as having a brush in one hand and a curry comb in the other, you brush in the direction that the hair lies and use the comb to clean out the brush. However looking online here Horse Grooming - Step By Step Guide | Horsemart
It is using the curry comb as the first stage on the horse to loosen everything, and doesn't mention cleaning the brush off on anything. And it is not brushing in the direction the hair lies until the final stage.
While doing the brushing, dust – skin cells, dried sweat and dried mud – comes off together with loose hairs. It all gets clogged on the brush and every so often you clean the brush off (I thought you used the curry comb for that but seem to have that wrong). You start at the top of the side of the horse, working backwards towards the tail, and then the next “stripe” along the side and then the next lower stripe. You get covered in fine dust/grime – as in your face, hands and clothes will have a fine coating of what you are brushing off and it may get in your nose. There is a particular smell to horses that will persist on you
If the horse keeps twitching a bit of its skin like a fly landed, that is a sensitive spot and best not brushed.
The horse may whisk its tail round and if you are near the rear end you can be swatted by it
You will see motes of dust, glittering in the sunlight as you brush.
With less placid horses it's a good idea to tie the halter short so they can't turn and bite you and lengthen it when you are done grooming (the article doesn't mention length of rope, just being able to release it quickly).
Some horses may try slamming you against the side wall of the stable by swinging their body
When you get the horse to lift its foot so you can check the frog, the horse may decide to lean on you.

Is the above correct?

Further question – if two of you are grooming a horse, one either side say, would it be OK for the two people to be chatting or would that upset some horses?

Questions on leading horses up and down for exercise – would that be done in a halter, or a bridle and bit? If the horse tosses its head high, can that pull a muscle in your arm?
If you are leading a horse out from a shadowed barn to bright sunlight, could that cause the horse to jump back, rear, or in some other way protest the sudden bright light?
If yes, what is the answer – waiting in the doorway for the horse's eyes to adjust?

 

[Montero]

And another question - @Kerrybuchanan - you mentioned a horse being led on gravel. I wouldn't have expected that as in my lack of knowledge would have thought the horse would get lots of bits of gravel stuck in the hoof. What size of gravel were you talking? And sharp edge chippings or more pea shingle/pebble?

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I’m going to be away from the laptop most of today and my fingers are too sore to type on the phone, but I’ll get back to this later, I promise x

 

[Montero]

That's very kind of you. Speaking as another person who gets sore fingers, please don't do it until it's OK for you.

I've been really appreciating this thread - it's helping bring things to life as well as being interesting in its own and it's made it a really good week for me.