There are a few tasks that I really don’t enjoy. For some reason I hate dealing with dirty horse blankets. For the most part I am a very organized person and like to stay on top of things. When it comes to dirty horse blankets I am the queen of procrastination! I don’t know why but I always find a million excuses and other things to do rather than sort through the blankets and get them over to the wonderful person who cleans and repairs them. I did finally sort through them all a few weeks ago, load them into the back of the truck and happily dump them all out at her house so they could be her problem! Since we have a blanket or forty (or more) around here it isn’t a small job for her to wash them all and do any needed repairs.
Dirty blankets loaded in the truck and ready to be cleaned and repaired
Another task that would not make my list of favorites, and for that matter most of the horses don’t like it either, is being wormed. You know you go through a lot of wormer when Valley Vet or Country Supply or whomever I recently ordered paste wormer from slaps a mailing label on the original box from the manufacturer and sends it on to you. It seems like I spend as much time opening up each individual box of wormer, then removing each individual tube from the plastic wrap, as I do actually administering the wormer to the horses. Depending on the season I paste worm every 6-8 weeks. Most of the horses don’t object at all, but of course there are always one or two who let you know it is not their favorite thing.
My pile of boxes and tubes as I work my way through the box getting everything opened and ready for use
I can’t say the horses love their annual visit from the dentist. As with worming they are all mostly cooperative, if less than thrilled, about having their teeth done. But really, who actually enjoys going to the dentist?
We provide equal opportunity care and housing on this farm which means Sparky the donkey has his teeth floated every year, is paste wormed on the same schedule as the horses and has his feet trimmed every six weeks.
Asterik is the most recent retiree to join us on the farm. He was a very good boy about having his teeth floated.
Ivan says the best part about the dentist is the drugs! He was very lightly sedated, as they all were, and quite alert when the dentist was working on him. He acted like a drunk when he went back in his stall though, and let the door hold his head up for a few minutes.
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