Firewise

I haven’t written for a long time but I just ran across information about being firewise with our horses and the information is important right now.

Dennis is up at our cabin West of the Klickitat River to mow down the weeds that we didn’t get to earlier in the year. He can see the smoke from the Milepost 28 fire near Goldendale. We also have friends in the Goldendale area. Fire up there is scary stuff.



This information is from the yahoo group - HorsesForCleanWater@yahoogroups.com by Alayne Renee Blickle.

With funding provided by Southwest Idaho Resource Conservation and Development, Alayne Renee Bickle developed educational materials for horse owners on ways to reduce risk and deal with wildfire. Her free Firewise materials as well as tons of other very good information “on green horse management” are available here.

This is the link to a very well done Planning Checklist and this is the link to her Evacuation Plan Checklist. This would even be really good information to have in the back of your mind as you venture out on a trail ride.

We do lots of other things to keep our horses safe – safe fencing, vaccinations, good feed, good shelter and general vigilance. Now you can add being firewise to that list.

Those Little Buggers

I just got a call this morning to tell me my little bugs are one their way. Around here, that is cause for great joy. The next exciting event is when the little cardboard box arrives. Then it is a daily watch to check for the little buggers. (is that a pun?) When enough of them hatch out of the fly larva, then we take them out to the barn and the pastures and sprinkle them around. Then we watch for the little things flying all over the place.

Does any of this sound familiar? If so, then I’m guessing you use fly predators, have used fly predators or know of someone who does. I believe the ‘haves’ in this group are happy campers cause they are not flapping and swatting at flies all summer.

Now I’ll come clean. We have used Spalding Fly Predators for the past 3 summers and are anxiously waiting for our first shipment for this season. The only time we use fly spray is when we take our horses to the fairgrounds for the 10 days of fair. And maybe when we go ride at Battle Ground Lake if they seem bad that day. We don’t even use fly masks except when we are hauling our horses because we have a stock trailer and I’m worried about hay scarps or something flying into their eyes. Those little bugs really work.

They do not control mosquitoes or horse flies but they do a bang up job on all those nasty things that try to crawl into your mouth or congregate around our horse’s eyes. We have a couple of those old fashioned sticky fly strips hanging over the stalls and they never get full. The amount of bugs you buy depends on the stock that you have. And the amount of stock that is around you. If you had two horses and were neighbors to the race track, these probably wouldn’t work well enough or would cost you a fortune. On a smaller scale, I have heard of some that buy them for their horses and some for their neighbors too just so they keep their fly problem under control. A word of warning – they work best if you can get a jump on the fly season. Once there is a fly problem, it is harder to get it under control.

How it works is that these little bugs exist only to eat out the center of the fly larva. Then they lay eggs in there and those hatch in 5 days and then those hungry little things eat the fly larva and it goes on and on. Because their food is so specialized, they will eventually eat themselves out of a job. To fix that problem, Spalding ships out new bugs each month. You can order them a month at a time or for the whole season like we do. They are actually tiny little wasp like creatures that don't sting and don't bite and they and they stay pretty close to the floor. The light switch for our barn is in Poco’s stall so when I go in to turn it off and I have my headlamp on, I see a few of them fluttering around the light. Turn the light off and the problem is solved.

I was talking to Maryjo out at Silver Buckle and they use them too. In fact, I’m sure there are a bunch of folks around here that do. It’s just something that I don’t hear talked about too much. If you haven’t used them and would like to hear more about how much I like them, send me an email or give me a call. I am a FAN.

PS – if you do decide to try them, tell the folks that you heard about them from me and I’ll get a bonus shipment.

Living on the Land Class Series

Registration Is Open for Fall 2008 Living on the Land Class Series

Would you like to learn how to reduce mud and weeds, improve pasture and soil quality, keep your animals healthy, and reduce chore time? Join us for the twelve week Living on the Land – Stewardship for Small Acreages series of workshops sponsored by WSU Clark County Extension and the Clark County Clean Water Program. The series provides a basic, holistic understanding of soil, water, plant and animal interactions on small acreage properties.

“Living on the Land - Stewardship for Small Acreages”
Wednesdays, September 3 to November 19, 2008 - 6:30 to 9:30 PM

Registration is free but class size is limited to the first 40 farms or properties. Please call Erin Harwood at 360-397-6060 ext. 7720 or e-mail her at erin.harwood@clark.wa.gov to register, get directions, or for more information about the Small Acreage Program.

WSU Extension programs are available to all without discrimination. Persons requiring special accommodations should call WSU Clark County Extension at (360) 397-6060 ext. 0 at least two weeks prior to the event.

If you have already taken this class in the past, but missed a class or two, or would like a refresher, please let me know and I will send you the schedule.

Erin HarwoodSmall Acreage Program CoordinatorWSU Clark County Extension11104 NE 149th Street, C-100Brush Prairie, WA 98606Phone: 360-397-6060 x7720Fax: 360-397-6122http://clark.wsu.edu/

How Green is your Grass?

Join the Small Acreage Program for a free workshop that will provide tips, suggestions, and ideas on how to improve pastures, control weeds, and reduce feed costs for your animals. The workshop will provide information on installing fencing to increase grass production and set up rotational grazing, along with other tips and tricks to reduce chore time and save you money.

The Small Acreage Program, co-sponsored by Washington State University Clark County Extension, the Clark County Clean Water Program, and the Clark Conservation District, will provide information, handouts and answer landowners’ questions at the workshop.

“Greener Pastures”
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
6:30 to 8:30 PM

CASEE Center
11104 NE 149th Street
Building B
Brush Prairie, WA

Registration is free but class size is limited.
Please call 360-397-6060 ext. 7720 or e-mail Erin at erin.harwood@clark.wa.gov to register , or for more information about the WSU Clark County Extension’s Small Acreage Program.

Favorite Flavor

I read this on one of my chat boards and thought it was interesting ----

Equine Flavor Preferences by:
Lydia Gray, DVM, MAJuly 15 2008, Article # 12280

Does your horse have a favorite flavor? Eight research horses in England did.

Deborah Goodwin, BSc, PhD, research director of Applied Animal Behaviour Programmes at the University of Southampton, set out to discover what flavors horses actually like, compared to what horse owners and product manufacturers think horses like. In Goodwin's first trial, she offered 15 flavors to eight stabled horses in a small amount of grain and measured how much they ate, how long it took them to eat it, and if any horses partially or completely rejected it. Some horses refused to eat three flavors--echinacea, nutmeg, and coriander. This left 12 flavors that were universally accepted: apple, banana, carrot, cherry, cumin, fenugreek, garlic, ginger, oregano, peppermint, and rosemary turmeric. In the next phase of the study, the eight flavors the horses ate the fastest of the 12 offered were presented again, in all combinations of pairings, to rank the horses' overall order of preference. The horses' top-ranked flavors were (in order): Fenugreek, Banana, Cherry, Rosemary, Cumin, Carrot, Peppermint, Oregano. Finally, in Trial 3 she offered the horses three versions of a mineral pellet: banana-flavored, fenugreek-flavored, or unflavored. Horses ate the pellet much faster when it was flavored with either fenugreek or banana than when it had no added flavor.

The take-home: if you want your horse to eat his medication or supplements, choose products that already contain the top eight flavors horses prefer, or add them yourself.

Goodwin D, Davidson H P B, Harris, P. Selection and acceptance of flavours in concentrate diets for stabled horses. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 95, Issue 3 - 4, Pages 223-232.

Pedometer for a horse?

I just read something interesting from the Rick Lamb e-newsletter. It was an excerpt from his book “Horse Smarts for the Busy Rider”

It talked about a rancher with limited acreage (don’t we all) that divides it up into several small paddocks. The horses are put on a new one each day to give the grass a chance to rest and grow a bit. To get the horses to walk more, which is what they would do in the wild, he has lanes set up into each paddock from a central watering source. The lanes are considered ‘sacrifice areas’ because the heavy hoof traffic keeps the grass from growing. During the day, the horses will walk back and forth from grass to water several times, building up their walking distance.

We have something similar set up at our place. I am a worry wart about my horses and wonder if they are getting enough exercise when we aren’t riding regularly. After reading this, I feel much better because I see them come and go from their barn to the pasture several times a day. Maybe I could strap a pedometer (what would it be called on a horse) to see how far they are really walking. I might be surprised.

We have only had horses here at home for 4 years so we didn’t have a lot of experience to turn to when planning the horse area. Instead, we turned to Erin Harwood of the WSU Extension office Small Acreage Program. She is the coordinator and if you aren’t on her email blast list, contact her today to be added. She has classes and tours to teach newbies and oldbies alike about good ideas for their small farms. And if you have a question about most anything ‘ag’ she has or will come up with an answer. She has given us plans for bat boxes, feeding cribs and directed us to noxious weed charts. Click here to connect to this wonderful resource.

Stay tuned...........
Blessings to you all,
Jody

Stuff and a good tip

Hi,
I'm new at this and I hope you'll bear with me as I learn how to do this blog thing.

Some of you have received emails from me about events or issues relating to the Clark County horse community. I keep adding addresses when I find someone new but the list is getting really big. Through this blog, we can get the information out to a lot more people.

We have had some land use issues that need to be looked at, some events that more people need to know about and some really neat stuff that just needs to be told. Maybe even some good hints that newbies like me don't know yet. This is all the type of thing that I would like to cover here.

What I want from all of you is information about issues, events, attaboys and hints. This will be a great place to share all that.

Now to start that sharing ----
We have only had our horses at our place for 4 years and it takes a lot longer than that to learn all the 'easy' ways of doing things. But we have learned one trick that I just have to share.

You know those awful '300 lb' stall mats that need to be rearranged occasionally? Those ones that defy any attempt at moving? A friend was watching us trying to move some around and suggested we use vice grips. Now that was a great idea. If you haven't tried it yet, just attach two of them and they will work just like handles. I don't know how two metal clamps can make a mat seem lighter but they sure do.

Stay tuned .......

And Blessings to you all,
Jody