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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

A Second Option

When it comes to turning Gogo out for the next year or so, it turns out that I have another option beyond just simply keeping her in the 5 acres behind my house. My landlord lives next door to me, and he owns about 30 acres of pasture land that he has only one horse out on right now. My 5 acres needs a lot of work in order to be functional. His two 15 acres paddocks, however, are fully workable and horse-livable immediately. He offered me use of one of them instead of fixing up my paddock, which he also said he would do if I want. The 15 acre field is behind my 5 acres, so it's not exactly in my backyard, but it's literally a 3 minute walk to get down there to the field. There is a big shed, lots of really nice grass, and NO STICKERS! My pasture is totally overrun with them and you cannot kill them. I mean really. You can't freaking kill the horrible m-fing m-fers.


Pros of keeping Gogo in my 5 acres:
Right behind my house
Easy access
24/7 healthy happy turnout!

Cons of keeping Gogo in my 5 acres:
Mucho rebuilding of fence, and much rebuilding of the labyrinth in order to make safe shelter
Smaller than 15 acres
Grass is good but not quite as good at the 15 acres
STICKERS


Pros of keeping Gogo in my landlord's 15 acres:
It's 15 acres!
Great grass
Nice shelter
Immediately available
Good safe horse fencing and footing
Possibility of turnout with his gelding, in which case it would be 30 acres
No stickers!! Or well, minimal stickers

Cons of keeping Gogo in my landlord's 15 acres:
Not as easy to access
Harder to keep an eye on her - not right behind my house so I can't watch her all the time



Clearly it sounds like an easy choice. I would prefer for sure that she stay in my backyard, and she might get to at some point, but it's just a better option to keep her in the other field.











That's Bubba, the potential buddy. I'd love her to have a friend if she would get along with him! The only things that really need to be don ein the 15 acres are to remove the costal roundbales from the shed (from what I understand, costal can be pretty poopy hay, and northern horses apparently don't do well on it? I don't honestly know for a fact), and fix a bit of the fence between the two pastures where it is sagging. It will not even take an hour so long as there is some machinery involved. There is also a big huge hole that I found, just one - that needs to be filled. Other than that, it's totally ready to go.

What do you think?
at vaguely around

19 comments:

  1. sallyJanuary 6, 2011 at 1:55 AM

    the large turn out sounds like a great idea.....waht a great shed ....good to get out of the horrible weather

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  2. jenjJanuary 6, 2011 at 7:00 AM

    Nothing wrong with Coastal hay - it's what everyone gets in this part of the world. No reason a horse from up north shouldn't do well on it either - my boy lived in Washington DC and upstate NY for 5 years, and made the transition down here no problem.

    Coastal is probably what's growing in your turnout pasture, too.

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  3. Des CorbettJanuary 6, 2011 at 7:27 AM

    To me it's a no-brainer. Turn her out on the 15 acres or 30 or whatever it is. Immediately available with little effort on your part; a buddy at hand; lots of safe space. It offers Go-Go an opportunity for mental and physical health which is exactly what she needs. It's not a big deal to walk to the acreage- my own horses are at the far end of our property, and it's actually quite nice to have the motivation to take a walk there and back daily for feeding, grooming and visiting even when I am not riding. Also I have gotten real good at hearing what's going on- I can hear them moving around, snorting, blowing etc etc.arust

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  4. DomJanuary 6, 2011 at 7:34 AM

    Man, that mare has the world at her finger...er hoof... tips.

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  5. FunderJanuary 6, 2011 at 7:56 AM

    Oh, don't worry about the cockleburs. Gogo will find every single one and bring them to you in her mane and tail. Removing them builds character. ;)

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  6. AlighieriJanuary 6, 2011 at 8:11 AM

    15 Acres! Gogo will be so happy to have so much room to move.

    About the coastal, my horse came from MD down to TX and had no problem adjusting to coastal. And as the other poster said, the grass in the pasture is probably coastal anyways.

    And boo to stickers. Gogo could probably care less about stickers but you won't have much fun when you run your hand down her legs and end up with hands full of stickers.

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  7. UnknownJanuary 6, 2011 at 9:47 AM

    Coastal can be tricky. Its not a bad hay, but you have to make sure it's GOOD coastal. 90% of horse owners feed it here in NC...my girl gets it (although she's on soaked alf cubes right now because my BO's hay dealer started giving her bad loads of hay and she is looking for a new dealer). A friend of mine that I horse-sit for sometimes feeds half and half to her horses - half timothy, half coastal.

    I think a horse from up north could make the transition just fine.

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  8. manymisadventuresJanuary 6, 2011 at 10:10 AM

    Yup, go for the landlord's turnout.

    Those pictures are GORGEOUS. You're making me want to come to Texas! I'm so glad you found such a perfect situation for you and Gogo, too. You definitely deserve it.

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  9. Rising RainbowJanuary 6, 2011 at 12:29 PM

    What a nice option and a generous neighbor. I'm sure Gogo will do fine whatever you decide.

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  10. FrizzleJanuary 6, 2011 at 3:31 PM

    I was told by an equine surgeon that coastal, especially when fed in round bales, is suspected to cause impactions. I guess the round bales are particularly prone to mold (??). This was a surgeon at an equine hospital here in Florida; I was there with a friend whose horse who was colicing very badly, and one of the first things we were asked was what kind of hay he was being fed. Just some food for thought.

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  11. AndreaJanuary 6, 2011 at 3:51 PM

    Yes Frizzle that's exactly what I heard too! I have a friend from college who is a few hours south of me and her old school horse had a big impaction after only a few weeks down here.

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  12. DressagerJanuary 6, 2011 at 5:33 PM

    Greta has never had a problem with coastal hay (and I suppose just like any other hay there is really good, green, fresh coastal hay and then there is the lower quality kind, and for how much coastal for Greta's barn costs, it better be, and is, the good quality type!) and she has only been in Texas for about three years, as she lived in Iowa and Colorado most of her life.

    But boy howdy, 15 acres with the round bales being covered (which will keep them from molding, but Gogo might decide it's best to just sit around that all day and poop and pee in it, which WILL make it moldy haha!) and ready-to-move-in sounds AMAZING! Absolutely AMAZING!!! I'd go for that in a New York minute.

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  13. DeeredJanuary 6, 2011 at 7:56 PM

    How far did you have to walk to check on her when she was boxed? Out the kitchen window? I don't think so! 3 minutes walk... you're going to have to get a car to go that distance! (yes I'm being really, really silly) So there's some unknown quality hay - for the moment get busy with some hot tape and fence it off. ALL hay will cause issues if it is poor quality, rather than the grass type/variant.

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  14. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2011 at 7:59 PM

    Put her in with Bubba and let them be love birds on the entire 30 acres!

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  15. Nicole RedmanJanuary 6, 2011 at 10:20 PM

    Take impacted on good-quality coastal bermuda grass. Of course he's also a head case with a delicate digestive system, but...that's my 2 cents.

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  16. davsgirlJanuary 7, 2011 at 7:44 AM

    My boy was on half coastal half timothy with no issues, but I have heard about the impaction issues.

    I would put her on the 15 acres now, and then over time, eventually set up the 5 acres in your backyard!

    Beautiful pictures...makes me want to leave my barely 1 acre turnout here in NY and transplant to Texas!

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  17. ValJanuary 7, 2011 at 12:54 PM

    Bubba has no idea what he is in for. Hopefully they become best buds.

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  18. Emily M.January 7, 2011 at 2:17 PM

    Coastal seems alot softer than northern hay. Also they fertilize like crazy here so some of the cuttings can be pretty high protein. I wonder if the softness of the hay makes then northern horses think they don't have to chew. My own horses actually get super picky and won't eat the grass that's not bermuda if it comes from a mixed field. I'm sure she'll do fine, you are probably already doing a gradual change over? You'll find it pretty expensive to import hay from up north, although I used to see ads here in Arkansas for hay from the Yellowstone area since some of the racehorse people used it.

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  19. jacksonsgrrlJanuary 8, 2011 at 10:20 AM

    Oh girl, yes, you can kill them! It involves FIRE and a LOT of elbow grease.... I've done it, and it sucked more than... I can't even think of a comparison right now! :)Sounds like Texas agrees with you, awesome! Good that someone can get something good out of it!!! Yay!
    Coastal hay is fine, just get it analyzed once in awhile. You may be pleasantly surprised...

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