General Happenings at the Ranch
Wow what a great start to the rainy season. The hills are turning green, grass is growing in the pastures, temperatures are fluctuating, and rain is hopefully in the forecast off and on through winter.
Welcome
I am sure many of the long time boarders have noticed that we have a lot of new horses since November. With the pasture now full, the ranch is at full capacity. Since we haven’t gotten a newsletter out for a few months, here is a recap:
Carol Smith owns Faith, a chestnut quarter horse mare with a white blaze in paddock #18
Katherine Elkins owns Georgia a chestnut warm blood cross in paddock #7
Olivia Bodner owns Niilo & Zody the two bay thoroughbreds in the shared horse pasture
Samantha Nadeau owns Durango. a handsome older bay quarter horse who spent most of his life as a cattle ranch horse
Coleen Hallett owns Thunder, the gray thoroughbred and Junior, the pony out in the shared pasture
Zara Thomson owns Apollo the lighter palomino cross in the shared pasture
Laura Brelsford owns Dakota the golden palomino with dapples in the shared pasture
Amanda Wilmeth owns Slick a retired cutting quarter horse for the final gelding in the shared pasture
Photo of the Month
Improvements
We were able to keep the arena from closing even during days of constant rain and several inches of accumulation
Drying station for blankets
Leveling of stall mats
Mare motel finished replacing wood sides
More grain room space was created
Boarder of the Month
Boarder Name: Janice Koch
Horse Name: Evita
How long have you been riding horses: Most of my life
What is your favorite movie: Amelie
What is one thing you like to do outside of horses: Hike, read, travel, ski
What breed is your horse, and why did you choose this breed: Hanovarian. Warmbloods tend to be best for dressage
What is your favorite food dish: Thai
Name one thing about your horse that most do not know: Her sire, Escudo II was fearless. Unfortunately that genetic trait was not passed down
What would your dream vacation be: I’d like to hike the Camino de Santiago
What is one word that best describes your horse: Two words. Sweet. Anxious
Why do you enjoy horse riding: Horses seem to be in my blood. How do any of us develop a passion?
Fun Facts about Horse Care/Health
Here is our article of the month: Intestinal Parasites in Horses - What every horse owner should know.
Safety Issues
The cross ties are considered a dry area. The reason for this is that the mats become slippery when wet. Its dangerous for both person and horse when they slip in the cross ties. They can become entangled and twisted and you could be knocked down. Therefore only use the hose provided at the cross ties for washing urine which already is wet. We can avoid wetness but we can be proactive by lessening the risk. There are wash stations for butt baths, tail baths, soaking feet, and washing your hands.
Trash cans in the barn and around the property. We are all interested in doing our part to reduce waste. The trash cans in the barn are hand sorted every week due to people not placing the correct garbage in the right can. The two cans reduce the need for staff to hand sort through your waste for what is actually recycling and what is actual trash. Please help us to not have to handle so much of your personal garbage. It can be quite gross. Green is for recycling and Red is for trash. The cans by the grain room are labeled.
Please do not help yourself to hay for any reason. It isn’t fair to take hay and not pay for it. We feed well and are considerate of your budgetary concerns, so to be fair everyone needs to be considerate of the ranch’s budgetary expense in purchasing hay. If you need more hay for your horse you are welcome to purchase it and can buy it by the bale for $25.
Reminders
Starting in 2023 we will require all ranch horses to be dewormed on a deworming schedule.
This is how it works.
Ranch staff will collect 3 to 4 manure samples from horses spread across the ranch. We will take to UC Davis for a fecal egg count test. The results will be sent to Dr. Weiberg who will decide what dewormer to use on all the ranch horses based upon those results. Then we will purchase the dewormer in bulk and ranch staff will administer to each horse.
The cost of the testing and the dewormer will then be spread out amongst all of the boarders. This will not be expensive. We will give notice as to when we will collect the samples and when we will deworm the horses. The cost will be emailed or texted to you and added to your next month's boarding bill.
The current California Veterinary Board suggestion is to deworm 2x a year. So we will coincide with spring and fall. We will not deworm the same week as vaccinations.
Cartoon of the Month
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