Category: Horses

Lily Mare

Friday, I moved Lily home from the barn where she had been boarded.  Although she lived at home for about a year some years ago, fourteen year old Lily looks quite astonished by the changes.  She joins Rags, Jack’s old Appaloosa, and Magic, the very old mare I board for a friend.  Fortunately, she had been turned out with both Rags and Magic previously.  The first couple of hours she was back was very excited, and tried very hard to get the older horses to play with her.  She finally settled down without laming herself or the others, and they all are getting along quite well now.

Woman is a Tool Using Animal

We buy our hay in three ton lots from our suppliers, delivered and stacked by two wiry young men.  The two young men have changed over the years, since slinging around eighty pound bales of hay is not a long-term career.  It gets stacked in the hay aisle of our barn, as high as seven layers.  Sometimes it seems as though the stackers are being unnecessarily clever about how they interlock the bales as they stack. I try not to fuss about how high the bales go, since they are doing pretty well to stack the hay and still leave room for me to get into the stalls from the hay aisle.

However, getting the top bale down when it is stacked seven high can be challenge, since they are over my head. I used to get Jack to do it but he generally brought down half the pile, scattering bales like pick up sticks, and fussing about getting clobbered in the process.  So I mostly do it myself now.  I became a lot more cautious about doing it after the time I impaled myself with a hay fork when a bouncing bale hit the hay fork in my hand. One doesn’t expect eighty pound bales to bounce, but they do.

I’ve developed a fairly efficient process for getting down the top bale.  I hook the hay fork into the twine of the bale and make sure it is securely attached.  I loop one of my lead ropes though the handle of the hay fork and hold on to both ends, pulling steadily until the desired hay bale drops to the ground.  The lead rope gives me enough room that I can move back if I’ve miscalculated how many bales will drop.  However, usually no more than two bales will come down if I’ve selected the correct bale. 

I am extraordinarily gratified each time this method works since I’ve developed it.