Anxiety about bringing horse home

[PaddockWood]

I have thoughts. Moved my horses home 4 yrs ago after 30 yrs of boarding. Grew up w them at home and remembered it being easy. Ah youth.

Do you work from home or have flexibility in your work life to be home when needed? That really helps.

You want (need) to be there during any projects going on. Fencing, barn, driveways, dry lot building. If not, things may not get done as you wanted. You also need to really know the scope of correct work. It’s pretty shocking how contractors don’t do correct work sometimes unless you specify what it is that needs to be done.

Do you have a bit of money to spend? My experience is having the right tools and things in place make this all A LOT easier. Being able to get a load of hay for the whole year, auto waterers, a load of bedding that lasts you 6 months. Good, safe perimeter fencing to make sure no one exits unplanned.
My experience and research on fencing is heavy coated wire is the safest and least expensive. I have 5 strands.

Can you afford a tractor with a FEL - our JD 3320 is workbeast and makes it all so much easier. She’s one of my dragons.

Do you have a husband/boyfriend/handyman? You need that role - someone that knows how to fix stuff that breaks. Things break, go flat etc almost weekly it seems.

I brought three horses home and a year later my old guy died at 29 and now two. My mare came to me extremely traumatized (she was a rescue in every sense) and had terrible separation anxiety. We’ve worked on it to where I now take away my other horse and while she calls out, she doesn’t run and lose it anymore. She gets it that we are coming back.

We built in our late 50’s and like someone above said, the work keeps you young. But it is a lot of work. Not a condo lifestyle. Buwahahahah!

I would do it all over again in a heartbeat and my plan is to be on this property until my death.

[Simkie]

@PaddockWood

Do you have a husband/boyfriend/handyman? You need that role - someone that knows how to fix stuff that breaks. Things break, go flat etc almost weekly it seems.

While I don’t at all disagree someone needs to fill this role and fix the stuff that breaks, you certainly don’t need a penis to do that

I do that here. Lots of women are super capable of this sort of thing. Setup and proper maintenance can also help limit breakage. (Although yeah, totally, it’s often a revolving door of something.)

[paintedpennypony]

Could you post a link to the fencing material you’re talking about?

[PaddockWood]

@Simkie

While I don’t at all disagree someone needs to fill this role and fix the stuff that breaks, you certainly don’t need a penis to do that

You make me laugh. You are right!

[PaddockWood]

Mine is Kencove 12.5 gauge coated wire:

https://kencove.com/products/detail/kencote-wire-1212-gauge/wtbl

I’ve had two experiences of things going wrong w no injury. My guy put his leg through the fence pawing (waiting for dinner) and drug his leg HARD and fast sideways and I couldn’t believe there was no burn or injury. Then, I, dipshit, didn’t fasten his liner correctly one morning and it slowly came out and freaked him out and he went through the fence (or over it) I have no idea. But somehow no injury.

I’ve never heard of anyone - owner or vet talk about a coated wire injury. And it’s cheap considering all the fence options. And you can set your lowest line above your zero turn mower - do that. So you can mow under it. If I were you I’d also consider a track system if you are putting in fence. I wish I’d done that from the start.

[PaddockWood]

There’s a track thread and the OP has a super cool diagram.

Track Systems

Yes! On both counts! Our track is just a simple ovally square that goes around our acreage. It was already fenced into paddocks, so I just strategically eliminated/open and close gates to change it. It is not huge, and mostly surfaced at present. They do go around it, mine just don’t whip around it much unless something spooks them - maybe because they are all pretty mature? I have noticed more movement now that I’ve added the “dingbat” horse into the mix (I love him, but mentally stable he i…

[LCDR]

It is daunting to move from decades of boarding to having horses at home. In my case, I kept boarding for some time after I bought land, built a barn, put up fencing and such. Then I’d bring the horses home for long weekends. I kept that up until the pandemic started, when I decided to just keep them permanently. It worked well for me, as I had time when they were back at the boarding barn to tweak my setup. Things like where to have hydrants installed for watering more efficiently, for example. And also to get the horses bonded and used to being together, without other horses around.

[2DogsFarm]

Maybe not the appendage , but there are times when OldLady Me doesn’t have the Manstrength some farmwork requires.
Can I stack 300 50# bales?
Yes, I can & have.
But my Faux Grandson is roughly half my age & can do it a LOT faster & tighter.
I toss bales off the loaded wagon, he stacks.
Can I splice a broken line in my coated tensile fencing?
Yes, but not nearly as well as the Pro I hired.
Same for reinforcing 20yo fenceposts with poured concrete.
Can I spread the Winter’s worth of accumulated muck in back of my stalls after the frozen snow that let it build up is gone?
No, because I don’t have a tractor. FG does.
Doing the job with my metal rake & a shovel would kill me & take forever.
He’s done in a bit over an hour, spreads the stuff on the approx 1+ac L-shape hayfield that surrounds my pastures. His BIL then cuts & bales it. He pays me with 100 bales, keeps the rest. My land looks civilized.

Because I lack equipment (& sometimes the impetus to do the work) my place is not & never will be a showplace.
But it’s livable, halfway decent, keeps my horses & chickens healthy & happy.
Keeps me active. And Happy

[Simkie]

This is a weird argument to make, that only people with a penis can be skilled or strong.

Yeah, sure, absolutely. If you don’t have the still, strength, or desire to manage a task, hire it out. Men aren’t the only ones with skill, strength, or desire.

Telling someone that they need a man of some sort to manage farm tasks is just…wow, blindingly sexist. Aren’t we past that?

[jherold]

The best advice I was given was to always go out the same gate you went in. Make your sacrifice/dry lot bigger than you think you need. Buy a years worth of hay in the summer. Make riding a priority. There will always be more chores to do. A truck and trailer is a must. You will get bored riding on just your property.

As far as companionship, my current gelding just says " bye honey, see you when you get home!" They do like to see each other when one is ridden at home, but I expect them to pay attention to work when being ridden and it works just fine.

[rulex]

@LCDR

Then I’d bring the horses home for long weekends.

OP if you have the flexibility to do this it would be a great way to see how your horse might fare on their own. The last thing you want is to bring your horse home and see how they do on their own only to find they are a stress case. Then you will feel pressure and rushed to find a friend.

And this depends on how available hay is in your area, but if there’s access to year round suppliers, I would not rush in to feeling like you need to buy a year’s supply right off the bat while you are still figuring out storage, suppliers etc. Yes you will likely pay more to purchase smaller quantities but that’s fine to start especially with only 1 or 2 horses. Then once you feel like you have found a good supplier and have storage sorted, by all means do the years supply.

Better to pay a bit of a premium while you get your bearings than to buy a years worth of poor hay, or poorly store a years worth that could then get ruined.

There’s a big learning curve to bringing horses home for the first time and nothing wrong with taking time to figure things out.

@tbchick84

There are several rescue/retirement places nearby so I think that’s a good place to start.

If you are trying to keep your workload reasonable, be very aware of how high maintenance some of these rescue/retired horses can be. I was offered a free lease on a retired mare that needed soaked cubes 4x a day and passed because that’s a considerable commitment anytime you need to be away for a good chunk of the day. And an headache in the winter when temperatures drop below freezing. Also consider while you may not mind doing the work on the average day, what does that look like if you have a farm sitter? Some may need daily meds and a certain amount of equine handling experience to administer. That changes who can look after the horse vs a horse that just needs some hay tossed over the fence.

[paintedpennypony]

Fostering is a great suggestion and solution to the herd bound issue. In fact because of this thread I’ve reached out to a rescue and have a meeting with them later about fostering

[MunchingonHay]

Get a pully system.

That is how we loaded our hay into our loft. You need two people, one to hoist the other to grab and stack the hay. (a hay hook works wonders to grab the floating bale) You make biceps pretty quickly but then its done and you just need to drop hay as needed (full bales or less). depending on your horses to make it easy for your self.

We pulled the pully rope through the strings on the bales and hauled them up.

[sparkygrace]

@tbchick84

How do I go about finding a buddy horse who won’t flip out every time I take him off property?

Check out miniature horses. I have one as a companion for my previous horse and now my new mare. Around here, they can be obtained for free due to so many breeders giving up their stock. If you can find one who doesn’t really care about other horses, it works well.

You do need to know how to manage them as far as pasture and feeding. I keep mine is his own paddock, but it’s enough to make my mare happy.

In general, set up your property to make everything as easy and efficient as possible. We did that before moving in and I spend only 30 minutes on chores in the morning and periodic short manure picking later in the day.

[PaddockWood]

I will add too, don’t bring your horse home thinking you’ll save money. Add up first what all you need to spend and see if it makes sense. I brought my horses home to have control over their care and provide freedom - no stalling but stalls are available etc. What I’ve spent I could have boarded at a luxury facility for the rest of my horse life. But would my horses be as happy as they are at home with me. No.

[rulex]

@PaddockWood

I will add too, don’t bring your horse home thinking you’ll save money.

That is discussed extensively in this thread Getting our own place vs boarding - with specifics

[cayuse]

Just want to echo sparkygrace, if you get a mini you may need a dry lot or semi dry lot. The weight/lami thing is real and lush pasture may not be your friend. Minis are great fun though and very collectable .

[sparkygrace]

Yes. I have dry lot and a grazing muzzle for mine. He is 25 and has Cushings. He had a blood test three weeks ago and everything is perfect.

[cayuse]

Two of mine are IR, it’s a struggle but we just had bloodwork and everyone was under 40. It’s a job keeping them that way

[tbchick84]

My horse can’t be on lush pasture, so the mini/dry lot thing would work fine.

I don’t expect to save money, but I do expect to save my sanity. Right now, I am paying almost $1,000/month to drive 45 minutes to see my horse at a crap hole where the fences are falling down, exposed nails everywhere and they never plow the driveway or clear the paths after it snows. If I want better, it’s drive even further and pay more $$. As I said in my original post, it’s now either get my own place or be priced out of horses. I might end up working my butt off, but at least I know my horse will have the best care possible in his senior years.