Stalling Versus Turnout During Fireworks

[2DogsFarm]

@RoahsGirl Thanks for the pics.
Rosie is beautiful.

And now I’m in trouble… thinking of how much I’d like one of my own :uhoh:
Just out of curiosity:
Would my coated tensile wire fencing keep a mini cow in?
And what does Rosie weigh?

[RMJacobs]

@RoahsGirl, that is a cute cow!!

Rebecca

[2DogsFarm]

:uhoh: Ruh-Roh…
I am getting in deeper & that last pic did not help!

My fencing works to keep my 34" mini in, so there goes that argument.
Off to Google mini-Jerseys for sale closer to me

[Redlei44]

Is it a long term goal for your horse to be able to travel (trails, shows, lessons, etc)? You might look at NYE as a chance to practice getting off the farm by heading over to the boarding facility.

Otherwise, I agree with ear stuffing and some yummy alfalfa in the smaller paddock.

[TCA_Arabians]

At the risk of you being kicked off of a horse site - we want the pic of Rosie in her Elf hat!

[Texarkana]

@RoahsGirl

Ok…I just hope you feel bad when you see my username and the words"banned for posting too many cow pictures" beneath it. :lol: I have a green fleece blanket I’m going to try to turn into some kind of temporary mini cow blanket/cape thing for her to wear on actual Christmas day (haven’t gotten around to constructing it yet) to complete her outfit for my niece. But here are pics from when I was trying on her hat for size the other day. If I could’ve found her a reindeer costume, I had plans to try to turn the little cart she pulls into a mini sleigh and have my niece come outside to see her. Rosie’s good to put up with all my crazy antics

Oh. my. goodness! Too cute!!!

[SLW]

@RoahsGirl

Sounds like we have the same neighbors…must be a South Carolina thing. I’ve lived in a few different states and I have never seen people as obsessed with fireworks as they are around here…I just don’t get it. I don’t want people to feel like they can’t celebrate or do what they want to do, just because I made the decision to have animals. That said, showing a little courtesy and manners regarding their celebrations would be nice and not drawing out the fireworks all throughout the night wouldn’t go unappreciated either. I’m located near Lexington…I think I’ve passed through Little River before, it sounds awfully familiar…is it somewhere around Myrtle Beach? I’m thinking I might’ve driven through that town on a vacation down that way a few years back.

Make a trip to Texas. A daughter lives there. Texas adds shooting off guns to fireworks displays.

[TCA_Arabians]

Rosie is waaaay past cute! You just need some antlers. They sell them all over with head bands. Thanks for the pic.

[mimiro23]

I lock 2 of mine up and turn one out. The two that get locked up have to be out of each others line of sight, they will build on each others “stupidity” and I cannot handle 2 wild horses at once when I am by myself. The turned out horse is wild if he is locked up and cannot see.

[Alpha_Mare]

Loving the Xmas mini cow.

My vet has emergencies every July 5th from the night before. My mare was fine for many years, then a pasture mate at that particular boarding barn became hysterical on July 4th fireworks - puncture wound for my mare and always in the stall now for the whole barn. That said, my horses are used to their stalls so easier on them.

Sounds like you have very good advice here - good luck.

:mad::no: PA just legalized private sale of fireworks and now our neighbors are taking full advantage.

[ohmyheck]

@RoahsGirl Good grief what a night…your description brought to mind that surfing scene in Apocalypse Now :eek:

And yes I can relate to the all nighter. Mine was during a Halloween sh!tshow a few years ago involving some yahoo renters on the next property over.

Great job keeping your critters safe :encouragement:

[RMJacobs]

@RoahsGirl, your experience reminds me a lot of what we went through on every 4th of July. I didn’t sedate, but I did spend the entire time the fireworks were going off with my horses. It really got old. Luckily, in Colorado it was usually too cold on New Year’s Eve for it to go on very long.

I’m sorry you went through all that, but glad you and the critters survived with no injuries.

Rebecca

[TCA_Arabians]

RoahsGirl - Why don’t you start with a Letter to the Editor of your local paper? Sometimes it takes a bit of education for people to understand how their ‘fun’ is another person’s woe. You could also talk with your local elected officials. Perhaps they would consider a time limitation of X hours on the 1st and the 4th. Fireworks are a grand tradition in our country. It’s hard for people to see they really do cause problems. Not even mentioning the injuries to children. I’m just happy that the fire dangers where I live have resulted in an outright ban of all fireworks. If Key had changed that verse from “the rockets red glare” we’d likely be happier.

[Davignport]

Congrats on keeping your babies safe and sound. I do not understand the fascination with fireworks and would do the same thing as you did as far as staying our there with them. Your mini cow is absolutely the cutest little thing. Good luck with your boy and hope the coming holidays are not so dramatic.

[Palm_Beach]

@RoahsGirl

I am new to this forum and would like some other horse people’s opinion on what I should do with my OTTB…

I recently got an OTTB, (a 5 year old gelding) and I’ve had him for almost four months now.He is a rather laid back guy and is pretty calm about most things. I have had him in full turnout on my property and he’s been doing really well.

There’s a lot going on around my property, dogs barking, random gun shooting from neighbors, wild guinea birds that live on my property etc. and he’s taken all of it in stride, though he has his occasional days where he seems more moody/jumpy than normal. I don’t currently have any other horses to hang out with him, but there is a mini Jersey cow that shares a long fence line with him and I work from home so I’m out to see him all through out the day.

Where I live at now, I have about 10 acres, but there is a new subdivision that basically borders the entire backside of my pasture area. I have had the mini cow here during fireworks, but have never had any horses on this particular property before.

About two nights ago someone decided to shoot off some large, random fireworks right over my pasture and I saw on one of the camera’s I have out in his pasture, that he was spooked by them. I went out to the pasture to see him and let him see me acting like the fireworks were no big deal, but he didn’t seem to really care whether I was there or not. He wasn’t in a total panic, but was cantering around the pasture a bit and you could tell he was on edge. Eventually he settled down once the fireworks stopped.

Considering those fireworks were nothing compared to what I know will be coming (because of the new subdivision behind me, during firework holidays it basically sounds like I am in the middle of a warzone from 6:00PM-3:00AM), on New Years Eve. I am concerned over how he is going to do for his first “firework” holiday here.

I have a couple of different options available for him and was wondering what some other horse people’s opinions were:

Option 1) I have a run in shelter that I could lock him into, with a light and radio on in there and I could lock the cow in on the other side of it. He wouldn’t be able to see her, but should be able to smell/hear her over there and see that he is not alone. My only concern with locking him in, is that since I’ve had him, he’s been in turnout 24/7.

Being an ex-racehorse, I know he is used to being stalled, however, when I sent him to a boarding facility for training for 2 weeks, when they put him in the stall over there it took him about 4-5 hours to settle down. Prior to that he was pacing, sweating etc. And in my run in shelter, he’s still going to be outside to a point unlike at the boarding facility which is more of a closed in barn and, he will not have other horses around him.

I have considered having the vet come out and evaluate the best sedative to give him, giving him that and then locking him in the run in shelter. My only concern with that is that given that New Years Eve falls on a Monday this year, I’m thinking the fireworks are going to be most likely a 5-6 day problem and not just the one night and I don’t really want to sedate him for the entire week.

Option 2) I have a smaller sacrifice lot area, that is only about 1/2 acre and it has 5 ft tall fencing with electric wire completely surrounding the area. This is where I have been keeping him at night time as his run in shelter is also in this sacrifice lot. This is the same lot he was in when the random fireworks shot off the other night. He ran around a bit then, but never went into a full gallop. The ground in that lot isn’t perfectly even, but, I don’t feel there are a ton of places he could really hurt himself from being stupid out there, other than running through the fence. I’m leaning towards thinking that this is the best place to keep him as if he does bust through my electric fencing there, he would still be contained by another fence that borders the rest of my pasture/property. I also have some horse ear plugs I could put in his ears and try to light up that pasture a bit more by turning on all of my house lights which will shine some more light into that area.

Option 3) I could send him back over to the boarding facility where I had him trained. It is only 15 miles from my home, and the daily board is very reasonable.However, I don’t have a trailer large enough for him yet, so I would have to pay them to pick him up and bring him home and while he loads great, he gets nervous on short trips when there isn’t another horse on the trailer with him.

The boarding place is way out in the country and they own a ton of land. I doubt very much that they would have any fireworks out there. My concern with sending him there is that he seems quite sensitive to change. By that I mean, he had a bit of an adjustment period when he went over there the first time, it took him a few days to settle in and again, when he came back home, it took him a few days to settle in. I hate to put him through the stress of that, plus being put in with probably a different group of horses than who he was with before…I think all of that will be stressful, potentially more than the fireworks. And I don’t really see myself sending him over to this boarding facility for every single “firework” holiday we get here, because pretty much all holidays constitute as firework holidays around here.

I do plan to work with him on desensitizing him the best I can to fireworks/ loud noises but given the small amount of time I’ve had him so far and other things I’ve been working on him with, firework desensitizing is a bridge that has not been crossed yet.

So, any opinions on what you feel would be the best thing to do or any tips/ideas that might make things easier that I have not thought of?

Thanks for taking the time to read through all of this, sorry it is so long!

Option 4 - work on desensitizing since you have such crazy neighbors. I sent a “Happy New Year” text to a friend on the afternoon of NYE to find out my wonderful iPhone sends fireworks - including the noises - along with it - and I was sitting on my horse when I did it. You can pull up fireworks with all the noises on your phone or ipad and use that during desensitizing sessions with your horses. I also have a cap gun since my neighbors target practice as well as set off fireworks.

You cannot control what other people do. You can prepare your horses for what they may see and hear around holidays, so you don’t get a panic reaction. I’d desensitize the crap out of them, tranquilize them, and leave them in the barn when you know there will be lots of fireworks. And then they will be much better able to deal with the unusual days when stupid people set off fireworks.

[Wanderosa]

@RoahsGirl

@ohmyheck Yes, you are spot on with that scene…minus the helicopters flying about that’s pretty much what was happening here, it was insane. I felt bad because I also have dogs and usually stay with them inside to try to keep them calm because they are all terrified as well. I knew with the horse here though, he had to be the priority because he was outside. I recorded some of the sounds on my phone to play for other people later because I said to myself that no one was going to believe me when I said how bad it was this year.

A friend of a friend of mine works at a firework stand, and she told my friend that on the 2nd, she had a guy come in and purchase $600 worth of fireworks…I said it is probably one of the neighbors on the backside of my pasture, prepping for their Valentines Day festivities :uhoh:

I used to never understand why people would buy properties with 50+ acres when they didn’t have commercial farms or specific reasons for having all that land but I completely get it now…it’s so crazy people cannot come and live around them! :lol:

Valentine’s Day fireworks are a thing?? Yikes! Shouldn’t they want the fireworks that happen indoors?

[RMJacobs]

My experience in Colorado was that the people shooting off the big stuff just didn’t care if it caused a problem. That type of fireworks is illegal in Colorado, but where I lived, the law wasn’t enforced. Some of the worst offenders were police officers. Before every holiday that seemed to require fireworks (which is evidently every holiday), the newspaper and TV news ran articles talking about how difficult it was for people with pets or PTSD. It did no good.

I think I mentioned upthread that my horses were fine with fireworks until a jerk neighbor shot illegal stuff right into their pasture. My husband went over to tell him he was terrifying our horses, and the guy said “so what?” My closest neighbor found spent rockets embedded in the barn he had just finished building.

I found it interesting that Denver didn’t have a problem with people shooting this crap off. The police there enforced the law and wrote expensive tickets when people were caught doing it. Enforcement worked well, as holidays tended to be a lot quieter there except for public displays. Public displays tend to be fairly short, and you can plan better for them.

I also find it interesting that I hear a lot less fireworks where I live now in South Carolina. It’s all legal here. I heard some at home on NYE, but nothing really excessive. Where my horse was boarded, there was none at all on the 4th.

Rebecca

[Palm_Beach]

@RoahsGirl

Mini Jersey cows do make great Christmas gifts…or so I’ve heard. I’ll post one last picture of Rosie (before I get kicked off a horse forum for posting multiple pictures of a mini cow!) in case you need to use it to add to your Christmas wish list for someone

We will all rise up together and mutiny if you get kicked off the forum for posting pictures of Rosie.

heads off to the nearest mini Jersey Cow store

[inca]

@CL Moonriver

P.S. Keep in mind that horses are built by evolution to run from threats and also quickly learn what is and is not a threat. So anyone who tells you that you need to pamper your horse by locking them inside the moment you anticipate they might be exposed to something a bit scary? I personally wouldn’t listen to people like that. The reason horses still exist today is because they are very good at running away from threats and quickly learning what is and is not a threat. Again, it won’t take your horse long to realize the fireworks aren’t chasing him. And as soon as he realizes that, he will probably just ignore them.

Written by someone who has never owned a horse that is completely TERRIFIED of fireworks. I have 4 horses at home - 3 don’t pay any attention to the fireworks. The 4th horse is terrified and every July 4th and NYE is spent trying to keep him from killing himself. This year was particularly bad.