I will print that out for Bonnie to read, she was on her own for nearly a decade in a large pasture … these days since we got her it could spit rain and she is standing by the barn banging on the door to get in
Wet and cold are ok but if you add wind without shelter things can go badly very quickly
Thank you for the advice. Yes, my Aunt who lives up there says the biggest problem is cold and wet. If it’s raining, they need to be in. Luckily we have a big barn we are going to use and put round pen panel type stalls inside of for those times. Both my mustangs have only been in Florida a year, so I’m hoping they adjust to the changes. The pony on the other hand was born in Florida and has never been up north, pretty much betting he’s going to need a blanket!
Yep, they are entirely closed. We held our annual Saddle Up for St. Jude fundraiser there each year, and this year we are having to move it to East Fork. (Trail ride for charity, anyone?? PM me for details).
I agree with most of what is already said. Our trails are going to be very different here, much more rocky. I’m sure you have some nice sandy-type trials in FL. Middle TN is very rocky. We moved here from MI back in '96. We like it. Land is definitely cheaper (as are taxes) and there is much more open land (though not as much as back in '96!) available. Yes, our biggest pet peeve here are the dang horse flies!! Hate them. We do not leave horses out at all during the day when it’s horse fly season. Night turnout only. It works out well, though. Welcome to TN! I’m sure you’ll find trail riding buddies in no time.
If your horses are well fed and have hay in front of them, they can be out in the cold and rain. Mine are out 24/7 with a 40’ X 10’ run in that they hardly ever use.
Horses are not made of s**t or brown sugar- in other words, they will not melt in the rain. Middle TN is not that cold!
I know we haven’t officially met but I’m a little sad to see you go! I like seeing my mustang neighbors pics on fb :lol:
The good thing re: feed is you have a pretty good feed store nearby in Pleasant View Mill (I assume they are still open). Their offerings have changed over the years, but they carry several national brands. They are also handy to pick up a few bales of hay if needed.
Ashland City has a Co-Op, but it didn’t used to be very well stocked for horses (some Co-Ops have better equine departments than others). It had basic farm essentials.
Ashland City also has a TSC for farm essentials.
When we first moved to TN, I fell in love with Ashland City and wanted to move out that way. I tried to find boarding in the area and learned there was absolutely nothing at that time. Maybe that has changed, but I’m doubtful. I know you will have your own place, but just sharing because it is helpful to know.
TN Equine will do farm calls/emergency services for the lower part of Cheatham county, but I’m not sure how far north in the county they will go, as it’s quite a ways from their main and satellite offices. They will go almost anywhere for scheduled appointments, but I personally always want access to emergency farm call services. Maybe there is an equine vet in Clarksville who services the area?
I had the best hay guy. Not cheap, but reliable with access to excellent hay. PM me if you want his contact.
Farriers can be tough. Mine came from Kentucky.
I really would consider investing the schools for your son. I have worked in education for many years and have friends teaching in Cheatham. They are better than they seem.
Awww thanks! I’m sad and happy. We are leaving our home that we have lived in for 9 years and leaving both of our parents here. But we really couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Keep following me on FB, I will still post pictures in TN! Sadly our timeline has moved backwards a bit, and the home will not be installed on the property until January or February, but we may get a call sooner. Apparently between COVID and low interest rates, everything is backed up. The surveyor can’t do our survey until mid-October, we have to have a well drilled, and the home installed, until we can leave. If you know anyone looking for an 1100sqft house on 1.25 acres with an additional 2.5 acres (need cleared), let me know! We will be listing our house after we go.
Texarkana, how hard is it to get round bales up there? We also do have a place we can store square bales. Its easy to get down here, so just curious. I will PM you for your hay contacts so I hopefully have one when I move up. I have heard hay is cheaper up there but I have no idea. Currently my horses are on a ration balancer, timothy/alfalfa cubes, and coastal. My two mustangs have a tendency to blow up pretty big. However, they are currently on a dry lot and will have about 4 acres of flat grassy pasture. So I do worry about the access to grass, but figure I can stall some of the time.
Anything below 37 degrees and rainy and I want them IN Clanter. And sometimes I have to go yell at mine they should be IN. And then entice… 
We also have a true modular and I love it:). It had to be lagged down. When I questioned the installers as to what they were using to lag it down, they explained they were lagging it to “California earthquake standards”.
Meaning, make sure the sub contractor is lagging down to better than he needs to for Tennessee standards, unless those standards exceed California earthquake requirements.
The south end of our home has had some windy hair raising moments and now that we are too old to climb up on a 12-pitch roof to replace shingles, we had the shingles on the entire south end replaced. I told the roofers, I didn’t care if they used Gorilla Glue, I wanted those shingles solid, lollol
I don’t have any current info to offer, just want to say that I am happy for you,Wild Little Wren! Tennessee is my home state, and while I love Virginia dearly and have been here a couple of decades now, a part of me will always be in Tennessee. I hope you love it!
Tennessee really is a beautiful state. I love the little town of Lynnville, south of Nashville. I think I could live there in a heartbeat.
Hay is tricky in TN. Lots of local farmers roll round bales; most of them aren’t baled or handled in a manner to be edible for horses. They get baled over-mature in the humidity and left out in the weather.
I personally did not feed round bales at all while I was there. I worked for a couple places that did and their bales came from out of state.
TN is not a great place for growing hay. As a result, locally grown stuff can be really hit or miss. It’s not always bad. Sometimes it’s even quite good. But in my 11 years, I had more problems with bad hay than good hay grown locally.
Prices run the gamut. Some local farmers sell their hay for next to nothing. It’s not uncommon to find local farmers selling small bales for as low as $3-5/bale if you pick it up yourself out of the field. But you get what you pay for in those situations; you might get lucky and find a good product, but probably not.
Farmers who specialize in growing hay for horse people tend to know they have a better quality product and therefore charge more. Many horse people in the area choose to ship in hay from from the west or north where quality can be more readily guaranteed… but that comes at a cost. I was paying up to $20/bale for small bales at times, although generally it was more like $8-12. I moved in 2017, so my info is a few years dated.
What @Texarkana said is well stated:)
I won’t feed rounds. I wouldn’t feed them when I had four horses. I paid $8/sm square this year from a feed store 35 miles NE of me, in another county because they know how to grow horse hay up there:):). The feed store loads our truck and trailer but we have to pay a couple of kids to unload at home, so it ends up adding another 75 cents/bale on the hay. The hay always tests in the 8% range for NSC andI have yet to see any weeds in it, so it’s worth the money…
WLW, you might want to check out Bonnie’s Barnyard in Collge Grove. It’s only about an hour’s drive from you, straight down I-65. That’s a short haul for quality hay, around here, lollol. I have been to her store a few times. I can say it is a fun and very well stocked store to visit and drain your checkbook:)
https://www.facebook.com/bonniesbarnyardinc/
My equine chiro said Bonnie has the best small squares she has seen this year. My equine chiro is a vet who is also a practitioner of Chinese medicine. She has four horses and flat out refuses to feed rounds.
Even if you could find decent rounds, with all of our rain & humidity, rounds lend themselves to mold, and getting rodent infested because a smaller herd can’t eat them up fast enough. There’s also a lot of waste from some horses deciding the hay on the ground makes a better bed than a salad bar:)
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