Did I just mess up?

[Tammie-C_Spots]

Just saw you raise chickens- me too! Love my chickens

 

[Sandee]

As if you need more advice! But here goes. The gelding I would opt for since your daughter wants to show and (it been my experience - 8 yrs now) that studs tend to nip more than others. IN fact the only bad habit my stallion has was nipping other people. We gelded him at 7 yr old so grandkids could show him.

If he gets lots of attention from you guys, then he'll more than likely decide you're part of his herd and won't need a companion. But if your time is limited a companion helps them settle and keeps them from being so prone to ulcers. However, you may find that you have to take the "companion" along to your shows too if they get too attached.

We finally brought in pea gravel for our drylots because hubby got so "upset" about all the mud around the barn. He's a neat freak and not a "country boy". We were fortunate that a retired farmer built the barn and had it up on an area that would drain away naturally so a load of gravel fixed all our problems.

 

[wildoak]

Congratulations on your new boy, you will do just fine with him.

We fight the mud battle as well, we have that lovely Taylor black clay soil and our place is on a slope... we have used superflex (a road base like TxDot uses) around gates & areas that really need to stay passable. It does dry and set up pretty hard though, so the pea gravel or something comparable is probably better for larger areas.

If the "old hands" here come across a little short sometimes, it is not intended. Most of us have made the same mistakes and/or seen them made, and seen the consequences, a hundred times and would love to be able to save someone else and their horses suffering through the sometimes painful learning experience.

Hope you will come to some shows this year... lots of them in the central Texas area if you are interested, great places to learn and meet folks. You can check the AMHR and AMHA websites for show schedules.

Jan

 

[MajorClementine]

We have lots of mud every spring. I just wait for it to dry up. If we get a lot of rain for a long time I'll throw rubber mats down around the feeding area but other than that I don't do much. But the longest we have mud is usually a week or so.

Cute boy. Good luck with him. I had my filly get out after dark(neighbor kid left the gate open) and saw her out my window running down the road. I ran barefoot to catch her with a 7 month old baby in my arms. Caught her by the tail before she hit Main Street and took a kicking to my arm and side while I held on and protected my baby with my body. She calmed down but I had to drag her by her tail back up against a fence until I could pin her and grab her mane. Meanwhile people were slowing down to watch the "fun" but no one offered to help. Nothing gives you a heart attack quicker than realizing that your horse is gone.