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Well to start of I have 27 horses in total on my family barn site. I have 4 this years foals and I have 12 very old horses ranging from 20 to 32 years old. The rest of the horses are my family brought or bred mares, stallions.
My family runs a rescue place for old horses, deaf or blind horses as well. We have 4 vets that comes to check up on them each month or so. So, all these questions ain't really about the health of my horses.
1) In the winter do you still use salt blocks? 2) Do you're horse chew wood? and Why? (I have a 8 years old Stallion and all his life he has been chewing the same bit of his barn. We have replaced the wood many times and well I know he doesn't eat the wood because I always find chewed off bits in his stall. I still don't understand, why he does it.) 3) Can you mix Mares in with already gelded stallions? (I know, I should know this but I want to just check if you guys do it to. I have 3 tiny pastures and 3 big enough pastures and Two geldings are always running against the fence next to three mares. So, they already know each other.) 4) Did you know you could train a blind horse to jump? (It took me 4 years to train my Thoroughbred Red Dun Stallion, Aged 8 years old, Mostly all blind in both eyes, to jump about 4'1.)
Edited at December 12, 2017 06:22 AM by Dark
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1. Yes, it encourages them to drink water. However we add salt to the feed as well so not everyone is about the salt blocks lol.
2. Usually find this only happens when the horses are bored...but its a stud and the same place over and over so may just be a bit of an obsessive thing - you know how the boys can be *eye roll* LOL. But once hes got access to hay to keep him busy...or maybe get him some sort of toy or something to interest him. It can be hard on some stallions living the "isolation" life, not having a buddy so if its a concern I'd try get him busy
3. Yes, although I'm sure it depends, we have a gelding who was gelded at 5 and he lives with mares and other geldings. He can get googly eyed over the mares sometimes but it's never been an issue.
4.Cool
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Cappuccino said: 1. Yes, it encourages them to drink water. However we add salt to the feed as well so not everyone is about the salt blocks lol.
2. Usually find this only happens when the horses are bored...but its a stud and the same place over and over so may just be a bit of an obsessive thing - you know how the boys can be *eye roll* LOL. But once hes got access to hay to keep him busy...or maybe get him some sort of toy or something to interest him. It can be hard on some stallions living the "isolation" life, not having a buddy so if its a concern I'd try get him busy
3. Yes, although I'm sure it depends, we have a gelding who was gelded at 5 and he lives with mares and other geldings. He can get googly eyed over the mares sometimes but it's never been an issue.
4.Cool
Thanks
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I would say the same things as Capp. And nice job with the blind jumper!
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Liberty Rock said: I would say the same things as Capp. And nice job with the blind jumper!
Thanks It took time but he is doing so well at jumping higher and higher each day. But 4'1 is my record.
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1.We don't tend to but we have in the past.It does tend to make them drink more! 2.Usually when they're bored,Try introducing a treat block or ball maybe a knock around ball?But as Capp said,Can also be territorial. 3.Yes!We tend to mix our horses a lot where I keep mine.The older geldings go with the mares as they cant be bothered chasing the girlys anymore.No problems as far as im concerned. 4.Just well done!I have no idea how to train them as ive never experienced that!Its just amazing you've done that!
Hope that helps!
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1. When we get around to getting a few. 2. My 1st horse did this for years. We call it cribbing and it was more of a "high" for him. He was a show gelding before I got him so he was stalled most of the time. Most likely he was initially bored and learned from another horse in the same barn. There was no fixing it with him though. He tore through every cribbing collar and muzzle they put on him. They even tried popping his belly every time *cringe* He would jerk and go right back. We had tried hot sauce and it worked for his favorite spot. But then he moved to a different board. Dad's Arabian would lick the hot sauce off and mine would go back to the board. *eye roll* 3. Yes but depends on the personalities of the horses. In my experience, the fault lies with the mare if they can't get along. Women are so moody. But I have seen a few moody geldings too. 4. Yes! I follow Endo the Blind on Facebook. It's AMAZING what those two can accomplish together. Edited at December 12, 2017 09:39 AM by Walnut Grove
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<font class="mainlineblack">1) In the winter do you still use salt blocks? Always had two blocks for the horses: a salt/mineral block and then a sulfur block. The mineral block had to be replaced every few months, but the sulfur block tended to be hit more during the summer months. Read somewhere that it was supposed to help with flies/help with joints. Never really saw any difference, but it was something not in the mineral block. 2) Do you're horse chew wood? and Why? Nope. They never did that. 3) Can you mix Mares in with already gelded stallions? Are you meaning geldings that were previously used as breeding animals or just run of the mill geldings? Always ran the geldings with mares without any issue. 4) Did you know you could train a blind horse to jump? I'm not surprised, it's not really something I'd do since I'd be concerned about the horse's (and my) safety.
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to 3)
It depends on the mares and on the geldings. If you have a gelding in the group that gets mad if the mares are in heat and tries to cover them, its a no go for me as a mare owner to accept that gelding in a mixed herd. They can get pretty bad injuries from this and there is always troubles in the group.
But if none of the geldings atempt to "breed" the mares, its absolutey no problem at all to keep them all together.
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1) I give mine salt blocks all the time as it gives them extra Vitamins and for my 5yo Oldenburg my vet recommended to give them to her to help with gaining health and She also said something about gaining muscle strength with them so I just go along with it xD 2) I've always had horses that chew wood and I've never found out the reason why, I always catch mine doing it after a ride or if they are moody xD
3) I don't always do it but I've always put my two out in the field with geldings as they act like a bunch of Mares anyways so it makes no different to be fair xD xx
4) I taught a One-eyed Westaphlian to jump, He prefered jumping on the right rein as it happened on the left but I got him to jump a 1m30 so you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it x
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