Cooter's Adventure

The thing that you fear the most is that goats will learn that they can jump, climb or crawl under fences. All of my goats were very respectful of the electric fence until one day Collette discovered that she could crawl under the fence. Then because Paris didn't want to be separated from her best friend she learned to jump like a deer.

Cooter had never acquired this knowledge of escape until the bottom strand of the electric fence went missing. He found that he could just walk under the top strand without getting shocked. This was great news for him, he could visit all of the places that he had only dreamed about.

His first destination was to visit with the does in the barn stall, but alas, there was no way to get into the stall with them and no way to get into the grain either. So his next destination was to find out why all of those horses stood around those big round things all day long and fought for position.

The best way to get the information that you need if you are an athletic billy goat who does not know fear, is to just jump right into the middle of the action.

The horses were totally repulsed by this stinking, ugly, egotistical animal jumping right into the middle of their supper. All of the horses stepped away from the ring not knowing what to do. Buddy, (pictured above) who is quite fond of his food was the most repulsed of all and decided to take matters into his own hands.

My Husband told me that the horses would eventually snatch him up and give him a good shaking and might even injure him. I didn't think that they would bite into anything that smelled like that. I was wrong, Buddy, who is a big strong gelding, viciously grabbed him by the neck and shook him like a rag doll. Cooter didn't mind at all, he just went right back after Buddy thinking that he wanted to play. Cooter left a bad taste in Buddy's mouth it seems because he wouldn't do it again.

After several attempts to engage Buddy in play, Cooter got bored and left the hay ring and started singling out other horses to play with.

First he chose Dan, the alpha gelding, the herd leader and protector. Dan just totally ignored him, so he went after a younger male, Naylor. Naylor was intimidated by him and went for reinforcements.

The funniest part of all of this was that Angel was with him, growling at the horses that he was challenging. She tried being diplomatic about it and tried her best to talk to him about size and strength but he wouldn't listen, so she had to stand her ground, growl and threaten the horses about minding their manners.

Because at the end of the day, Cooter is still her responsibility after all, it is like being the body guard for a spoiled young prince.

Colic

I looked out the bedroom window this morning and saw my old gelding Dan lying down. He was all by himself, the rest of his herd were pretty far away from him. Since he is the alpha male of the herd, I knew something had to be wrong, so I went out to check on him.

When I got close to him, I wasn't even sure it was him. He looked almost sorrel instead of very dark brown. He was covered in mud and dust, probably from a rough night of colic. But I wasn't sure what was wrong with him yet, he wouldn't get up for me, he was groaning, but he wasn't rolling or looking at his belly. I could hear loud bowel sounds.

I felt of all of his hooves, they were all cold, his face and even his nose were cold to touch. I looked at his gums and they were a nice pink. So off to the house I went to get a shot of banamine. I estimated that he weighed about 1200 lbs, so I pulled up 12 mL.

I don't like giving shots, that is what I married my DH for, but he was at work, so I would have to do it. Dan has very sensitive skin and hates shots. Since he wouldn't get up for me, I didn't think that it would be hard to do. I would give it to him IM in the rump. I didn't even take a lead rope.

I got him stuck and was pushing the banamine in, when he jumped to his feet. I did manage to get the needle pulled out. I had only gotten 4 mL in him, so I would have to stick him again.

He just stood there looking at me and my syringe. He didn't act like he could move. So I stuck him again in the neck, well, he could move and off he went with the syringe flopping, it finally fell out.

Now he won't let me get close to him, so I guess that I did get something accomplished. I at least got him on his feet and running, which didn't hurt him at all if it was colic. He hasn't laid down again, so I guess he is better. I will just have to watch him today.

Horse Flies

There are many things in this life that I wonder about, I suppose that the good Lord allowed us to have some things just to teach us patience and endurance. But some things just seem to have no purpose in this world.

No matter how much I try, I can see no purpose for mosquitoes or wasps, other than to test your reflexes and speed. I can tolerate flies for the most part and at times enjoy a little swat practice.

However, there is one thing that I am appalled by more than mosquitoes and wasps, that is horse flies. Just what is their purpose? If I think real hard and am generous with my horse fly evaluation, perhaps I could say that they make enjoyable entertainment for sadistic horse gazers.

My Grandson and I were watching our Grullo Stallion yesterday who was being pursued by an average horse fly. This horse fly was no more intelligence than any other horse fly that I have known. All horse flies are brilliantly clever. They know just where to land on a horse's rump in order to stay aboard for the maximum amount of time.

Poor Badger was doing all sorts of calisthenics, stretching his neck as far as it could reach, while stretching his legs out straight in front of him and he just couldn't get it.

He did a series of bucks, twists and jumps in the air, but that didn't work either. So he finally ran to just the right spot and threw himself on the ground and rolled in the mud. That did the trick, the problem was that as he was getting back on his feet the fly just landed again in the same spot.

Badger is not a slow learner, the next time he rolled, he jumped back up on his feet and was out of there. He ran as hard and fast as he could, trying to outrun the horse fly, but to no avail. My Grandson and I didn't really enjoy the show that he was putting on but we did watch it.

When our Appaloosa stallion gets a horse fly on him, he runs to the fence and waits for me to whack it with the broom. If you whack a horse with a broom at any other time of the year, they take offense at it. But during horse fly season they love it.

It can be very dangerous to go into the herd during horse fly season, which usually just runs through the month of August here. The horses will run under each other's head and neck in order to scrape the offending fly off of their backs. They will also run right towards you and quickly turn their rumps to you and if you are not quick enough with the slap, they will continue to squirm and buck right in close proximity to you. Horses tend to forget about respecting your space during horse fly season.

Another thing that I guess you could credit the horse fly with, is teaching trail riders better horsemanship skills. While some horses do not lose their minds when a horse fly lands on their rumps, some go ballistic. I have one of the ballistic types myself. I haven't ridden him in a few years, because of my back but he and horse flies are the reason that I have a hard time understanding why Cowboys don't like to ride bucking broncs in rodeos. It was easy enough for me, a Grandmother.

My AQHA gelding, Dan, always was super sensitive and overreacted to horse flies on his rump. If I heard the fly then I could prepare myself for the bucking that would ensue but if the fly did a silent landing by using their sophisticated stealth mode, then I was caught off guard.

Riding a bucking horse while trying to turn around and swat a horse fly should be a rodeo event. At one point, I could possibly have made it to the rodeo finals and might even have been the world champion bronc buster/swatter.

Dan never bucked me off but then he never bucked the horse fly off either, so I didn't get the point. He did manage to get me off one time but not by bucking and not by a horse fly.

I was riding third in a string of three riders, the first rider startled the yellow jackets, the second rider made the yellow jackets mad, Dan and I were the object of their wrath. I didn't know what was happening, he just turned into a quivering mass under me. I could sense that he was about to explode. I baled off on his right side when I saw a yellow jacket on his neck. I ran as fast as I could through the woods, the problem was that he didn't know what to do, so he ran as fast as he could after me.

I managed not to get stung or ran over somehow. After we were far away from the nest, we stopped and regrouped. We picked several dead yellow jackets out of Dan's mane and tail.

I am prepared for horse fly season this year. After trying several horse fly traps that didn't work, I am taking a different approach. I researched horse flies on the internet and found that you can attract them with the color blue. It has to be a pool blue, I know this is true because they love my swimming pool. I ordered some sticky goo last year on ebay, I forget what it is called but you can smear it on something that is swimming pool blue and the horse flies will land on it and get stuck.

The article that I read said that you can get a child's blue sand bucket and put it on a stick and walk it through your horse herd or put it on a vehicle and drive around the horses. You can even get a hat that color and smear it with the sticky stuff and walk through your herd.

I will try it out when the flies get to be more of a problem here and post my results in a blog.