I Shaved My Horse's Legs Today

Hello dear readers!

Warm welcome to the new subscribers! Pull up a hay bale and get mauled by the flock!

Yes, I shaved Miss Brandy’s legs today. Also, her arm pits, and the crease of her back leg.

We do strange things on the farm, do we not? Are you intrigued?

I promise there is a very good reason for this.

Flies. I hate flies. They are the bane of every livestock owner’s existence. They carry disease, they torment the animals constantly, they make a mess on everything they land on.

The little minions sent from the bowels of hell.

On wool sheep with long tails, they can create this nasty thing called fly strike.

Thats where the flies land on the poop and pee stuck in the wool of the long tails and burrow in, lay eggs, and the maggots get into the skin creating a huge pocket of necrosis. They try to eat the sheep from the outside in.

It’s a big problem to have to fix. Basically, it consists of picking the maggots out with tweezers, shaving the wool from the area, daily maggot picking, more maggot picking, antibiotic cream and fly spray to keep the new flies off the area.

Did I mention lots of maggot picking?

Now, I have not had to deal with this particular problem with my animals. This is also why I dock the tails on my lambs. I really don’t want to have to deal with this nasty-ness or put my sheep thru the pain of it. So far, I have been very lucky.

This can also happen to other farm critters. Chickens are particularly prone to this issue since they seem to poop on themselves daily. I love when I had chickens, but dang, they are so friggen messy.

In case you were wondering if my train of thought had derailed, fear not, I’m getting to the crux of the matter.

I noticed last night when I was giving Miss Brandy her evening ration of grain that she has fly eggs on her legs. Ugh. They like to lay eggs on the long hairs between her knee and ankle. They definitely had to go.

Those little yellow dots are what I’m talking about.

I got out a new lady razor this morning and went to town on her while she was eating. Her stomach always outweighs her attitude so she will behave while I shave her sexy horse legs. She was curious and a bit tense until she realized that I was not hurting her in any way.

Shaving Brandy’s legs!

I got off all the eggs that I could see. I’ll be checking her daily to make sure they are not finding other areas on her to make fly homes. Nasty things.

Now she can enjoy her breakfast in peace.

In other farm news.

We got the stack yard fenced off, and the two loose bales we are feeding off of, fenced. The sheep and Brandy are now on yard clean up duty, and they are doing a fabulous job. They got the garden cleaned up. except for the pumpkins which I’m waiting for a frost before I harvest. Then they will clean that up too. The weeds around the house are all gone, and they are working on the small side pasture.

Doing this gives me several more weeks of graze before I have to start feeding out my precious hay. Kind of a rotational grazing thing.

Yard clean up duty!

Miss Lucy is doing great. Still wobbly on her pins, which will not change. She’s coming down for her daily drink and cookies. She is so spoiled. I still have to pull the hay wads out of her mouth. She just can’t manage big, long strands of hay anymore. She adores the alfalfa we got for her. That leaf is like candy. But, being Lucy, she has to eat the other hay and get it stuck.

It’s all good though, she is deserving of being a Queen.

Pickles and pickle relish are all put up for the winter. All the canning equipment is cleaned and put away for another year.

I’m debating on whether or not I want to make another batch of hard cider. I’ll need to see how many bottles I have available to put it in when it’s done. My mead is coming up on the 1 year mark of when I started it. Should be pretty good by now.

The weather has changed, and fall has surely arrived. I have leaves changing and dropping off the trees. The sheep munch them down. Temperatures are dropping and it’s so nice to sleep with the windows open at night. Morning coffee tastes just a bit better now. Don’t ask me why, it just does.

I’m taking advantage of this sunny crisp day to hang all the sheets and towels outside. Nothing smells better than fall crisp sheets on the bed. Except my Rob, he always smelled damn good.

It’s also nice to know that all the flies will be descending back into the pits of hell from which they sprang.

I think I’ll make Bridies for dinner tonight! I’ll let you know next week what those are!

Wising you all a wonderful week!

Blessed Be!