The Best Laid Plans

Today I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. I decided to use some of the compost out in the gate area in one of the pastures. My reasoning was two-fold: it would make the horses stop constantly over-grazing the area by the gate and water trough and keep them from turning it into dust and mud; at the same time it would provide some fertility and enable the grass to grow back more quickly.

With the help of our incredibly useful Kubota utility vehicle (complete with dump bed, towing hitch, and hyraulic cylinder) I loaded up several loads of compost and dumped them out by the gate, and then spread everything around. It was hard work!

I had gotten about three loads spread around when the horses in that pasture came wandering up. I stood there and gloated as they went over to the water trough and drank, and then wandered back out to the tall grass instead of standing right there and attempting to graze the very short grass by the trough. Don't you just love the deep satisfaction of a well-executed plan with perfect results?

I turned to leave and decided I had done enough work with the compost for the day. I drove the Kubota through the gate, and as I went to close the gate I saw Ivan wandering around in the middle of my newly spread compost. He had "the look" of a horse on a mission, nose down, sniffing, circling, pawing . . .

Going . . .

Going . . .

Gone!<>

The final results

A compost-covered horse was not the end result I was aiming for - especially on a gray horse!