No Shooting Required

We've been busy with rather boring and uninteresting tasks the last couple of days. Since one of my least favorite jobs on the farm is handling dirty horse blankets, last year I outdid myself by waiting until July to get them sorted, folded, stacked and ready to go the lady who does our blanket cleaning and repairs. 

I learned a lesson last year. I learned that waiting until July to deal with the dirty horse blankets only makes dealing with them even more miserable. No, it isn't because they are dirtier or smell worse. It is because wasps think that building nests behind blankets is a fabulous idea. Last year I had ample opportunities to get my exercise in and perfect my shooting skills as I went through a bazillion cans of wasp spray. If I may brag on myself for a moment, my aim was excellent and I watched many wasps fall out of the air and onto the ground. 

I decided that this year I didn't want to rely on my excellent shooting skills with wasp spray, nor did I want to repeatedly sprint out of the barn(s) dragging a dirty horse blanket behind me. So I forced myself to do one of my least favorite things and handled every single dirty blanket on the farm. They are now relabeled, folded, sorted and ready to be sent off for cleaning and repair. A few unlucky blankets had to be trashed as they were beyond repair. Thanks to my lack of procrastination I only found one wasp nest total in all three barns. Even better, it was a tiny nest with only one half dead wasp on it. I finished the half dead wasp off by stomping him with my boot, no shooting required. 

two of my many blanket piles

In other events we decided (or I should say Jason decided) that we were going to move one group of horses to our large, empty paddock that has grass in it up to my knees. Jason was lamenting having to hook up the bush hog and mow, so he decided to employ some of our built-in lawnmowers. Yesterday we moved them from their pasture to the paddock so they can spend a few days eating down the grass. The horses across from the normally empty paddock found this all terribly interesting and lined up at the fence to spectate. 

Dirty blankets and a temporary pasture change to avoid mowing has been all the excitement we've had the last couple of days. 

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There was some intense staring when we moved the horses into the paddock to graze it down. Silver, Cocomo, Lofty, Lotus, Romeo, Donneur and Flyer were starting hard at their new neighbors across the driveway.

Silky, Bruno and Lightning exploring their new temporary home.

Walden taking a trot around his temporary home

Merlin, Lucky, Lightning and Walden saying "hey guys, did you see all of these grass?!"

Lighty and Mick

One of these things is not like the others. Asterik, George, Cocomo, Lofty, Gus and Silver

Johnny and Murphy

Thomas and Homer napping, Apollo, Levendi and Tony hanging out and grazing

Wasps, Wrenches and Dirt

Jason and I have both been  procrastinating finding other important things to do while we have both done our best to avoid jobs we don't wish to tackle. I hate, loathe, detest - pick your adjective - dealing with dirty horse blankets. It would be putting it mildly to say that Jason is not fond of hooking up our Bushhog and then sitting on the tractor hour after hour for several days to mow the pastures. We were both dismayed to come to the conclusion a few days ago that we could no longer procrastinate find other important things to do and we had to tackle these jobs.

Jason wrestled with the Bushhog after morning chores yesterday and managed to get it hooked up with relative ease. His exact description of the process was "for once hooking up that $#&#ing bushhog wasn't a total mankiller."  His friendly relationship with the Bushhog appeared to be short-lived.  I saw him walking to the front barn (instead of sitting on a moving tractor) and a minute later he walked out with the biggest wrench I've ever seen in my life. This wrench was literally like two feet long and really wide. 

He proceeded to walk back to the parked tractor and Bushhog looking most unhappy and then wrestled with this giant wrench on the Bushhog for awhile. I did not walk over to get a close up look at what was happening because A) I was busy holding a horse for the farrier and B) I am sticking to my resolution that I do not help Jason with the Bushhog. Ever. For God's sake he can give me a concussion with a feedbag, I'm not going near him with a two foot wrench in his hand. This scenario seemed to repeat itself several times throughout the day yesterday. Today seemed to go a lot better and the tractor and Bushhog were always moving when they should have been.

I now have two days into gathering and sorting dirty horse blankets.  Nothing like waiting until the middle of July to finally get around to doing this. I'm really setting the bar high, not.  You know you have procrastinated way too long when you get a friendly email from your nice blanketing cleaning lady asking if you are still planning to have her clean and repair your 100+ blankets? I think that was her friendly way of saying get off your butt and get the blankets ready for me since it is, you know, JULY.  Since she sent her email after I already had one day of blanket sorting done I felt marginally better about myself. 

Day one of blanket sorting was relatively uneventful. I felt like I needed to take a five hour shower after handling all of the dirty blankets so the task started off at its normal level of awfulness. I'll mention again that I just hate handling dirty, crusty horse blankets. 

Day 2, today, was a lot more eventful. I have to handle each blanket a lot. They all need to be relabeled with a sharpie as the names fade a lot after being worn outside in the rain, mud, dirt, etc. I also inspect each blanket to see if it just needs to be cleaned, or if it also needs to be repaired or if it simply needs to be trashed. I keep a list of the blankets that need to be trashed so I can arrange for replacements.  As I yanked a blanket down so I could inspect it suddenly I had a bunch of angry wasps coming after me. I did the right thing and took off running. They gave up the chase after a few feet and I waited several minutes before walking back over to resume my task. All was well until I pulled the next blanket and down and immediately found myself being chased by another swarm of angry wasps.  I thought surely I was in the clear after that but I was wrong. I got to repeat the experience of pulling down a blanket and being chased by PO'd wasps a third time. 

After my third mad sprint with wasps in pursuit I didn't stop running until I found a can of wasp spray. I sprayed the first three nests that I had uncovered when I removed the blankets. Then I took a deep breath, prepared myself, and yanked down another blanket and immediately took off in a 100 foot dash with a dirty horse blanket in tow. I repeated this mad dash with dirty horse blankets flying behind me over and over. After waiting a few minutes I would cautiously walk back in the barn and spray wasp spray like a mad woman at all the angry wasps coming at me. 

Jason came rolling up on the tractor right as I came running for my life out of the back barn with a dirty horse blanket in one hand and a can of wasp spray in the other. For once in his life he didn't know what to say for a minute but his expression summed it up, "WTF is going on here?"  

I explained to him that apparently I had found wasp nest central under one row of blankets and that he should stay away from that barn for awhile. You see wasps love, or maybe it is that they hate, Jason. If there is a wasp within 20 feet Jason is going to get stung. I've never seen anything like it. So it was thanks to Jason that I had my pick of about ten cans of wasp spray because he buys them in bulk and keeps a few cans in all three barns to try and save himself. 

After warning Jason I walked around to the other side of the barn for a few minutes as I needed to get more twine to tie up my blanket stacks. Apparently while I did this Jason decided to see if I was telling the truth about the wasps. Unbelievably Jason the wasp magnet walked into the barn I had just told him to stay out of. I knew he had not followed my advice when I heard him yell out "BLEEP" and saw him running for his life out of the barn. At that point Jason completely understood why I kept running like a madwoman out of the barn and left the building for good for the day.

Once I finished with that row of blankets things went back to normal and I stopped uncovering wasp nests. I must have killed 100 wasps with the wasp spray. I did realize that I must have deep seated issues that I should probably seek counseling for because I got this really strong feeling of satisfaction every time a dead wasp would fall to the ground when I managed to spray it as it was coming after me. There was something so amazingly satisfying about watching them literally just fall to the ground when a drop of spray hit them. My excellent aim with the wasp spray kept me from being stung.

Jason and I have both ended the last couple of days by taking our clothes off on the porch, dumping them directly in the washing machine when we inside, and then immediately getting in the shower. Nothing gets you dirtier than mowing pastures or handling dozens of dirty, filthy horse blankets.

I am hoping if I really apply myself I can finish getting these blankets sorted tomorrow. After doing more sprinting in one day then I have done in the last few years I am more than ready to be done with blankets, not to mention feeling like I am covered in grime. I am confident that Jason is tired of breathing in allergens, sitting on the tractor, and wrestling giant wrenches on the Bushhog.  We've both had enough of wasps, dirt and wrenches to last us awhile.

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piles of blankets everywhere and I'm only halfway done

I think this would be Jason's least favorite piece of equipment on our farm

Jason mowing one of the pastures . . .

. . . and the results of his work

Stormy and Rocky

Donovan and Walon

Sam and Lighty

Sebastian and Johnny

Fabrizzio and O'Reilly (we had a theme going for picture taking recently, feeling the grooming love at Paradigm Farms)

Ritchie and Thomas

Hemi

Faune, Cocomo and Gus waiting for breakfast

Gibson was waiting as well

Johnny and Africa

Blanket Review

I have to say from a blanket repair perspective I am not loving this winter at all. Of course I don't like, and especially do not love, winter to begin with but this one is really starting to wear on my nerves. The horses have been in sheets or blankets more this winter than the last two or three winters combined.  Normally I love to stand and watch horses being playful and having a good time. When they are wearing their blankets I am wincing with every bite and grab while thinking "Don't grab the blanket. No, don't grab the blanket!  LET GO OF THE BLANKET!" as they are horsing around.  They rarely never seem to pick up on my thoughts even though I am shouting them in my head.

Thus far this season I have stitched rips and tears in:

1 regular Centaur turnout (not a Turbo 1000)

1 Rhino turnout

2 Big D turnouts

1 SmartPak turnout (I should point out this was not one of the new SmartPak ultimate turnouts)

1 Saxon turnout

1 Weatherbeeta turnout

1 Pessoa turnout

one stitched up Rhino

I actually left this Centaur blanket on the horse while I stitched it. I put a feedbag on Johnny and he stood there and ate while I stitched. I made three more passes after I took this picture in the hopes that my patch job will last until the end of the season. As I was doing this I was trying to decide if I was brilliant or stupid for doing this with the blanket on the horse. It worked so I am going with brilliant although I probably won't choose this repair method again.

One repaired SmartPak blanket; I use a heavy needle and dental floss to do these temporary blanket repairs.

I had to do a small repair to this Big D blanket near the withers

About half the horses here are outfitted with Rambo blankets and the rest with various other brands. I  feel the need to point out that I have not yet had the need to stitch up a tear in a Rambo this season while I am busy sewing away on many other brands. The Rambos are not infallible and they can have their issues as well, it just happens a lot less often. Whenever anyone asks me what blankets I recommend I always say Rambo. Yes I know they are expensive blankets. But they also last, can take a lot of rough horse play, and stay waterproof. We get several years out of the Rambo blankets with no spotty waterproofing.  Sometimes people say they think their horse needs shoulder gussets because they have big shoulders. Buy the Rambo with leg arches, I promise they work better to free up more room than the shoulder gussets. 

Between blankets and sheets I deal with well over 100+ blankets. I watch how they hold up and if the waterproofing lasts. These blankets are being worn in group turnout and some of the horses play hard. The most important criteria I have for a blanket is that it stays waterproof. Hands down the blanket that can stand up to the abuse the best and stay waterproof is the Rambo. My second place choice is the Centaur Turbo 1000 (not the regular Centaur). They are not quite as tough as a Rambo but they are close and they maintain their waterproofing.  I am also a fan of Bucas blankets.

Another thing I have learned to hate about blankets is any blanket that has leg straps instead of a tail strap. Anytime a horse has had an "incident" with a blanket it has always involved a leg strap. I detest blankets with leg straps. In my vast personal collection of blankets (and I am a self proclaimed blanket 'ho) I do not own a blanket with leg straps. Let me reiterate that. I do not own a single blanket with leg straps. After spending years watching horses wear turnout blankets outside in group turnout I will not buy a blanket with leg straps. They are an accident looking for a place to happen. So far, thankfully, I've yet to see a horse truly hurt in a leg strap incident but it is only a matter of time. I may be forced to break my own rule in order to get a blanket for Timbit that actually fits him correctly, and I just cringe at the thought of buying a blanket with leg straps.

There are a few problems with leg straps. They get caught on things more easily than a tail strap. And although tail straps get caught on things as well they also tend to just pop off easily or break whereas the elastic leg straps stretch first and don't break as easily so they tend to stay caught. The leg straps also lose their elasticity. One day the strap is fine and the next day the strap is ten miles long and basically dragging on the ground while still properly snapped at both ends. I have lots and lots of leg straps with  multiple knots tied in them trying to remedy this problem. Unfortunately it simply is not realistic for me to go out and buy 100 or so pairs of leg straps and replace them all each year in the hopes of keeping them from stretching.

If you must (although I wish you would not) buy a blanket with leg straps the Dover Northwinds are my top choice there. These are good, sturdy blankets that hold their waterproofing for a few seasons and can take some rough horse play. My second choice for a blanket with leg straps would be Pessoa blankets. Really my main complaint with either of these blankets are the fact that they have leg straps. 

Big D turnouts take a lot of babying to get them through one season to the next. The denier of the fabric is only 600D so they are constant victims in group turnout. The drop on the saxon blankets is very short, I swear some of them look like mini skirts. The Weatherbeetas seem to lose their waterproofing after a couple of seasons and get their share of rips. Although the Schneiders blankets tend to wear very well the waterproofing on them is the pits. I have had more than one Schneiders blanket not be waterproof right out of the bag. If you do get a Schneiders that is actually waterproof, I have found that the first time you wash it you can say goodbye to some or all of the waterproofing. So none of the Schneiders blankets get washed, they only get cold water rinses.  I am so unimpressed with the waterproofing on Schneiders blankets I have started specifically requesting that people not send them. It is a shame since they are tough blankets, but it doesn't really matter since the waterproofing is so questionable.

I can summarize this post by saying buy the Rambo (or buy the Rhino or Amigo knowing you will need to replace them after a couple of seasons). Feel free to buy a Bucas or a Centaur Turbo 1000 but I would still prefer the Rambo. Just say no to the leg straps. If you cannot help yourself then buy the Dover Northwind or the good Pessoas.  Please do not send a Schneiders.  

In closing, in case I was not clear enough, buy the Rambo, or the Bucas, or the Centaur Turbo 1000.

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Johnny and Lighty were having a grand time . . . 

. . . still going at it . . . 

. . . totally ignoring me as I was screaming "don't grab the blanket!!!!"  One Centaur blanket was harmed in the making of this picture. . .  

. . . what is one rip in a blanket when you are having this much fun?

Cocomo, Flyer and Silver

the sunrise had lots of pretty colors again this morning

Donneur

Timbit and Sparky have become big friends. They play a lot . . . 

. . . Timbit getting ready to fire with the hind leg . . . 

. . . I like Sparky's expression here. He looks like an alpaca

Gibson and Lotus were watching Sparky and Timbit play

neither Baby or Elfin could be bothered to look at me

Dutch and Renny napping in the afternoon sun

Darby