Paradigm Farms Horse Retirement: The Year of the Skunk

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

The Year of the Skunk

Every year on the farm it seems to be the year of something. We had the year of the deer a few years ago. The farm was literally overrun with deer. One evening as we were driving along our driveway towards our house, Jason had to stop the car because a herd of deer were blocking the driveway. He honked the horn at them and they took their time moving out of our way. We've also had the year of the turkey. The farm was covered in wild turkeys. I learned that mommy turkeys with babies in tow will chase you despite Jason telling me it would not happen. Before Ewen came along we had the year of the vultures. Ewen is an exceptionally dedicated bird chaser so we probably won't have another year of the vulture for awhile.

This year has been extra special because it has turned into the year of the skunk. Since late May we have had skunks everywhere. One skunk family decided to raise their babies in the run-in shed in our first pasture. I have to admit this is a cute skunk family and one of the skunks is an albino skunk. This skunk family is very playful. Jason saw them playing in the creek one day and even old hard heart thought it was cute. He said they were all splashing each other and having a big time. They've also decided to participate in morning feedings in the first pasture a couple of times. We feed really early at this time of year, starting at about 5am , so the skunks are still active. They like to sniff the feedbags and see if they can get any feed. They seem comfortable with the horses which is no surprise since they've raised their family in a run-in shed, and the horses ignore them. The people on the other hand have a much harder time ignoring them. We generally hide in the barn, go to another pasture, or stand far away until the skunk family decides to moves on.

We have another skunk family in our very last pasture as well. Thus far they haven't tried to participate in feeding time, but we do see them out and about regularly. I consider it a miracle that no horses or humans have been sprayed by a skunk so far. Ewen hasn't been as lucky, but that's no surprise. Ewen appears to be incapable of learning that the black and white cats don't want to play, and he always gets sprayed a few times each year. As long as the skunks stick to being cute, playful and not spraying horses and people I'm fine with them sticking around, but I think we would all be happy if they stopped trying to participate at feeding time. Is anybody else having the year of the skunk?

one of our fat, shiny skunks