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Thread Nine: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1584833/posts |
Posted on 10/04/2005 9:56:41 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
This is a horse chat thread where we share ideas, ask for input from other horsemen, and talk about our riding and horse-keeping. We have a lot of different kinds of riders and horses, and a lot to share. In the previous threads we have had a great time talking through lessons, training, horse lamenesses, illnesses and pregnancies... and always sharing pictures and stories.
I always have a link to this thread on my profile page, so if you have something to say and can't find the thread in latest posts… look for it there and wake the thread up!
I also have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and MissTargets will now be pinging everyone most mornings. Let MissTargets and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list. As FreeRepublic is a political site, our politics and other issues will probably blend in…. There are many issues for horsemen that touch politics… land use, animal rights/abuse cases that make the news…. Legislation that might affect horse owners.
So... like the previous threads, this is intended as fun place to come and share stories, pictures, questions and chit-chat, unguided and unmoderated and that we come together here as friends. There are lots of ways of doing things and we all have our quirks, tricks and specialties that are neat to learn about.
Previous threads:
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - thread ONE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread TWO!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread THREE!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FOUR
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FIVE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SIX
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SEVEN
New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!
I've never seen a cotton field, sure I'd like to see a picture!
I'd have rather seen a picture of Smokey handing you that bucket ;~D
I'd like to seed the whole place now inside the fence. But I'm going to have to do some research on when is the best time. I don't think it's now except for maybe winter wheat which I might do just to help the soil and give them something to eat on during the winter. I've been told winter wheat is good for soil..???
For what I do in an arena I think it would be alright for there to be grass down. Circles and such. I don't know how well grass will grow there tho...probably have to do some heavy duty fertilizing. I'd say most of the good top soil has been washed/blown away.
Becky
Any forage you can get to grow there would be good. I think it's too cold here to get anything to germinate.
We keep wanting to have our pasture worked on. We'd hire someone to come and plow it, or at least harrow it and overseed it, so that hopefully we could end up with better forage and fewer weeds.... but I don't think now is the right time to do that, either. Spring probably.
Does anyone there sow winter wheat? It really makes a pretty pasture and horses love it. It just doesn't come back the next year. It grows around here all winter, I'd think it would there too. It's a cool weather grass.
Becky
Around here, now is the best time to sow most any kind of grass except warm season grasses like Bermuda. It has time to germinate and put down roots before it freezes, then it will slowly get established thru the winter and really come on in the spring. If you plant it in the spring, it doesn't have enough time to put down good deep roots before it gets too hot and dry. My FIL just sowed our whole place in fescue. I'd rather have had orchard grass, but he's doing it so I'm not going to complain.
We've sown rye before and it basically does the same thing. It comes out really pretty over the winter then dies off come summer.
HHHMMMMM, that's interesting, thanks for the tip. I'll look into fescue. I think around here alot of people have fescue and bermuda in the same fields.
My problem now will be keeping him off it till it gets established. I've opened it all up to give him lots of room, I hate to shut him up in his run now:).
Becky
Would rye come back every year? Now that you say that I remember my dad had rye in his front yard, but I can't remember if he had to replant every year. It is pretty in the winter.
Becky
I don't think they do! If I've ever seen it this side of the mountains, I'd recognize it I'd think. Plenty of wheat in Eastern WA, but not here.
Here they often plant clover as a cover crop.
Yeah, you gotta replant every year. That's why we finally went with the fescue.
I wish I knew of a good knowledgeable farmer who would come and even look and evaluate what we've got. It was never planted with anything, the grass and weeds out there are just whatever came up naturally. I can't irrigate it, so it's hard to keep it green through summer anyway, but I think in addition to that, it needs some soil improvement and to be seeded with the right grass, and without knowing exactly what it needs, I just sit and stare at it and wish it looked better.
A friend in MO had a guy from his county extension office come out and walk his property and give all kinds of advice on soil prep and seeding. I asked our extension people if they'd do that, and they looked at me like I had eels coming out of my eyes. I don't know what it is they ~do~ here, but they apparently don't do that. :~\
They probably planted one and the other volunteered. It works out pretty well though. The fescue is green in the winter and the bermuda comes on nice and thick in the summer. You can't get away from common bermuda around here. It'll grow on a rock I think.
He's a nice looking horse :)
I'm so sorry about your kitten.
Boy, you have been working. It looks great.
Yeah, they do that here too, or so I've been told. I've never called them, but I should. You can go to their office and get some little boxes to put soil samples in, the instructions for where and how to take them are on the box, and you can send them off to the state lab for analysis. They'll send you back a detailed list of exactly what kinds of fertilizers and in what proportions you need to put on your pastures. I think it may actually be the Soil Conservation office that you need to talk to instead of the Extension Service.
Indeed... Sorry about the kitten. I missed that post today. What a sad thing to find, too late to do anything about it. Heck, I feel bad when I find mice who drowned in the water buckets. I can't take the drama.
~Prayers for the little critters, who get themselves in trouble when no one's watching~
I'm not even sure we have one of those! I'll look.
Oh dear.... where does the day go?
I'd better get out and clean stalls and run to the feed store before the day's out, but I just really don't feel like it :~\
LOL....that sounds just like me:). I've never planted anything out there, and am not sure how to go about doing anything. I'd like advice too.
I know you can take a soil sample in somewhere around here and they will analize it and tell you what to do to make it better. I don't know if they would actually come out here and look it over.
The stuff that was growing naturally around here was prarie grass, but once it gets ate down it won't come back, you have to let it go to see. I had bermuda growing out there pretty good when I had the weed eater and kept the weeds down, but that's all gone now, (dam that theif:), I don't know if it will come back once the weeds are gone again.
Becky
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