In 2002, I made a decision to buy a horse with the intent to keep it until it died.
I actually bought two quarter horses which I named Buddy and Holly. Buddy has more energy, is a picky eater and can get more worried. Holly can be lazier, eats almost anything and will open her own gate and get the lid off the grain barrel in the shed if I don’t pay attention.
Buddy and Holly were, first of all, demonstration horses. They are an example of what a normal horse is capable of doing in anybody’s backyard. They show how to respond without equipment to body language for all the hovercraft moves (six directions), and how to work on their own.
I use Buddy and Holly out on our place to move cattle, move equipment or build fencing (poly line or permanent). Buddy has the quickest moves to sort cattle and has the energy to pull my new portable mineral feeder/cattle rub on wheels. Holly is the quietest horse to give lessons, but will nip the unsuspecting greenhorn who isn’t paying attention. I use both horses individually to pull my poly tub drag that holds mineral, hauls water tanks, or poly lines and step-in posts.
Any time they move something, it is attached to a rope which I tie to the saddle horn. In wintertime, when we have a good amount of snow (3-to-4 inches or more), Buddy, Holly and I will pull neighboring kids around in the poly tub using it as a toboggan. In a pinch, I have used it to haul small bales to the cows that way also. I will relay the two horses so one can rest while the other one pulls. Either horse can help me put out poly lines or take them in when changing pasture sizes.
The horses walk next to me when I put in step in posts, and will allow me to use two hands while riding to reel in a poly line when I am done with it.
Their responsibility to self-work and listening to body language and voice commands makes them more valuable than an ATV when moving equipment and changing sizes of pastures with poly lines. Sometimes I can use horses I’m training for some of this work, but I usually saddle Buddy or Holly earlier or later on a weekday or earlier on a weekend to get pastures ready for cows (which move every 3-to-6 days). Usually each horse will be able to help me with something once a week.
I usually turn these two out to pasture early in the morning unless I am using them, then I let them in after lunch for water in the pens. Then they go to the round corral for the rest of the day. I have grain waiting for them in the round pen, and again in their regular pen when I let them go there sometime in the evening.
These are my two horses I will try to include in my daily life for as long as I can.
Mike Daniels is a horsemanship trainer and barefoot trimming specialist from Raymondville. His columns are posted online at www.houstonherald.com. Call him at 417-457-1015.