So we were house sitting for a few nghts for our friends who have the most amazing property. They have over 340 acres. With a five bedroom two bathroom huge house – yeah I took advantage of that bath tub for sure.
On their farm, they have horses, cows, chickens, and one dog. Kyle loves that Dog – it roams all over the place beside Kyle and is so well behaved. It’s a loyal dog who is trained to leave all of the animals alone – it sits right next to the chickens!!!
Yesterday we were meant to be there till just after lunch, and then head into Karate for Kyle. I suddenly remembered the horses needed to be checked in each paddock for their water. Thinking that Kyle would come back and say its all fine – no issue.
Saving 19 Horses With Water
Big mistake – every single paddock was out of water and all 19 horses were licking the horse troughs as they were so thirsty. Now I dont know how long a horse can survive without water but I don’t think its for long periods of time, and I wasn’t leaving until they were taken care of.
There was one paddock that had water in it and no horses so I set up a barrier with the ute, Kyle standing there with a rope tied to the ute and the fence to make a fake fence line and then he directed the horses while I let their gate open up and they bolted into the next paddock. Yippee, that worked for five horses, but there were 14 more horses that were waiting for water.
We managed to carry buckets/black bin of water in the back of the ute to two adjoining paddocks and fill up their trough. That took care of 6 horses. They were so thirsty they were all fighting over who got to drink first. We ended up filling up their water trough twice – at the beginning of our adventures and at the end of our adventures, just before leaving to come back to our motorhome. SO 6 plus five only takes care of 11 horses and yet we were on a mission Saving 19 Horses With Water
There were 8 more horses that were watching us and trying to work out where their water was. I took a very bold and daring move and hoped with all my might that it would work. We shut gates into another paddock and opened up a paddock that had water in it. Then I positioned the ute in the laneway {which is a runway for planes} and opened up the gate that had 5 thoroughbreds in it.
I then stood back and hoped they would come into the paddock that had a container of water. Unfortunately they went straight down to the dam. Which made my heart beat so fast – oh shit there was a fence on the other side of that dam that had been cut to let out huge trucks go through the previous week.
Now what? So I jumped back into the Ute and I approached the 5 Thoroughbreds. They were all drinking as much water as possible so I sat and watched them and then I started rounding them up with the Ute. I surged forward towards them and then turned back towards their paddock, parked the car and then started calling them.
They bolted straight for me – OH SHIT – If they wanted to they could have easily ran straight over me. But I stood tall, and swang a rope around in the air in circles and directed them back into their orginial paddock. They were amazing to watch, their leader of their pack took them straight back into the paddock…..the paddock that Kyle was walking through!!!
Never ever seen him run so fast to get out of their way.
Then we realised there was 3 more horses in the very far paddock – away from any sources of water. And I knew that taking water with buckets and big black bin wouldn’t work as we would have spilt it all over the place. And one of them is really old – like he is so old that he needs to be put down. I didn’t want to stress them out by bringing them out of the paddock to another paddock without halters and lead ropes – we only found two and couldn’t find anymore.
Luckily Kyle has been working on the property so he knows where there was a bathtub closer to their paddock which was full of water. Now it wasn’t the best quality water but they needed it no matter what. I was really worried about the older horse – it must be close to 30 years old – and I wasn’t leaving him without any water.
So we again used the Ute and Black Bin with Buckets to take water to them. I have never ever seen horses drink that much water so fast. Mind you towards the end one of the horses got so cheeky and grabbed the big red bucket out of my hands, tipped it upside down and I ended up soaking wet!!!
Mission accomplished – Saving 19 Horses with Water is now crossed off my bucket list for sure!
We were excited that all the horses had water – but just to be sure that they were not going to be thirsty before our friend got back to her property – we took one more load of buckets/black bin of water back to the 5 Thoroughbreds – I didn’t want to risk letting them out again in case they didn’t go back in and then we would have had fun trying to get them rounded up.
They were magical how well they all took turns drinking out of buckets – one of them was way thirstier than the others – but soon realised that they all needed to be sharing.
I have since heard that the pump was fixed late last night but again broke down this morning and has taken over 6 hours to be fixed. So I am super glad that we spent over five hours transfer water to each horse in all of the paddocks. Saving 19 Horses with Water – sure opened up Kyle’s eyes to the beauty of how Horses work. And luckily my horse skills just needed to be re-tuned a little bit.
Mind you I don’t think Kyle will be asking for a Horse for Xmas anytime soon – he soon learned to get away from small ponies who could kick out fast and fearlessly. He soon learned to listen to instructions about where to be and what to do if they were heading straight for him at a deadbolt. And he made us super proud – none of it would have been possible without his help.
He knew which gates could be opened and closed to get horses to the water supply. He knew where to access water that wasn’t being used. He knew where a bale of Hay was to use as an attraction for them – mind you NONE of them were interested in the Hay at all, they just wanted water. He carried that bale of Hay over his shoulders for 10 metres to get into the back of a Ute.
He used a buggy to pick up water and take the buckets of water to Horses. He helped out in so many ways when all I had to do was drive the Ute, and carry the buckets to the horses. I wouldn’t have had any idea on the working out of gates and where to access the water without his help.
He slept so well last night – I was still on a huge high after working so closely with such magical animals. It sure was a hard hot 5 hours but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I used to own a Horse when I was 18 and I miss being around them.
We Love Horses – They Are Magical.
What Is Your Favorite Animal?
Cheers
Lisa
New Life on the Road
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