Barn Life in California

12/20/2011

Click photo to find out more about Val and Harley

Val, of Memoirs of a Horse Girl, has inspired a new series of posts. Val lives in New Jersey with her Quarter Horse, Harley. Harley is Val's first horse, although she rode for many years before buying Harley five years ago. Here is a photo of Harley and Val stolen from her blog page. Sorry, Val!

Harley took ill recently and required blood work. It turns out that he had a virus that required time and comfortable living as the antidote. This caused Val's vet to re-examine Harley's diet. The vet recommended adding alfalfa pellets to his hay ration for the higher protein and calories that alfalfa provides.

This feed change generated quite a discussion on Val's blog. You can read that particular post here. The discussion illustrated how much I enjoy "blog chatting" with fellow bloggers from around the world. I've met Val, of New Jersey, with her Quarter Horse, Harley; E. of Now That's a Trot! with her Standardbreds, Jabby and Willie, also from New Jersey; and Kelly of Ride, Groom, Feed in New Zealand with her Thoroughbred, Leo. It's been utterly fascinating sharing and chatting with these women and many other bloggers.

Our discussions reaffirmed that there are many, many ways to keep horses and they vary from state to state and country to country. So thanks to Val, I am launching another series of posts, California Barn Life. Check back tomorrow for more!

Click photo to learn more about Kelly and Leo

Click photo to learn more about E. and Willie

Val link

12/20/2011 04:23:49 am

Nice buckskin, looks a lot like Harley...
...oh wait, that IS Harley!

Great idea for the Barn Life series. I was just telling my husband yesterday how interesting it was to learn what other horse owners are feeding in California. I had no idea that alfalfa was more commonly fed than grass hay.

Thanks for he link reference! I am enjoying the cross-coast exchange as well!

Karen

12/20/2011 10:18:07 am

Val - Harley is a nice looking buckskin. Hubby frequently asks why I don't have one of those pretty yellow horses with the black marks. he likes buckskins ... a lot. :0)

My favorite part of blogging is reading what everyone has to share. There is no end to the questions I have for you folks who live thousands of miles away. My favorite part of the day is sitting down to read what people several states away are doing with their horses.

nowthatsatrot link

12/20/2011 11:32:24 am

Love the idea! Looking forward to seeing how you do things differently. Maybe I'll take some of the questions from your comments and do some posts of my own! :)

Karen Sweaney link

12/20/2011 09:22:15 pm

Now THAT'S a Trot! - I would love to hear more about horse keeping in New Jersey. I still haven't figured out why you don't have any other boarders. I probably missed the reason somewhere along the way, but still curious!

Karen

12/21/2011 02:24:11 pm

LOL, well I work with two very different and somewhat unique set-ups now... My main job is at one farm with 20-30 horses at a time, most of which live out 24/7. I keep my boys at a smaller barn that was originally a co-op situation, but I took over all of the horse care duties in exchange for use of the pasture/facilities. (I also occasionally farm-sit and such on the side.) It's complicated and I just never blogged most of it out but feel free to message me if you want to know more! If I do my own horsekeeping series I will include a bare-bones version. :)

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