Aislinn Really's Page

Happy Birthday!! An Happy Earth Day!! have a fruit fulled fun day! blessings

Hey thanks my hometown.  Lots of good fruit in that city.  When the guy who is going to Mc donalds or eats microwaved pizza calls you crazy well lol

Hi Aislinn. Thanks for the friendship. I was in Nelson for the holidays and try to get over there whenever possible. Truly a heaven on Earth! :)

Also: your list of authors above.... outstanding!

Hi again, It's nice to hear from you :) When I started this horse gig about 9 years ago, it was some friends who had done it before asked if I would like to try. Since at that time, home was a townhouse near Baltimore, with noisy (any time of day or night) neighbors, I was willing! The guy who owns all the horses here came up and asked in a real gruff voice, "what do you know about horses?" to which I replied honestly "absolutely nothing!"  He then said "OK, I think I can work with you". LOL!

I was so intimidated by the horses at first! It was probably about a year and a half before I didn't feel like they were going to kick me or bite me at any second. We have 2 colts here right now and they DO bite, but not without consequences to them :) But I love them, they're my "rascally boys" it's just like having a bunch of kids around,. The colts are the 10 year old boys who are all about fighting and being macho. The mares tend to be drama queens but sweet and the geldings are kind of like big brother home from college for the summer, pretty laid back.

I can sort of clean the colt's stalls with them in there, but I have to keep a sharp eye and be ready to beat a quick exit if they get worked up. I try to do things like that in little installments, to get them used to it/me and show them it is not a threat. The geldings and mares in stalls I can pick all around, walk right behind them, with no problem. When I do go behind, I go very close (like no space between them and I) and run my hand over their rump so they are not surprised by me. They could kick me like that, but they would mostly just knock into me instead of getting a full kick off.

I bet the more you get to know some of those horses in the stalls, you'll be able to lead them, etc. Maybe you can also go along with the owners when they come, to get the halters on/lead them. For me, the key has been thinking about problems I have with certain horses, I try to think about what my goal is and what they are doing that makes that hard for me to achieve. Often times I am able to figure out a way to help them not be so much of a handful.

For example, one colt ALWAYS grabs the halter in his teeth, I'd have to wrestle with him for 15 minutes to get it out of his teeth and finally over his head. Now, every time I go to halter him, I give him a handful of hay to chew on and slip the halter on while he's busy with the hay. Also, feed is a great motivator! If I have to catch a horse that keeps running away from me or spinning on me, I just go out with a bucket with a little grain in it and they come right to me! Magic! :)

We use very fine wood shavings that sift through fine tine forks for bedding. The stalls get stripped once a week and when the horses are out, I just pick out the poop and any very wet areas. We also toss some cedar shavings on top because they smell nice and help keep the flies down although in hot weather, I don't think anything can really keep them down to nice levels. I just try to keep the stalls as poop free as possible and that helps.

Yeah fences and gates always give me work to do. Bees in gates are my bane in late summer early fall, although I've been closing up splits/holes I see in the metal with duct tape, looks redneck but removes nesting places for the bees and makes the gates a lot safer for me!


Re your feisty arab, arabs are typically really smart. If someone has been mean to him, he may be belligerent, that’s tough to deal with but not impossible.  If/when you do have to handle him, be kind but don’t take any guff from him, like if you were a manager at a store and had a rude employee, you wouldn’t want to make them afraid, but you would want them to know that you will not tolerate some behaviors. Keep it business with him, not reactive and not enabling and I bet you’ll do great! Oh and if he does try to bite or something any d

Thanks for the add! :)

Hi Aislin,

Sure! :) Well it depends on the schedule we are in. Right now we are turning the horses out at night and then bringing them in during the day. So now my farm-days start a lot later than they do during the morning turnout months.

So right now we have 9 horses in stalls and 5 outside (At the end of next week, we'll have another mare and her foal). So I usually get up around 5:00 am and work on office stuff for a few hours then go out at around 8:00am and drop feed, put some hay in the stalls, clean out any water buckets that have been pooped in by birds, or are getting slippery, etc. Then I bring the 9 horses in. For 2 of the outside horses, older gents, 26 & 27 year old geldings, they both get cresty as the grass comes in, so I bring them into a dry lot with shade during the day and give them a tiny bit of grain and some hay. The other outside horses I give a little grain and hay in the a.m. as well. So that's my "easy chores" and it takes me about 2 - 2.5 hours depending on who has boo boos that need tending, or who has lost a halter, what needs repairing etc.

Then in the evening (time depends on if people are riding, etc), I drop feed for the inside horses again and then I turn out the gentlemen into their pasture and turn the inside horses out in their pastures/paddocks (after they've finished eating). I muck out their stalls, sweep out the barn, clean and refill buckets, empty the manure spreader, etc.

Then around September it reverses and the more heavy chores are in the morning. At that time, I often get up and start the day at around 4:30 am.

I work a "regular" job as well, but for now at least, I am able to do a lot of work from home, so I can juggle things around.

Thanks Aislinn! :) The day is starting beautifully for sure! For chores I had crisp fresh air, 60dF, and then warm, sweet smelling horses to lead in and out. A great way to start the day! :)