[Julie Clemons]

I was thinking about leaves and mentioned it to my husband, who reported that his family had a horse when he was a kid (this was a pet riding horse) and they filled its pen with leaves, which it ate and got sick. He says “she was never right again.”

Since horses have access to leaves all the time and generally don’t get sick, this makes me think that she had something going on that was making her eat them preferentially – she was hungry or looking for minerals or bored or something.

This is also a 35 year old memory so there probably is more to the story. Has anyone else tried leaves as bedding? I don’t think they would be very absorbent unless they were shredded first.

[Julie Clemons]

Crabapple Farm, do you cook the squash before you feed it? Do you feed seeds and all?

I’d be interested if any of you have SFJ handy, if you look for that article on mangels, the author made it sound like he and others in his community fed them as a staple of the diet. I wonder if there are different strains that have lower sugar content or something.

Lil is still at Fair Winds Farm – Jay and Bekah are the soul of patience as we scramble to get ready for her. We had a great barn raising this weekend, we’re closing on it! (Jonathan was checking the dimensions after everything got nailed off – we had a lot of enthusiastic volunteers so the hammers were flying faster than the GC could keep up – and looked at me and said “I hope she is a little wider at the bottom than she is at the top.”) Props to Mark Cowdrey who made our day by showing up early, staying late, bringing tools, and being by far the most competent one of the bunch. 😀 Gotta love those Suffolk people.

[Julie Clemons]

If I ever have a baby I am naming it Mangel Wurzel.

[Julie Clemons]

Do any of you feed mangels or other roots to your horses as a significant part of their diet? I was reading an article in a fairly recent SFJ (within the last six issues I think) about this and apparently it’s quite popular in England. The author emphasized growing the biggest ones you possibly can and then cutting them up with a shovel or an axe so the horse can bite the pieces.

Seems like an interesting alternative for those of us who don’t have the equipment or space to put up our own hay yet. And if you do a crappy job putting up your mangels they probably don’t burst into flames and burn down your barn (this is a tremendous fear of mine when it comes to learning about hay).:eek:

[Julie Clemons]

well, there you are! We didn’t see you at Common Ground or at Animal Power Field Days either! What is up with that? We were in a new spot this year at Common Ground, over by Fedco and the catnip people.

Yeah I want to pull rocks and logs and stuff with her so I’m looking for something stout. Also the d-ring is just what I’m used to.

How are you doing? Are you back in Maine now?

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