Goodnight Sweetgrass Ranch: The Perfect Close to a Bountiful Harvest Day

Tonight's sunset was the perfect close to a bountiful harvest day. The garden yielded enough green beans and scallions to feed two families, loads of Ring of Fire Cayenne peppers, sweet peppers, and the first of the Black Plum tomatoes. The orchard blessed us with late season Blueberries and two buckets of what promises to be a whale of an Asian Apple Pear harvest. I spent my evening watching this glorious sky as I braided the first of the 2012 Sweetgrass crop.

 

There are other tangibles as well. My young friend, Eric, spent a good deal of his summer here, helping out and becoming a very good archer. His basketball improved to the point where he's routinely trouncing me at Horse or Pig and he often outsmarts me when we play cards. Eric has gotten tall and strong and his voice has deepened, too.

 

In his first year of showing horses, Lorenzo exceeded all my expectations and excelled. He also managed to teach me to handle a rope, which is no small task! Our combined efforts resulted in high marks for the Sweetgrass Ranch horses.

 

Where's the beef? Tip, our 2012 bull calf, is well on his way to becoming a 2013 herd sire.

 

Here at Sweetgrass, we live a charmed life, one that is never taken for granted. I am ever mindful of my good fortune, of the many folks who dream of this life. To you, I say, may you find your peace place; may you realize all your goals and then some!

Meadow Grass Hay, a Low Carb, Low Starch Alternative

Twelve tons of Adel Meadow Grass hay should arrive here at the ranch the first week of September. The hay is harvested by Crump Ranch and trucked to their Sisters, Oregon operation. Larry DeSannos of G & G Hay sales (503-706-1389), my awesome "hay guy," has agreed to pick up the hay and bring it here to Sweetgrass Ranch.

Why Meadow Grass hay? It's a long story, but here goes...

Last January, my coming two year-old filly, Jetblue, suffered a right dorsal displacement of her colon -- a serious colic requiring emergency life-saving surgery. In the months that followed, Jetblue experienced three minor colic episodes, prompting us to investigate. Here's what we learned.

Orchard and Timothy grass hays are most often high in carbohydrates and starches, energy sources that are typically digested in the horse's foregut, creating a lot of gas bubbles. It's my understanding that the gas can be significant enough to cause a displacement of the colon.

For horses that are insulin resistant, high carb, high starch grasses can lead to colic and  even laminitis. While we have not had Jetblue tested for this condition, she does fit the profile, having grown at an incredible rate all throughout her first two years.

When Jetblue's colic surgeon, Dr. Jill Parker of Oregon State University, recommended a reduced bulk, high fiber diet with a concentrate like Purina Wellsolve, we took her advice to heart. To ensure a high fluid intake, we've been soaking Jetblue's Orchard Grass hay, a process which also reduces the carb levels of this hay by as much as 30%.  Jetblue is fed small portions of hay more often. Following Dr. Parker's recommendation, my colic-prone filly receives a ration of Purina Wellsolve.  As a precaution, we soak the Wellsolve and combine it with beet pulp. Since going to this regimen, Jetblue has not shown any signs of colic.

Clearly, there are other possibilities. Jetblue cribs and cribbers are notorious for colic. When she is in the barn -- where she cribs -- we always have an effective cribbing collar on her.

Ulcers can be a source of colic, too, so we've been careful to keep to a fixed feeding schedule and to provide access to pasture as much as possible. When a horse is chewing hay or grazing on grass, he or she produces a good measure of saliva and saliva is a potent buffer for stomach acid. Incidentally, there is a lot of research indicating that alfalfa has very good stomach acid-buffering properties, too, due to its calcium content.

So to get back to the question, why Meadow Grass, here's my take. Meadow Grass is a fine stemmed native grass which grows at high elevations. It is typically lower in sugar content than Orchard or Timothy -- in this case the worrisome carbohydrate leve runs about 6.5%, well bellow the vet recommended value of 10%.

The protein level of Meadow Grass is significantly lower, about 8%, meaning we'll need to feed more to meet our horses' protein requirements or we'll need to supplement with something a high protein concentrate like soybean meal. The plus side of feeding a horse more hay is that it actively engages them in the process of chewing which results in more stomach acid-buffering saliva.

Since locating the Crump Ranch Meadow Grass hay, I've been feeding Jetblue a single flake of the stuff, dry. She "hoovers" it up and seems grateful to be treated to something that isn't soaking wet.

Will Meadow Grass help colic-proof Jetblue? I sure hope so!

The Many Reasons I LOVE Horse Camping

Horse camping became a part of my family's culture when the kids were younger and partcipating in Horse 4-H. Our first big adventure, with The Mavericks, was to Nehalem Bay State Park. The wide, white-sand beach was a great place to get our hooves wet -- LITERALLY! There were subsequent annual trips to Nehalem, Timothy Lake, and Silver Falls State Park, each one a blast.

These outings were a fun way to wrap up the 4-H show season, a stress-free time for families to get to know each other. Looking back, the horses seemed to enjoy camping, too.

Back then, our activities ranged from story-telling and skits around the fire, to card games, and swimming in the lake. There were twice daily trail rides and plenty of S'mores or other goopy marshmallow inventions.

So, after years of yearning to recapture some of the fun of horse camping, I did something so spur-of-the-moment this last week, that it shocked even me. I reserved a horse camp at Stub Stewart State Park, which is a mere thirty-minutes drive from the ranch. Far enough to be out in the woods, yet close enough to spin home and care for the rest of our critters.

Rosie and Don helped me get the trailer parked at site 3 and the horses settled into their corrals on Friday night. Nick drove in from the coast to join us and we roasted our dinner -- and a few S'mores -- over the fire.

That night, our sleep was punctuated with horses squealing at each other -- mostly our two mares -- and the wind rustling through the tall stand of Douglas Firs that surround the park's fifteen horse camp sites.

Early the next morning, as the sun was rising, I fed the horses their hay and took a snapshot of our camp spot.

 

A couple of hours later, Nick and Rosie and I were saddled and out on the trail. We climbed to Unfit Settlement viewpoint -- the highest point in the park at 1,500 feet, which was deemed "Mountainous, Unfit for Settlement," in an 1879 survey. While there, Rosie snapped this photo of Nick and Irish with Drifty and me.

 

I can't remember the last time Nick and Rosie and I got to ride together, but it felt wonderful to do so once again.
 

From Unfit Settlement, we dropped down to the Hares Canyon Trail, one of the longest trails in the park. A work crew was grinding branches ahead, so we cut over on Bullbucker to Sidewinder Horseshoe to Bucking Pass to Boomscooter, all sections of trail named after logging terms. We made a quick loop through Skidder Row before heading back to camp.

 

Come lunchtime, we were eager to visit with Don and Nick's sweetheart, Chelsea, who brought Ima, an adorable Black Lab pup she was dog-sitting. Here's a snapshot of Ima with the water bottle she's been chewing.

 

Our lunch fare was a reprise meal -- tube steaks (chicken hot dogs), pickles, olives, carrots, chips, grapes, watermelon slices, and S'mores. Afterwards, Rosie took a nap while the rest of us played Kings in the Corner, a card game we learned from one of our 4-H friends, Dea Tran. If you look close, you can see Nick pretending to sneak a peek at my cards!

 

 

Rosie soon joined us and it was time for the afternoon ride. This time, Chelsea rode with Rosie and me and we definitely picked up the pace for some fast canters and trots.
 

First, we dropped down Boomscooter to the Banks-Vernonia Trail, where we encountered a lot of bicyclists. Steady as usual, the horses did great. We set a fast pace south until we hit the base of the Hares Canyon Trail, swinging into the Brooke Creek Hike-In Camp for a rest stop. From there, we climbed high up over Jackstrawed Tarry, dropping down on to Bullbucker and then Hooktender Horseshoe back into camp. Here's a snapshot of Chelsea and Irish with Rosie and Venus.

 

 

We fed the horses their dinner and loaded up our gear before heading home late Saturday, leaving much of the unpacking for today. Everyone had a great time and we hope to horse camp one more time this fall.

Jetblue's Baby Barn Swallow

The Barn Swallows who take up the rafters in the horse loafing sheds are a chatty, multi-generational crowd. Interestingly, they seem to know and tolerate us. That isn't the case for the ranch cats or the small dogs. The swallows form a veritable air force, dive-bombing any critter who threatens their fledglings.

Over these past several years, we've developed an appreciation for the swallows' aerial feats and their ability to pluck a wide range of insects from mid-air. When you live with and care for livestock like we do, Barn Swallows are a potent front line in the pest control program.

This past week, as temperatures hit the century mark, a late season nest of Barn Swallows was clearly in danger. The heat drove the youngsters out of the nest. One survived the huge drop and is living in Jetblue's loafing shed, having perched on a rather large pile of road apples.

Jetblue knows the baby is there -- I've seen her nuzzling her small charge -- and the adult swallows swoop in frequently with the day's fresh catch. So, I expect this youngster will not only survive; Jetblue's Barn Swallow baby is going to thrive.

Water is Life

There's nothing quite like a heatwave to remind a person that water is life. Leonardo da Vinci said it best: "Water is the driving force of all nature."

For the past three days, our high temps have run at or near the century mark, meaning we've spent just about all our spare time dumping and re-filling stock tanks, hosing horses down, wetting hay and feed, or watering plants.

Amazingly, the potted plants on the deck, like this Geranium, have held up quite well.

 

Thankfully, a cool breeze blew in off the ocean this evening. The forecast for tomorrow calls for a high in the mid-eighties, which should feel downright chilly!

A Hot Day, Roping Practice in the Shade

It was a blistering ninety-eight degrees outside today and the forecast calls for our part of Oregon to hit the century mark or better the next two days. On hot days like this, we hurry to get the horses rotated out to pasture, knock off all the chores and essential watering, and settle in for some serious roping practice in the shade
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More than anyone I know, Lorenzo is masterful with a rope. He credits his Zen-like skills to the multitude of chickens, turkeys, and other stock he roped as a youth. Thankfully, Lorenzo is a darn good teacher, too -- something Lorenzo's son, Eric, and I both appreciate!

Enlightenment On a Soft Summer Breeze

The farmer who rents the fifty acres across the road decided to harvest his crop yesterday morning. Harvest time is nothing new here at Sweetgrass, but something happened yesterday that really got my dander.

The wind -- a strong, warm Noreaster -- blew an immense plume of dust and crop debris over Sweetgrass. This was followed by shower of weed seeds. Bits and particles landed behind my eye glasses, somehow making it into my eyes. My home's clean windows and my truck and horse trailers were rendered filthy within seconds, my organic blueberries and Asian apple pears suddenly coated in a thick layer of non-organic crop dust. Seeing red, I phoned my neighbors.

My message was, at best, terse. Something about how I worked hard to maintain my property and how the shower of unwanted weed seeds and dirt had clogged my newly cleaned stock water tanks and dusted my normally tidy home, barn and outbuildings. The neighbors' daughter phoned back in minutes to inform me that the farmer was conducting a "commercial" operation, one with crucial deadlines way more important than my concerns.

Shocking as her statement was, I didn't give up. I gently explained how the farmer's "harvest" meant a greater cost to me in terms of clean-up and future weed control. I suggested that my neighbor ask the farmer to consider the prevailing wind conditions before deciding to blow crop dust all over Sweetgrass. Thankfully, the neighbors' daughter agreed.

The farmer called me this morning to say that he had asked his crew to try to harvest at a time when the wind direction wasn't toward Sweetgrass. I thanked him for his consideration and made a mental note to phone the neighbor's daughter and thank her, too.

Before I could do so, the neighbor phoned to say that the farmer had threated to cancel his lease, that I was the cause, and that she did not want me giving her lessee trouble.

I thanked my neighbor for visiting with the farmer about my concerns and told her that our conversation had gone very well, that I had done nothing to jeopardize her lease agreement with the farmer.

Once again, I explained what had happened -- the massive cloud of crop dust and debris that had settled over Sweetgrass, the mucked up stock tanks, the layer of inorganic dust on my organic fruit crop, my now filthy windows, barn, and outbuildings. My plea for understanding seemed to fall on deaf ears and I was again informed that the neighbor's farm was a commercial operation, that harvest would resume.

Sure enough, I heard the diesel thresher fire up this afternoon. This time, the direction of the wind had shifted -- it was coming from the southeast. A massive cloud of dust and crop debris swirled high above the farmer's equiment, drifting steadily toward my neighbors' home and outbuildings.
In no time at all, my phone was ringing. The neighbor asked if I knew that the farmer was harvesting and I told her I thought he was, but that the wind direction was away from Sweetgrass.

"I told him to quit!" she shouted into her phone. "This time, that nasty stuff hit me. I told the farmer "No more!" Next year, he has to plant a different crop. If you have trouble, you go ahead and tell him to quit!"

"It's pretty awful, isn't it?" I replied.

"It sure is," she answered.

It seems that enlightenment chooses its own path, sometimes arriving on a soft summer breeze.

I'm thankful that my neighbor is a big person, that she took the time to phone back and say that she now truly understands my concerns.

Horse Show Results, Another Great Year

Three of the Sweetgrass Ranch horses -- Drifty, Irish, and Jetblue -- scored high marks at the National Foundation Quarter Horse Association Western Regional Competition held at Brasada Ranch near Powell Butte, Oregon this past weekend. The trio netted eight first place blue ribbons in the double judged, double point show; two seconds; one third, three fourths, and one fifth.

The show competition was incredibly stiff and the Trail and Ranch Trail courses contained some very challenging obstacles.

Often, I'm asked if I have fun at a horse show. The question always causes me to pause and carefully weigh my answer. For me, horse shows are a way to measure the progress Lorenzo and I have made with the horses and ourselves. There are instances of great fun, like seeing folks you've not seen in well over a year, but for the most part, competitions -- especially distant ones like the Regional held at Brasada -- require an immense amount of planning, preparation, and hard work.

Is it worth it? Absolutely. Is it stressful? You bet. Why do it? I guess the best answer is that it's a huge rush to put yourself and your horse out there and have it all go smoothly, to know that your training efforts -- the ones you applied to both your horse and yourself -- really paid off. Another plus? The "outside" and "independent" assessments, like that of Regional's two judges, help to guide all future training efforts.

Thanks to everyone here at the ranch, all those who "held down the fort" while we were away!

A Horse's Report Card

Here at the ranch, we're always working to improve our horses' skill sets. A horse show can be a great way to measure progress, a sort of horsey report card.

There's are lots of ways to gauge success. Does my horse clip and bathe well in preparation for showing? Does he or she load and trailer to the show facility like a pro? Does the horse settle into his or her show stall swiftly? Is the horse willing and compliant in the warm-up arena? Can I both feel and see progress in our performance?

I suppose I could base how well my horses' perform on judges' marks, but there's way more to a successful show than one person's opinion and I believe most judges' would agree.

As I write this, I'm thinking of all the items that need to be loaded to the horse trailer, the things we'll do, the fun we'll have just getting away with our horses. It'll be good to get a sense of how far we've come and how far we've yet to go.

Good Night, Sweetgrass Ranch

Last night, Mother Nature treated us to a gorgeous sunset. This, following a blistering hot day. Today is going to be warm as well, with temps soaring to the mid-nineties.

If you look close, you can see Drifty nibbling her hay in the foreground. Just beyond her paddock, the cattle have collected and are getting ready to bed down for the night -- they always sleep as close to the house as possible.

Making Hay

The valley floor is buzzing with activity these days. Farmers are mowing, threshing, and baling hay at a feverish rate -- it's reminiscent of the old saying, make hay while the sun shines.

Yesterday, there were seven big farm implements working a large field off Gordon Road -- threshers fluffing winrows of hay and baling equipment chugging out big bricks of the stuff.

The bricks are stacked into tall towers and within a day or two, semi-truck drivers pull into the fields where their rigs are loaded with this year's hay harvest.

The Importance of Grazing

Unlike a human stomach, a horse's stomach is always producing acid. Thankfully, nature designed the oh so fleet equine to graze twelve-plus hours a day.

Munching on grass may not seem like a solution, but it is. You see, a horse salivates while browsing and his or her saliva, a very neutral solution, actually helps buffer stomach acid.

Most forage, like pasture grass, takes a lot of chewing and produces a good measure of saliva. By comparison, horses tend to bolt their grain. The results vary horse to horse, but generally, when a horse swiftly digests a concentrate, there is an increase in stomach acid.

There are additional benefits to grazing. As a horse actively seeks green grass, he or she also engages in greater physical activity which yields benefits like a more regular digestive system, less stocking up, etc., etc., etc.

Another Chapter: Does Jetblue Have Gastric Ulcers?

Late yesterday, I tuned into a Keeping Horses Healthy and Sound During Transport webinar provided by TheHorse.com. This is the third such educational webinar I've attended and each one has been informative and very worthwhile.

As part of the discussion, the topic of horses with gastric ulcers came up. Some of the symptoms were discussed as well as ways to minimize stress during transport. After the webinar, I did a bit more research and learned that gastric ulcers affect 50 - 60 percent of all horses.

As luck would have it, Dr. Megan Jurasek was in when I dropped by Banks Veterinary Clinic this afternoon to pick up more horse wormer. I gave her a quick update on my filly, Jetblue's, status and asked if the symptoms of insulin resistance and gastric ulcers might be similar.

Last year, Jetblue experienced a series of colic episodes that culminated in the big one this past January. I had to rush Jetblue to Oregon State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital for emergency, life-saving colic surgery. Since that time, Jetblue has had three additional colics.

Dr. Jurasek told me that both conditions, insulin resistance and gastric ulcers, can indeed produce colic and that gastric ulcers are prevalent in horses that crib soon after being weaned. Bingo. Talking it through with Dr. Jurasek, I decided to pick up some Ulcergard, a preventative medicine used during stressful times like trailering a distance or going for a trail ride.

For now, Jetblue is stable, holding her weight, exercising routinely, and getting regular pasture time. I'm researching the cost and benefits of "scoping" a horse's stomach and, if ulcers are identified, treating accordingly.

Here are two links to a couple of really good articles on the topic of equine gastric ulcers:

http://www.equisearch.com/horses_care/health/illnesses_injuries/eqhorseulc217/

http://americashorsedaily.com/controlling-horse-gastric-ulcers/