Moving Manure

I work at the barn where my horses are boarded.  I do many things and one of them is to clean the pastures and stalls/paddocks of some of the horses.  Someone told me that a 1000 lb horse produces 50 lbs of manure a day.  That got me to thinking....how much manure do I move in a year?  Most of the horses I clean up after are under 1000lbs.  During the dry weather the weight of manure in the pastures/paddocks is lighter.  But in the winter it is heavy with the wetness of the rain.  So I trimmed the amount of manure each horse produces....because of the less weight of the horses and 1/2 the year it is very dry.  However the stalls-some of those horses just use the stalls as a bathroom!  So I came up with a number for the year-36 tons.  I went over the numbers again and again.  Still the same.  I guess I could say that's alot of manure.  But I think it says something else...   If someone were to ask me to move a pile of anything and that "anything" was sitting in front of me-all 36 tons of it-I'm not sure I'd move it.  But if I did a little bit every day and in the period of a year moved all 36 tons, that would be doable.  I guess when something looks insurmountable it is good to step back and look at the pieces, take it bit by bit and soon you will have accomplished your goal.  I guess if I can move that much manure in a year I can accomplish some more lofty goals...bit by bit!

This time Mommy came with Zeke to the barn

This time Mommy came with Zeke and Amma to the barn.  And because she was there we got some pictures that I normally can't take...seeing my hands are usually busy keeping Zeke safe.  Mommy grew up with the grey horse, Sky (in the horse world a white horse is called a grey horse).  She enjoys the fact that Zeke gets to see her favorite horse.  Sky is currently leased out to a friend so he gets plenty of exercise.   Every time we go out to the barn we do some work appropriate for Zeke's age...today that included taking the manure cart to the manure pile and of course riding the tractor to push back the manure pile.  And he is learning how to sit up on a horses back!   

When my girls were little and wanted to ride horses we had a friend that offered to let them ride her horses.  I wanted my girls to know that horses weren't just fun to ride but that they included some responsibilities.  So I asked my friend to include some work time along with their ride time.  They must have had the "horse bug" really bad because the work did not deter them from wanting to ride.  Eventually they got their own horses and here we are today.  One girl had Sky, the other had Skippy.  Zoe was Skippy's foal, Zoe turned out to be mine.  Zeke will also know that horses include responsibilities.  So far he's at an age that he loves to be a helper.  

Hello Sky

Sky is very gentle with Zeke...like he knows to be careful.  

What a helper! 

Sitting on the feeder and...

...feeding Zoe

Even got to sit on Skippy 

Feeding Sky 

Look Mom...I can sit on a horse 

And of course a trip to the barn has to include the tractor!