Picky Pampered Pony

The weather has been horrid here lately. Last week we had eight inches of snow at my house, then we had rain, then Monday through Wednesday we kept getting snow (while everyone else in the county got more rain). Wednesday I had to use 4x4 to make it home from my final exam in the morning. I wasnt sure I would make it to work but the darned snowplows came through...so I had to.

Anyway, after the six inches or so of new snow we had gotten, it then warmed up and downpoured, the last three days, yesterday in particular was awful. So much snow and so much water leaves a lot of runoff, and a lot of mud particularly in the paddocks. And Milo is not pleased about it.

As a horse who had never ever peed in his stall in the coming on 5 years that I have had him (except when in a box stall at a horse show), imagine my surprise when I started seeing wet spots in his stall that only has mats in it. I thought maybe the poor weather lead to a wetter stall. Then one morning as I'm cleaning it he stretches out and takes a leak, right in front of the door. I managed to grab some shavings from the empty storage stall to soak it up with, but wondered what the heck that was about.

Yesterday I arrived after not being able to make it on Wednesday (school and work), and saw a HUGE urine puddle in the lower end of the stall. Really Milo? You really want me to need to start spending more money on you by buying bedding? I have really appreciated your act of cleanliness and frugality the last few years by relieving yourself outside of the stall.

But no, as I entered the stall with wheelbarrow and pitchfork in hand, I asked him Out so to easier clean the two day gross stall. He refused to get out. The paddock was really muddy (over fetlock deep) and I knew he didnt want in it (obviously from the state of the stall), but I persisted now that I began and made him get out. He dropped his front feet down into the mud and looked back at me, his eyes asking if he really had to do it. Yes, Milo, I'm sorry. He sighed and heaved himself out, quickly retreating to the highest corner of the paddock. I saw too that his hind legs were stocked up, further indication he had quite possibly not left the stall in two days. Not a huge problem, but good to note.

I began to clean then heard the heavy waterfall outside and saw he fortunately relieved himself out there. Perfect timing! But now what to do about this mess inside? I snatched some more old (but dry) bedding from the storage stall, soaked up what I could, and threw down a little extra to hopefully dry up the place a bit and help if he decided it was far to awful outside to go there again. One bonus however is that he keeps all his manure inside, so at least I dont have to walk out into the mud. :)

I wonder though, do I really need to start buying bedding? If so, where the heck am I going to put it? It's like the hay situation only worse. Although I would prefer to buy a ton at a time, I cant store that much at the barn. Same deal for bedding. Where can I store it all? I have a friend whose business is to chop firewood and they have lots of sawdust and shavings available they use for their own horse. I am free to it if I need to. I might have to take them up on that offer, but do what, store it in garbage bags? None of the other horses at the barn use bedding (the others also dont pee in the stall probably because of no bedding), but there is no location I could just dump a truckload full either. This will be a tricky situation to figure out. Maybe if I can just get through this wet season, hopefully he will go back to his old ways? I sure hope so.