Bad Horse Owner!

One thing about being a farmer: When you screw up on the job, you know about it, because the results of your mistake are right there in front of you, where you can feel bad about them.

I screwed up and, appropriately enough, now I'm feeling really terrible about it.

I left Grace's halter on and didn't take into account that she is growing so much faster than the other three fillies. All the other fillies are fine, but Grace grew so fast that her halter got tight and chafed a big raw patch under her chin.

Poor, poor baby. I feel just sick about it. She has such a beautiful face, and now I let it get sore. It'll heal up and she'll be fine, but I'm not putting a halter on her or doing any more halter breaking work with her until it heals completely. She doesn't deserve to feel like every halter she wears is going to hurt her. Poor thing, no wonder she's been standoffish lately.

She's growing so quickly. She's not even six months old yet, but when I do finally put a halter back on her, I'll have to switch her over to the Yearling size, that's how big she is!

For the record: I know that some people don't agree with keeping halters on their horses in the pasture, for fear that the horse might catch themselves on something and get hurt. But it's a choice I've made here. I'm just one person, taking care of 15 horses. If I had to halter and unhalter that many horses every day, that simple task alone could easily add an extra hour or more to my daily chores.

Plus, if I'm ever gone and my husband needed to do something with the horses in an emergency, it's much easier for him to just snap a lead rope on an already haltered animal than try to, say, catch an escaped horse that wasn't wearing a halter. Ken has learned a lot about handling horses in the past couple of years, but he's still no expert, so when he has to help out, I try to keep things as simple for him as possible.

Anyway, the outgrown halter problem is completely my own fault. I go out and play with the fillies every day, and I just plain didn't notice Grace was having a problem.

I'm the farm "mom." The animals depend on me. It's my job to notice EVERYTHING, and prevent problems before they start.

Damn, I hate when I screw up!