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Backyard Horsekeeping

~ One woman´s experience with keeping her horses in her own backyard

Backyard Horsekeeping

Tag Archives: Backyard Horsekeeping

The Weather-Wise Horse Owner

24 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Joan Fry in Weather

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Backyard Horsekeeping

If you’re lucky enough to have purchased property with no horse-related improvements on it—such as a barn, a pipe corral or two, a tackroom, and a hay shed—you can design and build nearly anything you want to.  (Be sure to check with local ordinances regarding size, etc. before you start.)  You can also build it any where you want to.

I was trying to clean Prim’s feet but her tail kept blowing in my face.  So I knotted it.  Her tail, not her feet.

I was trying to clean Prim’s feet but her tail kept blowing in my face. So I knotted it. Her tail, not her feet.

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Kids and Horses

17 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Joan Fry in Horses and Kids

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Backyard Horsekeeping

Evelyn, the granddaughter of a friend of mine, began riding when she was five—she absolutely insisted on it, and Grandma, who taught grade school for many years, helped her mother vet the riding instructors until all three of them agreed on one.  If you Google horse breeds, most will say the horses are suitable for children.  Not so.

These two children have a babysitter, and he´s an Arabian.

These two children have a babysitter, and he´s an Arabian.

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Text-Free Tuesday

15 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by Joan Fry in Text-Free Tuesday

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Backyard Horsekeeping

image

Photo Credit: Gina Cresse

A “Child-Proof” Horse

12 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by Joan Fry in General

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Backyard Horsekeeping

Most parents and all riding-lesson givers want a dependable, somewhat lazy (one with more whoa than go) horse for their children.  Such horses are also called “bomb-proof” because if something startles them, they won’t shy, rear, buck, or run away.  Nothing startles them, not even a bomb.

Prim, my fraidy-cat trail horse.  In 22 years she has only dumped me once, and it was my fault.  Not hers.

Prim, my fraidy-cat trail horse. In 22 years she has only dumped me once, and it was my fault. Not hers.

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Solo Trail Riding

10 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Joan Fry in General

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Backyard Horsekeeping

Trail dogs are good company, especially for somebody who rides alone, as I do most of the time.  They let me know when I need to be aware of something—a strange animal, a strange vehicle, a strange person.  In magazine articles, total strangers insist that riding alone is not safe, and that people ought to ride with other people.

image of Jesse

Jesse was the perfect trail dog—with one exception. She attracted coyotes, who mistook her for one of them.

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Thank you for reading my blog. Please feel free to contact me with any horse-related questions or comments you might have.

Backyard Horsekeeping: The Only Guide You'll Ever Need (Lyons Press, Revised Edition 2007). Praised by everybody from horse behaviorists to trainers to veterinarians, the book's appeal was summed up by Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar, who gave the book a five blue-ribbon rating: "It is the author's voice and commitment to detail that make this book stand apart."

Joan Fry

"Playboy, my first backyard horse, really belonged to my neighbors. But I fed him and brushed him and kept his water bucket full, and in return, they let me ride him whenever I wanted to."

“Even as a kid I loved to write. When I was about eight I typed my first novel on my parents’ Underwood typewriter. I called it Silver the Wild Horse, and it was all in capital letters because I didn’t know how to work the shift key. It was illustrated in crayon. From that little experiment, I found that I’m a better writer than I am an artist. I also discovered my future: I would write about horses.”


John Fry on Imperator, four-time World's Grand Champion Five-Gaited American Saddlebred.
Photo by Avis

Recent Posts

  • Oh No–Not Again!
  • I’m Eating, Don’t Bother Me
  • The Horse in Winter
  • Blanketing Your Horse
  • Goodbye to All That
  • Dropped Fetlocks
  • Dear Robert Redford
  • Do You Feed Your Horse on the Ground?
  • Feeding the Backyard Horse
  • Slaughtering Horses for Meat
  • What Do You Do with the Pee and the Poo?
  • How to Clean Your Horse’s Stall or Corral
  • How to Buy a Horse for Your Child
  • How to Buy a Horse
  • A Day in the Life of a Backyard Horse Owner: Day #2

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