![\"Image](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2014\/02\/8228.wlEmoticon-smile_58CD4724.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHere\u2019s what it looked like when I got out there this morning\u2026<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s the hole I had to dig to repair it\u2026<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
OK, I made up the numbers.\u00a0 I debated what to call this post.\u00a0 Adventures with a horse?\u00a0 Water: a famer\u2019s nemesis?\u00a0 It\u2019s been a fun couple of days.<\/p>\n
Sunday night the whole family was out doing chores and my wife and kids were exercising the horses.\u00a0 I finished up the chores and left them to wrap up with the horses \u2013 feed them, clean up etc.<\/p>\n
Yesterday mid-day my wife called me and told me that someone had left the gate to the hay area open and the horses had gone in and eaten the better part of a bag of sheep feed.\u00a0 For those of you who don\u2019t have a lot of horse experience \u2013 that\u2019s really bad.\u00a0 My response to her was \u201cWell, pretty soon we\u2019ll have a dead horse\u201d.\u00a0 When a horse gorges on feed, it causes serious intestinal problems and also very bad inflammation in their feet.\u00a0 Their hooves can fall off and they can die.\u00a0 She spent all afternoon walking the horse to help him pass the feed and giving an anti-inflammatory drug to save the horse\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n
Lesson #451: DON\u2019T leave any door or gate open to an area where there is feed \u2013 especially if horses have any chance of getting to it.\u00a0 Cows, much less of an issue.<\/p>\n
Towards the end of the day, she had to go do some chores.\u00a0 She left the horses but left the halter on because she thought she might have to walk him more later.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always heard the rule \u2013 never leave a halter on a horse.\u00a0 In fact, they make tear away halters if you really need to do that.\u00a0 If they get the halter caught on something, it will come apart and off.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have one of those.<\/p>\n
She came back up to the barn a couple of hours later and saw that there was a pond in the middle of the barn.\u00a0 Oh and a geyser from where the water spigot should have been and no spigot in sight.\u00a0 She ran to the well house, turned off the water and came back.\u00a0 She found the spigot laying out in the field.\u00a0 We obviously don\u2019t know for sure but we\u2019re pretty certain he got his halter caught on it and ripped it out of the ground.\u00a0 It had to have taken a tremendous amount of force (he\u2019s a very big horse).\u00a0 At the bottom of the spigot is a brass fitting that screws on to an iron nipple (short pipe).\u00a0 He managed to pull the fitting apart by completely stripping out the brass threads.<\/p>\n
Not having water is one of the worst things that can happen to a farmer (after having water gushing freely out of a hole in the ground).\u00a0 That pipe provided water to the barn, the horses and our ducks.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something that could sit for days.\u00a0 I had to take off work this morning to fix it \u2013 that where I was from 7:30am to 11:15am today Here\u2019s what it looked like when I got out there this morning\u2026<\/p>\n And here\u2019s the hole I had to dig to repair it\u2026<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n