Dutch Hollow Acres

I just got my genetics kit in the mail for Cornell University's horse size study. If you'd like to participate email equinegenetics@cornell.edu

You'll be asked to take hair samples of your horse and to make 35 different measurements on your horse.  They provide a return envelope, detailed directions and even the tape measure to use!  They need 1000 horses for this study.  They'd live everything from minatures to shires as they try to figure out what genes are responsible for size of a horse.

We have all our hay!  This year we found a new hay farmer just a few miles from our ranch.  He has a beautiful 8 acres of timothy/alfalfa mix that was just planted last year and this was the first cut on the field.  What beautiful hay. Young, green, leafy and so sweet smelling.  He got 398 bales (30-40lbs) off the field and be bought them all.

The farmer had 2 wagons so we’d take one as they kicked up bales to the 2nd.  It’s a slow go on hilly roads with full wagon.   But 3 trips and some fancy packing all the hay is in without so much as an inch to spare!  The bales are stacked within foot of the ceiling and I can barely make it through the door. Thankfully my barn breathes very well and there is good air circulation up and over and under the stack. 

1st hay wagon

1st wagon unloaded, 157 bales in the barn.  There was no point in taking a completed photo because it was just a dark wall of hay.  We managed to fit 398 bales in there. 

 Note: Timothy hay is not recommended for alpacas.  It tends to be stalky if cut too late and can give alpacas ulsers.  This hayis for the horses however it is young and leafy enough that the alpaces do like it too.  I will be purchasing  a 2nd cut orchard grass mix for the alpaca’s main diet.

YUM! Horses enjoying a new round bale this morning.  Boy is this the best quality bale I've ever had. The hay smells like fresh cut grass.  Mmm.. Happy ponies.

Clicker Training Alpacas
Finding the perfect treat

As a new alpaca owner I’m always looking for ways to interact with my animals.  Horses and dogs are easy to train animals.  They constantly look for human contact and will practically do a back flip for a cookie.

Alpacas are stand offish.   I come into the paddock with a pocket full of goodies and they saunter over and surround me.  I hold out my hand with my latest tasty offering and wait.  The smallest and bravest one sniffs it out first, the bright orange carrot bit is tempting.  He rolls it around in his mouth and promptly spits it out.  Well if “Mikey” doesn’t like it the rest of the group disbands and I’m back to square one.

Ugh, week after week I bring out another treat to test on my alpacas.  Carrots, apples, pears, 5 different kinds of horse treats, nothing seems to interest them.  All they want to eat is hay and grain.  I’m not about to give them more grain because of health management and mineral intake reasons.  So, that leaves me with hay, and what animal will do tricks for hay?  Then it dawned on me, Hay Stretcher!  Yes, that thick pelleted hay supplement from Blue Seal. 

Once again I filled my pockets and entered the paddock.  The firing squad surrounded me again. I held out my hand, offering a few of the pellets.  CoHo, my smallest one, was first to investigate as usual.  He sniffed it out, picked a pellet up and rolled it around in his mouth.  Finally, he stopped rolling and actually bit into the pellet and swallowed it up.  Success!  He came back for more! 

The others watched him take a few more and then were brave enough to try their luck with these fat mystery pellets.  It wasn’t long before my pockets were empty and I had alpacas following me around like the pied piper.

Stay tuned for more…. Now that I finally found a treat they like we’ll proceed with tricks.

--Lindsay
Dutch Hollow Acres