Horses On Haida Gwaii

I've been on Haida Gwaii full time for just over 3 months now, and for the first time, since my arrival, life feels like it's falling into a natural rhythm. Newness, although fun and exhilarating, has never been my favorite part of life. I find comfort in the familiar.

Most of my adult life I've been waiting for a place to be my forever home. For many years I hesitated to work with our last property knowing we would one day move. All my work would be lost, or not appreciated by the news owners. This eventually led to frustration and the development of the property which I am now grateful for because I learned a a lot about what I like and why. Thankfully we chose to purchase fence panels as opposed to building a fence. 

At first we weren't going to bring them here until spring, but I had a sneaky feeling they would come in handy. Finding a place for them on the trailer was a bit of a trick but we managed.

Now here I sit, in my forever home, creating a whole new life from scratch, and a whole new horse property from scratch. The perimeter fence was here thankfully. There is still so much to do and the amount of work it takes to settle into a new horse life is incredible.

First there was paddocks to build, thank goodness we brought the panels. Everyone has their own paddock to go to bed in a night so they wont be competing for food. Each horse has a special diet designed just for them, and I don't encourage the sharing of buckets.

The next big challenge I found was balancing what I put in their mash. Our pasture, that grows almost year round, is very rich in fiber. Leaving the horses with lovely big bellies and ribs popping out all over. The only hay available on the island is very rich in sugar and protein which oddly enough balances the pasture. 

The hay is so rich I never dreamed I would be happy feeding anything like it to my darling equine companions, but as I watch the progress in there body conditions I realize it's time to forget everything I thought I knew. After all the grass grows in January so anything could be possible.  

Beet pulp has never been on the list of things I couldn't live without, but as it turns out the growth of our grass slows down come December. Our little property is not able to keep up with the grazing demands of 4 horses so I had to start feeding more hay. This hay is not only incredibly rich it's incredibly expensive. $21 per 60lb bale if I buy all my hay at once.

 I found the idea of paying $30 or more a day to feed my horses rather alarming, and was hesitant to use the alfalfa cubes I had stocked up on due to the alfalfa content of the hay. Thankfully the island feed store has beet pulp. At $16 a bag one bag a week we manged to cut our hay use in half. The horses no longer scream at 4am because they are hungry and no one has eaten the bark off the tress since starting our beet pulp routine.  ​

I am aware there are healthier fiber supplements on the market but they are not yet affordable and I personally feel that my horses would rather be fed a lesser quality feed then be sold because I can't afford to feed them as well as I once could.

Aside from Punkin's obvious dislike for Emily-Rose the horses are tremendously happy. Caddie leaps around in the morning as if she's jumping for joy and happily waits for Emily-Rose to get home from school. If it's not icy I saddle up the two mares and pony Caddie to the bus stop to pick up her little girl. This is a chore both mares look forward. 

As I meet more people around the island I hear stories about the mom in Port who takes horses to the bus stop. “That's me!” I always state proudly.  

Tonka gets right into his morning roll everyday. In fact getting his blanket off prior to this is almost pointless. He seems to lead the other horses in this much loved morning routine. He also enjoys his bike rides and I'm looking forward to getting him going in the cart again.  

Pan and Pukin are obviously jealous of each other but they both stare lovingly into my eyes whenever I go out to seem them. The day I stopped using a halter and lead for routine chores is the day Pan completely changed her attitude about the move. For years I've worked with her at liberty for routine chores. We both take great delight in what can happen in the few moments during turnout. 

There's that special trust based bond that happens when you start doing things without tack that has a way of making everyone involved feel extra special. The fact that I didn't trust her in a new environment I think offended her.

There's an electric fence that encloses our 3rd and smallest pasture. Being nervous of them bolting through the fence left me to move them in and out of the round pen, that also exists within that electric fence, using halters (they got to go out one at a time until the day Pan broke them out of the round pen and brought them to the house). They had proven to me a few times in a few ways that they would like there old trust back, but as I'm hesitant and skeptical due to the two new additions to the heard and new surroundings, we continued to use leads. Finally one day I gave in and took Pans halter off. She took a great big sigh and looked at me as if to say “Thank-you for trusting me” then led the heard up the hill and everyone made their way into their own paddocks for the night. We haven't used halters since for routine chores and Pan has not pouted or moped after that moment. In fact lately I could swear she's been smiling.

Punkin is an ever growing delight, even though I've decided to put my own fitness and conditioning before theirs, she learns a considerable amount from our daily routine. I'm a lazy horse owner and put on or remove their blankets I do so by pulling them over their heads. Twice a day we play in a blanket in a field with no tack on. This can be a little tricky if one of the mares decides I need a bit of a challenge and chases her, but at 8 months old she's doing amazingly well. In fact I can't think of a way I would rather teach her to whoa.  

Life on the island is a blessing and a joy. Everyday I wake up thankful for the opportunity to live here, at the edge of the world with the man of my dreams, a beautiful daughter and 4 fantastic horses. I'm looking forward to sharing my adventures with you as this new life begins to take form.
Happy Horsing Around
Cyndi Bird CEST