There are several wild fires in northern Florida and we have actually had several days with thick smoke and ashes over our farm.
Eventhough I know that the fires are far away from you, the smell makes me nervous.

The grass is green but it is not growing at all so we have to keep the mares in a smaller paddock that has now really turned into a desert. The hoofs are drying out so we have to maintain with varius hoof treatments.

We have had problems with establishing the bahia grass on some of our pastures, this year though, another type of grass, crabgrass, established itself!
The crabgrass has a high nutrional value as well as being very draught hardy.

As the crabgrass invited itself, we decided to seed our other pastures with it, it has been difficult to find the seeds, I do not know why as it has been so highly rated for pastures.

However, found it on the internet and will seed as soon as we get some rain! Maybe I will do a rain dance tonight.

Agilas has been doing his Teke magic on Todd who is now completely bonded with him. (Still I am the one who has to give Agilas his rosewater baths though).

Believe it or not but Todd actually came home with a bag of carrots to Agilas on his 22nd birthday yesterday.

1. Heather05/18/2007 13:48:17

Rosewater baths??? I hope I die and come back as a horse!! I keep rose hydrosol in my fridge always!

Crab grass is considered an invasive species in Florida, but if it works for your pastures I say GO for it! It is hard to find seeds though, because it will take over a sodded yard if allowed, and is really hard to get rid of once it has invaded. I would say, just be careful with it near your house if you don't want crab grass landscaping!

2. laurence Bougault05/20/2007 13:17:44
Homepage: http://www.cheval-akhal-teke.com

Do the horses like the crabgrass? It was something that could be named like that in Africa but horses didn't like it.

3. Maria05/20/2007 16:09:58

We had drought in South West England throughout April and beginning of May. Here it really seems to be the illustration of the global warming. Instead of the classic English "April showers" we had six weeks of hot, dry weather at the very time when our meadows should be growing for cutting in late May - early June. Pasture has been going to seed and becoming yellow. Nigel was talking of hiring a digger to dig a big hole in the ground to bury the sheep when they start dying of starvation. At which point, the weather turned and we got some decent rain after all. Still, climate change is so apparent here: with three weeks of monsoon-like rain in February and a drought from June till September last year, and these 6 weeks of heat in April, it's all looking very worrying. BUT - we had hardly any rain at Devon County show! AND - we found a son of Osman 5 miles away from our house!!!

4. Todd05/21/2007 09:19:42
Homepage: http://www.beknazar.com/

Here's a link with info about crabgrass as forage.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AG195
We'll soon find out how much the Tekes like it!

Todd

5. ANNE-MARIE05/21/2007 10:55:42
Homepage: http://FREEDOMRUNFARM.COM

You can learn something new every day! I had no idea you could use crab grass for hay and forage. Very interesting!

6. maria05/21/2007 11:28:52

What does it look like??

7. Heather05/21/2007 11:29:00

How nice you used the IFAS article! I used to work for that agronomy field station in high school! That's interesting about crab grass though - I never knew that. Hopefully it will propogate for you despite this DRY early summer. Maria, your comments on how much you have witnessed climate change made me think about the cyclical weather we used to have in Florida when I was a kid, and how it is noticably different, even within my short lifetime.

8. Leonid05/21/2007 13:38:23
Homepage: http://www.shael-teke.com

http://www.shael-teke.com/web/shael.nsf/htmlarticles/0995D56F8F2729AB852572E2005C91A5

9. Maria05/22/2007 03:27:57

That's a lovely article! I will try to translate it tonight...

10. Darya05/26/2007 09:49:40
Homepage: http://www.avatstud.com

My website is now updated about the Devon County Show.
http://www.avatstud.com/Dev_County07.html

11. Hege05/29/2007 17:56:19

Brilliant photo of Todd and Agilas!

12. Leonid06/08/2007 07:38:51
Homepage: http://www.shael-teke.com

http://www.shael-teke.com/web/shael.nsf/htmlarticles/822CB9B469E9B9D8852572F4003D5666

13. Leonid06/29/2007 10:22:45
Homepage: http://www.shael-teke.com

Look: http://www.shael-teke.com/web/shael.nsf/events/18E427B98AAE138E852573090049EABD

14. Tabitha07/10/2007 06:14:04

Are you still there? Did it still not rain over there?
We had Summer in April but since the end of May it rains almost every day. We would love to send some to you if you're still in need .