Hays County

i’m budgeting for county fair, as you may have read in my other question… anyway, i’m wondering what kinds of things you suggest i have for the show since i’ll be there for two, maybe 3, days straight (for my horse). i only have one water bucket, as the ones used at the barn belong to the barn, but i’ll bring my horse’s grain pan and grain scoop for feeding, plus we have a giant utility bucket from home depot in the garage… will that be enough? and i plan on bringing a wheelbarrow, and i’m thinking about investing in a stable fork as well. if i don’t buy my own i’ll borrow from the barn probably. i have one extra halter and lead rope, my sister is showing her horse as well so we’d share it, plus my horse’s showmanship halter and she has her showmanship halter as well. (so i think 5 halters and leads will be safe enough, don’t you?) we’re bringing hay bags and hay from the barn, is it an absolute necessity to have a bale bag to carry the hay in? we’ll have our first aid kit with us, with a human one in the car.

what other things do we need? this will be my first time at fair, i’m going with my 4-H club (and we’re the biggest club in the county so ill have lots of friends and help). any other tips? i need to figure out what i’ll need to buy in these next few months so i can budget.

thanks!

Label everything that is yours – Fairs are notorious for things to magically disappear.

For your grain, take plastic bags and pre bag your portions, so all you have to do is open the bag and dump. Hay storage you can use the 55gal contractor bags – again label your bag, your horse is used to his hay, and it all starts looking the same after a few days.

Does your horse do well drinking away from home – mine did not like the city water, and we had to bring water from home for the first day, and mix in the other water.

If your club does not have a barn duty schedule see about setting one up, that way you all get to enjoy the fair, someone is always at the barn, be sure you have a card with your emergency contact number to put on your stall, with your vets name and number as well.

Get your paperwork in order – does your county require a premise ID on your registration form? ours does now, be sure to get that from the barn owner, if needed

Reevaluate your vaccinations – do you need an influenza booster?

Those are a few of the not so obvious things I can think of at the moment….

i was wondering if 6:30AM would be a good time to go? (i don’t want it too dark if i have a rifle) and how my property is set up a shotgun isn’t a choice because a coyote isn’t going to come up to my house unless its about 1:00AM i don’t think my calling is right? I’ve never called one up but i have watched knight and hales video set that came with my call over and over again. I’ve shot a coyote dozens of times but they were chasing deer, roaming,on hay bales out in the pasture. Maybe i could ask a buddy of mine if i could go get his property clean because that’s where they come from all the time. Sorry that’s a mouthful Lol, (i live in Florida Hardee county) (It’s got the biggest deer population in the country) THANK YOU!!!!

Out here in the Utah Desert we deal with something slightly different. The best time for me to see them is usually an hour before dawn when the sky starts lightening up. I know several areas here around the red cliff and red rock mountains that they hold up in so calling them out is not a problem. Plenty of rabbits get hit on the road so come then they are always scavenging for the corpses. Only problem though is the Cougars tend to come out also and I’ve seen them before, when they are out the Coyote aren’t.

I’d just take the call slow, go to an area where you know they are but you aren’t hunting them. Try the various calls you can do and see if you get any kind of response. A blind and a decoy work great for this. When you find something that works (may take a couple days) then you have an idea of what you need to be doing.

Give me the dry desert over Florida any day, heh. Same Temperature, low humidity.