A Bankrupt Worm

Since we will be housing livestock in the near certain future, I have purchased some reading materials to get Chad and I acquainted with horses and goats...Horse for Dummies and Raising Goats for Dummies.  What I didn't know is certainly outdoing what I thought I knew (which wasn't much really).  

Coccidia, brown stomach worms, bankrupt worms (I guess this one completely depletes your goods!), meningeal worms, liver flukes, pinworms, bots and the good ol' roundworm can invade your horse or goats intestines and wreck havoc.  All I can say about this is "eeewww!"

Feeding a horse is an art form from what I'm reading.  You can't let it eat too much...colic.  You can't let it eat too frequently...colic.  You can't let it graze on pasture that's too young or newly sown...colic.  You shouldn't let the horse eat hay off of the ground...colic, but let it eat grass from the pasture which is sprouting from the ground...no colic.  Provide it with lots of fresh water, DUH...no colic.  The water should be lukewarm...huh?  

There is a chapter in Horses for Dummies that is twenty pages long on bathing and grooming the horse.  After reading this, we will probably have a pretty dingy pony so I'm hoping it's not white in color.

There is also a section in the Dummy Goat book that is seven paragraphs long on what the different cries of a goat means.  Isn't a bleat a bleat?  

When I was pregnant with Zoe I did buy a few of the baby books that were out there.  What's that one,  "What To Expect When a Person is Growing in Your Body and you Feel like a Dummy" or whatever it's called?  Anyway, I read those and I think these dummy horse and goat books do more to frighten me than those baby books did. 

Horses have to have bits and bridles and halters and curry combs and stiff brushes and hoof picks and I think I should register at Target or Farm and Fleet for this baby.  It's a bit mind boggling.  

So, with all of the information that has squeezed itself into my head about horses and goats I feel ready to explode.  But, it's what Zoe wants.  I can't deny her this. 

Bring on the liver flukes...I'm ready.