Cob Jockey

I purposely only put Connor in his paddock after I had filled his new 40 gallon stock tank.  I didn't want him to ever succeed in flipping it over, and I knew he would try.  Sure enough, well under five minutes after I turned him out, I heard "KA-THUNK splash KA-THUNK splash KA-THUNK splash."



I snuck around the corner just in time to see him with both feet in the tank, having splashed about half of the 40 gallon tank's worth of water out into his paddock.  Cobs!  The good news is, he never succeeded in knocking it over, therefore, it became boring to him, and he left it alone except to drink out of it the rest of the day.

Success in the water war?  Verdict: maybe!

A couple of months ago, I wrote about about how water-philic the Welsh Cob breed seems to be (at least all of Lisa's Cobs!) and how the barn staff was having trouble keeping fresh water in Connor's paddock because he so enjoys playing in his water/with his water bucket.  At that time, he had broken two over-door water bucket hangers, smashed a muck bucket to bits, and was gleefully kicking over his water bucket every time it was refilled.

Who, me?

I temporarily won the water game for approximately a month by tying his bucket to a fence post with an old lead rope, to where the bucket was just an inch or two off the ground.  He left it alone and had consistent water again.  Things looked pretty good for a while.  Then...

Then he learned that he could get his nose underneath the hanging bucket and flip it and its contents over his back.  Then, soaking wet, he'd play with the dangling, empty bucket.  I then tried putting a flat bungee cord around his bucket and the fence post, which lasted about 48 hours, from last Sunday to Tuesday.  This is when the barn staff came to me and said, "You weren't kidding that you have to stay one step ahead of this breed!  We have to do something about Connor's water..."

Enter this 40 gallon stock tank:

My current foster Husky, Bitsy, and Tucker approve.

Which hopefully resolves this problem for a grand total of $29.  If not, I have to upgrade to the $69 legit-herd-of-cattle-style stock tank from Rubbermaid.  It's not as heavy as the legit stock tanks, but 40 gallons of water is heavier than 5, right?  He shouldn't be able to knock this entirely over, right?  Right?

Yes, I giggle a little every time I remember that I'm now a boarder that owns a stock tank.  Oh well, if that's the premium I have to pay in order to work with this awesome breed, I'll take that tax.

Hopefully it works.  If not, thank goodness for Rural King's 30 day no-questions return policy!

One of the first stories Dr. Marks told me about Shae, before I even met him, was the one about the hose.  "I was picking manure out of his paddock and had the hose filling the trough at the same time, and all of a sudden, I got wet.  I look up to see Shae with the hose in his teeth, flinging it toward me.  I yelled, 'Shae!  Knock it off!' and walked backward, but he kept coming toward me, slinging it at me!  I could have sworn he was laughing the whole time."

I got to see his water-loving antics in person at school, when he did things like upend a massive salt block out of a feed pan and carry the feed pan across the pasture in order to put it in his trough.  Or put his front legs into the (rather tall) stock tank and go "swimming."  Cobs: not only do they have a sense of humor, they are definitely hydrophilic.

Connor gave me an inkling that he was as water-loving as Shae when, over the winter, they had to hang his buckets with trailer ties instead of hooks, because he would knock the bucket off the hook, drench his stall, and play with it. That sense of humor that I was told was necessary to deal with a Welsh Cob?  Definitely necessary.

He's still in that front drylot paddock, which is usually serviced by two flat-back buckets hung on bucket hangers.  Connor broke both of them in a matter of weeks.  So they put a muck-bucket style bucket out there for him.  He would flip it and then play with it, which caused it to become a shattered pile of purple faded plastic pieces.  Buckets on the ground?  Assistant Trainer Jen would fill his bucket, set it down, and he would knock it over while staring straight at her.  That sense of humor, even if you have it, only goes so far when it's 105 degrees and you're responsible for providing a normally heavy drinker with water and he's thwarting your every attempt.

So what are we doing?  He's very close to being moved down the road to the little barn, which has a more durable bucket for a waterer.  If he upends that, though, I'm going to buy him his own personal 50 gallon stock tank, in the wide and flat configuration.  That way, if he wants to go swimming, fine, but there's no way he can get enough leverage to flip it.  Not that I want to own my own personal stock tank as a boarder, but once again, sense of humor, right?

Funny ponies.