# pumpkins



## Yvonne G (Jun 17, 2009)

Look what I've got growing outside my horse pasture:







There are already several basketball-sized pumpkins on the vine. I was worried that kids walking by would discover them and do some damage, but now that school's out its probably safe. (the school bus stop is on my corner)











This is a volunteer vine that is growing in my horse manure pile. I've never fed my horses pumpkin, so I don't know where the seed came from...but I'm happy its there! 

Yvonne


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## Isa (Jun 17, 2009)

Really nice Yvonne,
They look big . Your torts are going to be very happy


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## Candy (Jun 17, 2009)

Yvonne how much property do you own. Everytime I see a picture it's in a different area of your yards. It looks huge. Great pumpkins (maybe Linus will come by and wait for the "Great Pumpkin").


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## Yvonne G (Jun 17, 2009)

I only have an acre. About half of it is divided into two horse pastures. Then there's an old vacant house (about 700 sq. ft.), a 2 car free standing garage and my small house. The rest is tortoise pens. 

Yvonne


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## Crazy1 (Jun 17, 2009)

Boy Yvonne looks like you will be the go to pumkin lady this year  Since you didn't plant the seeds there must have been the Great Pumpkin  that placed the seeds there.


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## Gulf Coast (Jun 17, 2009)

The only pumpkins I have ever been able to grow in my life (lord knows I have tried plenty of times) was a space where I dumped my old bird seed from my birds cage bottom.. I guess my bird missed the seed, then once I dumped it, it took off and grew and we had plenty of Jack o Lanterns that year.. It was a wonderful unexpected gift from mother nature.. 

You'r pumpkin hill looks great, such a pretty green.


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## tortoisenerd (Jun 17, 2009)

So cool!


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## Stazz (Jun 17, 2009)

Woooooow thats exciting !!!! You have a huge area Yvonne! How many horsies have you got? I love horses. I work right next door to a massive horse paddock, watch them playing everyday  Thats awesome, you are so lucky.


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## Yvonne G (Jun 18, 2009)

I have two old ladies. Mae is a retired thoroughbred race horse who was used as a brood mare for 20 years until she couldn't get in foal anymore. She's 30 years old now, and looks like an escapee from the gulag! She doesn't have a good appetite and I can't get any weight on her. I'm afraid her days are numbered.






April is an appaloosa and looks just like Mae color-wise. She's 25 years old, however, she's never been broke and hasn't had to work a day in her life. So she looks very young and healthy.






Yvonne


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## Maggie Cummings (Jun 18, 2009)

If you have anymore blossoms on that vine Dudley would probably enjoy them. Bob loves the blossoms, so I keep one so it makes a pumpkin the rest I grow to feed to Bob. They are one of his favorite treats. Give one to Dudley and see if he likes them...


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## sendie (Jun 18, 2009)

That is so cool to have pumpkins growing! My brain is clicking here -- dump the parrot dish on the manure pile and see what comes up! Which would be better, horse or buffalo? LOL! My luck the raccoons would find them first. 

We have apps too, isn't it funny the colors? My old mare that has been gone a year now looked just like April and her younger sister is a leopard. Our gelding was born black with a small blanket, as a yearling he was a bay, and now he's grey with his blanket reaching his withers.


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## Isa (Jun 18, 2009)

Wooww Yvonne!!!!
Your 2 horses are beautiful, and beautiful is not the word, they are amazinggg. I love horses, they are so huge and have sooo much class . I am really sorry for Mae , poor girl.


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## Yvonne G (Jun 18, 2009)

sendie said:


> We have apps too, isn't it funny the colors? My old mare that has been gone a year now looked just like April and her younger sister is a leopard. Our gelding was born black with a small blanket, as a yearling he was a bay, and now he's grey with his blanket reaching his withers.



I sold an appy gelding at 2 years old many, many years ago (that was born to a mare of mine). Last summer I received a letter from the current owner who found me through the horse's registration papers. I believe he's 10 years old now. He was sorrel with a big lacy blanket as a 2 year old. Prettiest little thing. She sent me current pictures and he's a real light roan all over with a few dark brown spots over his rump. He looks exactly like his mother did color-wise! Its funny how they change colors as they age.

Yvonne


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## Gulf Coast (Jun 18, 2009)

lol.. dump that dish.. its worth a try.. 

Yvonne, what type of feed are you using for May? It might be the type/% that she is having problems with. have you tried weight builder powder? Also wormers? Do you rotate them? Its funny how some horses can eat anything and stay fat (my moms horse) and others have to have everything special for them.. How long have you had May?

Oh and Kuddos to you for taking care of them and giving them a great home.. I am glad they have you to take care of them. I know so many that think if you can't ride it why bother feeding it, just dump it at the sale and get another one..


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## Yvonne G (Jun 18, 2009)

Gulf Coast said:


> Yvonne, what type of feed are you using for May? It might be the type/% that she is having problems with. have you tried weight builder powder? Also wormers? Do you rotate them? Its funny how some horses can eat anything and stay fat (my moms horse) and others have to have everything special for them.. How long have you had May?



I had another mare (the one who was the mother of the baby in my previous post) who was about 25 years old. She got so infirm that I had to have the vet out to euthanize her. While he was working, he mentioned that he had an old mare that I could have (I had my 8 yr old grand daughter here who was learning how to handle the horses in halter, and I was now having to put her mare down). He said, "But she's real old. Really old!" I asked how old she was and he said 21. 21????? He's putting down a 25 year old horse and he thinks 21 is really old? Anyway, I took her. It was Mae. So I've had her for 9 years. I have tried feeding her everything that the feed dealer sells. She ate Purina Equine Senior real well for a while, but now she won't even take a bite of it. I've had her teeth floated...at least once a year, the most recent about 3 weeks ago. The vet has her on ulcer medication and bute. She will eat a very small flake of alfalfa hay. If I offer her a regular sized flake, she just wastes it. She gets 3lbs of re-hydrated beet pulp, 2lbs of wheat bran and 2lbs of 4-way for her evening meal along with the alfalfa. And she gets the 4-way and alfalfa for her morning meal. They are also on pasture during the day and the grass is in good shape. If I try to give her more (volume) than listed above, she refuses to eat at all. She's in quite a bit of pain from all her years on the track and all the babies. Her back legs are just about straight up and down. Its just getting to be her time to go. She hasn't told me yet, though. But I ask her every day. When its time, I'll know.

Yvonne


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## Maggie Cummings (Jun 18, 2009)

She's really looking crappy Yvonne...may be close to her time...


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## tortoisenerd (Jun 18, 2009)

Poor horsey!


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## Gulf Coast (Jun 18, 2009)

Sounds like you have done everything possible, Maybe the ole girl is ready to move on.. I am so glad she is able to spend her last years with you.. Its never easy to lose one you love.


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## Stazz (Jun 21, 2009)

Aw Yvonne - your horses are beautiful. I have always loved horses. My dad's very good friends own a guest farm in South Africa, in the mountains....I used to visit so often just to ride their horses. Horses have the most amazing calming effect on me, they are just such majestic animals. Poor Mae, I am sure she has lived a good life. I'll say a lil prayer for her.How long do horses lives for about? 30yrs or so?


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## Yvonne G (Jun 21, 2009)

No, 30 years is quite old. Most die of old age in their early 20's.

Yvonne


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## Stazz (Jun 21, 2009)

Oh wow okay that very interesting - so she's definitely had a good innings then.


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## Yvonne G (Jul 9, 2009)

Most of the pumpkins had turned orange, so I harvested them this a.m. There are 20 or 30 of them. The tortoises are going to get mighty sick of pumpkin before summer is over!







Yvonne


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## Isa (Jul 9, 2009)

Wow Yvonne, that is a lot of pumpkins  Your torts are going to be very happy about it


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## Maggie Cummings (Jul 9, 2009)

That is a heck of a harvest. I have been begging my pumpkin plants to grow and they have just now gotten their first flower. I mostly grow the vines because Bob loves the flowers...I would have loved a harvest like yours.


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## dmmj (Jul 9, 2009)

MY first love will always be reptiles(tortoises esp) but I can appreciate the beauty of a horse also, gratz on the pumpkin harvest, I have tried many many times to grow pumpkins myself, but I think I am not doing it right. If one did not know any better that one poor horse looks like it has been starved the past couple of months but maybe horses are like people , some can't put on weight no matter how hard they try?


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## Yvonne G (Jul 9, 2009)

dmmj said:


> MY first love will always be reptiles(tortoises esp) but I can appreciate the beauty of a horse also, gratz on the pumpkin harvest, I have tried many many times to grow pumpkins myself, but I think I am not doing it right. If one did not know any better that one poor horse looks like it has been starved the past couple of months but maybe horses are like people , some can't put on weight no matter how hard they try?



Basically, she IS starved. But its self-starvation. She just won't eat! I have tried offering her everything the feed store sells for horses, but she'll eat just enough to stay alive. I've been giving her a medication prescribed by the vet for ulcers (just a guess on his part), and she is eating a little more...but still not enough to put on weight.

The pumpkin vine was a volunteer in my manure pile. I never fed the horses pumpkin, so maybe a bird dropped a seed in there. However it got there, it was VERY healthy and grew BIG! I don't know why the pumpkins didn't grow big though. Most of them are only the size of a basketball.

Yvonne


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## Maggie Cummings (Jul 9, 2009)

I think that they mostly have one pumpkin to a vine so you had too many on your vines and that's why they didn't grow big. That is more then one vine tho


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