Beans

One thing about owning a gelding some people may not know, is that you must clean it's sheath. Or hire someone to do it.  When we bought Chase he immediately went to board at Farm Girl's coach's farm.  He wasn't there long before she reported that he was having problems urinating.  The vet was coming for a checkup and teeth-floating so we had her look into what his problem was with urinating.  It turned out that he had some of the largest beans (the name given to the hard filth lodged up in a male horse's sheath) she had ever seen.  She actually had to drug him slightly enough to relax him in order to have Chase drop completely, otherwise he refuses.

Now I have no idea how often one must clean a sheath but I do recognize the signs.  I had pulled all the horses in when the weather had turned rather nasty a couple days ago and it was on one of those mornings that I noticed everyone's stalls were saturated with the exception of Chase's.  One good thing about stalling horses or any livestock animal for that matter is that you are able to monitor their health better.  I kept an eye on Chase until finally he attempted to urinate.  Horse's urine comes out like an open faucet.  Fast and furious.  Chase's trinkled out.  Very unusual for a horse.  So I knew immediately we had bean problems again.

Over the years Farm Girl has been tentatively touching Chase in his private's, testing him and also trying to gain his trust for the time eventually she would need to clean his sheath again.  Some horse's don't like have their malehood touched, go figure!  And when she initially bought Chase, he was in so much pain from the beans that whenever she worked around his backend, he would unexpectedly kick her.  Removing the beans helped considerably and he eased off on the kicking, but it is always in the back of our mind, warning us that he was a kicker at one time.  He hasn't kicked since but still, we are cautious around him.

So I told Farm Girl about the reappearance of his beans and how she wanted to go about removing them.  She said she felt confident enough to try herself.  I of course went out with her and if he attempted to kick her, the plan was that I would hold up his front leg while she cleaned his shaft unabling him from kicking.  However, as it turns out, the bond and trust between them have grown remarkably well over these past years that he trusted her completely.  He didn't even flinch.

And sure enough, she found beans up in the sheath.

I give Farm Girl major kudos.  Cleaning sheaths is a disgusting and filthy job.

But hey, someone's got to do it.  And as I remind Farm Girl, it can only make her a better horse person.  And her horsey a happier horse.