Who gelds and weans by the phases of the moon?

[Mares Tales]

Tell me your stories.....who did you learn from, your experiences good and bad. Is it an old wives tale or is it true? Any stories personal or second/third hand are encouraged and will be gratefully heard.

What else do you do according to the phases of the moon? Plant? Harvest?

Thanks,
Mares

[lmullen]

If you follow the phases, make sure you toss the 'stones' over their left shoulder. Just to follow form. Otherwise , no good will come.

[Slydn]

I geld and wean by the moon phases. I have had sufficient enough difference in the horses condition and their heal up time, to justify it. Can not tell you why it works, but it does.

[Two Cents]

Boy, this is going to sound harsh....

This year we had 14 colts and 2 fillies. Nothing to do with tides or moon phases or this or that. Just the way it is. Anyone who tries to convince themselves that anything else is going on in just fooling themselves. Next year it may be completely the opposite. We need a VERY large sample number to get a true reflection of reality. My self, i am the proud father of four girls and one boy. Yet, the next child I am the sire of....God forbid....has the exact chance of 50-50 being a boy or girl. This is a random event. 50-50. The results of the last birth or 100 births has nothing to do with it. This is your basic Probability and Statistics 101 class stuff.

Quit worrying about all this stuff. Kind of like twinning.....or being bald.....there are REAL genetic principles at work here. No, being bald does NOT skip a generation. Or twinning. ETC, etc., etc..

The moon has NOTHING to do with anything.

You know, there is a VERY accurate statistic out there. Every fourth child born in the world this year will be Chinese. No questions, no doubt, no nothing.

If you are the mother of three kids.....will your next child be Chinese? Of course not.....unless you're Chinese, and the father is too.

We get into these ridiculous arguments based on views that in themselves seem to make sense. But taken in the context of real life, real experience, real living....are just plain WRONG.

[rydns]

To each his own but, I do and most of my family does too. We mostly geld and wean by the signs and today cut bulls calves as the sign was great for that and had very minimal bleeding. (It also was funner to watch the ropers as they had to rope all the bull calves first out of the rodear)

I even learned today that one of my old timer friends had knee replacement surgery and for the 2nd knee, he had it done when the sign was good and surgery went great. Previously on the first knee, sign was totally wrong and surgery and recoverey was a bear. So, whether you believe in it or not, it worked for him and that's what counts.

Some people believe in it and others don't but that's why we are all individuals and are all entitled to our own opinions.

[reata]

2 cents said "The moon has NOTHING to do with anything." ??

Ya know when Mares first brought up the subject I thought what a load of poppycock.. But at least I have an open mind..so I listened to what people had to say. Listening and weighing up the pros and cons is how I learn stuff.. :eek:
I just looked it up.. I had my boy gelded 5 days after the full moon and he had no troubles at all.. Was I just lucky or did the moon have something to do with it???

BTW you did sound harsh!!! almost BLUNT!!!

[AWSpinks]

The moon has NOTHING to do with anything.




What about the tide?

I don't know about the other stuff I never did a real scientific study of it. However I will say this, I wean several thousand calves a year. Some wean easy some walk for days. Usually it is group wide ie. if they they walk they all walk if they bawl for a day and then just go to eating they they all do it. Most of these calves are salebarn stock bought a few at a time and then comingled. The trouble with keeping this constitant is the variables that are thrown in like weather, age of the calves and time of year. (A fall born calf that has been following the feed truck all winter is easier to wean than a spring born calf that has been on summer range and has seen a person once a month.)

Usually the ones brought in on the proper sign have weaned easier.

Just my observation and I am not putting money on it. I do try to wean and castrate my own stock on the sign just in case though!

[red]

Gonna weigh in on the "laws of the Universe"...there is somethin to that old full moon...she wields some mighty power...unseen, but felt, by most of the world..gravitaional pulls, the tides, kelp growth in the ocean...and "lunatics"...hmmm.
Not sure if there is something to the signs, but just in case there is...I am gonna get out my farmers almanac...Like Rydns, I know several old timers who plant, castrate, etc. based on the moon charts. Figure it couldn't hurt to have the moon on my side, too...

love,
red.

[Mares Tales]

http://imagiware.com/astro/moon.cgi

[red]

wow. On my birthday, it is gonna be a full moon. I knew I had something good to look forwards too...let me go see if the moon will be with us when we go to the Californios...did I remind you it is already in April...the schedule? Oh, yeah, yeah. I know you already have the days with circles and stars by em..
this is a fun chart, Mares!

love,
red

[Slydn]

As a child the neighbor, raised quarter horses, and one year he weaned in two bunches, one with the moon and one without.

Each bunch was approximatly 5 to 7 colts. The bunch weaned with the moon, cried sufficiently less, never went off feed or loss their bloom, and were easier to work with.

The other bunch cried for a couple weeks, we have snotty noses and they all went off feed and lost some weigh. After this experienced he always waited for the right moon phase. I don't remember weaning or cutting being a extreme problem.

I have cut colts with the moon, and they tend to swell less and heal faster, than the colts I have not watched the calendar.

Just my experiences taught by friends and family as how you do things.