October is National Apple Month in the United States.
Autumn is here, and apple-picking is in vogue. What better way could there be to foster family togetherness and good nutrition than to spend a sunny fall afternoon picking apples at a local orchard?
(OK, so this might cut into an equestrian's last outdoor trail rides of the season, but apple picking is fun as well.)Horse lovers who do choose to go out and pick apples will surely pick enough juicy fall produce to share with their favorite equines.
Just this week, I picked two big buckets of apples for our horses. Yep, I loaded up a pair of empty equine feed supplement pails with fresh, ripe fall apples and hauled them to the stables. I even stick a metal apple wedger (see photo at right) on a nail outside one of my horse's stalls for community use.
Some of those smaller apples can become choking hazards, especially for young horses. Besides, a few apple wedges can surely help the medicine go down for a picky equine.
Call me crazy, but I've been tossing apple cores in the rough, uncut areas of the horse farm all season. Maybe I'm channeling Johnny Appleseed. Who knows? But we might just find a few new apple trees growing up in a year or two.
Happy Apple Month!
