And My Name is Not Chuck!

This is blog is more than comments and rants on horse racing.  It is also about living in the country and running a thoroughbred race horse & welsh pony farm.  The photo here is one such example.  This guy/girl, groundhog/woodchuck showed in our backyard, chowing down on white clover and has returned on three other occasions.  My children have name the animal "Nutcracker."

Thus far, I have gotten at least four unsolicited offers from people who wish to eliminate Nutcracker with a .22 rifle.  Maybe we should get Bill Murray and some plastic explosives? All joking aside, the danger of groundhogs, of course, is that they create holes in the ground big enough to snap a horse's leg, but too small for them to see.  Thus far, I have not located his home base. 

The issue with using firearms is that it seems everyone who owns a firearms, thinks they have the shooting and hunting skill of a Marine Corps sniper.   There are a number of things, bigger, more fragile things, that it could be hit other than the groundhog.  My wife (a.k.a the farm's Lone Equine Professional) has come up with a more effective and more humane solution: chocolate Ex-lax.  Groundhogs hate dirty dens (don't we all? I hope.)  The Ex-lax would cause him to "soil" his soil.  He would then get up and leave.