(no subject)
I posted the other day about possible exercise options for a new mare. Well, she arrived on Wednesday and it doesn't look like I'll be needing to ride her soon anyway! She was significantly skinnier than I remembered her being when I first saw her (it may well have been my not paying close enough attention and viewing her through rose tinted glasses XD) Here's a little update and some photos - I'm really looking forward to working with this mare and will very likely be asking more dippy questions at some point.
Libby was weaned from her foal on Wednesday morning - she's 17.3hh, the stallion was around the same, and the foal, at five months, is almost as big as my two year old, so around 14hh. He's a big hunky chunk of a thing, and she's been a wonderful mom. Over the last couple of months though, he's taken a lot from her - she developed severe mastitis in early September and almost died, but allowed the foal to continue feeding as soon as the infection was cleared up. She did drop a lot of weight though, both from the infection and from stress, and hasn't quite managed to put it back on.
Here she is trying to stay out of it as my two make faces at her :D
Millie, my 'main' mare, is really not happy about this development.
She travelled the three hour journey quiet as a mouse, stood in with those two being right crabby madams over the walls, and then went out into the field and let off steam by...walking sedately around...
...having some grass...
...and finishing it all off with some water!
One more shot of her donkeying her way around the field.
Please excuse the sweat and poo stains on her - standing in and meeting my two was more than enough for her to cope with, brushing was absolutely out of the question! She has since had a nice wash and I'll get some newer photos as soon as I'm at the yard in the daylight AND with a full battery ;)
She is thin, up close not in fact as painfully so as she first appears - her height and length seem to make her look even worse. She's started to fill in in places already after just two days of chilling out and munching as much as I can get into her safely. Please don't think her condition is at ALL any form of neglect - her previous owner is the last person who would ever underfeed a horse, Libby was fed huge feeds twice a day and had access to free choice haylage and good grass, her condition was monitored closely by vets and it was decided to keep the foal on her for as long as possible unless she started to drop even more weight. Her lack of muscle is a factor in her skinnyness, but her eyes are bright, her coat and skin are good, and she will quite happily go hooleying around the field when the mood takes her!!
Feed wise she's currently having monitored hay (have noticed that she's a gannet who doesn't drink all that much, so am introducing salt into her diet to encourage drinking before piling hay in front of her), and two feeds daily consisting of two large scoops of high fibre chop, a half scoop of hi-fibre cubes, a half scoop of beet pulp and a half scoop of soaked grass nuts, with a joint supplement, a body builder supplement and a pro-biotic at the recommended doses, plus oil, salt and cider vinegar. I want to up the beet and grass nuts by the end of the week, but am waiting for her milk to dry off first.
Speaking of, any tips on drying up milk? My other mare is still producing milky fluid two years after foaling, but it's never a full bag and has never caused a problem, so all the things I tried with her clearly didn't work!!
Libby was weaned from her foal on Wednesday morning - she's 17.3hh, the stallion was around the same, and the foal, at five months, is almost as big as my two year old, so around 14hh. He's a big hunky chunk of a thing, and she's been a wonderful mom. Over the last couple of months though, he's taken a lot from her - she developed severe mastitis in early September and almost died, but allowed the foal to continue feeding as soon as the infection was cleared up. She did drop a lot of weight though, both from the infection and from stress, and hasn't quite managed to put it back on.
Here she is trying to stay out of it as my two make faces at her :D
Millie, my 'main' mare, is really not happy about this development.
She travelled the three hour journey quiet as a mouse, stood in with those two being right crabby madams over the walls, and then went out into the field and let off steam by...walking sedately around...
...having some grass...
...and finishing it all off with some water!
One more shot of her donkeying her way around the field.
Please excuse the sweat and poo stains on her - standing in and meeting my two was more than enough for her to cope with, brushing was absolutely out of the question! She has since had a nice wash and I'll get some newer photos as soon as I'm at the yard in the daylight AND with a full battery ;)
She is thin, up close not in fact as painfully so as she first appears - her height and length seem to make her look even worse. She's started to fill in in places already after just two days of chilling out and munching as much as I can get into her safely. Please don't think her condition is at ALL any form of neglect - her previous owner is the last person who would ever underfeed a horse, Libby was fed huge feeds twice a day and had access to free choice haylage and good grass, her condition was monitored closely by vets and it was decided to keep the foal on her for as long as possible unless she started to drop even more weight. Her lack of muscle is a factor in her skinnyness, but her eyes are bright, her coat and skin are good, and she will quite happily go hooleying around the field when the mood takes her!!
Feed wise she's currently having monitored hay (have noticed that she's a gannet who doesn't drink all that much, so am introducing salt into her diet to encourage drinking before piling hay in front of her), and two feeds daily consisting of two large scoops of high fibre chop, a half scoop of hi-fibre cubes, a half scoop of beet pulp and a half scoop of soaked grass nuts, with a joint supplement, a body builder supplement and a pro-biotic at the recommended doses, plus oil, salt and cider vinegar. I want to up the beet and grass nuts by the end of the week, but am waiting for her milk to dry off first.
Speaking of, any tips on drying up milk? My other mare is still producing milky fluid two years after foaling, but it's never a full bag and has never caused a problem, so all the things I tried with her clearly didn't work!!