Moving Again

I've been really horrible about keeping up with this blog lately.  I think part of it is the distance between my horses and myself.  But anyways better late than never, right?

Last time the horses had just gotten their feet trimmed and I'm happy to report that a month later they still look like they were trimmed last week and no one was sore from it that I noticed.  The family hadn't plowed the wheat field and a lot of volunteer wheat was growing so we figured we'd turn the horses out there for a change of scenery and something to munch on.

Low and behold, a couple weeks out there and I'm pretty sure Haji gained weight.  And they weren't eating much grain at that point because no one wanted to come up to the barn to eat.  All the while they were still on their first bale of hay.  Of course out of that whole 11 acres or so, the horses chose to stand in the one little patch of brush which meant tons of burrs.

And by "horses" I mean Haji. Though the other boys had their fair share of burrs as well.

When they needed to plow the wheat field they moved the horses back to the front pasture where they nearly finished off the first round bale.  So that bale lasted them since the end of September!  Guess they weren't done with the grass yet after all.

I wasn't able to make it out to Canby after that so Jeff took on the chore of pulling all the t-posts and trailering the horses over to his brother's place.  There's a leak in the well so we can't leave the water on all the time which means we can't use an insulated/heated automatic waterer.  And since the hose will freeze we can't really get water at all at our place so we decided to move them for the winter.  The cattle pens are all full of cattle at the inlaws so Jeff's brother's place is the only place left but there's no fence.  So Jeff pulled the t-posts in the dark and hand pounded them into frozen ground til his hands hurt for a week. Don't worry, I got to hear all about it ;)  Not being there just compounded my worry about the horses and not being able to manage their care being so far away.  It was a rough night to say the least.

So when they moved they threw out some hay from the loft and then put out a new round bale without the net which they all but finish in a week.  When I finally got out to see them after Thanksgiving they were FAT, super fat.  Which for Haji is a good thing, scratch that, great thing.  And that's without a lot of care in feeding him several times a day.  So I'm hoping he'll keep that weight on this winter. At some point someone took off Haji's blanket when it was a little warmer so I threw that back on him though he's got a nice winter coat and would probably be fine, I like the thought that he doesn't have to use his energy to keep himself warm and it'll help keep that sticky hip of his nice and warm.

So we had ourselves some more chores this past weekend and luckily the weather cooperated wonderfully.  I wrapped up the wire fencing from our place (that is a super lame job BTW) while Jeff started cleaning out his brother's barn.  Sunday I was able to get some time while Daniel stayed with Grandma and I went out to help.  The barn was full of who knows how many years worth of manure.  But between Jeff hand shoveling (I helped a tiny bit) and Joe running the bobcat they got the barn looking pretty nice.

We tied off the sides of the barn so the horses will just have access to the middle portion. That way they don't mess up the sides where the bobcat can't get and make it easier to clean in the future.  Also leaves the sides for storing various random things we found in the barn.

I put the buckets on the fence inside the barn which should mean a person can enter the barn from the small door and fill buckets without having to cross any fencelines or even go in where the horses are. The buckets will be out of the snow and rain so they can stay hung up and they won't go wandering away when a horse decides to play.  I thought maybe a neighbor kid could even feed but Jeff thinks that's too dangerous.  Anyway it's a pretty nice set up at this point.  The buckets are a little closer than I had hoped so hopefully the boys can figure out how to eat in peace and not run Haji off.  When I feed them from their buckets on the ground Sunday morning they all stood nicely and ate and Haji was able to finish before Axel came looking for seconds.  So that was nice.  Oh!  I saw Haji pin his ears and move Cody off at one point over the weekend.  Yay Haji!

I think there might be a bit of mud in our future but we'll see.  There was a low spot where the paddock is set up but this fall they filled it with gravel so maybe it'll be okay.  They do have a cement apron on the barn as well as the barn aisle to stand in if the mud gets bad.  We'll just have to scrap the aisle of manure on occasion.  Maybe throw out some stray or something.  I don't think it'll be as mud free as I thought our place would be but I think it'll be okay.  They don't have a large paddock right now but when the ground freezes they don't do too much moving around anyways.

So we cleaned up the barn, cleaned up their paddock area and put out a new round bale with net and everyone looked pretty happy.  I'm a little concerned that Haji hasn't figured out the net yet, so I'm hoping he figures that out soon if that's the case.

Sadly my hopes to see if Axel would not get swollen this winter are foiled.  They had a full round bale not in a net and he's swollen up again so I guess that experiment is off.  Oh well, I'd rather have fat happy horses in the end.  I'm also hoping this small area will make the three horses become better buddies in the end.  Maybe Haji will stick up for himself a bit more or something.

So after all my personal turmoil over the horses and their home and gaining or losing weight, I'm feeling good after this last weekend visit.  I'm thinking maybe the initial weight loss Haji had was a combination of not great hay, not getting grain quite enough, and the other horses running him around too much.  The hay is decent and the boys don't seem to run him around and he's getting regular grain so I think he'll do good this winter.  I think I can relax now.  Thanks so much to Jeff's brother for letting them live there this winter (I'm sure he doesn't mind the added bonus of us cleaning his barn either).

Long time no see

Well I finally made it back to the farm to check on the boys.  It was kind of a rough weekend.  The new farrier I had found apparently dumped me with no notice what so ever.  He asked to reschedule our second appointment and that was the last I heard of him.  Left him several messages and never heard anything back.  Is it really that hard to text me and say "sorry I don't have time for a new client, or it's too far to travel, or whatever?"  Ug anyways.

So I'm out a farrier.  We hadn't gotten the boys back on grain since moving them back to our place but they did have a round bale and the brother in law put the net on.  Apparently there was enough grass still growing because this 6x6 bale had been out for over 2 weeks and it was less than half gone.  And they had the net open (thus the hay all over the ground) so the slow feed net wasn't slowing anyone down.

But I thought everyone looked too skinny.  And it was crappy weather.  And the water tank was empty.  It all just piled on and I was feeling pretty down to the point I was going to try and find a place to board all three of them some where.

In all reality Haji isn't much different than he has been all year.  Other than putting on more fat I just don't think his body shape is going to change much.  He has muscle wastage on his back and at his age and retirement I just don't see him getting that back especially since we're dealing with a roach back to start.  And who knows what affect the cancer has on his system.  So I think it's just a matter of making sure he's fed and happy.  And boy can that horse eat.  He'll eat a full bucket of grain and knicker for more.  He even pushed me aside so he could get out the gate and graze in the yard.  Thank goodness he's easy to catch with a can of feed.

So since I was out a farrier I was left to my own devices.  I actually know someone that lives near the boys but she was unavailable this past weekend and she doesn't do shoes.  Since we're so far behind in trims, I was ready to pull shoes for the winter anyway.  So I was going to pull Cody's shoes myself and trim and trim everyone as best I could until I could get said friend out to help.  Cody had already pulled a shoe so I only had to work on one.  But I could not get that shoe off no matter what I did.  On top of the fact that Cody's feet are still a little tender I decided to give up on that.  I thought maybe Jeff could help but we ran out of time to even try.  I think I was able to rasp the clinches off so maybe he'll throw that one easily and not do any damage in the process.

So I nipped and rasps very conservatively on Cody and put him back.  I grabbed Haji and tried the same and as I was holding his front foot he went down on his knees.  Ug.  I didn't touch any one's back feet as they all seemed pretty okay.  And I didn't touch Axel's cuz his looked really good (though long). Basically I think I gave up.  Like I said, I was having an awful day.  But it sounds like my next trip out I'll be able to hook up with that friend that can help with the trims.

So I did end up grooming everyone, getting all the burrs out and what not.  Cody had a gash on his knee.  Haji got to graze in the yard while tied to the fence.  I was able to pick up more feed so now I have 300+ lbs of feed.  I don't think I'll run out in the next two weeks at least.  That reminds me to order more weight builder for Haji.

Jeff had been working on the tack room for me.  He cleaned a bunch out (though there's a lot left to go) and put up some lights and a set of lockers and one of my saddle racks.  I got some poison and mouse traps so hopefully we can get it cleaned out and sealed up a little better before I put my tack in there.  I should be able to keep bridles and blankets in the lockers and my saddles have covers.  I might have to add Bounce dryer sheets to my shopping list to put in with the saddles and help keep the mice away.  There's also some metal medicine style cabinets so once Jeff gets those better adhered to the walls I will put all the meds and first aid stuff in there.  He also built a new door so we have to get that up and paint it.

So in the end I was feeling a little better.  If everyone is still happy next trip out and we can get their feet under control I will feel much better about the situation.  One good thing was that Cody and Haji "shared" Haji's extra bucket of feed.  Cody didn't run Haji completely off.  So that was nice to see.

More Lame Horses

Cody's been "nqr" (not quite right) for a while now.  I was hoping he'd be better after a few weeks off but I was just out to check on him and boo he's not better, in fact he might be worse.  So I bit the bullet and called the vet and left a message.  I'm hoping he can diagnose without xrays cuz that's wicked crazy expensive (and a different vet has to do it cuz my vet doesn't have an xray machine).  Though if it's what I think it is it might only take 1 picture per hoof so that wouldn't be too bad. Merry Christmas Cody!

So anyway it was tough pulling him away from the hay feeder and he would hardly move, kind of parked out rocked back on his heels.  It seemed like it was both fronts bothering him. His right front is stocked up but even after cleaning out his hooves and getting him in the arena footing he was favoring both feet.  (still willing to roll of course)

His front hooves are warm compared to the backs.  Not hot and I can't feel a pulse but they are definitely different than the back ones.  So I'm thinking he's foundering or has laminitis or something like that.  Last time this happened was the first time I had him shod and he was fixed right away but we had just shoes on him this fall and he still wasn't quite right so it might take some meds for inflammation and maybe special shoeing (usually they put pads on and the shoes on backwards sometimes) and maybe some diet changes.
So we'll see what the vet says.  Hopefully he calls back soon and can come out this week still. 
I put on his old hoof boots on with the old pastern wraps and I found a scissors and cut down the gel pads and put those in the boots as well. He was walking better with the boots on but still a little gun shy I think.

Boy does he look low backed in this photo, someone needs to do some sit ups.

And they are definitely getting the hang of the hay net. The barn owners picked up one of those big round bale nets to try and slow the pigs down and save on waste and it seems to be doing the trick.  I'm secretly hoping the slow in feeding will make Axel's swelling go away, but it's only been two weeks and he's still my big pregnant gelding.

Pardon Axel's *ahem*