Looking grown up

I spent most of my day fussing over Mag and although I didn't accomplish as much as I'd have liked, I am pleased with our day.

First, the sheep were still here, overhead, day 3. At pasture Mag is fine with that, but at the barn he's not, and I was about to count today as another loss but then the shepherd and his two dogs moved the entire herd away, with alacrity. Exciting! Mag was so glad they were gone, he was more relaxed than usual. I was able to do that thing. That thing you're tired of hearing about.

Since the vet is coming tonight I wanted to get him as clean as possible, and that took a while. I even used soap on his green hind legs for the first time (a blanket that is slightly too big doesn't just get green, it rubs the green against him too). He let me spray a hose in sensitive areas which is great, and I washed his tail twice, finding loads of poop bits in it that I had to remove by hand. The suds were pure green, it was so nasty. But in the end his tail looks better than ever.


This face, I just melt.



Sleepy after 3 days of sheep watch.

When J got home I said, "Check out his tail!"and J said, "It's clean. The rest of him is not." *sigh* But I got a laugh out of him when I said, "If I ever have Michi come take photos of him, they're gonna have to be black and white to hide how yellow and brown he is." (My little camera isn't able to show the dirt so he looks OK in these photos.)

Truly, without a bath there isn't much I can do to make Mag clean, and it's still refrigerator-cold out there.

I was again able to spray his underside with fly spray to ward off those evil things that eat the undersides of horses. Soon they won't be the problem, horse flies will. I can hardly imagine a time warm enough for them though. 

I got the bridle and bucket of grain and he was very keen. In fact, he opened his mouth for the bit so fast I wasn't ready. Then I got it in, put the string over his ears and left him with his bucket.

When he was done I wanted to do it right, with the halter/bridle, like I normally do - hook one side of the bit on and pull it across his mouth.

Funnily, as I put the real bridle on him, he was looking for a bit and didn't find one so he put the throatlatch in his mouth! I laughed and pulled it out and clipped the bit on his right side and then he was a little confused, but he found the bit and eagerly took it in his mouth, so I clipped the left side and left him to eat the few handfuls of grain in the bucket.

When done I tried to adjust the bridle to fit him better, but it still needs some adjusting.



Right, still no sheep up there.



I look forward to seeing his "permanent" coloring.

Then I measured his back again with my loin fit kit and see that he isn't quite as wide as he was in November. I put the saddle on and he was fine with it, and I could see it was bridging a little and too wide at the back.

I got to work with my shims and it's much improved. He's very good at letting me put the saddle on and off, doesn't need to be tied or held onto even, whew!




He wants what the donkey has. It's just hay, same as you have Mag. You might have noticed that our divider wall is shorter. That's cuz someone (?) knocked one of the boards out.




But then I got the wool pad and he thought it was gonna eat him. Looks like a sheep? I just hung out with him until he was nibbling the wool and I could rub it on his chest. Putting it on his back was no problem, strangely.

Then I put the saddle on, girthed it loosely, and put the breastcollar on to keep it from falling under him cuz I just wanted it loose today. The breastcollar still needs adjusting, he's got such a big chest. I think that breastcollar is 15 years old, and though it's not shiny, it doesn't have any weak points, yet. It suffered a branch stabbing through the neoprene when Baasha fell through that bridge. I love it when tack lasts.

I left Mag completely tacked up for quite a while. I got some hay down and put out new bags of hay for them while he hung out looking all grown up.

I hope J can make some time for us when I first get on him, we'll see what the weather does this weekend. Yesterday we had hail.

I'll let you know what the vet says about his coughing and teething.






Tiny butt, big joints: ) He seems to have more muscle and this can only be from his self-exercise. The other day he ran full speed around the pasture, maybe that's it.



Looks eerily like Baasha in the same bridle.







You can almost see that his hind end isn't completely white yet.

***

The vet was just here and Mag's temp was 37.5 (normal) and he plugged Mag's nose twice, listening to both sides, and found nothing at all. He thinks that Mag was just choking on food the other day when he coughed so much. He says that Mag does not have COPD, but he understands how paranoid I am, that I call him for every cough.

Mag cuddled up to him, enjoying the attention even though it wasn't always pleasant. At one point the doctor had his elbow on Mag's poll, leaning against Mag. Yes Mag is much more relaxed now that the sheep are gone.

Mag took the stethoscope in his mouth as we talked, and I explained to the doctor how Mag has chewed off the handles of my wheelbarrow, and anything else plastic. I asked about a retained baby tooth, and he looked inside, finding only unproblematic wolf teeth. Since Mag has shown no problems with the bit, I will try not to worry about it. The doctor said that Mag is just chewing on things out of boredom. I will keep bringing him birch trees then for when he's unable to roam freely for whatever reason (waiting for the vet).

I wonder if vets are annoyed when they visit healthy animals, unable to prescribe anything. Or if they prefer to see a sickness. I know I wish I had a medicine right now, if only a placebo for my own sake *lol*