The photo below is when we boarded Mag in Wuppertal - Winter 2016. This is his typical Winter look, bones showing despite a polar bear coat (which is scary cuz what would he look like if he was wearing a Summer coat?).
It's astounding to me, because he consumed so much food at that stable. A 5 gallon bucket of beet pulp everyday. I filled two large hay nets for him for nighttime, as well as bedding the stall in a hay/straw mix. He was given free-choice hay in his private paddock every day. And yet every morning when I arrived, both hay nets would be completely empty.
He was so CLEAN. Snow.
I love this photo cuz it reflects my daily routine with Mag at the boarding stable. Every morning at 8, I'd arrive, fetch him from his icy paddock, and bring him into a double wide stall to eat his beet pulp. As he ate, I'd spend nearly an hour cleaning his stall. Willi the barn hand would laugh as he cleaned 5 stalls in the time it took me to do Mag's. Then again, I was not a fan of the deep-bedding program, I wanted every scrap of waste material out. Later I learned that he'll lay down more on an ever-increasingly disgusting mattress.
More than once another boarder would rush to me, "Your horse's lead rope is on the ground." And I would reply, "Intentionally, so he learns to deal with that, if he steps on it. No worries, he has a breakable leather halter." And so Mag learned not to panic when stepping on his face. And it worked. He never panics when he steps on his line.
How Mag prefers to look in Winter.
November 2019. Not a sign of ribs this year.
January 2020.
So my newly "fluffy" horse seems, so far, to have benefitted from:
1. Free choice low-quality hay
2. 2 pounds dried beet pulp soaked with a tsp of salt and a splash of raps oil
3. 3 pounds a day of grain-free, sugar-free feed including a mineral supplement
We'll see what happens as Winter continues. One thing I've learned is that after Mag's huge lunch, he takes a nap. Taking him for a walk during naptime is much easier. He's almost like a normal horse when he's in his food-coma.
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Hartmut comes by every day at 11. The other day he came onto the property and pet Mag without my permission and that made me mad, cuz I asked him to ring the doorbell. So J caught him the next day and said a neighbor saw him and asked if we'd like to call the police. That seems to have worked. Today he just stood at the street talking to Mag and I ran out with 2 carrots and invited him to feed Mag.
It made his day, he exclaimed, repeating Danke Schoen and Vielen Dank to both the horse and to me.
And he told Mag, "Good dog."
***
Ani came over for Star Trek yesterday and after greeting Mag said, "I'm gonna call him 'Muddy' from now on." I didn't catch that at first cuz she said the U wrong but then I figured it out and said, "He does his best."
10 comments:
Congratulations on filling him out! Lets put the food coma to good use!
Maybe you can invite Halmut on your walks?
ND, it crossed my mind to ask for Hartmut's help but he's pretty fragile physically and mentally I'm kind of worried about him. I'm not sure he should be out there on his own, walking these streets. He's asked me to do some speech therapy with him at the nursing home, which I'd be willing to do, but I'm not sure about encouraging him about my animals. Letting him give them carrots today made me a little uncomfortable. Gosh he could lose a finger!
Re the 100 mile challenge - I would never ask someone who would rather be riding to simply lead their horse 100 miles. If someone's riding horse was injured, perhaps. I admit it is tempting to think about, but doing it as a community would be most motivating. I have very little motivation to take the horse out lately, even for a walk.
He looks great. Riding him during his food coma seems like a good idea.
How old is Mag now? Is it possible that he's finally completely stopped growing?
Fee was impossibly ribby (and also incredibly clumsy) until after her 8th (!!!) birthday, because she finally stopped growing. I kept a blanket on her just because it was cheaper to buy a blanket than to buy an extra 2 ton of hay. I also use a Portagrazer now for her hay, which means she wastes almost nothing and eats EVERYTHING in the bin each night.
Clean grey horses are so pretty. And so...rare. :-)
Teresa, riding him seems speculative at this point. But you're right.
Aarene, He just turned 9. Fiddle as impossibly ribby, really!?!? Do you have photos?
So, there's hope, he won't kill himself before old age when I can ride him comfortably. Today he had bright streams of red blood running down both front legs. I washed them but later in the day, more fresh blood which always looks alarming on a white horse.
You might be right about the age thing though I hope to God Mag is not more than 150.
Show me what Portagrazer is please.
Grey horses are mostly so perfectly clean in the desert. I recently wondered if I'd be able to accept the climate simply cuz I've got a white horse that loves to roll in mud. *lol* No, I love rain.
Porta Grazer: http://porta-grazer.com/
Skinny: Early photos of the Dragon were on FILM, so there aren't many online. There are a few here: http://haikufarm.blogspot.com/p/fiddle.html but they don't show how truly skinny she was because WINTER HAIR. She had no butt muscles then, either. Now she's about halfway--decent weight, but not super-muscular because we aren't working hard now. I ride about once a week in the darkest part of winter, only 2 hours tops (because it's cold and wet) and mostly walking (because mud).
Walking: Dennis Emerson (Tamerack Hill Farm) advocates walking-walking-walking for a year or longer, either walking beside the horse or riding the horse at a walk (or both). He's really right (no surprise, he really knows what he's talking about!). He says that the walk is perfect for learning new stuff and not getting hurt (both human and horse).
The porta grazer won't even ship to Alaska.....Pfft.
Mr Emerson is a fan of walking the horse? That's the first I've heard anyone say other than me. In fact I am used to hearing the opposite, "Mag needs to run in order to behave. An hour a day would be good, just run him around." It must be "conventional" wisdom because so many people have told me I need to let him go fast in order to be good. I guess I'm on a mission to prove that it's not necessary. However I must admit if I had a place to lunge him, I'd be doing it!
Here the link to my review of Dennis Emerson's most recent book. He talks a *lot* about the benefits of walking!
http://haikufarm.blogspot.com/2019/01/in-which-reason-that-god-made-winter-is.html
Aarene, thank you. I assume you're gonna publish another book soon, encouraging endurance riders with this advanced slow stuff? *hug*
Seriously I trained with an CEI rider who mainly trained at the canter and I would pull up alongside and say, "You know a jog is also important. And even slower."
She later went to a clinic (I'm sure I already told you) and confessed to me that endurance riding training should involve slower work, not just cantering up hills." : )
Merri knows her.
I look forward to learning more!
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