It's that time of year when our trainer Ali goes to Iceland for a couple months to lead tourists through the wilderness on Icelandic horses. So happy for her!
Left to our own devices I've been trying to get Mag better on the lunge line. I know, it's ridiculous that it's still a struggle but I was able to keep him calm on the line recently and that was wonderful. Ali always prioritizes calm above all else.
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Mag has hives. He's allergic to almost every substance on the planet, and one bad bug encounter has his body geographically swollen. Why aren't there real allergy medicines for horses?
Yesterday he rolled and several swollen hives erupted into bloody masses and I spent the evening washing them and then finally closing them with alu spray. Thank God he's good with water. I thank God for every single talent he has: )
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Our pasture is more lush than it's ever been in fall, even after that awful heat wave. I can hardly find the poop piles! They are eating 2 flakes of hay per day! Together!
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Stalling Mag is a real problem, when I want to separate them to feed vitamins. He weaves terribly and I put on the classical music and sit in front of him and wait ...up to 2 hours, before he can finally take a bite of hay. His life of total freedom has really impinged on his ability to be contained even shortly.
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J and I have been sick all week. That's normal for J, as a school teacher, when school starts, the kids bring all sorts of illness and we suffer. This time the both of us. I had the lawn mower out 3 days ago, desperately needing to mow, and I just couldn't find the strength to do it. Today I just couldn't clean up poop, I'll try again tomorrow.
But when I gave Mag some bread tonight, checked his wounds, I hugged him from under his neck, massaging the top of his neck and saying, "Tomorrow I'll be better, I hope."
He reached forward and put his lips on my neck and for the first time ever, kind of lipped me in a horsey kiss.
I jumped back in alarm, don't bite me! But it wasn't stallion like, it wasn't the lack of hormone therapy (we stopped it in the hope that over Winter he'll be less studdy).
He was just offering me a massage, like a normal horse.
Sweetness!
1 comment:
I don't understand why he has to be stalled for 2 hours after vitamins?
We use a screwdriver to poke a hole into an apple every evening, and cram her Exioxx into the hole. One chomp from ol' Toothless and the whole thing is GONE.
She gets supplements with a small amount of beetpulp and is separated from goats while eating that--usually about 5 minutes. I leave her in the stall (which has an outdoor paddock attached, so she can move around and see everything) for a couple hours each evening when the weather is good, so she can eat her hay without having to combat pesky goats. In dumping rain she stays in the stall/paddock all night because she is old and gets cold. The vet wants her out in the past as much as possible now, so that works pretty well for us.
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