And Now for Something Completely Different

A POST (nothing to do with mud fever...well, maybe a bit...):

 

 

 

 

 

It's funny how you can so easily get wrapped up in your horses' afflictions you almost can't see anything else, do anything else.  But apart from Henrys' MF, all things are fine back at base.

 

Though Tom did fling off a shoe Thursday night which John and I found, funny how it's always the white foot that loses the shoes...I wonder why that is, all new advice suggests the white and black hooves are just as strong as each other, but that's not what we are seeing here at WW.

Steve came today in the baking heat to put Tom's shoe back on,  he puts himself in the yard exactly where Steve shoes him, not tied up and waits....how cute is that?

 

 

 

...anyway, Steve said he's never known 2 horses to get their shoes off like my 2 in all his 20something years as a farrier...well Trakehners are special...athletic, sharp, and they manage to twist the metal too, very skillful!

 

 

 

The boys are looking fantastic, healthy and shiny.  They have just been bathed for the last time before the weather gets chilly.  They seem very chilled and happy.  Have come through harvest without so much as a sniff.   Have watched as John and I did our August bank holiday hedgerow prune and trim (this is also an attempt to avoid any village hullabaloo). 

 

 

They witnessed as the builders had a skip delivered and didn't bat an eyelash at anything.

 

 

I guess it's just that time of year, they are looking slimmer, although because of all the rain we've had the grass has been plentiful and they will go into winter well 'conditioned'.

 

 

 

In preparation for winter, I am planning on altering my strategy from last year.  Last winter they didn't spend a single night indoors, but then we got mud fever, and that's very nasty, so we won't be doing that again.  Prolonged contact with wet conditions without any respite, not again.  I thought I was doing the right thing, treating them like horses, but of course in the wild they'd wander for miles making sure they didn't stand in wet all day long wouldn't they? Tom & Henry will come into nice clean dry stables at night during the worst weather as we had done every other year, that's what we'll be doing.

 

 

Plan your winter now, get your rugs cleaned and mended, stock up on your first aid kit, bandages and boots, get your order for shavings in too just in case there's a shortage.

And the wet summer we've had will undoubtedly affected the hay crops all across the country, plan for a shortage and get your order in now, otherwise you may have to contend with less than perfect quality, and it's just not worth the worry, even if your horse likes hay from the bin (like mine do).

 

 

...and the boys do like their nice soft clean beds...and lots, and lots......and lots of haylage.

 

 

happy hacking x