...fun with the 'green bin'....

Trakehners!
...and how they're extra special.

At muck out time, I wheel my green bins into the yard, and this is when the hilarity begins.

It's been raining here since October, so every time we get a deluge, we flood, not indoors, but outside.  So the boys are looking for any distraction from sloshing about in the wet mud.  Hence, this 'bin sequence'.

...this time, it's personal...

MUD FEVER: you're not setting up camp here...

...it's muddy and wet...

Let's take a deep breath and make a plan to stop this horrible affliction once and for all for our horses.  Mud fever, it's not nice.  Anyone whose horse has had it will tell you, its a long drawn out process to get rid of. Painful. Awkward. Nasty and time-consuming.  Often needing veterinary help to clear. and even the most patient and calm horse might hate you afterward,  and that in itself is heartbreaking.

So, lets try and keep it away with some preventative measures...and I mean UDDER CREAM! Also good for your hands in this weather, mine are soft after use: key beauty message, just because it comes in a small tube with a £Million advertising budget, doesn't mean its better than udder cream....suspect the name (and colour), puts people off!

We all want our horses fit, sound and well, to see them charging about like this is a sure sign they feel good in themselves.

 ...so, when the boys were having their breakfasts yesterday morning, I took this as an opportunity, their dry feet was a sign.  I brushed all around their pasterns, bulbs, fetlocks, clearing away all dirt and dust to the skin.  Rubbing with my fingers to feel if there were any little cuts or scrapes, that could potentially let infection in, and satisfied there weren't, I continued my plan.

Tom & Henry have never had such clean feet!



...you're not putting any of that pink stuff on me!

Then I got my giant tub of Udder Cream out, it's bubblegum pink and not at all a shade that boys should be wearing! With my fingers, rubbed it all around the areas of their 'ankles': from coronet up to the fetlock, getting it right down to the skin, any areas that are likely to get wet.

...me either! I'm watching you

If you do this, you MUST be certain your horses skin is completely dry and clean, otherwise you'll just be trapping nasties next to their body.

...what's she got there in that giant tub Henry?
 Don't know, but it's bloody pink!

So with pink feet, out they went, and every time I capture them with dry feet, whilst the land is so muddy and wet, I'll repeat this process.  Not only will it perform a barrier between horse and bacteria carrying mud, but will afford me the intimate knowledge of my horses 'ankles' so I'll know if there's a break in the skin which could let infection in, and deal with it!

Remember snow is how Henry got Mud fever last winter, the abrasive nature of what looks like innocuously soft snow to us, actually has a sandpaper effect.  So rub udder cream on before turn out, because you have to let horses play in the snow!!

I'm trying to be cool Henz, but my bloody feet are pink!
I feel you Tombiz, lets just eat hay and hope no girls see us!

...good luck everyone xx

TCJpart49 Thundery Skies

MUD:

We sometimes complain about bad weather, the rain for example.  But these skies are often a wonderful kaleidoscope of watercolours.  And the light gives a moody effect to photos of horses.  And of course, if you can imagine lovely bays underneath, photos of the horses are actually quite beautiful.

The skies above our village are swirling and churning with weather, clouds of vapour rolling and changing colours from dove white to dark gunmetal.  Thundering in a palette too interesting to leave unnoticed.  The consequence of extreme weathers in particular lots of rain as we have had recently is mud, and of course horses like few things better than rolling about in it.

I use a rubber tipped hairbrush to remove the worst, and a secession of gradually softening bristles of a variety of brushes to get them sparkling again...or, more likely, to make a clean spot to be filled with a more recent application of the wet stuff - I expect it's good for the skin.

I almost had a bit of a tail-trimming disaster too. Stupidly I began a job in the raging wind I was unable to satisfactorily complete in one go since they wandered off in mid-chop...yes, both of them!!  Their tails looked hacked and uneven, and pure-bred Trakehners can only have perfectly Vidal'd tails in my book.  Getting them perfect took a second attempt, and their tails are a little shorter than I usually trim them, but at least they look like dressage stars now, not rocking horses!!

Now, no photo diary of Tom & Henry would be complete without lots of shots of their amazing bums!!  Tom's  bum is all dapples at the moment as you can see, and Henry's, well of course you must recognise it... so rounded and perfect...even covered in mud!!

They love this weather, they both roll a lot.  They pick a perfect spot and take it in turns to smother themselves in earth.

In the opposite camp, the cats stay indoors when it's raining, they have us light the fire, put their snugly blanket out and they curl up with Fergal, their sharky!!

And left here is Fergal, Mum bought him back from her holiday in South Africa.   They love it!