..it's in the air, it's everywhere...

Spring.

Tom & Henry are quite excited about the warmer, longer days.  More grass, more freedom, less udder cream.  They express their joy in one particular way - rampage!

 

Now you'll notice with a few of these shots, I am quite close, at one point I was diving for the fence to safety, and have broken the land speed record for fastest 100 metre sprint in wellies - through thick mud!

 

anyway, I risked life an limb to get these, so you don't have to.

 

enjoy.

 

 

 

 

...no shoes were lost during the filming of this sequence.

 

I make no apologies for the number of photos, Trakehners at liberty, that can't be beaten in my view.

...mud fever, we've beaten it!

Tom & Henry...

During arguably the wettest autumn and winter in recorded history, is it any wonder horses up and down the UK have been struck with mud fever?  

Now if you're a regular to TCJ, you be aware of our own battles with it, but they have been corrective rather than preventative.

I can now share with you our well-trialled solution UDDER CREAM.

Yes people, that pink cream, buy the large tubs because you're gonna need them!  We have gone through about 6 tubs so far, and spring (dry weather) is still a long way off.

Tom & Henry are in at night, only because of their tootsies and the wet land.  This means, every morning before I turn them out, I smear their feet - fetlock to coronet band all-round with a liberal application of udder cream. 

For the hooves I have used a winter barrier, but not every day.

The udder cream is a protective barrier against all nasties, and every Sunday night I hose them from knees down to check, and so far - fingers crossed, touch wood, lucky pants - NO fever, mud or otherwise.

I recommend this strategy people, lots of large tubs of cream later and no vet visits - got to be worth a try.

Repeat Offender

Henry

...I love this horse, and Trakehners as you now know are clever and cunning.  They are sharp and light on their feet, they can tip toe and pirouette.  They spin, side step and do fancy Prix StGeorge dressage maneovers in their field.  So is it any surprise they are also very good at shifting shoes...however strongly they are attached!?

Farriers have scratched their chins in amazement at the level of cunning Trakehners will adopt to get a shoe off in fact.

...but Henry takes it to a new level.

He'd get the Gold medal for shoe-shifting if it were an Olympic sport.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure they don't lose them more often than is to be expected, its supremely muddy and wet everywhere, and galloping around - which isn't optional at WW -  is a risky strategy if you want all shoes kept on.

But Henry can twist them too, which is a task in itself!

Poor farrier Dean.

Henry is a repeat offender, and look at the twist in that shoe by Lemmy, even the cat can't understand it!