Summer Heat

 

At the moment my own horses are divided between three fields on the basis of the Hansel and Gretal test. Blue and Jack were the lightest so they are the field which has the most grass. 

Theoden (just a dark shadow in the back of the shelter), Dave, Patsy and Pie (busy reflecting the sun off his white coat in the middle of the field) are grazing down the middle field. They all look ten men, whoever ten men might be.

Nelly and Henry are in the smaller barn paddocks, losing weight and in Henry's case abrading her hooves.

We are still feeding over fifty deer so it is to be hoped that we have some rain soon to keep the grass growing. 

Life is somewhat routine now for the horses but they seem to be very settled just eating and taking their medications where required. Both Jack and Theoden are both on Prascend and Theoden is on a Bute a day until we get him to the veterinary hospital in just over a week for a second injection of Osphos in his knee (equivalent to the human wrist in fact). The last time he had this was four years ago and it has kept him sound on that leg until very recently. Let's hope it can do it again. 

We have at last got over a horrible disaster that started in the spring. White Blue - Nelly's old boyfriend on the Forest - got strangles, a horrendous horse disease, and managed to pass it on to one of my neighbour's ponies. My neighbour went through hell and back trying to keep her ponies alive but sadly one of them succumbed to the after effects of either the disease or the medicine. We're waiting to find out if her other pony has fully recovered even now. It's fortunate that she has accepted being at home on her own so readily, with other horses, distanced by a stand of trees, in the field next door. It's meant I have stayed away from everyone else's horses for months now. I was dreading one of mine getting it and passing it through the entire herd and at the same time I could feel my neighbour's emotional pain. White Blue of course recovered! As yet, strangles is not a notifiable disease but it really should be. 

We can handle it!

Snippet and Mulibwanji continuing to make good progress. What I liked about Melanie's 'application' to have the ponies was that she asked me what I needed to know about her rather than just wanting to know about the ponies.