Simile, shimilee

[midnightsjane]

Like a drowned rat...I do believe I've used that phrase in the past 24 hours. Don't think I'll be using it quite so lightly in future, as I now have a visual reference. I had to remove a real drowned rat from the toilet in the tack room bathroom this afternoon..ewwwww. Sue found it and just about fainted; couldn't bring herself to pick it up, so she made me do it. heh. I am not the least bit squeamish about such things, as long as I have a pair of gloves.
Poor drowned rat, I gave it a decent funeral fling over the bank.

I have such a fun filled life. LOL.

It was another rainy day here, but I'm not whining. Compared to what all my friends on the east coast are enduring, a little rain is nothing at all. I hope you're all safe. My thoughts are with you.

The horses got out today; our paddocks are staying dry and the footing is great. What a huge difference it makes having them redone. Now the days when we can't put the horses out will be a lot fewer. Last year they were so muddy after a big rain we couldn't use them half the winter. It's going to make life a lot easier for everyone.

I'm keeping my eye on Kyra; she's getting old and because she's a thoroughbred, she is hard to keep weight on. She's in good health, but I'm a bit concerned that she's too thin. We've started giving her some alfalfa cubes at night and she loves them. We soak the cubes in hot water and they get nice and soft and smell like new cut grass. She gets lots of local hay too; our hay is really good quality hay from a farmer who knows how to make great hay. Kyra is a rescued horse and I have no idea what her life was like before she ended up in that field the SPCA rescued her from, so it's not surprising that she has a few quirks. Lately she's taken to standing in her stall with her bum to the front wall and rocking back and forth; tonight she was doing that, and then biting her own leg! That's just weird. Maybe she's getting the horsy equivalent of dementia. Hope not.

Back to work in ICU tomorrow.

Comments

[ranunculus]

Two of my tenants have moved their horses from alfalfa pellets to Purina's suggested extra feed with excellent results. I kind of wondered if just adding something like flax seed oil would do the same. Anyway Purina's feed:
It creates glossy coats and weight gain due to the high oil content.
Hopefully there is some compensation in the vitamin/mineral content for local pasture, or local hay.

[midnightsjane]

I'm generally a fan of feeding good quality local hay, and avoiding too much fancy stuff. We're very lucky that our hay is really very good, and our horses thrive on it. I think being older, Kyra just needs a bit of extra goodness.

[ranunculus]

I 100% agree with you about the hay, I do my best to get really good quality grass/clover hay when we need it, and I provide no grain at all.

We have about 6 horses (out of the 19 currently pastured on my place) using a product called Optimal, which is a "top dressing" for a hay diet. 4 of the the six horses probably don't need it (or don't need much of it), but the other two are elderly mares, ages 26 and 31. Both of them were having a terrible time holding any weight or condition, even on the best of pasture, and in one case even with the addition of oil to her diet. In looking at the Optimal ingredients I note that it must have been formulated for the the western USA. It suppliments selinium, zink, manganese and copper - exactly the minerals that our soil is deficient in. It also has flax seed for oil and yeast for who knows what.

I used to be able to purchase fertilizer with selinium in it to use on our fields, but in their infinate wisdom the government has decided it is a poison and shouldn't be in fertilizer. We can and do use salt that supliments selinium and several other minerals.

I haven't had our hay tested this year, but it is hard for us to get hay that -isn't- deficient in these minerals, no matter how good the hay quality is otherwise.

[midnightsjane]

We have cut way back on the amount of grain we feed the horses, because none of them are working right now. We're extremely careful with the youngsters; they get special feed for foals, and not a lot of it. My Midnight gets no grain at all, he's too fat. Kyra is getting a special seniors feed, and she adores it. I think it has a higher fat content and is easier to digest than cob. She's looking a little better since I started giving her the alfalfa pellets, I think. She's never going to look great, not at her age, but better is good.