Mardi today

When Mardi first came to us, she would not let anyone close to her.  Over the course of this past week, Mardi had appeared to be wanting to get some of the attention that the other horses were getting and yet she couldn't bring herself to come up to Veneta to get the pets.  Today, Veneta worked with her and she is now eating out of the dish next to Veneta.  She still has issues about being close to people, but she is trying.  Today's eating out of a bowl so close to Veneta was a SERIOUS undertaking for Mardi.  Tomorrow, she may not want to be so close and may revert back to her ways of staying far away and this attitude may go on for quite some time.  This is okay and it is also something we would expect because of her previous emotional trauma.

Japanese encephalitis

The Bluegrass Digest reported that Japanese encephalitis is a mosquito borne virus and is spreading across the southern hemisphere.  It is spreading from temperate and tropical Asia to Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea, and Pakistan.  The digest stated that it affects humans, horses, and birds and it is spreading rapidly.  Cross your fingers and hope it doesn't make it to the Northern Hemisphere.

Don Juan (Donny for short)

Donny is an alpaca that came to us at the end of last summer.  The person that donated him had went into foreclosure and then lost his lease on the land that he had rented for him.  He is a very sweet alpaca.  He is approachable if a person walks up to him gently.  Donny is up for adoption.  His age was never given.

Take on minis question answer

Someone asked whether we are taking on minis.

Yes, we do and/are taking in minis.  We like to know a little more about the minis before we take them in to best suit them, such as whether they are older minis, special needs minis (emotional problems, blind, special diets, dwarfs, etc).

elk grove milling stable mix

Elk Grove Milling Stable Mix is suppose to be a complete grain horse feed.  We buy it because we have a horse, Bucky, who cannot eat hay without collicking.  We'll introduce him (Bucky) more on another blog.  Veneta put a couple handfuls in all the dishes tonight as an extra treat for the horses and the alpaca and llamas decided to have a bite too.

July 22, 2012

Today was a hot one!  The news said it got up to 104 degrees F.  The animals spent most of their day under the trees.  Lil, my personal service horse, spent a great deal of the day in front of the portable air conditioner.

Thunder

Thunder came to us back in October of 2011 from a family that didn't have much knowledge of horses.  They were getting rid of him because they thought he was too much for their daughter.  Thunder is not a mini, he is an Icelandic Horse.  When we picked him up, he had about a 4 inch long shaggy coat.  They told us that they had just had a farriar out within the week to have his feet done and were told he had thrush.
      When we got him off the trailer, he had a hard time walking.  He was walking on the heels of his hooves.  We called our farriar out and he examined his feet.  Our farriar told us that he did not have thrush and his feet were trimmed wrong.  He had too much heel and his toe was too long.  He had laminitis.  After a brief discussion, we had decided to put shoes on his front hooves for a short period because the soles were very thin.
      Once we had shoes on Thunder, we took him to the vet.  The vet said he had cushings and put him on cushings meds.  The vet took xrays of his feet and it was determined that he had a 15 degree rotation.  The xrays had also revealed that he had been worked hard while his coffin bones were pointed towards the ground because the tips of them were like gravel.
      Thunder is now bare foot once again and he is walking around fine.  It took most of the winter to loose his long shaggy coat but it is now gone.  Thunder is quite a pretty horse to look at.  Yes, Thunder can be ridden and has been on a couple of occassions but for the most part, he is a pasture pal.