Post by merlinalison on Jul 26, 2006 8:02:48 GMT -1
Totally agree with all that has been said here - and currently fighting my own personal battle with the owner of the 2 horses that Merlin is turned out with.
I thought the battle was over when she agreed to us strip grazing them and only giving them new grass a little at a time when they needed it. Turns out her ideas of a little and when they need it are very different from mine - all 3 horses are currently worryingly fat and increasing weight so I'd planned to make the area they got access to a little smaller. Got there last night to find she'd moved the fence on the grounds that "they're all starving and haven't got anything to eat" and had given them a strip 10 metres wide and 200 metres long which was knee high grass and clover and very lush and green . Afraid I quickly reduced the strip to a metre wide, but think I'm going to have to either muzzle Merlin or shut him in the smallest bit of paddock every night -he's the fattest I've ever seen him and its making his arthritis much worse, quite apart from the risk of laminitis.
I do worry about her animals as well - Merlin's not doing much work at the moment, but I do catch him, take him out of the field and check him over thoroughly every day and either ride him or walk him out in hand (he's too lame really for someone my weight to ride at the moment but needs the exercise so we're marching up to the top of the(very steep) hill and back- a good 2-3 miles) as often as I can manage (at least 3-4 times a week).
Her horses never come out of the field -and I mean never - I had to help her catch them for the farrier (and hold them for her...) and that was the first time they'd been out of the field for a year. She walks up to them and gives them carrots and apples every day but never actually catches them, and they certainly don't do any work.
The big warmblood gelding has the biggest crest I have ever seen on a horse - at it's tallest it's currently at least 8 inches above the top muscle in his neck (he looks like a dinosaur) whereas even Merlin's topline only goes an inch above that muscle . Both horses are looking very stiff too.
I've had to treat them both for lice because the owner couldn't (and as they're never groomed she hadn't noticed until I told her) and I didn't want Fatty to become reinfected. (As far as I can tell she does care about them, but has no money, not much time and very little knowledge.)
Reckon I might have to fork out for wormer for hers too because she keeps asking me to put off worming M until she can afford to worm hers at the same time. (Seriously tempted actually to get worm counts done on all 3 rather than just M so I can show her exactly whats going on.)
As for checking digital pulses, I doubt she's even heard of them. She is very nice as a person -I just can't seem to get through to her that you should consider whether your horse is gaining weight or losing it and whether it has enough energy (or too much) when you work it to judge how much you need to feed rather than just looking at the field and feeling sorry for them. (and that though the grass looks quite short in their field, it is still green and they are still eating it, and even that horses not in work need fewer calories than horses in work!)
I thought the battle was over when she agreed to us strip grazing them and only giving them new grass a little at a time when they needed it. Turns out her ideas of a little and when they need it are very different from mine - all 3 horses are currently worryingly fat and increasing weight so I'd planned to make the area they got access to a little smaller. Got there last night to find she'd moved the fence on the grounds that "they're all starving and haven't got anything to eat" and had given them a strip 10 metres wide and 200 metres long which was knee high grass and clover and very lush and green . Afraid I quickly reduced the strip to a metre wide, but think I'm going to have to either muzzle Merlin or shut him in the smallest bit of paddock every night -he's the fattest I've ever seen him and its making his arthritis much worse, quite apart from the risk of laminitis.
I do worry about her animals as well - Merlin's not doing much work at the moment, but I do catch him, take him out of the field and check him over thoroughly every day and either ride him or walk him out in hand (he's too lame really for someone my weight to ride at the moment but needs the exercise so we're marching up to the top of the(very steep) hill and back- a good 2-3 miles) as often as I can manage (at least 3-4 times a week).
Her horses never come out of the field -and I mean never - I had to help her catch them for the farrier (and hold them for her...) and that was the first time they'd been out of the field for a year. She walks up to them and gives them carrots and apples every day but never actually catches them, and they certainly don't do any work.
The big warmblood gelding has the biggest crest I have ever seen on a horse - at it's tallest it's currently at least 8 inches above the top muscle in his neck (he looks like a dinosaur) whereas even Merlin's topline only goes an inch above that muscle . Both horses are looking very stiff too.
I've had to treat them both for lice because the owner couldn't (and as they're never groomed she hadn't noticed until I told her) and I didn't want Fatty to become reinfected. (As far as I can tell she does care about them, but has no money, not much time and very little knowledge.)
Reckon I might have to fork out for wormer for hers too because she keeps asking me to put off worming M until she can afford to worm hers at the same time. (Seriously tempted actually to get worm counts done on all 3 rather than just M so I can show her exactly whats going on.)
As for checking digital pulses, I doubt she's even heard of them. She is very nice as a person -I just can't seem to get through to her that you should consider whether your horse is gaining weight or losing it and whether it has enough energy (or too much) when you work it to judge how much you need to feed rather than just looking at the field and feeling sorry for them. (and that though the grass looks quite short in their field, it is still green and they are still eating it, and even that horses not in work need fewer calories than horses in work!)
