I said yesterday that a horseman’s life is all about problem solving and it’s SO true.
So, this morning, my ‘only just recovered from Hogmanay’ staff started at some cold dark hour before 6:00 a.m. Reason? We had someone coming early to look at a horse that is for sale. Everything ready, farrier has just done feet, mane pulled, whiskers trimmed, coat polished….ok, just pick out feet, oil them and tack up. We picked up the first foot and the SHOE WAS BENT. Not a huge amount so that she was showing it in her stall, but too much to consider allowing her to move out her stall until a farrier could come. Clients here, Selena has taken the offending footwear off, farrier en route, everything on hold….sigh. Just another unexpected hiccup in a horsewoman’s day.
I don’t think any competitive horse people get a break over the Holiday Season. If you are competing in 2016 as an eventer, your horse is already back in work long before Christmas. If your game is show jumping you are probably already competing. Dressage shows also abound throughout the holidays, and many competitive pairs in all the Olympic disciplines are already hard at it down South. We are looking forward to the O’Hanlon Eventing team getting to Ocala later this month. Selena and Woody have been hard at it since the beginning of December and Woody is already looking quite the muscleman. His dressage continues to improve in leaps and bounds with some great help from Jacqueline Brooks and we are excited that Selena will be able to meet up with Jacqueline for some dressage tune ups and Ian Millar for some show jumping tune ups this winter in Florida.
The above photo is of one of our new OTTBs, Rummy, taken the day after he got to the barn (November 27th). He is a bit tucked up from having been racing fit and having just shipped and of course changed barns. We are not worried about his gaining weight and bulk, our amazing sponsors Purina Canada and Omega Alpha will see to that. He was started on a small amount of Purina Equilibrium Fibre Plus chunks and we have been increasing the amount slowly. We don’t really know what he was being fed before, so a slow changeover is very important. We soak his chunks in water and add sugar beet, salt and supplements. We find High Fat High Fibre is a feed that adds weight to horses in light work without stressing the tummy, and it does not hot them up.
In addition to getting top of the line grain from Purina Canada, Rummy was immediately started on a course of Omega Alpha products. We did not throw everything at him at once, but as soon as he arrived at the barn he went onto Biotic 8 and Gastra FX to help him make the best use possible of his feed and forage and to settle his tummy from the stress. He is now mid-way through a course of RegenerEQ, which gives him a tremendous appetite and I also think it will help with what I suspect are old ulcers. We will add MinerEQ at the beginning of this month to get his feet strong and make sure he is receiving everything he needs in a mineral and vitamin supplement.
