Dentist

Apologies for missing last week, I was on holiday :o)

The day before I went, Merlin had an appointment with David Brown, an Equine Dental Technician.  One of the local vets had had a look at his teeth when he first arrived and couldn't see any major problems, but our vets will cheerfully admit that they're not specialists so I thought it would be a good idea to get the expert in.  Merlin actually behaved fairly well, he stood calmly enough while David scraped tartar off his front teeth, but once the gag went in and the rasping started, there was a lot of eye rolling and walking around his box.  David kept calmly putting him back in the corner and carrying on with the work and the whole thing was done in about 20 minutes.  There were some nasty sharp points to be removed right on the back molars and M spent the rest of the day poking his tongue round his mouth to try and work out what had changed.  David thought he'd probably never had a dentist visit (or at least not in the last 5 or 6 years, which would take us back to before he was imported from Hungary), so wants to see him again on his next trip north in the autumn to make sure there are no further problems.  After that we should only need a check up every 18 months until he gets to an age where teeth start falling out. 

Weight is currently on the bar between 464 and 458kg - and I've found another two grass lumps. 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Back up to 464kg, which is no bad thing considering the weather we've had this week!  Snow, hail, wind, bright sunshine, sometimes all of them within the space of a morning.  So he's been getting extra hay to try and keep the boiler stoked since he's now shed enough coat that he's mostly bay from his ears to his shoulders.

The grass lumps seem to have gone though.

Nearly there

Into the 458kg band this morning and I can definitely feel some ribs if I prod hard enough.  I think the 464kg band is going to be the one we try not to exceed over the summer - quite a challenge when he topped out at over 511kg last year! 

The sugars are definitely coming through strongly in the grass now; he's got a couple of scurfy lumps in the usual places and he's grouchy, though that might also be to do with the amount he's moulting at the moment.  The problem is that the sugar makes his skin sensitive and the moulting makes him itchy, so grooming him is a bit of a lottery - I either get a blissed out horse with a wobbly lower lip or one who whips round with his ears back and his teeth bared.  He's much better than last year though, when he was on a sugary feed as well.

Touchy

Forgot to post last week, but he was on the border between 464kg and 470kg last week and is firmly in the 464kg band this week.  We're nearly there, I think.  His neck and shoulder are looking about right, the top of his back is about right, his ribs are still too well covered (though I can *just* feel them now if I have a good rummage!) and the top of his bum is firm, though there's still some flab further down on his thighs.  It looks like his 'good' weight is going to be around 450kg.

He's still a bit sensitive around his shoulders.  It's not all the time, but occasionally when I'm grooming him or even just stroking him and I touch the area around his shoulder blade (on both sides), he'll whip his head round with ears back and teeth bared.  Explains why he doesn't like being rugged anyway (he hasn't had one on this year so far), but I wonder what caused it (he's always done it)?  He's moving very well - comes bouncing up the field at trot or canter most meal times - so I don't think there's any underlying physical problem, but if I can find an equine physio who comes up here it might be worth getting him looked at I think.

In other news, Merlin is not the only one who's shrinking: I've lost 9lbs out of the stone I put on between the wedding last summer and Christmas :o)  Back down to 10st 0lbs, aiming to get to between 8st 7lbs and 9st 0lbs, which is at the lighter end of the healthy band for my height (5'5"), but I found an old photo of myself at that weight the other day and I really want to look that good again!

Winter feed costs 2011/12

Final calculation of feeding Merlin this winter (1st October to 31st March), since he won't be needing any more hay once this bale is finished:
3 bags of speedibeet c.£12 each
1 bag of greengold @ £12
2 lots of magic barefoot powder ;o) @ £46 each
45 bales of hay @ £3 each
16 bales of Horsehage @ £7.50 each
Total £395 or £65.83 a month or £2.16 a day.  Not bad at all.  Won't bother with the Horsehage next year, he would have been fine on just hay.

Walking out

Ooooh, I'm not popular this morning!  I did the usual Sunday morning weigh-in (on the border between 470kg and 478kg - now on 2 handfuls of Speedibeet, 1 handful of Greengold and 1 thin slice of hay twice a day), then groomed him, pulled a bit of mane, took two barrows of manure off the fields (should be caught up by the end of the week I hope), started re-shaping the muck heap and then decided it was too nice a day not to take him for a walk.

I've been thinking that it would be an idea to do some in-hand schooling to help build his back muscles up before getting a saddle fitted again, so after we'd walked down to the surgery end of the village, I tightened up the noseband on his headcollar, moved the lead rope to the left hand side and passed a lunge rein over his back to clip to the right side.  He was completely confused to start with because he's so used to following me around when he's being led that having me standing at his shoulder Did Not Compute, but with a bit of encouragement he took a step forwards, got lots of praise for it and after 30 seconds of hesitant walk with lots of glances back at me to make sure this was really what I wanted him to do, he decided that this was quite a fun game after all and walked out beautifully.

And the reason I'm not popular?  I walked him up to the road through two fields of beautiful fresh spring grass and wouldn't let him graze it ;o)  (Next door's sheep will be lambing on it in about 10 days' time!)

In other news, he nearly got a friend this week after I went to try a Highland pony.  She was everything I was looking for; a real confidence giver, but sadly someone else had deeper pockets.  It's a long time since I've felt that happy in the saddle though.

Going back down again

Hay is now down to 2 sections morning and evening, no horsehage and only 100g (unsoaked weight) of beet each feed.  Weight back down into the 478kg band.  It's been really windy here for the past few days, but he doesn't seem bothered - every time I've checked on him from the road as I've been driving to and from the post office, he's been in the bottom field grazing happily.