What IS it about TB mares???

Since Show Ticket arrived, she has hated first Kaci, then Jazzy. At feeding time, she would kick the wall between the stalls. She would kick at the fence and pin her ears. No playing kissy face or trying to be a "bed buddy".

Since Lucy got here, she would follow Mya around, but at feeding time, Lucy was the boss. There was never any mutual grooming. It's like she barely tolerated Mya's presence.

An hour or so ago, I moved horses around. Kaci and Jazzy were moved out to the arena, and Mya and Lucy took their stalls. Lucy is now next to Show Ticket.

Now Ticket and Lucy are doing kissy-face over the gate - something that neither has done with other horses. It must be a TB Mare thing...

Finding Hay

I've got maybe another week of hay left. The problem isn't paying for it. The problem is FINDING it!

No one has any quality horse hay!

The price of diesel is now $4.29/gal, and anyone who has any decent hay, has jacked the price to $170 or more. This year, the price per ton is going to be above that.

My friend Mindy was told that "Harold" would have a semi-load brought in and we couple pay as we off-loaded it. Mindy went and looked and the load was wet, black, and moldy - not even fit for cattle.

I'm in quite a pickle here and I'm going to be making calls like crazy to find a supply of decent hay.

I have spent the last few days trying to figure out what to do about Lucy and Mya. Lucy is a snarfer - she eats quickly! Mya likes to eat more leisurely. Since they moved to the arena, Lucy has been running Mya off her hay and as a result, Mya has dropped some weight and is in need of intervention.

The solution I came up with is to switch them with Kaci and Jazzy, even though Jazzy HATES living in the arena and is loud and obnoxious about it. (It doesn't bother ME, but my neighbor complains. Oh well, maybe she'll shut her bedroom window?)


Show Ticket is coming along and filling out. I have been feeding her double the amount of hay, plus 5 pounds of Strategy Healthy Edge with Rice bran daily, and she has full-time access to pasture (what little there is this time of year). Now, it seems to me that if her weight loss was just due to the stress of the auction and being moved, she would have rebound quickly, right? A week to settle in and stabilize, then three weeks to regain stress lost weight... right? WRONG! The mare was neglected. There is no convincing me otherwise!

Foxy, the BS Paint mare, is rubbing the hair off herself... seriously! Initially, I thought it was lice. BUT - correct me if I'm wrong - since she came here to live last October, I would have noticed a problem before now AND Chili (who lived with her all winter) would also have lice. Am I right? Another thing - once the hair is off, she quits rubbing and in places it's starting to grow back.

I talked to Foxy's Mom and she suggested bathing her with iodine and baby shampoo. It hasn't been warm enough to do that, PLUS a lot of the bald places are on her face and neck. Another tidbit - the hair she is shedding out is very fine - more like cat hair, nothing like normal horse hair. I'm baffled.

Here's one picture - what do you think?

Pictures - As promised

ANGEL



BULLWINKLE


TEXAS CHILI




FOXY


KACI

Isn't he magnificent??? (He's also my Drama Queen!)



Somehow I didn't get any of Jazzy alone...

LUCY



MYA - SO not interested in getting her picture taken!




SHOW TICKET

She has some hair falling out of her face.






This shows just part of the rain rot that she is still recovering from.

I'm still alive...really!

I have had a TON going on and just haven't had a bunch of time to post. The horses are still eating breakfast but very soon I'll be outside cleaning stalls and turning some out onto pasture. There isn't much grass out there, but it'll get the horses out so I can do some more thorough cleaning of the runs. The weather is supposed to turn sour later this afternoon or over-night, so I want to get things cleaned up. Besides, it'll give the horses a chance to run and buck and roll in the grass!

Not all of the horses are shedding, but surprisingly, Show Ticket is. The clumps of hair on her back that were falling out due to the rainrot is mostly gone, and she is shedding like crazy. She still needs a trip to the beauty parlor to get the knot out of her mane and she needs a good brushing.

She eats everything I put in front of her! She is still not back up to weight and is working on it. You can NOT convince me that her weight loss happened due to the stress of going to the auction and being moved around. It took months of neglect for her to get into this condition.

The plan had been to get her up to weight and house her with Foxy and Chili. I am rethinking that because she kicks. I don't know for certain that she would kick at them, but I don't want to take a chance. So I will have to just leave her where she it and not turn any of the other horses out with her.

Millie is doing well at the trainer's. Bullwinkle will join her later this spring. I'm not in a huge hurry to send him off because he is still growing.

I will do my best to get pictures today while I'm out working. I'm curious to see before and "in-progress" pictures of Ticket.