Glad that Bo is adjusting and I love that he has the zoomies in the pasture! About that birthday, perhaps a carrot cake is in order?
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I’m sorry you’re sick. Jingling for you to be well soon.
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I’d say that was Much Enough!
Hope you’re feeling better & your weather relents so BO can have a Speshul Belated Gotcha Day 
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Much to my dismay, today was blue skies and 65. Thankfully the sickness seems to be ‘just’ a cold so far, which means I should be back in action in a few days. Probably just in time for next week’s rain. 
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Just caught up on Bo’s progress, and what a wonderful story all along! (Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell though).
Whatever his breeding was, he knows he’s from Royalty.
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To quote Colonel Potter on MASH, “if I had a horse who was convinced he was Man O’ War, I don’t know that I’d want to change his mind.”. 
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Bo’s gotcha day celebration was further postponed by me hurting my back last week 
If the weather and everything else cooperates, we’ll do it next week. I swear!
For now, Bo is back to himself. Yelling for more food, different food, gimme all the food! And yelling to be turned out. I’ve managed to successfully transition him to a diet primarily made up of soaked cubes - which is huge progress, if you recall the way things were in the beginning. He gets a mash of hay stretcher pellets, which I am allowed to mix supplements into and he doesn’t complain. Also huge progress, considering he used to snub his meals if I so much as sprinkled a pinch of salt near it. I use Vermont Blend in my feed program so I’m really happy to finally be able to get him on it.
He goes out all day on the grass with the three musketeers - since they are all wearing grazing muzzles, I don’t have to worry about anyone biting him and he’s pretty savvy about not getting in the kick zones.
No Bo pics today, but I’ve mentioned all my other horses briefly so I’m going to take a second to hijack my own thread and post a little picture update of the fixer upper that came before Bo, who is just two months from his two year anniversary: Fern, my neglected craigslist youngster. He turned 3 this fall and I plan to start him early next year.
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Wow. You can horse shop for me any time! You have an eye.
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I’ve said it before, but Fern 
! Fern is a pony?
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Okay…now I get it. Now I understand how when you brought Bo home, Mr. Heinz looked at him, shrugged his shoulders, and said “Al’ight”. 
You are a special class @Heinz_57. Several other COTHers too…very special souls.
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Indeed! I don’t have a stick but he’s about as tall as Elmo now, so 14h-ish. He should grow another inch or so, but how wide he gets will be the real question. I’ve always had concerns that he may not end up big enough for me, and I’ve discovered I don’t really enjoy the amount of time (or money) it takes to maintain four horses, so he might end up looking for new digs once he’s been started in the spring. Unless I decide to lease some critters out or something. He’s going to be a super neat pony.
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I think I mentioned this before but he looks like a pony I used to own, bigger but the same type. 14 hands is a useful size and he looks substantial, I bet he’ll be fun.
@Displaced_Yankee I have cultivated my eye over the last two decades 
I was a young adult on a shoestring budget, cheap fixer uppers were all I could afford! If Bo were younger and had more teeth, I’d be looking to sell him on to a new home at this point and dig up another one to help out of the gutter. I haven’t ruled out leasing him out, but that would have to be a very special, just right home. I just can’t help any other horses if my barn is full-up with permanent residents!
He’s a really neat little guy, I can’t say enough good things about him. He’s a fancy little mover, very athletic and catty out in the field. I could easily see him excelling in several different directions. He’s kind of a butthead to his friends in turnout, but he’s 3 so I expect him to grow out of that eventually
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I am almost caught up enough to do this guy’s celebratory photo shoot (only a month behind, eh?). He got his feet touched up this AM while we waited for the alfalfa delivery. It’s so nice to have concrete to work on. Good for pics, too!
'scuze me, can I go outside yet?
Bo-terfly we found on the way to pasture:
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He looks so so so good!!!
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It’s hard to believe this is the same sad, sack o’bones you pulled from Horse Hell a mere year ago.
Well done, You! 
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I think the same thing every time I turn him out and he takes off crow-hopping and cavorting around. It doesn’t happen EVERY time, mind you, but considering how un-energetic he was for so long, even walking seemed a laborious task… it’s great to see!
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Oh, Bo.
So I know I’ve been conspicuously silent on the Bo front lately. I was doing a lot of thinking, and there was a lot going on (both in my head and out LOL) and I never really got to do the anniversary ‘celebration’ that I was hoping for. With as many horses as I have, sometimes I feel like I’m spread too thin. Certainly with respect to keeping them all in some level of work. I don’t like the feeling that I’m half-assing it, not keeping up on all the things, falling behind. Ultimately, I decided that I’d like to work towards only having two horses in my daily care, the ones that fit with my riding goals, so I can be more focused/purposeful and not feel like I need a vacation from my life . I gently put out some feelers for a local care lease for Bo, and I have a plan to get my youngster ready to sell.
In some magical twist of luck, I found the perfect lease situation. The person is well qualified, the home facilities are excellent, we use the same vet clinic and they are close enough to make regular home checks. He would have another low key, retired gelding to pair up with and other than being separated for meals, would never have to leave his friends. He would have 24/7 access to stall and pasture. The most he would be asked to do is occasional walk-only rides around the property.
The only hitch is that due to work schedule, they don’t really have time to deal with soaking cubes twice a day. I need to switch him back to a complete feed and get him stabilized on that diet before he moves. Unfortunately, I think he’s caught wind of the plan, and the day after I started incorporating some senior grain back into his regular rations, he went on a hunger strike. Refused his breakfast completely yesterday. For dinner I offered his regular meal only, “plain”, and he ate it just fine while giving me the stink eye. Can’t trick me, food lady.
So, other than me feeling a bit defeated and unsure of the future at the moment, things are hunky dory here with Bo. He’s doing just fine, still chubby, takes regular naps and hollers at me for extra snacks any time I go outside. 
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He’s so tricky to feed. I wonder how he’d cope, unless the new people have a lot of time to spend with his feeding program.
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He’s been pretty low maintenance since the summer ended as far as feeding, and I’m happy with his weight on this cubes/stretcher diet. I have even been able to add supps, he gets Vermont Blend and MSM and a feed through fly control just like the others. I really didn’t think it was going to be a big production to switch him back to a senior feed, especially not the one that he has always liked. The one that put most of the weight on him in the first place!
I do have reservations about the move and how the initial stress could affect his appetite, but had planned to keep a close eye on him and see how it goes. If I can’t get him switched and the potential lessee and I can’t come up with an alternative diet that is agreeable to him, he is certainly always welcome to stay here. I will just have to figure out a different solution to lighten my load.
When I had him at the vet this week to update his Coggins, I finally got someone to at least make an educated guess at his age 
vet puts him at early-mid 20’s, and once again declared him in excellent shape.
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