Howdy all. We were on vacation at the Grand Canyon and Arizona, Zion Park in Utah. I’m lucky to have a neighbor who is a state trooper and who grew up around horses so he was able to watch the girls for us while we were on vacation which was a lifesaver.
This past week we had a visit from the Farrier and the girls got their normally scheduled trim.
They are staying turned out 24/7 right now and we have a nice sun shelter for them. They are fed twice a day, one full bale of second cut hay between the two of them plus a fair amount of sweet feed, high fat grain by Bluebonnet, and an additional vitamin supplement.
Our smaller quarter pony, honey, is starting to fill out nicely, but with our TB Bonnie, it’s taking longer because she’s obviously more tall and lean, and we don’t want to do too much too quickly.
All in all they are doing amazingly. We have yet to saddle Bonnie and ride her but my daughter rides honey frequently. I have got on Bonnie bareback before and she didn’t seem to mind it whatsoever but until she looks a little less skinny, I just don’t feel, right about saddling her up. Who knows maybe if I did it would help her build some muscle and fill out but right now we just pony them behind the side-by-side through some of our pastures, to get some exercise.
I also invested in some white fly sheets with neck covers because the flies are pretty bad in western Pennsylvania at this time of year and this sweltering heat. Bonnie, the TB loves water so I normally purge the hose of any hot water and then cool her down after her morning feeding and she seems to love this ritual. She runs over and nudges the hose if I’m filling up the water trough until I spray her legs down and then she just stands there while I continue to work my way up her body with the water. Honey is the complete opposite and that has to do with spraying whether it’s water or fly spray.