More New Horses: Bert and Ernie

Not cool, Ernie…

It’s always a joy to have a wound on a horse that is extremely limited on handling skills :roll_eyes: for tonight I’ll be slapping some manuka honey on it and utilizing the wait-n-see what it looks like tomorrow approach.

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Ugh. Baby horses and KNEES! My youngest thinks whacking his knees on stuff is Good Fun.

I love the silver aluminum spray stuff, but even my bombproof Could Literally Not Care Less horse HATES that stuff. And the honey spray. I think I have a bunch of chestnut princesses :woman_facepalming:t3:

Hopefully it’s just a scrape and he can learn that you’ll help him when he’s ouchy.

I have silver honey spray, love the cream… unfortunately Ernie is not acclimated to being sprayed with anything :joy: and I’m not sure where I put the cream. But I do have a jar of manuka.

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I’ve really enjoyed following the updates. Jingles for Ernie!

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Tell me about your hay feeder construction, and if they ever knock it over? Is that the butt end of a barrel?

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Peach has knocked his over once or twice (in a year), I think from trying to scratch a little too hard, but otherwise I haven’t had any problems with them getting knocked down.

It’s just a 4"x8’ round post and roughly 1/3 of a plastic barrel, yes. I was shooting for half a barrel, but we ended up short on concrete the first round (I think this was 10 60lb bags?) and decided to see how it fared as is. It worked out fine, so we made one for each paddock, cutting the edge of the barrel flush with the concrete once dry using a sawsall. Screw eye plus a carabiner and voila - mobile hay net station. They aren’t terribly attractive :joy: but they are functional. If tipping is a concern you could always use more concrete.

Small note: my horses are all very sensible creatures who do not paw at or otherwise try to hurt themselves on hay nets.

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From what it looks like here when I enlarge the picture, this looks worse than it probably is, more of a flat scrape that took the hair off. Can’t see any cut or puncture, just a weepy bare spot in a currently inaccessible location.

Love him and Peach together, everybody needs a mentor and if it is a BFF too? Ease the way forward for both of them.

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Yeah it’s not a big wound. The only reason I have some concern now is that the leg is puffed up from above the knee to mid-cannon, which seems overly dramatic for what amounts to a tiny scrape. But that could be a normal reaction for him, I don’t know. Keeping an eye on it either way! I’d love to ice or cold hose to see if it comes down, but that’s well beyond Ernie’s threshold right now.

Peach and Ernie are a good match. Peach only gets bossy when it’s food time, but ultimately he shares and they are otherwise velcro’d together. As you can see by Peach’s ear in the lower left corner of today’s picture. :joy:

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Ernie’s knee is looking ever so slightly less swollen this morning, so I think we’re heading in the right direction. Treating the cut (mostly to keep flies off it) is starting to use up all the good will I’ve built though :joy:

While Ernie was convinced the sound the mane brush makes was certain death, Peach volunteered for a little hairdo demonstration. Ernie watched and decided it was maybe not so intolerable.

And here’s a not great picture of Bert that I took after working with him, he’s starting to fill out some:

Bert’s getting more acclimated to the exchange of putting on the halter, he did really well this morning - I think it was only 3 or 4 warm-up steps before he allowed me to put it on, and then we took several turns around the paddock starting and stopping and turning. He’s doing so good! He’s still pretty uncomfortable with being touched, especially if I go beyond the girth line or down towards the legs. Bert has a lot to unpack, but we’re getting there.

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I love Ernie’s ears!

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Aren’t they just a handsome pair? Also loving Peach’s photobomb tendencies - good job buddy, show the new baby how nice it is to get groomed!

Hopefully the doctoring doesn’t entirely use up all your goodwill! It sucks when you have to sacrifice some training to do what is necessary for their health :cry:

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I have one that enjoys dumping any hay feeder over so took a 100 gallon Rubbermaid water trough ratchet strapped it to standard 48inch by46inch shipping pallet, then got a slow feed hay net bag that will take a three string hay bale.

He can not knock this over and the hay stays in the trough

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Oh I’ve got feeders they can’t knock over or anything, I just thought the portability of this one is super neato

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The universe is going to keep sending you chestnut horses with white on them until you learn how they are. I hope your husband doesn’t mind. :wink:

I love that Peach is suddenly the old hand mentor horse!

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I swear by INF-X when there’s any sort of cut, cold, injury. It has helped so many horses and dogs!

They are coming along nicely! Did you get a predicted height on them yet? They look big??

Hopefully this storm isn’t coming your way! We are hunkering to get hit at nine :crossed_fingers:t4: bring just the rain :joy:

Edit to add this is a feed through

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There are many things that would help this but Ernie has evaded any of the basic education that would allow OP to safely apply or use them. He does not even trust or understand treats or hand feeding yet so no bribes. He is making great progress but that wound will be healed before he will stand for treatment.

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Um, well…this is the fifth one, fourth in residence currently :joy: None of the others have had over-the-top reactions to dings. If anything, they are extra sturdy. But given Ernie’s not-totally-healthy status, he is forgiven.

Ernie’s currently about 14.3, Bert 15.3-16h? I did a string test on Ernie the other day, he should finish out ~16.2! Tons of growing to do still. I didn’t do one on Bert for obvious reasons :joy:

Looks like we’re getting some rain very early tomorrow morning, and the rest of the week looks pretty abysmal, honestly. Nothing but storms and rain!

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Gahhh doesn’t your heart just sing with a TALL horse :heart_eyes: my TB is 16.2 and it’s just such a cozy size!

Have you and Kinda Kooky found any common ties between your horses??

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Really? Every dang chestnut horse I know… maybe by the time they get to your place they know the difference between a problem and “eh, it’s a long way from his heart” and Ernie just lacks life experience. Teach him, Peach!

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Heck, my young horse is bay and is completely over the top in his reactions to scrapes - in fact, the last time his leg blew up, it was over a rub that didn’t even really break the skin - you could only sort of kind of see it when the leg was completely soaked. But he does have a dramatic streak so it kind of fits LOL.

My chestnut also falls into the tends to blow up over a scrape category (including memorably needing to run a CCI on antibiotics due to essentially a paper cut).

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