What are your horses getting for Christmas?

[paintedpennypony]

My horses are getting three things:

1. We are this close to having their run-in stalls done. We think we’ll be able to get them done by the end of the day tomorrow. It’s supposed to rain most of the next week and I’m so excited for the horses to have a warm and dry place to get out of the elements. Plus all of the stall accessories I now have an excuse to buy!

2. I’m going to start riding at a very nice H/J barn at the top of January. Most of my experience is with hunters, but it’s been a few years and I am SO excited to get back to it. I backed my 5yo mare with a western trainer but am really looking forward to getting her started in an English program. I don’t think she’s athletic or fancy enough to do much beyond trail riding, mounted archery, and hopefully third flight foxhunting so those are my goals for her. My weanling has a nice canter and I’m getting a little day-dreamy about showing her in APHA equitation over fences classes in a few years. I’m considering this a gift to my horses because I’m going to learn so much and will be able to develop them even better with the help of this program!

3. Of course, they will be getting their special holiday mash tonight and tomorrow, which is their normal soaked alfalfa/ ration balancer/ supplements plus rolled oats, molasses, and peppermints.

What are your horses getting? What are your goals for the new year?

[Calvincrowe]

My two here at home (retirees, living the life of ease) will get a hot (ok, warm!) beet pulp dinner with a candy cane topper, freshly bedded stalls out of the damn 55 mph winds and torrential rain forecast for Christmas night, which my old gelding will ignore to stand outside, half under the overhang, half in pouring rain. Additionally, they’ll get extra hay and a smidge more of their meager alfalfa since it’s a special day…and I plan on sleeping in!

My mare at the trainer’s barn? She’ll get her Christmas a bit later, on Saturday. A giant candy cane (she loves her sweets!), a beautiful new set of Haas brushes (thank you J and Vashon!), and whatever Christmas cookies I have left over. She’ll eat darn near any baked goods, with cupcakes being her preference. And, since we’ve been rehabbing NPA, she finally, finally, gets to trot longer than 10 minutes!! Yay!!

My goals? See my 27 year old turn 28 in May-- he’s hanging in there, in good health after Cushings/IR induce laminitis a few years back. Thank you, grazing muzzles!
For my mare, my goals are to get her sound and comfortable enough to get back in the show ring. She’s the consummate professional who carries me to success, loves the attention, and has so much left to teach me.

[paintedpennypony]

Sounds lovely!! Yay for the HAAS brushes (they are truly luxurious) and double yay for a new rehab milestone!

[NoSuchPerson]

$600 worth of Omeprazole.

[OverandOnward]

Benign neglect.

My horse has been on my schedule for two weeks, and is sadly the thing that “runs out of time” that day. He and his pasture mates did get extra carrots a couple of weeks ago. They were so cute, four 16h-ish bay geldings all lined up with their heads over the fence, very politely taking a carrot peice at a time from the carrot dispenser (me).

Actually horse does get a new After-Christmas turnout sheet. Because the otherwise perfectly good old one just no longer can be sufficiently waterproofed for our rainy winters. A sad fact of years of use.

[Displaced_Yankee]

A copy of his November vet bill (sorry mom can’t afford coal this year). The diagnosis? shoulder shrug “I guess it was just a cough” per the 3 vets that saw him.

In all honesty, just some extra attention. Tack walks, grooming, some groundwork, etc. Our office is closed between Christmas and New Years and then tax season begin in earnest on January 2nd. I won’t see him much for a few months!

[Calvincrowe]

To be fair, a candy cane is all I can afford after $5k in vet bills (yay for MRIs!). But it’s just money, right.

[GraceLikeRain]

Hopefully a medium weight Rambo or rhino. After some trial and error her smartpak ultimate is absolutely creating chest and shoulder soreness.

[atr]

…7 vials of Adequan

…and a partridge in a pear tree!

[LovieBird]

A box of Adequan and a cushings test

[SinMiedo]

Grampa Toast got a set of (very $$$ ) hock injections, a load of some alfalfa/grass hay, and access to a brand new little grass turnout.
The barn collective donated labor and materials to create an extra turnout space to let them escape the mud while the pastures are resting, which I think has been his favorite present thus far.

Considering we pretty much eyeballed everything, I’m kinda proud of our handiwork. We were joking about starting a business and calling it ThoroughBroads Fem-cing Co

[ThreeWishes]

Coal.
J/K. They live every day like it’s Christmas in my estimation.

[beowulf]

Considering I’ve been putting off finalizing one of the paddocks we started over a year ago, sign me up as interested in the services of ThoroughBroads Femcing Co!! lol.

Mine get the winter off, but they’ll get a peppermint or two. I splurged on BF and got a Fager bit and a few other things I’ve been putting off buying. It adds up!

[lenapesadie]

I bought them a bale of alfalfa as a special treat.

it’s really for NYE fireworks but I’ll give them some for Christmas

[OverandOnward]

I look at my list of stuff I want, and it tends to be almost all Horse Stuff.

Meaning, Stuff For The Horse. So there’s that.

Hope there is a well stocked tack shop & feed store up at the North Pole.

[Mango20]

Mine got 1000’ of brand new 4-board fencing on about 1/3 of the pasture, and 25 new fence posts elsewhere on the line. It was just finished on Thursday. My barn cat got a box to sleep in made out of some of the board scraps.

[OverandOnward]

@GraceLikeRain

Hopefully a medium weight Rambo or rhino. After some trial and error her smartpak ultimate is absolutely creating chest and shoulder soreness.

You’ve looked at the slinky shoulder covers that avoid the rubbing sores?

I used to have a broad-shouldered horse. This was what worked for him.

[PaddockWood]

I know I’m lame but I celebrate nothing with my horses. No holidays or birthdays. They don’t know. Buhwhahahaha!

But on the other hand my whole life revolves around them. No stalling, but stalls available if we have bad weather. Deeply bed to the tune of 6 inches so they crash and get down and boy do they. They are exercised and go out around the property and see all the wildlife.

A feed program designed by a pHD in equine nutrition, feet kept immaculately trimmed and NO LONG TOES. So their posture is beautiful. They are bright eyed and thrilled to see me because I’m always asking “Are you happy?”

Merry Christmas everyone from the ponies of Paddock Wood to yours!

[luvmyhackney]

One horse got body work from a fabulous new person I found and I’m letting him feast on 3 flakes of alfalfa candy, 4th cut gorgeous hay.

Pony is getting extra soaked cubes and a good grooming, plus gets to graze on the dead grass for a couple hours.

They are getting new fencing in the spring so limited Xmas gifts.

[Kyrabee]

Kyra got to haul my butt around . 50 degrees in December can’t be passed up. She got a couple carrots, her soaked Timothy pellets and her Outlast. She gets that stuff everyday I make it to the barn so she was happy. Nothing special and she has tomorrow off. That is a present?