Baby Shenanigans

Approvals are exactly 3 weeks away now. I'm working hard every day to make sure everyone's coats and tails are holding up in the sweaty Texas heat, dumping feed into P, and working on leading skills with Pax. (Not that P is skinny... but a little extra cover for her saggy topline can't hurt. Go ahead and judge me for that one.)

I ordered a leather halter for Pax, and it nearly fits! In 3 weeks it definitely will.

She looks so grown up wearing it. She'll be four months old next week - where has time gone!?

Every night, she gets up to shenanigans after dinner:

If she fails as a driving/dressage horse, she can cut it as a reiner

O gets in on the action too!

O says, please leave me alone, Flymask Marking Girl

P is getting increasingly tired of these shenanigans. Most of the time, she totally ignores Pax, letting her do whatever she wants and pretending like she doesn't exist. She never grooms her, touches her, or pays attention to her. When Pax nurses, P stands there clenching and sneering. She's a very tolerant mother but I think if she had the choice she'd be spending her time eating and not caring for a baby.

"Really kid?"

"Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away."

See what I mean about "not skinny but also not muscular"? She is 19 years old and not sound enough to work much, with a heat intolerance and a giant red parasite sucking her down. Can't blame her for being a bit cranky and saggy these days!

It's a depressing day when your 30+ year old cripple mare has a better topline than the broodmare:

Darby says, if you could get me a better fitting halter and a flymask without holes, that would be greaaaaattttt

She looks pretty fantastic. I'm actually starting to wonder if she isn't younger than I was told. She is clearly over her mid 20's but she may be some years less than I thought. I have a hard time reading teeth, but the dentist will give me a better idea when she comes next month. What 30+ year old looks that good though? She is now eating even less grainfoods than P is! She is getting around great, so long as I keep her feet dry. Sometimes the water trough overflows (because I am spacey and forget to shut it off in time), and if she stands in a bit of mud even for a short time, she gets tenderfooted. This spring, she was getting 1-2g of bute every single day to try and turn her around. Now, I haven't given her any bute in a month and a half - she hasn't needed it. Our dry spell definitely has helped!

I'm sure she has extensive bony and corium damage in her feet (and of course, the left hind fetlock). She's not really one that we can 'fix' per se, just keep her comfortable until it is time for her to go to the gates of Dark Forest. She's not ready to go yet though - at this rate we might have quite a bit of time left with her, far more than I expected! We'll just have to see! I won't put her through any lengthy ordeals though, so we'll just keep on keeping on for however long she has. 

It's too bad she's too crippled to really move faster than a walk anymore... she'd really let Pax have it if she could get her hiney moving. That filly needs a good butt-whipping and I'm the only one around here who ever does it!