A Crazy Idea

I have a crazy idea. Readers, as relatively sane people (for the most part), I am relying on you to tell me whether or not you think it is a good idea or a terrible one.

Immy is doing very well under saddle. With a good few more rides under her belt, I can safely say that she steers well, stops well, and responds to quiet, gentle aids well... her only real issue is that she really would rather be trotting at 9000000 miles an hour instead of walking. She does try to break to the trot a few times when she first starts out, which is the exact same thing she does when lunging or grounddriving, but that isn't surprising or concerning - when you tell her to slow it down, she does.
The big problem here? The bridle. While everything else has improved massively, bridling has only gotten worse. Once the headstall is on, she is fine, and she takes the bit no problem. But getting the headstall over her ears? She outright wiped out and got stuck upside down against a stall in the barn aisle the other day in an effort to get away from it when I was removing it. She is thankfully unhurt, and so am I, but it didn't help her fear. The dentist was supposed to come Monday for her teeth, but he was a no-show and is not returning our calls. The other dentist I wanted to use just left to go to Houston for 3 months, and won't be back until spring. Everybody else in the area does a hack job and will only make any problems sh has even worse. The craniosacral therapist is also going to come out as soon as she can, but she is in California for at least another week. There isn't a chiropractor in this area that I like or trust. I am feeling very stuck here.

I'm backing off the bridle for now... what we're doing isn't working, and we need to take a serious step back in order to work on her headshy issues. She is reluctantly letting me touch her poll and ears with my hand, but she does not like it and if I do so much as sneeze while I am working up there, she is gone. I worry that this is going to affect her work under saddle - if she starts to worry about saddling because she knows bridling is also going to take place, or if she goes into her riding work all freaked out because we've just been workin on bridling, that is going to be a disaster. It is time to shake things up a bit, and try something new while we separate the bridle/ears/headshy issue into its own exclusive category.

I had a crazy idea, after thinking about it for awhile. I want to continue to work with her under saddle and get her out into the world (on the trail, in other arenas, etc.), and I want to make it all a very positive experience for her. I want her to NOT ever see me coming and think, "oh crap here coms that lady who touches my ears every day!" and stop being catchable or stop enjoying her time with me. Yes, we have issues to work on with the bridle and her head, but I don't want that to be this huge hurdle we are fighting to get over while we wait around for saddle time, because that will just frustrate the both of us. And then it hit me - why don't I ride her in a rope halter?

English folks will think I am crazy, and I understand that because I used to have the same mindset (how can you control that horse without a bit?). Having seen lots of trainers down here starting their babies in rope halters, I have a new appreciation for it - it saves their mouths should they do any stupid baby antics like buck or run off, and it has plenty of whoa in it should you need to stop. You can't really do dressage in it (in the legal way, anyway - you need a bit to show), but you can teach them to be soft, responsive, and solid citizens. I do all my groundwork in a rope halter now, so she is very familiar with the idea of it. Why not? I will be able to get her out experiencing new things and enjoying her saddle time, and can work on her head and bridling and whatnot as a totally separate issue. That is assuredly going to take a long time... I had no idea how extensive it was until now. The girl is an emotional trainwreck about it, and it will be a long process until she isn't anymore.

I joked with Jen yesterday that with her love of trotting as fast as she can for as long as she can, I should make her into an endurance horse. That way, I could ride her in a rope halter, never have to clip her, and let her mane grow wild and free (she is not amused with my constant pulling, braiding, and taming).

It was meant as a joke, and obviously we can't just skip around issues like clippers and bridles. But the more I thought about it, the more I started to like the idea. Why not start her out as an endurance-type horse? And once she is through her other issues, then progress into the sport of our choosing? She'll have saddle time, experiencing on the trail, experiences with strangers and new places, and it will give us time to sort through her other fears and problems. And we'll both be doing something we love, which is the best part.

Why not? The more I think about it, the more I like the idea.

A Quick Picture!

I have been super mad crazy busy lately (I mean, REALLY REALLY busy!!), and I have lots of updates to share, but as for this moment in time I just wanted to leave everyone with a comparison picture of Immy on the lunge 2 months ago, and Immy on the lunge 2 days ago:

Not the same horse, is she! 

More later... now, off to feed the mares!

The Zooms

Is it too early to say that I think Immy has caught a little bit of spring fever?

Yes, yes, I hear all of you Northern folk complaining about your wretched weather and subzero temps.... I'd like to point out that it was 75 degrees today with abundant sunshine and a light breeze, and not only did I spend most of the day in a t-shirt, but both mares also had baths and dried nicely out in the sunshine. 

Hey, I put up with the Great White North for the first 25 years of my life.... I feel perfectly entitled to rub our good winter weather in when we get it. After all, it DID snow here this winter, TWICE. Almost a whole inch... maybe even TWO whole inches. And it stayed. For a DAY. Quelle horreur! 

Immy standing out in the sunshine, soaking wet but starting to dry after her bath today (she was on her best behavior!):

Yes, they are all basically the same picture, but.... she is so stinking cute that I just couldn't help myself!

(And that giant badonky... she for sure has Arab in her, and the bigger that booty gets, the more certain I am that she has QH in her too!)

I also went back and compared all of her old pictures to her more recent pictures... it is SO interesting to see the changes in her demeanor now that she has a job, a new life, and no annoying colt to pester her. She looks like an old nag in some of my older pictures of her... she's so different now!

S also caught the girls playing today, which she says they do most every day... she got the last bit of Immy's bucks and leaps on video and sent it to me:

She has a bad case of The Zooms!!!!

Unfortunately for me, all of The Zooms she has had lately are not always confined to when she is in her paddock.... more on that shortly ;)

Dressage Saddle!

First and foremost, I want to send my condolences to JenJ, who lost her beloved Saga on Tuesday. Jen has really become a good friend ever since I moved to Texas, and from lunches and horse shopping all the way to frantic phone calls ("is this an abscess?" "is this roundpenning thing a horrible idea?"), I can always count on her for advice, opinions, or a shoulder to wail on when things go horribly wrong. Take a minute to go read their story, and to send your own condolences to her too. 

On the same page, Wednesday was the 7-year anniversary of Metro's death. I've written a lot about him over the years; you can find some of it on the old Eventing-A-Gogo blog. It is amazing how things come full circle - how his only remaining daughter is now here with me, acting every bit like her father's child every day. They look SO much alike too... they have the exact same head! (Aside from her crazy facial markings, of course!)

Miss you, Cookieman. Miss you all the time, every day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Onto some cheerier things! While I am still a bit worried about the state of Immy's hindgut (ordered some Equishure to try as per recommendation here, and thanks to everyone who gave suggestions!), everything else is progressing very smoothly. (Well, mostly.) We've had a bit of a strange week weather-wise - it actually SNOWED here on Tuesday! It was miserable, cold, blustery, and snowy all day long, so I called it a day early and stuffed some extra hay into their shed for good measure. We are now up to TWO WHOLE SNOWS for the season. That is two more than we had last year! Thankfully, this OUTRAGEOUS winter weather is probably completely over for the year, thank god. It was in the 60's today and will be in the 70's this weekend, which is more more reasonable for this time of year. At least all the grass is growing now that we've had some precipitation! 

Not sure how Immy felt about that, but P acted a bit like, "Oh thank god, the weather is FINALLY nice!" As evidenced by the snow on her blanket, she was more than happy to just stand out in it all day.

For Immy's fourth ride, I decided to switch over from the rope saddle to my dressage saddle - time to start learning to be a proper event pony! I had S hold her again while I mounted, and I am glad that I did - the difference between the fenders of the western saddle and the, well, nothingness of no fenders in a dressage saddle is a bit of a leap. Instead of a big piece of leather between my leg and her side, suddenly it was just my leg, and as expected it surprised her a bit! Thankfully, it didn't take more than a moment for her to settle in, and off we went to work on some more steering, stopping, and trotting!

I have some equitation issues I need to work on... badly. Yikes.

This picture makes me laugh - I was exaggerating my bad habit of doing puppy paws (AKA piano hands), and the super exaggerated movement got caught on camera. Rest assured, I do NOT usually ride like this.... although sometimes my mitts get the best of me!

She looks pretty stinking cute in dressage tack, does she not? She even offered to take a contact on several occasions at the walk, which is sort of what she is doing in that picture. 

Today, I kept things simple with a nice easy lunge and a good grooming session. I was able to pull the rest of her mane (YES!!), all except for one small area right behind her poll. I figured I had done quite enough, and left it at that. Someday, I will be able to give her a proper bridle path, and then we can REALLY do up her mane the way it should be... but that day is not today. As for now, I was most impressed that she stood still and allowed me to finish pulling, despite the fact that she was not very amused by it. She did her best to be a good girl!

Tomorrow, we ride again for the 5th time - and I may even ride in the even bigger paddock, so that we have a little more space to maneuver and work on steering. We shall see!

Third ride brings big things!

Immy's third ride brought some BIG and positive changes to her under-saddle life! I am so, so proud of her for being such a good girl today!

The day started off MISERABLY cold - 14 degrees when I fed everybody breakfast - and I was NOT keen to try anything that early in the morning. All my clients for the day rescheduled due to the weather, and so I spent most of my day trying to play catch-up on all the stuff I've been trying desperately to get done, but haven't been able to due to a lack of time. I actually had a super productive day, and at around 3 headed back to the barn to ride the girls. It had mercifully warmed up to a balmy 40 degrees (fml), but with the help of my trusty quarter sheet (and many, many layers for myself), I was ready for anything.

I had S hold her again while I mounted, and we started out in the same small holding pen outside of the barn as we did last time. The pen is actually a really ideal place for this sort of thing - she is closed in a small, square area, and has all of her friends right there with her (on the other side of the fence) for moral support. She is familiar with the area, and feels safe there. Today, for the first time, she didn't start and jump around when she felt my right leg touch her side as I was mounting. She started a bit when I first put my left foot in the stirrup to start, but settled in well. By the time I made my full mount, she was quiet and immobile. She stood still when I put my right foot in the stirrup too, no scooting! Awesome!

I had S let me go, and we went off in the pen to do some basic steering and whoas. She did so well that I asked S to let us into one of the pens next to the barn, so we could work in a bigger (but still enclosed) area. It is roughly the side of your average small arena, but still in a familiar area, so it was perfect. It really is amazing how NOT spooky she is - she has never seen that particular pen before, but she walked right in there like, oh, right, here we are, let's do this! 

Sweet little thing... she is SO TINY!

After some basic steering and whoas, I asked her for a trot. Word to the wise - if any of you ever meet Immy, don't ever cluck at her. I inadvertently taught her that clucking means trot-right-now-immediately-here-we-go. Same goes for the kissy noise... she canters the second she hears it! I will never, ever have problems with forward energy with this mare! 

She was a little surprised at first, and went into a zoomy trot, without steering or brakes. We managed to stop on the far end, and did some more walking. We attempted a few more trots, all with varying levels of zoomy, but it didn't take long for her to settle into a rhythm. By the end, we were trotting AND steering AND stopping, and only with a little bit of zoomy here and there. We made it almost all the way around the pen, quite a few times!

The video quality isn't great, but there you are! We did it!

At the walk, she had a few moments where she actually took a contact all by herself already, and stretched down to find it. It is time to put this girl in a dressage saddle, I say! (Also, I bet M would like her saddle back eventually!)

She was really quite good for the dismount too - she started a little, but didn't go anywhere, and afterwards tried to take the reins between her lips and play with them a little bit. She has this very shy, very gentle, very timid playful side to her that is just now starting to come out a little bit. It is so very sweet, so very shy, and so very heartwarming to see. I am not one to let my horses chew on things (EVER) as a rule, but to see her trying to play just a little bit with her reins today melted my heart. There is no way I'd discourage her newly emerging personality - unless, of course, she starts to actually chew on things. Then we'll have a discussion about it!

Out of all the lunging, grounddriving, groundwork, and other things that we have done, I really think she likes riding the best. She has been the quietest I've seen with ridden work, and had the happiest expression on her face when we were done. I know I'm waxing anthropomorphic here, but she really looked genuinely pleased with herself and proud when we were done. She just looked... different. Like she finally, finally felt confident in herself.


I rounded out the day with a nice long trail ride on P with S and her horse. The company was good, the horses were on their best behavior, and we froze our BUTTS off on the way back. The sun had started to go down at the halfway mark, and by the time we got back, temps had dropped almost into the 20's. We were FREEZING! I hate this weather, when is spring going to get here! Surely it can't be THAT far away!


As for other things, I had thought that the dentist was coming tomorrow, but we misunderstood him and I guess he is coming in a week or two. Bummer on that... the sooner he can get here, the better!

Second Ride!

Well, it took a few days, but the ground finally dried out enough for some real work - including our second ride!

Tuesday and Wednesday were a total wash. It rained all day Tuesday, and it continued all the way through Wednesday night. I had left a feed bucket hanging on the fence, and when I went to go peek in there to see how much rain had fallen, the bucket was filled to the TWO GALLON MARK. That's a sh*tload of rain, ya'll. Admittedly, since we have been in a prolonged drought, we did need it... but still.  Everything has been a right muddy mess ever since the rain stopped, the girls included.

Rain doesn't bother this yak... she stood out in it most of the day, on purpose!

Thursday was surprisingly warm and beautiful (upper 60's), so I let both girls be naked during the day, and found them to be completely encrusted in thick, chunky layers of mud, so I did my best to extricate them from the crustiness before their workout. It was mostly a large failure, seeing as Texas mud means serious business - once our "black gumbo" mud (greasy, waxy, sticky, evil mud made of Superglue and snot harvested directly from the nose of the Devil himself) sets up on fur, there is no amount of currying that will break it up and get it off. You literally have to wash it out, or else you will pull half of your horse's haircoat (and possibly some skin) out with it. I'm serious, it HURTS them to groom them when they are crusted with black gumbo! Growing up in the Great White North, I've dealt with lots and lots of mud... but there is nothing like black gumbo. It is a whole 'nother beast. 

Anyway. After I managed to rip half their hair out groom them as best I could, I tacked up P, and set out for a pony ride around the big pasture. Both girls had energy to burn - Immy pushed herself as far forward as her lead line would allow and tried to haul me along for the ride, and P shook her head and jigged sideways for the first 10 minutes of the ride. Once we warmed up, we trotted for 15 minutes, just to stretch all of our collective legs. P took a few off steps here and there, but for the most part she felt really quite good for how she has been. I'd say this level of work (light trail rides a few times a week) is more than reasonable for right now.

Honestly, I can't say enough about how much better Immy's attitude has been. She is a brand new horse at the new place - back to her old sweet, curious, cuddly self. She is putting on weight and muscle already, and everything from her attitude to her poos have improved. S, the barn owner (and my friend) is also going through some ulcer issues with her horse, so we're spending a lot of time coming up with ways to be proactive, brainstorming for other ideas, and sharing and swapping supplements and ideas. It has really been a lot of fun. 

After our successful pony on Thursday, it was high time (and dry enough, thank god) to get on Immy for her second ride!! I had S help me this time around, seeing as she scooted the first time when I mounted, and was glad that she was there - Immy was surprised again by my right leg, and scooted forward again. S led her around a few times, and then released us - Immy wanted to stay with her, but once she was on her own, she was fine to walk, whoa, and steer without assistance. I was even able to put my legs on her and start to use them along with the verbal command for "walk on." She was making some very smooth whoa and walk on transitions, which I was very proud of! Last time, she zoomed into all of her walk on transitions, and this time she was much quieter about it. Good girl!

Getting off went better this time as well - I had S come back and hold her again (after we had a whoa in the center of the pen, and stood there for awhile - standing still is a VERY vital lesson to learn!), and stayed right up against her and petted her as soon as I got down. She started a bit, but didn't go anywhere, and stood for some pets and cookies once I was down. She'll get it, it won't take long!

Yeck.... muddy, dirty, messy girl. She needs a bath!

Our bridling issues are the still same. Thankfully, the equine dentist comes on Monday, and shortly after that I am going to have some craniosacral work done on her. I think this will help her hugely, as opposed to trying a chiropractor... definitely excited to see what happens with both. (Maybe when she is knocked out for her teeth, I can finish pulling her mane and give her a bridlepath!)

Today, the temperature dropped from the 70's to the 30's during the day when a nasty cold front blew in, and by the time I was done with my clients and headed back to the barn to work the girls, a stiff and frigid wind was blowing. I tried to lunge Immy in the roundpen, but alas, the mud was still horrible in there, and she about wiped out at the gate on the very first lap. I called it quits for the day, and bundled the girls up in their winter blankies for the night. It is supposed to be in the teens tonight (!!!), so we will see if I am brave enough to get on a little zippy mare when it is howling wind and freezing cold! We might just go for another pony instead! 

At Mother Nature's Mercy

Aaah, on days like today, I long for the good old days. You know, the ones where no matter what facility you boarded at, no matter how expensive or cheap, you ALWAYS had an indoor? Boarding facilities that wanted to do any sort of regular year-long business in the Great White North had to have them - without an indoor, nobody can ride when it snows! And since it snows up there from October to April, well.... everybody had them! (Or well, all the placed I boarded at had them! Even the super cheap ones!) 

Not so here in Texas. In Texas, indoor arenas do not exist, except for the few rare ones at the super chintzy horse parks in the area. There are quite a number of covered arenas, that is true... but these are relatively rare, and exclusive. (And you have to trailer to them to use them.) It simply doesn't precipitate enough here to warrant building them for the most part. 95% of the time, this obviously isn't a problem. However, on occasions, we might have TWO WHOLE DAYS OF RAIN IN A ROW, rendering everything a completely useless muddy mess. An entire day's worth of a chilly, soaking rain makes for a very grumpy and miserably cold me, and there is little to nothing that I can do with the girls on a day like today. Sure, they could come in the barn for a grooming... but as soon as I manage to get most of the slimy mud off of them, they are going to go right back out and roll in it again! I don't miss having my horses in stalls... but I do miss them being clean on days like today. I miss being able to show up at the barn in a downpour and be able to walk into the nice dry aisleways, pull my horse out of their nice dry stall, and go ride in the nice dry indoor arena. Now that they live outside, and I don't have any place to play inside (barring the barn aisle)... days like today are a wash.

If it were this time next year, I quite imagine I would man up, put my rain slicker and waterproof quarter sheet on, and take Immy for a conditioning hack down the road in the drizzle. (I did this many a time with Gogo!) Obviously, we're quite a long way away from that still! I'm feeling exceptionally grumpy about not being able to get in more rides on her... it has been a mess of a week, and it is only getting muddier and messier.

As a general recap, even though I've touched on it in the last few posts: 

After our first ride last Sunday, I wanted to give her Monday and Tuesday off, and get back on her Wednesday. That all changed when she got scared half to death in the pasture by the other people at the facility, and I had trouble catching her for two days. The new plan was to catch her and love on her Wednesday (I couldn't even touch her on Tuesday), catch her and groom/lunge in a halter on Thursday, catch her and lunge/grounddrive with bridle and surcingle Friday, and get on her Saturday and Sunday. That all went according to plan, except for the fact that she had the Big Bolt accident to deal with on Thursday - I felt that a day off was warranted after being pushed to that limit and being able to come back appropriately from it. Sunday, of course, was the frantic last-second move from the old facility to the new one, and I also felt that it would be in all of our best interested to just get out smoothly, with as little stress as possible. That ride got nixed as well.

That brings us to yesterday. While both girls settled in very well, and went straight away to their hay munching, moving to a new place is definitely stressful, and I decided to lunge her first before seeing whether or not she could tolerate trying for her second ride on only their second day at the new place. Sure glad I did that - Immy and P were obnoxious for each other while Immy was in the barn, and a lot of wiggling/screaming/pooing ensured. The quality of her poos were pretty poor yesterday, but the mare are switching back over from the barfy coastal (who am I kidding, all coastal is barfy, what was I thinking with trying to put them on that garbage?) to the tim and orchard again, so that could be it. Or she could be burnt up with ulcers from the stress at the other facility... both are probably likely. 

I took Immy out to the roundpen to let her stretch her legs. She was full of the zooms, and it was NOT helped by the fact that P went absolutely bonkers when she saw her sister trotting around - she put on a show that would make any National Finals Rodeo horse jealous. Her bucks, squeals, leaps, and high-speed laps around the pen (which is within sight of the roundpen) had Immy on edge, but she held it together and listened to all my transition requests (even if I had to ask twice, or sometimes more than that for downwards transitions! What can I say, the mare has a lot of GO versus WHOA.) 

After our lunging session was over, I decided that it was in her best interested to NOT get on for a second ride. She was just a bit too up and fresh to really consider it. We did, however, decided to go play with some of the cavalletis that were laying around in the field - she walked over all of them like a champ! She even walked over three walk poles spaced together in a row, although she admittedly had to stop and look at them first. When she decided they were not of any concern, she walked smartly over them, lifting her legs like a little ballerina. That's my girl!

Of utmost concern to me right now is her belly. With a skittery, nervous personality like she has, it is safe to say that I will always be fighting The Good Fight against ulcers with this mare. It is probably best to just always assume that she has them, and to be constantly treating or supplementing proactively. If I don't do that, it is almost guaranteed that her GI system will be fried within no time. As I mentioned earlier, her poops were not so great yesterday - but then again, they are switching over to the other kind of hay, so this could also be a contributing factor. The other worrisome thing she did was this: the girls each get 1/2 a flake of alfalfa, now being added slowly back into their diet along with the tim and orchard. A bit of alfalfa is good for tummies - all that calcium acts as a good buffer! - and Immy realized I had tossed it out as she was about halfway done with her grain. She made a beeline over to it, and I caught her and tied her up so she could finish her grain (P will eat it if she doesn't!). Well, she had none of that - not when her tasty alfalfa was waiting. She wouldn't eat another bite. I did get her finish her breakfast at dinnertime though, which was good.

However, this morning she did the same thing - I markedly left the alfalfa out of the haypile so that she wouldn't be tempted to go searching for it while she had her grain in front of her, but she still only ate about 1/2 of her grain before stopping and refusing to eat another bite. She snuffled it around for awhile, but showed no interest in finishing. Possible scenario: the girls get alfalfa and timothy hay pellets as their "grain" (to mix their supplements with), but I was lucky enough to score some alfalfa/timothy mixed pellets made by the same company. (Which is nice... fewer bags, same thing!) That was the first morning the new hay pellets had been mixed in with the rest of her food... perhaps she didn't like them. Or, she was anticipating her alfalfa and wanted nothing to do with her yucky supplements. Or, she is burnt up with ulcers. 

It is hard to say. But as I said before, I'm just going to go with the idea that I need to be very proactive and keep supplementing and treating constantly for ulcers.

What I currently do for healthy tummy management for Imogen:

1) Live outside 24/7 with a shelter and a bestie (Pangea)

2) As much good-quality grass hay as I can possibly give (they do waste a fair bit of it... might look into building another slow feeder!)

3) Small amount of supplemental alfalfa twice a day (for buffering calcium)

4) NO hard grains, just alfalfa/tim hay pellets and Healthy Glo fat supplement to mix in with other supplements and herbs

5) High quality probiotic

6) Aloe juice with every meal

7) Slippery elm bark and marshmallow root with every meal (just started a few weeks ago, possibly has not taken effect yet)
8) Chamomile and SmartCalm - we'll see if they work or not, so far nothing!

Things I could do or look into:

1) Omeprazole, ranitidine, sucralfate, or the like - various hits and misses with these, they don't always work but sometimes they can be a miracle... but the ulcers almost always come back when you stop treatment UNLESS you supplement with other things, or change your horse's living/feeding arrangements. The main function of many of these drugs (not sucralfate) is to inhibit the proton pumps that excrete acid into the stomach. The problem with this? Horses need acid to digest their food! Improperly digested starches and sugars can make their way into the hindgut, which can lead to a whole 'nother barrel of apples: acidosis, hindgut ulceration, leaky gut syndrome (which can lead ultimately to laminitis!), and more. Yes, they do work, but you can end up healing stomach ulcers and creating colonic ulcers in the process! Better to try and work synergistically with the horse to make everything work harmoniously rather than throw a drug at it, in my humble opinion. 

2) Pumpkin seeds - full of nitric oxide. I hear great things about these!

3) Dried cabbage - sounds nasty but they are high in L-glutamine, which heals the lining of the stomach.

4) Papaya juice - I used Natural Plan Stomach Soother for my old greyhound and it worked great!

5) Before EVERY workout, give alfalfa and/or a few cups of hay pellets mixed with her slippery elm, marshmallow root, aloe, and any of the aforementioned things should I add them in... while she has hay in front of her all the time, I can't guarantee that she has been munching directly before I arrive.... she might be working on an empty belly, which is no good at all!

6) Oat flour - for more Betas Glucan and hindgut health (it is what make SUCCEED so good, but without the $$$$$$!)

Readers, what do YOU do for proactively keeping your ulcer-prone horse's hindgut healthy? Share away!

The girls not enjoying the rain:

Aaah, that's better!

And yes, I did go fix Immy's sliding blanket after I took the picture! ;)