Yes Deer

Not a lot to report on as far as Hank goes. He is eating a LOT of food. And, he is making a LOT of horse poop. But that is OK with me. On the 15th I put a weight tape around him, and it said 878 pounds. I'll see what it says next week. I wish I had taken time to see what it said after the first colic, but who know the poor little horse was gonna go through all he did! He also had a slight edema on the incision line yesterday, but I remembered the vet said that might happen, and he had been doing much more walking in the small turn outs. Today it looked much better. I have also tried to keep his mind occupied with the other horses interacting with him some. They usually do not get too playful when in the small field, so I put them all in with him the other morning for about an hour to hang out together. It was nice to see him with them. for a bit. The funny thing was, he just grazed, and really had no interest in them except having them nearby.






As I go out the driveway, we always "count heads" to make sure we see each horse in the pasture, and that they are upright. A few years ago, I found my old gelding that had moved with us from California down, near a fence, and when we got to him, we could tell he had broke his back, and had to have him put down. While I can not keep my horses bubble wrapped and over protected, I do try to at least 'see' them a few times a day minimum when I look out in the pasture. Anyway, I looked across the field, and I count 1-2-3..... and wait, 5 other pretty chestnut critters grazing. We have had a group of 5 deer that frequent our property for a few years now, and they were way out in the open, away from the woods grazing with the horses. That is Gambler below in the photo with them.




Our weather has been spectacular for riding. To bad I have not taken advantage of it with Gambler. I really need to do that. Our daytime temps have been in the 80's. With Hank being sick, it had taken a lot of enthusiasm for riding out of me, but the nice weather kind of jump started me, and I was out changing the fit on my saddle for Gambler. It is a Specialized Saddle Co. saddle, and for those who have never seen one, they have sets of neoprene pads that velcro on and off the tree, and you add shims and adjust the height of these pads to fit the shape of each horse. Unfortunately, Hank and Gambler have very different builds, so I need to work with it some more. But maybe I'll get out for a ride this weekend.




And one last random photo below if of Thelma. Yes, we have a dog, with all these attention seeking cats. And, she adores the kitties. She is a Catahoula, which is a hog hunting dog, and the state dog of Louisiana. She weighs in at 80 pounds. Thelma is 8 now, and slowing down a little bit, and getting a few more white hairs on her face, but is FAR from old. She was disgusted with us, that we were sitting out back, scratching the cats, and not her.