Wouldn't a 5-day weekend be nice?

Have you ever had one of those weekends when 2 days just isn't enough? I must admit that I have those weekends pretty much every weekend - but this one seemed worse than usual!

On one weekend day, there were a lot of chores and other things to do that severely limited pony time. On the other weekend day, uncooperative weather severely limited pony time. Pony time is really precious this time of year - in the time of ever waning daylight - and I'm sad that it didn't work out this weekend.

If only there were more weekend time! I definitely support switching to 2 weekdays and 5-day weekends!

The ever waning daylight

Weekends always seem especially short during the fall season. There's so much to do and the ever waning daylight doesn't make things easier. Seems like a lot of people out there in the blog world are dealing with rainy weather and the huge temperature swings of fall. We're dealing with the same, and so far the ponies are tolerating it.

I've been busy tidying up the barn area for the winter and making more room for hay. There really aren't a lot of weekends left before winter will be upon us, and I like having everything in order before the cold and the snow arrive.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

The seasons are changing and ulcer update

You can just feel the seasons changing now. The daylight hours are so much shorter, and even when the sun is out, it doesn't shine at quite so high an angle. The nights are chilly and the days are warm. The leaves are rapidly changing colors and falling off the trees. The squirrels are gathering nuts for the winter. And P and AP are getting extremely fuzzy.

In other news, the ulcery horse has recently been started on an ulcer supplement. The horse has already been treated with GastroGard in the past, and we're hoping that an ulcer supplement will help maintain digestive health. I've been told that this particular supplement includes aloe vera, slippery elm, and also something called glutamine which is an amino acid that's supposed to help heal the digestive tract.

I know a lot of ulcer supplements include calcium to buffer the stomach from the acid. I wonder if the aloe vera is better for soothing old ulcers that may have healed but with scar tissue.

Equine ulcers - what an issue!!

Rain, rain, go away

I absolutely believe in as much turnout as possible for horses. I think it's much healthier for them to be outside. P and AP have lots of turnout with a shelter, but there are some days when they actually choose to stay inside the shelter. Like today! The rain has been on and off all day, there's a strong wind, and when it's not drizzling, it's pouring. I guess I can't blame P and AP for staying inside and eating hay!

Thank you for the comments on my previous post about horses with ulcers. Due to the rainy day, I've been reading a lot of information online. Of course GastroGard and good horse management are important keys to healing ulcers, but there are so many different symptoms that you might see and so many different supplements that seem to help. It's mind-boggling!

One thing that a few people have mentioned is flare-ups of ulcers as the weather changes. As we're heading into fall now and then winter, this is a prime time for flare-ups as pasture grasses die off and horses start eating only hay again.

Hoping for some better fall weather soon!

Equine ulcers

I wanted to ask the blog world if anyone has had any experience with maintaining a horse with ulcers. This is a horse that has been treated with GastroGard in the past but appears to have flare-ups from time to time. The horse eats well, is in good weight, and looks healthy on the outside but shows other ulcer signs such as body soreness and spookiness.

If you maintain a horse with ulcers or know of one, do you see any soreness and spookiness? What parts of the body are sore, and are the spooks big and random? Does the horse paw or crib at all? Do you find that the flare-ups happen at specific times of year? Do you feed one of the many ulcer supplements available on the market, and do you find them effective? Do you think that hindgut ulcers are involved at all?

Thank you to anyone with ulcer information.

In other news, P and AP are doing well. They're enjoying the autumn weather and awaiting the end of bug season!

Hay!

As the pasture grass dies and the days and nights get colder, P and AP are starting to dig into part of the winter hay supply.

I'm a little bit - well, A LOT - obsessive about hay. Hay makes up most of P and AP's diet. I try to calculate as best I can, but I always worry about having enough to get through the winter. So much depends on bale size and quality every year. But I think it's really important for horses to have enough hay, and in P's case, she needs very soft hay that she can chew.

I buy local hay and have had a very basic forage analysis done in the past. I didn't get a full vitamin and mineral report, but I did get things like protein, fat, digestible energy, and few of the major minerals. The hay usually comes from a lot of different fields, so it doesn't make sense to test all the time, but it does give me an idea of what I'm feeding and what the hay is like in this area.

I've had some wonderful hay, and I've also had some moldy bales and weedy bales. I try to check each bale very carefully before feeding.

Hay making is hard! I'm really grateful for the farmers who watch the weather reports carefully and who are out there working hard on hot summer days to make hay. Our weather patterns haven't made it easy the past few years, and the hay crops haven't been great. I hope there's enough good quality hay this winter.

P is eating dirt

I've noticed that P has started to eat dirt. She has a specific spot of dirt that she keeps licking. I think she's done this in the past at this time of year - when the pasture isn't growing as fast anymore and when she's starting to eat more hay to grow coat and pack on the pounds for the winter.

P and AP do have a white salt block that they seem to lick at a fairly normal rate. Sometimes I'm even able to break off pieces and crush them so that they get a bit of loose salt. I've heard that horses may eat dirt due to a lack of minerals - maybe P is missing something now that she usually gets from the summer pasture. I could try a mineral block or some type of mineral mix - I always try not to overdo the supplements, but I do feel that they have their place and can be helpful.

I'm really interested in equine nutrition - mostly because of P. She's typically an easy keeper, but she's lived in a couple of barns that didn't feed her very well. Unfortunately, I think it was from lack of caring by the feeders - they fed poor quality grain and hay and didn't always make sure that P got her food! P lost a lot of weight, and that's when I started learning a lot more about equine nutrition. I think the most important lesson is to feed high quality feed and make sure the horse gets it!