The holiday season, hay, and joint supplements

Hello, bloggers! Apologies for the lack of blogging - I have to say that I am a pretty bad blogger. The holiday season has been busy, and it feels like the month of December has just flown by.

P and AP are doing well, although the weather has not been particularly nice lately, so I think they're a bit bored.

They're standing around and picking at their hay more. We currently have a decent batch of hay, not overly sweet and green but also not stalky and yellow. I'm pretty picky about purchasing hay because it's so important to find hay that P is able to eat. But we've had some tough hay seasons recently with a lot of rain, so it's not an easy task!

I'm also considering starting P on an oral joint supplement for the winter. I know there's a lot of controversy over whether or not oral joint supplements actually work. There are many people who believe that they don't, and there are quite a few anecdotes from people who think they do. I feel like such a supplement junkie between considering ulcer supplements for the ulcery horse and now a joint supplement for P!

I've been comparing different supplements and ingredients but haven't made a decision yet. SmartPak has a lot of different supplements with a lot of positive reviews. I think it's a matter of finding a high quality supplement with different ingredients and giving it a try with the individual horse.

P does not have bad arthritis, but she's getting older and occasionally shows some stiffness which may actually be from some sort of past unknown injury. She's not a high-level athlete by any means but I figure it can't hurt anything but the pocketbook.

I hope everyone and their horses had a happy holiday season!

Extremely busy, finally some pony time, and considering SmartPak supplements

Hello, blog world! Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Seems like it's been one thing after another around here, and just when you think you're done, something else pops up!

Finally got some quality pony time in this weekend. P needed a good grooming, and we went for a very short hack. The weather was finally cooperative, and the footing seemed fine. Really wish I had more time for quality pony time like this!

In other news, the ulcery horse has been on the aloe vera, slippery elm, glutamine supplement for about six weeks now. It seems to be helping a little bit - the horse's attitude is a little quieter, although I'm not really sure how much of a difference we're supposed to see or how long it takes to get there. I think I would like to see a little more progress.

The supplement is actually not from SmartPak, and there was talk of switching to one of SmartPak's SmartGut supplements. I don't know what the final decision was.

I try not to feed too many supplements, but I do think they have their place, so this might be one of those places. I think SmartPak does a lot of marketing, but they do have quality supplements with quality ingredients.

Not much to blog about

Hello, blog world! I haven't written in a while, as there just hasn't been that much to write about. With the lack of daylight and uncooperative weather, I've only been getting regular horse care done and not much else. Life has also been busy, so I haven't even had much time to read blogs. I hope everyone and their horses are well and enjoying better weather than we are!

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!