The neighborhood goes for a ride

Woo-hoo!  He does water!

Neighbor Kim acquired a new horse, bay Arab gelding J.D., and we decided to ride together one morning last month.  Red hadn’t been out in a while, so we saddled up and met on the road, then went to play in the gravel pit a little.  J.D. seems to be a great horse, calm and well-trained, and happy with his job.  We took them through the water – Red for practice as water is one of his least favorite obstacles, and J.D. to see how he handled it (perfectly, by the way).  Red was wearing his hoof boots, and due to the extreme fly year we’re having, I liberally coated him in Wipe before leaving the barn.  As soon as we emerged from the water, he started stomping his feet, mostly his hinds.  It seemed to be a fly stomp type thing, but he didn’t have any flies.  I hopped off to check his boots, even removing & replacing them to make sure there weren’t any foreign objects or debris in them or beneath the gaiters.  All appeared fine, but the behavior didn’t stop until his legs had dried.  This was odd, but as he seemed fine, we continued on.

Heading up the road, Becca passed us on her way to the barn, and we found out she & another neighbor Katie were going to ride together as well.  Instant pony party!  So, Kim and I did a little meander down the road & back while Becca & Katie were getting ready, then we all met up to ride together. 

Becca, Katie, & Kim

We headed back to the gravel pit, with Becca’s & Katie’s horses both a little hot – blowing the stereotype of “crazy Arabs” right out of the water yet again!  The two Arabs in the bunch were the calm ones.  We did the water again, and the exact same thing happened with Red fiercely stomping again as soon as we emerged.  I  removed all four boots and continued the rest of the ride barefoot and with no stomping.  The only explanation I can rationalize is some reaction or irritation between the gaiters and the oily Wipe fly repellant.  He has certainly been through water with the boots/gaiters on many times in the past without ever having a reaction like this before. Red does have a history of some skin reactions to fly products previously, although to my knowledge it has only been products with citronella in them.  I am very careful to only buy products without citronella for him.  His skin appeared normal, and even after the ride and the next day the skin continued to be normal without any flaking, hair loss, swelling, or any other obvious sign of a reaction.  I guess I won’t be using Wipe on him when he’ll be using boots and potentially getting wet!  

Becca & Kaos

Tischer Creek Farm

The digs @ Tischer Creek Farm as viewed from the pasture

On September 1, Rhio and Cricket moved to Tischer Creek Farm, Gesa’s place.  Gesa came to pick them up in the evening, with her new little 2 horse bumper pull stock-combo trailer (yay!  Wheels!). Rhio had to be convinced to load, but load he did without an undue delay (I didn’t expect it to be worse than it was, but for the first time he’d seen that trailer, it could have been a lot worse), and Cricket walked right on after him.  It’s been 2 ½ years since Cricket was trailered anywhere (Wow – we’ve been at Meadowbrook that long?  We were all so happy at Meadowbrook that time flew by without notice, I guess.) but he thought jumping on to go somewhere was a good idea.  When he was wandering loose to graze and a trailer pulled in, he usually came over to investigate and I think, given the opportunity, he might have self-loaded into one.  My horses who actually travel for rides & events are never so eager to load – it would be convenient if they were.

As the dogs & I followed the trailer over to Gesa’s, the storm clouds building in the distance got ever closer and we began to see cloud-to-cloud lightning.  Hmm, this maybe isn’t the best time to be moving horses and introducing them to a new home!  We pull into the driveway with the clouds pressing down, thunder rumbling, and the first drops of rain in the air.  We did what probably any expert would advise against, and just turned the horses loose in the pasture as the thunderstorm broke.  I did not have my camera with me (plus it would have gotten wet had I had it along), but of course the horses put on a show for us, running with their tails flagging in the wind and their necks arched.  Even old Cricket looked the part of a movie-star Arabian! 

Cricket keeping one ear on his buddy Rhio

Gesa had finished the fenceline dividing the two paddock/pasture areas, and her young ones have the left side while Paco was on the right side waiting for his new friends to join him.  Of course Paco & Rhio know each other well and have camped together with no issues many times.  Paco & Cricket have also met when Paco came to Meadowbrook to have his dental work in July.   Upon being set loose, Rhio took a lap around the paddock area with Cricket flanking him like a pair of synchronized swimmers before finding the open gate to the pasture and heading out there.  Meanwhile, the young ones galloped along their fenceline and Paco hovered near the shelter staying out of the fray. 

Paco wondering what to do about his new roommates

With the rain, there was some jostling for use of the shelter and Cricket was left standing out, as I would expect.  The shelter is plenty large and has two doors, so it shouldn’t be any problem for three horses to share – but that will come later once they’ve settled into a cohesive herd.  For now, they only stayed in the shelter briefly and then made the choice to go graze in the warm rain anyway, and it was a non-issue. 

Rhio says: "Where's the treats, Mom?"

We left them to their own devices in the thickening darkness (luckily it only rained for a little while), and unloaded the food I’d brought over, and got their meal plans all set up for morning.  I left without any worries about their care, which is such a huge thing when you are dependent on boarding your horses. 

Sefira, one of the young ones, *very* interested in the new boys across the fence.

The next morning, I stopped out bright and early on my way to finish packing my own belongings and cleaning the farmhouse, as I am also moving on.  They were happily grazing and Gesa reported no problems with the morning feeding routine; Rhio & Cricket acted like they’d done it all before a million times.  This is great, as sometimes training them in to a new routine can be a challenge, and Gesa brings each horse into an individual stall to eat versus their old routine which was to be fed in the pasture (well, right outside the pasture as Cricket was allowed to eat at leisure and then wander off to graze at will).  There will be some adjustments for all the horses, and for Gesa in her normal routines, but so far things seem to be going incredibly well.  It will be great to have a chance to do more riding with Gesa, as we’ll have the opportunity for just a quick ride here & there now (we hope), as opposed to always needing a half or full day to trailer out somewhere to ride.  

Geocaching on Horseback

Carmen came to visit, adopting barn kitties Max and Maggie for her barn.  She happened to introduce me to geocaching (there's a cache at the town hall, 0.17 miles from me! Who knew?!) and now I'm hooked!  Being a fellow endurance rider, of course we made time for a ride.  What better to do than to combine riding and geocaching?

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear!  See Red in the mirror?  Yep, we "ponied" him from his barn to mine. 

Red is thoroughly unimpressed with this mode of transportation. 

We plotted out several potential caches to ride to, loaded up the coordinates into our GPS units, and got the horses ready to ride.  Carmen had brought her Specialized saddle along for me to try, meaning she was going to get to try my Synergist.  I am still trying to sell my second Synergist, the one that no longer fits Rhio, and I'd like to replace it with a Specialized when I do.  This was a great opportunity to ride enough miles in a Specialized to really get the feel for it.  To sum up briefly - I loved it!  Of course it took the first mile or two to get used to it, but after that I just felt comfortable and no longer was conscious of it being "different" than my saddle.  I was very secure in it, and best yet Rhio seemed to like it also.  We moved out, especially on the way home, using all three gaits, and he & I felt good in every gait.  I hadn't done any shimming or adjusting of the saddle, and I did have a little bit of dry area on either side of the spine behind the withers - it was just a teensy bit too wide for him - but that would be easily adjusted with the saddle fitting system Specialized uses.  Best of all, Carmen liked my Synergist as well!

Carmen and Red made a great team!

Now to the riding and the caching.  Carmen rode Red, and they spent a little time getting used to each other in the outdoor arena.  That was successful, so we headed out down the road.  I hadn't realized that a major road nearby was closed, and so the route we rode had a lot more traffic than normal. It also has pretty narrow shoulders and the ditch is swampy - so probably not the best choice of places to ride, but we survived.  Luckily my boys are traffic safe, but with the excitement of a fast ride going home, both horses got a little goosey with the big trucks whizzing past.  Carmen is a great rider and handled Red's excessive enthusiasm very well.  It was NOT a ride for the faint of heart, that's for sure.

We did make it to the normally quiet gravel road which had 2 geocaches along it we could hunt for.  The gravel road wasn't quiet at all, with many vehicles passing us.  Geez!  Talk about bad karma in the traffic department!  The horses were both happy to move out, and Red can out-trot Rhio by a mile, so I spent some time eating Red's & Carmen's dust.  Rhio didn't seem to care, though he usually much prefers to lead.

Our GPS units told us we were getting close to the first cache, and the description had said it was back in the woods, so we dismounted and led the horses into the woods, then tied them to trees and set off on foot.  I love having horses that I can tie to the trees in the woods and walk away from!  They would have preferred a grassy meadow to eat in, but they patiently waited for us to return and didn't get into any trouble.

That fly mask kind of makes him look like he has mule ears, don't you think?

I love this look as he peeks around the tree at me.

Finding the cache didn't turn out to be the successful portion of our ride, unfortunately.  Number one rule of geocaching in northern Minnesota in the summer - bring bug spray!!!  It was a bit difficult to concentrate with all the slapping and hopping around (oops).  We found the indicator marker and decrypted the clue to finding the cache, but were ultimately unsuccessful.  Boo!  You'd better bet I'll be going back there later in the season, hopefully with fewer bugs and more time, and finding that darn thing!

Looking at our timeline, we realized we didn't have any more time to spend searching, headed back to the ponies, led them out of the woods, mounted up, and headed home.  It was such a fun ride, despite its challenges, and I was so happy with the saddle.  I wish Carmen lived closer so we could ride together more often!!

Best of luck to Max & Maggie in their new home, and thank you Carmen for coming to visit me :)

Even Cricket got in on the action, see him half in the corner of the shot? I love that Carmen & I are both kind of cocking our heads the same direction, obviously responding to Becca who took our photo, while the horses are all focused on each other.

So Where Does That Trail Go?

Yep, way behind on blogging again!  You may think I haven't been riding, but that's not it.  Luckily, I have been riding and enjoying my ponies - so these next few posts will be "catch up" posts about rides over the last few months, and I will try yet again to get back on track and keep up in more "real time." Do forgive me, gentle readers.

Several weeks ago Gesa & I had the opportunity to head back to one of our favorite riding spots up in Brimson, about a 45 minute drive from the farm.  This was only our second time to ride up there this season.  Last time we rode here, in May, we followed an old logging road that petered into a well-travelled ATV path.  It was so well-travelled that we assumed it went *somewhere*, but we didn't have the time to explore, so we vowed to come back and find out where that trail went.

Deer flies were still in full force, and our boys sported their fly masks for the entirety of the ride.  Even with the masks, we also needed rider-applied fly control to keep our mounts happy.  Rhio & I employed several leafy branches (it took me three tries to find a good one!), and Gesa found her crop to be an excellent fly swatter.  The flies swarmed the lead horse, and switching off leading was a welcome relief for the following horse.

For those of you who don't ride ATV trails horseback, here's something to note:  humans on horses are much taller than humans on ATVs.  That translates into lots of ducking and dodging for us riders!  Our helmets & sunglasses are employed as branch-control devices, and we must stay alert for the next face-slapping twig.  This trail was much like other user-created ATV trails I've ridden in that you must be loose & limber in your saddle and your horse must be instantly responsive to leg & rein.  Rhio and Paco were very good all day, and we emerged after our 15 mile ride with only a few superficial scratches and no major mishaps.  We did have one large tree crosswise across the trail which was too short to ride under, but our little horses were able to walk under it once we dismounted.  Whew!

We kept following the trail, eventually emerging at a minimum maintenance road and a set of railroad tracks.  To my knowledge, Rhio has never crossed tracks before, and he did very well.  The minimum maintenance road was smooth, level, and relatively soft - begging for a long, easy canter.  We took advantage and cantered the boys quite a ways, with a few scoots to the side when we crossed a large cement culvert and passed by a monster pile of logs.  Eventually the road ended at the county highway, and we crossed it briefly to explore further ATV trails, which were clearly on private property (though it wasn't signed as such) and led only to deer stands.  We made the turn for home, retracing our steps, and the boys were, as always, very motivated to head back to the trailer.

Both boys wore boots for this ride, Paco on his fronts only and Rhio on all four hooves.  Paco's boots only lasted the first few miles however, as one of the gaiters finally bit the dust (it had been on its last legs anyway) and Gesa had to carry the boots on her saddle the remainder of the ride.  Paco seemed to do well barefoot, though he did seek the side of the trail on some of the rockier sections.  Rhio's boots worked well, as usual, though he has been battling scratches (a skin infection) on both his hind pasterns, and one front pastern (all his lower legs with pink skin instead of pigmented skin).  I was concerned about the gaiters rubbing on this raw skin, so I outfitted him with some old socks from my sock drawer; it turns out his feet are a bit bigger than mine!  It was a little bit of a struggle to get them over his hooves. The socks stayed in place, and because I used non-cotton they seemed to perform well even when wet.  Upon removal of the boots & socks, his pasterns looked just the same as they had pre-ride - no rubs!  I was dismayed to discover about 15 minutes returning to the trailer and removing his foot & leg wear, that all of his affected legs swelled!  His right front is especially prone to swelling, and I can only presume it was due to using the socks & boots over already compromised skin.  He didn't seem sensitive, sore, or lame at all - he didn't seem to notice he was swollen at all.  After the trailer ride home, the swelling was reduced and he remained completely sound.  How frustrating!

It was a great ride, though - one I wish I could repeat more often.   Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures as my camera has died the true death - have no fear, however, the new hand-me-down camera is working well and future posts will be adorned with my usual assortment of photos.

And, as a side note, Rhio's trailer loading was very good this time - walking onto the trailer instead of leaping, and only having to consider the big scary box for a moment or two.  I hope this trend continues!

Plan B

Friday was our first opportunity to ride together in nearly two months, and despite the high dew point and stifling humidity, Gesa and I loaded the boys up for the short trek to our local snowmobile trail.  This spot was a favorite training trail last summer, and the footing was great, barring a couple of dodgy culverts, for about 3 1/2 miles (giving us a 7 mile round trip).  Early this spring we discovered a side trail that will make it a 9+ mile training ride, and we can do it at speed, and it has hills.  Did I mention it's only a few miles from Gesa's farm?  Yep, pretty much perfect for a quick ride...  Except not this summer!  We haven't been over there at all since our difficult ride in the spring (mucky with frost coming out of the ground), and were dismayed to find that it has not been mowed at all.  The snowmobile trails are usually mowed to maintain their condition for winter use, as well as having trees cleared, etc.  The great state of Minnesota endured a government shut-down for nearly all of July, and I wonder if this was one of the many tasks set by the wayside.  I don't actually know who mows the trail, but the belly-deep grass was not conducive to a training ride, though the boys did enjoy munching at chest-level as we traversed the first long hill in hopes of discovering mowed trail at the top.  So, we decided to move on to plan B....which we didn't have in our back pockets, but the ride back to the trailer yielded one!

Good thing we left our skis at home!

We would drive just a few more miles, parking at the base of the Amity Creek trail, and utilize both the Amity trail and Lester Park trails for some conditioning in the heat and, we presumed, bugs.  Rhio has never been there, so it would be new to him, and neither of us had ridden there in over a year.  It is an extremely popular spot for hikers, runners, bikers, and dog walkers, but as it was a weekday morning we were in luck with just one car in the parking area.  It is designated as a city horse trail, but it's brevity (3 miles total) and inaccessibility for trailer parking (our one little rig takes up the majority of the available parking) means it's mostly used by locals with horses near enough to ride to the trail.  The non-horse users are somewhat used to seeing horses, though, and that makes for generally pleasant encounters.

Rhio says, "Really, Mom, you want to ride in this weather?  Shouldn't we just stand here in the shade and eat hay?"

The poor horses were dripping sweat just from a 10 minute trailer ride, it was that hot & humid.  We tacked up for the second time, applied more bug spray, and headed up the trail.  This trail was formerly a road, so it is a very solid gravel - dirt base and includes two stone bridges at its base.  It is entirely shaded, tucked into the backside of Hawk Ridge, and with the Amity Creek rushing (lots of rain recently, usually by August it's more burbling than rushing) along the other side, it stays relatively cool and fresh.  To our utter amazement, it was also virtually bug-free.  We didn't need the fly masks we'd put on the horses, and I think I only had to swat a half-dozen deer flies the entire ride!

The tip of the trail, near the ford

Given the other trail users, we kept our speed to a slow trot and just enjoyed our surroundings.  The boys were eager despite the heat, and once Rhio figured out that the noise was rushing water (we couldn't really see the creek at the beginning), he was constantly asking for more speed, ears pricked ahead to see what was around the next bend.  We stopped for a cooling drink at the ford used by a local riding stable, and got back to the trailer feeling great and ready for more!

Standing on the bank of Amity Creek

Heading back to the trail-side of Amity Creek

We had about 1/4 mile of paved road to travel to get to the lower trails, and being out in the full sun with the heat radiating up from the pavement was a whole 'nother world!  It would have been an extremely unpleasant ride in the sun, but was a magnificent ride in the shade.

There was a lot of water damage to some of the trails from our recent torrential rains, with deep fissures in the red clay which Paco was pretty wary of but Rhio barely seemed to notice (so much that I was worried he might step in one!), as well as multiple areas where the vegetation was swept all in one direction, showing how much water had flowed overland to get to the creek and river.  We crossed a metal snowmobile bridge, which was covered almost completely in run-off clay and made hardly any clanging noise because of it, and were off for another 5 miles of hill work.

We did a lot of walking the whole ride, with our overall average speed a mere 3.8 mph.  But, with the weather conditions and the hills, the boys were both panting when we finished our total of 9 miles, and had begun stopping at every mud puddle for a sip or three.

Does it taste like chocolate milk, too - or just look like it? 

I was very pleased with Rhio's loading on this trip, since it's been a few months since we've gone anywhere.  He walked on each time, calmly, instead of his customary leap into the trailer.  It still was not a shining example of trailer loading (like Paco), but his hesitation was probably only for 2 minutes each time.  I hope this was a sign of permanent improvement!

Looking ahead to a 50 miler in two weeks (fingers crossed that the logistics all work out to get there), I need a few more good rides on Rhio to feel confident for that competition.  After Friday's heat, humidity, and hills, he got Saturday off, and Sunday we went for speed work.  We did half the distance at more than double the pace, 4 miles at 8.2 mph - whee!  He feels great, now if only the last of his scratches will clear up and his leg will quit swelling up at every little thing...

The boys rubbing each other's heads after sponging.

Mouths to Feed

G & her family have been gone since July 5.  Her three horses, two cats, and one pony are pretty self-reliant, but needed a human caretaker for the 3 1/2 weeks the family was away.  I gladly volunteered my services, and, as always, things did not go 100% according to the plan, but everyone fared well and I hardly know what to do with myself now that the family is home & I'm not making my twice- or thrice-daily visits to Tischer Creek Farm.

The plan: Belle the pony stays in the barn during the day due to her allergies, and goes out into the "dry lot" paddock with a shelter and hay for the night.  The horses, Paco, Gimi, & Sefi, have free grazing in the back pasture at night and are locked in the paddock area during the day.  All the equines get a handful of vitamins and a sprinkling of grain in the mornings.  Cats get fed twice a day and can stay either in the house or out as they prefer.  It sounds so simple!

The reality: The weather was ghastly, with oppressive heat & humidity for nearly two weeks.  The horses were dripping sweat by noon, and even the pony's stall was stifling (though at least shady).  Oozing horse fly bites needed doctoring, and stinky feet needed thrush treatment, and overheating horses needed hosing and fans to stay comfortable. My planned twice a day visits quickly morphed into three times a day so I could check on everyone more closely in the dangerous heat, and I kept the horses stalled for all or part of the days as well, which meant 4 stalls to clean instead of 1, 4 water buckets to dump, clean, fill, & haul instead of 1, and very appreciative horses (which makes the effort so absolutely rewarding)!  Several mornings Paco, Gimi, & Sefi had to be chased out of their stalls to go back outside for a few hours, when they would have preferred to stay in the barn (though the mornings were the most tolerable part of the day).

Gimi and Sefi, the "little ones," are just three year olds and have minimal experience with hosing.  The several days that I attempted to cool the horses down by hosing were interesting, to say the least.  Paco seemed to enjoy it the most, and Gimi quickly figured out that he liked the cold water on his chest and shoulders, and *really* liked flipping his nose through the spray and splashing me, but Sefi wanted nothing at all to do with the scary water-spouting snake.  Belle didn't really like it, either, and so I left those two to sweat (you'd think they'd figure out how good it felt!) and concentrated my efforts on the more appreciative boys.

After their hosing, I scrounged around to come up with enough fans for everyone and managed to snake extension cords through the barn aisle so each horse had a fan for his/her stall.  Sefi was of course afraid of her fan, and I don't think ever really got used to it, as she mostly stayed on the half of the stall away from the fan.  Gimi fell in love with his fan, and stood blissfully in front of it with his forelock blowing in the breeze.  Paco & Belle seemed somewhat indifferent to their fans, although both of them managed to knock their fans around when I wasn't there and cause a bit of a ruckus.  I was a bit apprehensive on leaving them to their own devices after my first attempt at "be-fanning" the barn, as Paco's & Gimi's fans were floor fans balanced on the garbage can (!) and the mounting block, respectively.  I was nervous about the multiple extension cords, and the capacity of the electrical circuits, and flammable nature of barn contents, though I raked all the loose material out of the aisle, made sure the stall doors to the hay & bedding were firmly shut, and even unplugged the radio and the fencer for good measure.  Upon my return that evening, Gimi, who I most suspected of getting into trouble, was completely innocent of any wrong doing, and Paco, who I thought the least likely to bother anything, had managed to knock his fan over (or, it fell over on its own, also a possibility).  But, no damage was done and the horses seemed as comfortably not-hot (I can't say "cool") as I could have hoped.  I somewhat refined my fan technique on subsequent afternoons, and did finally get a good working set-up which seemed to balance air flow and safety, as well as put fans in the shed Belle uses at night and the big horses have access to during the day, so that even if I didn't bring them in to their stalls, they had some fan action if they wanted it.  And you can probably guess, but I found Gimi standing with his nose just on the inside of the bars directly in front of the fan on more than one occasion!

Belle & her fan - gotta love baling twine!  She did manage to knock this around a bit but no damage done. 

The horses and I came to a mutually agreeable arrangement for coming in, going out, applying fly spray, donning fly masks, administering thrush treatments, and doctoring the oozing fly bites, and our visits slipped into an easy routine.  The cats got progressively more desperate for attention (I did pet them & talk to them!  Every time I came!  Really!) and got to the point of following me everywhere, meowing pitifully, except when I would bring the dogs along and they would fluff up, hiss, and run under the porch (poor kitties - so traumatized!).  The strange little insects called fly predators arrived in the mail as promised, and I let them hatch before spreading them about as directed.  This was my first experience directly with fly predators, and I have to say, I do think they make a big difference in the leg-biting fly population, although they don't seem to have an impact on the deer or horse flies (which I think makes sense, as those flies breed in water and the fly predators eat the eggs laid by flies in organic matter like manure, moist ground, old hay, etc).

Gimi, Paco, and Sefi wondering if I am going to feed them. 

Luckily the weather broke, and I was able to quit all the hosing/fans/stalling rigamarole this past week.  I did a little temporary fence repair where two wooden posts had broken and the whole fence was leaning precariously, and after the initial look-see (Gimi studied it pretty carefully), the horses left my handiwork alone (whew! I don't think the fence was packing much of a punch as far as I could tell with the fence tester, but I will fully admit I was too chicken to touch it).  I "fixed" the gate with a bungee, and found the little red wagon to be a real back-saver when it came to hauling the buckets of manure around.

The broken wood fence and my "fix" with T-posts.   Thank goodness I was able to find posts, post pounder, caps, insulators, electric rope, screws, and a drill that worked!  Nothing like nosing around in other people's stuff :) 

Ah!  The barn aisle all neat, clean, and tidy - I love that! Now imagine this with blue extension cords & fans all over the place, some balanced on things they probably shouldn't have been... not such a pretty or satisfying sight (and why didn't I have my camera that day?!). 

So this is what it's like to have your own place?  I think my McGyver is ready to roll - bring it on!

Dental Day

Well, the dentists (a two doctor team) came to town, and Meadowbrook was the place to be!  We had several horses haul in, including two that came down from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and I fetched Paco over from Gesa's as well.

The crowd of horse owners, one tag-a-long husband, and two pre-vet students congregate outside the dental rig.

It was a whole day affair, but my only "victim" was Cricket this year.  He is nearing the end of his dental care career, however, as most of his teeth are worn to the point of being minimally useful for munching anymore.  I figured this was the case, but I wanted to be sure that none of those almost-expired teeth were loose or infected or otherwise needing attention.  There is not much to be done when a horse uses up his teeth, other than feed him lots of healthy food that doesn't require much chewing.  So, his summer diet of lots of green grass is perfect, but winter will be tougher this year than last.  He will continue to eat beet pulp, senior feed, and alfalfa pellets, and I will likely add in a fat source for extra calories.  He eats hay, and actually doesn't drop, or "quid," at all that I'm able to tell, but at this point he's probably not masticating the hay effectively enough to extract all the nutrients & calories out of it that he could.  And, he packs hay/grass into the spaces between his old teeth ("diastema"), which so far isn't a problem but can lead to infected gums and/or teeth, so I'll need to watch carefully for any changes in his eating behavior or a putrid odor emanating from his mouth.

I hate to say it on a steamy late July day, but it is already time to start thinking about winter, at least for Cricket.  Now is the time to get some extra weight on him if I can - he is too thin for my taste already with his ribs slightly visible, BCS 3/9.  These few weeks of awful heat and humidity that we've had, plus the record hordes of flies & other nasty biting insects, have really taken a toll and I've seen some weight drop off many of the horses this month.  Every afternoon that the horses spend in the barn to escape the unrelenting sun, heat, and bugs, I put extra food in front of Cricket and so far he's doing a good job of eating most of it.

Unless a problem arises requiring more dental work, such as pulling an infected tooth, this will be Cricket's final dental "maintenance."  I didn't get any pictures of Cricket's session, but here's one of Paco getting "tuned up."

Dr. Bowman works on Paco.

My zoom is broken, but this is Paco, Rhio, & Cricket hanging out like best buddies.  Cricket & Paco had never met, and they sniffed noses for a long time as if saying "Hey, I've heard all about you from Rhio!", "Yeah, me too!", "Let's go graze."  The introduction was a complete non-event. 

Killian supervising the goings-on with an expert eye.