A Storm is Coming

We're expecting a big snowstorm starting late tonight into tomorrow, and the horses were more restless this morning than normal. I believe that they can often sense such things due to changes in barometric pressure. Instead of eating her morning hay, Dawn spend a lot of time running her teeth up and down the wall. I checked her over carefully - this behavior can be a sign of pain but in this case I think it was just "upness". I wasn't worried about her, because she was bright-eyed and eagerly ate her breakfast, and she'd eaten all her overnight hay and the manure was normal - I've found that a horse with a digestive upset will usually refuse grain and perhaps eat hay, not the other way around. When I turned her out, she did her grunt/squeal as she moved away after I took off her halter.

Maisie was crazy (that's one of her nicknames - Crazy Maisie) - pawing and head tossing as I gave her a brief grooming in the barn aisle. She galloped away from the gate (or tried - the footing isn't that good). I'm hoping the snow will provide some good footing for some lungeing - I can't ride her in her current state of craziness, and I have no way to work her before hand to get some of the energy out.

Noble spooked badly when I touched him on the hindquarters after removing his blanket to groom him - he doesn't see well behind him and was just a tad nervous to start with. On the health front, whatever we're doing seems to really be working - he's gaining some weight, he picks up his left front foot easily, and he's feisty and willing to move - it's great to see! We'll keep him on his current soaked beet pulp/senior feed, thyroid supplement and chromium/magnesium/selenium/vitamin E supplement for insulin resistance - I expect all of these have contributed to his turnaround.

Fritz is one of those horses that is an easy keeper in the summer - he tends to get plump - but then loses weight in winter. One of the things I routinely do when I'm with the horses is run my hands over their ribcage from front to back - with most horses, if they're at an ideal weight I'll be able to just feel the last rib. I can feel too many ribs with Fritz, although his hindquarters are still round across the top from hip to hip, so we're gradually increasing his senior feed to a somewhat larger amount and have already increased his hay.

While I was filling water tanks, Sugar spent a lot of time socializing with me - well, really, she was socializing with my coat - she was licking it to get at the beet pulp residue. I get all sorts of things on my barn working coat, and it's amazingly nasty, but apparently the major thing on it was residue from carrying and draining the beet pulp bins. Sugar is an easy keeper and never gets to eat (or lick) such delicacies normally. I was basically a horse popsicle - but she was very friendly about it so it was pleasant.