Running & Eating, Eating & Running

It is what horses do best right! So much fun to watch as well and the track has definitely gotten its use the last few days while the horses have enjoyed being out on it. 

 

Now I am trying to figure out the best ways to feed the two of them. I use a round bale and I also keep some square bales around that they like best because it its timothy instead of the plain grass hay that the big bales are made of. The problem with the timothy bales is that they are very expensive but they do give them more encouragement to walk the track. So what I have been doing is mixing a little timothy in with some grass hay and seems to work.

I have also seen more destruction and waist with the two of them at the bale. To combat this I have decided to keep the round bale covered and put a bulk amount in small mesh bags. 

Really, your going to cover it? Such a perfect Frankie look!

I am also putting some loose hay on the ground along the track. Munchie will eat out of the nets but he rather not work so hard, he wants quick and easy! It is more work for me and if I have a day that is too busy I will simply let them at the round bale. The waste is just proving to be too much if they are allowed to be on it all the time.

I would like to build some more feeders but that will have to wait. I have five of the small mesh hay bags and I use all of them. There is also the barrel and I want to put up one more. I really would like to also get a bag of hay cubes but our local place only has alfalfa cubes. There is one other place I will check to see if they have the plain timothy cubes.

Health ~ Past, Present & Future

PAST~
Frankie came to me about three and a half years ago. It was one of those love at fist sight things. He was a very healthy energetic, eight year old.  His feet were extremely healthy as well. He had only been in shoes for a year because of the very rocky environment of his previous home so I had no worries he would be fine without them. After I got him home and settled in I had the shoes pulled off and he has done wonderfully without them. 
 
One thing I did not realize until later was that his very gassy, noisy stomach was not as normal as I thought it was. With the exception of some small gas discomfort and one very mild colic he was OK for the first two years because he had pasture mates and more room to move about. The problem came to a head when I moved him to my house and he was in a smaller area with only a goat for a companion. I can not in any way shape or form afford another horse so for now the goat will have to do.
About four months into his move to my property Frankie sand coliced. The warning sign were all there but I just did not understand them (I do now!). The vet came out and we got him healthy again until just three months later and he coliced again, badly. We got him OK again and it became my mission to keep this from happening again.


PRESENT~
Frankie is now on a free choice diet of grass hay (round bale), no grain, a one cup serving of his soaked alfalfa pellets. He is on a product called Assure and Assure Plus. The Assure is given every morning and has a ration of probiotics, molasses, a small amount of psyllium and some other ingredients for the large colon. The Assure Plus is given one week out of the month and it is mostly a quality psyllium product in a pelleted form. I keep him off grass that is too short and ride him as much as possible. He has been colic free for a little over a year and his gut has good sounds but is not OVER active and he seems much healthier with more energy.

On the down side, Frankie is cooped up in his approximately 20' by 60' paddock and run-in with some pasture turn out. He can get a little over weight if I do not ride him enough and this winter has been one of those times. I also feel he needs a horse friend and I have great hopes to get him a buddy some day. Frankie and Emma are good together but I know he needs MORE in his life.

FUTURE~
I hope to see my animals in a living environment that is mentally and physically stimulating. I hope to be able to not worry so much about Frankie eating dirt out of boredom or letting gas build up in his tummy because he is not getting enough exercise. I would love to have a boarder with us so he has another horse to be with. I have not had the room for that at all but maybe with the Paddock Paradise tracking that is a possibility!

In The Beginning

These pages are about my search for what I hope to be a new and healthier life for my horse and how he lives.

have you ever had one of those moments when you get inspired by something and you just know it is exactly what you have been looking for. I had one of those moments while reading a web site I found about the Paddock Paradise from Jamie Jackson's research on wild horses.

I own one horse named Frankie who is a 12 year old Tennessee Walking horse and a nanny goat named Emma. My family and I live on 5 acres of hills and woods in Virginia. Frankie's pasture as of right now is a little over one acre with his 1/2 acre dry lot paddock. My pasture does not grow a lot of grass because there are a lot of trees in it so he can only stay on it for short periods or he will eat it quickly to dirt. We also have another two acres of thickly wooded area that is unused. I have been trying and trying to figure out a way to get Frankie more room to move about. It would cost thousands to clear that unused land. The land is very hilly with a creek through the middle so the trees are also needed to keep too much erosion from happening.

What we DO have however are several trails through the woods that our boys made with the neighbors when they were young and played in the woods. This is where the AAAAHA moment came (and the clouds parted and the angels sang). I can make a track along all those trails and power lines like shown in the paddock paradise method! I got so excited I have already drawn up a map. I am very excited to get started and look so forward to getting Frankie out there where he is not trapped in a small paddock area so often.