Sunday, July 10, 2011

Cold weather!

While everybody on the other side of the world is experiencing the lovely warmth of summer we are having a very cold winter! We haven't really gotten any warmer than 11 degrees all week, it has been blowing an icy wind and overcast to top it off. I don't think Sam enjoys this cold weather, he is very grumpy and poor Poppy can't do anything right!

In the cold weather have you ever experienced your horse not pooing as much? For a few nights there he only did 3-4 poos where he normally does about 8. He didn't have a temperature, feed intake has slightly decreased, normal gut sounds. I was wondering if he was using more from his feed to keep warm?

He is rugged up and always feel warm when I feel underneath. He has also become very picky with his feed lately. It is driving me crazy because in this cold weather I am trying to keep the feed up to him so he won't drop any weight. Some nights he hardly touches his hay and then other nights he eats it all up. Same with his hard feed. He isn't in work at the moment due to the awful weather. This weekend I kept an eye on him during the day and he doesn't seem to be grazing much either.

He hasn't dropped any weight and will eat his hard feed when I sit with him and hand feed it to him. He is such a worry. Tomorrow I am going to change paddocks to see if that helps.

I guess all I can do is keep an eye on him. He is still drinking though this has really decreased and I am putting this down to the cold weather as well. He is getting some moisture out of the grass due to the bit of rain we are also having as well.

We did have a morning where it was -3 degrees!!!!!! That is very cold for us!
Very frosty and crunchy under foot!!!!
Then the fog started to roll in

It was coming in pretty quick!
Yep that is little Sam over on the left having his warm breaky!

I am going to have another ride of Fred on Saturday. (to see my post about Fred please click here.) I haven't been able to stop thinking about him so I figured it is worth another look. Shaun tells me he has been in more work since I last saw him and is working a lot better. He also went to jump club today so I will call Shaun to find out how he went. Shaun won't be there as he will be away competing but he is happy for me to go and ride. I am very appreciative of this as he obviously feels that I am a good enough rider to ride one of his horses without supervision. I will try and get photos this time and more video footage. I am going to ask if I can take him out on the road and pop him over a small cross rail as well. He is also being used to help teach a nervous lady how to jump, I like that!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good luck with your ride!

Reduced drinking in winter can lead to digestive problems, including colic - Maisie was very prone to that. Heated water buckets can make a big difference - if you don't have heated troughs or buckets, adding hot water from time to time if you can encourage some horses to drink. Mashes with lots of water added are good too. I also add a tablespoon of plain (uniodized) table salt to am and pm feed to encourage drinking in the winter.