We have added to the mares track. We have built a hill as ALL tracks need a hill. It gives us an additional surface (soil) for the horses and the horses love hills. Or they do in our flat part of Yorkshire. We also now have a purpose built quarantine area in the middle of the mare track. When it's not in use in can be a larger feeding gathering area for the mares and it allows us to quarantine horses all year round. We have made do with sectioning part of the gelding track but the only shelter was the hedge which in winter is lacking. It also makes the boys track much smaller. Hopefully this addition will make our life much easier and hopefully the horses will love it. Judging by this video they will do!!
This addition also makes the mares track circular now we started off with just a U. You might see we have left ourselves the ability to expand in future years..... So watch this space.
#imdgardenandpaddockmaintainceservices
You might remember this post from Jan last year when Drifter helped Ian with his fencing on our track.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/YHKLQ1KyuQGHpouQ/
Well this time round Ian had forgotten how helpful Drifter can be and asked if he could start his power tools near her, he was worried she would spook!!
Nah not Drifter. She would help if she could.
#imdgardenandpaddockmaintainceservices
The hill is used for all sorts and Bertie loves rolling. They use the sandpit a lot for rolling. Bt obviously a down hill slope is best!!!
Where do Ur horses love rolling??!
I'm again trying to plant some mint near the track. For a plant which is hard to kill I'm finding it hard to keep it alive. Lol I used to be good at gardening. Bt now I work with horses I don't have time and seem to have lost my green finger 🤞 they will come back and this will survive winter.
Anyway ponies seem to enjoy it!
Bertie is horse number 2, who purposely avoids ALL the logs in the link below. Why after over a year is he now choosing to walk over the biggest log? The first time I saw this I thought I was seeing things. Bertie is well known as an energy concerver. So why the change? Track observations really do give me more questions than answers. Bt I love it. Hopefully the answer will come to me later or you guys will have some good thoughts.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/p4aHwneqw2xuFChB/
The boys don't use there shelter very often. There is the occasional poo and after rain we find some bedding on the none rugged horses often. Bt it was great seeing Arthur use the shelter when it was raining. Below is a video of of Arthur rolling and being cross in the rain.... Not using the shelter.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1626656751002486?s=yWDuG2&fs=e
We have moved our @fsanimalhealth_uk ring feeder which we love. to the mares track as we have more mares than geldings. Meaning now it's winter we can put out more higher calorie dry hay as the geldings are loosing weight really well and we don't want the weight loss to be too quick. We also don't want the round bale to spoil and it was taking 5 boys about 7 days to eat it.
As we did this move a few weeks ago I can tell you it takes the 6 mares 5 days to eat the same bale. We have more mares that need to loose a lot of weight so the bale feeder is better suited to that track. We also put out higher calorie hay on the mare track, but less until the weight is better on all the horses.
#weightloss #weightlosstransformation
I'm genuinely interested. What do you guys see in this video. I love watching the herd and trying to guess what is going on..... So let's hear your guys interpretations. Pls keep it polite and informative.
Still the 3 boys together. Then we swap Bertie out and give Hector the last 10 mins of the day so that his stints are short hoping that Jack doesn't annoy him too much and that they can start getting along.
Arthur Bertie and Jack in together. Bertie is more engaging this time round. He asked to be added to the mix. So he was ready to meet Jack again. Let's see how they get on this time round.
More of Jack and Arthur mixing. Arthur is still fairly frozen. But you can see hints of improvement from Jack.
Day 3 of Jack mixing with the gelding herd. It's a rainy day and I found my phone doesn't like recording in the rain so there are bits we have missed.
I started with Bertie and Arthur together with Jack. Just to give Bertie confidence that he could interact with Jack if he wanted bt also giving Jack someone else to interact with if Bertie didn't want to.
The reason there is only 1 net up is I added that when I realised Bertie Arthur and Jack were fine. Bt I wasn't able to get the 2nd net up before my 2 boys had started eating and Jack came off. My intention was to get a 2nd net, which I got before adding Hector in and removing Bertie.
On previous mixing with Hector we found that he would grump at another horse and then follow it threw with chasing. With Silver this took a long time to stop him. Usually I find horses grump, then the 'victim' backs off and the 'attacker' stops. This wasn't the case with Hector. This is then I time when I can intervene and break up the attack. Allowing the other horse to get away to safety.
So this is why we stopped the Hector intro at this moment today as he had done a good 'attack' and Jack had backed away and Hector had pulled up. I don't want to stress Hector out that he goes back to chasing as he doesn't feel he is being heard.
When Mixing our horses it's important to keep the new horses safe and the old ones. Both parties need to be happy and ok with the situations.
Enjoy the video.
