Well It's definitely been a while since I've written a proper blog post here, It feels weird typing like this again actually.

Strip Grazing is something I've always done with the horses as soon as I've had the opportunity to. When I first moved on the livery I'm at Legacy was in the fields with other horses, at this point we didn't have Cloudy so he wasn't there yet to go in with her. It was winter when we first arrived so she was hay throughout. During the winter her field buddy became lame and had to come in on box rest for a good amount of time. Therefore she gained a new friend as a field buddy.

They then stayed together throughout the summer, but as the grass was eaten I gained a problem that I feel most finer type horse owners would feel my pain with as the other horse became fat. Meaning all I could do was give Legacy hard feed, and no hay as the other horse was on a 'no extra feed/hay diet'. Unfortunately due to the lack of Grazing Legacy ended up getting worms. Thankfully she recovered well from this.

Before the diagnosis of her having worms she rapidly lost a lot of weight and went down to a bag of bones. I was actually scared to weigh her at her worst so I don't know how bad she went. To try and gain some some on her we tried bringing her into the stable for hay but she was stressing herself out more than it was helping. After this we tried her in the round pen as it was near some horses in the field. She settled in here and she would go in there from about 8/am until 2/pm just eating grass and hay. 

After a good worm and a visit of the vet to confirm it was worms for the weight loss, we kept her in the round pen and changed her hard feed to Baileys no. 4. That food is amazing and if anyone ever asks what I recommend for weight gain, I always say feed that and at the recommended amounts.

Not long after this my mum got Cloudy and he went down Into another field with some other geldings, until he was needed as a field buddy for Legacy. Since these two have been together we decided that we would strip graze to try and maintain an amount of grass for them for as long as possible throughout the summer and autumn. 

We try to keep the two horses out for as long as possible weather and grass providing. 

The way we done it the last couple of years is we've had them on the last section of grass by the end of August. When moving the fence we try to alternate between giving them more grass and some hay. This way we can get the grass to last us longer.

When we give them the last section, we let them eat it down for a week or so then cut it off again for it to rest and grow back until it stops and then they get it all again. It's typically not long after this that they come into the stables over night for winter. When this happens they move field. 

To try and keep them supplied with grass but also give the bits they've just eaten a rest and little time to grow back, we swap the fence in a diagonal line. When we move one size of the fence in to give them more grass we move the other side out to cover tee eaten grass. This seems to have worked for us in the past. This year its not ideal as we're not currently having any rain to get the grass growing again. 

Below I've added some links to some electric fencing starter kits like the one I bought. The Exact one I did get is the Hotline starter kit which I found great and very easy to set up considering I'd used any electric fencing before. The only problem I found was that there wasn't enough fence posts so I had to buy another set.
Both of these kits come with tape for the fencing, due to the amount of wind in my area the tape lasted a season, after this I changed to wire as it's more durable with the wind. The only problem I found with wire though is that as Cloudy jumps over the fence it does start to fray with use and moving the fence.

    

Waldhausen Spring/Summer 2018 Wishlist.

I've recently just seen the new spring/summer 2018 horse & rider range from Waldhausen and there's so many things that I'd love to have for myself and Legacy. I have many itmes from their past collections and although they're not a budget brand, you defiantly are paying for the quality of the product. As they're a German based brand not all of their products are in fluent english.   

They've brought out one of my favourite colour combinations that I've seen by far. I've never been a pink person and have never bought pink for Legacy because of this but the dusky pink colour they have used with the silver grey I can't get enough of. Because of liking it all so much I've decided to do a wish list of items for Legacy and then a list for myself. 

Saddle Pad - Fly Veil - Fetlock Boots - Tendon Boots - Head collar

Erin Breeches - These looks great as I find it hard to find a pair of breeches which just have silicone on the knee and not a full seat, Due to having a gel seat saver I don't need the full seat. 

Vigo Quilted Mixed Fabric Jacket in Night Blue - I feel this would be a great jacket for the chillier days in spring and due to the colour you could get away with using it through to autumn too. The hood is a great added extra as you never know when it's going to rain over here. I think this would be a great jacket for down the yard but also a great fashion item for day to day as well.

Metropolitan Reflective Riding Gloves - I feel these would be great as they are lightweight, soft and breathable. These are great for the warmer weather in the summer. 

Valencia Fashion Fleece Jacket - I think this would be  a great lightweight sporty fleece lined figure cut jacket. This would be great for riding or around the yard when there's a slight chill in the air. 

Villach Mixed Fabric Fleece Jacket - This is like the Vigo Quilted Jacket but without the hood and more lightweight. This would stand between the Vigo jacket and the Valencia jacket. Like the Vigo jacket this would be great for either being around the yard or day to day wear.

Have you ever tried anything from this brand before? Like the look of the items? Check them out on the site and look out for your local stockist.

Yard Before Work

Due to me working odd shifts in work, I only muck out the horses on my days off of Monday & Tuesday and when I don't start work until 10:45. I work odd times on the weekends and then on the other days opposite to the 'late' shift is the 'early' shift to where I start work at 8 and don't finish until 4:30. With the horses not going out until 8:30 and coming in 4/4:30ish by the time I get there after work they'd be in. Now these 2 horses seem to be the worst 2 to muck out when they're in there, always knocking the wheelbarrow over, standing in the way and making more mess. I'm lucky enough to be fussy not to have to work with this when my mum can muck them out on the days I can't, it's always handy because if either of us need a day off from doing them there's always the other person there. 

This is a quick image of what I wear when I do my yard work. The bottom half of the outfit rarely changes apart from the odd change of footwear.
The trousers I wear are Regatta waterproofs. They are similar to these Regatta Stormbreaker ones I found on ebay for only £8.69 with free P&P. For this price I'm definitely adding these to my ebay watch list for when I need another pair. Although these are lightweight and thin they are durable and last a while. The current pair I'm wearing have lasted me for 2 years. So for the price you pay they do last a long while. These trousers are great because I wrap up warm for work in the winter so those clothes keep me warm while mucking out and then throughout the summer they are light enough to not make me hot. 

On my feet I'm currently wearing my Harry Hall Yale Country Boots, these are some of the most comfortable boots I've ever worn. They are not longer for sale but I recommend if you can get your hands on a pair they're great. 

On my top half I wear a hat on my head no matter how I've done my hair ready for work. Any wooly hat does the job of keeping my ears warm and keeping the smell of dirty horse bed out of my hair, which helps keep me presentable for work. 
I then have a variation of jackets & coats to which I wear on top of my uniform. Due to how warm I can get at times when mucking out I only wear my thermals and work t-shirt under my coat. The current jacket that I'm wearing for this weather is my Dublin Trinity Blouson Jacket, then in the winter I wear my Equine Answers Regatta coat. Throughout the summer I typically just wear a hoodie to cover my uniform or depending on how hot it is I'll wear a different t-shirt and then will get changed when I get into work. 

On my hands I then wear kids gardening gloves as these keep the smells off my hands. The gloves I use are these kids gardening gloves from Wilko. They are also great as the haylage we can can sometimes get thistles in it, they are quite awful when they stick into your hands when you grab into the bale. They are great throughout the winter as they keep your hands dry and keep the chill off of your hands. 




The other alternative to wearing all of these before work is a pair of overalls. I have a pair of these from back when I was in college but I don't really wear them for yard work as they're a bit big for me, and I found throughout the winter I was needing to wear waterproof trousers and a coat to stay dry. 

Feeding for time of year & Behavior

This time of year can be tricky when it comes to feeding, as your horses will either be coming out of winter well or needing to be fed up. In recent years and this one for sure there isn't grass always readily available to put these horses onto to gain the needed weight, so that's where people start or continue feeding conditioning feed. That can be fine depending on the horses temperament, how much they are worked, if they are on any grass and how much condition they need.

The fresh spring grass that is coming through is full of sugar, there is less sugar in the grass at night but it's still there (tip if you have a laminitic prone horse that has to come in for some time, put them out at night). If you have a horse that can be easily fizzed up through sugar & starch you will be best putting them on a low starch feed. This can be a fibre based feed with mainly chaff, fibre cubes, or a complete fibre feed. Complete fibre feeds are good as they are typically aimed at laminitic horses meaning they will have low or hardly any sugar, but there are also condition fibre feeds out there such as Dengie Healthy tummy or Spillers conditioning fibre. These 2 I've heard have great results on ex racehorses & the Healthy tummy on ulcer prone horses. I've used both of these for Legacy but as a 'chaff' rather than a complete feed as with the size of her she would be going through the bags too fast.
Cubes are also lower in starch than mixes although they are created with the same high ingredients as the mixes. Cubes also cost less to make which means they cost less to buy off the shelf which is always a handy added bonus. When a feed has high starch the blood sugar levels are always changing which can cause the horse to become fizzy at times but when they are on a high fibre low starch feed the blood sugar levels are maintained, meaning you will have a happy horse.

Some horses can be really sensitive when it comes to feeding sugars & starch while others can have it all and still be laid back (these are rare to come across). 

Here are some ingredients in feeds which your horse may be/or react to:

- Molasses (Pure sugar)

- Barley

- Oats

- Beet (through either Sugar Beet or Speedi Beet) 

Allen & Pages Calm & Condition is good as it's molasses & Barley free but some horses can react to the barley replacer that they use. This is something to keep in mind if you ever use this product. If you are feeding a few of the above list and have a fizzy horse my best suggestion is to try and cut some of them out so you can pin point which one is causing any trouble for you.

Not all horses express their excess energy through being fizzy they can become bargy and boulchy to handle. This is where it's important to sort out their feed as they can learn this behavior if not corrected and if left before changing feed they may carry on like this after the feed has been changed. 

I had a scenario with Legacy the first winter I had her, she was in need of a little extra fat on her so she was on a good amount of conditioning mix and she was behaving as normal as she had since I'd had her and she'd been living out August- December. I then moved yards and be became stabled and had ad lib hay in the field & 2 haynets in the stable at night to get her filled up, along with her usual amount of feed but now in 2 meals instead of one ( can anyone see where this is going? haha) anyway the weight started to come on her and when I was riding her in the school she would like to blot off, and at this point she had not been re-mouthed and hated turned corners in any speed above walk. I just through she needed more schooling and it was the racer part of her that wanted to go in an open space in a straight line, I mean she would go from bolting off in a fast canter to dead stop in seconds she hated the corners so much. In the end it got to the day before new years eve last year and she took off, I tried to stop her and she was having none of it, she was up vertically in the air then down to buck and I think this repeated about 3 times before I flew off in the rear. This was my first fall off her and my first fall ever so atleast it was an eventful one. I had to go to A&E with a bad headache as I could still feel the rim of my hat on my head hours later, and I was completely fine and didn't even end up with a bruise. But I learnt the hard way about feeding too much starch  and feeding mixes to a sensitive horse. She's completely fine with sugars but I have to watch the starch. 

Have you had any experiences like this? Did you find this blog post handy? If you'd like more like this let me know.

Chart taken from the Allen & Page website. 

Light Evenings Can Only Mean One Thing

It's now creeped to that time of year where I can start to ride after work. The evenings now don't get dark until 6 O'Clock. When I do the early shift in work I finish for 4, this gives me 20-30mins to get to the yard and Legacy will be in her stable ready for the night. This is also great for me as I don't have a stressy Legacy to tack up, like she can be when she's on her own.

This time of evening is great to ride on the yard as everyone has been and done their daily riding by this point, which means the school will be free for me.

As Legacy has recently had 2 months off work I'm only doing short schooling sessions with her until she gains some fitness back up, saying that she wasn't full of fitness before. Now's the time to start building her up, for some summer activities hopefully. So the sort time allowed with the darkness is great for me at the moment.

Have you managed to get some late evening riding in now that the evenings are getting lighter and longer?

Quick Update: Where I've been

Where have I been? Well I know I have done a few of these posts where I've been missing for a while over the time of the blog, But now I'm actually going to make an effort to continue with the blog posts after this. Over the time I've been gone there has been a lot going on with Legacy but none of it has been good. After she recovered from her worms she has been putting the weight back on great, which she still has all of and is looking better than ever.

Due to the bad weather we've had this winter I didn't get much riding time in and then she cut her head open, the vet had to be out to sedate her to then add stitches. She looks great with a bald patch just by her right ear haha.

Just as the stitches have healed and I could chance getting the bridle on her without any sensitivity in the area from her cut, she came in lame from all of the wet weather we've been having in Wales her soles have gone soft. So to fix this she came in on box rest for 5 days. After this she was great and her soles were getting better, she was allowed out if she came in when the days were really wet. The first day this happened and all her friends went out she hated it, she really hates being left alone in the stable on her own. She was pawing, kicking, shouting & neighing basically being a right terror. She had to be out the next day, over the next few days she went lame from the wet again. The farrier has been checking her feet throughout this, and due to her going lame again she now has silicone pads on with back shoes to help her soles recover from the wet field. She instantly went sound with them on as she was only a little lame.

As the weather was great we decided to go out for a small hack, a few of us from the yard. After legacy having near enough 2 months off work she didn't put a foot wrong out on the hack, she was brilliant. Now that she's back sound and her heard has heel, I just need the lighter nights, which are working their way here and the spring weather to come through to get her back working and hit come accomplishments with her this year.

A few things I want to work on with her this year is her canter in the school, so she doesn't speed off and she needs to gain more balance in canter, I also want her to become more engaged from her behind to learn to work into a contact. After she's managed this I want to work on doing some jumping with her. In the mean time I will be doing lots of ground work with her and some trotting work over poles.

I won't leave it so long to update next time.

Spring grass = Excitable Legacy

I When the spring grass comes through each horse can react to it differently, some put on weight, and others can get quite excited. Legacy can be quite excitable just on a day to day basis, because of this she's on Naf Magic calmer (can review this is people would like) this stuff is what it says in its name magic, she's just so happened to run out of it as the fresh grass is coming through. 

From the way she's been while she's off it, I can't wait until she's back on it haha. 

As she's slightly still too underweight for my liking, she's been on Baileys topline conditioning mix and Dengie healthy tummy, both of these together have worked well for her but as she isn't getting worked much due to me not driving yet she hasn't been using up her energy. 

Original energy + Spring grass + Extra energy from feed = Explosion of Legacy. 

Because of all of this she has now been taken off her feed for the summer Atleast and she will now have a forage based diet, but I need to find a balancer for her to also have. 

If anyone has any recommendations on a great balancer that can be fed along with Naf Magic that would be great.