Reina, Baymule’s Horse

[meadow]

I’ve used beet pulp, horses love it. Hydrating it is pretty simple, just soak in water a little before feeding time. I’m sure there is a “correct” way to do it, much better. LOL

haha... no, I meant that severely neglected horses need the changes to be done in a way that does not harm them. Hmmm. I guess like the holocaust survivors. But I don't know anything about it.

eta: but DD's horse had suffered longterm severe neglect, and it sounds like this woman kinda specializes in that.

eta2:
ugh. I didn't word that well.

These other rescues were in worse condition than Reina, so not the same situation. Maybe the protocol isn't as important for Reina.

 

[AMKuska]

She may be difficult to catch because she's never been rewarded for coming. I suspect if the postman made me do 100 pushups every time I saw him I'd be nipping out into the back garden until he's gone each time too. If there's a 50/50 chance he's going to give me $1,000 or the pushups, I might take my chances. ;-)

 

[ducks4you]

Thanks. I missed my horses and regretted selling them but that’s what I had to do at the time. I’m back in the saddle now! Well, almost. LOL I believe Reina will be a good riding horse. She may remain hard to catch, but I’ve had hard to catch horses before, just bribe them with a little feed.

Does anyone have any advice or ideas on how to get those awful matts out of her mane? @ducks4you ?

2 things work the best for me, and two of my horses have the thickest manes, ever being Mountain Horses.
1.) Cowboy Magic (or ANY of the detangler products that are available close to you, so you can bring it home quickly)
2.) Vegetable Oil
The oil is messier but it's not toxic.
I like to start at their tails. PLEASE stand at her quarters and pull her tail towards you.
This will give you an opportunity to run your hands around her quarters.
Cup and Cakes and I have made a truce. I talk him through the Entire ordeal, and tell him that he is beautiful when we are done.
I also do the full meal deal and comb the manes against the grain to the other side.
She isn't anywhere as bad as mine, who seem to have found the one burdock forest left this Fall on the other side of the fence!

 

[ducks4you]

I am not a fan of beef pulp. It can cause some problems.
What she needs now is as much has as she can put away every day. It will take about 6 months before you really see a change.
I have owned hard keepers before.
Easy keepers that have been starved can be different, horses need LOW PROTEIN.
Too much extra calories could cause problems.
What say your Vet?

 

[baymule]

I just feeding her a 12% pellet right now. I bought a scoop with lines marking 1/2 pound increments for pellets, sweet feed and oats. Tonight I gave her one pound. I’m slowly increasing her feed. It’s pretty obvious she didn’t get much for a long time. She’ll get a pound in the morning, pound and a half tomorrow evening and I’ll hold her there a couple of days. There is grass in her pen and a round bale that she is ignoring.

I’ll make a vet appointment for her next week to get her teeth floated and a check up. Thought I’d give her a week to settle in, eat, eat, and just be home. If she is sick with anything, it ought to show up by then.

 

[ducks4you]

She will ignore the hay if there is grass available. Good sign!
Somehow I ended up this year with award quality alfalfa, heavy, leafy and green. I count flakes. My smaller horses (~1,200 lbs) get 2 flakes/2x day, and my big guy (1, 350 lbs) gets 3 flakes/2x day.
If I tried feeding good quality but regular grass hay they wouldn't touch it.
I am glad that your Vet will see her soon. He/she can recommend proper deworming, etc., which can be tricky.
I know that my dog, Pyg, at 8 weeks old had worms, but, being a strong, little puppy, I could deworm her, and 3 days later she was "puppy."
For people who don't know, large infestations of bloodworms in a heavily parasitized horse, killed successfully by over the counter dewormers will kill the horse.
A Vet knows how to determine a parasite load and how to administer dewormer property on such a horse.
She looks gaited.

 

[baymule]

She is gaited. Good eye! She is a Missouri Fox Trotter.
She has a vet appointment on Monday.

 

[baymule]

3 guys came yesterday to finish sawing up that enormous oak tree in the front pasture. I went to get Reina, openly carrying a halter and lead rope. Ummmm….., nope! She walked away, I backed up. I held out a treat. Walk towards her, she walk away a few steps, while I backed up. Forward, back, forward, back, until she stood and got her treat. I put the lead rope around her neck and slipped the new halter on. It fit perfect.

Grass! While she grazed, I unraveled the mane ropes.

One of the guys started clearing the fence row, I’ve given them the pines. The wire isn’t worth saving, it’s real old.

The posts are old and rotten. They mostly broke off at the ground.

I was grazing Reina close to all the chainsaw noise, then I moved her real close. She did ok with the noise. She got concerned a few times, but did good.

I worked on her mane, untwisting the ropes and got one mat out. She still has a couple of big ones.

Walked her back to her pen, took the halter off and gave her a treat.

I’m purposely showing her the halter and lead rope so she knows I am going to catch her versus just giving her a treat or feeding her. I’ve had horses that I had to hide the lead rope under my shirt. Maybe she and I can reach a place where she is ok with being caught, maybe not. If not, I know how to get around that.

 

[flowerbug]

super nice that you have people willing to clear that to take the wood in exchange. we've tried that here a few times but it's just not enough incentive with all the other complications.

we must be such noisy creatures to them...

 

[seedcorn]

(Not a horse person), why can’t you just cut the tangled hair off and allow it to regrow?