pony a little sluggish lately ...

[notpoodle]

angel's been rather sluggish/lazy the last couple of times i rode her :rolleyes: not lame or refusing to move, it's just been pretty hard graft to get her going :rolleyes:

i don't think it's a feed issue, as she is getting ad lib hay, a handful of sugarbeet and a handful of alfalfa (along with her vitamin biscuit things) every other day and there IS grass in her current field. or should i add some 'safe' (ie sth that wont cause laminitis ...) low energy feed to her diet? something like 'safe and sound' maybe?


i also thought maybe it IS a saddle issue. the new saddle was fitted by a saddler and checked again by my vet BUT seeing she has lost some weight and changed shaped a bit, i am worried the saddle is no longer 100% :rolleyes: (i am planning to go treeless once i get my tax return but that wont be till april/may ...)

vet gave her a once-over before vaccinating her the other day and said she looked absolutely fine weightwise etc.

or is she just being a poo?!

julia
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[Holly B]

Perhaps she's just feeling a bit under the weather? Who knows, if only they could talk... :)

[Yann]

If she's not getting much in the way of feed at the moment then I'd say that might well be the problem. If your grass is anything like ours at the moment it's pretty much worthless as a source of anything other than a way to pass the time.

The other thing to bear in mind if she's rugless and it's cold is that she'll be using a bit more energy to keep herself warm. It might be worth upping her feed a little and seeing if that perks her up a bit? We give Gem happy hoof, its Laminitis Trust approved and has a bit more energy in it than a basic chaff whilst being low on dodgy sugars.

Unless it's doing something like dropping onto her withers or flapping at the back, losing weight is less of an issue with the saddle than gaining it and having it pinch.

[eventerbabe]

Julia, can i do you a swap? toby is behaving like an absolute nutter at the moment!

maybe up her feed? i saw blue chip have introduced a new balancer, Lami-light, designed for natives/lamanitics/good doers.

[Drummers mum]

or is she just being a poo?!

:D lol :D How familiar does that sound!! :D

I think its the weather again. Drummer had a manic time a couple of weeks ago and now hes gone all sluggish again.

Yesterday when I rode in the schooling area, did he nap?! :eek: Drove me mad, wouldn't circle 'cos his head was the wrong way, pointing home! :rolleyes: wouldn't canter at all!! Then when had to get back to yard in a hurry (girl fell off!) he practicaly galloped me home!! :mad:

Decided to go for a ride round the orchard since schooling was such a no no and he still wouldn't canter, but after his homeward bound enthusiasm I decided enough was enough and gave him a good smack to get him going (don't normaly do that :o hate whips!) He bucked, but cantered beautifully! :D

What a little poo!

[Mehitabel]

could be either! i'd agree with yann that even though there's grass to look at, it's doubtful it's got much in the way of nutritional value. it worked well when you upped her feed before, for a while, didn't it? it is colder now, and more consistently cold, so perhaps either up it a bit more or get her a rug. (she is still naked, isn't she?)

alternately, try getting a bit tougher, carry a schooling whip and don't be afraid to use it, and see if that does the job or if she is genuinely finding it hard work. it's a fine line sometimes between giving them the benefit of the doubt and having the mickey taken...

[notpoodle]

she was super to ride today, forward, willing etc. must have been the cold :D

@es: she's still getting ad lib hay, sugarbeet and alfa-a every other day. i am in the process of gradually increasing the sugarbeet and the alfa -a though and am wondering whether to add a bit of eg. safe and sound to her feed?! i'm just worried i conjure up laminitis if i feed the wrong thing :rolleyes:

and yes, she is still naked, but comes in at night every other day now.

here's a picture from two days ago ... does she look way too thin?? i had the vet round for vaccinations a couple of days ago, she said it looks fine and it'd be better like this than her being fat with spring round the corner ...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/toyracer/pally1.jpg

(angel is the brown pony obviously!)

julia
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[Mehitabel]

the vet is right, of course, but i wouldn't want her any thinner. we've still got a fair bit of winter to get through yet, i think, and the next week or so is meant to be very cold. if she were mine, i'd rug her at this point.

you're right to be concerned abotu laminitis, but at this time of year and at her weight there's no need to be enormously paranoid just yet. when she looks overweight and the grasss has some goodness in it, then keep a sharp eye on her.

[notpoodle]

yeah maybe i WILL get her a rug ... i'd rather i had one around if i need it :) i'll up her sugarbeet/alfa-a allowance as well and ask at local tackshop what theyd recommend in terms of cubes or ponynuts.

julia
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[notpoodle]

just a little update! i finally caved in and got her a lightweight turnout rug today! it fits nicely.

reasons were that the weather is vicious at the moment (esp at night ... sleet storms etc.) and she was very desperate to come in the last couple of days ...

i hope i did the right thing!

julia
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[Mehitabel]

why is it caving? she'll be warmer, drier and more comfortable.

[Esther.D]

If she is happier with the rug then I don't see a problem with that at all. :)

[notpoodle]

she seems fine with it on (still paranoid it'll rub or something ....) - and her boyfriend's got the same one, so it's his'n'hers outfits for the two and they seem rather pleased with themselves :D

julia
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[notpoodle]

total confusion is setting in now ...

on the one hand i am advised (by people at the yard, you people etc.) to stick a lightweight turnout rug on her in this horrid cold weather.

on the other hand, the 'hardliners' (exmoor pony people) advise me not to as it will flatten and ruin her multilayered wintercoat resulting in her getting cold under the rug.

what is a girl to do?? she's still got the rug on btw, because i wasnt sure how the weather would pan out etc.

julia
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[Mehitabel]

what's a girl to do? listen to her pony. does she seem cold or unhappy with the rug on? is she still sluggish, getting worse or better, losing weight? get a weightape so you can actually measure her waistline and keep track of small changes, when you ride, see how she is and really compare it to how she was before. then do what seems to make her happier, make her go better, keep the weight where you want it.

it's true that a completely unlined rug will flatten the hair but not provide enough warmth to make up for it - as i'm sure you know, they insulate themselves by trapping warm air next to the skin in the underneath of the coat. so if the coat can't stand up on end because it has a rug on it, then that loses its efficiency - so you need to be sure there's enough filling in the rug to make up for that.

[notpoodle]

it has lining (like a thin sleeping bag if you know what i mean), so its not just a rainsheet or something. i got a weight tape but im not sure how to use it, ie. dont know how to measure accurately with it and always find exactly the same spot to measure ?!

julia
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[Mehitabel]

it's just a tape measure. do it after you've ridden, where the girth was - that's accurate enough.

how does she seem in herself? any change for the worse since the rug?

[Yann]

Bear in mind that the rug will also keep the wind and especially the rain off the coat, even if it's light or unlined, which will keep them warmer.

[alfi-social]

I've always had trouble with weight tapes but have read recently that the correct way to measure is to have the weight tape going at a slight diagonal from the bottom of the withers to as near to the elbow as you can get.

Profiles for saddle fitting is something else I have had problems with-some people say the bottom of the withers and some say 2 fingers behind the top of the shoulder blade and some say 3 fingers behind the shoulder blade and when I find the shoulderblade do they mean the middle of the top or the end of the top or what? Everytime I do a profile of Mr Exmoor it comes out differently?
Can anyone help?
BWs Alfi

[alfi-social]

Hi notpoodle-we have 2 Exmoors now! Freya has been lent one to do pony club stuff on! His name is Basil and he is darker and slimmer than Whisky.
He goes in a trailer like a lamb and did mounted games with her on Sunday.
She is thrilled. (He does not like our motorway bridge though and has got half way across and then taken off at a gallop) He has a turnout rug but
its a bit of a pain because Tiptop the naughty Welshy spends his time trying to put new holes in it. I'll send some photos when I can work out how to do it. We have Basil till august-he suffers from sweet itch and I am not sure how we will cope though he's in a windy field and we have a special rug to use once the midges hatch.

[notpoodle]

awww have you got any pictures of them? basil is such a lovely name :D

as for angel .... due to the weather it's all gone a bit pearshaped!!! all the horses are to stay in until the weather gets better, as there is nothing to eat left in the field (and they wont put hay out for whatever reason ...) and two horses escaped through the hedge last night and turned up on the road (THANK GOD angel was not one of them!) , so the field is unsafe until thats fixed. i am praying to god angel wont go absolutely loopy being stabled :rolleyes:

she's doing fine so far .... bit whizzy to ride but nothing else to worry about as yet!

julia
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[alfi-social]

Poor Angel-I hope the field is fixed soon!
I've heard other people say their yard won't put out hay- is it because they won't know whose eaten it , so who to charge for it?
I shall send photos as soon as I get my OH or D to help me do it!

[notpoodle]

they wont out any out because the field is up the road and they find it too impractical :rolleyes: theyre not very good/quick at fixing fences unfortunately ... in fact theres a field left from the summer that STILL hasnt been fixed :rolleyes:

angel is getting increasingly miffed off .... understandably so!

was told theyre in next week and hopefully out again after that (yard wants them out as well because the school ponies are going loopy, theres loads more work mucking them all out and theyre running out of stabes!).

still ... i supposed 2 weeks indoors throughout a whole year isnt too bad considering all other yards round here shut their fields entirely from october through to april :rolleyes:

julia
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[hApPiNeSs]

til april??? thats a bit drastic!

poor angel having to stay in for 2 weeks! give her a kiss from happy :)

[notpoodle]

they got to go out today and can stay out till tuesday (one of the grooms put her foot down about excess work load of school ponies pooeing in all the stables ... and the riding school is closed on monday so having them in is a bit pointless). THANK GOD!

getting her to the field was a bit extreme .... tagged along with about 10 school horses, other ones were already in the field and duly barged to the gate bucking etc. to greet the ones coming in ... could have gotten very messy and i am glad i had the bridle on angel!!

julia
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