Tally has arrived + pics!

[MadMumInKent]

Hi all :D :D Oh I'm SO SO HAPPY!!!

Tally travelled beautifully, arrived safely, had an hour in his new stable where he found a nice full haynet much to his delight. Then I groomed him (not that he needed it, he was immaculate!), and led him around his new field. Nothing phased him, not even the 2 mares in the next field. He was as calm as anything, just plodded beside me, taking it all in. Once he'd had a good look, I let him loose, and he just stood there munching on the grass. I kept going back to him just to say hello, and mostly he came to me rather than me walking around after him! He is an absolute delight! I just kept standing staring at him. It hasn't sunk in that I have my own horse yet, it doesn't feel real :rolleyes: I'm going back up there in a while, taking the kids to see him. I'm itching to get up there again! I am absolutely overwhelmingly ecstaticly over the moon!!

Here are some pics :)

http://www.tammaro.co.uk/tallyday1a.jpg

http://www.tammaro.co.uk/tallyday1b.jpg

http://www.tammaro.co.uk/tallyday1c.jpg

[sophie33]

wow, I'm sooo jealous. He looks lovely and content, and you look so happy! :)

[*Rachel_George*]

he looks lovely and chilled unlike little willow chasing all the horses and kicking them all :rolleyes: Just time until one goes lame...they wont leave her alone as dont think they have ever been out with somthing so small

Hope you have lots of fun with him
xxxxxxxxx

[kyanya]

You must be so, so happy :D A horsey all of your own. And whats more, he's a gorgeous boy. Remarkably chilled about it all which is a fantastic thing.

Happy horse owning :D Looks like you've got a great start as well with such a lovely neddie and a really super looking yard. Have lots and lots of fun :D

[karebeth]

So happy for you!
He's beautiful!

[Ginger Thing]

Congratulations, he's lovely :D

I know how you feel - I was 32 when I finally got my first horse 3 years ago, fulfilling a lifelong dream. It gets even better from now on!

Your yard looks very nice, hope you have fun with him!

[Pickles]

Ahhhhh, he's gorgeous, I bet you're on cloud nine.

Have you settled on part livery in the end or are you doing everthing yourself? Not that I can imagine you letting anyone look after him at the moment.

[~Perdita.M~]

That first photo says it all! Cheshire! :D He is stunning, and looks so relaxed already. I must say it looks a lovely very posh yard! Wishing you many years of happniess together :)

[nutkin]

glad to hear he has arrived safe and sound. It looks like he feels right at home there already. Your new yard looks fantastic by the way.

[brandysnap]

---

[cazrider]

Lovely MM :D Have Pmed you.

[saldec]

Congratulations :) :)

You both look so happy together.
I hope you have many happy times & fun together :D :D
He looks lovely.

[Big Ears]

you sound so thrilled and he is a star. what a good boy.

just watch his weight - he is stunning but looks like he is prone to being a very good doer. might be ok now as the grass is dying off a bit but watch him early autumn just in case the grass flush is too much for him. My cob is in a starvation paddock 22 hours out of 24 and is still keeping her wieght on with very little additional hay and your grass looks a bit better than ours at present.

enjoy yourself.

[MadMumInKent]

Thank you everyone :) I went back up there, took my mum and my children, they loved him too :) I hope he's OK tonight, he's being brought in for the night, but the other horses there are on 24 hr turnout, and apparently he gets a bit panicky if he can't see other horses. He doesn't do anything bad, but gets himself worked up, a kind of worried panic rather than a blind panic. He's got so much good grazing there though, if he was out 24 hrs he'd turn into a balloon ;) We'll have to see how things go.

Pickles - he's on full livery for the time being, but gradually I want to take over more and more til I end up doing it all. The YO is very flexible and will do as much or as little as necessary.

Ooooo happy happy happy :D :D :D

[SarahJay]

Congratualtions! He is absolutely gorgeous and I wish you all the best with him :D

[newnovice]

He is just beautiful. I've only had my horse for 3.5 months and I still love to just go up and watch her out grazing! Even though I had leased for four months and even though I'd been warned, I was still surprised at how much work and time it is, and my horse is on full board - which I'm assuming is like full livery. The barn owners feed her, clean her stall, put her out, etc. But there's still always something to do!

congratulations!!!!!

[wonderpony]

Congratulations MadMum ... don't know who looks happier, you or him!

He is a lovely looking horse and you seem to have a great set-up. Happy days!

[bexj]

You both look so happy! Many congratulations! Even though I got my first horse over 2 years ago I still walk around with a daft grin whenever I think about how life changing it has been.

Hope you both have many happy years together

[horsey1]

Well done he is great, Madmum cant you strip graze the paddock so he can stay out with the rest 24/7

[momofsix]

Wow Mad Mum-he is so cute! I was just thinking, look at us now! Seems like just a few months ago, we were talking about first lessons and wondering about leasing--and here we are with our own horses! Isn't it amazing?

[happy herman]

<laughing> i WONDERED what that glow i was seeing in the sky was!! now i know..your face. he truely is beautiful and i wish you two many many happy years together.

[GeeJay]

Woo hoo!!!! You look so very happy and I'm not surprised, what an absolutely gorgeous horse! Don't suppose you want to swap for a hairy carthorse - that will be a 'no' then?!

Hope you have many happy years together.

[ambatt]

He is very lovely - wishing you lots of fun with him, he looks an absolute star and you must be thrilled to bits.

[Trewsers]

Bet you're just a bit happy right now!!!!! :D He looks fab. Hope you have many hours of fun together. :)

[chickflick1066]

Congrats MMIK! I am so jealous. I've added a highland to my list of future horses, right after a dales and a fell :p

[MadMumInKent]

Thanks everyone :) Just got back from the yard, I had a little ride on him, just in the paddock, he was steady as anything! He really is so good, I can't believe my luck :D

[Luxie]

Many many congrats MadMum, he really does look the business! Amazing how quickly you have got it all sorted, thinking back it seems only yesterday you were posting about your first lessons ... Have to say the title of this thread had me doing a double-take - we've been on holiday in Cornwall for the past ten days, and I hadn't managed to get a peek at NR till yesterday - only to see that title, and wonder who on earth had got hold of my lovely loan horse Tally, not to mention managed to shrink him from his (when I last looked) 16.2 or thereabouts, and wash his dark bay to gleaming grey ....

Anyway, just wishing you both lots of joy together.

[Bluebell]

He is gorgeous! You are so lucky :)

The smile on your face says it all. I hope you will both be very happy together :)

[NoviceNic]

Arr Just look at the 2 of you with big smiles on your face. Here's to your future together may it be long and happy. :D

[*toHorse&Away*]

Wow! Dream come true at last - so pleased for you.
The place looks great as well so I reckon he will be well happy and has truly fallen on all 4 hooves with you.
And you've ridden him alrady - what a star!
:D :D :D

[Big Ears]

I am so pleased for you - my only note of caution again is that I know someone who had a highland and they had a huge battle to keep the pounds off him in gentle southern climes compared to his much more naturally restricted/scrubby grazing he would have in north of scotland.

so you may find that you have to be much tougher than just having him in at night - I know she had to ride him for hours each day and keep him very restricted grass wise but he was still a barrage balloon on legs. you may be ok for the moment but if there is rain and a sudden shoot up of grass then he is the type that could be prone to laminitis and that's the last thing you want to have to cope with.

sorry not wanting to be a wet blanket but prevention is better than....

[MadMumInKent]

Big Ears - I've been thinking about the amount of grazing he has, and I do have a feeling he's going to balloon. What's the best way to go about restricting it - cordoning off a section? Or a grazing muzzle thingy? Or keep him stabled for more of the time? Sorry if they're silly questions, its all new to me :D

[halllv]

What lovely photos. I'm so pleased for you and I'm sure you're going to have the most wonderful summer together. Hoping that one day soon that it'll be my turn :D

[Big Ears]

Highlands, like cobs, are notoriously good doers which can live on fresh air, I imagine highlands are worse, in that they were bred to be hard working beasts of burden, living on heather moorland and carrying dead deer up and down hills, working for hours on end. Then we make them riding horses which work 1-2 hours a day, if that, and are on lush southern grass - not good combination.

Don't know how you are fixed in terms of freedom to set up your own systems etc. but I have a 15hh cob mare who got laminitis last year and was off from April to December, plus lots of xrays, both rest etc. I had her the previous year and she didn't get it, but we got caught out in the spring flush.

When she was able to be turned out again, I electric fenced an area which would be about the size of half an arena and had already been grazed right down. She was on that 24/7, with a bit of hay tossed to her twice a day.

She was given 1 hour morning and evening in the big field (3 acres) and at the moment she gets 2 hours each end of the day, as the grass is fairly dry/eaten down/lower quality. Her little area - which she shares during the day with other fat cob - looks as if there is NOTHING IN IT - but if you look at how much the lawn or grass verge is growing, then you can see that weekly it is growing a couple of inches and going into Rosie tum. She is not losing weight, and in fact I have had to cut back on the hay I was giving her as she was spreading. She is now getting one sectoin of hay twice a day which isn't a lot.

She is quite content on that, she gets NO hard feed now, only a half scoop of happi hoof or sugar beet but ONLY when she has worked - she is hacked out a few times a week for 2-3 hours. BUT it is only at a walk as I am still careful with her feet after the lamnitis.

This is an extreme regime but it is for a recovering laminitic - you need to see how much neck he has on him - i.e. how much crest, how much gutter on the backside, and whether or not you can find his ribs. When I first got Rosie she was a tub of blubber, and she has lost about 2/3 of her body weight in 2 years, and looks reasonably lean and mean but NOT thin. I can just feel her ribs before you would have needed to dissect her to find any bones!

Look under his mane, look at how much crest there is on his neck and how much it wobbles. If he has a huge crest, then he is a candidate.

Muzzles are good but they only reduce the amount they eat by about 30-50%, making them work a bit harder for it, but a horse with a grazing muzzle on 24/7 can probably still over eat. Some horses are excellent at removing them so they can't totally be relied on - the Greenguard ones are useless, and some horses don't cope with a grazing one, they don't get the hang of eating with it on, and others really hate the ones which totally restrict them so they can only drink through it. electric fences are excellent - though we had a scare a few weeks ago when Madam got into the big field all day..panic stations.

Rosie nearly died of her laminitis so prevention is really the best with natives. My other cob mare is fatter than Rosie, is retired, does no work, but she has never had laminitis in her life - whereas Rosie has now had it about 3 times I would guess, only once with me but her xrays showed she had certianly had previous problems, even if they had maybe not been afull blown attack.

He needs to work hard, have very very little if any hard feed, and watch out for when it rains - grass shoots up next day or two, and never turn him out on frozen grass as that stores all the sugar, and gives them that rush which can trigger it off so you can get winter laminitis.

I suppose what you need to do is watch how your lawn/verge grows and then imagine that that is what is availalbe to him to eat. As my farrier says, any field that has much grass on it is too much for the horses on it, it should be nice and short, or else they are getting too much.

It is going to be trial and error but it is better to have too little than too much. I hope I don't scare you, I'm not trying to, but he looks very well, and with him being the type of pony he is, he could really really balloon. How you can manage his dieting will really depend on the freedom you have where you are to experiment and also how much time you can spend being there - have his ex owners given you any advice on his regime with them, what they did, because maybe he isn't good doer - ask them if you can as they should know what they managed him on. It also depends on whether your field is rich, has been fertilised much, how nutritious the grazing is, it is very variable.

Rosie actually is quite content despite it seeming rather mean to her, but she can see Molly in the other bit of the field, and she comes trotting up when her time is up to get her hay. they spend all day together, then Molly gets the bigger field all night and Rosie is banged up alone in her little bit, but it doesn't seem to worry her.


I hope you can find an easy way of keeping him slim - not all horses that get tubby get laminitis, but it does increase their chances of it.

[MadMumInKent]

Thankyou halllv :) Hope it doesn't take too long for it to become your turn, I highly recommend it, its a great feeling :D

Big Ears - thankyou thankyou thankyou! That was a very informative post and I really appreciate you taking so much time to reply. I was reading up on a Highland Pony website about condition scoring, and there a lots of things to look at to work out where he is on a scale of skinny (haha not a chance!) to very fat. I'm going to print it out and take it with me tomorrow. But I did have a feel of his ribs today - If I run my hand lightly over his ribcage, then no, I can't feel anything, but if I do it pretty firmly then, yes, they can be felt. I did also feel his crest but I have nothing to compare it with, so I'll feel my YO's horse tomorrow and see how they compare. I haven't noticed any gutter on his backside - if it had been there I think it would have been something I'd taken note of, but I'll double check tomorrow. I'm going to speak to his previous owners tomorrow anyway about his registration certificate, so I'll double check what they did with him in more detail, but they did say he was turned out all day, brought in at night, and had a handful of hard feed too. Not really convinced he needs any hard feed to be honest. Though the grazing at his previous home was very different to what he has now... it was very long grass which probably didn't have as much goodness in it as he has now. You've given me lots to think about and I really appreciate your help :)

[cazrider]

Just a point on the grazing and feeding. Callum, the highland on our yard, is out 24/7 during the summer but comes in during the day in spring, kept on very little grass, and as Big Ears says, doesn't have any hard feed. He's not worked that much, but his field is separated by electric fence once the grass starts, and he will eat his bit bald. Once he has done that, he has the fence opened about three feet every day. He doesn't wear a muzzle. He's now on the whole field with another horse, but there's very little grass in it.

My first horse Apache was a very good doer and they used to be kept together, so I have known him and his regime a long time. In the 8 years I've known him he has never had laminitis, and never been worked that much. It's all down to very careful management by his owner who's had him a long time and knows what works for him. Jane (owner) keeps a very very close eye on his weight. I'd recommend weigh taping him every couple of weeks as an additional check. That's what i do with Sennie, who's another good doer but not as good as Callum!

Best of luck :)

[nicolaj]

Hi MMIK

Your new boy looks lovely!!

I was 33 before I had my first horse, so like you one of those dreams come true. Hubby think wondering what he's done, always up the yard, if not 'playing horsey' nattering! :D

Just be prepared to be one of those people who just can't stop talking about horses! Went our for a meal the other night to be told by hubby that I'd spent at least 45 minutes just rambling about horses! :o

ENJOY!!!

[Big Ears]

I remember when we got our first equine, Big Ears donkey and Mouse donkey, as a trial run before progressing to horses. I had ridden for years but never had sole responsibility and as I kept them at home, it is always down to me.

At first I was very very nervous, as I had never seen colic, choke, most illnesses - I had never had to feed, sort out a routine etc so it was all a learning curve. Now, 12 years later, I don't worry apart from Rosie's laminitis as I have seen a lot more, and more importantly, I know my equines, how they behave daily, so would notice a change in behaviour.

Once you have got to the stage where you know what is normal for him, then you will see when he is off colour, not quite right. But you will take a few months to get to that. At first it is quite terrifying, as you feel so vulnerable.

Big Ears died of colic, so we had the trauma of that. I had a horse break a leg in the field, horrible, horrible, Mouse has had choke a number of times, Molly has had every illness under the sun and a few they didn't know about. But as you get more experienced you notice more.

It's a bit like one of my cats was always very noisy, one day she was very quiet, wouldn't talk, off to vet, tummy upset, off colour - you spot it because you know how they are normally.

You will get there with Tally and get as much info from the ex owners. Long wispy grass is lower nutritionally - my field is wispy long grass with short patches where to crop it right down. but earlier in the year it was much more lush. what you have to watch for is rain and a sudden flush of sweet grass which is high in sugar content. so september/octobe april/may but now with milder winters it can happen all the year round.

Your field looked like it had good coverage and was probably good agricultural grass, which has been rolled, fertilised and therefore prepared for cattle, who want better grass. Mine used to be that way, but over the years we have let it get more scrubby.less well maintained, as it suits the horses better.

[MadMumInKent]

Thanks for all your advice Big Ears. I spoke to his previous owner last night, and I think that once he's finished his worming program (another 2 days), then I'll cut the hard feed altogether. He really doesn't need it. Also, I had a good look at him today and there is hardly any gutter evident, so I think he's OK for the moment. Sounds like you've been through a fair amount of heartache and worry in the past :(

Thankyou Caz, I really appreciate it :)

Nicolaj - I think I'm already one of those people - everything that comes out of my mouth at the moment is Tally related ;) I just can't help it :)

[NoviceNic]

Mad Mum - I have owned Captain a yer now and still its Captain this and Captain that. My OH has threatened to divorce me twice. :rolleyes: I thought the novelty would wear off but it hasn't.

[VickiGG]

Hi - cool - you got your horse - wow - just after me....it's cool isn't it - I am up to day 19! (Whose counting??) :) He looks gorgeous. I found my boy loves having other horses around him in his new environment - makes him feel safe. He is a little on edge if I walk other horses away from him back to the paddocks and he is still ted up - but I can bring him up from the paddock with no stress at all...odd huh.
We have LOTS of mud now - my adopted pony has mud fever already....(not my new boy)....
Well done!!!
Very cool....

[Mary Poppins]

Good luck Madmum, Tally looks lovely.

We have got 2 highlands on our yard and they are turned out in a 30 acre field with about 15 other horses for 24hrs. They are chunky but I wouldn't say that they were overweight. They are so placid and always come up to me when I go and get my pony in.

As NoviceNic said, the novelty doesn't wear off. I have had my horse for a year now and my pony for 4 months and they are all I talk about, life would be so boring without them!

[madferret]

MMIK - have been following your progress and Tally seems like a lovely horse (and stunning too).
Wishing you lots of happy moments together. You're very lucky!
:D