And so the winter begins!
Hey Honeychoppers, how are you all doing?
Surviving this horrible onset of rain that we seem to have been enduring for weeks on end I hope! Although that said; today is a gorgeous day where I live, it was cold this morning, a frost on my car, but the sun is shining and the sky is blue so it’s not all bad! A few more days like this please. 🙂
New Yard This month has been pretty quite all in all, you might remember in the last blog I mentioned we had just moved yards, well I am pleased to report that after our first month, so far so good. Mikey and his buddy Stu have settled in well, and we are starting to get in to a routine. I have only driven towards the old yard twice, whoops!
New Farrier With changing yard, we have had a change in farrier, and I have to say I am hoping our new farrier can improve Mikey’s feet. We have always struggled with the length of his toe, and given his suspensory problems the better we can get his feet, and more correct we can get the break over point the better, as sadly, we haven’t returned to full soundness! Talk about a roller coaster, I am slightly baffled as to what to do, but the ‘current’ plan, is to give the new farrier the chance to change his feet and see if that helps Mikey enough to be more comfortable. It might be that he semi retires to become a happy hacker as that will put less strain on him and give him the best chance to stay sound enough to be happy and comfortable. The final option as I am sure I have told you before is surgery. I have agreed with the farrier to try and see what difference the new shoeing makes from now till Christmas – so keep your fingers crossed it helps!
Clipping time! Mikey is a hairy beast at the best of times, so I have had to give in and get him clipped, we opted for sedation from the vet, as he finds clipping quite stressful and get’s a bit silly, so knocking him out was the safest option! He looks so much better now he doesn’t resemble a mountain goat!
It’s the time of year for worming? I recently won a competition with Westgate Labs, and as part of my prize I won a free worm count. I am sure I am not alone when I say that I have always just wormed as part of the worming routine at the yard I have been at. However, I am so pleased I won this prize, as it has really opened up my eyes to my approach to worming, and I plan to now follow a structured plan as recommended by the guys at Westgate. The biggest change is testing before worming – Mikey has had his Autumn worm egg count for Redworm and Roundworm, and his results came back negative, no sign of any worms meaning he doesn’t need worming for now. I have just ordered a saliva test and that will be used to test for Tapeworm which is recommended in Autumn also. If you want to find out more, the picture below might help, or this link.
See you at Your Horse Live? Next month the Honeychop Team will be heading to Your Horse Live so make sure you come and pay the stand a visit, it’s the perfect chance to pick up a free sample and if you have been thinking of trying one of the range, chat to the team to see which might best suit your horse!
That’s all from me for now, until next time
Laura and Mikey x
