So we are slowly moving the fences out.. For the Fat Grass Munchers at least.
Daisy and the little uns have had less grass, but haynets every night to keep their bellies working. Daisy has also been doing 10 minutes in the Round Pen every morning, before having her EMS-busting Breakfast.
Last week the farrier came, sucked his cheeks in and pronounced them all too fat!!! We had actually noted their lardiness. This is nature at work. In the wild, horses lose weight in the Winter, gain in the Spring, lose a bit in Summer when the grass dries, gain in the Autumn Flush....And Yup the cycle continues! However these are not in the wild, despite living as close to nature as possible, we simply haven't got 20 odd miles of land for them to cover daily. Nor have we got the time to ride that far every day.....Anyone wanna come and help exercise??? Also Charlie and Lil are just starting their ridden careers, and are not being hacked out yet. Dora is just a tad too small for me to hack without feeling guilty....And Mini??? Mmmm I could straddle her and my feet would still touch the ground!!
And so I tried out a theory last Saturday with Daisy and Lil.....Double lunging!! Both together in the round pen, me in the middle with the lunge whip. Would they follow each other? Or would it end in chaos? It Worked!! Yup I have invented Lunging For The Lazy (or time pressed owners). There is NO finesse to this....but it works as an exercise for....er exercise!
I also took Charlie out for a walk with Jo on Lu. I planned to ride him back up the drive again. But... All he was interested in was eating. He got cross when I stopped him and he started nudging me. By the time we got to the end of the drive we were both a bit cross. But I got on. He backed up, I squeezed and clicked, he reared, and backed again. He was bubbling up, so I got off. As there was a roar of motorbikes coming along the road, I didn't want to lose him. When Charlie gets cross, he starts to build it up into a tantrum. When we reached the 4-Acre Jo and Lu turned off to school and I continued to the Round Pen. By this time Charlie was in full Teenage Boy mode, prancing, neighing, pulling, trying to push me into the hedge. As I was untacking him, he took off, racing round the Round Pen, with his reins getting ever closer to his ears. I eventually managed to untack him so he could have a full blown temper tantrum! Lu meanwhile, in earshot, was apparently on her toes, but obedient.
These outbursts are rare these days!
So for our next Lazy Trick.....Haynets out to the field. They are heavy. The Hill field is a fair walk......Mmmmm....Would the horses carry them out for us? We knotted 2 nets together, slung em on and set off. Surprisingly Charlie and Lu were more than happy to carry them!
Yesterday we tried the double lunge with Charlie and Lu, who were brilliant, and carrying the Haynets with Daisy. All Good. I might start a Site for Lazy Owners 😂.
And so to ODD Mares!! Lil is a tart! She flirts with Charlie, teasing and squirting!! But also flirts with Lulu! This has happened before, but this week more so! We have to walk past Lil, while bringing Lu and Charlie out. Instead of aiming at Charlie, she is aiming at Lu. And the Ultimate Ice Queen is responding by squirting back. And Charlie is ignoring it. But while in the field together, Lu has NEVER squirt-flirted with Charlie!! Lu is the Alpha Mare. Does this mean she has more testosterone? Can Lil sense that? Can Charlie sense that? Does anyone know the answer? I will be doing some research into Alpha Mares and their testosterone levels. But... Anyone care to chip in?
I know I bang on about the benefits of keeping horses as naturally as possible....but here I go again. Today I have read 2 articles on Faceache, which are both scientific and common sense. Neither article was related....but actually they are. They both reinforced my belief in keeping horses in a natural state as possible.
The 1st post was about rugging. Now if you compete all winter as I have done in the past, you need to clip your horse to prevent it getting too hot. If you clip, you need to rug. Thats fine. But however, if you are just a happy hacker, as i am now, its fine to leave the horse naked. After all they are naked in the wild.
The post went into all sorts of scientific biochemistry, of which I have no hope of explaining here. But basically......The horse is an animal. They are designed to live outdoors. We tend to humanise animals. But bear in mind....We have thin skin that feels the cold. Horses have thick skin. Horses also have FUR. The fur has muscles, which can stand up and change direction, which increases the thickness. Horses are designed to withstand all kinds of weather. They survived the Ice-Age. In Winter in the Wild, they do not seek shelter, they do not hibernate, or live in caves. The fur gets greasy, which makes them waterproof. Rain runs off the fur, leaving the undercoat dry. Horses have a very efficient internal heating system, generated by eating. SO if you are a happy hacker in the Winter, your horse does not need a rug, or hard feed.....Just plentiful forage (hay). And please dont groom him, as you will remove the grease. A quick removal of mud around the areas that tack will go on, is enough.
The 2nd Post was about sleep! Not something I have ever thought about before. Humans sleep in one block. We all know horses sleep in short phases and can sleep standing up....due to being prey animals, and the need to leg it at short notice.
What I didn't know, or think about before was the type of sleep horses need. Like us, they have different stages of sleep. The sleep they have, while standing up, or lying on there chests, is light sleep. Like humans, to have a really refreshing sleep, they need to go into REM, where humans dream. This is a deep sleep, muscles are paralysed, and the brain processes its day. No doubt the horse also dreams....We have all seen dreaming dogs?
For a horse to do this, it has to lay flat out, all the muscles relaxed and paralysed. This is a big deal for a horse!!! It has to feel completely at ease and safe. No mean feat for an animal that may get eaten any minute! It has to trust its herd mates to watch for danger! So what happens when a horse is stabled?? First up it has no herd to watch for predators. Secondly, the stable may be too small for it to lay flat out. So the horse that is in its lovely warm stable sleeping all night, is probably too wary to actually sleep properly....Something to think on.
As you all know by now, our ponies live out 24/7 in 2 herds. We do have guest ponies, but the main bulk of the Herd is settled. Charlie is the Stallion (so he thinks). Lu is the Dominant Mare, and the rest are mares. The only reason there is a line of electric fencing between the smaller and bigger ponies is that Charlie was cut late, and stills behaves like a Stallion. They can still touch, interact and hang out together, and therefore feel safe enough to lie flat out.
We have often caught the whole herd, flat out asleep. A herd will normally leave one horse on guard (like a Meercat), but a relaxed safe herd like ours just dont bother!! This is a natural way of living, making a happier horse, and a less stressed owner.
Why make life difficult?? Our daily routine is laid back. The horses are already out, so dont stress if we are 5 minutes late to turn out. We dont have to muck out stables (saving on time, and money on bedding). We dont have to change rugs (more time and money saved). No grooming (more time saved....we only groom lightly when riding). No hard feed.... Who wants to spend all that money on mixes? In the Winter we spend our money on hay. Each day we deliver more than enough hay to the fields. They always have some left over. Hay equals roughage, equals generating warmth. If a particular horse is on rehab, we may feed it, but with chopped oat straw, mixed with whatever herbs it might need. And so we check and refill the waters, poo pick the fields every day, which saves on worming.....And thats it.
Keeping horses naturally is cheap, its quick, and the horses are happy because they are living as close as possible to how they are supposed to live. The 3 F's. Freedom, Friends, and Forage. Lecture over...Think on it.
