This makes for a terribly unproductive training day. I hadn't work Stella in two days, and planned on just doing some long-lining over poles. Nope! The arena has a metal roof, and just as I got her out onto the line, a storm came in and pounded the crap out of the barn and scared the crap (quite literally) out of my mare. Between the lightening, the thunder and the rain coming sideways, poor Stella was beside herself. The most we accomplished was some night, stretchy walking...while I was leading her around the ring.
Now for the Ernie update I've been talking about.
I feel so, SO bad. I'm completely racked with guilt right now. I wanted to cry when I saw him last night. He's lost a considerable amount of weight, and basically looks like skin and bones (to me, anyway; we're not talking rescue horse, but he is CERTAINLY not up to my standards). He's got most of his ribs showing, is hollow behind his ribcage, has ski slopes for a butt, and is slowly returning to pencil neck status. I haven't ridden in 3 weeks because he needs to be chiropracted. 3 WEEKS. It's supposed to take at LEAST 14 days for the horse to start losing conditioning and muscle mass. I feel so shitty.
I took these pictures just a few days ago.
You can see, even though he's standing pretty damn squarly, that the right hip is higher than the left. The right side is the one he's been off on.
He was a little distracted by a party going on up the hill, but you can see how ribby he is. I will say, this horse has never been fat. I've never had to worry about him having too much weight. He's got a very slight build; he's not a big horse by any means. However, this is still far too skinny. He is actually SUPPOSED to be a little underweight. After his ligament injuries in his hind end, the vet cautioned against allowing him to get too heavy; it's just that much more stress on joints that are both very much aged and already compromised by injury. So we've always kept him a tiny bit on the leaner side. I am not OK with this, though, and seeing him like this makes me feel like I've failed as a horse owner.
So, I took a little time the other day to figure out what's changed in the past few months. It's quite a list, sadly:
1. Barns: he's changed barns twice...a huge ordeal for any horse, and for Ernie's, it's heart-attack worthy.
2. Work load: he's been ridden much less than before I got out from school. Part of it is my job and lacking time, and part of it is...well, some days it was so bloody hot it wouldn't have been fair to him to even get on, given his age. This, you would think, would make him gain weight, but this horse does the opposite; when he stops working, he loses everything, gets kinda depressed and lethargic and looks like hell.
3. Supplements: while I commend the lady I board with for how well she's done considering a lot she's had to put up with, I have a feeling Ernie and Stella both have not always been getting their supplements. Ernie NEEDS a joint supplement; a few weeks ago I started to notice how stiff he was getting, and I have a feeling the girls who work for the BO have been "forgetting" to give them to him. Stiffness or pain at his age usually means a drop in weight.
He's been getting stuffed full of hay and I've upped his grain, but it hasn't really helped. He's just maintaining, and I need him gaining. In less than 2 days, they head back to school, and I can look after them 24/7 and will KNOW he's getting everything he needs to. Here's the plan:
1. Supplement overload! He will be getting his Rapid Flex for his joints, straight MSM to help with inflammation (which he does have more of lately), Weight Builder for extra calories, Probios to boost his gut health (which I'm sure had declined given he's almost 30 freaking years old), and we may have to add the Calm N' Cool back, but it'll depend on how he reacts to the move. He may not need it.
2. He'll have pasture or hay 24/7. He'll also have his walk-out stall, so he won't be stabled, which means he'll be able to move around as he wants. Moving always makes Ernie happy.
3. I'm going to change his grain a little. He's getting fed 2x a day now; I'm going to start feeding him 3x a day to split up his grain into smaller meals and give him a little more regularity.
Once he gets his hips looked at, we're going to start back to work very, very slowly. He's sometimes too eager to go to work and do something, I don't think it's good for him. I usually let him let me know how he feels, but he seems to think he's younger than he is. So I must step into my role as higher functioning being and say "Nope, we're going to walk today...and tomorrow, and the next day..."
Oh Ernie, I'm so sorry. I hope he knows I love him to pieces, and that he's going to feel better very soon...
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