I am a horrible horse mom. Over the past weeks, I have been tied up in work and pains and being ill and tired when I get home and then there is the early setting sun and the coooold... and all of this adds up to a horse who's basic needs are met... or so I thought, but much neglect of quality time happening.
Due to this neglect, I had failed to notice that my horse has not been in the best of condition.
When I saw that today was going to be nice, I thought "I might go for a ride today" after all, today is my 7-year-pony-owning-anniversary. And then after I got home from work, Molly the neighbor girl called and asked if I would like to go for a ride with her. I agreed and had my lunch and then went to get the pony.
I realized upon actually getting a good look at him that his fuzzy winter coat has been hiding two things from me. First: he's lost a lot of condition, and a good bit of weight. He's a little bony. Maybe a 3.5 on a body scoring chart. Better than a 3, not quite a 4. I doubled his hay tonight and gave him a bit more grain. I fixed his grain as a warm mash this evening, his first ever warm mash. He gobbled it up like "Dang, woman, why haven't you ever fed me this before?!"
The second thing I noticed is that he has a rather nasty case of rain rot. I peeled off every scab my fingers could find, but my Shapley's MTG is at the other barn where I had taken it for use on Bay's scratches. I'll be bringing that home tomorrow so that I can start treatment.
Needless to say, there was no riding today and will be no riding until his condition improves and his rain rot clears up.
*sigh*
Happy Anniversary, Siaga. Sorry I'm such a bad horse mom.
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