Lupin Farm ~ Updated photos of the goat pen in progress

[lupinfarm]

lol the only feedstore with a decent bulletin board closed! I'm going to a Masterfeeds Feed Seminar (I feed Purina Equalizer, but I'm interested to hear what Masterfeeds offers) next week so I'll ask the tack shop I frequent who they'd suggest.

 

[lupinfarm]

I gave Mylie bute today and she was not uncomfortable and she was doing great, walking about and so on. At 4:30pm something spooked Luna and Luna went flailing around the field and Mylie spooked too and started off. I wasn't so worried because after a few minutes she usually calms down and walks it off. Then I heard this huge crash, I figured she'd knocked a rail down, I looked around to find she had smashed RIGHT THROUGH THE FENCE!!!! Not only had she smashed through the 2 round rails on her side of the fence, but also broke the other one clear in half and ripped out half the insulators on the fenceline.

I'm panicking, freaking RIGHT OUT. Mylie was only just starting to get over a pull and now she's limping on her back left TOO!! She went in head first, but probably knocked her back leg on the way out. I'm not too concerned, no cuts and the limp isn't really noticeable so I'm going to give her the time to recover but she IS NOT getting any more bute! I should have known .. I should have thought about it better, but bute can add to a horses high spirited attitude and make them absolutely bonkers. We leased a QH who had to be on bute for Navicular a lot of years ago, he was used lightly but when he was on bute he was an absolute nut case!

I have no luck! I patched up the fence and tomorrow I need to get more peat moss. Its so frustrating because we have like $60 for the rest of the month and I have to go up to Bancroft to do my road test on March 1st, and now I have to buy peatmoss to run along the fenceline so if she does slide, and she hits the peat she's going to have some traction.

 

[The Vail Benton's]

I don't like to use bute if I can help it because it makes a horse feel better than they should so they aren't as careful or won't rest when that's what they should be doing.
Tell Mylie there are more appropriate ways to get attention! If it isn't one thing, it's another with some horses! You're really having a rough time of it today, I feel for you
When we fenced our pasture for Libby, she ran through our fence within the first 5 minutes. We repaired it the next day and I flagged it all the way around so she could see it better - she ate the flags. It's a wonder she didn't get hurt when she ran through - it knocked her right on her six. It's funny NOW.

 

[lupinfarm]

I totally agree about the bute, but for *some* reason I gave her it anyway lol. She was fine until those stupid Bouvier dogs showed up who live around the corner -_- they bother the horses and scare the pants off of Mylie and Luna.

My fence is pretty beefy but boy am I thankful that I used 2-2.5inch round cedar rails over the really thick ones! They split but they were soft enough to do no damage. Somehow she managed to break that whole 10ft section of fence, rip out half the electric and not get a scratch on her! Her back left is now sore and she is limping like she knocked it on the way out. Sigghhhh. Not a good day for me, esp. since now we've been told by the flooring guys to just put down plywood and put down new wood flooring upstairs -- our beautiful 150 year old maple and white pine isn't saveable sadly.

 

[lupinfarm]

Just checked on Mylie, she's surprisingly calm, limping a slight bit on the back left. Her pastern is somewhat swollen, but not as bad as I thought. Poor girl looks miserable though lol The limp isn't very noticeable, but I notice it because I see her everyday. She's keeping well away from that bit of fence lol

 

[ksalvagno]

What a rough week. Hopefully Mylie will be just fine in a couple days from all of this.

 

[freemotion]

You might try this on a small patch of ice and see if it works for you. Sprinkle a little water on the ice, then immediately sprinkle used bedding on it. The bedding will freeze to the ice. It's free. I used to do this up North when sub-zero temps made sand just blow across the ice, polishing it. I did this in desperation one day, and it worked great. Did I mention it's free?

 

[Dace]

Looks like you could use a hug!

 

[lupinfarm]

You might try this on a small patch of ice and see if it works for you. Sprinkle a little water on the ice, then immediately sprinkle used bedding on it. The bedding will freeze to the ice. It's free. I used to do this up North when sub-zero temps made sand just blow across the ice, polishing it. I did this in desperation one day, and it worked great. Did I mention it's free?

Freemontion, that won't work because we don't stall the horses and the goat stuff is not really... well useable lol. I'd only be able to use the chicken bedding, and then I'd have to buy more shavings for them!

It's also not cold enough right now! We had snow yesterday and its been a little warm, at least the peatmoss sticks to the ice.

 

[patandchickens]

Yeah, buting a sore horse on turnout is usually not a good plan, unless they absolutely *need* a touch of bute to reduce inflammation. Oh well, now you will remember next time , and it sounds like no real harm has been done.

It sounds like your footing is somewhat icy in front of the fenceline. You can do what Free says if you have bedding, but if you don't (your horses just live outside, yes?) another thing that works at least as well is to rake up as much manure as you can possibly liberate from elsewhere in the paddock and spread it thinly in front of the fence. Not right in front of the fence, but like six feet out or so, to give extra stopping distance. You may need to use a shovel to chop some of the frozen manure piles apart to rake them up. At first when you spread them they'll just be lying loosely on the ice but after a day or two of this nearly-0-C weather we're having they will weld themselves to the ice and provide pretty decent traction.

In fact if you have any Known Icy Spots, IMHO it is worth doing this periodically through the winter as a preventative, whenever there's a warm spell that makes it easy to acquire still-soft manure.

The manure spread on the ice will also slowly start to melt holes and roughness into the ice as the sun shines on it, which provides extra traction.

Good luck, have fun, hope she's feeling better soon,

Pat