Not to worry - Val has been enjoying the life to which he has become accustomed - the life of leisure.
Long, lingering, pampering sessions. Total lack of a demanding workload. Mostly mild temperatures - optimal for multiple naps per day. A fluffy blanket when the mercury has dipped.
Most importantly though, we've broken into our winter hay stash. Gone is the stemmy, roughage filled summer hay. Now we're into the tender, green, smells like summer orchard grass.
Summer hay bales lasted for two days.
Winter hay must be crammed into mean, mean nibble nets for a bale to last three feedings. So. Much. Harder. To. Eat.
Summer hay never ran out - there were always scraps left for sunrise snacks.
Winter hay is good to the last drop. Even the crumbs get hoovered up.
In fact, there is no sign left that hay was ever there.
Val would like to point out now, dramatically, that the austerity measures (nibble net) have once again caused him angst and discomfort...
Yesterday morning as I picked up manure, I pulled out the camera to catch a lovely picture of sleepy pony. I was horrified to find signs of a nose bleed. No obvious scene of injury, no puddle of blood, just a sandy, bloody nostril, some clear mucous tinged red and smears on his foreleg and nose from rubbing. I cleaned him up carefully, but could not find any damage, which was discouraging.
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| cold enough for blankie, shortly before discovering mystery bleeding |
While heading up the road, (bridge is open now!*), and after a consultation with Capt S, the conclusion is vigorous eating + nibble net = stiff hay nasal poke. I once punctured my nose bending over some needle rush in the marsh. Profuse bleeding. So that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. All was well this morning, but if it happens again...(can't bear to mention the v-word since the human doctor bills are piling up lately)
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| guilty - picture taking + driving... |
On the foot front, the farrier was out Wednesday for our trim. Val was pretty stiff picking up his hinds in the cold morning air, and you could clearly see the damage from the laminitic episode - thin little bruises all along the white line on both fronts - but everything looked good overall.
*The road is open again, and we are all appropriately thankful. My only question is, well - really there are several but I'll limit myself - how much better (safer) is a bridge with a score of 4 out of 100 than a bridge with say - a score of 2... just wondering. There is more to the story to be sure.
Final note:
There is a cool Christmas contest going on over at Aoife's blog Pampered Ponies. You get to share fun holiday pictures of you and your equine(s), and the prizes are superb! Niamh from Life of Reilly is providing several of her lovely paper cut pieces. Head over to her Etsy shop TraceALine to check them out. (How I would love to be a lucky winner!)
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| contest entry - using one from last year - to keep this year's a surprise... ;D |
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| Val being a cheeky monkey in a Xmas card outtake |
