The MOVE!

Well, this past Saturday Gus moved back "home". Home would be where he's lived about 6 of the 10 years I've had him. It was funny picking him up from the fMIL's place. He saw the trailer, gave the inside a good ol' sniff and jumped in. No Big Deal. When we arrived back at the old barn, he jumped off the trailer, stretched a bit and that was that. No fuss. No whinnying. No Big Deal.

So far he's adjusting quite well to the place, which is pretty typical of Gus. Nothing ever bothers him too much. He'll be turned out during the day with N again (used to be turned out with him a while back) and overnight he'll be out by himself (well, in a turnout by himself... there are two other horses on pasture board as well).

I did end up upping his grain, least for the time being. However the *lovely* feed mill exchanged hands (older owner sold out) and the new owners were late in reordering feeds. So Gus will be out of his ProAdvantage Grass after tomorrow morning. Did I mention that I was out to the feed store two weeks ago this Friday? Uggh.

Anyways, his new grain is as follows:

AM:
1lb Progressive ProAdvantage Grass
3lb alfalfa pellets

Plus his supps, which consist of:
10g MSM
8g MagOx 56%
100mg HA
SmartGut (until gone)
Tri-Aminos

PM:
1lb Progressive ProAdvantage Grass
3lb alfalfa pellets

Plus:
1/2c Cool Calories 100

The plan is to decrease the alfalfa pellets over time (hopefully) and also to discontinue the CC100. We'll see how things go. I'm hoping he puts the weight (and muscle) back on before the end of summer. My goal (shhsh, don't tell) is to do the fall show at our barn - probably the Intro Test A or B, and if that goes well one of the Training Level tests.

Gringo seems to be adjusting to the lack of Gus. I went out on Sunday (after having a MARVELOUS ride on Gus) to see him and he was very happy to see me. Nickering at me a lot. I think he misses Gus - but only because he was something to pick on.

Both boys are shedding like crazy. I'm really amazed at how much Gus is shedding. Usually he keeps his winter coat until June. I'm wondering if it was either (A) the lack of blanketing this year or (B) finally getting his IR under control that made the difference. Those (besides the move to the old barn) were the only two changes in Gus's life over the past 12 months.

Needless to say, I'm hoping Gus continues to blow out his winter coat, cause otherwise the clipper blades may be in his future. He is still hairy and just after 45 minutes of work on Sunday he was sweating pretty badly. No big deal but he's having a hard time cooling off.

So, we'll see. More photos and updates to come. Can you believe that April is just days away? Uggh. And I'll be married (and officially Mrs. B) 4 months from tomorrow!

Riding Photos

Okay. The FINAL set of photos. These were taken 2/20. Don't you just LOVE my new saddle pad? Well... I do. It's a very pretty color on Gus. Then again, just about anything looks good on Gus.

The snow was so deep, you couldn't see his hooves. Now... well the snow isn't so deep. And the fields are getting sloppy. Uggh. Mud season is upon us. Great.

A scary photo of me. Really... I need to get better photos of myself. One of these days...

Our tracks.

The geese... welcoming (err, not so much) us back to the barn.

Ta Da! No more photos... for now.

Happy (belated) Birthday Gus!

So, I'm WAY late in posting theses, but here's the photos from Gus's "party". He got THREE whole bananas. I think he thought he died and went to heaven. He love bananas but I don't let him have them anymore because he's IR. Needless to say, birthdays are special so I figured he deserved a treat (or three).

Enjoy!

I wasn't kidding... lotsa photos. Again, not the greatest cause they are off my cellphone, but decent enough to capture the moment.

It's a YAK!

Every year it amazes me how HAIRY Gringo gets. He's like a YAK. These first few photos were taken a couple days after his 7th birthday.

And... meet the YAK!

Uhh... well that's what was taken off this time around.

And here would be Gringo. The YAK. Every day I'm out to groom him I take AT LEAST this much hair off him. It's amazing. Makes you wonder where all it comes from. And, trust me, he's still plenty hairy.

March Madness (and we're not talking about basketball)

Can you believe it's already (almost) the middle of March? I'm so glad that time is moving on, but it seems like it's just moving too fast. I've not updated this blog in nearly a month. Sheesh. Where has time gone?

Anyways, both boys had their spring vaccines this morning by Dr. N at AE. She's a great vet... reminds me of our old vet, Dr. N at the old barn (two different woman vets with the same initials).

Gringo had his Coggins test, Flu/Rhino, E/W/Tetanus, Rabies and West Nile vaccines. Dr. N said he looks to be in good weight and his teeth are still looking well, but will probably need to be done in August. According to my records, his teeth haven't been done since the fall of '08. Crazy, huh?

Gus also had his Coggins test, E/W/Tetanus and Rabies vaccines done. I'll be vaccinating him in a couple weeks for Flu/Rhino and West Nile. I'm hoping to have the old Dr. N do his Strangles vaccine the first part of April, once he's at the new barn. Because he is Insulin Resistant, it's in his best interests to spread the vaccines over the course of a month or so... otherwise it can trigger a laminitic episode. And I definitely DON'T want that.

So, because Gus is IR, I also had Dr. N pull blood to test him for Cushings again. We did the ACTH "baseline" test, or the Endrogenous test (I think I got the spelling right). We're also rechecking is blood glucose and insulin levels to make sure they are still within the normal limits. And just for good measure, we're also rechecking this thyroid levels (T3/T4). I should have those results back within a couple weeks at most.

I've got photo-overload for this post and the proceeding post. It's LONG overdue to post some photos of the boys. So, these photos are of Gus which were taken 3/1. It was beautifully SUNNY out that day, and if I recall correctly, the temperature was in the high 30s.


Note the LONG tail! It's about midway down the cannon bone now. I'm hoping it stays nice and long throughout the summer months.

Not a bad photo of Gus's "off" side. It's hard to take photos of his right side since that's the side where he's got Uveitis... so normally that eye is always squinting. Needless to say, I got some decent photos this time around.

That dip about the withers is NOT from a cresty neck. It's due to his mane... The photo is kinda deceiving though.

More photos to come!