I was feeling sorry for the Shetland ponies (Waffle, Tiddles, Newt, Silver and Albie) who have been living on the track all summer. It must be very boring for them.
And they’ve been so good, sticking to their diet, never once (so far) trying to escape, accepting their very miserable fate of pulling hay out of a double-thickness haynet with the tiniest holes ever. It’s not easy trying to find a scrap of food if you’re a fat little pony.
But they’re looking good. They’ve managed to escape laminitis, so far, and everyone is well.
So, as it is very calm outside, I gave the ponies their daily ration of hay in a big pile and told them to enjoy it.
The equine dentist had also remarked when he visited, that he could see evidence of wear from the double haynets. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. I can’t seem to do right for doing wrong. Teeth or laminitis …. you choose.
But a few calm days of loose hay for a change surely makes the chaps happy.
And they must have some quality of life. That’s very important.
Once the grass loses its autumn sugar flush, all the ponies will go into the big field that has been grazed all spring/summer by the others.
Then they can have a holiday from track life. I think we are all looking forward to that.
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Good for the ponies! Little guys, I am here across the pond identifying with you as I try to balance one condition with another condition in my life so if I take care of one, I am doing exactly what I should not do for another. How did we all get at this juncture? Part of it is too much science (I am kidding, ponies. Half of the population over here have chosen this position & things have not turned out well). No, the science is great; we just need more options to make good decisions. We can all agree on not getting worn teeth problems or laminitis. And I do not want to make history by explaining that I am the first human laminitis case because I was hanging with my Shetland pint size ‘homies’.
It seems to me that all your animals have an excellent quality of life, except of course for Monster who is clearly starved and mistreated on an hourly basis!
Well done for rescuing Kolka; I can think of nothing more frightening, for her or you, than being caught like that; how on earth did you get her back on her feet (and save her life?) Last time one of our donkeys did something similar it took four of us to get him back on his feet, and he’s less than a third of the size of an Icelandic.
One of our cats once got himself caught in chicken wire and even that took two of us – and that ended in him needing a hind quarter amputation followed by an eye watering vet bill.