While I was busy tidying up my feed shed, trying to make some order to all the stuff I have in it, I had some visitors.

Vitamoobag brought her friend, Fivla, to see if there were any freebies.

I said no, sorry, please go away.

And then instantly felt guilty for being so mean and gave them a small bucket of hay replacer so I could drive the car in and unload it, without them both trying to escape.  It has happened before.

I wanted my shed to be easier to work in because I am changing everything.  Less is more is my new motto.  I am a feeder. I like to feed animals but this has to stop.  Tiddles’ glucose levels from his last blood test were off the charts and Waffle’s only slightly better. This is not good and it has to change.  The vet said to stop everything as something was obviously contributing to Tiddles’ ridiculously high glucose levels.

So I spent my morning making a list of what Tiddles actually eats and looked at the ingredients. I was shocked.  Every single thing had alfalfa (a known glucouse spike for Insulin Resistant ponies) and even molasses, despite being labelled as low sugar and acceptable for ponies prone or with laminitis.  So no more.  All sugar is out of everyone’s diets and maybe, just maybe, we can get on top of this.   They get zero chaff and a tiny measure of unmolassed beet.

And I am weighing everything for the Shetland ponies.  Everything.  Plus all hay will be soaked.

The old ladies are exempt from this regime, much to their relief.

But I just have to sort this out before the spring grass arrives.  I feel awful that I have got it so wrong for Tiddles all this time when I thought I was doing the right thing.