His feet have not been growing well either, which is unusual for a Cob. My farrier said it has been a bad year for feet. Roscoe and Rosemary both busted up their feet, but when I trimmed away the rough stuff they still had a good amount of hoof wall. Not so with Comrade.
So when we put all the factors together, we decided to bring in the big guns to attack his weight. Bring on the muzzle.
I did not realize Peggy had another muzzle like the one we have been using on Winston.
Yesterday after my ride, we fit the muzzle to Comrade. He was so not impressed. This muzzle will slow done his hay eating and limit his grass intake. We left him to figure out how to eat with it on.
Well with help from Sonny, Comrade got the muzzle off last night. Peggy may have to wrap his mane around the crown piece and make a pony tail.
He greeted me looking pathetic. I don't know why he is not happy about joining the Hannibal Lecter Club with Winston, he he :)
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I took a picture of Comrade today to track his weight loss. Peggy will be changing his food to a mineral pellet. My horses are on the same pellet with good results, so I have high hopes it will help Comrade.
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Always interesting to see conformation shots of Comrade and comparing and contrasting! He's definitely looking a lot slimmer. His hind end gives me the impression that there's still some spongy fat up there too, (thought I can't see it) so I wouldn't worry too much about the crest - it will probably steadily disappear as you continue to change his feed and muzzle him. Air ferns are almost harder to manage!
ReplyDeleteConnor's feet looked like hell recently too, for the first time they chipped and he even lost some hoof wall. It was because he went six weeks and it was so wet the first four and SO dry the last two. It's just this crazy summer we're having, Lisa's ponies have such good feet, Comrade's will come right back.
He does have some butt fat to lose still. The cresty neck is a worry because it is a precusor to insulin resistance and can lead to laminitis. The neck and tail head are two red flag, bad fat, areas, but he is definitely improving.
DeleteSo glad to hear Connor had chipped feet too. Comrade is not one I trim, and her regular farrier has been injured, so seeing such a change in his feet worried us. Out of four Cobs, he was the only one to be that short. As long as he grows we can avoid shoes.