Feeding Daisy and the Rest of the Herd

 

Winter is coming fast and Daisy is already showing signs of its approach. For anyone who doesn't know, Daisy is DH's 23-year-old Oldenburg mare. The picture here is an old one, but it's our favorite. Bryan doesn't ride Daisy very often anymore because she hasn't been doing well with long rides. She enjoys the occasional trip to the beach and that's about it.

The point is that Daisy's getting very thin and that is a very bad sign.We noticed when we brought them home from the summer pasture this weekend that she was really showing signs of her age. We agreed that I would go out every day and feed herto try to get some weight back on her before the cold really hits.

We expected this to be a hard winter for her. We had gone out about a month ago and bought a special food for her, that is designed for horses that have a little troublekeeping weight on, whether they are breeding or are old. Luckily for us, she seems to love her new food.

When I fed Monday, she gave me a bit of trouble. This would be the first time for her to go into the box in many year and she was not liking the idea. I ended up feeding her at her usual trough and fighting to keep the other three horse off her food the entire time. That was both unpleasant and painful for me.

So Monday night DH went out and taught Daisy to go in the box. He ended up feeding the rest of the herd while he was there.

Tuesday I went out to feed only Daisy again. She went willingly into the box and was eager to eat. But then the other three started fighting in the shed, trying to be as close to Daisy as possible and unhappy about the lack of feed for them. I drove them out of the shed, shut them out, and went and gave them hay. The result was that Daisy refused to eat until they were back inside and even then she was uneasy, wanting to know what was outside. AARGH!

Last night our favorite fruit and vegetable man came by with some stuff he couldn't sell for us. Mostly carrots and apples on the verge of being too old. So DH went over with that stuff and to feed Daisy and ended up feeding hte whole herd again.

When he got back in, we made a new deal for the near future. If the whole herd needs to eat once a day now, let me feed them so there is no fighting and hassle. He agreed. This is new for me--DH has always stood for horse feeding. Our feeding method is complicated with several different feeds and supplements to mix and he would adjust it based on exercise level and weather. Now that responsibility is mine--if I can handle it.

It went really well today. Ria (QH mare, around 7, proper name Borregos Maria) got the new box spot because it has a section of concrete on the floor. That lets the messy pig clean up all the food she throws all over. Because she tends to fatten easily, she also gets less feed than everyone else. Having her in the box keeps her from getting as annoying with her neighbors because they have more food and eat more slowly than she does. Ha!

This picture, by the way, is from this summer when she was on the pony pasture with Tanja, the fat shetland pony, for both of them to slim down a bit. She looks GREAT that way but is already bulking up a bit from having free access to hay in the past few weeks.

Quintas (paint mare, 4, proper name Quintas Cold Cash) came home from the trainer looking very fit and trim. Since the typical Danish wind and rain (and early dusk) keep us from riding as much as we'd like, this won't last long. But she still needs some feed now because there is so little on the pasture and the cold nights are coming fast (2 hard frosts already!!).

These pictures are from DH's first ride on Quintas after she came home from the trainer. The helmet was a concession to my concerns that we didn't know how she'd react with nearby cows, lots of on and off fitting the saddle on "The CorrecTOR" and a good bit of wind. He minds the helmet much more than he minds the safety vest. The CorrecTOR does its job excellently, BTW, and  makes his saddle fit her perfectly. I don't think we had it adjusted right in the first picture--his feet are farther forward than he usually has them riding. Another day we had taken a good length trail ride on our two and you couldn't even tell where the saddle had been on Quintas except for the slight smudge from the leather grease on the girth strap.

 

Our final large horse is Tracy (solid-bred Paint, 2, Miss Tracy King). I am ashamed to admit that this is the best pic I can find of her on my laptop. I swear DH went out one day this summer and took awesome pics of all of them, but I can't find those pics on my laptop.

Anyway, Tracy is a young two, being a late-in-the-year foal. She is still growing, probably, so needs plenty to eat. She seems to have a great temperament and we love how she moves. We hope she might end up being an even better riding horse for me than Ria because she doesn't have the sensitive feet and tendencies to pudginess that Ria has.

So, with these different needs, feeding really is quite an interesting job. The basis for all of them is whole oats. But I have to mix the leftover oats from last year with the new oats from this year. Ria only gets a small portion because of her weight issues.

To the oats for Daisy, we add some wheat. It should help her put weight on. She can't have barley because it makes her legs swell. Daisy also gets a glucosamin supplement that we are trying for the first time to see if it helps her move better and feel better. A dose of "Shy Feeder B" encourages her to eat. She also has the special gain-weight food I mentioned above. It is a mix of a bunch of different things, so we tend to think of it like a musli.

Ria has a special Musli of her own too. It is designed for ponies and other horses that gain weight easily. Part of the point is that it should have a long chew time, keeping her occupied with less feed.

Quintas and Tracy aren't left out on musli. They have a normal one with lots of herbs in it. Daisy gets some of that one too. Those three also get a type of melasses that is mixed with wheat bran. It is much cheaper and less messy than liquid melasses. We tried liquid last year but it didn't work well. They didn't really like it. We manage to keep water liquid many times by putting it in the shed, so don't need liquid for that either (that's what my mom did for the sheep when I was growing up).

Then all of them get the main vitamin supplement and hoof supplement, although Ria is the one most in need of the latter. We also use some kind of soy product that I don't know how to translate. Also not exactly sure why, but they like it.

Sound complicated enough for everyone? We had tried a full feed two winters ago, but none of them did well on it. They tended to turn up their noses at it.

Oh, I forgot to mention the green pellets that are basically a pressed grass. They look like giant rabbit food pellets. They're filling and help prevent problems from grass changes. Ria especially is getting a few handfuls of those right now.

Book Review: "The Equivoque Principle" by Darren Craske

This is my first attempt at a book review, so please forgive me if it sucks. I won this book in a drawing from Caroline Smailes.

The Equivoque Principle is a murder mystery set in Victorian England. When a bishop hires criminals to clear a section of England, Cornelius Quaint and the members of Dr. Marvello's Traveling Circus are dragged into the middle of the killing spree. Prometheus, the strong man, is framed for the murders by being drugged and left with the body of his love.

Struggling to prove the mute innocent, the troupe is forced to face nightmares from Prometheus’s and Quaint's pasts. The quest is a trying one that unites the group, but forces some members to face their fears of their own inadequacies.

Personally, I enjoyed the book. I found myself quickly drawn into the vibrant settings and connecting to the humanity of the unusual circus characters. Although most people's personal struggles are not as dramatic as those in the book, I think it is easy to relate to the issues of loyalty, trust, and fear of failure.

Even if I weren't trying to hide from pain, I think I would've had great difficulty putting the book down in the middle. The book is well paced and keeps you hooked on every page.

Although it is written in third person omniscient, the writer has held back enough important information to leave the reader guessing. It also gives enough view into the perspective of individual characters to allow the reader to feel a bit of a bond with those characters.

One thing is bugging me about the ending. I feel like there is a flaw in the book, but it was late and I was drugged and I might just read something wrong. I'm going to have to reread part of it to check how those bits hang together. However, even if I am right that there is a flaw there, I doubt the average reader will notice.

I recommend the book to anyone who can find it. It is a good and exciting read, and I'm looking forward to more with these characters.

Edited to add: I talked to the author about the thing in the end that was bugging me. It was just me being paranoid and probably a little out of it when I read it. It doesn't have that flaw, so I am just insane.

Squash, Pumpkins, and Squmpkins

I have been trying to get a post like this on my blog for probably about two weeks. Unfortunately things have been very hectic and I haven't had the chance to write it. I hope to correct that now.

I will start with the pictures from 19 September. I harvested a pumpkin and squmpkin then and planned to make a blog post, but that didn't happen.

Our zucchinis have done very well this year. We have harvested plenty for ourselves, to give away, and even sold some by the road. We didn't sell very many, but it was probably enough to cover the costs of seeds. We used a good bit during the course of the summer and now I have some in the freezer for the winter. When I free zucchini, I greatly in advance and then package it in 2 cup amounts in bags. 2 cups is the right amount for zucchini bread and also works well for many of the other recipes in which I include squash, such as soups, spaghetti sauces, and Mexican.

I don't know how well you can see it, but this picture shows a very large squash. We let this one grow large on purpose with the plan of harvesting seeds for next year. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that these seeds will actually produce zucchini, but we've decided to give it a shot. I harvested seeds by cutting it open and removing the best ones I could find. I then washed them off and spread them on newspaper to dry. I probably also could have taken the meat of the zucchini and grated and frozen it, but I decided not to.

These squmpkins are proof of how uncertain it is to collect seeds from squash for planting. They were grown from seeds that we brought home from one of my mother's squashes on our US trip last year. I had to plant about 25 seeds to get these two plants.They initially grew like a squash in one place, but later the one of them began to send out feelers like a pumpkin.

 

 

 

It was quite exciting to see what the white fruits would turn out like. We expected an oddly shaped white squash like the one that we think we got the seeds from. Instead, we appear to have gotten a white pumpkin. As you can see, when cut open, it shows stringy insides like a pumpkin. I baked it in two cut halves with the open side down, like I usually do for pumpkin. The resulting cooked pumpkin tasted like pumpkin usually does. I strained some of the extra moisture from the meat then puréed it with the staff blender. After packaging in 2 cup portions, I froze it. 

 

This type of pumpkin translates to “giant pumpkin.” They did not end up as large as I expected. I have not yet tried cutting or baking any of these. We have one that is ripe and two nice not ripe ones and one that is a little odd.

 

 

 

This is the only ripe one we have of the more classic American halloween pumpkin. My understanding from the seed packet is that they should still have a good meat for pies and other food uses. We have several in varying sizes at different points in maturity.

 

 

 

 

Because we have begun getting frost at night, I have had to harvest all the various squashes and pumpkins to prevent them from being destroyed. All are now packed in a clear tarp on the picnic table that I can open on sunny days. I hope at least some of them will ripen so I can harvest them. We also promised a white one and the ripe halloween-style one pictured above to my mother-in-law. She cans them in a Danish style that is sorta like a pickle. These two are the best in size for her to handle and use.