An update

Farley continues to do very well.

• As of yesterday she has finally stopped sulking about the lack of alfalfa in the mornings, so naturally I have now removed her other pride and joy from her diet - Stable Mix. She'll get it before and at rides, but not on a regular basis. I don't think it was a problem, but it will remove one more variable.


• Unbeknownst to her, her remaining pride and joy, physillium (she LOVES it) finishes its course tomorrow, and that too will go away. What an unhappy pony she will be! (and hopefully a sand free one!)


• I rode her, at a walk, per vet instructions, yesterday. It went well. I hopped on bareback and warmed up on a loose rein for 5 minutes, did long and low and encouraging stretch for 10 minutes, and then loose rein for another 5 minutes. She'll continue to do 20-30 minutes walking either bareback or hand walking until the recheck next week.

I know Farley very well. I know her body like the back of my hand. I can close my eyes and know exactly what she's thinking. I trust her to bring me safely out of the darkness on little, ridiculously narrow trails and can pick her particular nicker or whinny out of a whole ridecamp of screaming horses. In short, I know this horse as only thousands miles can let you know a horse.

But.....

As I take over her primary care, I'm learning even MORE about her, and that in itself is worth the time and $$ sacrifice for doing it.

• She drinks 4x as much water during the day, than the night.


• When fed grass freechoice, she will eat 25-27 pounds a day. She prefers to eat in the hours of 9pm-4am, and 9am-3pm.


• She will pretend to look at the rinsed beetpulp with distain, but it will be gone the next time I check.


• There will be 7 piles of poop in the morning, and even more in the evening.

I'm noticing changes already resulting from the free choice feeding - she's less frantic about getting to grass, more relaxed, and not looking for bites to eat all the time. She seems less stressed. There's added benefits for me as well. I can ride anytime I want, whether it's early in the morning, or at 4pm in the winter (I had a hard time riding in the winter because feeding time was 4:30 and by the time that was done, it was too dark to go out on the canals).

Edited - forgot to delete the second part of this post when I decided to split it!